Jack the hitpot

 Two 50ss games of Malifaux during my traditional Kuhmo visit.

Strategy: Flank Guard the Stash

Schemes: Hidden Martyrs, Vendetta, Secret Meetup, Load 'Em Up, Assassinate

My list:

Dr. McMourning & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Carrion Emissary
Rafkin
Nurse
Little Gasser

Pool: 2
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Rafkin & Little Gasser), Vendetta (Sebastian on Koji)

Opponent had:

Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet & Hungering Darkness
Gwyneth Maddox
Koji
Kara
Mr. Tannen
Illuminated
Tanuki
Beckoner

Pool: 3
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Beckoner, ) Load 'Em Up (scheme)

Turn 1:

McMourning's crew was taking it slow. Both Rafkin and Sebastian were really, clumsy next to Rogue Necromancy, Sebastian, Rafkin, McMourning and Zombie Chihuahua. Unfortunately two out of five formaldehyde flasks failed to drop, so I didn't live the dream of getting to reshuffle my deck within first few activations of the turn. Oh well.

Lynch was doing his thing, dishing out brilliance to friendly models and giving them extra pushes. 

Kara went to place a scheme marker past centerline, and the rest of Ten Thunders were just bunching up and concentrating. Oh. Except for Hungering Darkness, who obeyed Carrion Emissary to Rot and Rend nearby Nurse. Damage ended up being severe, and blast clipped the bird itself.

 Koji was close to the middle, followed closely behind by Gwyneth and Beckoner. So close in fact, that the Emissary was able to pay back in kind and shoot Koji with the gun, and blast over Gwyneth and Beckoner. So... sixteen damage in first turn. Not a bad first appearance for Carrion Emissary, although seven of those were against frie

Hungering Darkness and Illuminated were already contesting the middle-right strategy marker, with Tanuki speeding towards bottom marker.

As the very last activation for the round McMourning went to create a Flesh Construct, who walked and charged Koji. 

Resurrectionists had a high profile first rank consisting of McMourning, Carrion Emissary and Rogue Necromancy in the middle, with most of my other models behind them. Little Gasser was biding its time, so it would be able to run within 2" of top strategy marker.

Turn 2:

A big turn for sure. Kara opened the turn by pouncing on summoned Flesh Construct's chest and tearing it apart for a bit. Flesh Construct activates right away while it still got time for it, and didn't do much damage in itself, but drained soulstones and high cards from opponent, who was trying to protect his henchman.

Lynch finishes the job on Flesh Construct and releases Hungering Darkness from engagement.

Carrion Emissary unleashes another devastating volley of Rot and Rend on Koji, scoring a moderate which meant nasty damage for Kara and Lynch. It also spawned zombies to engage Illuminated.

Carrion Emissary had proved to be such a scary model, and Hungering Darkness wasn't going to have any of it. It was in range to charge the big bird. Fortunately one attack failed to hit, because I would have lost my Emissary. It was sitting with one health remaining after Ten Thunders leader had done its thing. This forced my hand to activate Nurse, who managed to heal the bird only by one, but at least she got off a charge attack against Hungering Darkness that stunned the beast.

Illuminated killed both Mindless Zombies. Sebastian saw a chance to score Vendetta with using Blood Poisoning on Koji. He managed to bring him down to one health, and even Kara received damage from bone saw. 

Koji tried to shoot Sebastian, but didn't do much. Then it was Rogue Necromancy's turn to have probably most effective Projectile Vomit that it ever did. It concentrated and vomited over Lynch, scoring severe damage which meant two blasts. Koji and Kara died, and even Lynch took three damage from Necrotic Decay.

Tanuki came to heal Lynch, while Rafkin took double walk and transfused three poison from McMourning to Lynch.

Gwyneth charged Sebastian, and that deck of cards sure is more lethal than a pesky derringer. Sebastian was left reeling with one health remaining. For the second time ever I guessed right Hit the Jackpot and drew a card instead. 

Fortunately Paw Patrol was left to activate, so Zombie Chihuahua ran to offer Blood Poisoning for Sebastian, which healed him for five. So, he was in a fairly secured position. Or so I thought.

Beckoner lures him to hazardous terrain, and punches him essentially down to two health remaining. Two health points and in a hazardous terrain (Dmg 1, Injured +1) was not a good spot for Vendetta end condition carrier.

Fortunately McMourning makes an amazing activation, raining skull saw attacks on Lynch so that poison is enough to kill him in the end phase.

Little Gasser took a flight to top-left strategy marker. 

Situation looked harsh for Ten Thunders, but scores went even when both players received strategy, vendetta for Resurrectionists and hidden martyrs for Ten Thunders. 2-2

Turn 3:

Carrion Emissary tried to go to smack Tanuki a bit because that is a proper thing to do, but failed at everything except putting down some coffin markers. This resulted in Gwyneth butchering Sebastian. Good bye, vendetta points. Again I guessed right with Hit the Jackpot, so this is somewhat of a record for me.

To repay Gwyneth's insolence, McMourning gave himself some doctor's orders to leave the melee range of Hungering Darkness and remove last martyr of Ten Thunders - the Beckoner. He managed to deal damage to already damaged Gwyneth, who was left standing with two health points. Somehow I found the willpower not to try and kill her and instead walk to contest a strategy marker that Rogue Necromancy had been guarding for a couple of turns.

Hungering Darkness charged Carrion Emissary, and this time it smacked the bird dead with just two attacks, and was able to walk to contest the center-right strategy marker. 

Rafkin charged Illuminated, engaging Hungering Darkness just for the sake of it. He didn't hit. Unfortunately Illuminated went to attack Nurse. To remove additional targets around Rafkin the Hidden Martyr, Nurse pulled herself here and there with bottle of painkillers and went to charge Tanuki at bottom-right marker. This forced Mr. Tannen to come and claim the strategy marker.

A bloody game it had been. Neither player revealed more schemes, so scores went to 3-3.

Turn 4:

I had a good hand, but I blew most of the good cards in defending Rafkin. I wanted to waste as much action points from Hungering Darkness and Illuminated before getting him killed. And it worked rather well, Hungering Darkness and Illuminated needed all of their action points to finally score the kill.

McMourning killed Gwyneth, and took a run towards strategy marker in enemy deployment. 

Mr. Tannen and Tanuki were not able to kill Nurse at bottom marker, but neither was Nurse able to do anything useful. 

Scores went 3-5 for Resurrectionists, and as such we didn't play last turn. Ten Thunders had no plausible way to even the scores even if Resurrectionists didn't get any points, and scoring end condition from hidden martyrs was still possible for Resurrectionists anyway.

Game 2:

Strategy: Standard Turf War

Schemes: Claim Jump, Detonate Charges, Outflank, Take Prisoner, Vendetta

My list:

Madame Sybelle & Carrion Effigy with Effigy of Fate
White Rabbit Co.
Bete Noire
2x Flesh Construct
Dead Doxy
Rotten Belle
Dead Dandy

Pool: 4
Schemes: Detonate Charges, Outflank

Opponent had:

Perdita the Neverborn Hunter with Lead Linen Coat & Enslaved Nephilim
Francisco with Lead Linen Coat
Pale Rider
Guild Mage
Nino Ortega
Abuela Ortega

Pool: 7
Schemes: Claim Jump (Pale Rider), Outflank

Turn 1:

Perdita started the game by summoning a pistolero, the one that let family members ignore concealment. Guild kept their distance, and I certainly didn't want to give any easy shots for them. However, that still happened when a Flesh Construct went near the middle of board. Nino and Pale Rider took a few shots at it, but thankfully damage was low and Madame Sybelle managed to pull a heal with Undivided Attention.

Another Flesh Construct went to place a scheme marker past top-left strategy marker. Dead Dandy went to interact with that strategy marker, and turned the scheme into a launching pad for Bete Noire. Nino and Pale Rider were there on top-right marker.

At the bottom of things, Dead Doxy and Rotten Belle took the bottom-left marker and had big plans for outflanking. 

Remainder of my crew were in the middle, with Carrion Effigy just concentrating and doing nothing behind dense clouds. White Rabbit Company had crafted a fine hat for Bete Noire, who had ran to middle to possibly act as a bullet sponge next round.

Guild had Francisco coming from the bottom-right, with the remainder of their crew in a not-dense cloud effect packed like sardines. I've been told Flesh Constructs absolutely loathe sardines and are ready to puke from the slightest mention of those...

Turn 2:

Perdita summons the pistolero that reduces blast damage. So, suddenly it looked far less of an option to use projectile vomit with bazillion blast templates over six enemy models when they'd just receive no damage or extra effects - at all.

Perdita managed to shoot the hat off of Bete Noire, but White Rabbit Company demonstrated that there were plenty of those hats where they came from.

Nino shot  Dead Dandy off the board, and Pale Rider and a couple of Pistolero de Latigos did the same for Flesh Construct in the middle. Unfortunately kill shot came from Pistolero, so the upgraded Pistolero got an upgrade.

Francisco landed a horrifying severe+1 on Bete Noire. Fortunately I had chosen Fade Away, but on top of that she also had to discard her second fancy hat. What is this thing happening in here? I was sure Guild keyword was Family and not Fashion Police.

I figured that I just needed to play my game and let Family shoot my crew to pieces and hope for enough points via schemes. And at least outflank reveal wasn't hard to get this round, with Flesh Construct going top and Doxy going bottom. Rotten Belle also went to place a scheme marker that hopefully would be detonated one day.

Madame Sybelle was in contact with the middle strategy marker, and had turned it over for Resurrectionists.

Then we had a little mix up when Bete Noire charged Nino from Flesh Construct's corpse. We had forgotten it had Shielded +1. and Bete had scored exactly enough damage to kill Nino. She used last action to concentrate when we still thought Nino was dead. But come next turn, I realized Nino had been shielded. The best backtrack we could do was putting Nino back on table with one health remaining. 

Scores go 1-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 3:

It's big bird time, when Carrion Emissary hatches from Effigy. 

But, Perdita opens the turn by summoning a third model. She then starts taking trick shots at Bete Noire - thankfully none of which manage to land that stun.

Bete Noire butchers Nino this time for real and just concentrates, because not much use in trying to attack the Pale Rider. 

Pale Rider shoots Bete Noire, who fades away, leaving Pale Rider free to ride to strategy marker that had been switched to neutral, and flip it back to Guild's possession.

White Rabbit Company gives a comfortable hat for Madame Sybelle, who then had the difficult choice between trying to score Detonate Charges with her hat, or charge in the thick of Guilders. She chose violence, because I wanted to remove Guild Mage. Both her attacks did hit, but took off only four points of Mage's health.

Doxy placed a scheme marker for Outflank. Situation looked hopeful when Francisco didn't succeed in killing Rotten Belle, but then Abuela took a shot with her shotgun, killing the meatshield. Would Doxy survive two full rounds against Francisco, protecting the scheme marker? Only time would tell.

The summoned gang shot White Rabbit Company to pieces and went to switch middle marker to Guild. Carrion Emissary had to take a double walk to get within 6" of Flesh Construct who had earlier been doing some outflanking to provide +1 movement for the experimental minion. This enabled it to do a double walk and interact top-left strategy marker back to Resurrectionists. 

Both players scored strategy for a 2-3 lead for Resurrectionists.

But the start of turn 4 seemed rather grim for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Madame Sybelle killed Guild Mage and tried to retreat into position where her fine hat would perhaps give a point from Detonate Charges. But that did not happen.

Pistoleros, Monster Hunters and Pale Rider shoots dead Carrion Emissary, who had flown to outflank area to place a scheme marker. One Pistolero grew to a Monster Hunter, which I suppose is fair - after all, it killed a gosh darn Carrion Emissary! Can't get much more of a monster than that. 

Flesh Construct flipped top-left marker back for Resurrectionists after it had become neutral from Emissary's death, and ran behind dense clouds to hide from Family's ranged attacks, hopefully getting a point from Outflank last round.

Perdita summoned even more Pistoleros, and then she, Francisco and the Pistolero and Abuela killed Dead Doxy. Thankfully she had managed to navigate Francisco in to a position for me to score Detonate Charges, but that meant I lost any chance for scoring Outflank end condition.

Bete Noire appears from Guild Mage's corpse and goes to flip bottom-right strategy marker from Guild to neutral. Thus, no points for build but one for Resurrectionists from Detonate Charges.

Scores go 2-4 lead for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

A Pistolero goes to engage Flesh Construct behind the clouds, and the rest of summoned gang sets up markers for Outflank.

Perdita uses trick shot to stun Bete Noire, which essentially takes my star player out of the game. At least she was able to go back to strategy marker and flip it out of spite for Resurrectionists.

Then Francisco placed another scheme for Outflank and shot Bete Noire dead. I had the option to threaten the middle area with Madame Sybelle with my stack of six pass tokens, but I thought as far as points go, it's essentially the same to deny a point from opponent. 

Madame Sybelle takes a double walk and swings her lash at Abuela, dealing some four points of damage. In hindisght, I probably should have went to cover the strategy marker entirely with Sybelle's melee range, as opponent was able to a por el and frighteningly remind Abuela closer to strategy marker and out of Madame's melee range. It wasn't a big sliver of marker Abuela had to work with, but it was enough to tag it for Guild.

Pale Rider rides to marker in the middle, thus scoring Claim Jump end condition. 

In one fell swoop, points went from 2-4 to 5-4 for Guild. 

Cactus Family

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Reckoning

Schemes: Assassinate, Breakthrough, Harness the Ley Lines, Claim Jump, Search the Ruins

My list:

Madame Sybelle & Carrion Effigy
Mortimer
Bone Pile
Flesh Construct
2xRabble Riser
Guild Autopsy
Dead Doxy
Dead Dandy

Pool: 2
Schemes: Claim Jump (On Mortimer), Harness the Ley Lines

Opponent had:

Perdita Ortega, Neverborn Hunter with Lead-Lined Coat & Enslaved Nephilim
Francisco Ortega with Lead-Lined Coat
Pale Rider
Guild Mage
Nino Ortega
Abuela Ortega

Pool: 7
Schemes: Assassinate, Claim Jump (Nino)

Turn 1:

Surprisingly little happened on the first round except for positioning. Bone Pile was going to top-right corner, followed by a gathering of Mortimer, Guild Autopsy and Dead Dandy.

In the center was Madame Sybelle, Carrion Effigy and Dead Doxy. Below, both Rabble Risers and Flesh Construct.

Pale Rider had ridden with a summoned Pistolero to the corner of a building below and took a shot at Madame Sybelle, dealing a couple points of damage. Dead Doxy could have taken by the hand Carrion Effigy to heal Madame, or Rabble Riser to soften up enemy models. I thought that to be more important, so she pushed Rabble Riser a bit forth so that it was able to walk and charge Abuela, but accomplished nothing with a sword against a granny in a wheelchair. 

Turn 2:

Sybelle wins the initiative, which was Rabble Riser's chance to kill a granny. First Rabble Riser gets black joker on damage, then just generally misses and finally manages to score two points. Woohoo.

Perdita then summons a Nephilim Hunting Pistolero and shields just about everybody. A por el (however that is actually spelled?) has Abuela blasting Rabble Riser with shotgun, grudging him with adversary.

My strategy game didn't look good, so I sent in another Rabble Riser at the Pistolero from first round, hoping to kill essentially a five hit point model with two attacks. And it certainly looked like it's easier to kill a grown man than to beat a granny in wheelchair - strategy point was secured for me, too.

The summoned Pistolero shot the already injured Rabble Riser dead, so that was also a point for Guild. But it also became Monster Hunter.

Abuela shot a second Rabble Riser dead with her own actual activation, which was strategically an overkill but I had plenty of targets in my crew anyway.

Pale Rider and Fransisco kept shooting Madame Sybelle and Mortimer, while Effigy kept healing Sybelle. She had also suffered staggered from Pale Rider's gun, so she wasn't going anywhere too fastly. She instead walked, interacted a scheme and concentrated. Guild Autopsy and Bone Pile put scheme markers on the centerline, and even Flesh Construct did that before it went to fruitlessly tease Nino, who also had come to shoot Madame Sybelle.

Four scheme markers on the centerline were plenty enough for Harness Ley Line, and Mortimer claimed center point, pushing points to 1-3 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 3:

Guild won initiative, and Perdita summoned another beast-hunting Pistolero to get rid of concealing terrain. I don't know from where these Family members kept appearing. Did Perdita throw a pistol to a vaguely humanoid shaped cactus and behold, a cousin. Then Perdita shot Madame Sybelle with silver bullets, which was Madame Sybelle's silver bullet. No way I could deny Assassinate this round any more. She also shot Trick Shot and stunned my leader.

Since running away would be of use now, Madame Sybelle charged and killed Abuela with two strikes, and one left-over going to Guild Mage. 

Fransisco shot Madame Sybelle for a bit and emptied Resurrectionists soul stone pool. 

Flesh Construct started mauling Nino, bringing him down to two health remaining and two poison. Nino escapes and kills Madame Sybelle with a Red Joker on damage.

Dead Doxy pushes thee carrion puppet a little forward so it can try to soften up a Monster Hunter for my second Reckoning kill. However, Pale Rider punishes Doxy for taking a little doll by the hand by shooting her with a pneumatic rifle, dealing moderate damage even with two negative modifiers. Then it rides with Nino closer to Guild Mage's healing aura and shot a couple points of damage to Flesh Construct, staggering it. 

Carrion Effigy misses Monster Hunter with aimed shot, Pistolero misses a shot against Mortimer, and Guild Autopsy continues the trend of missing Monster Hunter. Strategy points for this round are starting to look grim.

Monster Hunter activates next, creeps along to Nino and stuns poor Flesh Construct, who is now stunned, staggered and injured +1. And at three health remaining.

Remaining Guild activations weren't that impactful, except for Guild Mage healing Nino to six. It was down to two, with Poison +2! There was zero chance for me to get Reckoning point, so Mortimer concentrated and blasted Guild Mage, Pistolero and Perdita with Decay, at least dealing single points of damage through Shielded.

Bone Pile placed a scheme marker and buried itself.

Scores kind of go 2-3 for Resurrectionists, although that might as well be 3-3 as opponent most likely had Assassinate scheme.

Turn 4:

Resurrectionists won initiative, which meant Bone Pile emerging in the middle of enemy crew, trying to claw Pistolero dead. Emphasis on trying, with a connotation of not-succeeding. 

Perdita had a devastating activation - first, she used trick shot against Mortimer and had Pale Rider land a weak shot against my henchman. She then takes a regular shot with manipulative penalty, hits and even gets Silver Bullets from flip. Last shot hits again despite manipulative penalties and would have dealt lethal damage if it wasn't for Hard-to-Kill. So, Mortimer was stunned, staggered, at one health remaining and unable to heal.

I didn't think he'd be able to get away from threats with his movement of 2, so he just concentrated and tried to score a lucky severe against Pistolero, but failed at that. At least he managed to make a moderate, so there was some collateral damage to Guild Mage and Perdita. 

Pistolero disengages from Bone Pile and shoots Mortimer dead, thus becoming a Monster Hunter. 

Game is starting to look like an unsalvageable wreck for Resurrectionists, but still Dead Doxy pushes Carrion Effigy a little forward and goes to charge Guild Mage, doing just one point of damage. 

Pale Rider shoots Flesh Construct dead and rides with Nino to Bone Pile and Dead Doxy. Carrion Effigy runs to offer some Aura of Decay. Monster Hunter charges Carrion Effigy, and finally Guild starts failing attacks on this round. Such joy was short, however, when Fransisco killed the thing with a total of one action point and four attacks. He also pushed Guild Mage into safety with Heroic Intervention. 

Remainder of my activations were planting scheme markers down the centerline, and opponent softening up Bone Pile and Dead Doxy. 

Scores even to 3-3.

Turn 5:

I spend Red Joker from my hand on initiative, and finally Bone Pile is able to kill Guild Mage. Woefully too late, but maybe I can snatch second strategy point this round.

Perdita activates and shoots Dead Doxy into shreds with a red joker on damage. Last remaining shots at Guild Autopsy didn't do much.

Losing Doxy before she managed to activate made the extra kill gosh darn unlikely, so Dead Dandy took a flight far, far away.

Enslaved Nephilim makes an exceptional multi-activation first by charging Mindless Zombie dead, then giving a shot for Nino with Obey, and Nino gives Concentrate for Fransisco, who gives card for Perdita. 

Guild Autopsy also runs, and Perdita doesn't want to play cat and mouse and removes Madame Sybelle's scheme markers instead.

Game ends 5-3 for Guild when Guild reveals Claim Jump on Nino and Assassinate.