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
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.
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.
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.
