Battle Report – C. Hoffman vs. The Dreamer 25 ss

[FearLord]

Finally had a chance to try out C. Hoffman this week in a 25 soul stone game. We flipped a shared destroy the evidence for strategy. I chose and announced Bodyguard on Hoffman and traded my other scheme for 2 more soul stones. My opponent took and announced Eye for an Eye and Kidnap (on my Watcher, Hunter and Guardian).

My list was:

C. Hoffman

-PeaceKeeper 9

-Guardian 7

-Hunter 6

-Watcher 3

Soul Stone pool - 6

His list was:

Dreamer

-Coppelius 9

-Stitched together 5

-Stitched together 5

-Day Dream 2

Soul Stone pool - 8

Deployment

My opponent elected to set up first, and deployed just the Dreamer centrally. I set up The PeaceKeeper centrally (opposite the neutral claim marker) within rough terrain, with Hoffman base to base and behind it. The Guardian set up slightly to the left and behind a wood (outside of the rough terrain). The Hunter deployed on the far right to go after my right hand objective and the Watcher deploys on the left to go after the left hand one.

Turn 1

I win the initiative flip and activate the PeaceKeeper. It advances all the way onto the neutral evidence marker, Hoffman using ‘Drawn to metal’ to keep up. The Dreamer used ‘I can fly’ to move up once and then cast ‘Frightening Dream’, triggering ‘All my friends’ in the process. He unburied the whole crew, placing them close to (but crucially not engaging) the PeaceKeeper.

Hoffman went next and used ‘Assimilate’ to take ‘Immune to Influence’ from the PeaceKeeper. He then cast ‘Override Edict’ on the PeaceKeeper, giving it an additional activation. The large construct wasted no time in taking a (2) Interact to destroy the neutral evidence marker and then using relentless to back away from all the Nightmares, dragging Hoffman with him.

Coppelius floated over a wall effortlessly and struck the PeaceKeeper, inflicting poison 2 and paralyzed on it. He used his melee expert to attack again, this time triggering ‘Remove eye’ which he then used to summon an Alp in combat with Hoffman. The Guardian advanced towards the growing brawl and cast protect on Hoffman. The Alp activated (slow because it was summoned) and struck Hoffman; making him slow (Guardian took both the wound from the strike and the wound from ‘Feed on Dreams’).

The Hunter activated and walked twice up the flank, closing in on my right hand objective marker and interposing itself between the Nightmares and their objective (on the edge of the board). It used ‘Shadow’ on the Day Dream. The Day Dream chose to use ‘Lead Nightmare’ twice on one of the Stitched, pulling it towards the Hunter and the objective. The Watcher took two walks into base to base contact with my left hand marker. The pulled Stitched Together walked twice towards the Hunter, stopping about 3” away. The last Stitched walked towards the big brawl in the centre.

The turn ended with the Guardian pushing into base to base with Hoffman thanks to ‘Overprotective’.

Turn 2

I lose the initiative, and burn a soul stone re-flipping, but still can’t win. Coppelius punished me for this, moving round the PeaceKeeper and Paralyzing Hoffman and inflicting poison. He hit again for some minor damage (reduced to 1 by Armour) which Hoffman took himself.

The Guardian (now in melee with the Alp thanks to the push) used a focus sword attack on the Alp. Despite a positive damage flip, I could still only manage weak damage, so I cheated in a 7 for moderate damage (killing the Alp). He also used ‘Self repair’ to heal both points of damage on himself, and Hoffman healed his own wound thanks to ‘Feedback’.

The Stitched Together close to the middle charged into Hoffman, inflicting some minor damage that was passed to the Guardian. The Hunter activated and thanks to ‘Ambush’ was able to use its chain spear to inflict slow and drag the Nightmare close enough for a melee attack. Between the 2 hits, 5 wds were inflicted. The Slow Stitched struck back dealing a single wound. The Watcher used its whole activation to destroy the left evidence marker.

The Dreamer flew into the melee with the PeaceKeeper and unburied Lord Chompy Bits who inflicted some damage on it and Hoffman (in range of the claws only) before using ‘All done’ to switch back.

Turn 3

I won the initiative this turn, but my opponent burned a soul stone, flipping a 13 and once again gaining the first move in our crucial mid table brawl.

The Dreamer unburied Lord Chompy Bits (forgetting to make a one action with the Dreamer first) and proceeded to burn pretty much my entire control hand defending the PeaceKeeper (including losing 2 stopping the Disembowel trigger). He finally used ‘All done’ to turn back, leaving the PeaceKeeper clinging to life with 2 wds left (unfortunately, it still had poison 2)...

Hoffman went next and passed his poison damage to the Guardian. He used ‘Tap Power’ on the dying PeaceKeeper to make himself fast, and ‘Linked in’ the Guardian. He then used Machine Puppet on the Peacekeeper, the first strike inflicting 5 wounds to Coppelius. Unfortunately, both the subsequent attacks missed, and the foul creature continued to live... The Guardian healed itself and Hoffman 1 wd each and did some minor damage to the Stitched together.

Coppelius finished off the PeaceKeeper, gaining two Eye tokens and summoning another Alp (between Hoffman and the Guardian). He tried to use melee expert to hit Hoffman, but I used a Soul stone to save my bacon...

The Hunter activated and easily killed the Stitched together with its first attack (thanks to Ambush again). Unfortunately, ‘Does not die!’ kept it on the board. The Hunter managed to avoid a disengaging strike however and moved closer to the right hand objective.

Realising the Stitched wouldn’t be able to get to the objective before it died, the Day Dream pulled it back towards the centre with 2 ‘Lead Nightmares’... It activated and used ‘Gamble your life’ on Hoffman, but lost. The Watcher zoomed onto the back objective in the Dreamer’s deployment zone.

The other Stitched Together used Gamble your life on Hoffman as well, but also lost, killing itself with severe damage... It used it again and once more failed. It reactivated thanks to ‘Does not die’ and attempted ‘Gamble your life’ twice more, but still failed to get Hoffman. The Alp attempted to strike Hoffman with its one action, but missed.

In the closing phase the Stitched were both Sacrificed.

At this point we had to call the game for time. Totalling up Victory points, I had scored:

1VP for Neutral Evidence Marker

1VP for Left Evidence Marker

2VP for Body Guard (Hoffman is a freaking tank!)

Total = 4VP

He scored:

2 VP for Eye for an Eye – 3 vs. 4 (Dreamer, Alp, Coppelius vs. Hoffman, Hunter, Watcher, Guardian).

Total = 2VP

Victory for Hoffman! Although there was still a fair amount of turns left to play, it was looking like I was going to win. None of his minions were close to gaining any of the evidence markers and it was looking like I would score 2VP next turn and 1VP the following turn. Much would have depended on the Initiative flip next turn, but it was probably quite likely that Lord Chompy bits would have been able to eventually wear Hoffman down, denying my scheme, but if I could have killed Coppelius it would have taken him far too long (and with too few minions left to go for the objectives). His Kidnap scheme was also not looking likely, since he was quite unlikely to pick up either the Hunter or the Watcher...

[BigTed]

Cool game!

[Jonas Albrecht]

Hoffman is indeed unkillable. I love 'im.

[FearLord]

Hoffman is indeed unkillable. I love 'im.

That's certainly the way it seems - taking Bodyguard seems like a pretty good idea with him always, because there are relatively few models out there that can burn through him and a Guardian - with 2 (and a Watcher hanging near by ready to provide 'Slow to die') he really will be unstoppable...

[Allidor]

I may have read the post wrong, but it sounded like your opponent announced his Kidnap scheme. If this is the case, I'm just pointing out that Kidnap is supposed to be kept secret.

You nominate 3 minions and score 1 VP if 2 aren't in play at the end of the game, 2 VP if all 3 are gone. No bonus VP for announcing it, and it doesn't specify that it has to be announced.

[Vaff]

Allidor... don't you know that all neverborn players take that regardless of strategy/faction/scheme/deployment/etc. Why try to keep it secret?

[Fetid Strumpet]

Ahhh, but how well does Hoffman's resilience stand up to an Ikiryo and Shikome?

[Cassarus]

That was a good read, thanks!

[Sholto]

Really good Batrep - thanks

[Boardgameguy]

Great battle report.

[Drake]

Good report.

Just one other point to note, you get 1 vp forgetting the evidence in the opponents deployment zone, and 1 vp for getting both the evidence markers outside of the deployment zone. 1 vp for the nuetral too.

The way i read it sounds like you got 1 vp for just one of the markers outside of the enemy deployment zone? Apologies if im not right.

Still a win though if I read it correctly, but 3-2.

[bucket_boy101]

Nice Batrep.

[Wulfen]

Nice report! This further confirms my suspicions that Hoffman is more able then most masters to deal with the Dreamer's crew. Immune to Influence on the whole crew is a big deal.

[FearLord]

I may have read the post wrong, but it sounded like your opponent announced his Kidnap scheme. If this is the case, I'm just pointing out that Kidnap is supposed to be kept secret.

You nominate 3 minions and score 1 VP if 2 aren't in play at the end of the game, 2 VP if all 3 are gone. No bonus VP for announcing it, and it doesn't specify that it has to be announced.

It does read that way, but he didn't actually announce it until the end of the game (I wrote it that way, not specifying mainly because it is secret...)

[FearLord]

Good report.

Just one other point to note, you get 1 vp forgetting the evidence in the opponents deployment zone, and 1 vp for getting both the evidence markers outside of the deployment zone. 1 vp for the nuetral too.

The way i read it sounds like you got 1 vp for just one of the markers outside of the enemy deployment zone? Apologies if im not right.

Still a win though if I read it correctly, but 3-2.

Hi, you actually score 2vps for the evidence in your opponents zone, but 1vp for the 2 outside and the neutral 1.

In the game, I destroyed the neutral evidence with the Peacekeeper when it reactivated on turn 1 (fast!) and then the Watcher got the left hand marker on turn 2. The watcher was also primed to grab the one in my opponents zone for another 2 if we'd only had one more turn, but I had to make do with the 1vp for the neutral marker, the 1vp for the left marker and the 2vp for the body guard scheme for 4vp total...

Thanks everyone for the nice comments - I've had to take a break for the last few months while I got through a few big warmachine tournaments, but I'm looking forward to getting back on the Malifaux field - hopefully a few more reports to follow!

EDIT - ah I see what you mean now - you actually score 1 for getting BOTH not for getting each of the outside deployment zone ones, so yes 3-2...

Edited August 16, 2011 by FearLord

[Stern]

Nice write-up... quite an action-packed game there!

[FearLord]

Nice write-up... quite an action-packed game there!

Yeah, would have been interesting to play it to conclusion - I think I'd have still won (in the next 2 turns I'd have scored another 3vps for objectives - the Watcher was on the deployment zone one and the Hunter would have been able to get to the other one ready to score it the following turn).

The Central battle was starting to go the Dreamer's way, but he'd yet to destroy any evidence and his remaining models were all in the centre, making it hard for him to score any points for the evidence and also achieve kidnap (as my Watcher and Hunter were spread out)...

[Viruk]

A very good read. I can see now that I definitely need to add some Alps to my Dreamer crew as those little buggers can be quickly put in opponent's ranks.