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. 

Withers withers

 A couple of years it has been, but during my visit to Kuhmo I got to play my second game of Arkham Horror 3rd edition.

Scenario was the Dead Cry Out.

My investigator was Norman Withers the astronomer, and the rest were Agatha Crane the parapsychologist, Calvin Wright the haunted and Zoel Samaras, the chef.

Of course I didn't have the experience to tell if we were doing good or bad, but after a few rounds the other players started to express their anguish. I don't get it. The first monster that spawned was only some sort of a gluttonous giant, that the chef and the haunted guy beat no sweat.

Norman Withers started to ramble about his psychic visions in a police station, and against all odds he was gifted with map of arkham. Don't know why they had used excessive force when circling the sanatorium with a ball point pen. 

 Well, players were rolling their wardings rather poorly, so Norman Withers had to come and save the day when Uptown had like two, two, three doom tokens in their locations. He and Agatha managed to remove two doom tokens in total. With Lore 4 + rerolls and Lore 5. Yeah.

Monsters kept spawning and Chef and the Haunted guy were busy with them. Also the bystanders needed to be taken into consideration. Situation was doomed, hopeless, without any prospect of good outcome until Norman Withers bought the spell Wither. This is when he started single handedly beating any and all monsters that he engaged, and saved handsome allies like Arthur Johnson in the process. 

Technically I didn't lie. But as it happened, Norman engaged only one monster in the game. 

While scenario sheet didn't receive too many doom tokens, investigators had absolutely horrible luck in getting any clues either. 

Haunted guy was stuck in St. Mary's Hospital, the parapsychologist at train station and chef in silver twilight lodge. 

Only the hero of the team, Norman Withers who uses Wither kept moving anywhere, and he did so into the underworld. 

Painstakingly other investigators flipped those colored markers, and in our plight obviously luck gave us two same colors, which meant scenario just dragged on and on, ultimate demise approaching rapidly while investigators still had no clue how they were supposedly to even win exactly. 

Fortunately they did manage to flip third colored token - one round before the game ended in Mnar thing's victory.

Chilled Rat Cubes

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Flank Covert Operation

Schemes: Breakthrough, Catch and Release, Set the Trap, Load 'Em Up, Vendetta

My list:

Hamelin the Piper & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Mad Dog Brackett
Obedient Wretch
Prospector
Catalan Rifleman
Malifaux Rat

Pool: 5
Schemes: Set the Trap, Vendetta (Nix on Blessed of December)

Opponent had:

Rasputina & Wendigo
Blessed of December
Arcane Effigy
Ice Golem with Soulstone Cache
Ice Dancer with Magical Training
2x Silent Ones

Pool: 6
Schemes: Breakthrough, Load 'Em Up (Ice Pillar)

Turn 1:

Catalan Rifleman, Obedient Wretch and Prospector put scheme markers for Benny as fast as possible, because I was afraid of Rasputina shooting my rats dead before they would be able to form a Rat King.

Fortunately opponent wasn't too concerned with emerging scheme markers and Benny was able to make a Rat King just fine. However, it was then when Rasputina just shot Rat King off the board with two blast attacks, damaging Mad Dog Brackett and Benny Wolcomb quite a bit in the process. 

The mentioned gang was traveling south on the left side of my deployment zone, slowly as ever.

Hamelin and Prospector were greeted by the Ice Golem in the middle, and Prospector was left alive mostly because opponent forgot about flurry. Ice golem was the only Arcanist model past center line.

Blessed of December went to top corner marker, so Nix sniffed in its general direction and went to close in for vendetta.

Ice Dancer was going for bottom corner marker. Silent One and Arcane Effigy were somewhere getting to center-right strategy marker while Wendigo, Rasputina and another Silent One were sitting in their deployment zone. 

Mad Dog Brackett destroying an Ice Pillar, there were still five of them when turn ended.

Turn 2:

Outcasts won initiative, so Prospector put a scheme marker with bonus action and disengaged from Ice Golem. Now the thing was at least in hazardous terrain. 

Almost the entirety of my turn could be summarized as: I tried to kill the Ice Golem.

All the Stolen vomited on it, Hamelin moved it a bit in hazardous terrain, Mad Dog Bracket shot it with armor piercing rounds, Catalan Rifleman shot it. Benny only tried to use Swarm Them on it before going to a little better position for future scoring.

Sure, Silent Ones kept healing the thing, but still that was egregious amount of resources needed to kill an enforcer, especially when you take into account how much it stalled my advance.

But finally, as the very last activation for me, Obedient Wretch tossed a rat on the golem and down it went. 

The kill came with a cost, however. Nix had tried to go and bite Blessed of December. But Blessed had the two inch push built into its melee, so my strategy points looked grim. Nix used a focus point and three soulstones in defending against the attacks, but still Blessed landed a hit. However, it didn't push Nix away from strategy marker range and came to engage the spectral hound instead, while Ice Dancer tagged bottom corner strategy marker.

Killing Ice Golem sure gave me some hope, but still the situation was tad oppressive.  I managed to keep the amount of ice pillars steady, but it took a lot of action points. Malifau Rats and Stolen are good for the job, though, unless the kids need to puke on something.

Anyway, scores went 0-1 for Arcanists.

Turn 3:

Nix managed to beat the heck out of Blessed of December and possibly might have even killed it if not for their vendetta. The target leapt into safety and let them both score top corner marker.

Prospector is finally killed by a Arcane Effigy. 

And my crew? Well, most of the action points for me this turn went into dealing with ice pillars. Ice Dancer started speeding towards my deployment zone from the left with a screen of ice pillars. Mad Dog Brackett had to remove those so that Obedient Wretch was able to walk and place a scheme marker next to Ice Dancer. 

Catalan Rifleman dropped a scheme to give Benny Wolcomb fast, who later took a double walk to place a scheme near Wendigo and a Silent One. 

Hamelin had a bit of a useless activation when I misplayed Obey - apparently Obey makes enemy scheme markers. So instead he walked Arcane Effigy into hazardous terrain. There were also some Eyes in the Walls of an ice pillar. Even those got rats inside of them!

So, points went 3-3 when both players got strategy, Outcasts both their schemes and Arcanists Load 'Em Up.

Turn 4:

Blessed of December goes to place a scheme marker on my deployment zone. Scary fast model, that one. But Bleeding Disease also has a scary range, and with two tries Nix is able to kill the vendetta target.

Rasputina staggers and slows the entire bunch of Mad Dog Brackett, Catalan Rifleman and Obedient Wretch. Mad Dog had already activated. He had tried to remove Ice Dancer, but that didn't go as planned. Instead, Ice Dancer moves into my deployment zone and places a scheme marker, with four Ice Pillars worth of LoS block. One was removed by Stolen, but still the dancer was unassailable.

Benny tried to beat Wendigo, not succeeding. 

Hamelin managed to move a Silent One away from center-right marker. Benny was the one who actually scored strategy that turn, as he could engage Wendigo but Wendigo not him. 

Scores stay even 4-4, as Outcasts score strategy and Arcanists get Breakthrough.

Turn 5:

Benny was as useless a fighter as ever, and still couldn't remove Wendigo. Rasputina on the other hand was almost able to push Wendigo to my deployment zone. Stolen tried to come and engage it but frantic flailing is frantic flailing. At least sniper rifle was far more effective, and killed Wendigo before it could place third scheme marker for Breakthrough end condition.

Obedient Wretch had ran to bottom-corner strategy marker.

Ice Dancer had placed the second Breakthrough marker and was screened by a wall of ice. Mad Dog could have blown it to hell, but what was the use because she had already activated?

Rasputina placed three ice pillars near herself, but Hamelin was able to land a zero damage Bleeding Disease on her with soulstone bought Music in the Air, thus denying Load 'Em Up.

Nix was alive, Blessed was not.

Scores jumped to 6-4 for Outcasts. 

That amount of ice pillars was just crazy. I was lucky to have picked the piper Hamelin, as now at least I had the action points and actions to remove them - and still there were twelve of them on board when game ended. 

Ngaatoro's contacts

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Corner Cursed Objects

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

My list:

Kirai & Ikiryo
Datsue Ba with Grave Spirit Touch
Jaakuna Ubume
Lost Love
Shikome with Killer Instinct
Gwisin
2x Seishin

Pool: 7
Schemes: Secret Meetup (Shikome and Mr. Ngaatoro), Hidden Martyrs (Lost Love & Gwisin)

Opponent had:

Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver & Luna
Sidir Alchibal
Jessie Halliway
Mr. Ngaatoro
Rough Rider
Cryptologist
Ruffian
Hopeful Prospect

Pool: 3
Schemes: Secret Meetup (Mr. Ngaatoro & Gwisin), Hidden Martyrs (Rough Rider & Ruffian)

Turn 1:

Well, uh. I had originally planned to walk Shikome and Ikiryo a bit forward with Seishins and whatnot, but somewhere along the way both Seishins gave Kirai a walk. She walked into safety behind the Secret Meetup building in the middle, summoned a Goryo and tried focus it, but shielded it instead. 

Idea was to delay Explorers' movements and give an incentive for Mr. Ngaatoro to step forward. 

Goryo didn't do much except soak up damage and deal like two points to Rough Rider.. Lost Love had to teleport to heal Goryo.

Gwisin ran to take the hit for Lost Love and Kirai. Datsue Ba gave a walk for Shikome, who walked and charged Rough Rider for a couple points of damage more. Perfectly softened up roughness.

Remainder of my crew wasn't set up as perfectly. Because my Seishins had gone wild with Kirai, Ikiryo, Jaakuna and Datsue Ba were walking so, so slowly towards action. Well, as slowly as Movement 6 incorporeal models in severe terrain can move. 

In fact, looking at the picture it's almost as if McCabe made much faster progress despite messing up Ride With Me shenanigans. 

Sidir and Mr. Ngaatoro brought Goryo down to three health remaining. McCabe dug up a Timeworn Blade and it kept getting tossed around Explorers, finally landing on Jessie. 

All the explorers were in a blob, which is usually nice when you got blasts around, but this time a size 3 overwalk was dividing the crew more than horizontal distance. 

Mr. Ngaatoro was exactly where I wanted with the wounded Rough Rider nearby. Jessie was also there, making Urami attack actions less effective with McCabe's aura. That was the first wave, second wave was everything else that was gravitating toward bottom-right quarter.

Turn 2:

Nearly dead Rough Rider rode away from the melee, healing himself for three. He then started taking shots at Goryo. Not ideal, but at least the horse did not run completely away from action - I was planning on getting my curse token discarded from it.

Everything was fine and dandy until Jaakuna Ubume went into full Karen-mode and asked for the manager after screaming out her lungs. She didn't actually manage anything, but the manager McCabe took a walk and sprayed her twice with pepper spray. 

Lost Love teleported to heal Jaakuna, and she admitted that maybe she overreacted a bit. Seishin gave her a walk action to move outside of Sidir's machine gun range. 

After some artifact juggling Sidir moved and shot Jaakuna with a machine gun, making exemplary work on how to deal with frustrating customers. Fortunately Jaakuna did not die.

Goryo that had been summoned last turn was shot off the board by Jessie. I could not take the risk of Mr. Ngaatoro charging Shikome, perhaps in an odd angle and getting away from secret meetup. Gwisin walked and charged the big bully. 

Ruffian, Mr. Ngaatoro himself and Cryptologist eventually remove the second Goryo. I had poured everything I could at the wounded Rough Rider, but only managed to bring it down to three health remaining. 

I had to make my gambit - Datsue Ba walked forward and bought masks and extra card to try and give Shikome a free charge at Rough Rider. Things went unexpectedly well and the rider died instantly, leaving my Secret Meetup model to get back to within 3" of Mr. Ngaatoro and the house. 

Which she did. 

Then came the surprise - both players revealed Secret Meetup. Mr. Ngaatoro had double booked a meetup with Gwisin and Shikome.

Explorers also revealed Hidden Martyrs, which gave them a 2-3 lead. 

Turn 3:

And then we get a messy, messy turn. 

Sidir shoots Jaakuna dead and scores a blast that damages Ikiryo and Lost Love.

I set my aim on Ruffian and charge it with Shikome. Attacks don't do much because the swagger had stacked some focus. 

I try to bring Ikiryo to charge Ruffian, but mess up a few things and end up in melee with Mr. Ngaatoro. Lucas charges Ikiryo back and a weird dance ensues where Gwisin is placed here and there with Take the Hit. In the end it doesn't help much as McCabe scores ample supply of rams, dealing some automatic points of damage with the trigger. 

But the jumping around opened up line of sight for Kirai to shoot Ruffian. She managed to kill Ruffian with two action points, so she planted a scheme for Secret Meetup end condition. Jessie, however, avenges Ruffian in a terrifying way. I had ran out of cards in my hand, so Kirai was vulnerable. Jessie scored a harpoon hit against her and drags my master into melee with unactivated Mr. Ngaatoro.

I had wanted to give a walk for Datsue Ba with Seishins, but I didn't feel like I got the time for that. Datsue walked and weighed Mr. Ngaatoro's sins - and they were grave indeed. Red Joker brought Mr. Ngaatoro to one health point remaining, which combined rather nicely with Kirai's life leech. Disaster averted.

Lost Love heals Kirai for a bit and Seishins walk forwards.

Mr. Ngaatoro has to activate and die.

Both players get strategy for scores of 3-4. 

Turn 4:

Carnage just continues. 

Lucas places a scheme to secret meetup building and charges Kirai. Gwisin obviously takes those hits, because Kirai was at four health remaining. Gwisin dies to the attacks, and even Kirai takes a point from rams. Finally McCabe tosses Phantasmal Mask for Jessie. 

I expected Kirai to die this round, so she went all-in and summoned both a Goryo to center and Ikiryo to Cryptologist, whom I had to kill this turn for strategy point. 

Lastly she walked a little to get Datsue Ba to protected range. And protects the granny did! Both harpoon attacks hit Datsue instead of Kirai. 

Shikome tried to kill Cryptologist. She chose tomes from pale hunger to ignore armor and started flailing at Cryptologist. Both melee attacks missed, though. Challenge gave an extra melee attack, but that missed too. Yaaaaaaaay.

Sidir, on the other hand, makes a brutal activation. He disengages from Goryo and shoots Kirai dead, hits Ikiryo for five points of damage and then kills her with an extra shot - all of this with negative fate modifier from friendly fire. 

Situation looked grim, but I still had plans to get my point from Cryptologist. Fortunately Cryptologist score only a weak damage to Shikome, bringing her down to one health remaining. 

Seishin succeeded in giving a walk for Datsue Ba, who then charged Cryptologist. I needed a moderate or two weaks to kill him. And again. All attacks missed despite me having stat lead this time around. Even startling Cryptologist failed! 

Well, I still had a chance - to give a walk for Goryo with Seishin and then charge Cryptologist. But Hopeful Prospect completely ruined that by engaging the ghost in melee. It tried to launch itself to Cryptologist by getting On Your Heels with the bonus action... but got tomes instead. Hooray, adversary. Frustrated, Goryo punched Hopeful Prospect with moderate damage, but thanks to hard-to-kill didn't even kill Hopeful Prospect.

What a horrible turn. Seishin ran to engage Sidir, and Lost Love went to place second scheme for Secret Meetup.

Explorers score strategy, Resurrectionists Hidden Martyrs for a 4-5 lead for Explorers.

Turn 5:

Despite my grievances, there was still an opportunity to win. Cryptologist started the turn by killing Shikome, so winning became that much harder. Fortunately Datsue Ba managed to kill Cryptologist with one attack. She charged Luna, missing the attack again, but staggered McCabe.

Jessie activated, disengaged from Datsue Ba and tossed Phantasmal Mask for McCabe. 

Seishin walked to engage Luna and McCabe, hoping to block possible scheming attempts. Luna, however, tore Seishin to shreds. 

Goryo failed to kill Hopeful Prospect with Violent Ghosts, so it had to use a real action point for that. Thus, it not longer was able threaten McCabe. But, at least it could walk to engage.

Lucas single-handedly killed Goryo and also Seishin engaging Sidir. 

That sealed the game.

Lost Love was able to teleport to Datsue Ba and go and get engaged by Lucas to score Hidden Martyrs. Sidir Alchibal then had the option to take a double walk and plant a scheme for secret meetup or deny me secret meetup. 

So, it was a closely fought 7-7 or 6-6 draw, depending how Sidir would have chosen. 

Admiring only, not contesting

 A 50 point game of Warmachine Mk4.

My list:

Skorne Unlimited
Hexeris2
-Archidon
-Rhinodon
-Agonizer
Unit of Cetrati
Unit of Venator Reiver
Unit of Beast Handlers
Void Spirit
Bog Trog Trawler

Opponent had:

Trollbloods United Kriels
Madrak3
-Dire Troll Mauler
- 2x Trollkin Axer
- Impaler
2x units of Fennblades

Scenario was Recon II.

Skorne started game and advanced with Cetrati contesting zone on left with Hexeris following nearby, then Rhinodon and Reiver in the middle with Agonizer and Beast Handlers behind them. Archidon with Cloak of Ash was holding zone on right with some additional Void Spirit support.

Opponent had a unit of Fennblades coming to challenge zone on left with Axer nearby to control. Dire Troll Mauler was behind their objective, ready to go either way. Madrak was going to flag with Axer and Impaler standing on a hill with another unit of Fennblades.

Second turn Reivers did some good damage on Impaler. Hexeris cast Eruption on the beast to make it less feasible to heal it back to full. Another Eruption thinned down some on the hill and left Hexeris with zero fury points left for transfers.

Bog Trog Trawler ambushed the Fennblade unit on the left and actually managed to shoot one of them dead. Or, more precisely, skewer one of them and punch him dead. 

Archidon with Cloak of Ash was trying to hide for a bit behind terrain, maybe luring something in for a charge. Rhinodon went into middle behind a cloud effect, with Agonizer crying next to it. 

Fennblades on the left, however, didn't pay much attention to Bog Trog Trawler and instead played pathfinder card and charged Cataphract Cetrati, killing one of them. 

The Fennblade unit on top of a hill and Axer removed Reiver unit with some thrown spear help from Madrak. Madrak also used his feat. Dire Troll Mauler was laying in wait for a better day to turn the tides, but Impaler and Axer tried their luck in attacking a Def 16 heavy. There was no luck. 

So, it could have been worse. 

It was time for Hexeris' feat. It wasn't all that impactful, but at least all beasts were able to run full on Fury and remove both Axers. 

It was nearing the end of my turn when I casually measured if one of the Fennblades on the left were within 4" of my flag, and damn that 4" has become difficult to estimate! Yeah, that was two control points for Trollbloods, since the Fennblade had been contesting my flag all along. 

Yay.

Well, that Fennblade continued to do just that. Impaler and fully loaded up Dire Troll Mauler clear the zone on the right while Madrak sits at the flag. So that's a four point lead for Trollbloods.

I try to remove Fennblades from my flag, but only get half of them out. Beast Handler heroically kills last Fennblade from the unit on right and contests rectangular zone. Rhinodon has the ungrateful duty of running to contest both Madrak's flag and rectangular zone. Trollblood lead falls to three points.

Impaler doesn't frenzy, which could have saved my game. But now it was able to go and remove my contesting Beast Handler. Mauler and Madrak are more than able to kill Rhinodon together, and Fennblade gets within 4" of my flag. Game over. 

No fair I, choose violence too!

 A 50ss game of Malifaux.

Strategy: Standard Guard the Stash

Schemes: Load 'Em Up, Breakthrough, Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs, Spread Them Out

My list:

Hamelin & 3x Stolen
Nix
Benny Wolcomb
Yannic Waller
Johan Creedy
Prospector
Catalan Rifleman
Winged Plague

Pool: 5
Schemes: Spread Them Out, Vendetta (Johan Creedy on Elijah)

Opponent had:

Kaeris & Eternal Flame
Elijah Borgman
Carlos Vasquez
Fire Golem
2x Firebranded
Fire Gamin

Pool: 0
Schemes: Load 'Em Up (Pyre), Hidden Martyrs (Firebranded)

Turn 1:

I put Nix and Yannic near my right strategy marker, and Winged PLague flew hugging the rightmost board edge. Nix took a double walk and I must say - even with his resilience I was a bit hesitant when it looked like he'd have to face Fire Golem, Carlos, Eternal Flame and a Firebranded.

Everything else I got was were on the left powering up Benny Wolcomb. I somewhat messed up my initial positioning, but in the end everything went fine and a Rat King was summoned just fine. Although Benny wasn't able to take even one step, when Firestarter lit fire under Catalan Rifleman's feet and moved him so that Benny's way was blocked by Hamelin, Rifleman, Stolen, Prospector and even Johan Creedy to a degree. 

After a walk Hamelin failed to lure Firestarter closer, so the outcast master just ended up concentrating.

Kaeris and Carlos both succeeded in landing a pyre marker. Kaeris, Elijah and Firebranded were behind destructible boxes near center-left marker with Firestarter even further ahead. 

Turn 2:

I forgot to take a picture at the end of turn, so Firestarter has already started round three in the picture.

Kaeris sure enough sets the world burning when she starts the turn, charges to conflagrate Rat King a bit, plants two pyre markers in the middle of my tightly packed crew and fans a marker through Stolen, Johan Creedy and Rat King. 

Kaeris was pondering if she should have escaped instead of fanning the flames, but she chose violence. Alrighty, then. Hamelin chooses that, too! He uses bonus action to charge Rat King to Kaeris, then walks to take two attacks against her. Only one hits, but deals severe damage. 

Nix goes to engage Carlos, Firebranded and Eternal Flame. All of them fail Drink Spirit checks, and Winged Plague had placed a scheme marker and continued to fly towards enemy deployment zone.

Carlos disengages from Nix and walks to breathe fire on Winged Plague, not doing anything. He also managed to make a pyre marker near mid-left strategy marker, which was used by a Firebranded to set itself burning.

In the meantime, Stolen had given mean time for Kaeris by vomiting disease over her mechanical wings, dealing more damage together than Hamelin did. Johan Creedy had also charged Kaeris and all of them together had brought Kaeris down to one health remaining.

Fire Golem had leaped to the Firebranded's flames, entering the melee in the mid-left marker. It walked to slap Carlos' pyre marker on Rat King, Hamelin and Johan Creedy, and took a little swing at Rat King. 

Yannic Waller had tried to come to shoot Firebranded and hopefully spill some blast damage over Kaeris, but that never happened. What did happen, though, was a severe greatsword to Yannic's face. Firestarter tried to set fire under Rat King's feet to push it away from Kaeris, and succeeded at that. That took away one action point to be spent on killing the Arcanist master, but as it happened - that lone action point was enough. Rat King managed to charge Kaeris dead, and voracious rats from Hamelin even transformed her into a Malifaux Rat. 

Benny Wolcomb takes a double walk so that he'd be in position to perhaps place some scheme markers next turn. I completely forgot that Benny needed to assist a Stolen who had Burning +4, so one kid went down to that. Another had died earlier after vomiting on Kaeris - he had been on fire and one health remaining, so two rats sounded better than one rat since it was inevitable fate, anyway. 

Opponent had middle-left marker, and to score a strategy point Prospector had to walk and charge Elijah, thus getting points to 1-1.

Turn 3:

Again I forgot to take a picture at the end of round, so some activations have already happened. 

Firestarter walks and charges to last Stolen who had been hanging near bottom-left marker. 

Carlos and top-right Firebranded fail to kill Winged Plague, so it had time to leave one more scheme marker on board. Nix went to place a scheme near mid-right marker and spammed some blight tokens around. 

I had tried to save Yannic Waller by activating her first, doing some democracy and trying to disengage. However, disengage failed with -6 movement reduction. Miraculously Elijah didn't succeed in killing anyone.

Fire Golem wasn't as inept. It killed Rat King and charged Johan Creedy below hard-to-kill threshold. Johan was also at, like, Burning +8 or so. And he was my Vendetta model. It wasn't looking good.

At least he managed to deal some damage to Fire Golem with Relic Hammer, remove Hamelin's burning and heal himself and Hamelin for one with Final Rest. 

Hamelin kills Fire Golem, hooray for that. But now there was way open for Firebranded to charge Johan Creedy, and does indeed score that required one hit to bring him back below hard-to-kill threshold. So yeah... Hamelin killed a ten point model, but I lost a two victory point model. C'est la vie. 

For some reason I didn't consider placing a scheme with Benny and climbing on top of the reservoir terrain to contest middle-left strategy marker. Instead I went to deny a point from Firestarter when, in fact, even if he'd been alone at my marker opponent wouldn't have got a strategy point. But that's hindsight, maybe it wasn't so apparent at the time if opponent had unactivated models around. 

So, Johan Creedy burns to crisp and scores go 2-2 when Outcasts reveal Spread Them Out and Arcanists get Load 'Em Up on pyre markers.

Turn 4:

Firebranded top-right finally kills Winged Plague before it is able to drop even more scheme markers. Nix interacts a scheme and charges Elijah so that he is entirely on top of it. I don't think the attack hit, as Nix had been distracted by Carlos many times over. 

Hamelin blasts a rat with Pustulent Tumors, killing Firestarter. Firebranded isn't as easy kill, and Benny needs to come and finish the hidden martyr. 

Yannic Waller is done with democracy and shoot Elijah with a severe blast from her shotgun. 

Prospector appraises Johan's corpse and estimates it to worth around two victory points. So he saw no reason why his corpse wouldn't be worth as much, and dies to Elijah, Carlos and Fire Gamin.

Arcanists reveal their Hidden Martyrs, taking the lead in points with 2-3.

Turn 5:

Yannic gives democracy another chance, healing herself, Nix and Eternal Flame and damaging Elijah, Fire Gamin and Carlos. She takes a bonus concentrate and shoots Elijah, but unsurprisingly doesn't kill.

Elijah heals for a bit and finally kills Yannic. By now Elijah had juicy five blight tokens, so Nix tried a distracted Bleeding Disease twice, failing both.

Fire Gamin runs to secure bottom-right marker. Hamelin takes a walk and a charge at Elijah, barely missing the attack. His Bleeding Disease hits, but that wasn't enough - Elijah was left at one health remaining. And then last remaining Firebranded took a double walk , got engaged by Nix and healed Elijah so even Benny's Swarm Them was of no use. However, at that point removing Elijah wouldn't have mattered anyway since Carlos was able to get to bottom-left marker, and Benny needed to walk away from mid-left marker to place a scheme marker for Spread Them Out.

It was a tough 3-5 game, and Arcanists won. So, fortunately my blunder with Benny did not cost the game as it would have been 4-5. What did cost me the game was choosing Vendetta and then getting jammed in high-profile melee. 

I should have probably taken Hidden Martyrs anyway, though I was afraid that my martyrs would die to burning. Breakthrough and Load 'Em Up on the other hand weren't options for me. 

Shrimpy shrimpy

 A few days ago I played first rounds of Mantis, the party game sort of thing. 

We had two players, and I have a hunch the game functions far better with more players. There aren't a lot of options and no special cards to shake things up. With two players this leads to rather repetitive flow. But with more players who knows? 

But on the bonus side, the game had me look for information about mantis shrimps and gosh darn, they're an interesting species.

The Thousand Chills

 A 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list:

Horruskh with Inviolable Resolve and Silence of Death
-Tyrant with Relentless Charge, Ripper and Harpoon
-Jackal with Arc Node, Pole Arm and Shield
Strike Reavers & Standard
Assault Reavers
Ulkor Barragers
Maulgreth, Charnel Plague

Opponent had:

Bane Witch Agathia
- 2x Slayer
-Deathripper
-Defiler
2x Bane Warrior units
2x Pistol Wraiths

Cryx went first and had a pretty symmetrical Bane Warriors  - Bonejack - Slayer - Pistol Wraith - Agathia formation that was mirrored on the other flank. Orgoth had Ulkor Barragers, Horruskh and Tyrant in the middle, Strike Reavers on the left and the rest on the right. Silence of Death went to Tyrant and Inviolable Resolve on Assault Reavers.

Second turn Cryx continues flanking operation with Bane Warriors spreading near table edges, just contesting the rectangular zones. Cryxian forces kept their distance and even used Agathia's feat defensively. Fortunately a single Strike Reaver was the only casualty that turn.

It was obvious feat round for Horruskh. Strike Reavers went to take shots against enemy objective. Tyrant missed Deathripper with harpoon and I completely forgot about Fate Blessed. Oh well, Assault Reavers went within 5" of Deathripper and dragged the thing into melee with them. Damage wasn't all that impressive, but at least there were was armor 19, 4+ tough detachment that wouldn't get knocked down in the middle. They received tough from command card.

Ulkor Barragers couldn't figure out anything better to shoot than Agathia, and so didn't really do anything. Maulgreth had the sorry duty of contesting rectangular zone on right, with Jackal standing nearby. 

Cryx then activates and Slayer on the right is absolutely on fire. It kills both Maulgreth and objective, thus getting two control points! What a disaster. At least damage made by Slayer and Deathripper in the middle was tolerable - only two Assault Reavers died. A pistol wraith shot one Ulkor Barrager stationary and the other killed a Strike Reaver. Bane Warriors just closed in as they were a bit far from the action.

The scenario pressure was real. And it didn't help when Strike Reavers tried to do double duty and kill corporeal Pistol Wraith and destroy the objective - failing at both. Assault Reavers relocated a little and tried to poke holes in Deathripper, but didn't accomplish much. Ulkor Barragers did more damage to Deathripper with blast damage when they shot at hellwrought Slayer in the middle.

It certainly pained me when Jackal had to charge Slayer on the left rectangular zone and left it with only around four or five damage boxes remaining, although Maulgreth had already softened the helljack a little with defensive strike. 

Deathripper in the middle didn't have too many damage boxes left, so Horruskh who had two focus points charged the thing. He needed to roll only around six with three dice if the charge attack hit. If the charge attack hit.

It didn't, not even with re-roll. At least last bought attack removed the Deathripper from board and triggered Blood Boon, which went into Inviolable Resolve on Horruskh, but still my warcaster was now in the middle with zero focus.

Tyrant manages to land harpoon against hellwrought Slayer and totals the helljack, which evens score as Horruskh controlled the flag and plenty of units had the circular zone.

Agathia attempts assassination, which started to look a real possibility when first Pistol Wraith death chilled him. After that all the remaining attacks hit without effort, and while they didn't do a lot of damage, each point counted towards Horruskh's demise. The other Pistol Wraith chilled Horruskh a second time and Defiler splurged bile over Horruskh. Agathia charged Horruskh, cast Parasite on him and attacked a couple of times. He sure is a tough fellow, as even after this The Thousand Wraths was standing with around six damage boxes or so.

But with -5 armor, the assassination wasn't resting on remaining Slayer's shoulders. It was on rightmost Bane Warriors. Jackal with Set Defense and shield was engaging the Cryxian heavy. Warriors were hitting on 8+, dealing damage with dice -6.

Out of five attacks only one missed. Granted, two attacks in removed Set Defense from equation. 

Jackal went down, and so went stationary Horruskh.