MikerofWorlds

The Dreamer was my first Master. I started playing *just* when the Alp Errata was coming in, but never used an Alp Bomb. I never used the Chompy Missile anyway, nor the re-bury Stitched shenanigans so the Errata never really changed the way I played. I'm currently undefeated (though with a couple draws) with the Dreamer (still many, many losses with other Masters), so I'd say he's still competitive. I also chose him due to his fluff and am so glad they changed him. It's great that folks don't start grumbling any time I want to drop him down on the table.

Right. But my point is: Stitched can't be turned into SPAs.

Sure does.

And I don't think Stitched can be turned into SPAs from Levi's spells. Anything that would kill it would activate Does Not Die and stop the SPA from appearing. Entropic Transformation only targets Living, Undead, Constructs, Corpse Counters and Scrap Counters. Stitched are none of these. Am I missing something?

I'll play him. I have to stop the nightmares somehow...

I thought it might. Now I can't wait to play Collodi again and actually use his rules properly...

Hey, thanks FearLord. Been enjoying your reports as well You've brought up a good point though. I had to look it up myself. According to the wording of the ability, the Marionettes activate immediately after Collodi's activation. It's not Companion, but a rule called Holding the Strings. His (0) action just says 'after' Collodi's activation. I've played it in the past like a big Companion activation, whereas I just decide which order to activate the Dolls, but I'm thinking it's the word 'immediately' that takes precedence? I didn't notice this when I was doing the battle, or the report (the fact that it appears to be law-ways above is pure luck). I'm glad you've drawn my attention to it. Because I was originally thinking (and Forar also pointed this out to me): had I known the Marionettes wouldn't drag along with Collodi to get them out of harm's way, I could have still just activated my Fast Stitched first, walked it once then double-tapped the Executioner with Gamble Your Life, likely killing him, and then been able to go buck-wild with the Marionettes. I probably could've reached Santiago at that point. Would've been ugly. However, with the 'immediately' in the ability's description, I would say that the Marionettes would get activated, and then whichever Doll I bless with Collodi's Doll Friends action would get to go. I should be going to bed (6a.m. here), but I'm going to go scan through some posts to see if this has come up before.

I have a friend who has started running a Colette Crew with the Coryphee as his 'centerpiece' (Triblayne's method of having the two move on to a single base is nothing short of brilliant; I hope he puts up pics soon). I am pretty scared of them. I don't think they're brokenly over-powered by any means, but I have a healthy respect for the kind of hurt they can put on a Crew. Not looking forward to my first meeting. And Ashes and Dust is just terrifying. A buddy of mine used him in a Leveticus + Rusty Alyce + Jack Daw Crew against me and I'm still having nightmares.

This week we got to play on the same board as last week, but we were able to use the center of the table! You can read a description of the board here: http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?35464-Swamp-Hag-vs-Lovely-Latina Game size: 25 SS Guild flipped Claim Jump. Neverborn flipped A Line in the Sand (which I'd never done before). We flipped Large Tavern for our board, thus making the mausoleum full of sarcophagi and torture implements slightly more disturbing (unless you're a Ressurectionist), and flipped Dim Lighting for the Terrain Feature. This meant that the maximum range of LOS was reduced to 8". Didn't really bother me, but it was significant for the Guild. Guild Lady Justice- 7 SS Pool Scales of Justice Guardian Austringer x2 Watcher Schemes: Bodyguard and Stake a Claim, both announced. Neverborn The Dreamer/Lord Chompy Bits- 6 SS Pool Lelu Lelitu Night Terror x2 Insidious Madness Schemes: Grudge against the Bald Austringer, and Steal Relic, both announced. Choosing Steal Relic against Lady Justice is crazy, but I just wanted to see how it'd shake out... We flipped Diagonals for our deployment. I was on the same side of the table I was last game, so I deployed in the same corner. It was strange only putting one model down after all this time. Forar started all of his models in the corner again, though he was pretty close to the mausoleum-- er, tavern!-- door. He put both of his Claims in the Tavern, on the upper floor, within inches of each other so he could secure them both easily. He even went so far as to put his Claim Jump objective on a piece of floor with nothing underneath it, just so he could take it from multiple levels. The Line in the Sand objectives were stretched out along the centerline, with two being on the ground floor (one dead center of the Tavern, t'other in the southwest corner of the 'moat') and the other three being on the second level, two being inside the tavern proper, and the last being on an outside ledge in the northeast corner. Turn 1- Man Do Those Spirits Move! Guild won initiative. Forar activated his Hat Austringer and had him double-walk along the southern wall. Dreamer activated and used his first (0) action to activate "I can fly!" giving him a Wk of 7 and Flight (there's almost never going to be a Dreamer activation where this isn't the first thing I do), then flitted his way into the tavern. Dreamer then used his last AP to cast Frightening Dream, using a 4 of Masks to get the spell off and activate the "All My Friends" trigger. Out popped both Night Terrors and the Insidious Madness, each being placed within reach of a Dynamite token. Forar spent the rest of his Activations moving his Austringers up with the Guardian in base contact with both of them. Lady J moved up towards the tavern's door. The Spirit/Nightmares all activated their respective tokens (3 on turn 1 ain't too shabby) and I used the Night Terror's movement abilities to end the turn with both of them in base contact with each other. Turn 2- Guild Draws First... Ectoplasm? Guild won initiative. Forar activated his Hat Austringer and sent his bird after the Insidious Madness causing 1 Wd (Madness has three total). I cheated a high card to cause the Austringer to miss his second shot. I activated Insidious Madness and had him double-walk 16" back to the northwest corner of the map, out of harm's way. Forar activated Lady J and has her move up to the door of the tavern and kicks it in, staying in the doorway so she can move into the tavern on the next turn or hold back and help her Crew depending on the circumstances. I activated one Night Terror and had it go and flip over the Dynamite in the northeast corner. Forar brought his Watcher over to sit on the other side of the wall, just south of his Austringer/Guardian/Austringer cluster. I activated my other Night Terror and had it fly out of the tavern to the moat area on the east side, using its (0) action to bring its brother along with it. Forar had his Guardian cast Shield Wall, giving it and the two Austringers Armour +4. I then had Dreamer double-fly over to the southwest corner, keeping him behind a wall and out of sight of the Guild. Turn 3- Lady Justice Opens A Can Neverborn won initiative. I activated Dreamer first and after much humming and hawing (and after realizing he didn't quite have enough movement to get him beyond the outer wall) I decided to go for the kill. So, I had him fly towards the Guild cluster and release his last two Nightmares. I placed Lelu next to the Guardian as well as the Hat Austringer and put Lelitu outside the wall, but within her generous melee range of the Watcher. Then I used Dreamer's second (0) action to activate Nightmare Friend and brought out Chompy. Chompy's not inconsiderable melee range enveloped both Austringers, the Guardian and Lady J. Forar had all seven of his Soulstones still. I figured that an assault on Justice wouldn't be the best idea so I decided to try to make it easier to collect on my Grudge and attacked the Bald Austringer, doing a tidy 4 Wd (out of 6). Chompy only had one general AP after being unburied but he still had Melee Master so I decided to have him bite the Hat Austringer, cheating in a Crow to get the Disembowel trigger. Forar had two low cards that he was glad to get rid of so the Austringer lived but took 2 Wd and two Poison counters. Forar came back hard. He companion activated the Scales of Justice and Lady J. He buffed up Lady J with the Totem and then activated the swordmistress, using Sword Style to increase her Cb to 9. She focused her fury on Chompy. I Cheated and even threw in a Souldstone, but Forar Soulstoned right back and brought his total up to a straight flip, her Greatsword making it a positive twist. Oh yeah, he also had a couple of Rams on the Attack Flip, so his Damage Flip was going to hurt anyway. Then he cheated in the Red Joker. The total damage he did to Chompy was 14! I used a Soulstone (because there was no reason not to) my only slim chance being a Red Joker flip, but because none of you heard my scream of triumph on the wind that night you know that I didn't flip it. I think I flipped a deuce. Chompy was one-shotted by Lady J. Justice then charged the Dreamer and one-shotted him as well (not as impressive a feat, but still). So, in one activation Lady Justice took away half my offense and some of my board control. I felt I was sunk. But, these games are about trying things and such so I decided not to use an (all) action to concede (which is our gaming group's house rule). I Bond-activated the Twins instead. Lelu went first and put all of his attacks into the Guardian. He managed to do 7 Wd to it plus give it two Poison Counters. So, the Guardian was dead the next time it activated (it has 9 Wd total). Lelitu took an idiotic swing at the Watcher and Black Joker'd the damage flip. I then had her float over the wall to put her next to the Bald Austringer using her Casting Expert to use Lure on him hoping to turn it into a Melee Strike... only to forget to actually have the right card in the Casting Flip to get the Double-Take Trigger (I realize now that I only needed the Double-Take trigger to cast the spell a second time, not for the Melee Strike which is a part of Lure, but for some reason I thought I needed the trigger at the time). I did pull the Bald Austringer out of base contact with the Guardian but even that didn't matter because the Guardian would do no more this game. Forar had an idea of having the Austringers mount a massive Bash attack on one of the Twins, hoping to get a few lucky shots in until we looked up the rules of Bash and realized it was done at Cb 3. Odds weren't great. He did spite-activate the Guardian just to get him out of the way and find out what my next move was. I brought my Night Terrors along to join in the fun in front of the tavern doors. Forar had his Austringers try to Bash the Twins but failed to hit. I tucked my Insidious Madness in behind a row of bookshelves in the tavern and brought my Night Terrors (using the second one's activation) into base contact with the Bald Austringer. Forar moved his Watcher into the tavern, right next to the center Dynamite marker. Lelu used his Thoughts Twisted ability to do 2 Wd to the Hat Austringer and took him out of the game. Turn 4- Crazy Initiative Flip and Red Lelu Gets Red Revenge So, I flipped a seven for initiative and Forar flipped an ace. He spent a soulstone and managed to get a 10, so I spent one back and flipped a 12. Huge. This bit is all kinds of hazy, but apparently what I did was activate the Insidious Madness first and flew it through the tavern wall to put him next to Justice, then tried to use A Danger to Yourself on Justice, forcing her to make a Wp Duel or take 2 Wds. She won it easily. My plan was to slow Justice down so she wouldn't do exactly what she ended up doing. Bad move. Forar companion-activated the Totem plus Justice and did his card-manipulation/buff Justice combo before activating Justice, having her cast Sword Style to give her a freaking Cb 11(!) and used her to charge away from the Madness (easily beating the disengaging Strike) and hit Lelitu. She smacked the slightly evil-er Twin for 7 Dmg which killed her dead (I think I had pointed out that at this point I had only used my marker to mark down one wound on my Insidious Madness' stat card; the rest of my models had all been killed in one shot). She then used her Melee Expert to attack Lelu and did 7 (of 9) Wd to him. So, I activated Lelu, hoping to bring down Lady J, though with her having Soulstones left it wasn't looking very promising. I attacked her the first time but she Soulstoned to make me miss. My second attack landed a meager hit which Forar, now getting low on Soulstones, allowed to go through. I had a negative twist on damage but the second card I drew was the Red Joker! Unfortunately the follow-up card was an ace, but I still did 7 Wd to Justice and gave her two Poison counters. Lelu had a Melee Expert attack which he used to hit her again for a potential 3 Wd but Forar used Wound Prevention to bring it down to 1 Wd. Lelu was going to have a single Wd remaining if he made it to the next turn and Lady J still had 4, which would go down to 2 on her next activation. So close! Forar used a (2) interact action with his Watcher to flip the center Dynamite token back over. I activated one Night Terror that was close to Lady J, had it attempt to Steal her Relic, which I got off just barely. My second Night Terror attacked the Bald Austringer and finished him off. In the Closing Phase Lelu took 3 Wd (leaving him with 1) for not having his sister in play and tried to do 2 Wd to Justice with Thoughts Twisted but she Damage Preventioned it to nothing. Turn 5- The Beginning of the End Guild won initiative. I spent another Soulstone due to the 'Why wouldn't I?' principle but failed to make a change. Forar activated Lady Justice and used her Melee Expert first to finish off Lelu. It was at this point that I remembered his Black Blood special rule, which I announced. It did 1 Wd to Justice, leaving her with a single Wd as well as a single Poison counter. On her next activation she would die. Realizing she was on borrowed time, Forar tried to attack my Night Terrors, but failed to hit the first one, and even though he did 8 Wd to the second through lots of Cheating, Night Terrors have Hard to Kill so it was just left with 1 Wd. I had my Insidous Madness flip over the Dynamite in the southwest corner. Forar moved his Watcher to be in base contact with his Stake a Claim target and within 3" of his Claim Jump objective. I had my Night Terrors try to get out of Lady J's melee range but neither managed to do it. Lady J's totem activated and managed to disengage from the Night Terrors to move to within 3" of the Claim objective. Turn 6-The End Guild won initiative. Forar had his Watcher go Defensive Stance. I activated my Insidious Madness and moved in right beside the Watcher. Forar Activated the Totem and tried to fruitlessly get into a better position, forgetting a rule about Totems (which I think we all have from time to time). I activated a Night Terror, but couldn't get out of Lady J's Melee Range. Forar had to activate Lady J, who died, taking the Totem with her. I activated my last Night Terror, moved up onto a ledge of the tavern, used its (0) action to pull its brother up with it, then flew it through the wall to be next to the Watcher. We did flip a Turn 7, but we decided not to play it out as there were only two conclusions: either 1) Forar got to go first and had his Watcher run away, leaving him with no points, or 2) I would go first and murder the Watcher, leaving him no points. As it stood, the score was 6-2 for the Neverborn, if we had played out turn 7 it would've been an 8-0 shutout. After-Action Report This game was pretty intense for the most part. I thought I was a goner quite a few times. Forar one-shotting Chompy as well as the Dreamer in one activation was pretty demoralizing. On the other hand, flipping that Red Joker for damage on Lady J was incredibly lucky. We were trying to pinpoint the 'tide-turning' moment of the game, and that might've been it. Forar also at one point could have killed his own Austringer to deny me my Grudge Scheme but knew that the general consensus, at least amongst our own gaming group, is that kind of behaviour is 'unsportsmanlike', so he didn't. I find that particularly commendable. In the end I think the Guardian/Austringer combo was one of those things that looked good on paper but wasn't ideal in practice. Forar said afterward that he should've probably taken the Judge instead of the Guardian and I think I agree. He also said taking Witchling Stalkers instead of the Austringers might have been better too. In hindsight, I think if he had used the Watcher to run around and undo my Dynamite counters from the beginning, I would have had a tougher time. I would've probably had to send my Night Terrors after it and, even though they'd likely catch it and kill it, they wouldn't be in a position to finish off Austringers or Steal Relics. I hadn't used the Night Terrors before this, and I got them exactly for this kind of objective-grabbing Strategy. They did not disappoint in this regard. This was also the second time I'd used the Insidious Madness and the first time he lived to see the end of the game (the first time I used him, in a Pandora Crew, he was killed in Turn 1). And though I didn't really get to use any of its tricks, its raw speed and getoverthereitude was really impressive. Fun game. Pretty close. Looking forward to this week's challenge.

Thanks, TedPro And thank you for pointing out that rule. I totally missed it! I kept dragging the Marionettes to be within 8" of their master. Another friend of mine was pretty impressed with that move, too. Ah well, good to know. Sorry Forar, that was a huge part of my winning that game.

Game size: 25 SS Forar and I were representing our respective Factions (Forar has basically mothballed his Ramos Crew). I flipped Escape & Survive for my Strategy, but Forar let me mulligan it for free (because it was the last strat I played) which got me Distract. I'd never had Distract before. Forar then flipped Distract so it turned out to be Shared Distract. Our deployment was the dreaded Diagonals. Forar's Guild Crew: Perdita Ortega- 4 SS Pool Enslaved Nephilim Santiago Ortega Abuela Ortega Executioner My Neverborn Crew: Zoraida, the Hag- 5 SS Pool Collodi 4x Marionettes Stitched Together Arcane Effigy We joked about how there were two obvious Schemes to take for the Strategy and we both ended up announcing the same ones: Breakthrough and Stake A Claim. So, we had identical victory conditions. We made a gentleman's agreement beforehand not to just run past each other and tie the game 8-8 (how boring would that be?). We were playing in a Necropolis and, funnily enough, this time we had a terrain feature that gave us Corpse Counters, but neither of us had any Graverobbers. Okay so this Terraclips board (again designed by Forar, with a tonne of pieces from HeroQuest used to great effect) started with an outside border of flat street, six inches wide, with statues disbursed every few inches down the center line, that went completely around the board in a giant square. Next there was a Ht 2 Wall that separated the streets from a 'sewer' system (but being a necropolis, the fluid in the moat was likely nastier than raw sewage) which was 2" of goop with a couple inches of flat ground on either side. The liquified remains (which is I guess what it was) was Severe Terrain, natch. In the center of the board was a great, two-level mausoleum with crypts on the top floor (plus a sepulchre, some torture devices, book shelves... it looked great; we never went up there). So to orient us: I'm going to call my edge of the table (left side in the above picture) the western edge and Forar's the east. Okay, so the only doors leading through the outer wall to the moat were in the northwest and northeast sections of the wall. Just a single door, maybe eight inches down from the northern wall. The only way into the mausoleum was a huge double-door in the center of its southern face. It's kind of a shame that we never got to play in it, but the Strategy dictates the game. I won the flip for deployment. I chose the northwest corner. This gave me access to the door on my side, but I wouldn't be using it. I just wanted to delay Forar's use of the door on his side. I deployed Zoraida outside the wall and put the Dolls on the inside corner. Unfotunately, I didn't realize that the mausoleum was rectangular rather than square so Forar was able to deploy his entire Crew inside the wall. I chose an orc statue in the southeast corner, outside of the wall as the Claim I needed to Stake. Forar mirrored my choice with a goblin statue in my corner. So, all we had to do is have our Masters run around the mausoleum and tag the statue in the opposite corner for eight points. So, to keep it from being a boring draw, we had to try to thwart the other gal somehow. Both of us chose fast, and famously hard to kill Masters. Turn 1- Family is Family... and Any Guild Member That Shows Up To Work That Day Guild won initiative. Abuela got activated first and used a (0) action to make the Executioner an Ortega via Shotgun Wedding. She then Obeyed the Executioner to walk forward. I activated Collodi (and only Collodi) and give all my Dolls (everybody but Zoraida) Fast and gave two Marionettes Melee Expert. Forar moved his Crew north. I moved most of my Crew east to try to head him off, but I had initially moved my Arcane Effigy south, leaving it completely out of range to do anything useful. I had a tiny plan for it, but I should've kept it with the rest of the Dolls. One of my last moves had Zoraida turn into a raven and fly east, giving her a partial look at the Executioner and Santiago. The Executioner was Obeyed up and then moved, bringing him dangerously close to my Crew. Turn 2- That Executioner is Scary! Let's Kill Him! Neverborn won intitative. I activated Zoraida and brought out a Voodoo Doll, connecting it to the Executioner. Then I cast Obey on him and had him charge Santiago. I cheated in a high Ram (for Critical Strike) on the hit and got a straight-flip from the Charge, also cheating in a Severe damage for a total of 7 Wd, leaving Santiago with 1 remaining. Forar activated Abuela and Obeyed the Executioner back to where he was and then tried to get close enough to Santiago to heal him. Forar thought that the heal was a (0) action but it was a (1) so he'd have to wait another turn. I realized if I didn't kill the Executioner, he was going to do horrible things to my precious dolls, so I made a huge commitment to his demise. I activated Collodi, did the Collodi Standard Activation (Give dolls Fast, and give at least two Marionettes Melee Expert) and used his (0) Action to allow the Stitched Together to activate next. I then had my Marionettes activate. So I had one Marionette move up to the Executioner, dragging Collodi with it and attacked the Executioner twice doing some damage. I then activated my second Marionette, used its (0) action to push it into base-to-base with Collodi and *didn't* have it Flurry. See, if I killed the Executioner with a Marionette, then the Executioner, with a Slow to Die action would just attack back. A Marionette can't stand up to even one attack from the Executioner so, barring a visit from the Black Joker, the Executioner would kill the doll. And, as some of you well know, if the Executioner kills a model with a Melee strike he heals *all* wounds. This entire time Forar was scratching his head, wondering why I was even trying to hurt him. But I had an angle. I did some more damage, having an indecisive moment where the Executioner had 5 Wd remaining. I wasn't sure if I wanted to attack or leave him be. If I attacked and flipped the Red Joker on damage, I would have killed him. Highly unlikely, but still something I considered. I attacked anyway and only did two points of dmg, leaving him with three. Then I activated one of the Marionettes in the back and had it drag Collodi away from the Executioner. Doing this with the fourth Marionette dragged the ones that were attacking the Oaf far, far out of his Melee range. Next the Stitched Together went. Who was Fast. I walked once, was in LOS and range of the Executioner and Gambled his Life, winning easily. The minimum dmg of Gamble Your Life is 3. Hasta luego Executioner Ortega! The last thing the Stitched did was release his Creepy Fog, keeping Zoraida from being shot at. Forar, to my surprise, had his Crew fall back to the corner and start moving West along the southern wall of the mausoleum. Turn 3- Orchestral Maneuvers in the Sludge Guild won initiative. Forar had his Crew move, using Obey to speed up Santiago, along the southern sewerway. Perdita found my Arcane Effigy standing completely on its own and put a bullet in the spine of the book that serves as the Effigy's face. I used my activations to fly Zoraida over the wall and within a few inches of my Claim statue and then brought the remaining Dolls back into formation (they were too spread out to be useful). Perdita had moved far enough to be in the western corridor, easily within reach of the door to her victory. Turn 4- Someone Has To Stop That Hot, Sexy Mama Neverborn won initiative. I had a big decision. I could either run Collodi through the door, entering my deployment zone and bury him in a place that would take Perdita some time to get to, robbing her of the full points to her Strategy, or I could try to kill Perdita, completely removing her strat from her final score. I had my Stitched, which is a nasty piece of business, sure, except Perdita is Immune to Influence. I also had Collodi's buzzsaw Alpha Strike, but even a tonne of attacks at Cb 4 against Df 8 didn't have much of a chance of succeeding. But, I decided that these games are for trying out ideas rather than playing it safe so I decided to try to wax Forar's Master. I activated Collodi and did his usual schtick but didn't activate the Marionettes afterward, only using his (0) to activate the Stitched. I moved the Stitched into base contact with Perdita, hoping he could at least slow her down. She would have to Melee the Stitched to get rid of him and I was hoping his Rotten Contents (2 dmg to living models on a Crow flip) might soften her up some. Perdita activated and put two bullets in the Stitched, killing it, and I actually flipped a Crow on one of the hits so she took 2 dmg... or would have if she didn't spend a Soulstone to negate it. Now that the Stitched was 'dead' she used her last AP to move away from him, easily disengaging (Cb 4 vs Df 8 is not very fun). I had Zoraida birth out a Wicked Doll over in Forar's deployment, then I moved Collodi through the door and positioned him against the wall with Perdita on the other side. He had two Marionettes with him and two staying behind in the moat. Abuela, the Totem and Santiago all moved along their corridor, the Obeyers giving Santiago pushes when they could (Abuela had managed to heal him as well, though he was still at half wounds so got all of his ridiculous bonuses). I had a Reactivate with the Stitched but couldn't do anything with him. I tried to move him to within LOS with Santiago, but there was a statue that blocked me. I had the Wicked Doll use its (0) action to move to within 2" of Collodi and put it on the Perdita side of the wall, within 3" of her. Turn 5- So Many Misses, So Many Dead Dolls Neverborn won initiative. I activated Collodi, was only able to give three Marionettes Fast and gave two of them Melee Expert. I used his (0) to activate the Wicked Doll afterwards. I attacked Perdita with three of my Marionettes, utilizing three Flurries and adding extra actions with Fast and Melee Expert for a total of 13ish attacks. I managed to hit two or three times, doing a total of 3 points of damage. I then (all)-actioned my Wicked Doll to Sacrifice it and do 2 Wds to Perdita and give her Slow, though Forar used another Soulstone to stop the damage (but the Slow still went through). Santiago was obeyed forward and Zoraida birthed another Wicked Doll into the fray. Santiago fired twice, killing a Marionette and accidentally targeting Perdita! But, trying to hit Df 8 is kind of a joke so he missed without Forar having to cheat anything down. Perdita killed another Marionette and then tried to wax the Wicked Doll but Black Joker'd the Dmg Flip. Another Obey on Santiago saw the death of another Marionette. So Collodi was left facing Perdita and Santiago with just a single Marionette and a Wicked Doll for company! Turn 6- Collodi Fights in Melee Neverborn won initiative. I also drew the Red Joker in my Control Hand. Forar used his last Soulstone to try to beat my Initiative Flip, but it didn't work out. So, I activated Collodi, used Casting Expert to give his remaining Dolls Melee Expert, then decided to attack Perdita with Collodi! I used a Soulstone to make sure I hit her, and managed to push the attack total up to get a straight flip. But it didn't matter because I flipped a severe, which did 5 dmg, which killed Perdita anyway. I was originally going to Red Joker her to finish her off, but I didn't need to. With Perdita dead, Forar's maximum VP potential went from a 8 to a 4. He couldn't stop me from getting at least 6, so we called it a game. After-Action Report Sadly, this game was one where what we were trying to do is not end the game in an 8-8 tie. I made some big gambles and they mostly paid off for me. I was incredibly lucky in a bunch of instances. Forar admitted that he brought Abuela 'just to see' and wasn't all that impressed with her for a small game. He decided she'd be better at 35SS or more. Having three Obey models on one side is great, but once I took out the Executioner, they lost a lot of their punch. And with the Guild not having Masks in their Cast, Obey can be tough to get off. He mentioned if he had traded Abuela for a Guardian, he would've been able to be more offensive (even though it's a defensive model). He also mentioned that he's going to refrain from trying to out-melee the Neverborn in future with the Guild. Had he brought Nino, or even an Austringer, he might've been able to pick off my Marionettes and slowed Collodi down. Samael could've really done a number on Collodi and Zoraida, with them having a Ca of 6+. There was a point where I almost didn't attack Perdita with the Dolls and instead circled around to attack Forar's Minions from behind, which would've had the game end in a tie, I think. All in all, the cards were mostly in my favour and not really in Forar's. Winning initiative only twice really hurt him. If he had managed to win initiative in turn 2, that executioner would've made a mess of things. Beyond all that though, there was a point early on where I was looking at the board, all the HeroQuest 'statues' were orcs, goblins, skeletons and Chaos Warriors-- there was even a Bloodthirster. It struck me as funny that I was playing my new miniature game with pieces from the world of my old miniature game serving as ancient, dusty relics. Kind of fitting, if you ask me. Another thing: the last few games I've played against Forar has been on boards where the terrain was a colossal factor. Had we flipped a strategy this time where we had to get to the center of the board (say, Shared Treasure Hunt) then it would've been a different game. And, of course, different Crews. Sorry about the sparseness of the pictures and the unpainted models. I'm going to try to take more pictures in future and put my nose to the painting grindstone (I do paint, I swear).

So, Forar and I meet up once a week and play 25SS Scraps. We do this just to practice our game and experiment with our models. We often take un-ideal lists and try Schemes we normally wouldn't just to test things. This was the battle report I sent to our gaming group after our second game. I've edited it to remove a lot of the idioms we have between us, but some might stay in here and there. I'm hoping to make these reports a regular thing in future. I have two others all ready to go, so stay tuned. Niether of us are super experienced at this (I have less than twenty games under my belt; he's five or six games ahead) so please excuse some of our mistakes. Learning experience and all... The Setup: 25SS Scrap Forar playing as The Guild Strategy: Deliver a Message Schemes: Frame for Murder** (announced!) and one unannounced Scheme (you'll find out at the same point that I did) Perdita Ortega - 4SS Pool Enslaved Nephilim Nino Ortega Francisco Ortega Exorcist Austringer Myself representing The Neverborn Strategy: Escape and Survive Schemes: Bodyguard (announced) and Grudge** against the Austringer (announced) Lilith, Mother of Monsters - 4SS Pool Primordial Magic Mature Nephilim Young Nephilim Tuco* *Bear in mind we had no idea what Masters we'd be picking. Also, even after putting an asterisk on Tuco's stat card to remind me of one of his rules (first time using him), I still forgot a bunch more. ** We messed up on the announced Schemes. We announced the name of the Scheme, but if the description said 'secretly write down...', we did exactly that. We know now that this isn't the way it works. We were playing on a Terraclips board Forar had built. It was a three-level affair, the lowest level being on the outer edge with a few ramps leading up to a second and third level. The third level, which is where we played, was an 18"x36" rectangle which had a six-inch wide 'street' or path running down its middle with 6"x6" rooms along either side. The rooms were roofless and had doors facing the 'street'. It was a tad neat because it really captured the Western/Victorian feel. We flipped the Red Joker for deployment, which allowed me to choose the type. I chose Standard Deployment because it was the one I've played the least (it's usually the Diagonals). The special terrain feature we flipped involved a pile of Scrap that neither of us could use. We both deployed cautiously, dividing our forces and keeping them behind the structures. Tuco, with his From the Shadows ability, started inside the building that was two houses in, on the left side (from my perspective). He was near the center, anyway. Turn 1 - Feeling Out the Opposition Guild won initiative. Forar used Obey, both with his Enslaved Nephilim (through Magical Extension) and with Hottie McHotterson (Perdita) on his Austringer to move him into one of the structures close to his deployment. I had placed my Young Neph in base with the Mature so I could use the Mature's Carry spell to bring him and his younger sibling six inches forward, placing them in the first structure on the left. Forar placed the Ortegas in good firing positions to cover the main strip, while I kept to the buildings. I had my Young fly into the same building as Tuco, but he was close enough that Forar used his birdman to deal a few wounds to him (First Blood goes to the Guild!). I ended up moving Lilith into the same house as Tuco and the Young. The Primordial Magic couldn't keep up with its Mistress, so I just had it bunk down in the first house on the right. Turn 2 - Tricks and Clever Moves Guild won initiative. Forar activated the Austringer and tried to finish off the Young, leaving him with only 3 Wd. My first move, which was supposed to be a great one, involved me activating Lilith, using her (0) Brood Mother power to have the Young Neph activate next, then using Transposition to swap Tuco and the Austringer. Now the Austringer was in Melee range of the Young and Tuco was in the last house on the right, within spitting distance of his hated Ortegas. Unfortunately, what I meant to do was have Tuco activate after Lilith, but I mixed it all up 'cause I wanted to kill the Austringer. Anyway, after Lilith Transpo'd the two models she skipped across the street to the opposite house on the right. The Young Nephilim tore the Austringer to pieces. Then Forar did this: he activated his Enslaved Nephilim and Perdita again, has them do the double-tap Obey on Francisco and puts him basically in base-to-base with Lilith. I activated Tuco next and shotgunned Nino for 3 Dmg, that got my Sepsis trigger for Poison 1 and a Blast that hit Perdita for 1 Wd and the Enslaved for 2 (again, forgetting that he gets positive twists on attacks and damage against the Ortegas!). Then Forar activated Francisco, who spit '!Eres la puta del Diablo!' into Lilith's face for a (2) interact, thus earning the Guild 4 points for delivering the message before turn 4 (huge!). Nino tried to shoot Tuco, but failed to inflict any real harm. I moved the Primordial Magic into the same house as Lilith and charged Francisco with the Mature. I realized that Frank was probably sitting in Lilith's face to frame her for murder so I wasn't going to kill him with her. The Mature didn't quite kill him though. Turn 3 - The Bloodbath Neverborn won initiative. I had the Mature Nephilim finish off Francisco with his Melee expert and then used his (2) Diving Attack to charge Nino, killing the boy wonder as well. Forar brought the Exorcist in to deal with Tuco, doing some damage, so I transpo'd Tuco with the Young Neph. The Young killed the Exorcist, Perdita killed the Young and the Mature. When the smoke cleared Lilith and Tuco stood defiant in the middle of the street (not the smartest place to put them, but it looked pretty cool). Turns 4 - Clash of the... wait, which models are fighting?!? Perdita spent her activation killing Tuco, then tried to hide in the structure she had been standing next to (this was actually a *BRILLIANT* move by Forar, but I'll get to that). He then had the Enslaved Nephilim get into base contact with Lilith in an attempt to slow her down. I actually had my Primordial Magic leap from out of its hidey-hole and attack the Enslaved Neph (how often do you see hot Totem-on-Totem action?). The Worm doesn't generate much Dmg (a 1/2/3 spread) but managed to hit (Cb of 3) and then manged to flip two moderates on the Damage Flip! Primordial Magic earned his first (and probably only) kill! I had Lilith calmly saunter over to the wall Perdita was hiding behind and stab her right through the bricks. Turn 5 - The Quickest Turn in the West So, after drawing a sick Control Hand (all but two cards were 11 or higher and RJ was in the mix as well) I also managed to win initiative. I knew that Forar had already got 4 points free and clear, but I was also sitting on 4 points. What mattered was what his unannounced Scheme was. Also, I had a bit of a mental lapse and didn't fully read my Strategy, thinking that the Individual Strategy worked the exact same way as the Shared (which I had played just recently). Right, so Lilith killed Perdita pretty convincingly (I managed to get a straight flip for Damage and slapped that RJ down for the damage Cheat), but Forar still had a bit of a bemused smirk on his face. He didn't really seem to care. So, still drunk from murder I sat back and was like 'Well, there's still one more turn to play out, but since I don't have any movement-based Schemes, I don't need to go through the motions'. Forar gives me this sympathetic look and says 'you are going to kick yourself so hard when you find out what you didn't do, but you'll never make this mistake again'. His unannounced Scheme? Holdout. This was why Forar moved Perdita into the structure, so Lilith wasn't in the deployment zone when she killed her. Lilith was just over an inch away from the Ortega deployment zone. Final score: 5-4, Guild victory- Even though there wasn't a Guild model left on the table. The thing I screwed up about my own Strategy was I thought that because I hadn't lost as many models as he had, I'd get a point for Escape & Survive, but that's just in the Shared version. Again, what Forar and I do with these practice sessions is try out models/schemes/builds we might not normally take. Forar took the Exorcist just to take him, even though none of his abilities really came into play. When I was building my Crew I almost dropped the Mature in favour of another Young and either an 8SS Pool or a second Young and a Tot with a 5SS Pool, but the Mature died without doing anything the frist time I used him so I brought him out to play. The Neverborn are also not the best at Escape and Survive-- mostly the Survive part, but I probably could've chosen a faster and/or more elusive Crew to mitigate that. Or included the Twins. Anyway, I learned a lot, especially with Tuco (forgot he was Nimble for the firsts two turns, and completely forgot he got positive twists to Attack and Damage Flips when he targets the Ortegas) and learned that if you have movement at the end the game, you might as well head for the enemy deployment zone, just in case. I've got two more reports that should be coming soon, plus another game with Forar scheduled for this week. Hope y'all enjoyed.

Yeah, what everyone else has said. Those look amazing. The sculpts blow me away!

I've been wishing for an alternate for the Hooded Rider since I got into this game. Not a fan of the original, which doesn't compare to the rest of the Rider models. ---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ---------- I hadn't even thought of that! Yes, plastic base inserts would be fantastic.

Now that Wyrd is going with plastic I'd like to see some more/different sculpts of some of the existing figures in the range. I'm one of those players that doesn't have a duplicate of any sculpt in my collection. I won't put two of the exact same model on the table. Also there are a few Minions that are Rare 2, but only have one version available. So, this is my wishlist of non-unique models that exist that have less sculpts than the number that can possibly be fielded (within reason; ten different Guild Guard sculpts would be a bit much). Here goes: Guild +2 Witchling Stalkers (for extra ones created with Violation of Magic) +1 Guard Captain +1 Hunter +1 Lawyer +1 Exorcist +2 Wardens Ressurectionists +2-3 Mindless Zombies +1 Night Terror +1 Shikome +3 Seishin +2 Gaki Arcanists +1 Razorspine Rattler +1 Sabertooth Cerberus +1 December Acolyte +1 Large Steampunk Arachnid +1 Malifaux Raptor +1 Performer & Mannequin +1 Silent One Neverborn +3 Sorrows +1 Mature Nephilim +1 Young Nephilim +1 Black Blood Shaman +2 Insidious Madness +1 Lelu +1 Lelitu Plastic Nekima! (I know, I said non-unique, but still...) +1 Stitched (I can hear the booing) +3 Gupps Outcasts +2 Warpigs +3 Giant Mosquitos +2 Desperate Mercenaries +2 Freikorpsmann +1 Freikorps Librarian +1 Freikorps Trapper I know I'm probably in the minority here. Most people are fine with just differentiating duplicates with colour-schemes and such, but I just thought it'd be nice to have more options... I'm also aware that this might not be practical for Wyrd to ever do. I'm not saying this *has* to be done, just that it would be nice. A boy can dream, can't he?