Photo Batrep: Perdita vs The Dreamer 35ss

[Sholto]

Got a 35ss game of Malifaux in against Robert and his Nightmares tonight. I set up the terrain in advance, just because I really wanted to see how high I could build it The tallest bridge is 10″ above the canal surface below. I expected to be well outmanouvered in the coming game, given how fast the Dreamer was.

For the canal section in the middle, we agreed that the bridge would rotate, making a quarter turn at the end of every Turn. Anything on the bridge would move with it. We randomised the starting position of the bridge by assigning numbers and flipping a card.

Rotating bridges - Super Malifaux Bros!

I brought:-

• Perdita (2ss cache)
  
• Enslaved Nephilim
  
• Sammael
  
• The Executioner
  
• Nino
  
• The Peacekeeper
  

That was 33ss, giving me a total ss cache of 4. Perdita and her totem could Obey the two shooters, Nino and Sammael, as needed. The heavy melee hitters could operate on their own.

Robert brought:-

• The Dreamer/ LCB (0ss cache)
  
• Teddy
  
• 2 Daydreams
  
• 2 Stitched Together
  
• Coppelius
  

Not sure how many ss that comes to, but along with the Dreamer’s special rule, he had the maximum 8ss cache to start the game with.

Strategy: Since I had just made five Dynamite Markers, we agreed to play Shared A Line In The Sand strategy instead of flipping for it. I placed the five Dynamite Markers down the middle of the table; three on bridges, one on the pillar and the last in the canal itself. All five started Disarmed. As the Attacker I had to take a (1) Interact action to Arm each Marker. Once armed, the Dreamer could Disarm them. A draw would be 2 Armed and 3 Disarmed, and that earned us both 2VP. Each extra Armed Marker earned me +1VP, and each extra Disarmed Marker earned the Dreamer +1VP.

What This Meant: With the layout of the table, two of the Markers were high up on bridges, and three were low down and relatively close. The Dreamer is fast, but his crew don’t like splitting up, so if I could tempt him up to the bridges, I might be able to hold him there while I claimed the three low Markers and the win.

Schemes: The Dreamer declared Assassinate on Perdita, so I declared Bodyguard on her. Extra VP for the Dreamer if he killed Perdita, and extra VP for me if I kept her alive. The Dreamer was already at max SS, and I got +2 SS for not choosing another Scheme. I felt I needed the SS.

What This Meant: Simple, really. Even if the game ended with no Markers Armed, as long as I kept Perdita alive I would draw. A single Armed Marker would give me the win. Provided Perdita persisted

Deployment: We got table corners. The Dreamer got to pick, and chose the dock. That put me in the opposite corner, next to the two high bridges. I decided that my two heavy hitters, the Peacekeeper and the Executioner, would try for the three low Markers, while my ranged units (along with Perdita) would tempt the Dreamer up onto the bridges.

In this first pic, my crew are deployed in the top right corner. The Dynamite Markers are crates lined up down the middle of the canal. There are two in the high bridges next to my Deployment area.

The Peacekeeper and Executioner are ready to head off for the three low Markers. The Enslaved Nephilim is near my two shooters. Nino is heading for the highest bridge, and Sammael is keeping his options open. Perdita is in the back to get that Marker, and to tempt the Dreamer as far from the three low Markers as possible.

The Dreamer deployed alone against the brutal power of the Guild.

Turn 1

Initiative: The Dreamer

The Dreamer flew up on his side of the table, heading for the bridges.

Perdita Armed the Marker nearest her, and retreated to her starting point. Nino and the Enslaved Nephilim moved up to the Marker on the tallest bridge, but lacked the AP to Arm it. Sammael moved onto the steps of the bridge to lend support. Both the heavy hitters (Peacekeeper and Executioner) moved into the lower reaches of the city, the Peacekeeper using Arachnid to good effect to reach the central pillar in a single activation.

I need to play the Peacekeeper more often - 3 Walks ignoring terrain each activation is pretty awesome.

We put green tokens on the Dynamite Markers to show when they were Armed.

The bridge turned 90 degrees clockwise.

Turn 2

Initiative: The Dreamer

The Dreamer flew up onto one of the towers and dropped Teddy within melee range of Nino and the Enslaved Nephilim, and a Stitched Together just behind him. He also dropped Coppelius on the side of the tower, just 1″ from the end of the rotating bridge the Peacekeeper was on.

Sammael, who was close but not in melee range, unloaded on Teddy with Flaming Bullets, doing a lot of damage, and then cast Snare on him (forgetting Teddy was already within melee range of Nino etc). I spent most of my control hand doing this, so was at a disadvantage for the rest of the Turn. I also forgot to allocate the Flaming Bullets shot since Teddy was in melee – my bad.

Teddy gained two Wounds back due to Regenerate, then Flurried and killed Nino. The Peacekeeper moved up and attacked Coppelius twice, and did about three Wounds. Coppelius then attacked the Peacekeeper three times, damaging it once, and causing three Wounds. Not only that, but I flipped an Ace for defence, and with no control cards left the Peacekeeper was reduced to Def 1 and Paralysed till the end of the Turn. Hoff-maaaannnnn!!!!

Perdita moved back onto the bridge:-

and shot Teddy (getting rid of cover with Bullet Bending). Not only did she flip the Red Joker for the Strike, Teddy flipped the Black Joker for his defence! Teddy was reduced to a single Wound.

The Stitched Together pulled a nifty trick – it buried Teddy to keep him safe, and then killed the Enslaved Nephilim with Gamble Your Life!

The Executioner moved up the canal edge, aiming for the farthest two Dynamite Markers.

The bridge moved around another quarter turn in a clockwise direction. As the Peacekeeper was on the bridge at time, and since the bridge’s movement would take him out of melee with Coppelius, we allowed Coppelius to make a disengaging strike. With the Peacekeeper still at Def 1, Coppelius easily won and the Peacekeeper stayed put as the bridge swung out from under him – dropping him into the canal. He promptly took 4 Dmg from the fall!

Stitched Together unburied Teddy as far away from Perdita as possible.

Turn 3

Initiative: The Dreamer. I burned a Soulstone trying to get the initiative, but failed to win.

The Dreamer flew into the middle of the highest bridge, and then turned into LCB. My ‘lure’ was working, if by working you mean ‘losing half my models’. LCB swatted Sammael, doing 5 damage and giving him 2 poison tokens.

Knowing nothing else could get past LCB to hit Sammael (due to LCB’s base size), I activated the Peacekeeper next. He scuttled up the pillar in the middle of the canal, Armed the Dynamite Marker and shot Coppelius with his harpoon gun. He hit, damaged and succeeded in pulling Coppy off the wall. I forgot, however, that Coppy has float, and so instead of plumetting to his death in the canal, Coppy just drifted down. I also forgot that the harpoon makes targets Slow – I will remember that next time.

Coppy floated up onto the bridge and killed the Peacekeeper. Drat!

Perdita moved forward, just getting sight of Teddy. She failed to get Bullet Bending (my control hand was woeful, which was the reason I did not try and remove the poison tokens on Sammael), but still managed to do the single point of damage needed to kill Teddy with her second (and last) shot.

Stitched Together moved forward and tried to get line of sight on Sammael, but failed (LCB is just too darned biiiiig!)

The Executioner climbed down into the canal (he’s nimbler than he looks) and Armed the Dynamite Marker there. I now had 3 Armed out of 5.

The bridge moved around again, bringing Coppelius closer to the Executioner…

Turn 4

Initiative: The Dreamer. We both burned a soulstone this time, but The Dreamer burned a better one.

Coppelius floated off the bridge and took the Executioner’s eye out. Eww, gross. The Executioner was almost, but not quite, bothered

Perdita activated (I had to keep her safe, given the Schemes in play), and with her incredible speed she managed to climb down off the bridge and race along the canal.

Me, sneaking a peek at Robert's control hand under guise of taking photos for you lot

LCB killed Sammael, turned back into the Dreamer and flew over to the Dynamite Marker Perdita had just abandoned.

The Executioner activated and his paired blades made short work of Coppelius. Coppy did 4 Wnds as he died, but the Executioner just healed them all back again thanks to Love The Job.

Then Stitched Together moved back, heading for Perdita. We discussed whether or not he could drop on top of her. We decided he could, by simply dropping off the tower. It would count as a charge, but after making the strike Stitched Together would take damage from the fall as normal. In the event Perdita moved away before Stitchy could get in position, but I think we’ll use that rule some other time

The bridge moved around again.

Turn 5

Initiative: Perdita(!)

Perdita moved to get in range of the central Dynamite Marker, but still as far from the Nightmares as she could. She used her last action to Obey the Executioner to Charge towards the last Marker.

The Dreamer Disarmed the Dynamite Marker on the bridge (we forgot he needed a (2) Action to do this!) and flew down to the centre of the table, across from Perdita. There were now only 2 Armed Markers – a draw.

The Executioner climbed out of the canal, but could not reach the last Marker to Arm it.

Stitched Together carried on climbing down the wall.

The bridge moved around again (co-incidentally; a handy turn counter!)

Turn 6

Initiative: The Dreamer

Big D flew over to the central Marker and Disarmed it (we were still mistakenly treating Disarm as a (1) Action), then turned into LCB, who moved down into the canal and summoned a Daydream right next to Perdita.

The Daydream transformed LCB back into the Dreamer.

Perdita waited. I wanted Stitched Together to activate before I used her, so instead the Executioner Armed the last Marker and headed back towards the centre.

Stitched Together finished climbing down the wall and moved onto the rotating bridge.

Perdita Obeyed the Daydream, using a soulstone to make the spell irresistable. The Daydream used Magical Extension to cast Calm Dreams. It buried both itself and the Stitched Together Perdita used her remaining two AP to run away and hide!

Where's Perdita?

We flipped, and the game ended there.

Result: 2 Dynamite Markers Armed, 3 Disarmed. Draw: +2VP each. I had succeeded in my announced Scheme of Bodyguard, so got +2VP. The Dreamer had failed to Assassinate Perdita, and so Perdita’s crew won 4VP to 2VP.

[Keltheos]

Awesome report. Love the wrinkle the bridge posed (and the PK dump!). I'll read it in detail later.

[Manintights]

Great battle report on an absolutely amazing board.

I'll try to read your thread on how you made this and maybe attempt something similar myself.

MIT

[nerdelemental]

Awesome read, Sholto.

You have a way with words. You should write for us. ;,)

[xGIxJOKERx]

Great Batrep. For future knowledge, Stitched Togethers can only bury Ht 1 models.

I like your terrain a lot. Seems really fun to play on.

[Keltheos]

Awesome read, Sholto.

You have a way with words. You should write for us. ;,)

:loco:

[Jonas Albrecht]

This is a stellar battle report. Also, I think I am in love with Perdita more as a result of it.

[Keltheos]

Sholto, is that a combination of all three Himmellville sets?

[Sholto]

Thanks, guys

Great Batrep. For future knowledge, Stitched Togethers can only bury Ht 1 models.

I like your terrain a lot. Seems really fun to play on.

Ahh - Stitchy was trying to Bury the Enslaved Nephilim, but couldn't get range, so I suggested Teddy instead. We forgot about the Ht 1 restriction. The terrain is enormous fun to play on. Makes a great game that little bit better

Awesome read, Sholto.

You have a way with words. You should write for us. ;,)

Nah - I would just come up with something ridiculous like an undead eyeball

Sholto, is that a combination of all three Himmellville sets?

It is two of them - Himmelveil Streets and Canals. I've taken a good look at the Sewer set, and I might do something with it in the future. Maybe a side board to the main one, with set access points so models can descend into the sewers and come back up elsewhere. That said, I think my next project is likely to be an indoor location. What's that, Collette? You need somewhere to store your hats? I'll see what I can do Edited January 6, 2011 by Sholto

[Omenbringer]

Great job on all of this.

[Xango]

Man, that table...amazing!

[Peoples Champ]

Agree on the table. The rotating bridge was a nice touch to the game.

[horrorshow]

I wouldn't let unpainted models anywhere near that table..

[Kds54]

Great report! I have to ask, where did you get that terrain?

[GTFriday13]

I liked the batrep. I really enjoyed getting into your strategy and how that played out throughout the game. I love that this game is about so much more than just "move toward enemy model and kill it first." You made a workable plan and it seemed to go well for you.

I really liked the rotating bridge idea, it adds an extra level of thought to moving your models around. If it were me though, I probably would have said that models on the bridge when it moves are pushed, meaning no disengaging strikes. Still, it was funny to think of the peacekeeper simply falling of the bridge into the murky waters below.

Thanks for sharing!

[waferthinninja]

That's some seriously awesome terrain. I assume you are using the non TerrainLinx Himmelveil stuff? I got the TerrainLinx ones and frankly its way too much effort to make (especially the little tabs to fit the posts to) and is a pain to put together. Looks like you have made larger sections mounted on foamcore?

Edit: found your blog, reading up on how you made it. Nice work!

Edited March 6, 2011 by waferthinninja
Found blog!

[xxXhayzelXxx]

awesome awesome AWESOME! loved the report, loved the terrain, dude you are AWESOME!!! more please!

[Sholto]

Thanks all - glad you liked it! Hope to have another one up soon, if I can find a decent camera

Great report! I have to ask, where did you get that terrain?

You can read more about it on my blog (see my sig) or in this thread here.

If it were me though, I probably would have said that models on the bridge when it moves are pushed, meaning no disengaging strikes. Still, it was funny to think of the peacekeeper simply falling of the bridge into the murky waters below.

Ruling it as a Push would probably be the way to do it in a formal setting, but for a friendly game I always like to find an approach that allows for unusual or cool things to happen - which is how my Peacekeeper wound up taking a bath