Argentbadger

Yay, more Malifaux! Money sent for Gareth Henry and me. Thanks for all the work you put in to run these events; the whole community is really appreciative.

Here is Leveticus, another of the Outcast faction masters for Malifaux. He has a lot of strange rules in the game that make him play very differently to most options. Leveticus uses his wounds as a resource to fuel his attacks (though somewhat less so after a rebalancing errata from Wyrd) and is very hard to permanently kill. Upon death he is instead buried and can unbury from a Hollow Waif at the end of the turn. This leads him to a very interesting forward planning game style where you need to think in advance where you'll want Leveticus to appear in the following turn and place your pieces accordingly. The high mobility and survivability this affords is really useful for some schemes, especially Undercover Entourage. In addition, Leveticus has a fairly easy trigger to turn enemy models into Abominations upon death, which makes him really strong for the Interference strategy. I've yet to dabble in Leveticus's wide hiring pool from the Pariah of Iron / Bone upgrades, partly because I don't really own the miniatures that would make it useful, partly because everyone else seems to consider that to be the optimum play for him, and mostly because I really like the Outcast options. Considering that Leveticus is, at heart, a part of the 'mad scientist' style of miniature, I felt that a white lab coat was the way to go for him. Unfortunately, this meant that my camera simply would not focus properly on him against the white background so my photos are, if possible, even less good that usual. I really like the way the pink details contracts with the white coat.

Nice work! The lamp on Philip and The Nanny is really well done, and I like the way you've made the miniatures look dirty while keeping a clean style. If I did that it would look like I had just flicked paint randomly at them.

Considering what you have already plus what you have coming, I'd suggest to play a few games before you decide what else you want to add to the collection. If you're really keen to spend the money, then the Jack Daw, Leveticus and Tara boxes are all perfectly fine additions to what you have. Jack Daw and Tara don't particularly add much to your options for the other three masters but are happy to take from them. Leveticus can use almost anything that costs six or more soulstones; Ronin, Trappers and Librarians are all excellent anchors. In addition, Leveticus gets you the option to include Rusty Alyce in your crews, and I get a lot of value out of her. Despite Tara's poor reputation on the forums, I think that she is good enough to use if you find her entertaining. I will note that I couldn't get the burying shenanigans to work to my satisfaction, but making your stuff fast, beast-bombing people and having six AP in some turns can be handy. I would second Franchute's suggestion of adding the Malifaux Child; it goes very well with the Viktorias and Tara.

Thanks Thana, I'm glad you're enjoying them. I've let Steve know about the limited upgrades on Dreamer; it is possible that I've just noted this down wrong though. Either way, I think it didn't affect the game.

Thanks very much for the kind words! I've told Ross and Steve about your comments so they can check for future. I'm impressed by your rules knowledge and attention to detail.

I love this event! Money sent for myself and Gareth Henry. Keep up the good work Chris; I'm looking forward to it already.

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Guild (Lewis) Strategy: Headhunter, normal deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Show of Force, Leave Your Mark, Undercover Entourage, Public Demonstration Outcasts: Show of Force, Undercover Entourage (Jack Daw) Guild: Show of Force, Public Demonstration (Brutal Effigy, Warden, Guardian) Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, Guilty, Rusty Alyce (Desolate Soul), Hannah (I Pay Better), Johan, Hodgepodge Effigy Guild: Lady Justice (Implacable), Brutal Emissary (Conflux of Justice), The Judge (Debt To The Guild, Unrelenting Leader), Nino Ortega (Hair Trigger), Brutal Effigy, Warden, Guardian For the third time, Hannah was the first model in my crew. I was quite close to just putting down the Viktorias again, but in the end went for Jack Daw as he is so good for Headhunter with the pushes and not-quite-Obeys from his upgrades. I took Rusty Alyce as I thought I might be able to gun down a few minions and summon in Abominations with her to gum up the Guild crew. I originally had Taelor in the crew but felt that I was lacking in activations so I swapped her out of Johan and the Effigy. Again, Show of Force seemed like a good choice out of a fairly uninspiring scheme pool; I also took Undercover Entourage on Jack Daw as he is hard to pin down, mobile and likely to survive to the end of the game. I appear to have failed to take a picture of our deployment. Turn 1: Hannah, Alyce and Johan get made Tormented by various means and our crews advance; the Guardian puts Protect on Lady Justice. For reasons that are still not clear to me I leave Alyce right in the open so Nino eagerly Rapid Fires into her, drawing some soulstones out of me. She Rapid Fires him right back but can't do enough to kill the sniper. Lady Justice, to my great surprise, triple walks directly toward me, leaving her crew behind her. Johan pushes thanks to being near Jack Daw and charges Lady Justice, hurting her rather badly. Turn 2: Johan Flurries Lady Justice taking her down to just a couple of wounds. The Brutal Effigy races up and puts Fear Not The Sword on Lady Justice who then chain activates and kills Alyce. The Librarian finishes off Nino and the Judge hurries over to pick up the poor chap's head. The Emissary fires off a few shots into my crew. Hannah finishes off Lady Justice and the Guilty collects her head. Jack Daw charges in to hurt The Judge, giving him Firing Squad Injustice and then puts Guillotine Injustice on the Guardian. Lewis duly discards the cards to keep the construct in play and charges back at Jack Daw for no effect. Sadly I have moved Jack Daw into the perfect place for Lewis to score Public Demonstration for the full three VPs; he also score for Show of Force and we both score on Headhunter. Turn 3: Johan kills the Warden and is killed in turn by the Emissary. Hannah focuses with I Pay Better and smites The Judge for severe damage and the trigger; this not only takes him down to his Hard to Kill wound but also does some hefty damage to the Guardian and Effigy and paralyses the latter. The Guardian walks away from Jack Daw to collect a head. This was good focusing on the victory conditions from Lewis; it's easy to get distracted by such a brawl in the centre. Unfortunately, this also means the Guardian is out of combat so the Librarian Rapid Fires to kill it. The Guilty picks up another hand head and The Judge repositions; with Firing Squad Injustice and only a single wound left he couldn't afford to make any attacks. My Effigy puts Loyalty To The Coin on Jack Daw and ineffectively stabs the Emissary a couple of times. Jack Daw finishes off The Judge and the Brutal Effigy, handily turning a couple of the trash cards I was holding into tasty soulstones. We both score for the strategy again and I score for Show of Force. Turn 4: Hannah attacks the Emissary. It moves to a better position and puts a bullet into most of my crew with the built-in trigger on Never Bluff A Six Gun; I forgot that Nether Flux on Hannah would have stopped this cold but it didn't matter. The Guilty and the Effigy combine to put the killing blows into the Emissary and the Librarian picks up a head. With no more work left to do, Jack Daw heads off to score Undercover Entourage. Outcasts win 10 - 6 (full score for me; 2 for Headhunter, 3 for Public Demonstration and 1 for Show of Force for Lewis). As usual, Lewis ran me hard in that game; he's a really nice opponent who is getting better every time we play. I think I probably could have controlled Lady Justice better in this game; Firing Squad Injustice would have been lovely on her. But Lewis made (in my opinion) quite a big mistake just throwing Lady Justice at me on turn 1; possibly he hadn't accounted for the extra mobility the Jack Daw afforded Johan. It gave me the chance to really hurt his master while she was isolated from the rest of her crew and ultimately take her out of the game very early. Hannah did some great work in this game; previously I hadn't really appreciated how much value she gets from Jack Daw's pushes extending her tiny threat range. Lewis did make a good scheme choice with Public Demonstration as I didn't see it coming at all and indeed moved Jack Daw right into position to give up maximum points. So once all the scores are in I am very pleased to get first place, just ahead of Ian's Neverborn on points difference. I was amazed by the number of people at the event; Kai is well-known for running a great tournament and so it is fantastic to see that the word is spreading and we're seeing more and more Malifaux players coming out. With so many players I'd like to see us moving to four round events more regularly but of course this has its own practical considerations. Thanks to Ross, Steve and Lewis for three great games of Malifaux, and to Kai for continuing to be a wonderful tournament organiser.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Neverborn (Steve) Strategy: Reckoning, flank deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Show of Force, Exhaust Their Forces, Catch and Release, Frame for Murder Outcasts: Show of Force, Frame for Murder (Viktoria of Blood) Neverborn: Show of Force, Frame for Murder (Teddy) Crews Outcasts: Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury, Synchronised Slaying), Viktoria of Blood (Oathkeeper, Mark of Shezuul), Malifaux Child, Johan, Freikorps Librarian, Hannah (I Pay Better), Taelor (Oathkeeper, Tally Sheet) Neverborn: The Dreamer (Restless Dreams, Dreams of Pain, On Wings of Darkness), Teddy (On Dreaming Wings), Nekima (Mimic's Blessing), Doppelganger (Mimic's Blessing), 2 Daydreams Despite knowing Steve for a couple of years and meeting him at almost every tournament in Scotland, we had previously never been paired up in a game. Reckoning is an easy choice for the Viktorias again, especially with Frame For Murder in the pool. I put it on Viktoria of Blood and consider it a win either way - either she dies and I score points, or she's left to rampage about the opponent's crew. I put Taelor in with Tally Sheet since she's good at killing stuff and hard to dispose of in her own right; Tally Sheet was to give me options (along with I Pay Better on Hannah) for Show of Force. As it happened, Taelor was an especially good pick against the summoning from The Dreamer; I have to admit that I thought it a strange choice of master from Steve for Reckoning. With Frame For Murder in the pool against me I always just accept that I'm losing three VP somewhere. Turn 1: A Daydream pushes Teddy about and sacrifices itself for The Dreamer; the Malifaux Child puts up Sisters in Fury. The Dreamer summons a Stitched Together and Lelu then uses Empty Night to make Nekima Fast. Fast Nekima is definitely on my list of Things I Don't Want To See. Most of my crew move up, careful to stay outside move plus charge range of Nekima. Somewhere around this time I realise that I haven't asked Steve my standard 'have you faced the Viktorias before?' question'; it turns out that he hasn't so I explain the theory. Despite this, the Stitched Together, Lelu and Teddy all end up bunched together within slingshot range, so Viktoria of Blood discards Oathkeeper and blends all three of them. I wanted to make sure that I only had to deal with one of Teddy and Nekima so I think it was worth doing this even in turn one where it didn't score me points. Indeed, it actually cost me points as killing Teddy gives Steve his points for Frame For Murder. Nekima flies over and makes pretty heavy work of smiting Viktoria of Blood; she survives and Hannah copies Healing Energy to heal her via her sister. Turn 2: I helpfully flip high enough on initiative that Steve doesn't Ill Omens to go first. So Viktoria of Ashes casts Sisters in Fury and companions her sister who carves up Nekima quite thoroughly but fails to hurt the Doppelganger. The Doppelganger copies Masamune and swings it into Viktoria of Blood. The Malifaux Child heals the Viktorias as I luckily have the right card in hand. The Dreamer summons a couple of Daydreams and an Alp, then turns into Lord Chompy Bits who kills Viktoria of Blood and gives me three VPs for Frame For Murder finally. Taelor uses Oathkeeper and kills Lord Chompy Bits. I score for Reckoning and Show of Force. Turn 3: Taelor focuses via I Pay Better and charges the Doppelganger. I needed the Focus to get round the negative flip from Mimic's Blessing but she Black Jokers the first swing and of course misses the second due to the negative flip. It attacks back using Taelor's own Relic Hammer against her. The Malifaux Child puts up Sisters in Fury. The Dreamer summons Lelu and makes him Fast, being careful to put him out of reach of Taelor's Welcome To Malifaux ability. The Librarian discards a card to focus and fires at a nearby Daydream; I have 11 of tomes in hand to get the blasts and wipe out a whole pile of Daydreams and the Alp standing next to each other but Steve cheats in 13s on both attacks to so I can't even land a single hit. Lelu charges into the Librarian for some nasty damage and is in turn killed by Johan. Viktoria of Ashes charges into the scrum, slightly hurting The Dreamer but taking two Daydreams, the Alp and the Doppelganger out with a Whirlwind. I score for Reckoning and Show of Force again. Turn 4: Taelor swings twice at the Dreamer; the first is put onto the last Daydream (killing it) and the second I am able to cheat in the Red Joker to end the small child with a massive magic hammer. Outcasts win 10 - 3 (full score for me; 3 for Frame For Murder for Steve). It was wonderful to get a game against Steve as he's one of the last of the regular Stirling players I hadn't previously played. Obviously his unfamiliarity with the Viktorias was a big factor in the game, and I feel a bit bad for not discussing it with him before we started. Having said that, I am really surprised that he hasn't played against them before as Steve is quite a frequent tournament-goer. Steve's choice of The Dreamer seemed quite strange as he's best known as a summoner which is not really ideal in Reckoning. However, I'm not really familiar with The Dreamer so perhaps he also has a lot of options as support; of course the threat of Lord Chompy Bits is quite strong too.

I have been lucky enough to have two tournaments in Scotland on consecutive weekends on dates that I can actually attend, so Gareth and I headed to Common Ground Games in Stirling for Autumn's End 2016. I was thinking of using Gremlins again, but decided against it for two reasons. Firstly, I have hardly any Gremlins assembled, so I'd end up running pretty much the same crews I did at The Governor General's Wake last weekend. Secondly, and most importantly, I recently got the cool Kickstarter Hannah miniature and wanted to use her (as a Mercenary I could do that in Gremlins anyway of course, but she is at home in the Outcast faction). Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Gremlins (Ross) Strategy: Guard The Stash, corner deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Hunting Party, Detonate the Charges, A Quick Murder, Take Prisoner Outcasts: Hunting Party, A Quick Murder (McTavish) Gremlins: Detonate the Charges, A Quick Murder (Hannah) Crews Outcasts: Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury, Synchronised Slaying), Viktoria of Blood (Oathkeeper, Mark of Shezuul), Malifaux Child, Johan, Freikorpsman, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Hannah (I Pay Better) Gremlins: Zoraida (Crystal Ball, Hex Bag, Tarot Reading), Burt Jebsen (Dirty Cheater), McTavish (Dirty Cheater, Stilts), Trixibelle (Hide In The Mud, Quality Mash Liquor), The First Mate (Where The Captain Can't See), Bayou Gremlin Needless to say, I put Hannah in my crew first. I picked the Viktorias with the intention of using them to clear out anyone coming in to the Stash markers using my usual upgrade loadout. The Freikorpsman was included as a cheap piece to sit near a Stash marker and stay as safe as possible; I also thought that Wong might be a strong choice for Ross so the immunity to blasts and auras could be handy. I did think about swapping him and the Trapper for another Henchman to take Hunting Party off the table, but decided that the activations were more valuable even considering the risk of giving up points. Seeing McTavish on the board I figured I would have to kill him at some point so took A Quick Murder, and Hunting Party seemed very do-able considering only a single Bayou Gremlin and maybe some summonings of the Voodoo Doll. Turn 1: Trixibelle pushes the Trapper back from his advanced position and he shoots back at her for a little damage. The Child casts Sisters in Fury before McTavish moves up and puts down a Hunting Screen in the gap between two buildings. Zoraida summons and Voodoo Doll which Hems Hannah; Johan focuses via I Pay Better and top decks the needed card to remove the condition with Rebel Yell (this might be the first time that this has ever happened to me). The Viktorias move up and I restrain my urge to fire them directly into McTavish; there is no rush at this point. Turn 2: The Doll Hems Viktoria of Blood. I'm worried that some shenanigans are about to ensue that will stop me using her at all, so I move Viktoria of Ashes up, put up Sisters in Fury and slingshot Viktoria of Blood into McTavish and Zoraida. Sadly, after some fairly rubbish flipping, both are still alive and well. Zoraida Curses the Voodoo Doll, Obeys McTavish to attack Viktoria of Blood with his gator and the Bayou Gremlin to drop a scheme marker. McTavish then eats the scheme marker and cheats the flip so he gets a free attack; he puts some fairly beefy damage into Viktoria of Blood. Johan removes the conditions from her then Trixibelle heals and moves into scoring range of the right Stash marker. My Freikorpsman moves over to make sure I'm scoring both markers. The First Mate uses Menacing Croak to push Hannah into range of him and swipes at her; she eventually smacks him back. The Bayou Gremlin drops another scheme marker, presumably for McTavish to use later and the Librarian kills the Voodoo Doll to score Hunting Party. We both score for the strategy. Turn 3: McTavish discards the nearby scheme marker and finally polishes off Viktoria of Blood. The Malifaux Child puts up Sisters in Fury as I'm not in a rush to take activations this turn. Trixibelle fails a Gremlin 'Lure' on Viktoria of Ashes and heals some more wounds. Viktoria of Ashes throws herself into McTavish, but Black Jokers the first damage flip and forces the discard of Stilts for the second attack so I don't even get a Whirlwind out of it. Burt Jebsen comes back round and hits Viktoria of Ashes and Zoraida Obeys him to kill her, Obeys McTavish to take a shot at the Librarian and fails to Obey Trixibelle. Hannah finishes killing The First Mate and the Trapper blows away the Bayou Gremlin to sort me out for Hunting Party. Johan, the Freikorpsman and the Librarian all fail to kill Trixibelle. I score Guard The Stash and Hunting Party. Turn 4: The Librarian kills Trixibelle. Zoraida Obeys Burt and McTavish to walk forward, realising that the strategy is getting away from her, then Obeys the latter to attack the Freikorpsman. Johan kills McTavish to finally score two VP for A (not very) Quick Murder. Burt gets stuck into Hannah but can't kill her; she kills him in return with the last attack being a copy of the Librarian's Ancient Words. I score again for Hunting Party and the strategy. Turn 5: Zoraida moves and drops a scheme marker; I opt not to go near it as I sense Detonate the Charges. I score again for Guard the Stash; Outcasts win 9 - 1 (4 for Guard the Stash, 3 for Hunting Party and 2 for A Quick Murder for me; 1 for Guard the Stash for Ross). Ross was a really nice chap and it was terrific to meet him and play for the first time. I liked his crew a lot, and I'm particularly impressed with Burt and McTavish; I am certainly considering getting them for my own Gremlins at some point. I think Ross was a bit optimistic going for A Quick Murder on Hannah as she can be tricky to dispatch and doesn't really need to put herself too much in harm's way. Although I was a little disappointed at how the Viktorias bounced off the Gremlin crew it did have the effect of pinning them all back almost in their own deployment zone so it was quite effective in giving me control of the strategy.

I use the Malifaux Child with Viktoria of Ashes all the time. It doesn't replace Viktoria of Blood as she is a Henchman not a Totem. Casting Sisters in Fury from a position of safety (and not using up a master AP) is really useful. However, in the late game I usually end up casting it with Viktoria of Ashes anyway as I need my Whirlwind-ing done straight away. I must admit that I've never even tried the Malifaux Child with Leveticus, but as pointed out by Hydranixx it would be a tough choice to replace 2 free Hollow Waifs with something that is more expensive and seemingly less useful. Edit: thanks to SoylentRobot for putting in the hard work for this list.

Thank you very much. I hope the posts are helpful to you; they are really useful for me by making me review what actually worked and what did not.

Great reports; I love to see how things look from the other side of the table. It was a blast to play you as well, and I really appreciated the chance to play this mirror match and learn from your experience with Gremlins. In our game, I think that you got sucked into putting all your big hitters in the middle where they weren't helping you to score; I did too but managed to hold on for a turn longer than you and so was able to pick up a point for the strategy.

Game 3: Gremlins (me) vs Ten Thunders (Dave) Strategy: Headhunter, flank deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Take Prisoner, Hunting Party, Set Up, Inspection Gremlins: Convict Labour, Hunting Party Ten Thunders: Take Prisoner (bouncing Lightning Bug), Set Up (Lenny) Crews Gremlins: Ophelia LaCroix, Lenny, Whisky Golem (Barrel Up), 2 Young LaCroix, 2 Lightning Bugs, 2 Rooster Riders, Slop Hauler Ten Thunders: Brewmaster (Binge, Running Tab), Shadow Emissary (Conflux of Shadow), Fingers (Drinking 'Problem', Smoke Grenades), Apprentice Wesley, Oiran, 2 Performers I gave some thought to changing up my master to Wong here, but ultimately decided to stay with familiar territory and use the same crew as game one. It gives up heads quite easily, but most of the crew is quite aggressive so I can sometimes keep the pressure on anything on the front line and abuse Reckless to pick up heads behind it. Dave is a really strong player and I didn't feel at all confident to beat him with Gremlins considering my lack of experience with them, but I was quite pleasantly surprised to find a rather non-killy crew facing me here. A more aggressive crew could really have punished my fragile minions. Still, using Fingers and the Performers is a really good move in this strategy as they can pick heads up even in the middle of my crew. I took Convict Labour again because it's quite easy for mobile Gremlins to score while on the way to somewhere else. Hunting Party was chosen because all the Ten Thunder minions in the crew are quite killable so I would either dedicate effort from the Whisky Golem and Lenny, or just aim to exterminate all of them and score by default. Turn 1: The Oiran Lures one of my Lightning Bugs, Brewmaster brings him closer with One For The Road, then hits him with Binge and Swill. The Bug uses Reckless and drops two scheme markers for Convict Labour, sensing its doom. A Performer Siren Calls it closer still and Fingers loads about one hundred poison onto the poor happy chap. Finally the other Performer explodes him with the Sip of Wine trigger on Siren Call before using Seduction to remove one of the markers. A good sequence of moves, but it's been pretty much the whole crew's activations simply to kill a five soulstone minion and get his head into their deployment zone. Meanwhile, the Young LaCroix reload Ophelia and Lenny Tosses her and the Slop Hauler toward the Ten Thunders. The Shadow Emissary, realising the danger, pushes Fingers back into cover. Ophelia shoots Brewmaster, hitting moderate damage on the first shot and top-decking a critical Red Joker on the second to blow the drunken Gremlin away; Dave is unable to flip the Red Joker on damage prevention that would have been needed to keep him alive. Even worse, Apprentice Wesley is too far away to take up the mantle. Both Rooster Riders charge into the Ten Thunders, mainly to keep them occupied but not really doing a great deal other than some incidental damage. Turn 2: Fingers heals himself and stacks a load of poison onto the left Rooster Rider. It activates and kills the Oiran, then the Emissary kills the other Rooster Rider. Lenny Tosses Ophelia again. Wesley picks up a head and bravely moves to intercept Ophelia, so the Whisky Golem smashes him into the floor and scores Hunting Party. On the right, the Performer fails to Siren Call Ophelia and is riddled with bullets for her troubles in return. The other Performer kills the poisoned Rooster Rider with the Sip of Wine trigger. My Slop Hauler picks up a head; actually not my first choice of head but the original candidate was covered by Fingers' Chatty aura. We both score for Headhunter; I also score for Convict Labour and Hunting Party. Turn 3: The Lightning Bug misses attacks on Fingers and the Performer. Ophelia companions and takes the Emissary down to Hard to Kill. The Emissary responds by charging the Whisky Golem, which ignores it in return, focuses and drops a Red Joker for damage onto Fingers. The ultimate drinker, killed by a robot made of whiskey barrels; we agreed that it was how he would have wanted to go. The Performer picks up a nearby head and puts enough poison onto the Whisky Golem that it will die at the end of the round thanks to the Emissary's aura. Almost my entire crew fails to hit the Emissary, then Lenny charges the Performer but can't quite kill her. The Slop Hauler picks up another head for me. We both score again for the strategy and I score for Convict Labour. Turn 4: The Lightning Bug finishes the Performer, then Ophelia chain activates to charge and kill the Emissary. Gremlins win 10 - 2 (full score for me; 2 for Headhunter for Dave). It is a real treat to play Dave any time as he is among the strongest players in Scotland. This game was a very interesting match up as my crew is very aggressive (relying on getting enough activation superiority to have a 'spare' option around to pick up a head) compared to Dave's very reactive crew (note the amount of effort required simply to kill a Lightning Bug in the first turn; however thanks to Chatty and Don't Mind Me it is hard to score points against and scores them itself quite easily). While it is true that the Red Joker kill on Brewmaster in turn 1 was important, I had another shot to take at him that round and might have taken initiative on round two so he was at a big risk of dying to Ophelia. Overall, I felt that I had enough of a ranged threat to handle the Brewmaster without worrying unduly about the Drinking Contest, and enough of a threat to get heads dropped in places I could actually reach. When the scores are in, I get first place; ahead of Gareth only on VP difference. It was really fun to play Gremlins at a tournament and I'm looking forward to putting enough of them together to have a bit more choice in crew composition. Learning a new faction is really exciting as it feels like so many avenues are open to explore. Thanks to Martin for being a responsive and helpful organiser, and to Ben, Ewan and Dave for three fun games of Malifaux. Also, special thanks to Steve for swapping his raffle prize of a War Wabbit for my winning voucher; I'm looking forward to putting that big chap together and trying it out.

Game 2: Gremlins (me) vs Neverborn (Ewan) Strategy: Collect The Bounty, close deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Hunting Party, Public Demonstration, Exhaust Their Forces, Neutralise The Leader Gremlins: Hunting Party, Neutralise The Leader Neverborn: Hunting Party, Neutralise The Leader Crews Gremlins: Ophelia LaCroix, Lenny, Whisky Golem (Barrel Up), 2 Young LaCroix, Mancha Roja, 2 Rooster Riders, Slop Hauler Neverborn: Zoraida (Animal Shape), Hooded Rider, Teddy (Retribution's Eye), Nurse, Iggy (Enraged Tantrum), Doppelganger, Insidious Madness I've never faced Neverborn with Gremlins, so I just stayed with more or less the same crew as game one. The only change was swapping out the Lightning Bugs for Mancha Roja, partly to avoid giving up too many points for Collect The Bounty and partly because I didn't really think that I'd need to ignore armour or scoot around with Reckless so much. Looking back, I wonder if Wong might be a better option here as he's quite tricky to kill and has better willpower than Ophelia. On the other hand, it's hard to argue with the sheer damage output of Ophelia. Since Ewan only had the two minions, one of which I expected to be slung through my crew quickly and the other which I would need to deal with early on, I picked Hunting Party as I not only had three options to score it but also could expect to drop both minions regardless of the source of damage. Zoraida could summon the Voodoo Doll and just hide it to deny me points but that would hamper her damage output and with an open board and good mobility I could possibly catch it anyway. I thought twice about Neutralise the Leader, but went for it as Ophelia has positive flips to get round proper manners, my henchmen and enforcers have good damage in case they focus and Rooster Riders can pick up positive flips when they Rampage. Turn 1: The Young LaCroix hand Ophelia more guns. The Doppelganger moves forward into cover and uses Blend In to ward off any shooting at her. The Hooded Rider redeploys laterally behind the building on my left. Lenny Tosses Ophelia and the Slop Hauler forward, and the Insidious Madness walks to engage my master. I should have seen that coming, but got greedy with her movement. Mancha Roja barrels into the Doppelganger and knocks her down to a single wound. Zoraida summons the Voodoo Doll which Hems Mancha Roja, then Obeys Teddy to walk forward. The Rooster Rider takes one for the team, killing the Doppelganger and blocking Teddy from getting into Mancha Roja. The Nurse fails Take Your Meds on Ophelia and is attacked by another Rooster. Teddy tears the first Rooster into shreds, ending up engaged with Ophelia. With no cards left in hand, I soulstone for a positive flip on the horror duel for Ophelia to attack Teddy and succeed on the second card. That worrying business duly dealt with, Ophelia blasts Teddy into stuffing. The Whisky Golem makes a mess of attacking the Insidious Madness. Although it is slightly frustrating to have killed four Bounty points worth of crew on the first turn where it counts for nothing, I still consider it worthwhile to get rid of the Doppelganger and Teddy so early in the process. Turn 2: The Rooster Rider kills the Nurse and bounces off Iggy. The Insidious Madness Induces Phobia a couple of times and draws out some cards from my hand to avoid the effects, then the Whisky Golem focuses and smashes it into oblivion (scoring Hunting Party in the process). Ophelia shoots Zoraida for some good damage but her activation is ended with Regret after I end up doing moderate on a negative flip. Iggy puts five Burning onto the Voodoo Doll, much to Mancha Roja's consternation, so the big chap charges the Voodoo Doll to make sure it definitely dies. Zoraida Bewitches Ophelia and Obeys the Whisky Golem to walk over and hit her. Mancha Roja burns to death. I score for the strategy and Hunting Party. Turn 3: The Rooster goes Reckless and activates Rampage. It charges back and forth between Iggy and Zoraida, killing both and picking up Neutralise the Leader for the latter. Did I mention how I love Rooster Riders? Ewan has seen enough, and has only the Hooded Rider left against almost my entire crew, so he calls it a day. Gremlins win 10 - 0. Every game against Ewan is a pleasure as he's such a nice laid-back man who clearly enjoys his Malifaux. In this tournament he had decided to play the same crew regardless of strategies and schemes, which I suppose didn't help him much here (though he evidently won his first match, so it must have worked well enough). I felt that he was too hesitant with the Rider, relying on not using it for two turns while it charged up, and that allowed me to take the rest of his crew piecemeal. From my side, of course, everything went well enough. I'm not sure that I have a good answer to the Voodoo Doll; I guess I need to start putting some condition removal in my crews.

Joe, Gareth and I took the early train up to Aberdeen for a Malifaux event run by the new local Henchman. Our last visit to Aberdeen had only 6 players including us, so I was really pleased that good organisation this time managed to get a highly respectable 18 players turning out this time. We were met from the train by one of the players which was a really nice personal touch and much appreciated since we were probably going to get lost on the way to the new shop in Aberdeen. I was really excited for this event since it marks my first competitive run-out for my Gremlins. As it turned out, my first round game was against the chap who greeted us. Game 1: Gremlins (me) vs Gremlins (Ben) Strategy: Interference, normal deployment Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Show of Force, Leave Your Mark, Undercover Entourage, Frame For Murder My Gremlins: Convict Labour, Frame For Murder (Rooster Rider) Ben's Gremlins: Convict Labour, Frame For Murder (Rooster Rider) Crews My Gremlins: Ophelia LaCroix, Lenny, Whisky Golem (Barrel Up), 2 Young LaCroix, 2 Lightning Bugs, 2 Rooster Riders, Slop Hauler Ben's Gremlins: Wong (Gremlin's Luck, Dirty Cheater), McTavish, Trixibelle, Sammy LaCroix (Ooo Glowy on McTavish), Old Cranky, 2 Rooster Riders, 2 Stuffed Piglets My first game in a tournament with Gremlins, and it is a mirror match. My crew selection is highly limited by what I own and have assembled, so my masters came down to a choice between Wong and Ophelia. I picked the latter somewhat arbitrarily; both masters appeal to my preference for damage dealers. I like Lenny for the additional mobility and free ram for Ophelia, and the Whisky Golem is basically the reason I'm playing the faction at all (I won the Nightmare version at a previous event). Of the rest, I love everything about Rooster Riders from the concept, through the miniatures and right up to the rules. The remainder of the crew are pieces I like but are pretty much entirely selected because I happen to own them. Frame For Murder on a Rooster Rider was a simple choice since they can't be left to run around and much of Ben's crew was made up of henchmen. Convict Labour has been quite incidental to score in friendly games thanks to Reckless on the Lightning Bugs and Rooster Riders and Nimble on the Golem. Turn 1: Both of my Young LaCroix Reload Ophelia, not so that I can actually use the attacks but so that they can be Plinked off if needed later on. My Lightning Bugs drop scheme markers for Convict Labour. Trixibelle pushes McTavish toward me. On the right, Ben's Rooster Rider moves up and drops a scheme marker; my Rooster Rider over there charges in and hurts it badly. Lenny Tosses Ophelia and the Slop Hauler forward and Ben's other Rooster Rider charges into her. Ophelia Squeals out of the way after the first attack but still takes severe damage on a negative flip, which hurts. My other Rooster Rider charges the Stuffed Piglet on the left, blowing it up and Stampeding into McTavish and getting my own back by dropping severe damage on a negative flip to him. McTavish makes a bit of a meal of fighting the Rooster Rider so eventually it falls to Wong to kill it, thereby scoring me full points for Frame For Murder. Apparently it didn't dawn on me quite how obvious this play was, as immediately afterwards Ophelia guns down the Rooster Rider who attacked her and gives Ben all three points for his Frame For Murder. The Slop Hauler heals Ophelia. Turn 2: McTavish blows away my central Lightning Bug; the other Bug kills Ben's last Rooster Rider. Ophelia shoots McTavish with My Threatenin' Gun, forcing some good cards out of Ben's hand and paralysing Sammy. She finishes off McTavish then misses an opportunistic shot with the Jug Rocket at Trixibelle (I was out of range to just shoot her). So much for using the upgrades for Plinking purposes! Wong moves into sight and targets Lenny. I cheat to keep him on negative flips but the Red Joker comes up to nearly kill Lenny, actually kill the Slop Hauler and badly wound Ophelia. The surviving Stuffed Piglet charges my Rooster Rider, eventually being killed in return. The Whisky Golem charges into Wong to tie him up but can't actually land a hit. Trixibelle kills Lenny. I score for the strategy and for Convict Labour. Turn 3: Trixibelle cheats to win initiative. Wong hits the Golem with his Fan to Poof into the clear, takes a shot at Ophelia which she uses to Squeal back into engagement with him and then hits her with his Fan too. My Rooster charges Trixibelle to keep her busy. Sammy Jynxes the Whisky Golem with Twisted Legs so it sadly drops another scheme marker and takes Iron-bound. Cranky fires into the melee between Ophelia and Wong and luckily gets Ophelia with both shots, killing her. The Young LaCroix get revenge by killing the old Gremlin. Trixibelle remarkably fails to deal with the Rooster Rider. The Lightning Bug knocks Sammy down to a single wound. Neither of us score for Interference since we're all in a massive scrum in the middle of the board, but I score again for Convict Labour. Turn 4: Trixibelle uses Ill Omens again to win initiative. Sammy kills the Rooster Rider then turns one of my scheme markers into a Stuffed Piglet. The Whisky Golem moves to engage as much as possible of Ben's crew, then Wong uses his Fan to Poof away again and drop a scheme marker. My Lightning Bug finishes off Trixibelle and puts down a replacement scheme marker (I love Reckless!). The new Piglet moves over to stop me scoring Convict Labour and my Young LaCroix does the same for Ben. No-one scores at all. Turn 5: The Whisky Golem kills Sammy and the Stuffed Piglet; the latter explodes and kills my Lightning Bug. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I didn't do the Piglet first as the explosion would have seen off Sammy anyway, and thereby had a 'spare' AP to use. Wong uses Boom to cleverly remove my scheme markers, then moves to kill off my Young LaCroix parked next to his other marker. Ben scores for Convict Labour. My Gremlins win 6 - 4 (1 for Interference, 2 for Convict Labour and 3 for Frame For Murder for me; 1 for Convict Labour and 3 for Frame For Murder for Ben). Wow, what a close game; a perfect first tournament game for my Gremlins. I was too enthusiastic to kill Ben's Framed Rooster with Ophelia; I think I could have done the job with the Slop Hauler almost as effectively. Of course, I would still have given up some points but not so many. Both of us ended up committing pieces to the no-scoring zone in the centre of the board and I think that we could both have positioned better there. Otherwise, I was quite happy with my play. I have to say that in addition to being a lovely opponent, Ben had chosen a really nice crew. Everything fitted together neatly and had a role to play, and everything seemed to add a bit of synergy to the rest of the crew. There are certainly some pieces that I might have to consider getting (especially Old Cranky and McTavish) once I have finished assembling all the stuff I have already. Edit: This is what it all looked like from Ben's side.

Really looking forward to this now! I've actually assembled enough Gremlins to play a couple of proper crews without proxying.

These hapless ladies are Hollow Waifs; they are the totems for the Malifaux Outcast master Leveticus. There isn't much to say about them in game; you might as well hire two with Leveticus most games since they're free and no-one else can hire them at all. They provide the mechanic for Leveticus's fairly entertaining in-game life and death cycle. Hollow Waifs are not very hard to kill, which somewhat inconveniences Leveticus, but on the other hand they don't really contribute much to a game other than a bit of activation control so they're rarely fully in harm's way. Positioning them to be safe but allowing Leveticus to unbury out of them into a threatening part of the board can be a challenge, especially considering that they additionally need to be close to a six (or more) soulstone model when it happens. I decided to make them very visually distinct from each other with completely different dress colours. Of course, each still has a little pink on them to make them fit in with the rest of the Outcasts. I have to admit that I spent very little time on them, as befits their role in Leveticus's grand scheme.

I like your work a lot. The blood effect looks great, and I think McMourning's crazy eyes really fit with his character.

This is a really large and interesting topic, and one where I think we will never get full consensus. Indeed, there is not really a full and deep agreement over which models are good or bad; at least I would note that some models that I consider good rarely seem to be recommended or seen. I am part of the 'problem' in the sense that I favour using 'fixed' partial lists, such that I have a core crew for a master and then swap out a few pieces depending on my needs or moods at the time. For example, I played a couple of tournaments earlier this year all using variations on a single Leveticus crew with only one or two models swapped between them. This is because I find that I'm less likely to forget critical interactions between my own pieces if I have more familiarity with the combinations; my gaming time is limited so I make the most of what I have. I would be interested to find whether people are genuinely seeing 'net lists' in practice. I keep tediously detailed noted on my tournament games (posted in the Battle Report subforum if anyone cares to look) and a cursory review of these shows that there are no duplicate lists between different players after more than 4 years of tournaments; probably I've missed some so perhaps I'll be proven wrong if anyone has time or inclination to do a full review. Even 'famous' lists like the Greg P Lilith crew (with Nekima, Doppelganger, Johan plus Retribution's Eye et al) which have been joked about being really common; I have literally never seen anyone but Greg use this list. Overall my view is that crew building is the lesser skilled part of the game, and therefore that net-listing is not (to paraphrase my view of other people's opinions) 'outsourcing part of the win'. But perhaps I'm taking that view since, as mentioned, this is a phenomenon I have not encountered at all in in the UK tournament scene.

Great report! It sounds like a really fun game, but I especially love the way you add the colourful descriptions of each funny event. Could it be possible to put the photos in with the relevant part of the text? It's easier to follow that way. Congratulations on the win. I'm looking forward to coming up; maybe we'll get to play at the Governor-General's Wake.

Excellent news! I've paid now for Gareth H and me. I might Gremlin this one.

Some really great reports in there; I like your style. The pictures are also very helpful in following the action. Now that your error with the summoned Piglets in turn 1 has been pointed out, what do you plan to do for with Ulix's AP to start games off now?

Cool. I've bought 4 tickets now to cover Jonny West, Joe Taylor, Gareth Henry and myself. I'm looking forward to it already!

LusciousMcCabe - thanks for commenting. I'm not using gloss varnish. Part of the shininess comes from me using a very old pot of brown ink (Winsor and Newton Peat Brown) which does tend to give a bit of a gloss look, and the rest is from my truly awful photography. My miniatures aren't quite as shiny as that in real life (and of course, I'm not normally playing with them in the sunshine); the Hodgepodge Effigy suffers worse than most because almost the whole miniature took a coat of brown ink at some point. Here are the Abominations (formerly Steampunk Abominations) for my Malifaux Outcasts. They're thematically aligned with Leveticus, and though they can be hired by any Outcast master I almost never find that I want to. Instead, they can be summoned by various models' triggers on attacks, notably Leveticus himself and Rusty Alyce, when a victim dies. Needless to say, they're not especially good in their own right. Instead, they are quite annoying to be near, stopping the use of (0) actions and removing built-in suits for some actions. This means that summoning them near priority enemy models can be a form of causing Slow as they need to spend AP to clear themselves of the irritating Abomination. I'm often conflicted on doing this as some schemes and strategies score point for killing things, and summoning a load of weak minions right next to their hardest pieces can be a way to haemorrhage points. Therefore it needs consideration about whether this is actually valuable in each game. The miniatures themselves are a pleasingly eclectic bunch. As befits a group of cheap irritation pieces, I kept the painting as simple as possible, with minimal colours on each. They were really enjoyable to put paint on though, as each is an individual quite unlike any of the others.