Rat is a four letter word, suppose Nix is as well

 A 50ss game of Malifaux 4th edition.

Strategy: Flank Boundary Dispute

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Assassinate, Scout the Rooftops

My list:

Hamelin, Piper & Benny Wolcomb
Nix
Fumigator
Tunnel Rats
Johan Creedy
2x Rat Catcher
Stolen

Pool: 4

Opponent had:

C. Hoffman, Inventor & Edie
Peacekeeper
Clipper
Warden
2x Hunter
2x Watcher

Pool: 4

Turn 1: 
Plague picks Scout the Rooftops, Augmented leaves their mark.

Early on Guild put Peacekeeper on the central platform without having even been activated yet. I was horrified, all my models were easily within reach of a 12" charge threat. 

Nix had to spend an eleven and a twelve from my hand to land Blight token on Peacekeeper before walking within 3" of the scary robot. In the end it was a good trade since it kept the scary robot in check, unable to do much. 

Clipper had flied with Hoffman closer, and they both went to drop enough scheme markers to center point to account for Rat King's devour abilities.

Benny and Hamelin had spawned more than enough rats for that Rat King to form. Rat Catchers had not managed to do the same, especially when Benny turned one of the rats into a scheme marker for Scout the Rooftops. Rat King did little else except that it removed a pylon.

Johan Creedy managed to leap to Peacekeeper. He started hammering Hoffman with relic hammer, but managed barely to scrape off some paint.

Stolen and Tunnel Rats dropped enough schemes for Scout the Rooftops. Augmented had over-secured their Leave Your Mark, so that was two points for both. However, two Watchers and the Hunters ensured that Plague fell behind in scenario and Guild took the lead with 3-2.

Turn 2:
Plague picks Detonate Charges, Augmented Makes It Look Like an Accident

A Hunter pulled down Rat King from center platform, but didn't manage to kill it. The Rat King got to Watcher before it was able to activate and surprisingly enough killed it. This was incredibly good news for Tunnel Rats, who were then able to deliver a strategy marker to enemy deployment zone.

The platform saw some intense fighting. Nix charged in to guard two strategy markers, and to get Hoffman, Peacekeeper and Clipper within loose bowels range. Hoffman lost his Blight token, though, because Nix considered it better to stun him.

Hoffman beat Johan down to two remaining, and Johan smacked five points of damage back with a Red Joker. Both Peacekeeper and Clipper spent most of their activations trying to kill Johan, but only brought him to one remaining. At moments like those the cost of ten makes sense for Nix. Clipper did snipe the Rat King off from the board, though.

Fumigator charged in to guard a strategy marker he just threw around. Attacks missed, checks failed.

Hunter attacked him back and brought him down to four remaining. At least Hunter took two points from hazardous terrain throughout the turn. 

Hamelin and Stolen played volleyball with two strategy markers with Watcher and Warden. 

Rat Catchers brought in so many rats that another Rat King formed and tore Hunter down to three health remaining. The catchers managed to throw away one enemy strategy marker back to their side, which meant a strategy point for me this turn.

However... I had been so busy navigating the high-stakes puzzle at the center that I was not able to get enough schemes to score even one point from Detonate Charges. I decided to keep the scheme, though, since I think I managed to bluff Leave Your Mark of my own.

So, Guild kept the lead at 6-3. Sure, point situation was not ideal, but board state did not look too bad.

Turn 3:
Plague kept Detonate Charges, Augmented takes Breakthrough. 

... things were really starting to heat up at the center. And holy moly Nix is a terrifying model if opponent lets it be - the doggo absolutely dominated the platform, essentially continuously giving Slow to Clipper, Hoffman and Peacekeeper. However, Peacekeeper was able to kill Johan as the first activation. Not much I could do about that. 

Hoffman and Clipper placed schemes on the centerline. One was removed by a devouring Rat King, another was removed by obeyed Clipper. 

Third one, late in the turn, was placed by Warden, and that one stuck.

Edie placed one in the deployment, so I kept a keen eye one the surviving Watcher. I left Benny as my very last model to activate, and that was enough for Guild to ditch their Breakthrough. Instead, Watcher delivered a strategy marker to my deployment. 

However, Stolen had managed to throw another strategy marker to enemy deployment, so Plague managed to claim the upper hand at strategy. They finally managed to score Detonate Charges as well, so scores tied exactly at 6-6. Round ended with seven rats on board without me particularly even trying to summon them... those raises just kept coming.

Turn 4:
Plague picks Take the Highground, Augmented tries to Assassinate Nix.

Guild started by taking out one of my strategy markers out of their deployment zone, and then guarding it with a Hunter. 

I considered my options. I wanted to kill Hoffman before he'd activate, so I thought that opening up two strategy markers by moving Nix behind Peacekeeper would work, especially as Hoffman had blight token to remove for the spectral bite, and I had a 13 in my hand.

Nix landed Red Death just fine, just ripping off Shielded from Hoffman. Then the good boy bit Hoffman, and Hoffman said: bad boy! Nix was so shocked from those words, which essentially functioned as the Red Joker for Nix.

Then Peacekeeper activated, and beeped as well: Bad, bad boy! Nix was so devastated that he drew Black Joker for defense. 

After Peacekeeper was done castigating Nix, he was reeling with five health remaining, and Guild got their first point from Assassinate.

Hamelin activated and went to guard the strategy markers Nix had left. He did crew action on Hoffman, leaving him down to four health. Then he obeyed Nix to attack. Attack hit home and Guild master was done.

Losing master's full activation was a hit Guild could not take. Tried as they might, Nix endured all the attacks made against him - thanks to blight tokens. 

And because Nix refused to die, Guild didn't have enough actions left to challenge strategy. 

A 10-7 victory for Plague.

This was first time I used two Rat Catchers and Nix with the piper, and I was almost horrified at how well they all functioned together. Last two turns there was a constant mass of six to seven rats on board, which meant Nix could wantonly cancel enemy actions, after which they'd just get blight right back. 

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.

Totem Duel

 A game of Malifaux, 4th edition.

Strategy: Flank Boundary Dispute

Schemes: Public Demonstration, Harness the Leyline, Frame Job

My list:

Kirai, Lady of Vengeance & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Carrion Fate
Kuchisake-Onna
Lost Love
Shikome
Gwisin
Seishin

Pool: 6

Opponent had:

Hoffman, Inventor & Edie Clark
Peacekeeper
Melissa KORE
Guardian
2x Hunter
2x Watcher

Pool: 4

Turn 1: 

Schemes chosen: Urami: Frame Job with Shikome. Augmented: Harness the Leyline

I was considering either Harness the Leyline or Frame Job, but then I noticed hard nerfs that Harness Leylines had received at some point. However, I decided try and bluff it by moving Shikome as my first activation to the centerline and planting a scheme marker.

Augmented took the bait, and Peacekeeper walked down from a stone formation and charged the minion for two victory points for me.

Shikome survived relatively well, but her position so vulnerable that Kirai walked for a bit and pulled her back with a heal. 

Soon enough Ikiryo walked and charged Peacekeeper and slapped it down to seven health remaining. 

Melissa shot a bunch of damage to Kirai, some of which was redirected to Gwisin.

Kuchisake moved a strategy marker, walked and shot two seishins right to Peacekeeper. One of the seishins gave a walk for Ikiryo for her to go and engage Melissa as well as Peacekeeper, and be in contact with a strategy marker.

Edie gave an action to one of the Hunters, who tried to shoot Ikiryo with harpoon. This failed, but Hunter felt confident that throwing enough harpoons at Df 3 target would eventually do the trick. Which it did. 

Carrion Fate interacted a strategy marker, flied with Gwisin towards  top-left quarter and interacted again the same marker.

As I was running out  of actions at the center, Lost Love had to reposition there to throw a strategy marker past centerline. This left Datsue Ba alone with a Seishin to face against Hunter, Hoffman, Watcher and even a Guardian. 

Oh, minus that Seishin, because Datsue killed the thing herself with Lantern of Souls. Well, thanks to Seishin's valiant sacrifice, both players (and not only Guild) scored a point from strategy. Guild didn't get their scheme and abandoned it for a 3-1 lead to Resurrectionists.

Turn 2:

Schemes: Urami picked Scout the Rooftops. Augmented picked Assassinate on Datsue Ba.

Going from top to bottom, Gwisin eventually placed two schemes - one to corner, one past centerline to bluff both Harness the Leyline and enable double points from Scout the Rooftops.

And, uh, Peacekeeper. Yeah. That thing killed Carrion Fate in just one activation. Didn't even empower anything. Carrion Fate had a rotting fate. 

Kirai wasted two actions to get in a summon. An extra Shikome tried to engage Peacekeeper before it had wronged fate.

Melissa and Hunter smacked the summoned Shikome down to two remaining. Watcher had ran to a strategy marker, and as my last activation Kuchisake tried to kill both Watcher and another Hunter to the right, but failed the attacks despite benefiting from Adversary.

Hired Shikome activated late in the turn and went to place a scheme for Scout the Rooftops. Edie spammed actions here and there.

There was this final gathering of Watcher, Hunter and Hoffman against a granny. Hunter started clawing her, which got her down to six health remaining. She had to activate to save herself, and summoned Ikiryo to bodyblock Hoffman. She tried to skin a metal robot, but did only a few points of damage. But she scored crows and healed for a bit.

Watcher had interacted, leaped and interacted a strategy marker deep into Resurrectionist deployment zone. To at least remove that terrifying schemer, Ikiryo charged it, but failed to kill. I don't remember what actually killed the Ikiryo - probably some combination of Edie's shenanigans. But yeah, Ikiryo died, but Lost  Love teleported in to re-summon it. She smacked Hunter down to two remaining from the summon attack, and then charged the Watcher dead.

However, Hoffman had walked on top of terrain when first (or second, however you count it) Ikiryo had blocked Datsue from view. He scored two beam attacks, managing to stagger her and bring her down to two health remaining. 

Guardian went to toss one of my strategy markers back to wrong table half.

Resurrectionists fell behind in strategy, but had scored doubles from Scout the Rooftops. Datsue was still clinging to her dear life, so Assassination succeeded only in half. Scores went 5-3.

Turn 3:

Schemes: Urami picks Detonate Charges, Augmented picks Scout the Rooftops.

Hunter started beating Datsue Ba, who was at two health remaining. And look at that - she survived. It did take two of my highest cards from hand, though. But then the granny skinned Hunter, healed for a bit and even infused a soulstone. That somewhat eased the pain of losing Carrion Fate that easily.

The other Hunter went to engage Gwisin at top-left corner after shooting summoned Shikome dead.

Kirai attempted to remove Peacekeeper, and did it in a costly manner. She walked on top of a stone, used crew action to bring Ikiryo to hit Peacekeeper - and then hit it again with soulstone trigger from Soothe Spirit. Not sure how that counts as soothing, but at least Peacekeeper fell to two health remaining.

With a single raise and soulstone trigger, Peacekeeper would be able to smack Ikiryo off the board and not die to Vengeance. The robot decided to take it's chances, and died to vengeance. Ikiryo did go down to one health remaining, though, so she activated and walked and charged... somewhere? She didn't  really accomplish anything, though.

Melissa shot Ikiryo dead with quick reflexes, and damaged Kuchisake down to four health remaining. Kuchisake, feeling threatened by the presence of a tiny, not yet activated Watcher, summoned Ikiryo back after walking to within 12" of Lost Love. Ikiryo was able to kill the bat with summon attack.

Hoffman went to place a couple of scheme markers on top of terrain, and shoot Datsue Ba down to one health remaining.

Edie spammed actions again, but used one action to go and engage hired Shikome. Ikiryo charged Edie, and while she landed a hit, she wasn't able to free Shikome to do any scheming. Shikome walked away from melee, then, and walked and charged Hoffman on top of the terrain to block Scout the Rooftops.

Lost Love teleported to Ikiryo to plant a couple of scheme markers to Edie for a victory point.

Augmented scored strategy, but missed Scout the Rooftops. They didn't abandon the scheme, because they had it set up pretty well.

Scores went 6-4 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Urami was able to even out the number of strategy markers and claim a point from Take the Highground. Augmented scored the strategy too. They weren't able to remove Shikome from blocking the double points from Scout the Rooftops.

Game ended 9-7 for Resurrectionists. 

Both totems seemed... Intense. For both crews I'd dare to say that they were the MVP's of the match.