Malipho'enix Mah Tucket vs. Sonnia 35 soulstone

[thecapopriest]

This is a 35 soulstone game of Malifaux played at Tempe Comics as part of the Malipho'enix group for a ten week rapid growth league.

Guild vs. Gremlins.

Deployment: Flank

Strategy: Rampage from the Divergent Paths global event.

Schemes: Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Cursed Object, and Plant Explosives.

Gremlin List: Mah Tucket with Know The Terrain, On Yer Tip Toes, and Out For Blood, The Little Lass with Lead Lined Apron, Trixiebelle, Sammy Lacroix, Merris Lacroix, and a Slop Hauler. Soulstone Cache of 5.

My plan with this crew is to use Mah Tucket as my only real source of damage dealing and use the rest of my crew for scheme running. Normally I wouldn't take 3 models that I would use primarily for scheme running, but the Rampage strategy combined with the schemes I knew that was going to be the most needed ability. I did think about taking Fingers and a Lightning Bug instead of Trixiebelle and Sammy Lacroix, but I really thought the Gremlin Lure ability was going to be very important to keep my opponents crew out of position and help me maintain control over the strategy. Sammy Lacroix I had chosen for her ability to change the opponents scheme markers into stuffed piglets, although it does take an 8 of crows to get that off. 

Guild List: Sonnia with Cherufe's Imprint, Francisco, Death Marshal, Guild Austringer, and 2 Witchling Stalkers. Soulstone Cache of 7.

Gremlins Schemes: Plant Explosives (unrevealed) and Breakthrough (revealed).

Guild Schemes: Breakthrough and Protect Territory, both revealed.

Guild won deployment flip and chose to choose deployment zone and deploy first.

Guild from left to right: Witchling Stalker, Guild Austringer behind the Witchling Stalker, Witchling Stalker behind the cactus, Death Marshal, Sonnia, and Francisco.

From left to right: Witchling Stalker behind the cactus, Death Marshal, Sonnia, and Francisco.

Gremlins from left to right: Little Lass, Sammy Lacroix, Slop Hauler, Trixiebelle, Merris Lacroix, and Mah Tucket.

Gremlins won initiative on the first turn and used Trixiebelle's ability to cheat to win the initiative and get a ram for Mah Tucket's chores, giving +1 to melee for all friendly models.

Mah Tucket and Little Lass then used Get Off My Land by discarding a card for each and pushing up to 8" forward.
 

Guild activates the Witchling Stalker first and focuses and shoots Mah Tucket, doing weak damage, which Mah Tucket then uses a soul stone to reduce to 0 damage.
 

Merris Lacroix walked forward and used Gremlin Cunning to draw 2 cards and put 3 on the top of my deck in any order of my choosing. I did not take her 0 action of Bombs Away because at this point I only had 2 cards left in my hand.
 

Francisco did El Mayor to Sonnia giving her +2 to defense and willpower. Francisco shot at the Little Lass hitting and getting the Critical Strike trigger. He then did moderate damage of 4, reduced to 3 after the armor 1 from Lead Lined Apron, leaving her on 2 wounds. His second shot missed.
 

Sammy Lacroix Double Walked.

Death Marshal walked forward and shot at the Little Lass but missed.

Slop Hauler went Reckless and triple walked.

Sonnia activates and walks forward and then did her 0 action Confiscated Lore to gain +2 to cast. She then shot at Mah Tucket with Flameburst, which Mah Tucket used a soulstone for a positive twist on the defense flip and giving a negative to any resulting damage flip. Still Sonnia hit and got the Consuming Flame trigger which gives burning +1 to all models damaged. She only had the single negative twist due to the soulstone but flipped 2 severe cards. Mah Tucket used a soulstone to reduce the damage down to a total of 3 damage, but still gained burning +1. The only Gremlin not protected by Merris Lacroix's Exhaust Trail was the Little Lass, but the 3 blast markers with the 2" placement was just shy of reaching her. Lastly Sonnia used Flame Wall.

Mah Tucket activated and used her 0 action Let Mah Handle This discarding a card and targeting herself so she could push 6" in any direction. She then did the Aim For The Sore Spots action, using a soulstone to add a tome suit and cheating in the 13 of rams to be able to charge after the action due to the Cripple 'em trigger. Mah Tucket charged Sonnia, the first and second attack missed, but my third and fourth attack hit. The third attack I used the On Yer Tip Toes upgrade to make us reflip when he flipped the Red Joker and I flipped a 2. On the reflip I hit Sonnia and and did severe damage of 5, even with a negative twist, which Sonnia used a Soulstone to reduce down to 4. On the fourth attack I flipped the Red Joker and declared the Smack trigger. Mah Tucket did 4 points of damage due to moderate damage on a positive twist, which Sonnia reduced down to 2 damage from Soulstone reduction. Sonnia has 6 health left.

Witchling Stalker charged Mah Tucket. First attack hit and did 2 damage from weak damage and burning +1, and the second attack hit and did 3 damage due to moderate which Mah Tucket reduced with her last soulstone down to 1 damage and another Burning +1. So Mah Tucket has 6 health left and Burning +3.

Little Lass charged Sonnia. First attack hit but got Black Joker on damage and the second attack missed.

Austringer Focused and shot at Merris Lacroix, but even with the positive twist on damage only managed to do weak damage of 1.

Trixiebelle went reckless, walked and then Gremlin Lured Mah Tucket, succeeding to hit her target number of 12 on the first try but failing on the second.

End of turn 1 no points scored. Mah Tucket takes 3 damage from burning +3 and has 3 health left.
 

Guild used a soulstone to draw 2 cards leaving the Guild with 4 soustones left. 

Gremlins win initiative with an 11 of tomes, giving the chore that allows me to draw a card every time a friendly gremlin is killed.

Mah Tucket first used her 0 action Let Mah Handle This to push up to Sonnia. Then she used Aim For The Sore Spots and cheated in a 10 of crows to get the Thwap! trigger to make a melee attack against Sonnia which hit and got the reposition trigger to push 3" behind the Little Lass and did 4 damage to Sonnia which she reduced with a soulstone to 3 damage. The second attack missed but the third attack hit and did severe damage of 5, Sonnia needed a severe card on the soulstone reduction to survive, but she didn't get it.

Francisco charged Mah Tucket and got the red joker on the attack, with a straight damage flip he got severe with 2 rams in the critical strike trigger getting 7 damage and killing Mah Tucket. He then used his 0 action Finesse by discarding a card and causing melee attack actions targeting him to have a negative twist.

Merris Lacroix went reckless and dropped a scheme marker. Then she walked and used her 0 action Bombs Away to discard a card and drop a scheme marker.

Witchling Stalker dropped a scheme marker and then walked forward hoping to trigger the rampage marker but didn't flip a ram or a crow.

Slop Hauler went reckless and walked forward and healed himself Trixiebelle and Merris to full, but failed to get the rampage marker to place due to no ram or crow being flipped.

The Death Marshal walked forward and shot at Merris but missed due to hard cover. He did have the rampage marker place into base contact and did moderate damage of 4 even with a negative twist due to hard to wound.

Sammy Lacroix walked forward and attempted to do Jynx at the Death Marshal but failed. I did flip a ram to place the rampage marker but my opponent cheated in severe for the damage and killed Sammy Lacroix outright.

Witchling Stalker walked forward and shot at the Slop Hauler but missed.

Trixiebelle walked forward and dropped a scheme marker. She then flipped for the marker but flipped masks.

Austringer double walked.

Little Lass tried to walk away from Francisco but failed both times.

End of turn 2, Gremlins score 1 from the 1 scheme marker within 3" of the rampage marker, the scheme marker is then removed.

Gremlins 1 to Guild 0.

Gremlins won initiative.

Little Lass failed to walk away from Francisco but succeeded on the second walk action.
 

Francisco did Enfrentate a Mi! placing into base contact with the Little Lass and then pushed the Death Marshal out of engagement. He then attacked the Little Lass and killed her outright.
 

Trixiebelle activated and dropped a scheme marker. She then did her 0 action Presents? For me? picking up the scheme marker. Then she walked and dropped it at the end of her activation and the rampage marker went into base contact due to a crow flipped and my opponent cheated in a severe damage to do 6 damage and leave her with 2 health remaining.
 

The Austringer focused and shot at Trixiebelle, which she used her ability Don't Fight Over Me, Boys! to redirect the attack to the Slop Hauler at the cost of the Slop Hauler taking 1 point of damage. The Slop Hauler got hit and the Austringer had double positive twist due to Focus and the duel difference and killed the Slop Hauler with severe damage.
 

Merris went Reckless. She Walked and dropped a scheme marker and then walked again and dropped a scheme marker with her 0 action Bombs Away.

Death Marshal shot at Trixiebelle twice but missed both times.

Witchling Stalker near the cactus shot at Trixiebelle twice, missing both times.

Wichling Stalker shot at Trixiebelle which I flipped the black joker on defense. The attack did weak damage of 1 but also put burning +2 on Trixiebelle guaranteeing her death at the end of the turn. He then shot at Merris but missed.
 

End of turn 3. Gremlins reveal Plant Explosives and score 3 points from the Death Marshal and the 2 Witchling Stalkers. Gremlins also score 3 from the 3 scheme markers around the rampage marker. Trixiebelle died due to Burning.

Gremlins 7 to Guilds 0.
 

Turn 4 Guild wins initiative.

Witchling Stalker charges Merris and misses the first attack but Merris got black joker for defense on the second attack and the Witchling Stalker cheated in severe damage to kill her outright.

Death Marshal walked forward and dropped a scheme and then was attacked and killed by the Rampage Marker.
 

Francisco walked and dropped a scheme marker and the rampage marker attacked him doing 6 damage which he used a soulstone to reduce down to 3.

Witchling Stalker double walks.

Austringer walks and drops a scheme marker.

End of turn 4. Guild scores 3 points for Rampage.

Gremlins 7 to Guilds 3.

Turn 5.

Witchling Stalker drops a scheme.

Witchling Stalker drops a scheme and walks away and doesn't trigger the Rampage Marker.

Francisco activates and drops a scheme marker and does activate the rampage marker and dies.

Austringer does nothing.

Flip for if the game goes on and it doesn't.

Guild scores 3 for Protect Territory and 2 more on the Rampage strategy.

Gremlins 7 to Guild 8. Guild wins.

So overall I think I might have gotten carried away with scoring on this strategy. My opponent did a really good job of reserving that severe card for when Sammy Lacroix took the hit. At that point in the turn he had had chances to cheat to force me to miss or to successfully hit with his attacks so I assumed he didn't have a severe card to cheat in. 

Also knowing that Trixiebelle could take the hit and not die from the rampage marker probably made me to comfortable with taking the hit, seeing as a stiff breeze could kill her afterwards.

Overall though this game seemed to be crazy with how both of us where hitting moderate and severe damage like crazy even though we where on negative twists most of the game.

I really liked this Strategy and I hope to see more like it as the Divergent Path event goes on, it makes you look at the game in a much different light when the strategy itself and tick away at your crew.

As always I hope you enjoyed the write up and all criticisms and critiques are welcomed.

[Argentbadger]

Great report as always; I'm really impressed with the level of detail you put in.

Do you think it was worth it to trade Mah for Sonnia so early in the game?  It seemed like Mah could do more to support your crew than Sonnia could do for the Guild.

How do you feel about the 35SS games?  They always strike me as very dependent on getting good value from your master as the master has a proportionately bigger burden to shoulder if you're going to score your points.

[thecapopriest]

2 hours ago, Argentbadger said:

Great report as always; I'm really impressed with the level of detail you put in.

Do you think it was worth it to trade Mah for Sonnia so early in the game?  It seemed like Mah could do more to support your crew than Sonnia could do for the Guild.

How do you feel about the 35SS games?  They always strike me as very dependent on getting good value from your master as the master has a proportionately bigger burden to shoulder if you're going to score your points.

I don't think that the trade worked out in my favor at all. All of his crew still had a really good capability to put out damage and kill my crew, whereas my crew was much more dependent on Mah to be the damage dealer, so he ended up with the better situation in that trade. Ultimately I think I would have been better off to have Trixiebelle Lure Mah out of the combat and then have the Slop Hauler heal her up some, especially since the Little Lass might have been successful in keeping Sonnia locked down in close combat.

With 35 SS point games I also tend to rely on my Master to do the bulk of the work, though after this game I might rethink that and try to have more balance with the rest of my crew.

Thanks for reading and I'm glad you liked it.