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A collection of scrubby battle reports.


WWHSD

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My local Henchman is running an achievement league and writing battle reports gives points. Even though the points don't really matter, I'm such an achievement-whore that I feel the need to write stuff up.  I'm new to Malifaux and have never written a battle report before. I figured I'll toss them in this thread as I write them over the next several weeks to keep from littering up the forum.

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Ironsides vs. Reva (8/6/2017)
Deployment: Standard
Strategy: Guard the Stash
Scheme Pool: Claim Jump, Framed for Murder, Leave Your Mark, Covert Breakthrough, Mark for Death
Me: Framed for Murder (Mage with Blood Ward), Leave Your Mark
Opponent: Framed for Murder (Killjoy), Leave Your Mark
Terrain: Decent amount of terrain on the board. It mostly consisted of buildings.

My crew: Arcanists
Ironsides (Frontline Leadership, Challenge the Crowd, Warding Runes)
Mouse
The Captain (Patron's Blessing, Warding Runes)
Johan (Imbued Energies)
Oxfordian Mage trio with their Wards and Temporary Shielding
Wind Gamin
7 Stone pool.

Opponent's Crew: Ressers
Reva (Guises of Death)
Phillip and the Nanny (not sure of upgrades)
Killjoy
Bete Noire (Decaying Aura)
2 x Shieldbearer
Crooligan
6 stone pool (???)

My opponent deployed first. Reva, Phillip, and the Shieldbearers were deployed in top right, about midway between the middle line and the edge near the front of his deployment zone. His Crooligan was deployed on the same side, behind cover, just over the centerline. Bete Noire and Killjoy started buried. His side of the board was a bit more open between the stash markers.

I deployed near the front of my deployment zone with the three Mages and Mouse to the right of the middle line. Ironsides, Johan, and the Captain were deployed forward and to the left of the middle line. The Wind Gamin was on the left edge of the board.

Turn 1
Score: 0/0

Initiative is flipped and my opponent wins it. Guises of Death allowed him to place a Corpse Candle 8 inches in front of Mouse and the Mages. His first activation is the Corpse Candle which kills itself and brings which lets him place Killjoy, Bete Noir, and a corpse marker. My plans for punting my Mages up the board with pushes is totally ruined.

I have the Nemesis Mage discard a card and furious cast on Killjoy, hoping to push him pack and give him slow even if I can’t kill him in a single activation. I cheat a few times but end up missing all three attacks. Killjoy charges and kills the Nemesis Mage. He attacks the Doom Mage, strips temporary shielding, and puts through a point or two of damage. I use the Captain to push Killjoy away from my Mages. He pushes Johan to just within 3 inches of Killjoy.  I try to push Bete but fail. My opponent activated Phillip and draws some cards. I activate Johan, flurry at Killjoy and take him off the table. My opponent scores 2 points for Framed for Murder. Reva activates, kills my Doom Mage through a corpse marker and strips the Temporary Shielding but doesn’t land any damage on the Blood Mage.

The Blood Mage charges Bete and takes her off the board. My opponent passes the duel to have her bury instead of die. The Corpse Candle activates, killing itself, dropping another corpse marker and bringing Bete back in. Mouse tries to move away from Bete so that he can attack but fails against disengaging strike twice. Bete Activates and takes the remain Mage off the table. I score two points from Framed for Murder.

Ironsides charges Bete and fails to land any hits. My opponent moves one of his Sheildbearers forward. The Wind Gamin successfully leaps and double walks forward. Opponent moves his other Shield Bearer towards the Stash marker on the right hand side of the board. Opponent moves his Crooligan and drops a scheme marker 6 inches inside my half of the board.

Turn 2
Score: 2/2

After the first round my memory of the details get a little blurry.

I won initiative and had the Captain punt Ironsides and Johan towards the center and then walk. Mouse went double defensive. Wind Gamin moved forward, dropped a scheme marker and failed to leap. Johan moves into range of the Stash Marker with some cover and goes defensive. Ironsides charges Crooligan and gets within 4 inches of his scheme marker. Ironsides somehow manages to not kill the Crooligan with three attacks. Mouse ends up with some damage. Reva triggers hard to kill on Johan but fails to finish him off.  Sheildbearers are in position to score Guard the Stash.

I score Leave Your Mark. My opponent scores Guard the Stash.

Turn 3
Score: 3/3

Captain pulls Johan Back and pulls Mouse closer to Johan and walks into range of the stash marker. Johan and Mouse heal each other. Ironsides kills the Crooligan in one attack, and then moves to the scheme marker and removes it. Reva does some stuff with Corpse Candles to get Bete over to where she can mess with my Wind Gamin, and puts some damage on Ironsides. Wind Gamin leaps, moves and places a marker but Bete gets to within 4 inches of the marker. The Captain moves up Johan, punt Mouse towards Ironsides and pulls Reva into engagement range (but outside range to score on the Stash) Johan charges the Shieldbearer. The first attack does enough damage to kill him the first time and gives burning 2. The Sheildbearer uses its ability to not die. The second attack leaves the Sheildbearer with 1 Wd but the burning will finish him off.

No one scores.


Turn 4
Score: 3/3
Phillip heads off the Gamin. Bete removes one of my scheme markers and then buries herself. Ironsides gets over to the stash marker but doesn’t kill the Sheildbearer. Reva melts The Captain. Johan tickles Reva. Bete pops up over by the stash marker with Johan.

We both score Guard the stash.

Turn 5
Score: 4/4

The Wind Gamin tries to get free to drop a marker but fails to Leap and the disengaging strike keeps him from walking. Wind Gamin attacks Phillip and does enough damage that I regret not using both my AP to attack (there was still a scheme marker down). Reva kills Johan, healing a bit and giving Bete fast. Ironsides forces Reva to charge her, trading some damage. I realize that Mouse can’t score leave your Mark and even if he hits Bete with slow and pulls her towards him, he has no way of stopping her from from getting back to the stash marker and scoring. I concede.

My opponent scores Guard the Stash.

Final Score: 4/5 (I lost)

 

 

Post-Mortem

One of the local Henchmen saw that I was putting together an Ironsides crew and lent me his Johan. I had planned to get him but he has probably raised a few spots on my wishlist.

I think I spent far too much AP dealing with Bete. I probably should have just ignored her more. It would have been painful but I think it would have been less of a tarpit for me. In retrospect I should have probably taken Marked for Death instead of Leave your Mark since it would score in rounds that Bete buried.

 It was the first time I had played Ironsides. I had trouble getting enough Adrenaline to be useful. I also didn’t realize that Reva’s attack was melee and limited to 3 inches from a corpse marker. I’m not sure if that would have changed anything though but I think that would have had Reva taking 2/3/4 damage every time she attacked Ironsides and generating Adreniline, even when Reva was on the other side of the board. It wasn’t until the final round of the game that I had 2 enemies in range to get any defensive benefits.  I probably should have made an effort to get Ironsides to the stash markers and had someone else deal with the scheme runner. Even if I would have lost Ironsides it would have taken a lot of effort for my opponent to burn her down.  

I think this was also my opponents first game with Reva so I know he missed somethings on his end as well. He was a more experienced player and provide a lot of helpful insight. It was a fun game and I learned a lot.

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Mutter said:

Nice. Looking forward to this ...

What are you gonna play?

I just posted the first report. I'l probably put one up each week.

I play Arcanists. 

I just realized that I should probably start taking pictures of the table before the game starts.

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5 minutes ago, Mutter said:

Nice report, easy to follow. Thanks for the effort!

And wow, what a bloody first turn. I mean, Reva can be brutal anyway, but combined with Killjoy and Bete, that's like a bad B-movie ... ^^

Yeah, having those models standing just barely outside of my deployment zone before my first activation was less than ideal. 

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4 hours ago, WWHSD said:

I also didn’t realize that Reva’s attack was melee and limited to 3 inches from a corpse marker. 

Nope, it's a Ca attack. Close attack, yes, but that's no the same as Ml attack which is what Ironsides' df trigger works off of.

Neat read. Are you playing the league with Arcanists or Ironsides specifically?

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4 minutes ago, Nikodemus said:

Nope, it's a Ca attack. Close attack, yes, but that's no the same as Ml attack which is what Ironsides' df trigger works off of.

Neat read. Are you playing the league with Arcanists or Ironsides specifically?

I can run whatever I like in the league. It's pretty low key and is tracking participation more than it is wins and losses.

I'll end up just running Arcanists as it's the only faction I have (unless I run Mei Feng as Ten Thunders).

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1 hour ago, 4thstringer said:

Make sure you use the errata for ironsides.  It will help her some.

Thanks. I was using the errata. I've got it printed out and sleeved with my card. I think I triggered it twice for the only two points of Adreniline that Toni saw the entire game. Without the built in trigger I doubt she would have even got that.

I never had enough cards in hand to discard them to take advantage of Front Line Leadership. 

Getting her up near the stash markers even if she went alone and died after a round or two probably would have been a better plan of attack. She could have tied up the Shieldbearers for a bit to fuel some of her abilities. If Reva went after Ironsides she wouldn't have been picking off the rest of my crew.

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Sandeep vs. Von Schill (8/14/2017)
Deployment: Corner Deployment
Strategy: Extraction 3/3
Scheme Pool, Claim Jump, Frame for Murder, Accusation (Oppnent scored 1), Show of Force (I scored 2), Hunting Party (I scored 2)
Me: Hunting Party, Show of Force
Opponent: Frame For Murder (Freikorp Trapper), Accusation
Terrain: A couple of hills, a building, some severe terrain, a hazardous pool, lots of scatter.

My Crew: Arcanists
Sandeep (Command Another Plane, Unaligned Sage, Arcane Reservoir)
Carlos Vasquez (Warding Runes, Stunt Double)
Kudra (Free of Mortal Shackles, Warding Runes)
Oxfordian Mages x 3 (Blood, Nemesis, Well Rehearsed, Temp Shielding on all)
Metal Gamin
Wind Gamin
6 Stone Cache

Opponent’s Crew: Outcasts
Von Schill (Oath Keeper, The Shirt Comes Off, I Pay Better)
Student of Conflict
Ronin
Performer
Desperate Mercenary x 2
Johan
Freikorps Trapper
Freikorpsmann
7 Stone Cache

My opponent deploys first and chooses the top right corner which forces me to deploy behind a building with almost no clear lines to the center and a few tight bottlenecks for my models with 40mm bases. He deploys his trapper about at foot outside of my deployment zone. The rest of his forces are spread out along the front side of his deployment zone.

I deploy 2 Mages (Nemesis, Well-Rehearsed), Carlos, and a Wind Gamin to the left of the building towards the front of my deployment zone. Kudra, Sandeep, the third Mage (Blood), and the Metal Gamin go to the right of the house.

This game is being played as part of an achievement league, to score an achievement point my opponent reveals his schemes to me after I deploy. This week there is an achievement for killing the opponents Master with a minion that’s worth a nice chunk of points. Scoring that is more important to me going into this game than scoring my starts and schemes are.

 

WT10roj.jpg

 

The Metal Gamin is down at the bottom just out of the picture. The Wind Gamin behind that little bridge I think was a mistake. I had originally put him on the edge of the deployment zone and then realized that I probably needed to put one my slower 40mm base figures there. We started before I realized that I hadn't actually placed him.

 

Turn 1
Score 0/0

My opponent wins initiative and has it trapper take two shots at the Nemesis Mage. The first shot strips Temporary Shielding, the second forces me to use Well Rehearsed leaving the Nemesis Mage with 1 Wound. The Nemesis Mage activates, and borrows Sandeep’s 6 inch place to move into range of the trapper while staying within range of the Well-Rehearsed Mage for the extra book. I needed to cheat in a mask. He discards a card for Furious Casting and proceeds to miss all three attacks. My opponent starts to move his models towards the center, keeping them behind cover. I activate Carlos, walk him forward, drop a Pyre Marker as far forward as I can, walk towards the center, and then place the Pyre Marker on top of the Trapper. The Trapper passes the walk duel and moves back behind the marker. When I had decided to use the ability, I thought that I was going to get to determine where he pushed to bring him off of the hill and closer to my crew. I ended up using Carlos’s action to provide blocking terrain for the Trapper to hide behind until the end of the turn.

I can’t remember the order that the rest happened but my opponent and I continued moving towards the center, I send my Wind Gamin up the side, Sandeep stones for the suit and summons a Wind Gamin near the middle into sever terrain and behind cover, with the + flip to attacks upgrade. Sandeep summons Banasuva as close to the center as he can giving him the added range but immobile upgrade and damaging the Wind Gamin.  Von Schill uses all of his AP to get onto the hill near the bottom center. Banasuva tries to hit Von Schill will Sandeep’s ranged attack with the push and misses.  

No one scores.

 

30T1pRd.jpg?1

Turn 2
Score 0/0

I win initiative and move my Wind Gamin to engage the Freikorp Trapper. I cheat in a high mask to leap so that he can move far enough. It turns out that was a waste of both a card  and an activation because the Trapper can discard for a push while engaged, which he does and then takes two shots to finish off my Nemesis Mage. My Well Rehearsed Mage discards to furious cast and hits the trapper twice but misses all of his triggers, leaving the trapper at a single wound. Von Schill uses his Stand and Shoot action to attack Sandeep, Kudra, Banasuva, Metal Gamin, Wind Gamin, and Blood Mage. Banasuva and the Blood Mage are the only ones that take damage.  The Blood Mage furious casts and pushes Von Schill down the hill towards the center of the board. The Performer lures my Wind Gamin (the one that had engaged the Trapper) puts 3 wounds and some poison on him. Carlos does his zero action for a push and another +1 Burning and charges the Performer killing it in the first hit after adding damage from his burning condition. A Desperate Mercenary moves up and takes a shot at Banasuva and misses. Kudra charges Von Schill and hits him several times leaving him with a stack of poison and some damage. Von Schill burned a few cards and soul stones during her attack is still about half wounds. I can’t remember which models my opponent for the rest of the turn but Banasuva tries to pull Von Schill into his 3 inch melee range and fails causing his remain 2 AP to be wasted. Sandeep teleports closer to Von Schill and gets the + flips from the Wind Gamin. He attacks Von Schill with his ranged attack and does severe damage. Von Schill spends the last of his stones to reduce the damage. Because I want to kill Von Schill with a minion Sandeep uses his next action to summon. I’m out of cards so I stone for a mask. I flip the Black Joker. I try to summon again spending a stone for the suit and flip a weak card. I leave the attack buffing wind gamin where it is and do something useless and unmemorable with my Metal Gamin.

The poisoned Wind Gamin dies. I think I pushed Kudra into scoring position for Extraction.

We both score Extraction, I score Show of Force and Hunting Party.

Turn 3
Score 3/1

Von Schill burns Oathkeeper and takes off the shirt and flips a Black Joker on his healing flip. The resulting terror check paralyzes my Blood Mage,  Metal Gamin, Wind Gamin, and forces Sandeep and Kudra to cheat to not be paralyzed. Von Schill pulls a leaping charge to put down Banasuva which is followed by another leaping charge to take down Carlos. The Well-Rehearsed Mage uses Furious casting to finish off Von Schill. I get all excited about scoring the achievement. I don’t realize until I started writing this battle report that Mages are Enforcers. Now I’m sad.  A Desperate Mercenary moves in and Accuses Kudra. Kudra uses Sandeep’s teleport to get unengaged and removes accusation.  The Trapper focuses and tries to shoot Kudra but she discards a card to move out of his line sight causing the attack to fail. The Blood Mage attacks and kills the Desperate Mercenary. The Ronin charges and kills the Blood Mage. I’m not sure what I was thinking but I have Sandeep summon a Wind Gamin, using his last stone for the suit. I can’t remember what else I had Sandeep do because I thought that the store was going to be kicking us out soon enough that we weren’t going to make it to round three. The Freikorpsman accuses my new Wind Gamin. The Wind Gamin tried to leap and fails. He tries to disengage and fails. He uses his last AP to attack the Friekorpsman.

My paralyzed models get unparalyzed.

We both score Extraction, I score Show of Force and Hunting Party. My opponent scores Accusation.

Turn 4
Score 6/3

Turns out we have time for another turn after all. Kudra charges the Ronin trying to score Hunting Party. She deals a Red Joker for damage on her final attack which I am disappointed to find out deals Severe+Weak as hit instead of two hits that would have avoided Hard to Kill. The Ronin flurries, cuts down Kudra, and then commits Seppuku so that my Mage can’t kill her. At that point we call the game. The only Minion that my Mage could kill is the Trapper which would end up scoring a point for both of us and he doesn’t have anything that could accuse one of my models and make it stick.   

We both score Extraction.

Final Score
Score 7/4



The deployment challenges I had really messed with my head this game and I made a series of bad decisions throughout the game. Making the most out of my deployment is always a challenge for me. Having a challenging deployment makes it worse.

I probably should have had my first Mage focus and cheat in a high card on his attack to pull the Trapper out from behind cover instead of thinking that three attacks would be enough to power through the negative flip.

When summoning Banasuva early I should probably with the have used the upgrade that keeps him from cheating but that makes him immune to slow. That way he would have actually been able to do something.  I should have also held off on Banasuva’s activation more when he isn’t going to be able to do anything other than borrow a ranged attack from Sandeep.

I took the big smashy Gada upgrade on Sandeep but never hit anything with it. I should have probably used him more aggressively to deal and soak damage since he isn’t a model that can score either of the schemes that I took.

I did nothing at all with my Metal Gamin. He ended up getting stuck behind my models and severe terrain. I probably should have just sucked it up and had him trudge through it or go the long way back around.

 

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Mei Feng vs. The Dreamer (8/22/2017)
Deployment: Standard
Strategy: Headhunter 2/1
Scheme Pool, Claim Jump, Eliminate the Leadership, Accusation, Recover Evidence, Search the ruins,

Me: Recover Evidence, Search the Ruins
Opponent: Claim Jump, Eliminate the Leadership
Terrain: Mostly larger blocking terrain.

 

My Crew: Arcanists
Mei Feng (Vapormancy, Thunderous Smash, Press The Advantage)
Kang (People’s Champion, Hardworker)
Joss (Imbued Energies)
Emberling
2 x Rail Workers
Arcane Effigy
Wind Gamin
6 Stone Cache

Opponent’s Crew: Neverborn
The Dreamer (Tantrum, Growing Up, Sleep Cycles)
Mr. Tannen
Doppleganger (Malifaux Provides)
Teddy (A Thousand Faces)
Lelu (Satisfying Punishment)
Lelitu (Malifaux Provides)
Primordial Magic
5 Stone Cache

78ksPtp.jpg

My opponent set up mostly in the upper right corner of the board toward the front of his deployment zone with Lelu and Lelitu just a bit left of the center line. I set up with the the Wind Gamin and Emberling on the edges and every one else near the middle. 

Turn 1
Score 0/0

Most of the first turn was spent with The Dreamer summoning Daydreams and using them to push Teddy up the board. Everything else moved forward holding off Teddy’s activation as long as he could.

I had my Arcane Effigy give Mei Feng the Arcane Radiance buff and then started moving everyone forward giving Mei some options for Rail Walking forward. The Wind Gamin and Emberling moved up the edges because I thought Search the Ruins required scheme markers on near the centerline, not near the center.

My opponent out activated me so Mei had to act before Teddy. She attempted to railwalk up but failed to meet the TN and had to cheat. A railwalk brought her close to charge Teddy and end up at 3 inches away which allowed her to attack with Scalding Breath. Mei was in range to benefit from Kangs buffs. Her first attack declared the Burning Trigger and the second used Press the Advantage to declare the Vent Steam trigger. Teddy discarded a card to avoid the burning from Radiance burning and took a couple of points of damage. Teddy activates and attempts to use Gobble You Up.. Mei cheats to make it miss. Teddy walks into melee range and proceeds to land weak damage on her. She tries to stone it off to avoid the push trigger but doesn’t quite do it and gets push so that she is between Teddy and the rest of The Dreamer’s crew.

 

vconNFR.jpg

Turn 2
Score 0/0

My opponent cheats initiative to win it and has Teddy attack Mei Feng. He misses with Gobble You Up and then Flurries. He gets in some damage but most of it gets stone away. I was lucky enough to flip a Red Joker while trying to reduce a severe hit from Teddy. The Effigy buffs Mei and then chain activates her. Mei activates and puts some damage and burning on Teddy making sure to trigger Vent Steam on her last attack. Lelitu activates and passes some buff to Lelu. A Rail Worker discards a card for Implacable Assault and charges Teddy and drops him. The head gets placed towards my other Rail Worker. The Dreamer activates and summons an Alp onto the Head from Teddy and tries to hit Mei with his melee attack, missing both times. Kang kills the Alp. Lelu runs up and puts some damage on Mei, mostly from his unavoidable Black Blood damage. The other Rail Worker picks up the head. Some other attacks come in against Mei leaving her just below half health. Instead of trying to attack The Dreamer, Joss moves to destroy a Day Dream worried that any attack he made against The Dreamer would get shunted to Lelu and reduce Mei’s Health even further. In retrospect, I was worrying about nothing since Joss’s attack ignores triggers. Mr. Tannen gets close enough to Mei that she needs to discard if she wants to cheat. Daydreams box in Mei Feng so that she can’t push out of melee. I moved up the Emberling and the Wind Gamin to drop markers in spots that would have been awesome from Claim Jump but were worthless for Search the Ruins.

I score Headhunter, my opponent scores 1 point from reducing Mei Feng to half.
 

Turn 3
Score 1/1

I reveal Recover Evidence and then I lose initiative again. The Dreamer attacks and does it bit of damage and then turns into Lord Chompy Bits. Chompy Chain activates and misses Mei with both of his attacks. Mei targets the Daydream next to Tannen hoping to get some splash damage onto Tannen and kill the Daydream since her Wp is reduced because she is too close to the Daybreams and Tannen has Manipulative. She kills the Daydream with weak damage and then tries to attack Tannen and misses as well. She tries to Rail Walk away and fails to flip a high enough card. I’ve got nothing in my hand higher than a 5 so I can’t cheat it. Lelu activates and finishes of Mei. Kang and a Railworker drop Chompy and we decide to call it a game since we are almost out of time and there’s nothing that will happen for the remainder of the round that will affect scoring.

We both score Headhunter, my opponent scores the other 2 points from Eliminate the Leadership.

n6dT0IK.jpg

Final Score
Score 2/4

This game only made it through 3 rounds. We spent a lot of time talking about my opponent’s trip to GenCon and all the new stuff before we started playing and I got a few calls from work during the game that I needed to take.

I think getting Mei in the way to jam up Teddy on round one was probably the right thing to do. After that I should have taken a swing or two and then railwalked away to let the rest of my crew deal with him. That way I could continue to play hit and run with Mei instead of getting her mired down. In turn three I should have tried to Railwalk as her first action since I didn’t have any cards in hand high enough to guarantee it. I really like Vapormancy. Having a 3 inch engagement range on Mei is sweet. At first I thought that Press the Advantage on Mei was a waste but I do think getting to use the Vent Steam trigger with Scorching Breath was nice. I was hoping to use the Thunderous smash trigger but the circumstance never really presented itself.  Taking Seismic Claws, Rail Lines or even Arcane Reservoir probably would have served me better.

Kang was a superstar. He’s aura that made friendlies Immune to Horror duels made Teddy and Chompy much easier to deal with. The Railworkers can put out some nice damage if you take advantage of their zero action.

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Ramos vs. Lady Justice (8/28/2017)
Deployment: Corner
Strategy: Ours
Scheme Pool: Inescapable Trap, Buried Treasure, Collect Evidence, Smuggled Across, Dig Their Graves,

Me: Buried Treasure, Smuggled Across
Opponent: Buried Treasure, Collect Evidence
Terrain: Good mix of different height terrain, some blocked LoS some was just impassable but provided cover. There was a big forrest (dense, severe) towards the center of the table.

 

My Crew: Arcanists
Ramos (Under Pressure, Field Generator, Vox Populi)
 Joss (Imbued Energies, Bleeding Edge Tech)
Johanna (Well Rehearsed)
Union Steamfitter
2 x Soulstone Miners
Electrical Creation
6 Stone Cache

Opponent’s Crew: Guild
Lady Justice (Ashwood Coffin, Swordfighter)
Brutal Emissary (Conflux of Judgement)
Francisco (Wade In, Numb To The World)
Death Marshall
Guardian
2 x Guild Austringer
6 Stone Cache

 

The schemes and strategies used in this match came from the GG18 beta document released on 8/28/18.  I’ll give a summary of the ones chosen:

-        Ours: Control two quadrants to score. A quadrant is controlled by the player with the most soulstone’s worth of models in a quadrant. Peon’s and summoned models do not count for scoring.

-        Buried Treasure: At the end of the game score a point for every scheme marker more than 6 inches outside of your deployment area and more than 6 inches away from an enemy model.

-        Smuggled Across: Scheme can be revealed at the start of the turn if you have at least 3 minions on the opponent’s half of the board and more than 6 inches from the center. At the end of the turn score a VP for every minion on the opponent’s half and more than 6 inches from the center.

-        Collect Evidence: Reveal when you score. Score a VP by removing an enemy scheme marker with an Interact action.

I won the deployment flip and opted to deploy first to avoid getting stuck with a crappy corner. I chose the corner (bottom right) that I thought would give me the easiest time moving out of my deployment zone. I also wanted to keep the fight close to the forest if my opponent came after me aggressively since my spiders and miners aren’t slowed by it.

I deployed Joss and Ramos on either side of the Electrical Creation at the front of the deployment zone a bit to the left of center. The Steamfitter and Johanna were deployed in the front of the deployment zone near the center. I was initially going to start my miners buried but my opponent let me know that he could attack buried models.  With Lady J. and the Emissary having the ability to attack buried models, I figured that it wasn’t worth it to start the Soulstone Miners buried. 4 Ca 7 attacks with a 3/4/5 damage track could very easily take out both miners on the first turn. I deployed both of my Miners near the bottom edge towards the front of my deployment zone with one staggered back enough that a dropped scheme marker would be close enough to get Johanna a push.

My opponent deployed in the upper left corner. All his models were deployed along the front edge of his deployment zone. The Emissary was near the top edge and the Death Marshal was near the right edge. The rest were lined up in the center.

f4uP2oO.jpg

 

 

Turn 1
Score 0/0

I draw my hand and end up with the Black Joker and nothing but weak and low moderate cards. I stone and pull the Red Joker. I get a little giddy about having the Steamfitter. I won the initiative flip and chose to go first to give my opponent less activations to mess with Ramos getting his spider engine rolling.

My first activations move the electrical creation forward, have Joss kill it for two scrap, Ramos moves forward, casts arcing screen, and then spends a stone and uses the Red Joker to summon three spiders. The Steamfitter gets to live the dream and pull the Red Joker back into my hand. He discards a low mask so that his defensive trigger gets a built in mask and puts his buff on Johanna. He tries to put it on Joss as well but failed.

My opponent used Francisco and the Guardian to buff up Lady J’s defense and moves them up and towards the center. He triple walks Lady J to put her a bit past the center of the board. He double walks his Death Marshall down the edge. I think he had both of his Austringers use Deliver Orders to push the Guardian and Death Marshall forward and allow them to drop scheme markers. The Emissary boxes up an Austringer and moves forward along the top edge.

I had originally planned on moving my Miners along the bottom edge towards the bottom right Quadrant.  Seeing that Lady J now pretty much threatened all the way to the bottom edge of the map I decided to keep my Miners back to help hold the quadrant with my deployment zone instead of getting them picked off out in the open. I had one Miner move back towards the corner behind cover and the other dropped a scheme marker to allow Johanna to push and then moved up next to the Steamfitter. Johanna moves up towards Joss and Ramos. All of the summoned spiders heal from activating near Joss and then walk forward to the edge of Joss’s and Ramos’s bubbles.  

No one scores.

gXiMR1n.jpg


Turn 2
Score 0/0

I win initiative again and have Ramos move, renew arcing screen, and summon three more spiders with a stone and the Red Joker. Not wanting to let me pick up the Red Joker my opponent moves up his Emissary, attacks spider to force me to flip.

lae6y4i.jpg

I flip the King of Tomes causing the attack to miss and getting the second-best card in my deck for my Steamfitter to grab. The Emissary unboxes the Austringer next to the scheme marker closest toward the center of the board. The Steamfitter moves towards Joss and tries to buff him but fails. I move up my furthest forward spider (towards the upper left corner) and drop a scheme marker. The freshly unboxed Austringer moves has his Raptor attack one of my spiders twice and kills it. I move a Miner and have him drop a scheme marker to get Johanna closer to Joss and Ramos.

Lady J moves closer to my cluster of guys and uses Swordfighter to BAMF! into one of my spiders, kill it, and then BAMF! into engagement with Ramos and Johanna and just out of engagement with Joss. I’m looking at the board and seeing Lady J completely surrounded but find myself thinking “Dammit, she has me right where she wants me”. She’s sitting at 9Wp and 7Df and getting triple + to her defense flip. To top it off every attack I miss gives her a 3/4/6 riposte since Swordfighter gave her built in suits for her defense trigger. I proceed to move 2 spiders into base to base contact with her getting her Df to a manageable 5. I burn Imbued Energies to Charge with Joss and take a third attack. Joss is in range to get plus flips on his attack from Ramos.  I miss the first attack and take a weak Riposte which gets brought down to 1 by armor (I forgot that Joss ignores Df triggers). I land my next two attacks for weak and moderate damage which each get reduced by Lady J burning soulstones. Johanna discards a card and flurries. She manages to hit for 2 of her three attacks and gets hit for a weak Riposte. Lady J reduces damage with stones again and is left with 6 health. I’m relieved that I didn’t kill any of my models attacking her.

My remaining Miner moves into the top right quadrant. While I was setting up my attack on Lady J my opponent moved Francisco and the Emissary towards the action, moved the Guardian towards the center and the Death Marshall down the edge dropping a scheme marker.   

My opponent scores Ours.

5maZfsU.jpg

Turn 3
Score 0/1

My opponent wins initiative, uses her zero action to heal and then BAMFS! away from my spiders but still engaged with Johanna, Ramos, and Joss. She attacks Johanna trying to take her down. The first attack results in severe damage but the buff from the Steamfitter drops that to moderate. The second attack triggers Hard To Kill leaving Johanna at 1 Wd. I discard Well-Rehearsed after the third attack to keep Johanna on the board. Johanna activates and heals herself, Joss and two spiders for 1Wd. An Austringer uses his Raptor to damage one of my spiders and to force me to discard two cards. I discard the Black Joker and a low mask. Unfortunately, I put the Joker on top when discarding.  I move two more spiders into base to base with Lady J which drops her Defense to 3. I charge her with the Steamfitter and one of the Soulstone Miners doing enough damage to kill her. At some point Francisco had moved into range to keep my models engaged. I think he might have attack Joss but missed. At this point the store is giving us the warning that they’ll be closing soon.

I move a spider away from the cluster of models, use Magnetize to get Ramos out of the engagement and then use Electrical Fire on Francisco three times. Joss activates and walks over the center line to be in position to count for the top left quadrant while remaining engaged with Francisco. Joss takes his final action to attack and kill Francisco.

I move my last spider and drop a scheme marker. My opponent’s Death Marshall does the same.

I score 2 points for Buried Treasure and my opponent scores 3. We each score Ours.  

 

Final Score
Score 3/5

 

I glossed over a lot of what my opponent was doing with his models because for the most part it was non-memorable stuff like holding quadrants and dropping markers. That non-memorable stuff is what wins games though. Lady J managed to tie up my entire crew while the rest of his was getting to do the boring stuff that scores.  

When I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to start the Soulstone Miners buried I should probably have tucked them away with Johanna behind some cover and just farmed soulstones with them while having them hold down a quadrant. Each miner takes the action to generate a soulstone and then have Johanna use her AoE heal.

I need to remember how far away “opponent’s half of the board and not within 6 inches of the center” is when using a corner deployment.

Once again, I forgot that Joss ignores defensive triggers. I probably need to print out a label for his sleeve to remind me at this point.

The Union Steamfitter was a champ. Being able to pull the card used for summoning back into my hand on the first round was huge. Even if you only pull a couple of decent cards with his ability in a game his attack is respectable and he’s got a solid buff. Next time I play him I need to be more aware of the order in which I am discarding before I activate him.

This was the first time that I’ve played against Guild. I thought the Austringers and their Deliver Orders action was amazing. I’m not sure if going on all in on trying to take out Lady J once she leaped into my crew was the right move or not. Since the game only ran to the end of round three   

I thought that the pool for the encounter was interesting. The strategy has you trying to control quadrants and there’s one scheme that rewards you for putting minions on your opponent’s side of the board. One scheme that scores when you remove enemy markers and 3 schemes that require you to drop markers. Several of the schemes can score 3 points in one round which make it seem like bluffing schemes might work.

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Marcus vs. Tara (9/4/2017)
Deployment: Flank
Strategy: Interference
Scheme Pool: Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Dig Their Graves, Set Up, Mark For Death

Me: Frame For Murder (Joss), Mark For Death
Opponent: Claim Jump, Mark for Death
Terrain: Larger ruins pieces with some low wall. Terrain is heaviest in the center with several areas that are too narrow to fit a 50mm base.

 

My Crew: Arcanists
Marcus
Joss (Blade and Claw, Burning)
Myranda (Imbued Energies)
Slateridge Mauler (Circus Bear)
3 x Poison Gamin
6 Stone Cache

Opponent’s Crew: Tara
Tara (Emptiness, Out Of Time, Eternal Journey, Obliteration Symbiote, Knowledge of Eternity)
Nothing Beast (Oathkeeper, Void Shards)
Hannah (Ancient Tomes)
Sue (Return Fire)
3 x Void Wretch
4 Stone Cache

 

My opponent won the choice of deployment zone but due to the terrain I don’t think that any corner was particularly advantageous. All of my opponents models were deployed to the front of her deployment zone. Sue was in the middle, two Void Wretches were to the right, and the rest of the her units were towards the left. I deployed Joss and two Poison Gamin near the middle, Marcus, Myranda, and the Bear to the left, and the remaining Poison Gamin along the bottom to the right.

oElH4Xa.jpg

 

 

 

Turn 1
Score 0/0

Tara buries the Nothing Beast and moves forward. She runs a Void Wretch towards the top right corner. Marcus Alphas the Bear and walks towards the center. The Bear double walks towards the top right corner. He uses his 0 action Bear Hug to pull the void wretch towards him. When the Bear activates he marks the Void Wretch for Death and attacks it. When Myranda activates, she moves up and gives the Bear another attack, the Void Wretch is left with a single Wound remaining. Two void wretches and a poison Gamin move into the bottom right quadrant. Hannah moves towards the upper left quadrant (close to the Bear but out of range/LoS). Sue and Tara move towards the center. Joss and the two Poison Gamin move up the center.   

AsYJy5Y.jpg?1

Turn 2
Score 0/0

Tara moves up and pops the Nothing Beast out in Marcus’s face and shoots a Poison Gamin using the Sympathetic Echoes trigger to damage a second Gamin as well. Marcus gets off Feral on the Nothing Beast making him a Beast, has a successful Alpha, and then smacks him once in melee for good measure. I activate the Nothing Beast and burn Oathkeeper for Fast. He marks Tara for Death and then hits and buries her with his extra AP for casting actions. Using his two remain AP he charges Sue and does some damage. He charges back putting some damage on Marcus. Joss uses Blade and Claw to move get the Gamin at least two inches away from the Nothing Beast so that he can use his ranged cast attack without randomizing and puts some damage on the Nothing Beast. A Gamin makes two ranged attacks which both apply burning on damaging. The Nothing Beast discards Void Shards to ignore the damage (and burning) from the second attack. My opponent moves Sue into the upper left hand quadrant.

Realizing that I have completely forgotten about trying to score Interference, and seeing the upper right quadrant empty I double walk Miranda and turn her into a Sabretooth Cerebrus. I try to top deck a leap and flip the right suit but miss the TN by 1. I end up making Boris dance out of the engagement range of the Void Wretch and charge Sue, making sure he ends up in Hannah’s engagement range. Hannah takes a couple of swings at the Bear and does a little bit of damage.

The void wretches in the lower right quadrant both drop scheme markers and the Poison Gamin starts trying to kill one of them.

I scored Marked for Death. My opponent scored Claim Jump. No one scores Interference.

 

YAodyHw.jpg?1

Turn 3
Score 1/1

I win initiative. Sue and a Void Wretch each have 1 Wd, the Nothing Beast has 3. I’m focused on making sure that I don’t do anything that lets Tara unbury in time to be my opponent’s first activation so that she’ll only be able to activate once in the round. Marcus goes first and gets off Feral and Alpha on the Nothing Beast Again. I move Marcus away and then have the Nothing Beast charge Hannah but end up missing on all of his attacks. The Nothing Beast charges Marcus, drops him to 1 Wd and buries him. The Bear kills Sue causing Tara and Marcus to unbury in the top left quadrant. Tara activates and finishes off Marcus. The Sabretooth charges Tara and misses on his first attack, he flips the Red Joker on his second attack which hits and gets Maul trigger which lets him attack Tara again. I proceed to flip the King of Tomes for the next attack, followed by the Jack of Tomes, which results in a 4 attack chain which finishes Tara off.

The void wretch in the upper left drops a scheme marker and so does one in the bottom right. Joss and his two Posion Gamin try to put some damage on the Nothing Beast but don’t manage to kill it. My Poison Gamin in the bottom right does some more damage to a void wretch.

My opponent scores 2 points for Marked for Death, I score 1. I score Interference and my opponent scores Claim Jump.

Turn 4
Score 4/3

Joss kills off the Nothing Beast. Hannah Marks the Bear for Death and Buries him. The Sabretooth kills off a Void Wretch. A Poison Gamin kills off a Void Wretch.

We both scored the final points for Marked For Death, I score Interference.

Final Score
Score 5/5

 

We discussed how the fifth round would have played out. With only Hannah and a Void Wretch left on the table my opponent had no way of scoring either Claim Jump or Interference and no way to stop me from scoring Interference. There’s no way that Joss was going to get killed to score me Framed for Murder.

 

I really should have been more aggressive with Joss. My opponent had made comments during the first turn than made me think that Joss was the thing on the board that she most wanted dead. I figured that if I played it a bit safe with Joss it would make it seem like he wasn’t a FFM sucker. I ended up being too clever for myself because it just made Marcus a more convenient target to get to.

I liked using Blade and Claw with Joss but I think I used it some rounds just because I could and not because it was the right thing to do.

I was maybe a bit too concerned with keeping Tara Buried. I should have just had Marcus kill the Nothing Beast instead of using Alpha on it the second time. I think I got a little carried away with how cool Alpha was and neglected the rest of what he could do. With all of the Willpower duels that Tara and crew were throwing at me I would have been better off with The Hunger Cry than I was with Venomancy.  

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Thanks for sharing these battle reports. Some of the details you mention had me thinking, and it seems like you have made a few errors in some of those games. The first one is more on your opponent, as (s)he should remember the abilities of her or his models:

On 16/8/2017 at 11:15 PM, WWHSD said:

Kudra charges the Ronin

Unless Kudra has some sort of ability that allows it to charge regardless of other restrictions, disguised prevents anybody from charging the Ronin.

More importantly, it looks like you use your opponents model to mark another enemy model for death:

On 10/9/2017 at 7:11 AM, WWHSD said:

Marcus gets off Feral on the Nothing Beast making him a Beast, has a successful Alpha, and then smacks him once in melee for good measure. I activate the Nothing Beast and burn Oathkeeper for Fast. He marks Tara for Death and then hits and buries her with his extra AP for casting actions. Using his two remain AP he charges Sue and does some damage.

Since Alpha does not change which crew the model belongs to, nor which models it consider friendly, it cannot mark models in its own crew for death. Also it looks like the Nothing Beast is engaged with Marcus when he charges, and thus he cannot declare a charge against Sue.

It is very helpful to be able to learn from the mistakes of others, so thanks again for sharing. In particular, I think it is nice with your after action considerations.

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Sandeep vs. Ulix (9/11/2017)
Deployment: Blind (with opponent placing)
Strategy: Guard the Stash
Scheme Pool: Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Dig Their Graves, Mark For Death, A Quick Murder

Me: Frame For Murder (Carlos), A Quick Murder (Gracie)
Opponent: Mark for Death, Unknown
Terrain: Some hills and buildings. Not a lot of scatter.

My Crew: Arcanists
Sandeep (A Moment of Weakness, Enlightened Soul, Arcane Reservoir)
Carlos (Imbued Protection, Stunt Double)
Myranda (Imbued Energies)
Kandara (Imbued Energies, Human Guise)
Johana (Well Rehearsed)
Union Steamfitter
7 Stone Cache

Opponent’s Crew: Gremlins
Ulix (Pig Midwife, Husbandry, Huntin’ Bow)
Old Major (Corn Husks)
Trixiebelle
Merris
Gracie
Slop Hauler
Penelope
4 Stone Cache

 

This week’s bounty in the league was to play a game using Blind Deployment to have your opponent place your models. We used Crewfaux to generate the encounter but replaced the Deployment type that was generated with Blind.

Here’s a quick run-down of how to play a Blind Deployment.

1. One player is black, the other player is red.
2. Count out a number of cards of the appropriate color to equal the number of model in each players crew.
3. Shuffle these cards together to form a deck.
4. Players take turns placing the top card from this deck, anywhere on the board, face down. It may not touch another card. Do not look at the cards.

hdslk8O.jpg


5. Once all cards have been placed, flip them face up.

kH7FhVh.jpg


6. Players take turns placing models on cards that match their color. The model may be placed anywhere on the card. Remove the card after the model is placed.

7. Once all models are placed, the game is treated as a Standard deployment for all game purposes (center line, deployment areas, etc.)

q4s3SUO.jpg?1 

 

The way the deployment worked out, most of my opponent’s models were toward the center and mine were spread out around the edges.

Sandeep ended up in the top right corner and Carlos was in the top left. Johanna was near the top center. The Union Steamfitter was in the bottom left, Myranda was to the right side of the board and Kandara was near the Stash marker on the right-hand side of the board.

Old Major was on a hill on the left center of the board. Gracie was near the Stash marker on the right side of the board. Penelope was bottom center. Ulix and Merris were near the left-hand Stash Marker with Trixiebelle near the left edge and the Slop Hauler towards near the center of the top right quadrant.

Turn 1
Score 0/0

Most of my opponent’s activations this turn went towards moving most of his models into a pack near the left stash marker and dropping several scheme markers. Johanna charges the Slop Hauler and it squeals away closer to pack of pigs and Gremlins. Ulix summons a piglet at some point that charges Johanna. I had Kandara and Myranda attack Gracie. Kandara got the trigger that allowed her to plae in base to base contact with her target and I use that to place Kandara on the opposite side of Gracie from where Myranda will charge. Myranda got some poison onto Gracie before shifting into a Cerebrus (and giving me four cards from Imbued Energies). The Cerebrus knocked Gracie to 1 Wd. Gracie tries to attack the Cerebrus but missed both attacks. The Cerebrus cheated in a king on the second attack that the Steamfitter was able to pull of the discard pile when he activated. The Steamfitter double walked to engage Penelope.  The Slop Hauler toss out some healing.

Carlos uses his zero action to push around a building and then charges towards the cluster of gremlins. Sandeep teleports, walks, and then charges the Piglet, killing it and summoning Banasuva. Banasuva walks towards Merris, makes and attack and misses.

Poison finishes off Gracie.

I score A Quick Murder

bwb5lmA.jpg

Turn 2
Score 3/0

Trixiebelle makes Johanna and Sandeep runaway. Sabertooth Cerebrus moves to with 2 inches of the right hand Stash marker. Carlos drops a pyre marker, walks and moves the pyre marker to overlap with Ulix, Slop Hauler, Merris, and Trixiebelle. Everyone passes the Wk duel except for Merris (it did take some cheating). Carlos then attacks Merris. Old Major attack Carlos. Ulix summons a piglet and a warpig and pokes it to charge Banasuva. Banasuva and Sandeep kill the Warpig and Ulix. Kandara moves close to Merris and kills her. Merris puts burning 4 on Kandara, Banasuva, and the Slop Hauler. The Steamfitter kills Penelope. At some point Carlos gets Marked for Death.

The Slop Hauler goes Reckless and charges Carlos. Carlos gets knocked down to a single wound after burning Imbued Protection.

Banasuva and the Slop Hauler die.

I score Guard The Stash

QD2A1mQ.jpg

Turn 3
Score 4/0

Old Major attacks Carlos. I’m winning after the initial flips from the duel. I surprise my opponent by cheating in the Black Joker to ensure that that Carlos dies as long as my opponent doesn’t Black Joker on his damage flip. Trixie makes Sandeep and Johanna run away again. The piglet charges Kandara. Sandeep kills Trixiebelle.

I score Framed for Murder and Guard The Stash. My opponent score Mark for Death.

NMjDQq7.jpg

Turn 4
Score 8/1

A bunch of attacks get thrown around leaving my opponent with just Old Major. We call the game.

I score Guard The Stash

Final Score
Score 9/1

 

The Blind Deployment was fun. I’m not sure if I would have players place their opponent’s models if I played it again. I think my crew was a better fit for the encounter since it was made up of very independent models while his really required being in close together to get the pig engine rolling.

I liked having Imbued Protection on my Framed For Murder sucker since it allowed a bit more control on when they die. The Steamfitter didn’t buff anyone this game but his ability to pick up a card allowed me to cheat a defense flip that I normally wouldn’t have been willing to use my only severe card on.

I wasn’t very impressed with Sandeep’s “A Moment of Weakness” the one time that I summoned Banasuva, I had the cards to summon a Gamin and then Banasuva. The second opportunity I had to summon Banasuva I didn’t because there would have been no legal spot to place him. I’ll probably try it again but I don’t really see it being better than either of his other Limited upgrades.  

 

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19 hours ago, Runeman said:

Thanks for sharing these battle reports. Some of the details you mention had me thinking, and it seems like you have made a few errors in some of those games. The first one is more on your opponent, as (s)he should remember the abilities of her or his models:

Unless Kudra has some sort of ability that allows it to charge regardless of other restrictions, disguised prevents anybody from charging the Ronin.

More importantly, it looks like you use your opponents model to mark another enemy model for death:

Since Alpha does not change which crew the model belongs to, nor which models it consider friendly, it cannot mark models in its own crew for death. Also it looks like the Nothing Beast is engaged with Marcus when he charges, and thus he cannot declare a charge against Sue.

It is very helpful to be able to learn from the mistakes of others, so thanks again for sharing. In particular, I think it is nice with your after action considerations.

I've been finding it hard to find the time to write up my games but I have found it to be very helpful in learning the game. I frequently realize opportunities that were missed or rules that were applied incorrectly when recounting the evens of a game. 

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  • 1 month later...

Terrific reports, I really like your style.  For the last game, were you concerned about starting with so few pieces?  Or was it deliberate to have stronger independent models in case they were spread far and wide by the blind deployment?

On 9/17/2017 at 3:14 AM, WWHSD said:

I've been finding it hard to find the time to write up my games but I have found it to be very helpful in learning the game. I frequently realize opportunities that were missed or rules that were applied incorrectly when recounting the evens of a game. 

This is one of two great reasons that everyone should write battle reports (the other is that I like to read about people's experience in the game, much more so that reading theory-faux).  Hopefully you're able to apply the lessons in future games.

 

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