50SS game Seamus vs. Von Schill

[benjoewoo]

Hi everyone, a new battle report, this time to completion in 1v1 with 50SS using the new Gaining Grounds 2015 strategies.

 

Strategy--Interference

 

Schemes--A Line in the Sand, Vendetta, Spring the Trap, Make them Suffer, and Bodyguard

 

My crew: Seamus with Bag O' Tools and Mad Haberdasher, CCK, Sybelle with Bleeding Tongue, Jakuuna Umube with Unnerving Aura, Yin with Unnerving, two Rotten Belles, Nurse, and Crooligan. Cache of 3 by the end.

 

Von Schill Crew: Von Schill with Hard & Relentless, Engage and Will, and The Shirt Comes Off, Hannah with Ancient Tomes, two Freikorpsmann, two Freikorps Trappers, Steam Trunk, and a Librarian. Cache of 4/5 by the end.

 

Selected Schemes:

 

Seamus--A Line in the Sand (revealed), Vendetta (Rotten Belle vs. Freikorps Trapper)

 

Von Schill--Bodyguard (Librarian) and A Line in the Sand (unrevealed)

 

Standard Deployment--Seamus Deploys First

 

TURN 1:

 

Von Schill wins initiative, and this turn is a little bit engagement heavy because the two trappers are deployed From the Shadows in a V formation essentially at the center line facing me, denying Seamus Back Alley. 

 

The first trapper focuses and shoots Seamus--I cheat a low moderate card to force the trapper to cheat a fairly high moderate card, and then on damage I discard the mad haberdasher to avoid the damage. 

 

My belle for vendetta is coincidentally in LoS to the trapper and within 18", so I lure, revealing Vendetta and gaining 1 VP. A double lure brings the trapper pretty close, whom I later kill with Yin and poison that she gives him, which will ultimately net me 2 VP once the game ended.

 

To explain the coincidence, here's what happened. We revealed crews, and I read over his stuff, seeing the trappers had deploy  from shadows. I figured my opponent would deploy them further up beyond deployment, so I picked Vendetta with a belle since I'd have great coverage of the map between sybelle call belle and belle's 18" lure. The trappers had identical paint jobs, so i picked one of the trapper cards as the target, and after we started T1 I asked which trapper was which card--I had chosen the second trapper card as the vendetta target, and my opponent indicated the second trapper card matched the trapper who was in LoS of my belle.

 

The second freikorps trapper focuses and shoots at CCK, killing him turn 1--I didn't pick up the hat because I wanted to be clever and pick it up with Seamus when he activated, a mistake.

 

Other than this, it's mostly movement for Von Schill, I move and attempt to lure Hannah, which succeeds once. Seamus is able to pick up his hat at the cost of CCK, and resurrects a belle (CCK)  with high crow in hand. Seamus takes a shot at Hannah, dealing 7 damage after armor.

 

Crooligan did not deploy from the shadows, but simply walked to the center and avoided models, getting ready for placing some scheme markers.

 

Score: 1:0, Seamus +1 for Vendetta (the second VP isn't scored until end of game)

 

TURN 2:

 

Von Schill wins initiative again, and this turn sees lots of hits, but no kills. Von schill attempts to kill Sybelle, and dows 4 damage after a double walk to get in range.

 

The trapper and freikorpsmann move, claiming position for interference.  

 

Hanna is double lured and surrounded by Yin, Jakuuna and Sybelle with a belle that gets called over. Hannah is put to 1 Wd but not killed, because Sybelle, Belle, and Jakuuna all miss their attacks T___T. To be fair, Librarian healed Hanna for 4 prior to all the attacks.

 

Seamus resurrects another belle (the trapper), and I make the mistake of double focusing before I make sure I'm within 10" of the Librarian, wasting Seamus' 3 AP as I have to simply walk away.

 

The nurse and a belle wander to the other quadrant of my deployment zone to secure a point for interference. Crooligan drops a scheme marker for line in the sand and jumps away and runs over to contest a Von Schill quadrant, which forced one of the freikorpsmann to move rather than attack to bring more units in. 

 

Score: 2:1, Seamus +1 for Interference, Von Schill +1 for Interference.

 

TURN 3:

 

Von Schill wins initiative again, and heals Hanna for 4 again. Hannah takes some damage from hazardous terrain and attempts to heal herself as well, healing for 2. She then gets dumped on between two unnerving auras, hazardous, and Sybelle. Von schill charges, killing Sybelle, taking damage from hazardous. Yin, Jakuuna, and the belle move into the previously Von Schill controlled quadrant, securing it for me. Yin drops a scheme marker before moving.

 

I make the mistake of not leaving someone in my own quadrant, as I have Seamus attempt to kill the librarian when my opponent mentions he has body guard, and I realize it can only be Librarian since Hannah is dead. I attempt to shoot Library, dealing 3 damage after armor. Seamus spends a SS (leaving me 1 after spending one on Sybelle and two on suits for arise my sweet) and raises a dead doxy.

 

The doxy, nurse, and belle all go into a quadrant, only to have the trapper blow up the nurse. The belle with them moved too close to the center, and so she did not allow me to score the strategy this turn because she  was luring Librarian into the Seamus shot.

 

Crooligan dropped another scheme marker and engaged the librarian to keep her from running. I threw up the 0 for Crooligan, but miss my attack.

 

Other than that, it's walking around, getting in position.

 

Score: 2:2 Von Schill +1 for Interference

 

TURN 4:

 

Von Schill wins initiative again, and starts doing some damage, doing some damage to my peeps and taking off his shirt, paralyzing one of the belles nearby.

 

Seamus and Jakuuna do good damage to the librarian between hazardous, a focused flintlock, and the 1 damage attack Jakuuna has, but not before crooligan gets blown up. I spend the last SS resurrecting a doxy again with Seamus. Seamus drops what would have been my 4th marker, but see below.

 

I forget that Jakuuna has a 3" melee, and so Librarian is able to run away when the crooligan is killed, I think by her.

 

 

The two doxies and  belle walk into the quadrant I lost last turn because of the trapper and mispositioning, only for one of the doxies to get blown up by the trapper. However, with the belle and other doxy, I have secured that quadrant for myself, and the yin, Jakuuna, and belle group secure the previously Von Schill controlled quadrant, and I have one lone belle chilling in my other deployment quadrant, as insurance and lure turret.

 

The freikorpsmann at this point are moving around to attempt to prevent me from getting line in the sand. They drop a scheme marker of their own for line in the sand, which was not revealed at the beginning of the game, and remove one of mine, leaving me with 3 and him with 1. 

 

Score: 3:3 Seamus +1 for Interference, Von Schill +1 for Bodyguard

 

TURN 5:

 

Von Schill wins initiative again, and proceeds to move and heal librarian, but only heals 1 or 2. That's not enough between a back alley from Seamus plus focused Shot, and she explodes to severe damage--Von Schill had charged away out of LoS, and Librarian had moved out of LoS. Seamus attempts to summon and fails because I have no stones left and no crow in hand. 

 

Jakuuna replaces my 4th scheme marker. The belle that was paralyzed does nothing because she had been paralyzed on the previous turn after her activation. Yin attempted to hurt Von Schill, which did minor damage. The belle that was sitting in the quadrant I had mostly deployed in hung out there. The remaining trapper blew up my second dead doxy. One Freikorpsman moved so that he could avoid death if there was a Turn 6 and secure a quadrant on his own. My belle that was now alone lured the other Freikorpsmann once successfully, and failed the second time. That Freikorpsmann went and planted a marker for his own line in the sand, staying in the luring belle's quadrant along with the trapper to secure two quadrants.

 

Since Von Schill won initiative, I flipped for Turn 6, and I get a low card so no Turn 6

 

Score: 8:5 Seamus +5 for the point from Vendetta, Interference, and line in the sand, Von Schill +2 for Line in the Sand and Interference.

 

END THOUGHTS:

 

My opponent and I both felt after the game the better strategy would not have been to heal Hannah and attempt to kills the four models that were dog piling her--the double blast melee would've done quite a bit of damage spread and likely allowed Von Schill to kill more people--when Hannah was killed he had essentially a bunch of full health people other than Sybelle to deal with. 

 

I should've given CCK the hat, but was greedy because I wanted Seamus to have it--my thought process was Seamus would be able to use it at least twice and then give it to CCK after turn 1. It was a costly mistake because Seamus was never attacked again after turn 1, and CCK was basically 3 wasted SS that could have gone into saving sybelle or resurrecting more belles.

 

I saw a thread about a Nico crew that ran 3 heavy hitters with unnerving aura and the hazardous aura from Jakuuna, and wanted to try it. I did't have the SS to give sybelle unnerving, but Yin had it and Jakuuna had the hazardous and unnerving, so I figured that was fine. It did some work, as I was constantly just running Jakuuna late in the turns into people, which allowed her to deal her hazardous damage consistently.

 

I think there may have been a rules mistake on my part, but I am unsure as of yet, and I've posted the question in the rules. Jakuuna's hazardous terrain aura reaches 3", and so my opponent and I played that if Jakuuna walked into range of someone with the aura, it hit then. Since Jakuuna was never pushed or killed, the hazardous would've hit the models regardless, but it would have affected the cards, and Hannah might have possibly survived into the next turn if she didn't take the damage early. I'm unsure if it would've changed the game significantly, because she died after healing from librarian and healing herself, but it's something I want to know because damage timing could be critical, unlike in this particular instance.

 

I need to work on spending a little more time reading my opponent's cards. We wanted to get underway quickly because we took a while to select our crews, and I just didn't even realize that trapper could get such good flip situations against me.

 

As always, thoughts, comments, and criticisms are welcome. Especially on scheme choices, crew choices, and where you think my play could have been better.

 

I may not be clear in my writing as well, so if something doesn't make sense I will do my best to explain again. 

[Dirial]

Doesn't Hannah have Counterspell? If so, she cannot be Lured. (Cannot fact check right now...)

[Fetid Strumpet]

As was pointed out in the other thread,you do not get to cause hazardous terrain dmg when Jaakuna moves in range. The enemy model you are causing dmg to has to move into it or activate within it.

Also I think you aren't playing the hat well, especially in a build without sinister reputation. Even if your plan had worked and Seamus could have picked up the hat, do you think that would have been a good idea? The hat cannot be placed in b2b contact when it's dropped, so it would have taken you 2 AP to get the hat back, one to get into b2b and one to interact pick it back up. Usually not a good trade.

Additionally, why did you drop it off Seamus on the first hit? Seamus can heal very fast. Unless the hit has to be prevented or Seamus dies, or it's a red joker hit, it's usually better to not use that hat. The hat is best looked at in most cases as a panic button. Generally trust in Seamus' ability to Heal and only use that hat on a massive dmg hit of like 6 or more, or a red joker dmg flip, or when the hit will kill Seamus if you don't. In most cases ALWAYS let the CCK pick it up if he has the option as it doesn't cause ap loss to do so and gives him essentially one more hit of life.

[Erorior]

Doesn't Hannah have Counterspell? If so, she cannot be Lured. (Cannot fact check right now...)

 

She does indeed (played with her vs a Belle yesterday), so no luring Hannah if your opponent would have remembered his own rules.

[benjoewoo]

You're right--Hannah cannot be lured without a crow from the flipped/cheated card. My mistake, and this one likely affected the game I think. I'm not sure, but I think at least a couple of the lures had a crow cheated/flipped, because I mistakenly  triggered the discard ability twice, so there was at least one crow to hit the TN--I say mistakenly because I would have lost the built in crow, but would have cheated in the crow to make it work.

 

That being said, I know I didn't hit it every single time, so that means Hannah wouldn't have been lured at least one of those times.

 

Learning rules better.

 

For the hat, I made a poor choice in choosing to pick it up. I think in my mind that didn't seem like such a waste of AP, but thinking on it more, there's no reason I shouldn't have tossed it to CCK when I threw it. Also, I was about to take moderate + critical damage because he triggered critical strike on the trapper, and that was a fair amount of damage not to take. He had a double positive going into the attack flip because of focus and his ability, so he got the hit off pretty easily against Seamus with a triple positive flip from the focus, turning it to a positive that couldn't be cheated with impossible to wound.

 

I made a mistake in taking Bag O' Tools. I was thinking of having Seamus engage in more melee to turn people insignificant for the strategy, but just never had the need to considering positioning. Sinister would have done more in giving -2 Wp against Von Schill's +1 Wp upgrade and giving me a second attack with healing.

 

I always feel uncomfortable trying to heal Seamus up, because I tend to activate him towards the end so that a jump in and shoot isn't a desperate gamble each time. He did work in bringing up 3 units during the game and blasting librarian to deny two points.

 

So if I assume that I lost the belle and sybelle earlier to a Hannah that didn't have to deal with them, then I'd probably have lost another point on interference and a point on line in the sand. Maybe 2 from interference if I didn't back off instead after securing line in the sand markers. Not sure, because I would have given up likely the second doxy and just attempted to shoot Hannah and librarian once each, so that Librarian would be at 1/2 wounds and Hannah damage would be made up for since sybelle and a belle may have died--belle never did damage to Hannah, only sybelle.

 

I'm not effective at using the hat or bag o' tools. Need to work more on that.

[Erorior]

You're right--Hannah cannot be lured without a crow from the flipped/cheated card. My mistake, and this one likely affected the game I think. I'm not sure, but I think at least a couple of the lures had a crow cheated/flipped, because I mistakenly  triggered the discard ability twice, so there was at least one crow to hit the TN--I say mistakenly because I would have lost the built in crow, but would have cheated in the crow to make it work.

 

That being said, I know I didn't hit it every single time, so that means Hannah wouldn't have been lured at least one of those times.

 

Learning rules better.

 

 

 

Actually, a Belle cannot use lure at all at a target with counterspell, since it requires two suits (both built in though). Since the belle isn't a master or henchman, it cannot use a soulstone to gain the additional suit needed. So anyone with counterspell are safe from the lure of minions and enforcers.

 

This game has a lot of rules. I've been playing since january, and I still learn something new rules-wise every couple of games.

[Dirial]

Erorior is right. Even if you get a Crow from the card, where would you get the Mask from? Hannah cannot be Lured by Rotten Belles, period.

 

Wait till you meet Sonnia Criid.....

[benjoewoo]

I am wrong, just saw that Lure does require the mask that I can't put in there. 

 

Nooooo. Ok well I guess this is learning even more new stuff. Never had to face counter-spell until I played against Hannah.