The Governor Generals Wake, Tournament Review

[Ben Cairns]

Saturday was the Governor General's Wake, rather fittingly I was wearing black (well, black shoes trousers and my trusty Jags shirt...), and to celebrate the Big Man's demise, we descended upon ABZ games for a 50s Fixed Faction, 3 round tournament.
As it must have been an enforced holiday with all Guild Members paying their respect, there wasn't a Guild player in sight!
I had big ambitions following our last tournament, where I succeeded in taking home the wooden spoon, my goals this time were to win a game or failing that, not come last!

In preparation I painted up the final models in my Gremlin faction, The Survivors. This was a bit wishful thinking on their part, as I am not exactly sure if and where I'd use them, as other than being relatively cheap (for other factions, not really Gremlins) minions with a MI attack, which can only be extended to range with the use of a Ca (0). They have Hard to Wound, with Reckless and Armour +1, but for 1ss more, I can get 2 Bayou Gremlins, which Somer can summon off. I'll have to try them out, at some other time, watch this space!

So with a fully painted faction (minus Gluttony) and plenty practice games under my belt, I felt I stood in good stead for completing at least one part of my goals.

The first game up was versus Paul (https://thebovineoverlord.wordpress.com/ArgentBadger on the forum) who would also be using Gremlins. This would be my first time facing Gremlins, but on the plus side, at least I would know what they could do!

Game 1:
Standard Deployment
Interference
Convict Labour (both)
Show of Force
Leave your Mark
Undercover Entourage
Frame for Murder (both).

Spot Prize: Flip both Black and Red Joker in 1 AP. (Limited Edition Bayou Gremlin).

For this I decided to go for Wong, I had been playing him recently versus Martin, to great success, and I felt there was a potential that if I was playing a bunched up crew (Somer or possibly Ulix) that I may be able to get some blasts in, or failing that I had some great scheme running and denial in Wong himself. I went for A Gremlin's Luck and Dirty Cheater (which I didn't use once, which I found last time I took this with Wong! - make mental note).
I planned to build towards Convict Labour as my first scheme, or possibly Leave Your Mark, so next up I wanted some mobility, cue 2 Rooster Riders. Due to their damage potential, they could also be good Frame for Murder targets.
To boost the scheme running potential of Wong, I opted for Old Cranky allowing me to have an option to drop scheme markers for Wong to utilise What Goes Up plus his Df and Wp buffing and potential to generate SS if closely to models killing enemies, I felt the 4ss, was worth the cost.
2 Stuffed Piglets would give me some cheap activations, and potential of easy targets for Wong to blast into, plus with the opportunity to Bacon Bomb for some additional damage.
Next up I wanted a solid Glowy target, and despite his relatively quick and very painful death last time I played, McTavish got the nod. I took On Your Tiptoes which I still haven't managed to discard for the reflip (another mental note).
With 17s left, I went for everyones second (maybe now supplanted Ophelia?) favourite Gremlin Madam, and opted for Trixiebelle to give me some scheme marker manipulation, pushes, and in this case a big gun!
My final 8ss would be spent on Sammy, a staple in most of my crews, especially to prevent Convict Labour or Leave your Mark, plus the ability to get both of Wong's limited upgrades, with A Good Student, taking Ooo Glowy would get the most out of McTavish, whilst allowing me another upgrade that could work towards Show of Force.
That was a full 50ss, so no spare stones for the cache.

Paul went for:
Ophelia
2 Young Lacroix
2 Lightning Bugs
2 Rooster Riders
1 Slop Hauler
Lenny
Whiskey Golem - Barrel Roll.

I reckoned he wouldn't be going for Show of Force, which I wasn't too enamoured with either, as with the strategy I should be spreading out. Undercover Entourage could only be on Ophelia, so possibly I would spot it if she was making a beeline to my deployment zone. I had thought of going for it on Trixie, but my worry was that with Ophelia opposite her I may just end up being killed as I tried to get up centreline, the Whiskey Golem with Nimble may end up preventing a mad dash to the back line too.
I decided to go for Convict Labour and Frame for Murder, the plan being to run a Rooster on either side, to drop schemes, then bring the framed one into Ophelia afterwards to try to get the VP early, on the pretence that it couldn't be ignored, plus hopefully I'd do a bit of damage first.

My deployment:

Paul's:

I didn't take notes of the what happened in the game, so I won't go through a blow by blow, rather I will just pick out a few moments I can remember and my thoughts on the game as a whole.

 

The majority of my early activations in turn 1 were just to move things up, I made a few errors (I reckon) with my activation choice. I sent my left Rooster up quite early to drop a scheme marker, which in turn got it charged by Paul's rooster on that side, and he took it down to 1 wound which limited any threat it would be able to pose for the subsequent turns. With this in mind I kept the other rooster to activate later to hopefully be able to get close to Ophelia for Frame for Murder. This proved successful as Lenny used Toss to push her up the board, and their Wk/Cg 7 combined with Reckless and (1)Charge, allowed me to reach melee with Ophelia and through a lucky negative damage flip (both severe), deal 6 Wd's! 

Unfortunately Paul had the same trick up his sleeve, and his Rooster used reckless to charge McTavish, also dealing 6Wd (negative flip...double severe...), and out of necessity I had to kill it in return. If I had been sensible I would have dmg prevented here, and this would come back to haunt me. 

I had hoped McTavish would be able to deal enough damage to the Rooster to kill it, unfortunately this wasn't to be, mainly poor flipping and his use of Bayou Two Card (I started to appreciate how painful it could be to face!), meant I had charge it with Wong to kill it off, to which he revealed Frame for Murder.

I then got a stroke of luck with Paul opting to fall for my cunning plan and use Ophelia to kill off my Rooster, netting me full Vp's for Frame for Murder and tie the game up.

This would become a relatively common occurrence in my games on the day, scoring early. 

 

End of Turn 1: 

Turn 2 I activated the Rooster first to try to do a bit of damage before it died, taking his Rooster in turn down to 2Wd's and into Stampede threshold. He opted to move it out of engagement to allow it to charge into Stuffed Piglet, he managed the disengagement, however we then spotted the non pig criteria and after moving out of engagement with my Rooster, he had to charge straight back!

I took down Lenny and the Slop Hauler, as well as one of the Lightning Bug's, unfortunately losing McTavish and my last stuffed piglet in reply.

I rather foolishly got a bit caught up in the killing, and didn't have enough/any models in the correct quarters to score any VP's for Interference, Paul had enough to score. 

We both scored a point for Convict Labour (although we realised my left most scheme marker had a Lightning bug too close, so mine didn't count).

So it sat at 3-5

 

End of Turn 2:

 

I got initiative and struck the Whiskey Golem, stoning for a mask to use Wong's Iron Fan and Poof!to place up to 6" to leave engagement, giving me free reign to do some damage to Ophelia. I was running out of activations to try take out Ophelia, so Cranky tried a speculative shot with his Sawn-off, with her and Wong being engaged, I had to randomise, and managed to pick out Ophelia in both attempts!

The Rooster charged Trixiebelle, unfortunately only being close enough to engage her, and not Old Cranky, preventing her from allowing Old Cranky to generously step in the way with Don't Fight Over Me Boys! Sammy used Jinx to prevent the Whiskey Golem from declaring Wk/Cg actions. 

Cranky then died to a Much Abused Pistol from a Young Lacroix (the youthful upstart!).

Paul scored again for convict labour, taking it to 3-6, at this point the game was out of my reach. I feel I perhaps got drawn into a brawl, rather than concentrating on the schemes and strategy. 

 

Another turn of carnage was in store for us with the last standing Rooster being killed off by Sammy, who also turned a scheme marker into a Stuffed Piglet, (a personal favourite of mine). The Lightning Bug killed off poor Trixie, Wong had to Iron Fan/Poof combo again to escape the Whiskey Golem (proving that there is at least one Gremlin in the Bayou who isn't drawn to the Brewmasters offerings!), opting instead to stand on a scheme marker, whilst using What Goes Up, to move one of mine into a scoring position.

Unfortunately the Young Lacroix was close enough to me scheme marker to stop me scoring, so no scoring kept it at 3-6.

 

Going into the final turn, I felt I had to try to score at least one from somewhere to reduce the deficit (hopefully with better results than a Tory budget!), as this may be something that would ultimately influence my tournament ranking, thus hopefully not finishing bottom!

With no Trixie to cheat initiative, and no stones I had to watch on as the Whiskey Golem won initiative, and despatched Sammy then the Stuffed Piglet (both of whom were pretty battered up), the piglet subsequently used Bacon Bomb, and took out the Lightning Bug!

This left me with Wong, so I would need careful manoeuvring to try and score any points. Thankfully I was just in the right spot to use his (0) Boom, to take out two of Paul's scheme markers,and put a Df duel on the Whiskey Golem, meaning he couldn't get his final Convict Labourpoint (which I felt was one of my craftiest displays of the day!) I then Wk'd, dropped a scheme marker for my own Convict Labour, and then Lightning Jumped the Young Lacroix, to secure a final VP. The game ended 4-6.

 

The game was great fun with loads of damage on both sides, it perhaps wasn't the best showing from me for the strategy, as I managed to lose my mobile models, and then moved a lot into the non scoring point in the centre. Although I feel that this in part was due to deployment, I didn't put enough stuff to combat the left flank, and the models I did send were sacrificed. If I had one more model over that side, I may have been slightly better equipped to deal with them, but its speculation, as both the Rooster and the Golem had the speed to move almost anywhere.

McTavish continues to take a lot of punishment and then die, only managing to do a small amount in return (he killed a Lightning Bug if I remember rightly), as a Glowy target he is very appealing, but I'm not sure if I've just been unlucky so far, as versus Martin he RJ'd the damage and the Rooster hit him with double severe on a negative flip in this one. I'll have to try him again and see...

 

[Ben Cairns]

Game 2:

Close Deployment.

Collect the Bounty.

Convict Labour (Stuart).

Hunting Party (Me)

Exhaust their Forces (Stuart)

Neutralise the Leader (Me)

Public Demonstration.

 

Spot Prize: Flip Red Joker and lose the duel.

 

With Collect the Bounty, I wanted to go for a killing crew, pushing me into the options of Wong, Ophelia or Mah. Having just played as Wong, I decided to try something different, and opted for Ophelia (still my favourite Gremlin Master for out and out kill potential!). I chose Ophelia and the obligatory (in my opinion) two Young Lacroix (which would have to be the two oversized models! Never pass up on the possibility to moon someone!). I toyed with adding Dirty Cheater to Ophelia, as Neutralise the Leader was in the pool, a wee bit of healing may help, but instead decided it may be better served on my other options, instead hoping Plink! would keep her safe. 

To add some muscle, I opted for my tried and tested Francois Lacroix, with Dirty Cheater and Stilts. He would add a fragile, but potential for huge amount of damage Henchman (I'd have to be a bit careful with him to avoid giving away 4 bounty points - hopefully this is where stilts would come in). Along side Francois, I added Burt, also with Dirty Cheater, who would be a bit more reliable and hopefully trickier to kill, with Slippery and It's all in the Reflexes.

 To get the most out of him, Ophelia and Francois, I added Lenny, this would allow for all of them to get the Rams to make them truly dangerous, plus the damage prevention is always nice, with Neutralise the Leader and Collect the Bounty. I took his upgrade as I had a stone or two to spare (this proved to be a good decision, allowing me to summon a Piglet early, and I chipped a few wounds off with it as a ranged attack).

To round off the Crew I brought Merris Lacroix, this was as I was facing Archaists, I worried with the potential of it being Rasputina, and everyone wanting to be close to Lenny. Plus she brings a potential to drop multiple scheme markers if I needed to take Convict Labour.

I had 4 stone left which would get me a Stuffed Piglet (being a peon, offering an activation that didn't score for Collect the Bounty), and I stuck the rest into boosting the cache.

 

Forgot to take a pic of the Crew....

 

Stuart had:

Ramos (full cache, Arcane Reservoir, Under Pressure, Arcing Screen).

Brass Arachnid 

Howard Langston (Imbued Energies)

Joss (Bleeding Edge Tech, the one to give burning, forget it's name)

Johan (not sure if any upgrades)

Mobile Toolkit.

 

Despite being on a 3x3' board, I really only used one 18x18" square in the whole game! I had opted for all the killing schemes, as I had built towards it, I didn't have the models for Public Demonstration, and feeling that I would be out activated with his potential to generate a lot of minions I decided against Convict Labour.

 

I had listened to a podcast (Schemes and Stones) which talked about a Ramos crew using a similar tactic to make the Spiders as tough as possible, and it had been the way I was planning to use my Ramos crew (before I sold them). I didn't appreciate just how tough it would be to face. The positive flips on Df, meant that most of my attacks were bouncing off, as we were on equal stats at best. 

 

Turn 1 was pretty uneventful, with nothing much happening, I think I killed a single, or maybe two spiders with Ophelia, with most of my crew advancing cautiously. 

Stuart was cunningly using the big building as cover for all his pricey models, Howard moved round the back of the building, after being reactivated by the Brass Arachnid, and dropped 2 scheme markers at either side of the centreline for Convict Labour (this is an interesting point that I have just thought of now, it is inconsequential as he never scored from it, however he wouldn't have managed to score from both, as with them having to be within 2" of the centre point, and scheme markers not being able to be placed within 4" of another, would have meant there would have needed to be a bigger gap, meaning only one of them could have scored). 

 

End of turn 1:

 

Turn 2 there was some more action! 3 Spiders popped up in the middle of the board, Francois charged in and killed one, then got dragged back out by Trixie after suffering some damage, the mooning Young Lacroix attempted to make himself into a speed bump to stop Howard from being able to Cg Burt, by stepping in the way and then shooting his Much Abused Pistol, unfortunately I opted to use the Dumb Luck trigger, and the overeager little lad put far too much powder in and blew himself away whilst inflicting 8 dmg on Howard!

This then allowed Howard to Cg Burt and drop him down to 1Wd with both attacks (unfortunately I couldn't use Slippery to pawn it off on anyone due to distance). 

Burt then flexed his muscles, drew his dagger and got ready to hit back, with a ram in hand, and Lenny near by, I hoped to both heal out of Hard to Kill, and take Howard out with Critical Strike.

Stuart then remembered Imbued Energies, and asked if I'd let him discard it for fast (I knew this would mean certain death for Burt, but I decided to let him have it. Strictly speaking it should be used at the start of the activation, but we just agreed it could be used then and moved on). Unfortunately true to form this was the end of Burt, giving up 2 points on the Bounty tracker.

In return I killed off Howard, I think with Ophelia, brining me back ahead when coupled with the spider.

I went 2-0 up at end of turn 2 (1 for Collect the Bounty, 1 for Hunting Party).

 

Turn 3, there was more carnage, with Francois being killed off by Ramos (I think) using Electric Fire. this coupled with the Piglet, meant I was 4 Bounty points down, with Ramos being hidden away form me (Neutralise the Leader didn't seem such as smart pick now!) and Joss being such a touch model to crack, I instead had to concentrate on Johan, who I managed to kill with a Thinking Luck Ophelia rocket! and then killed another 2 spiders off with Lenny and Trixie. This tied the score 4-4 for Bounty points, meaning neither of us scored, but I got another through Hunting Party. 

 

Turn 4 had a spider running away to drop another scheme marker under the walkway, which would give Stuart Convict Labour, to counter this Merris had gone Reckless, to move close to the two scheme markers behind the building to stop them from scoring. My memory of the final turn is a bit hazy, I can't remember is Joss died or not, but the game ended in my favour 4-0.

 

All in all I did a bit better than I had expected with my weight of shot managing to eventually take out the Steam Arachnids, although it perhaps highlighted the need of the ignore armour from Banjonistas or a Glowy target!

And on a positive note I had succeeded my goal!

Best Painted Crew was then judged between games, the stipulation was legal 50ss crew. I was a bit unsure of who to enter, I felt my chances were slim, when compared to some of the really nice crews on show, but I went for it anyway and entered Wong with a few of my favourite paint jobs:

(I didn't win)

[Ben Cairns]

Game 3:
Flank Deployment.
Headhunter
Convict Labour (Jonny)
Take Prisoner (Me - Mr Tannen)
Hunting Party
Set Up (Me -Teddy)
Inspection

I don't know what Jonny's second scheme was.

I decided I'd go for a crew that maybe wouldn't be expected in a game with Hunting Party and Headhunter, and take a Som'er Teeth Jones summoning list. I figured I would have plenty activations to grab Head Markers, which should hold me in good stead, plus for Set Up and Take Prisoner I could out activate most crews if things went my way. I opted for Family Tree and Liquid Bravery on Som'er to give me the summoning, plus bolster my Wp for all my Bayou's and Som'er himself, which my limited experiences against Neverborn have led me to believe as an essential! I opted for two Skeeters, hoping to utilise Som'er's (0) to spread about Down the Hatch and Do it Like This.
I took Old Major, as I felt Saddle for both Som'er and the obligatory Slop Hauler would keep the force mobile, this along with The Old Pig Knows the Way would allow me to have a relatively fast advance, which could help in Flank Deployment.
I settled on 3 Bayou Gremlins, as it would give me a good start to summoning, whilst giving me a few more stones towards the cache (which I opted for +3) and a few better models!
I added Merris Lacroix, yet again to give me a speedy model for Take Prisoner or the potential to do Set Up on her own!
Trixie featured again, this time with Bounty, for the crow trigger and Show Off, to try to negate some of the problem with taking easy to kill minions in Headhunter.
Finally I added a Bayou Gator, for a sneaky assassination model when coupled with Bigger Hat than You!

I didn't note down Jonny's crew (apologies, so this is from memory, I'm missing most of the upgrades).

Dreamer, summoning upgrade
3 Day Dreams
Teddy
Mr Tannen
1 Stitched Together
Widow Weaver (gave everything flight, not sure the upgrades name).

Having never faced The Dreamer I was a bit unsure of what to expect, regardless his crew looked amazing, so if I was going to be beaten, at least I could marvel at the models as they did so! They even fitted in with the Circus scenery!
I opted to stick with my initial idea of Take Prisoner and Set Up. I chose Mr Tannen as my Take Prisoner, as I felt he was so annoying no one would want to be near him, so its unlikely I would kill him by accident or have a scrum nearby. Plus he would maybe playing a supporting role back form the rest of the crew, so I could fly in with Merris or the like. For Set Up, I chose Teddy, as he would likely be in my face, so I could bring some expendable models up and drop scheme markers close enough for the points.

Turn 1 was all about summoning, The Dreamer summoned Corpellius, and Som'er summoned 2 Bayou Gremlins. The rest of my models moved up. To ensure the summoning of the Bayou's Git Yer Bro requires a mask, with this in mind I decided to use Do It Like Dis! to get it, unfortunately I had no masks in hand to discard, so instead had to throw away the Red Joker! Ouch, but I reckon it was worth it to get the two Bayou's without having to stone, or trust Bayou Two Card.

Som'er moved up and summoned another two Bayou's, this time with the mask in hand to discard! unfortunately one of them was blocked off from the Slop Hauler, so the healing wasn't quite as effective as hoped. Old Major moved a little too far, which would result in Teddy getting into combat with him later in the turn through use of pushes, flight and ?fast! Although this wasn't what the big pig wanted to see, it did allow me to pull of Set Up, to gain 3VP. At the forgotten side of the table, the Stitched Together moved up and dropped a scheme marker, only to be intercepted by a Bayou Gator, who charged it, and dealt a bit of damage.
A Gremlin managed to get killed after failing a Wp near Teddy, allowing him to make an attack which pushed it, dropping the head over by Coppelius who promptly picked it up and scored. Turn 2 finished 3-1.

Turn 3, which would prove to be the final turn (no idea where the time went!), started with Old Major hitting Teddy a few times to gain back some wounds, stoning for crows (he Eat's Anything!). Another 2 Bayou's died giving up their heads, which I scored once from with Merris, and Jonny scored from too.
The Widow Weaver dropped some web markers in the centre of my lines, then used a nasty trick, focussing to ignore the Stubborn on Som'er from Liquid Bravery, and Paralyse him, before moving into base contact! I'd imagine that would have been detrimental had we had more time! Fearing the time limit, and mishearing how long left, I gave the game away by going Drunk and Reckless and moving 15" to engage Mr Tannen, unfortunately Jonny managed to dodge the disengaging strike, and Tannen hid behind a circus cart, to escape the scary Gremlin! I did then have enough time to jump a Skeeter into him, but peons can't Take Prisoner....! I had let timer get the better of me, if I had have realised I had more time, I should have done it the other way, using the Skeeter to engage first with its Df 7 and Mi6 with a + to disengaging strikes (its almost like their meant to do this!), then engaging with the Gremlin once he was tied up!
Never the less when time was called it was a victory to me 4-2. If this had have gone the distance I'm not convinced I would have won, however I felt I had learnt to score early, especially in tournaments.

With a record of 2-1, I finished 4th, which was far above my expectations!

I felt that the tournament was great, a big improvement on the last one that we played where for one reason or another we only ended up with 5 participants. The turnout for this one was 18, after a few cancellations, with people coming from far and wide!
I've learnt a few things from the tournament, namely take more pictures for the blog. I started out quite well, partly spurred on by the fact Paul was taking pictures for his blog entry (https://thebovineoverlord.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/malifaux-tournament-report-the-governor-generals-wake-50ss-17sep2016/), but then the more I got pushed for time, the less I took.
Kit and Martin did talk at the end of another tournament in November, so fingers crossed. I will have to brush up on a few tactics, and now that everything is painted, I have no excuses not to use them!

If your reading, my thanks to Paul (and congratulations on 1st place), Stuart and Jonny for three enjoyable games, Martin for running it, and ABZ for providing the venue.

[Ben Cairns]

I couldn't upload the images for Game 3, so they are available on: http://magtrainbreachbound.blogspot.co.uk

[Runeman]

Thanks for sharing. And congratulations with the good finish. It was quite nice to see the first game commented from both viewpoints.

In the second game, do you think it was better to bring the stuffed piglet than to take the third young Lacroix?

[Argentbadger]

Great reports; I love to see how things look from the other side of the table.  It was a blast to play you as well, and I really appreciated the chance to play this mirror match and learn from your experience with Gremlins.  In our game, I think that you got sucked into putting all your big hitters in the middle where they weren't helping you to score; I did too but managed to hold on for a turn longer than you and so was able to pick up a point for the strategy.

[Ben Cairns]

Thanks for the replies.

In terms of adding a 3rd Young Lacroix in place of the Stuffed Piglet, I find the extra Young doesn't add too much, I've tried running 3 in a few lists, and often it takes speculative shots and gives you a potential back up for Here Take This. I find that the Stuffed Piglet gives me a few different options, it's a cheap and easy to hit model I can pick out when engaged, to allow me to drop some blasts from Jug Rocket on to things (not great in this game due to the Arachnids defense against blasts and pulses). Albeit I do prefer them in Wong crews for this reason.

They also can make great options for finishing off Hard to Kill models, with Bacon Bomb, which I thought may be handy against Arcanists, depending on the crew.

Hopefully this helps and makes sense!

 

I agree with getting sucked into the middle with all my big things, I should have spread some stuff out earlier, but think I got too caught up with the killing, then by time I looked to move, I didn't have enough left! Hopefully this will be something I learn from, I think being able to read a reflection from the other side will hopefully give me a more rounded insight.