Gremlins vs. Outcasts Malipho'enix League

[thecapopriest]

This was a game of Malifaux that was played as a part of the Malipho'enix league that is running through the month of February. It was a 26 point Malipho'enix league game, Gremlins vs. Outcasts.

The Gremlin list that I played was Somer, Mancha Roja, Slop Hauler, and Burt Jebsen. Somer had the upgrades encouragement and Liquid Bravery.

The Outcasts had Jack Daw, Jaakuna Ubume, Pride, and The Hanged. Jack Daw had his free curses he could give out, I don't remember what upgrades if any where on the Outcast crew.

Deployment type was Flank with the Strategy of Reckoning and the Schemes of A Line in the Sand, Distract, Protect Territory, Outflank, and Frame for Murder.

On the pic from left to right the Outcasts: The Hanged (hiding behind a pillar), Pride, Jack Daw, and Jaakuna Ubume.

From nearest to furthest the Gremlins: Slop Hauler, Somer, Burt Jebsen, Mancha Roja.

On the pic from left to right the Outcasts: The Hanged (hiding behind a pillar), Pride, Jack Daw, and Jaakuna Ubume.

From left to right the Gremlins: Mancha Roja, Burt Jebsen, Somer, and Slop Hauler.

1st turn Outcasts won initiative forcing me to activate first. I had frame for murder on Mancha Roja so I double walked him forward leaving him exposed.

Jaakuna Ubume than activated and lured Mancha Roja twice towards her. Which then caused a hazardous terrain flip on Mancha Roja for walking into Jaakuna Ubume Drowning in My Wake causing a damage point to Mancha Roja.

 

I activated Burt Jebsen and double walked him towards the fountain in the center of the board. 

Jack Daw than activated and did his 0 action of Driven By Injustice targeting Mancha Roja, Which allowed all tormented models to push 4 inches towards Mancha Roja including Jack Daw. Jack Daw than attacked Mancha Roja with 3 Suppressed Memories attacks utilizing the built in trigger to attach two curses to Mancha Roja. 

One Curse makes it so Mancha Roja takes 2 damage for attack actions and the other curse makes Mancha Roja take 2 damage for taking tactical actions, effectively crippling Mancha Roja.

I then activated Somer and walked to just have range to shoot Mancha Roja in the back, this allows me to randomize my shot into the engagement and hopefully shoot the enemy. First shot randomizes to Jaakuna Ubume, but I miss with the shot. Than my last shot randomizes to Mancha Roja which I needed to cheat down so it would miss him.

Pride then activated using his zero action Solo to make cheating more difficult for Mancha Roja. Pride walked to Mancha Roja then used This Song is All About You causing me to discard two cards to avoid 4 damage.

Slop Hauler activated and double walked towards the fountain.

The Hanged activated and double walked towards Mancha Roja.

End of turn 1 no points scored.

Beginning of the second turn I won initiative and activated Somer first. Somer did his 0 action Do It Like Dis' to give him and all friendly models within 8" rams to any duel total. He then shot into the engagement and randomized to hit Jaakuna Ubume. I successfully hit her and utilized the trigger of thinking luck to double the damage spread. I pulled the Red Joker for damage and did 12 damage to Jaakuna Ubume even with her incorporeal ability halving the damage down to 6 still killed her outright. The blasts then hit Jack Daw and Pride doing 4 damage to each model.

Outcasts went, Noel thought about charging Mancha Roja with The Hanged but through the grand power of premeasuring (really I love the premeasuring aspect of this game which most games lack) he saw that he would not be able to make a successful charge so instead activated Jack Daw.

Jack Daw first attack killed Mancha Roja scoring me the maximum points for Frame For Murder as it was before the 4th turn and he was killed by a Master giving me 3 points.

 

Jack Daw then used Driven By Injustice to push towards Burt Jebsen for his 0 action. Jack Daw then used Suppressed Memories twice on Burt Jebsen missing once and hitting once giving Burt Jebsen the curse to prevent him from making attack actions by causing 2 damage per attack action.

Slop Hauler activated and used Reckless to gain an additional action point. Slop Hauler then used Feed the Piggies to heal himself, Somer, and Burt Jebsen, then walked behind the wall.

Pride activated, walked towards Burt Jebsen then used This Song is all about you taking Burt down to 1 health left.

Burt Jebsen activated and walked over to Pride and put distract on him, revealing my other scheme but I need to have distract on at least 2 models by the end of the turn to score and Burt was my last activation for the turn.

The Hanged activated and charged Burt easily finishing him off to score 1 point for Reckoning for killing 2 enemy models in a turn.

End of turn 3, Gremlins 3 Outcasts 1.

Top of turn 3 Outcasts win initiative. 

Pride activates, walks towards the slop hauler and performs this song is all about you. The slop hauler discards 1 card so only takes 2 points of damage.

Slop hauler activates and heals himself and Somer.

Jack Daw activates and uses the 0 action Driven By Injustice to push himself and and The Hanged towards the slop Hauler. He then charges Somer, the first attack hits and puts the curse to stop tactical actions, but Somer wins the second duel and gets his trigger loudest squeel and pushes away from Jack Daw. Jack Daw then uses his last action to use Suppressed Memories against Somer, but with the Liquid Courage upgrade Jack Daw gets a negative twist to his attack flip and misses.

Somer activated and shot Pride hitting him and killing him and also doing 4 damage to Jack Daw with blast damage. He uses his other two actions to remove the curse.

The Hanged then activated and charged the slop hauler, hitting him once and missing with the other attack.

End of turn 3, Gremlins 3, Outcasts 1.

Top of turn 4 Gremlins win initiative.

Slop Hauler goes Reckless, gives the Hanged Distracted succeeding the horror duel to do so. Then tried to walk away from the Hanged taking another horror duel and succeeding but failed to win the disengaging strike to walk away. Third action I tried to walk away again but failed the horror duel and ended up paralyzed.

The Hanged activated and attacked the slop hauler twice killing him.

Jack Daw activated and charged Somer on the first attack got enough damage to kill off Somer scoring another point for Reckoning and automatically scoring an additional point for Reckoning on turn five leading to a tie.

This game was a close match all the way through. Outcasts had Frame For Murder as their scheme as well on The Hanged, which generally is a great choice because I would normally be chomping at the bit to kill that model, but in this game The Hanged was all by himself and I wanted to take advantage of my blast damage from Somer. The Outcasts also had distract, but as it goes it is usually more advantageous to just murder the enemy instead of using action points for distract.

Definitely I did not expect his crew to so easily take out Mancha Roja and I put him in a way more dangerous position than I realized. Luring Mancha Roja away from the Slop Hauler while simultaneously putting damage on him from the dangerous terrain was a great way to really start taking him out. Jack Daw and Pride did a great job of finishing the job. Honestly I got lucky by it being Jack Daw who did the final blow, if it was anyone else I would have lost the game.

Hope you enjoyed the report, my hope is to have a more comprehensive report next week, with more photos and more info on damage done, soulstone use etc. Any feedback would be really appreciated.

[Kaijuhandchop]

Thanks for posting , close game.

[Argentbadger]

Nice report, great photos, lovely table and beautiful minatures.  All in all, a wonderful post.

How do you find the games work when master-led at such low point values?  I've only played a few (I prefer 40-50SS) but I find that the value of each card is lower because you have enough to go round your smaller crew, and that the impact of the master is disproportionately big.

In the final turn, I think that your Slop Hauler didn't need to take the second horror duel since it wasn't targetting the Hanged or aiming to end a walk engaged with it.  If you were just aiming to relocate the Slop Hauler still engaged with the Hanged you could have saved yourself taking the disengaging strike, though of course in that case you'd need the horror duel.

[thecapopriest]

I'm glad you enjoyed the battle report!

I definitely agree that a master at 26 points skews the entire game to the choice of master, but this is a rapid grow league so balance takes more of a back seat in the early games.

1 hour ago, Argentbadger said:

In the final turn, I think that your Slop Hauler didn't need to take the second horror duel since it wasn't targetting the Hanged or aiming to end a walk engaged with it.  If you were just aiming to relocate the Slop Hauler still engaged with the Hanged you could have saved yourself taking the disengaging strike, though of course in that case you'd need the horror duel.

 I will ask the rules forum, at the time I just assumed that failing to disengage would also be considered to end your walk action, but it might not.