Survival Elections

 A 50ss game of Malifaux, 3rd edition. My intention was to use options that I have used less often, and that I can't use in 4th edition. 

Strategy: Standard Cursed Objects

Schemes: Breakthrough, Load 'em Up, In Your Face, Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waif
Yannic Waller
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
Hard Stop Herbert
2x Catalan Rifleman
Abomination

Pool: 5
Schemes: Load' Em Up (schemes), In Your Face

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Peacekeeper
Guild Steward
Hunter
Warden
2x Watcher

Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Hollow Waifs spent their activations concentrating, while Hoffman loaded up Peacekeeper, Melissa and Attendant, before double-walking to the center of the board. Mechanical Attendant slammed a piece of destructible hazardous terrain to open up way for Peacekeeper.

Yannic Waller tried to take a cautious walk, taking cover from a wall and consolidating a Catalan Rifleman closer. 

Melissa punished Yannic with her gatling gun, dealing in a total of three damage after a damage block..I got worried for her safety, because Peacekeeper was yet to keep its peace for the turn. Marlena Webster took a double walk inside tall grass to tether Yannic's soul.

However, Peacekeeper was more into leaving a lasting mark, and took a double walk to place a scheme marker near center point. 

There were now Peacekeeper, Hoffman and Melissa near each other in the center. Although Guild Stewanuki and Mechanical Attendant were also near the trio, they had already activated. Catalan Rifleman was able to stun both Peacekeeper and Hoffman before Leveticus activated. Hoo boy. First action point was to transfer some of Hollow Waif's essence for Yannic Waller, and then blast Peacekeeper twice with Unmaking. After he was done, Peacekeeper was down to two health remaining.

One Watcher was hugging both table edges. Warden was kind of aiding the one to the right, and Hunter was with the left one. Ashes and Dust took a walk+charge at the left Watcher, dealing just one point of damage, but scoring Like the Wind for some additional movement.

Another Catalan Rifleman landed a solid two-pointer on rightmost Watcher. Augmented saw Hard Stop Herbert rolling slightly past centerline on the right, and they were hating. Oh dear. That meme betrays my age. Anyway, he dropped a scheme there. Abomination was on the same flank, trying to figure out what to do.

Turn 2:

Augmented won initiative, and so Hoffman activated. He took a walk to get near Peacekeeper and healed it for four. 

Before Watchers would do something annoying like drop their cursed token on my models, Ashes and Dust activated and secured a strategy point for me, along with a scheme marker.

Guild Steward healed Peacekeeper back to full and removed its stun. Oh well. There's plenty more irreducible damage where it came from. To keep Peacekeeper within 3" of Hoffman for In Your Face, Yannic decided to sacrifice herself for democracy. She walked near Hoffman and blasted democratic elections, healing herself, Catalan Rifleman and Leveticus, while damaging Hoffman, Peacekeeper and Warden.

Her sacrifice was in vain, though, since Peacekeeper wanted to keep peace elsewhere. It walked, charged and flurried Marlena Webster... dead. Strategy point for Augmented. So, Leveticus would have to get within 3" of the thing, then.

I started trying to soften it up first, and Catalan Rifleman was indeed able to flip a double severe with negative modifiers. I think he also stunned somebody, perhaps Melissa. However, Mechanical Attendant took a double walk to heal Peacekeeper for a bit.

So... Leveticus walked and charged in, right on top of Marlena's corpse. He managed to flip a double severe with negative modifiers with double Necrotic Decay. Boom. Peacekeeper gone. Then he casually unmade Mechanical Attendant dead. Ew. That's all I have to say. Eww. However, Leveticus was now at four health remaining without Augmented having dealt even one point. It was all my own handiwork.

Melissa and Warden dealt with Yannic, bringing her down to one health remaining. 

Hunter was speeding towards my deployment zone.

Hard Stop Herbert pushed onward, dropped a scheme near Watcher on the right, and charged the steel pterodactyl, not doing much.

The Watcher disengaged and flew to receive cover from my remaining attacks. But Catalan Rifleman didn't shoot it - he took a double walk behind a cage, where centerline meets the table edge. Hollow Waif walked and siphoned Watcher instead, but dealing only one point of damage, so it now had just one point remaining. Unfortunately Abomination that had ran to Herbert's first scheme wasn't close enough to cover Watcher inside Entropy aura.

Hunter kept creeping towards my deployment zone, which had me believe opponent might have picked Breakthrough.

So, Amalgam got their In Your Face, but so did Augmented get their Leave Your Mark. Both got strategy points for a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

Augmented got initiative again, and decided to fly with the Watcher who had one point remaining to place a scheme.

Yannic had to activate to advocate for democracy again, giving her the sorely needed health point to get her above Hard-to-Kill threshold. Other than that she didn't do much, except drain action points from opponent. Because of Hard-to-Kill, it took both Melissa and Warden to kill her. Melissa did shoot Catalan Rifleman down to one health remaining. I wanted to try to save him, and brought Abomination in to the fray instead. Unfortunatly it was only able to get Warden within no-heal aura, but at least it took Hoffman's entire activation. Augmented got their strategy point that way. 

Either the Catalan Rifleman at one health or Hollow Waif to the right killed Watcher, scoring strategy for Amalgam.

Hunter did a scheme marker NOT in my deployment zone, so it wasn't the breakthrough I suspected. Now my guess was all spread out. 

Hard Stop Herbert climbed on top of hill to place a scheme marker, while the Catalan Rifleman hiding behind a cage did the same. Ashes and Dust dropped sixth marker.

Leveticus took a double walk out from tall grass, and charged in between Hoffman, Melissa and Warden. At the end of turn. Warden went down to one health remaining.

Guild Steward only healed Warden for a bit, and went to place a scheme marker suspiciously more than 10" away from both Watcher's scheme, and one that Hunter placed earlier this turn. 

So, Augmented got their Spread Them Out, but so did Amalgam get their Load 'Em Up. Both got strategy for a 4-4 tie.

Turn 4:

Leveticus wrecked Warden for strategy point, and dealt some damage to Melissa. As he was engaging both Melissa and Hoffman, he was quite annoyingly there, blocking interacts. And he had used Necrotic Decay to get to two health remaining, so a very juicy target indeed. Somehow Hoffman had to spend all of his action points in killing the old man, before he got teleported to Hollow Waif to the right. 

Since Melissa was now unengaged, I was worried that she might do some miraculous flips and yeet Leveticus to the Waif on the left, so Hard Stop Herbert took a point of falling damage, Onward and walk to stand in front of Leveticus. 

Melissa did indeed try after dropping a scheme marker, and dealt moderate with negative modifiers against Herbert. No blast trigger though.

Guild Steward also dropped a scheme marker and walked into position to do even more next turn. Hunter dropped a marker and went to tease Hollow Waif. Hollow Waif teased Hunter back, and tried to position so that Deadly Pursuit couldn't be used to best effect.

Ashes and Dust just kept hanging around in the enemy deployment zone.

My easiest curse token targets had been the Catalan Riflemen, but the one who had a single point of health left had started running towards bottom-right corner, and was out of reach. The other one was hiding behind the cage. Warden had carried a curse token, so Amalgam gained a narrow lead of 5-4.

Turn 5:

Melissa did the unimaginable, and walked and charged to take a shot at the Catalan Rifleman who was literally in contact with two table edges. And scored the kill. 

Opponent was able to place all and every scheme marker for Leave Your Mark and Spread Them Out without me being able to do anything to that. Ashes and Dust got In Your Face uncontested.

However, the other Catalan Rifleman took a double walk to Melissa and bonus action interacted her his own curse token. Herbert charged Melissa, but she was able to block all damage with soulstones.

So, it was Leveticus' job to deal the last remaining three wounds in. However... there was a 13 and Red Joker coming up with Sanguine Evocations, so game was pretty much decided there and then. Leveticus unmade Melissa and took a double walk to get within three scheme markers for a close 8-7 victory for Outcasts.

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Covert Operations

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Set the Trap, In Your Face, Catch and Release, Public Demonstration

My list:

Hamelin, the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Yannic Waller
Fumigator
Disease Containment Unit
Tunnel Rats
Malifaux Child

Pool: 4
Schemes: Set the Trap, Public Demonstration (Malifaux Child, DCU, Fumigator)

Opponen had:

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

Pool: 3
Schemes: Catch & Release (Illuminated), Set the Trap

Turn 1:

At least Gwyneth, Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Lynch and Tanuki were funneling though a narrow gap from the center of their deployment zone. Gwyneth had been moved around by various effects so that she was able to go to center-left strategy marker and drop a scheme marker.

Catching and Releasing Illuminated was going towards center-right strategy marker along with Hungering Darkness. Beckoner was almost hugging the table edge and running towards top-right strategy marker. Bottom-left was covered by the other Illuminated.

I realized I had not remember to hire a Malifaux Rat to my crew to do the final act of coronation. But I still carried on with the task of making enough rats to form a Rat King. 

Tunnel Rats and Fumigator placed one scheme markers and traveled towards the upper half of the board. Yannic Waller was leading the way. She took a point of burning along the way from hazardous terrain, because Fumigator and Tunnel Rats had managed to block other ways.

After placing her own scheme marker, Disease Containment Unit managed to lure a rat out of Fumigator's scheme marker with Rapid Response. 

Malifaux Child slapped the fourth marker and went to benefit from concealment from inside the tall grass. 

Nix went kind of halfway between bottom-left and center-left strategy marker. 

Hamelin took a walk forward and removed the scheme marker Gwyneth had placed, before obeying Mr. Graves to charge Tanuki. Bwahahaha. Unfortunately the little **** didn't die to fencepost-to-face.

Benny did a bunch of rats and walked on top of a hill.

Turn 2:

... and that was eight pass tokens for Ten Thunders. 

Hungering Darkness walked and charged Yannic Waller, slapping  her for severe damage. So she was at one health remaining, and burning. Fortunately democracy saved the day! Or... at least the turn. She did the elections and healed her back to two.

Beckoner went to top-right strategy marker and placed a scheme marker. Tunnel Rats did the same. 

Catch-and-releasing Illuminated walked near center-right strategy marker and tried to scintillate clouds somewhere. Benny, who was able to snatch Fast from a free scheme marker, walked within 2" of center-right marker and started shooting the Illuminated without much of a result.

Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Lynch and Gwyneth claimed the center, re-establishing a scheme marker. Lynch was able to shoot respectable damage in to Hamelin with unrespectable Derringer.

Disease Containment Unit had been slowed by Hungering Darkness, so she wasn't able to move far enough to score Public Demonstration. Malifaux Child couldn't either. 

Rats formed into Rat King and tried to get closer to action with its two actions - remaining vigor from a delicious cheese offered by Stolen.

Last Illuminated went to bottom-left strategy marker and placed a scheme marker there.

Fumigator and Nix went to place required markers for Set the Trap. Hamelin obeyed Disease Containment Unit and Malifaux Child near Jakob Lynch. 

Outcasts managed to get both of their schemes, and claimed top-right strategy marker. Opponent took center-left, which seemed to be a hotspot to contest.

Scorest went 3-1 in favor or Hamelin.

Turn 3:

Since there was no tanukis nearby, Mr. Graves applied fencepost to Malifaux Child for lethal results. 

Rat King wanted to avenge the boy, and did get three attacks out to Mr. Graves, bringing him down to one health remaining. But Tanuki cheered him up above Hard-to-Kill threshold.

Benny Wolcomb went fast again and charged Illuminated that was holding center-right strategy marker. My intent was to kill the thing and claim that marker, but Benny did only like two points of damage. Tunnel Rats teleported nearby and tried to shoot the Illuminated with trench gun, without much of a result. Irony here was that I essentially offered Ten Thunders their Catch & Release this way. Oh well.

Yannic Waller managed to activate before Hungering Darkness, and used the power of democracy to survive for yet another turn. Hungering Darkness did bring her back down to one health remaining, though, and she still had burning. Fumigator had to assist that away for her not to die.

Gwyneth had done quite the move. She managed to call Hamelin, Disease Containment Unit and Rat King to play at her table - Hamelin being far from Stolen now, with only five or seven health remaining. I think she did some additional damage in to Plague master, so not only one but two Stolen had to walk close by. But even so, Hamelin decided to ditch the situation and went  outside of Boring Conversation range. He obeyed already activated bottom-left Illuminated away from strategy marker, and tried to remove scheme marker from under Gwyneth Maddox, failing at that. 

Nix walked in front of Hamelin to act as a bodyguard. 

Lynch went to place a scheme near Benny. 

Beckoner claimed top-right strategy marker, I claimed center-left. Ten Thunders got their Set the Trap, but also Catch and Release from Benny's voluntary embrace. 

Scores evened out to 4-4 tie.

Turn 4:

...and then everybody died. Hungering Darkness finally killed Yannic. Benny and Tunnel Rats were able to catch and release Illuminated from his life, thus denying a point.

Gwyneth and Mr. Graves killed Disease Containment Unit and Rat King. Hamelin obeyed Mr. Graves to raise Tanuki to fencepost. I think Mr. Graves actually passed the resist, he just obeyed Hamelin out of his own volition. However, Tanuki didn't die. Instead, Tanuki was obeyed to swing at Mr. Graves who was at one health remaining. Unfortunately Tanuki missed, too.

It was probably Nix that then was able to kill Mr. Graves, but not finish Tanuki.

Ten Thunders claimed bottom-left marker, Outcasts center-right for a 5-5 tie.

Turn 5:

Hungering Darkness and Lynch were able to kill my last public demonstrator, so that was a point off from me.

Tunnel Rats were able to teleport behind Lynch and drop a scheme with trigger, and charge him to engage. Mr. Tannen had come to center-right strategy to perhaps claim it, but Nix was obeyed to engage him.

Hamelin was able to walk and disengage to bottom-left strategy marker to claim it.

Game looked very much like a stalemate, as Lynch had a scheme marker next to Benny who was at less than half health remaining. He had already tried to injure Lynch down to half health remaining.

... and once again, rude, spitting kids won me the game. He started throwing up at Lynch from top of a hill, missing with first attack, but landing a solid (ew...) three points in with his last attack. Lynch was not at half of his health remaining.

It was a close fought 7-6 game in favor of Outcasts. 

Rematch

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal. Based on the earlier experiences of players in question, Jack Daw1 & Hoffman1 is a rough, rough match-up for Augmented. We wondered if the ruthless Wardens would be able to bring any solace for that, and this is that game.

Strategy: Flank Corrupted Ley Lines

Schemes: Claim Jump, Sabotage, Catch and Release, Runic Binding, Spread Them Out

My list was:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor with Servant of Dark Powers
Jaakuna Ubume
The Ferryman
Hanged
Crooked Man
Guilty

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

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa KORE
Guardian
2x Warden
Watcher
Medical Automaton

Pool: 5
Schemes:

Turn 1:

Montresor heralded himself within about 6" of the center point, and the lodestone was loaded up on Ferryman. Guild had it on Watcher.

I hesitated to come in view of Augmented arsenal in the middle, so I tried to delay activating anything on top. This meant Lady Ligeia creeping behind the house, and Guilty plus Ferryman going to bottom-left strategy marker to tag it. 

Opponent was playing the same game as I did, so in the end I had to open up the middle. Jack Daw sped through the house and landed Curse of Injustice on a Warden that had taken position four or five inches below the center point. He was then able to push the bot to strategy marker at the center. 

Jaakuna walked to lure Crooked Man a little away from my deployment, and Montresor was cursed to watch how Crooked Man would take another step closer to centerline.

Hanged cursed Guardian with forbidden knowledge.

Hoffman had pulsed power tokens all around him, and took a double walk closer to center. He gave Guardian Fast. While Hoffman's position looked nice for some staggering shenanigans, Guardian entered the fray soon enough. Threat saturation just got real with only two models involved.

Guardian removed Hanged's upgrade, and Mechanical Attendant tried to fix its mental scars from forbidden knowledge. But a blowtorch can only do so much in a case like that, and only one damage was removed. 

Fortunately Montresor was able to stagger Hoffman, and Melissa missed her shot against Montresor anyway. 

The other Warden was going towards top-right strategy marker, and finally when Crooked Man activated, he first tried to use Earthquake on the bunch of models at the middle. Failing that, he charged Warden and scraped the paint off of the machine. Malifaux Mining Law got passed, with a scheme marker to boot.

Joss was approaching Guilty and Ferryman south to the biggest house on board, and that was turn one.

Turn 2:

Hoffman overcharged Guardian again, but only charged Hanged. This resulted in a loss of soulstone, as while the other attack failed with Black Joker, second attack compensated by delivering in a severe. After damage block Hanged was left with five health remaining.

I got a little worried about my Catch and Release as a whole, so Jaakuna Ubume activated, lured Hanged away and walked to protect Montresor with Drowning Aura.

But then Melissa activated and shot a weak damage on Jaakuna, followed by second shot with cheated Red Joker on damage flip. So she disappeared.

After such a display I didn't want to see that greatsword hacking on Montresor, so Jack Daw spent two activations landing Curse of Injustice on Guardian before charging in. 

Unfortunately, though, Guardian was not yet staggered, so Mechanical Attendant was able to repair it for a couple of damage points and push it into melee with Montresor. 

Montresor didn't have much other choice than to walk into melee with the Guardian, stagger it with melee attack and asphyxiate Hoffman, Warden and Guardian. 

Medical Automaton rushed to center to offer some healing starbucks oil for Augmented models around. 

But now there was an unhealthy amount of robots in the middle, and Lady Ligeia appeared to shout at them. And shout she did, also staggering Medical Automaton. 

Ferryman also ran to hug the center marker and succeeded in marking Guardian with no-heals for this turn. That starbucks just wasn't delicious enough to heal. I suppose things taste somewhat more bland when you're suffocating. Anyway. Guardian then smacked Montresor. And a damage flip was second black joker in a turn. The one attack that did hit landed a moderate au naturel, so that could have been far worse for me for sure. Even damage block came up as a severe.

Warden on top injured Crooked Man slightly, and the other Warden tried to knock away Ferryman from center objective, but didn't score any hits. Crooked Man tried earthquaking Mv 2 Hoffman, but he was protected by the selfless Mechanical Attendant, who also became staggered.

Hanged walked and charged Hoffman for Catch and Release, and Joss did a hasty reposition towards center. Watcher fluttered to tag the center.

First turn ended with a 2-1 lead for Resurrectionists. Although no robots had been wrecked yet from Augmented crew, situation did appear rather grimy for Guild. In regards to Montresor's auras, Augmented had just about the worst possible arrangement there could be. 

Turn 3:

Jack Daw got the initiative, and Hanged decided to pull out of melee to protect a scheme point. It offered some more forbidden knowledge with masks for Warden on top-right quarter and took a couple of swings the the thing. First one missed, but second one dealt double severe despite negative modifiers.

This left Hoffman free to charge Montresor, and sure enough Charles was able to pound Montresor down to one health remaining. This forced Montresor to activate before it was too late. He did a whopping five points of damage with bonus action. He also gave a walk for Crooked Man and did a point or two of damage in to Guardian. 

Guardian procced Montresor's demise, but more importantly, knocked the already activated henchman 4" away from other staggered models that were down to one or two health remaining. 

Jack Daw activated next, took a walk to get within 6" of Crooked Man and tossed the lodestone for Crooked Man. With last action he dismantled Medical Automaton with dead man's collar. After that I thought I needed more cards than suffocation aura as the affair with Montresor had been resource intensive, so Jack Daw used Fickle Tormentor.

Mechanical Attendant healed Guardian before I got to apply the final few points of damage. Remaining turn devolved into bashing the other Warden who was giggling with one hit point remaining. First Warden tried to kill itself by attacking Ferryman, failing at that. Then Ferryman gave Catch of the Day for Melissa and tried to kill Warden, failing at that. Lady Ligeia concentrated real hard and tried to yell Warden, who was still at one hit point remaining, down. Failing. At. That.

Eventually Crooked Man managed to quake the Warden dead before dropping a scheme marker with bonus and going to tag top-right quarter. Sheesh.

Joss charged Ferryman and did five points of damage through armor. Fortunately the second attack missed. Melissa also failed to dispatch Lady Ligeia. 

Guilty continued to spam scheme markers, and Watcher disengaged from Ferryman - only to engage Jack Daw. 

Scores went to 3-3, when both players scored strategy, but Guild also got their Catch and Release with Watcher.

Turn 4:

Although Guild survived last turn far better than how it looked like, it took only a few activations for us to call it a game. Ferryman activated first and flailed uselessly around. He did manage to land Mark of Vengeance on Watcher, though.

Watcher then disengaged from Jack Daw and flew to top-left quarter to tag strategy marker, but the poor bird was now with one hit point remaining. 

Montresor activated and did not Black Joker his bonus action, so the Watcher died. 

That was when we ended. Outcasts had pretty much secured six points at that point, while Guild would at most get five. 

Joss and two Wardens couldn't get their Ruthless to bear all that much throughout the game, so maybe this game was inconclusive when it comes to our little test. But needless to say, Jack Daw is still a rough, rough matchup for Hoffman.

Handshake Against Torment

 Two 50ss games of Malifaux. These were played over a week ago during my Kuhmo visit, so details are likely gone from my memory. Both players were slowly getting a tad tired of Gaining Grounds 4, so we shook things up a little by playing gg1 strategies.

Game 1:

Strategy: Corner Public Enemies

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Research Mission, Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Claim Jump

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Kari Zotiko
Jaakuna Ubume
The Ferryman
Lost Love
2x Drowned
2x Seishin

Pool: 6
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Breakthrough

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa K.
Peacekeeper
Guild Steward
Guardian
Hunter
Watcher

Pool: 5
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Ferryman), Claim Jump (Peacekeeper)

Turn 1:

Scenario was such a killy one, but corner deployment made the first round mostly about closing in. Early on Hoffman have Fast to Peacekeeper, which made me a cautious. I overdid my defenses, slapping Twisting Mist for Jaakuna Ubume. Concealed Serene Countenance model should survive most shooting opponent might have at me. 

Sure enough, round boiled down with Peacekeeper running so close to center point that I was kind of scared of next turn. Ferryman and Kari were near enough to charge.

Kirai tries to save the day by summoning a Goryo that manages to charge Peacekeeper and land Adversary on it. 

All of my crew was coming from bottom-left quarter except for Ikiryo, who was hiding behind a dwarven house to perhaps launch a Lost Love to enemy deployment zone next turn.

Entirety of Augmented pretty much mirrored my movements, too, when all but Hunter were closing in from top-right quarter, sans Hunter that was hiding from Ikiryo on the opposite side of dwarven house.

 

Turn 2:

Hoffman activates first, gives Fast to Peacekeeper and punches Goryo off the board while also getting bounty tokens. Perhaps Kirai would have to reconsider her summonings, as giving enemy free points like that hurts.

But something would have to hold up Fast Peacekeeper. Kirai summoned an Onryo for the job. However, she was dubious about a single five point minion holding up a buffed up 10 point enforcer, so Kirai went into hiding.

Fortunately Onryo gave hard time for Augmented. Melissa didn't land even a single hit, so Peacekeeper had to kill Onryo before moving suspiciously close to center point. 

One of the Drowned managed to distract and poison Peacekeeper a little, while the other charged at the thing. Would I have to rush my models against the thing piecemeal, one by one?  How about my bounty tokens?

Well, Jaakuna Ubume charged Hunter so that it wouldn't go to engage Ikiryo. She did the drowning aura. Hunter was in for some bad time, as every action it failed gave a point of damage, and every attack that actually hit would deal two. It nearly scrapped itself in trying to remove Jaakuna. It did well enough, so Kari had to heal Jaakuna with her entire activation.

And then Guardian came to swing the greatsword at Jaakuna. She survived, and had caused seven or eight points of damage via vengeance and drowning aura in total.

Desperately trying to get bounties to score, Ferryman tried to wreck the Hunter. Ferryman managed to claw only a couple of damage points, which left Hunter with two. Looked like Ikiryo would have to delay her proceedings to not lose points from this round.

Lost Love teleported to Ikiryo and gave her Fast with a trigger. He tried to heal the damage he had caused, but didn't get it quite right. 

Ikiryo projected voice over Hunter. She had Focus +1 from last turn, and used that to get through friendly fire - and scored a severe wound! Yay, two bounty tokens and two action points to get as far from the action as possible. 

Both players scored strategy, but no schemes were revealed. It was a 1-1 tie, but situation on board looked miserable from my point of view.

Turn 3:

Jaakuna was able to activate to put up her drowning aura. This combination continued to plink and plonk Guardian, until Guardian halved Jaakuna. Before opponent would bring in the heals, Kari charged Hoffman to get Peacekeeper and Guardian within no-heal aura. This was a high risk move so early in turn, but I might be able to score Let Them Bleed this way.

And surely enough, Kari spent most of my soulstones. Lost Love had to teleport in to double-heal Kari, and so did Kirai. Without the teleport, of course. But, in the end phase, Kari was all alive and well. Same could not be said about Guardian and Peacekeeper that had been hitting themselves for quite a while. 

As situation in the middle had devolved into a gigantic melee, Ikiryo was able to walk and plant a scheme for Breakthrough. Yay. Kari had survived to give me Let Them Bleed. But no robots were dismantled this turn, while opponent had plenty enough bounties. 

Opponent did no reveals, so Urami took the lead with 3-2.

Turn 4:

Ikiryo and Lost Love went to spam scheme markers to enemy corner, so they were out of action.

And in the middle... uh. Huh. 

Kari died, which put heals back on the menu for Augmented. I needed to hurry to get kills. Guardian went down easily enough, but unfortunately that meant that Hoffman and Tanuki doubled up on heals for Peacekeeper. 

Drowned kept putting dents into Peacekeeper, and another Drowned charged Melissa, who was also near the middle by now. 

Opponent needed four tokens for a victory point, which wasn't available. Kirai had managed to kill Guardian and Watcher, so that was the three bounties required for a point. Scores went 4-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Opponent had a chance for a difficult draw. We played until it became impossible to achieve.

And the only proper way to get at that was to punch some damage in to Tanuki after it had activated. Let Them Bleed was secured. Breakthrough was, too. 

Oh, but Guild can't have Tanuki's, you say? Okay, okay, Guild Steward, then. Anyway.

Opponent also got both of their scheme end conditions for a 6-4 victory for Kirai. 

Game 2:

Strategy: Wedge Symbols of Authority

Schemes: Sabotage, Spread Them Out, Vendetta, Take Prisoner, Runic Binding

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Ferryman
Malifaux Child
2x Hanged
2x Guilty

Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Runic Binding

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Soul Battery
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Illuminated
Beckoner
Tanuki

Pool: 6
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Ferryman), Sabotage (Fallen arch in bottom-left quarter)

Turn 1:

We were playing Wedge from left to right. 

I had two strike teams of Guilty and Hanged attempting to flank. Oh, and Malifaux Child, too, was flanken' at the bottom. Oh yeah. All the kid did was to pull Kitty Dumont to center line. What's this? This is no McCabe? Surely Lynch would not take children as prisoners?

Montresor, Lady Ligeia and Jack Daw guard one symbol of authority near my wedge corner. Montresor gives Ferryman a walk, so it was able to either go charge Kitty Dumont, or place first marker for my schemes. It decided to interact while still able. 

I don't remember who or what shot a severe damage to Ferryman. It was probably Lynch with his derringer. Suddenly no access to Kari's heals... felt. 

Hungering Darkness went to harass my second Guilty/Hanged team on top, but there were no exchanges just yet. 

Turn 2:

Ferryman charged into the thick of Honeypot crew. It dropped a second scheme marker. However, that half of a boat had been adept with flipping ones, and had somehow ended up with at least five brilliance tokens. A couple of damage points here and there, and Ferryman was looking at a real possibility of developing a crippling drug habit.

And surely enough, Jakob Lynch offered the figurehead a free sample. The undead mermaid shook off the ropes, descended down from the front and started doing brilliance right there. Lynch had convinced her to become Honeypot's new Beckoner. 

Jack Daw goes to place a third scheme marker for Runic Binding, and charged Mr. Graves. As a move it was... less than ideal because of Black Blood. But I needed Jack to stand on top of the scheme marker so that the multitude of as of yet unactivated models would not just go and pick it up. 

Montresor was in range to perma-stagger Mr. Graves. Lady Ligeia made a shout at Mr. Tannen, bursting the little man's ears with a shriek. Shriek blasted a nearby Beckoner, staggering her too. 

Guilty and Hanged below tried to engage and hold up people near the wreckage of Ferryman.Before Soul Battery had activated, Hanged gave him the psychotic upgrade when opponent no longer had any cards in hand. That was a 3" push towards the triangle of Runic Binding.

Jack Daw's valiant sacrifice paid off, but he wasn't in a good shape at all. This lead to a weird move by me. Guilty on top had charged Hungering Darkness to tie it up. Hungering Darkness didn't do too much damage, so Hanged gave the Forbidden Knowledge for Guilty and teleported next to it. Then he hit Guilty with the noose and walked away, healing Jack Daw for one. 

Beckoner, Mr. Tannen and Jakob Lynch in close proximity are a terrible bubble for Jack to be in. 

But, at least I scored Runic Binding, while opponent got nothing. A 1-0 lead for Tormented.

Oh, Malifaux Child had disengaged from Kitty, hopefully activating soon enough next turn to drop a scheme marker, until Kitty comes to claim the prisoner.

Turn 3:

Shock! Taking kids as prisoners is McCabe's business indeed. Kitty just went to drop a scheme marker to sabotage target. Malifaux Child walked and dropped a scheme marker. 

Shock and awe! Illuminated kills Guilty, Hungering Darkness kills Guilty. I'm not sure if I have ever had eight card hand, but next turn I would.

Shock and horror! After draining pretty much every resource at my disposal, Lynch is able to give Jack Daw a firm handshake. I suppose that's what Jack Daw's tormented spirit was looking for, because he disappeared after the fact. 

Montresor and Lady Ligeia are able to finish off Mr. Graves. 

Hanged on top places a scheme and walks towards the unknown.

The ultimate shock!

At the end of turn three, scores were still 1-0. Has it ever been so before? Not going to check, but it must be about as rare as having scores of 4-4 at the end of second turn.

Turn 4:

Hungering Darkness goes to pick up first ever Symbol of Authority. 

Hanged on top and kid below continue to walk and drop schemes. 

Montresor could have dropped a scheme marker and charged on top of it, trying to kill Mr. Tannen. But instead I chose violence, trying to remove Mr. Tannen with two attacks. Reason was Hanged below that had managed to drop two scheme markers next to Illuminated with lucky triggers. 

Too bad that Lynch turned Hanged into another Beckoner. Thus, Illuminated had all the time in the world to remove both scheme markers with just one action.

What a mess. I didn't get a point this turn, but fortunately opponent wasn't going that strong either. Perhaps because they had already killed their chosen prisoner. But, Ten Thunders took the lead at 2-1, when they finally had enough markers for Sabotage.

Turn 5:

Hopeless turn. Hopeless game.

Somehow I had failed in my scheme marker placement in such a way that I had the capability to get Spread Them Out or a strategy marker, but not both.

Two points for me throughout the game. Woohoo.

Kitty was able to pick up a strategy marker, and also go to place the required scheme marker for sabotage end condition.

A clear 4-2 victory for Jakob Lynch. And let me say, he deserved it. He killed Ferryman, Jack Daw and Hanged, plus managed to summon ten stones worth of extra models.

Jakob Lynch 1 is my #1 opponent in play count, and out of all of my masters that has played a game against him, Jack Daw1 is the only one that hasn't scored even a single victory. And this was third such game. 

But I guess black blood and all those cheat auras count for something if I have to park Jack Daw in the range of every one of them.

Planting Daggers

Two summer games of Malifaux in the pine woods of Kuhmo, both were 50ss. 

Strategy: Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: In Your Face, Death Beds, Sweating Bullets, Power Ritual, Espionage

My list:

Ensouled Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Kari Zotiko
Midnight Stalker
Auguste Hart
Hanged
Prospector
2x Guilty

Pool: 3
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Hanged), Espionage

Opponent had:

Dark Bet Lynch & Hungriest Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Kara
Soul Battery
2x Illuminated
Tanuki

Pool: 3
Schemes: Sweating Bullets (Gwyneth), In Your Face

Turn 1:

So, now with the new henchman in my possession, I wanted to try how Montresor-less Jack Daw would fare. What madness is this?! Why do I torment myself so?

Since scheme pool had Power Ritual, I remembered to bluff it - top left Midnight Stalker, and bottom-left Prospector. 

Top looked somewhat problematic, when there was pretty much only a Guilty and Midnight Stalker there, all of whom had explosive tokens. Against them, there was Mr. Graves and an Illuminated. So, Auguste had rather unpleasant job of running to engage Mr. Graves. 

Once the second Illuminated committed to center after Lynch had activated his aura, Jack Daw walked and charged the Illuminated. He managed to land the hazardous upgrade and even deal four points of damage in hopes of luring Hungering Darkness in the middle for Hanged to score Sweating Bullets.

That plan failed miserably, because Hungering Darkness did a full run & charge maneuver right to Hanged, who had already activated and whispered forbidden upgrades for Jakob. Otherwise good, I guess, but Hanged wasn't within 6" of center point. 

Fortunately Kari Zotiko was able to come and heal the damage Hungering Darkness had caused, and whistle a walk for Hanged.

Kara was approaching from the bottom-right, and Gwyneth and gone to center, staying just outside of hazardous aura of middle Illuminated. 

Tanuki was supporting middle, and Soul Battery was with Mr. Graves and Illuminated on top.

Turn 2:

Hungering Darkness began to beat the snot out of Hanged, which was easier said than done. Damage blocks were plentiful, and after three attacks that all hit, Hanged had taken only two points of damage in. But, as it was my Sweating Bulleteer, I could not risk it. Kari activated, charged Hungering Darkness for severe damage, and healed Hanged back to full, with complementary Concealment from the heal action.

But opponent just wouldn't leave it at that! Lynch activated, walked and charged Hanged, but damage was blocked. Although first Illuminated had to deal with her anger issues, just walking around and concentrating hard.

In the center, Gwyneth walked past the wall and charged Jack Daw, dealing a couple points of damage.

Lady Ligeia had exposed herself by walking into middle. Jack Daw healed Hanged for a bit, bought Masks and attacked Illuminated, pushing himself within 4" of Illuminated, Lynch, Gwyneth and Hungering Darkness. It's a shame I did not buy Rams for the upcoming Draw Them In, as Hungering Darkness, Lynch and Illuminated all failed the Mv checks. 

On top, Illuminated and Guilty went to place a strategy markers while Midnight Stalker did his thing, placing scheme on the centerline and speeding towards opponents deployment. 

Auguste was able to slap five points of damage in to Mr. Graves despite negative fate modifiers. Tanuki had to patch up the bouncer as best as it could before Mr. Graves missed all of his attacks. 

Bottom, Kara walked and tried to pounce on Kari. She failed, and instead charged Prospector, missing the attack completely. 

The round felt... wrong, because of the disparity of our flips. I scored severe and moderate damages with negative modifiers, blocked damage with severes and moderates and at least connected pretty much every attack I made. 

Opponent, on the other hand, missed every attack of Mr. Graves, Kara and Gwyneth, and half of Lynchs' attack as well. When he dealt damage, it was minimum or black joker. 

However, it's rare to see this uniform lines in Malifaux. All but perhaps one model fits inside a 4" or 5" wide corridor. 

Both players scored strategy, and Outcasts got Sweating Bullets for a 2-1 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 3:

From top to bottom, Midnight Stalker was able to place a strategy marker and a scheme marker inside opponent's deployment area. With absurd damage flips, Guilty was able to kill the uninjured Illuminated that had placed a strategy marker last turn.

Auguste tickled Mr. Graves down to two health remaining. Tanuki failed to heal the bouncer, but did manage to remove Distracted. And finally Mr. Graves had had enough of chasing ghosts, and offered a deep dive interview to Auguste from his fencepost. Auguste died in two hits. Another Guilty charged Mr. Graves, bringing him down to one health remaining. Unfortunately Soul Battery was there to bring Mr. Graves over the Hard-to.Kill threshold before sacrificing himself for two soulstones.

In the center, hot damn I had not realized how awesome counter Kari or even Hanged's heal reduction aura is to Luck Thief! Hanged had activated early to activate his aura, so both Gwyneth and Lynch we vulnerable now like never before. 

Illuminated was able to heal herself a bit and steam off her anger issues with focused concentration. 

Jack Daw used all of his actions to kill Lynch. He might have had some actions to spare if he didn't have to cheat to succeed at Draw Them In, with the brilliance gained from that pushing him out of range from Gwyneth and Hungering Darkness. Final blow came from Unquiet Soul. 

Hungering Darkness considered Kari an easier prey than Hanged, but the attacks dealt in only weaks. Kari activated and healed herself, plus tried to smack the henchman leader for a bit now that it wasn't able to heal.

Prospector pushed himself out of melee, walked to centerline and dropped a scheme marker after Kara had missed all attacks against him.

So that was a second unfortunate turn for Ten Thunders in a row.  

Outcasts scored strategy and Espionage, while Ten Thunders got Sweating Bullets with Gwyneth for a 4-2 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 4:

Mr. Graves survived against all odds, but at least Tanuki died against all odds. Jack Daw finally got his Guilt of the Many train running. Tanuki had to pay for the sins of everyone involved. Mr. Graves dropped an explosive, as did Kara. Lucky Guilty from last turn was able to pick up strategy marker that an Illuminated had left.

Hungering Darkness had been unlucky thus far in its attacks, but that all changed this turn when it was able to kill Kari and use its heal action before Hanged had activated Entropic Curse. Oh well. I was not in a position to complain. 

Midnight Stalker spawned all of his remaining strategy marker and scheme markers without anyone able to contest. 

In the middle Gwyneth took small steps in getting closer to my deployment zone for In Your Face end condition, and Illuminated tried all it might on removing Lady Ligeia - but Lady didn't even flinch. 

Outcasts scored strategy, and so did Ten Thunders with In Your Face to boot for a 5-4 lead for Jack Daw.

Turn 5:

As it was such a struggle for Ten Thunders, we did not play until the very end. When Jack Daw removed opponent's third strategy marker, it was about 7-5 game over for Jakob. 

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Ensnare, Protected Territory, Outflank, Espionage

My list:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Hans with Wanted Criminal
Tunnel Rats
Rat Catcher
Winged Plague
Malifaux Rat

Pool: 6
Schemes: Protected Territory, Espionage

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa
Peacekeeper
Hunter
Medical Automaton
2x Watcher

Pool: 2
Schemes: Protected Territory, Ensnare

Turn 1:

Nix and Rat Catcher placed required scheme markers for Benny, and Hamelin obeyed Rat Catcher to do that again.

Hamelin was able to obey a Hunter back to enemy deployment zone. 

Supercharged Peacekeeper, however, was a bit of a problem. It hit with harpoon gun and moved plague master to a distressing position behind a wall, with closest models being the Peacekeeper and already activated Hoffman. 

Benny conjured up some rats and walked forward to perhaps save Hamelin next turn. Hired Malifaux Rat formed the Rat King. 

Both augmented Watchers speeded towards strategy markers nearest to outflank corners, so I thought opponent might have that scheme. Hans brandished his clockwork rifle and took aim - missing the bat completely.

Winged PLague had placed an Espionage scheme to my deployment zone, and Tunnel Rats were inside a fog bank and near blocking terrain to mayhaps leap to score schemes next turn.

Guild had Melissa and Hunter flankin from top, Joss from below center and the big guys with supporting models in the middle, enjoying the fiddling performance Hamelin was putting out for them dangerously close.

Turn 2:

Sure enough, the Watchers placed scheme markers and interacted with strategy markers in both corners, but more akin to Protected Territory. So I wouldn't be able to deny them point this turn in any feasible way, but Hans shot the one on top-right corner anyway. This time he scored a hit, but didn't drop a scrap marker on board.

Joss was such a terrifying Nix-killer that the Rat King just ran to block Joss' charge lane to the good boy. With 0" melee range Rat King wasn't in reach to declare a charge. Joss was content on beating up the three kids in a trenchcoat, but landed only two points of damage.

Center saw some odd action. Hoffman overcharged Peacekeeper once more, walked closer and attacked Hamelin with enhanced blowtorch, setting the piper's cape in flames. 

That was not enough to stop him from piping, though. First he stunned Peacekeeper with Piper's Influence, and then obeyed it away with 2" push and 4" walk, behind Medical Automaton so that at least one action would be wasted on a walk. He also obeyed Nix to walk a little forward behind a strategy marker and Rat King. He also obeyed Rat Catcher forward.

Medical Automaton attacked Peacekeeper to use Bedside Manner - it never occurred to me that it is possible to use the ability this way, too - to place it in front of it. The bot also removed Stunned, so Hamelin was in deep trouble.

Benny sacrificed himself and walked and charged Peacekeeper. And even after four attacks, Benny was still standing with three health to boot! Although that was mostly due to one damage block being Red Joker. 

Hunter also spent its entire activation shooting Benny, bringing him down to one health and depleting all of Plague's soulstones. Two surprise shots by Mechanical Attendant later Benny was gone. Might have been the noblest thing he ever did in his life.

Nix had activated Loose Bowels, interacted an intel and placed a scheme marker on the centerline for Espionage. 

Throughout the turn toll on my hand had been heavy, and in an attempt to save Benny I had cheated every 8+ card from my hand. I needed more to secure scheme points this turn.

So, a Stolen walked forward and spat at something before splitting into two rats. Another Stolen, then, charged one of those rats and managed to kill it for a card draw. A three. Not good. So, despite Hamelin being in such a precarious position, second Stolen used Inevitable Fate and became two rats. And YES. It was no more and no less than the exact eight needed. Unfortunately not Crows, but that would have to do.

After Melissa had shot Winged Plague dead that had flown into a cloud to get intel, Tunnel Rats used their teleports action and failed the check. Two kids, your sacrifices were not in vain. Tunnel Rats teleported to Guild deployment zone to place a scheme. Rat Catcher went to place a second marker to center line.

Phew. What a turn. Both players scored strategy, and Espionage for Plague, Protected Territory for Guild. It was a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

Hoffman overcharged Peacekeeper, walked past the wall in middle and charged Hamelin. He only had five health remaining for now, so he had to figure out whether his life was worth a thing in this situation. Unfortunately he decided it was, so he obeyed Peacekeeper to charge Mechanical Attendant and stunned Peacekeeper afterwards. He obeyed Rat King within 0" of Joss and walked so that Peacekeeper would not be able to melee him. 

This... was not good, after all. Peacekeeper decided to ditch the effort and go after Tunnel Rats. Luckily enough the Rats survived, but only with three health remaining. Some combination of a Hunter and Melissa removed this super important model from me. 

Before all this happened, though, I had tried to block Peacekeeper's movement with Malifaux Rats, but there were only two of them. Medical Automaton and Mechanical Attendant were plenty enough to remove those. 

At least opponent had used good cards in accomplishing all of that, so Joss had to beat Rat King with no cards, and he had also been slowed by Rat King's ability. No damage to Plague, but Rat King landed three hits on Joss. Nix also charged the henchman to get within interaction range of a strategy marker, but failed to kill Joss. However, he was seriously injured and would have to go down next turn.

Hans didn't do anything of note, and even the Watcher he had damaged last turn was able to hide behind a dense cloud. Why am I paying this guy?

Plague was struggling with strategy markers, and were not able to score strategy this turn. But Guild had no such problems thanks to Hans' magnificent performance. Scores went to 3-2 lead for Guild.

Turn 4:

Hans scored his first kill and second damage instance in the game by shooting down the Watcher at bottom-left corner. Not during his own activation, no. He had to be OBEYED to do that.

Rat King nibbled Joss dead with just one bite, and thus had a chance to aid in scoring Protected Territory next turn. 

Nix picked up Intel and moved along with the strategy marker.

Hamelin had disengaged by stunning Hoffman into a hazardous marker, obeyed Hans and likely also gave an attack for Rat King before it had killed Joss.

Rat Catcher picked up intel and tried to place itself behind Melissa so that Hunter would not get a clear shot at him. Unfortunately Peacekeeper was able to get a lane to charge him, that meant no points for me this turn from strategy.

Thanks to Hans, or should we say Hamelin, neither did opponent. He was able to collect two intel this turn because he had been so busy with killing my models. 

Painstakingly opponent spawned scheme markers in the middle with Hoffman and Medical Automaton. I didn't think much of it as I had completely forgotten there was Ensnare in the pool. Looking at the picture now it's... kind of obvious, isn't it?

However, Hamelin had already activated, so points stayed at 3-2.

Turn 5:

It's turn five, and Hans scored his first OWN kill in the game by shooting top-right Watcher dead. This actually had an effect in the game as because of activation orders, Guild just could not get three intel this turn either. But neither did Outcasts, as Mechanical Attendant came to steal the intel Nix had.

Hamelin obeyed Nix to interact a scheme marker into enemy deployment, and that's when opponent scored Ensnare.

Melissa went to secure Protected Territory end condition, and Medical Automaton placed a scheme marker that was hugged by Hoffman.

Rat King walked to place a scheme marker deep in the enemy table side, and Nix charged right past Mechanical attendant to place a second scheme for Protected Territory whatever condition.

Scores went to 5-4 victory for Guild.

Stuff the Daggers

Two 50ss games of Malifaux

Strategy: Flank Cloak and Dagger

Schemes: Ensnare, Death Beds, Take Prisoner, Protected Territory, Outflank

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
2x Shikome
Gwisin
Drowned
Enslaved Spirit
Seishin

Pool: 5
Schemes: Protected Territory, Take Prisoner (Hunter!!!)
Thread: Wicked Whisper objective 2

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Melissa
Guardian
Hunter
Medical Automaton
2x Watcher

Pool: 3
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Shikome), Outflank
Thread: Badges and Blades objective 2

Turn 1:

There was a big enough building complex on Urami side to act as a dividing element even for incorporeal keyword. 

A Shikome was aided by Seishin to go and pick first intel in the bottom-right corner of board. A Hunter walked closer to the same strategy marker and attempted to shoot Drowned. A Watcher also took a double walk towards bottom-right corner.

Guardian had tossed another Watcher towards top-left corner, which certainly awoke a suspicion in me that opponent might be trying to outflank my crew. Before the Watcher had been able to activate, Shikome tried to walk and charge it without much of an effect. Watcher was able to disengage and approach top-left corner.

Melissa repositioned from right to left and run & gunned Gwisin, and did so hard. Lost Love had to teleport in for heals. Thus, Gwisin, Ikiryo, Lost Love and Enslaved Spirit were holding the center-left against Guardian, Melissa, Mechanical Attendant and Hoffman. 

Center-right, past the building and closes to Nia marker, was Seishin, Datsue Ba, Drowned, Kirai and even a summoned Goryo were holding the area against Joss and Medical Automaton. Drowned and Goryo managed to severely injure Joss. Red Joker on damage and Black Joker in damage block is... harsh.

Turn 2:

Well... that didn't go as planned. 

Melissa runned and gunned Shikome down to one health remaining. Fortunately there were not that many threats around for her if she stayed in place. So, she picked up intel and placed a scheme marker while being guarded by Gwisin. Had she charged Watcher in the corner, chances are she might have been taken down. 

Guardian beat Ikiryo down before she was able to activate, and Mechanical Attendant grabbed a point of intel. So, pretty much just like that my left side game collapsed. Sure, I brought Enslaved Spirit to engage Guardian, but, ech.

Another Shikome dropped a scheme marker and took a flight as far from Watcher and Hunter as possible. And fortunately enough, Hunter went to participate in the fight in the middle near Nia marker, and Watcher went to place scheme to bottom-right corner.

Medical Automaton healed Joss as much as possible. And with Joss's death now out of reach, Goryo that had been summoned last turn decided to rather take down Medical Automaton. 

Hoffman changed course and went to middle, and removed summoned Goryo from equation. However, soon enough another one was summoned. Drowned, the new Goryo, Kirai and even Datsue Ba's judgement tried to kill Joss, but they couldn't quite do it. At least it drained Guild's soulstones. 

Lost Love teleported to Datsue Ba and went to place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. 

This turn I realized what a grave mistake I had done when I picked Hunter as my Take Prisoner target. 

Points, however, went: Strategy, Nia and Protected Territory for Resurrectionists, strategy and Outflank for Guild for a 3-2 lead for Kirai.

Turn 3:

I lost initiative, and tried to place Nia so far from action that opponent would have to act suboptimally to score Nia this turn.

Hoffman had to waste an action to walk within 3" of Nia, and I was happy to see that Goryo wouldn't die just yet. However, Mechanical Automaton was able to score the kill with surprise shot. What a surprise!

Drowned died, but so did Joss. After various summons and turns spent next to Nia, Kirai had fallen down to five health remaining or so. So, after killing Joss and summoning Ikiryo, she went as far back as possible behind a fountain.

Hunter took an intel and backed off as far as possible. It would be annoying, difficult even, to catch Hunter as a prisoner with incorporeal models because of Deadly Pursuit.

So this is what it took: Datsue Ba ran and charged behind Hunter. Non-incorporeal Lost Love teleported in such a manner that opponent would have to pursuit into severe terrain. That, however, would still not be enough. I tried to move Shikome as close as possible, but I still thought opponent might be able to push over 1" away from Datsue Ba and not get within 1" of Shikome. Thus, summoned Ikiryo shrugged off slow and ran to block Hunter from moving at all. 

Sheesh. But a victory point is a victory point, I suppose.

Another Shikome eventually either died to Melissa or Watcher, and Guardian slapped Enslaved Spirit dead with just one hit as was expected. 

Guild received Nia point and strategy, and Resurrectionists got strategy and Take Prisoner for 5-4 lead for Kirai.

Turn 4:

As Hunter was already far away from my side of table, I decided to just kill the prisoner. Ikiryo was able to do that, freeing Datsue Ba and Lost Love to go to scheme Protected Territory end condition.

Hoffman managed to maul Kirai dead even when I tried to block Hoffman's move with Nia marker. 

Shikome went to pick intel, and Mechanical Attendant walked right next to strategy marker for upcoming turns.

Gwisin was miraculously able to survive Guardian and Melissa. Most likely because Melissa had slowly been scraped down to one hit point remaining, which is not good news against Vengeance +1. 

No points were scored this turn for either player.

Turn 5: 

Hoffman came to rob Shikome of her intel. However, Hoffman had been injured for quite a bit throughout beating various vengeful models. Ikiryo set her sight on Kirai's killer, walked and charged Hoffman dead. 

Gwisin was able to land a final hit on Melissa, which ruined Guild's chances to receive third intel. However, Guardian smacked Gwisin back which ruined any chance for Resurrectionists to use Lost Love to claim intel from, wherever. He was needed to score Protected Territory end condition.

So, both players gained end condition from one of their schemes for a narrow 6-5 victory for Kirai.

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Stuff the Ballots

Schemes: Protected Territory, Deliver a Message, Outflank, Sweating Bullets, In Your Face

My list:

Molly, Chaotic Conductor & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Archie
Noxious Nephilim
Carrion Effigy
Rabble Riser with Killer Instinct
2x Crooligan

Pool: 4
Schemes: Deliver a Message (Archie), In Your Face
Thread: Wicked Whispers

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Soul Battery
Tanuki
2x Illuminated

Pool:
Schemes: Sweating Bullets, In Yo Face
Thread: Adrenaline Rush

Turn 1:

A single Crooligan was deployed right next to both ballots at the table edges as you'd expect. However, Hungering Darkness charged the one on right, so she teleported back to my deployment to get some heals from Effigy.

The second Crooligan took some cover behind a wall, as he saw other enthusiastic voters coming to the same ballot. Mr. Tannen and Illuminated, to name a few. 

Molly shuffled Noxious Nephilim near Nia marker to throw up required corpses for fracture points. Lynch started shooting at it, but Necrotic Machine made good job at stitching the nephilim. Archie positioned to within easy message delivery range of Mr. Lynch. 

Rabble Riser took a full run way past centerline, maybe one day getting behind enemy lines to vote. 

Molly, Necrotic Machine, Philip & Nanny and both beaters were holding up the middle, while Ten Thunders had their master and Mr. Graves nearby, with Tanuki and Illuminated hanging around and Gwyneth failing to hit the jackpot and thus getting no fracture points just yet. I felt relatively confident at this set-up.

Turn 2:

... Except that Lynch used Looming Dark to pull Hungering Darkness into melee with all of my Df 4 beaters. This took my by surprise as I was sure Honeypot would plant a vote to the rightmost ballot. Nope, Noxious Nephilim nearly died. 

Since its demise looked imminent, I activated Nephilim only for it to throw up what it just had regenerated, thus scoring Nia point. 

I think it was Gwyneth who killed Noxious Nephilim next, again failing with jackpot. No fractures for Honeypot this turn. 

Lynch started shooting Archie, and did a horrifying job at that. He had, like, two or three health remaining after those derringer shots.,

But then Molly made a weird super activation. She healed Archie back to full with Deja Vu's and shenanigans, and encouraged Archie to boldly walk with pride to deliver a message for Mr. Lynch. Now, I don't know what written in the message, but Honeypot got furious. Or maybe it was just the way how Archie walked. I don't know. But Mr. Graves and Illuminated beat Archie back down to two health remaining.

Instead of scoring In Your Face with Archie, the poor guy had to leap away from action, and even cheat himself down to one health remaining to succeed at the leap. Two walks later he was getting patched up by Carrion Effigy.

It took three angry voters, Mr. Tannen, Soul Battery and Illuminated to scare away an underage voter, who teleported to center ballots and crammed it full illegal votes. Three, in fact, because of Nia's Adrenaline Rush. 

Philip & Nanny had succeeded in slowing down Hungering Darkness, but Tanuki was just as good lifting Lynch's totem's mood up from sluggishness. 

Suddenly situation looked a wee bit worrying, but at least Necrotic Machine landed double poison on Hungering Darkness, greatly reducing its survivability with neurotoxins. 

Since Hungering Darkness had left rightmost ballots empty, buffed up Rabble Riser ran there to place votes next turn.

Resurrectionists scored strategy and Deliver a Message. Opponent had received strategy and both schemes for a 2-3 lead for Honeypot.

Turn 3:

Resurrectionists got the initiative, and tried to ruin enemy plans with Boring Conversation. Philip and Nanny were able to slow Hungering Darkness again, and Tanuki did exactly same it did last turn.

Hungering Darkness was under neurotoxins and Carrion Effigy's no-heal aura. To relieve itself from the plethora of debuffs, Hungering Darkness activated and indeed managed to scrap Necrotic Machine. Gosh and darn. 

It was time to see what Molly's parade baton was all about, as Hungering Darkness only had five health remaining. I figured my best chance would be to do a singular, mighty hit. My hand was already running low, so Molly concentrated, positively reinforced herself and took a swing at the beast, using focus both on Terrifying and attack flip. Annoyingly it only resulted in a tie, so damage was flipped with negative modifier. Nonetheless, severe 6. 

Unfortunately situation in the middle still looked bleak. Mr. Graves exposed Crooligan for the fraud he was and punished the kid with a fencepost. Lethally. Fortunately opponent was rather busy with removing Crooligan's earlier votes and to stuff their own into center ballots. 

Archie took a crazy 19"+base size sprint behind enemy lines, with the remaining Crooligan teleporting to him and placing votes to enemy ballots. Rabble Riser secured another box, providing Resurrectionists with a victory point. Noxious Nephilim's and Crooligan's corpse in the middle also gave me a Nia point.

Ten Thunders received center and leftmost ballots, with an Illuminated already having ran within 1" of a ballot box on my side. 

Scores evened out to 4-4.

Turn 4:

Honeypot models were closing in the middle, so after Carrion Effigy had put up Aura of Decay Molly brandished her trusty baton again, and started to maul Mr. Graves. And look at that! Only Hard-to-kill saved the casino bouncer.

I worried that Mr. Graves would idolize Archie's retreat in similar situation, but Mr. Graves was of tougher determination. Instead, he managed to deal damage back to Molly.

Because of this my center pretty much collapsed. Fortunately Philip & Nanny was able to ask a tough question that killed Mr. Graves, giving Resurrectionists their In Your Face. And not a moment too soon, as a couple of next Honeypot activations were able to put an end to Molly's carnival.

Archie & Crooligan tag team secured third strategy point for the Forgotten, but Honeypot were just as effective voters. 

With Resurrectionists second scheme and both players scoring strategy, Forgotten claimed a tiny lead of 6-5.

Turn 5:

Last turn started with Philip & Nanny and Carrion Effigy surrounded by both Illuminated, Lynch, Tanuki, Mr. Tannen and even Gwyneth within derringer's reach. It certainly did not look good. 

I just had to hope for best that Philip & Nanny would survive the onslaught and back off with deadly pursuit to deny Ten Thunders Sweating Bullets end condition. And it almost worked - it was the very last activation's very last action that finally removed Philip & Nanny from board.

Archie scored In Your Face, but Ten Thunders got both of their schemes and even Nia point for a close victory of 8-7 for Honeypot.

Jossittelua

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Stuff the Ballots

Schemes: Ensnare, Espionage, Protected Territory, Outflank, Let Them Bleed

My list:

Sebastian Baker & Copycat Killer
Madame Sybelle
Bete Noire
Carrion Effigy with Fate
White Rabbit Co.
Bone Pile
2x Dead Dandy

Pool: 6
Schemes: Ensnare, Protected Territory

Opponent had:

Charles Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Joss
2x Hunter
2x Watcher
Medical Automaton

Pool: 4
Schemes: Espionage, Let Them Bleed

Turn 1:

First turn was rather slow for Resurrectionists - I proceeded to mine the strategy markers close to my deployment witch scheme markers for a potential Ensnare end condition. For that reason, both Dandies, Carrion Effigy and White Rabbit hadn't moved much beyond deployment zone. White Rabbit sew a hat for Madame Sybelle. 

Seamus carved a Mourner from Madame Sybelle, and the trio was closest thing to strategy marker in the center.  Bone Pile was a little further away not figuring out what to do. 

Farthest flanks were held by Bete Noire (left) and Copycat Killer (right), with Bete Noire charging a Watcher that had flown within her walk+charge reach.

Augmented had a Watcher on both flanks. Melissa and a Hunter supported by Medical Automaton were closing in from the middle of center and right ballot, and the rest were in the middle with Hunter and Joss in the frontline.

Voting in the center looked like it would become a hot topic next turn.

Turn 2:

Dead Dandies finished solving their identical murder mysteries at my side of ballot boxes. One Dandy went in the direction of rightmost ballot that had been claimed by Medical Automaton and Watcher. Another Dandy was sewn a fancy hat by White Rabbit. Rabbit went to remove a destructible box for moves next turn.

Bete Noire wasn't able to kill the Watcher on left with a single strike, so she couldn't fulfill his duty as a citizen just yet. 

Before Mourner was killed by plethora of Augmented action points, Seamus used his entire activation to drop a scheme just past the center ballots, take Mourner by the hand and drop two votes in the center. I would have certainly liked to do other things with Seamus, but I had messed up with Madame Sybelle by charging Joss and then hitting him again. I had originally planned to interact a scheme close to Joss. 

Fortunately Joss wasn't able to land his hits on Madame Sybelle - that irreducible damage track sure is scary! - only one weak damage with critical strike came in. 

One Hunter engaged Bone Pile, and another leaped on Seamus and used deadly pursuit to go and engage White Rabbit and Dead Dandy. 

Carrion Effigy healed whatever damage Hunter had done to Bone Pile.

Scores went 2-1, with lead for Resurrectionists from revealing Ensnare.

Turn 3:

Madame Sybelle popped her aura and injured Joss heavily. After that opponent got totally fixated on killing Madame Sybelle. Joss, Hoffman, Melissa and even a Hunter that disengaged from White Rabbit and Dead Dandy all took their shots. Keeping Madame on board took all of my remaining soulstones, but she was left standing with two health. Undivided Attention and Alone in the Dark trigger on Urban Legend helped there immensely, although I don't think even a single point of damage was done via distractions. 

In the center, Seamus had put up his aura, placed a vote and a scheme marker.

Bete Noire dropped a scheme to left and placed her vote. White Rabbit and a Dead Dany were slowly, so slowly getting past the center line. 

Second Dandy went to place a vote on rightmost ballot before getting engaged by Medical Automaton. Since it looked like even fight, Watcher just dropped a scheme out of Dandy's LoS and another vote to the ballot. 

Effigy turned into Emissary tried to relieve Dead Dandy in melee with Medical Automaton by rotting and rending in their general direction, but failed to accomplish anything. Even bonus action failed because of no cards left to cheat.

Hunter and Bone Pile continued their less-than-lethal duel, and suddenly we were looking at the end phase. 

Bete Noire had scored me second strategy point for a lead of 3-1.

Turn 4:

Guild got the initiative, and Joss butchered Madame Sybelle as expected. It took only one strike, and as such Joss got some extra time to scribble his vote to the ballot. I made the mistake of activating Seamus first, taking Hunter by the paw to get a charge lane at Joss. Only one attack hit Joss and dealt minimum damage, so the henchman was still alive at one health. Mechanical Attendant was able to heal him for two.

What I should have done was to activate Carrion Emissary and put up Aura of Decay and go and charge Joss so even if it fails, Joss wouldn't be able to heal.

Fortunately Emissary was able to kill what remained of Joss with a single strike though, so there's that. 

Melissa charged and started shooting Carrion Emissary, bringing it down to two health remaining. This forced Bone Pile to stop scratching the chrome paint of Hunter and disengage to throw a healing bone for Carrion Emissary. 

Having now activated just about every model I could use for votes in the middle, Hoffman was left free to stuff his own stack of votes to center, resetting the points. Last action was an attempt to attack Carrion Emissary, but no hits were scored. 

Copycat Killer blasted Medical Automaton with half-pint flintlock, dealing a severe damage and bringing the automaton to one health. But the minion activated next, healed itself for two and tried to perform a surgery on Dead Dandy. Dandy did not approve and spanked the tiny robot dead with a single well placed hit with fancy cane. After violence, Dandy flamboyantly dropped his vote into the ballot. Watcher, however, claimed that box and came to engage Dandy.

Dandy on the left insulted a Hunter and charged it to engage. This forced Hunter to disengage, so it wouldn't be able to interact this turn. I had high suspicion opponent got Espionage for one of his schemes. 

Another Hunter that had been engaged by Bone Pile was now free to move and vote at Resurrectionists side right ballot.

I had become a little carried off with the Dandy beating R2D2 and spent all cards from my hand, so to score Protected Territory this turn White Rabbit had to make a hat to happen. After Bete Noire ran to Guild side left strategy marker, White Rabbit Co. concentrated and sew a hat for Bete, and walked to the same strategy marker. 

So, opponent was able to deny me a third strategy point, and got the second one himself. However, Resurrectionists scored Protected Territory for a total of 4-2 lead for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

We decided to play until game was clear. My first activation was to run Dead Dandy to engage Hunter, which already made scoring strategy point difficult for Guild. Melissa shot off Dandy's hat, but the gent stood still. 

Emissary went to engage both Hoffman and Mechanical Attendant. But when second Dead Dandy succeeded in removing opponent's scheme marker on centerline, we called it quits. Almost. We realized opponent might try to peck a point of damage in to Dead Dandy for Let Them Bleed end condition.

Resurrectionists got 5 or 6 points, while Guild might have scored 4 in best case scenario.