Alptraum-a

 Strategy: Break the Line, Wedge deployment
Scheme pool: Assassinate, Vendetta, Claim Jump, Catch & Release, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Hans (Vendetta on Serena Bowman)
Hanged (Catch & Release)
3x Guilty
Prospector

Pool: 4
Schemes: Vendetta, Catch & Release

Opponent had:
Dreamer & Lord Chompy Bits
Serena Bowman
Vasilisa (Claim jumpee)
Daydream
Alp
Stitched Together (Vendetta on Prospector)
2x Insidious Madness

Pool: 6
Schemes: Vendetta, Claim Jump

Turn 1:

Opponent has Dreamer, Chompy Bits, Serena, an Alp and Insidious Madness positioned middle-left, contesting two strategy markers. From my side, a Prospector and two Guilty are trying to challenge those markers, perhaps at least lobbing them back to mid-line.

Dreamer summons an Alp and twists Guilty's reality - then Alp removes my closest Guilty from play. A terrible game opening, but at least Hans on a vantage point shot Insidious Madness down to one or two health remaining or so, and Jack Daw managed to land his upgrade on Lord Chompy Bits. 

Opponent has Vasilisa, another Insidious Madness, Daydream and Stitched Together positioned mid-right. Only one Guilty was coming at the rightmost strategy marker while Jack Daw, Montresor, Hanged and Lady Ligeia were in a nice blob coming at a strategy marker that only had Insidious Madness around.

Turn 2:

Stitched Together and Guilty start playing football with the rightmost strategy marker. Alp and Prospector might have done the same with leftmost marker had not Prospector been so far from the action. So Neverborn had pretty much secured one victory point.

Summoned Alp engaged Hans, which was horrible news for me and my schemes. Fortunately Jack Daw, Lady Ligeia and Guilty manage to remove that pesky critter and get the Guilty back that it had eaten.

Hans was then quickly becoming my MVP of the match when he shot Insidious Madness and scored Vendetta against Serena Bowman. Summoned Guilty charged Lord Chompy Bits that had tried to punch another Guilty behind forest dead. Obviously these weren't doing much damage to Chompy Bits, and whatever they did, Serena healed up. But Hanged was scoring Catch & Release now.

Insidious Madness on the mid-right closer to middle marker started tossing strategy tossing contest with my 9-point henchman, Montresor. 

When Serena had thrown the mid-left closer to middle marker to forest on my side, I had two difficult to remove markers buggering me now.

Neverborn scores strategy, Outcasts score both schemes for 1-2.

Turn 3:

Stitched Together throws strategy marker far-right inside a building, so there went my that flank. Stitched then charged Guilty and they started slapping each other furiously.

Far-left Prospector managed to throw strategy marker back to middle line, and Alp proceeds to attack him instead. Dreamer comes to help, but neither scores a kill.

Lord Chompy Bits tries to chomp Hanged, but doesn't succeed. Hanged then flies past the totem and moves to Daydream that was still hanging near by Neverborn deployment zone. 

Hans kills Serena Bowman and deals some damage in to Alp on the left. Both Guiltys in the middle just move and concentrate for a bit as they are afraid of failing terrifying check against Lord Chompy Bits, that would have summoned some nightmares on the table. 

Jack Daw walks into forest and gets himself next to Insidious Madness to spread misery throughout the middle. With Drawn to Betrayal he moves Montresor into contact with strategy marker. He then throws the marker and charges Insidious Madness, failing terrifying and bringing an Alp on the table. Alp attacked Montresor, not doing much. 

Since situation started to look possibly a bit lethal towards Jack Daw, I ran at least Lady Ligeia to cover Insidious Madness, Alp and Daydream. 

Then Insidious Madness uses Scatter, pushing Lady Ligeia, Jack and Montresor. Now Jack was irredeemably separated from my crew. Vasilisa comes to fray and tosses strategy marker back on the middle line.

So that's second victory point for Neverborn from strategy. 2-2.

Turn 4:

Hans shoots Alp dead and damages Vasilisa.

I don't remember if Jack Daw killed Insidious Madness or Alp, but whichever it was, the other one engaged Montresor. The henchman lands a hit and flips enough to deal damage with negative fate modifier. I say jokingly: two severes. And them they were. He was now able to walk into contact with strategy marker.

Vasilisa starts speeding (well, as speedy as you can get with staggered) towards middle board, which raises some suspicions if Claim Jump might be involved. 

Stitched Together kills the Guilty and tries to become relevant with the strategy marker mid-right.

Dreamer charges Prospector and kill him with the cricket bat. Then he walks to strategy marker and throws it to my side. 

Chompy Bits doesn't do much, but neither do Guiltys. The non-summoned Guilty disengages and comes into contact with a strategy marker, the one that was third on my side.

Score goes 3-2 for Neverborn.

Turn 5: 

Jack Daw staggers Stitched Together, and Montresor throws a strategy marker to opponent's side of the board. I had now all but secured myself three points - one from both of my schemes, and this strategy marker. Looking pretty good.

Then, Dreamer activates and comes to display Hans his nightmare - Lord Chompy Bits transferred next to him! Oh wait, Lord is staggered, can't do that... but still, Hans failed his willpower check, which summoned an Alp. 

When that Alp was activating, Hans still had around four damage boxes. He just might survive. But nope, not today. There went my point for Vendetta.

When the end phase came, opponent revealed Vendetta with Stiched Together on Prospector.

A tough 4-4 draw.

Public Nightmares

I found some time for a game of Malifaux. Round was standard 50 soulstones. 

Strategy: Public Enemies with Wedge deployment

My list:

Seamus & Copycat Killer
Mortimer
Bete Noire
Hanged with Grave Spirit Touch (Vendetta)
2x Rotten Belle
Dead Doxy
Gravedigger

Pool: 1

Schemes: Breakthrough, Vendetta

Opponent had (something like):

Dreamer with Ancient Pact & Lord Chompy Bits with Inhuman Reflexes
Serena Bowman
Coppelius (Vendetta target)
Stitched Together
Insidious Madness
Daydream with Ancient Pact
Daydream

Pool: 8

Schemes: Assassinate, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

It was wedge deployment, so action started right from the first turn. Seamus shot a severe injury in to Coppelius, which was a bit more than I was comfortable with - killing Coppelius was tempting, but he was my vendetta target!

Coppelius returned the favor with dealing casual six points in with a moderate damage, push and poking Seamus' eye a bit.

Bete Noire charged Lord Chompy Bits, dealing four points of damage which was nice surprise, although it might be inconsequential because of regenerate and various heal abilities. 

I forget which model, perhaps Dreamer himself, dropped Seamus down to three health remaining which was the moment when Copycat Killer had to come in to save the day. 

Belles, Mortimer and Hanged kill off the Daydream who has Ancient Pact, and I'm left wondering if it was worth about six action points or what. Perhaps it is safe to say that a daydream happened - a model died to black joker! 

Turn 2:

Hanged activates, desperate to whack Coppelius with dead man's collar for vendetta. Hanged succeeds, but it wasn't until my second attack was half-way through when I realized that if I killed Coppelius, I wouldn't be able to reveal Vendetta. Dang. Fortunately opponent denies Hanged's kill by cheating fate. 

Seamus kills Coppelius, sure, but not before it could land its pulse effect on four models, slapping Slow on Mortimer and getting one Alp to manifest. 

Dreamer charges Gravedigger and switches positions with Lord Chompy Bits. Gravedigger tries to kill Lord Chompy Bits who only has four health remaining. After he was done and Lord Chompy Bits activates, it is back at seven health and there is another extra Alp on the board. Gravedigger dug his own grave. Badum-tshhh.

All Rotten Belles and Dead Doxy charge the newly emerged Alp, and fell it down to two wounds or something.

Bete Noire speed towards enemy deployment zone, but is followed by Stitched Together. 

Then there was this brawl at the middle of the board that included Serena, Insidious Madness, Alp and Dreamer versus Hanged and Mortimer. This fight continued for pretty much the rest of the game with neither side getting to do anything useful.

Resurrectionists score two, and opponent reveals Assassinate.

Turn 3:

Bete Noire takes a run deeper into enemy deployment zone, and Seamus does the same. 

Lord Chompy Bits kills a Belle, which means opponent can score strategy this turn. 

Stitched Together charges Bete Noire, who buries herself. Later I, for some reason, deny myself a point from Breakthrough by teleporting Seamus away from a Daydream.

Belle kills Alp and starts backing off with a precious bounty token. Hanged kills another Alp, so now I'd need one extra point from already wounded Insidious Madness. Mortimer, go! Well. Decay does a little damage, but alas, not enough. He manages to summon a Mindless Zombie, though.

No other reports from the middle. Just whiffs and failures.

Neverborn evens out scores to 2-2.

Turn 4

Seamus continues to lay eggs on the enemy deployment zone. On top of everything, he is also the Easter Bunny. 

Lord Chompy Bits moves to my deployment zone and interacts. Mortimer has to come and deny the initial point from Breakthrough. 

Nothing happens against the Hanged. Sure, he's around half health remaining or so, and that was only because of one lucky severe injury. But still going "strong." 

Bete Noire jumps from Gravedigger's corpse and runs back to enemy deployment zone. 

Resurrectionists go 3-2 with revealed Breakthrough.

Turn 5

I think the important bits from turn 5 can be summed: neverborn murders Mortimer, and as last activation Copycat Killer comes and teleports Seamus within 4" of Lord Chompy Bits, denying the point that would have given draw.

Neverborn go to 3 points from strategy, and resurrectionists to 4 from Breakthrough end condition.

Never Born Killers

Played my third game of Malifaux.

This time it was 50 soul stones, and a hefty increase of 15 stones did lengthen the game quite a bit.

However, my list was:

Seamus + Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Mortimer
Bete Noire
2x Rotten Belle
Mourner with Grave Spirit Touch
Schemes: Breakthrough, Search the Ruins

Opponent had an assortment of Neverborn, which would also have been my second choice as a faction, pfft...

Anyway, opponent had:

Dreamer with Ancient Pact + Lord Chompy Bits with Inhuman Reflexes
Coppelius
Teddy with Inhuman Reflexes
Doppelganger
3x Daydreams
Schemes: Breakthrough, Search the Ruins

Strategy was Plant the Explosives.

I wanted to make a combo with Blasphemous Ritual to get Focused condition to my whole crew. Well, this was nice enough I guess, but it clumped my forces so that I felt like I had a slow start. When I aimed for a fast start.

It wasn't only a feeling, though. Or maybe Neverborn were absurdly fast. I don't know. However the case, they started scoring points right on turn two, both from schemes and strategies. I had to wait for turn three to even get my first point.

I was terrified of Teddy and Lord Chompy Bits. Seamus tried to take a shot against Lord Chompy Bits early in the game but missed. I had hoped to score a lucky kill, but now that I check that monster's stats... Yeah, only severe damage would have done anything useful, as the thing has regeneration. Oh well. Good thing Seamus missed, then.

Most of opponent's forces stormed to my side from east. Doppelganger a was lone approacher from west, or, kind of at least. Next time I know a little better than to summon mindless zombies with willpower of 3 easily within range of bend realities and whatnot.

I got stuck in the middle, and Mortimer nearly died to a charging summoned enemy. Hilariously enough whatever the creature was, it managed to kill itself by using some sort of ability that dealt damage to either my model or back to itself.

Bete Noire tried to do something to Coppelius, but didn't do much. After soaking some enemy attacks, it got buried. This was my plan to get her to enemy side of the board to place the explosives. Woefully late she was.

Seamus climbed up the ruined building, and tried to shoot things from vantage point. He shot a daydream and planted scheme markers. We did measure distance incorrectly, though. Maybe writing this makes me remember it better next time.

I had pretty much given up on my deployment zone. After all, there was only a Rotten Belle and Madame Sybelle holding down Lord Chompy Bits, Dreamer, some summoned beast and Coppelius.

Bete Noire had sprung up from a corpse on opponent's side of the board and managed to score revealed breakthrough after a summoned Alp was killed. As Teddy was nearing in, I thought I'd come and take two flintlock shots at it, when copycat killer switched places with Seamus.

Now, wouldn't that have been grand. Except that something activated and had Bete Noire fail a willpower check and put up one more summoned demon into play. In melee range with Seamus. There went my plan, and I had to waste Cause for Celebration for a melee attack, which did nothing anyway. Seamus then disengaged and... whoops. Placed a scheme marker. Which you cannot do if you have disengaged that activation. Curses.

And Rotten Belle, engaged by a summoned creature, disengaged and picked up Neverborn strategy marker, which she cannot do because she disengaged.

This foils my brilliant move of using Mortimer's ability to move undead models 3" towards target, moving Rotten Belle and then placing a scheme marker with her on opponent's deployment zone.

Well, this didn't cost me a victory. It cost me a draw.

But the game was again very different. Opponent killed one mindless zombie from me, and I killed a daydream, doppelganger and some summoned beasts. Focus was entirely elsewhere than in maximum carnage, which is refreshing in wargames. Regardless of game, if you roll over opposing army it often means you win anyway even if you haven't completed whatever objectives you might have. At least in this scenario, if opponent has scored that one victory point more and you cannot reach to get one or two yourself, you gain nothing even if you wipe off the enemy crew.