Ten Thunders in UK Malifaux Masters

[Paradigm]

I saw a quick post on Facebook on the participants in the UK Masters tournament a couple of years ago, and noticed there were a few players from our faction. I also heard something about one of them making it to the final, but have been unable to find more detailed information. Does anyone have some insight as to the results of the tournament, especially for the Ten Thunders players? What kind of crews did they play? What did they come up against? If any of these players are reading this, could you perhaps give us a some comments on your matches? I'm very curious to hear more about top level play with Ten Thunders!

[ukrocky]

Mornin' - I was one of them, got to the final - will post up later.

[Paradigm]

@ukrocky

I'd love to hear more! You have been playing quite a bit of Lynch, right? I remember you posting in a thread about your Lynch list quite some time ago. I tried your suggestions and it really improved my results with him. I'm excited to see what you've thought up since then, after the release of Wave 4!

[ukrocky]

I'm afraid the wave 4 was nigh on non-existent in my list! I haven't played since August and as such getting to the final was a bit of a surprise but it's the 3rd masters out of the 4 in 2nd edition I've gone solo TT Lynch, with the other one me not being able to attend. I've placed 1st, year off, 3rd and 2nd with him at these events, so he does perform at the highest level IMO.

My thoughts are still pretty much contained in that thread where I wrote the list of models I'd use, and when I turned up for day 1 of the masters I realised I had forgotten all my stat cards bar those I'd used in my last game at my last tournament in August, so I played fixed crew pretty much all day Saturday, with the usual mix of:

Lynch, Rising Sun, Sometimes Wanna see a Trick, Would love recalled but no room.

Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training, Usually smoke grenades.

Lone Swordsman with Recalled Training.

Shadow Emmisary with Lynch's upgrade.

Then a mix of...:

Depleted (max 2), TT Bros (max 2), Illuminated, Sniper and...that's it...?

 

Not got Scheme Pools to hand as phone is dead so no social media but will update at a later date

Game 1 vs Ressers (Reva, Tosh, Emmisary, Yin, some other bits) in HeadHunter - I played poorly turns 1 and 2, and some poor flips meant I lost hungering darkness and emmisary for no return. Thought I was going down big, pulled back to 7-4 loss.

Game 2 vs Neverborn (Lilith normal list) in Stake a Claim - Played against this list so much I was happy to see it! Managed a 10-1 win.

Game 3 vs Ten Thunders (Asami, Yasanouri, New Henchman, Terracota, Kamatachi, Low river...some other bits...?) in Squatter's rights. Dealt with the summoning and killed Yasanouri turn 1 with missile Huggy. Won 9-0.

 

So I got through to the Quarter final and knew I was likely to play Sandeep in the morning, so I actually read what he did, and came up with a plan...

Game 4 vs Arcanists (Sandeep, Cortez - new hench?, Howard, 2 Raptors, 2 Windies, Effigy) in Interference. So my plan in this was to mix my crew slightly, so I took Lynch, Huggy, Lone Swordie, Emmisary, Depleted, Depleted and Aionus...Aionus did the trick in the mind games sector and forced George to play differently. Aionus physically didn't actually do that much but I'm very happy I took him. I was losing by a few after turns 3 but the pressure had started to pay with Howard dying turn 2 to Huggy, then Cortez turn 3 to the same model. I started to pin in Sandeep, forcing him to retreat. End of Turn 3 I took a 2 minute break with my book of notes and worked out the VPs I needed to go on and win the game, knowing a draw wasn't enough, and managed a 7-6 win.

Game 5 vs Outcasts (Usual Viks, Vanessa, Taelor, Johan, Child, Effigy) in Collect the Bounty. (Eliminate the leader AND frame for murder in the pool...). Back to the norm against my old clubmate Ant. I deployed poorly. Hench Vik killed Lynch for 3Vps, Swordie killed Vik (Huggy did 6 wounds then left it to the swordie) for 2 more to him. Turn 2 Taelor smacked the sniper, cue running away. Viks refused to fight anymore and it was a rearguard. I kept scoring for Bounty, despite Huggy fluffing against the Vik Turn 3, and managed to cycle cards enough to build up a hand to kill Vik turn 5 due to enough movement courtesy of the emmisary for a 6-6 draw that put me through.

Game 6 vs Ressers (Nico, Archie, Phillip, Crooligan and then 3 belles, 2 doxies and some other summoned stuff) in Headhunter. I don't think TT can win HH with the scheme pool in this game vs Ressers. Scheme pool was:

• Claim Jump - too many enemies
• Dig their graves - They drag in before killing, I can't drag, companion and kill, so if I drag, they drag themselves back
• Insepction - I get outactivated then dragged away from the sides
• Leave your mark - Means I'm running at them in HH, and outactivation means they can likely get a model near enough
• Inspect the ruins - They can out activate me last turn before turning some markers off, and meant i had to be in the open, meaning I could get dragged for HH.

Ended up going down 9-4, outplayed, outcrewed and I'm not convinced TT has much of a chance in that pool...!

 

Delighted to come 2nd and happy to answer anymore Qs

[newsun]

I think Asami helps in that she can drag and kill in this pool. Though with lynch, I can see how it'd be hard.

I might sub toshiro in for yasunori to summon for activation pacing if killing with Asami.

[Paradigm]

Interesting to see that this Lynch list still performs so well, at least when you're playing it. I also love how you can be out of the game for half a year, show up without the cards you wanted and still consistently win against strong players XD

[scarlett fever]

Interesting take on the headhunter +schemes. Often when I make a list for headhunter I feel like I'm trying to build a poor imitation of a belles list, trying to target and isolate one model at a time. I need to bust out a totally new approach to the strat.

[Mutter]

14 hours ago, Paradigm said:

Interesting to see that this Lynch list still performs so well, at least when you're playing it. I also love how you can be out of the game for half a year, show up without the cards you wanted and still consistently win against strong players XD

This.

Cool overview, thanks.

[mythicFOX]

15 hours ago, Paradigm said:

I also love how you can be out of the game for half a year, show up without the cards you wanted and still consistently win against strong players XD

lol.  Don't fall for his PR!  

I've been @ukrocky's Malifaux team mate since 2010 and I should say that in the UK scene he is almost as famous for being one of our best tournament gamers as he is for loudly claiming to be rubbish at games while winning prizes for playing them. Last year he came first in nine Malifaux tournaments.

FWIW I don't think it looks good for 'faux as a game when we downplay the skill involved.   Creating narratives around players turning up out of nowhere and winning major events is actually harmful to the perception of our game IMO. Especially when it's not true.  

 

PS: I was TO-ing at the Masters event, there are photo's of some games and standings etc on my twitter (link in sig).

[Paradigm]

@mythicFOX

Yeah, Malifaux undoubtedly requires quite a bit of skill. Which some people for some reason seem to aquire remarkably quickly

I'm a bit sad to hear that you didn't play in this tournament. Your approach to Asami seems promising, and I've been decently successful after adopting some of your ideas from back when I played you in the Vassal tournament a couple of months ago. It would've been interesting to get more input on how she performs against top level players.

Do you have any insight as to what the other Ten Thunders players where using? Which masters did you see, and where there any particual models that were popular?

[Tris]

17 minutes ago, mythicFOX said:

PS: I was TO-ing at the Masters event, there are photo's of some games and standings etc on my twitter (link in sig).

Just as a side note regarding your PS:

more coverage for the big UK events like nationals/masters here in the forums would be nice too

As you are already doing loads of stuff with all the tweeting and so on I feel like I´m maybe asking too much, but the UK scene seems to be the role model for many people here, and more information about standings, masters/factions played and so on would be appreciated and might lead to healthy discussions around the tournament results in the worlds biggest Malifaux community

[BigHammer]

I was another of the 10T present, and also made it to the 2nd day playoffs.

Played Yan Lo vs Somer Gremlins in headhunter, lost 2-1; Shenlong vs Rasputina Arcanists in Stake a Claim, won 5-4; Shenlong vs Collodi Neverborn in Squatters Rights, won 7-6.

Shenlong lost game 1 8-4 in day 2 against Nicodem in Interference, though, knocking me out. My opponent went on to win the competition.

 

Our other player was, I think, playing Asami exclusively (could be wrong), and didn't make the cut for day 2.

 

Some very tough games but every one of them was fantastic fun.

 

A few thoughts: 

GG17 makes it tough to score schemes against a good player. All of my games I had to work super hard to score my points (killing Collodi is harder than I thought!, eg).

Shenlong is still an extremely versatile master for the new Schemes, and Wandering River Style is definitely a force to be reckoned with with so many scheme marker-based schemes relying on precision placement.

Wave 4 has massively changed the game for all factions; Terracotta Warriors are, IMO, our biggest new change, as they become high priority for opponents to deal with, and enable a lot of shenanigans when you use Shenlong (free heals/upgrade swaps without using his (0) actions), Yan Lo (swapping an upgrade within 6" of his Emissary makes it fast, Chiaki lets you put Ancient Protection on him), or just the Kamaitachi, which is now viable with every master (you get a 3" push, heal and card draw for swapping an upgrade on a model within 6" of it), and actually improves some of them immensely (you can get 8" more push on Misaki, eg, plus a card).

Low River Monks are also now a fantastic inclusion to our crews, with their ability to heal like a librarian, as well as remove conditions better than any model in the game.

Finally, one I've taken from other games recently: the new Accusation Scheme is tailor made for Torakage, who have made it back into my rotation now; appear engaged with 2 enemy models from a shadowstride, then either double accuse them if you go first, or walk away and remove it unopposed if they beat you to the punch.

[Patzer]

On 2017-01-28 at 3:32 AM, BigHammer said:

Finally, one I've taken from other games recently: the new Accusation Scheme is tailor made for Torakage, who have made it back into my rotation now; appear engaged with 2 enemy models from a shadowstride, then either double accuse them if you go first, or walk away and remove it unopposed if they beat you to the punch.

Glad to hear it. Do you use the Torakage with every master, and where do you put Smoke and Shadows?

I have been pondering some about putting Smoke and Shadows on Misaki, and later switch it for another Recalled Training. Since, to me, the 8ss for Yamaziko+SaS is too much at times.

[Patzer]

On 2017-01-26 at 5:47 PM, ukrocky said:

Game 2 vs Neverborn (Lilith normal list) in Stake a Claim - Played against this list so much I was happy to see it! Managed a 10-1 win.

Delighted to come 2nd and happy to answer anymore Qs

Would love to hear you elaborate how you do Stake a Claim with your Lynch crew!