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Eastern Effigy

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  1. No story element this time. Game was too short. Still an interesting Match. Guild Player is improving with his crew, this is the first time for the Neverborn player to run Titania. The terrain is also all brand new. 50mm Orange markers are the Hungry Land markers of the Mysterious Emissary. Standard Deployment Strategy: Interference Schemes: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Tail ‘em, Last Stand Guild List: 8 Members, 2 Soulstones Perdita Ortega (Trick Shooting, Os Veo, Aura Ancestal), Enslaved Nephilim, Dr. Grimwell (Research Grant), Francisco Ortega (Wade In), Santiago Ortega, Abuela Ortega (Diestro), Guild Pathfinder Guild Schemes: Last Stand, Tail ‘em Neverborn List: 7 Members, 7 Soulstones Titania (The Forest Reclaims All, An Audience with the Queen, Behold My Glory), Gorar, Aeslin (Taproot), Mysterious Emissary (Mysterious Conflux), The Claw, The Tooth, The Thorn, Neverborn Schemes: Dig their Graves, Tail ‘em Setup Guild set up first. Perdita, Francisco and the Nephilim take up the right side. Santiago and the Pathfinder cover the far left, hoping to create a bottlenecked alleyway that Santiago can defend after the Pathfinder drops some traps. The Doc and Abuela take up the middle, ready to move whichever way they are needed. The Neverborn tend to clump to the middle with the powerhouses in the middle ready to go either way they are needed and the Autumn Knights taking up the flanks. Turn 1 Guild Wins Initiative and goes first Pathfinder places a trap and double walks behind the large train station. The Thorn double walks. Abuela Ortega forces Dr. Grimwell into a shotgun wedding (making him Dr. Ortega, I suppose) and double walks. The Tooth double walks. Santiago Ortega walks, shoots at The Thorn, but The Thorn cheats high and it misses. Aeslin walks and places a scheme marker (prepping for the Mysterious Emissary to turn it into a Changeling). Dr. Grimwell walks three times, pushing Abuela Ortega along for the first walk. Mysterious Emissary walks twice (player realized they didn’t have the right suit to summon a changeling this turn) and summons a Hungry Land marker instead. Francisco Ortega gives El Mayor to Perdita and double walks into the trees and does Finesse for good measure. The Claw walks, issues the Challenge of Winter to Dr. Grimwell and succeeds, dragging Dr. Grimwell through the Hungry Land for 1 damage, then spears him for 2 damage. Perdita Ortega relocates forward and shoots the Mysterious Emissary three times, hitting once for 5 damage. Titania walks, then charges Dr. Grimwell and hits him with one Wicked Silence dropping a scheme marker and doing 2 damage and forcing him to attack only her next activation because of her upgrade. Enslaved Nephilim double walks. Gorar double walks and toes in to the 6 in center while helping to surround Dr. Grimwell. End of Turn: Guild reveals Last Stand. Turn 2 Guild win Initiative Dr. Grimwell activates and takes 2 damage from Thirsty Roots. He then tries to Lobotomize Titania, but it fails and then tries to run, but The Claw keeps him engaged. The Claw attacks Dr. Grimwell, Black Joker negates damage on first attack, misses the second attack. Abuela Ortega walks and takes 1 damage from the Hungry Land. She shoots the Mysterious Emissary for severe damage, dealing it 4 damage and blasting 3 damage to Titania and 2 damage to The Claw (Armor 1) The Mysterious Emissary shuffles around in the Hungry Land a bit to heal 2 damage, then draws and discards two cards for the Tides of Fate, and finally attaks Dr. Grimwell for 2 damage, killing him and scoring 1 point for Dig Their Graves. Perdita Ortega uses trick shooting to shoot around the cover of the barricade at the Mysterious Emissary. First attack misses, second attack misses because of a high cheat by the Mysterious Emissary, last attack hits for 2 damage, bringing it down to 1 health again. The Thorn walks and issues the Challenge of Spring on Santiago Ortega who answers it and pushes up to her. The Thorn then attacks him, but misses. Santiago Ortega attacks The Thorn, hitting both times for 1 damage each because of Armor. Aeslin walks and shoots Abuela Ortega twice for 4 damage total. Perdita Ortega takes 1 of those damage for Abuela. Francisco Ortega shoots the Mysterious Emissary twice, but misses both times. Titania uses Audience with the Queen on Abuela Ortega. It fails, so she does it again and it succeeds. Titania then uses Bloody Command, cheating the suit to give a healing flip to the Mysterious Emissary, healing it back up to 3 health and kills Abuela Ortega. Pathfinder walks twice, currently the only unengaged model in that quarter, and places a trap. The Tooth walks and issues the Challenge of Summer to the Pathfinder, which he answers, pushing into base contact with The Tooth. The Pathfinder misses with their free attack and The Tooth misses with both the free and regular AP attack. The Enslaved Nephilim walks as fast as it can to catch up to everything. End of Turn: Neverborn control both halves of their deployment quarters (Titania and the Claw on the right, Aeslin on the left) and score 1 point for Interference. The Guild control their right side with Perdita and Francisco, but both the Pathfinder and Santiago are engaged on the left side, so the Gulid does not score VP this turn. Also, with only Santiago and Francisco left alive, the Guild can no longer score VP for Last Stand. Neverborn 2 (Interference and Dig Their Graves) Guild 0 Turn 3 Guild win Initiative and go first. Pathfinder relocates the nearby trap to give him advantages on attacks. He then attacks and hits The Tooth twice for 1 damage each. The Mysterious Emissary walks, healing 2 damage (back up to 5 health), summons another Hungry Land Marker, and then attacks Francisco for 2 damage. Francisco Ortega then charges the Mysterious Emissary, eating 5 damage from the Hungry Land marker. He then hits the Mysterious Emissary twice, the first time for 2 damage, bringing it back down to 3 health, then again for sever with a Critical Strike trigger, for 6 damage, but Hard to Kill blocks most of it, bringing it down from 3 to 1 again. Titania walks, uses grants Francisco an Audience with the Queen, and uses a Wicked Silence to drop a scheme marker, then kill him scoring for Dig Their Graves. Perdita Ortega then casts Obey on the Mysterious Emissary, having it attack the Claw, doing 1 damage. She then Shoots the Mysterious Emissary FINALLY killing it, and then shoots and misses The Claw. The game had to be wrapped up at this point so the players could catch the last train. Endgame analysis: It seems that the Neverborn were ahead in a couple of key ways and likely would have carried the game. There were two major factors to the Neverborn advantage in this game. The obvious was that Dig Their Graves is practically designed to favor Titania’s crew as they place so many scheme markers as part of their attacks. The A Wicked Silence is particularly effective as it places a Scheme marker first, then does damage. The other major advantage for the Neverborn was that most of the models had a limited version of Lure (Challenge of the Season, Audience with the Queen, even Aeslin’s Rot and Rend has a pull trigger.) This makes board control extreme in the Neverborn’s favor especially for this Strategy where they could push models into engagement and also good against the Last Stand strategy as they were able to isolate two Enforcers/Henchmen and dispatch them quickly before any points could be scored. The good news for the Guild this game is the Pathfinder didn’t die first turn. This is possibly a first for this particular Pathfinder (same Pathfinder that was Voodoo Dolled to death in an earlier report). The Guild player is learning how to keep it out of harm’s way so it can actually start laying traps. Better strategy for the Guild would have been more shooting and taking more advantage of blocking terrain to stop the Pushes from the Challenges of the Season. Gunline strategy definitely the way to go against the Neverborn.
  2. Alright, been a while. Our group can only get together so often unfortunately. Also, unfortunately due to a phone breaking soon after the game, no photos from it survived, but hopefully it’s still enjoyable to read. Bonus points if you can catch the Johnny Cash references. The guild player is relatively new and the Outcast player is more experienced, but this is their first real game with Outcasts. Corner Deployment Strategy: Headhunter Guild List: 7 Members, 2 Soulstones Schemes: Inspection and Frame for Murder (Dr. Grimwell) Perdita Ortega (Trick Shooting, Os Veo, Aural Ancestral), Francisco Ortega (Wade In), Dr. Grimwell (Research Grant) [Sucker], Santiago Ortega (Diestro), 2 Death Marshals, Enslaved Nephilim [Will add photo of Guild crew if player sends photo] Outcast List: 8 Members, 3 Soulstones Schemes: Inspection and Claim Jump Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Survivalist, Synchronized Slaying), Victoria of Blood (Oathkeeper), Student of Conflict, Sue (Return Fire), Carver [as Killjoy], 3 Ronin Devil’s Right Hand The new frost crunches under the boot of the man, the boot and the rest of his cloths as dark black as the new snow is white. He shifts the weight of his guitar to a new spot on his shoulder while surveying the landscape. He had been hunting this land for a couple months now with the twins. It was now all one shade: white, but it had been many vibrant colors a few days ago: yellow grain fields and red and orange trees standing stark against a blue autumn sky。 But there was another red as well. The harvest went ungathered, the farms abandoned, as night after night, another living person was turned into a nightmare pile of flesh and blood. Something had made this hamlet its territory. It came in the night and dragged its bloody prey into the fields. For months he and the sisters had hunted it. No luck. Now the autumn sorrow had passed and the cold wind blows over bare trees and with the harvest gone and the fields empty, they may have missed their prey altogether. Now there was a new hunt though. The Ortega family had been dispatched to the area. Seems the people started wondering if there really was a devil in these fields or if perhaps it were a human cause. Human like the man in black. Like the twins. The man in black saw the sisters and their band, a crew of rough women who found discipline and purpose under the twin’s guidance, for which the man respected them. But they had done something in the fields last night before the snows, something they hadn’t told the man. They probably know he wouldn’t approve, would have tried to stop them. But here they all were, ready to stand against the will of the Guild. “You sure you want to do this? We can still leave the guild’s territory.” says the man. One of the sisters, he couldn’t be sure which, never could’ve, steps up and tells him “This is our territory, not the Guild’s. We hunted on it. We worked it. We provided for it’s people.” There was a hardness in her. Grit. They all had it. But today they had something else, something harder. Usually the sisters were confident and brave in battle, but today there was a kind of surety, a certainty that someone was going to die. “What have you done?” he says. “You done something, and you’re gonna have the devil to pay for it, aren’t you?” She looks down at his guitar, a black metal thing with a demonic fresco. It started to get hot and glow blue, sensing the coming of death. “You just worry about your devil, we will worry about ours.” She says as the across the field, gunmen can be seen scouting and taking up their firing positions. Setup The board is an icy wasteland with ice walls and pillars standing all around. Lots of hard cover blocking terrain. The Ortegas set up in the Northwest corner with a death marshal and Santiago facing the south, Dr. Grimwell and the other Death Marshal are facing the east, and the Franky, Perdita, and the Nephilim are positioned near the middle edge of the quarter circle. The Viktorias set up with two Ronin facing the west, the other Ronin and Sue to the north, and the Viktorias and Student of conflict at the center edge, ready to slingshot wherever needed. Turn 1 Outcast win Initiative, force Guild to go first Death Marshal double walks towards the southwest corner. Ronin double walks towards the northeast corner. The other Death Marshal double also double walks towards the northeast corner. Sue double walks to the northeast corner, and does Man in Black for good measure. Santiago double walks towards the southwest taking partial cover behind a large wall of ice. Ronin double walks towards the southwest corner. Dr. Grimwell triple walks to circle around to the eastern side of the board approaching Sue. Student of Conflict walks and Pulls Viktoria of Ashes to her through Sisters in Spirit. Franky double walks to the Southwest and does finesse. Viktoria of Ashes does Sisters in Spirit to Viktoria of Blood, walks, and pulls Viktoria of Blood again. Viktoria of Blood Accomplices and discards Oathkeeper to walk, and charge Santiago and kills him in three strikes. Enslaved Nephilim walks and pushes Perdita. Perdita activates and charges Viktoria of Blood, killing her. Carver unburies itself. Perdita then attacks Carver for one hit. Carver gorges back to full health and attacks Perdita twice. Perdita barely manages to cheat high enough to avoid both attacks. In practiced form, the sister’s apprentices spread out to flank the approach. The twins themselves made straight up though the middle with their protégé, a child they took under their wing recently. The man in black follows behind one of the young sword fighting women as she covers their right flank. He sees one of the Guild’s ghostly riders, the Death Marshals, making a beeline for her. If there was ever any sign the Guild was chasing the devil’s herd, it was those flaming skulled lawmen. There also seems to be some psychopath with a chainsaw heading that way, so he keeps up to make sure she was covered. The twins spotted a gunman hiding behind a nearby wall. He probably thought he was covered, but he didn’t know just how fast those ladies could sprint. Before he can set his gun firing, one of them, the twin with the double swords was on him and cut him in half before he knew what was happening. The man in black recognized the man from his nights drinking tequila in the city. Santiago if he recalled. He also recognized the man’s sister, a much more dangerous gun-woman, moving in on the twin. Sure enough, a couple expert shots from here and the girl went down bleeding. Then the man in black saw what he was afraid he would see. They had went and made a deal with the devil and the devil came. Perdita Ortega jumped back out of the way as the blood on the snow started to smoke and burst into flame as the devil, the butcher, the Carver twisted and writhed out of the hellfire. It tested its rusty shears and the candlelight of its flickering, Jack-o-Lantern eyes levelled on Perdita. Turn 2 Guild win initiative and go first. Enslaved Nephilim walks and pushes Perdita out of Carvers threat range (the player never fought it before and didn’t know about the 1 AP charge.) Carver charges Perdita for 1 AP and uses all of it’s 3 attacks on Perdita. Thanks to some skilled cheating and a Df of 7, Carver misses ALL THREE TIMES!!!! Perdita attacks Carver back, hitting with a Red Joker for 8 damage on the first attack, 3 damage for the second, and 0 for the last because of the Black Joker. She takes 2dg from Black Blood. Carver has 1 wound remaining. Viktoria of Ashes double walks and picks up Santiago’s head. Death Marshal walks up to Carver and attacks, finishing him off. He and Perdita both take one more damage from Black Blood. A Ronin double walks to the northeast corner. Death Marshal double walks to northeast corner as well, but not quite in engagement range with the Ronin. Ronin double walks to southwest corner. Dr. Grimwell triple walks to engage Sue. Sue shoots Dr. Grimwell twice, hitting once for 3 damage. Fails to cast Ring of Fire. Franky double walks. End of Turn 2: Outcasts 2 (Headhunter and Inspection) Guild 1 (Inspection) The man in black watches in with equal parts awe and disgust as the scarecrow shambles towards the Ortegas. He believed he knew the twins, knew them better to value their souls more than this. The carver moved forward with glee, if it can feel anything. The man in black supposed it could based on the sound of laughter ringing in his ear echoing from the hollows of the things Jack-o-Lantern. Soon its laughter changed to growls of frustration as it’s would be victim agily sidesteps its shears thrusts. The man knew the Ortega’s reputations, that they were skilled in hunting these devils. He reasoned then that maybe that’s why the Guild sent them, for the Carver, not for them. Too late now either way he reckons. With a sound like a lightning strike, Perdita unloads a perfect shot just as the thing bends forward to lung again. It’s the sound of the scarecrow’s pole splintering into hundreds of pieces. The thing’s arms go limp, its chest and head lolls back and forth. Perdita kicks the flailing thing, like a puppet that had its strings cut, and it falls straight over. She and one of her Marshals unload several rounds into its body. Meanwhile, the madman had caught up to the man in black. He has no idea why a group of hardened gunfighters would keep a loose cannon like this with them, but he doesn’t much care. He unloads into the gibbering fool, but he keeps coming. Turn 3 Death Marshal walks and picks up Viktoria of Blood’s head. Viktoria of Ashes charges Perdita and hits her once and Whirlwinds into the Death Marshal for 3 damage each. Picks up Carver’s head. Perdita attacks Viktoria of blood, missing with the first attack, hitting for 3 damage on the second, but a soulstone prevents all 3 damage, and the third attack hits for 3 damage. Sue shoots Dr. Grimwell again for another 3 damage, and also successfully casts Ring of Fire. Dr. Grimwell fails to Lobotomize Sue, tries to run away Sue succeeds on disengaging strike, so Dr. Grimwell gains 3 Burning condition. Ronin in northeast corner drops a scheme marker on the center line and walks to engage the Death Marshal to prevent him from denying Claim Jump. Enslaved Nephilim pushes Franky into base with the Death Marshal and next to Viktoria of Ashes. Student of Conflict double walks and attacks the Death Marshal with her Melee Expert attack managing to deal 3 damage to the Death Marshal, killing it. Francisco discards for Flurry, attacking Viktoria of Ashes three times, hitting twice for 7+ damage, but she survives thanks to Hard to Kill from the Survivalist Upgrade. Ronin double walks directly on top of Death Marshal’s head. Death Marshal in the northeast corner Pine Boxes the Ronin and moves onto the scheme marker, denying Claim Jump this turn. Ronin in the Southwest corner drops scheme marker and goes defensive. End of Turn 3: Outcasts 4 (Headhunter and Inspection) Guild 3 (Headhunter and Inspection) At this point, what happens next is critical. Viktoria of Ashes is down to one wound and is surrounded by Perdita, Fransico, and the Enslaved Nephilim. If she goes down, they have free range to attack the Ronin who are crucial for finishing the strategy and schemes for the Outcasts. But if Viktoria can steal the initiative... One of those hellish lawmen, after finishing off the devil creature, bends down and takes the head of the fallen sister. Well, her twin was having none of that and ran into it and the leader Ortega. Swiping and cutting them. The man in black sees this. He also sees her make a downward strike, severing the Jack-o-lantern of the devil, but the man can’t figure why. To his right, he sees the wave woman he had been escorting make her stand against the dead lawman. She stood defiant, as if to say that this was their territory, not his. The marshal grabbed her and shoved her into his coffin and sealed it with his black magics. So much for that. The man turns his attention back to the hacksaw wielder. He goes after the man again, but the man steps aside carefully. The man unloads a round of his Colt 45 into the maniac. As if it can sense the blood, the blue glow of the man’s guitar ignites. Suddenly the man and the maniac are surrounded by a blue ring of fire. It doesn’t touch the man, but his gibbering rival starts screaming as the hellfire finds its own. Over on the other side of the field, the man watches as Francisco Ortega, another of Perdita’s brothers sneaks up with the aid of one of the Ortega’s pet demons. He stabs the twin several times, her blood pouring out. The Ortegas and their demon close in to finish her. Turn 4 Outcasts Win Initiative Viktoria of Ashes attacks the Enslaved Nephilim, cheating a Mask card to Whirlwind. The Enslaved Nephilim takes 3 damage, Franky takes 9 damage from the Red Joker, but survives from Hard to Kill, and Perdita takes the last 4 health and dies. Viktoria’s second and third attacks finish off the Nephilim and Francisco. Dr. Grimwell lobotomizes Sue for 4 damage. Sue’s return fire trigger misses and he then disengages. Sue tries shooting Dr. Grimwell twice, misses both times. The Death Marshal in the northeast corner walks and picks up the scheme marker. Ronin picks up the head she was standing on and walks away. The other one stays in the pine box. Student of Conflict walks and uses Sisters in Spirit to pull Viktoria of Ashes. End of Turn 4: Outcasts 6 (Headhunter and Claim Jump) Guild 4 (Inspection) The Ortega’s have sword woman surrounded and outnumbered. Unfortunately, for them, this is not a tight situation for her – this is her life. She is used to fighting on barely anything and against greater odds. Keeping both Ortega’s to her front flanks, she stabs behind her, impaling the imp they brought. The Ortega’s move in to finish her, but the sword woman steps forward to them and cuts her way out of the demon and straight into Fransciso’s gut, and then with a primal scream rips it out and straight up into the sister Ortega. Ripping her sword free again, she then goes in and takes two more swings on the man and their demon. At the same time, her young student has run up and stabbed the nearby Death Marshal in the back. In only a few seconds, the woman and her child student are standing alone on a field of bodies. Meanwhile, the man in black is holding back the insane doctor. The doc manages to drive the chainsaw down into the man’s side, soaking his cloths into a different shade of black. Suddenly the madman is off running away though as he sees the guitar glow blue again. He would rather not suffer the fires again. The man sends a few bullets after him as well, just as encouragement. Turn 5 Wrap up summary. Guild wins initiative and Dr. Grimwell charges Sue, but Sue survives thanks to Hard to Kill. The Outcast player realizes that Dr. Grimwell is probably the sucker and doesn’t do anything to try to eliminate him. The Ronin breaks out of the pine box and fights the Death Marshal, but nothing happens between them. The two ronin and Viktoria pick up heads, place claim markers, and sit in the corner for inspection as they are much too far away to get to Dr. Grimwell or the last Death Marshal. Final total: Outcasts 9 (Headhunter, Claim Jump, and Inspection) Guild 4 The any sane man would properly run away from bullets, but this madman seems to think them an invitation. He charges in machine saw a blazing and rips straight for the man’s head. Nearly scalps him, and it flings away the man in black’s hat, but he’s not that easy to kill. It dawns on the man that the doctor is probably not an asset to the Guild. Probably he was once, but now he’s a liability and they sent him here to get rid of him. Probably an offering to the devil of the fields even. Well, that doesn’t sit well with the man in black, so he whacks the doc in the temple with his colt. The doc will live and the guild will have to deal with him themselves. The man in black won’t be their hangman. To the right, he sees the woman rip her way out of the coffin and starts striking at the Marshal. Looks like no grave can keep her body down. The dead lawman starts to retreat away. The man calls after him and he tells him to “go tell your masters, those long tongued liars, those midnight riders, ramblers and gamblers and backbiters, tell ‘em their all gonna get cut down. Sooner or later, they’ll all be cut down.” The man walks towards the woman. She looks at her fallen sister. She holds her sword in one hand and the Jack-o-Lantern in the other. The devil of the fields here will no longer stalk and murder, it drank it’s last blood. The sisters planned this. They couldn’t hunt it in its fields so they made a deal, they did what they needed to bring it out and finish it. They knew this was the only way. They only had the devil to pay. This was a very fun game. The Guild player had expected the Doc to go down faster which he usually does, but he didn’t this time. The Outcast player also considered the Frame for Murder scheme with the Viktoria of Blood as the Sucker, but wanted more practice with Claim Jump and also the idea of one of the twins framing the other didn’t sit well with them storywise. Obviously it’s a good strategy as it could have netted 3 points first turn. Killjoy was the biggest wiff ever. First time for the Outcast player and they were surprised at how little the monster actually did. Df 7 is hard to hit. Kudos to the Student of Conflict for actually killing something with her practice sword. Those whirlwinds by the Viktorias can really clear the field. Thanks for reading, let us know any thoughts or comments.
  3. Thanks for sharing. This is very interesting. I had been debating on building something like this myself.
  4. Thanks for the comments guys. We look forward to putting out more eventually. Right now is end of semester season in Japan so a lot of our members are either taking finals or helping their kids through finals. We plan to do another get together near the end of March. Look for a new one then.
  5. This is the first of I hope several battle reports that will be coming out of our new group here in Osaka. Most of the players are relatively new, but there is already quite a bit of enthusiasm and most players already have fully painted crews. In addition, I will be attempting to dramatize part of the battle reports as more of a story and not just pieces of plastic being moved around a flat surface. I will keep those parts separate from the tactics by italicizing the story for those who aren't interested in such things. With that, let's get into our first game. It is Guild vs. Neverborn. This is the Guild players first time playing a full 50 soulstone game. The Neverborn player is a bit more experienced. Standard Deployment Strategy: Extraction (Greed was used as the informant “marker”) Schemes: Claim Jump, Eliminate the Leadership, Dig Their Graves, Hidden Trap, Set Up Guild List: 8 Members, 3 Soulstones Sonnia (The Mask, Reincarnation, Cherufe’s Imprint), Puryfying Flame, Dr. Grimwell (Research Grant), Samael Hopkins (Witch Hunt, Disrupt Magic), Guild Pathfinder, Orderly, Witchling Stalker X2 Guild Schemes: Eliminate the Leadership, Hidden Trap Neverborn List: 8 Members, 4 Soulstones Zoraida (Hex Bag, Crystal Ball), Bad Juju (Eternal Fiend), Mysterious Emissary (Conflux of Fate), Doppleganger, Waldgeist X2, Bandersnatch, Will o’ the Wisp Neverborn Schemes: Dig their Graves, Hidden Trap Background: “Samael Hopkins Field Report to the Office of the Governor (Reviewed by Secretary Lucius) “This is the follow up report into the investigation of the destruction of the Pig’s Eye Hamlet. As indicated in a previous report, the hamlet was abandoned after several of the locals attempted to murder the others and make off with all the valuables in the village. The final survivor of that night was mostly incoherent, but made reference some kind of music. Guitar music, which ‘filled him with such desire.’” “Well, my Mistress and I were out hunting in the Hag’s territory. Dr. Grimwell had made, and was granted, a request to hunt the bayou. He was hoping to catch some specimens of fast healing Neverborn or swamp creatures and with Perdita off engaged elsewhere Sonnia took it upon herself to help. The Dr. brought along one of his Orderlies as a personal assistant. To help with the capture we also employed a Pathfinder and brought a couple of the witchlings to help carry the traps. “We had been roaming for about an hour before we heard the sound of a guitar echoing on the breeze. Immediately I remembered the report of the vanished hamlet in this area and informed Sonnia of it. She agreed it was worth investigating. Sure enough, we followed it straight to the hamlet and in the main courtyard there stood a woman playing a soft tune. I recognized her as someone that occasionally joined in with us on hunts or other Guild expeditions. “We started our approach to detain her and find out what we could, but then the forest on the other side of the hamlet came to life…” Guild Deploy: Sonnia, Puryfying Flame, Dr. Grimwell, and Orderly deploy in the middle. Hopkins takes cover behind some crates. The Stalkers spread out to the right and Pathfinder deploys further up behind a large building on the left. Neverborn deploy: Mysterious Emissary takes the center flanked by the waldgiests. Zoraida crouches behind a nearby building with the Wisp. The doppleganger prepares to advance on the right flank. Bad Juju and the Bandersnatch take the left flank. “It seemed like the forest itself was marching on us as several towering creatures that looked more like trees than people or animals lumbered into our lantern light. I immediately took cover behind some crates while Sonnia started directing the stalkers to fan out to our right flank and our Pathfinder to our left. The only sound from our side was the mad Doc who started cackling madly. Apparently he thought this was a perfect chance to catch his prize. “Sonnia immediately went about preventing their approach by advancing on them and summoning a great wall of fire between the living forest and the woman we were after. She still threw down the trap she had been carrying for the doc and the Witchlings advanced and did the same seeing a gigantic creature of moss and logs approaching them. “The doc himself was only too eager to get up close to them and take a “sample” personally. I had to run up and cover him since I could see trees and shrubbery sprouting up all along the edge of the courtyard covering the advance of these monsters. I didn’t know what was going to come out the other side, but we needed to be ready. “We lost our pathfinder first. He laid one of his animated attack traps on the far side of the building, then stalked over to the other side to get ready to set another trap. He seemed startled by seeing a small brown homunculus of some kind, like a walking doll, run off into the trees after seeing him. After that though, he suddenly doubled over like he was having a heart attack. I saw him stand again, only to be brought down like he was crushed by an invisible weight. The last I saw of him in mostly one piece, his body was being dragged into the newly grown trees by a woman with camouflaged skin.” Round 1: Neverborn win initiative, force Guild to go first. Sonnia walks and casts a flame wall off her upgrade to block the direct advance of the neverborn, then drops a scheme marker. Waldgiest walks up, places scheme marker, germinates trees to cover the right centre flank. Dr. Grimwell double walks to get into position. Bandersnatch double walks. Pathfinder lays trap covering entry around far left side of building, then double walks to get into position on the other side. Waldgiest walks and places another scheme marker, germinates trees to cover the left center flank. Puryfying Flame double walks to get into position. Bad Juju double walks on the left flank. Witchling Stalker walks and places scheme marker, preparing their Hidden Trap expecting the Neverborn to push far into their territory. Mysterious Emissary uses upgrade action to look at the top 4 card of the deck and draw one. Then walks and summons a Changeling out of a scheme marker. Other Witchling Stalker walks and also places a scheme marker for the coming trap. Will o’ the Wisp walks to the edge of a building and summons a Voodoo doll, copying Zoraida’s ability. The Doll successfully Hems to the Pathfinder. Samael Hopkins double walks forward. Voodoo doll walks closer to Zoraida and other Neverborn models. Orderly walks up and places a scheme marker. Zoraida draws a card with crystal ball. She then casts Obey on the Doppleganger, forcing it to walk forward. She then walks herself forward and casts Hex Bag on the Voodoo doll and pricks it for 2 damage and two damage on the pathfinder. She then fails to cast her last Obey. Doppleganger walks up and places a scheme marker within 4” of pathfinder. The changeling, still slow from being summoned, uses it’s only action to attack the voodoo doll by copying the Mysterious Emissary’s Nature Reclaims All attack. The Changeling cheats high and the voodoo doll cheats its defence low letting the Changeling hit it for moderate damage, killing both the Voodoo Doll and the Pathfinder. The Neverborn gain a VP for Dig their Graves and discard the scheme marker next to the pathfinder (maybe, see end of game thoughts). The dead Voodoo Doll and Pathfinder. The orange disks are Sonnia's flame wall. End of Round 1 Neverborn 1 ; Guild 0 “After seeing the pathfinder, a man I have worked with before and trusted well, crushed and destroyed in such an inhuman manner, well, I was ready to roast some of these freaks. The first one to come crashing out of the foliage to face us was a huge white oak creature with pale green energy flowing from it’s eyes and hands. It extended a hand and immediately some hideous toothed plants sprung up and tried biting at the Doc. It then blasted the doc with some strange green energy that also blew up a trap one of the Witchlings had placed. “Well, the doc wasn’t having none of this, he ran straight past those plant beasts and jumped up with his little hand chainsaw and dug right into the creature’s forehead. He then used his full weight and pulled it straight down ripping into the chest of the creature after completely bisecting it’s head. The thing was still alive though. I knew I had no time to lose so I ran up and aimed as carefully as I could. I could see some kind of pulsing green light inside the things split open abdomen and I shot it dead on. Green goo exploded from the cavity as it collapsed into timber. “I wish I could say that was the end though. But at that point I happened to look over and my heart nearly stopped. There was the hag herself. Worse, she was clutching a little brown doll with a toy gun. I saw her move the gun arm and sure enough, though I prayed it wouldn’t, my gun arm moved with it and pointed straight at the good doctor. “I know I couldn’t have stopped myself at that moment, but I never will forgive myself for that. He looked up at me in shock from the bullet wound, but I was sure he’d be okay. So I hoped but then, of all things, a strange green child walks up to me, looks at my gun and asks me “like this?” and I swear that thing’s arm turned into an exact replica of my personal customized revolver. “And it shot Dr. Grimwell straight in the throat. “He fell over and the last I saw of him, one of the tree creatures was piling dirt over him. “I looked back over at the Hag. She set the doll on fire and handed it over to one of her tree monsters to tear apart. Sure enough, I could feel the heat rising in me as much as I felt the stabs and thrashing of the living vegetable as it tore my effigy apart.” Round 2 Neverborn win initiative, chose to go first. Mysterious Emissary walks through the trees on its left and summons a Hungry Land marker (metal tin). Then uses its attack to hit Dr. Grimwell, getting the tomes trigger and removing a scheme marker next to a Witchling Stalker. Dr. Grimwell bravely walks up to the enormous beast (using Nimble AP) and attempts a lobotomy, flipping a Red Joker for 14 damage. The Mysterious Emissary survives only due to Hard to Kill. A waldgiest walks up and places a scheme marker just behind the Mysterious Emissary. It then Germinates a pair of trees next to the Emissary and the doctor cutting them off from the left side of the board. Samael Hopkins walks up behind crates for cover and shoots at Mysterious Emissary. He has to randomize between it, Dr. Grimwell, and the Bandersnatch that was sneaking around, but successfully hits the Mysterious Emissary, finishing it off. The Will o’ the Wisp walks through a building and summons a Voodoo Doll which hems to Hopkins. A Witchling Stalker walks up and shoots at Bad Juju doing damage and burning. Voodoo doll walks closer to Zoraida while staying within 1” of active flame pillars. The other Witchling Stalker walks and shots Bad Juju but misses due to cover. Zoraida peeks at the opponents hand with her crystal ball, then casts Obey on Samael Hopkins, but failing to the Black Joker. She tries again and this time successfully forces him to shoot Dr. Grimwell for three damage, bringing him down to 2 health. She then uses Hex bag to give both the Voodoo doll and Samael Hopkins burning. Orderly double walks up behind Hopkins. Changeling walks up near Hopkins and copies his gun to shoot Dr. Grimwell, killing him and scoring 1VP for Dig their Graves from the Scheme marker the Waldgiest left. Sonnia double walks, which causes the pillars to disappear dealing 1 damage to the Changeling, Voodoo Doll and by extension of the Hem ability, 1 to Samael Hopkins. She then blasts Bad Juju for Severe damage and chain blasting damage into the bandersnatch and a Waldgiest. Doppleganger fails to mimic Samael’s gun, so just walks and places a scheme marker. Puryfying Flame walks and tries to hit Waldgiest and misses. Waldgiest hits Voodoo Doll for 4 damage, walks and fails to Germinate trees. Bandersnatch runs over to Hopkins and vanishes into his shadow. It then reaches out and attacks the orderly behind him dealing 2 damage. Bad Juju double walks up to Sonnia and a Witchling Stalker, fails to landslide. Activations end. During the upkeep, burning goes off for both the Voodoo Doll and Hopkins killing both of them. Neverborn have several models within 6 of the informant and score a VP. Guild only have Orderly and Puryfying flame, which is a peon and doesn’t count. No VP. End of Round 2 Neverborn 3 ; Guild 0 “I passed out not long after flames consumed both me and the doll image of me. I remember only a few things that seemed to be going on around me. I remember the docs orderly running up to try to help, but a huge black spider came out of the woods and started devouring him. “I also remember the woman we were going after. I had tried to reach for her at my last, but she just turned, still playing her accursed instrument and went to the Hag who smiled when she approached. “I looked over to Sonnia. She was with her Witchlings. They had been using many bullets and energy to hold back the living pile of moss, but it still approached them. The last thing I saw was her and the monster facing off. “Then all light went out.” Round 3 Guild Wins Initiative, chooses to go first. Witchling Stalker charges Bad Juju, and hits twice for 4 damage total, bringing bad juju down to 1 health. Bad Juju activates and landslides. One stalker takes damage and is slowed. Bad Juju flurries into Sonnia dealing severe damage on both the first two attacks. Sonnia soulstones to prevent three on the second attack, barely keeping 1 health. Bad Juju’s last attack is still too much and finishes her. We decided to end the game there as Guild only had only two Stalkers, the Orderly, and the Flame left. Ariel of the board when we ended. Game end “The next thing I remember is waking up in the Guild Hospital. Dr. McMorning was there leering over me. I jumped up and demanded to know what happened. Apparently, the last soulstone had barely saved Sonnia’s life. One of the stalkers had run off with her while the other stayed to hold of the monster. As for me and Dr. Grimwell, well, Dr. McMorning says we were in bad shape, but he’s “worked with worse before.” I mentioned that I saw Dr. Grimwell shoot in the throat and buried and he just chuckles and says it was the morphine talking and that I should still be resting. His nurse pricked me with something and I passed out. “I do not like that man. “My conclusion though, it did not end well. We were lucky, those of us that left alive. I won't say what condition the Pathfinder and Orderly were found in. Even McMorning hasn't worked with anything that bad before. We didn’t catch any samples for the Doctor, and in the end the woman with the guitar evaded us as well. But now we know, and next time I will see that living forest razed to the ground.” ~Samael Hopkins End Game Thoughts The Guild player was hammered with a pretty average and lower hand turn 2 which really did a number on them. Destroying the Mysterious Emissary on turn 2 with a Red Joker Lobotomy was fun. One of the tactical differences that I think would have swung things more in the Guild favour would have been to just ignore Bad Juju and gone straight down the middle for the informant. Bad Juju is slow and can come back if destroyed, so better to just ignore it. This was the second time the Guild player has run the Pathfinder and the second time that it was jumped and destroyed first turn. They are trying to figure out how best to deploy them most efficiently without being overly vulnerable. Changeling was perhaps the most potent little critter this game as he scored VP for the neverborn twice (probably) by destroying the Voodoo doll on the first turn when all other models were out of attack options and again on the second turn by taking out Dr. Grimwell with Hopkins revolver. Will o’ the Wisps were supper useful to Zoraida for summoning dolls and freeing up Zoraida’s AP. Recommended to always have at least one around. The Bandersnatch did very little, but that was expected. The Neverborn player is still trying to figure out how to optimize it. Mistakes (?): It seems that victims of the Voodoo Doll’s Hem ability may not count towards Dig Their Graves since technically it’s a condition damaging the model according to the wording. If anyone can confirm for or against this I would appreciate it. So that is the first report from our new group, the Wargamers of Osaka. Let us know what you thought, did you like the story, the photos, tactical advice, all welcome. Thanks, see you again soon.
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