SpectreEliteGaming

They probably care less about the opinions of us crazy people who post on the forums upwards of 4am. Perhaps if we recruit some more sensible people, it might help. I'm buying the damn thing anyway. *grumble grumble*

zFiend - The only thing I'm worried about in that regard is that, given the pose of the other hand, if you just switch the one hand around it might look like he's flying backwards after just getting shot by a shotgun or something. You'd have to drop the left arm and switch around and drop the right arm to get the pose I'm talking about. Go ahead, get a mental picture of that I'll wait... you know it looks better. Okay, but seriously guys, you need to stop it... now I can't not look at his tight ass.... and guitar solo... #@<*!!! I can't let this happen to Mr. Daw. I'm making it a priority to convert this guy asap otherwise burn him at the sprue! >8) Maybe if we say "tight ass guitar solo" enough times he'll magically change like how Collette got a top hat? "Hey, Jack... nice tight ass guitar solo." It works on so many levels... and now I can't stop laughing.

Actually, I wouldn't write off Daw from Headhunter completely, depending on the scheme pool. He can push and pull (er... twist and turn) and doesn't mind being up close. The way to stop Jack is to pick his crew apart not to go for Jack himself... so as they are killing your guys you might be able to pick up your own heads or definently negate them from doing so. I'd have to look into it more as right now Hunters/peacekeeper or those damn belle spam levy lists have my attention. The problem with this strategy though his that Daw depends on his crew a lot - every model you lose Daw gets weaker... :/ On a side note - I'm positive Hamelin is going to be GREAT in headhunter (and interference to boot) i just have to play him more... maybe not for tournaments if you dont get past turn 3 though :/ Back on track - if headhunter had some anti-killy schemes and I knew my matchup would be average- good I'd probably give Daw a shot, for sure.

Well, the problem is, like I said before - I'm probably not the best to ask about playing JD as a generalist. He comes in for very particular circumstances for me where there is a large emphasis on a) not killing things, and lots a schemey stuff. I would never bring JD for reckoning (killy levy comes in) or recon (recon/interference is a summoner's game - levy for recon and i'm hypothesizing that hamelin will be an ace for interference... more on that later? >8) ). As such, I have no idea what I'd do in those instances... he's really not good for either. Its a weird way to think about it but I find JD to be good at all the crappy strats and schemes no one ever plays with (like stake a claim or spring the trap). He's really good when you have a really lame scheme pool. Daw is great in Frame, Plant Explosives/evidence, entourage, blah blah blah... every scheme except kill specific ones. JD's worst matchups overall would be guild (shooty-high wp) and Ca heavy crews. The other factions depend on the individual masters in question. JD's best matchups are low willpower (gremlins) or MI heavy non summoning crews. You really don't want to be out activated too badly. I got flack for this last time I said it but I also rarely run JD unless I know exactly what master my opponent will be bringing to the table (maybe cheating? maybe pre-game recon?). I think its important to also remember that playing JD feels a lot like playing survivior mode in Malifaux. It's kind of like eventually you will lose the game you are just trying to hold out as long as possible - this is probably why people hate playing a passive disruptive JD (not "cagey" - you got to keep the pressure on). They move in, you move them out - they want to hit you, give them firing squad. A lot of the time you can just kind of see what it is that your opponent does and just counter it to piss them off They are playing Malifaux - you are playing "anti-malifaux." I never take Monty - I prefer JD running around with a Hanged and LL/Child (Guiltyx2 for extra schemeyness if you brought them). Also, there's no reason you can't do both... Jaakuna can hold fort while JD runs around with his entourage pissing people off. I rarely don't take Jaakuna - the question really is Nurse vs. Librarian and the answer to that is flip a coin i guess. :/ Make sure that most models you bring has the potential of "cancelling" out one or more of your opponent's models. Ideally you want to hose the important models while getting your objectives done. JD has no problem swooping in for the win at the end game after you've most certainly won the psychological game over your opponent, who probably doesn't want to play anymore. Internet trolls would like playing Daw, me thinks.

Well then... I stand corrected. Now I'm wondering why I thought it was some kind of evil bird woman spirit thing that steals/eats babies or something... and no I'm not thinking of shikome. Cross cultural consistancy in folklore is truly astonishing though. Lots of cultures have dragons, different kinds of (similar) vampires, and even similar washer women stories. Especially evident in creation mythology. Its really baffling when you think about it... where did these stories originate? (mind blown). Aw well... I digress. ---- Hey, Valhallan - did you have your librarian tormented or not? I don't remember. I tend not to bother tormenting my own stuff unless I have nothing to do with the last AP (but Jack always has something to do )

Montresor is the weak leg of the stool that wobbles when you stand on it. If I was my opponent I would just focus fire Monty eating ss prevention and then taking a major piece out of the game. As myself, I feel I want to overextend Monty to get the most out of him but fear exactly that happening to him so I'm either worried about him or under utilizing him. If you want an expensive scheme runner buy A&D. The last thing JD needs is a super expensive fast scheme runner anyway... and even then Ama is better (I'm still experimenting with her though - I usually just send Daw + guiltyx2/hanged around the board). If you really want the lure effects I would take jaakuna ubume and a drowned with nurse support - its just a solid shitty place for your opponent's models to end up - and kind of generally float my crew around where they are anchored. Jaakuna holds ground and Daw floats around letting his entourage drop scheme markers. Jaakuna is also super cheap and I feel more effective than Monty plus the drowned are hearty models. If I lose Jaakuna it doesn't matter because she's cheap and did her job. Honestly, it can even come down to the generalization of "ubume and monty do similar things - ubume is 4ss cheaper... okay ill go with ubume and I don't need both." What I meant by "too good" is more as a comparison to Monty - for 2ss more you are getting two models that are tough and scary - I'm big on efficiency and they don't come with a target on their head like Monty does. Drowned and Crooked are better in play than they appear on paper - you'd have to get them into play. Last point... I still have yet to figure out why Jaakuna Ubume is more of a "washer woman", which is celtic or irish lore(?), than she is an "ubume" - which is some kind of weird japanese bird spirit. I'd really like her to be a weird bird spirit in the plastic

My man Jack Daw... yup, that is serious air guitar. Why not have him arched waaaay back with both hands outstretched and down like he's levitating into the air bellowing "Noooooooooo....!!!" One hand up and one hand down = air guitar - you just wait for the conversions to pop up I'm going to rip off his head and put it on the really long skinny hanged and call it a day I think... I can't get behind this one. Otherwise maybe I'll try to convert it for the pose or just stick with the original. One of my favorite masters but I'm not loving the box unfortunatey, maybe I was looking for a more spirit-look rather than rotten blood and guts. The new guilty will make good terrain pieces though.

I've been really liking the child for a while now but actually, no. Child works great in a more aggressive disruptive list where you might need to spread out and haunt your opponent around the board. I like really covering the board with Daw's taint That would be in the manner that my last post is mostly talking about. If you are playing a tarpitty list where you need to hold territory then LL is probably still your go to. I know I made it sound like "screw Ligeia - Child all the way" but actually she has her place... and that place is right next to a Hanged >8) The thing about child though is that, unlike the situational models like the nurse which is hit and miss, the child is always good because he is doing more of what it is that your master wants to do as a (1) action and its hard to argue against that. I tend to always obey my own tormented models to avoid resist flip and only target enemies when needed but priority is mostly on my own. There are no auto takes with Mr. Daw - you have to cater around him and every choice is a hard choice. I'll throw out a couple extra nuggets that I just thought of that I am pretty certain about: - Montresor is terrible, I can't be convinced otherwise - did you know Ubume can hold Creeping Terror? The Ubume-Drowned package is too good and I'd take a hanged over montresor and just bank the rest of the ss. He's gimmicky and just a janky model. Too fast for his own good, to boot - feels like he needs to much support. - I take Daw in Strat-Scheme pools where its heavy scheme oriented or (especially!) with a lot of anti-killy schemes. This is mostly because I don't want to be suckered into a Frame target with Levy. A lot of Daw's crew can kill things in ways that don't count as you having made the killing blow. Basically, if the strat-scheme pool looks like "I reaaaaally want to take levy but it sucks because I'm not supposed to kill anything" then Daw is probably perfect. Daw is also great in crappy scheme pools where hard to do schemes like Spring the Trap are there and you just don't like the other options.

Freikorps heavy list would be Tara (as a glorified scheme runner) with hannah and a bunch of trappers/librarians plus void wretches. You can sub in whatever you need (strongarm or laz) but this works good to start. Activate the wretches late after you dump your hand and your friekorp will just steamroll right through the center disrupting fucking everything (you probably wont even need void wretches). Provided she goes first (which she should) bury with Tara followed by bury with Hannah to limit your opponent's counter offensive for the turn - both pop out end of turn so you can bury the most relevant ones the following turn. Hannah Survivor Pay Better Librarain x3 (w/ Oathkeeper x3) Librarian/Trapper Is one of my favorite Henchman led 35ss lists... gl with that.

I'll just quickly touch on a few points that haven't been mentioned yet: I'm honestly surprised that more people don't have negative play experiences against Daw. I think Victoria is right on the money about the feeling that one gets when you actually play against him. I think what is going on here is that this thread is full of Daw enthusiasts and all the players who hate him don't play Malifaux anymore. This is very dependant on your playstyle though. I am a naturally devious and manipulative player - When I look at scheme selection I first think "what can I take that will absolutely hose my opponent the most in scheme selection while allowing me to be able to disrupt his remaining (hopefully poor) selections." In other words, I don't want to win 10-9 I want to win 1-0. The reason this is effective for me, I think, is that your opponent is desperately gunning for as much VP as possible while you can just deny them in a more efficient manner - you are disrupting their playstyle by utilizing and following through with your own... preventing them from doing what they want to do by doing exactly what you want to do. I'm not sure if that makes sense to you like it does to me, so here's an example: My opponent is desperately trying to do the story mode strategy and investing a ton of AP into it. My mind tells me it is more efficient to sit My A&D's or Ubume's (also, gremlins love Ama fyi) large ass right on top of the target interact marker, with a little support here and there, and invest all of my AP in beating my opponent 6-5 in schemes while they are mucking about. Since I know everybody and their dog always always chooses plant explosives I spread out, "guaranteeing" (in my mind) a 6-5/6-4 victory. I am more than happy to give up 4VP to cancel my opponent's 4VP. If I figure out your vendetta target - I'll just nuke my own guy. Meanwhile, they continue to sink AP trying to actually play the game. Since I am investing all my AP into a smaller and more consistent area as opposed to my opponent trying to do everything, provided it all goes to plan, you should come out on top. So in a tournament, I'm probably going to really hose your diff/vp even if you beat me If you think like this you'll like Daw. On the otherhand, I saw Vallhallan play Daw in person in a rather aggressive tarpitty manner and he was still very effective, so you can just do whatever you want really. Even so, I believe that Daw should be played like those annoying blue control decks that keep putting whatever you cast back jnto your hand or just straight up counterspelling or neutering everything - as annoyingly as possible. Moxypoo's posts are gold - I want to disrupt your important models and kill your hand (so that's why I bring guilty plus they are good scheme runners - swap guilty for crooked or drowned depending on schemes). This is why I'm staying away from LL in favor of the Child. *You hose their hand to prevent cheating, as is - then you use "just like you" at -3ca targeting Daw's obey which targets a friendly models ability, who relents, to use the targeted ability at full strength instead of a gimped master attack copy - I'm sorry, did that freaking child just Whispers me??? dirty dirty dirty Plus everyone leaves Child alone anyways because he's just an annoying little shit "not worth the AP" - Manipulative 15(!!!) + disguised is just lunacy. The Child is Daw's unofficial totem. Couple extra points: - I'm really liking Ama, I just need to figure out how to incorporate her into my playstyle - I don't think she works for me but I'ma keep trying. -The biggest difficulty I face in crew selection is ALWAYS nurse vs. librarian - and I always have a crappy feeling like I chose the wrong one. - I play Daw with no intention of ever killing anything on my opponent's crew. If this playstyle won't work in the given strat/scheme composition I will just straight up choose a different master. Curse everything, kill the hand, and move everything aroundbeing a real disruptive jerk to play against - Daw likes "tormenting" people, right? - Daw has his place - I don't believe that every master can do every strat/scheme pool to a sufficient degree and JD is an extremely particular master to play. As much as I love the guy he'll never be above a tier 3 master. He's too picky and too situational with a number of effective hard counters. Hopefully, you knew enough to choose him in a strat/scheme comp. where those hard counters are unlikely to be used by your opponent. --- There is no need to wait for my 2 cents, anyway - moxypoo's two posts along with HD's wealth of knowledge is more than enough - I think HD wrote the pullmyfinger about Daw. EDIT: Screwed up the wording of Child's ability - edited to make more sense.

As far as capture the flag - what if it was "gain 1vp for every turn you have your opponents flag and your flag on your half of the board." If both your opponent anf you have each others flag no one gains VP. If you kill the flag carrier the flag drops in base contact. Interact (1) within 1" to discard flag marker and respawn a 30mm flag at start position. Maybe I will do a write up, after all. It will be a low scoring strat like reckoning, not going to lie. As a denial player, I would like to see more low scoring strats - these 10-8 games (and occasional 10-nil blowouts) have got to go.

Personally, I think the tournament strats are kind of boring and repetitive - not so much at the tournaments themselves, because in the actual tourney setting they are exciting, but outside of it when you play casually they get dry . As far as actually liking the strats particularly - turf war and recon are good because king of the hill and zones are always solid. I particularly dislike headhunter - i don't know why people like it so much - it boils down to a bunch of lure effects or janky list building - headhunter games feel like a drag to me but everyone else seems to like them, so I dunno. The rest of the strats are decent with a few that pretty much just fire its predecessor. *** I'd very much like to see a protect the flag scenario brought into Malifaux and i'd be happy just playing those three (turf war, zones, protect flag - i blame multiplayer conditioning in vanilla WoW for this - I would love to bring the warsong gulch to maifaux ). It wouldn't be hard either, I don't think - two 30mm "flag" bases in center of standard deployment line - grab and bring back past your deployment line for 4VP - 2 VP if you cross the middle line and 1VP for just having posession at game's end. I could see this format being competitive too, i dunno, what do you think?*** I would really like to play more alternative formats like HH and Brawl plus story scenarios like Carver but its hard enough getting regular games in for me and that happens quite rarely. I find myself more intrigued with story encounters simply because they are new and different.

I'm definently hoping for a hare model too. I'm thinking more of an Easter scenario model instead of just an alt for another model. Like the carver is to halloween. I wanna put a chainsaw in that bunny's hands EDIT: Seriously though... whats the chance of getting that bunny in model form? >8)

I couldn't say I agree more. A misplaced key model turn one is a game swinger right there. R1 of Adeticon Masters I sac'd A&D, burned oathkeeper and put Izamu into the ground - with a weak half of the board the rest of the game my opponent had one hell of a time dealing with it. I'll always look for a good Levy-zerg target and I consider the first waif a freebie. After your first waif dies then you start playing "for real."

Another important point, which I believe is being extremely overlooked, is that not all masters are available in plastic yet and most of the ones that are have not had nearly enough play with them just yet. Errata-ing anything, let alone a Master, before we actually see all of the potential crews in game seems short sighted, in the end. My OP senses are tingling towards the gremlins though - I'll be researching those little buggers, that's for sure. >8) I don't think I will ever be convinced Levy needs errata - he's powerful and he's just popular right now - with Molly, Shenlong, Brewmaster and others coming out I'm sure we will look back and see all of this Levy-talk as being a bit silly in retrospect. Maybe Wong will be te next Levy-problem, or will it be Ulix? (I really want to start playing gremlins!!!). The only crew I think Levy runs better than the actual master is Hoffman - but I think that that is because Levy is a good well rounded master and the hoff is a "smaller and less desirable" choice. Similarly, the overabundance of Levy could be attributed to the other Outcast masters as being less desirable... I would argue strongly that the absolute strongest faction, as a whole, is definently Arcanists and (possibly?) Gremlins in second. Why bring Levy down instead of other masters up (like the many many Tara-band aid approach, hehe)? Icemyn is totally correct about the Levy pilots at Adepticon - everyone's list was so different it was great to see! I think that this is the exact opposite of a problem, however. Also, I am willing to bet that the US and UK metas are seeing different things and I have seen no overarching consensus on pretty much a damn thing in this game yet. Someone says "ashigaru suck" and another person says they are awesome. One person says "levy is OP" and another says "oh hey! I finally figured levy out... he's not so bad after all." and so on.

I feel very strongly that it is an unfair marketing strategy to come up with such a ridiculously awesome Easter LE which forces people like me to buy something I don't need (mostly due to my low self control). Then, I need to spend even more money to get that Kaeris (which I almost certainly will never use - but will look really pretty... sitting on a shelf... forever.)! Having said that, I don't regret my purchase and enjoy my money... jerks!

As much as I want to say "no way icemyn, you are totally wrong and I disagree with you" I find it difficult to do so as I run all of the models that are considered super strong and almost never dabble with ones that are less than optimal. In other words, pretty much your entire list of models that "need change" are all models I run whenever I can and I'm not going to try to say that it isn't the case. This thread should be renamed "Sh*t that I Run ALL the Time!" However, just like in Magic (because its the best example) there will always be a few cards (models) that are crazy good and show up all over the place. Have you ever seen a Goblin deck that doesn't run 4x Lackeys/Piledrivers or an Affinity deck without Nexus/Disciples or Ravagers? (Yes, I am THAT jerk who played decks like that allllllll the time). A Levy crew with auto A&D just seems like "yeah, okay - seems right." Maybe I just don't see "auto-includes" as a problem? As I've said before - I am a sucker for "figuring out the perfect lists" for exactly what I am doing and who I am facing on what board and most of my grief comes from things like "Crap! I should have only brought 2 stitched - not 3! (= R5 Adepticon Masters - and he even called me out on it which just made it worse! ). I am always more upset by a mistake I made in my list building than I am with the game resulting in a loss (brainwashed by Magic, no doubt). Some models are just better than others and there really isn't a legitimate reason you can give me to not field them in purely competitive settings. Neuter those aces and something else will take its place. The only thing I think all of this unbalanced model stuff will amount to will be a distinction between "tournament worthy" and "non-tournament worthy" models - which is natural and just simply will happen, in any game. The interesting thing (and I know that it wasn't the intent of this thread, but still...) will be the eventual realization of "tournament worthy masters" and "non-tournament worthy masters" - this will also inevitably happen. Luckily, by the time we really truly figure this game out it will probably be 3rd Edition... so it will be back to the drawing board. Finally, there's no way you can tell me that the tournament scene is stagnating - if the UK scene says it isn't then I will default and trust them. From their tourney results it certainly seems like there is a good mix in the top tables with the emphasis on top players not top lists... I am more than happy enough with this. I have played in stagnant tournament scenes (Do I need to say Magic again? ) and I don't feel this is even close to that. I played Levy in Adepticon and I played against two players piloting Levy and we all played very differently with very different lists. I, myself, piloted Levy 5 different ways in the 5 different rounds. It is clear that you (Icemyn) has "figured" this game out more than most people and I don't disagree with anything you said but I also won't say that there isn't anything in this game that I feel I can't deal with. You throw it at me, I'm pretty sure I have an OP answer to your OP problem. ----- TL;DR From my experience I have not seen anything that I can't deal with in someway.... and when in doubt just throw shit at the problem and stall it. There are powerful things but I've got powerful things too. Perhaps I have been tainted too long by the "tournament mentality" that invades all games. I wouldn't know how to play in a "functional and balanced" tournament (with "functiona and balanced" models) if there ever was one.

Whenever I see butt cracks I am reminded of Once Upon a Time in the West - You can't trust a man who can't trust his pants. I really enjoy the mind games element to competitive gaming - as soon as I pick up that I'm being fronted or deceived I immediately shutdown and become hypervigilant and aware of dirty tricky. I never invest myself emotionally in a game, though I have a serious thinking face that I am told makes me look like I'm about to flip shit, haha. This, of course, only assists in making it look like I am being absentmindedly deceived or disrupted by the events when I am not, just lucky that way. Honestly, I'm more stubborn than a dwarf - Even if I lose the game I'll never let a person get the better of me in the psychology department. >8) Similarly, I do have a problem with taking everything seriously, though - whether its a game of Last Night on Earth/Zombicide or Catan or even Cards Against Humanity, I always seem to find myself preoccupied with whether or not I am winning. If you are a person like me, the key here is to keep that mindset within yourself and not influence the game negatively for other people. I have found you can still pretend to have fun while really trying to smash face - just make sure you're not ruining the game for eveyone else. :/

Do my eyes deceive me or is the special edition performer for the easter sale the same as the special edition performer for last black friday sale? Why does it look different? Do I want it to look different?

April sale? Sooooooo all of those shinies on the release schedule are up for presale? Do tell more. >8)

Does Gen Con have a "best appearence" or some other kind of painting award for Avatars? I'd like to see more incentive directed towards the hobby aspect of this game! Perhaps even a little table set up near the judge's table where we might put displays for onlookers? Thanks. Also, I'd love to see a HH or Brawl League going on but I'm not sold on the multiple format qualifiers idea. A trophy/plaque for the HH or Brawl league winners would be great though. I'm a sucker for trophies. I don't care about prizes just give me that damn trophy! >8)

True, I was thinking mostly to keep it uniform - since we already have Hans, it would be Frans compared to Borderlands 2's Hanz and Franz. But yeah... Rezzer/Gremlin? I'll third it - come get the voodoo! We need A LOT more voodoo stuff in this game

That's right! Malifaux Child gets MVP by saving the day by tying up not one but two SS Miners!!! Grrrrrrrr.... haha! That's the only time 0SS waifs are the scariest things on the board! lol It's like playing Malifaux in reverse. ---- Yes, Brendan sounds familiar, I'm sure that's him. He looked absolutely exhausted by the end - I should have bought him a beer before I left. Thanks Brendan!

Disclaimer: Someone asked for a tournament report for Adepticon 2015 in another thread. As such, I was thinking that this post will be a bit of a hub for experiences at Adepticon for anyone who went, if you feel like sharing. It will be directed at those who couldn't make it or those who have never gone but are interested, in order to promote interest in the event for future years (or otherwise make them feel really bad for not going!). If you have a link to a blog, post, battle report, podcast, etc. post the link here. Otherwise, perhaps you could make a quick post detailing some of your favorite parts of the convention. ------- Just a few quick things from me... Favorite Moments and Misc. Thoughts: - Brawl Before Bragfaux: In an 8-man Brawl - Little ol' Raphael LaCroix stomps out such big hitters as Howard, Izamu, Rogue Necro, Hooded Rider, Killjoy, and Peacekeeper to a 17VP victory! He one-shotted Killjoy twice hitting for 10 and 12 dmg a shot. >8) - Mr. Westerland has officially converted me over to the gremlins... I may play outcasts, I may enjoy Outcasts, but I am now firmly transitioning towards a more green approach to this game. - Portello's!!! It's sad that I have to drive 20hrs to get a good sandwich. American food is off the hook! The chocolate cake shake kicked my ass. - Nova Open's Matt Stanley showed Wyrd's Mason (piloting the Viks) why Jack Daw is the scariest guy around in a friendly pick up that was really awesome to watch play out. It ended in an 8-8 draw... and I was most pleased to see Jack stand up so well against such a beaty master. I also talked Jack with Matt afterwards and he is just as nice in person as I thought he would be. Thanks! - "Masters - Adepticon 2015; or, How I learned that the name of the new 8th faction in Malifaux is 'Leveticus.' " - Oh, the Deception!!! I actually played two more (or less) deceptive players than myself! Master R3 found myself facing off in a Levy-off against an opponent who played as much outside of the game as he did inside... and it was GREAT! He used such techniques as over-information, off topic conversation, "thinking aloud," speaking and playing fast, and giving "helpful advice." He even forced an awkward situation by having me play sideways on the table with a terribly one-sided deployment zone - something I did not expect nor had ever done before. Unfortunately, you can't con a con'er... or something like that...I picked up on his aggressive style of deception almost immediately and countered with one of my own favorites: "pretending I am a whole lot dumber than I am" - there is nothing a confident deceiver likes better than thinking his deception is working. Besides, the fact that I truly am terrible at math, especially while multi-tasking, adds to the legitimacy of this approach. *I believe that this is exactly what Mike from Gaming Done Right was talking about when he said simply knowing about deception can help oneself avoid being con'ed by it and in my mind, when I was thinking back about that game, not a more perfect example can be found. I "gave it away" that I might have distract ("You have to be "base to base" to interact with a model, right?") only to reveal I declared Take Prisoner on Hannah at the end to gain the victory. Outside of the game he was a perfect gent and really nice guy to talk to. Good game, sir!... and one of the best of the weekend. I was able to turn what might have been a negative play experience for most other people into what was one of my favorites of the weekend.* Of note, Wyrd's own Mason con'ed me into attacking his Blood Vik who had Frame for Murder... and I fell for it! Luckily I was being dumb and not channeling with Levy - my stupidity saved me. As soon as I realized that he had given me that helpful information which deceived me I was mighty pleased. Good show, my man! Some Notes and Considerations: - I spent way too much time painting and not playing in preparation for Adepticon - I hadn't played a real legit game of Malifaux (standard format and in the competitive spirit) for at least 3-4 months before. I found myself forgetting a lot of stuff and getting bogged down with strategy within time constraints. - I ended Masters at 3-1-1 ranking 25th (I believe it should be 15th-ish due to calculation errors in TP). The plight of the denial player = it appears to be very difficult to rank high in terms of vp/diff in domination format with my style of play and Masters R4 is a shining example of why I shouldn't try to play aggressively in order to maximize my VP accumulation if I want to win (he was a really good opponent and likely would have won anyway ). I screwed up and he outclassed me, 'nuff said. Next time, I will just have to stick to my strengths instead of gambling for extra VP above what I need to win. Otherwise, I will just be happy with my W-L record alone rather than concerning over VP/Diff since I will likely find myself at the very bottom of the 4-1's or 3-1's or whatever. I was hoping for for 2-3/3-2 with no blowouts and giving a really good effort towards the best appearence award in masters... so I exceeded my goal regardless and can't ask for more. - I did end up scoring best appearence in masters which I was extremely happy about. Thank you to everyone for your compliments... I will have something way better in store next time! I am also really glad that Sean did seperate awards for each event and that there were no repeat winners. I really wanted best in masters so that's why I put in for that specifically - it gives the awards a real "top 3" or "best of" feeling to the entire convention instead of the same person winning each event. - I placed 2nd in Bragfaux - ultimately getting beat down by James K. who outclassed me the whole weekend. In R5 of Masters, knowing he was a better player than I, I threw a suicide/disruption list at him in order to be disruptful enough to squeak in a tie. However, the tips/tricks and brush up on my outcasts game that he gave me before masters would prove to be well worth the loss in Bragfaux in order to bolster my game for Masters the next day. - Story Mode I went 1-0-2... I really suffered with my limited crew that I brought within the parameters of the strategies and had to make due with some really janky lists and practically negate the strategies all together to make it by. The third round saw me squaring off against Ron Overton piloting the Viks - I took a list with a 20SS handicap (He declared Outcasts and I immediately thought Levy/Hamelin so I took nothing but A&D and Miners to prevent "Awwwww Schucks"). It felt like Levy's last stand - I just turtled and killed anything that came close while threatening "Awwww Schucks" with my 0SS Waifs - hilariously the most dangerous models in the encounter. It actually felt really epic. I learned that day that taking A&D with Levy in itself is good enough for a tie. It was actually a crazy game and one of the funniest of the weekend. ------- Big shouts out to: - Adepticon Sean! It was a fantastic event and both the masters and story mode were practically dead on time. I could tell he looked totally exhausted but it seemed like he was still happy to be there. Really nice guy. I can't remember the name of the young fella who assisted and did the paint judging at masters but same goes for him! - Dexy from A Wyrd Place! (I lost your email address dude - PM me). He put on a great side event - it was fun and relaxing while everyone else was straining long and hard over the team events. He mentioned something about a HH or Brawl side event next year - make sure you hold him to that! It would be great for all the pickups and people who want something fun and crazy instead of just exploiting game mechanics with broken teams. - James K. - a great player who played a mean Outcasts game and went 200% beyond what a normal player would do in the way of sportsmanship. If there was a prize for sportsmanship he would have gotten it. My tape measure broke and he gave me another for the rest of the tourney - he reminded me of things that I was forgetting if I did forget and gave me a number of helpful hints (during the game and even when it was crucially to his disadvantage!). It was like getting an advanced demo/refresher just before masters when I was fairly rusty with my master. Anyway, James is the reason I went 3-1-1 in masters and not 1-3-1. Thanks! - Mr. Westerland! We talked Malifaux 1-3 hrs a night and an hour in the morning most mornings before events - late to bed, early to rise or something like that? A proper gent, as it were, and all that - if he is a representation of the UK malifaux scene then I have no problem with them invading from across the pond and I would be glad to assist in the assault on the yanks. We never did get to play but I'm sure he would have given me the royal treatment and a proper smashing with his flying pigs and silly roosters. Gremlins represented in the top 5 at Masters! - That Wyrdo Mason - First person in the world to get the new plastic Johan, right? >8) Thanks! - Cheatedfates Joe - Super friendly guy and a blast to play against. He gave me the tightest, scariest and hardest game of the weekend with a "Joel Henry styled" Lilith. I took his suggestion of going to Portello's from his podcast but he kindly informed me in person that I failed the duel because I didn't also get the chocolate cake shake. I burned a stone and flipped for a Maxwell Polish and a shake on my way home. Glad to have met you. - Crissy DuBois (and all the terrain people) - really friendly and did a ton of terrain and demos... but then did a disappearing act like her big sister Colette on Friday and was nowhere to be found. Could very well still be sleeping off a hangover. - All the judges and my opponents - Everyone was great - didn't have a bad game and had a lot of fun. I know my serious face looks really grumpy like I'm about to Donkey Kong fist pound the table but that's just my "serious mode" because I'm thinking really hard. I hope no one thought I was actually upset -------- Final words - I really had a great time and I met nothing but the nicest wargamers in the hobby. Malifaux is the only reason I still tabletop. If you play Malifaux and you don't go to Adepticon, the only thing you're cheating is yourself. Links: Adepticon 2015 Results: http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/107511-adepticon-results/ Adepticon Pics: http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/107476-adepticon-pictures/