Damn those meddling fennblades

Had a 50 point game of Warmachine a while ago.

Cryx

 Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]

 - Harrower [13]

 - Inflictor [11]

 - Malice [13]

 - Ripjaw [6]

 - The Withershadow Combine [7]

Misery Cage [2]

Necrotech [1]

Satyxis Raider Captain [3]

Soul Trapper [1]

Warwitch Siren [3]

Satyxis Raiders (max) [14]

 - Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [3]

Trollbloods

 Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain [+29]

 - Dire Troll Bomber [16]

 - Troll Impaler [9]

 - Troll Impaler [9]

Janissa Stonetide [3]

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (min) [10]

Trollkin Champions (max) [16]

 - Skaldi Bonehammer [3]

Trollkin Fennblades (max) [13]

We had a Steamroller scenario for a change. Trolls started, and their formation was Fennblades-Nyss Hunters-Champions-Battlegroup-Janissa, from left to right in a fairly straightforward line.

I had a bit less of a front, but vaguely I had Ripjaw facing Fennblades all alone, Malice and Inflictor in between Champions and Nyss Hunters, Deneghra and Withershadow Combine behind them. Harrower and Satyxis took positions in trenches opposed by Champions and battlegroup.

Fennblades ran to contest rectangular zone on left. Nyss did the same with middle zone. But perhaps the biggest surprise was Trollkin Champions and Dire Troll Bomber charging in to Satyxis. Only a third of them died, but my plans to seize the zone or at least destroy objective were ruined.

Deneghra, Combine and Malice took down four Fennblades with considerable expenditure of resources.

Trollkin Champions in defensive line and under Sure Foot were a disheartening sight until I realized the new and improved seduction on Warwitch Siren. This broke their Champions' line and allowed Satyxis and Harrower to remove whopping four Champions out of six. 

Then it's Madrak's turn to use feat. The relative kill count for Trollbloods this turn was meager - only a few Satyxis. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Because Deneghra took over half of her health as damage from charging Fennblades and a couple of Nyss Hunters!

As an emergency measure Deneghra cast Ghost Walk on herself and switched Grave Wind from Malice onto her. She flew into safety of opponent's table side. Eh? Well, there was only Nyss Hunters there after Inflictor ran to engage most of Fennblades.

Malice harpoons an Impaler to middle, but doesn't manage to kill it even with help from Harrower. At least all remaining Champions died.

Trollbloods still have trouble removing Satyxis from their zone. But they do not have trouble in removing Harrower with combined efforts of an Impaler, Madrak and Janissa. 

Cryx manages to remove enemy objective, clear left and middle zones and take the flag for a score of 4 in one swoop. Trolls had already scored one point so that wasn't that big of a swing, although still a rather impactful one. 

Fennblades wrecked my objective and even brought Deneghra down to seven health remaining. Other trolls cleared zone on right and contested middle, so points went back to 4-3 for me.

It took everything they got, but Cryx did kill all the Fennblades, clear middle and contest enemy zone for a grand total of 7-3. 

There wasn't much of a game left by then, and game was nearing end via turns anyway. Both players scored one point when opponent lobbed Malice off from their zone and charged an Impaler to contest middle.

Malice walked back to contest enemy zone, and it was game over and a win for Cryx.

And all of it just because of the addition of +2 armor in last dynamic update.

Leave it to the kids

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Symbols of Authority with Standard Deployment

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Claim Jump, Catch & Release, Hidden Martyrs, Research Mission

My list:

Molly2 & Necrotic Machine
Philip & Nanny
Noxious Nephilim
Forgotten Marshal with the Whisper
Rabble Riser
Night Terror
2x Crooligan

Pool: 5
Schemes: Catch & Release (Night Terror), Hidden Martyrs (Crooligan & Nephilim)

I think in this matchup I actually had no other scheme choices. Assassinate and Claim Jump were out of the window straight away - I wouldn't be able to deal with enemy models if they stormed the middle. And Hoffman isn't an easy model to kill at least with my list. I pondered on Research Mission, but if I somehow managed to drop scrap markers, Hoffman would just eat them right away. Corpses would come from my own models, and a strategy marker for scoring would be a strategy marker I wouldn't collect. So yeah. Catch & Release and Hidden Martyrs it was.

Opponent had:

Hoffman & Mechanical Attendant
Melissa KORE
Guardian
Riotbreaker
3x Hunter

Pool: 2
Schemes: Claim Jump (Guardian) Catch & Release (One of the Hunters)

Turn 1:

First turn was more action packed than Molly would have hoped. It didn't help that time after time I realized how I had screwed up this or that. 

I was taking my time in figuring out how Noxious Nephilim's Memories of Blood worked. Molly and Nephilim were hiding behind a bush that also hid one of my strategy markers. 

A Hunter, Hoffman and Guardian went to the middle with the aid of Mechanical Attendant's magnet. Below, Philip & Nanny tried to gift Slow for Hunter in the middle, but failed despite advantage of 2. However, I think I got pretty good mileage out of Molly's bonus action even when I forgot that I might get to draw cards. 

But yeah. Middle of the board and below where my turn was, if not great, at least not horrible. Up in the north it was catastrophic.

Both Crooligans jumping on a strategy marker was no big deal at all. Neither was Rabble Riser that took cover from behind a rock formation. But then Forgotten Marshal came to summon in a Night Terror that used Fading to move forward. I tried to use it as a distraction for Guild, and I was so sure my sitting duck would eat up at least one activation from the enemy.

I didn't even leave it within 3" of Marshal to offer some enveloping darkness.

So, Hunter shot a harpoon at Marshal, dragged it 6" closer. Night Terror then charged the Hunter to completely wrong side - I wanted to offer enemy some Negation Aura. And I did, and it had a considerable effect, but still Melissa and Hunter were able to shoot Forgotten Marshal down to one health remaining. And because of my placement of Night Terror the Hunter was now able to Deadly Pursuit into Forgotten Marshal.

Turn 2

Guild wins initiative and proceeds to kill Forgotten Marshal right away, and with Assassin the Hunter casually Red Jokers with Critical Strike the only Rabble Riser dead.

Non-martyr Crooligan takes enemy strategy marker from north. Noxious Nephilim was guarding my middle marker with its 2" melee range. To protect Necrotic Machine and possibly even Molly, Noxious Nephilim put up Rancid Smell. Then it challenged Hunter with Bring It to draw the machine away from Molly's totem. 

Guardian lobbed Hoffman into the thick of the melee in the middle. To further protect Necrotic Machine, Molly used Parade Route on Noxious Nephilim in an attempt to leave Hoffman less room to maneuver. Turned out Hoffman didn't need that.

He had the insolence to knock aside Noxious Nephilim and get the strategy marker in middle.

But hey. Necrotic Machine survived despite all the Hunters that were raining on it!

And because Hunters were busy in the middle, Philip & Nanny ran as close as possible to enemy strategy marker that was hugging south board edge. Martyr Crooligan teleported to Nanny and got into position to interact next turn.

Summoned Night Terror kept Melissa busy, and Catch & Release Night Terror came to engage Hoffman.

Both players score strategy, Resurrectionists get Catch & Release for 1-2 lead.

Turn 3

Catch & Release Night Terror runs to enemy middle marker. Melissa kills summoned Night Terror and runs and guns Catch & Release Terror, lobbing even a grenade to it, but couldn't put a dent on the bat.

Crooligan interacts with strategy marker, and Philip & Nanny dislodge themselves from Mechanical Attendant with accidental roll-over. Unfortunately they just couldn't quite reach Melissa. Attendant starts taking shots at the baby carriage and despite them burning soulstones, their health fell to six. And even got themselves stunned, so no accidental roll-overs next turn.

Riot Breaker shoots non-martyr Crooligan, and one of the Hunters go and take one of my strategy markers. 

In the middle, Noxious Nephilim regurgitates a corpse and uses Bring It on Guardian that I suspected as a possible Claim Jump target. Yeah, moderate wound on double negatives. I had tried to regurgitate with Nephilim to make it a more enticing model to try to kill, but still requiring at least some effort.

Now it just took one swing from Guardian to finish it. Oh well. At least it was a Hidden Martyr point for me.

Molly and Necrotic Machine do impressive job in dealing with two Hunters and Hoffman himself. Molly even gets to do the full three irreducible damage to one of the Hunters, and thanks to her encouragement, Necrotic Machine doesn't even die and prevents Guardian from scoring Claim Jump.

Both players score strategy, Resurrectionists score Hidden Martyrs. Sadly though Guild reveals Catch & Release on one of the Hunters engaging Molly.

3-4 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 4

Beginning fourth round, much to my horrification I realized I had three pass tokens. That's quite a model difference when the entirety of enemy list has Armor +2...

I had this grand plan of activating Necrotic Machine first and dealing some damage in to a Hunter that was at four health, and then using accomplice to activate Molly to finish the job. It had a promising start when Necrotic Machine dealt severe injury on a negative flip. Sadly remaining attacks missed. But, the thing had only two health remaining. 

With first action Molly tried to use parade route on Catch & Release Hunter to bring it to a more reasonable position. This failed, so Molly started swinging her baton at the Hunter with two health. Attack hit and dealt a damage. Last action point was a baton attack again, which hit its target. With two negatives obviously, of course, it was the black joker that came up! That would have been my first kill in the game.

But no, Hoffman just healed it back and then even killed my Most Valuable Player, the Necrotic Machine. 

Night Terror charges Mechanical Attendant dead, so I did, in fact, get my first kill this turn. A four point totem. Whee.

Philip & Nanny walk around Melissa and use Boring Conversation. Since they were stunned, that was all. Crooligan teleports to Nanny and goes to interact with second marker in the middle. Melissa then disengages and goes running and gunning against Crooligan, once again accomplishing nothin.

Guardian threw the healed Hunter around, and then it walked and charged martyr Crooligan. Two points of damage were taken - still above 50% required for Hidden Martyrs!

One Hunter runs to a strategy marker while Catch & Release Hunter disengaged and ran as far as it could.

Guild scored Claim Jump with Guardian, but failed to take a strategy marker. Scores are 4-5 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5

Crooligan teleports to Philip & Nanny, interacts with last strategy marker and charges Riot Breaker in hopes of surviving all attacks the construct would make. But no, Riot Breaker bashed Crooligan with its shield - twice - so now the kid was at one health remaining and nowhere near engaging a valid target. Well, let's not be too harsh on the child - he scored three of the four markers I managed to gain! And come to think of it... it was a Crooligan who took the first symbol of authority.

One of the Hunters interact a strategy marker, and the Catch & Release version runs to bottom-right corner.

Molly concentrates real hard and has Guardian parade over the hills and far away - too far to get it back within 2" of center point!

Melissa nearly shoots Catch & Release Night Terror dead, so it takes flight behind some crates to benefit from concealment and cover.

Philip & Nanny charge Hunter to prevent it from attacking my point scoring Night Terror. But that was of no use when it just disengaged, walked and used Deadly Pursuit to come and engage the terror. If I just would have placed it a quarter of an inch further...

Oh well. Both players scored strategy, and Guild even got Catch & Release end condition. 

A real tough 6-6 draw that lasted until the very last activations of turn 5.

Breakthrough

 I did a demo of Malifaux on vassal. I used the same teams as earlier, which were for me:

Philip & the Nanny
2x Crooligan
Shikome

And for the opponent:

Sebastian
Flesh Construct
2x Guild Autopsy

I tweaked the scheme pool a little, this time offering Breakthrough, Leave a Message, Detonate Charges and Search the Ruins.

If I ever get to offer more demo games, I might switch Detonate Charges for Assassinate as every single scheme this time required scheme markers.

My scheme was Breakthrough again while opponent had taken Search the Ruins. 

This time my forces weren't too impressive. The only kill was scored by Shikome with a severe damage against Guild Autopsy. Flesh Construct ate one Crooligan and killed another, but at least they bought enough time for Philip & Nanny to speed up to enemy deployment zone to spawn some scheme markers.

Shikome lasted surprisingly long, considering she was against stat 7 Sebastian. He was even brought down to three hit health remaining. I would have tried to attack him one last time with Philip & Nanny on round 5, but opponent won initiative and ran to safety with Sebastian.

Game ended 2-5 for Experimental.

Europa in flames (with family issues)

Episode 8: Rise of Fenris

As nobody had found Tesla, he emerged as a raving lunatic in the last scenario along with Militant Vesna, Patriotic Fenris, Mechanical Togawa and Industrial Albion. 

My Fenris team had a slim chance of filling one more line from campaign triump track with Power, Popularity. Enlist, Upgrade and Something. That was the initial plan at least. Even six random event choices didn't give enough of an advantage to rush whatever I needed. 

Apparently Tesla and Vesna had some family issues because Tesla attacked Vesna at least four times and however many times Vesna herself attacked Tesla, which translated into around six+ points of popularity and combat victory stars. That was already half of required victory stars to end the game.

Togawa and Albion were struggling in between the overwhelming speed of Fenris and Vesna. And Tesla was hellbent on slowing down Vesna's progress, and as a result Fenris was conquering vast swathes of land for their nefarious purposes. 

Unfortunately this was not nearly enough. Vesna would have surpassed popularity track had the rules allowed it, so it was to her benefit to shut down the game before any other player entered the last points bracket of popularity.

Game ended with Vesna having 75 points with all six stars. Fenris had 72 with only two stars. So unfairly close... except that didn't matter much when the remaining points from triumph tracks were added together. Final Rise of Fenris scoreboard:

1. Patriotic Saxonia/Mechanical Saxony/Innovative Saxony/Mechanical Vesna/Innovative Vesna/Militant Vesna/Mechanical Vesna/Militant Vesna: 225pts

2. Mechanical Nordic /Innovative Nordic /Mechanical Nordic/Agricultural Nordic/Mechanical Nordic/Mechanical Fenries/Agricultural Fenris/Patriotic Fenris: 194pts

3. Agricultural Togawa/Industrial Togawa /Industrial Togawa/Patriotic Togawa/Patriotic Togawa/Agricultural Togawa/Militant Togawa/Mechanical Togawa: 158pts

4. Engineering Rusviet/Agricultural Rusviet /Patriotic Rusviet /Industrial Albion/Militant Albion/Engineering Albion/Industrial Albion/Industrial Albion: 142pts

Rise and Fall of Empire of Pudding

 A tragedy has happened. 

I have forgotten to write about a game I played almost a month ago! I must be getting old. 

Anyway, it was then that I played a few rounds of Sushi Go. Back then I placed all my strategy on maxing out on pudding. I didn't win, but it wasn't for the lack of pudding.

Yesterday, however, I played a four-player game of Sushi Go again. This time I fared a lot better. This time I ignored puddings almost completely. I was somehow thinking that player with most scored six points, while player with least would score three points. Turned out that was actually -6 points.

If it hadn't been for those -6 points, I would've won. Curses!

So we meet again

 Oh boy. 

Yesterday it just happened so that I played a five-player game of base Carcassonne without expansions.

What an achievement, yeah? 

Well, the thing is that Carcassonne is rather nostalgic game for me. I played it a lot on 2004-2008. Way before this blog even began.

It didn't take much to remember how the game worked, although that's nothing to write into a blog about. After all the system is so simple. 

I suppose some of the Carcassonne knowledge had been slumbering in my brains for all this time, as I won the game by good margin. That was entirely thanks to a shared 24 point farm with lowest scoring player.

Martyr of sorts

A 50ss Malifaux game from almost a week ago. There is quite some proxying involved.

Strategy: Corrupted Ley Lines, Wedge deployment

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs, Let Them Bleed, Bait and Switch

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba (Vendetta on Mature Nephilim)
Lost Love
Shikome
Onryo
2x Seishin
Hanged with Grave Spirit Touch

Pool: 9

Schemes: Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs (Ikiryo & Lost Love)

Opponent had:

Nekima2 & Blood Hunter
Hayreddin
Mature Nephilim with Eldritch Magic
2x Young Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Corrupted Hound

Pool: 6

Schemes: Hidden Martyrs (Corrupted Hound & Hayreddin), Let Them Bleed

Turn 1

Neverborn starts by doing this "Focused +1 for while team" move with Blood Hunter and Black Blood Shaman.

Ikiryo takes my bottom-left marker while Corrupted Hound takes enemy top-right. Mature Nephilim goes to hug marker in the middle while Datsue Ba makes this evil old witch laugh thing as her target closed in so nicely. Hanged plants a scheme marker in an attempt to bluff Bait and Switch. Then it tries to connect its upgrade to Nephilim, but it's been so long I don't remember if it succeeded or failed.

Kirai deals some damage in to Nephilim, summons a Gwisin to threaten mid field, and then she goes into hiding inside ruined building. Shikome hangs around bottom-right strategy marker for unknown reasons.

Young Nephilims and Nekima hang around or within wedge zone and Hayreddin, Black Bloos Shaman and the aforementioned Mature Nephilim contest middle.

Turn 2

Corrupted Hound takes enemy top-left strategy marker through a convoluted series of interact actions with the help of Young Nephilims. It's been too long to remember those in detail, but it sure was weird to see in action.

Onryo charges from inside the building on the left and declares Mature Nephilim as target. Damage was done and Mark of Vengeance was landed successfully.

Blood Hunter ties up Datsue Ba.

Then Blood Hunter dies. Black Blood Shaman dies. Gwisin dies. Onryo dies. Everything just dies!

Datsue Ba weighs Mature's sins and they are heavy indeed - the thing would have died so I needed to cheat damage to minimum to be able to score Vendetta reveal

And then Mature Nephilim dies!

A Drowned is summoned and a Terrot Tot appears, only to die later on. Well, actually the Drowned doesn't die but I just added it to the list for dramatic effect.

Blood Hunter didn't die to Kirai's activation when she unleashed two Spirit Barrages over the totam. I don't quite remember if something else damaged Blood Hunter, but the final kill was made by a Seishin.

I don't remember how Gwisin or Black Blood shaman died, but when Onryo died, the vengeful spirit revealed it's true form - that of an evil babby devul. A Terror Tot.

Shikome probably charged Hayreddin or perhaps it finalized Mature Nephilim. Whatever the case, it challenged Nekima. Usually not a very wise thing to do, but this time Nekima just could land the killing blow.

Then Drowned pukes over Hayreddin, Nekima and a Young Nephilim. I must say it must have been a terrifying sight - blood and puke showering just about everywhere - yet it didn't really accomplish anything. 

Ikiryo runs to take middle marker.

Both players score strategy, and Resurrectionists did Vendetta for a score of 2-1 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 3

Lost Love uses By Your Side to move to Ikiryo and runs to engage a Young Nephilim. This did result in me getting a kind of a secured point for Hidden Martyrs, but it did have the unfortunate side effect of growing Terror Tot into a Lilitu. I suppose you can declare a screaming loony throwing itself against your blade a martyr. I don't know about these things. Do sacrifices need to have a purpose?

Hanged manages to use On Your Heels effectively, bringing itself to deny the heals of Hayreddin and Nekima. Lilitu goes to punch Seishin in the nose and made it disappear.

Datsue Ba lucks out and kills Lilitu and even calling an Onryo on board in the process. Then she gets into a more safe position as she was a victory point for me if she'd be alive in the end.

Drowned tries to do something to Hayreddin, but isn't very effective in doing anything.

Ikiryo runs to bottom-right marker and Corrupted Hound to bottom-left. 

Finally Kirai is able to summon a Goryo, which she does, which removes Corrupted Hound from the equation. I think the lodestone got transferred to Young Nephilim engaged with Onryo.

I don't quite remember what Nekima actually did this turn.

But both players score strategy, and both players score Hidden Martyrs for 3-4.

Turn 4

This turn is time for Kirai to luck out when killing... umm... something? Probably Hayreddin. Gaki appears from Spirit Barrage. 

Hanged acts again as a super nuisance by denying heals. This doesn't however, stop growing. Suddenly there is one Mature Nephilim on board again.

Ikiryo runs to top-right strategy marker with a little help from Datsue Ba.

Considering how thin Neverborn forces had become by now, getting those two lucky suits to summon two additional models started to have its toll. There just wasn't enough actions points around to get rid of the trash. And one more Young Nephilim died, but at least that brought lodestone to secure a point.

Both players score strategy for 4-5.

Turn 5

Nekima throws lodestone to Mature Nephilim with Dark Bargain and gets off a charge against Datsue Ba. Once Kirai heals her back to full we stop playing. Scoring Let Them Bleed was impossible now. 

Resurrectionists score additional strategy point and Vendetta for a score of 4-7. 

Nemorial Service

Over two weeks ago I played this 50 point game of warmachine.

Scenario was good old Moshpit, and my list was:

Cryx

 Lich Lord Asphyxious [+28]
- Defiler [7]
- 2x Slayer [20]
- Stalker [8]
Darragh Wrathe [7]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [5]
Machine Wraith [2]
Pistol Wraith [4]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Warriors (max) [14]
 - Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [5]

Opponent had;

Cygnar

General Adept Nemo [+26]

 - Hammersmith [12]

 - 2x Ironclad [24]

 - 2x Lancer [16]

Rangers [7]

Steelhead Riflemen (min) [8]

Stormguard Infantry (min) [9]

First turn for Cryx was rather standard "block line of sight to important pieces of army and run as fast as possible." In this case warjacks were screened, and Bane Warriors were moving from north, faced by Rangers and a Lancer.

It's been so long that I have forgotten which upkeep spells were on which Cygnaran models, but I think the "no crippled systems" was on Hammersmith.

Turn 2 Banes ran to engage enemy I think a few even managed to get in a charge with the aid of Darragh Wrathe, and Stalker jumped to cause a commotion because it's awesome. While Banes were dying left and right, Stalker miraculously survived as Cryxian heavies were creeping closer to front.

Turn 3 I think for the first time ever Gerlak Slaughterborn got to do his job by murdering a minimum unit of Stormguard with Killing Spree. I screwed up the placement of clouds this turn, but I really wanted Cygnaran Lancer dead. This took the full efforts of Machine Wraith and both Slayers. But the clouds left a Slayer exposed.

Banes were more than clogging enemy gears - they were doing impressive damage against enemy warjacks. But still, there was only so much they could do to a line of three buffed warjacks.

Hammersmith had no troubles in removing one of Cryxian Slayers, but failed at taking down two of them. Pretty much all of the Bane Warriors were dead, yet coming back in not-so-far future.

Because it was time for Asphyxious to use his feat, which finished Hammesmith and the unit of Steelhead Riflemen and destroyed an Ironclad. Darragh Wrathe committed towards Lancer and brought it to low hit boxes, although Bane Warriors had already softened it up.

Since it looked like Cryx was winning by attrition, Ironclad tried to assassinate Asphyxious. That didn't go as planned and in the end, it was a victory for Cryx.