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Zookscon approaches!


jchrisobrien

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There's a 5 round Malifaux GT this weekend in East Rutherford NJ that I'm attending.  Here are the scenarios and what I'm considering using for them. 

Standard Ours - Sonnia should be a pretty good start for the tournament, clearing out table quarters at range.

Flank Public Executions - Lady Justice and Perdita both excel at this.

Close Guard the Stash - Nellie's ability to push other models makes her extremely good for this/

Corner Symbols of Authority - Lucius and Perdita are both very good here, Perdita has a slight edge since Punish the Weak is in the pool.

Close Interference - Perdita or Sonnia should do well at these, or a shooting based Nellie crew.  Just try to stay disengaged while killing weaker enemy models.

How would you approach these scenarios?  Who doesn't like a little theory crafting?

 

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Ok here goes (take my advice at your own risk.  I don't think even I would actually do this at a tournament) 

Round 1- Standard Ours- Close combat expert Sonnia.  They will never see it coming.  Give Sonnia reincarnation and her 2 new upgrades.  Bring frank to help her defense, a purifying flame, a couple stalkers and a handler.  maybe a hunter to do the "ours shuffle"  Sonnia hitting things with her sword is a really surprising thing for people to deal with.

Round 2- Lady J, upgrades, scales, effigy, 2 monster hunters, fill the rest with guild guard. The monster hunters are really good at pushing away stuff that you don't want to deal with. 

Round three:

Nellie- Guild funds, delgation, misleading headlines.

Printing press

Emissary- curfew

Sam hopkins

Papa loco 

Death marshall

Fill the rest with whatever you like

The idea is you are going to give fast to the emissary and papa loco and make emissary bury papa, use misleading headlines to eat activations, activate sam (shoot something if you can) then bury sam, then after activating everyone else run up emissary, pulse flaming bullets, pop curfew, release papa, and let papa explode on some people.  

Round 4- Corner Symbols- If you go back in my old Iron Chef post, there is a list with McMourning with a spawn Mother, a silurid, 2 sabertooths (saberteeth?), and a mounted guard.  The silurid gives them crazy range with her aura.

Round 5-God I hate interference. I'd try a McTavish Alpha strike list- Lucius, Mctav (vengence bullet, debt), queller, papa loco, probably investigator for cards.  The main goal is to shoot plus damage flips into any summoner asap.  make them spend all their stone if they want to keep their summoner alive.

 

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I can't bring myself to take McMourning to a big tournament these days. :)

Zooks Con has updated their list to include Schemes.  They are also only holding 4 rounds (a bit of a shame, maybe I'll get a pick up game in later ;)

Round 1 - Ours, Standard Deployment:  Guarded Treasure, Undercover Entourage, Dig Their Graves, Public Demonstration, Inescapable Trap.

Sonnia is still a good choice for this pool.  She can sit back far enough to help perform Guarded Treasure and still affect the battlefield. She's not the best for Undercover Entourage, but Dr. Grimwell (who shows up in a lot of her lists now) is great for it.  Public Demonstration is always an option depending on the other crew.  Dig Their Graves is low on my list these days, and Inescapable Trap is even lower.

Round 2 - Public Executions, Flank Deployment: Eliminate the Leadership, Covert Breakthrough, Undercover Entourage, Set Up, Show of Force

My initial choice (Lady Justice) wasn't bad, but it means I have to get close to kill and risk my own models.  Perdita may be a better choice here as we can hang back and shoot more.  She can also Obey people out of cover, and a Domedor supplied Belle can lure people too.  Covert Breakthrough is easy on flank deployment, as is Undercover Entourage.  Show of Force is always a favorite for Guild.  Set Up is probably the lowest priority in this pool, and I can always Eliminate the Leadership against the right opponent. 

Round 3 - Guard the Stash, Close Deployment: Guarded Treasure, Public Demonstration, Take Prisoner, Search the Ruins, Hold Up Their Forces

This will likely be my Nellie round.  Since deployment is close, any of these schemes are viable.  Search the Ruins and Guarded Treasure are probably the easiest, followed by Take Prisoner and Public Demonstration.  Nellie's activation control will be clutch for this round.

Round 4 - Symbols of Authority, Corner Deployment: Punish the Weak, Covert Breakthrough, Dig Their Graves, Vendetta, Undercover Entourage

I'm thinking either Lucius or Lady J here.  I've used Lucius for several Symbols game and won big in them.  The schemes favor Lady Justice a bit more:  I have to run over and get their Symbols, so Undercover Entourage and Covert Breakthrough are great.  Vendetta isn't hard for the Guild and neither is Punish the Weak.  I can again ignore Dig The Graves (unless I take advantage of Lucius's Guild Intelligence).

 

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@my .02 for whats it's worth-

Round 1- seems like you have a few options here. You can use someone like Sonnia to burn them out of the other quarters as you mentioned above but would prefer to save her for the next round. She is really good at Public Executions as well and that pool looks like a good pool for her crew. I would be more apt to run something like Lady J to chase them down and kill them out of the quarters. If I went Lady J on this my schemes would probably be Undercover Entourage (given) and Dig (Phiona makes this too easy). I have played Guarded in ours and have made it work but I feel it restricts your ability to chase down what you need to in the quarters. 

Round 2- This would be my Sonnia round backed up by the Malifaux Child, Frank, Phiona, Queeg, Papa Loco, the Effigy, and from there salt to taste.....you can set back and blast them for Public Executions and have your choice of schemes.... Undercover and Eliminate would be my primary choices depending on the opponents crew- if its something that isn't killable then switch to Covert instead of Eliminate. 

Round 3 is a little trickier for me. I can see Nellie doing well with a kind of non-traditional crew (including a couple of Witchling Thralls) with would give you a lot of quick threat (yank the chain, fast, and frenzy when Phiona drops a marker nearby) of a more standard crew and just write off Public Demo and do for Guarded Treasure and Search the Ruins or Take Prisoner. I could also see this being an awesome pool for Lucius as well. With Commanding Presence and Issue Command the thralls can wreak havoc in close deployment and getting Public Demo with 2 x Thralls plus whatever is almost a free three points with Lucius. Lucius also gives you the counter play to Search the Ruins with Legalese. He gives you a lot of options for this pool and would almost always be my go to for it EXCEPT for the fact that he is also amazing in Symbols of Authority and I would probably rather save him for that round. 

Round 4- I agree completely. Lucius is made for Symbols. I do concur that the schemes (at least Punish and Undercover) are better for Lady J but I would run her in round one and then with Lucius would probably pick between Covert, Dig, and Undercover.....Vendetta is an option too but I generally feel its a 2 pt scheme not a 3 pt scheme. Like you said, you are going across anyway to get their markers so Covert and Undercover are good choices though you can do about anything. With Guild Intelligence you don't have any issue getting the markers and dropping markers for covert breakthrough and then a late game "What Lackeys are For" bringing in Lucius for the Undercover is hard to stop. If you play a more Henchman heavy Lucius list then you can do Punish also. 

 

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Round 1:  I like that idea.  Holding a few models back to hold quarters and blitzing with Lady J (and keeping her alive with the Recruiter) can really put your opponent on the back foot.  They are so worried about dealing with her that they forget about their own schemes.  I don't run Phiona as often as I should, I think it's time to put her to the test.

Round 2: The only thing I'm not crazy about in that list is the Child.  Most of the time when I go heavy on the flame walls my opponent just uses them for cover to rush me.  Now if the Child copies her Flame Blast, that could work.  

Round 3: I agree about Nellie.  There's nothing stopping me from doing Lucius multiple rounds (or other Masters) but I like being proficient with all of them.  I don't like the idea of having to solo a Master for a tournament, and with GG2018 and Wave 5 upgrades many of the Guild masters can shine.  Between close deployment and delegations from Nellie I can be all up in their faces quick.  Nellie can push models away, monster hunters can push models away.  

Round 4:  Lucius, this is your time to shine!

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1 hour ago, jchrisobrien said:

Round 1:  I like that idea.  Holding a few models back to hold quarters and blitzing with Lady J (and keeping her alive with the Recruiter) can really put your opponent on the back foot.  They are so worried about dealing with her that they forget about their own schemes.  I don't run Phiona as often as I should, I think it's time to put her to the test.

Phiona provides so much value for the same cost as the other Henchman- these are general comments not specific to Round 1. She is my go to over the Jury almost every time I play (not a direct comparison of the two just she often wins out for beater # 2 in my lists with Frank). For he cost you get Unimpeded, Hard to Kill, Def 7 if she is touching the right terrain (easy to do), + flips to hit against models that have activated, min 3 damage, good triggers. I usually run her with Lead Lined Coat (stapled) and Transparency (trigger to drop scheme markers on her attack) unless I don't need the markers then I can pick up Wrath of the Guild or Debt. She makes dig easy by giving you the scheme marker as a by product of her attacks. She enables Guarded Treasure during the brawl if she is near the line. She gives you markers for Search or Covert by just attacking things in the right zone. I also like her with just about every master and she is often my only Henchman w/Lucius (dropping Scheme Markers to enable the Thralls and Secret Objectives). 

1 hour ago, jchrisobrien said:

Round 2: The only thing I'm not crazy about in that list is the Child.  Most of the time when I go heavy on the flame walls my opponent just uses them for cover to rush me.  Now if the Child copies her Flame Blast, that could work.  

The Child is a cheap activation and gives you utility. He can copy Flame Blast against targets that aren't real high defense but usually I do use him for Walls. Typically it is about trying to isolate specific sections of their crew to cut them off from being able to support their other models. I don't usually use them to try to block off their whole crew but to channel things into the kill box or separate their models so you can clean them out in zones. 

1 hour ago, jchrisobrien said:

Round 3: I agree about Nellie.  There's nothing stopping me from doing Lucius multiple rounds (or other Masters) but I like being proficient with all of them.  I don't like the idea of having to solo a Master for a tournament, and with GG2018 and Wave 5 upgrades many of the Guild masters can shine.  Between close deployment and delegations from Nellie I can be all up in their faces quick.  Nellie can push models away, monster hunters can push models away.  

Could be really interesting to do a non-traditional Nellie list either with the Thralls as I mentioned above or....... something like Nellie w/Delegation & Misleading Headlines, Printing press, Allison Dade, Frank w/Wade In & Lead Lined Coat, Phiona w/Lead Lined Coat & Transparency (this could go on Nellie), Peacekeeper, and either 2 x Guild Guards or Thalarian Queller..... With Nellie spamming fast and Allison and the Peacekeeper spamming slow early and transitioning to a melee murder beast on turn two it could be really nasty and would be a lot of fun. I am going to have to try that out here in a pick-up game just to see how it performs...... 

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All very good points about Phiona, which is why I'll give her more table time.  I just worry about missing the condition removal, and the guaranteed rams.  The Jury is also a Guild Marshall so the DM Recruiter can protect her.  That may not always be an issue though.

Double flames walls are awesome according to everyone, but I haven't gotten much mileage out of them yet.  I mean I've used him in several games.    Just a matter of practice.

I've been working with Allison lately but with not much luck.  It does look like a fun list and I will give it a whirl.

It's funny to see how quickly Lead Lined Coat replaced A Debt to the Guild in most crews.  What a difference one soul stone makes!

 

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Ah, Zookscon.

I drove four and a half hours from Boston the East Rutherford NJ the morning of the event, because the hotel was fully booked (according to them).  We have ten players in the event, I found after round two that we were only going to play three games, not four. 

Game 1 I fielded Perdita (totem, Francisco, Abuela, Phiona, Effigy, Monster Hunter, Queller) against Lady Justice, Master Queeg, a Peacekeeper, three Wastrels, and Angel Eyes.  Everyone who could take Debt to the Guild had it.  For the most part our crews circled around each other holding table quarters while our Masters moved to score Entourage.  I won the game 10-5 by holding all my quarters and killing the one model that held a table quarter for him in the last round.  Normally I struggle with Dig Their Graves (which is why I took Phiona) but I came up with a second solution for it:  Abuela walks up and drops a marker near an enemy model, then tells Francisco to "listen up" and walk up.  He then companions and either charges or flurries against the model, killing it and earning my Dig point.

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Game 2 was against Eduardo (possible the one from this forum?) a Gremlins player.  He took Wong, McTavish, Sammy LaCroix, a Taxidermist, 2 Swine Cursed, and a Wild Boar.  I brought my Sonnia crew (child, Francisco, Phiona, Master Queeg, Papa Loco, Guild Investigator, Effigy).  Eduardo hid behind several houses while my crew slowly advanced.  Things got violent quickly as McTavish started killed the Effigy with one shot.  I replied by blowing up the wild boar and killing the taxidermist and wounding Wong.  Wong blasted back doing lots of damage to my models, then pushed Papa back and killed him, wounding my models even more.  By the start of turn 5 I was down to Sonnia and the Investigator.  Wong and a Swine Cursed were alive but badly hurt and hiding, McTavish and Sammy were still in play.  McTavish missed his first shot and Black Joker's the damage on the second shot.  Sonnia blasts back knocking him to two wounds, but due to cover I'm on negative flips and miss my second flame blast (I focused for the first shot).  That was the most exciting exchange of the day!  I lose the game 5-8.  I scored 2 for Covert Breakthrough and Show of Force, but only 1 for Public Executions.  He scored 3 for Set Up and Covert Breakthrough, and 2 Public Execution points.  It was a violent and very fun game!

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41 minutes ago, jchrisobrien said:

Ah, Zookscon.

I drove four and a half hours from Boston the East Rutherford NJ the morning of the event, because the hotel was fully booked (according to them).  We have ten players in the event, I found after round two that we were only going to play three games, not four. 

Game 1 I fielded Perdita (totem, Francisco, Abuela, Phiona, Effigy, Monster Hunter, Queller) against Lady Justice, Master Queeg, a Peacekeeper, three Wastrels, and Angel Eyes.  Everyone who could take Debt to the Guild had it.  For the most part our crews circled around each other holding table quarters while our Masters moved to score Entourage.  I won the game 10-5 by holding all my quarters and killing the one model that held a table quarter for him in the last round.  Normally I struggle with Dig Their Graves (which is why I took Phiona) but I came up with a second solution for it:  Abuela walks up and drops a marker near an enemy model, then tells Francisco to "listen up" and walk up.  He then companions and either charges or flurries against the model, killing it and earning my Dig point.

Nice.  I bet you were surprised to see Angel Eyes on the other side of the table.

 

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3 minutes ago, jchrisobrien said:

Game 2 was against Eduardo (possible the one from this forum?) a Gremlins player.  He took Wong, McTavish, Sammy LaCroix, a Taxidermist, 2 Swine Cursed, and a Wild Boar.  I brought my Sonnia crew (child, Francisco, Phiona, Master Queeg, Papa Loco, Guild Investigator, Effigy).  Eduardo hid behind several houses while my crew slowly advanced.  Things got violent quickly as McTavish started killed the Effigy with one shot.  I replied by blowing up the wild boar and killing the taxidermist and wounding Wong.  Wong blasted back doing lots of damage to my models, then pushed Papa back and killed him, wounding my models even more.  By the start of turn 5 I was down to Sonnia and the Investigator.  Wong and a Swine Cursed were alive but badly hurt and hiding, McTavish and Sammy were still in play.  McTavish missed his first shot and Black Joker's the damage on the second shot.  Sonnia blasts back knocking him to two wounds, but due to cover I'm on negative flips and miss my second flame blast (I focused for the first shot).  That was the most exciting exchange of the day!  I lose the game 5-8.  I scored 2 for Covert Breakthrough and Show of Force, but only 1 for Public Executions.  He scored 3 for Set Up and Covert Breakthrough, and 2 Public Execution points.  It was a violent and very fun game!

I'm impressed he managed to do set up while killing off your crew so much.  Who did he set up?

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Angel Eyes was Johnny's favorite model, he said he always takes her.  She did do a cool thing by finishing off my Monster Hunter with her 0 action pistol attack.  Then I chopped her up!

He did Set Up on Phiona, Wong's What Goes Up... helped him out here (and helped him score Covert at the end of the game).  "And then the murders began..."

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Game 3 was against Chris and his very unique Neverborn list: Dreamer (growing up), Primordial Magic, Serena Bowman, 2 Mature Nephilim (all with Warped Reality) and Killjoy!  I brought Nellie, Printing Press, the Jury, Francisco, Phiona Gage, a Queller, a Watcher, and a Field Reporter.   We were playing Close deployment so I know he wanted to blitz me.  I deployed everyone extremely far back with all my henchmen close to Nellie.  The Nephilim came in, one charging, and Dreamer summoned a daydream that died and spat out Killjoy.  I actived my weaker models and pitched cards until his crew finished activating. I almost killed one of the Nephilim turn 1, but a few failed Terror tests kept him alive (I had no cards for horror tests.)  I lost this game as well, 2-3.  I scored Guard the Stash twice but the game ended on turn 4 and I didn't have a chance to get all my Search the Ruins markers down (I was one short).  I couldn't score Guarded Treasure either, taking those two schemes together isn't a great idea.  Chris scored Take Prisoner on the Printing Press (he basically forgot about Guarding the Stash, and he also failed to get Search).  I was pretty disappointed with myself, but keep in mind I'm operation on four hours of sleep and one meal.  I definitely wasn't as focused as I should have been.  I should have also taken Take Prisoner on the Dreamer, since I can out-activate and get Nellie where she needs to be on turn five.

I did get a free Miss Ann Thrope and custom Fate Deck just for showing up.  I also won a set of painting brushes as a painting contest prize, and got a boxed set (No Shelter Here) for my placing (5th our of 8).
I decided to head home that night since we weren't having a fourth game.  I would have liked to play 4-5 games, but in the end I learneed some new tricks, got a lot of cool swag, and played a bunch of Malifaux!

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14 minutes ago, jchrisobrien said:

Angel Eyes was Johnny's favorite model, he said he always takes her.  She did do a cool thing by finishing off my Monster Hunter with her 0 action pistol attack.  Then I chopped her up!

He did Set Up on Phiona, Wong's What Goes Up... helped him out here (and helped him score Covert at the end of the game).  "And then the murders began..."

I forgot how good "What does up" is.

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