Damn the cult

We played a game of Talisman, with four players. 

The cast:

Arcane Scion -> Prophetess
Scavenger
Warlord
Celestial

We played with a hidden ending and Cataclysm board.

Early game was dominated by having the Toxic Spring pop up on Graveyard, and Fountain of Wisdom right next to it.

Arcane Scion got otherwise good start, but got into the nasty situation of hanging by the thread with just by one health remaining. Eventually Warlord paid for Black Knight to put the wonder kid out of his misery, and Prophetess entered the game.

Celestial had mediocre progress, not facing serious setbacks but not great progress either. It soon became apparent that it was a race between Scavenger and Warlord to win the game after Scavenger robbed the remains of Arcane Scion, getting the Talisman that gave +2 Craft in the middle and inner region. Warlord had utterly obnoxious  battle stats, but was locked behind unfinished warlock quest. This gave Scavenger the headstart to start getting through the inner region. Which was astonishing in it's own right. Scavenger had two health remaining, but managed to roll just one life lost at the icy tower thing, and even beat up the snowbeast like it was nothing. Mines and portal of power were a joke.

But then the hidden ending was revealed. Cult of the Damned was formed, and suddenly all the heroes had to set aside their petty squabbles and try to eradicate all dwellers. This... was perfectly doable, but somehow that happened when Warlord had to miss two turns, and Celestial was missing their next turn as well. This gave the cultists an enormous head start. 

Prophetess and Scavenger (who had one life remaining) were both attacking with Strength 4, while Celestial was doing just a little better. But warlord had easy enough time dispatching a stack of three.

Given the circumstances, adventurers were doing better than expected during battles. However... they absolutely started to botch their movement rolls, which meant that six remaining cultists were  able to infiltrate through portal of power after Warlord failed to attack a stack of four.

So, EVERYBODY loses.

Trolls Not Allowed

A four player game of Dungeon Lords. One of the players, Red, had never played Dungeon Lords before, so she was a bit overwhelmed at the mechanics, but winged it on the go without a long term plan. 

It's been a long time since the rest of us had played this game as well, but at least we were able to plan forward a little, and could try to convince ourselves we were focusing on some aspect of the game. I did masterfully navigate the evil-o-meter to construct lame, easy to beat adventuring parties. Throughout the game only two of my tunnels were conquered - although this did not make me the battlemaster, that title was shared with another player. But I had only Demon and Slime monsters going on for me. 

One of the players drew out the Paladin on the second year, and was able to eventually transfer it to Red. Oh no. Red took a whopping -12 points from conquered tiles. But yeah, that's not -16. During second year she made the investment to acquire a dragon. She was able to blast through the adventurers, Paladin or no Paladin. 

The was the time to count scores. And much to everyone's surprise - and most to Red's surprise - it was actually she who managed to win the game. 

Since we included the expansion monsters, RNG decided that this game did not have trolls for hire at any point of the game. 

Pit Society

 Some more games from my boardgame marathon.

Art Society

I got to try out a new game for me, called Art Society. Players arrange a gallery from paintings they get from auctions and score points based on fluctuating trends.

To me it looked like this game exemplified the "easy to learn, hard to master" -trope. We had three players for the first game, which ended in a real close race of 82/80/78 points. I didn't have much of a plan except for hoarding decors and trying to maintain cityscapes as the vogue trend. Sure enough it ended up to be the top trend, although it did not secure me victory.

Later I played a couple of two-player games. In the first I wanted to try if playing strategically would be any good, and decided to maximize my vogue-factor. Sure enough I got five paintings to the eyeline which were of the trend I was lobbying for... but that trend didn't end up being in vogue after all. It was a loss because of that.

In the second two-player game I went back to reactive gaming style, not trying to force an outcome. It worked way better, since I won that game.

Monster Pit

Monster Pit with three players. This was first time playing this game for each of us. Here and there we played some rules incorrectly, but guess the misplays balanced each other since some were in favour of the monster, and some in favor of captains.

Anyway, Vaiel the Enchantress was the monster since that was the recommendation. 

I was playing Nova, the Ice Princess captain. Other captains were Kei the Querling and Quatonor the Rakshasa. 

Early on the King's Emissary was replaced with the outlaw creature thing, which stalled entire round's worth of captain actions. It felt like we had had zero progress, and the monster had already waltzed through one third of the vengeance track. Rakshasa was our only captain worth anything, although Querling was doing decent support. Ice Princess just got injured and wasn't able to heal for like an eternity, essentially losing her captain ability. The white tower was blocked by some kind of an enemy. 

Thanks to captains bumbling around, the monster didn't even get wounded until it was way past 50% of the vengeance track.

But then... something changed. Rakshasa captain got beefy enough to start attacking the monster, and wounding it more often than not. Even Ice Princess stopped being useless after she got a champion that was able to switch one monster result to captain result from ANY dice roll. That stuff alone was responsible for at least three crits.

Querling captain was cleaning up town from spawned monsters, and eventually took some hits against the monster as well. After such a difficult start, it began to look like we were breezing through the fights... But as it happened, we almost became to victims of our success. After a couple of utterly miserable progress rolls, the monster was suddenly standing four spaces away from it's victory. But it only had five health remaining. 

That's when we had to resort to sacrificing people for the statues. Barracks went first, taverns next. Ice Princess had become filthy rich from completing two quests, and was able to trade a bunch of champions from Querling to attack the enchantress herself, dealing two points of damage with a crit. Rakshasa was doing crits as well, so the monster was sitting with last health remaining. However, the "must change districts" thing made it so that only one captain would be able to attack  through Watchtower. Better make that one count, because our progress rolls had so many dice that the monster might leap to victory with some bad progress rolls even after we pushed it back ten spaces with a wizard.

Rakshasa was able to put down the monster, kingdom was saved! 

Running the firs laps

So, I visited some friends and we had a sort of board game marathon. Here are the card games.

Wave

A co-op card game. That's new to me. We onl had to players for this one, so we had that Silver NPC.  The mechanic where cards have two different sets of value (numeric and based on color) was neat, and the blind card system was entertaining as well. Based on just two games Wave seems to make a decent job at being a co-op card game. 

Our first attempt we lost real bad, with easily over twenty or even twenty-five cards left in play. Second game when we actually had any idea what we were doing, we actually got down to just one card remaining in play, so yay for that.

Munchkin

A three player game of Munchkin. I took the lead early on, which... is not exactly a good thing in Munchkin. I got hammered down fast, and didn't rise again as a human cleric, always dragging a level or two behind others. Game was won by Halfling... thief, I think?

 The stars aligned, and we saw the giant nose get killed by potion of halitosis. 

Joking Hazard

Well, you know how this goes. We had three players, and game ended in a curiously even 12/11/11.

Leech Infestation

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Wedge Recover Evidence

Schemes: Scout the Rooftops, Frame Job, Reshape the Land

My list:

Rusty Alyce, Trigger Happy & 2x Hollow Waifs
Marlena Webster
Desolation Engine
Ashes and Dust
Hard Stop Herbert
2x Scavenger

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Kastore, Fervent & 2x Urn Bearers
Gwyll
Leech King
Athorak
2x Cavern Nephilim
Blood Vessel
Giant Leech

Pool: 3

Turn 1: Amalgam picked Frame Job with Ashes and Dust, Returned took Scout the Rooftops

My first activation was to go and bait Frame Job with Ashes and Dust by scaling the model to a building in the middle, and slapping down a scheme marker that might work as a Scout the Rooftops marker. 

Neverborn wasn't too interested with the Ashes and Dust, until Kastore went to pick up a strategy marker nearby, and did some damage with a bonus action. 

Kastore took a severe enough beating from Desolation Engine that an Urnbearer lured him back to safety.

Leech King summoned a Giant Leech next to Ashes and Dust, which was eventually shot to pieces by Rusty Alyce.

Hard Stop Herbert picked up my strategy marker for this turn.

Late in the turn someone pushed Ashes and Dust away from the building. Cavern Nephilims and the hired Giant Leech scored two points from Scout the Rooftops.

And since there was a building in the middle, and deployment was Wedge, both players had easy time claiming the extra point from strategy.

It was a 4-4 opening for both players.

Turn 2: Amalgam picked Scout the Rooftops, Returned took Grave Robbing

After hired Giant Leech came to engage Rusty Alyce, A Hollow Waif went to drop a scheme marker four scouting and gave a soulstoned warning cry for Alyce, who was able to shoot the Giant Leech dead with one shot.

Desolation Engine charged Urnbearer and Leech King, leaving the Urnbearer with just one health remaining.

Most of Neverborn crew started relocating to the right after I had moved Ashes and Dust on the ramparts. There was also a Scavenger up there. Kastore came to beat up the minion, but didn't score a kill. In fact, Neverborn scored no kills this turn, which had them lose a strategy point this turn. However, damage done was prohibitively extensive. Scavenger was at three, Herbert at two and Ashes and Dust had lost half of their health as well.

Rusty Alyce had to walk, bonus and drop two schemes. Another Scavenger and the Hollow Waif had all placed enough markers to get two points from Scout the Rooftops, but then Leech King summoned a Giant Leech to Alyce, and the Giant Leech summoned a Giant Leech to Rusty Alyce. 

Oh well. 

Outcasts took the lead with 6-4.

Turn 3: Amalgam picked Detonate Charges, Returned took Make It Look Like an Accident

Returned had easy time doing Make It Look Like an Accident, when Urnbearer lured Scavenger from top of the ramparts, into her own hazardous aura, leaving him with just one health remaining - thus unable to activate without dying. Someone eventually did kill him though to get a strategy marker.

Kastore Murdered Hard Stop Herbert, and either him or Blood Vessel picked up the strategy.

Athorak was able to cleave a Hollow Waif dead with just one strike, although I don't remember who picked up the strategy. 

Desolation Engine charged the Urnbearer who had just one point left, and managed to kill her but it took all his action points. Scavenger had to shuffle round to come and pick it up, after which he was mauled by Leech King and a Cavern Nephilim. 

Another Hollow Waif picked up a strategy marker that had been left a turn before.

Marlena Webster charged a Leech on the building in the middle, killed it and picked strategy right away. So that was an intense turn with the strategy, but in the end both got a point.

Rusty Alyce shot random damage here and there. I should have focused solely on Athorak, but instead the bullets were spread between him and Leech King. She summoned an Abomination to Athorak, though. Unless I completely misremember, but I think she did five damage to Leech King and five damage to Athorak with just two hits. 

Detonate Charges didn't take too much effort, so scores continued with a two point lead for Outcasts, 9-7.

Turn 4: Amalgam took Runic Binding, Returned took Breakthrough

Early enough I took the singular point from Runic Binding. 

Gwyll had put a scheme marker to Neverborn Deployment, and Blood Vessel put one on the centerline where I really couldn't reach it. 

Kastore wrecked Ashes and Dust. I was afraid that he might get a no-heal token, so I let the guy fall with the first strike. He also killed the Abomination that had been summoned. I ran Dust Storm to block the picking up of the strategy marker.

I don't quite remember how I killed the Giant Leech, but I wasn't able to pick up the strategy during the same activation. Cavern Nephilim ran to block picking it up.

Oh alright, that's the game we're playing. I ran Marlena Webster to block picking up the marker that Dust Storm was already protecting. Well, opponent still had Lure's available, so that's why.

Athorak went to place a scheme marker to my deployment, so Rusty Alyce ran right next to it.

Because of the hunger shenanigans Leech King was able to reach my deployment anyway to drop a Breakthrough marker.

Neither crews got strategy, but both go full points from their schemes. But that was just one for Outcasts, so the game ended in a narrow 10-9 victory for Rusty Alyce.

This Is Not a Breakthrough

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Corner Recover Evidence

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Search the Area, Breakthrough

My list:

Jack Daw, Spirit of Betrayal & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Kari Zotiko
2x Hanged
Crooked Man
Guilty

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Kara
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 1

Turn 1: Tormented picks Breakthrough, Honeypot takes Leave Your Mark

Hanged and Guilty placed two scheme markers, Montresor watched Crooked Man to make a leap at one of them, and then during Crooked Man's own activation he did the same for the second marker to get in range to interact and pick up the strategy.

At least it took Beckoner and Mr. Graves some effort to get an Illuminated in range to do the same for Ten Thunders.

Since Ten Thunders looked like they were trying to assault Crooked Man with shenanigans, Jack Daw activated and brought the undead miner a little further into safety, and slapped injustice upgrade on Gwyneth as well.

Since opponent had not been trying to reach the center point until the very end of the turn, I was out of tools to deny Leave Your Mark... or was I? Kari used silver whistle to give a walk for another Hanged, and then the minion charged Kara and Hungering Darkness, who had been doing the scheming business. My idea was to score rams or tomes for the melee attack to block at least one point from Ten Thunders, but the attack missed. Bonus did hit, slowing Kara as well as giving her staggered.

Lynch charged the Crooked Man, but brings him only down to two remaining.

So, Ten Thunders took the lead with 3-1, since both scored strategy and Resurrectionists took Breakthrough just to abandon it.

Turn 2: Tormented picks Assassinate on Kara, Honeypot takes Take the Highground

Kara was in big trouble. I had a thirteen and a black joker in hand, and she was still staggered. Montresor charged and hit with both attacks, bringing her down to two remaining. Cursed to Watch gave an action for the Hanged, who had to use the black joker to secure kill. Assassination scored.

However, Illuminated was able to kill the Crooked Man and collect the evidence. Hanged did the same for Kara's evidence, and dropped a scheme for two thirds of my next turn's schemes.

Hungering Darkness and Lynch both had miserable activations, missing most of their attacks. Resurrectionists had better success, but they were burning through their soulstones with reckless abandon. This maxed out the injustice upgrades, targets being Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Gwyneth and Illuminated. None of them were able to get rid of their upgrades just yet.

Another Illuminated and a Beckoner took positions on high ground, and so was Mr. Graves who had been sitting on top of a terrain since turn one. 

Although Ten Thunders were occupying enough terrain to get two points from Take the Highground, Gwyneth invited Montresor to play at Mr. Graves's table, thus getting his nasty aura away from any upgraded enemy models.

Resurrectionists managed to catch up a little, but game was still 5-4 for Ten Thunders.

Turn 3: Tormented picks Runic Binding, Honeypot makes it look like an accident

Jack Daw activates first, and removes Hungering Darkness with Drawn to Betrayal. He shot an Illuminated down to two health remaining, although Lynch who went down to seven health remaining was a juicy target, too. I just didn't want to scare him away from between my scheme markers.

The damaged Illuminated activated right away, but failed to do anything meaningful - except give Runic Binding for Resurrectionists.

Montresor walked to get at least two models under his aura, but failed remaining actions. 

Lynch also suffered a multitude of rams, but at least he got a point from Make It Look Like an Accident by forcing Guilty to fall, and summoned Hungering Darkness back. Guilty then legged it as far as it could, but Kitty managed to drag it back for Hungering Darkness to charge and kill with the crew bonus. 

Gwyneth eventually came to pick up the strategy marker from the Guilty. However, a Hanged was able to finish off the already activated Illuminated, scored Reposition so that it could move from melee with Hungering Darkness, pick up the strategy marker and pull Hungering Darkness back into melee. 

Kari and Hanged were able to finish off Lynch. Another Illuminated went to place schemes for next turn, and Beckoner seemed to be doing the same.

While Ten Thunders did get two points from their scheme, they didn't get a point this turn from Strategy. Scores tied at 7-7.

Turn 4: Tormented picked Leave Your Mark, Honeypot wanted to Reshape the Land.

We played only a few activations in, as Jack Daw was able to pick up marker from Lynch, kill Hungering Darkness again and pick up it's marker as well. Beckoner committed to Reshaping the Land, after which Kari went to stand on the center point and dropped a second marker for Leave Your Mark. She tolled Mr. Graves into a corner and tied him up with a Drowned. I still had eight action points plus signatures left to do my scheme. While there was a fleeting chance Ten Thunders might deny a point from Leave Your Mark, it was next to impossible to deny both.

So it became a 10/9-8 win for Jack Daw. 

Twin Coronation

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Flank Boundary Dispute

Schemes: Breakthrough, Make It Look Like an Accident, Take the Highground

My list:

Hamelin, Piper & Benny
Fumigator
Angel Eyes
Tuco Ortega
Tunnel Rats
2x Rat Catcher
2x Stolen

Pool: 3

Opponent had:

Clampetts, Fisherfolk & Bruce
Uncle Bogg
Aunty Mel
Sir Vantes
Mossbeard
Buckaroo
Skulker Skin
Swashbuckler

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Plague: Breakthrough, Angler: Make It Look Like an Accident

Since I had deployed so many of my models on the roof of a building, Sir Vantes had easy time with pulling Angel Eyes down. She was also the White Whale of Aunty Mel. Fortunately she had already activated, so Angel Eyes was safe for now. 

Benny and both Rat Catchers and even Hamelin himself were spawning rats, while Clampetts was clearing the vermin with dynamite. But the rats just kept multiplying, and were finally able to coalesce into a Rat King, who in turn tried to go harass Bruce. 

Various models of mine had sneakily dropped some scheme markers on my deployment and centerline, and Tunnel Rats were able to teleport deep into enemy deployment zone. Crows gave a scheme marker, and so did interact. Mossbeard was able to remove one of those, but couldn't stop Breakthrough.

Clampetts went to sit next to one of my strategy markers that I had not been able to toss over the centerline yet.

Both players took the scenario, but Outcasts took the lead with 3-2 because of schemes.

Turn 2: Plague: Public Demonstration for Uncle Bogg, Angler: Reshape the Land

Aunty Mel wrecked her whale, no surprises there. 

Uncle Bogg charged the Rat King and brought it down to one health. But that was all Rat King needed to kill Bruce, who was sitting with a strategy marker still in Bayou deployment.

Stolen placed a scheme marker near the uncle and went to remove a piece of destructible terrain. Unfortunately that marker was removed by Mossbeard, which forced Hamelin's flute to disengage a Rat Catcher so that it can place another. At that that point most of my crew had

Fumigator summoned a new Tunnel Rats because the earlier ones just scored their breakthrough and ceased to exist.

Sir Vantes lanced a Stolen and trampled even deeper to Outcast crew. I think it was he who summoned Bruce back, which made both of them prime targets for first Blight tokens of the game.

Reshape the Land yielded only a single point for Anglers. Both scored strategy, and Plague received two from their scheme for a 6-4 lead.

Turn 3: Plague: Assassinate on Sir Vantes, Angler: Breakthrough

I mean...

It took way too many action points to remove my assassination target, despite Sir Vantes having a negative modifier to most resists. At least nine confirmed action points went into it, and I am likely forgetting a few. Sure, Bruce healed Sir Vantes once. But still that performance was atrocious, considering that Sir Vantes had been already damaged a little. I could have used some of those action points for pushing strategy markers for sure.

A Rat King walked and charged Mossbeard, dealing solid damage as well as denying interaction. Clampetts went to place a scheme marker to Outcasts deployment, and it was up to Mossbeard to make or break the breakthrough. Fortunately he failed his second Haphazard Topography, because it was Once Per Turn anyway.

Second King received their crown and went to munch on a tide marker.

However, Plague had been so pre-occupied with Sir Vantes that Anglers were able to deny Hamelin any strategy points this turn. 

Scores went 8-6, still for Plague.

Turn 4: Angler: Assassinate on Tunnel Rats

Well.

I just found the Tunnel Rats's greatest wea


kness. They are an amazing pick for Assassinate. Which Bayou did. Two points with a one smack.

The gremlins also were leaping around and throwing Hamelin's strategy markers back to his deployment. I didn't act soon enough, and lost my chance to try to score strategy. Only option was to figure out if I could dislodge the only enemy strategy marker away from my deployment as well.

All the pieces were there, but I was lacking either a friendly token on Rat Catcher, or one action point. But since those don't just grow on trees, Anglers claimed a 10-8 victory despite having been lagging behind all game.

Eekiryo's once-in-a-lifetime hat trick

 A 50ss game of Malifaux 4th edition on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Plant Explosives

Schemes: Runic Binding, Scout the Rooftops, Leavy Your Mark

My list:

Kirai, Envoy of the Court & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
Goryo
Shikome
Gwisin
2x Enslaved Spirit

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman, the Inventor & Edie
Peacekeeper
Melissa
2x Hunter
Warden
2x Watcher

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Both crews pick Scout the Rooftops

Edie overclocks a bunch of robots, namely a Watcher, Hunter and the Peacekeeper. The peacekeeper wreckingballed on top of the platform in the center.

Before that, something transpired. Warden went to hug the centerline, which prompted Goryo to walk and charge at it. Signature action gave a Seishin, and the charge attack sliced a good chunk off of Warden. The seishin walked through the warden to give it Spiritual Chains token. 

Let's go back to the Peacekeeper. It tossed an explosive down from the platform, and did another wrecking ball to get to Goryo. The ghost thought his time was up, and procced two irreducibles on Peacekeeper. Goryo was left with three health. Melissa charged and did two Gatling Guns on Goryo, who procced vengeance again. And yet the ghost was standing, with one health remaining. Well, he was incorporeal and behind a cover, after all. It was finally electrocuted off the board by Hoffman. 

Let's go back to the Peacekeeper. Kirai had attempted to save the Goryo by coming to swirl it away from danger. She summoned a Gwisin to Warden as well, and hit the Peacekeeper with Sundering. Rams and one raise did a whole lot of damage to it.

Finally Ikiryo used her bonus and charged Peacekeeper and flipped no other than the Red Joker. Five damage. Peacekeeper dead. Removing that bot has always been such a migraine. I was dumbfounded. Anyway, Ikiryo then walked on top of the platform, past Hunter to give it Spiritual Chains. The Hunter had come on top of the platform to drop an explosive.

Enslaved Spirits dragged along the both edges of the board. Datsue Ba on the left swirled the spirit a bit forward and went to place a scheme on a hill. Shikome did the same on the other side on a huge poison container.

Watchers did the scheme for Guild, and the hastened version even went as far as to drop an explosive. Hired Gwisin walked and charged at it, no doing anything at all. 

Lost Love tried to deny opponent Scout the Rooftops by going on top of the building on the left, but another Hunter dragged him down from there. He used his soulstone ability to leap behind Ikiryo, but Hunter leaped to tease him even further. Luckily the shot missed.

Urami got no strategy, but both crews took a point from scheme. Guild took the lead at 2-1.

Turn 2: Both crews pick Detonate Charges

Enslaved Spirit and Datsue Ba on the left didn't have much else to do other than to drop bombs. Hired Gwisin managed to scrape off Shielded off from the Watcher, who leaped away from melee, dropped a scheme and went to guard the strategy marker it had dropped last turn.

Ikiryo tried to kill off a Hunter that came to engage with Deadly Pursuit... and it wasn't that far off. Again. Red Joker straight from the deck. Hunter was left with two health remaining. 

Lost Love teleported to Kirai, swirled Seishin closer and ate it to heal. He picked up enemy strategy and tried to heal the summoned Gwisin, but didn't succeed.

The summoned Gwisin killed the Warden with vengeance, and during it's own activation went to engage Hoffman as a delay tactic. That tactic failed when Melissa single-handedly shot the Gwisin off the board, shot some damage to Enslaved Spirit and Lost Love. 

Fortunately Hoffman had a miserable activation. He walked on top of a rock.

That's it. 

But that wasn't his only contribution, though, because Edie climbed on top of platform, dropped a pylon, which made Hoffman blast three points of damage to Ikiryo and stagger her.

Shikome used bonus action to walk and drop a couple of schemes next to Melissa. 

Enslaved Spirit to the right had walked and dropped the bomb right after Melissa had shot it, just in case. Watcher nearby dropped two schemes to the spirit, which basically confirmed Detonate Charges at that point. Kirai spent a couple action points to get to the other side of the container, swirled Enslaved Spirit away from those schemes and for some odd reason used her last action to give a charge to Shikome. The bird lady charged Hunter who had two points left, and scraped a one point in. I mean... Kirai could have also interacted a scheme near Watcher. Somehow that completely escaped my attention.

Urami got a point from scheme and a point from strategy. Guild lost their scheme, but took a point from strategy as well. Scores tied at 3-3.

Turn 3: Urami picks Take the Highground, Augmented took Grave Robbing with Remains markers. 

Guild started. Hunter leaped away from melee, planted a scheme marker near Lost Love and charged it dead, thus scoring first half of Grave Robbing already. Melissa and Watcher handled the second half.

Then Ikiryo activated, moved Shikome for a bit, and attacked Edie. She, uh, Flipped Red Joker out of deck. Does this count as a hat trick? She managed to kill Edie with her activation.

Kirai summoned an Enslaved Spirit to Hunter who was at two health, moved and dropped a strategy.

The Spirit shot Hunter for a single point of damage, wheee. Hoffman had to spend all his activation removing that spirit, and failed to construct a pylon.

Second Hunter went to drop a bomb on my deployment after Datsue Ba made Take the High Ground impossible to deny. In the end, Urami was controlling five terrain pieces. 

Shikome was able to deny strategy point for Guild this turn. Both crews scored full points from scheme, and scores went 6-5 for Urami.

Turn 4: Urami picks Search the Area, Augmented picks Make It Look Like an Accident

Seriously injured Hunter went to place a second explosive to my deployment zone. Ikiryo did the same vice versa, and moved Shikome right next to a neutral marker dropped by Edie. Watcher would have none of that, so it leaped and walked to engage Shikome. It placed a pylon as well, which shot Gwisin on a rock, and scored convulsions. This gave Guild a point from scheme.

Gwisin was still in quite good health, so I decided to put two more schemes with an Enslaved Spirit to the right. It had started scheming last round, so there were four markers there. 

Unfortunately the second Hunter managed to kill Gwisin, securing Guild a second point from strategy. But it was also a point from Search the Area for Resurrectionists. Melissa charged and shot Kirai with riot rounds. She placed an explosive as well.

Riot rounds forced Kirai to take a walk, pick enemy strategy and swirl to place it to enemy table half. 

Hoffman went to place yet another marker.

Datsue Ba was able to swirl Shikome away from melee with a Watcher, so she was able to pick up neutral marker and deliver it to enemy deployment.

Both got strategy as well as extra point from strategy, and both got two points from their schemes, so game ended in a 10-9 victory for Resurrectionists.

Or is it Derpowere?

 Lantern Year 8 - Lion Knight level 1

So... Tremuli, Tredge, Goliheen and Egibon tried to act in the impro play set up by Lion Knight. My first showdown ever with this guy, and by gods, did it go horribly.

Right from the start things went wrong, when the heaviest armored guy became the Fool, and Tremuli was the villain. That wasn't too bad, but she did have the second linked Rawhide Headband. At least automatic priority target token on Goliheen gave a little leeway for the first turn.

While survivors did manage to land hits, the wound rolls were horrible. The amount of 1's was discouraging, but even more discouraging were the results that were missing by one. 

In fact, only two wounds were caused by actual damage rolls. All the remaining wounds were caused by collision with Amber Poleaxe.

... which meant a grand total of four wounds done to the Lion Knight.

If I had luck somewhere. they were the severe injury rolls. The amount of straight 10's there was unreal. But even that wasn't enough, when Lion Knight landed consistently three hits with a single attack with a damage of three because of Crowd Pleaser - and all hit locations on Tremuli (the villain) were either hands or body. 

This showdown really, really requires the option to surge.

Intermission didn't come a moment too soon.

Tregde and Goliheen lost their weapon proficiencies, Egibon their re-roll.

...

But that's two more endeavors, at least.

8: Goliheen visits the strange caravan to trade a scrap sword with Silent Barterer. He got scammed with Broken Lantern and Monster Hide.
9: Leiha shares some experience with Timbifor.

Whom to hunt, next? I don't actually know. I'm almost tempted to go for Phoenix, although the time shenanigans worry a little. But you know what? 

Lantern Year 8 hunt & showdown - Phoenix level 1

Timbifor and Neliprinso tear their muscles in antler-gouged terrain (74) before Wind Tunnel pushes all survivors back to starting space. 

... and Leiha leads the party to a Mudslide (55), and survivors lose Monster Grease and Bug Trap, as well as receive concerning amounts of damage.

And Rahlovia disturbs a nest of Madflies (52). And I'm having Deja Vu... I distinctly remember that in some settlement I also rolled Madflies and three out of four survivors got Frenzy. 

Swatting the flies in frenzy, survivors stumble upon a Scribe's book. Insane as they were, Rahlovia and Neliprinso wrote their names. Timbifor had to instruct Neliprinso with his re-roll so that settlement wouldn't lose even more gear.

... buuuut they did. Fortunately Unmaking took only one set of Stone Noses, but still this hunt was absolute disaster.

Phoenix better go down real quick. 

Random terrain was Debris and Survivor corpse.

Phoenix opened with Gouge and Feast. It targeted Leiha, as she was the only survivor able to use survival actions. However, she had zero insanity, so Age tokens were an issue, and now she had two of them. I was sure this showdown was essentially the end of the settlement.

However, Rahlovia poked two criticals on the beast with natural 10's, one of them being the bird's liver. Excellent example how situations can change rapidly in Kingdom Death.

I wrote that sentence in middle of showdown. How ironic it seems now... Even with auto-knockdown from Materialize and no Displacement, rolls were excruciating. Wounding on 2+ seemed to guaranteed at least one one. At least the AI cards were not the worst, but because of the frenzies it was a desperate race against time.

A race the survivors ultimately lost.

Survivors did get Phoenix down to one AI card remaining, and it was Bored. And that meant every other turn there was a chance to kill it with one attack. 

Timbifor, the lousiest and most useless of all the survivors, was the only one surviving, and he had the Bone Darts and the Catgut Bow. 

He took the Bored attack thing at least five times, trying to snipe the beast with a single, frenzied attack.

But, it seemed Kingdom Death really wanted to teach me a lesson this time. 

Last survivor of the showdown died, because Phoenix was so bored.

Lantern Year 9: Nickname

Nickname for all returning survivors, yaaaay!

Eedge received a point of courage from Gorm Climate.

Two survivors ceased to exist, and two died of natural causes. Population 10+ and Cooking gave a total of six endeavors. Not that I got to use those just yet, because all blotted out survivors were wiped out, so showdown became instant.

Settlement had zero survivors who had any progress worth mentioning, so defenders were: Leihovia Toothon, Timbon Brees, Egifor Brees and Tregde

Lantern Year 9 Nemesis Showdown: Slenderman level 1

... and what a messed up showdown it was.

First I thought KD:M was giving me some hope, as random terrain was Flower Patches. Obviously the roll was a 1, though, so no luck tokens for me. 

Slenderman was constantly blinking on and off, which was a sort of boon for gathering together. However, whenever survivors managed to score hits, they failed to wound excessively. Slenderman mauled most armor levels off, before wounds started trickling in. First three were actually from Founding Stones. 

However, thanks to the monster's constant on and off, survivors had some time to bandage wounds and use first-aid kit. Early on Slenderman did break one survivor's back, so they couldn't use Amber Poleaxe any more. 

Despite getting absolutely wrecked, survivors somehow managed to grind through the monster's AI deck. When the last card was in, there were still three survivors in play. One of them the broken back one, though. 

And then it began. One by one survivors got too many bleeding tokens as I frantically tried to score those last few wounds. But no, soon enough there was only Leihovia left standing. 

But she did stand. Slenderman started missing as efficiently as survivors had failed their wounding rolls earlier. Whenever Leihovia received a severe injury, that was on a location already on severe injury, and didn't result in a knockdown. She did get the last AI card off the deck! ... but broke the Bone Axe in the process. Settlement is losing equipment faster than it can develop back.

... and then she had to confront the basic actions that had the knockback effect. She wasn't able to dash, had only one survival point and two penalty tokens to Movement. I was sure it was a game over then, but no.

The showdown seemed to drag on and on, and this is the victory the settlement got. Sheesh.

At least there were three Dark Waters and one Iron to be had.

Lantern Year 9 settlement phase, continued.

Three survivors died during showdown, so suddenly there was six more endeavors, although nobody remembered where they came from. I have no idea what I'm to do with this many endeavors at this point. Oh well.

1: Dark Water Research level 2
2: Leihovia studies the Stoic Statue, departing survivors gain +1 survival. 
3: Eemac got a point of Understanding from Stoic Statue.
4: Rofige worshiped the monster's statue, departing survivors gain +10 survival.
5-6: Golimato trains Pidicule to Age 2. He learns how to be Unbreakable.
7-8: Golimato trains Eedgien Nimportan to Age 2. She is the new Strategist.
9-10: Round-Stone Training for Eedgie. She learns Tumble.
10: Round-Stone Training for Pidicule. He gets +3 insanity and Carapace of Will
11-12:  Pidicule does auguries for +1 Understanding, +1 survival

I guess the year then just passes, because there is no hunt?

Lantern Year 10 - Gorm Climate

It took a re-roll from Rofige, but Eedge received +1 Courage.

And then a stumped phase for endeavors. 

1: Eemac gets second point of Understanding from Stoic Statue, triggering Insight. Extra endeavor.
2: Roficien worships the statue, giving +1 survival for departees. 
3: Trepanning for Golimato. Expanded consciousness for Overprotective Wardrobe Expert. He loses Immortal.
4:Shared Experience for Eemac, who gets +1 permanent accuracy from Age.

Lantern Year 10 Hunt & Showdown - White Lion level 1

Yeah, I chickened out. But last three showdowns have been so horrific I needed a breather. 

Pidicule, Eedgie Nimportan and Goliheen and Golimato Bowister go on the hunt.

And it's Madflies again! Now only half of the team frenzied though, and I doubt  the lion will be much of a challenge even if they went fully frenzied. The lion went prowling anyway.

Showdown was as much of a pushover as expected. Only one extra resource from crit locations, though.

Lantern Year 11 - Clinging Mist

Oh... Oh no. It is that result again. I had the option to begin a new settlement again, which would have been by far the best choice. But I want this campaign to end one day, and a "free" level 1 hunt might actually be the boost this settlement needs to rise from it's setbacks.

Clinging Mist Hunt & Showdown: White Lion level 1

This special hunt was an onslaught of success. Half of the team reached their Insights.

... And even the first card the White Lion drew was the Ground Fighting. Oh no. White Lion kept wasting the survivors' time by drawing the trap over and over again, but still the thing went down without much of an effort.

Although survivors packed 16+ resources, it was mostly just bones and hides. Only organs came from White Lion deck, none from basic resources.

Regal visit added a Hand showdown for the year. 

Acid Storm gave settlement a scrap, and adds +2 to Art rolls. Gorm Climate added +2 to Home rolls as well. 

1: Settlement innovates Bloodletting
2: Light Forging for Gloom-Coated Arrows
3: Settlement cures 4x Leather
4-5: Face Painting x2
6: Matchmaker from Golimato blessed the settlement with twins, Roficien and Eedge Nimportan received Ofici and Porfie.
7-8: Ofici is trained hastily to start training weapons. Age gives Last Man Standing. 
9: Since Odcien took a bite from the Lonely Fruit, settlement gained an extra endeavor... on top of those that came from burying Eedgien. Ofici tried Round Stone Training, gaining Cross-Arm Block.
10: Ofici left an offering under White Mask and got nothing in return.
11: Augury attempt has Eedge and Roficien at it again, receiving Auge Nimportan.

Settlement develops Gloom-Coated Arrows, Leather Shield, Leather Cuirass, Leather Skirt, Leather Bracers and Monster Tooth Necklace. After facing Lonely Tree, settlement also developed Rawhide Whip, as I want to minimize the amount of crap the hunt phase throws at the survivors.

First in line was the Hand. Although the rewards are great, I didn't want to risk any of the more promising survivors except Leihovia, who is training fist & tooth anyway. 

So, Leihovia Toothon, Talwar, Rofige and Eemac are the ones to dance to Hand's tune.

Special Showdown - Hand level 1

Roficien managed to die to the soft chuckle The Hand let out. Eemac was also hamstrung during the Line Up, but those were the only "casualties". Leihovia received the best applause, and unfortunately the only one who received any boons at all was the Hamstrung Eemac.

Oodge was packed into a gift for the settlement for the refreshing entertainment.

... and also, because it is the last year to fight the level one Lonely Tree, I ought to go for it. 

Special Showdown - Lonely Tree level 1

Pidicule, Eedgien, Golimato and Goliheen attempt to hack down a tree. 

Goliheen took a shot with gloom-coated arrows, and landed two solid wounds in. However, those also dropped two nightmare fruits... which meant the same reflexes would be coming up again. Lonely Tree would get +4 damage to most of its attacks before it was even drawing AI cards.

Early on this led to the demise of axe-wielding Eedgien, who also had the shield and scavenger kit. 

At that point Cat-Eye Circlet became super important, as the plenty basic attack reflexes from the tree would have most likely been fatal - no survivor had enough armor points in any location to survive just one hit!

However, finally the trap came, and resolving it was straightforward enough. It brought a little more time for survivors to tip-toe with their teeth clattering between the fruit bombs. 

All in all it was a fun and stressful showdown. I have always liked Lonely Tree as one of the more characterful showdowns, and this showdown didn't change that.

Five basic resources were very welcome back in settlement, although the two endeavors from Eedgien's death were, eh, okay I guess. Jagged Marrow Fruit, yaaaay.

Lantern Year 11 Hunt & Showdown - Frogdog level 1

That horrible downfall that happened with Phoenix and Slenderman still had me scared to hunt nastier foes, although level 2 Lion probably would have still been quite doable. However, I wanted to try something entirely new - the most recent purchase of Frogdog expansion. Going in blind against a level 1 version.

Team was Leihovia and Eemac, Golimato and Goliheen.

Chance Encounter and a random found corpse stacked survivors with courage and understanding. The frogdog hunt event was Wet Ground, which made half of the team squeamish. 

... and then. New content, yaaay.

At the end of the day it was a level 1 monster that I bashed on year eleven, so there didn't seem to be any real danger for the survivors. However, the whole fart deck thing is actually quite neat. Or, wait... that's not a word I'd use. Rather... flavorful? NO DEFINITELY NOT THAT. 

Every survivor managed to score their weapon training hit, although bow user Goliheen did their best to dodge marking that proficiency slot. 

Lantern Year 12 - Plague

Ah, yeah. The good old plague. I'm excessively happy that Bloodletting was settlement innovation just a year prior. 

Talwar and Oficien were easiest picks. Leihovia and Pidicule were the hard ones. It took a re-roll to not add plague to the timeline. All four had to skip next hunt.

Golimato was anointed as the Mere Navi. After all, they had witnessed an omen. This took one re-roll, though.

After all the coughing had passed, Lion Knight paid a visit. Had not plague blocked so many proper survivors, I'd have tried to take on the knight fair and square. Of course I still do, but with a crapstack of Porfic, Eedge, Roficien and Auge. Roficien began dancing.

I know I will curse my conviction, but settlement chose Barbarism. That Hands of Heat is going to wreck this settlement, but since all the star survivors have died long time ago, the settlement needs that strength. Goliheen was nominated as the Thundercaller.

And finally the Gorm Climate. Home endeavors get +2.

One tinker, one Brave result, population 10+ and Cooking yielded eight endeavors before the encounter with Lion Knight. 

1: Settlement innovates... Clan of Death. I shouldn't complain, but getting this far without Surge action or even Symposium feels rough.
2: Leather curing. 
3-4: Face Painting x2
5-6: Golimato and Goliheen spend their Matchmakers on the two plague victims. Ofici and Talwar establish a new Nella family. Talici and Ficiar are born. They even drink a Love Juice for good measure. Third sibling, Ofar, is born.
7-8: Goliheen and Talici leave offerings to the white mask, getting +1 strength token for the departees.

Settlement completes the Leather Armor set, Bone Pickaxe, Frogdog suit and Monster Grease.

Coming up next is Lion Knight level 2, but that's going to be... some day. Verpowere has been due an update for a while, and even if this is just a four year advancement that's still eight showdowns. 

Population: 14

Departing survivors gain +1 strength tokens.

Make It an Accident

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Informants

Schemes: Ensnare, Take the Highground, Harness the Leyline

My list:

Molly, Chaotic Conductor & Noxious Nephilim
Archie
Keepside Strangers
Carrion Fate Emissary
Rabble Riser
Night Terror
2x Crooligan

Pool: 4

Opponent had:

Lynch, Wild Card & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Kara
Koji
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Both crews pick Take the Highground

Honeypot had a bit easier time fulfilling their scheme, as they had a bit more options to leap on near their deployment zone. It wasn't exactly tough for Forgotten either, as they had such a repertoire of movement tricks. Carrion Fate flied a Crooligan on top of building on the right, and the same happened with another Crooligan and Noxious Nephilim to the left. Third piece was taking a charge at an Illuminated contesting center-right strategy marker and swinging the minion a couple of times before leapin on top of a rock.

Another Illuminated to the left and Koji had two terrain pieces, and near the centerpoint Kara and Hungering Darkness were holding a flooded building for their scheme.

Molly went parading on a tent near center, too. I thought that her unusual defense ability would work wonders on such a small platform, and I needed someone to place markers for Ensnare, as well as bait Honeypot uniques nearby.

Scores went 3-3.

Turn 2: Forgotten picks Ensnare, Honeypot picks Make It Look Like an Accident.

Hungering Darkness charges Keepside Strangers and nearly kills them. A Crooligan from left discarded a card to leap to Keepside Strangers, dropped a scheme next to Hungering Darkness and went to engage the thing. Keepside Strangers had already spawned one scheme marker last turn for a possible Breakthrough at one point or another.

Crooligan messed up Honeypot's scheme big time, since they were planning on throwing a kid off a window. Just a little too late Honeypot realized that the second Crooligan on top of building had Shielded. 

Forgotten got their Ensnare soon enough, as Gwyneth charged in to kill Night Terror. Turns out Night Terrors are garbage players at card games, because Gwyneth had no trouble card sharking the minion dead. However, Illuminated ones seem equally as bad at playing with ice cream, as Archie was able to pummel the guy to mist. 

Lynch nearly killed Carrion Emissary, damaging it down to two health remaining. It flied away, scared of gambling any more and instead placed two scheme markers while also contesting center-right strategy marker.

Beckoner walked to contest the same marker, tying the control. She was able to lure Crooligan off the building, but no-one believed it was an accident since the kid was shielded.

Now defenestrated Crooligan went to control bottom-right strategy marker.

Rabble Riser and Noxious Nephilim squabbled with Koji and Illuminated, neither side making much of a progress.

In the center Kara tried the only possible action for Honeypot to score their scheme, and attacked Molly. Attack hit, but didn't score Rams.

Molly was Forgotten's last model to activate, and she slapped Kara off from kitchen counter with parade baton. She had to use two Parade Routes on Crooligan to get it to contest strategy marker in the center.

Forgotten took the lead with 6-4.

Turn 3: Forgotten picks Reshape the Land with schemes, Honeypot attempts Breakthrough.

Gwyneth finishes Carrion Emissary before it is able to activate. Archie makes a tit-for-tat exchange with Beckoner, killing her before she activates.

Koji and Illuminated to the left nearly kill Rabble Riser. In fact they would have if it wasn't for a lucky Rams during Rabble Riser's attack when he was still at one health remaining.

Fortunately I was reading around opponent's cards, and noticed Illuminated's "Don't Turn Your Back" in time - I had this grand plan of flying Noxious Nephilim and Rabble Riser to bluff Search the Area for a bit, but making the markers for Reshape the Land instead.

Molly had to spend her entire activation to walk on top of central building and parade the Nephilim out of Illuminated's engagement range.

Kara continued to attack Molly, making the cat even more distracted. 

A Crooligan moved to remove a scheme marker some Honeypot model had placed on my deployment zone. That was my attempt to deny Breakthrough. Unfortunately Honeypot had plenty of more activation by then, but at least it forced Hungering Darkness to scheme around.

Both players scored full schemes and strategy for 9-7 lead for Forgotten.

Turn 4: Honeypot picks Assassinate on Molly

Noxious Nephilim tried to remove Koji from equation to get one strategy marker for Forgotten. Both of his attacks needed to hit, but the first one failed already unless I spent a thirteen from my hand - which I did. But second attack missed as expected.

Lynch scores one point from Assassinate, and also gives Molly slow. She had three health remaining. She had to activate next, and went over the central building to take a charge at Koji. Koji died, but so did Molly when Illuminated activated. 

Opponent was able to kill Keepside Strangers and Crooligan effortlessly. I still had one chance to tie the game - Archie pushing both Gwyneth and Mr. Tannen away from their respective strategy markers. Attacks hit well enough, but no masks were scored in any of the cases. Since it was double point round, Honeypot claimed a 11-9 victory.