The Amazing Adventures of Slow Growing Guild McMourning in Helsinki

[Math Mathonwy]

Our local Helsinki Malifaux group is having a slow grow league and I hope to use this thread to record my musings and some battle reports. I hope to do a proper battle report with pics and all some time in the nearish future but for now the reports will be short and sweet.

The idea of the league was that the veteran would take Masters that are slightly lower on the power curve while the newbies can take whatever they fancy. So, counting myself among the veterans, Guild McMourning seemed to fit the bill nicely.

I think that the Guild version of McMourning is a lot weaker than his Resser incarnation. He loses his real poison weaponry (gimps Sebastian as well), his summoning(!), and access to Rotten Belles and gains access to the fantastic Guild Henchmen, Witchling Stalkers, and Austringers. That isn’t to say that he is useless as a Guild, just that I think that the Resser version is a lot more powerful.

Since his Resser starter set makes for a lousy Guild starter set, I was allowed to add a Guild Lawyer to my hiring pool due to giving up the Flesh Construct and the Canine Remains. This meant that my only real damage dealer was McMourning himself with Sebastian providing improved Poison damage.

First game was just Starter against Starter at 35SS, for the second we can add a box but it will still be 35SS, for the third another box and the game is upped to 40SS, and so on. There’s also Achievements to be had and a painting prize to be won.

For the first game a veteran was paired with a newbie and no league points were awarded. The idea was that the veteran could share his thoughts on the game freely and guide the newbie a bit in preparation for the challenges to come.

So, I faced Lilith. Our actual first game we called on turn three due to time constraints and scheduled a rematch now that my opponent had a better idea of his own crew as well as mine. So the following is the account of the second game, which I consider the “proper” league game.

So yeah, Lilith’s starter box. Reconnoiter with ALITS, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Frame for Murder, and Outflank in the pool.

My list was:

McMourning w On the Clock, Evidence Tampering, Badge of Office

Sebastian w Lead-lined Coat

2 x Nurse

Guild Lawyer

Zombie Chihuahua

And I was up against:

Lilith w Living Blade, Beckon Malifaux, and Wicked Mistress

Barbaros w Gladiatus and Grow

3 x Terror Tot

Cherub

I chose Frame for Murder on Purple-haired Nurse and announced Protect Territory, he chose Frame for Murder on Barbaros and announced Breakthrough.

The game began with me advancing with the Lawyer, Sebastian, and the Chihuahua, while a Tot sprinted forward aggressively. Lilith jumped to the Tot, grew some woods and lured the Purple-haired Nurse into the woods giving out Slow and 2 wounds in the process. The other Nurse moved into position to give some meds to the Lilith next turn. McMourning ran 15 inches and threw his scalpel at Barbaros who flipped a 13 of Masks for defense and slapped the doctor weirdly from 5” away.

The initiative flip on the second turn was critical but I won it. The other Nurse paralyzed Lilith with a 13 of Crows (not even a Red Joker would’ve saved her) and proceeded to paralyze the Terror Tot next to her as well. Horrified by the power of the Nurses, Barbaros charged the Purple-haired Nurse and killed her with a Red Joker growing a Tot in the process and throwing out a challenge. The Lawyer noticed this and accused Barbaros of murder netting me 3 VP.

McMourning had to attack Barbaros due to the challenge so laid into him with four attacks but failed (luckily) to kill the brute. The newly grown Young Nephilim smashed McMourning into a nearby wall eliciting a pounce from Lilith but the durable doctor survived through judicious use of Soul Stones. The Chihuahua came to poison the Young and Cherub shot it dead with one severe arrow. Lawyer went his own way while Sebastian sauntered over to triple the poison damage on Barbaros and the Young. My opponent scored for Reconnoiter with his faraway Tot.

Next turn I again drew the 13 of Crows but my opponent flipped the Red Joker on initiative (I flipped a 12 of Crows). Lilith moved her forest to shield Barbaros and the Young from Sebastian’s evil influence, lured the other Nurse to a double pounce from Lilith and the Tot but failed to kill the Nurse. I stupidly pushed away with Nurse’s trigger so Lilith repeated the lure and pounce routine but through phenomenal luck Nurse survived those and also Lilith’s last swing.

She naturally told Lilith to take her meds (something relaxing for those anger issues) and paralyzed her with the 13 of Crows again. McMourning tried to kill Barbaros but failed leaving him at two wounds with two poison. Barbaros and the Young returned the favour hitting McMourning and throwing him for Lilith but the doctor endured. Sebastian moved to hit the Young and spell his doom due to poison. The Tot next to Lilith skewered the other Nurse and grew into a Young while Lawyer dropped scheme markers in the other part of the battlefield and the faraway Tot kept Reconnoitering. Barbaros and the doomed Young died to Poison.

Fourth turn McMourning ran as far away from the still paralyred Lilith as he could throwing a scalpel at the faraway Tot doing moderate damage and poison dooming the little one. Cherub shot at McMourning pushing him back towards Lilith and away from LOS of the Tot. Tot ran next to McMourning to die and spill Black Blood. Young made Breakthrough and Lawyer made Protect Territory. Sebastian also moved to Protect Territory. I scored for Reconnoiter.

Fifth turn Lilith won initiative and lured McMourning in. She hit him twice but Badge of Office kept him alive and a cheated Red Joker made her miss her final strike. McMourning decided to show who is the true melee Master and launched into a flurry of three blows against Lilith, hitting with all and killing her. Young made Breakthrough and Sebastian and Lawyer protected territory while Cherub failed to hit Sebastian. I scored for Reconnoiter and the game ended 8-5 in my favour.

A very tight game and had I not paralyzed Lilith twice during the game I’m pretty sure I would’ve lost. I was really lucky to fail to kill Barbaros with McMourning - it could have really easily been a draw. Lilith’s movement trick arsenal is downright insane. Tots on their own aren’t very good at anything besides running but once they turn into Youngs they get scary.

McMourning I used as a simple melee beatstick and tank and he performed that nicely. His actual damage wasn’t all that really until the last turn killing Lilith kinda vindicated him but his durability was certainly amazing. Sebastian with Lead-lined coat was very durable but kinda slow and doesn’t do much besides Induction+Catalyst. Which is phenomenal of course but I think that once I get more minis to use I’ll drop the Coat. On the first, aborted game, I used Sebastian to shield my crew from Cherub’s missiles (which are utterly insane, btw!) so I can see a use against shooty crews, for sure.

Nurses are, of course, absolutely fantastic. Crazy good. Not very durable but OTOH you can survive even Lilith’s full attention if you’re lucky. Lawyer did VPs out in his own corner and Chihuahua I positioned badly.

One cool thing about the crew is that is very heterogenous when it comes to suit needs. Once I get some “proper” Guild models I have a clear need for Crows, Masks and Rams and some use for Tomes as well. This is so much better than, e.g., Lilith’s all Masks all the time style.

Next I’ll be adding Francisco, I think. In theory he should help with McMourning’s lackluster defensive stats but in practice it might be difficult to keep up with the good doctor’s rather frantic pace. That aside Francisco is a nice damage dealer and therefore definitely something that my crew needs. Witchling Stalkers are in line after.

[SevenSins]

Fransisco sounds like a good adition indeed. I like the idea behind this slow grow and your opponent certainly played a solid game.

Looking forward to more reports and pics in the future (subscribed!)

[zFiend]

Great post Math!  

[Argentbadger]

Great post, I'll be watching this for sure.  Games with one experienced player and one who is new to Malifaux are very hard to balance satisfactorily so I'll be especially interested to see when you feel you can 'take the gloves off' against the newer players.  It sounds like you are effectively locking in fixed lists for the early rounds.  How do you feel that will affect the Malifaux experience?  I think that from quite early after taking up the game my group embraced the possibility of flexible crews (except Aramoro, who played the same Hamlin crew in most games of 1.5 and destroyed us all with it).

 

Specifically in this game, do you feel that drawing the 13   into your hand twice changed the way you were able to play around Lilith?

[Math Mathonwy]

Great post, I'll be watching this for sure.

Thank you! Coming from you that means a lot!

 

Games with one experienced player and one who is new to Malifaux are very hard to balance satisfactorily so I'll be especially interested to see when you feel you can 'take the gloves off' against the newer players.

Oh aye, in this first game I freely talked with my opponent about what I thought he should do and what to take into account in the decision making. Often my original suggestion wasn't actually the best move but through the conversation we figured out a better move. My opponent is really super good in Eden (a different skirmish game) so he isn't a newbie to the hobby and has great insight so I feel that I learned really a lot, too. It was a very enjoyable exercise!

But my next league game will actually be against ZFiend. He's most likely the most experienced Fauxer we have and I would rank him in the top two skill-wise (and no, I'm not the other one in there), so no kid gloves there

But yeah, it will be interesting to see how it goes when I face my next newbie. I have the advantage that my ambitions for the league reside in the painting part more than in the gaming part this time around, so I don't as feel much pressure to win games.

 

It sounds like you are effectively locking in fixed lists for the early rounds.  How do you feel that will affect the Malifaux experience?  I think that from quite early after taking up the game my group embraced the possibility of flexible crews (except Aramoro, who played the same Hamlin crew in most games of 1.5 and destroyed us all with it).

Oh aye, it definitely changes things. The small model pools limit real customization against a specific enemy but there is certainly a very different dynamic to the crew building this way. Schemes and Strategy are more difficult to customize for and will certainly buff some very versatile crews while making problems for others.

But since us experienced guys have between half a dozen and a dozen Masters each and model collections to match, we really needed some way to rein in the advantage. The limited pools make for an even playing field, though it certainly does make it possible to try and get more armour bypassing stuff against Mei Feng and such things.

So yeah, it's a less-than-ideal situation but most likely better than following the normal rules (which I most certainly prefer under normal circumstances).

 

Specifically in this game, do you feel that drawing the 13   into your hand twice changed the way you were able to play around Lilith?

Most definitely. When I got it in my starting hand, I knew that I could trap Lilith. Having her off my back on the second turn really saved me - the Frame for Murder actually meant that killing McM might not've been in my opponent's best interests since Sebastian's direct killing power is severely limited, but he could've killed my support. Especially with the movement tricks he could've even gone after the Lawyer.

[Dirial]

Barbaros and the Young returned the favour hitting McMourning and throwing him for Lilith but the doctor endured.

 

Wasn't Lilith paralyzed at that moment? If so, she desn't have a melee range

 

Otherwise, great report! I like your concept of league teaching games. Give zfiend hell!

[Math Mathonwy]

Wasn't Lilith paralyzed at that moment? If so, she desn't have a melee range

She was - I didn't think that it would affect her Pounce ability (as it triggers when a model comes to within 1"), but now that you mention it, it actually might since her Ml range becomes 0".

Otherwise, great report! I like your concept of league teaching games. Give zfiend hell!

I'll tell him you said "hi" if I manage to kill his Misaki

[zFiend]

Give zfiend hell!

 

What is this!?

 

if I manage to kill his Misaki

 

No, no! Don't you kill my Misaki!

 

You sir, are just asking for a Fuhatsu treatment! 

[Dirial]

Give Math hell, too, zfiend! I'm excited how your game plays out.

[zFiend]

Give Math hell, too, zfiend! I'm excited how your game plays out.

 

You are just saying that because you were caught! I'm watching you Dirial.. 

[Myyrä]

You sir, are just asking for a Fuhatsu treatment!

I seriously would not recommend Fuhatsu against McMourning, because he will go down like a sack of **** when facing models that ignore armor and hard to wound.

[zFiend]

I seriously would not recommend Fuhatsu against McMourning, because he will go down like a sack of **** when facing models that ignore armor and hard to wound.

Well never in a serious game. But this isn't a serious league on my part!

[Myyrä]

Well never in a serious game. But this isn't a serious league on my part!

As long as you don't expect Fuhatsu handing out treatments as much as being in the recieving end of them by courtesy of the good doctor.

[zFiend]

As long as you don't expect Fuhatsu handling out treatments as much as being in the recieving end of them by courtesy of the good doctor.

You are way too boring.

[jonahmaul]

Echoing the very interesting comments.  I'm hoping to get some Guild stuff soon to run McMourning as Guild (though I really should play him as Ressers a bit more as I play Yan Lo and Seamus so much more) so I shall be following this with interest.

[Math Mathonwy]

ZFiend’s Ten Thunders Misaki. I got to admit, I hadn’t realized how Misaki works. I had thought that she is a fairly good and very mobile beatstick but in fact she’s an unkillable Assassinate machine. Misdirection is completely bonkers upgrade with her movement and melee abilities.

Turf War with A Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Take Prisoner, and Make Them Suffer with Standard Deployment was the name of the game. A very long name, that. 35SS, starter with one additional box/blister. Starter box additions are Henchman/Enforcer is one pick and the minions are another.

I had chosen Francisco but decided to give Lawyer another chance. My reasoning was that the Misaki starter box hates doing weak damage (seriously, their weak damage sucks!) and Lawyer can give out Hard to Wound. So I ended up using the exact same list as in my first game.

McMourning w On the Clock, Evidence Tampering, Badge of Office (7 Cache)

Sebastian w Lead-lined Coat

2 x Nurse

Guild Lawyer

Zombie Chihuahua

ZFiend had added to his box Fuhatsu.

Now, let that sink in for a bit.

Yeah.

Exactly.

He has this fetish about 10 SS Henchmen that have low Wp values is my best guess. So his merry band consisted of:

Misaki w Recalled Training, Misdirection, Stalking Bisento

Fuhatsu w Recalled Training

3 x Torakage

We both chose Make Them Suffer and Protect Territory (announced).

First turn was super eventful. We advanced to position. Notable things are that the Torakage were one in the center, one to the left and another to the right. Misaki Stalked McMourning and was central and Fuhatsu moved twice ending up two millimetres inside the Turf War zone near Misaki. Lawyer was the first to go so Fuhatsu had LOS to him.

Second turn, ZFiend wins initiative, focuses with Fuhatsu, shoots at the Lawyer and flips severe killing him straight away. So much for my HtW plans. A Nurse injects the Chihuahua with Uppers and the trusty doggy runs up to Fuhatsu and Misaki and stinks two poison onto them both. The central Torakage charges the doggy, flips severe damage and kills the little dude.

Sebastian runs over the check whether the wounds really were fatal getting Misaki and Fuhatsu inside Catalyst and Induction aura. Right Torakage makes a Scheme marker. McMourning decides that Misaki stalking him doesn’t sound good and runs 10” to throw a Scalpel at the Right Torakage moving into BtB with her. Hits once more but flips BJ for damage. I have no idea why the hell I didn’t Focus and make a mental note about this.

The Left Torakage puts down a Scheme Marker. The Other Nurse walks into position behind a pillar. Misaki activates, prevents the poison damage, Stalks Sebastian and launches into three attacks against him. I use Soul Stones for defense (I somehow calculated this wrong - since she didn’t use Recalled Training I wouldn’t have needed to to still have the hits at minus flips due to the HtW. Oh well, with the minus flips and prevention and such Sebastian ends up taking three wounds total.

Misaki prevents her poison again while Fuhatsu takes the three. He made my Lawyer suffer in the hands of Fuhatsu and Turf Warred successfully while I didn’t.

Third turn ZFiend wins initiative third time in a row and Misaki wails on Sebastian some more. Somehow he survives yet again through SS use and Misaki pushes away to give Fuhatsu a clear shot. Sebastian charges Fuhatsu causing two wounds (he can’t do more unless he gets severe) and three poison. I make a mental note to use my 13 of tomes for Fuhatsu push Wp duel and not my 12 of Crows. Fuhatsu stones away the poison damage and Juggernauts - ZFiend flips a severe so that’s four wounds back. Fuhatsu tries to push Sebastian but the stubborn thing resists when I cheat my 12 of Crows for the duel and gets pushed only on the second attempt which didn’t trigger the rams trigger.

McMourning promptly forgets to Focus and ends up having to spend four attacks to kill the damn Torakage. I’m so into this whole thing that I decided to roleplay the forgetful Doctor. Or I might also be a complete idiot - one or the other, really.

The central Torakage charges Sebastian but can’t get at him without being close to Misaki and fails to hit the little guy. One Nurse makes Schemes while the other tells Misaki to take her meds. Of course now I look at the 13 of tomes in my hand with utter disbelief. So much for that then. This is rather huge, btw, as you will see.

The left Torakage does Scheme stuff.

Fuhatsu takes three from Poison, I score from Make them Suffer and we both score from Turf War. 3-2 to ZFiend.

ZFiend flips a ten for initiative while I flip a four. I ponder long and hard about using my last Soul Stone for the re-flip. In the end I realize that I will lose the game if ZFiend wins the initiative so re-flip and get a ten. Sheesh. The re-flips result in me beating ZFiend’s card. Whoo!

I discard an Ace of Rams for Nurse’s Take Your Meds against Fuhatsu who gets +2 to Melee damage and Accomplice Sebastian. He moves and attacks the central Torakage who flips a BJ for his defense resulting in a straight flip for damage. A cheated Red Joker ends the Torakage.

The left Torakage Schemes. McMourning runs across the battlefield to Scalpel Sling Fuhatsu doing moderate damage and dooming the big brute. Misaki uses Recalled Training, charges a Nurse, flips severe and kills her, attacks the other Nurse, flips severe and kills her, uses her (0) to attack Sebastian and flips a severe killing him. Yeah. I had to keep two cards in my hand so that he couldn’t kill McMourning if he held a good crows. Apparently his hand was utter rubbish except for one card.

We both made the other one suffer and we both have only our Masters left at the Turf since Fuhatsu succumbs to Poison.

I win initiative and move twice, focus and Scalpel Sling the left Torakage. He cheats in the Red Joker (the one card from previous turn that wasn’t rubbish) and I miss. Torakage charges and does damage, Misaki charges and does damage and Schemes

I flip an eleven and we get a sixth turn.

I win initiative, focus and end the Torakage though I need to cheat the hit and the damage. I move so that Tamper Evidence flips two Ten Thunder Scheme markers. Misaki has to to kill McM or I win 8-6. She attacks, hits with a high crow getting the instakill trigger from the flip, does weak damage due to HtW - I throw cards away. Again, she hits, does weak damage due to HtW. Third attack, she hits flipping a moderate Crow for instakill - I have to cheat my last high card to dodge. She attacks for the final time, flips a high Crow for instakill and McM is no more and I lose the game.

Here's a pic of me:

[Math Mathonwy]

I believe that ZFiend missed with an attack three times during the game (the central Torakage against Sebastian and Misaki once when I cheated a 12 with McM). He also got severe damage every time he made a damage flip that didn't have negative modifiers thus one-shotting all four of my non-HtW models. Based on this, I'd say that HtW is king against Misaki. That and a modicum of ability to concentrate.

He did flip a BJ at a horribly inopportune moment and I had the RJ in hand to kill the Torakage so it's not like he was completely blessed during the game or anything, mind. Also, getting a moderate against Fuhatsu with the minus flip from McM meant that ZFiend didn't score from Turf War that turn.

[jonahmaul]

Great report again!  Thanks for sharing.

[Dirial]

Looks like you gave each other hell, just like the doctor ordered. Great report!

[zFiend]

Looks like you gave each other hell, just like the doctor ordered. Great report!

Yeah it was a proper bloodbath. I don't think it was as one sided as Math felt it. The game went on to turn 6 and had I not been able to take down McMourning, which isn't the easiest thing with Misaki especially with the Badge I would have lost. So the game came down to luck more or less.

And I made some serious positioning errors (which I never learn from) which made me spent more ap and cards than I should have. I thought it was a fun and exciting game til the end. I don't think I have played a game yet that could have swung either way til the very last flip.

[Patzer]

I really liked your reasoning with the Lawyer against Misaki. As you experienced, the only one who really didn't care about it was Fuhatsu and he killed the right target. I guess you could have gone with one Nurse and a Lawyer; making some space for Francisco. Another thing, getting your Chiwowwoww into Fuhatsu and Misaki when Make Them Suffer was in pool is really brave! But, did zFiend capitalise on it?

 

Great, great, report! And you lost to a dirty cheater, he cannot fix his deck every game!

[zFiend]

A dirty cheater? Wait what? Mr. I can do this three times with The Shenlong even though the card says once turn.

I took the poodle down with a Torakage it was in the way of Misaki and Fuhatsu and they were needed elsewhere.

[Patzer]

A dirty cheater? Wait what? Mr. I can do this three times with The Shenlong even though the card says once turn.

I took the poodle down with a Torakage it was in the way of Misaki and Fuhatsu and they were needed elsewhere.

Honest mistake ^^ I promise

 

Was it worth dropping a VP for, or didn't you take MTS, what where your chain of thoughts?

[zFiend]

I had enough other more priority targets to take down for VP such as the fithy nurses and I felt I would be able to score that last one at least at the point of no minions left phase. The Poodle isn't worth of Fuhatsu or Misaki

[Math Mathonwy]

I don't think it was as one sided as Math felt it.

Had I cheated Seb's push Wp duel with the 13 of tomes like I meant to, I could've paralyzed Misaki for the turn she went crazy which would've turned everything around completely. So yeah, it wasn't that one-sided. I did, however, catch a really lucky break one-shotting the Torakage with Sebastian.

But yeah, in over 90% of the games I play I'm completely convinced that I'll lose no matter what. I still think I win more than 50% easy. So yeah, an utter pessimist when it comes to gaming.

(Incidentally, this is also why I feel that "psychological warfare" and whatnot is a complete hogwash)

I thought it was a fun and exciting game til the end. I don't think I have played a game yet that could have swung either way til the very last flip.

Yeah, I can't really disagree - it was a good game. And I can't remember a game hanging on the final flip like that, either. Too bad it went the wrong way *cries*

I really liked your reasoning with the Lawyer against Misaki. As you experienced, the only one who really didn't care about it was Fuhatsu and he killed the right target. I guess you could have gone with one Nurse and a Lawyer; making some space for Francisco. Another thing, getting your Chiwowwoww into Fuhatsu and Misaki when Make Them Suffer was in pool is really brave! But, did zFiend capitalise on it?

My theory was that Poison would be a great way to remove ZFiend's SS cache and it worked a treat. Also it functioned as a diversion - if ZFiend didn't kill it on the same turn that he already got the Lawyer, then the doggie would've kept Fuhatsu from firing unless he used the push thus sparing my other models. Or else Misaki would've needed to activate early in the turn.