DrillbossD

Master-specific, Huggy is my favorite. Non-master specific, I just grabbed the last 10T Bros our FLGS apparently still had, so that's exciting, and got Shadow Emissary from GenCon orders. I have a suspicion that Shadow + Toshiro + 10T Brothers has the potential to be a very upsetting package, though it is a bit expensive. Ama no Zako is another fast, Flying beater who can just go off on a flank with Recalled Training to discourage anyone messing with her while she tends to a scheme. Toshiro and Graves aren't great runners themselves but they can support your Scheme Runners with pushes in addition to their main roles. Also, with Cast-Offs and Petrified Feather, Wastrels are okay Scheme defenders if they tail your main runners and then port to the markers.

This would have been a great trick when Hamelin was making my Fuhatsu shoot my own guys. 2/5/6 hurts!

Posting this again in case it doesn't come back. I'll be playing more games this coming weekend (I hope) if if and when things return I'll use this particular post for something else. ---- Hello again! Most recent game was a teaching game with my very own mother! --- 35ss Learning Game, Lynch vs. Tara My mom is painting up a Tara crew and I'm teaching her the game. We don't have proper terrain at home so we used part of the dining room table with various cups, bowls, a book, plates, and tub of corn starch to represent a few silos and a hill. We played with just Squatter's Rights. We probably should have played more like 20ss and w/o upgrades, but I've been Malifaux-starved and got greedy (also we had had a few drinks at a family event earlier) so we jumped in the deep end. I played Lynch - Woke Up With a Hand Hungering Darkness Sidir Alchibal - Blot the Sky - By Your Side Thunder Archer Thunder Archer Beckoner 2SS She played Tara - Knowledge of Eternity - Dead of Winter - Obliteration Symbiote The Nothing Beast - Void Shield Death Marshal Death Marshal Void Wretch Void Wretch 4SS My mom has no real background in minis gaming but can appreciate combo-based strategies well enough from having played Smash Up. She also plays enough cards to have a good sense of how the deck is doing over the course of the turn. For learning purposes, we played with open hands. Turn 1 Tara wins initative. Tara double/triple walks into cover. Eternal Moment. Beckoner gets up on the book, tries and fails to Lure Tara. Left Void Wretch double walks to be able to flip the far left marker next turn. Left Thunder Archer double walks to be in range of left Wretch for Blot the Sky. Right Void Wretch double walks to be able to flip the center marker next turn. Right Archer double walks to be in range of right Wretch for Blot the Sky. One Death Marshal Pine Boxes the Nothing Beast. Sidir double walks to be in Blot the Sky range of both Archers and and By Your Side range of the left Archer. Other Death Marshal durdles forward to back up the right Void Wretch. Huggy positions with the left Archer, the plan being to countercharge if the Nothing Beast comes in on the Archer, but... Tara reactivates, drops the Nothing Beast in charge range of Huggy. Nothing beast Charges Huggy. Sidir By Your Sides the first attack, taking 5 damage but not getting Glimpsed. Second attack Glimpses Huggy--I don't have the cards to stop it. Should have stoned. So now Huggy is off the board unless Tara uses him. Third attack from the Nothing Beast pops the Thunder Archer in one shot. There was a mistake here, as with Glimpse Huggy should have immediately popped back out. It's just as well though since the Nothing Beast would have just killed Huggy on the following turn. Lynch activates. Nothing Beast is close enough for me to Play For Blood, Final Debt, Play For Blood. My hand was bad (before Lynch's turn) but it was big, so the Nothing Beast has to Void Shield the Final Debt. When Lynch's activation is done the Nothing Beast has taken 4 damage and now my opponent will have to release Huggy if she wants to Glimpse anything else. No Blot the Sky due to Sidir now being out of position. No scoring, but this isn't looking good. I'm certainly outmaneuvered, and if I also get out-attritioned I can't keep up. O O O O O Turn 2 Tara wins initiative. The Nothing Beast goes first to get some work done before it dies. It positions to hit Sidir and Lynch, but misses an attack on Sidir and fails to kill with the other. Sidir on 3 boxes. Right Archer discards an Ace to Rapid Fire into the right Void Wretch, killing it. The left Void Wretch moves up to the far left Marker and flips it. The Beckoner misses the Nothing Beast once then hits moderate damage with Despicable Promises, killing the Nothing Beast. Tara moves up to the center left marker, flips it, and shoots Sidir for no effect. Sidir shoots Tara for no effect, then heals 2 to put him back up to 7 boxes. One Death Marshal shoots my Thunder Archer for 3 damage. Ouch! Lynch can't get close enough to flip any Markers, so he gets up on the book and positions to get in next turn. The other Death Marshal files in behind Tara. No Blot the Sky :/ T T O O O 1-0, Tara. I'm being flanked and Sidir and the Archer are hurt. At least the Nothing Beast is no more. Turn 3 Lynch wins Initiative Sidir charges Tara and does 3 with his first hit, then Crits and Red Jokers his second hit for 7 more damage. Tara is looking pretty beaten up. And Sidir heals more to get up to 7 left. Tara Temporal Shifts to make Sidir, the Wretch, and the Marshal behind her Fast, then wails on Sidir with her sword to kill him. The Beckoner walks off the book and Lures Lynch down after her, then uses Not That Kind of Girl to push over to the center right marker. The fast Marshal double walks to the far right marker and flips it. The Archer discards an Ace to Rapid Fire into the nearby Marshal and leaves him with 1 or 2 boxes, and Slow from the Crows trigger. The Marshal double walks around Lynch to get to where the Archer can't flip the marker due to engagement, and the Marshal will be able to flip it next turn. Lynch walks around the Marshal and charges Tara, landing in b2b with the center left marker. He kills her with his pistol (she had no Masks or Stones left) and then flips the marker. The Void Wretch charges Lynch ineffectually. T L O O T 2-0, Tara. Still bad, but I'm getting momentum on the board. The right flank is a problem as I have nothing to stop the far right Marshal, but Lynch, a Thunder Archer, and a Beckoner can seriously manhandle and out activate a Void Wretch and a Slow Death Marshal. Turn 4 Tara wins initiative. The Beckoner flips the center right marker then Lures the Void Wretch out of melee with Lynch and Not That Kind of Girls over to the center marker. The Slow Marshal flips the center Marker. The Archer discards an Ace to Rapid Fire into the Void Wretch, leaving it on one box and with Slow. The far right Death Marshal walks into B2B with the center right marker and flips it. Lynch walks over to the far left marker and flips it to me. The Void Wretch walks to the center left marker. L L T T T 3-1, Tara. Now the momentum is swinging, ish. The Beckoner and Thunder Archer's lack of a melee range is a bit of a problem, but Lure and the push trigger are awesome and Lynch and the Archer can both hand out Slow. I'm considering trying to use Pleasant Distraction but feel like I'm better off just using movement jank. Turn 5 Lynch wins initiative. Lynch charges the Wretch, kills it, and walks to Engage the center Marshal. The right Marshal tries to finish the Archer but it doesn't work out... I think. Don't actually remember exactly what this Marshal did. The Beckoner Lures the Archer toward the center marker and Not That Kind of Girls over to the center right marker, flipping it. The Center Marshal tries and fails to Pine Box my Archer twice. I cheat in high cards both times. The Archer dodges the disengaging Strike to move to the opposite side of the marker and flips it. L L L L T 3-2 Tara. We flip up a 4 and the game ends. Tara wins! --- Tara's Strategy presence is intense, though I imagine in something like Turf War she would have a rough time. That said, that's why when we get to 50 my mom is getting Hannah. This was my second game with Beckoners and man they are awesome. Now that I have a sense of how to use the push, my movement shenanigan instincts are starting to port over from warmachine. I imagine that as I play a ton of Lynch, using Beckoners correctly is going to be instrumental to playing games on my terms. In my first game where I had an all-ranged crew, a Beckoner would have been great to let me make out of activation movement adjustments. Again, thanks for reading!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/148757625322037/ Most of the Malifaux activity is at Game Kastle Fremont but there are a number of us trying to get more going at GK Santa Clara.

Sweet! Subscribed.

Slow em down, yank em back, then Cull the Weak. Great post, and I look forward to trying mine after I pick them up this weekend!

My favorite modules so far for that are TT Archers with Sidir as babysitter (going to try Fuhatsu as well) since all can use the Aces. Hans is also a total mensch when you get the Ace in question. I bet adding a Wastrel to the Sidir/Fuhatsu Blot the Sky module would make it really hardy, especially if you get the Tome so it can heal and shoot.

Whoa. These interactions get better ever time I read them more closely. So Wastrels are any for any, while Hans is discard *that* one to add *that* suit. Great to know! EDIT: So with the TT brothers, you just cheat the required Ace in all day erry day?

Going to try them a bit with Lynch at some point. Hitting the right Ace early in the game should give them a repeatable purpose and stacking more healing with the tanky models he likes could be nasty.

Lynch v Shenlong, 50ss Deployment: Flank Strategy: Reckoning Schemes: A Line in the Sand, Cursed Object, Assassinate, Frame for Murder, Protect Territory Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap Shenlong -- 3 Pool +Recalled Training [1] +Wandering River Style [2] Peasant [2] Dawn Serpent [10] Katanaka Sniper [7] Sensei Yu [9] +Promising Disciple [2] Tengu [4] Tengu [4] Yin the Penangalan [8] Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap Jakob Lynch -- 4 Pool +Endless Hunger [2] +Woke Up With A Hand [2] Hungering Darkness [0] +Recalled Training [1] Ama No Zako [9] +Recalled Training [1] +Servant of 5 Dragons [1] Beckoner [7] Beckoner [7] Mr. Graves [8] Yin the Penangalan [8] +Recalled Training [1] Chosen Schemes: Shenlong: Cursed Object, Frame for Murder (Tengu) Lynch: Assassinate, Frame for Murder (Hungering Darkness) Nothing revealed. DEPLOYMENT: I deployed first and took a ruined building with was maybe 9" x 9" and which would serve as Lynch's bunker throughout the game. Huggy, Lynch, and Graves went in the bunker. Yin and one Beckoner went in my left "corner" of the deployment (the forward prong), while Ama no Zako and the other Beckoner went on my right. He put Shenlong far back on my left, with Sensei Yu, the Dawn Serpent, and a Peasant clustered around him. The two Tengu were far out on my right. He plopped the Sniper right in the middle of his deployment zone, not making use of From the Shadows. Yin went behind the Tengu. TURN 1: I won initiative, Shenlong summoned a Peasant, and my left Beckoner walked and pulled a Tengu forward. The Tengu that had been pulled dropped a Scheme Marker and walked forward. Huggy walked up and I considered murdering the Tengu, then got very paranoid about Frame for Murder (and bantered about as much to my opponent). So instead, Huggy walked deep enough to Heed My Voice the Tengu into melee with Ama No Zako, where the Tengu promptly failed his Terrifying check. Huggy was in pretty deep. Rather than take the bait right there, though, my oppoent activated the Sniper and had him Poison Dart Huggy, sticking the Slow, and then shot and killed the Beckoner that had pulled him. Not a great start but hey, at least it was before Reckoning! Ama no Zako walked forward to be threatening. His Yin moved toward the middle. I changed my mind about Ama no Zako's positioning and activated the other Beckoner to Lure her back. With the other Lure, I pulled Graves into position to deliver Huggy deep into my opponent's ranks. The other Tengu teleported to the Scheme Marker and moved to within walking distance of Ama no Zako. Graves moved up to Huggy and Showed him the Door, getting the Ram so they could fly into enemy lines together. Shenlong gave Fast to Sensei Yu and moved out to my left. My Yin started making a (slow) beeline over to Shenlong. The Dawn Serpent positioned to deal with Huggy or Yin. Lynch derped about, with me bantering a lot about how I was worried that one of the Tengu was a Frame for Murder target. Sensei Yu then scooted up and killed Huggy. Boom! The Peasants shuffled to Shenlong and did their sacrifice thing. 3-0 Lynch (Lynch Frame for Murder) TURN 2: Graves charges the Sniper but leaves him on 1. The Sniper then shuffles out of Black Blood range and does a nasty hit to Graves. My Yin pops Recalled Training and goes in on the Dawn Serpent, leaving it on 2 or 3. The situation was that I thought I could get Shenlong, but then I realize I don't have LoS, but, figuring that this will be Yin's last turn (as she is very close to both the Dawn Serpent and Shenlong) I follow through anyway. The unparalyzed Tengu walks up to Ama no Zako, passes Terrifying, and hands her a Cursed Object. Lynch walks up and kills one of the engaging Tengu, at which point my opponent declares Frame for Murder! Joke is on me this time, but at least I know both his schemes and he doesn't know my other one. Lynch remains in his "bunker". I don't quite remember the order of the rest, but the important things: Beckoner does nothing. Sensei Yu kills Graves. Ouch! But I saw the writing on the wall. Opponent's Yin shuffles to the middle of the board. Ama no Zako kills the other Tengu and removes the Cursed Object. Shenlong and Dawn Serpent beat the hell out of Yin, leaving her on 2 boxes with Poison +3. Shenlong switches to Low River and gives Sensei Yu Wandering River. A Peasant dies for Shenlong. The Poison ticks on Yin. I score for Reckoning due to killing the Tengu. 4-3 Lynch (Lynch Reckoning, Shenlong Frame for Murder) TURN 3: I win initiative again and Ama no Zako pops Recalled Training to go beat the tar out of Yin. She leaves Yin on one box then gets the suit for Miasma of Boils and Flies, catching both Yin and the Sniper. My opponent activates Yu and pushes the Sniper out of the Miasma. The Beckoner activates and kills Yin with her Despicable Promises. Shenlong ices Yin and then gives the Dawn Serpent Fast somehow (possibly by switching back to Wandering River Style), then gets behind some cover near the middle and on my left, though just out of the Miasma. The Sniper does some damage to Ama no Zako. The Dawn Serpent triple Walks to engage my Beckoner. Lynch can't do anything safely and while I know Assassinate is not on the table, I want access to Final Debt should Shenlong present himself. Beckoner Doesn't have LoS to anything so she just kind chills. 4-3 Lynch (no scoring) TURN 4: The bloodbath continues. I soulstone out a 3 and 4 to pick up a King and Queen, which I am feeling great about. At this point I also have the Red Joker in hand. My opponent wins initiative and sends Shenlong in on Ama no Zako, leaving her on 2. I respond by having Ama no Zako leave him on I think 2 or 3 due to cheating in my massive cards, including the Red Joker for an attack leading to Severe damage and healing Ama no Zako back up to half. I also get the Crow to put up Miasma again, and my opponent burned his last Soulstone to stay alive. Yu gives Fast to the Sniper (or maybe Shenlong did). Lynch walks up and Plays for Blood twice to take down Shenlong (burning my last soulstone for + flips), giving me the Assassinate. The Sniper is now very mad (Reactivate is on) and takes 3 shots on Lynch. However, I get 3 tomes in a row and the card gods frown on my opponent, causing him to miss. If he cheats, the Sniper will die due to Lynch's defensive trigger on a Tome. After the Sniper's first activation, the Beckoner Lures him into the Miasma of Boils and Flies, killing him (but not crediting me for Reckoning). The Dawn Serpent fails to kill the Beckoner. 7-3 Lynch (Lynch Assassinate) TURN 5: The Dawn Serpent kills the Beckoner and we shuffle about. Game ends. 7-3 Lynch (no scoring) DEBRIEF: Frame for Murder + Reckoning is extremely weird, but Assassinate + Reckoning played well to what I am used to doing. Having more control in a crew was nice, and I actually remembered to use Lynch's Mulligan every turn (not noted). My cards were good when they needed to be and while I don't yet have a strong sense of how much Mulligan and Woke up with Hand contributed, I am very sure they did and every bit of good cards in hand helped. I need to play more Lynch (and less Attrition-y schemes/strats) to understand his bad matchups better. So far, none of my lists have even focused on Brilliance which seems like an oversight. On the other hand, card fixing is just good. My opponent regretted having chosen Cursed Object and felt that the Tengu wound up being a liability. The Sniper + Dawn Serpent + Yu was a very legit and scary module for me to deal with on the table, though. Shenlong generally seems extremely versatile but hard to use. EDIT: Just remembered that Lynch has the Tomes built in on the Defense... still, only time he got attacked it came up Tomes all day. EDIT2: Holy dang, I also just learned that Ace in the Hole lets me recover *any* Aces that would be discarded in my non-Lynch models activation, not just those discarded directly from my hand. Should have read that closer... that's very good depending on the build.

Indeed! I got way too excited by all the hurt that Sidir, Hans, and a handful of archers could put out. As it happens, the next game was also a bloodbath, albeit a somewhat more measured one (Reckoning + Assassinate + Framed for Murder will do that). But more on that later. I'll probably use this space to brainstorm interactions and synthesize learnings from the reps as well. So many things to try in this game! And Lynch is so versatile.

Hey all. I bought some Malifaux models the better part of a year ago just as I was getting into Wargaming. Fell in love with Lynch's fluff and the Thunder Archer models, played a demo game... and then mostly played Warmachine. I still play a lot of warmachine (and tabletop rps) but I recently saw some gorgeous Malifaux tables at the Bay Area Open which inspired me to get painting and playing. I played a game over last weekend and another last night. There'll be some pics later, but for now, here is a draft of what happened in my weekend game: Deployment: Standard Strategy: Squatter's Rights Schemes: A Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Assassinate, Frame for Murder, Entourage Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap Jakob Lynch -- 4 Pool +Endless Hunger [2] +Woke Up With A Hand [2] Hungering Darkness [0] +Recalled Training [1] Hans [9] +Recalled Training [1] Sidir Alchibal [9] +Blot the Sky [1] +By Your Side [1] Thunder Archer [7] Thunder Archer [7] Thunder Archer [7] Arcanists Crew - 50 - Scrap Kaeris -- 4 Pool +Arcane Reservoir [2] +Grab and Drop [1] +Powered by Flame [2] Fire Gamin [4] Fire Gamin [4] Gunsmith [7] Gunsmith [7] Johan [7] Metal Gamin [4] Rail Golem [11] +Bleeding Edge Tech [1] Lynch Schemes: Assassinate, Entourage (Hungering Darkness) - Revealed Kaeris Schemes: Breakthrough, Entourage (Kaeris) - Unrevealed Terrain: Very dense board with a good bit of water (severe) and a ruined build in the middle-left of the table with height 1 and 2 walls. There are a handle of piles of height 1-3 crates with a notable pile to the left of the ruin. On the right there is a bridge over some water. There is a height 3 climbable house jutting into my deployment zone and two other height 3 houses near edges of the board. Deployment: I deploy first and deploy with Hans out on my left just barely fitting on the house. He is on the inside edge so he will be able to shoot anyone to my right of him. Sidir is a few inches to the right of the house with a Thunder Archer on each side of him and a third one further out to the right. Lynch goes behind Sidir and Huggy is out to the far right. From my perspective, the Rail Golem is on the far left with the Metal Gamin and Johan to the right or it. Kaeris is positioned where she will easily be able to light her own guys on fire over and move behind a building. She is on the middle right. Two fire gamin in front of her TURN 1: Kaeris lights nearby stuff on fire, moves up, then lights Rail Golem on fire. Middle Thunder Archer Focuses (for 2+!) moves up behind the ruin. Left (my left) Fire Gamin moves to opposite of ruin. Far right Thunder Archer double walks up. A Gunsmith double walks forward. Huggy double walks (beeline to Kaeris) and Heed My Voices the Gunsmith into melee with himself. Other Fire Gamin walks up behind a fence (flying!). Hans double shoots the Gunsmith and nearly kills him. Rail Golem moves and locomotes up. Other Gunsmith goes out on my right flank. Last Thunder Archer gets into position behind the ruin and Focuses. Johan does one of his revolts. Sidir positions to have all my archers in Blot the Sky. Metal Gamin double walks to the Golem. Lynch moves and Pays for Blood to finish off the Gunsmith. At end of turn, Thunder Archers shoot the Gamin in cover but my cards stink and I do one damage and get my other archer set on fire. TURN 2: The order of things gets a bit blurry here, but a few big things happen. One is that I get an Ace of Hearts so Hans, Sidir, and the Archers get to go nuts all game (for Disarm, regen, or Rapid Fire respectively). The remaining Gunsmith and Fire Gamins go in on Huggy and light him up big time, but he is hanging on. I send him forward, heal off a Gamin, and then he gets wasted by Kaeris. My oppoent made or cheated all his terrifying checks through this . Most intermediate activations on this side of the board are Thunder Archers repositioning. On the left side, the Rail Golem gets in cover and gets defensive, Hans pops Recalled Training and he, Sidir, and an Archer go nuts on a golem chaining Slow into Empty the Magazine with Cull the weak and a lucky big shot from Hans, leaving the Golem on 1. He then heals some and flips the far left Strategy marker. Lynch durdles around in the back because I'm scared of Kaeris. Losing Huggy is bad, though that this point my opponent and I are laughing about how the Rail Golem and Huggy should both have been Frame for Murder targets. I'm wondering if the Rail Golem still might be... TURN 3: Kaeris moves over to the ruin and flames an Archer, so Sidir By Your Sides forward. He and a remaining archer finish off the Golem. Lynch, Hans, and the other archer in the ruin go nuts on Kaeris and leave her on I think 3. The archer out on the far right picks off a Fire Gamin, but not before it flips a Strat marker. So that's bad. I think I gank the other Fire Gamin with Blot the Sky when I realize I won't get Kaeris. The Metal Gamin charges Sidir, as does Johan, and Sidir gets pretty beaten up. End of the turn, my opponent scores 1. 1-0, Kaeris. TURN 4: Kaeris goes long to get to my deployment zone and the scheme markers are coming out. I realize he has Breakthrough and unrevealed Entourage, and by now he knows I have assassinate so he's trying to get as far back as he can. I try to position Archers for Blot the Sky but... Sidir goes down to concerted attack from the Gamin and Johan and then a scheme marker comes out. Really don't remember the sequence here but when all is said and done there are three scheme markers in the Breakthrough scoring zone for him. We thought that Breakthrough goes off at the end of the turn the condition is fullfilled, and not the end of the game, so I focus on getting my Scheme instead of stopping his as it seems too late. That being the case, Lynch shoots Kaeris and she cheats to survive. Hans "shoots" her once but she discards two cards. However, clearly Kaeris doesn't have enough money, because Hans then takes his second shot and kills her. The Thunder Archer out on the right and the remaining Gunsmith are dueling each other. Generally, my archers are pretty beaten up and are on Fire. One of them dies at the end of the turn. I wasn't able to stop his Squatting. At the end of the turn, I have Hans, two Archers, and Lynch left. He has a Metal Gamin, a Gunsmith, and Johan. 5 (actually 2)-3, Kaeris. TURN 5: The Archer kills the Gunsmith. Hans hurts the Metal Gamin but can't get the Archer free. The Archer durdles. Johan charges Lynch but doesn't do much. My hand is terrible, and as this is my first real game I forget to Wake Up With a Hand (d'oh) and to Mulligan (D'OH!) so I can't cheat my way into disengaging and mitigating the scenario situation. So Lynch just ices Johan... who drops a scheme marker. Game ends. 6-3, Kaeris. Kinda brutal at the end there, and we took a really long time to resolve the game as we are both new, but it was a lot of fun! Cover is really punishing to a gunline and in retrospect I should have used Focus a lot more, especially with Reading the Wind. There was a point, when Kaeris was in the ruin, that if everybody had focused up and waited for Blot the Sky they could have just lit her up. This probably wasn't the right way to do it, but I'm digging the option of a Lynch discard-spam gunline. Hans is also just a mensch. For my opponent's part, he should have held the Rail Golem as a later game anchor or set up slowly to get a clutch Assassination off of Wings of Fire. Given my gun threat he, like me, regretted having tried Entourage. ---- Later, I'll add what happened in last night's game, but as a preview, here was the setup: Deployment: Flank Strategy: Reckoning Schemes: A Line in the Sand, Cursed Object, Assassinate, Frame for Murder, Protect Territory Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap Jakob Lynch -- 4 Pool +Endless Hunger [2] +Woke Up With A Hand [2] Hungering Darkness [0] +Recalled Training [1] Ama No Zako [9] +Recalled Training [1] +Servant of 5 Dragons [1] Beckoner [7] Beckoner [7] Mr. Graves [8] Yin the Penangalan [8] +Recalled Training [1] Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap Shenlong -- 3 Pool +Recalled Training [1] +Wandering River Style [2] Peasant [2] Dawn Serpent [10] Katanaka Sniper [7] Sensei Yu [9] +Promising Disciple [2] Tengu [4] Tengu [4] Yin the Penangalan [8] ---- Thanks for reading! Feedback on the style and the lists is welcome.