4thstringer

So I went to my first non-hardcore tournament last weekend, in Frederick Maryland. John- (Arli on the forums) was the TO and with myself we had 6 players. It was a 35 pt fixed faction tournament, and went three rounds. I was running Neverborn and made it my goal to play a different master for my three different games (Otherwise I tend to play Lucius for everything, and I am trying to get past that) Game 1 I was matched up against Bruce and his Sonya crew. He had a death marshall, 2 stalkers, the purifying flame, Sam with upgrades and Sonya with upgrades(but not the flame wall nor the summoning upgrade. This would be important later). I was running Nekima as a leader, with true mother, and Barbaros with rapid growth, a black blood shaman, and 3 tots. The strat was extraction, with deliver the message, assassinate and entourage (and one more that I dont remember). He announced deliver the message, and I went with entourage and assassinate unannounced. The board had a altar dominating the middle which you pretty much had to be up on to get into the extraction points starting area. There was a forest in the deployment zone for sonya, and a could other pieces of scenery that didn't end up mattering too much. First turn, he bunched up in the front of the altar with most of his crew, which I advanced tots up both sides, with nekima on the left, and barbaros to the center right, while the BBS went up the middle cautiously. The nature of the altar kept most of my models hidden, but barbaros only had cover and was staring down the nasty Sonya/sam double team. Turn two, I was able to spend a stone to get the first turn, and charged barbaros at one of the stalkers, while getting a lot of the rest of the team under black blood range. Barbaros hurt but didn't kill the stalker, and then put up the challenge to cause problems for the rest of the group. Sam then double "burn them out"'ed Barbaros, A tot ran up into the black blood range as well, but was dispatched Sonya. Sonya also did more damage to Barbaros, but the BBS was able to get him healed up before the burning could wipe him off the table, while getting Sam pretty low on health. Nekima swung up the flank, only to be engaged in a forest by the death marshall, who had boxed the damaged Witchling Stalker. The last tot sprinted up to Sonya, again into black blood range. The purifying flame tried to charge nekima, but failed his willpower roll for challenge from barbaros. Turn three, the message was delivered by the death marshall and the tot. Nekima did a whole lot of nothing to the marshall and the stalker, and they did minimal damage to him. Barbaros killed off the 2nd stalker. Sam did very little and Barbaros was reduced to so little life that I couldn't afford to pustule him. The BBS started moving forwards so that he could feed/grow the tot. Sonya used inferno to kill off sam and barbaros. This left only 3 models in the extraction zone, which meant that I was able to get those points over him for the first time. Turn Four I had a killer hand, and Nekima started off by killing the Death marshall and the witchling stalker. The last unengaged tot killed the Purifying flame, while the the tot attacked sonya, hitting twice, was then grown by the BBS using a corpse marker, and then the new nephilim finished off sonya. we resolved the game at 8-5. Round 2 My second round found me matched up against a Tara wielding Resser, who goes by Master Squid on the forums. I wanted to run a thematic crew with Lucius at the lead, so I ran all mimics. I had Tannen (with unnecessary duplications) and graves, the scribe, Lucius with secret assets, a beckoner, and a doppelganger. My opponent had Tara with a full boat of upgrades, karina with her summoning upgrade, a nothing beast and 3 void wretches. The strategy was headhunter, and the schemes were LITS, protect territory, spring the trap, take prisoner, and one other awful one that I don't like. I took protect territory and spring the trap. and revealed PT. He revealed LITS and PT. Deployment was corner. So as corner usually goes, we were pretty bunched up to start, and he started spreading out almost immediately. the Nothing beast and a void wretch held the middle, which had a huge ridgeline across it. Tara went to my right, while another void wretch and karina headed towards the other corner. I approached the middle with tannen/graves, the scribe and lucius, and sent the beckoner and tannen after the left corner. I then split the doppelganger and tannen off to try to slow down tara. Beckoner and graves were able to movement trick each other quickly towards that corner, and held off and eventually killed Karina and the void wretch. Lucius and the scribe were able to hold up the nothing beast with red tape before killing it. The scribe then went to hold up a summoned guild autopsy, while lucius focused on killing void wretches and collecting their heads. His hidden sniper was essential to this, as they were trying to drop markers everywhere, which made lucius and some judicious stone use incredibly handy. He kept pulling up the markers almost as fast as they were dropped. Tara slaughtered the doppelganger and tannen, but they were able to hold her up, spring the trap for 2 and prevent her from being able to run her schemes for more than a point. In the end, Tara was all that was left on the board for my opponent, and I was able to pull in 8 total points (missing one from spring the trap and one from headhunter as we didn't even engage until turn 3). Round 3, saw me matched up with another unbeaten Resser, this time Rob piloting Yan Lo. I had no expecience playing against Yan Lo, nor any of the other models he brought except the flying nightmares (don't remember their names. He brought two of those, 3 ashigaru (sp?), a crooligan, Toshiro and Yan Lo. I brought Lilith with her tree making, her upgraded sword and the charge inducing one that I never used, with Nekima with true mother and fears given form, BBS, and 2 tots. Deployment was close, The strat was interference and the schemes were LITS, Vendetta, Bodyguard (I think), Distract, and Make them suffer. I took make them suffer and distract, and he announced line in the sand. I never learned his other strat, but I suspect it was vendetta. There was a river with a bridge in the middle of the board vertically and a number of large trees providing cover. He went first and moved a nightmare up on the left. I advanced Lilith up, killed the madness, and put up trees to prevent 2 ashigaru and Tosh from being able to do anything productive. He started moving around the trees. I moved a tot into base to base with toshiro after he came around the way. That tot was then killed by a ashigaru, as I didn't realize they could charge for 1. A red joker later and the tot was mush. The other ashigaru tried to make its way around, and managed to separate itself from the other two models on that half a little too much. The BBS moved towards the center, with the plan of pustuling nekima. On the other side, nekima moved in, engaged Yan Lo and the crooligan. She tried to hurt the crooligan but failed. yan lo then moved nekima to the other side of the crooligan and then tried to kill the other tot with his attacks, but failed. The ashigaru and other nightmare moved up to threaten. turn two, lilith was able to charge a the loose ashigaru, kill it in two, and then retreat back behind another illusionary forest. toshiro started moving towards the BBS, who got brave and moved up to distract toshiro. Nekima moved to reengage yan lo, and distracted the crooligan again before putting a nice hard hit on Yan lo. Yan lo took more damage from Fears given form, before doing minor damage to Nekima (and suffering more damage from Black Blood) Yan lo then went incorporal. The tot engaged and distracted the nightmare. The ashigaru stuck where he was to get the strat points, but failed to hold the tot in place.. at that point it was 2-1 (1 for strat for Rob, 1 for distract and make them suffer) Turn three, nekima went into killing mode, and killed yan lo and the crooligan, using her black blood the best of her advantage and getting a tot for her trouble. Lilith moved up to distract the two on her side, and the tot and the nightmare continued to fight. The ashigaru charged nekima, but was unable to do damage.the bbs started doing damage by pustuling lilith, but then realized it was a bad idea, and just sat around to get the strat. with the tot. turn four, lilith and nekima killed off the rest of the opposing forces, and we shook hands. It was a fun tournament, and all of my opponents were great to play against. I apologize for any inaccuracies, as it has been a few days, and would like to note that my hands were absolute fire all day. John runs a heck of a tournament.

Someone mentioned Tannen for certain schemes, but one that he is often missed on is power ritual. It won't work if its not standard or close deployment because he is so slow, but his aura can for the most part deny one of your corners, and since it is so often declared, you can see it coming before they get there. It solves Tannen's vulnerability issues too, because your average scheme runner doesn't want to be in a continuing fight over a corner.

I find tannen to be most useful using Graves and/or other big models (like teddys) as line of sight blockers, to protect him from charges. He is great for keeping in a place that, if he is charged and killed, that model will no long be in the place to do the interact they wanted to do anyways. That being said, I don't play against many shooty crews (I am the shooty one usually as I play guild too). Besides the freidcorp trapper,, I rarely face guns that I have to worry about.

So, are you going to use 2014 or 2015 gaining grounds?

I should probably start using it with hidden sniper, but the suit requirement in hidden sniper already frustrates me so much I almost never use it.

They look like a lot of fun, but I am a little worried that they will lead to crew building needing to be even more specialized than before.

Awesome, thanks. They sound really fun to play, especially headhunter and the Joker one (don't remember it's name).

So, I love the new strategies they discussed on the most recent Cheated Fates episode and would like to give them a try. Does anyone know if those are in written form yet?

Lucius is my main master, and I make very little use of devils deal. Because of his backline nature, he is rarely attacked, and since when I attack with him I am usually trying for red tape more than anything, the positive flip isn't nearly as useful as it would be otherwise. If you could use it for refliping init or for card draw that would change things considerably though.

Wow, that would really incentivizes some crews that can get right into it, while hopefully cutting down on the dominance of summoning crews. Can't wait to see the scheme/strat lists.

Don't forget Lucius's other abilities. 1. The upgrade that lets him steal scheme markers at the end of the game is downright vicious against Breakthrough, line in the sand and power ritual. 2. The trigger on his sword can make him great for keeping a big hitter tied up and out of the match. 3. His "thats what lackeys are for" is a great ability that combines dropping a scheme marker with moving models around. Against things like Assasinate and murder protege, or when you have bodyguard or the one where you have to get to the other side of the board, that model switch can be fantastic. I've honestly only used guild intelligence once, so I can't comment so much on that one.

I'm getting all excited for this one, see you guys tomorrow.

I don't play Vassal, but I know when I have played games of malifaux that have felt "indoors" I have found them to be rather frustrating, and honestly feel like way too much terrain under the rules.

So what did you think of the Lucius segment that Through the Breach did recently? What did you agree with, what did you disagree with? I know listening to it, i felt like they really missed discussing his "that's what lackeys are for" ability. I generally use it once or twice a game to get a model into position to punish an opponent who underestimates my potential threat range for my hitters. I also really like the Black Blood Shaman with Lucius, and feel like more discussion of him would have been good. The Candy thing seemed strange to me. They said that Fears Given Form effects friendly models as well. If you are putting a model within 2 inches to take advantage of the Duplications, then you are going to have to either move candy to get those models out of your zone, or risk damage from FGF. I still want to use it with her, but I think in that case I will not bother with Duplications. Seems like she could be one of the best space fillers, and hard hitters used to try to get her away have to fear her ability to hit them back just as hard. I haven't used the Waldgeist, but they gave me something to think about there.

I agree. Guild henchmen are useful but rarely versatile. I personally think Ryle is one of the more versatile options, having 2 useful (0) actions as well as being effective ranged and close in. it seems to me, and I would love to know what other people think, that guild henchmen get their versatility from upgrades rather than from their main card. Exclusive upgrades like Sidir's, the Judge's, Subtype upgrades like Frank, Sam, or Daschell, or even the general upgrades (plant evidence and the new one both help with scheme running quite a bit) all really improve the versatility of our henchmen models. It might be that that is the case for other factions too though, and I just don't play enough out of guild to realize it, but it seems to me most other factions, if they have a henchman model, it is pretty well known which upgrades they will take.

I don't really play the same crews as you (mostly Lucius and Sonnia myself.). Through the Breach just had really good podcast segment detailing guild McCabe's strengths. Generally the notes other people have made about what schemes you were doing are really important. The other thing you should try to do is pick which fights will help you achieve what you want to achieve. You have a lot of movement/speed tricks with Jacob and Perdy. Take advantage of those.

Now I have an excuse for when I lose with guild.

I think the ability of a minion to shoot into engagement effectively cannot be understated. It has a psychological effect that you otherwise don't see.

I'll be there, hope to meet some of you.

I don't think Lucius can use thats what lackeys are for more than once per turn.

I really like dampening field, but it makes you activate your master first in the turn, often quite close to the enemy.

1. Flamewall is your friend...with a certain totem you can get two walls off per turn. And with Hannah you can make that three per turn, if you want to get crazy with it.

Upon rereading the wording, I think I was playing it wrong. That's a shame, its not like it makes him overpowered.

Tannen's main job is to deploy his chatty aura, and use his anti-cheaty aura plus manipulative to drain hands. Often he is one of the models graves will kick forwards. I don't always use him, for stake a claim, squatters rights, or when the scheme pool includes breakthrough, power ritual, distract or cursed object (and i am sure others). At least once in power ritual, I have placed him in one quarter, and Nino in the other, and shut down their ability to achieve a scheme that is usually easy points. On another thread, I remember talking about using him with a number of models with pulse attacks. The basic idea is to use him and several other models in an area that cause a simple duel, or models that drain cards from the hand, like executioners or austringers. I haven't remembered to try it out, but it might be worth a go in something like turf war.

Once on each friendly model. And if you push the first in such a way that you can't follow with your push, then you will still be in position to push the other one.