Argentbadger

Nice painting. That green really ties the crews together, and it looks a treat especially on the Freikorps. What is that thing sticking out of the Strongarm Suit's mouth?

Really looking forward to this. Hopefully we'll see a few more pairs signing up before the day.

Woohoo, tickets bought. My 'plus one' is Gareth Henry in case anyone is keeping track of this stuff.

Nice report, great photos, lovely table and beautiful minatures. All in all, a wonderful post. How do you find the games work when master-led at such low point values? I've only played a few (I prefer 40-50SS) but I find that the value of each card is lower because you have enough to go round your smaller crew, and that the impact of the master is disproportionately big. In the final turn, I think that your Slop Hauler didn't need to take the second horror duel since it wasn't targetting the Hanged or aiming to end a walk engaged with it. If you were just aiming to relocate the Slop Hauler still engaged with the Hanged you could have saved yourself taking the disengaging strike, though of course in that case you'd need the horror duel.

That is a very big question. With the huge number of possible combinations of masters and the rest of your crew, you could almost argue that it doesn't matter too much which master you play into a particular situation, because it is possible to build the rest of your crew to cover them. For example, you could take the Viktorias in a non-killing strategy and scheme pool and take the rest of your pieces as ones which would allow you to score your own points. In such a case you can send off the Viks to spoil the other crew's day and pin them back (or whatever you want to achieve). You have to consider the strategy and scheme pool, the other faction (and likely crew composition if you can make a reasonable estimate) and the board layout before you could make your crew; at least assuming that you have the hypothetical 'bottomless case' that includes every piece you could want. Ultimately, and I realise that this is quite useless advice, the best master to choose is the one that you're in the mood for playing at that time. Even at tournaments where I win, I quite often look back and realise that I've chosen my master based on some quite arbitrary reasons. As ever, SpiralngCadavr's advice is spot on. Pick a pair of masters and play them regardless of the strategy and scheme pool for a few games so you can see what they're good and bad at and also what holes in them you can patch with crew construction. The reason for picking two masters is to stop regular opponents from counterpicking you if you play against the same group of friends for the majority of your games. Good luck. (0) Welcome to Malifaux!

I actually almost always use the minimum cache for all masters I've tried in Outcasts (Tara, Jack Daw, Leveticus and Von Schill, the exception is the Viktorias) as I'd rather have a bigger crew. I find that you can play around the safety net of Soulstones to some extent with shrewd positioning. If something crazy comes in for your master then maybe you'll lose them; just make sure that the loss achieved some other aim like costing a lot of the other crew's resources. Jack Daw is pretty survivable unless something with built in to attack comes for him and he doesn't particularly need suits for anything, so the decision will come down to how much card cycling you think you'll need plus how many Soulstones you expect any henchmen in the crew to account for. That said, I think that most of the answers you'll get here will favour a bigger cache.

Mark - thanks! Hopefully the first of many (almost) top table games for us. It was especially sweet to get a game against you after being on the table next to you for most events in 2015. The game was so close that the result essentially came down to luck in the form of the Red and Black Jokers to decide in the final turn. Math Mathonwy - thank you for your kind words. Vappa is a really interesting tournament as it draws a lot of skilled players (probably half the attendees are people I consider credible event winners on any given day) but has only 3 rounds. This means that if you get drawn against a top player in round one (reasonably likely, since that's about half the field) and win then you'll probably face another strong player in round two and the same again in round three. Effectively the winner of the event is almost sure to be decided by VP difference. In some ways this is part of the charm of the whole thing; the round numbers and times are kept deliberately short so that we can go and see the rest of the Vapnartak show. Anyway, I'm always glad to test myself against skilled players, with whom Connor, Maria and Mark are certainly included. That almost everyone I've ever faced in Malifaux has been a perfect lady/gentleman means that I don't worry about having to avoid the legendary 'That Guy'. I didn't use 'I Pay Better' for the simple reason that I don't own the book or any deck which includes it as a card; I will eventually pick up the generic upgrade deck. So I can't give any wonderful tactical insight, although I will say that I don't particularly miss it. The same goes for Oathkeeper (which I do have access to in the wave one deck); I don't find that I use it that often. GG2016 is absolutely wonderful. At this point I cannot praise the makers of the updated schemes highly enough. I think they'll really shake up tournament play for several months at least while people work out their preferred options, and if the balance is genuinely better than the book schemes (in terms of making them all viable) then the long term impact will be even more appreciated. As you correctly point out, making all the schemes unrevealed means that bluffing a scheme that you won't score in turn 2 becomes a viable strategy, something that wasn't often the case in the book schemes. For me at least, GG2016 has injected fresh life into a game I already love to play. I'm really enjoying Outcasts at the moment, though it's hard to say whether I like them more than the Guild (or Ten Thunders that I played pretty much exclusively up to the end of 2014 before I gave them to Furycat). Part of that is the relative freshness of playing with a new set of tools and trying to find what works in my hands for the tasks I need. It could be argued that Guild suited me better because I often play quite aggressively, but I haven't found Outcasts to be lacking in that department. I would note the faction to faction balance though: I played Ten Thunders for about a year, then Guild for about a year and now I'm on Outcasts and I haven't seen any notable difference in my event results. That suggests to me, in the limited dataset of my own experience, that those three factions have comparable efficacy under my control in the shifting UK tournament scene. On that last point I'd be interested to read if anyone else has swapped factions and found a big change in their fortunes as a (perceived) result of doing so.

This would probably get more traffic in the rules forum, but unfortunately I have to agree with your son's friend that Killjoy can't unbury off Leveticus burying. Killjoy's card (emphasis added by me): 'When a model in this Crew is killed or sacrificed, this model may unbury in base contact with the model before it is removed.' Leveticus' card (emphasis added by me): 'When this model is killed or sacrificed, it is not killed or sacrificed. Instead, bury this model.' Perhaps wiser heads than mine will chime in to tell me that we are both wrong though.

Thanks very much for taking the extra time to do this. I know that tabulating the data can be a bit of pain but I do find it interesting. At the moment there isn't enough data out there to learn anything about the schemes, but if a good number of events recorded this information then you could possibly draw conclusions about their relative popularity.

Thanks Chris. As usual this was a terrific event. I had three great games and everything that could be desired from a TO ran smoothly. The round timing was fine, though I'd also have been just as happy going up to 2h for 50SS. The raffle prizes were also fine, though since I didn't win anything it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I really like the little analyses you do on the limited datasets. It's interesting that there were no Gremlins, but otherwise I think that you can put the variance in master use down to personal preference (e.g. the relative prevalence of the Viktorias can be associated with John W's presence). I think a couple of years ago you did a breakdown of chosen schemes for each round. If you have the data for that I would be interested to see what was picked with the new schemes. My more detailed thoughts can be found here: .

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Arcanists (Mark Shepherd; AnythingBut on the forums) Strategy: Collect the Bounty Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Exhaust Their Forces, Leave Your Mark, Search The Ruins, Mark For Death My Outcasts: Search The Ruins, Mark For Death Arcanists: Leave Your Mark, Mark For Death Crews My Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity), Freikorps Librarian, Rusty Alyce, Hodgepodge Effigy, Taelor, 2 Freikorps Trappers Arcanists: Marcus (Hunger Cry, Feral Instincts, Trail of the Gods), Myranda (Imbued Energies), Rogue Necromancy (Imbued Energies), Sabretooth Cerberus (Imbued Energies), Waldgeist, Jackalope, Arcane Effigy I was absolutely delighted to be drawn against Mark. We've spent most of the 2015 tournament playing at adjacent tables so it was lovely to finally get in a game with him. I chose Tara again for this to try to make the most of flank deployment and the central terrain. Basically I intended to use the middle for cover and shoot things as they came at me; Tara making things Fast or Slow means that I either have longer to do it or more shots per turn. The Trappers were intended to whittle things down and force the incoming Arcanists to spread out to get to them. I took Taelor in case I ended up looking at Joss, Howard Langston or some other equally nasty armoured construct across the table. Search The Ruins felt good since I was aiming to take the centre anyway, and I figured that Mark For Death was basically what I was aiming for in the first place; albeit with an additional step of marking the target first. Turn 1: The Waldgeist comes up and Germinates. One Trapper shoots it anyway and the other one shoots the Arcane Effigy, which spends the rest of the game hiding out of my line of sight. The Rogue Necromancy Stalks Taelor. Marcus takes his fast walk and rushes over to the cover of another building. Alyce Focusses and shoots some more wounds out of the Waldgeist. We finish the turn classily with the Cerberus failing to Leap and Tara missing a double Focus shot at the Necromancy. Turn 2: The Cerberus discards Imbued Energies, Leaps onto the roof, Marks the Trapper for death and duly eats him, scoring a point in the process. Tara Slows the Rogue Necromancy and runs away from Marcus who is sitting looking threatening in the corner; the construct shoots some nasty poison onto Taelor. The surviving Trapper misses the Waldgeist twice and Myrand heals it. The Effigy drops scheme markers, then Alyce shoots the Necromancy before Taelor rushes over to kill it. Marcus charges Taelor with melee expert and extra damage and I blow through my cards and soulstones to keep her alive on one wound. Tara moves even further away from Marcus and makes the rest of my crew Fast with Temporal Shift thanks to the Jackalope having come up too far. Taelor finally succumbs to the Poison but I do score for the strategy. Turn 3: Marcus steams over with a load of extra powers and, to my great surprise, attacks the Librarian (I thought he'd just kill off Tara). She survives but is a Domesticated beast. Tara Marks Marcus, Slows him and pokes him gently with her sword, drawing a couple of cards from Mark to stop me Burying him. The Walgeist comes into the scrum, the Trapper misses Myranda (a terrible choice of target but I think the was the only option) who piles in as well. She heals Marcus a little and turns into a Blessed of December. The Librarian Focusses and hurts Marcus. My Effigy drops another scheme marker and is then charged ineffectually by the Jackalope. Alyce charges Marcus and eventually kills both the Librarian and the Walgeist with redirected attacks. The Cerberus moves well into my side of the board and drops a scheme marker which is later revealed for Leave Your Mark. Tara's second activation has her slapping Marcus a bit with her sword. I score for Collect the Bounty. Turn 4: This is called as the last turn. Marcus Marks Alyce, takes melee expert and additional damage and swing at her. She's unwounded so he needs better than weak damage on at least one swing. The second one brings out the Red Joker, vapourising the girl and scoring Mark For Death. Tara taps Mrarcus for Slow and he conveniently Black Jokers the resist for Glimpse the Void, thereby scoring me for Mark For Death finally. She also Slows the Jackalope and Blessed. The Cerberus schemes again. The Effigy Marks the Blessed, which Leaps away to remove a scheme marker. The Trapper takes a couple of shots at it and on the second I cheat low to get a triple negative flip, hoping to luck out and draw the Red Joker I'd need for the kill. I do indeed get lucky and gun down the Blessed for another Mark For Death point. The Jackalope blocks Tara so she kills it and drops a scheme marker. Mark scores on the strategy. Outcasts win 7 - 6 (2 for Collect the Bounty, 2 for Mark For Death and 3 for Search The Ruins for me; 1 for Collect the Bounty, 3 for Mark For Death and 2 for Leave Your Mark for Mark). The game did indeed live up to the expectation; Mark is a much of a gent to play as he is to chat with. My only gripe is to play a man called Mark when there were also two schemes in the pool with 'mark' in the name! I was in general quite happy with how I played; I gave Taelor away a little cheaply but being my main melee threat in this crew I was sure to lose her eventually. I clearly need to play more games against Marcus as I always struggle against his crews; the threat range is huge. The last turn of that game got quite silly with Red and Black Jokers coming up just at critical times. When the scores are counted up I came in with second place which I am very pleased with in that field. Most importantly I got three fun games against three very strong players, so thanks to Connor, Maria and Mark for enjoying my day with me. Thanks too to Chris and his helper team for putting on a very smooth event and keeping everything running like clockwork. I'm already looking forward to the next Vappafaux.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Outcasts (Maria Wieland; MariFaux on the forums) Strategy: Head Hunter Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Hunting Party, Catch and Release, Show of Force, Occupy Their Turf My Outcasts: Show of Force, Hunting Party Maria's Outcasts: Convict Labour, Hunting Party Crews My Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity), Freikorps Librarian, Rusty Alyce (Desolate Soul), Hodgepodge Effigy, Johan, Bishop (Scramble), Malifaux Child Maria's Outcasts: Hamelin (Piper, Infectious Melodies, Oathkeeper), Johan (Oathkeeper), Hodgepodge Emissary (Conflux of Plague), Stolen, Taelor (Oathkeeper, Scout the Field), Obedient Wretch In theory I like Jack Daw a lot in Head Hunter since the pushes from Writhing Torment can make it quite easy to collect the head markers. In this case, I was worried that we would end up with a ridiculous 'Jack Daw off' where everyone gets pushed this way and that before any action takes place. So I decided to take Tara instead since being Fast can make quite a lot of difference too. On such an open board I'd normally be thinking about Trappers, but they would be counter productive in Head Hunter as they'd just end up showering heads around Maria's deployment zone for her to score. Having Show of Force in the scheme pool made me deviate from my normal style too; I'm not really a fan of taking lots of upgrades but in this case I felt that I had to do so to avoid just giving up three points to Maria if she took some upgrades. Once I'd taken them, I felt that I might as well go all the way and select that scheme. With so many expected minions cycling through the Hamelin crew I thought that Hunting Party should be very achievable. Turn 1: Various combinations of vermin and children get thrown about and turned into each other; my notes don't allow me to replicate the actual sequences. Tara makes Alyce Fast and my crew advance to hold the centre of the board. Hamelin uses a soulstone to summon a pair of Stolen, Obeys Taelor forward and Obeys the Emissary forward. The latter moves toward the centreline and drops a scheme marker. Turn 2: More rats and children waste activations. Tara taps both Alyce and Bishop for Fast; the Child does the same for Johan. Alyce Rapid Fires Johan down to his Hard to Kill wound and Bishop rushes over to finish him off then scramble back into the centre since Alyce is too far away to score Show of Force. The Effigy uses the Mist and drops a scheme marker to try and fake like I'm doing Convict Labour and not Hunting Party. Hamelin Obeys my Effigy toward Taelor's waiting embrace and summons another Stolen (the previous ones are probably a Rat Catcher by now, certainly there is one around somewhere). Taelor smites the Effigy into matchwood (scoring Hunting Party in the process) and the Emissary picks up the head. I score for Show of Force. Turn 3: Tara makes Alyce, the Librarian and Bishop Fast. Johan picks up the head of his fallen twin and the Librarian shouts most of the wounds off the Emissary. Bishop kills a Rat Catcher who fell out of a Rat King at some earlier stage (scoring for Hunting Party) and Alyce puts a couple of bullets into Hamelin to keep him cautious. Hamelin Obeys Alyce to kill off my Child, getting round Manipulative cleverly. I actually cheated high enough to put her on a negative damage flip but the Red Joker blew the little chap away. If he'd survived on one wound I could have hidden him safely behind some rock pillars. Tara kills the Emissary and Taelor uses Oathkeeper to pick up its head. I score Show of Force again. Turn 4: Tara Slows Taelor and makes Alyce and Johan Fast. The Rat Catcher goes Fast, walks over to Bishop and picks up the head of his predecessor then rudely dies before Bishop could punch him. Alyce guns down a Rat King (Hunting Party) and summons an Abomination from it in the hope of making Maria work to score another Hunting Party point. Another child rushes over to pick up the head to stop me from collecting it and sacrifices itself. The Librarian shouts at Taelor and eventually Johan charges in to her, getting her down to Hard to Kill and knocking her out of range of the centre (because I still thought that Maria might have Show of Force herself). Hamelin repeatedly Lures my new Abomination over, eventually killing it. Maria scores for Hunting party at the end of the turn since I have no minions left again, and I score a final point for Show of Force. Turn 5: Tara finishes off Taelor. Hamelin kills his own last Rat with Useless Toys then runs off to the corner. I'm not really sure why Maria killed the rat herself since it scored me the last Hunting Party point for free. Johan picks up Taelor's head and revels in wielding the last Relic Hammer on the table. My Outcasts win 8 - 6 (2 for Head Hunter and everything for the schemes for me; 3 for Head Hunter and 3 for Hunting Party for Maria). As always, that was a terrific game against Maria. On my side of the table, I felt that I managed to keep on top of the summoning cycle by forcing Maria to expend pieces from time to time just to keep me at bay. Scoring Hunting Party was much trickier than I expected since Maria played her crew very cagily, but I had the mobility and power to get some kills and some heads where I needed them. Having all schemes unrevealed at the start made the whole game very interesting because I wasn't sure what to try to counter; having said that I think that maybe Convict Labour was not really the right strategy for Maria.

I've had some good times at the previous Vapnartak events I've attended and so when tickets were on sale for the 2016 iteration I was very happy to buy one from Chris, the organiser, at some tournament we met at. Normally I'm very lucky that Joe drives me around to these far-flung locations, but this time Joe's car broke down and I was obliged to drive. The effects of my driving can be seen in the results that Joe and Furycat managed at the tournament. Still, I was really excited for this, not only the first singles event of 2016 but my first ever games using the new Gaining Grounds 2016 schemes. Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Connor Barker; Proximocoal on the forums) Strategy: Extraction Schemes Pool: Convict Labour, Leave Your Mark, A Quick Murder, Hunting Party, Covert Breakthrough Outcasts: A Quick Murder (Izamu the Armour), Hunting Party Resurrectionists: A Quick Murder (Taelor), Hunting Party Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, 2 Freikorps Trappers, Taelor, Guilty, Rusty Alyce [edit: as pointed out by Viefaux this is actually 48SS, so I cheated Connor here. I've already apologised to him, and as a true gentleman he's accepted my apology] Resurrectionists: Yan Lo (Reliquary, Fortify The Spirit), Izamu the Armour (Spirit Beacon), Toshiro the Daimyo (Command the Graves, Corpse Bloat), Soul Porter, Philip and the Nanny (Take Back The Night), Dead Doxy So after 4 hours of driving South, my first round match up is exactly the same opponent and strategy as the first round of my previous event. Lucky for me that Connor is such a great chap to play against. I picked Jack Daw to hope that the pushes on Tormented pieces could allow me to keep my own models near the Marker and possibly push Connor's away (but it didn't; I forgot about it entirely on the other crew). Alyce and Taelor are both very good for killing so I took Hunting Party, and I realised that I would have to drop Izamu at some point so took A Quick Murder on him so that I could score some points for doing so. It appears that I forgot to take picture of the start of the game. Turn 1: The Guilty Torments Taelor. The Soul Porter pushes Yan Lo and Toshiro forward while keeping carefully out of sight of my Trappers. Toshiro brings up a corpse marker and summons an Ashigaru from it, then drops a scheme marker. Philip then discards the marker for some card cycling. Both Trappers put bullets into Yan Lo to put a bit of pressure on the old man. The Doxy pushes Yan Lo forward with Take The Lead, then he heals Toshiro and shoots a Trapper. Alyce, who has been made Tormented and moved forward by Jack Daw, puts another bullet into Yan Lo but he Red Jokers the prevention flip. Turn 2: Yan Lo double focusses and shoots Taelor, then picks up Spirit Ascendant. Luckily for me I flip like a champion on defense and stop Connor from cheating in the Red Joker. The Librarian uses Furious Casting on the Doxy, killing her and scoring me a point for Hunting Party. Izamu steams up the right side and smites the Trapper, starting Connor's own Hunting Party and summoning a Seishin in the process. Alyce Rapid Fires to kill Toshiro who is helpfully standing out of cover. The Ashigaru charges into the Librarian and is charged right back by my Guilty. Taelor charges Izamu; luckily top-decking the Red Joker on the first swing so I stone in the Tome to make sure of the kill on the second; this scores me 3 points for A Quick Murder. Jack Daw puts Guillotine Injustice on the Ashigaru and lands Philip with Firing Squad Injustice (but I made a mistake and should have charged in to use the Noose instead of Suppressed Memories for the better weak damage; I was hoping to make use of the lower willpower on Philip). We both score on the Strategy; I move the marker a toward my board edge. Turn 3: Taelor charges into Yan Lo, missing one swing then Black Jokering damage on the second. The Ashigaru finishes off the Librarian while the Guilty pokes gently at Philip. The Soul Porter moves Yan Lo toward the Guilty. Alyce shoots the last wound off the Ashigaru for Hunting Party and Jack Daw charges in and drops a Red Joker damage flip to kill Yan Lo. I score on the strategy. We look at the board state and agree that either Alyce or Taelor will be able to drop either the Soul Porter or the Seishin next turn for a final Hunting Party point, and therefore that we can call this here and spend more time looking round the rest of the show. Outcasts win 10 - 2 (full score for me; one for Extraction and one for Hunting Party for Connor). All games against Connor are fun, and I was glad to get a win against him after a couple of defeats in a row. The board was quite open (not as much as it looked; we treated the cactus bases as forests to have a bit more line of sight blocking) and the Trappers and Alyce were able to get a lot of work done. We ended up picking the same schemes for the same reasons; I would have been quite interested to see what else was popular in the rest of the field. I met up with my old mate Rob and spent the rest of the lunch break looking round the show and catching up before we were onto round 2. [edit: obviously, winning is a bit easier when you field a bigger crew than your opponent. Probably not much to learn here apart from that I need to count better.]

Nice report as always. I think that the [aura increasing] upgrade you mention is probably The Creeping Terror. How did you find the GG2016 schemes? It seems that Colette did not have any difficulty acheiving the scheme marker one. In retrospect, do you think it could have been preferable to take Show Of Force and just park Alyce in the centre shooting things? It would have been one fewer piece for interference but three points for a scheme could have been worth it.

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Gremlins (Kenny Hall) Strategy: Stake a Claim Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Bodyguard, Breakthrough, Outflank, Plant Explosives Outcasts: Breakthrough (announced), Plant Explosives Gremlins: Bodyguard (Francois LaCroix), Breakthrough (announced) Crews Outcasts: Tara (Obliteration Symbiote, Knowledge of Eternity), Freikorpsman, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Hodgepodge Effigy, Johan, Killjoy, Ronin Gremlins: Ophelia LaCroix (Dirty Cheater), Old Cranky, Lenny, Francois LaCroix (Dirty Cheater), Rami LaCroix (Hide in the Mud), Slop Hauler, Merris LaCroix, 2 Bayou Gremlins Despite my win in round two, both Joe and Furycat lost their games so we went further down to the bottom tables. I ended up paired with Kenny, a player returning from a hiatus since Malifaux 1.5, to take on his Gremlins. I took Tara for her large number of AP since there wasn't really anything needing killing. Since we were using close deployment I took Killjoy hoping to catch the Gremlin crew unawares, perhaps as soon as the first activation with a Tara bomb. I fancied trying out a Ronin since I only just put them together the night before the event; from this choice you can see the highly tactical approach I was taking. Breakthrough is simplest in close deployment, and I thought that with my relatively un-killy crew (except Killjoy) that Plant Explosives would be the best option from the rest. I set up first and Kenny loaded his entire crew on one side, which put paid to my plans to launch Killjoy at them right at the beginning of the game. Turn 1: The Bayou Gremlins surprisingly don't go Reckless, but do shoot my Ronin who takes the damage despite cover. Rami Focuses and blows away the Freikorpsman (on the left; not visible in my photo due to the terrain) with a Dumb Luck Red Joker; the Trapper drops him in return before he can be healed. There is some fairly ineffective shooting around the board. Ophelia moves up, uses Ooh a Girl to pull Lenny into a nice clump with Old Cranky, Francois and Bayou Gremlin before shooting the Ronin. Tara moves up, unburies Killjoy and makes him, Johan, the Librarian and a Bayou Gremlin Fast with Temporal Shift. Killjoy rockets into the Gremlin crowd but fails to kill Lenny thanks to Old Cranky's aura. Lenny Tosses Ophelia upfield and pokes Killjoy. The Slop Hauler uses Reckless and moves up to heal some Gremlins. Turn 2: Tara pings Ophelia for Slow, gives Killjoy Fast and buries him, then unburies him again to companion for the charge. This time he kills Francois, fails to kill Old Cranky (due to Lenny's aura of damage reduction) then finishes off Lenny. In retrospect I should have dealt with Lenny first. Ophelia kills the Ronin and shoots the Librarian. Johan kills Merris and the Slop Hauler makes a run for it to catch up with Ophelia. The Effigy deeper into Kenny's half of the board and drops a scheme marker. Old Cranky, to my surprise, moves in and attacks Killjoy, killing himself with Black Blood in the process. The Librarian shouts a few wounds out of Ophelia with Ancient Words; the Gremlin Squeals into melee with her. One Bayou Gremlin escapes Killjoy's clutches and wastes a couple of bullets shooting at Tara; the Trapper kills it in return. Tara Stakes a Claim, scoring me a VP for the strategy. Turn 3: Somewhere around here I realise that I'm meant to be doing Plant Explosives. Tara Slows Ophelia and makes Killjoy Fast, burying him in the process. Ophelia kills the Librarian and runs for my board edge. The Effigy and Slop Hauler put down Claim markers. Tara walks between the Slop Hauler and last Bayou Gremlin to put down a scheme marker which is immediately removed for Plant Explosives (2 VP). I score on the Stake a Claim. Turn 4: Tara misses two charge attacks at the Slop Hauler, but her main objective was to get far enough past him to deliver Killjoy into Ophelia. Good use of masks (for Squeal) and soulstones on Kenny's side leave Ophelia alive with a couple of wounds after Killjoy is finished. Ophelia drops scheme and Claim markers. Johan kills the Slop Hauler, rather showing up Tara pitiful efforts from earlier in the turn. The Bayou Gremlin puts down a scheme marker and shoots Johan, killing itself with Dumb Luck in the process; Johan was saved by his Hard To Kill. The Trapper, who spent the whole of last turn walking, guns down Ophelia. Neither of us score for the strategy on turn 4, but since Kenny is out of Gremlins we agree that I spend turn 5 removing his scheme markers and putting down another Claim marker with Tara. Outcasts win 8 - 0 (3 for Stake a Claim, 3 for Breakthough and 2 for Plant Explosives). Kenny was a lovely chap to meet across a Malifaux table. I think his inexperience showed a bit here as I felt that he was a bit over-cautious when it came to things like Reckless and Dumb Luck. I did explain at the start of the game about the Tara / Killjoy bomb but I think it is the sort of thing that you need to have happen to you before you can counter it. On the one hand, concentrating his crew on one side did make it longer before I could deliver Killjoy, but on the other it meant that I could tie up half of his crew with a single piece. I really enjoy playing Tara; it always feels like I have options. Joe also managed a win in the final round (Gareth got a hilarious Evidence Tampering sucker punch for a third narrow loss) so at least we as team managed one win. I think we were 6th or so out of 10 in the team rankings. Slightly to my surprise the TOs did put up individual ranking (surprising because I thought that the team format would make single rankings a bit weird) and I was somewhere in the upper third. Wherever we ended up, I had a great time out. I was really impressed with the turn out; 30 players for an unranked event right at the start of January is absolutely terrific. As always, it was terrific to catch up with old friends and new. Thanks to Connor, Michael and Kenny for three enjoyable games and to Kai and Jamie for their usual smooth organisation.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Arcanists (Michael Arnott) Strategy: Reckoning Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Assassinate, Distract, Entourage, Vendetta Outcasts: Assassinate, Entourage (Viktoria of Ashes, announced) Arcanists: Assassinate, Entourage (Marcus, announced) Crews Outcasts: Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury, Synchronised Slaying), Viktoria of Blood (Oathkeeper, Mark of Shezuul), Freikorps Librarian, Johan, Malifaux Child, Bishop (Oathkeeper), Taelor (Oathkeeper) Arcanists: Marcus (Arcane Reservoir, The God's Domain, Seize The Day), Myranda, 4 Sabretooth Cerberuses (one has Pack Leader) So despite Joe's heroic victory in round 1, Furycat and I both lost so we were down already in the rankings. After the team captains picked the match-ups I was set up against Michael's Arcanists. Seeing the frankly ludicrous bowling green of terrain my first thought was to use Alyce, 2 Trappers and Lazarus and just let my victims come into the teeth of my guns. I decided that was not really in the spirit of the team event and so picked out the Viktorias. I had only just assembled them but one test game earlier in the week made me think that they should be plenty of fun. Seeing Michael's crew it was clear that he was taking the same approach. Considering the scheme pools I thought that Assassinate was an easy choice; Marcus was going to have to get his hands dirty if Michael wanted to win here. If I'd used a Trapper I would have been all over Vendetta but in the end I picked Entourage on my master. Turn 1: The Malifaux Child casts Sisters in Fury and our crews advance on each other from our corners. I advance Viktoria of Ashes too far and Marcus is able to Alpha and Darzee's Chaunt a Cerberus. Only Michael's terrible cards save me from losing my master in turn 1. Assassinate, Entourage (Viktoria of Ashes, announced)Blood, stranded far from her sister, has to use Oathkeeper to catch up. She does blend the offending Cerberus quite effectively upon arrival. Turn 2: I win initiative and power up Viktoria of Ashes with Sisters in Fury, advances and places her sister with Sisters in Spirit. Viktoria of Blood chain activates and charges into a perfect position between Marcus, Myranda and one Cerberus. Sadly, Michael flips the Red Joker to make the first attack miss and I Black Joker the second so the single Whirlwind I pull off is depressingly ineffective. Myranda heals the wounded Cerberus and companions it to miss Viktoria of Blood. Marcus misses her as well and one final Cerberus is able to get her down to a single wound. The rest of my crew are running to get involved. This was a very silly turn with all the good cards coming out on defense flips. Turn 3: Viktoria of Ashes again casts Sisters in Fury, moves round into companion range of Viktoria of Blood and swings once at the Cerberus engaging her. Viktoria of Blood kills Marcus (scoring Assassinate) and hurts Myranda and both Cerberuses nearby. Myranda heals a cat and transforms into a Cerberus herself. Taelor uses Oathkeeper and hurts yet another giant cat. It Leaps into Viktoria of Ashes, misses the first attack and then top decks the Red Joker on a negative flip for the second, scoring Assassinate in the process. So since we both have Assassinate in the bag and can't score Entourage, this will now been decided by Reckoning score. Bishop kills a Cerberus, one of them finally polishes off Viktoria of Blood and the Librarian softens up yet another one. We both score for Reckoning. Turn 4: The left-most Cerberus Leaps and kills off the Malifaux Child. Taelor kills one Cerberus and Johan combines with Bishop to drop the second-last one. The survivor flees from Taelor and gets hurt by Furious Casting from the Librarian. I score Reckoning. Turn 5: The Cerberus is able to flee out of my range, so we call the game there. Outcasts win 5 - 4 (2 for Reckoning and 3 for Assassinate for me; 1 for Reckoning and 3 for Assassinate for Michael). That was a very silly game with ridiculous flips on both sides of the table. I don't think I've played that badly with my positioning for a long while, but it was quite instructive in using the huge threat range of the Viktorias. I ended up with them engaged with the whole of Michael's crew while the rest of my crew ran to keep up. My choice of schemes was quite silly too; with Assassinate in the pool I shouldn't have put all my eggs in the same basket by taking Entourage on Viktoria of Ashes. Taelor would have been a far better option, partly since she's much more survivable and partly because there were no Assassinate VPs riding on her too. I had a nice time and I was quite glad not to have taken a shooting crew against Michael's hilarious cat crew.

It's a new year, but the Malifaux scene here in Scotland continues triumphantly onward. This event, held again at Common Ground Games in Stirling, was set up as a team format. We formed trios (Joe, Furycat and me in our case) and the team captains (Joe for our team) did some kind of jiggery-pokery to determine the match-ups. I deliberately stayed out of the process but it seemed to be smooth and clear to all involved. I'm happy to play anyone so I didn't want to bias anyone's choices. Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Connor Barker) Strategy: Extraction Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Bodyguard, Murder Protegé, Protect Territory, Spring the Trap Outcasts: Bodyguard (Librarian), Protect Territory Resurrectionists: Murder Protegé (Rusty Alyce, announced), Spring the Trap Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, 2 Freikorps Trappers, Hodgepodge Effigy, Guilty, Rusty Alyce, Johan Resurrectionists: Molly Squidpiddge (Take Back The Night, Forgotten Life), Valedictorian, Philip and the Nanny, Madame Sybelle (Bleeding Tongue), 2 Dead Doxies, Rotten Belle, Necrotic Machine In our first round we were drawn against one of the toughest teams and I ended up matching up against Connor's Resurrectionists again. I decided rather arbitrarily to play Jack Daw, not because he has any special cleverness in Extraction but simply because I was in the mood. The board was quite open so I put a pair of Trappers in the list, the rest was just a load of cool stuff I could flood the board centre with. Hopefully Jack Daw would work fairly well in the close confines of the area around the Informant marker. I considered taking Murder Protegé against the Valedictorian but ultimately decided that she would be too mobile and hard to take down reliably. Instead, I swithered and eventually chose to Bodyguard the Librarian; it could easily have been Alyce but I was quite glad when Connor revealed that he had Murder Protegé on her. Turn 1: The Necrotic Machine moves up and pushes most of the crew towards me with Brethren. One Trapper misses shots on Molly; I was trying to put a little early pressure on her. The Belle and one of the Doxies drop scheme markers that Philip discards for the card draw before the other Trapper shoots him. The Valedictorian double moves into the right Trapper and attacks him via the trigger on Lecture Notes. On my side, the Guilty makes Johan Tormented, and Jack Daw does the same for Alyce before making the latter move up. Sybelle gets moved by the second Doxy's Take The Lead and then advances and Calls Belle on Molly. In an effort to keep some control over Molly I throw Alyce into her for some trivial damage; forgetting of course that she was the Murder Protegé target. Molly puts Whispered Secret onto Alyce, Imbues Vigour onto the nearby Doxy and slaps Alyce with Revelation a couple of times. Johan charges the Doxy but can't kill her before she reactivates and gently pokes Alyce. Turn 2: The Doxy move into Johan with Take The Lead and hurts him a little. Alyce Black Jokers an attack on Molly and the Valedictorian easily kills the Trapper. Jack Daw charges Molly knocking her down dangerously low on wounds and leaving her with Firing Squad Injustice for her trouble. Molly summons a Punk Zombie in the midst of my crew and makes it Slice and Dice with Whispers of Past Life. She spends the rest of her activation in Penance to flip the 'upgrade' from Jack Daw. Johan kills one Doxy and pushes the other out of range of the Informant. Sybelle charges Alyce but achieves nothing apart from drawing some of my soulstones. The Guilty Torments the Librarian and flaps uselessly at the Punk Zombie. The Necrotic Machine again pulls Connor's crew towards the centre with Brethren. The Librarian takes the push for being Tormented near Jack Daw and kills Molly. Philip and the Belle drop scheme markers for Spring the Trap (scoring 3 VP at the end of the turn). We both score on the strategy but I move the marker towards my board edge. Turn 3: The Punk Zombie uses Slice and Dice twice for limited effect considering the amount of targets. Johan Flurries Sybelle leaving her with a single wound left; she hits Alyce down to a single wound and Complies her to hit Jack Daw (a clever way around Oldest Magic). The Trapper hurts the surviving Dead Doxy which kills Johan. The Guilty hurts the Punk Zombie and the Necrotic Machine kills Alyce (scoring Murder Protegé). It was a mistake on my part here not to activate Alyce earlier since she was so clearly a target. The Hodgepodge Effigy drops a scheme marker and gives Jack Daw Loyalty to the Coin. My master then goes wild and kills Sybelle, the Doxy and the Punk Zombie. The Librarian hurts Philip but flips the Black Joker on the second damage flip to leave him alive and he remove my scheme marker. The Valedictorian swoops in to hurt the Librarian. We both score for Extraction. Turn 4: The Effigy drops a scheme marker then Jack Daw kills Philip and makes the Guilty drop a scheme marker. The Valedictorian kills the Effigy and the Librarian, before we run out of time. Outcasts lose 4 - 9 (3 for Extraction and 1 for Protect Territory for me; 3 for Extraction and both schemes for Connor). I had a lovely time playing Connor, as usual of course. I think that the difference here was the good choice and clever application of schemes from Connor's side compared to mine. I gave away Alyce quite cheaply, though I did use her to keep Molly busy for a couple of turns and save myself from being overrun by summons. I also should have been rather less aggressive with the Librarian since I had her as my Bodyguard choice, but again I felt that I needed her in action to keep other things in check.

Nice report. You did well to get full points; I was actually expecting to read that you'd denied more points from your friend since Hamelin can be played as a denial master. More than anything, I think that this illustrates that it's best not to worry too much about counter-picking a specific master since you might not see them across the table form you.

Excellent, I'll see if Gareth will join me. Otherwise, I'll hire myself out to the highest bidder. How many rounds are you planning if it is over two days?

Good work. I really enjoyed that.

Thanks both. Connor - it was a clever play, no complaints from me. Well, maybe some small mumbling-under-the-breath complaints. It felt quite thematic with the Mindless Zombies dragging the wagon out of my grasp.

Cool. Money down for Gareth Henry, Joe Taylor and me.

Game 4: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Connor Barker) Strategy: To The Top Of The Wall, Now Dash Away (Attacker: stay close to the wagon marker and get it to your own side of the board; Defender: have more pieces on the opponents side of the board than they have on yours each turn) Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Plant Evidence, Assassinate, Spring The Trap, Breakthrough Outcasts: Plant Evidence (announced), Breakthrough (announced) Resurrectionists: Assassinate, Breakthrough (announced) Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Freikorpsman, Rusty Alyce, Johan, 2 Guilty Resurrectionists: Yan Lo (Reliquary, Fortify Spirit), Soul Porter, Carrion Emissary (Ancestral Conflux), Toshiro the Daimyo (Corpse Bloat, Command The Graves), Datsue Ba (Spirit Whispers), 3 Gaki Happily, there was no Krampus in this scenario. Instead, the player with the most pieces near the wagon marker at the end of each turn got to push it around. We actually both announced which master we were planning to play here instead of only faction since I think that we had both decided already to play this event as a single master. I mainly stuck with the same rough crew as my previous games, getting rid of one of the relatively static Trappers in favour of another Guilty to make use of the additional mobility afforded by Jack Daw. I seriously considered taking Assassinate but in the end decided that it wasn't reliable against Yan Lo as he can really get his defenses going over a game. I decided to try to flood the centre to get hold of the wagon and just drop scheme markers where possible. Turn 1: The Trapper Focusses and kills the Soul Porter. Toshiro moves up, drops a corpse counter and turns it into an Ashigaru. The Guilty make Johan and Alyce Tormented and move up. Datsue Ba summons a Seishin on the right. Johan moves up to engage the lead pieces and try to keep some chance of keeping control of the wagon, so Yan Lo Lightning Dances him away. Sadly for Connor he Black Jokers one attack leaving the old man very exposed. Alyce pushes to get a clear shot at Yan Lo and Rapid Fires most of his Soulstones out of him. Jack Daw uses Twist and Turn to make her do it again then charges in and leaves Yan Lo clinging to his life by a shred. The Carrion Emissary kills Johan. Connor moves the wagon toward his side of the table. Turn 2: Yan Lo, to my great surprise, goes fully Defensive. Jack kills him anyway then uses the Ghost of Malifaux trigger to move to the Mindless Zombie and hand Firing Squad Injustice to Toshiro. This was a mistake as there was no need to be so aggressive and it left Jack very exposed. Various minions, all getting positive flips from standing near Toshiro, take turn at attack Jack. Toshiro summons another Ashigaru then War Fans a Gaki; I try to kill it with the Trapper (to make the effort on War Fan wasted) but can't quite do the deed. The Librarian hurts another Gaki and Alyce shoots one of the Ashigaru and the Guilty kills it again. The Seishin moves to annoy Alyce. The Freikorpsman drops a scheme marker and is easily killed by Datsue Ba. Turn 3: Jack kills Toshiro. The Emissary attacks Jack but can't make it stick. The Guilty kill a Gaki each. Datsue Ba summons another Seishin and I'm not doing a good job of keeping them in check. There is a big and fairly ineffective scrum in the centre which ends with me moving the wagon back to its starting point. Turn 4: The Emissary Focusses and kills Jack Daw, scoring for Assassinate in the process. The Guilty on the right drops a scheme marker as does the Librarian. Everything move in on the wagon and eventually Connor has slightly more around it and so move it back to his side of the board, mainly due to the swarm of Mindless Zombies and Seishin hanging around. Outcasts lose 3 - 4 (3 for Plant Evidence for me; 3 for Assassinate and 1 for Plant Evidence for Connor). Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the end state before we tidied up. I had a terrific game against Connor; he is such a gentleman to play with. I think one of the reasons I love to play Connor is that we feel quite evenly matched so every game we both need to play our best if we are to win. I certainly learned a lot about Jack Daw today; probably the biggest thing I need to learn is to use him less aggressively since he isn't that tough to kill against a determined crew. Hopefully I can improve on this. I think that I'm always going to be an aggressive player so it's not like I'm going to change that but I need to take more care of where I'm sending Jack Daw. The story pack was really good fun overall. There were a few minor gripes from me, but I think that part of this is being spoiled by the good balance on the Gaining Grounds strategies. Although I had no particular problem killing the Krampus I think that the other crew only getting 3 soulstones compensation was a bit low and I know that other players found the Krampus a bit of a handful. There were also a few sections of the rules pack that I felt would have benefited from the 'non-Peon' clause, but maybe that is just sour grapes on my side after Connor swamped me with Seishin. When all the scores are added up, I'm in third place which I am very pleased with. I had a terrific time playing Malifaux with old and new friends, just as I always do. The tournament community for Malifaux in Scotland and the North of England (and the other bits of the UK from which I've encountered players, even though I don't venture so far myself) is so universally friendly that I would recommend it to anyone. Even if you're not-a-tournament-player, I advise you to get out and reach out to your local community and see for yourself. Hopefully others have had the same experience gaming. Thanks to Martyn, Kai, Lewis and Connor for four fun games of Malifaux, and to Andrew for the hard work he put into making this such a successful event. Since this is the last event for me in 2015, I thought it would be interesting to add up my results over the year. I've managed to play 52 tournament games over 13 events (counting the two Kings of the North events separately), mostly with Guild but a few with Outcasts. I have 42 tournament games with Guild: 30 wins, 3 draws and 9 losses. Breaking these down by master I used Sonnia most (18 wins and 7 losses), then Perdita (12 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses) with only a single game using Lady Justice (a draw). My few events with Outcasts have yielded 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss; these are Tara (5 wins and 1 draw) and Jack Daw (3 wins and 1 loss). Overall, a pretty good Malifaux year.

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Neverborn (Lewis Philips) Strategy: Soon Gave Me To Know You Have Something To Dread (Attacker: get the Krampus into the other half of the board, more points to get it back to their deployment zone; Defender: interact with the Krampus twice) Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Entourage, Breakthrough, Cursed Object, Bodyguard Outcasts: Entourage (Jack Daw), Cursed Object Neverborn: Entourage (Zoraida), Breakthrough (announced) Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, 2 Freikorps Trappers, Rusty Alyce, Johan, Void Wretch, Guilty, Krampus Neverborn: Zoraida (Animal Shape, Hex Bag, Crystal Ball), Bad Juju (Hexed Among You, Eternal Fiend), 2 Silurids, 2 Waldgeists, Coppelius This time I was the winner of the flip to determine the attacker so I got to be the one with the Krampus in his crew. I did remember to include a Guilty; my plan was to make the Krampus Tormented and use the push from Writhing Torment and the 'extra' action from Twist and Turn to get the it up the board in good time. Jack can be hard to pin down with disengaging strikes and had been getting around the board surprisingly quickly so Entourage seemed sensible. I knew that keeping Zoraida from scoring Entourage would come down to being able to kill her. Turn 1: The Waldgeist on the left pokes the Trapper and Germinates right in my way. The other does the same to a Void Wretch that I've foolishly moved too close. The Guilty makes Alyce Tormented. Zoraida uses Animal Shape to get way up the board and Obeys the Walgeist on the left to slap its Trapper again, handing out Entrench this time. The Trapper on the right pushes out of melee and puts a couple of bullets into the Waldgeist there. Coppelius moves up but is unwisely out of cover so Alyce pushes forward and Rapid Fires him stone dead. Did I mention I love Alyce? The Silurids leap around. Jack Daw has another ineffective turn, making the Krampus Tormented on his third attempt, then making it walk forward. It pushes and walks then misses an opportunistic swing at Zoraida. The Trapper on the left gives its Waldgeist a Cursed Object from which I score this turn. Turn 2: The Librarian kills the Silurid in my deployment zone which causes Bad Juju to pop out. The other Silurid Leaps and interacts with the Krampus for 2VP and the Waldgeist over there does the same, getting Lewis all the Strategy points wrapped up. Johan misses a couple of optimistic swings at Zoraida; she summons a Voodoo Doll, Hems Johan then Obeys him to smite the Doll into splinters for big damage to himself. The Krampus Focusses and beats most of Zoraida's wounds out of her in a single swing. The Waldgeist on the right kills the Void Wretch and Alyce and the right Trapper shoot some wounds off it. Bad Juju drops a scheme marker and the left Trapper Curses the Walgeist again. Finally Jack kills a Silurid. I score for Cursed Object. Turn 3: Zoraida flies to the corner to stop the Krampus from mauling her and Obeys Bad Juju to drop a scheme marker. The Librarian shoots a few wounds off Juju. The Waldgeist on the left swipes at the Trapper again; Alyce shoots a few more wounds off Bad Juju then the Mire Golem charges and kills the Librarian. Lewis was trying some quite clever moves here to try to drain my hand so that the Trappers would be less likely to blow Zoraida away... but I knew that I didn't need the Librarian but I do need to kill Zoraida. Indeed, the next activation I do drop Zoraida with a Focussed Trapper shot from right across the board. The Guilty passes a final Cursed Object to the right Waldgeist and Johan, the Krampus and Jack Daw kill the one on the left. Finally, the left Trapper starts running for my own corner to try to pick up Lewis's scheme markers. I score for Cursed Object for the last time. Turn 4: The Guilty kills the last Waldgeist. Bad Juju and Alyce wrestle and Johan strolls down to help out. The Krampus and Jack Daw head for the Neverborn deployment zone. Turn 5: Bad Juju Flurries to kill Rusty Alyce and is killed (or at least buried) in return by Johan. My Trapper removes the scheme marker in the corner. Outcasts win 10 - 5 (full score for me; 4 for the Strategy and 1 for Breakthrough for Lewis). Another lovely game against Lewis, who keeps getting smarter in his plays. I've managed to go the whole year without losing to any of the Stirling folks, but I think that they are all really improving together and I look forward to the first time one of them can beat me. Lewis could possibly have taken this to a draw if he'd been a bit more careful with Zoraida but taking a massive hit from the Krampus in turn 2 meant that he was always in danger of losing her and therefore any chance at Entourage.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Kai Young) Strategy: While Visions of Treasure Chests Danced In Their Head (Attacker: pick up the treasure in the centre of the board, then get it back to their deployment zone; Defender: keep the treasure out of anyone's hands and keep two models near it) Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Deliver a Message, Distract, Frame For Murder, Breakthrough Outcasts: Frame For Murder (Nothing Beast), Breakthrough (announced) Resurrectionists: Frame For Murder (Bete Noir), Distract Crews Outcasts: Jack Daw (Writhing Torment, Twist and Turn, Firing Squad Injustice, Guillotine Injustice, Drowning Injustice), Freikorps Librarian, 2 Freikorps Trappers, Rusty Alyce, Johan, Nothing Beast (Void Shield), Void Wretch Resurrectionists: Seamus (Redchapel Killer, Mad Haberdasher, Bag of Tools), Madame Sybelle (Corpse Bloat, Bleeding Tongue), 2 Dead Doxies, Rotten Belle, Copycat Killer, Nurse, Bete Noir, Krampus Since Kai and I both won our previous game, we flipped to see who was the attacker and Kai got to have the big chap in his crew. Careful readers will note the lack of a Guilty in my crew; this was an accident as I was trying to work out how to make use of my additional 3 Soulstones and I must have put the card away again. Oh well, it is interesting to try things out without our usual crutches. I took double Trappers as this open board makes it really easy for them to knock wounds off things almost anywhere. My general idea was to sit a couple of tough things on the treasure and hopefully delay Kai long enough before he could get anything to pick it up to allow me to rack up a few points. I put Frame For Murder on the Nothing Beast since it is not too hard to kill but can be very dangerous if left unchecked (and conveniently has Ca attacks to fight the incorporeal Krampus); I thought that would combine to get Kai to commit to killing it. The Void Wretch was included specifically to work on Breakthrough. Turn 1: One Trapper Focusses and kills the Copycat Killer and the other does the same to one of the Dead Doxies. Sybelle whips Seamus to Comply him to Focus (*whip* 'Pay attention!' *whip*), he fails to summon a Belle from the remains of the Copycat Killer, then Back Alleys forward and seriously (but not fatally) inconveniences the Trapper on the left with his massive gun. The Krampus legs it towards the Treasure Chest and Jack Daw races up to slap Firing Squad Injustice on it and do some big damage. The Nothing Beast is sadly not quite able to finish the job. Turn 2: The Nothing Beast kills the Krampus and hurts the Dead Doxy. The Belle Lures Jack Daw forward and she and the Doxy do some damage by Pouncing on him. Both Trappers shoot the Nurse but one Black Jokers the damage; she then keeps the chain of incompetence going by failing to Paralyse the Nothing Beast (she was going for Jack Daw initially until I pointed out that he is immune to it). Alyce also misses the Nurse who is living a very charmed life so far. Seamus somehow fails to kill the Trapper. Jack kills the nearby Belle causing Bete to pop out; she hurts him rather nastily. I score on the Strategy. Turn 3: Bete kills Jack Daw. Dang, he really hates attackers with positive flips. The Trapper shoots at the Nurse and the Librarian finally kills her. Sybelle sensibly takes up hard cover but misses a Focussed Shriek at the Librarian which could have been nasty with my bunched up crew. Seamus finally finishes beating the Trapper to death and shoots Johan, who charges in and smacks the nasty little chap with his hammer; Alyce adds some bullets to Seamus's day. The Nothing Beast kills the Dead Doxy and forces Bete to bury. Somewhere in the far corner all alone, the Void Wretch starts dropping markers for Breakthrough. I score again for having models close to the treasure. Turn 4: Sybelle detonates one of the many corpse counters but it doesn't affect the Nothing Beast or the Librarian. Johan knocks Seamus down to 3 wounds left with no hat and no Soulstones; he hits one last time but Black Jokers the damage. Seamus in return drops Johan to his Hard to Kill wound but Black Jokers the damage on his own killing blow. I don't bother to attack much so as to avoid bringing Bete Noir back, but Sybelle takes a bit of a pasting anyway. I score again for the strategy. Turn 5: Seamus kills Johan (releasing Bete again) and hurts the Nothing Beast. The Librarian kills Sybelle and the Void Wretch drops yet more scheme markers. I score one last time for the Strategy. Turn 6: I asked Kai if he was OK to finish up at the end of turn 5, but he said he had more to do so we flipped and got an extra turn. Seamus kills the Nothing Beast, scoring me for Frame For Murder. I should have just let Bete get on with it here, but in the interest of making it a game I had Alyce kill her... giving Kai the points for Frame For Murder. It was a funny end to a funny game. Outcasts win 9 - 2 (4 for the Strategy, 3 for Breakthrough and 2 for Frame For Murder for me; 2 for Frame For Murder for Kai). Every game against Kai is a pleasure and this was no exception. I got a perfect hand for the Trappers in turn 1 and made the most of it to get a big activation advantage. Jack and the Nothing Beast were, as planned, perfect for killing the Krampus (but I still think it is worth more than 3 Soulstones!). Once I got my crew on top of the Treasure chest there was pretty much no way that Kai was going to be able to score the Strategy, and not making any attempt to Distract my crew or deal with the Void Wretch cost him even more. I was expecting Rusty Alyce to do a lot of work in this match up since she ignores Hard to Wound but she was surprisingly ineffective. Relatively speaking anyway; I still really like to use Alyce.