This is not a dispute, this is a massacre

 A 50ss game of Malifaux

Strategy: Wedge Boundary Dispute

Schemes: Frame Job, Take the Highground, Public Demonstration

My list:

Seamus, Last Breath & Copycat Killer
Strange Lady
Madame Sybelle
2x Dead Dandy
2x Mourner
Gravedigger

Pool: 3

Opponent had:

C. Hoffman, Steel Sculptor & Mechanical Attendant
Peacekeeper
Melissa KORE
Clipper
2x Hunter
2x Watcher

Pool: 2

Turn 1: Resurrectionists took Public Demonstration, Guild picked Take the Highground

Lines were closing in with such almost never-seen-before symmetry. Guild did take it further to the centerline, but they had to with their scheme, which Augmented scored without issues.

Resurrectionists had a bit more issues since they had no effective placement tricks outside of Seamus. Strange Lady at least gave interacts left and right so that both players got all of their strategy markers past centerline.

Public Demonstration did require some struggle. Clipper didn't go where I expected, so Madame Sybelle had to move it on top of the highest building near my deployment. Hoffman had not yet activated, so I was worrying he would give a walk for Clipper. It was about half an inch away from Strange Lady's aura, so Seamus had to Secret Passage, strike twice to score Shove Aside and then Secret Passage away. 

Thus, both players scored full points turn one for a 3-3 tie.

Turn 2: Resurrectionists took Assassinate on Clipper, Guild picked Search the Area

Seamus activated and killed Clipper with a line of 13, 12 and 11 in my starting hand. In a perfect world, that is. Opponent was flipping good and cheated severes from hand as required. Clipper was brought down to three, after which is just activated and ended activation within 6" of Hoffman to heal four. Strange Lady got to the building as well, charged and moved Clipper off the building. I still had Dead Dandy and Mourner to deal with it.

Despite Dandy attacking it with a stat of 6 versus willpower of 4 and a three for minimum damage, the bugger just somehow wriggled until the end of turn with three health remaining. Infuriating.

Oh, ho, ho. You sweet summer child. THAT was supposed to be infuriating? How about this.

Hunter activated, charged Dead Dandy. Red Joker and a Pouncing Strike to Mourner that deals in damage. Second action point was to attack Mourner, which killed her and scored Pouncing Strike to Dead Dandy, which killed a second minion that still had not yet activated. Hunter got Fast, but fortunately at least that harpoon attack missed it's target, but that... that stuff right there was crippling.

Gravedigger died as well before it got to activate.

At least all of these models dying before they got to activate had something positive to come out of it. Augmented got zero points from their scheme, because there was no-one left to activate to score those points.

However, Augmented absolutely dominated the strategy this round, and Resurrectionists only got one point from their scheme as well. Scores were a 4-4 tie.

Situation was grim, but we still continued because there was some game left thanks to no points from Search the Area.

Turn 3: Resurrectionists took Runic Binding, Guild picked Breakthrough

I tried to block opponent from scoring full points from Breakthrough, and at least I did make him exert some effort to do that. 

Sybelle was in a good position to affect strategy, but Hunter was in a better position to affect Sybelle. Hunter would need to die, but Sybelle just wasn't able to do that alone in one activation.

Copycat Killer was able to press strategy a little, but that was not enough because Madame Sybelle was tied up. Usually it should be the other way around with Madame Sybelle, I suppose. 

At least Dead Dandy had been able to remove Clipper before it activated.

Seamus was imperative in making the Runic Binding go off, so both crews took full points from schemes. Only Guild did strategy, though, so they got a 7-6 lead.

Turn 4: Resurrectionists took Ensnare, Guild picked Assassinate on Seamus

Although it was a desperate situation for Seamus, we did some activations to confirm. Strange Lady was able to get a point from Ensnare easily enough. Opponent activated Hoffman first to get rid of one of my strategy markers, which in itself was bad but Seamus did a secret passage to a Watcher that had Hastened and Fast conditions. He was able to kill it, but it took all actions so he wasn't able to push back the strategy marker Hoffman had just tossed away. This put Seamus out of reach from most Guild models.

Madame Sybelle was able to kill the Hunte



r that was tormenting her, but since that took both actions as well, there was little she could do to affect strategy. 

The surviving Mourner was able to damage the second Watcher before it got to activate, but did not score a kill. 

Around there we stopped game, because Dead Dandy alone in my deployment zone wasn't going to tip the strategy over to me. In the end scores werent' that terrible despite the outrageous rampage of Hunter on turn two. Game was a 9-8 loss which could have been a 10-8 loss if opponent was able to deal a couple more points in to Seamus.

Endure Not

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: Ensnare, Take the Highground, Grave Robbing

My list:

McMourning, Insanitary & Corpse Curator
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Leftovers
Oskar
Kentauroi
2x Dapperling

Pool: 3

Opponent had:

Clampetts, Ballyhoo Bucket & Judd&Honey
Uncle Boggs
Aunty Mel
Sir Vantes
Mossbeard
3x Buckaroo

Pool: 1

Turn 1: 
Experimental Ensnare, Anglers Take the Highground

Resurrectionists were being cagey with their activations, activating both Dapperlings first and McMourning walking and spamming graft tokens on Leftovers, Kentauroi and Sebastian. But eventually I had to open up my game, and Oskar activated to move Rogue Necromancy a little forward via actions and triggers, and he walked and scaled to a height 3 terrain.

Aaand that's when hell started raining on Oskar. Aunty Mel, Judd and Honey and Sir Vantes went to attack him. Thanks to some luck, Oskar ended the turn with seven hit points... and he was in cover against all of the attacks.

However, eventually Bayou activated Clampetts to go and place a strategy marker past the centerline. This opened up Leftovers to leap to Mossbeard and place a couple of scheme markers to get at least one point from Ensnare, enabled by Corpse Curator.

One Buckaroo to the left placed a strategy marker, and Clampetts had placed another. Obnoxious Rogue Necromancy took a soulstone leap, interacted a strategy marker and charged the Buckaroo. Didn't hit, though.

Kentauroi dragged McMourning to centerline and placed its strategy marker, while Sebastian walked to centerline, dropped explosive and graft-leaped to a Buckaroo. 

Anglers had plenty of spaces to get two points from their scheme, while Experimental could take just one. They did, however, tie the score by scoring strategy alone for a 2-2.

Turn 2:
Experimental picks Search the Area, Anglers Make It Look Like an Accident

Right of the bat Anglers took a point from their scheme by making Oskar fall from the rocky terrain. Oskar took flight right after, trying to hide behind the height 3 terrain. In the end this did not work out, as Judd & Honey were able to climb on top of the terrain and shoot Oskar below fifty percent.

Rogue Necromancy botched it's activation, trying to eat a Buckaroo that escaped with two health remaining. Two other Buckaroos ran into or near my deployment, and there was little I could do to prevent that.

Corpse Curator went to place a scheme marker to my deployment zone for next turn's possible Breakthrough, and then went to scale on top of a cover terrain. After being mauled by Clampetts. 

McMourning and Sebastian had to wait to almost last activations to push four scheme markers to a forest half inside enemy deployment to get Search the Area. 

Leftovers were beaten to a pulp after dropping their explosives, then healed, and right after that beaten down to three hit points once again. 

Anglers took two points from scheme, but so did Experimentals, while maintaining upper hand in strategy for a 5-4 lead. 

Turn 3:
Both crews attempt a breakthrough.

Anglers spammed strategy markers to Experimental deployment zone easily enough thanks to Buckaroos, and one of them even denied full points from Breakthrough. So that caused Resurrectionists to pick up only one point from scheme. However, Anglers sufficed for one point for their own as well.

Clampetts killed a Dapperling, making it drop its explosive charge. 

I had completely misread the strategy extra points, and thought that the thing was to place two scheme markers to enemy deployment zone. So I wasted Sebastian's activation completely to that, not to mention not getting an extra point either. Oh well.

Uncle Bogg started slicing up Leftovers, eventually even dissecting a bisection.

I had pretty much lost the center and my own rear, Anglers having free reign over my side of the board. They were able to catch up with the strategy, despite Resurrectionists having six strategy markers past the centerline.

So, Anglers scored both strategy and extra point from strategy, plus their one point from Breakthrough as well. Experimentals just got one point from strategy and one from scheme. This tied the scores at 7-7.

Turn 4:
Experimental Assassination of Mossbeard, and Anglers picked Frame Job on Sir Vantes.

Another absurd case of lack of attention. I somehow thought I needed only one point from Assassination to score maximum points from schemes... which was, well, not true at all.

Early on Sebastian went to charge and sepsis Mossbeard for the point. Later one of the Last Bites even threw some dirt on Mossbeard, bringing him down to one remaining plus poisoned.

Mossbeard was moved by someone, then dropped an explosive and tried to heal himself. And look at that, a most unfortunate Black Joker if there ever was one.

Now, Anglers still had Judd & Honey available for heals. But it was disturbingly easy to go and plant that single point of damage in to Mossbeard with Rogue Necromancy's leap action.

That alone brought Resurrectionists to 9 points. While it looked like Anglers would get the strategy point this turn, we ended the game anyway since Anglers had their Frame Job on Sir Vantes, who at that point had no nearby models that had any inclination to attack him.

A 9-8 victory for McMourning. 

Madflies, madflies everywhere!

 Lantern Year 12 special showdown: Lion Knight level 2

Ragtag team of survivors defended the village with a costume play. 

Prominent roles: Auge (villain/fool), Eedge (fool/villain), Roficien (damsel), Porfic (ruler)

I was fully committed to losing this thing, but when White Mask gave those precious +1 Strength tokens made me question if I might actually be able to pull a win out of this.

Ruler and damsel switched their roles right off the bat so that damsel would be able to both utilize the -1 speed for the Lion Knight, but also shoot with catgut bow.

I thought it would be a good idea to lure Lion Knight closer to damsel, because he just would need to get back to the stage on the next move. With any chance, the fool with her amber poleaxe might poke a wound in to the knight.

It... sort of worked. But the thing is... Lion Knight dismembered the leg of the villain. She'd not get anywhere near the stage anymore. 

At least the volley from Gloom Arrows was beautiful. All five attacks hit, and each of them wounded. There were a total of three Stage Fights in the top three cards though, so damsel was disrobed of armor they had.

However, survivors did fairly well with punching through that toughness 12. Fool had to use the honk horn to save the villain from all but certain demise. She got nearly killed herself as a thanks, so the one-legged ex-villain had to switch the roles back almost right away. She was already at three bleed tokens.

This was especially annoying, because the Lion Knight had been whittled down to, like, two cards remaining, which were finally blasted, too. 

Villain was at four bleed tokens, and about to take two speed 3, dmg 3 attacks to the face, while no longer having any armor points and multiple heavy injury levels. Also not on stage, so unable to dodge. 

Only way to score victory seemed to be the amber poleaxe. The fool walked and dashed in front of Lion Knight, and let the beast loose. Rolls was a four, so the villain used her once-per-lifetime re-roll on that. An eight! 

What a close call. As a reward the villain also had her arm severed. 

What an exciting play!

Lantern Year 12 hunt & showdown: White Lion level 2

Golimato, Goliheen, Leihovia and Pidicule begin hunt.

Settlement is running out of time to explore the new armor sets, so White Lion it is.

Sea of Golden Grass and White Lion Cub gave incredible start to the hunt already, but then Leihovia rolled up Finale, losing her ear in the process. Stone Noses were turned into Steel Sword and Steel Shield.

And  then the hunting party met the Surgeon, who fixed Leihovia's pelvis. Is the game rewarding me for finally hunting level twos? Must be, because the final AI card was Prowling Lion, and the lion itself had been lured on top of Overwhelming Darkness.

Showdown went fine even if a couple of survivors got to zero survival points remaining.

Lantern Year 13: Plague

Oh, okay.

Porfic, Talwar, Eedge and Ofici survive the plague with a single re-roll wasted on this duplicate event. Leihovia went Stark-Raving Mad from the Lion God encounter, and Hands of Heat gave a point of speed for Leihovia.

Hands of Heat carved a massive hole to the settlement storage.

Endeavors:

1: Settlement innovates Momento Mori over Partnership...
2-3: Face Painting for intimacy, only one success
4: Matchmaker for Ofici and Auge. Auge dies. 
5: Face Painting for departing
6-7: Talici Nella was trained with shared experience, she got Orator of Death from Age 1.

Lantern Year 13 showdown - Hand level 1

Leihovia, Pidicule, Porfic and Ficiar talk to The Hand, and that's about it. Zero threat. A couple of survivors went to light brain injury, however. 

However, rewards were not exciting. Pidicule took the best, getting +1 accuracy, strength and evasion, but he had worst stats in the first place. Ficiar took a point of strength, which was splendid. Porfic took a random +1 luck from age, though, so there's that.

Rewards was the best, -1 population, plus Leather, Skull and five basic resources. Eedge uNimportanT "donated" the leather. And the skull.

Lantern Year 14: Lights in the Sky

Gorm Climate gave a point of courage to Ofar

1: FINALLY settlement innovates Symposium!
2: Face Painting for depart bonuses
3: Shared experience triggers Age for Ficiar. He gets Abyssal Sadist.
4: Trepanning for Golimato, who gets rid of Ghostly Beauty
5: Trepanning for Leihovia, who gets rid of Stage Fright
6-7: Auguries for Talici, who manages to get two understanding from the endeavors, and rolled one more endeavor for this settlement phase via Insight.
8: One more Augury, which finally prompted an Intimacy. Eemac and Golimato formed Phouros family, and got a kid named Eelimato. 

Lantern Year 14 hunt & showdown: Screaming Antelope level 2

Leihovia, Pidicule, Golimato and Ficiar start to track the beast.

Dead Antelope gives resources, but then... then... Madflies! Madflies all over again! Half of the team frenzied! This can't be happening! Argh. Well, at least it isn't important or anything to dash out of diabolical trample zone, or anything.

Antelope migrates, and then Golimato trades Rawhide Whip for White Lion Mask and loses all survival. Like he needed it anyway, since he frenzied.

Ficior gets heavy injury levels to head and arms from a frozen lightning. 

At least Overwhelming Darkness wasn't too bad, and fresh grazing fields even gave Ficior one hit location back to full. Leihovia was able to successfully mine a piece of iron as well. 

Pidicule investigates broken lanterns, and finds a broken lantern. What are the chances? 

Next survivors got to skip the next space, and showdown started. Random terrain was Nightmare Tree and Copperfish Den. Tactics was absolutely worst for Screaming Antelope: Trip Formation. Yeah, no thanks, not going to cause a total of four points of damage to two survivors to knock down the antelope.

Screaming Antelope began with Lonely Rampage, which was a blessing of sorts. I was remembering that survivors with 25+ insanity run away in the aftermath, but it was 20+ instead. Golimato had twenty-six. 

Once again Chow Down made the showdown infuriating. Well, that was my mistake to some extent, not obsessively spamming Rawhide Headband without Surge available. But the thing healed a total of five with two Chow Downs. 

Other than that the showdown went sort of fine, only Pidicule was disemboweled and suffered a gaping chest injury. There were far too many severe rolls to feel secure, but that's what bring excitement into the showdowns after all. 

Pidicule had spent most of his time trying to get trampled over by the Screaming Antelope, but at least four or five first tries failed to make a wound with Amber Poleaxe. Only two such attempt succeeded in total, but at least the last one of them was Screaming Antelope impaling its last wound to the stake.

Lantern Year 15: Dark Trader

Only five endeavors, since Ficiar got post-traumatic stress disorder from Overwhelming Darkness. 

... and, oh no. I hunted White Lion and Screaming Antelope just for the sole reason of wanting to try out the new hybrid armor sets from Lion Knight... but I really should have read those beforehand. I didn't realize even Dancer and Brawler armor required pieces from Phoenix set. Funny fun. Whee. Yay. Well... I guess I should use the resources elsewhere instead.

Like buying a useless pink stone from the trader. Yeah, I just did that.

1: Settlement innovates Nightmare Training... still no surge.
2-3: Since Pidicule had frenzied and was at max survival, he trained twice with the new innovation, gaining +1 strength and weapon proficiency level.
4: Settlement builds Weapon Crafter
5: Settlement turns all Pelts and White Furs into leather, just out of spite.

Next? I want to try out other new content I have, so Dragon King it is. I hope it goes better than against Phoenix.

Lantern Year 15 hunt & showdown - Dragon King level 1

Although unsure if I'll wreck this settlement another time around, Leihovia, Talici, Golimato and Goliheen start the hunt against a never-faced before quarry. I did have a hunch not to bring any flammable gear with me.

Talici met a thespian troupe, but dared not encounter them. I wonder if those were Lion Knight's entourage. Instead, Talici had a dream where to go. Leihovia and Goliheen had the exactly same dream, which was weird enough until next year.

Leihovia went down the sinkhole, or would have had not Goliheen sacrificed his re-roll.

Golimato gazes upwards to see the majestic shadow of, well, nothing. 

Goliheen finds the charred remains of a settlement, and then the showdown starts.

It wasn't... too bad. But how it looked to me is that that's going to be the case, until survivors get caught in the meltdown zone. I did quickly learn to respect irradiate as well. 

Golimato certainly had a theme going on, since during hunt he was brave enough to gaze up... and during showdown the Dragon King was impressed by his courage, archiving Lordly Roar. 

Goliheen did pick up a few too many disorders, though. One of them being Sworn Enemy against Dragon King. So I guess I go hunt the beast more in the future. 

Lantern Year 16: Weird Dream

Well, it appears the hunters brought weird dreams with them back to settlement.

Eelimato had to spend his re-roll on Gorm Climate.

1: Settlement innovates Scrap Smelting. 
2: Leihovia tried Nightmare Training, but it was more nightmare than training. 
3-5: Face Paintings for intimacy, one fail.
6-7: I had the expectation that murder might be on the menu at the theatre tonight, so settlement used both matchmakers and Love Juice to make three babies for Phouros family. Welcome, Emacita, Phobaro and Ihcisias. This whole ordeal took a total of one re-roll.

Lantern Year 16 special showdown - Lion Knight level 3

Oh my. That Toughness 15 sure looks rough to deal with, but I'll try nonetheless with a semi-proper team.

Ficiar, Golimato, Ofar, and already a veteran of Lion Knight, Porfic Nimportan defend the settlement right before Butcher appears.

... and what a pathetic play it was. 

It was a wipe. Survivors managed to inflict six wounds, although plenty of attempts were made that fell one short. When villain died the first time around, I decided to ditch the play and tried to run away. Except that Golimato was villain by then, so Ofar had to swap with him. However, all the runaways just stumbled on the stage miserably, dying to their injuries even without the help of Lion Knight.

Settlement lost the Steel Sword as well. Not a big loss, but still. 

I guess level 3 Lion Knight is, by design, so hard that it can be realistically be won after one failure such as this. Provided, of course, that lantern year 20 still has good enough survivors.

Well, let's continue with the settlement phase, then.

8-11: Age for Emacita and Ihcisias
12: White Mask offers strength tokens for departees.
13-14: Auguries until intimacy, Roficien and Goliheen receive twins, Rofiheen and Golicien.
15: Broken Lantern scavenge at Weapon Crafter. Success.

Lantern Year 16 Nemesis Showdown: Butcher level 2

And... I see.

So that's how it is.

Butcher drew SEVEN cards on his first turn, and killed the bow user. Fortunately after he had at least used the gloom arrows for two wounds. Of course one of the seven was the mood that made Butcher attack after taking two wounds.

I had taken the fully linked Monster Grease for one of the newborn I took to the showdown, meaning Butcher was hitting her only with 8+. But the way Butcher was rolling would have required 10+. There was even a 9,9,9 roll. Fortunately I had taken the steel shield to this showdown, so it was easy to dodge Butcher attacks for as long as there was survival... And when survival ended, Butcher was hitting just as happily. 

Now, all this might have been manageable, but survivors were rolling the exact inverse of what Butcher was rolling, especially when wounding. The amount of ones and twos was beyond frustrating. This was bulls diarrhea!

Survivors did get Butcher down to like four AI cards remaining, which wasn't good news either because one of them was the Bite, which always targeted head location for severe rolls.

Yeah. Another four survivors down the drain... as well as all the resources.

I think think this settlement is done, and I'll just mess around with the last few survivors.

Lantern Year 17: Nickname

Real funny, event deck. Real funny.

At least Gorm Climate rolled poorly, and I let it take all resources from settlement storage... where there were none! Bwahahaha! Yes, I'm crying as I'm laughing.

Well. At least a ton of endeavors.

1-2: Auguries for intimacy.
3-4: Another two auguries for intimacy.
5-8: Goliheen scavenges in the Weapon Crafter, triggering See the Truth and finally getting the one Broken Lantern.
9: White Mask to get +1 strength tokens, but didn't even with three re-rolls.
10: Last Augury for augury. Looks like this settlement is going to drag on in life support...

Ofici and Roficien choose the family name of Panik, and receive the kids named Lostit, Defeatred and Vanqusha.

Leihovia, Phobaro, Vanqusha and Rofiheen begin the hunt for Frogdog level 2. But I think that sorry epilogue will be another update later on.

Truly Obscene Feasts

 Two 50ss games of Malifaux 4th edition.

First game:

Strategy: Standard Recover Evidence

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Scout the Rooftops, Grave Robbing

My list:

Kirai Ankoku, Lady of Vengeance & Ikiryo
Kuchisake-Onna
Lost Love
Batsch & Amalie
Carrion Effigy
Goryo
Shikome
Gwisin
Enslaved Spirit

Pool: 4

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Wild Card & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Sen
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 4

Turn 1: Urami picks Scout the Rooftops, Honeypot Leaves Their Mark

Shikome went to pick up the initial strategy marker from far right, while an Illuminated did the same far left. 

Kitty, an Illuminated, Lynch and Hungering Darkness all kept spamming scheme markers near the center point as I was piling my own near it to bluff Leave Your Mark and Scout the Rooftops. 

Kuchisake-Onna summoned a seishin and made a Gaki near the centerpoint, which had Honeypot quite concerned. I think it was Lynch who killed the Gaki as soon as possible, which only prompted a second strategy marker for Honeypot. Bummer. High risk high reward did not pay out... yet.

Goryo had gone to place a scheme marker on top of a cliff near centerpoint. Batsch & Amalie copied it, so there were two. 

Carrion Effigy ran next to a bridge, and Lost Love stood by the effigy's side and went to drop a scheme marker on the terrain piece.

However, Kirai was just about the last model to activate. There were Seishins near the middle so she made an additional Gaki, feasting away the mark Honeypot left. Kirai also gave Ikiryo an action to drop a third scheme marker for Scout the Rooftops.

So, Urami scored two from schemes, but zero from strategy. Honeypot did vice versa, since they were able to pick up the extra point from strategy. Scores tied at 2-2.

Turn 2: Urami picks Detonate Charges, Honeypot stays with Leave Your Mark

The turn was defined by the action happening at the centerpoint. Urami began slapping scheme markers on top of the terrain for Detonate Charges - Scout the Rooftops lead to Leave Your Mark as well. And, well, Honeypot kept scribbling their initials to the hand best as they can.

One notable moment was when Ikiryo walked and charged someone, and then killed herself and blasted Adversary on the entire enemy crew, except for one Illuminated and Beckoner who were hanging around near the left edge of the table. 

Adversary proved to be deadly, as both Hungering Darkness and Kitty Dumont died without too much effort. And then to add an insult to injury, Kuchisake-Onna took a swing at Sen, and scored Red Joker, leaving Sen standing with just one hit point.

Gwisin, Goryo and Batsch & Amalie near each other proved to be a fortress. Attacks kept pouring at Goryo, but in the end phase it had only a few damage boxes marked in after Gwisin took a hit here and there, and the fungal duo did a little jig to cheer their spirit.

Honeypot managed to take a point from Leave Your Mark this time around, but Urami got two from Detonate Charges. Both got strategy, but Urami took the extra point as well for a 6-4 lead.

Turn 3: Urami picks Take the Highground, Honeypot chooses Make It Look Like an Accident

Sen who had just a single hit point left beckoned Gwisin from top of the terrain to score a point from Make It Look Like an Accident. Gwisin then did everything it could to run away, but Mr. Graves would have none of that and killed the target.

Enslaved Spirit died as well, although it first tried to go and claim the red roofed building for scheme. Illuminated in the middle died to Goryo and Kirai.

Shikome, Lost Love and Kuchisake-Onna did Take the Highground, but Kuchisake did summon Ikiryo as well. And as if there hadn't already been enough brutal attacks by Urami models, Ikiryo charged Mr. Tannen and killed him with a single action point. Ikiryo went off the board again, just in case.

Both crews took full points from schemes, but this time around Honeypot was left with no strategy points. This gave Urami a 9-6 lead.

Turn 4:

We didn't play fourth turn, as Honeypot at most might score a tie, and that would have required Urami models doing pretty much nothing.

Game 2:

Strategy: Corner Informants

Schemes: Detonate Charges, Scout the Rooftops, Search the Area

My list:

Hamelin, Plaguebringer & Obedient Wretch
Nix
Fumigator
Tunnel Rats
Tuco Ortega
Rat Catcher
2x Stolen

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver & 2x Cryptologist
Sidir Alchibal
Desper LaRaux
2x Rough Rider
2x Ruffian
Huckster
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 3

Turn 1: Both crews pick... surprise surprise, Scout the Rooftops.

Although not much else happened other than troops closing in, it was apparent that Wastrels were not practicing enough social distancing. Rat Catcher summoned a couple rats, one of which went to drop blight on a Ruffian, from which it spread to a Rough Rider and a Cryptologist.

McCabe went to contest the marker in the center, and a Stolen ran to gave him pox after the kid had been lured by Hamelin and disoriented by fogs from Fumigator.

Five Wastrels were coming from the right, three of whom had bunched up. Nix was able to blast one Blight in there, from where it spread to Sidir, a Ruffian and the Hopeful Prospect.

Tunnel Rats was saved for the last activation, and dropped a scheme for Scout the Rooftops, and then used Secret Passage to deliver another marker to Wastrel side of the board, getting two points from scheme. Wastrels didn't have such a trick up their sleeve, and instead had to do with one. 

I gave strategy to Wastrels to move the markers around. I didn't know if that would pay off, but in my last Informants game I was at the receiving end of this, so I wanted to try it out.

So, a 2-2 tie again.

Turn 2: Both crews pick... surprise surprise, Detonate Charges

First activation was Rough Rider trying to shoot Tunnel Rats dead from a vantage point. But thanks to rotten luck and some cards from hand, stat five with a plus fate was not able to cut through def four. This had major repercussions, since Tunnel Rats was later able to walk on top of tall tower and contest the strategy marker on the Wastrel side, plus drop a scheme marker near enemy models with Biting Insult. Opponent was able to claim the marker back, but that required two models instead of one.

And whose a good boy? Nix is! And by good I mean of course super annoying. Good to see that the piece is conditionally as infuriating as ever.

Nix charged near Ruffian, Hopeful Prospect and Sidir. Would this trick pay off as well? He bit Sidir, who used his Tarnished Mirror to slap four damage back to Nix. Ouch. Bonus action was promptly the heal instead of revelers dropping. 

Welll, in the end Nix made took 50% off of Hopeful Prospect's activation, but he was able to remove blight from Sidir. My hand was relatively poor, just one ten, five empowers and... the Red Joker. I had difficult choice to make. A full-activation Sidir would mean horrible news to Nix, so a Stolen took double walk near the bunch and used Onward. No Tomes to empowers, and no Tomes from flip. So, Red Joker it was, to get off that bonus walk and re-apply blight to Sidir and Hopeful Prospect, and Desper LaRaux as a bonus as well. 

Ruffian beat the snot out of that Stolen, and Desper leaped out of Nix cancellation aura and charged the Stolen, killing them. 

Sidir walked and scaled on terrain, tried to shoot Nix but was canceled. He did a mortar strike and used soulstone to shoot Nix anyway, and managed to land in a couple of damage points.

New edition made it look like McCabe was sort of behaving better, but he relapsed into whipping a kid to death at the center. To his defense, the kid had already given him two poxes. 

A Rough Rider to the right climbed on the industrial platform and started shooting at Obedient Wretch, and brought her down to one health remaining. She thought since she'd die soon anyway, she went to at least take Hopeful Prospect with her. And didn't even die.

Tuco disillusioned Rough Rider away from contesting a strategy marker, and went to drop a scheme near the horse.

Plague had been able to dodge any too serious consequences for their actions... but then, something happened. No, that trend did continue, but it continued in such a way that it started to feel bad. Rat Catcher summoned a couple rats more, which eventually formed into a Rat King. With the remaining bonus and a single action point Rat King was able to kill an uninjured Rough Rider!

Somehow Wastrels had failed to plant any charges, and Plague lucked out full two points thanks to Tunnel Rats.

Both scored strategy, but Plague still had less points so they were able to move the markers for a 5-3 lead.

Turn 3: Plague picks Runic Binding, Wastrel stays with Detonate Charges

Now un-blighted Sidir was able to shoot Nix off the board. That could have been the beginning of a turning point for Wastrels, but then the Rat King ate Ruffian who had taken just one point of damage. Again with one action point and bonus. What is happening in here?! First summoned Gaki's eats all the schemes, now summoned rats do the same for models.

Plague did play a little too obvious Runic Binding, so Wastrels were able to wriggle out of maximum points, so Hamelin had to suffice with one. Tunnel Rats died in the process. 

Wastrels were pushing for the Detonate Charges this time a little more insistently, but Tuco was able to shoot off one of the markers, so Wastrels took zero once more. Plague also received strategy while Wastrels did not, so the situation looked grim after Hamelin was leading 7-3. 

Turn 4: 

Situation did in fact look too grim for McCabe, and we did not play the fourth round.

Rogue Appetite

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Informants

Schemes: Make it look like an accident, Search the Area, Runic Binding

My list:

Dr. McMourning, Malpractitioner & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Leftovers
Rafkin
Kentauroi
Bone Pile

Pool: 5

Opponent had:

Misaki Katanaka, Fractured & Wanyudo
Ototo
Yamaziko
Katanaka Crime Boss
Katanaka Sniper
2x Torakage
Shadow Fate Effigy

Pool: 5

Turn 1: Experimental picks Runic Binding, Last Blossom makes it look like an accident.

Rafkin started by prodding Leftovers, giving them an Interesting Parts token, and summoned a Little Gasser. Eventually Leftovers took a walk and a oozing slither on top a building, and placed a scheme marker to bluff for either Runic Binding or Search the Area. However, Leftovers were pushed from top of the building by some of the plenty crew signature actions, scoring a point from Make it look like an accident for Ten Thunders.

Yamaziko had taken a central position over a building, spreading those nasty auras all over the board. She even got concealment aura from somewhere to help Ototo, Shadow Effigy and Misaki.

McMourning pushed Kentauroi a bit with crew signature, walked, and had to use Vial of Goo to get a little closer to place a scheme marker to bluff two different schemes again. Eventually Kentauroi pidcked up Bone Pile and went forward, but had take a walk to go and drop a third scheme for Runic Binding. I had already activated Crime Boss inside the binding, and Yamaziko was sort of easy to reach as well. However, I was dreadfully afraid of multiple effective ways Last Blossom had to remove scheme markers that when opponent didn't remove one, I just grabbed the one point from Runic Binding as fast as I could.

Rogue Necromancy and Torakage went to contest strategy marker center-left. Leftovers and Crime Boss were doing the same to marker on the right. McMourning and Ototo were holding the central marker. Or at least were, until Wanyudo came to contest as well.

Zombie Chihuahua walked and charged and gave a solid hit against Wanyudo, which poisoned it as well. Later Sebastian bumbled around, eventually leaping to Chihuahua looking for spare parts. He sawed Wanyudo for a bit, and removed the poison to attack again. The thing was left with just two health remaining.

Various enemy models were able to damage Kentauroi down to one health remaining and burning, even when it had the fumes aura. 

By ganging up on the middle, Resurrectionists were able to take the lead in strategy. Both had scored a single point from schemes, for a 2-1 lead for McMourning.

Turn 2: Experimental Takes the Highground, Last Blossom attempts Breakthrough

I lost the Kentauroi, but I had the first activation. Rogue Necromancy did a leap near Wanyudo, and killed it with Pouncing Strike. However, this took my highest cards from hand, so I didn't push it when remaining two attacks missed Katanaka Sniper.

Ototo hit Zombie Chihuahua and healed back to thirteen or so after probably Sebastian came in sawing the henchman. Chihuahua took a double walk to contest center-left strategy marker, and holding one building for Take the Highground.

Crime Boss was able to smack Leftovers down to three health remaining. Torakage came to contest the center-right marker as well. Bone Pile reinforced Leftovers and threw them a bone, tying up that marker as well.

McMourning did a scary activation by scaling up to Yamaziko, slapping her down to two health remaining and poisoned. She had not yet activated, so that was a death sentence. He also tossed a Vial of Goo on Shadow Effigy, essentially dooming it as well. 

By then both players had spent their entire hand. Shadow Effigy took a point of damage and tried to hail mary itself into Shadow Emissary, but failed the attack and died to poison. Yamaziko, too.

Another Torakage had made it piece of cake to score Breakthrough with two points for Ten Thunders. 

Opponent had kept pushing my models off the buildings left and right, so Resurrectionists struggled to get even one point from Take the Highground. Both players had enough strategy markers to score points, but since Ten Thunders had still scored less from strategy, they got to do the little placearoo.

Scores tied at 4-4

Turn 3: Experimental Makes it look like an accident instead, Last Blossom wants to Assassinate Sebastian

Rogue Necromancer was able to slap Katanaka Sniper down from a shack, scoring a point. However, only one of the attacks hit and left the little guy alive. Zombie Chihuahua tried to score the second point next, but failed to do even one point.Eventually I had to use McMourning to finish the point for me. 

Ototo crushed Sebastian in one cruel activation, two points for Ten Thunders again.

Leftovers were split open, and one of the Bisecrions and their assorted appendages were cut down by Misaki and Crime Boss. One Bisection remained, though. Status quo remained for center-right marker, although Bone Pile, Torakage and Bisection were all sitting with just three health remaining. 

As their last activation, another Torakage went to claim the strategy marker on my side of the board. Rafkin had to backtrack. He had two attempts to shoo off the minion - first with crew signature, which failed. Then by scoring masks on the melee. Attack hit, but was not masks.

Ten Thunders got a point from strategy while Resurrectionists got none. Both had scored two from schemes, so it was a 6-7 lead for Misaki.

Turn 4: Experimental reshapes the land with corpses, Last Blossom tries to Scout the Rooftops

Rogue Necromancy. Did a thing. By murdering Misaki, who was at eleven health remaining. Okay, there might have been a black joker involved there. This was a deciding factor for the game, though. Although I see we played one major aspect of the strategy incorrectly - those strategy markers had been happily arranged within 8" of each other. So close in fact, that a single model was able to contest all three. And that had been Misaki.

 Remains of Leftovers had been scattered all across the Ten Thunders side, but there were four of them. I had a hard decision to make - and Chihuahua killed itself for the fifth marker.

I had this demented plan of running McMourning to the center, attacking Crime Boss or Ototo and summoning Chihuahua back, and remove the summon token with crew signature. However, a Torakage abandoned scheme and rushed on top of the building with most remaining Last Blossoms, and there was no easily available space for the good doctor. He was able to claim one strategy to himself with what remained of a Last Bite.

A narrow 10-9 victory for McMourning.

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 first 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.