The Transcredible Exploits of four Malifaux Newbies

[emiba]

No worries! I'd say there was good reason for it.

I've just come to look forward to reading your posts, the perspective of learning is refreshing and has relevance to my own situation as I played my first game less than a year ago.

[Vaiuri]

 

It's a bit cold!  The lakes are freezing over here in the north west (UK), not something we're very used to!

[tmod]

On 28.2.2018 at 3:55 PM, Shadowfane said:

Curses! The Arcanists strike once more with Rasputina's power over winter leaving the other factions to cast about in dismay, their plans and schemes in tatters...

Or, in other words, this bloody weather we're having here in the UK atm has forced the cancellation of this weeks game (mostly down to me - Vai, Swig and Suvalas leave nearer the city, whereas I live in the hills, and currently can't get my car off my street...)

But never fear, we'll be back next week (I hope...)

Why did the "sad" button have to be removed just when I needed it...? 

[Shadowfane]

It's all good!

It gives me more time to paint my models before I play Suvalas - I'm not a fan of playing unpainted models, although with all the new stuff thats come out, I haven't had much choice.

So, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, then turn that into a fizzy version of Black Blood and throw it at Gremlins...

[Swiglitz]

'Fizzy Black Blood'

Is that an awful euphemism? Like Venom Cannon and Barbed Strangler?

 

[Shadowfane]

So hey, we played a game this week!

Having said that, I want to point out that myself and Suvalas (who played) were not exactly at our best this week - he was recovering from an illness, and I was recovering from night shifts and the resulting 4ish hours of sleep

With that said:

Corner Deplyoment, Ours, Dig their graves, Guarded Treasure, Undercover Entourage, Show of Force, Take prisoner.

Me with Neverborn, and Suvalas with Gremlins - given I've never played against them, I had no idea what to expect, so just took some old models I wanted to give another try to, and some new models I'd never used:

Zoraida (cache5): Powerful Control, Poisoned Fate, Hex Bag

Iggy: Depression

Hooded Rider: A thousand faces (seriously, how good is this upgrade?)

Mysterious Emissary: Conflux of Fate

2x Will o= the Wisp

2x Waldgeist

 

I took show of force and entourage - in hindsight, if I was going to take entourage, I really should have taken Animal shape, but I was tired, and also, I wanted to try out her new toys (the last time I played Zoraida was before the Wisps). After seeing that the only non-master upgrade on the other side was on Burt (or the pig, I can't remember which, but only one), I figured I could use Iggy for Show of Force so he could hide there whilst burning the Doll, and it wouldn't cost me too many SS of models to count for Ours.

I ended up facing an old, crotchety gremlin with an enormous Wooden Spoon, and a bunch of short green dudes with guns and a couple of bells - oh, and an oversized pig.

We called it at the end of turn 3 due to time (we were so slow!) with a score of 3-2 in my favour, having scored the Strat twice and Show of Force once - obviously, Zoraida wasn't anywhere near the other half of the board by then...

 

Whilst I feel that Zoraida is much improved since last time I used her, I don't actually feel I used her all that well.... more practice is required, I think! Mind you, Iggy plus the Doll is.... not pleasant. I also like how the Emissary feels very different in this crew compared to with Titania - much less about the Hungry Land markers, more about the card manipulation.

 

I don't think much more detail is required, since it wasn't the most exciting game, really - I'd managed to (not deliberately) build a crew quite different from my normal one, in that it didn't really want to close up and engage, but instead hang back and let things burn to death and whatnot, and Suvalas didn't really engage much either, so we mostly moved for advantage, I got shot, and he got Hemmed a lot

[emiba]

Yay! Another transcredible exploit!

I'm actually running Zoraida with exactly those upgrades tonight! Smaller game though. Did you get any use out of Poisoned fate? I mean it just feel like insult to injury (meant in a good way of course) on hemmed models. 

[Shadowfane]

I used it all of once

But I still think it's quite good - an attack that only needs to draw to do 4 damage (potentially) from 18 inches away is nasty. The condition requirement is a little unfortunate, but it's easy enough to manage - especially since it can just as easily be a condition they've put on themselves

[Swiglitz]

From an observers point of view, this looked quite an intense game.

The Voodoo doll/Iggy combo seemed custom built to take out Gremlins and I'm not sure Suvalas ever really had an answer for it. Watching the first couple of turns I thought the best strategy would be to go after the Will 'o Wisps so Shadowfane would have to start using AP on Zoraida in order to summon a new doll each turn. But, the longer the game went on I realised that it would have been a better tactic to focus on killing the models that were attacking the Voodoo doll.

Either way it looked very tough from a Gremlin PoV.

That being said, at the start of turn three Suvalas had the opportunity to get Mah Tucket really stuck into a Big group of Shadowfane's models, including Zoraida, a Will 'o' Wisp and Iggy, but chose to stay engaged with the Hooded Rider, which I think was a mistake. I understand his reasoning for staying where he was, but had it been me, Iggy and the Will 'o' Wisp would have been staring down the business end of a big spoon that turn.

Of course it's easy to offer criticism when you're divorced from the subject like I was and had I been the one playing I probably would have done something different.

It was a fun game to watch and showed me a lot about Mah and Zoraida.

Next week, it's me vs. Suvalas as we begin our second round of games.

In a similar fashion to Shadowfane a couple of weeks ago I'm going to post our Strat and scheme pools and see what you guys think we'll be taking.

Strat: Symbols of Authority

Schemes: Punish the Weak, Hold up their Forces, Recover Evidence, Covert Breakthrough, Public Demonstration.

Standard Deployment.

 

I will be taking Ressers, with the self-imposed restriction of not being allowed to field Nicodem, McMourning, or Yan Lo as I played them almost exclusively last time we did this.

Suvalas will be taking Gremlins ... I think

Let us know what you think.

 

Cheers,

 

[emiba]

So, I tried the same upgrades on Zoraida last night. Powerful control is... Powerful. The only time Poisoned Fate came into play was when after finishing Zoraida's activation on turn one I said; "Damn, I should have used Aetheric Punishment instead of that last walk..." I think in my matchup against Lynch it might have been worth it though if we'd managed to finish the game.

[Vaiuri]

I'm looking forward to seeing the Gremlin answer to Ressers - I'm hoping it's a massive Spoon...

Shadow and I will be playing the week after, and I'm currently agonizing over which faction to choose!  Do I stick with 10T, return to my beloved Guild or indulge in my current flirtation with Arcanists?

[Swiglitz]

Indulge your inner necromancer!

Join me in the whirlwind of murder and reanimation!

...

It's better than it sounds

...

 

[Shadowfane]

4 hours ago, Vaiuri said:

I'm looking forward to seeing the Gremlin answer to Ressers - I'm hoping it's a massive Spoon...

Shadow and I will be playing the week after, and I'm currently agonizing over which faction to choose!  Do I stick with 10T, return to my beloved Guild or indulge in my current flirtation with Arcanists?

Well, let me know if you pick arcanists (My grumbling about it aside) - I think I *might* have bits of the faction you don't, so I can bring them along for you to use

[BloodBought]

I think Swig is going to be using some sort of Molly crew... thinking likely that Horror summoning Molly would go well with that scheme and strat pool.

[Swiglitz]

Molly is in my top three

[Suvalas]

Well, the list is finally written and I'm happy! We'll see how long that lasts when I see what Swiglitz sets down on Wednesday! 

Roll on deja vu from last week when I saw Zoraida across the table...

As Swiglitz alluded to above, I didn't really have answer to the doll and it's shenanigans. At least not one that fit in with my game-plan, and I sorely needed to stick to my plan. One, for my own focus, and two, I was drained from illness and needed to keep it simple. It was the first time I'd faced off against a rider and I was determined to deal with it early. Which invariably would have netted me that table quarter and the subsequent entourage points. In tandem I thought that dealing with the Emissary would then in total, have diminished Shadowfane's Soulstones on the table, making it easier to win quarters. 

As it turned out, Shadowfane's crew was especially adept at killing my more delicate Gremlins. Even the Criers were killed in single activation thanks to Iggy's burning, and me with no healing or condition removal.

I was happy with the Burt and Gracie combo, experiencing it for the first time, although their flank manoeuvre took a while to get there. Then to have Gracie's 'Reactivate' condition removed made me sad

Perhaps I should have shoved those two into the mix and used the fragile Gremlins to skirt the flanks.

 

The list was:

Mah (Manifest Destiny / Liquid Bravery)

Burt (Dirty Cheater)

Gracie

2x Gremlin Criers

3x Bayou Gremlins

1x Gremlin Bushwhacker (Love these guys)

 

I managed to get 2 points from an entourage on Mah, and no other points. My mistake with Take a prisoner on one of the Waldgeists. More so because only Mah was close and was needed elsewhere. 

 

Either ways I enjoyed the game, it was distinctly tactical and gave plenty of opportunity for learning. I'm still loving Mah's playstyle and am generally happy with the Gremlins at the moment. I feel like I need to get a handle on the finer points of their shenanigans, and learn how to keep key models safer for longer... I mean, how are they supposed to blow themselves up in style if the enemy gets there first! 

 

Suvalas

[Shadowfane]

I won't be there this week (night shifts are a pain) - so I'm going to take a guess at Masters used, if nothing else!

Swig - whilst I suspect it'll be Molly, I'm actually going to guess Seamus - bamfing around seems like it'd be good for Symbols, and a 4/6/8 damage track against Gremlins  seems like it'll be good in Punish the Weak. Also, Belles are likely to be a huge annoyance in Symbols, dragging Gremlins away from Swigs Symbols markers, etc.

Suvalas - I reckon it's going to be Ma again - he enjoys playing him, and she seems like she'd be good in this for much the same reasons as Seamus, to be honest - some movement tricks, and high damage on a model that would help do a scheme just be hitting things.

[Suvalas]

Not bad on the guesses there Shadowfane

Swiglitz did indeed take Seamus, however I erred away from Mah on this occasion and decided to try out Wong. I agree that Mah would have been good for the strats and schemes but I fancied a change. Once I realised what Wongs' new upgrade 'Sparkly Lights' gave the crew, I was sold. As it turns out, the game did not pan out the way I expected. (When does it ever!?)

I took:

Wong with Sparkly Lights and Liquid Bravery.

Sammy with Ooo Glowy

Merris / Burt / 2x Swine Cursed / 2x Bayou Gremlins / Slop Hauler

 

The vague plan was to use the multitude of abilities garnered by the upgrades on the Swine cursed and Burt, to allow me to get stuck in, interact away the Symbols and then run off relatively easily, what with 'Don't mind me' and 'Agile'. The Gremlins and Merris would work on Breakthrough and leave Wong to deal with Punish the weak (in hindsight not the best scheme to pick)

As it unfolded, Swig did little to physically defend his Symbols, aside from Belle lures which worked infuriatingly well. That and blowing Merris up very quickly meant I was slow getting across the board. Missing out on the opportunity for scoring all 3 Symbols. As it turned out, I removed two in turn 5 to deny Swig that extra VP.

What did go well (admittedly some great flips, and a great control hand, and Swig's lack thereof) was a Wong and Burt duet middle of Turn 2. Yin, a Belle and a Doxy were moving up one side of the board. With some Crackerjack timing, Burt managed to pull the Belle in towards Yin. Wong then subsequently attacked the Belle (circumventing Yin's nasty defence mechanisms) and blasted some heroic magic. Severe damage a couple of times severely damaged Yin and the Doxy, and wiped the Belle from the table. I believe that Yin and the Doxy were dealt with shortly after, leaving a gap in Swig's offence. 

Hats off to Swig at this point. I always seem to leave a large hole in his crew when he takes Seamus... He continued with aplomb and focus and got himself the win 8 - 6. Scoring once more for Punish than me, and getting that 3rd symbol at an appropriate time. We both scored 3 for Breakthrough.

 

The game was close, bloody, and above all else great fun. Wong seems to be quite the wizard, and I look forward to playing him again when the strats and achemese line up

 

Suvalas

 

[Swiglitz]

The crimson sky had just darkened to midnight blue when Seamus saw her. She was beautiful, of that, there was no doubt. He patted at the reassuring weight of the Flintlock in his jacket and gripped the handle of his bag a little tighter.

It was always like this. In the moments before the screams began, before the blood, the torn flesh, and the utter, irresistible, delicious terror. Little anxieties would creep into his thoughts. Would she know who he was? Would her cries be as delectable as the last? Would she make fine addition to his girls? Or would she end her life like so many others? In bitter disappointment.

In complete silence he emerged from the shadows, on the very edge of her peripheral vision.

“Good evening my lovely,” he purred.

She turned to look straight at him, her eyes boring into his.

“Good evening Seamus,” she said. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Her skin bulged at the neck, the delicate flesh sloughing away from her body like a wet paper bag, exposing a mass of glistening organs and wet meat.

‘Well,’ he thought. ‘There’s something you don’t see every day’.

 

Hello! And welcome to another Transcredible Exploit.

This week it was the turn of Suvalas and myself to play. The second round of newly minted Gremlins vs Ressers feud. I really enjoy playing Suvalas as our games tend to be quite extreme. I’ve won some of my biggest victories against him, and suffered some of my worst losses to him as well. Including a particularly bloody game against his Viks crew that we don’t talk about anymore.

Ahem.

Anywho … As I mentioned in an earlier post we’d already flipped for strats and schemes so I’ve spent most of the intervening days plotting my crew contents. Early on I decided I wanted to play either Reva, or Seamus. Molly was very close third (sorry Bloodbought) but after my previous game against Vaiuri I wanted something with a bit more bite.

Initially I was going to go with Reva, and even designed a core crew for her, but the more I thought about the scheme pool the more I realised Seamus was a better fit. So, in the end I plumped for the Mad Haberdasher (curse you Shadowfane, get out of my head you weird Neverborn monster!)

I chose:

Seamus w/ Do you know who I am?, Red Chapel Killer, and Sinister Reputation.

Copycat Killer

Madame Sybelle w/Bleeding Tongue, and Not Too Banged Up

Yin the Penangalan

Dead Doxy

2 x Rotten Belle

2 x Crooligan

As I’ve said before I’m all about theme and story, and my crews reflect that. The only concession I made to go outside of theme was taking Yin, because her synergy with Seamus is just too good to pass up. I wanted Yin to have a reason for being in the crew, so I decided that an enterprising group of Gremlins have begun a small scale invasion of Yin’s corner of the Little Kingdom, and Yin is manipulating Seamus into wiping them out for her.

Or something.

The board had been laid out by Suvalas prior to our arrival and was fairly cluttered, which suited me just fine. We flipped for deployment and I won, which meant taking a good long look at where I wanted to be placing my Symbols of authority. I saw that one side of the table had a couple of narrow chokepoints, and sizable train laid out, so I chose that side. I thinking was I would deploy two of my three Symbols behind the train, and the third beyond the slightly wider chokepoint.

My plan was to advance on Suvalas’ Symbols with Seamus, the Copycat Killer, Yin and the Crooligans, while defending my own half of the table with Sybelle, the belles and the doxy. I knew that, on the whole Gremlin minions are pretty easy to kill so I took Punish the Weak figuring Seamus would be able to do most of the heavy lifting in this regard, and with my scheme runners already in Suvalas’ half of the table Covert Breakthrough would make sense too.

I wasn’t sure what my opponent would be taking in terms of master, or schemes, so I built my defences around stopping him scoring the strat. The surprisingly tanky Belles would lure his models away from symbols, and hopefully score a couple embrace triggers on any melee actions they took, while the Doxy would push any nastier gremlins into Sybelle where she would hopefully strip them of their Interact actions with Death Mark, or just trap them in place with Attend to Personally.

Yin was my Wild card. I wanted her in thick of things as she’s tough to get rid of and great debuffing/trapping enemy models.

With my plan in place I listened as Suvalas listed off his Wong crew.

Hmmm … I thought. Wong. Blast Markers. Narrow chokepoints.

S**t.

 

From his vantage point in the rail yard, Seamus could see the crude idols the Gremlins had erected. They were oddly proportioned, badly made, and reminded him for all the world of giant scarecrows. Each one had been draped in bright blue cloth and covered in badly stitched stars, moons, and other less identifiable symbols. He was sure he could see the word ‘Magic’ sewn into one.

The Crooligans Molly had pointed him toward had raised a thick mist to cover their advance and somewhere out there, two of the little thugs were already creeping up on the Gremlin idols.

A thin scream pierced the stillness of the night, followed by a frenzied, and frankly terrifying oinking.

“Come on my lovelies!” he called out. “Time for some real fun!”

Behind him, the rotten belles took their first shambling steps.

 

The first turn went quite well. Deploying first meant I had to take a calculated risk with my Crooligans. I deployed one well out of LoS, but at least two turns of movement away from Suvalas’ Symbols. The second one I set up very close to a symbol but partially exposed. My first activation was to run it out of cover and up next to the Symbol. I knew it was most likely going to get killed as Suvalas had deployed one his Swine-Cursed right next to it. But I figured if the Swine Cursed spends the first turn killing my Crooligan it’s not advancing on my Symbols and it will leave a juicy corpse Marker next to the Symbol for me to raise a belle next to later in the game.

The rest of the first turn was spent manoeuvring my crew up the board with a combination of pushes, lures and places. I managed to paralyse a Gremlin with Boo! Setting him up for a Punish the Weak kill next turn off Seamus and overall I was pretty happy.

Suvalas had killed my Crooligan and put a couple of points of damage on various models but nothing I was overly concerned with. The plan was still in place.

The second turn was … Less … Good.

My Crooligan ran out from cover and removed the first of Suvalas’ Symbols before bampfing away to safety, and Sybelle managed to account herself quite well killing Merris LaCroix, and locking Sammi LaCroix in combat.

Then Wong happened.

I had Yin, the doxy and one belle spread out across the choke point leading to my first Symbol. Yin had previously debuffed a Swine Cursed and I was planning on using the Doxy to push him back into my opponents half the board. I hadn’t drawn a particularly good Control hand (something that became a theme of the game) but figured if all the crap cards were in my hand, I’d probably flip well.

It turns out there are more than 6 crap cards in a deck.

Suvalas activated Burt and used him push my three models into a tight little bunch. I wasn’t overly concerned. No one had taken much damage, and all three models had Hard to Wound or Mass of Viscera so I knew nothing would really hit that hard.

Wong threw one of his infamous blasts at the Rotten Belle, targeting her low defence and hoping for some blasts. Unsurprisingly he hit, but I was still confident.

Then he flipped the Red Joker.

In a previous game, which we no longer talk about, Suvalas’ Vik of Blood killed my Sybelle, Bete Noire and a Belle in a single activation, thanks to her horrendous triggers and a keen understanding of she works. Three models dead, in a single activation.

This was like that.

The initial hit nuked the belle. The subsequent blasts put some serious hurt on Yin and the Doxy and the trigger where a card is flipped and if it’s a crow I take more damage finished them off.

Three models dead in a single activation.

Again.

Dear me Mr. Swiglitz, dear me.

I’m not going to lie, that was a tough moment and I got pretty cross. I fumbled my way through the rest of the turn, scoring a Punish the weak kill with Seamus and setting myself up for better turn three. My defensive plan was more or less in tatters and I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do about it.

 

A cacophonous ZZAP! Tore the chaos of the battle. Seamus felt the sparks of two of his girls go out and he cursed the Penangalan for talking him into this. He thought about cutting and running, but one of the Gremlin effigies was already ablaze and he was too deep into their territory for an easy out.

He thumbed the hammer of his hand cannon and grinned.

“Those were some my best girls,” he called out. “I’m coming for you now, you little snotball.”

All around him he could taste the Gremlins’ fear at his words. It filled him, sustained him. Raising his weapon he stepped out from the shadows.

 

I was ahead on VP’s and had a pretty good idea on how I score some more, but was completely at loss as to how I would stop Suvalas. I think at that point I had started to hear The Whisper. I decided I wasn’t going to try to stop him. In the previous turn, we had both revealed Punish the Weak as a scheme and I had a pretty good idea that Suvalas had taken Covert Breakthrough as well. If I could stop him killing anymore of my minions with Wong, while maintaining my own kill-streak I could still win this.

During the end-phase and draw phase of turns two/three I had a little word with myself and put my crushing disappointment at losing those models aside. This was going to be the start of my comeback.

I discarded the vast majority of my control hand at the start of turn three, and proceeded to draw and equally bad one.

I may have said a swear word.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I did.

Probably more than one.

I had another quiet word with myself and pressed on.

The Crooligan removed the second Gremlin Symbol and Seamus & The Copycat Killer put some more hurt on the gremlin minions. Sybelle finished off Sammi but succumbed to a lethal poison shortly afterwards. However my last remaining Belle was doing sterling work in holding up Suvalas’ Swine Cursed. She was deployed roughly between my two remaining Symbols (Suvalas had a reckless Gremlin remove my first one in a previous turn.) and thanks to her incredible lure actions had managed to keep both the Swine Cursed from reaching either of the remaining symbols. I knew it wouldn’t last, but if I could stop him scoring the start for a turn I could lengthen my lead.

The end game rolled around (we made it all the way to 5 turns! Woo!) And I had managed to scrape another VP from Punish the weak, shooting a Slop Hauler in the back of the head. I summoned a Belle onto the corpse marker from the Crooligan death way back in turn one and had Seamus ready to run up to the Symbol if she didn’t survive the night.

She didn’t.

However, it was enough of a distraction to allow my Crooligan to drop a couple more Scheme markers for Covert Breakthrough and get to safety.

The final turn saw Seamus remove the last Symbol and take a perfunctory shot at Wong. Suvalas had managed to get to my Symbols, but not quickly enough so failed to score the full three points. He did deny me my bonus point for having a symbol left at the end of the game, but it wasn’t enough.

We totalled up VP and came to a 8-6 victory for the Mad Haberdasher.

 

Seamus smiled in the glow of the burning idol and looked out across the railyard. All around him Gremlins were fleeing for the safety of the night. The leader, a preposterous thing dressed in a long robe and fake moustache had gotten away, but he didn’t mind too much. Just another traumatised survivor to spread the legend of the red Chapel Killer.

Further away, the exotic banner poles of the Three Kingdoms had been torn down and trampled on by those curious porcine monsters, but Seamus simply shrugged. It was hardly his problem.

“Come along Sybelle me love,” he called. “It was a pleasing distraction, but we have real work to do. Sybelle? Sybelle?!”

He caught sight of her bloated form, burned and rent, surrounded on all sides by Gremlin corpses.

“Oh Sybelle,” he sighed. “Never you mind my lovely, will have you back on those dancers legs in no time.”

 

What a game.

I’m not really happy about the way played Seamus in particular, but I’m very pleased with the result. After turn 2 I was ready to jack it in and just give up, but I’m really glad I didn’t. I think adapting my plan, and staying focussed on VP’s really helped. It was hard fought victory, but those are the best kind.

Even so, two games now Suvalas has hamstrung my entire crew with clever activations and deadly force. I think it’s about time for a reckoning.

 

Cheers,

 

[Shadowfane]

Sounds like a fun game - it always does amuse me how Suvalas tends to be the person who makes you almost rage-quit a game! Plus I think out of all the games we play, Malifaux os the best one for that, because as long as you focus on the schemes/strats, you can always make a game out of it.

Anyway, next week it's Vai and myself playing, with the following pool:

Flank Deployment

Strategy: Ours (again! clearly me playing Neverborn means I only ever get to play this strat...)

Schemes: Guarded Treasure, Recover Evidence, Dig their Graves, Covert Breakthrough, Public Demonstration.

Currently I have about 6 crews built for this - mostly because Vaiuri has either not decided on the faction she's playing yet, or she has, but just hasn't told me yet..... *taps fingers impatiently*

[Vaiuri]

10T!

Sorry, I meant to post on Friday but I fell into a glass of wine...

I do think we need more Swig style story interludes for our games!

[Swiglitz]

11 hours ago, Vaiuri said:

I do think we need more Swig style story interludes for our games!

Aw shucks ...

[Shadowfane]

So, if I learned anything from the game yesterday, it was this:

Never make decisions about crews for games when you have a fever...

 

We had some snow in our area of the uk again last week/weekend, and at the same time I came down with a fever, and on the saturday, there was some discussion over our groups whatsup group about how, since the snow only turned up whenver I booked time off, I was clearly the herald of winter.  That then transformed into my thought of...."Fuck it, I'm playing Raspy"

So for this game I abandoned my usual Neverborn, and pulled out my Arcanists, using the following crew:

Raspy - Cold Nights, Decembers Pawn, Enveloped in Ice.

Wendigo

Snowstorm: Sub Zero

December Acolyte

2x Ice Gamin

2x Ice Dancer.

I had some vague ideas of using the Dancers to zip around and drop Scheme markers for Covert Breakthrough, and murdering things with Raspy for Dig their Graves, and it..... kinda worked? Well, Raspy murdered things, although only once where I got points for it, and my Dancers got held up by Shen Long and his crew of janky bullshit :P

Seriously, in Ours, the Emissary, Sensei Lu and Izamu is a brutal combination.

I think the game ended after turn 4.... 5-3 to Vaiuri as I recall, and left me with a resolve to not move away from my Neverborn again anytime soon! 

[Vaiuri]

Another episode of the Transcredible exploits was played out in exciting technicolour Tueday night!

This time is was me vs Shadowfane (see above!):

Flank Deployment

Strategy: Ours (again! clearly me playing Neverborn means I only ever get to play this strat...)

Schemes: Guarded Treasure, Recover Evidence, Dig their Graves, Covert Breakthrough, Public Demonstration.

 

I took:

Shenlong with Wandering River Style and Equality

Sensei Yu with Promicing Disciple

a Peasant

Izamu with Recalled Training

Shadow Emissary with Conflux of the Dawn

a Tengu and...

a Thunder Archer.

For my schemes I took Graves and Breakthrough.

 

The 'plan' was for Yu and the Shadow to spend their energy buffing Izamu and being big bodies to push models around for the Strat and Shemes.  Shen was going to buff a bit and run as back-up interference and maybe even do some emergency scheme running if the moment called for it with him being so speedy.  The tengu was going to regen Izamu and be a cute little schemer with the Archer being a good candidate for card draw using the Emissary trick and firing into Izamu based melee to pick off any stragglers.

 

The plan did not last long.

 

Firstly, I did not see a Neverborn master across the table from me, I saw Rasputina.  And with Rasputina came a lot of board control in the guise of ice pillars and ice patches from the Dancers.  Izamu was not pleased.  He had been promised blood and it took all of Yu's and the Emissary's movement jank to get him there!

I wanted to throw Izamu right down Shadows throat to cause a lot of pressure in his home deployment corner while keeping his buffers (Yu, Em and Shen) in the nearly table quarter ready to move where needed.  Sadly, there were a couple of very large footprinted buildings funnelling me directly to the middle of the board, which is not where I wanted to get stuck.  A very clever use of Ice Pillars from Shadow blocked my main point on entry into Shadows side of the board, so I took a detour around a church with Izamu.  This meant I had to commit a lot more resources to making sure he would survive, so I sent both Yu and the Emissary to follow Izamu and make sure he could be a nuisance and do some damage in Shadows home quarter.  One half of this plan worked…  The Emissary sucked 3 focus off Shen Long before his disappeared around the church to draw me 3 cards to replenish my hand and give Izamu some juicy cheats.  I drew 3 4’s…  ‘That’s OK’, I thought, ‘it’s just less rubbish for me to flip later.’.  Boy, was I wrong.  Izamu charged into an Ice Dancer with 4 activations ready to go (having gotten Fast from a handy Yu push earlier in the turn), blew his Recalled Training and I promptly flipped 3 2’s in a row followed by another gamut of utter rubbish which left me a little deflated and Shadow very relieved.

I think this turn perhaps dispelled the fear of what Izamu could do – but I enjoyed the set-up at least!

Other than proving some useful card draw from his Focus action in turn 1 the Thunder Archer did nothing other than be a body on the pitch.  This was mainly due to Team Izamu leaving him behind to score an adjacent table quarter.  It got me wondering if I should have taken a Brother instead…

The Tengu was quite handy, getting rid of a Breakthrough marker and popping regenerate on Izamu in the early turn (after being shot by a Acolyte) and then later on Shen Long who has taken a bit of damage from somewhere.  I really like Tengu – and it helps that I have one painted!

It felt like a close game – the terrain was a huge factor in my game plan (thanks, Swig!) but I feel I adapted correctly and managed to use Shen Long et al in a much more cohesive way.  I wasn’t so hung up on keeping everything near Shen Long, instead prioritising who I needed where and what I would need to do to manage that.

I was worried about the potential damage output from across the table but it never really felt unmanageable, as I know I had plenty of heals to draw on with Low River Style and a cheeky Regen from the Tengu when it was needed.  I could see a heal-intensive crew being quite obnoxious to play against, though it’s not something I’d do myself – I’m to aggressive!

 

We’ll be taking a break from Malifaux for a bit while we play TTB – we may post updates on that here or possibly start a new thread in the TTB forum – stay tuned!

 

 

 

[Shadowfane]

Well, in all honesty, I didn't exactly maximise Raspy's damage potential - I think I remembered to use Bite of Winter... once? And never with Raspy :p

Plus I agree with what Swig said during the game in that our little meta isn't really friendly to damage-focused Masters. Granted I still have a slight obsession with Lilith and Pandora, but they're both about much more than just damage.