Argentbadger

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Liam) Strategy: Interference Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Distract, Protect Territory, Cursed Object, Deliver A Message Outcasts: Protect Territory (announced), Cursed Object Resurrectionists: Protect Territory (announced), Deliver A Message (unannounced) Crews Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity, Scramble), Nothing Beast (Void Shield), Rusty Alyce, Johan, Freikorpsman, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Malifaux Child Resurrectionists: Seamus (Red Chapel Killer, Sinister Reputation, Mad Haberdasher), Copycat Killer, 2 Punk Zombies, 2 Rotten Belles, Yin the Penangalan, Madame Sybelle I decided against Killjoy here as the open terrain and distance to cover under Flank deployment meant that it could be challenging to deliver him. Instead I picked the Nothing Beast with the idea that his massive melee range could allow me to tie up a few pieces for Interference in one go. Alyce was picked, partly because she ignores Hard To Wound and partly because minimum damage 3 means that I don’t care about being on negative flips anyway. I chose to drop Obliteration Symbiote because my plan was to make things Fast rather than bury them. I’m not keen on Protect Territory in Flank deployment but picked on the basis that I would have to do a fair bit of moving round to score on the strategy and that should eventually lead me to being far enough from my deployment zone. Cursed Object seemed like a good idea if I was going to be engaging things for the Strategy. Turn 1: Tara makes Alyce, the Nothing Beast and Johan Fast; unfortunately I flipped badly and ended up using almost all my good cards to do so. In retrospect I should have just let it go with Johan as he’s so slow that he wasn’t likely to do anything in turn 1. Both Belles Lure in my Trapper; he pings Yin a couple of times to Reposition further away and make them work a bit harder for it. Finally he’s in range of Punk Zombie who charges in, then Sybelle finishes the job. Alyce Rapid Fires into the nearest Punk Zombie, killing it neatly. Seamus blows away Johan (making the resources I’d spent making him Fast even more annoying). The Librarian, made Fast by the Child, fails her Horror duel after using focus to attack Yin. The Nothing Beast knocks the second Punk Zombie down to a single wound and buries it. Turn 2: The Nothing Beast casually mauls Sybelle after some heroic flipping on my part, then deals with the Punk Zombie who falls out afterwards. Seamus drops the Nothing Beast to a single wound even after discarding Void Shield but it takes both Belles to finally take it off the table. The Librarian makes up for her earlier failure by focussing and killing Yin with a timely Red Joker. Tara hands the Copycat Killer a Cursed Object and Alyce knocks Seamus’s hat off. On the far left, the Freikorpsman moves to Operation: Hide and Score, dropping a scheme marker deep into the corner. I score for the strategy and Cursed Object. Turn 3: Seamus hurts Tara in melee and summons a Belle near Alyce. Tara slips him a Cursed Object. The Copycat Killer swipes fruitlessly at Tara and the Librarian (Fast again, thank to the Child) kills the nearby Belle with Furious Casting. Alyce punches the new Belle and Tara knocks the hat off the Copycat Killer. I score again for Interference and Cursed Object. Turn 4: Tara gives Seamus another Cursed Object and finally polishes off the Copycat Killer. Seamus uses Distraction to Back Alley over to the Librarian and blasts her into Oblivion, then Back Alleys again to be in melee with Alyce. I was expecting him to kill Tara off first since by that point she was low on wounds and I was out of Soulstones but I guess that killing the Librarian was pretty effective too. He companions into the Belle who pokes Alyce gently before being smited into an Abomination in return. Tara moves to make sure I score on the strategy and I also get Cursed Object. Turn 5: Tara knocks the last Belle about a little and the Abomination finishes it off. Seamus improbably fails to kill Alyce but is anyway the last Resurrectionist on the board. Tara drops another scheme marker for Protect Territory at the end. Outcasts win 10 – 0. I very much enjoyed my game against Liam. I felt he got a little rattled when he was only able to get the Trapper with the Belles Luring my pieces in before my return fire (and a fantastic effort from the Nothing Beast) put me way up on model count. In the end, Liam did a pretty good job fighting with my crew but forgot about scoring. I’m also not really sure why he didn’t make any apparent attempt to score Deliver a Message. Still, he’s got the right idea and hopefully we’ll play again.

Furycat and I took our Malifaux in a new direction by boarding the train northbound to Aberdeen to take part in Hallowfaux. I had considered playing my Guild as the UK GT is only in a few weeks and I’ve not really used them much lately. But on reflection, I expected that the Aberdeen scene was relatively new and thought that maybe a more friendly approach would be to play the Outcasts with which I have far less game time. We were warmly welcomed by the organisers and other players, but it turned out that after some late drop-outs that there would only be 6 players including us. The event was in a pub so the lighting was pretty bad, which when coupled with my lack of camera skill does not lend itself to quality photos. There was also quite a lot of buildings for the terrain so frequently pieces are effectively out of sight of the viewer. Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Guild (Stewart) Strategy: Guard The Stash Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Protect Territory, Bodyguard, Outflank, Entourage Outcasts: Protect Territory (announced), Bodyguard (Rusty Alyce) Guild: Protect Territory (announced), Line in the Sand (unannounced) Crews Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity, Obliteration Symbiote), Freikorpsman, Freikorps Trapper, Killjoy, Johan, Malifaux Child, Rusty Alyce, Guilty Guild: Dr Douglas McMourning (On The Clock, Plastic Surgery), Sebastian, Zombie Chihuahua, The Judge (Unrelenting Leader), Nurse, Executioner, Exorcist, Performer I’m still trying to come up with Outcast crews that I feel comfortable with, and not having a lot of luck. In general I like a good number of effective activations but a lot of Outcast power is focused into their excellent high cost pieces. I took this crew planning to throw Killjoy at the biggest group of the enemy with the object of holding them away from one of the Stash markers for a while. I’ve tried a few times to use the Guilty and Trapper combination; the idea is to make the Trapper Tormented then push towards it, then lead the Guilty into gum something up and have the Trapper fire away into melee. So far it hasn’t been much use. Turn 1: The Nurse loads piles of poison into McMourning. Tara makes Alyce Fast then moves up into some (rather unnecessary) cover while the Child does the same for Johan. Over on my left the Judge pulls the Executioner forward with Stand For Judgement and is shot a few times by the Trapper. McMourning tries to poison bomb Johan but is stopped by Hard To Kill. He is then charged by Alyce and Killjoy, the latter of whom is unburied by Tara. Tara also makes McMourning and half my crew Fast in the process; McMourning is not feeling very happy at this stage. Turn 2: I win initiative and Johan smites McMourning into the ground. The Exorcist drops a scheme marker on the centreline. The Trapper shoots the Judge, then the Guilty pushes to the Trapper and charges the Judge. This does not end well for the Judge, though he is immediately avenged when the Executioner beheads the Guilty. Killjoy flattens Sebastian and nestles up close to the Chihuahua in the hope of splashing it with Black Blood. Alyce moves over and kills the Executioner with Rapid Fire (thanks to Fast). The Nurse charges in and fails to Poison Killjoy; I’m not sure why Stewart didn’t just use Take Your Meds here, but I think maybe his control hand was really bad. Over on the right the Performer finally comes out of hiding behind a building and drops another scheme marker on the centreline before being charged by the Freikorpsman over there. Finally, Tara pulses for Fast again, picking up the Chihuahua from the Guild this time. I score for Guard The Stash. Turn 3: Alyce saunters over and Rapid Fires the Exorcist to death. The Chihuahua and Nurse fail to do anything of consequence to Killjoy and are both killed in return. The Performer stabs the Freikorpsman before Johan smashes her into the ground. With nothing left on the board for Stewart we call it there; Outcasts win 10 – 0. Stewart was a lovely chap to play with, and the painting on his miniatures (and his skin tones in particular) was amazing. I think his lack of experience in Malifaux showed a little here but he took it all with a smile and I hope to play him again when he has a few more games under his belt. From my side, everything went swimmingly of course; I’m just not sure about crew builds. I like to have a few heavy hitters (Alyce, Killjoy and Johan in this case) so that Tara can channel her AP into theirs. But on the other hand, those 3 pieces are more than half of my points and I still need to cover scheme running and activation control. Maybe having three big combat pieces is overkill. When the rest of the games are in, Furycat and I are paired with each other. After a discussion with Judy, the Tournament Organiser, we agree that the event is so small that it will be more fun for everyone to keep us apart and I get paired against Liam. I play Furycat at various games every week; it seemed a pity to spend hours on a train just to do so again in a different room. Liam is apparently one of the most effective Malifaux players in this group so I was looking forward to the challenge.

I really enjoyed the enthusiasm you put into this. The first half of the show in particular is a great advert for the game.

I finally acquired and painted Death Marshals for my Malifaux collection. The Lady Justice box from which they come was out of stock for ages at the start of the year when I began picking up plastic Guild and I’d borrowed some of Joe’s Death Marshals and gradually got comfortable using them instead. After a very late birthday present I got the options to actually use my own Death Marshals for a change. I really like theses little chaps in the game; they’re really good scheme runners with Unimpeded and are generally tough enough to fight their way through most things that will compete with them out wide. They also have hilarious utility with their Pine Box action to bury anything that comes to get them. Of course, their most famous trick is to bury Papa Loco after he has used his Hold This ability on something with a good damage track to stop him activating again and hence removing the effect and also to stop his sorry slow self being blown up in the middle of my crew. With Hard To Wound they can hold out for a while (and drop scheme markers when they die anyway) but Death Marshals really hate seeing anything with minimum damage of 3 or more. I have mixed feelings about the miniatures themselves. The whole concept of the Death Marshal is really nice, but one of them (the crouching one) is much bigger scale than the other two, and I feel like the one with his foot on the coffin has a slightly unnatural pose (and also is a somewhat unstable on his base). I did very much enjoy painting them though. In addition to the red I’ve been using for the majority of my Guild, I wanted these to tie in with my Outcasts as Tara can take them via an upgrade. So I made the flames look magical rather than realistic, choosing to take them from white to purple by way of the pink that I liked on the Freikorpsmen. The flames don’t look so great in a zoomed in photo, but I actually felt that they work well enough at table top range.

Really nice painting. How do you do the skin tones? They look really lovely.

I love Hunters. Tough enough to pack and take a punch, mobile enough to be where they are needed, cheap enough that you can leave them scheme running without getting overrun elsewhere. I usually put them out wide on the flanks where nothing is going to be getting in the way of their pushes. They're enough of a pain in the neck to kill that you can often drop opposing scheme runners, but if you need them disengaged then you can always push them back out of melee at the end of the turn to run off and do whatever you need them for at the start of the following turn. Also, applying slow on hit is amazing.

Here is Killjoy, iconic Mercenary from the Outcasts of Malifaux. Killjoy is a raging killing machine, capable of cutting through swathes of crews at a time; of course this is to be expected considering his hefty price tag. So far I’ve only tried the big chap with Tara, who can mess with his bury / unbury shenanigans and make him Fast for even more nastiness; in addition she can rebury Killjoy to avoid him rampaging around my own crew or taking too much heat in return. The simplest way to play this is to move up Tara aggressively in her first activation, then use her second to unbury Killjoy and make him fast. Killjoy is then thrown forward into a target of choice and can put out 8 to 12 wounds of damage fairly reliably between his high number of attacks (4 on the unburying turn, plus occasionally he’ll generate more with his Onslaught trigger). I’m still undecided whether the best option is to target a single high value target or a cluster of relatively easy victims and I suppose that the answer will differ on a game-by-game basis. It isn’t too difficult to take out Killjoy once he has been fired, so effectively I trade him each game for a couple of small pieces or one big one, plus a few activations to actually kill him. I painted Killjoy with pale skin to match the Enslaved Nephilim, to whom I suppose he must be related. I haven’t decided if I’ll stick with this theme if I ever pick up any Neverborn. The skin is simply white paint with a blue wash, then re-highlighted with white again. The pink is to link Killjoy visually to the Freikorpsmen; again I am not sure if I’ll stick with a pink motif throughout the Outcasts or if I’ll eventually run out of places to put that colour without it looking (more) silly. I do love to paint pink.

Nice work. I am also a fan of Peat Brown wash and I think that the effect has come out really well here. If I could criticise, I feel that maybe the magic/flames/whatever could benefit a little from having more colours between the deep recesses and the highlights. The way the pin is hidden is very clever.

I like your Jack Daw's skin tone - what recipe did you use? The ghostly Void creatures are really cool.

Fantastic paint work. I love that Steam Trunk!

I definitely would want to keep this as a single big event rather than splitting North and South. Having an event with a big enough gravitational pull to pick up players from all corners of the UK is one of the biggest draws for me. I totally with Connor and Panzer on that one. Obviously I'd love for Common Grounds to be considered, but realistically I think that would be too big a trip for a lot of folks from further down South. If we can get any kind of venue in Manchester, York, Leeds etc that pretty much splits the difference in travel time for those of us up in Scotland and those based on the South coast. November is a nice time of year to have this; it feels like the end of the tournament season. Thanks so much to Mike and all other helpers. You probably never hear it much from the community but we are all very grateful for the work you put in to get such a big and wonderful event going to bring us all together from our separate corners of the UK.

One of the great things about Malifaux is the relatively flat balance so you can probably get away with playing pretty much whatever you feel like. I like to use the Papa Loco / Death Marshal thing as the difference a cheatable damage flip makes for Sonnia is really big. The Brutal Effigy synergises really well with her desire to hurt or kill all the things. Hunters are just solid all the time and can survive a severe damage plus burning from Sonnia in case you need a fire beacon. Austringers have a great toolbox and if necessary can Deliver Orders to Sonnia to get her out of melee if something fast has run up to engage her (you can do the same thing with Francisco but I feel like the opportunity cost is much higher with him as a bodyguard). I personally tend to use Sonnia for all my damage output in all but the killiest strategies so you can afford to take a fairly lightweight crew otherwise to complete your schemes. For your specific question about what to do if the other crew doesn't bunch up, I don't find it a big problem. Sonnia has a big range and 3 blasts plus 2" from the target on severe allows you to cover a lot of board If you're looking for a more personalised view of Sonnia than PullMyFinger provides then you could try the Battle Reports subforum; I've posted a lot of Sonnia games there this year.

Nice pictures; I do like to see some in-game shots.

Furio - Thank you. I'm happy to add extra clarity or try to explain my reasoning for doing certain things if there is anything you're particularly interested in. Bengt - Thanks. The deck was given away for attending Middlefaux 2015. I suppose it is a custom deck, but I am not connoiseur of decks so maybe it's just one I hadn't seen before. Either way it is really nice.

Dave - Cheers. I definitely need to work on my target priority with Killjoy, though in fairness he did at least pick off McMourning in game 1. I mainly use Killjoy as a distraction - he's like Viktoria of Blood in that he's too killy to be allowed to to keep moving around. Mutter - Thanks. Tara is hilarious to play (but full disclosure: I love Malifaux) and I'd recommend her to anyone. The strongest Outcast player in my area regards her as relatively weak (and she knows her Malifaux so maybe she is correct) but I think that the power curve in Malifaux is shallow enough that it isn't a problem unless you routinely play against the very strongest of opponents.

Cheers Martin. Nothing to be sorry for, it was an awesome play. I'd have done the same thing back to you if you hadn't killed Sonnia first!

This is the Steam Trunk, the totem for the Malifaux Outcast master, Von Schill. I haven’t actually played Von Schill yet so I don’t have any feeling for how the Steam Trunk works on the table. I will say that I’ve almost never seen it played against me when I face Von Schill crews. I bought the Freikorps crew box so that I could use the rest of the crew with Tara. In fact, the only reason that this little box made it so far up the painting queue was because I found it so irritating. For a 3 soulstone totem it comes in a ridiculous 33 pieces to assemble. For practical painting reasons I had to paint it up in 4 separate sections: both tracks, the lid and the main body. I couldn’t put it on the base until I had the whole thing painted and put together. The Steam Trunk was simple enough to paint. I made sure that the little Freikorps suit in the middle had colours matching the actual Freikorpsmen.

That photo would be pretty cool, but I think if you can pull off the white look that is currently showing from the undercoat it could work nicely.

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Outcasts (Ali) Strategy: Reconnoitre Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Assassinate, Breakthrough, Deliver A Message, Cursed Object My Outcasts: Breakthrough (announced), Cursed Object Ali’s Outcasts: Deliver A Message (announced), Assassinate Crews My Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity, Obliteration Symbiote), Freikorpsman, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Killjoy, Void Wretch, Johan, Malifaux Child, Hodgepodge Effigy Ali’s Outcasts: Von Schill (The Shirt Comes Off), 2 Ronin, 2 Convict Gunslingers, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Hans After playing one of the strongest players in the area I found myself up against a very inexperienced player (in fact, I think it was Ali’s first tournament). I went with the same crew as the first game with idea of throwing Killjoy into the biggest clump of targets I could find and keeping them tied up around him while I work on the strategy. Johan provides some handy condition removal if I need it and the rest of the crew are independent middle-weight options to allow me to really spread out for Reconnoitre. Breakthrough is a simple pick in close deployment and I decided that Cursed Object was probably the simplest option against this crew. Turn 1: Hans Slows my Trapper. I inexplicably pick the Child next to make Johan Fast; I have no idea why I didn’t use Tara as there was no reason not to do it. One Ronin walks out from behind the building and is shouted at a lot by the Librarian (how can you shout ‘Shhh’ so much that it hurts?). The Trapper goes to finish her off but Black Jokers the damage flip. Tara does what is needed instead and Slows the other Ronin, followed by Johan beating her a little. On the other side of the board, Von Schill slaps around my Effigy a little. Turn 2: Tara moves up and launches Killjoy into Von Schill. After the onslaught the mustachioed one is still standing and The Shirt Comes Off, paralysing my Effigy. He also beats Killjoy rather hard but can’t finish the big monster. My Librarian, not content with her sterling work on the Ronin, flips like a champion to drop the Convict Gunslinger on the right. Ali’s Trapper misses a shot a Johan and mine blows Hans off his rooftop perch. The Child makes Johan Fast and he kills off the second Ronin. Ali’s Librarian fails to heal Von Schill and finally my Freikorpsman gives the Gunslinger a Cursed Object (but you can’t see them hiding behind a building on the left). I score for Reconnoitre. Turn 3: Tara buries Killjoy then immediately unburies him to fire him at Von Schill again. It doesn’t work and Von Schill, badly wounded though he is, finishes Killjoy. The Freikorpsman pokes ineffectually at the Gunslinger but survives the return volley. Ali’s Librarian again fails to heal her boss and receives a Cursed Object from the Hodgepodge Effigy. Tara charges Von Schill. I score for the strategy. Turn 4: Von Schill hurts Tara (quite a bit in fact) so she kills him. Ali’s Trapper kills mine. My Void Wretch, feeling quite lonely, drops scheme markers all over the backfield. The Gunslinger and Freikorpsman continue to bounce off each other and the Effigy, somehow still alive on a single wound for most of the game, Curses the Librarian. I score for the Strategy again. Turn 5: I win iniative and remember that Ali announced Deliver a Message so Tara uses Lost Instants to stop that happening. Ali has seen enough and calls it there, though it’s only after we’re tidying up that he mentions Assassinate was his other scheme. I think I could have kept Tara alive but it would have been interesting to play it out. My Outcasts win 10 – 0. Ali was a lovely opponent and I hope that he enjoyed his day enough to come out for future events. The game was quite one-sided due to Ali’s lack of experience but he’ll get better by playing more games. Notably taking Assassinate and Deliver A Message seemed a tough choice considering other options in the scheme pool and his model placement could definitely improve. But these are things he’ll earn with more games under his belt. The game went pretty much according to plan for me but I must remember that Von Schill is quite a tough ask for Killjoy and start using him more sensibly. I’m a little disappointed in myself for forgetting to activate Tara first in turn 1 again. In the end, I come in second place behind Connor and ahead of Maria by a single VP difference, so actually getting the shut-out against Ali at the end did affect the placings. I really enjoyed taking Tara out for a change, she’s a highly entertaining master to play and she seems to have the flexibility to cover a lot of situations. Thanks to Kai, Maria and Ali for three more great games of Malifaux and to Jamie for his work as the tournament organiser. All in all it was a great weekend to play 7 games of Malifaux.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Outcasts (Maria; Marifaux on the forums) Strategy: Stake A Claim Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Distract, Protect Territory, Deliver A Message, Spring The Trap My Outcasts: Protect Territory (announced), Distract Maria’s Outcasts: Protect Territory (announced), Distract Crews My Outcasts: Tara (Scramble, Obliteration Symbiote), Freikorps Librarian, 2 Freikorps Trappers, Void Wretch, Malifaux Child, Rusty Alyce, Bishop Maria’s Outcasts: Hamelin (Infectious Melodies, Piper, Sewer King), Stolen, Nix (Oathkeeper), Ama No Zako (Oathkeeper), Obedient Wretch, 2 Crooligans, Iggy (Oathkeeper) So here I am, playing an unfamiliar faction against the premier player of that faction in my area. This will be a tough game. I took Scramble on Tara thinking that if need be I could just run around with her and drop markers all over the place. Alyce and Bishop are similarly speedy and I borrowed a second Trapper in the hope of either using From The Shadows to score a cheap Claim marker or taking pot-shots at targets of opportunity. Turn 1: I draw the worst hand I’ve ever had in Malifaux with the highest card as a 3; even after stoning I only have a single card above that number. For the first part of the turn I also flip horribly and so am unable to cheat even when Maria only flips a modest card of her own. Iggy Incites the nearby Trapper; this is really clever move as it stops me from Reactivating Tara. Ama No Zako smites the one in the other corner. Tara and the Child make Bishop and Alyce Fast then head for the far half of the board. The Librarian hurt the Crooligan on the right and Alyce kills the one on the left. While all this happens, various combinations of orphans and vermin are multiplying in the far corner. Hamelin Obeys Nix to where he can see Bishop; Nix then spends Oathkeeper and Distracts Bishop and the Void Wretch. Funnily enough I never previously realised that you could score Distract in turn 1; Maria does so. Turn 2: Tara Slows Iggy and the surviving Crooligan Distracts the Librarian and then disappears onto the roof where I will really struggle to get to her. The Child makes Bishop Fast, then the cage fighter kills Nix and removes Distract. The Trapper pings Iggy for a little more damage, the Librarian removes Distract and the Void Wretch puts down my first Claim marker. More rats and children are forming and reforming into various permutations in Maria’s corner. Alyce Focuses and shoots at Ama No Zako, who double walks to engage her. Iggy uses Oathkeeper and Distracts Tara. Maria scores for Distract and I score for Stake A Claim. Turn 3: Iggy Incites the Trapper again, denying me the second use of Tara. The Trapper Distracts him. Ama No Zako fights Alyce who eventually Distracts her back. The Void Wretch removes its Distract, Tara Slows Iggy and the Child makes Bishop Fast again. The Crooligan Stakes a Claim then Bishop Stakes on right back near her to remove that marker. Ratty shenanigans continue in the corner but a Rat King is eventually sent out with Reactivate from a Rat Catcher. Hamelin walks the long way round the building and sacrifices Iggy as a Useless Toy, then the Rat King races over and Distracts Alyce. I score for the strategy and Maria scores for Distract. Turn 4: Tara pings Hamelin a couple of times to draw out a couple of good hands avoiding being buried. Ama No Zako and the Rat King fight Alyce but can’t bring her down. The Crooligan, Librarian and Void Wretch all drop scheme markers. Alyce Distract the Rat King and I now need to hope that Maria can’t get close enough to it to make it sacrifice itself. Tara walks over and climbs up the building to be able to see the Crooligan but misses the shot at her; in retrospect I should have done this from the start but it didn’t occur to me. Hamlin rushes round the building, Obeys the Rat Catcher forward and makes it Fast. He also sacrifices a nearby underling to draw some cards. The Rat Catcher comes in and… successfully Reactivates the Rat King (and also drops a scheme marker for good measure). The Rat King sacrifices itself to stop me scoring Distract. It is a draw at 6 – 6 (3 for Stake A Claim and 3 for Protect Territory for me; 3 for Distract and 3 for Protect Territory for Maria). I loved playing that game. Holding a player of Maria’s calibre to a draw when playing using a crew she knows better than me was a great result as far as I am concerned. I must remember Tara’s vulnerability to Incite for future games as it is not something that I had previously seen. I feel like Maria spent a lot of time doing various things with rats and children in her own deployment zone that didn’t look to have a huge impact on how the game actually played out; of course some of the models eventually came out of it that were important (notably the Rat King and Rat Catcher) but for the effect they had it looks like Maria could have just hired them in the first place. Alyce was pleasingly resilient and Bishop is just hilarious with Fast on him so I’m glad I tried them out with Tara.

Middlefaux was less than 24 h behind us when Joe and I, refreshed by being able to stay in bed later than 5am, hit the road again to the much more convenient destination of Common Ground Games in Stirling for a rather lower key Malifaux event. The Malifaux community has really taken off in Stirling and among the 20 or so players were about 8 who were new to the tournament scene; it was great to see them getting their first taste of tournament play. I’ve been playing Guild in tournaments all year, so between that and the expected less experienced field I committed to playing Outcasts for this event. I’ve never taken them out to an event before and I’ve only actually played one master at all (Tara). I figured I’d probably be OK as long as I didn’t end up playing Maria, Queen Beyond The Wall and all round expert in all things Outcast. It’s never good to play a crew that your master knows better than you. Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Kai; NoMoreMrNiceKai on the forums) Strategy: Squatter’s Rights Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Distract, Breakthrough, Plant Explosives, Cursed Object Outcasts: Line in the Sand (announced), Cursed Object Resurrectionists: Breakthrough (unannounced), Distract Crews Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity, Obliteration Symbiote), Freikorpsman, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Killjoy, Void Wretch, Johan, Malifaux Child, Hodgepodge Effigy Resurrectionists: Dr Douglas McMourning (Evidence Tampering, Moonlighting), Sebastian, Zombie Chihuahua, Flesh Construct, Crooked Man, 2 Canine Remains, 3 Crooligans, Nurse In my relatively few games using Tara I’ve really enjoyed throwing Killjoy at people and just letting them waste their AP killing him, so I decided to go for that option despite the relatively ‘un-killy’ strategy and scheme pool. I picked Line in the Sand on the basis that corner deployment gives a lot of space on the centreline, plus I was planning to go there anyway for the strategy. Breakthrough would need me to move much further than I planned (i.e. past the centreline) so I somewhat arbitrarily picked between the remaining schemes. Turn 1: The Trapper one shots the Crooligan on the left. I’ve no idea why I chose to do that first as it prevented Tara from getting Reactivate; I guess I just got excited at the prospect for an early way to level the piece count. The Child makes Johan fast. The rest the turn is spent jockeying for position. I briefly consider holding Killjoy for another turn but decide to throw him at the Flesh Construct anyway. Sadly I Black Joker one attack and Kai Red Jokers another so the effect is quite minimal. At least he’ll take a bit of work to kill. Turn 2: Tara drops the rubbish cards out of my hand to make everything nearby (including the Flesh Construct) Fast, then pings the Construct twice for slow and drags a couple of nice cards out of Kai’s hand to avoid Glimpse The Void. McMourning beats up Killjoy, then Killjoy finishes the Flesh Construct and starts smiting McMourning. The Nurse fails to make Take Your Meds stick on Johan. My Freikorpsman climbs up the building and swings wildly at the Crooligan; later in the turn it will have similarly little effect in return but the point was only to stop Kai from claiming the Squat marker. The Trapper takes the corner Squat marker. Johan squashes the poor Chihuahua after it moved up to fart on some of my crew, then charges McMourning. The Child fails to make the Effigy fast, so it has to just climb slowly up the building to get to the Squat marker. The Librarian hands the Crooked Man a Cursed Object, then Tara makes everything Fast again (catching the Crooked Man this time since the Flesh Construct is dead) and claims the central marker. I score for the strategy and for Cursed Object. Turn 3: Killjoy eats McMourning and moves to engage Sebastian and the Crooked Man. Over in the far corner, the Crooligan pokes at the Void Wretch, which has finally arrived, and receives a Cursed Object in return. The Librarian hurts the Crooked Man, then the Nurse continues to fail at life by messing up two tries at Take Your Meds on Tara. The Freikorpsman on the building finally delivers enough 1 damage hits to drop the Crooligan. The Crooked Man Distracts the Librarian and Killjoy. Tara hands out slow to various pieces, Johan bonks Sebastian a couple of times and the little mortuary assistant fails to disengage. My Trapper kills a Canine Remains. Kai scores for Distract, I score for Cursed Object and Squatter’s Rights. Turn 4: Johan kills Sebastian, then the Crooked Man pokes Killjoy so Black Blood finishes off Johan; he refuses to take a second swing since that would kill himself. Killjoy kills off the Crooked Man anyway and also one-shots the Nurse who has foolishly wandered too close. The last Crooligan Distracts the Void Wretch and pops away; it follows and passes another Cursed Object. The Canine Remains, which has been skulking behind the row of buildings begins a run for Breakthrough and after throwing all sorts of attacks at it I finally manage to bury it with Tara. The Void Wretch dies of poison and out pops the dog again. I score for Cursed Object and Squatter’s Rights again and Kai picks up another for Distract. I should have removed Distract from the Librarian but I wanted to deal with the Canine Remains. Turn 5: The Canine Remains runs to put down a marker for Breakthrough; Tara removes the first scheme marker from last turn. Most of my crew hide from Killjoy, who eventually removes his Distract condition. By the time I’m able to kill of the Canine Remains I don’t have enough AP in the right places to remove the scheme marker. Outcasts win 10 – 3 (full score for me; 1 for Breakthrough and 2 for Distract for Kai). I really enjoyed giving Tara her first tournament run out. I can’t believe that I made such a basic mistake as forgetting to activate her first in the first turn, there was simply no reason not to do it. The other turns I needed other pieces more so it was a choice not to use her Reactivate. In general I was happy with how the game went; Killjoy lasted a lot longer than I expected as I normally plan on him being a distraction while I get on with scoring points so I was delighted that he actually managed to kill McMourning.

There is a scene in Aberdeen, but I don't know if any of them are active on here. If you have a facebook account then you should join the Society of Scottish Malifools group; the local players certainly have a presence in there.

Bengt - thanks. I guess there is no pleasing everyone with the terrain. I thought it was fine and I quite liked the themes. James - cheers, right back at you. One of these days I'll beat you Mutter - thank you.

Game 4: Guild (me) vs Arcanists (James; MythicFox on the forums) Strategy: Reckoning Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Make Them Suffer, Murder Protegé, Bodyguard, Breakthrough Guild: Make Them Suffer, Bodyguard (Sidir Alchibal) Arcanists: Breakthrough (announced), Murder Protegé(announced; The Judge) Crews Guild: Lady Justice (Last Stand), Francisco Ortega (Wade In), The Judge (Lead-Lined Coated), Sidir Alchibal (Promises), Austringer, Guardian, Brutal Effigy Arcanists: Rasputina (Cold Nights, Arcane Reservoir), Snow Storm (Imbued Energies), 2 Ice Gamin, Wendigo, Sabretooth Cerberus, Myranda (Imbued Energies) I’ve never actually played a single game with Lady Justice before, but I have been looking for an opportunity to play some variation on this list. The idea is to use the Brute Squad and keep them together to benefit from Promises; The Judge can bring the otherwise rather slow Sidir along for the ride with Stand For Judgement. Playing against a strong opponent like James with a master I’ve never used before isn’t really a brilliant idea from the perspective of winning games, but when you’re in the mood for something it’s better to go with it for hobbies. We ended up declaring all the hedges as height 1 dense to make it practical to actually traverse the board. Hence a lot of these photos have my miniatures lying down because we couldn’t get them to stand nicely in the hedge. Turn 1: Snow Storm uses Ice Tornado to shuffle the Frozen Heart stuff together; most of the rest of the turn is just James positioning to kill all my guys and not let me into his while I try to close the gaps without letting Rasputina kill my whole crew. Rasputina does eventually get a couple of shots at Lady Justice (who rather pointlessly had used Covering Fire instead of just getting into cover) and then raises some Ice Pillars to keep herself safe. Turn 2: I win initiative and decide to throw Lady Justice at Myranda. She’s about the worst target in the crew but it’s better than standing in the middle of a field being shot by Rasputina. Sadly, I don’t get the dose of luck that would have been needed to drop Myranda, so she steps back a little and becomes a Blessed of December. The Guardian applies Protect to Lady Justice and heals her a little. Francisco takes a pot shot at Rasputina to keep her busy. Rasputina demonstrates that she doesn’t care by Paralysing Lady Justice, killing the Effigy and hurting The Judge. Sidir uses Empty The Magazine but only ends up hurting and putting Slow on the Wendigo; still, that could be enough to save Lady Justice from being eaten. The Judge Focusses and kills the little blighter (scoring for Make Them Suffer in the process). The Austringer gently tickles the Cerberus and Snow Storm can’t manage more better on Lady Justice. Turn 3: The Cerberus continues its advance toward my deployment zone. Francisco charges the Gamin on the left but an unfortunate Black Joker keeps it alive. Sidir opens fire on Rasputina and the other Gamin and The Judge finishes the latter for Make Them Suffer. Rasputina shoots The Judge down to a single wound; the Guardian Protects him but I can’t get the trigger to heal him. My robot also pokes at Snow Storm a little. The Blessed finishes off The Judge for Murder Protegé and finally the Austringer knocks the Gamin down to a single wound. Turn 4: Francisco kills the Gamin to score me the rest of the points for Make Them Suffer. Rasputina Paralyses Lady Justice again, then the Austringer and Sidir gang up to kill off Snow Storm. The Guardian finishes Rasputina and the Blessed and Cerberus drop scheme markers for Breakthrough. Sadly, we run out of time at this point so it is a draw at 6 – 6 (1 for Reckoning, 2 for Bodyguard and 3 for Make Them Suffer for me; 3 for Murder Protegé and 3 for Breakthrough for James). That was a really enjoyable game; James is such a gentleman to play Malifaux with I would love to play him more often. If only we’d had time for another turn I could finally have racked up a win against James; I’ve never managed to beat him yet. Anyway, the game itself was quite an interesting experience. Lady Justice didn’t really do a great deal as she was Paralysed for 2 of the turns that actually mattered but I suppose that she did provide a good distraction for my Henchmen. The Judge in particular felt really effective despite dying in the end; in the past I think that perhaps I haven’t really used the resources on him that he wants. Overall I liked the way that the crew played and I think with a bit of practice I got get to grips with the peculiarities of positioning it requires. I’ll try to get a few more games in with Lady Justice and see where they take me. I didn’t actually make a note of where I finished, but I think it was around 8th of the 24 players which is a result I’m very happy with. We’ll certainly be back if there is more Middlefaux. Thanks to Stephen, Martin, Graham and James for 4 fun games of Malifaux, and also to Andrew for being a great tournament organiser.

Game 3: Guild (me) vs Arcanists (Graham) Strategy: Collect The Bounty Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Deliver a Message, Vendetta, Protect Territory, Bodyguard Guild: Protect Territory (announced), Vendetta (Nino on the Acolyte who ended up being on my left) Arcanists: Protect Territory (announced), Bodyguard (Mechanical Rider) Crews Guild: Perdita Ortega (Trick Shooting, Aura Ancestral), Austringer, 2 Hunters, Nino Ortega (Hair Trigger), Francisco Ortega (Wade In), Guardian Arcanists: Rasputina (Cold Nights, December’s Pawn, Shattered Heart), 2 December Acolytes, 2 Ice Gamin, Malifaux Raptor, Mechanical Rider, Wendigo I considered Sonnia here as I like her against Arcanists, but I thought that there was too much hard cover around to make her a great option. She’s also better at thinning out minions rather than dealing dealing with a smaller number of hard targets. More importantly, I decided that I wanted to try something that wasn’t Sonnia after the previous game’s demonstration of her vulnerability. Nino was mainly to dissuade Graham from taking Deliver a Message but I like him for opening up on Vendetta too if the right options are there. Turn 1: Nino Rapid Fires into one of the Acolytes to get me started on Vendetta. It’s just as well he does, as Rasputina then kills him with a focussed shot followed up by a really good attack on a negative flip. The Austringer plinks at an Ice Gamin. Perdita sees her chance to drop the Mechanical Rider early and takes it. She Relocates to Francisco then walks over, ignores cover with Trick Shooting and twice gets the Witched Bullet trigger on shots to allow me to cheat in severe damage. I had debated letting it go so I could count the bounty for turn 2, but I decided on balance that it was worth losing out potentially on a point for the strategy to get the Rider out of my hair so early while it was still vulnerable. Turn 2: Rasputina shoots Francisco for surprsingly little effect. On the right, my Hunter smites the Acolyte with a Red Joker damage flip, then on the left the surviving Acolyte does exactly the same to my other Hunter. The Raptor, which has landed next to the Austringer, rakes away at him for irony, then the Austringer knocks a couple more wounds off a Gamin. Francisco charges and kills the Raptor and Perdita polishes off the nearer Gamin. I score for Collect The Bounty. Turn 3: Rasputine fires away at the Guardian but between hard cover and armour she might as well throw snowballs. The Austringer finishes the Acolyte (scoring me the second point for Vendetta in the process) and Francisco kills the second Ice Gamin. The Hunter finally gets a bead on the Wendigo and slows it. Perdita starts shooting at Rasputina. I score for the Strategy. Turn 4: Rasputina continues to throw ice ineffectually at the Guardian. The Hunter kills the Wendigo and Perdita finishes things by gunning down Rasputina. Guild win 9 – 0 (4 for Collect The Bounty, 2 for Vendetta and 3 for Protect Territory for me; nothing for Graham). That was a very funny board for shooting; there was line of sight all over the place but almost all models were in hard cover all the time. Of course, that was why I took pieces that could ignore cover. It was a funny comparison to the last game a played against Graham where there was very little cover at all. I think that Graham might have been expecting Sonnia; certainly I think that the Raptor was for her. Anyway, Graham was a gent throughout and it is a pleasure to be drawn with him.