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. 

Hopeless Prospect

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Standard Plant Explosives

Schemes: In Your Face, Deliver a Message, Espionage, Protected Territory, Take Prisoner

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waif
Rusty Alyce
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
Desolation Engine
Scavenger
Abomination

Pool: 4
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Huckster), Protected Territory

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe2 & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Desper LaRaux
Mr. Ngaatoro
Rough Rider
Huckster
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 7
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Scavenger), Espionage

Turn 1:

Right during the deployment I had a dilemma: Sidir was in the middle, so should I deploy my Def 3 chunk of desolated flesh to middle, where it might do something, or to board edges where it might be a bit safer?

Because of the building in the middle, I chose to deploy it quite deep in my deployment zone to rush it to building that offered LoS block for the thing. Wastrels got the initiative and Luna dug up a Timeworn Blade for McCabe. 

After taking cover in the center, my other models stalled as much as they could, with Hollow Waifs just shuffling around and concentrating. Eventually Outcasts had to move a bit more forward, and Scavenger activated to push Ashes and Dust for a bit. 

But that was after McCabe had taken a double walk and concentrated for a bit near center line. Rusty Alice brought her gun to bear, dealing .. two points of damage, despite hitting twice. Well, at least she shot two soulstones off the Wastrel cache!

Sidir took a double walk and started shooting Rusty Alyce, getting two points of damage through Alyce's armor. 

Leveticus placed a scheme marker to bluff Espionage, and walked behind some barrels to try to unmake Hopeful Prospect. 

Marlena Webster took position to tether both Rusty Alyce and Leveticus. By then Mr. Ngaatoro and Hopeful Prospect had paired up, approaching center line from bottom of the map. Huckster concentrated, and rather unfortunately managed to Black Joker the Secret Passage. 

In the center, McCabe and Sidir were holding the center point against Rusty Alyce and Desolation Engine. Just a little further up, Desper had crossed the centerline and was stalked by Abomination. 

Top of map had Rough Rider to take a shot at Ashes and Dust, which missed and then the tasmanian devil took a full 14" walk next to Rough Rider.

Turn 2:

Going from top to bottom, Rough Rider and Ashes and Dust just looked at each other, shrugged and carried on with their own stuff. Ashes and Dust dropped strategy marker and scheme marker, while Rough Rider just rode past the thing, walked for a bit and dropped strategy.

Scavenger was not able to move past gravestones, so it just took a walk and shot Desper LaRaux with shotgun, doing a bit of damage. Abomination also charged Desper, but only managed to give Desper a free 3" leap. Oh well. Desper leaped a little to place a strategy marker just past Abomination's walk range and went to engage Scavenger. This was one of the last activations of the round, and certainly raised suspicion that Explorer Society had just tagged their prisoner.

Hollow Waifs kept shuffling about, the one in top-right quarter walking to catch Desper under entropy aura, where he already was anyway. 

And then the middle, wow, what a mess. Lucas managed to stun Rusty Alyce, and we misplayed one thing a little and gave Sidir one Fast too many. Well, at least Lucas forgot about his own Fast the turn before. 

Sidir and Lucas shot Alyce down to four health remaining. She activated and decided to heal a couple of point instead of shooting. Which she also tried, twice, without much of an effect this time around. However, Desolation Engine was now free to activate and it charged Sidir. The ten point amalgamation of living flesh and machine only managed to take a parry to the face. 

Marlena Webster walked on top of size 2 pipe to cover more area with her tethering aura. She also tried to take a shot at Hopeful Prospect, and that prospect certainly had reason to be hopeful, as this attack also missed. Leveticus took a double walk and placed strategy marker before Hopeful Prospect and Mr. Ngaatoro tried to hack him up. That was five points of damage caused by Leveticus without him doing anything. 

Huckster was able to teleport a little closer, but failed the second Secret Passage - much to my frustration, too, as Huckster was my prisoner target!

Both players scored strategy, and Explorer's Society also tagged their prisoner for a 2-1 lead.

Turn 3:

Going from top to bottom, Ashes and Dust waited until Rough Rider activated to go and place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. Eventually Scavenger did the same. Rough Rider was able to shoot one Hollow Waif dead and heal Desper a little.

Desper failed to leap, so he had to walk to place a scheme marker on my deployment zone. 

In the center things were heating up. Abomination walked to deny healing for McCabe and Sidir while Wastrels were busy setting up their Fast-train. Fast Sidir hacked Desolation Engine into an Abomination, who actually did, like one or two points of damage or so. Entropy and built-in tome trigger caused more damage to Sidir than all the combined attacks of my crew. 

Rusty Alyce was able to chip four points of health off from McCabe. Fast Huckster failed to use Secret Passage, so she just walked to place a scheme marker on center line, before she noticed an enormous teddy bear towering over her, just wanting to give a hug. Marlena Webster had walked to engage the prisoner. 

Mr. Ngaatoro, Leveticus and Hopeful Prospect were locked up in a weird brawl that didn't seem to be going anywhere. But unfortunately last attack from Mr. Ngaatoro hit and scored two points of poison, meaning neurotoxins would be active next turn, too. 

Both players scored strategy, Outcasts got their territory protected and prisoner tagged, and Explorers got Espionage. This was when opponent realized he had completely forgotten about the scheme marker required in his own deployment zone for the End condition.

What sort of 4D chess was this Huckster playing?! First she Black Jokered Secret Passage after concentrating, and now there was important reason for her to go back to Explorer Society deployment zone.

Scores balanced out at 4-4.

Turn 4:

Wow. Just wow. 

I don't think I have seen such carnage in Malifaux before - or at least, only few times. 

Fast Lucas McCabe brandished his lash, and he started striking at the tormented and miserable amalgamations of undead flesh and machine, killing both of them with two strikes. No-heal auras were thus long gone, so Marlena had to try and kill Sidir that only had like three health left. Marlena healed with a severe in an attempt to endure until next turn and took her swing - and took two points of damage from parry. Oh joy.

Nope, she didn't. Sidir butchered her and her teddy with two attacks, and started to shoot with his machine gun just for giggles - and look at that, Red Joker on damage against last remaining Hollow Waif. 

Brutal.

Huckster placed an explosive now that center only had Rusty Alice nearby and took a walk towards own deployment zone. Apparently Alice was a wee bit shaken, watching the carnage unfold, and pretty much missed all of her attacks.

On top side, Rough Rider went to protect one strategy marker Wastrels had planted after Ashes and Dust dropped an explosive to woods and flew to protect the marker it had dropped earlier. 

Scavenger also dropped a strategy marker and shot a severe damage against Rough Rider. 

Desper failed his jump again and had to walk to place strategy marker. 

Below, Leveticus and Mr. Ngaatoro continued their deathmatch, which looked a whole lot more threatening now that all Waifs were gone. 

Despite me putting all the effort into killing Mr. Ngaatoro early in turn, Leveticus only managed to score a weak damage against the henchman. In response, Mr. Ngaatoro beat the old man down to two health remaining. When did they start this game of chicken? Turn two?

Anyway, an honorable mention goes to Hopeful Prospect. He took one shot at Leveticus that missed, and got damaged because of it. And he lost his remaining three health points just because of activating. Poor guy.

Scores continued with a 5-5 tie.

Turn 5:

Leveticus finally scored his kill, and still had action points to place a scheme marker for Protected Territory. 

Rusty Alyce tried to attack McCabe twice, but neither shot hit home. Using the rapid fire felt a bit useless as Sidir still had five health remaining, but I still decided to go for it. And a severe it was. Way too late, but at least I got another kill. 

Rough Rider starts shooting at Scavenger, who bids his time to figure out what to do. For sure he'd not stay in enemy table side, though. Except... he did. Just not in a way I expected.

Lucas McCabe activated and placed a scheme marker on centerline, and started shooting the Scavenger. Double moderates on both attacks were enough to score a kill.

So, now we can add summary execution of prisoners to the long line of Lucas McCabe's heroic actions. In our games that guy has been so beyond abhorred in his moral choices that I should compile an actual list. 

Anyway, we ended game there because Scavenger was the last part able to affect game state in any meaningful way. 

It was a hard fought 7-7 draw when both crews scored full points from strategy, and everything else but end condition of Take Prisoner. 

McCabe at it again

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Raid the Vaults

Schemes: Espionage, Take Prisoner, Outflank, In Your Face, Power Ritual

My list:

Leveticus & 2x Hollow Waifs
Rusty Alyce
Ashes and Dust
Marlena Webster
2x Scavenger
2x Abomination

Pool: 4
Schemes: Espionage, Take Prisoner (Rough Rider)

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Mr. Ngaatoro
2x Rough Rider
2x Ruffian
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 4
Schemes: Outflank, Espionage

Turn 1:

Wastrels advanced from around flanks, with Rough Rider (prisoner) and Ruffian on the left, and another Rough Rider with Hopeful Prospect on the right. 

I didn't have much of an idea how Leveticus plays, but I do certainly like to bait people with master. Leveticus peeked from behind a size 2 stone terrain near center-right strategy marker, chuckling like the merry old timer he is. 

Scavengers had scavenged high cards from discard pile and pushed models around with weird devices. One of the scavengers was unfortunately positioned so that Lucas might  have stunned Leveticus with a blast from pepper box. However, Scavenger was an able-bodied tough-as-nails target well capable of defending himself, so it came as no surprise that Lucas McCabe just would not hit even with two tries.

Sidir took as two damage from Leveticus, Leveticus two from Sidir. Sounds fair to me. Leveticus was delayed, which was a bit of a bummer.

Marlena healed what she had taken from Leveticus when he had activated, and formed a nasty clump of tightly hugging models for all the blasts opponent had available. 

Ngaatoro tried to talk Scavenger into attacking Leveticus - and succeeded at that. The attack, however, missed. 

Rusty Alyce and an Abomination had placed scheme markers to my deployment zone. Ashes and Dust dived past centerline, attempting to kill Ruffian that was denying taking Rough Rider as a prisoner. No such luck. 

Turn 2:

Sidir opened the turn by opening fire on Leveticus. And what a terrifying activation it was - even with negative modifiers Sidir first flipped severe damage, and moderate damage right next. Marlena and Scavenger nearby were both wounded heavily, not to mention the old guy himself. I wasn't ready to lose Leveticus that fast, so he had to activate and leech one Abomination to get back to seven. 

But that Unmaking... sheesh. I love Leveticus already. Hopeful Prospect kept shooting Leveticus. Rough Rider on the right kept shooting Leveticus, each just dealing heavy damage to themselves. Combined with Marlena around Leveticus survived a ridiculous amount of punishment from minimum 2 models.

Marlena had to activate not to die too soon. She even managed to wither Mr. Ngaatoro for a bit, but this only infuriated the bully. Note to self: Mr. Ngaatoro is Leveticus' worst enemy. Neurotoxins completely shut off my master's potential to tilt people. 

Ruffian wasn't able to land any hits on Leveticus, but Lucas McCabe charged the grampa and eventually managed to whip the old-timer dead. Nurses, doctors, grandmother and grandfathers, kids of various sorts - undead kids, living kids, mentally impaired people, and even puppies have been whipped dead by this monster of a man. I implore... can nobody stop him? Anybody?

When a Hollow Waifcracked open like an eggshell and a new grandfather crawled out of there, I bet Lucas took firm notice and maybe even salivated a little. 

Injured Scavenger went to shoot Hopeful Prospect with a shotgun, making him merely a Prospect with one health remaining. 

One of the Abominations ran to deny healing and hopefully cause enough trouble with Entropy aura in the middle. McCabe, however, had cracked his whip with a trigger that left me unable to contest center-right strategy marker. At least another scavenger was able to go and claim center-left marker.

Rusty Alyce ran on top of centerline, while Rough Rider and Ruffian on the left kept attacking Ashes and Dust. Rough Rider also dropped a scheme that was later removed to score Outflank.

However, Ashes and Dust scored a lucky Necrotic Decay against Ruffian with its first action. It brought Ashes and Dust down to four health, but got me a chance at taking the rider as a prisoner. 

Both players scored strategy, Explorers got Outflank and Outcasts had Take Prisoner for a 2-2 tie.

Turn 3:

So, another Malifaux achievement unlocked. Both players flip Red Joker for initiative. Explorers win thanks to unused pass token.

Mr. Ngaatoro put his best effort into killing Marlena Webster, barely failing at that. This forced Marlena to activate right away and heal herself with Aetheric Healing. 

A Ruffian tried to attack a nearby Abomination, but didn't do much else than throw Timeworn Blade for Lucas McCabe. Precarious situation indeed - Marlena at four, Leveticus at four, one Abomination at two and the other at four. To protect my more valuable models, Abomination with four health remaining tried to engage McCabe. 

And then Lucas activated and did a horrifying activation. He donned Phantasmal Mask and started whipping around. Abomination died with one hit, thanks to the rams suit. He charged the 14-15 old orphan with a teddy bear, killing her instantly. Pepper Box shot killed the Abomination at two, and even the last shot from Pepper Box would have hit Leveticus if I hadn't cheated my highest card to the duel. 

Absolutely devastating. 

Leveticus activated and tried to kill Mr. Ngaatoro with some irreducible damage. He was able to get only weak damages in, and one attack missed so the big bully was still alive after Leveticus' activation. 

After Hopeful Prospect and Rough Rider on the right had missed all their shots against already injured Scavenger, the unsung hero activated and failed Weird Device on himself. He had to walk au naturel and waste an action point to get Mr. Ngaatoro in LoS. At least the shotgun shot hit home, and even a spent soulstone did not help the henchman. So at least an important model went down from Explorer's, too. 

The prisoner Rough Rider rode away from Ashes and Dust and tried to shoot it, missing. 

Luna dug up Phantasmal Mask for Sidir, so another Scavenger tried to discourage Sidir from shooting by blasting Luna right next to him with a refurbished shotgun. He got a severe, reducing Sidir down to two health remaining. Yay.

Sidir activated and managed to flip a Red Joker for heal. Noooo. Opponent's deck had just been  reshuffled.

Fortunately Sidir messed up most of his attacks. It was only the third attack that actually hit Scavenger and dealt minimum damage... but that was done with Masks. Only Rusty Alyce was in Sidir's range and sight, and he took that shot. Boom. Severe. 

Ah well, could have been worse. 

Hollow Waif was able to shoot the hope out of Prospect, this time eternally.

Rusty Alyce had placed a scheme marker to centerline, and Ashes and Dust was free to do the same to enemy deployment zone, thus securing Espionage. 

Explorers hadn't really explored vaults all that much and missed their strategy point this turn, while Ashes and Dust claimed a point for Outcasts for a 4-2 lead for Leveticus.

Turn 4:

Rusty Alyce placed a scheme marker for Espionage end condition and took a shot at Sidir, bringing him down to two health remaining. Again. I forget who opponent activated, but as it wasn't Sidir, Scavenger at the center-left strategy marker tried to get rid of the threat.

Which was Luna, obviously. Yeah, I was a bit too greedy there, as I wanted to kill the dog and Sidir with one attack. But only doggy died. Last attack went to Sidir, but did not connect. 

Sidir activated and drew a severe for juggernaut heal. Sigh. 

At least damage wasn't all that excessive, just one point to Alyce and Scavenger. 

Lucas, having such an adrenaline rush from killing granpa's and teens and tormented amalgamated undead little weaklings, charged Scavenger at center-left after Ruffian had placed a scheme marker and tossed Timeworn Blade for Lucas. But healthy adults don't seem to be Lucas' forte, and he missed three times. Last attack did hit and left Scavenger at one health remaining. 

Eventually Rough Rider had to ride to contest center-left marker and finish the Scavenger. 

As I had lost my chance at scoring strategy this turn, Ashes and Dust went to place a scheme marker deeper into enemy deployment zone for Espionage end condition. 

Rough Rider was unable to kill the Scavenger that had injured down to three health remaining early on turn two, but Hollow Waif and the remaining Scavenger were just as useless in killing the rider. 

Leveticus, who had two health by now, went down to one as he discarded a low card with Sanguine Evocations. He took a walk and a charge, trying to kill Ruffian at the center-right strategy marker. He scored only two points of damage, but the most important thing was to contest center-right marker, thus robbing Explorers a second strategy point.

Nobody got points this turn, so scores continued at 4-2 for Outcasts.

Turn 5:

We decided to continue until result was clear. And that was first activation, when Scavenger managed to kill Rough Rider at right, making Outflank pretty much impossible. 

So it was about a 5-3 victory for Leveticus.