Malipho'enix Ulix vs. Ramos 35 soulstone

[thecapopriest]

This was a 35 soulstone game for the Malipho'enix group played at Tempe Comics.

Gremlins vs. Arcanists

Standard Deployment

Strategy: Turf War

Schemes: Line in the Sand, Take Prisoner, Breakthrough, Entourage, and Protect Territory.

Gremlins List: Ulix with Hunting Bow, Old Major with Saddle, 3 Wild Boars, and a Slop Hauler.

Arcanists: Ramos with Combat Mechanic and Under Pressure, Joss with Bleeding Edge Tech, Howard Langston, and an Electric Creation.

Arcanists have a cache of 7 soulstones and Gremlins have a cache of 4 soulstones.

Gremlins win deployment flip and have the Arcanists choose sides and deploy first.

Arcanists left to right: Howard Langston, Ramos, Electric Creation, and Joss.

Gremlins: Old Major, Slop Hauler behind him, and Ulix. The 3 Wild Boars used From The Shadows to be deployed forward.

Beginning of turn 1 both players use a soulstone to draw 2 additional cards and and discard down to 6.

Gremlins win initiative and have Arcanists activate first.

Electric Creation double walks.

Old Major double walks saddling the Slop Hauler both times and Ulix Hitches a Ride both times.

Howard Langston used his Nimble move to move across the crates and then charged the Wild Boar hitting both times and doing 4 damage with each attack killing the Wild Boar.

 

Ulix walked forward and shot Howard Langston with the Hunting Bow using a soulstone to get the crow suit to put the Blood Trail condition on Howard Langston and did 1 point of damage to him. Ulix then used Shot in the Rear on the Wild Boar.

The Wild Boar missed the first attack and hit with the second getting the Stampede trigger and charging into the Electric Creation hitting and killing it taking 2 damage from the explosive demise, putting him at 5 health left.

Joss double walked.

The Wild Boar that was Shot in the Rear activated and walked into melee range of Howard Langston then attacked but missed.

Ramos walked and then performed Summon the Swarm summoning 2 Steam Arachnids due to a soulstone to give him an additional Tome. Last action Ramos walks again.

Ramos Accomplices into the summoned Steam Arachnid which walks into melee with the Wild Boar.

Slop Hauler goes Reckless and shoots 3 times into melee randomizing and hitting each model once. Doing 1 damage each to Howard Langston and the Steam Arachnid but getting Red Joker on the Wild Boar doing 4 damage to it and an additional damage to the Steam Arachnid and Howard Langston due to blasts.

Wild Boar charges Joss missing the first attack but hitting with the second doing 4 damage which gets reduced to 2 damage due to armor 2.

Steam Arachnid walks to the Wild Boar.

End of first turn no points scored.

Beginning of second turn Arcanists stone for 2 more cards.

Gremlins win initiative.

Ulix does his 0 action Proper Care taking 2 damage and healing the Wild boar 2 health putting him at 5 health left. Ulix then used Sooey! to push the Wild Boar into base contact with Ulix. He then shot Howard Langston with the Hunting Bow using a soulstone to give him Blood Trail and did 5 damage which was reduced to 4 due to armor. He then did Shot in the Rear to the Wild Boar. The Wild Boar successfully killed Howard Langston.

Joss attacked the Wild Boar with his Pneumatic fist missing due to Red Joker on defense.

Slop Hauler goes Reckless, walks forward and heals himself fully, heals the Wild Boar 2 points putting him at 5 health left, and heals Ulix 1 point.

Ramos uses Summon the Swarm and summons 2 more Steam Arachnids. Ramos then shoots the Wild Boar twice hitting both times and killing the Wild Boar.

Steam Arachnid walked and then did Swarm Together to summon a Steam Arachnid Swarm.

Old Major charged the Steam Arachnid Swarm and did 4 damage reduced to 3 due to armor and missed the second attack due to Black Joker.

Wild Boar walked around Joss and attacked once hitting and doing 2 damage and got the Stampede trigger, so he charged into Ramos. The first attack hit and did 2 damage, the second attack missed and Ramos got his defensive trigger Repulsion pushing the Wild Boar away.

Slow Steam Arachnid walked up to the Slop Hauler.

End of turn 2 both players score 1 point for Turf War.

Turn 3 Gremlins win initiative.

Ulix activated and used Prod on Old Major 3 times having Old Major attack the Steam Arachnid Swarm and killing it on the third attack.

Ramos uses a soulstone to get an additional tome on Summon the Swarm and successfully summons in 3 Steam Arachnids. Ramos then shot the Wild Boar for 4 damage due to the Wild Boar getting Black Joker on defense and then walked forward.

Slop Hauler goes Reckless and attacks 2 of the summoned a Steam Arachnids hitting each one once for 1 damage and missing with the last attack.

 

Steam Arachnid activates and does Summon the Swarm.

Wild Boar attacks Joss twice missing both times.

Joss attacked and killed the Wild Boar killing it and using Creative Salvage to drop a scrap marker then walked forward.

Old Major attacked the Steam Arachnid Swarm twice, missing once, and doing 2 damage with the second attack.

Steam Arachnid attacked the Slop Hauler twice missing both times.

Steam Arachnid Swarm attacked the Slop Hauler and missed.

End of turn 3 we both earn 1 point from Turf War.

Gremlins 2 vs. Arcanists 2

Turn 4 Arcanists stone for cards.

Arcanists win initiative.

Ramos does Summon the Swarm and brings in 2 Steam Arachnids. Ramos shot at the Slop Hauler twice killing him on the second shot.

Ramos Accompliced into the Steam Arachnid which attacked Old Major twice doing 1 point of damage each leaving Old Major with 10 health left.

Ulix does Prod on Old Major 3 times which kills the Steam Arachnid with the first attack and hits the Steam Arachnid Swarm twice.

Steam Arachnid Swarm activated and attacked Old Major twice doing 4 damage dropping Old Major to 6 health left.

Old Major attacked the Steam Arachnid Swarm twice doing a total of 4 damage to it.

Both Steam Arachnids walked forward.

Joss double walks. This picture was taken before the Arcanists player decided to reposition Joss to the left side of the board.

End of turn 4 both players gain a point from Turf War.

Gremlins 3 vs. Arcanists 3

Gremlins win initiative.

Ulix uses Prod so Old Major attacks and kills the Steam Arachnid Swarm. Ulix then did Shot in the Rear so Old Major charged Joss.

I believe I had done this wrong. Originally I was thinking that Shot in the Rear worked like the trigger Stampede and ignored being engaged, but now rereading the ability I think Old Major should not have been able to charge Joss seeing as he was engaged with the Steam Arachnid. This is the text of Shot in the Rear:

"Target Friendly Pig makes a Charge Action against any legal target..." 

Last action Ulix used Prod on Old Major. With all 3 attacks Joss only took 3 damage due to Armor 2. Ulix then used Proper Care to heal Old Major 2 points and Ulix takes 2 points of damage.

Joss activates and attacks Old Major, on the second attack he is able to cheat in the Red Joker and kill Old Major instantly.

Steam Arachnid charged Ulix missing once and hitting for 1 damage.

Ramos summoned in a Steam Arachnid. He then walks forward and drops a scheme marker.

Steam Arachnid walks forward and drops a scheme.

End of turn Arcanist score 1 more from Turf War, 3 points from Take Prisoner Ulix, and 2 points from Protect Territory.

End of game Arcanists 9 vs. Gremlins 3.

 

As always advice and pointing out rule mistakes is appreciated, hope you all enjoy the battle report.

[Tawg]

Brutal.

Joss + Langston are both powerhouses.  I have never seen Old Major, but from the report he certainly doesn't seem like he brought quite as much to the table, and the wild boars unfortunately did not present too much of a problem to them either.  Add in Ramos being annoying and summoning, and that seems like a fairly mismatched set of crews .

Which is a shame, because I rather like Ulix, but it probably also has to do with 35ss, which can certainly be rough.  I don't really know all the Gremlin things in the game, but seems like a similar list but led by Wong would have done better, just due to Ooooo Glowy, or whatever that Ability he gives out is called, which basically ignores most defense Abilities?  Would have helped against Joss anyways.

 

Also, reading the Engagement section of the rules, it looks like you did play that part where Ulix convinced Old Major to charge wrong.  It simply says Engaged models can not charge, although by the looks of things it didn't end up helping too much .

[thecapopriest]

Yeah the list definitely fell short against all that armor, I was surprised when I successfully removed Howard Langston.

Against Arcanists I will probably stick more to Wong as my Master or at the very least bring Mancha Roja with what ever list I play to be able to nuke someone like Howard Langston or Joss.

I am glad though that I gave the Wild Boars a try, it's hard to justify taking even 2 of them when I think overall 3 Piglets would do better for controlling the board, though the  that the Wild Boars get from out of activation attacks did boost their reliability on hitting that Piglets never really have.

 

[anumberone]

 I like to use Old Major for his ability to discard a card and push a pig 4 inches and give the pig the suit of the discarded card for all duels the rest of the turn. It's a great ability. His other abilities (pigs won't charge each other and the bonus for pigs charging) means I often have him just sitting there near Ulix, acting as a powerful Prod target if the enemy is near.

 I also tend to not use a slop hauler and give Old Major Quality Mash Liquor to heal Ulix while Ulix heals up the rest of the pigs. He's a bit more survivable than the slop hauler tends to be and the 3 stones I save is usually wantd elsewhere.

 I've never used a non summoning Ulix but I would like to try him out with boars some time. I've done the Ramos/Ulix match up a few times and being able to summon would put things on a much more even keel. 

[Anung Un Rama]

Threadomancy I know but I love the report @thecapopriest....a summoning Ulix would have done better I reckon. with cornhusks on Old Major to drop schemes you could have summoned a war pig and then released the bacon! Two of my favourite masters. Thanks for writing up the report.