First Tournament in Over my Head

[Shirkattack]

I've taken it upon myself to enter into my first Malifaux tournament with the audacious goal to not come in last against (from what I hear) will be a pretty experienced group of players. The tournament will be 50ss and fixed master & faction and I haven't heard back yet as to whether or not they will use Wyrd's tournament package. Lilith is leading my Neverborn crew and my concern at this point is that pretty much 90% of my games have been against Guild masters, so I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to dealing with other crews. I also don't have all the faction cards at my disposal. 

Any strats/schemes advice I should be cautious of going in? Any advice you can give to a Neverborn player entering their first tournament? Below are some crew builds I plan on shifting between:

• Lilith (Beckon Malifaux, Aether, Wings Darkness)
• Graves
• Doppleganger
• Illuminated (2)
• Waldgeist (2)
• Terror Tot
• Primordial Magic

***And I might drop a Terror Tot and Graves to include Nekima if Assassin is in the pool   

[Bodiless]

I would have Silurids available. They can allow you to almost auto-success certain schemes/strategies. 

[Adran]

The most important thing is have fun. 

Tournaments are a good way to get to play alot of games in one day, and typically play people and crews you don't normally get to play. 

If yuo don't know your opponents crew, ask your opponent what they do. Expect them to have some kind of Crazy trick that when you first hear about it makes you shake your head in Disbelif. (Similar to Lileth completely ignoring LOS, and switching models around can seem broken when its first done to an opponent) .

You are best off to play models you know, rather than models everyone else say are great, but you've never used before. Your first few timed games are not the place to experiment with models you don't know, as they take longer to use. 

 

[Yvarre]

This is a pretty solid list for alot of schemes and strats, especially if Silurids are subbed in depending on schemes, and I also agree that it's best to play tournaments with models you know well.  I will recommend, however, having a Lure effect available- Beckoners or Lelitu- as pulling opponent's models out of position and into vulnerable positions can be really powerful, especially for  master based on guerrilla tactics.  Scared of that gun line?  Draw them over to you one by one and slaughter them in the woods!  Lure is also extremely powerful for the Doppelganger as she can potentially cast it 3 times, and with an 18 inch threat range, it outranges just about everything but focused snipers and the Pigapault.  Just wait til models you want dead have activated, and make them come to you.

A common mistake I see people make playing Lilith in tournaments is overextending her.  Her movement tricks are great offensively and defensively, and her illusory forests can go a long way for blocking LOS and charge lanes, but she is not super resilient when too many of your opponent's models can get at her.  She is the master I've assassinated the most, through my opponent overextending and/or my own beckoners bringing her to me.  She, more than any master, can use terrain as both a shield and a weapon.  She's Malifaux's Guerrilla warrior, and guerrilla warfare is about opportunity and ambush.  Catch the opponent off guard with unexpected avenues of attack, and don't be afraid to keep her out of the fray when things are too hairy.

[PeregrineFalcon]

These are all great recommendations. Only thing I'll add is because you haven't seen a lot of Rezzers or other models with conditions, I suggest learning how to use Johan or Johanna. Get your hands on the model and paint it up. In Lilith's crew he can be very useful at removing those pesky conditions. Also, Lilith helps him significantly overcome his less than stellar Wk4.

So grab a Johan

[cursingbulldog]

If you can find one of the old avatars and have the shifting loyalties book I'd recommend the mysterious emissary, it works very well with Lilith. 

They main thing I use it for is the hazardous terrain markers it can toss out which can cover a surprisingly large faction of the board. Both Lilith and the emissary are immune to hazardous terrain and as most people don't play with hazardous terrain you can gain a surprisingly large amount of board control as your opponents are to scared to enter it.

[dreads]

Against Guild Lilith does have any really "bad" match ups per se. Though she does have some unfavorable ie... Sonnia and Perdita. Sonnia be aware if they've taken counterspell and dampening. Just try to stay away from Perdita and kill her crew, Perdita will kill you in melee, and is really hard to do anything to while Francisco is still around. You should be able to take care of Nino but it might slow you down for a turn. Be careful and don't bunch up against anything that has blasts. Against Archanists, watch out for Rasputina. Take out Snowstorm first chance u get and keep Tina and her models engaged so she can't cast through them. Also Tina has counterspell. Ressers or any summoners, just take the summoning engine as fast as you can. Against Nicodem kill Mortimer  if he's there. Outcasts. Levi kill him before he activates. If he's activated, kill the waifs, and or their anchors. I would advise to take the Doppelganger against him, don't take deliver a message or assassinate against levi. Everything else should not be a problem with Lilith. Schemes NOT to take with her in a tournament ... bodyguard (unless u know you can go to a full 5 rounds), outflank, plant explosives, spring the trap. I would also think about running some youngs with her. Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

[Mxbedlam]

So best advice is this: get a lot of sleep the night before, study your schemes and starts ahead of time, focus on how the AP you spend will win you the game not just which models you can remove, hygiene!, and bring something to eat. Tournaments can be a long day and its easy to lose focus if you aren't week  rested and fed. GOOD LUCK and have fun!

[Shirkattack]

Pretty much the best damn advice I could hope for. Much respect to all the great advice. I'll be sure to incorporate it the best I can.

I'm definitely going to try to add some of the models mentioned into my list for the future. However, at this point it's probably best to just stick with what I've got. Johann might be an exception...but maybe I shouldn't tinker.

The tournament is next weekend so I'm gonna get some practice games in tomorrow and post the results and pics after next week.  

[PeregrineFalcon]

Schemes NOT to take with her in a tournament ... bodyguard (unless u know you can go to a full 5 rounds), outflank, plant explosives, spring the trap. I would also think about running some youngs with her. Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

I'd argue she can do Plant Explosives and Spring the Trap just fine all depends, but just like everything in Malifaux. It depends.

[Shirkattack]

Finished playing the tournament today and I am happy to say I did not come in last place so it's mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. Won 2/3 games. 

• Game one against Marcus: (Reckoning, Assassin, Entourage *revealed). I had more models so I had the luxury of more activations. It was kinda hard to disguise assassin when Nekima is flying half way across the table but I got lucky with some cards and pulled off the kill but failed on entourage. Not an easy game but got lucky.

***Score: 5-3 (win)

• Game two against Shen Long: (Turf War, Breakthough *revealed, Protect Territory). Shoulda revealed Protect territory. Dumb move. The player I faced knew Lilith as his primary master and he played one of the most competitive best games I've seen in my experience. Gave me a proper Malifaux lesson as he cut off the entire board and wouldn't let me score much outside a little camp I built next to the center. Shen Long is a brutal master and kinda like what

• If yuo don't know your opponents crew, ask your opponent what they do. Expect them to have some kind of Crazy trick that when you first hear about it makes you shake your head in Disbelif.

   

  ***Score: 6-8 (loss)

• Game three against Hammelin: (Squatter's, Assassinate, vendetta). This was a really tough game as I was severely out activated and there is no possible way I could do any thing about it. Primordial magic is a god send. Gave me really greats cards to insulate the uncertainty. Surprisingly Nekima didn't do too much but Johann scored on vendetta and weakened Hammelin down to one 1 wound for Lilith to do the final kill. My opponent took line in the sand which I couldn't deny. 

***Score 10-7 (Win)

All of the guys at the event were super nice and patient with a lot of mistakes I made. I got very lucky playing against really great players. The all-stars of the crew were Primordial Magic, Johann, Nekima (with Fears Given Form). Proper card cycling is sooo important when you can't out-activate and need to deny. Fears given form does the opposite as it burns the shit out of your opponents hand and gets rid of their 7 and highers. Johann was never the center of attention which served him well to drop that communist hammer on people. Thanks to all for the advice on the forums and to the organizers/participants of the event. They made an American feel welcome in the Czech Republic. I'll post pics when I can.     

      

[dreads]

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you did pretty good

[Nagi21]

Lilith I've found is very good against almost anything provided the player using her knows what he's doing.  I hate when people say she's an easy master.  Technically they're right in that Lilith is one of the easiest to pickup and play decently, but that's not where her strength lies.  She's very adaptable to literally 9/10 situations with the right crew around her.

That said, I've found two things she's particularly weak against are summoning Ressers (particularly Nico and Kirai... Seamus is a fun matchup though :P), and gremlins.  Summoners, as it's been said, need to be dealt with quickly or you'll lose most of the time.  Gremlins are a small nightmare, as they do massive amounts of damage to your squishy crew, and have a tendency to out activate you by two or three models.  A fears given form enforcer like barbaros can buy you a turn with tangle shadows against something like Som'er, but against something like Ophelia you're going to get gunned down 90% of the time by Lenny giving free thinking luck (there's a reason there's a vocal minority questioning the balance of said faction).

All in all aside from a few situations you should always be in control as Lilith.  While she doesn't require the precise control of someone like Colette, she is best as a control master, instead of the quick beatstick most new players use her as.

[MetaphoricDragn]

Lilith I've found is very good against almost anything provided the player using her knows what he's doing.  I hate when people say she's an easy master.  Technically they're right in that Lilith is one of the easiest to pickup and play decently, but that's not where her strength lies.  She's very adaptable to literally 9/10 situations with the right crew around her.

That said, I've found two things she's particularly weak against are summoning Ressers (particularly Nico and Kirai... Seamus is a fun matchup though :P), and gremlins.  Summoners, as it's been said, need to be dealt with quickly or you'll lose most of the time.  Gremlins are a small nightmare, as they do massive amounts of damage to your squishy crew, and have a tendency to out activate you by two or three models.  A fears given form enforcer like barbaros can buy you a turn with tangle shadows against something like Som'er, but against something like Ophelia you're going to get gunned down 90% of the time by Lenny giving free thinking luck (there's a reason there's a vocal minority questioning the balance of said faction).

All in all aside from a few situations you should always be in control as Lilith.  While she doesn't require the precise control of someone like Colette, she is best as a control master, instead of the quick beatstick most new players use her as.

I'm curious, who/what would you play instead versus the scenarios you were anti-Lilith for?

[Patzer]

Lilith I've found is very good against almost anything provided the player using her knows what he's doing.  I hate when people say she's an easy master.  Technically they're right in that Lilith is one of the easiest to pickup and play decently, but that's not where her strength lies.  She's very adaptable to literally 9/10 situations with the right crew around her.

That said, I've found two things she's particularly weak against are summoning Ressers (particularly Nico and Kirai... Seamus is a fun matchup though :P), and gremlins.  Summoners, as it's been said, need to be dealt with quickly or you'll lose most of the time.  Gremlins are a small nightmare, as they do massive amounts of damage to your squishy crew, and have a tendency to out activate you by two or three models.  A fears given form enforcer like barbaros can buy you a turn with tangle shadows against something like Som'er, but against something like Ophelia you're going to get gunned down 90% of the time by Lenny giving free thinking luck (there's a reason there's a vocal minority questioning the balance of said faction).

All in all aside from a few situations you should always be in control as Lilith.  While she doesn't require the precise control of someone like Colette, she is best as a control master, instead of the quick beatstick most new players use her as.

I think Lilith can do more than fine against Resser summoners and Gremlins. Against the former you will need to go into attack mode early and either kill or toss the Rooted condition onto enemies in order to hamper the hoard. Tangle Shadows is a real threat for Kirai too. She can only throw damage onto friendly spirits, not other effects. The Kirai player will need to be block off LoS to Lilith with models all the time for her to be safe. Throwing Bad Juju into the midst is usually a pretty good way of going about things since he can both hit like a truck and do some splash damage. 

Gremlins is a different game. Stay hidden, use Vicked Wines a lot (great against all (1) ap charges rampage, etc), and set up for a unfair fight. Unless you are playing against Somer or Ulix: after killing a model or two by turn one-two usually evens the scale for out-activation. Lilith, McTavish, and Waldeists can provide with additional cover, which is often useful. Once again, Tangle Shadows can screw with them a lot since most of their masters have WP 6 or lower (unless you run into Zoraida that is). 

[MetaphoricDragn]

Lilith I've found is very good against almost anything provided the player using her knows what he's doing.  I hate when people say she's an easy master.  Technically they're right in that Lilith is one of the easiest to pickup and play decently, but that's not where her strength lies.  She's very adaptable to literally 9/10 situations with the right crew around her.

That said, I've found two things she's particularly weak against are summoning Ressers (particularly Nico and Kirai... Seamus is a fun matchup though :P), and gremlins.  Summoners, as it's been said, need to be dealt with quickly or you'll lose most of the time.  Gremlins are a small nightmare, as they do massive amounts of damage to your squishy crew, and have a tendency to out activate you by two or three models.  A fears given form enforcer like barbaros can buy you a turn with tangle shadows against something like Som'er, but against something like Ophelia you're going to get gunned down 90% of the time by Lenny giving free thinking luck (there's a reason there's a vocal minority questioning the balance of said faction).

All in all aside from a few situations you should always be in control as Lilith.  While she doesn't require the precise control of someone like Colette, she is best as a control master, instead of the quick beatstick most new players use her as.

I think Lilith can do more than fine against Resser summoners and Gremlins. Against the former you will need to go into attack mode early and either kill or toss the Rooted condition onto enemies in order to hamper the hoard. Tangle Shadows is a real threat for Kirai too. She can only throw damage onto friendly spirits, not other effects. The Kirai player will need to be block off LoS to Lilith with models all the time for her to be safe. Throwing Bad Juju into the midst is usually a pretty good way of going about things since he can both hit like a truck and do some splash damage. 

Gremlins is a different game. Stay hidden, use Vicked Wines a lot (great against all (1) ap charges rampage, etc), and set up for a unfair fight. Unless you are playing against Somer or Ulix: after killing a model or two by turn one-two usually evens the scale for out-activation. Lilith, McTavish, and Waldeists can provide with additional cover, which is often useful. Once again, Tangle Shadows can screw with them a lot since most of their masters have WP 6 or lower (unless you run into Zoraida that is). 

I've run into the issue lately of all the Kirai players stacking Anna Lovelace into the bunch too =/.  Any suggestions then?

[Patzer]

Sure! Block Anna's LoS with Illusionary Forest (don't leave home without it!). Then you can still use Tangle Shadows. Careful placement of Anna can still hinder this, but it should work most of the times.