Mah Tucket at the ITC

[Math Mathonwy]

So we were four Finns and one Swede going west as Team Lollipop. I was captain but that was mostly because I bought the ticket.

Our main goal was to have fun. Myyrä (Arcanists) and Klas (Ressers) strived to win their games while I was soloing Mah and zFiend took Von Schill. He painted the Viks the previous week but after an utter annihilation in the first round against Zipp, he decided to go with Mr. Moustache with whom he is far more experienced and comfortable. And who is somewhat less easy to tech against. Finally, we got Ludvig to come along when we had difficulty filling out the team with just Finns. He hadn't played in a good while so was a bit rusty and decided to pack along only minis that were easy to transport so no Peacekeeper or Emissary.

Myyrä and Klas ended up both winning four out of five games while zFiend won two and lost three. Ludvig got thrown to the wolves a couple of times and ended with a few lopsided match-ups and finished eventually with four losses and one draw. My record will be found if you read on!  

UK, I love you, but man your cuisine leaves a bit to be desired. Also, Stockport isn't very exciting as far as towns go. The venue however was amazing and I really had a superb time. All the games were great fun and I managed to get all of them finished. All of my opponents were great people to play against and the games were very relaxed even in a competitive environment.

I won't do a blow-by-blow report as I had trouble recharging my phone so couldn't take many pics. But hopefully someone will find the below amusing or educational or something.

First round we went against the northern Swedish team and I was matched up against Joakim in Reckoning. I found myself going against Shen Long and I prepared the Pig Missile. Which worked pretty nicely to say the least - The Sow ate Yasunori who was hiding in his deployment zone, basically. Om-nom-nom.

Unfortunately I picked the wrong FFM target (I was debating who I would put it on but chose wrong) and a super tight game ended up as a 4-5 loss to me. I guessed correctly his FFM sucker as well but he messed up my Claim Jump very nicely on the last turn. Joakim played really well and my Shen Long experience was absolutely minimal so the wide toolkit did take me by surprise a couple of times. Things also weren't helped by the fact that I forgot Reckoning awarded points for Peons and I had four Stuffed Piglets... Oops. But a really enjoyable game and one of my absolute favourite losses in Malifaux ever.

Second round it was Abnormalifaux and I was matched up against Francois playing Nellie in Headhunter. I took Fingers and a killy elite crew but hadn't played against Nellie before. Nellie was certainly a new experience and I missed the fact that she could heal which let Phiona survive after Francois (the Gremlin, not my opponent!) had served her RJ Dumb Luck damage. The Fast Peacekeeper was very nasty and slaughtered poor Gracie but I danced with Fingers and stayed in the game.

There was an epic fight between a Stuffed Piglet, Lil Lass, and a Pathfinder in a corner where Lil Lass ultimately prevailed (and a Taxidermist zoomed over to pick up the head).

Last turn, however, I lost initiative and had a horrid hand and Phiona killed Mah from basically full wounds, which kinda sucked as he had Eliminate the Leadership and ended up winning. I originally thought that he might have it (as people usually take it against Mah) and I was prepared to play conservatively to keep her alive but he kept pushing Mah away so I was lulled into a false sense of security. Also, Journalists suck immensely when you can pass your turn as Nellie does and Francois took full advantage of this messing up my Fingers plans.

All that said, I don't feel that Nellie is necessarily all that super horrible once you understand her mechanics. I certainly could've won this game and it was really tight, I felt.

Third round was against The Pariahs of Card. I was matched against Misaki in Reconnoiter and Tim had the weirdest list! Misaki, her Totem, Sensei Yu, two Katanaka Snipers, and two Freikorps Trappers. They castled in a corner and everyone shot Gracie who just mostly shrugged away everything suffering four wounds total and Slop Hauler healing her afterwards. Gracie carried Francois into the fray and Mah followed close as did Lil Lass.

Turns two and three I had absolutely ridiculous god-like hands (both featured RJ and two thirteens with the rest being face cards as well). Mah went in to tie up the shooters while Francois sauntered over to Misaki, Focused, and used the RJ for a cool 14 damage one-shotting Misaki. The rest of the game was the strike force keeping the enemy busy while the rest of my crew did Schemes and Strat and I ended up winning 9-1.

Second day started with us going against the mighty SQUIGS. Fourth round I fought Ben and Shen Long again. Superb paintjobs on the models and a really cool guy. Headhunter was the name of the game. For some unfathomable reason I took Hidden Set Up against Yasunori and FFM on Francois. When the game started I was just staring dumbfounded at Set Up. WTF?

Well, Lil Lass went forward and got murdered by Yasunori who retreated a bit. Luckily Gracie is pretty fast with Reactivate so she got Francois to position and he then proceeded to do a two-point Set Up against Yasunori. Next turn Gracie charged Yasunori but didn't do much of anything. Yasunori came over to Franc and gave him a whooping and then Terracotta Warrior finished the job. Francois scored me four VP which was all I got.

Lone Swordsman vowed to kill Fingers. I used Stone for Masks but he got the Place Trigger. It is after damaging however and Swordsman did weak so I managed to prevent and survive the first Charge. After Reactivate, Recalled Training and a second Charge I used one Stone for Masks, one for Defense and a third one for prevent as the situation was again the same. Moderate on prevent and Fingers got away and watched Swordsman commit seppuku. Five Stones was the price I paid.

Ben had Accusation but the only realistic target was Gracie and I tried to activate her first every turn while cheating with Trixie to win initiative (failed once). I sensed him having Set Up as well due to the trio of Scheme Markers he had down. The only head that had been dropped (and picked up by Shen Long) was Francois'. I had four VP, he had one and Accusation was impossible as long as I kept winning Initiative. A cunning plan formed in my mind: RUN AWAYYY!! Fingers, Trixie and Mah ran away from the encroaching Emissary, Yasunori, and Shen Long and the three scary Scheme Markers. And the plan succeeded and I ended up winning 4-2 without killing a single model the whole game 

Last round was against the American Drunk History and I got Rasputina. I took Pig Missile again. I had a really good hand on the first turn which made me comfortable with exposing Mah to Rasputina. Unfortunately he had an even better hand and Mah took quite a bit of damage. The Sow lumbered forward, ate an Ice Gamin (which had FFM as I kinda guessed but you can't leave an Ice Mirror alive in the center of the board). The Sow did some damage on Rasputina but then got Paralyzed and Devoured.

Mah healed up and got ready to lay the smackdown on turn three. But then a thirteen for initiative from the opponent (I'm now three for three on Pig Missile's opponent getting a thirteen for Initiative on a crucial turn as Joakim did it as well but there I put down Red Joker to win it). And then Mah died. All in all, I saved three twelves from turn three to four because he flipped so crazily that those twelves had been useless all round. I lost utterly. It would've been a really tough match and he played super well but the luck of the flips truly sealed the deal.

I was also weirdly tired at this point for some reason even though I had slept well enough. I did all sorts of weird mistakes like forgetting On Yer Tiptoes, that The Sow produces the Piglets when she dies (or rather I forgot to check whether it happens even when she is sacrificed) and even absent-mindedly removed randomly two Wounds dice and then was left looking at the models and had to ask why they don't have any wound dice... Especially the last one was completely embarrassing, though luckily the game wasn't even close so it didn't matter.

So yeah, my humble apologies, Dave!

And even though the defeat was pretty crushing and the first game where I really was dominated Dave was a great opponent and I enjoyed the game. Even though it is somewhat unlikely due to geography I would very much like a rematch some day.

Two tight losses, one tight victory, one utter victory and one utter defeat. Not bad for Mah, I don't think.

Interestingly our team also won every time I won and lost every time I lost - the team was apparently really loyal to their captain!

We ended up 11/18 which was pretty fine considering us having two serious guys, one solo Mah, one essentially solo Von Schill, and one who hadn't played in many months. Had a blast! The plan is to pick up more competitive Masters for next year  

And big thanks to all my team mates! You guys were the best!

[Argentbadger]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences here.  The reports are well written and interesting.

Did you feel like you learned a lot just by the mixing of such geographically diverse gaming groups?  Despite all that is written on these forums about optimal plays, I find that local preferences can vary quite widely even across the relatively small distances I travel for events.

[Mutter]

Cool report, enjoyed reading about the event, especially after having already read Ludvig's report, too.

Thanks for the effort!