One More Revenge

So I was finally lured into continuing A Touch of Evil campaign via Tabletop Simulator.

Recently, we've been having some good luck in our campaign. That was about to change.

We tried to vanquish our nemesis, the Shadow Witch. And from the very first round of the game it seemed apparent we'd have a very rough road. Two Spectres spawned on turn 1, one of which was fortunately removed right away. But still. During the whole game there was not a single round we'd draw only one mystery card in a turn. Even first turn was compromised when Brother Marcus entered The Marsh, and... did not draw an event.

You know how cats are usually drawn to those who like them least? Solomon was no exception either. He made acquaintances with Brother Marcus very soon after game started - but only after Brother Marcus, who sports a Cunning value of 1, received Devil's Mark that gave -1 Cunning.

It gives a good idea how vehemently the game treated us, when Brother Marcus finally entered The Coast board (where both Shadow Spectres were), there was a cave-in in Smugglers Cove that threw him right back to Abandoned Keep.

Our other hero, Anne-Marie the Schoolteacher didn't find a single book in the game. She was able to buy Sacred Chalice, which could have saved us if it wasn't third or fourth Mystery card that removed it from the game. Sure, such were the probabilities anyway. But we would have needed a little extra there.

At worst, we had to draw three mystery cards per turn and roll 4+ to see if we needed to draw additional mysteries.

When Shadow Track fell five whole steps in one round, it was about the time to start showdown. With no gear, events, nothing.

Grandest accomplishment must have been surviving the first Showdown fight round, although...

Oh. It wasn't any accomplishment at all, now that I take a closer look. We forgot all about Shadow Witch gaining extra combat dice from Remains In Play - which Brother Marcus already had two. Both were Devil's Mark, by the way.

So we accidentally cheated and survived one showdown fight round, where Shadow Witch rolled only eleven dice, as well as hitting on 4+ from Laying in Wait.

So... now we got less than half of heroes remaining.


Campaign statistics

Villains defeated: Spectral Horseman, Vampire, Siren, Bog Fiend, Volgovian Nutcracker, Delion Dryad, Scarecrow, Krampus, Sunken Seven, Gargoyle, Banshee
Villains still to be defeated: 8, +1 investigation vs Werewolf and Shadow Witch

Heroes dead: Brother Marcus, Anne-Marie, Lucy Hanbrook, Harlow Morgan, Scarlet Shadow, Maria de la Rosa, Thomas the Courier, Adrianna, Valeria, Jack Fellows, Argot Blackwell, Inspector Cooke, Isabella von Took & Liliana, Lost Soul
Heroes remaining: 10

Stashed investigation: 10

Lich Lord vs Witch Coven of Garlghast

Had this 50 point game of Warmachine a couple of days ago.

My list was;

Lich Lord Asphyxious [+28]
- Deathripper [6]
- Desecrator [14]
- Inflictor [13]
Bane Lord Tartarus [6]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Misery Cage [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]


Opponent had:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast [+26]

- 2x Deathripper [6]
- Reaper [13]
- Slayer [10]
Bane Lord Tartarus [6]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]


Scenario was Close Quarter from main rulebook.

Witch Coven feated on second turn, which mitigated my damage potential. As I was playing Asphyxious2 anyway, I ran forward with Bane Warriors. Their deaths wouldn't feel that bad, considering how they were coming back.

I managed to take down the contestants from my flag, and scored first scenario point from the four required to win.

It wasn't difficult for opponent to do the same and deny my second point. I lost my Misery Cage, Soul Trapper and one Ironmonger in the process.

Bane Warrior minifeat brought back some of the destroyed models, and I tried to take down both heavies from Witch Coven. Reaper was destroyed, but Slayer took a big 13 damage hit, and broke not even a single system. Thanks, column 3.

Then I suddenly was looking at my five models versus enemy twenty. Enemy Tartarus had destroyed shield system from Inflictor, but thankfully nothing else. Anyway, even if scenario game was steady 1-1 or something like that, just looking at the numbers present told me I had no chance of playing scenario.

It's been a while since I played with Asphyxious2, or Warmachine for that matter, and I didn't realize I could reach Witch Coven with Spectral Legion. I could bring about four warriors to them. Needing 7's and 8's to hit was so unlikely that I tried to make certain Inflictor would be able to at least trample and take a swing at one of the witches, but Fortuna smiled on me this time. Not a single Bane Warrior missed their attack roll, and that's not good news for Arm 11, eight wound models.

I reckon some scheming

First game of Malifaux for the year of 2020. Don't know how mentioning that bears any importance, but you got to begin a write-up somehow.

Lists involved were:

Molly Squidpiddge + Necrotic Construct
Philip & Nanny
Mortimer
Bete Noire + The Whisper
Mourner + Grave Spirit's Touch
2x Crooligan

Schemes: Harness the Ley Lines, Dig Their Graves


Rasputina + Wendigo

Snowstorm
Ice Golem + Soulstone Cache
2x Ice Gamin
2x Ice Dancer + Magical Training

Schemes: Assassinate, Dig Their Graves

I played my first game with Molly, whom I wanted to try anyway even if Seamus might have been a tad better choice for Reckoning strategy.

Turn 1

First turn Rasputina made a grand opening move, where she killed a Crooligan and brought both Bete Noire and Mourner down to two health remaining. Also, Mortimer took a couple of damage. Well, next time I know not to bunch up my models in the middle like that against her. Whole bunching up happened because of my terrible deployment - I had forgotten about my plan of using Blasphemous Ritual on Mourner to stack some Focused on my models. With their activations I had to bring them into that formation. Which is a nice little bottle neck.

First time playing Molly was a mess. I mean, golems and whatnot would have been prime targets for 2x3 irreducible damage per turn, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the difference between hand sizes.

Turn 2

Next turn I had the choice of opening Reckoning strategy and leaving Bete Noire in vulnerable position, or damage Ice Dancer and leave Bete buried in safety. I chose to attack. After all she did have chance of burying herself anyway.

Nope.

Not against Ice Golem with pillars around, no. This was devastating. Ice Golem charged Bete Noire and was within melee range of Mourner, too. Golem was dealing a minimum of 4 damage thanks to ice pillar nearby, and even with reducing two, Bete died. And Mourner had regenerated a little, but was still only at four health remaining. Lethe's Caress tickled the Golem for sure as it butchered two of my priciest models. It wasn't much of a consolation.

Necrotic Machine and Crooligan had planted enough scheme markers to turn in Harness the Ley Line, and both players scored reckoning.

Turn 3

So... when you got a gigantic snow beast eating bodies of the fallen right next to an enormous magical construct of animated ice that's all but impervious to damage? Why... isn't the obvious thing here to charge them with a baby carriage and start asking the monstrosities some questions! I don't know, but that's what I did with Philip and Nanny.

Molly had made good use of her ability to remove markers and draw cards, because ice pillars are, in fact, markers. Necrotic Machine scored Dig their Graves on Ice Gamin. Rasputina was throwing endless barrage of stuff made of ice over Molly and Mortimer, and ice tornadoes from Snow Storm attempted the same.


Turn 4

Philip and Nanny had been tying up the Arcanist monsters rather well, but that was about to end. Snow Storm got over it's confusion, and dim-witted Ice Golem slowly categorized the pram as a threat. Time to find new nanny for Philip.

With excruciating toil and trouble I had managed to bring the Ice Golem down to one hit point remaining. Suddenly three ice pillars shattered and the golem was back at seven. I think something shattered inside of me, too. Looked like I had to abandon any hope for a second victory point from strategy.

An Ice Dancer had skated deep into my lines. Here I so much wanted to activate Necrotic Machine and with accomplice activate Molly. And with Molly activate Necrotic Machine again, and with accomplice activate something else. But I considered dead Ice Dancer to be more important. Also I'm not sure if I had any models within 6" of Necrotic Machine anyway after it had charged Ice Dancer.


Turn 5

Ice Golem had got tired of Molly's disturbing stories and charged her. It started asking questions of its own with icy fists. Despite Hard to Wound and Serene Countenance, Molly died to just two hits.

There were so many corpses and schemes on board that we ran out of tokens. But I scored Dig Their Graves and Harness Ley Line again. Opponent scored assassinate, and had kind of forgotten all about Dig Their Graves. Game ended with 5 points for Resurrectionists and 4 for Arcanists.

Minsc and Boo were there

Oh, I completely forgot to publish this one when I was in Kuhmo. So, these games were played during Christmas time, when I got to play my first full games of Betrayal at Baldur's Gate.

A total of five games were played, with all but one being played with four players. One was done with three instead.

I think we got a pretty good distribution of different haunts. One with no traitor, one with bogus traitor, one with all players kind of being traitors, and two "honest" traitors. Of course I cannot know for sure how many alternate versions there are, but I think the only one we missed was one with a hidden traitor.

1st game: Fire in the Sky 38 (four players)

Here suddenly fire rained down from the sky for various reasons. Adventurers needed to carry some civilians to the safety of a teleportation circle to win. There were no traitors here, so I suppose it was a good introduction to core mechanics without the hassle of an asymmetrical ruleset. Adventurers won, although it was a close call.


2nd game: Rabble Rousers 10 (four players)

I was playing the dwarf warrior who was able to take hits for other players. With Cursed Armor, Berserker Axe and Iron Flask of Tuerny (spelling?) I was the traitor. Being able to take hits for the citizen who was guarding the treasure chest gave me a plan: lure all adventurers to the neglected shrine, take hits for the citizen to deny adventurers opening chest all the while attacking other players. Then, once all are in, I'd lob the flask, unleashing a demon to attack everybody. Bwahahaha.

Well, I rolled poorly for the peasant movement, so they weren't of much use. And first player to enter same square with me dealt around six or seven damage to the peasant. There were... some limits in how valiantly I would sacrifice my character, so the chest was opened. Which unleashed the monster.

It went down relatively easy - after all, no players had been injured by peasants (or my dwarf, for that matter) and nobody died. Except for the monster.

3rd game: The Big Score 36 (three players)

This scenario had players eventually competing against each other. First the halfling rogue found Star of Cthay, but it was stolen from her by evil wizard. From evil wizard it was stolen by... uhh... I don't remember which character I played. It was probably the evil monk. And at last, evil halfling stole it back and won the game.

Nice game it was, as each player held the Star at least once. Instead of one-sided run-through we had players using more or less violent methods to acquire the treasure.

4th game: Priscilla 21 (four players)

And here drow ranger proved to be the traitor, who was possessed by evil spirit. It was a close call, this one. Eventually Priscilla was able to seize enough eyes to win the day - victory for the traitor, that is. However, the players did have at least two chances to succeed in their banishing ritual.

5th game: Bottled Lightning 29 (four players)

Halflings are not to be trusted. The rogue was a homicidal maniac who valued a little ornament over the life of her comrade. The druid, on the other hand, went whole-hog in demonic manifestations. Her bloodthirstiness was her undoing, however. She, too, found it more appealing to murder all the people she once knew instead of trying to stop a particular chamber from flooding. While multiple adventurers died, the chamber was soon inaccessible and traitor lost the game.


Throughout all the games, each adventurer was being played at least once, which somehow pleases my completionist tendencies.

Baseless Collapsing

First time in three years, I got to play a game of Pillars of the Earth. We had four players, which I have found is the best for this game. With just three players there i is not enough competition for where to place your master tokens. Suddenly turns out that Prior Philip doesn't automatically carry you to victory, when other players can shut you down from entering monastery.

Late bloomers won the day, soaring into stellar point counts in the last two rounds, averaging at 15 points per turn after hanging a long time at the bottom of the scoreboard.


The winner had 53 points, and there was a large gap before the remaining players, who were nearing forty points at most.

Also, it's relatively odd that a part of a cathedral can collapse before any has been built.

Here, kitty kitty

Santa's elves had exploded a whole deck of kittens for me as Christmas present.

First day we played five rounds with four players. Second day we played five rounds with five players.

It's an easy filler game for sure. A steady flow of unexpected situations, sprinkled with moments when you mistakenly arrange your own death. Via kitten explosion. Also the game's name is misleading. You lose when a kitten explodes on you. You get no points from it. This is important. For the kittens, at least.

Baronified

Traditional Christmas visit to my parents ended up with love letters left and right on Christmas eve.

We had four players, and that changed the dynamics of the game a lot, when I've used to playing with two players.

A session of three rounds was played both before and after Santa came to explode some kittens. And during second session, the way I was haunted by Baron was bordering on supernatural.

When he wasn't my initial card, he was the second. When Prince dropped something from my hand, replacement was Baron. Multiple times I had two Barons in my hand. And I dare say this was no confirmation bias, as everyone else noticed it too. More often than once or twice I was kicked out of the game before I had a turn - by someone's guard, guessing I had Baron. When I didn't get both barons during game round, it was because the other baron was the card that was set aside that round.

Well, at least he has a pretty rose.

Update: another session of five games.

Long past due

Amidst Christmas hurries I managed to squeeze in a 50 point game of Warmachine about a week ago. My list was:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]
- Agonizer [6]
- Aradus Sentinel [14]
- Archidon [10]
- Cyclops Shaman [8]

- Rhinodon [12]
Bog Trog Trawler [3]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Paingiver Beasthandlers (min) [5]


Opponent had:

Kaya the Wildborne [+32]
- Feral Warpwolf [16]
- Gnarlhorn Satyr [12]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Winter Argus [8]
Lord of the Feast [6]
Totem Hunter [6]
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max) [15]
- Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha [4]

Scenario was one from main rulebook, Mosh Pit style scenario with 12" circle in the middle of board.

Skorne advanced in a brick towards the zone. Skinwalkers engaged my front line, and Circle warbeasts went in the back.

Praetorian Swordsmen used Power Swell, which on the hindisght was probably unnecessary. They took out Lord of the Feast and a few skinwalkers. All but one remaining Skinwalker were brought down by Aradus Sentinel and Rhinodon. I had wanted Rhinodon to do a bit more damage to Gnarlhorn Satyr, but the turtle had trouble hitting def 12.

Primaled Gnarlhorn takes down Rhinodon and Wild Arguses come to tease Aradus and Archidon. Here situation looks dire for Skorne, but relief comes from unexpected sources - heavy warbeasts miss and fail non-stop against Circle light beasts, but Extoller Soulward shoots Gnarlhorn dead, and Praetorian Swordsmen kill Feral Warpwolf. What just happened...?

Losing her heavies, Kaya takes full offense all by herself. She smacks a few Swordsmen dead, but in return is killed by MAT 9-10 swordsmen.