My First Very Own Ratsplosion

 Two 50ss games of Malifaux

Game 1:

Strategy: Flank Break the Line

Schemes: Catch and Release, Breakthrough, Spread Them Out, Assassinate, Bait and Switch

My list:

Leveticus, the Pariah with Servant of Dark Powers & 2x Hollow Waif
Rusty Alyce
Johan Creedy
Soul Battery
Scavenger
2x Necropunk
2x Abomination

Pool: 4
Schemes: Catch and Release (Necropunk Standing), Spread Them Out

Opponent had:

Hoffman the Inventor & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Peacekeeper
2x Hunter
2x Watcher
Medical Automaton

Pool: 4
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Assassinate

Turn 1:

I somehow had misread Leveticus's card horribly, and for whatever reason I was thinking he had Armor +1. This lead to me severely overestimating his durabilitiy. So before game even began, he heralded himself inside forest, all way too close to a Hunter and Hoffman himself.

Eventually Leveticus went to strategy marker, moved it next to himself on the opposing table side and put a scheme marker for Spread Them Out. 

Hoffman laser beamed Leveticus for three points of damage, and the Hunter landed another three with a Red Joker on damage. Though the damage block had been a severe, Leveticus was already down to half of his health remaining!

Other than that both crews played it safe. In or near Leveticus' quarter there was Hollow Waif, Catching and Releasing Necropunk, Abomination and Soul Battery against Hoffman, Hunter and a Watcher.

In the center Johan and Rusty Alyce were slowly getting themselves towards center to face Peacekeeper, Medical Automaton and perhaps Melissa. 

And to the top-right quarter we had the rest, Scavenger, Necropunk, Abomination and Hollow Waif facing Hunter, Watcher and Mechanical Attendant.

Turn 2:

No masks in starting hand for Necropunk leaps, but surely things would change over the course of this turn? 

Abomination went to throw a strategy marker to Hoffman, hopefully trading action points with a master. And it succeeded... kind of. Hoffman did walk and throw the thing back to the centerline, but he also lasered Leveticus down to three health remaining. Leveticus sheepishly trotted away and went to pick a fight for someone his own size - a Watcher. He did get the heal trigger, but that just wasn't enough to deny opponent a possible assassination.

Watcher disengaged and went into contact with strategy marker Leveticus had moved last turn, and Hunter tried to do some damage in to Leveticus - fortunately failing with that.

Medical Automaton ran to base contact with Hoffman's strategy marker.

Soul Battery went to drop Desperation on Catch and Releasing Necropunk, just in case. 

Melissa, Peacekeeper, Mechanical Attendant and even Hunter top-right spent their activations both advancing and shooting Scavenger that was in melee with Hunter. And eventually they managed to do it before Scavenger had even activated. 

Watcher top-right did schemes and flew towards my deployment zone. 

So, after all the studied opponents and whatnot, I still didn't have any masks in my hand for Necropunk leaps even when they were left as the very last models to activate. 

Necropunk top-right had concentrated earlier, and spent his Focused to attempt leap with two cards. Nope. So instead he just scraped Hunter for a bit.

But the more important Necropunk below used his Focus for a leap, too. Nope. But he was able to cheat from top of deck with Desperation. Aaaand... nope. No Catch and Release for me this turn, or even a single additional scheme marker.

Fortunately my models had given Augmented hard time while getting killed, so they had not been able to deliver even one strategy marker to my side, unlike Leveticus. However, Hoffman was able to reveal Assassinate for a 1-1 tie. 

Turn 3:

... and then came the turn when everybody just exploded. Hunter top-right? Gone. Watcher bottom-left? Gone thanks to 3x Soul Reaping. Medical Automaton? Dead. Peacekeeper? No more. 

That might have looked good if Amalgam didn't also lose Necropunk top-right, both Abominations and Johan Creedy. 

Points-wise Augmented took a leap, and pretty much claimed strategic victory, as I had only four models left that were able to interact. 

But, Necropunk did get to Hoffman to score Catch & Release. Opponent got their first strategy point, and even Spread Them Out on top of that for a 2-3 lead for Guild.

Turn 4:

Outcasts got the initiative, and Necropunk leaped the heck away from Hoffman. He did drop a scheme marker for Spread Them Out, which was a mistake as both Hoffman and Melissa pursued him. They didn't get the little guy, but he did went down to two health remaining.

Rusty Alyce had been a total beast throughout this game, killing Mechanical Attendant and getting the second Watcher down to one health remaining, as well as dealing most damage in to Peacekeeper. So that gave a little hope for the remaining match.

But, Hunter bottom-left managed to pounce on Leveticus's chest, thus engaging him and denying him double walk + interact for third Spread Them Out marker. 

Hollow Waif tried to come and remove the construct that was now at one health remaining, but even with focus and bonuses from Entropic Siphon, she didn't get the kill. Leveticus had to smack the thing, buying two Rams with now plentiful Fate tokens. Essentially he healed four points, again being almost full health.

But you know what else was actually full? My table side, with ALL the strategy markers. 

Outcasts get no points, while Guild claimed second strategy point for a 2-4 lead.

Turn 5:

After Hoffman mauled my scheme runner and rudely bulldozed the scheme marker it had placed, Leveticus ditched the idea of Spread Them Out. 

That was 50% of activations available for Guild, though, as they only got Melissa and the master on board. Hollow Waif had shot the second Watcher dead by now. 

However, neither did I have enough significant models for, well, pretty much anything. But at least Rusty Alyce was able to lob one strategy marker past centerline, and Leveticus did the same for a surprise comeback... of one point. Though Guild didn't get any more points, they still won with result of 3-4

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Turf War

Schemes: Catch and Release, Detonate Charges, Death Beds, Claim Jump, Vendetta

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny
Hans
Fumigator
Tunnel Rats
Obedient Wretch
Malifaux Child

Pool: 5
Schemes: Detonate Charges, Vendetta (Hans on Mr. Graves)

Opponent had:

Lynch Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
KOTO
2x Illuminated
Beckoner
Tanuki

Pool: 3
Schemes: Detonate Charges, Vendetta (KOTO on Fumigator)

Turn 1:

I deployed Hans to top-right corner slightly inside a building along with all the Stolen. I waited and waited his activation so that I might possibly get a good shot at something - perhaps Mr. Graves already - all the while building up a Rat King with Hamelin, Benny, Fumigator, Nix and Tunnel Rats. 

And lo, Hamelin was able to lure Mr. Graves quite a bit forward, eventually. But it was then that Hungering Darkness did a freaking triple walk to get to Hans. Uh. I did not anticipate that. To make matters worse, Hans failed to disengage twice, moving 0" with the first, and only 2" with the second attempt. 

Uh oh. 

Other than that, Malifaux Child went to flip bottom-right turf marker for Outcasts.

On the opposing side, Beckoner did the same bottom-left, where she was hanging around with Kitty Dumont. Lynch, who had pulled Hungering Darkness a little closer, was nearby with an Illuminated bodyguard.

Thanks to Hamelin's lure, Mr. Graves was way past the centerline. KOTO, Illuminated and Tanuki were holding top-left quarter. 

Turn 2:

... aaaand there went my two points. Hans got smacked off the board with just two attacks by Hungering Darkness. 

So that was super devastating. Fortunately there was some unexpected developments throughout the turn that still kept me in game. Mainly, Nix doing Nix things. 

Benny and Nix both attempted to maul Mr. Graves, but opponent managed to keep him alive with the help from KOTO, Tanuki and even Jakob Lynch himself. In turn, most of those models were also beating up Nix, who kept on hanging by the thread. This did take most of my soulstones, though. 

Eventually Hamelin had to lure both Nix and Benny away from the melee with Mr. Graves, as the amount of black blood getting spilled was going to get prohibitive. Kids with their vomiting disease and Obedient Wretch with bleeding disease managed to kill off the bouncer. 

Fumigator placed both scheme markers for Detonate Charges on a top-left Illuminated.

In the center, Kitty Dumont ran to center marker, so it was being held by both Lynch and Kitty. 

The other Illuminated managed to pull off a charge against Nix, but not killing the puppy. Right after Rat King tore the minion to pieces. I'm not sure if I've ever seen such a performance from Rat King... but that Focus+2 and Strength In Numbers certainly adds up!

Tunnel Rats and Malifaux Child went next to a building in the bottom-right quarter to perhaps teleport to bottom-left quarter one turn, as there was only Beckoner challenging both these models now. 

So, both players scored strategy, but Outcasts also got their Detonate Charges for a 2-1 lead.

Turn 3:

Ten Thunders really hated that dog. 

Lynch, KOTO and even Hungering Darkness tried to slap the last few remaining damage points in to Nix, but opponent kept failing enough flips so that Nix had the insolence not to die second turn in a row.

This gave Fumigator free reign to flip top-right turf for Plague, as he was no longer engaged. 

Rat King went to engage remaining Illuminated, and nearly killed its second model. They didn't, but neither did the Illuminated remove Rat King.

Tanuki and Kitty claimed the center turf and dropped scheme markers there.

Beckoner took a double walk right next to bottom-right turf marker. That was time for Malifaux Child to teleport to bottom-left turf marker and flip it neutral. Tunnel Rats were then able to overpower Beckoner with two strikes from the mining tools. 

Both players scored strategy, for a 3-2 continuation in Hamelin's favor.

Turn 4:

Nix proved to be quite the survivor. I activated the dog early to get him away from bottom-left quarter to save that turf. I guess Lynch and Hungering Darkness figured out that killing the dog was not in their best interested, and removed Benny Wolcomb instead. Illuminated and KOTO did the same for Rat King.

Malifaux Child claimed bottom-left turf, while Tunnel Rats teleported right next to Tanuki and started to shoot Tanuki with a trench gun. 

Once it got to Hamelin's activation, I had the choice to either try to prevent scheme points from what looked like Detonate Charges setup against Nix, or kill Tanuki with a rat bomb. 

I never say no to a guaranteed Tanuki kill. 

So, Ten Thunders scored their Detonate Charges, but Outcasts got third strategy point for  a 4-3 lead.

Turn 5:

We didn't play the entire turn, as a key piece for any points died. Or, a couple did, in fact. I just didn't know that the Illuminated was one with Vendetta against Fumigator. Nix bit the Illuminated dead.

But what eventually ended the game was Obedient Wretch and a Stolen meeting their inevitable end of getting consumed from within by a total of four rats. Hamelin succeeded to surround Kitty with Malifaux Rats thanks to Unclean Influence, and then had enough successess to use Pustulent Tumors a total of four times right next to Kitty.

I don't think I have ever seen so many Pustulent Tumors happening all at once. Yikes.

That essentially ended game with a 5-3 victory for Outcasts.

We Need Information

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Take Prisoner, Let Them Bleed, Sweating Bullets, Death Beds, Information Overload

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Nix
Fumigator
Johan Creedy
Tunnel Rats
Rat Catcher
Prospector
2x Winged Plague

Pool: 2
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Information Overload

Opponent had:

Youko Hamasaki & Chiyo
Shojo
2x Kunoichi
2x Bunraku
2x Geisha
2x Tanuki

Pool: 2
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Johan), Death Beds (strategy)

Turn 1:

There was relatively little engagement in the first turn, probably because of the enormous, obstructive building in the middle.  But it was enough for quite a set-up.

A single Bunraku was sent to top-left corner, and was greeted by Prospector and a Winged Plague. 

Another Bunraku sped towards bottom-right corner, and there I only had Rat Catcher trying to get to a strategy marker there. Well, Hamelin was also nearby, but he was kind of busy, facing Youko, Geisha and Tanuki as he was. 

Hamelin had walked and lured Tanuki within charge range, but failed the attack. Unclean Influence aided another Winger Plague in gathering an intel first turn, and I must say I'm warming up for Winged Plagues for this scenario. The end-phase movement certainly helped in delivering the plague gamin to relative safety.

Tunnel Rats were also able to teleport inside central building and claim an intel. 

Geishas were pulling Ten Thunders models around, and another Tanuki placed a highly suspicious scheme marker to enemy deployment side. 

Stolen did little else than ate enemy activations. 

Fumigator had shot a scheme marker near center point, and Nix went to guard it like a good boy. Shojo managed to land a bad boy insult on the dog.

Youko's activation was a tad distressing. First she riddled Nix, presumably something like "well are you a good boy or a bad boy?" Nix was nihilistic over the question and discarded black joker. Rat Catcher took a quick follow-up riddle, but only got distracted. Youko had ran out of pass tokens (well, they had one...) so she concentrated and asked Nix again: "Well ARE you?"

Nix blinked, and finally question got through his skin. He did no know. He was Distracted +3, because I didn't want to discard my twelve of crows. In the hindsight, bad mistake.

Kunoichis started activating left and right, and managed to get their hands on Red Joker. Apparently opponent had enough rams in hand to trivialize landing Unexpected Ferocity. 

I also had Johan Creedy who could have tried to yell rebelliously how good of a boy Nix was, but didn't consider a confusedly low self-esteem to be a critical threat to a dog's well-being. So little I know about dogs. One charge attack and one shuriken later Nix was still at five health remaining, but I had only one soulstone now, and six points of damage were prevented by soulstones and incorporeal.

Lastly, Chiyo ran to have her toes on my side of table for her inconspiousnesses.

Turn 2:

Second turn couldn't have started any more terrifyingly. I knew opponent had Red Joker in hand. Opponent had two Kunoichis with Tools for the Job. Nix had Distracted +3. This meant opponent had all but guaranteed start. 

With a moderate damage block Nix would be able to tank two minimum damages, so I tried to fish for those. I was able to give a negative modifier to damage flip, but even then damage was moderate and damage block was not a severe. 

I did have a 12 in my hand, but I knew for sure opponent had Red Joker. Buh-bye, Nix. 

It took two strikes for Hamelin to take part in the important duty of population management of Tanuki species. A rat that emerged from the corpse charged Youko with Unclean Influence. Hamelin's Lure of Bunraku failed because of concealment. The Bunraku then proceeded to strike Rat Catcher down to two health remaining.

Concerned, I activated Winged Plague at top-left before second Bunraku butchered it. First attack hit, and second action crafted a scheme marker out of two Blight tokens Bunraku had.

Shojo walked closer to activate Boring Conversation. Johan tried to misplace his gigantic runic sledgehammer on top of Chiyo with high velocity... twice... but didn't quite succeed. 

Youko activated, walked and charged Rat Catcher and riddled Hamelin for a bit. Hamelin shrugged at the riddle he did not quite understand and discarded a four of crows not to be distracted.

Kids started demonstrating their disapproval of killing a doggo, and spat three points of damage to Kunoichi in the middle. This kind of opened up a possibility for me to score Let Them Bleed this turn... except a Tanuki came to heal the dog slayer for two. 

I tried to activate a Stolen to go engage Youko and her and Bunraku blight tokens. Youko forced Fumigator to activate instead. I no longer had cards in my hand and didn't want to try to fish a tome from top of deck, so he took a double walk towards Youko and Bunraku.

A Geisha called Chiyo away from Johan's sledgehammer, and another Geisha dropped a scheme marker. Second Kunoichi charged Johan and did a couple of damage points. 

Bunraku at top-left got away from melee with Risky Maneuver, walked and took intel from strategy marker. And since Chiyo picked another Intel later, Prospector did not go and steal Bunraku's intel. Instead, he picked his own and charged Bunraku for two points of damage through armor. 

My future killing potential did not seem great, so Tunnel Rats started shooting Kunoichi with their trench gun. Miraculously despite Boring Conversation both attacks hit and dealt a point of damage, and even a minefield was dug up. 

Winged Plague in center went to place a potential scheme marker for Information Overload.

Both players scored strategy, Outcasts revealed Let Them Bleed and Ten Thunders got their prisoner from engaged Johan. Scores were 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

Top-left, Bunraku began acting disagreeably, stunning Prospector, so Prospector had to put it down and interact with a strategy marker. Wingman Winged Plague Plagueman went to place a scheme near the corner.

After being declared a prisoner, Johan failed to hit Kunoichi twice. At least flurry attack hit, but by then I had nothing to cheat with. Boom. Dead Kunoichi, even with negative modifiers. Top-left quarter was now entirely uncontested by Ten Thunders.

Tunnel Rats had picked up an intel and teleported away from action to score points. Strategy marker went pretty much where it left, when Tanuki picked up intel and healed injured Kunoichi for a bit before escaping with intel. 

One Stolen went to guard Hamelin, and another managed to damage Kunoichi after a concentrated attack.

Third kid, well, that one was beaten into a pulp rat by Youko's horrible, horrible words. Ensuing rat was also talked off the board by Qi and Gong master. But Youko still had treasured a few, choice words inside her heart. She delivered them to Hamelin with not much of an effect other than removing cards from Hamelin's hand via Nihilism.

I had not drawn any Tomes into my starting hand, so Fumigator was not able to reliably fume scheme markers around  the board. He concentrated and charged Youko, missing the attack.

Shojo was late to activate that turn, and only managed to affect Hamelin with Boring Conversation in any meaningful way. She also scored a hit with melee attack, delivering poison to Hamelin. 

Before Stolen and Fumigator had activated, Hamelin had tried to show Youko his cool, black staff in close proximity. He was distracted, though, so first attack was understandably a failure. I had to cheat my last card to pass the conversation check, though. Concentration went just fine, but when Hamelin tried to attack Youko for that Injured +5, conversation proved too boring. 

Winged Plague below had flown to place a scheme near a strategy marker. Damaged Kunoichi took a double walk nearby, and a Geisha came to place a scheme marker right next to Plague's scheme. I had the suspicion that opponent was suspecting me of Information Overload. However, I failed to take into account that that was a good set-up for Death Beds, too.

Bunraku below had picked up intel and did... I don't remember, something. Chiyo ran to touch centerline.

I had four scheme markers on opponent's side of the table, and opponent had five scheme markers in total, so no point for Outcasts from that. But at least opponent didn't reveal anything either. 

Scores continued in 3-3 tie. 

Turn 4:

Going from top to bottom, Winged Plague picked up intel from strategy marker and Prospector placed a total of two scheme markers - one with trigger from Malifaux Mining Law. 

Tunnel Rats failed to teleport, so they just placed a scheme marker on my side of table for Information Overload end condition. Johan did the same, while he went inside the building in the middle to shrug his shoulders.

Geisha nearer center placed a scheme marker and walked close to my side, and Tanuki continued to run like the drunk little coward it was. Chiyo was just just about the last model to activate, and just placed a scheme marker.

Kunoichi had killed the Winged Plague below, and scored Death Beds that way. Geisha was able to go and collect an intel from the marker that Winged Plague had been guarding. 

And then, the big melee... Uh, oh. Maybe I should have just disengage last turn with Hamelin so that he might have done anything useful this turn. But I just could not resist trying to land that Injured +5 on her, before Boring Conversation was even on! 

Focus from last turn gave me an opportunity for two clear strikes, but Hamelin missed both. Losing Nix after first activation was one of the game defining moments for sure, but achieving absolutely nothing with six action points on turns three and four with my master certainly had an impact, too!

At least Youko's action points weren't that grand either - just a dead Stolen -, but she only needed to stand there to mess up with my activation order.

Fumigator had charged to steal an intel from Shojo, and Bunraku killed a rat and came to steal intel from Fumigator. 

A Stolen tried to spit at Youko, but failed at that and split into two Malifaux Rats because of the shame. 

Ten Thunders took the lead by 5-4, since they got Death Beds but had spawned enough scheme markers to deny Outcasts a hypothetical Information Overload.

Turn 5:

I had plans to try to get a miraculous Let Them Bleed end condition with pustulent tumors, but an abominable Bunraku managed to kill Hamelin, as Fumigator wasn't able to land even a single hit to discourage any manner of risky maneuvers. 

After that turn was pretty straightforward wrestle of Outcasts gaining hypothetical Information Overload or not - and in the end it was ten scheme markers versus ten scheme markers.

So, a 5-4 victory for Youko.

Different Perspective

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Wedge Raid the Vaults

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Information Overload, Outflank, Espionage, Ensnare

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Nix
Catalan Brawler
Disease Containment Unit
Obedient Wretch
Prospector
Rat Catcher
Catalan Rifleman
Winged Plague

Pool: 1

Schemes: Ensnare, Espionage

Opponent had:

Kaeris & Eternal Flame
Elijah Borgmann
Firestarter
Carlos Vasquez
Fire Golem
2x Firebranded
Fire Gamin

Pool: 0

Schemes: Espionage, Ensnare

Turn 1:

So, this time to shake things up, I decided to take pictures from across the table.

Nah, I'm kidding. I didn't have my camera with me, so I had to rely on my opponent for pictures. And the quality of pictures is certainly a compelling argument for me to finally get  smartphone. 

So plague bid their time, making low-impact activations such as Stolen, Obedient Wretch and Prospector. This might have been a mistake, as Wildifre had all the time in the world to lay down an oppressive carpet of fire to difficult bottlenecks near the center strategy markers. Uh oh. 

Firestarter, Kaeris, Eternal Flame and a Firebranded were nearing one of the center strategy markers, while Elijah, Fire Gamin, Fire Golem and Carlos were going to the another. 

To open my game, Hamelin lured Firebranded to him. I  hoped to kill him with an attack from Catalan Rifleman, two bite attacks from Nix, two axe attacks from D.C.U, and even a few spittles of vomit from a Stolen kid. Alas, Firebranded survived with one health remaining. 

Catalan Rifleman set up a Condor Security area for Nix and D.C.U.

Winged Plague is attempting to flank behind the tree near river, and another Firebranded is doing kind of the same top-left in the picture. 

Turn 2:

Besieged Firebranded opened turn by trying to cause as much havoc as possible. Which wasn't much. 

Winged Plague ran to one of the Arcanist side strategy markers. Kaeris managed to scorch the vermin down and make two additional pyre markers. 

Disease Containment Unit was able to contain Firebranded in the middle, which enabled Hamelin to make a headlong charge to Firestarter. Results were not that impressive, but at least a point of injured was delivered. Firestarter replied, pretty much wasting his action if it wasn't for the last action... He set light under Hamelin's feet, and the piper was being played away from the vicinity of walking life insurances that are Stolen.

I couldn't figure a reliable way to deliver a kid to Hamelin, but to help Hamelin survive a turn, Nix went to bite Firestarter for a bit, getting Hamelin within Cruel Disappointment range. 

Fire Golem came to beat the heck out of Hamelin, but Hamelin clang to his heck rather effectively. He was still one point above half health even after resolving Burning at the end phase. 

Elijah charged Disease Containment Unit, who survived the greatsword. She defied Catalan Brawler's Toss in the Mud just as heroically, wearing her Burning +6 with pride instead.

Firebranded ran past the river, and was greeted by flying rats and sharp pickaxes from Obedient Wretch and Prospector.

Carlos put a sixth pyre marker on board and controlled one center marker with Fire Gamin. Nix, Rat Catcher and Disease Containment Unit were doing the same at the other marker.

Scores went 1-1.

Turn 3:

Kaeris placed a scheme marker and charged Nix, eventually even taking flight with the dog, throwing it away. What a cruel disappointment it was, when Nix charged right back in and chewed Firestarter dead. 

Hamelin was able to weather Fire Golem, which then teleported to Nix. However, fancy tricks by Carlos just were too much for Hamelin to bear. 

Because of... reasons... Catalan Brawler charged Elijah Borgmann and missed. He tried to toss D.C.U. to mud again, failing at that. Such a disgrace for Condor Security! Well, his sacrifice at least was... just that. A sacrifice. Instead of Disease Containment Unit, I lost self-healing Catalan Brawler.

Firebranded disengaged from Prospector and placed an illegal scheme marker to centerline, touching board edge. This left Prospector free to run to Arcanist side strategy marker, but he failed to drop a scheme marker to Arcanist deployment with bonus action. To make matters worse, Fire Gamin came to contest the strategy marker, too. 

Obedient Wretch managed to kill Firebranded with a tossed rat. Disease Containment Unit, a couple of Stolen and Catalan Rifleman were quite not so successful with Elijah. He was brought down to two health, though.

Rat Catcher, engaged by Kaeris, placed a scheme marker near her and took a walk as far as possible from Kaeris in preparation of some ensnaring.

However... no player revealed schemes. No player scored strategy. Scores remained 1-1.

Turn 4:

So turn four started still at 1-1. 

Fire Golem nearly killed Nix, and I figured the dog would die to Kaeris unless I activated and healed him. But, if Nix healed and Kaeris activated, I would not get Ensnare. So I decided to sacrifice Nix and score Ensnare by planting a scheme marker with Rat Catcher. 

Kaeris activated sure enough, but surprisingly she did not kill Nix. Instead, she went to Plague side strategy marker that I wouldn't be able to contest. Oh well. Nix activated, drank some spirits and killed Eternal Flame and was back at full health. 

Disease Containment Unit failed it's attacks on Elijah, but succeeded in pushing Nix close enough to an Arcanist side strategy marker. Elijah then killed Disease Containment Unit, and nobody killed Elijah.

Carlos went to contest Nix's marker and even placed a scheme marker, looking very much like a set-up for Ensnare. 

Obedient Wretch went to place a scheme marker on the centerline.

And Prospector... I had done everything to get a high enough Crows to my hand throughout the turn - even charging a Malifaux Rat dead with Stolen. Prospector tried to appraise an Arcanist scheme marker. But, no crows turned up. And flip from the deck for Malifaux Mining Law's scheme marker was... not crows. So I missed Espionage.

Arcanists scored strategy, but Outcasts missed out on that. They, however, had received Ensnare so scores went 2-2.

Turn 5:

Nix and Rat Catcher went to contest the Arcanist side strategy marker, but Fire Golem came to bulk Arcanists up. It didn't exactly help, either, that Carlos scored a severe with his breath of fire. 

Kaeris placed a scheme marker to my deployment zone, and finally Prospector managed to land crows on Malifaux Mining Law for a scheme marker in enemy deployment zone. 

Elijah went to control one of the center markers. Catalan Rifleman picked up a scheme marker it had planted earlier, walked a bit closer and dropped another scheme marker with bonus action, this time within 3" of Elijah instead of 3.1"

Obedient Wretch ran to control another Arcanist side strategy marker. 

Both players scored strategy, Ensnare and Espionage for a close fought 5-5 draw.

Deep Satisfaction

 Had a couple of 50ss game of Malifaux. Both of us have been getting weary of Gaining Grounds season 3 - it's been going on for, what, fifteen months now? - so we decided to shake things up a little with season 1.

Strategy: Flank Symbols of Authority

Schemes: Vendetta, Leave Your Mark, Research Mission, Take Prisoner, Runic Binding

My list:

Hamelin with Servant of Dark Powers & 3x Stolen
Mad Dog Brackett
Benny Wolcomb
Nix
Disease Containment Unit
Prospector
Winged Plague

Pool: 4
Schemes: Research Mission, Vendetta (Benny and a Hunter)

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa
Peacekeeper
2x Hunter
Guild Mage
Riotbreaker

Pool: 2
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Vendetta (Peacekeeper and Mad Dog Brackett)

Turn 1:

Nix, Prospector, Disease Containment Unit and Winged Plague place the scheme markers for Benny's rats. I was afraid that various enemy long range shooters would be able to snipe off one of the rats, so I waited and waited until they activated - and surely enough Melissa almost killed the Winged Plague as she was speeding towards marker I had placed to bottom-right corner.

Guild Mage, Mechanical Attendant, Hoffman, Riot Breaker and Peacekeeper were stomping towards Plague in the middle. Benny's Vendetta Hunter was going to harass Mad Dog Brackett on left side of the board, and another was hiding behind the lower building on the right. 

I had a horrible hand, no card higher than seven, so Loyal Rats with Tiny Hats was a bit of a gamble. And once Benny failed the first attempt, I decided to buy an extra card with a soulstone. Lucky I did - would have failed without it!

Hamelin was then able to craft a Rat King out of the cute lil' rats, take a double walk and place a scheme for Mad Dog Brackett. He took Fast from it, and ran near top-left corner where there were two symbols of authority, and tossed Blasted Away at one of them.

Winged Plague charged Melissa with Hamelin's bonus action, missed but managed to give her a blight token with end phase movement trick.

Turn 2:

Benny's vendetta Hunter was barely able to charge Mad Dog Brackett, which pretty much tied Hamelin's hands for that round - the hound-cat-robot-thing needed to be lured off for Outcasts to get any strategy points this round.

Winged Plague Scraped a super tainted claw attack at Melissa. Since every other model than Mechanical Attendant would kill the Winged Plague with weak damage, I thought to try and slow down Melissa by making a scheme marker out of her blight tokens. In the end, opponent didn't take the bait, but at least it took both of Melissa's actions to kill the minion.

But, Hunter from behind a building emerged and claimed one of my strategy markers. Whoops. Didn't realize that was so easy.

Prospector became stunned and charged the Hunter, dealing random singular points of damage. 

Hoffman had overcharged proxied Peacekeeper, and went to telegraph Leave Your Mark by placing a scheme in the middle. 

Rat King gnawed it away and went to offer Diseased aura for Hoffman and proxied Riotbreaker in the pond. Unfortunately Riotbreaker and Guild Mage were able to kill the king. Also Peacekeeper landed its harpoon on Disease Containment Unit and charged it dead. 

Nix placed a scheme marker for Benny and walked to drink Peacekeeper's and Hunter's spirit. Only Peacekeeper had anything to drink.

Since most enemy models had now been activated, it was time to make my gambit for strategy points. Hamelin walked and lured Benny's Hunter away from Mad Dog Brackett. He charged it too, but attack failed to connect.

And there appears to be something going on with vomiting kids and Hunters... Two Stolen were able to inflict four points of damage on the Armor +2 minion with three attacks.

Benny was now free to get Fast from scheme marker that Nix had placed, took a double walk and shot the Hunter with his trusty derringer. Unfortunately he had no vomit bullets in his gun, and the attack missed. But he did score vendetta with his bonus action. Phew!

The Hunter still had two points of health left. Last kid activated, walked and took a vomit on the Hunter. Dead Hunter. So it is again one of these games, where insignificant totems are the main damage dealers? Who knows, maybe.

Mad Dog went to claim a strategy marker, bringing scores to 1-2 for Outcasts when opponent revealed no schemes.

Turn 3:

Hoffman didn't want to leave free reign for Hamelin at the western flank and went to charge him, dealing a couple of damage points. 

Prospector charge Hunter that had escaped his reach with deadly pursuit, chipping steadily through Hunter's plating one damage point at a time. 

Scary, scary Peacekeeper nearly killed Nix - and in return Nix wasn't even able to scratch the Peacekeeper even once to make it fail some duels. 

So, it was time to call in the kids for help. 

They started throwing up on Peacekeeper so aggressively that Guild Mage had to reposition itself to heal the big guy. Feverishly absurd, those damn kids. And thanks to them, Nix was back online.

Hamelin beat the heck out of Hoffman, but was not able to kill him. Neither were the only kid who attacked the guild master despite his injured +3. 

Mad Dog Brackett went to place a scheme near Blasted Away marker and strategy marker. Mechanical Attendant tried to shoot the bandit, but wasn't much of a nuisance.

Last but least, even Benny Wolcomb charged Hoffman, but could secure the last few points.

Riotbreaker had been able to place the scheme marker for Leave Your Mark without contest this time around, but so did Mad Dog reveal Research Mission. Melissa had been too far from my strategy marker, so neither player scored strategy points this turn. Scores went to 2-3 from schemes alone.

Board state looked really strong for Plague.

I had Benny quite far from other threats than Hoffman, so he'd be able to escape and run far from any- and everything next turn, thus guaranteeing a point for me. Nix might be able to screw Hunter over with Loose Bowels so that it would not be able to score strategy when that would be relevant. And Hunter wasn't that far from dying. And Hoffman himself was just about dead. Melissa wouldn't contribute to anything else than strategy point next turn.

Turn 4:

... and then, things just happened. What I love about this game is that the situation is rarely if ever as clear as it seems. Guild won the initiative, and Hoffman started to beat Benny. And surely enough, my end point from vendetta disappeared despite me having two soulstones to protect Benny. Well, my mistake for even putting Benny in a situation where bad luck would even be able to kill him. But sheesh... Hoffman is a grown up man in an exoskeleton, not a vomiting kid. He should not dish out damage like that.

Prospector goes to do his daily work of clipping a point of damage in to Hunter.

And then Peacekeeper clobbers Nix into oblivion. Two such unlikely deaths was... not ideal, to say at least. But at least Hoffman had spawned some rats around. Hamelin activated and started beating Hoffman, but somehow didn't manage to land even a single severe damage despite multiple attacks with plus modifiers for damage - injured +4 from first hit tends to do that. With last action Hamelin buys tomes with the soulstone Prospector had spawned, got an extra rat and formed a Rat King.

Kids had emptied their stomach, and somehow weren't able to do score the last damage point in to Hoffman. In the end that duty fell to newly formed Rat King, who happily obliged. 

Melissa took a strategy point and runned and gunned Prospector dead.

One of the kids had to go and charge Hunter now, and actually hit with frantic flailing. Hunter had two health remaining. But that started to look too much when Hunter killed the Stolen with one hit, and the resulting Malifaux Rat with another. 

Mad Dog Brackett took a strategy marker while Riotbreaker and Guild Mage were spawning scheme markers in the middle. 

Scores went to 3-4, still in favor of Plague, but how had the tables turned!

Turn 5:

Hunter went to take third strategy point, so there was little I could do to help that. So, instead, a frantic kid with frantic flails went to charge Peacekeeper instead in an attempt to stop if from placing a scheme marker. But let me tell you. Those heartless Peacekeepers don't care if there is a child on the spot where they need to plant a scheme marker. 

Opponent had Red Joker in hand, which was unfortunate because that way he was able to stun Mad Dog Brackett. I had had plans of taking scheme marker for Fast, then taking a double walk to get to another strategy marker and drop a Blasted Away marker with bonus action for Research Mission end condition. 

Eventhough Research Mission looked rather secured, I ultimately decided that a strategy point was 100% guaranteed if picked up. So Mad Dog ate the scheme marker anyway and charged Mechanical Attendant. Idea was that I might get Research Mission anyway from its scrap marker, but attack failed. Boo. But he did get the strategy marker. 

Another kid went to enemy table side and sacrificed itself to make a corpse marker... for science. Hamelin took a double walk and placed a scheme marker on top of the kid's corpse... for science.

Then he commanded the rat that had emerged from the kids body to charge Mechanical Attendant... for science. And look at that, the stat 3 attack hit and even got a Red Joker for damage. Shame that their damage track is 0/1/1 when alone, because that didn't change a thing. 

Guild Mage had quite a way with words, as he spoke Mad Dog Brackett dead, making all of Plague's efforts with science for naught. And to make it worse, it soon came into my attention that Peacekeeper was still very much alive, and had vendetta on Mad Dog Brackett.

Well, if I didn't get points from my scheme, then opponent wouldn't, either! Rat King gnawed one of the required scheme markers from Leave Your Mark, and that was the last consequential action for the game.

A rather exciting 5-5 draw!

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Recover Evidence

Schemes: Sabotage, Catch and Release, Take Prisoner, Leave Your Mark, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Jack Daw with Servant of Dark Powers & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Auguste Hart
Hanged with Servant of Dark Powers
Crooked Man
Drowned
Guilty

Pool: 4
Schemes: Sabotage (large cloud on bottom-left), Leave Your Mark

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Kara
2x Illuminated
Beckoner

Pool: 2
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Guilty), Sabotage (a rock formation in top-right corner)

Turn 1:

Opponent picked left table edge for deployment.

Herald move enabled Jack Daw to walk to middle, plant a scheme and expose some suppressed memories for Mr. Graves. Lady Ligeia and Drowned had the ungrateful duty of removing some hazardous terrain markers from Montresor's way. The Guilty in electric chair had even more ungrateful duty of diving into water. But the keyword isn't Tormented for nothing, I guess.

Auguste Hart and Hanged were doing flanking maneuvers below. Hanged especially was horrified of Mr. Graves' fencepost, so it kept its distance until the bouncer was finally staggered. 

Kara, who had no intel token, was coming to greet Hanged and Auguste, so my sabotage didn't look so easy after all.

Hungering Darkness charged Jack Daw, and Montresor offered emotional support by charging Hungering Darkness back. Nobody was really doing anything in the melee. But the important bit was getting that sweet suffocation aura to center point.

Mr. Graves, and Illuminated and Jakob Lynch were only a tad behind Hungering Darkness, with Tanuki being the only one of the bunch over 6" away from Montresor.

Another Illuminated and Gwyneth Madddox were hiding between the two buildings north-west. Beckoner had been biding its time in activation order, and eventually launched herself rapidly towards rock formation at top-right corner of the map... surely it wasn't going to sabotage my rock formation?! Damn them! I'm gonna sabotage their smoke formation, then!

Turn 2:

Then came the second turn... where nothing happened. Nothing at all. 

Every plan and attempt was foiled, and nothing worked for either player.

Ten Thunders had a little more luck in beating an intel token off from Montresor, but did not manage to claim it or kill Montresor. 

Jack Daw unsuppressed the memories of an Illuminated next to Mr. Graves, and Hanged was able to unlock some forbidden knowledge in Kara, making it have a psychotic break.

While it wasn't apparent yet that whatever we tried would fail but too many models had already failed activation, I decided that having Tanuki heal those precious damage points I had managed to cause would be catastrophic. So Hanged activated Entropic Curse.

And yet the Tanuki healed Mr. Graves. Only one point with a severe, but still that was an insult to injury, or, well, heal actually.

Beckoner went to place a scheme marker to the rock formation, but that wasn't quite enough to sabotage it yet. 

Only point that was scored this turn was Leave Your Mark from the scheme marker placed on first turn.  

Turn 3:

Last turn it had looked like everybody and their pet was highly resistant to dying. But that was about to change in one of the most brutal turns I have seen. 

Montresor activated and was cursed to watch how Crooked Man would fail its first earthquake, but blast spectacular damage on Mr. Graves and Jakob Lynch. I had no crows in hand, so it was a lucky shot when Montresor did his bonus action and flipped crows straight from the deck, killing both Mr. Graves and Illuminated. 

Joy was for such an action was short lived, when Jakob Lynch activated and succumbed Montresor to darkness, turning the resilient henchman into an insignificant Depleted. 

Auguste went to pick Illuminated's intel.

Another Illuminated who had hanged with Gwyneth started flinging absolutely horrifying scintillating clouds that were able to reach Drowned, Jack Daw, Crooked Man, Lady Ligeia and Guilty. I was lucky to pass most checks naturally, but Drowned fell down to one health remaining. 

I had Black Joker in my hand, and so Hanged was able to teleport to Tanuki with Horrifying Whispers. First attack missed, so I lost hope of killing the miserable furball. Which wasn't exactly a bad thing, because I also wanted to draw cards - I had not received even a single crows to my starting hand or at any other point I drew cards. And Crooked Man needed those to place third scheme marker for Leave Your Mark. Anyway, Hanged declared Weigh Down trigger for +1 damage, and flipped a Red Joker for damage. I can't quite describe the deep, sincere and transcendental satisfaction of killing an uninjured Tanuki with a single strike. 

Gwyneth shot Drowned dead and charged Jack Daw, which started to look like a critical mistake when it became apparent that no other model was able to reach a strategy marker and claim a victory point for Ten Thunders that turn. It was probably. I don't remember who in the end killed the Depleted that once had been Montresor - either Jack Daw or Lady Ligeia. 

Guilty placed a scheme marker and walked on top of it. 

Kara charged Auguste, and Hungering Darkness and Lynch probably kept mauling Jack Daw. He was down to two health remaining when turn ended, which made next round's initiative quite of a concern.

Crooked Man charged Kara and failed to place a scheme marker with Malifaux Mining Law. 

Beckoner was not able to place the required second marker for Sabotage. 

Scores went 2-0 for Outcasts, when they got strategy.

Turn 4: 

I had two unspent pass tokens from last round, and I got a 13 to my starting hand. I cheated fate with that to activate Jack Daw first.

Fun fact: this was second time in row I received no crows in starting hand.

And Jack Daw had to heal himself - he spent all three action points to activate Hungering Darkness' suppressed memories and thankfully succeeded with the last. Thus, thanks to Kara's psychotic proximity, he was able to heal two with bonus action and one when activation ended. 

Illuminated didn't wait to get engaged and walked to pick strategy marker for a victory point.

Hanged did the same with Tanuki's remains and walked to Outcast sabotage target. 

Auguste survived what Lynch was able to throw at him, but wasn't as lucky when Hungering Darkness abandoned its position and tickled Auguste dead with his tentacles. 

Kara attacked Crooked Man, leaving him with three health remaining. I was afraid that Kara would be able to kill Crooked Man next turn, so the cat's psychosis lead it into contact with intel dropped from Auguste, trying to persuade it to spend an action point before charging Crooked Man.

Guilty charged Illuminated, not doing anything. Gwyneth continued to play card with Jack Daw. 

Beckoner was finally able to sabotage rocks.

Crooked Man failed to place a scheme marker - but he did flip the correct suit. But card value was five, when the action needed a six.

Both players scored strategy, and Ten Thunders got sabotage for a situation of 3-2.

Turn 5:

Third turn in a row I received no crows in starting hand. Why, why was I Tormented like that? 

But in the end it didn't bother as much, because Kara activated first and killed Crooked Man before it had a chance to activate. So even if I had had crows, I could not have used them.

Then something of an unexpected turn of events happened. Hanged placed a strategy marker after Lynch had secured a strategy point for Ten Thunders.

Hanged flipped Black Joker on terrifying check against Hungering Darkness. Nice, some mileage out of Forever Doomed. Then it attacked the beast with Horrifying Whispers - and opponent flipped Red Joker on defense. I was able to cheat a Masks 1 to teleport back into action.

My grand plan was to attack Hungering Darkness, score a tomes and drop third scheme marker. Well, highest tomes in my hand was a four, and Hanged had spent all of his luck already. No scheme for me.

Ten Thunders weren't doing anything of consequence with their last actions except for Beckoner, who scored Sabotage end.

I did consider it somewhat excessive, when opponent cheated a severe card when Guilty tried to disengage from Illuminated and Gwyneth. But soon enough it would make all the sense in the world - I mean, he was Guilty, and opponent had Take Prisoner as their scheme.

But fortunately Guilty had gone far enough that Jack Daw was able to teleport to him with Suppressed Memories, place the third scheme marker and walk over it to protect his final mark.

So, Outcasts did not receive strategy point this turn while Ten Thunders did. They also received end condition from both of their schemes, but so did Outcasts. It was a 5-5 draw, although it feels like a victory for Ten Thunders because they missed one point just from a slight lapse of attention.

No fair I, choose violence too!

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Guard the Stash

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Breakthrough, Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs, Spread Them Out

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Yannic Waller
Johan Creedy
Prospector
Catalan Rifleman
Winged Plague

Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Vendetta (Johan Creedy on Elijah)

Opponent had:

Kaeris & Eternal Flame
Elijah Borgman
Carlos Vasquez
Fire Golem
2x Firebranded
Fire Gamin

Pool: 0
Schemes: Load 'Em Up (Pyre), Hidden Martyrs (Firebranded)

Turn 1:

I put Nix and Yannic near my right strategy marker, and Winged PLague flew hugging the rightmost board edge. Nix took a double walk and I must say - even with his resilience I was a bit hesitant when it looked like he'd have to face Fire Golem, Carlos, Eternal Flame and a Firebranded.

Everything else I got was were on the left powering up Benny Wolcomb. I somewhat messed up my initial positioning, but in the end everything went fine and a Rat King was summoned just fine. Although Benny wasn't able to take even one step, when Firestarter lit fire under Catalan Rifleman's feet and moved him so that Benny's way was blocked by Hamelin, Rifleman, Stolen, Prospector and even Johan Creedy to a degree. 

After a walk Hamelin failed to lure Firestarter closer, so the outcast master just ended up concentrating.

Kaeris and Carlos both succeeded in landing a pyre marker. Kaeris, Elijah and Firebranded were behind destructible boxes near center-left marker with Firestarter even further ahead. 

Turn 2:

I forgot to take a picture at the end of turn, so Firestarter has already started round three in the picture.

Kaeris sure enough sets the world burning when she starts the turn, charges to conflagrate Rat King a bit, plants two pyre markers in the middle of my tightly packed crew and fans a marker through Stolen, Johan Creedy and Rat King. 

Kaeris was pondering if she should have escaped instead of fanning the flames, but she chose violence. Alrighty, then. Hamelin chooses that, too! He uses bonus action to charge Rat King to Kaeris, then walks to take two attacks against her. Only one hits, but deals severe damage. 

Nix goes to engage Carlos, Firebranded and Eternal Flame. All of them fail Drink Spirit checks, and Winged Plague had placed a scheme marker and continued to fly towards enemy deployment zone.

Carlos disengages from Nix and walks to breathe fire on Winged Plague, not doing anything. He also managed to make a pyre marker near mid-left strategy marker, which was used by a Firebranded to set itself burning.

In the meantime, Stolen had given mean time for Kaeris by vomiting disease over her mechanical wings, dealing more damage together than Hamelin did. Johan Creedy had also charged Kaeris and all of them together had brought Kaeris down to one health remaining.

Fire Golem had leaped to the Firebranded's flames, entering the melee in the mid-left marker. It walked to slap Carlos' pyre marker on Rat King, Hamelin and Johan Creedy, and took a little swing at Rat King. 

Yannic Waller had tried to come to shoot Firebranded and hopefully spill some blast damage over Kaeris, but that never happened. What did happen, though, was a severe greatsword to Yannic's face. Firestarter tried to set fire under Rat King's feet to push it away from Kaeris, and succeeded at that. That took away one action point to be spent on killing the Arcanist master, but as it happened - that lone action point was enough. Rat King managed to charge Kaeris dead, and voracious rats from Hamelin even transformed her into a Malifaux Rat. 

Benny Wolcomb takes a double walk so that he'd be in position to perhaps place some scheme markers next turn. I completely forgot that Benny needed to assist a Stolen who had Burning +4, so one kid went down to that. Another had died earlier after vomiting on Kaeris - he had been on fire and one health remaining, so two rats sounded better than one rat since it was inevitable fate, anyway. 

Opponent had middle-left marker, and to score a strategy point Prospector had to walk and charge Elijah, thus getting points to 1-1.

Turn 3:

Again I forgot to take a picture at the end of round, so some activations have already happened. 

Firestarter walks and charges to last Stolen who had been hanging near bottom-left marker. 

Carlos and top-right Firebranded fail to kill Winged Plague, so it had time to leave one more scheme marker on board. Nix went to place a scheme near mid-right marker and spammed some blight tokens around. 

I had tried to save Yannic Waller by activating her first, doing some democracy and trying to disengage. However, disengage failed with -6 movement reduction. Miraculously Elijah didn't succeed in killing anyone.

Fire Golem wasn't as inept. It killed Rat King and charged Johan Creedy below hard-to-kill threshold. Johan was also at, like, Burning +8 or so. And he was my Vendetta model. It wasn't looking good.

At least he managed to deal some damage to Fire Golem with Relic Hammer, remove Hamelin's burning and heal himself and Hamelin for one with Final Rest. 

Hamelin kills Fire Golem, hooray for that. But now there was way open for Firebranded to charge Johan Creedy, and does indeed score that required one hit to bring him back below hard-to-kill threshold. So yeah... Hamelin killed a ten point model, but I lost a two victory point model. C'est la vie. 

For some reason I didn't consider placing a scheme with Benny and climbing on top of the reservoir terrain to contest middle-left strategy marker. Instead I went to deny a point from Firestarter when, in fact, even if he'd been alone at my marker opponent wouldn't have got a strategy point. But that's hindsight, maybe it wasn't so apparent at the time if opponent had unactivated models around. 

So, Johan Creedy burns to crisp and scores go 2-2 when Outcasts reveal Spread Them Out and Arcanists get Load 'Em Up on pyre markers.

Turn 4:

Firebranded top-right finally kills Winged Plague before it is able to drop even more scheme markers. Nix interacts a scheme and charges Elijah so that he is entirely on top of it. I don't think the attack hit, as Nix had been distracted by Carlos many times over. 

Hamelin blasts a rat with Pustulent Tumors, killing Firestarter. Firebranded isn't as easy kill, and Benny needs to come and finish the hidden martyr. 

Yannic Waller is done with democracy and shoot Elijah with a severe blast from her shotgun. 

Prospector appraises Johan's corpse and estimates it to worth around two victory points. So he saw no reason why his corpse wouldn't be worth as much, and dies to Elijah, Carlos and Fire Gamin.

Arcanists reveal their Hidden Martyrs, taking the lead in points with 2-3.

Turn 5:

Yannic gives democracy another chance, healing herself, Nix and Eternal Flame and damaging Elijah, Fire Gamin and Carlos. She takes a bonus concentrate and shoots Elijah, but unsurprisingly doesn't kill.

Elijah heals for a bit and finally kills Yannic. By now Elijah had juicy five blight tokens, so Nix tried a distracted Bleeding Disease twice, failing both.

Fire Gamin runs to secure bottom-right marker. Hamelin takes a walk and a charge at Elijah, barely missing the attack. His Bleeding Disease hits, but that wasn't enough - Elijah was left at one health remaining. And then last remaining Firebranded took a double walk , got engaged by Nix and healed Elijah so even Benny's Swarm Them was of no use. However, at that point removing Elijah wouldn't have mattered anyway since Carlos was able to get to bottom-left marker, and Benny needed to walk away from mid-left marker to place a scheme marker for Spread Them Out.

It was a tough 3-5 game, and Arcanists won. So, fortunately my blunder with Benny did not cost the game as it would have been 4-5. What did cost me the game was choosing Vendetta and then getting jammed in high-profile melee. 

I should have probably taken Hidden Martyrs anyway, though I was afraid that my martyrs would die to burning. Breakthrough and Load 'Em Up on the other hand weren't options for me. 

5-6-7-7

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Flank Covert Operations

Schemes: Public Demonstration, Vendetta, Sabotage, Set the Trap, Catch and Release

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Benny Wolcomb
Nix
Catalan Brawler
Midnight Stalker
Malifaux Child
Rat Catcher
Catalan Rifleman

Stones: 4
Schemes: Vendetta (Benny on Cassandra), Sabotage (building in enemy deployment zone)

Colette Dubois & 3x Mechanical Doves
Cassandra Felton
Carlos Vasquez
Angelica Durand
Coryphee Duet
2x Showgirl
Mannequin

Stones: 1
Schemes: Sabotage, (middle shack type building) Catch and Release (one of the showgirls)

Turn 1:

I start to build up the rat factory with Rat Catcher, Malifaux Child, Catalan Rifleman and Nix. Benny manages to turn the tokens into rats just fine and walks for a bit - but too much of a bit already. Colette walks close enough to Presto-Chango Benny inside the industrial ramshackle building for some fun and games with Carlos Vasquez.

And Coryphee Duet was the model that was Presto-Changoed to my front line. That just happened too early to ignore the duet, so Catalan Brawler and Hamelin charged the duo. Hamelin also created a Rat King from Benny's rats. 

While Hamelin wasn't much of a performer (hah), Catalan Brawler punched Coryphees right in the face with severe damage while on negatives modifiers. 

Arcanists had their Catch and Releasing Showgirl coming from the left, and top-right they had Angelica Durand, Showgirl and a couple of birds. 

Midnight Stalker leaped on Showgirl, but apparently it stalks exclusively midnights only and failed to do any damage.

Turn 2:

It appears I have forgotten to take picture from second round. 

But for me Rat Catcher went to claim bottom-left marker while for opponent Angelica scored top-right. 

Nix charged Coryphee Duet and nibbled in some damage, although spreading cruel disappointment was the actual reason.

Carlos beats the heck out of Benny, who burns through my stash of soulstones in an attempt to block damage. After all two of my victory points were tied to Benny. Benny spawned only one rat, though, because soulstone managed to block all received damage.

It was rough turn for Coryphee Duet. Swinging at Catalan Brawler was reduced to moderate damage only thanks to Nix, and cage fighter landed a severe back at the duet. Another attack did respectable damage to Rat King, and then the duet split. 

Rat King killed the un-activated Coryphee and Stolen killed the original model. But then there were additional mannequins that needed to be taken care of. Hamelin and Catalan Brawler did just that. 

While it was likely that Coryphees would die this round, it should not have been this easy. I had a lot of luck when it came to damage flips against the Duet. Because of this I was also able to deal with actually recruited Mannequin, too. 

Cassandra and Colette are able to kill Rat King and profilerate Burning all over my crew. 

On top-right, Showgirl disengages and walks towards Arcanist sabotage building. Two Mechanical Doves don't do much to Midnight Stalker, but Midnight Stalker kills both instead, leaps away and plants a scheme marker for sabotage. 

Last remaining Mechanical Dove was killed by Benny after it had charged in to kill a rat. 

What a turn! Eight models killed from Arcanists. Though they still had six left. However, I still didn't dare to feel confident because Benny was in such a horrible position. 

Both players score strategy for 1-1.

Turn 3:

Midnight Stalker goes to place second sabotage marker. 

Carlos and Cassandra set the world ablaze. Arcanist blast marker and two cobblestone bases are pyre markers. There were two Malifaux rats inside the pyre marker close to strategy marker middle-left that had been scurried forth from the wrecked mannequins. I sacrificed a Stolen for two rats more and created one more Rat King after Colette failed to impress one rat with her illusions.

Where Colette did not fail, however, was pulling off a sword trick on Hamelin, so he was kind of off for a turn.

Rat King brought itself into contact with Cassandra in an attempt to slow her down. Angelica ran towards enemy sabotage building, and Showgirl started to spew out scheme markers for sabotage.

I don't quite remember what models softened up Cassandra so that she had only four health remaining. Possibly Nix with bleeding disease and Stolen with vomit. 

Benny survived his ordeal with Carlos, but he had Burning +4 with four or so health remaining. To keep him alive for a bit longer, Hamelin ran with all three action points to get to do some Unclean Influence. Rat King moved out of melee with Cassandra and assisted three points of burning off. This was a mistake, as Cassandra was a claiming model for opponent. Oh well.

Malifaux Child had to run through a pyre marker to get within claiming range of the very same strategy marker Cassandra was now free to claim. 

Scores go 2-3 for Outcasts when both players get strategy and Hamelin gets Sabotage reveal.

Turn 4:

Cassandra breathed fire over both Catalans and killed one of the Stolen. Rifleman was also now at one health remaining and burning +gazillion since he had been sitting in the pyre marker since turn one. Although doing only one action per turn thanks to getting slowed over and over again.

One Stolen walks and charges Angelica Durand but is promptly caned off the board.

Later, Malifaux Child tries to do the same but this time it is caned off the stage via Angelica's defensive trigger. Fortunately it was of no consequence, as opponent claimed bottom-left corner marker.

Colette Presto-Changoes Nix and Carlos and buries Catalan Brawler with sword trick. I don't actually remember what Carlos did. Did he miss all of his attacks? Maybe, maybe not, but at least he succeeded in placing pyre marker over Benny after Rat King had painstakingly removed distracted and burning from him.

Midnight Stalker placed a scheme marker in contact with Outcasts sabotage target, took a run and leaped to top-right strategy marker. Nix went to drop a scheme marker near Benny. Hamelin lured Benny out of the building, moved Rat King out of Benny's way with unclean influence and went within claim range of middle-right strategy marker. 

Benny took Fast from Nix's scheme marker, concentrated and took a focused shot at Cassandra. And I have to cheat damage down not to kill her. Villainy like this is enough for Benny, who starts tip-toeing away from all action. 

Hamelin took middle-right marker and Vendetta, opponent bottom-left and Sabotage for a score of 4-5.

Turn 5:

Angelica Durand moves with nimble, walks and places a scheme to deny me end condition of sabotage. Nix kills Cassandra to enable Vendetta end condition. Benny runs off into wilderness, and Catalan Brawler walks to place a scheme marker within 2" of Benny. 

Colette kind of ruined all my plans, but isn't that kind of her thing? She used Presto-Chango to switch Hamelin into melee with herself and Carlos up there somewhere. Sword trick buries my scheme-marker eating Rat King.

Carlos then somehow manages to score a severe blast damage to Catalan Brawler with fatal consequences to Benny.

Showgirl plants a scheme for arcanist sabotage end condition and goes to contest middle-right strategy marker. Another Showgirl runs to engage Nix and Hamelin. 

Rat King emerged from my scheme and gnawed away Angelica's denial scheme. 

And well, then I guess the term "throw a game" refers to what happens next. 

It looked like a clean 5-7 victory for me so I did a lazy activation with Hamelin. He disengaged, and as I was taking second move I realized Hamelin had Distracted. My plan had been to move twice and lure Malifaux Child closer to enemy strategy marker to remove the marker. 

Well, I was already doing my second move already and I didn't consider luring Malifaux Child critical enough to ask for a slight backtrack and concentrate distracted away. So Hamelin just did a distracted lure and failed to pass target number. 

The reason I thought it didn't matter was because I could always just run the child to engage Showgirl at middle-right marker. Game ended 5-7 for Outcasts.

Except for when I extracted these pictures and started writing this, I realized that since it was fifth turn, we didn't properly resolve the end phase because it seemed like it didn't matter. Sure, often it doesn't but the kid was burning and at one health. So the showgirl could claim middle-right marker after all.

So it was a tough 6-7 in the end.

Yet now that I reached the last picture I also had the realization that Showgirl is engaging Nix. Opponent had told me that he had Catch and Release and that after Hamelin had disengaged it became impossible to fulfill. 

Yet it avoided both of our attention that there she was, engaging Nix even as we're speaking about the very thing.

So in the endest of all ended ends, game was 7-7 draw. 

Only because of things that didn't matter.

Loyal Hats with No Rats

A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy:  Flank Carve a Path

Schemes: Breakthrough, Leave Your Mark, Sabotage, Public Demonstration, In Your Face

My list:

Hamelin & Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Disease Containment Unit
Obedient Wretch
Rat Catcher
Catalan Rifleman
2x Malifaux Rat

Stones: 7

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration (Wretch, Catcher, Rifleman)

Opponent had:

Asami & Amanjaku
Ama No Zako
Shadow Emissary
Wanyudo
Obsidian Oni
Yokai
Katashiro

Stones: 5

Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

First round Ten Thunders came in aggressively kicking the path carvers - so much so that both were on my table side at the end of turn. 

This was bad news for the plague models that were figuring out scheme markers for Benny. In the end I messed up my plans and activation orders and got only two rats of of my scheme markers. I also didn't have time for crew rats to concentrate before forming Rat King because there was a threat of Wanyudo shooting rats.

As is customary for me, I had made a huge bottleneck of my models in the middle. I was also worrying a bit of Asami summoning Obsidian Oni, so to do at least something productive Hamelin walked to kick one strategy marker which Nix continued to push forward. 

At the end of turn one my positioning was terrible. Nix was far away from anything to offer his sweet auras, Catalan Rifleman was in the frontline and Stolen were on the other side of continent from Hamelin.

That Rat King better be worth it.

Turn 2:

Wanyudo charges in to further bottleneck my crew, blocking the easy advance of Benny, Rat Catcher and Rat King as well as dropping a Pyre marker. Consequences could have been disastrous but fortunately I was able to remove the wheel from the board.

Disease Containment Unit and Obedient Wretch were not enough of a resistance against Shadow Emissary and Katashiro, but at least there were no casualties other than Ten Thunders getting both of their strategy markers like 2" away from being on my deployment zone.

Catalan Rifleman went to place a scheme marker in the middle for Leave Your Mark, but Asami came to bully him by eating his scheme marker and then placing her own. She also summoned two Tengus whose dark bargains were put to good use.

Ama No Zako came to play football with my strategy marker that Hamelin and Nix had been pushing around. This forced Hamelin to get away from the central action (and Stolen, by the way) to score me strategy for this round.

Scores go 1-2 for Ten Thunders when opponent reveals Leave Your Mark of his own.

Turn 3:

Unfortunately I have missed taking a picture of turn three so details might be off. 

But what I do remember is that I got Nix and his Loose Bowels aura to a nasty position even after messing up his placement last round. This could have been super impactful, but Asami's hair couldn't bear the stench and pushed the dog some 12" away from everything and summoned more Tengus. 

Already weakened Obsidian Oni places scorches the earth around it so that Rat King, Rat Catcher, Benny and a couple of Malifaux Rats would be having painful activations if I wasn't able to destroy the Oni.

I don't remember what actually killed Obsidian Oni, but at least Catalan Rifleman was shooting it, bringing it down to one health remaining. That isn't so impressive as it only had two health remaining at that point. It was either Benny or vomiting Stolen.

Ama No Zako and Hamelin quarrel the entire round, which in itself was bad trade for Hamelin.

Rat King nibbled Asami away one tiny bite at a time, and both Obedient Wretch and Rat Catcher parked themselves in near vicinity of enemy master for Public Demonstration.

Disease Containment Unit and dragon were duking it out, and while the unit proved itself resilient, it didn't matter much when there was a Yokai jumping around trashing the place and bringing enemy strategy markers to my deployment zone.

A super accurate vomit made by one of the Stolen denies Ten Thunders what looked like trying to score Breakthrough.

But since Ama No Zako had tied up Hamelin and dragon made my other flank kind of busy, outcasts scored only Public Demonstration this round, while Ten Thunders easily got strategy, getting scores to 2-3.

Turn 4:

Fourth turn there is a plague onslaught.

Tengus start disappearing. Ama No Zako dies. Katashiro dies (or maybe that was last round?) Amanjaku dies. Even Asami dies. So it's easy game for Hamelin now, right? Right?

Well, at least scoring last point from Public Demonstration was now impossible, and I had already missed one strategy point.

Outcasts still can't get access to the important bits to limit opponent's points. Nothing I can do to enemy strategy markers, but at least finally both of my strategy markers are on the opponent's table side. Scheme marker in middle also secures me Leave Your Mark.

Outcasts get strategy and Leave Your Mark, getting to 4 points. But this doesn't even the score when Ten Thunders also get strategy and reveal Breakthrough.

4-5 it is.

Turn 5:

Nix gets one strategy marker to Ten Thunders deployment, and planting scheme markers near center point isn't problematic.

Yokai spams scheme markers to my deployment zone before disappearing. Tengu tries to give Slow to Obedient Wretch but fails to do so.

This made it possible for Wretch to walk to remove one scheme marker.

So it was a tough game, and illustrates one thing I particularly enjoy in Malifaux: last round opponent has one model remaining while I have more models on board than at the start of game. But that tells nothing of how the game was played or who won.