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.

Double Dealing Lovelace

 A 50ss game of Malifaux. We took part in the global Fractured Futures campaign.

Strategy: Wedge Plant Explosives

Schemes: Protected Territory, Take Prisoner, Let Them Bleed, Ensnare, Hold Up Their Forces

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Midnight Stalker
Catalan Brawler
Auguste Hart
Dead Outlaw
Guilty

Pool: 5
Schemes: Protected Territory, Hold Up Their Forces
Thread: Dead Shot objective 1

Opponent had:

Von Schill & Steam Trunk
Hannah Lovelace
Arik Schrötterdammerung
Drachen Trooper
Freikorps Librarian
Freikorps Engineer
Freikorpsmann

Pool: 5
Schemes: Protected Territory, Let Them Bleed
Thread: Dead Shot objective 2

Turn 1:

So, both players had picked Dead Shot as their thread thing. 

I was kind of worried about Arik and his Shockwave 3. Sure enough, that what Arik did right away and blasted Catalan Brawler, Jack and Lady Ligeia. Only Lady Ligeia got the damage and distraction after cheating with Jack. Why not? He'd have to discard anyway. Arik also took a walk closer to centerpoint.

Catalan Brawler went to place a scheme marker near Nia, both to protect and maybe score fractures. 

I was planning on cursing Arik next, but Freikorps Engineer came to strengthen Arik's armor - along with giving him concealment until the end of round. I supposed I was no longer in hurry, so Lady Ligeia went to reach Arik with betrayal aura. 

Freikorpsmann took a double walk forward, and was soon given Reinforced Shield by Steam Trunk. I had tried to remove some shielding from Arik with Dead Outlaw without much success. Jack said screw this, Curse of Injustice does not require damaging. So he just walked, concentrated and unsuppressed some of Arik's memories with the help of focus. No damage done. Montresor was pushed towards Auguste, who had been running alone along the rightmost flank. 

Von Schill tossed a rocket launcher for Drachen Trooper and went to flank from the right side. He tossed a bullet into Montresor, who had walked over a tine wall to place a scheme marker for my first fracture token. 

Someone managed to deal four points of damage in to Catalan Brawler, but I forget who. Drachen Trooper it wasn't, as I had been saving my high cards in hand to not get those double blasts in the face. 

Midnight Stalker was one of my last models to activate, and he managed to run past centerline from the left already. Guilty went to hide behind the shack in the middle. Hannah was just a tad too scary. 

Entirety oh enemy crew was, like, within 8" of the center point. I had a couple of stragglers to my flanks, so I was outnumbered in the middle.

Turn 2:

And then there was this Nia marker. Only Catalan Brawler, Lady Ligeia and Arik were stunned. I lost the initiative, so I placed Nia a couple of inches away from center point to block LoS and give cover for my crew, and of course to score fracture token. 

However, opponent gave me the start to achieve activation control. I had to use the chance ot heal up Catalan Brawler and place another scheme marker. 

Steam Trunk gave Freikorpsmann Rocket Boots, and my second activation was to drop a scheme marker and an explosive with Midnight Stalker, leap deeper into enemy territory and using his last action points to run behind a thicket in top-left corner. 

Arik went to place an explosive past centerline, so that was a relief. 

To lure out Hold Up Their Forces, Guilty went to place an explosive token, even managing to startle Freikorpsmann. The geared up minion was able to leap, but not walk far enough to to place a bomb. Instead, he shot Guilty in the back for two points of damage. 

Auguste went to place a scheme marker past centerline. And looked like my trap had succeeded magnificently! Hannah charged Guilty. She, however, bought Rams and extorted another from... someone? This meant a single strike would kill Guilty. I managed to save the minion by cheating a high card from hand. She struck again, but did not use a soulstone this time around. However, she either flipped a Rams or cheated one. As a result, Hannah now offered an extra card for hand size for both players. 

With Hannah and Arik now activated, Jack Daw was emboldened to charge Drachen Trooper so that it would not get its flamethrower to bear. Daw's damage was not... impressive, but at least he was able to land a curse on the Freikorps minion.

Von Schill walked within 3" of Nia and shot Catalan Brawler for some damage, scoring their first fracture point. Von Schill now locked in place, Montresor placed a second scheme for my second fracture point and charged Von Schill, not doing much. 

Freikorps Librarian kept healing Arik, while Drachen Trooper tried to poke a hole in Jack Daw. And did he, though! A Red Joker on damage. Jack Daw was quick to discard a card to... adjust the number slightly downwards to one. Dead Outlaw went to engage Arik.

Freikorps Engineer charged Catalan Brawler, who won the defense with Red Joker from deck. Cage Fighter resulted in maximum damage against the Engineer. Ouch.

Points went to 4-1 for Tormented with strategy for both, and Hold Up Their Forces and Dead Shot objective for global campaign.

Turn 3:

Von Schill. Jack Daw. Montresor. Lady Ligeia. Arik. Freikorps Engineer. What did all of them have in common at the start of turn 3? Yeah, stunned by Nia. 

At least Von Schill was able to shrug stun off. He gave Rocket Boots for Hannah with a free leap. He also did impressive damage on Montresor, who blocked those damages equally impressively with no net damage going in.

Same happened with Arik after Dead Outlaw had disengaged and started slogging through marshes.

Catalan Brawler had to heal himself again, and with the second remaining action point he tossed Jack Daw in the mud, removing Stunned from him.

This let Drachen Trooper free to shoot Lady Ligeia with flamethrower, killing her and setting Catalan Brawler on fire. He then proceeded to take cover inside a house with removable roof. 

Montresor just kept teasing people with ping damage. His own activations were rarely noteworthy, but that stagger sure kept buggering Freikorps.

On her own activation Hannah dropped a scheme and an explosive token, and after leaping Freikorpsmann did the same. 

Before Hannah had leaped, Jack Daw tried to do a clever activation - first by placing a scheme, the charging Librarian and finally doing a Careless Whisper imitation. It wasn't impressive I can tell - neither Hannah, Drachen Trooper, Librarian or Engineer were slowed by the disgraceful performance.

Auguste went to drop a bomb, while Midnight Stalker leaped and charged to murder Steam Trunk. Ahh, fine work of murderous art indeed. 

So, Montresor and Catalan Brawler had been blocking damage with soulstones or healing with Juggernaut way above expected curve. Of course I by then did not know what a double whammy it had on opponent's plan, as Let Them Bleed proved elusive.

Scores went 5-2 for Outcasts from strategies only.

Turn 4:

Freikorps finally tore through Tormented supply of soulstones, and was able to cut Montresor below half of his health remaining. 

Catalan Brawler, however, kept healing with severe results. But, Librarian and Hannah and who else were able to blast him below half of his health. 

Midnight Stalker took on bigger prey. After a trunk he found it appropriate to charge a Librarian, killing her. Jack Daw went to engage Drachen Trooper so that it would not cause trouble for my scheme markers. I considered trying to kill, but I was suspecting opponent had Let Them Bleed for their scheme. Killing a Demise burning +2 target was not ideal, so he tried to remove Engineer from board. Didn't happen, though. 

Auguste walks to place a scheme marker, while Dead Outlaw did the same with strategy marker. 

Both players got strategy, and Freikoprs took a leap in points, although still a 6-5 lead for Tormented.

Turn 5:

Von Schill had tried to shoot Midnight Stalker last turn, so to rob him of Let Them Bleed, Midnight Stalker leaped, walked and schemed its way to safety. 

I don't remember who opponent activated, but Auguste tried to follow Midnight Stalker as his crazed mirror image. He didn't want to move too far from Protected Territory scheme marker, so as a result he was not able to get past Von Schill's 14" range after all. However, it took most of Von Schill's activation to score a damage to Auguste, meaning I still had Dead Outlaw and Midnight Stalker completely uninjured, with Jack Daw a possibility to heal. Von Schill also gave Engineer a leap.

Montresor went back to engage Von Schill. Catalan Brawler and Montresor had been able to bring Engineer down to one health remaining, Thus he would die when he activates. Arik made a clever plan to get Charged Fists and try to push Montresor away from Engineer. Plan did not come into fruition because of cards. This meant no strategy point for Freikorps this turn. 

We ended game there, essentially in 9-6 victory for Tormented.

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.

Exe For an Exe

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Carve a Path

Schemes: Assassinate, Catch & Release, Secret Meetup, Leave Your Mark, Hidden Martyrs

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Yannic Waller
Jaakuna Ubume
Auguste Hart
Hanged
Dead Outlaw

Stones: 5
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Hidden Martyrs (Yannic & Dead Outlaw)

Opponent had:

Lucius Mattheson & The Scribe
Agent 46 with Lead Linen Coat
Death Marshal Recruiter
Guild Mage
Doppleganger
2x Guild Lawyer

Stones: 3
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Hidden Martyrs (Recruiter & a Lawyer... whoops!)

Turn 1:

I deployed kind of horribly. I sent Auguste and Hanged to deliver a strategy marker from bottom that had a great dividing terrain piece, meaning Auguste would be out of action at least for a few turns. 

Of course I didn't know it when I deployed that Guild would start pushing both their markers from the middle. But that 2" aura of interact control sure would have come handy...

Everything else I got was in the middle, as were Guild's models. Jack Daw managed to land Curse of Injustice on Agent 46, which felt important. Even Dead Outlaw managed to land severe damage and slow on Death Marshal Recruiter, which also felt like a boon. 

Yeah. Should I trust my feelings?

Turn 2:

Jack Daw is able to land Curse of Injustice also on Death Marshal Recruiter. And then horror began.

Agent 46 mimics Death Marshal's pine box attack. That's one insane combo, as Doppelganger and Agent retain their own stat on a stat 3 attack that is resisted with size. Agent 46 must be quite the tetris player when it was able to fit both Montresor and Jack Daw inside a pine box in the same activation.

Fortunately Montresor had not activated yet, so at least he came back to have his auras around.

The horror changed into terror when the full extent of aura hell of Guild Mage, Recruiter, Guild Lawyers and even Scribe dawned on me. 

Lawyers healed stuff just by activating and doing their thing with zero cost whatsoever. Or, more accurately, Guild Mage did while Lawyers were discarding. Lawyers spammed Shielded around, making a joke out of Montresor's stagger aura. So, Death Marshal Recruiter kept slowly healing. 

Try to attack Guild Lawyers? They can discard and heal. Mind you, no cheating because Scribe makes you discard if you cheat. And if you somehow manage to chew one of them dead, well, it just turns into a Death Marshal and something heals again from the very act of summoning a Death Marshal...

Seemed to me like the only real option was to kill Death Marshal Recruiter while it just keeps healing before it would be of any use to attack the softer targets. Guild Mage was positioned in such a way that I couldn't get to him.

I poured everything I had on the Recruiter. Jaakuna, Montersor and even Lady Ligeia did their best effort in removing the Marshal. Surprisingly Lady Ligeia was the single most effective source of damage, scoring moderate injury with triple negatives, blasting two points over to Guild Lawyer, too.

But still the Marshal was left alive with three wounds remaining.

Doppleganger had come to deliver a strategy marker to my deployment zone and tease Yannic Waller a bit. Yannic manages to daze her. 

Dead Outlaw had removed enemy scheme marker from middle and placed his own within 1" of center point. But then activated Guild Mage, who used rule of law to turn it into guild scheme. 

Auguste pushes strategy marker closer to enemy deployment, and Hanged tries to come a little closer to action. I really shouldn't have sent Hanged with Auguste Hart... that heal reducing aura could have been the counter for Guild Mage that I needed.

Oh well, anyway, scores go 2-1 for Guild when both get strategy and Guild gets Leave Your Mark.

Turn 3:

Jaakuna charges Recruiter and has him in her hazardous aura. Yannic disengages from Doppleganger and charges Recruiter. Montresor charges Recruiter through hazardous terrain. Hanged tries to score On Your Heels and enter the middle, but no such luck.

Somewhat frustrating, I must admit. So in the end, Jack Daw had to emerge from Agent 46's pine box and shoot the damnable Recruiter finally dead. He gets rid of distracted by attacking Recruiter with Drawn to Betrayal.

Too bad I had spent all of my soulstones while trying to kill Recruiter.

And Jack Daw uses last card from my hand, and really needed that last card.

I knew I took a risk since Agent 46 had not yet activated and was ready to lose Jack or have him down to two or so damage remaining. But I had not read Agent's card that thoroughly.

Jack Daw - executed. 

Well, at least Lady Ligeia continued to scream effectively, nearly killing Doppleganger. 

Auguste kicks strategy marker to enemy deployment zone.

Scores go 4-2 when both get strategy and Guild reveals illegal Hidden Martyrs. I noticed that only now. 

Turn 4:

Jaakuna puts up Drowning Aura and Guild easily navigates through it with Guild Lawyers' Shielded spam. Agent 46 escapes from the middle where Auguste is able to charge him and not do much of anything. 

Opponent spends his entire hand to obeys and mitigating my attempts to deal damage. Lucius had used misinformation and removed a twelve from my hand. In it's place I had received Red Joker. Opponent had also spent all soulstones. 

To avenge Jack Daw, Montresor activated, walked and charged Guild Mage through tiniest of openings and - hell yeah - cheated Red Joker on melee attack. This had me discard from Scribe and also to discard to Counterspell. Unfortunately my cards were moderates, so opponent got to heal. But damn was it a relief to execute Guild Mage!

Dead Outlaw had shown some exceptional resilience, but had fallen to Agent 46 before it ran off to meet with Auguste.

Yannic had to go to kick a strategy marker past centerline. Hanged creeps towards enemy strategy marker in my deployment zone. 

Doppleganger manages to stagger Lady Ligeia, and then it was end of turn.

Scores go 5-4 for Guild when both score strategy and Outcasts get Hidden Martyrs.

Turn 5:

Yannic goes to push my last strategy marker to enemy deployment zone. 

I try to lock Lucius in place so that I'd get second point of Hidden Martyrs by luring Yannic to engage someone. But then I realize Jaakuna has no line of sight to Yannic, so Montresor is cursed to watch as Jaakuna disengages to a better position next to Agent 46 who had already activated.

Both Guild Lawyers had also activated, so when it was time to activate Jaakuna, she needed to hit a 5 twice, since I had no cards in hand. Montresor had spent them when he failed to watch Jaakuna's disengagement. 

But no fives came. With second lure I tried to get at least Montresor away from Guild Lawyer who was Hidden Martyr, but even that lure was a failure.

Hanged tried to deny point by getting strategy marker out of my deployment, but Lucius did some Lucius shenanigans and even that plan was foiled.

So the game ended 8-5 for Guild.

Hemophobia

 A 50ss game of Malifaux. 

Strategy: Wedge Covert Operation

Schemes: Catch and Release, Leave Your Mark, Sabotage, Set the Trap, Spread Them Out

My list:

Jack Daw & Lady Ligeia
Montresor
Jaakuna Ubume
Johan Creedy
Hanged
Crooked Man with Servant of Dark Powers
Prospector

Pool: 3
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Set the Trap

Opponent had:

Nekima, Broodmother & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
Mature Nephilim
2x Young Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot

Pool: 7
Schemes: Sabotage, Leave Your Mark

Turn 1:

Somehow it just seems that Jaakuna Ubume is destined for turn 1 alpha strikes for me. Fortunately this time around she was still alive after turn ended. She didn't take damage, but gave three points to Mature Nephilim from just standing there. 

Main body of both crews were closing in the middle. I had Jaakuna, Crooked Man, Lady Ligeia, Montresor and Jack Daw there, with Hanged going north and Prospector south. Johan Creedy was just trying to stay relevant whether he was needed south or in the middle.

Jack Daw managed to land his curse on Mature Nephilim.

One Young Nephilim was going to south marker, the Mature was engaging Jaakuna Ubume and remaining Neverborn crew was near the middle with a suspicious lookin scheme marker within 1" of the centerpoint already. Terror Tot had grown to become a Lilitu. 

Turn 2:

Montresor makes a sub-par activation by walking twice to get Mature Nephilim within 6". At least he scored crows for his bonus and dealt a couple of points more to Mature. 

Mature then activates, charges and scores shove aside attack from Crooked Man. Other attacks went into beating Montresor.

Crooked Man was now pretty much facing Nekima, Black Blood Shaman, Lilitu and Young Nephilim all alone while already injured, so he activated to at least get an activation. Earthquake didn't roll out, but Malifaux Mining Law got the trigger to remove enemy schemes within 3" and place one of his own.

I have to tip my hat to Crooked Man's survivability, though. Lilitu, Nekima, Hayreddin and Young Nephilim all spent a good portion of their action points to remove him. Rest in peace, Crooky. 

Things didn't turn out that well for me with Mature Nephilim, though, who had been healed a little by Nekima and his own regeneration.

Jack Daw tried to shoot some curse upgrades to enemy models in the middle, but used remaining attacks on Mature, missing his big attack with Rams bought in with a stone. One attack dealt a bit damage, but so it did to Jack and Montresor, too. 

Johan Creedy just kept missing, and the only additional damage that turn came from Jaakuna managing to lure Mature Nephilim into her drowning aura. 

Hanged scored north marker and planted a scheme. Prospector had placed a scheme marker also, but wasn't able to claim because Young Nephilim charged and dealt some four damage to him.

Both players get strategy and Outcasts also manage Spread Them Out, for 1-2 lead.

Turn 3:

Montresor managed to kill Mature Nephilim which was a little surprising, and Young Nephilim killed Prospector which wasn't all that surprising. It essentially needed to fail its actions twice. 

Johan was sacrificed for some distraction, charging to Black Blood Shaman that had five boxes remaining, engaging Nekima in the process. Didn't kill, though. Black Blood Shaman failed its attacks back, which still meant some damage.

Nekima walks and kills poor Johan with blade and a black blood from a friendly model. Then she charges Montresor, engaging both Jaakuna and him. 

In the middle there was nice blob of enemy models for a devious trap that I had set. To discourage enemy models from leaving, Hanged placed a scheme up north, walked and launched itself to middle with Horrifying Whispers and proper triggers. 

Lilitu disengaged and tried to lure Hanged away but failed. I was planning to put a scheme near Nekima with Jaakuna and a few nephilim in the middle with Jack. But first Lady Ligeia had to position herself for Drawn to Betrayal. 

GASP -moment was when Young Nephilim in melee with Hanged slapped a Red Joker in Hanged's face on damage. Damage block was a healthy "1". 

I was spending all my soulstones to save him from black bloods and whatnot. I was thinking that if he'd still be at two health remaining when Blood Hunter activates, he'd be safe.

Well, not. Because of stampede. 

So that was Hanged and Johan down the very same turn. Not ideal, but at least Jack Daw moved Jaakuna and succeeded to place a scheme marker to catch Lilitu, Black Blood Shaman and Young Nephilim within 2" for Set the Trap. Jaakuna was then able to move to claim southern strategy marker and concentrate.

Hayreddin had moved close to the building, so that was sabotage all but confirmed there.

Both players scored strategy and Outcasts their second scheme for 2-4 lead.

Turn 4:

Jaakuna Ubume places a scheme marker and charges Young Nephilim. It is left with one or two health remaining and skips its activation because of that.

Jack Daw is able to charge Black Blood Shaman and kill it with two strikes, and is then free to interact a scheme marker over 10" from Jaakuna's scheme. 

Young Nephilim in the middle and Blood Hunter kills Jack Daw by failing at everything. To add insult to injury, the killing blow was dealt by Blood Hunter, the insignificant totem. 

Nekima savagely mauls Montresor and procs his Demise, but doesn't kill. Lady Ligeia tries to blast Blood Hunter and Young Nephilim first with focus, and later again with Montresor's help. But Black Joker, that had been popping up every turn for me foiled one Cursed To Watch action, so she didn't have focus to yell real loud. 

Hayreddin secures Sabotage, and Outcasts no longer had a deny-able scheme marker in the middle, so Neverborn also got Leave Your Mark. Neither player got strategy this round, so scores went even 4-4.

Turn 5:

Outcasts had +3 to their initiative flips from pass tokens, so Lady Ligeia was able to activate first and quickly run to engage Blood Hunter and Young Nephilim.

I started using pass tokens. Nekima procs Montresor's demise once more, and still doesn't kill. 

However, I didn't dare to just empty my tokens because I was afraid that Young Nephilim below might kill Jaakuna Ubume. Hayreddin had ran to northern strategy marker. Young Nephilim and Hayreddin had only been able to secure Sabotage end condition, so I made a gambit to pull Montresor out of melee with Nekima.

Blood Hunter immediately attacked him, dealing a point of damage.

Whatever the case, I needed to wait Young Nephilim's at Jaakuna's activation first so that it wouldn't just come and engage Montresor. 

Well, it did and blocked Montresor's path to the strategy marker and managed to deal one point of damage - now Montresor was at one health remaining, with demise procced twice during game. 

Since Montresor can't ignore severe terrain and he couldn't kill anything (he'd die even if he managed it) so it was game over.

Outcasts got Spread Them Out end condition, Neverborn Sabotage end and strategy for 5-6 win for Neverborn.

Casual Eighteen

A friend visited my place for a few days. It's been a few days since these games were played so details have been lost from memory.

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Carve a Path

Scheme pool: Spread them out, Set the trap, Breakthrough, Public demonstration, Hidden martyrs

My list:

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

Stones: 5
Schemes:

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch & Hungering Darkness
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
2x Illuminated
2x Tanuki

Stones: 3
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

For some reason I placed Hanged way top behind a large factory building to push a strategy marker. Well, there was a reason, though... I wanted to make staggering machine as efficient as possible and the only model I could part seemed to me to be Hanged. I also wanted both martyrs as far from each other as possible.

In the middle two bubbles were nearing each other with Jaakuna Ubume in the front of Jack Daw's side. Mr. Graves attempted to punish Jaakuna for being almost at the center point, but succeeded only in dealing damage to himself via hazardous terrain.

Turn 2:

Outcasts win initiative, and Jaakuna punts a marker even further and puts up drowning aura and lures an Illuminated into it. 

Mr. Graves then hits Jaakuna twice and she dies, just like that. I had hoped for a little more value out of her. At least Jack Daw managed to land Curse of Injustice on a few models, most notably Hungering Darkness.

Hanged continues to push one of my strategy markers far up while Kitty does the same in the middle. Hanged also managed to land its curse on her.

An Illuminated kills Guilty, thus giving me a point from Hidden Martyrs.

Hungering Darkness and a few other models try to break Jack Daw, but don't really do much with actual attacks. The real damage was this pulse that gave slow for Jack and Montresor.

Dead Outlaw gives fast for Crooked Man from a scheme marker I had planted last turn for movement shenanigans. As a last model to activate, he took a double walk and put a scheme marker close to Mr. Graves and Illuminated, while one of the earlier schemes was still close enough to Hungering Darkness.

Jack Daw reveals both schemes, and both players get strategy for a total of 1-3 for Outcasts.

Turn 3:

Well it was an intense turn.

Montresor opens by making a devastating activation, blasting two points of damage for a Tanuki, Illuminated, Mr. Graves and Hungering Darkness - and then a little more for Tanuki and Illuminated (and himself) from black blood. Attack with noose brought Mr. Graves and Tanuki down to one health remaining. 

It was certainly not to be, because then Tanuki just healed him back over hard-to-kill threshold.

Opponent really puts everything to killing Montresor - and, for the first game ever, Montresor actually dies even after triggering his demise. But at least Mr. Graves and Tanuki behind him finally die when Crooked Man makes a proper earthquake. Or, well, Mr. Graves doesn't die just yet - it takes Dead Outlaw to finalize him. 

Hanged and Kitty do their thing with strategy markers. Crooked Man also kicked one of my markers to opponent's deployment area. A Tanuki struggles with one of the Ten Thunders strategies, but unfortunately I don't have the model count to intervene.

Both players score strategy, and opponent reveals Hidden Martyrs on a Tanuki and an Illuminated. Scores go 3-4 for Outcasts.

Turn 4:

Hanged kick strategy to enemy deployment and lands in the thick of action with On Your Heels. Crooked Man and Dead Outlaw manage to kill Mr. Tannen and the Illuminated for enemy Hidden Martyrs, and killing that Illuminated brought back Guilty.

Jack Daw charges Tanuki that was delivering strategy marker, but fails to do anything important.

Then, to my horror Kitty starts spamming scheme markers on my deployment zone and thus Ten Thunders is able to reveal Breakthrough.

Scores go even 5-5. 

Turn 5:

Jack Daw gets a second try at Tanuki, but the furry little bugger just doesn't die or even get staggered. It manages to disengage, and Hungering Darkness obeys it to push last Ten Thunders strategy marker to my deployment zone. 

In the middle my useless minions fail at trying to injure Lynch enough to make Set the Trap end condition a possibility, and even worse - Hanged dies, too. I'm left with just strategy points, while Ten Thunders get their Breakthrough for a score of 7-6 for Ten Thunders.

Game 2:

Strategy: Flank Guard the Stash

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Secret Meetup, In Your Face, Vendetta, Catch & Release

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Grave Golem
Noxious Nephilim
Lost Love
Shikome
Seishin

Stones: 7
Schemes: In Your Face, Secret Meetup (3x3 building, Noxious Nephilim and Gwyneth)

Opponent had:

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

Stones: 1
Schemes: In Your Face, Load 'Em Up (scheme)

Turn 1:

Well, look at that pretty picture. From my side you can see Grave Golem, some swirly parts of a Goryo and half of Noxious Nephilim!

Well, that's because Kirai is hiding under the rectangular red roofed building, and most of my other models (Ikiryo, Datsue Ba, even Lost Love) were behind the stone wall, just behind the building.

Shikome could have been seen on the roof with Hungering Darkness if that thing didn't kill it with one hit!

Opponent knew I had blast, but apparently he did not consider it much of a threat. Truth be told - neither did I. I haven't had much of a success with blasts earlier. But I wanted to still threaten opponent a bit, give him a lesson not to bunch up like that.

Ikiryo, who had been walked into position with either Datsue Ba or Seishin, concentrated and projected her voice at Mr. Graves who was in cover. Hits. Red Joker comes up for damage. 

Ouchie. Losing Shikome to one hit suddenly didn't bother that much when that attack dealt in total eighteen points of damage if we count the two points from Mr. Graves' black blood ability! Eighteen!

Yeah, nobody died and opponent had quite a bit of healing available but still...

Turn 2:

Ten Thunders wins initiative, and goes straight into trying to save Mr. Graves with foul-mouthed motivation. First model I activate is however Goryo, who lands Mark of Vengeance on Mr. Graves. Goryo then walks and charges into the fray and promptly dies there, splashing adversary all over the place. Goryo died within 3" of Lynch, so it was In Your Face for Ten Thunders.

Another aimed blast from Kirai kills Mr. Graves and Tanuki and has Mr. Tannen reeling with one health and Jakob with not enough. Mr. Graves, however, was within 3" of Jakob Lynch, so it was In Your Face for Resurrectionists.

Situation could have been utterly hopeless for Ten Thunders if it wasn't for Hungering Darkness who harassed Kirai and tied her resources. She had tried to summon a Drowned for a bodyguard but that bodyguard wasn't very impressive. Keeping Kirai alive took just about every resource I had at my disposal.

When Noxious Nephilim went to the secret meetup building to contest the strategy marker from opponent, it was no strategy points for Ten Thunders and one for Resurrectionists. Scores went 1-2 for Kirai.

Turn 3:

Illuminated and Tanuki try to wrangle a strategy marker from Noxious Nephilim, but the beast is able to even the model count by smashing Tanuki into bits. 

Datsue Ba just endures and endures, although it takes all of my remaining soulstones and forces Lost Love to tellyport next to the granny for some spiritual healing. I was also planning to use Lost Love to plant some schemes to the secret meetup building because Gwyneth didn't seem too keen on coming there.

Even Grave Golem tried to heal Datsue Ba, but failed the bonus action with black joker. But now it was in position to run to enemy deployment for end condition of In Your Face.

My melee capabilities in the middle were also a bit of a farce, although something seems to have killed Mr. Tannen - I just don't remember what. It may have been Kirai who disengaged from Hungering Darkness after being mauled by the monstrosity. 

Drowned manages to stun-slam Hungering Darkness and took a flight to aid in the Nephilim's fight against Illuminated. Curiously enough this turn nobody scored additional points. Because of this we decided to continue play since there was a chance for draw for Ten Thunders.

Turn 4:

Well, that chance went soon down the drain when Datsue Ba continued to defy death and Noxious Nephilim finally killed the Illuminated.

What a weird game, but a victory for Kirai.