Lady Justice List at 50ss

[ataraxianj]

This has been a really informative thread! Odd question though, who is Santana Ortega? Is it just the female version of Santiago? Or does she have special rules?

[dgraz]

This has been a really informative thread! Odd question though, who is Santana Ortega? Is it just the female version of Santiago? Or does she have special rules?

Yes. She was a limited edition model which was just a female Santiago. Well, not just, it's an amazing model.

[ataraxianj]

Yeah the model looks beautiful. I like her way better than Santiago!

[Dracomax]

One of my issues with games is that when I get a bad turn, I can get despondent and defeatist which affects my tactical choices.  And I know this happened.  It is a thing i also need to work on.  But on the other had I have played about 8 games of Malifaux and up to then lost none and I tabled my opponent in last game which is something I have never done with any of the other games I have played.  So I need to man up and not complain for feel bad when I have a bad game.  

 

One of the people I play with does the same thing, so I'll give you the same advice I give him, which he is gradually starting to accept(after several games where I pointed out how close he actually was to winning)

 

The game isn't about killing, and it can turn around very quickly. even when it feels like you are losing badly, it's usually possible to get a decent number of VP. If you do so, even if you are fighting a battle of attrition, all it takes is for them to have a bad round, and you to get that one VP more.

 

I cannot tell you the number of games where round 3-4 I felt like I could not win, only to pull out victory in round 5. After you get used to it, it is almost a thrill, because you really don't know until you total VP whether you are going to win or lose.

[dgraz]

I used to do the same thing. There is one guy I play with that I just feel like he is a cooler. He always flips well and I flip poorly. It used to make me crazy.....I'd flip out on turn 3 or 4 and want to just call the game. But I settled down, played to my Schemes and Strats.....and even when the 'cooler effect' kicked in, I would just take a sec and see where I was positioned for VP and realize that I was still in the game, even after a couple turns of bad luck.

 

I have since had much more enjoyable games with my 'cooler' and many have been real nail-biters right down to the end.

[Dirial]

I used to do the same thing. There is one guy I play with that I just feel like he is a cooler. He always flips well and I flip poorly.

 

I think, I'm a cooler, too. At least, I seldom have really bad luck. Last game (Justice vs Nicodem) I drew a god-hand in Turn 2, so Lady Justice survived his whole crew attacking her. In the end he hit her repeatedly with a reactivating Flesh Construct. He hit Severe - I forgot to discard her Badge of Office, only to pull the Red Joker on dmg prevention. My opponent nearly jumped the table.

 

It saved my game. Had the Lady not held that position, that summoning avalanche had overwhelmed me.

[Dracomax]

Well, my luck tends to run pretty poor(there is a reason I bring lots of models that give me the ability to pull more cards out of my deck—the cards worth getting are often stacked at the bottom) so it can be downright disheartening to have, for instance, and this is totally not something that happened to me and still stings enough to remember clearly, Joss, Ramos, and Howard Langston together with no movement necessary and full round of attacks, could not hurt Killjoy even to half Wd......

 

Of course, then there was the game which was neck and neck, until My opponent forgot that bodygaurd requires you move the model up... end of round 4, early round 5, and it turned from a game I was going to lose by 1 into a game I won by 2 points.

 

But Luck can be compensated for. You just have to keep your eyes on the goal. That being said, there is a point at which it is mathematically impossible to beat the other person in a 5 round game. Usually, once I realize that, I ask to flip for a round 6 early, because if there won't be one, it's better to shake hands and call it a good game than go through a frustrating round of pain and have to force good sportsmanship at the end.

[knghtpiper]

Well I am back!  Been back for a while, but due to time constraints I have not had much time to do my little write ups.  I had a game agnist Jack draw today.

 

Scheme:  Squatters rights

 

Strategies:

 

Lady J (me)

Line in the Sand (announced)

Frame for Murder (Death marshal)

 

Jack

Assassinate

Breakthrough

(none announced)

 

Table setup was a normal town with a large building in the center and smaller buildings and fences, scatter terrain around.

 

Flank deployment 

 

My List:

 

Lady J

Flames of the Pit

 

Judge

Plant evidence

Unrelenting Leader

 

Sidir

Promises

By your side

 

3 Death Marshels

 

1 witching stalker

 

Scales

 

Jack

all three injustices

Creeping Terror

Writhing Torment

 

Lady Ligia

 

Montresor

Fearful Whispers

 

3x Guility

 

2x Hanged

 

The Scrap:

 

Turn 1 

I try moving my crew to the right of the table to get the squatters claims and to start dropping markers for Line in the Sand.

 

Turn 2

Some more moving, a death marshel (the one for framed for murder) get the hanged yell and goes to half health.  Lady J gets two of the injustices on her, despite being in sidir's and scales's range for the buffs and she gets drawn into base to base with the Montressor.  But she did get a ripsote in.  Then she gets yelled at by the hanged and goes down to 1 health.  Via my witching stalker I bring a hanged down to one life.   We both score on squatters.  

 

Turn 3

Things go downhill fast.  Sidir does empty the magazine and Lady J dies and two guilty get damage and slow.  This gives him assassinate.  The Montressor passes the test.  Then Sidir gets two injustices put on him and a death marshal gets on injustice on him.  Judge kills a guilty, my frame for murder death marshal gets killed.  I get 2 points as a guilty killed him.  

 

Turn 4

Montressor walks close to Sidir and Judge, pulls in Sidir and kills him.  Judge gets paralyzed before he can activate.  At this point I conceded as the Judge is about to have the Montressor, 1 guilt, and 1 hanged swing into him which would leave me with my witching, 1 death marshal and Scales.   

 

VPs:  

Me:  3 from squatters and 2 from frame for murder.  As I only had 3 markers for Line in the sand I did not score for it.  So only 5 for me.

 

Opponent:  He got 3 from squatters and three from assassinate.  Plus he was in great position to get breakthrough on turn five.  So he could have gotten 10 or at least 8 at the end of five, but he had 6 at the end of the game.

 

What worked for me:  Sidir with promises and Scales.  The will power boost scales gives is nice when combined with promises.  In turn two those two helped to stop some of the attempts at putting the injustices on me and making people tormented.  But that was about it.  

 

What I thought of Jack Draw, the movement shenanigans with withering torment is rough to go against.  I was hoping to get some space between me and his crew but the push they got from the upgrade helped him cover ground to quickly.  Plus with the Montrosser being nimble helped him get in position to attack my guys very quickly.  

Also having the injustices being put one me was very sucked, despicably when I got two of them put on me and they return to Jack when the model was killed.  By turn three it felt like the game was over. 

 

For another game, I can not help feel that Lady J is a little lack luster compared to some of the other masters.  It feels like that only she does is close combat, but everyone else has an answer for that.  With Jack it was him giving her the injustices and making her unable to move or do anything.  Every time I fight a resser, I just get buried in bodies or killed by poison via McMourning.  With Schill I got out shot.  With zordia, I spent most of the game killing Badjuj and getting sown by the voodoo doll.

So recently at least it feels like that no matter what I try with lady J, my opponent has some way of negating what I want to do and I have no way to respond.  It is starting to get frustrating this is the 5th game with her, where I lost badly.  Part of it is my fault, as school and work do not let me play as much now, and i have been playing new masters (at least ones I have not played against) so I am on the back foot and a lot of people in my area have played against Lady J, so they know what to expect with her.  Finally my luck with drawing does not help as I tend to get good hands early on when there is little action and in latter turns my control hand goes to crap and I start flipping poorly for duels.  ie even with Scales and Sidir I still drew no higher than a 5 for the duel that left Lady J with the injustice upgrades and my opponent getting face cards.  So that never helps.                    

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  

[Dirial]

I get why you feel that way, although I don't share the sentiment. Lady Justice is kind of a one trick pony, true. Your opponents know what she does, and they can plan accordingly.

 

I think my success with Lady Justice increased when I stopped centering my game plan around her. She is not the kind of Master who is the centerpiece of your crew and makes everything revolve around her. I now often use her as a flanker, or a second wave, and I am really satisfied with that. Furthermore, her melee output is just so HIGH. It's all a matter of target selection with her. She doesn't have to do much if the thing she does is taking out 2 models a turn (which is entirely possible). I prefer models who can predictably do their job.

 

About the feeling that anyone can counter her: You're right, everyone expects to be attacked in melee. I don't think that anyone else has a trick a seasoned opponent doesn't expect, though. Lady Justice is forgiving for beginner opponents because they know what to expect, but that's true for every Master when experience increases.

 

On your bad draws: That's rough. I love Malifaux because bad luck is by far not that huge a factor as in dice based games, but it still rears its head, obviously. Of course that has nothing to do with Lady Justice, as her stats are really quite good, but it's frustrating no less.

 

If you're frustrated with Lady Justice, I would suggest another Master for a time. Get back to the Lady later, but try Sonnia or Dita for a while. They are easy to learn, too, but their style is different enough.

[dgraz]

 

 

If you're frustrated with Lady Justice, I would suggest another Master for a time. Get back to the Lady later, but try Sonnia or Dita for a while. They are easy to learn, too, but their style is different enough.

And when you go back to Lady J it will be much harder for the opponent to 'counter' her right from the start.....because they won't be planning for her. Very easy to shut down a certain crew just by building your crew for it in some cases.....if a person only ever plays a certain master, your crew choices are influenced by that whether it's intentional or not...you can't help it. If I know I'm facing Lady J I'll bring a certain crew.....if I know I'm facing Sonnia I'll bring a different crew.........switching up negates any pre-planning.

[knghtpiper]

Well i took your advice.  I bought Perdita's box and got a new Lucas McCabe model.  I am giving Lady J a well earned rest and I am playing with the other two masters.  I got a couple of games with each so far, but sadly i have not had times to get reports written but I will give my overall thoughts.

 

Perdita

 

For one my Santana model does a lot better in Perdita's crew than she did with lady J.  Using obey or the totem to get her in position so I can use the actions to shoot and not move is really nice.  I am not sure about Nino, his walk is not good, but I like the model so i will give him more time.  Francisco is great, shooting into his melee is fun to do.  I have not used papa loco yet.  As for Perdita herself I like her obey action and shooting, being able to kill stuff at range the way she does is feels very good, as I am finally getting some satisfaction out of the guild shooting.  I am going to proxy some pistoleros in the next game.    

 

Lucas McCabe

 

First off wastrels work much better with his crew compared to lady J.  Sidir is boss as usual.  I am growing to like Luna and I can wait to get some hounds and see how they do with her in the crew.  Riflemen work very well with black flash and become more dangerous to my opponents now.  The pathfinder also works well with him, granted he did well in Lady J's crew to, (he is one of my favorite models performance wise so far).

As for McCabe, I am getting used to the handing out mechanic but I really like it.  Black flashing riflemen and Sidir improves their utility.  The strangemetal shirt has been a good upgrade for McCabe's survival and for handing out.  The elixir of life gives me that healing factor.  I do want to try out barbs next game.

An unexpected bouns for me is that I am liking the synergy between empty the magazine and the net gun.  Giving out slow have saved my bacon in two games so far.  

As McCabe's crew was the one other box (beside lady J) that got me into this game, I am having fun with him.  I just need to learn more card control, because he can burn through card very fast.  Also it is tempting to get him ahead of his crew, which is not always the best thing.

 

But in all I am enjoying the break from Lady J and will try to give her another spin later on.  Once I get my Lone marshal from my painter, I will try her out as I want to try those two out as flankers and have the Judge and death marshals and others go up the middle doing schemes.     

[knghtpiper]

Some new thoughts after some more games.

 

Lynch vs Lady J (me)

 

35 stones

 

Illuminate are beats.  I had one kill lady J with two attacks!  Mr Graves's show you the door got her in charging range and did about 4 damage and then the illuminated did 6 and 7 damage with each of her attacks.  Once again I flopped on her defense flips and had nothing good to cheat with and this was turn 2.  Huggy while having a low defense is tough and his damage is rough.  While a good way to get 3 points, i am not sure if frame for murder is a good choice for a Lady J crew.  Also when I am using the Lone marshal as a flanker I am not sure if I should not send him to the flank that has Lynch near by as the trick with the aces and direct damage is also rough.  I lost that game 6-4 so not that bad really, but I need to better with Lady J and not leave her in charge range of Graves.  

 

Ramos vs Lucas McCabe (me)

 

45 stones

 

Stop flipping aces and twos for Mcabe's defense duels.  Really, that happened 3 times in a row.  Same with Sidir, I lost both by turn two.  I used my LE Performer in this game and she did paralyze Joss, but even with promises McCabe, the Performer and a pathfinder could not hit him in CC.  In that game I felt it was more about my deck hating me than anything else.  I scored on Squatters rights almost every turn other than 5 when I lost everything but two wastrels and Luna and he out activated me to undo my markers.  The wastrels where able to score on protect territory, but with Joss and Ramos killing my minions and him getting two points from breakthrough I lost that game 8-4.  Like i said the bad duels and losing McCabe and Sidir early on really hurt me and let him out activate me.  But I did keep to my schemes but that was not a easy match.

Next time I will keep McCabe farther back, but it is easy to get him ahead with his fast movement.  Also keeping Luna nearby for warning bark might be a better idea.        

[knghtpiper]

Also how does on change the title of the thread, i want to add the fact that I am now playing Perdita and Lucas in the title. 

[EntrepeNinja]

Dunno about changing the title, though at this point you could either start up a new thread, or even (if you were so inclined) start up a blog about your adventures.

 

ENinja