Life Leeching Like a Pro

Had a 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Guard the Stash

Scheme pool: Sabotage, Assassinate, Breakthrough, Public Demonstration, In Your Face

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
Jaakuna Ubume
Shikome
Gwisin
Onryo
Seishin

Stones: 8
Schemes: Sabotage, Breakthrough

Opponent had:

Titania2 & Gorar
Malisaurus Rex
2x Autumn Knight with Inhuman Reflexes
2x Waldgeist with Ancient Pact

Stones: 6
Schemes: In Your Face, Breakthrough

Turn 1:

For a wedge, first round was surprisingly peaceful. I brought Jaakuna Ubume, Grisin and Ikiryo to hang around the lower middle marker with Datsue Ba behind a wall, ready to go where needed. An Autumn Knight and Waldgeist were within a single walk distance of lower marker. Gorar was sitting in deployment zone.

Kirai summoned an Onryo that was nearly killed by another Autumn Knight. I thought it would be safe to place Lost Love with By Your Side to heal that Onryo, but I completely forgot how Malisaurus tramples over people. Saving Lost Love cost me Red Joker from my hand. Last Malisaurus uses tendrils to push the enforcer away from Protected range.

Upper middle marker had Autumn Knight contesting it, with Malisaurus and Titania close enough, so situation there was alarming.

Hired Onryo was going north, and Shikome went around 21" with the help of Seishin, high up on the board to close in with Sabotage target. A Waldgeist managed to charge Shikome and deal in a few points of damage.

Turn 2:

Neverborn gets Black Joker on initiative. The only way for me to win initiative in this matchup. 

Onryo manages to land no-heals on Malisaurus Rex and I vow to remove the thing this turn. And I did this via two attacks from Onryo, three attacks from Ikiryo, two spirit barrages from Kirai and a balanced sword and violent ghosts attack from Goryo. 

Or at least in my fantasies I did that. No, after all of that, the thing was still sitting with nine health remaining. There is a smiley for this somewhere. Oh yeah, here it is: 

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

If we discount the Shielded+2 that was given to Malisaurus, five points of damage in total still was not impressive. Malisaurus kills Lost Love with two swings, and upper Autumn Knight kills the summoned Onryo.

Shikome disengages from Waldgeist and moves inside the building, but the thing just climbs over size 1 obstacle and continues to beat my minion. Hired Onryo disengages from Malisaurus and is trying to come to aid, but is still way too far to be of any help. 

Jaakuna Ubume had charged a championed Autumn Knight, and nearly killed herself. Datsue Ba also charges the knight, also getting her knife parried back. 

The Autumn Knight concentrates and tries to kill Jaakuna Ubume. She has focus from first turn, and I have two cards left in my deck. I suddenly realize I still got Red Joker coming, so she uses focus for defense. 

Gwisin had charged the lower Waldgeist to offer Take the Hit for Jaakuna, but I completely forgot about that ability until it was too late.

Both players score strategy for 1-1.

Turn 3:

Titania heals Malisaurus and lower Autumn Knight. Goryo tries to deny heals for the rex but fails. Malisaurus kills Ikiryo before she gets to activate and after rampage even manages to land a hit on Kirai.

 Situation in the middle was unbearable, but at least I lucked out with Shikome - she flipped Red Joker for damage on Waldgeist, and was able to interact a scheme marker with her second action. 

Onryo takes a double walk to control enemy top strategy marker. This probably triggered Gorar to come upwards, yet not close enough to deny Onryo's control. Lower Waldgeist disengages and runs past center line to my side. 

Gwisin was now free to advance and interact a scheme marker to enemy deployment zone.

Datsue Ba wastes her entire activation against Autumn Knight. Autumn Knight manages to land one hit against Jaakuna Ubume, and fortunately leaves her alive with one health. 

Seishin moves Kirai to contest my top marker from Malisaurus, and then Urami master uses shears on the beast rather effectively. At the end of the turn Malisaurus is down to four health.

Upper Autumn Knight tosses Goryo away and tries to challenge Kirai with proper suit, but since challenging is an attack action, it was transferred to Seishin instead. 

Opponent scores In Your Face from killing Ikiryo, and I get Breakthrough and strategy for 3-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4:

Titania started by healing stuff, but at least there was so much stuff that needed healing that all of them didn't pile up on Malisaurus Rex. Goryo puts no-heal on Malisaurus and charges in for a few points of damage. Autumn Knight charges Kirai who now had seven health. Kirai puts both attacks and challenge on Goryo although this empties my entire hand.

Kirai then manages to shear Malisaurus down to one health. One health! With Kirai having Life Leech, that was a death sentence that came to fruition as one of the last activations. Phew! Was this the first time I succeeded to kill Malisaurus? (Well, yes it was, but I've faced it only thrice)

Gorar tries to kill Onryo but fails while Onryo succeeds to remove Titania's totem.

Jaakuna has the time to use Drowning Aura, but since both Autumn Knights had Inhuman Reflexes this didn't help much - it just charged over Jaakuna and she died to Blade Rush. 

Datsue Ba... yeah. This was the second turn in a row when she failed every single action, and the round before that she managed to take a few points of damage in herself while not dishing out any herself. 

Shikome goes to place a scheme marker close enough my selected sabotage building and within enemy deployment zone. Gwisin interacts a marker to enemy deployment and walks to contest lower middle marker. So it was no strategy points for anyone. However, Breakthrough for me put the game 4-2 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Titania kills Onryo from enemy top marker and probably caused the death of summoned Goryo. Datsue Ba manages to kill the damnable Autumn Knight, finally!

Waldgeist below comes and takes a charge at Kirai, landing her away from contesting strategy.

Gwisin removes enemy scheme marker and runs to contest bottom-right marker. We did not continue beyond this since it was clear that Kirai would go to contest strategy marker and Shikome would do the same and spawn a scheme marker in enemy deployment zone, getting final score to whopping 6-2. 

But yeah, the game was way tougher than score indicates. When turn three was starting I was sure I'd lose. 

Two Reds in one attack

A 50ss game of Malifaux. 

Strategy: Corner Turf War

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Breakthrough, Hidden Martyrs, Claim Jump, Detonate Charges

My list:

Jack Daw & Ligeia
Montresor
Jaakuna Ubume
Midnight Stalker
Hanged
Guilty
Catalan Rifleman

Stones: 7
Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Hanged & Guilty), Detonate Charges

Opponent:

Titania the Autumn Queen & Gorar
Malisaurus Rex (Claim Jump)
Hooded Rider
Rougarou
2x Autumn Knight

Stones: 7
Schemes: Claim Jump, Assassinate

Turn 1:

Knowing I would most likely get the horrible corner of bottom-right, I tried to take models which would actually get out of that bottleneck before turn 3. By then I didn't know that my side of the board would be filled with severe terrain templates right away.

Well, at least I had Jack Daw, Hanged, Jaakuna and Lady Ligeia incorporeal enough. Guilty, Montresor and Catalan Rifleman were the only models severely hampered by severe terrain since Midnight Stalker would just leap over things. Or so I thought. Midnight Stalker wasted its first turn because I didn't draw a mask for my hand. So he kind of got about 2" past my deployment zone.

Anyway, I opted to shovel pretty much the entirety of my crew to threaten the board center. Catalan Rifleman took bottom-right turf marker.

Neverborn were a little more spread out with Hooded Rider rushing to bottom-left marker and Malisaurus Rex as close to top-right marker as middle marker. Gorar, Rougarou and Titania were chilling around top-left marker while both Autumn Knights engaged middle marker.

Turn 2:

Resurrectionists win initiative, and Jaakuna puts up a hazardous aura. What a waste.

Then goes Titania. I had Red Joker in my hand, so I wouldn't have needed to let Third Law pass on Jack Daw... This was because I woefully underestimated the distance that is 4" - I thought it wouldn't bring Jack Daw into melee with Autumn Knights. Well, it did. And now Jack Daw was stunned.

To make matters even worse I somehow didn't register that stunned doesn't let you declare triggers on your own models, too. Because of this I walked Jack Daw a little forward to place Curse of Injustice on Malisaurus Rex. After that I only needed to use Suppressed Memories on The Guilty and buy a trigger to escape... oh wait, stunned.

At least Autumn Knight received Curse of Injustice, too.

Malisaurus then charges Jack Daw and after a brutal mauling and a staggering expenditure of stones and cards, Jack Daw is at two health points remaining.

The Guilty tries to save the outcast master by charging another Autumn Knight, not doing much. But neither did the Autumn Knights. Both tried to attack The Guilty, which all but confirmed opponent had taken Assassinate.

Midnight Stalker runs towards top-right turf marker while Rougarou seems to have the same idea.

Hooded Rider takes bottom-left marker and rides into woods to collapse my lines next turn. Or not.

Catalan Rifleman takes a point of damage to get tomes for a warning shot against Hooded Rider,  fails on purpose and then takes the actual shot. He takes a point of damage again to get stun trigger.

Hooded Rider wins the duel hard, so I have to cheat Red Joker from my hand to hit. Then I get to do a damage flip with some negatives. My deck went empty, so it was reshuffled. Damage: Red Joker. 

Then Hanged walks, charges and fails its attack on Hooded Rider. Last, it uses bonus whispers on the Rider, buys crows and kills the Rider with Mental Trauma.

What just happened?

Both players score turf, and Neverborn gets Assassinate for a score of 1-2.

Turn 3:

And again, Red Joker in my starting hand. Luckily this game was played on a virtual platform, because by now I'd have become really suspicious about my shuffling skills had we played a live game.

My starting hand was pretty good otherwise, too. I "won" the initiative, but opponent cheated a 13 for initiative (he had one pass token). I thought that I had good chances to win even if I wasted my Red to get a re-flip. So I did. I lose, but cheat in a 13. Opponent also cheats 13, winning the initiative. So he had two 13's in starting hand.

I suppose I can't complain, though, because past 10 cards or so had included three Red Jokers for me...

Titania butchers Jack Daw, but at least she spends all of her stones while doing that.

Remaining Outcast forces gain a good position in the middle, because Malisaurus and both Autumn Knights have staggered on them and Montresor nearby keeping that stagger in place. Jaakuna Ubume is offering hazardous terrain and Lady Ligeia making all cheats costly. While my wet noodle attacks weren't impressive, damage was steadily pouring in via these eroding abilities.

Hanged takes a charge against Autumn Knight and scores a lucky tomes, placing an unsuspicious scheme marker.

Malisaurus beats Montresor and Montresor fails to Execute Malisaurus even when opponent had no stones or cards in hand.

Midnight Stalker jumps to top-right turf marker, interacts and charges Rougarou for a couple points of damage.

Scores go 2-2 when Outcasts manage to get their second turf.

Turn 4:

Neverborn wins initiative and Titania heals 80% of all damage I managed to do last round. Feels good.

Malisaurus doesn't manage to kill Jaakuna Ubume, who then walks to offer Autumn Knights some hazardous terrain. Autumn Knight then tries to kill my enforcer, and fails. And last but not least - Gorar takes a ranged attack against Jaakuna Ubume who has Serene Countenance and gets Friendly Fire. And scores a kill. Thanks to Black Joker Jaakuna flipped.

Rougarou smacks Midnight Stalker down to two health remaining, and Midnight Stalker pays the debt, bringing the beast down to one.

Montresor & Jaakuna and their various abilities had brought Malisaurus down to one health remaining.

Hanged & Catalan Rifleman brought Autumn Knight down to one health remaining.

Gee, wouldn't it be a shame if enemy master was able to heal six points and hand out shielded as required in a situation like this? (Well, at least she wouldn't do anything else.)

Alright, there were reasons for this, though. Lady Ligeia didn't succeed to deliver the last point required to Malisaurus, which honestly was to be expected. But Hanged could have killed Autumn Knight, but chose to get Draw Out Secrets instead, securing me reveal condition for Detonate Charges.

3-2 for Outcasts.

Turn 5:

Red Joker in my starting hand again. Opponent flipping 13 for initiative again while having a pass token.

Titania heals Malisaurus for six and gives Shielded +3 for it. Malisaurus doesn't get to do anything useful, though.

Montresor kills one of the Autumn Knights with his bonus action and then is cursed to watch while Hanged takes a walk and interacts with turf marker. Autumn Knight then attacks The Guilty and declares Into Thorns. I win, but as a perverted act of mercy I cheat to lose the duel. Unfortunately it's minimum damage and I didn't get Hidden Martyrs.

Autumn Knight then interacts with middle turf. Hanged then interacts with middle turf and places a scheme marker for Detonate Charges. Catalan Rifleman takes a double walk and interacts with bonus action.

Outcasts get third turf and end condition of Detonate Charges, and Neverborn declares Claim Jump on Malisaurus.

Outcasts win 5-4 this tough game that was considered confusing by both participants.