Craig

Finally a few games I do remember! Mainly because I didn’t take any notes during the day on my sheet of paper, and made sure to write it all down when I got home!

Build a Wagon vs Mark, 35ss

This was fun…I wrote this scenario for Walpurgis. I playtested it a bunch against Jamie and had a decent idea of what kind of crew would work best for it. I also got to answer questions about the scenario for people at other tables…thankfully, nothing came up in my game, because that would be a little conflict-of-interest.

I took Distract and Line and revealed Line. I tend to do this when I take Line, because it’s a Scheme that my opponent can see pretty obviously (even if I wanted to waste AP bluffing it out) and if they decide to try to stop me, I can still fairly easily get 1VP from it. And I only take it when I don’t like the other options at all, or when it’s a Corner/Flank and I can devote the Emberling to running to the corner all game.

Mark took Entourage and Murder Protege. Murder is a very situational Scheme, and I didn’t like my options for it. And I just don’t like Entourage, particularly since you have to announce it to make it good and because Assassinate was already an option. It just gives my opponent on more reason to want Mei Feng dead, and I don’t like that.

He played Von Schill with a Trapper, a Friekorpsman, a Strongarm Suit, a Librarian and a Steamtrunk. I took Mei with Seismic Claws, Imbued Protection (because of Assassinate) and Arcane Reservoir, the Rail Golem, 3 Metal Gamin and the Emberling.

I sent the Emberling up the right side to start on Line – that was to be his only job all game. Mei and the Golem went up the right middle to engage his entire crew, while 2 of the Gamin went up the left middle to engage the Trapper. My intention was to send the Gamin out to get the Wagon Conditions for VPs and block with Mei and the Golem.

He removed the Golem relatively easily, but I made him pay for it thankfully! I was doing great, but on the last turn he Disengaged from Mei to walk towards a Wagon Marker. When I let him get away, I was thinking that he could have the 1VP for the Wagon Marker…but had completely forgotten about Entourage! That mistake cost me 3VPs, leaving this game ending in an 8-8 draw.

Reckoning+Soulsquatch, 45ss

I played Jesse again in this one, and his Lady Justice crew. The Strategy was a simple change to Reckoning – there was a 50mm Soulsquatch monster in the middle of the table who was worth “2 kills” for the purposes of Reckoning. Since I find Reckoning points pretty hard to get, I decided that I’d do my best to kill the Soulsquatch so I could get that extra VP.

This game ended up being a 10-1 win for me…

I played Mei with Seismic Claws, Imbued Protection and Arcane Reservoir, Kang with Imbued Energies, Joss with Imbued Energies, the Rail Golem with Imbued Energies…and the Emberling. I took Line in the Sand and revealed it, and Bodyguard on Kang. Jesse had Lady Justice, the Judge, 2 Death Marshalls, Brutal Effigy…I don’t recall what else.

First turn I moved the Emberling forward to drop a Scheme marker in my deployment zone. The Soulsquatch had an ability that he would move his Cg towards any Interact Actions within 12″, and then either shoot or melee the target. I made sure the Emberling was out of melee, so he shot and missed. Then my entire, brutal, crew charged him and brought him down to 5 Wds.

Jesse made a choice. It turned out to be the wrong choice, but I definitely respect that he made it. He charged Lady Justice at the Soulsquatch, after performing some movement tricks with her. He swung twice…and black jokered for damage, leaving the Soulsquatch at 1 Wd! This was still during the first turn – his entire purpose was to stop me from getting the point. Unfortunately for him, I won the initiative next round and kill the Soulsquatch for the point, and then spent the rest of my turn killing Lady Justice – she was so far extended from her support lines that I didn’t have to worry about any other enemy model interfering. With Justice killed, I felt I could relax a bit – she is a big threat in that crew.

I spent the rest of the game killing 2 per turn. At one point he used a Death Marshal to Bury the Effigy to prevent me getting the Reckoning point that turn (good plan!) but he had so many squishy models compared to my destructive crew that I just picked another model and got the point anyway.

Arcane Ritual, 50ss

I played Tao again here. During the break he decided to swap his crew around if he could, but since it was a fixed Master tournament he had to get the TOs permission as well as my own. Since he’d steamrolled everyone else in the weekend close to 10-0 every game, I gave him permission – my odds stood higher of winning with him playing something else…

The Strategy was another from Walpurgis. There was a 50mm blocking Arcane Artifact in the middle of the table – you get VPs for placing and removing your own Scheme marker from it at the end of each round after the first. As well the Soulsquatch is back, and he’s pissed that you’re Interacting within 12″ of him. You could also take an upgrade that gives you limited control over the Squatch.

I took Mei with Seismic Claws, Imbued Energies and Control the Beast, the Firestarter with Imbued Energies, a Steam Arachnid Swarm, a Performer, 3 Metal Gamin and 3 Rail Workers. Tao took Hoffman, Ryle, 2 of a Guardian (or Warden), 1 of a Warden (or Guardian), a Mechanical Attendant, and Hopkins.

For Schemes I took Distract and revealed Power Ritual. Tao took Distract and Plant Explosives.

My plan early on was to use the SAS to be an ass and remove Scheme Markers. I was pretty successful, stopping Tao from getting full points for the Strategy. It also turned out to be great for stopping most of Plant Explosives as well! The Performer and her Seduction turned out to be great as well, allowing me to surprise Tao as he tried to get PE.

During one activation, Tao counted that Ryle did 27 Wds in a single turn. I didn’t note it all…but he had a Modification on him and something to give him more Rams for Critical Strike and such. He did those 27 Wds to Mei Feng, who, thankfully, was not a critical part of my winning plan. But still, that’s gross!

In the end, we both got full points for Distract because it’s a fairly easy Scheme, particularly since we went for turn 6. He only got 2 for PE. I got an easy 3VPs for Power Ritual, with the Firestarter heading straight for a well defended corner. And I got 4VPs for the Strategy, with him getting 3. I won 10-8!

This game was super hard, Tao is a brutal opponent, and I think the fact that I was his only loss all weekend was the most delicious thing!

I won a Zoraida crew from this, which I’m not really certain I want…and I got the Best General award for winning and/or drawing the most games, because I made Tao lose! 😀

Again with me not having my paper of notes…I managed to cobble together some of the results, but in the end….Hardcore was just so intense that I have no idea what happened, let alone how many games I won, lost or drooled on myself for!

Here’s a summary of “Hardcore”, a format that’s getting a lot of discussion! If I list it as “(Opt)” it’s because I’ve read elsewhere and that didn’t include this.

• 20ss, Henchman only.
• 4 models exactly.
• 20 minutes per game.
• The only Scheme is Assassinate.
• The Strategy is Turf War.
• Close Deployment
• (Opt) Excess soulstones are not added to your pool, so spend them all!
• (Opt) No summoning.

I started by playing a game against Mark Handford, who was the Henchman running this weekends events. I’d never played Hardcore before and wanted to get a sense of how it went, before I went into a “tournament situation”. My crew for the entire event consisted of…

• Joss, with Imbued Energies
• Rail Golem
• Metal Gamin
• Metal Gamin

The plan is pretty obvious – the Rail Golem destroys my enemies with Joss as support (because if he dies, I’m more likely to lose), while the Metal Gamin hang out and hold the center.

Mark took Mortimer, 2 Belles and Izamu. I later questioned his use of Mortimer, since he doesn’t seem like an optimal choice for this…he admitted that Mortimer was the only Henchman in his case he had for Ressers… Mark spent the first turn Luring me to him while I walked backwards to avoid being Lured. My Golem and Joss tagteamed Izamu after he’d activated and killed him, leaving not much to stop me from taking the rest of the points for the game. I won this one 7-0…but it didn’t count. 😛

Game 1…

These games are all out of order. Non-Henchman Mark was playing with Viktoria of Blood, 3 Ronin. I lost this one 5-2. I came around one side of a hut in the middle of the table, he came around the other side. He made short work of my Golem with BloodVik and I killed a Ronin.

Unfortunately, we had a misunderstanding and I attacked BloodVik with Joss while he thought I was attacking his Ronin. He pulled the model off the table and I exclaimed that was the wrong model!  There was nothing that could be done, not only because of the 20 minute time limit, but also because this is I think the only major failing of Malifaux – there is no way to “undo”. In Warhammer, you can just undo and re-roll all the dice. You can’t undo all those flips because now you know what did happen and what could have happened and dropped cards from hands and all that.

This isn’t Mark – Mark is a wonderful opponent whom I’ve played a number of times at 40k, but I’m imagining a terrible opponent that runs a FluffyBunny next to his DestructionMasterOfDoom and “oops, oh my, I had absolutely no idea you were attacking my Master…”. (and such a person would not get more than 1 game in before he was banned for life. :P)

Game…2?

I played Niko. He was playing Guild with Francisco, an Executioner, a Death Marshal and a Guild Guard. The Executioner walked a little to far forward early, and I recognized it as a big threat and charged my Golem at it. The (0) Locomotion worked wonders in this format, as long as you have a 4+ in your hand you can Walk and Charge in your first turn and since it’s Close Deployment, that leaves your opponent with a very narrow window of movement. The Executioner died pretty easily. I don’t remember how the rest of this game went, but I’m pretty sure I won it.

Game 3!

No idea. I literally have no idea what happened or who I played. We figured out that I must have played Jesse, because there were only 6 people in the event, I didn’t play myself or Darren and I played the other 3.

Game 4…

I drew Tao. Everyone around me says “Ooh, now it’s your turn!”. I know that Tao is a hard opponent, but whatever he’s brought, it can be beat. He’d caused Niko to concede his game, and a lot of people were “jokingly” abusing him for his list.

He played the Valedictorian, Yin, a Dead Doxy and a Crooked Man.

It was absolutely insane. I had a tough as nails crew, but he took my models off the table with ease, and even when I got the charge off he just shrugged and gave me negative flips to this and that. I tried to escape with Joss to deny him the Assassinate points, but on my last activation he brought Joss to his Hard to Kill…and gave him Poison +1. >.< I got rolled.

I think I finished this event 2-2-0. I knew my list had some hard counters (anti armour…) but a bunch of us discussed Tao’s baggery after and agreed that the best counter to his crew was to just bring the exact same crew. Rough.

I missed my gaming clubs game day to go swim in a beautiful lake in the sun…so I signed up for the Wet Coast GT instead! I played 11 games of Malifaux over 2 days…(5 of them were Hardcore :P). Unfortunately, I left my piece of paper with all my game notes on it, and so I’ve had to re-create some of this from memory. Which sucks in some cases because I can’t remember even the Schemes we played!

Reckoning 35ss

My first opponent was Tao and his Molly crew. Tao and I played last at GottaCon many months ago, and I beat him 7-1, because he wasn’t actually playing Malifaux – he was playing “take models off the table”. I was looking forward to a re-match because of all the talk about his incredible gaming prowess…

I took Mei Feng with Seismic Claws and Arcane Reservoir – the first because I never leave home without it and the second to help fuel the Rail Golems need for Tomes. I also took the Rail Golem, Joss with Open Current and Kang. A tight, hard crew for Reckoning.

He tabled me. I lost this one 10-3 or 10-2. He summoned 27ss of models onto the table, including a Rogue Necromancy and a second Hanged. 2 of his models gave other pieces Reactivate, to increase the destructive power of his best pieces.

Reconnoiter 45ss

My second opponent was Nico with his Kirai crew. I took Bodyguard on Kang, because he’s great at that and Frame for Murder on the Emberling. This turned out to be a silly idea, but I won 10-7 anyway.

I took Mei Feng with Seismic Claws and Imbued Energies, 3 Metal Gamin, 3 Rail Workers, Kang and the Emberling.

Reconnoiter is a solid Strategy for me. I have enough tanky models that I can overwhelm most opponents and stop them from getting points from it. If the Scheme pool is good for a swarm crew, then it just works out great for me.

I decided to kite Izamu in the bottom right corner, because I’d sent 2 Workers and a Gamin that way, and there was no way they’d be able to take him and a Hanged down while still holding the quarter. There was enough terrain that way that I could play the hiding game, but he eventually caught up with me. He tried to pull some of my models away from the fight in the top left by eventually moving Izamu into the bottom left corner, but it was too little, too late.

Most of the game was decided in the top left, where I had more than enough models to keep Reconnoiter from Nico.

He left a Night Terror in the top right to hold it for the game, playing down 3ss. Makes me think the December Acolyte would have been a good model to take. I ended up moving Mei up there to stop him claiming that quarter in turn 4 or 5.

The Frame for Murder thing was silly. He only had the one Master/Henchman – Kirai. And she’s a summoning Master, not a killing Master. At turn 4 I flew the Emberling into her face to try to get her to deal with him, but she instead did 2 damage to him and pushed him away so she could go somewhere else.

I got the 10 because Nico conceded the game.

Stake a Claim 50ss

My last opponent for this one-day tournament was Jesse and his Lady Justice crew. I took Mei with Seismic Claws, Arcane Reservoir and Imbued Energies, along with the Rail Golem, the Firestarter, the Emberling and 3 Metal Gamin.

I really love Stake a Claim. Mostly because it never gets flipped for other people, but I’ve played it once or twice and have a good plan for it. Firestarter is good because of Reckless, and the Rail Golem can move a long ways on Locomotion if he needs to. The Emberling is also great for the late game since he moves so quickly.

This game largely revolved around a grove of trees in the middle of the board. It had impassible terrain on both sides of it, with a little bit of open space surrounding it. Enough that with his mostly shooting crew that I didn’t want to let him see me. I broke the seal by moving Mei into the forest, but I Vented Steam to see if he’d move closer and shoot…he didn’t.

The game did finally break when he moved one Guild Hound into my side, trying to Breakthrough, and then charged the Rail Golem with a second one, flipping the Red Joker for damage and destroying the Golem!

I won this game 10-3, even though he had the power in the end. I had completely stopped him from getting Claim Markers on my side of the table, which is huge in this zero-sum Strategy. I had 3VPs for a good Plant Explosives in the middle forest, and 3 VPs for Breakthrough, which is a great Scheme for Emberling/Firestarter combo. I don’t even reveal it, I’m happier having to place that extra Scheme marker.

Conclusion

Tao won the tournament…I think he 10-something’d all of his opponents this day. I got Best Sportsman, which is fun. 🙂 I also won in the raffle a copy of the Gremlin Fate Deck. I don’t really like the art on this one, as it’s really hard to read. I tried to give it to Jamie, but he had a copy already! So now I have a spare and rare Fate Deck in my gaming closet to give away…

Still have the Hardcore tournament and the Story Encounter to write about – later!