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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 10/23/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/01/2017.

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Corner
Strategy:  Ply for Information
Schemes:  Surround Them, Dig Their Graves, Undercover Entourage, Inescapable Trap, Vendetta

I declared Outcasts, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Parker Barrows + 4 SS

  • Black Market
  • Hail of Bullets
  • Stick Up

Doc Mitchell
Mad Dog Brackett

  • Lucky Poncho
  • Oathkeeper

Anna Lovelace

  • Oathkeeper

Hodgepodge Emissary

  • Conflux of Stolen Goods

Dead Outlaw
Dead Outlaw

There was some discussion on AWP about Parker Barrows this day, and in that discussion someone pointed out several models who don’t randomize into engagements with projectiles attacks.  I wanted to see how one such model - Anna in this case - would do if I played hard into High Noon early.  I chose Anna for several reasons - she could summon Seishin to provide bonus healing; she has a minimum damage of 3 with her projectile attack; and her auras denying the enemy push and place effects would turn off alpha strike shenanigans on my crew.  The rest of the crew is my standard Parker setup.  

My Opponent’s List
Reva + 4 SS

  • Riders in the Sky
  • Beyond Death

Philip and the Nanny
Carrion Emissary

  • Carrion Conflux

Shieldbearer
Shieldbearer
Rotten Belle
Rotten Belle
Necropunk

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
His crew was heavy in the minion side of things, and I figured he’s be using the Emissary’s aura to buff said minions as he approached.  I was not keen to see two Belles - especially since I wasn’t running Sue this game.  Figuring that we’d be in close proximity due to the strat, I opted for Inescapable Trap.  My second scheme was Undercover Entourage on Parker, and easy choice when my opponent didn’t take Decaying Aura on Reva.

My opponent ended up taking Dig Their Graves and Vendetta, with the Vendetta being a Shieldbearer and one of my Dead Outlaws.

Deployment
I win the cut, and have him deploy first.  There was nothing specific about this setup - the board was fairly scattered with terrain, and he gave himself as many firing lanes as he could.  I deployed as best I could with my Dead Outlaws bluffing for Surround Them, but I realized later that I neglected to leave anyone in position to drop a bluffed marker in my corner.

Turn 1
I win initiative, and have him activate first.  He goes with the Necropunk who drops a pair of schemes with a leap.  I have the Emissary go, and cycle a Vitality Potion onto Mad Dog (Cycling being the combination of Something in My Pack, it was Only a Loan, and Something in My Pack a second time to draw three cards and get an enemy scheme marker) before pushing up the board.  

Reva activated next, summoning and Corpse Candle and repositioning for the next turn.  We alternate walking models at this point, with me walking my Dead Outlaws and him walking his Corpse Candle and a Shieldbearer, who opts for Not Today on Sword and Board.

Eventually, I activate Parker.  Parker makes a Fast Getaway for a Soulstone, walking up behind a fence.  He tells Anna the Job’s Not Done Yet before using Five Finger Discount to attach High Noon and get a stone.  He then walks to be in range to target the Shield Bearer, and gives her the Dead Man Walking condition.  I opt to ditch a stone to keep the upgrade.  

He has a Belle walk up, and I walk Mad Dog up twice but Black Joker my Blow it to Hell flip.  With Mad Dog exposed, he walks up a Belle and Lures him in.  I walk Anna up twice, and use Vortex to push his Corpse Candle back into his Shieldbearers, who pass the resulting duels.  He walks the Emissary up and drops some Shards to engage Mad Dog next turn.  I walk Doc up twice, and he walks up his Shieldbearer.  Philip eats two scheme markers to end the turn.  

At the end of the turn, he summons a Mindless Zombie to engage Mad Dog.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
I stone for cards this turn.  He wins the initiative flip, and opens with the Emissary.  He drops Shards and walks, but fails his Rot and Rend attack on Anna.  I open with Parker, using High Noon to put Dead Man Walking on his other Shieldbearer, opting to discard it for a stone this time.  He then walks up and uses Hands in the Air on the Carrion Emissary, as it was the only model in range to drop an enemy Scheme marker for Parker to eat.  It succeeds, and I Five-Finger Discount for Stick Up.  

Reva goes next, summoning another Corpse Candle before laying into Mad Dog.  I spend two stones on prevention, but flip the Black Joker for one of them.  He uses Horses Snorting Fire to try and finish off Mad Dog, but Mad Dog Passes.  He companions into the Belle who lures Mad Dog twice, forcing a discard.

I go with Mad Dog to heal above Hard to Kill thanks to Vitality Potion, and go fast with Oathkeeper.  He Gathers Intel from one of the models he was engaged with, then drops a Blown Apart marker.  With his remaining AP he uses his Burning Cigar on the Shieldbearers engaging him, but missing them both.  A Shieldbearer returns the favor by gaining Defense and failing to his Mad Dog twice.  

Anna goes next, focusing and shooting a Shieldbearer and I cheat the Red Joker to hit.  I summon a Seishin off the attack, and Vortex the unactivated Shieldbearer away, which results in a Belle being pushed as well.  His Necropunk leaps, before walking and dropping a marker within 4” of Mad Dog.  

I go with the Seishin, but fail to heal Mad Dog.  His Mindless Zombie walks to engage Parker.  I walk a Dead Outlaw on my board edge up twice, deciding I didn’t have time to continue the bluff.  He has a Belle lure Anna twice, succeeding once.  My other Dead Outlaw goes, walking to be in range to shoot the Carrion Emissary but failing.

His Corpse Candle walks to engage Anna.  My Emissary walks twice, ripping the trinket off of Mad Dog for a card and a scheme marker.  I then push and drop a friendly marker as close to his models as I can without giving away Inescapable Trap.  He has Philip walk up and eat the marker I had dropped for Parker next turn.  

Doc walks twice, and his other Candle walks up and flails at Doc, landing two damage.  His remaining Shieldbearer says Not Today before attacking Mad Dog, getting a Shield Press in for a point of damage.  
   
At the end of the turn, I score the Strategy.

Score:  1 (Ply for Information) - 0

Turn 3
He stones for cards this turn, I opt to keep mine to keep Mad Dog alive.  I Red Joker the initiative flip here, and open with Parker.  Parker makes a Fast Getaway for a stone and disengages from the Mindless Zombie.  He uses Hands in the Air on the Carrion Emissary, getting him to drop a scheme marker.  I Five Finger Discount into Stickup with the Changing Plans trigger, having Mad Dog gather Intel again.  I then use Stick Up on the Carrion Emissary, but fail.  My last action is spent pushing Mad Dog out of engagement.

He goes with the Necropunk, who walks up to Anna and Gathers Intel from her.  I activate my Emissary, give Mad Dog his Vitality Potion Back and give Memento to Doc Mitchell before pushing up and dropping another marker.  I forget to Companion, and his Belle goes next and Lures Mad Dog away from Doc Mitchell.  I walk the Dead Outlaw on my left flank up to try and put Curse of the Covetous on his Emissary, but he fails.  The Carrion Emissary kills my Seishin, but fails to hit Parker.  

Anna activates next, burning Oathkeeper.  She Gathers Intel from a Mindless Zombie before taking a focused attack on the Necropunk, getting a solid hit but not enough to drop him to Hard to Kill.  I do give him one Poison.  I then Vortex the Carrion Emissary, but he passes.  His Shieldbearer gains defense and swings on Mad Dog, and I stone the damage away.  His second hit is a Shield Press.  I activate Mad Dog to heal above Hard to Kill again, using Burning Cigar with the Say Hello to my Little Friend trigger on his Shieldbearer, and push them away with Blow Back.  I blast onto the other Shieldbearer with moderate damage, killing him and he attaches ‘My Fight is Not Finished’.  His next Ap is spent shooting Reva, pushing her back with a minimum damage shot.  His other Shieldbearer charges Mad Dog, I burn a few stones and am left at Hard to Kill.

On my near side, I charge a Corpse Candle engaging Doc with the Dead Outlaw, getting the Reposition trigger to push into the fray.  I companion into Doc and push towards Mad Dog, but only manage to heal him one - but back above Hard to Kill.  

At this point, the activations are his.  He flails at Mad Dog with a Corpse Candle, but fails.  He walks both Mindless Zombies to gum up my crew.  Philip walks and attacks Mad Dog, infecting him and leaving him at Hard to Kill.  Reva activates next, ending Mad Dog with extreme prejudice for a Dig Their Graves point.  She then attacks the Hodgepodge Emissary twice, declaring Withering to remove a Mindless Zombie so I can’t Gather Intel from it next turn.   He fails to cast Horses Snorting Fire.  He has his remaining Belle slow my Dead Outlaw, but fail to slow my Emissary.

At the end of the turn, we are tied on Gathered Intel.  I score one point on Inescapable Trap. 
Score:  2 (Inescapable Trap) - 1 (Dig Their Graves)

Turn 4
He stones for cards this turn, and wins initiative.  He opens with the Necropunk who heals above Hard to Kill, and leaps behind a building that blocks Anna’s Clockwork Dress and Gravity Well auras.  He then walks twice to get away with his Gathered Intel.  

I open with Parker, making a Fast Getaway.  I try to put Hands in the Air on Philip, but he cheats to avoid it.  I flip the Red Joker on a Six-Shooters attack on his Corpse Candle, and have him drop a marker.  I Five-Finger Discount into Hidden Steel Plate and trigger Changing Plans, having the Dead Outlaw gather intel from the Belle.  He ends by using his Six-Shooters on the Necropunk, dropping him to Hard to Kill.

My opponent goes with the Emissary next, and drops shards to block off my Dead Outlaw from getting to his Necropunk this turn.  The Emissary then uses Rot and Rend to knock my Dead Outlaw to half wounds, and walks to block his route around the shards.  I activate my own Emissary, cycling a Pretty Floral Bonnet onto the Dead Outlaw near him before pushing and dropping another marker.  

He has a Belle lure my slow Dead Outlaw twice, pulling him around a corner.  This is the Dead Outlaw that would be his Vendetta target, it turns out.  I walk said Dead Outlaw behind a blocking wall, hiding from Reva.  He has a Shieldbearer walk up and Gather Intel from Parker.  Anna is finally able to take a shot at them with Dead Man Walking, and lands a hit that summons a Seishin.  I then activate my Dead Outlaw and walk to Gather Intel from his Emissary.  Philip and the Nanny use New Friends to Talk To in order to remove my scheme marker for Inescapable Trap, walking and Gathering Intel from my Seishin.  The Seishin then heals Parker for two damage.  His Shieldbearer walks over the fence and Gathers Intel from my Emissary.  Anna shoots him, and summons another Seishin.  Anna herself then activates, failing to Vortex Philip and the Nanny away.  She opts to walk.     

At the end of the Turn, my opponent scores the strategy.  I scored Inescapable Trap.  

Score:  3 (Inescapable Trap) - 2 (Ply for Information)

End of Game Discussion
Unfortunately, we had to end the game here as I needed to leave.  

We revealed our schemes, and discussed how we felt the game would have gone.

My opponent felt he’d get one more Dig Their Graves points, and I concurred.  Both of my Dead Outlaws were in position where they’d probably die, or anyone other than Parker was a likely target.  He felt he had no chance of scoring Vendetta, as his Shieldbearer who needed to kill the Dead Outlaw was near death itself.

I felt comfortable in that I’d get full points off of Inescapable Trap, as he was clumped enough I would be able to drop enough markers next turn to secure it.  I only felt comfortable with two points on Undercover Entourage, though.  Despite my opponent stating flat out he had no intention of attacking Parker with Reva, I figured he’d at least drop him to half incidentally.

Strategy wise, we felt it was unlikely either of us would secure it for certain the next turn with the number of models remaining.  

 Our projected final score was thus 6 - 3

Thoughts
First and foremost, I asked my opponent about his exclusion of Decaying Aura on Reva.  He explained that he felt that Parker was so hard to put down it wasn’t worth trying if there was no Eliminate the Leadership equivalent.  Instead, he’d save stones and focus on killing my weaker models, where he felt he didn’t need Decaying Aura.  As it stands, I feel my opponent would have done better with it given how much AP he sunk into trying to kill Mad Dog. 

In turn four, I opted to attach Hidden Steel Plate instead of Stick up.  My plan was to use the Staredown action on it to remove a condition - specifically, Gathered Intel from any models he may have had with it next turn.  It was also insurance against any attacks coming his way once Mad Dog was dead.  

Strategy wise, I like Ply for Information.  It continues to encourage interaction between models on the tabletop, making it a more engaging game.  Scheme wise, this pool was not as tough a choice as others, as the Inescapable Trap was a helpful scheme for Parker.  

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 10/23/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/03/2017.

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Standard
Strategy:  Public Execution
Schemes:  Guarded Treasure, Hold up Their Forces, Search the Ruins, Take Prisoner, Public Demonstration

I declared Gremlins, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Wong + 6 SS

  • Ooo Glowy
  • Do Over
  • Dirty Cheater

Old Cranky
Sammy LaCroix

  • Sparkly Lights

Burt Jebsen

  • Dirty Cheater

Swine-Cursed
Swine-Cursed
Lightning Bug
Lightning Bug

I’ve been feeling like a change of pace from Outcasts lately, so my next few reports will be from other factions.  I decided to go Gremlins here, and picked Wong because the strategy is a killy one.  I also figured that Sparkly Lights would be great for denying Take Prisoner and Hold Up Their Forces by giving Agile to my up front and punchy models.  I took it on Sammy since I wanted Ooo Glowy for the damage boost.  

My Opponent’s List
Molly + 7 SS

  • Back on the Job
  • Forgotten Life
  • Take Back the Night

Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries

Kentauroi
Kentauroi
Draugr
Dead Doxy
Crooligan

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
With so many Minions, I figured that he was probably going to go for - or bluff - Public Demonstration.  I also figured that with Molly, he was probably going to go for Hold Up Their Forces or Take Prisoner, given how up close she wants to be.  I opted for Search the Ruins and Take Prisoner on Molly.  My thought process here was that I would be able to kill enough of his crew early to maximize Search the Ruins, and at the end of the game use one of my many 3 AP models to run and engage Molly.  Molly herself is incredibly tough to put down, so I wouldn’t be tipping my hand if I attacked her a time or two. 

My opponent ended up taking Public Demonstration on his Crooligan, Kentauroi and Draugr as well as Guarded Treasure.

Deployment
He wins the cut, and makes me deploy first.  I deploy mostly on the line of my deployment zone, with my Lightning Bugs and Swine-Cursed on the flanks.  I realize later that I should have put the Swine-Cursed behind some of my other models to make use of their push action turn one.  

My opponent deployed with Molly next to a Kentauroi to taxi her up the board, but otherwise placed as expected.  The Crooligan was deployed conservatively.

Turn 1
He wins initiative this round, and opens with the Dead Doxy.  She drops a scheme marker, Takes the Lead on the Kentauroi, and drops a second scheme marker.  I start with Cranky Telling a Tale, dropping a scheme and walking up the board.  He has Philip eat the two scheme markers for cards.  I walk my right flank Lightning Bug up twice to hide behind some hard cover.  His Draugr goes to Ht 1, and gives a Kentauroi the ‘Another Purpose’ Revenant upgrade before walking.  I burn an activation by walking my left flank Lightning Bug up behind a building.  

He walks a Kentauroi and drags Philip along, then drops a scheme for next turn.  I activate my right flank Swine-Cursed, going Reckless before resolving the Regeneration effect for no net damage.  He walks into position to push Sammy up, then walks again.  He ends his activation by taking a (0) to turn into a Pig.  He walks his Crooligan up and casts the Mist for protection from Wong’s attacks.  I go with my left flank Swine-Cursed who goes Reckless and Regens it, and walk to push Burt up and then walk again.  I opt to stay a Gremlin.

He walks the other Kentauroi, who drags Molly far up the board.  I respond by having Sammy walk up and Jinx Molly, giving her Twisted Legs.  Sadly, she is still in enough range activate and summon a Punk Zombie engaging Sammy and my Lightning Bug.  The Lightning Bug fails the test of pulse damage, and opts for ‘Knock it Off!’ to walk outside of Black Blood range (but not disengage).  Molly then uses Revelation on Sammy, and I cheat to trigger Regret.  He flips the Red Joker, and I stone to leave Sammy on two wounds.  Regret then forces Molly’s activation to end.  

I go with Burt next, who also goes Reckless and Regens the damage before walking into charge range of the Punk Zombie, who he promptly charges and kills.  I spend another Soulstone to keep Sammy on one wound from the Black Blood.  With the last activation mine, I have Wong use ‘What Goes Up...’ on the scheme marker Cranky had placed, and walk twice.  I cast Lightning Jump on the Kentauroi next to Philip, hitting and declaring Fzzap.  I flip the Red Joker on the pulse to see if Philip takes damage, and he stones one of the damage.  At the end of the turn, I drop the Scheme Marker near Molly, but she passes her test.

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
I stone for cards this turn.  He wins initiative, and opens with Molly.  She walks up and uses Revelation on Burt, but I choose to sacrifice Sammy here and use Slippery to pass it off.  I use a Soulstone for prevention, but sadly it isn’t enough and Sammy dies. Molly declared Intensity to heal off that attack, and as a bonus got Shed Blood and a card from Take Back the Night.  She then attacks Burt again with Revelations, getting minimum damage and a card from Lost Toys.  She uses Whispers of Future Flesh on the Kentauroi and then accomplices into him, who promptly charges Burt.  He leaves Burt at Hard to Kill.

I activate Burt, choosing to Regenerate first before going Reckless this turn for the third AP.  He attacks the Kentauroi twice, healing twice from Dirty Cheater and killing the Horror in short order for Shed Blood.  With his third AP, I walk Burt to the protective auras of Old Cranky.  

My opponent has the Dead Doxy walk and Take the Lead on the remaining Kentauroi, and walk some more to support Molly.  I activate the right flank Swine-Cursed who goes Reckless and Regens and walk-charges the Dead Doxy, triggering the Stampede trigger to charge the Kentauroi now on my right flank.  He goes with Philip, eating a pair of schemes for cards.  I activate the Lightning Bug on the left flank, going reckless before walking, dropping a scheme, and walking some more.  His remaining Kentauroi attacks the Swine-Cursed he’s engaged with, getting Rear Up twice and I fail the second one.  

I activate Wong next, Trading In the Do Over upgrade for cards.  He picks up the marker dropped by the Lightning Bug and walks before taking a focused shot at Philip.  I managed a whopping minimum damage, which he stones away.  His Draugr goes next, growing to a giant Ht 3 before walking twice into Public Demonstration range.  Old Cranky tells us a tale before walking and dropping a scheme marker.  His Crooligan goes next, using a combination of scheming and walking to get into Public Demonstration range.  

My right flank Lighting Bug goes Reckless and walks twice to be in range to use Magic Blasty Stick on the Kentauroi on my right flank, and I trigger Yippee to heal my Swine-Cursed.   The left flank Swine-Cursed goes Reckless and Regens before charging Draugr, but fails to kill.  

At the end of the turn, I drop the scheme marker in range to force a damage onto his Crooligan.  He reveals Public Demonstration for two points.  We are currently tied on Shed Bloods, so no one wins the Strategy.

Score:  0 - 2 (Public Demonstration)

Turn 3
He stones for Cards this turn, and stones to reflip initiative.  He wins the reflip, and opens with Molly again.  Molly walks into the scrum in the middle and uses Revelation on the Lightning Bug there, using “I’ll Be There” to push.  She then summons a Draugr and flips the Red Joker.  I fail all of the pulses to the incoming Revenant.  I use the damage from that attack to trigger Knock it Off on my Lightning Bug, who attacks the wounded Draugr and gets the Green Wrath, killing the Draugr for Shed Blood but pulsing damage onto my Swine-Cursed.  That aside complete, Molly uses her (0) to have the new Draugr attack and kill the Lightning Bug for a card and Shed Blood.  She Accomplices into the Draugr, who walks to engage more of my models.  

I activate the Swine-Cursed on the right flank next, turning back into a Gremlin for a heal.  I then kill the Kentauroi with my first attack, and charge the Doxy.  She dies from the charge, even though I flip the Black Joker on the first attack.  His Crooligan drops a scheme marker to run away.  The Swine-Cursed on my left flank goes Reckless and Regens, and throws three attacks into his Draugr, leaving it at one wound.  I flip the Red Joker on my (0) for healing.  

Philip walks twice.  Cranky tells a tale, fails a disengage on the Draugr, and opts to walk inside engagement but out of Black Blood range.  Wong goes next, using the Iron Fan of Tsu Li to attack the Draugr twice, hitting on the second attack with the Poof trigger.  I kill the Draugr for Shed Blood, and place in range to shoot Philip with Lightning Dance.  Philip laughs as he soulstones the damage away.  Burt goes Reckless and Regens it, before walking and charging my Crooligan, who he kills.

At this point my opponent conceded.  I scored the Strategy for the turn, and we discussed how the last two turns would have gone.

Score:  1 (Public Execution) - 2

End of Game Discussion

My opponent revealed he no longer was likely to score Guarded Treasure - having only two models that qualified (Molly and Philip) and had missed two turns worth of scoring on it.  He had maxed Public Demonstration, and did not feel like he would get any more turns of the strategy.

On the other hand, I felt like I’d get another point on the Strategy (from Philip or if he summoned any more models) and max points on Take Prisoner and Search the Ruins.  
 
Final Score:  8 (+1 Public Execuction, +3 Take Prisoner, +3 Search the Ruins)

Thoughts
Public Execution is a good killy Strategy.  Forcing you to stay in line of sight of a foe is often the same as being open to counterrack by the foe.  That said, Wong felt really, really strong in this game.  I will definitely consider him again in future pools.

The pool itself had options that were counterintuitive (Hold Up, Public Demonstration) which was nice.  I feel like my opponent would have benefitted from one of the other schemes than Guarded Treasure- picking that with only two viable models (Molly, Philip) is a risky venture.  

We discussed crews, and felt like his second Kentauroi was too much.  One Kentauroi to taxi Molly was a good idea - the second was too many stones that didn’t help him out.  Additionally, despite killing Sammy early on, I was clearly on the aggressive and didn’t need the more defensive benefits she provided.  I think I could swap Sammy for another model and be fine.  Wong himself was a bit lackluster - minimum damage of 2 on a blast master always hurts against Hard to Wound crews - but thankfully Wong’s strength is not in blasting, but in scheme running (What Goes Up...) and in Glowy.

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 10/23/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/03/2017.

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Corner
Strategy:  Symbols of Authority
Schemes:  Eliminate the Leadership, Hold Up Their Forces, Show of Force, Search the Ruins, Vendetta

I declared Gremlins, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Mah Tucket + 6 SS

  • Know the Terrain
  • Manifest Destiny
  • Dirty Cheater

The Little Lass

  • Pit Traps

Trixibelle

  • Dirty Cheater

Lucky Emissary

  • Conflux of Bushwhacking

Gremlin Crier
Bayou Bushwhacker
Bayou Gremlin
Bayou Gremlin
Bayou Gremlin

With a Corner deployment on an interact-focused Strategy, I wanted a fast master.  Mah is easily the fastest master in Gremlins at this point, with 14” of free pushes before she spends any AP.  I was also interested in trying her with the new Gremlin Crier.  I took a Bushwhacker and the Emissary for additional sources of discarding, and I wanted to try the Bushwhacker out when it got a free push every turn. 

My Opponent’s List
Kirai Ankoku + 7 SS

  • Unforgiven
  • Ectoplasm
  • Swirling Aether

Anna Lovelace

  • My Little Helper

Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries
  • Take Back the Night

Datsue Ba

  • Wronged Spirits
  • Spirit Whispers

Goryo
Dead Doxy

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
Kirai is a tough master, but she - like many Resurrectionists - can be slow.  I felt like I wanted to pick schemes that encouraged me to go at my opponent aggressively and keep him on the back foot.  I opted for Vendetta from my Bushwhacker onto his Dead Doxy and Eliminate the Leadership.  I figured that Mah would be able to dive in on Kirai and isolate her pushes, and had the raw damage to put her down over a few turns.  I wanted to try Vendetta with the Bushwhacker as they have a respectable moderate damage with their gun, and their melee is OK.  

My opponent ended up taking Show of Force and Eliminate the Leadership.

Deployment
I win the cut, and have him deploy first.  We both deploy our strategy markers as close to the edge of our corners as we can.  My opponent clusters at the edge of his deployment zone, as do I.  I make a point to have all of my Get Off My Land models within range to trigger Over Excited from the Crier.  I also make a point for Trixie to be placed in order to use Gremlin Lure to push the Emissary up.

I place my Pit Trap markers in such a way as to force him to spend AP removing them or face at least two turns of slow tests.

Turn 1
I win the initiative flip, and have him go first.  I then use Well Equipped from the Emissary to ditch a crow to get both Crow and Tome chores active.  I then use Get Off My Land with the Bushwhacker, Little Lass, and Mah, pinging the Crier for three damage to cycle a net four cards.  I push Little Lass and Mah up towards the middle of the board, while the Bushwhacker goes towards my right flank to get in range to shoot his Doxy.  

He finally gets to activate his first model.  He starts with the Doxy who drops a scheme marker, and fails to Take the Lead.  He opts to walk instead, and gives me an instant idea of just how poor his hand is. I walk a Bayou Gremlin twice.  He has his Goryo drop a second scheme and take a walk.  I walk another Bayou Gremlin.  He has Philip eat the scheme markers to refresh his hand.  I walk my final Bayou Gremlin.  Datsue Ba walks up and fails to Call Forth a Seishin.  I walk my Bushwhacker behind a building.  Anna walks up and drops a scheme marker.  I go with Trixiebelle, going Reckless and pushing the Emissary before walking up twice to be behind Mah and The Little Lass.  

He has Kirai go next, walking up and calling forth a Seishin.  She then walks again, and drops a scheme marker.  I walk the Crier up twice and Spread the Good Word to heal one.  He passes an activation with his Seishin, and it’s all my activations from here.  I have Little Lass walk up and drop a Pit Trap, pinging the Crier for a card.  The Emissary pushes out from behind the Strategy Marker, walking up and slowing the Seishin. 

Mah activates at the end, using Let Mah Handle This to push up the board (and ping the Crier for an extra card), then walks into range to use Horrible Hollerin’ to push Datsue Ba back from my Pit Trap, but in range to force her to take the test.  I then Holler the Crier up after her.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
We both keep our opening hands, and he wins initiative.  I ditch a card to Well Equipped for the Crow and Tome chores again, before using Get Off My Land with both Mah and the Little Lass.  This does kill off my Crier, who gets off his pig and becomes a Bayou Gremlin.  

He opens with Kirai, calling forth a Seishin before using Sundering on Mah twice.  I stone defensively and for prevention, avoiding the first hit entirely.  The second one sticks two damage on her.  With her last AP, Kirai summons a Goryo off of a Seishin.  I respond by activating the Lucky Emissary and using Dead in Their Tracks on the summoned Goryo, and because it was already Slow it becomes Paralyzed.  I then push and walk the Emissary to be close to one of his Strategy markers.

He walks his original Goryo up and removes one of my pit traps.  I walk the Bayou that was the Crier behind a building.  His Doxy drops a scheme marker before Taking the Lead on Anna and dropping a second scheme marker.  I walk a Bayou Gremlin twice, jockeying for position.  Philip eats the two scheme markers for cards.  Trixiebelle goes Reckless and uses her Gremlin Lure on the Goryo, then takes a Focused Lure on Anna, spending a stone to get the crow trigger.  He activates the Paralyzed Goryo, and I go next with a Bayou Gremlin walking twice.

He walks Datsue Ba up, and lands a Weigh Sins on one of my Bayou Gremlin.  He then calls forth a Seishin.  I walk the Little Lass twice, engaging Datsue Ba.  Anna goes next, shooting the Little Lass and declaring the Damned Gather, getting another Seishin into play.  I have a Bayou Gremlin shoot into the engagement containing Little Lass, and randomize onto a Seishin.  I get the Mask trigger to push towards them.  On the second shot I flip the Red Joker during randomization, and fail to hit Datsue Ba.  He passes an activation with a Seishin.

I go with Mah next, and use Let Mah Handle This to push the Bushwhacker and herself towards the Strategy markers on my right flank.  Mah charges the summoned Goryo, getting Reposition twice on her attacks to kill the Goryo, and push into range to threaten Kirai.  Her last AP is spent using Horrible Hollerin’ on the Bushwhacker.  My opponent passes his last activation with a Seishin.  My Bushwhacker now walks up and tears down his Strategy marker for a point.  

At the end of the turn, I score a point on the Strategy, and neither of us score our schemes.

Score:  1 (Symbols of Authority) - 0 

Turn 3
We both keep our hands this turn.  I use Get Off My Land on Mah to push towards Philip, and push the Bushwhacker behind cover.  I get the Ram chore this turn.  I win the initiative flip, and go with a Bayou Gremlin.  I go Drunk and Reckless, and walk twice to the central Strategy marker of my opponents, and tear it down for a second Strategy point.  

He goes with his Goryo, who charges Mah.  He Red Jokers the first hit, and I burn a stone to prevent his second hit (I Red Joker the prevention flip).  He then uses Sunder Spirit for a damage and Adversary on Mah.  I go next with the Little Lass, walking to further tie up his crew and fail to kill a Seishin.  He has the Doxy go, Taking the Lead on Datsue Ba before walking and removing one of my pit traps.  I activate the Emissary here, and Black Joker my push out of engagement.  I opt to just walk and attack Datsue Ba, but don’t land a hit.  Anna goes next, and shoots at Mah with the Screaming Aether trigger, but flips the Black Joker.  His second hit drops Mah below half wounds, and he reveals Eliminate the Leadership for a point.  I have my Bushwhacker go, and take a focused shot on the Dead Doxy.  I score a minimum damage, but more importantly I get to reveal Vendetta for a point.   

He activates Kirai, who uses Swirling Spirits to swap Philip and a Seishin.  She shot Mah a few times, but didn’t land many hits.  She ends by Calling Forth another Seishin.  I walk a Bayou Gremlin twice, to be in position to go Reckless and tear down the last objective next turn.  He uses Datsu Ba to take a focused Weigh Sins on the wounded Bayou Gremlin, killing him and summoning a Gaki.  He then uses Guide Spirit to push Philip up.   

I activate Mah, and use Let Mah Handle This to push behind his Goryo and punch it a few times, cheat as I go to heal from Dirty Cheater.  I try to push her to be in range to tear down the last Objective next turn as a backup.  He uses a Seishin to heal something, but I forgot to write down what.  I walk a Bayou Gremlin twice.  He has Philip shoot the Bayou Gremlin twice, leaving him barely live.  I walk my final Bayou Gremlin twice.  He walks a Seishin.  I have Trixie go reckless and triple-walk up the board, as another option to get to his final strategy marker, and use her (0) Buy you a Drink as an outlet to cheat to heal the wound from Dirty Cheater.  With the rest of the activations his, he walks his Gaki and a Seishin, with the remaining Seishin failing to land a hit on the Little Lass.

At the end of the turn, I score the Strategy again.  I score a point on Vendetta.  He scores a point on Eliminate the Leadership, and reveals Show of Force for a point.

Score:  3 (Symbols of Authority, Vendetta) vs. 2 (Eliminate, Show of Force) 

Turn 4
He stones for cards, and I cheat the initiative flip with a mask for the mask chore.  He stones to reflip, and wins the reflip.  I choose to discard a card for the Ram trigger, then use Get Off My Land to push Mah behind cover from Kirai’s ranged attack.  He opts to open with Philip and the Nanny, who uses Terrible Whispers to paralyze a Bayou Gremlin.

I go next with the Lucky Emissary, and decide to Reach Into the Hat...of Destiny!  The results of this were:

 Paralyzed Bayou Gremlin - Drop a Scheme
Fishing Pole Bayou Gremlin - Heal 2
Trixie - Fast
Little Lass - Place in 4” (which she couldn’t do thanks to Anna’s Dress)
Bushwhacker - Fast
Limited Edition Bayou Gremlin - Heal 2
Mah - Drop a Scheme

With all that done, I then attack Philip and the Nanny twice, but he cheats to avoid my hits.

He uses a Seishin to Cure Spirit on his Doxy, and flips the Red Joker.  I have Trixie go Reckless, and walk three times and tear down the last Symbol marker for a point on the Strategy.  He has Anna Shoot at the Emissary, landing two minimum damage hits.  I go with a Bayou Gremlin, who goes Drunk and Reckless and shoots the Dead Doxy three times, but only lands one hit and she lives.  Datsue Ba goes next, attacking the Emissary, but unable to kill him.  She tries to get the Gaki to disengage, but it fails the test.  Little Lass goes next, charging the Dead Doxy, and kills her for my second point of Vendetta.  This does make Datsue Ba fast for next turn.

On the right flank, he charges Mah with his Goryo, but fails to hit her.  I go with Mah and use Let Mah Handle This to push to my right flank Bayou Gremlin, and push that Gremlin towards Kirai.  I then charge Kirai, and he stones for a Mask to pass the attack off onto a nearby Seishin.  I kill the Seishin, and he ditches a stone to summon Ikiryo, giving Mah Adversary.  He spends his last stone on my second attack, and I get the Smack trigger to push Ikiryo away, leaving Kirai without any spirits to pass attacks off onto.  With my last AP, Mah lands a Critical Strike for 4 damage.  

Kirai goes next, failing to cast Into the Spirit World.  I go Drunk and Reckless with the Bayou Gremlin on my right flank and charge into Ikiryo, tying her up.  

End of Game Discussion
At this point my opponent concedes, as he has no more soulstones and no way to stop me securing initiative with Trixie.  

We discussed the final score, and it was decided that I would score full points on Eliminate the Leadership, as well as the Strategy.  He would likely score one more point on the Strategy next turn, and full points on Show of Force..  

Final Score:  8 (+2 Symbols of Authority, +3 Eliminate the Leadership, +1 Vendetta) vs. 5 (+1 Symbols of Authority, +2 Show of Force)

Thoughts
Strategy and Schemes wise, Symbols of Authority is punishing on a Corner Deployment.  Mah’s mobility was super useful this game, but for a more standard crew - like my Opponent’s - they simply didn’t have the speed to get and tear down all three markers.  Granted, my opponent could have summoned faster models like Shikome, but I had applied pressure so early he didn’t really have the chance.

Eliminate is a strong choice for an always scheme.  Both my opponent and I took it because we knew we’d be interacting as a crew - but we both had cagey masters making it less reliable. The other schemes felt fine in this pool.

For my crew, the pit traps did not actually slow anything all game - but they certainly impacted my opponent’s activation order and movement decisions.  He clearly played around them, which meant that they did their job of holding him up.  I think that the Pit Traps will be better in games where Eliminate is not in the pool, where I think Lead Lined Apron is a better choice for the Little Lass.  

The Bushwhacker did what I wanted her to do.  In Turn 3, I shot to reveal Vendetta on his Doxy because it was at a point where I didn’t believe I’d kill it in time, and the Bushwhacker was dangerously close to Kirai.  I was alright with settling for two points on that scheme, as I was up on the strategy.  

The Town Crier was amazing in the early game.  His synergy with Mah’s thematic crew is astounding, and really set me up for some powerful plays.  The Emissary was also really good - his Well Equipped meant I was able to discard below 5 cards in hand before triggering the Over Excited aura on the Crier, and he could survive for much longer.  Not needing to use Ill Omens for the suit I wanted on Chores was also helpful.  I think that the Emissary has a lot more uses than I gave it credit for with Mah, and will be trying it again in the future.

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 10/23/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/04/2017.

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Standard
Strategy:  Supply Wagons
Schemes:  Guarded Treasure, Covert Breakthrough, Dig Their Graves, Hold up Their Forces, Public Demonstration

I declared Gremlins, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Brewmaster + 6 SS

  • A Friendly Ear
  • A Barkeep Never Sleeps
  • Stilts

Wesley
Trixiebelle

  • Dirty Cheater

Mancha Roja

  • Dirty Cheater
  • Extra Gremlin

Fingers
Bayou Gremlin
Bayou Gremlin
Bayou Gremlin

I wanted to try out Brewmaster’s Obey abilities with his new upgrades, and figured Supply Wagons was as good a Strategy as any.  I picked Mancha both for his larger base size (to push the wagon further) and to combo his Challenge Aura with Drinking Contest.  Fingers was picked for his Chatty aura to shut down the pushes of the Wagons as well as markers for Dig Their Graves. Trixie was added to use Ill Omens to get maximum coverage of Drinking Contest, as well as to give out poison with Buy You a Drink.  Lastly, three Bayou Gremlins were picked for activation control and scheme running purposes.

My Opponent’s List
Reva + 4 SS

  • Beyond Death
  • Riders in the Sky
  • Decaying Aura

Anna Lovelace

  • My Little Helper

Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries

Carrion Emissary

  • My Little Helper

Jaakuna Ubume

  • Unnerving Aura

Dead Doxy
Crooligan

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
Neither of us brought enough minions for Public Demonstration, so I knew that was not something to worry about.  Seeing Anna, the Emissary and Reva across the board I figured he would be trying to gum up my crew with Mindless Zombies/ Corpse Candles while shooting at me with attacks that wouldn’t randomize.  That said, he’d still need to be putting models that could push the Wagon near it, so I opted for Dig Their Graves.  I figured he’d go for it as well (Reva would probably score it all herself), and Fingers could convert his scheme markers to my own for Mancha to use.  My other scheme was Covert Breakthrough, as I figured between Trixie, three Bayou Gremlin and Fingers I’d be able to drop three markers on the last turn.

My opponent ended up taking Dig Their Graves and Guarded Treasure.

Deployment
He wins the cut, and makes me deploy first.  I cluster around Brewmaster, with Wesley in range to poison Mancha for Obey shenanigans.  He deploys opposite of me, and I can see we are going to have another ‘bumper cars’ situation.   

Turn 1
He wins Initiative, and opens with the Emissary.  He pushes the wagon, walks up and drops some Shards.  I walk a Bayou Gremlin up.  He goes with the Dead Doxy, dropping a pair of schemes and Taking the Lead on Jaakuna.  I have Wesley give Mancha some poison, then walk up behind the trees.  He has Jaakuna push the Wagon and walk.  

I activate Brewmaster, and proceed to Obey Mancha three times.  The first to push the Wagon, then to walk and push the Wagon again.  He then takes One for the Road to Mancha.  He activates Reva next, summoning a Corpse Candle, dropping a Scheme Marker and walking up twice.  I go with Mancha, walking and pushing the Wagon a third time before putting up Challenge.

The rest of this turn is spent walking our models, punctuated by me failing to Lure two of his models with Trixie (despite burning a stone for Crows), and him eating some schemes with Philip for cards.  At the end of the turn, Mancha takes a point of poison damage and my opponent summons a Mindless Zombie close to my crew.

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
He wins initiative, and I let him have it.  He walks his Corpse Candle close to my crew.  I have Mancha activate first, using Melee Expert to squish the Corpse Candle engaging him before walking and pushing the Wagon up again and issuing his Challenge aura.  He walks a Mindless Zombie closer.  Trixie goes reckless and Lures Mancha back from the Mindless Zombie, then walks and tries to buy the Mindless Zombie a drink, but fails.  She then succeeds in using Gremlin Lure on Anna.  He goes with the Dead Doxy and Takes the Lead on Anna before walking twice.  I have Fingers go reckless and heal himself before walking and pushing the Wagon, blocking Reva’s LoS to the Mindless Zombie and covering his Wagon in my Chatty aura.  Jaakuna goes next, and fails a Lure on Trixie.  Her next action is to Lure Reva into LoS of the Mindless Zombie again. 

I activate Brewy now, and use One for the Road on Reva to push closer before using Hangover on her twice, giving her Swill +2.  With my last AP, I Obey Mancha to walk to cover more enemies with his Challenge aura.  Philip goes next and walks up to Cry at Trixie, but she shoves the attack onto Fingers.  I declare Loudest Squeel, and push to bodyblock his Wagon with Fingers.  I also stone the damage away with prevention.  His Emissary walks up and passes the Challenge test with a Red Joker to use Rot and Rend of Fingers, getting severe damage that I spend a stone to prevent one of.  Wesley goes next, focusing and tries to Obey Fingers to heal himself, but can’t get the target number.  Anna shoots Mancha twice, and I stone away 2 damage.  She gets to summon another Mindless Zombie engaging him.  I’m down to Bayou Gremlin at this point, and walk one up.

He activates Reva, summoning a Corpse Candle.  He focuses twice to negate his Swill, and attacks Mancha with Ethereal Reaping and the Withering trigger for minimal damage.  (Minimal being relative at 4 unpreventable).  This leaves Mancha at one wound, with one Poison.  He fails to cast Horses Snorting Fire.  At this point, the rest of our activations are spent walking, with the exception of a failed shot by one of my Bayou Gremlins at his Crooligan.  

At the end of the turn, I spend my last stone to prevent the poison damage on Mancha - and promptly flip the Black Joker.  Mancha dies, and with him dies my chances at getting Dig Their Graves.   I do score the Strategy.

Score:  1 (Supply Wagons) - 0

Turn 3
With me at no stones, and capped at a max of 7 stones, I decide I need to start debuffing him early.  I cheat initiative this turn, and despite him stoning to reflip he fails.  I open with Brewmaster and put up Drinking Contest, then walk to catch multiple of his crew in the bubble before giving Reva a pair of Hangovers.  

He responds by activating Reva, summoning a Corpse Candle.  Once again he focuses twice before attacking Fingers, and with the Withering he kills Fingers.  He fails to cast Horses Snorting Fire again.

I go reckless with Trixie, using Gremlin Lure on the Carrion Emissary and Anna Lovelace, getting to Slow Anna.  I buy the Crooligan a Drink for a stack of Poison, and end her activation by Slapping the Mindless Zombie - but he flips the Red Joker and avoids it.  Philip kills a Bayou Gremlin with a pair of Cries.  Wesley walks up and Obeys Reva to walk away, thanks to her Hangover.  His Corpse Candle manages to overcome my Drinking Contest in order to kill itself.  I go Drunk and Reckless and run up with a Bayou Gremlin, hoping to sneak past and start dropping markers for Covert Breakthrough.  He sees this, and has the Dead Doxy Take the Lead on Philip to shove him towards the Bayou Gremlin.  

At this point, the rest of the turn is not terribly active.  He pushes the Wagon again with Jaakuna to be in position to score it this turn, and drops a marker within 4” of Trixie.

At the end of the turn, we both score the Strategy.

Score:  2 (Supply Wagons) - 1 (Supply Wagons)

Turn 4
He stones for cards.  I win the initiative flip, and open with Brewy.  I use Drinking Contest, walk to catch most of his crew in my bubble, and take a Severe damage from Jaakuna’s hazardous terrain aura.   I try to poison his Doxy with Take a Swig, but he avoids it.  I then fail to give Reva a Hangover.

He goes with a lucid Reva and attacks Trixie.  He flips the Black Joker on the second attack, but after spending all three AP he manages to kill her and score Dig Their Graves.  He manages to cast Horses Snorting Fire, but I pass my duel.  I walk Wesley up next and push his wagon back towards his side of the board.  He has Philip Cry at my Bayou Gremlin and kill it.  My remaining Bayou fails to land a hit on the Crooligan engaging him.  The Carrion Emissary is having no drinks this turn, passing his tests to walk and attack Brewmaster.  Jaakuna is not so lucky, failing her first test and opting to pass the rest of her activation to avoid stacking more poison.  Anna ends the turn by taking another shot on Brewmaster. 

At the end of the turn, we both score the Strategy, and he scores Dig Their Graves.

Score:  3 (Supply Wagons) - 3 (Supply Wagons, Dig Their Graves)
 

Turn 5
I win initiative, and have Brewmaster put up Drinking Contest.  I use his Another Round to heal himself, and flip the Red Joker to heal a ton.  I then use Explosive Mixture, but he topdecks what he needs to pass the duels with everyone except the Doxy.  I then fail to give Reva a Hangover again.    

Jaakuna drops a scheme marker and Lures Brewy, getting minimal damage on the Hazardous Terrain test.  I have Wesley go next, walking up and pushing his wagon fully onto his side of the board.  Reva goes next, summoning a Corpse Candle and attacking Brewmaster,  flipping the Black Joker on the first attack but still killing him on the second attack and scoring Dig Their Graves.  Wesley becomes the new Brewmaster.  The new Brewmaster activates next, putting Drinking Contest back up, healing himself and putting Hangover on the Emissary.  He walks the Doxy to the Wagon and pushes it back into scoring position.  He manages to pass the Drinking Contest with the Emissary despite Swill, flies out of the aura, and pushes my wagon firmly into my half of the board. 

The rest of the activations this turn were inconsequential.  At the end of the turn, he scores the Strategy and Dig Their Graves, and I score nothing.  We flip, and the game ends.

Score: 3 - 5 (Supply Wagons, Dig Their Graves)

Thoughts
Supply Wagons is a fun strategy.  It clearly favors large based models, but I think there is play for Obey masters in early turns to spend their AP pushing the wagon up the board.  It worked for me this game in getting 3/4 points.  I am finding that often my opponent places their wagon directly opposite mine - is anyone else having this experience?

The scheme pool was a good mix.  I think I built a crew without paying close enough attention to the schemes, and was punished for it - and I like that. It seems to me that it favors specific lists instead of generalist set-lists.

Crew-wise, my opponent stated Jaakuna was a last addition due to having the stones and wanting to try her out.  Otherwise, I think the sheer number of ranged, non-randomizing, min-3 damage was a great choice.  He perfectly countered Brewmaster’s main strength, and was able to pick my crew apart with target prioritization.  

As far as my crew was concerned, while it didn’t go well for me I think that’s due to overextending against Reva.  Mancha and Fingers both took far more damage earlier than I anticipated.  I think next time I will be bringing Akaname instead of Bayou Gremlins, as their ability to clear Poison will save me some damage on my Obey Targets.  They can then spit that poison at enemies to make them less likely to pass Drinking Contest, or convert it into scheme markers.  I also think that if I am going for a Dig Their Graves, I need to have more than one model that can reliably accomplish that scheme.  I think I’ll be giving a single Moon Shinobi a try.

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 11/06/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/08/2017.  Additionally, we both used the new Bad Things Happen app to build our crews.  My opponent tracked everything in the App, I tracked it on cards.

Photos from the game are here.  Please note that both of us used Proxies in this game (thanks to the App).  I used a Freikorpsmann as my Engineer, and he used two Latigo Posse as Monster Hunters.

Setup
Deployment:  Standard
Strategy:  Ours
Schemes:  Eliminate the Leadership, Covert Breakthrough, Undercover Entourage, Take Prisoner, Recover Evidence

I declared Outcast, and my opponent declared Guild.

My Crew
Von Schill + 5 SS

  • Nythera Aftermath
  • Oath of the Freikorps
  • Survivalist

Steam Trunk
Anna Lovelace
Strongarm Suit
Hodgepodge Emissary

  • Conflux of Conflict

Freikorps Engineer
Hodgepodge Effigy

A variation on the super-solo Von Schill list, I wanted to see if I could get by with seven activations and a decent cache.  Since we were spreading out, I wasn’t sure exactly what I would see across the board.  The basic idea here was to load up Von Schill with his Shirt (Emissary) Oathkeeper (himself) and Armor (Engineer), then have him go wreck face and disrupt the enemy crew.  

My Opponent’s List
Perdita Ortega + 4 SS

  • Fastest Draw in Malifaux
  • Trick Shooting

Enslaved Nephilim
Francisco Ortega

  • Numb to the World
  • Wade In

Abuela Ortega
Santiago Ortega

  • A Debt to the Guild

Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter
Guild Pathfinder

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
Seeing my opponent take such a killy crew, I decided to focus all of my AP on killing his models.  As such, I picked Recover Evidence - figuring that I could declare it and pick up markers on the last turn/ with the help of Don’t Mind Me from a trinket.  For my other strategy, I ultimately decied on Undercover Entourage on Von Schill - figuring his ability to heal from many sources, generate stones from the Effigy, and general tankiness would let me keep him out of trouble long enough.  I don’t like Eliminate against Perdita because of her stats, and didn’t want to leave a model alive when I was killing the rest of his crew. 

My opponent ended up taking Undercover Entourage on Perdita and Eliminate the Leadership on Von Schill.

Deployment
I win the cut, and have him deploy first.  He deploys with his crew mostly on the line, with push lanes available for his Nephilim.  I deploy clustered between two buildings, and try to keep everyone in range of their respective abilities - but critically mis-measure from the Emissary to Von Schill.

Turn 1
I win initiative, and have him activate first.  He has a Monster Hunter Stalk the Strong Arm Suit, walk up and go Defensive.  I have my Effigy drop a scheme marker so that it was in base contact with my Engineer (cleared with my opponent during deployment), gave Von Schill Loyalty to the Coin, then walked behind the building.  His Nephilim uses Schackle to push Santiago to the forward Monster Hunter, then to push Perdita to Santiago.

I go with the Emissary, giving the Strong Arm Suit a Vitality Potion, and realize I’m not in range to give Von Schill his shirt.  So I walk a little bit, give Von Schill his shirt back, and push with Weary Road, dropping the marker within double-walk range of the Engineer.  His Pathfinder goes next, walking up and Setting the Trap to summon a Clockwork Trap.  He then takes a shot on the Emissary, and manages Severe for half of the Emissary’s wounds.  I go with the Engineer, Looting the scheme marker for a card.  I then upgrade Von Schill with Armor (but no triggers) before walking twice to the marker near the Emissary.  

He goes with his other Monster Hunter, who walks up and Stalks Von Schill.  I go with Anna who walks up, and shoots the Clockwork Trap.  I manage to trigger the Damned Gather and summon a Seishin in base contact.  He goes with Abuela, focusing before using Listen Up Young’n on Frank, then taking a walk.  I go with the Seishin, who tries to bite the Trap but fails.  He goes with Frank, giving Perdita El Mejor before walking twice behind hard cover and turning on Finesse.  I walk the Steam Trunk, and he walks Santiago up.  Finally, I activate the Strong Arm Suit and opt for Bright Aether.  I walk and shoot at Frank, and flip the Black Joker while he flips the Red Joker (Fortunate for me!).  One of the Monster Hunters then walk towards the Strong Arm Suit and takes a shot with their Pistols, but fails.  

Perdita is last for him, and she pushes towards Frank.  She uses Trick Shooting to ignore armor, and proceeds to miss three shots at the Strong Arm Suit due to having no cards in hand.  I breathe a sigh of relief before having Von Schill go.  He gives himself Oathkeeper, then charges Anna.  I use Clockwork Arm to toss both the Strong Arm Suit and Anna towards my right flank, and away from Perdita.  I then use Finish the Cur on my Seishin, who lives the dream and kills the Clockwork Trap.  After Von Schill, he has a Monster Hunter walk up and try to scare Von Schill with Run in Fear, but fails.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
I stone for cards this turn, and he stones to reflip initiative.  Even with Fastest Draw, I go first.  I walk the Effigy up to give Von Schill Loyalty to the Coin before chain-activating with Accomplice.  Von Schill charges Frank, using the Pull trigger to toss him into range to shoot his Clockwork Seeker (Sadly, thanks to Numb Frank can’t become a Priority Target).   I declare Reposition on the Clockwork Seeker shot, and push to be in range of the Pathfinder.  I use my second charge attack on the Pathfinder, but fail the follow-up shot.  I use my last AP to shoot the Pathfinder again, getting Reposition to push into range to use Finish the Cur on myself to end the Pathfinder and get a Soulstone.  However, this activation left me with one card in hand, which I don’t think is the best trade.  

He responds with a Monster Hunter walking towards Von Schill, but Black Jokering the attack flip.  He opens with Perdita, who pushes towards Frank.  She then uses Trick Shooting to ignore armor, and pours 2 AP worth of shots into Von Schill, getting a Severe.  Her last AP is spent on Finger on the Trigger, which catches my entire crew inside of its effect.  I have the Seishin go, focusing and taking a Cure Spirit action on Von Schill- and flip both jokers on the duel.  He has his Nephilim push towards Abuela, then pushes Abuela towards Perdita.  I walk the Steam Trunk twice, getting him in range to heal Von Schill next turn.  Abuela uses Listen Up Young’n on Frank, to have him walk into Flurry range on Von Schill.  She then walks twice to secure a quarter.  

I have the Emissary walk and attack Frank, hoping for the push trigger to get him away from Von Schill, but fail.  He has Frank activate, and Flurries into Von Schill.  I spend stones to live at 4 wounds, and he reveals Eliminate the Leadership.  He fails to heal himself.  I activate the Strong Arm Suit next, using Charged Fists before charging at Abuela.  Perdita shoots the Strong Arm Suit for 4 damage thanks to Finger on the Trigger, as I forgot she keeps her ignores armor condition until the end of the turn. The Strong Arm Suit manages to miss his first attack on Abuela, but connects on the second does Moderate with Pneumatic Actuator.  He has a Monster Hunter walk towards the Strong Arm Suit and deal a point of damage.  He goes next with Santiago, burning Debt to the Guild and I flip the Black Joker on my first defense flip.  He proceeds to flip the Red Joker on damage, and kills the Strong Arm Suit.  He then shoots Anna for some damage.

Anna goes next, trying to salvage my right flank by using attacking Abuela, killing her.  She then uses Vortex on the Monster Hunter, pushing him back and forcing Santiago back with a failed duel.  He has the Monster Hunter Stalk Anna, then charge her.  He misses his first attack, and Black Jokers damage on his second attack.  I go with the Engineer, drawing a cards and walking in range to shoot his Monster Hunter (not randomizing thanks to the Emissary’s aura) before giving Von Schill Armor with Light Distortion Device.  He has the Monster Hunter shoot at the Emissary twice, and because we were both flipping out whole decks each turn, managed to Red Joker one of the damages.  He kills the Emissary.

At the end of the turn, I score Ours (he had more models within 6” of the center) while he scores one point on Eliminate the Leadership.

Score:  1 (Ours) - 1 (Eliminate the Leadership)

Turn 3
I reveal Recover Evidence, since he has around 6 models left.  He stones for Cards this turn, and wins Initiative.  He opens with Frank who Flurries Von Schill again.  I flip the Black Joker on the last attack, but burn stones to stay alive.  I respond by having Von Schill go, charging to the other side of Frank.  I hit him with the Jack Knife twice, dropping him to Hard to Kill.  I rip my shirt off at this point, healing a bunch.  He passes his Horror tests with Perdita, Frank and the Monster Hunter easily.  Then with my last AP, Von Schill uses Clockwork Arm to toss Frank, killing him.  

My opponent goes with Perdita (we both forget his Monster Hunter reaction), who chooses to ignore armor and flips poorly, leaving Von Schill at one wound.  I have the Engineer go next, giving Von Schill armor before shooting the Monster Hunter twice, leaving it at one wound.  He responds by having his Monster Hunter charge Von Schill, and he kills him for full points on Eliminate the Leadership.

I move my attention to my right flank now, and have Anna attack the Monster Hunter engaging her.  I fail to cast Vortex, fail my first attack but flip the Red Joker on my second attack.  I heal one from Life Drain.  His Monster Hunter shoots Anna twice.  I charge the Monster Hunter engaging Anna with my Hodgepodge Effigy, and kill him.  He has Santiago walk up and shoot Anna.  My Seishin goes next, failing to hit the Monster Hunter.  His Nephilim chains Perdita to the Monster Hunter, and my Steam Trunk walks over to Anna.  

At the end of the turn, I score no points.  My opponent scores the Strategy and a point on Eliminate the Leadership.

Score:  1 - 3 (Ours, Eliminate the Leadership)

End of Game

With the state of the game at the end of turn 3, I conceded.  I had to leave shortly after, and did not see a way to come back given how dominating his position was.  We agreed that I at most would score one point on Recover Evidence, while he’d score full points on both his schemes (his other was Undercover Encourage on Perdita) and two more points on the Strategy.

Projected Final Score:  2 (Recover Evidence) - 9 (Ours, Eliminate the Leadership, Undercover Entourage)

Thoughts
Ours continues to be a fun strategy.  I had been favoring high-cost, durable models lately - and it shot me in the foot this game.  It definitely feel like it’s become a much killier game, and I’m seeing more how a summoner could benefit in this strategy.  Specifically, if I had punchy summons (Asami, Kirai, etc.) I can see using those to grind down an opponent’s crew of models that count.

The scheme pool did not have a lot of scheme marker options, and the one that did exist was not terribly synergistic with the other schemes.  It was a killy pool for sure, but I can see that if I built my crew more to the schemes and less to the idea of Von Schill going action-movie-hero, I would have done better.

As far as my crew goes, I clearly have a lot to think about and adjust.  Messing up deployment and wasting AP on my Emissary felt bad, and was entirely preventable.  In turn 2, when I charged Frank I absolutely should have put all of my attacks into him.  He was worth more stones for the table quarter to my opponent, he was far deadlier than the Pathfinder, and he could make Perdita untouchable.  Then again, I wanted to ensure a kill to get a stone, and figured that attacking his Pathfinder would be more reliable.  The fact that Frank is 8 wounds while the Pathfinder is 6 didn’t really occur to me until I was halfway through Von Schill’s activation. 

My opponent pointed out that having Von Schill be both my Undercover Entourage model - and- in his face was not a recipe for success, especially when it came to Perdita’s crew.  He recommended I would have done better with Anna as my Undercover Entourage target, and I agree.  I think my biggest misplay, though was not walking my Engineer up to engage his Monster Hunter on my left flank.  I had a better chance of killing if I shot, but I would more likely save Von Schill if I had caught him in engagement.  

Monster Hunters were the MVP this game.  Having two effective activations a turn each meant he was getting a lot of work out of them, and their benefits against expensive models really helped them out against my crew full of 10SS models.  Likewise, Perdita’s Fastest Draw in Malifaux is a really good upgrade.  

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4 hours ago, Azkral said:

Remember that, ir your enemy is in the drinking contest aura, it has to make the Wp duel even if it wants to focus.

Aye, it’s true.  Sadly, that doesn’t help much when your opponent topdecks most of the cards they need to pass said duels.  I need to get better at loading up enemies with poison for the debuff.

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 11/06/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/15/2017.  

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Corner
Strategy:  Public Execution
Schemes:  Guarded Treasure, Covert Breakthrough, Hold Up Their Forces, Undercover Entourage, Search the Ruins

I declared Outcast, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Parker Barrows + 6 SS

  • Black Market
  • Hail of Bullets
  • Stick up

Doc Mitchell
Mad Dog Brackett

  • Lucky Poncho
  • Oathkeeper

Anna Lovelace

  • Oathkeeper

Hodgepodge Emissary

  • Conflux of Stolen Goods

Bandido
Bandido

With Corner Deployment starting us so far apart, I wanted to give another go with the Dead Man Walking action.  I brought in Anna Lovelace for this purpose, as her ability to shoot without randomizing would be super useful.  I swapped Bandidos in for Dead Outlaws in my normal crew, as I wanted their Life of Crime and Finish the Job abilities to screw over the Cover Breakthrough/ Search the Ruins if I got a feel for those schemes from my opponent.  

My Opponent’s List
Molly Squidpiddge + 7 SS

  • Forgotten Life
  • Take Back the Night

Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries

Carrion Emissary

  • Conflux of Horror

Kentauroi
Dead Doxy
Necropunk
Necropunk

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
His crew had a lot of scheme runners, so I figured he’d be going for some combination of the scheme marker based options.  Kentauroi are solid models, and with the ability to taxi Molly up turn one I knew I needed to spread my crew out.  I decided to go with Search the Ruins and Undercover Entourage on Parker.  I figured that Parker’s pushes and walks would let him dash late game to where he needs to be, and that Anna’s summoned Seishin would give me oodles of healing.  Search the Ruins was so that I could drop markers after killing Philip (if I were lucky) or just waiting to the last minute to drop them.   

My opponent ended up taking Guarded Treasure and Hold Up Their Forces.

Deployment
I lost the cut, and deploy first.  I deploy on the edge of my deployment zone, with the Bandido’s on the flanks.  I have the Emissary on my left-side, figuring I’ll use his ability to drop markers like candy to set up for Search the Ruins or bluff Guarded Treasure.  The more killy models were on central and my right-side, and would advance in a loose bubble (to minimize Molly’s summon potential).

My opponent deploys Molly and the Kentauroi forward, with Philip and a gaggle of scheme marker dropping models behind.  It appeared like he would be moving towards my right flank with the Emissary, and my left flank with Molly and the Kentauroi.

Turn 1
I win initiative, and have him go first.  He has a Necropunk drop a scheme marker, fail to leap, and walk.  I go with the Emissary, and use a combination of Something in my Pack and It Was Only a Loan to draw three cards, drop an enemy scheme marker and give Mad Dog a Vitality Potion (I’ll refer to this combo as ‘cycling’ in the rest of the battle report) before pushing towards the fence.  He has his other Necropunk drop a scheme marker, then leap successfully and walk behind a fence.

I do some pre-measuring, and activate Parker.  I ditch Stick Up for a Fast Getaway for a stone from Limited Supplies, then Five-Finger Discount the marker I dropped from the Emissary’s cycle into High Noon.  I walk again, and use Dead Man Walking on his Emissary and his Necropunk, flipping the Red Joker and a high Ram to hit the trigger on both attacks.  I ditch two stones to keep the upgrade.

He has Philip draw cards off of the scheme markers around him.  Mad Dog walks up to the fence, casts Blow it to Hell to make the center of the fence a no-cover zone, then focuses.  He activates the Emissary, and uses his (0) to make the Kentauroi fast, before walking.  He makes sure to stay outside of any projectile range from me from Dead Man Walking.  Anna walks up twice, projecting her auras to cover Parker and Mad Dog.  His Doxy Takes the Lead on Philip, but fails.  She then opts to walk and drop a single marker.  I walk a Bandido on my right flank twice.  He walks the Kentauroi three times, dragging Molly behind it.  He is forced to drop Molly behind his base to block Anna’s aura.  I walk my other Bandido on my left flank towards the fence.  

He activates Molly, who walks out from behind her steed to cast Whispered Secrets on Anna.  She then summons a Student of Steel, pinging Anna.  She then uses a (0) to have the Student attack Anna.  He then accomplices into the Student, who hits Anna again and I stone to prevent the damage.  I have Doc go next, ditching a card for Get Over Here and walking to be in range to heal Anna one, and give her Hard to Wound.  

At the end of the turn, no one scores any points.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
I stone for cards this turn, and win initiative.  I open with Parker, who puts Dead Man Walking on the Kentauroi, ditching the upgrade for a stone.  He puts Hands in the Air on Molly, dropping an enemy scheme marker.  He then uses Five Finger Discount to reattach Stick Up off of that marker.  His final AP is spent pushing Anna out of engagement with the Job’s Not Done Yet.  He has his far Necropunk drop a scheme marker, then walk and Leap up the board.  

I burn Oathkeeper with Mad Dog, walk and Rapid Fire into Molly.  I hit minimum damage, that he spends a Soulstone to prevent 2 of.  The second attack he triggers Masterful Dead, and I fail the third hit.  He charges the Kentauroi into Anna next, getting two Poison and having me spend two soulstones on prevention.  I fire into the engagement with Mad Dog thanks to Dead Man Walking, and randomize onto the Kentauroi.  I fail to hit, sadly.  I reply with Doc Mitchell healing Anna for 6, and giving her another Hard to Wound.  Philip draws cards off of the scheme markers near him.  

I have my Emissary rip the trinket off of Mad Dog, dropping a marker for Parker next turn and drawing a card.  I then attack the Student of Steel, and kill it for Shed Blood.  I then push back up and away from Molly.  His Doxy drops a scheme marker before walking and Taking the Lead on Phillip.  I walk the Bandido on my left flank, getting to a position to shoot his other Necropunk (with Dead Man Walking) if he goes for my left flank.  He goes with his Emissary, using his (0) to make Philip Fast for next turn.  He then walks and drops a scheme marker.  Parker take a shot on him thanks to Dead Man Walking, but fails to hit.  

I have Anna go next, ditching Oathkeeper for Fast.  I walk for a better angle to Vortex the Kentauroi, succeeding but having Molly pass the pulse test.  I then use Swirling Damned twice, the first time he Red Jokers the defence, the second time I do Moderate damage and summon a Seishin.  

He goes with Molly, and casts Revelation on Parker, declaring I’ll be There to push away.  I stone away one of the damages.  Molly then attacks my Bandido on the right flank with Revelation twice, drawing cards with Lost Toys twice and killing the Bandido for Shed Blood.  Her (0) is spent making the Kentauroi take a walk action.  Anna shoots the Kentauroi afterwards thanks to Dead Man Walking, getting Minimum damage.  I go with the Seishin and fail to heal Parker.  He goes with a Necropunk who fails to leap, and walks outside of any projectile ranges from me.

At the end of the turn, we are tied on Shed Blood.  He scores one point from Hold Up Their Forces thanks to his Kentauroi.

Score:  0 - 1 (Hold Up Their Forces)

Turn 3
He wins the Initiative this turn, and opens with Philip drawing cards twice and walking.  I have Parker go, ditching Stick up for Fast Getaway and a stone.  I walk to be able to Five-Finger Discount the marker next to Mad Dog for Stick Up.  I shoot the Kentauroi with my Six Shooters, getting Hide In Shadow to push and killing the Kentauroi for Shed Blood.  I try to put Hands in the Air on Molly, but he cheats to avoid it.  I end by dropping Hail of Bullets down in front of Philip to discourage any pushes.

He has a Necropunk fail to Leap, and opt to walk and drop a scheme marker.  I have the Seishin use Cure Spirit to heal Parker one.  His Dead Doxy walks and uses Take the lead on the Emissary.  I have my own Emissary give Mad Dog a Trinket and Rip it off to draw two cards and set up a  marker for next turn, before walking and pushing to drop a marker in position for Search the Ruins.

He goes with Molly, and casts Whispered Secrets onto Parker, getting the Red Joker.   He then uses Revelation on Parker, declaring Lost Toys and worst of all - getting severe damage, thus Paralyzing Parker.  I stone 2 damage on that attack.  His second attack he declares Intensity to heal.  I walk Mad Dog up and shoot the Carrion Emissary, declaring Blown Back to push it into the Hail of Bullet markers, netting Severe on the Hazardous Terrain.  I then fail to cast Blow it to Hell again.  His Emissary charges Parker, and I Red Joker the first defense flip.  The second attack I stone 3 damage away, but still get a single infect.  Anna shoots into engagement thanks to Dead Man Walking, but Black Jokers it.  

Anna decides to activate next anyway, shooting the emissary twice, but only landing one hit to drop him to Hard to Kill.  I then Vortex the bird away.  He Leaps a Necropunk and drops a scheme.  I have Doc push towards Parker, healing him for two.  I then make a big mistake and try to shoot the Emissary with my Hidden Flintlock, failing and sacrificing my own Doc for the pleasure.    

At the end of the turn, I score one point for the Strategy.  My opponent scores one point for Guarded Treasure.

Score:  1 (Public Execution) - 2 (Guarded Treasure)

Turn 4
He stones for cards, and I win initiative.  I have Mad Dog open with a Rapid Fire on the Emissary.  I kill it on the first shot, drawing a card from Go Through Their Pockets and dropping a scheme marker.  I then successfully Blow It To Hell.  He has his Dead Doxy go, walking and dropping a scheme marker before Taking the Lead on Molly.  I have Anna go, walking up to Vortex Molly, which was a mistake.  I then attack the Doxy, but only do weak damage.

He has a Necropunk scheme and leap.  I have my Emissary attack his Necropunk twice, getting the discard or slow trigger twice, leaving him at one wound before pushing and dropping a marker for Search the Ruins.  He goes with the Necropunk, healing back above hard to kill and leaping to remove one of my scheme markers.  I walk my remaining Bandido to drop a scheme marker for Search the Ruins.  He has Philip eat some scheme markers for cards.  I activate Parker and clear paralyze as my last activation.  

Clearly waiting for this, he goes with Molly and summons a Punk Zombie between Anna and Mad Dog.  She then casts Whispered Secrets at Parker, succeeding.  She then uses Revelation on Parker, declaring Lost Toys and cheating to hit Severe (and Paralyze) again.  She has the Punk Zombie attack Parker with her (0).  She accomplices into the Punk Zombie, who kills Parker for Shed Blood.  

At the end of the turn, neither of us score any points.  I realize I’m capped at 4 points, and aim to do whatever I can to keep it that way. 

Score:  1 - 2

Turn 5
He stones, I win Initiative.  I have Mad Dog Rapid Fire into Molly.  She uses Masterful Dead on the first attack, and spends her two remaining stones on the next attacks to get 2 prevention each.  On the last attack I declare Blown Back to push her away.  He has Molly walk up and use Revelation on my Bandido, killing her for Shed Blood and ordering her Punk Zombie to walk.  She then drops a scheme marker.

I have my Emissary go and attack his Necropunk twice, but can’t land the last hit to kill him.  He has Philip go next, dropping a scheme marker to secure Guarded Treasure this turn.  I have Anna go next, but fail to disengage or push the Punk Zombie away.  At this point my opponent goes through the motions and we end the turn.

At the end of the turn, he scores the strategy and both of his schemes.  I score only Search the Ruins, as the game comes to an end.  

Final Score:  4 (Search the Ruins) - 5 (Public Execution, Hold Up Their Forces, Guarded Treasure)

Thoughts
Public Execution is a nice take on the killy strategy.  I like how it’s turned out, and don’t really have anything more to add.  I do like Guarded Treasure as it’s paired scheme, as it definitely forces some difficult choices in crew selection.  The scheme pool itself felt fine.

In turn 3, having Doc Mitchell try to kill the Emissary was a really poor choice.  He wouldn’t have increased my Shed Blood count that turn, and his heals would have have been better for keeping Parker standing to maybe get some points on Undercover Entourage.  In turn 4, I had Anna push Molly with Vortex.  I was doing it to get her away from the Dead Doxy so if I killed it, Molly wouldn’t get fast - but I would have been better suited attacking Molly herself, putting more pressure on her.  

I also need to give Johan another go, as Parker getting paralyzed two turns in a row this game was backbreaking.  I may need to also consider no longer putting Undercover Entourage on him, as he wants to be in the thick of things and has a big target on his head.  My opponent’s crew was light on models that qualified for Guarded Treasure, which surprised me.

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18 hours ago, Diceman87 said:

I also need to give Johan another go, as Parker getting paralyzed two turns in a row this game was backbreaking.

Even if you're on negatives Molly can still have troubles cheating her damage if you spend a soulstone to give her :-fate to her damage flip, unless she focused and differential is six or more. Not to mention that you are no longer on negatives thanks to that. I used to play Molly quite regularily and paralyzing Master or Henchman who had a soulstone to use is something that happened to me only unintentionally, by flipping two severes on negative flip.

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On 11/20/2017 at 5:36 AM, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

Even if you're on negatives Molly can still have troubles cheating her damage if you spend a soulstone to give her :-fate to her damage flip, unless she focused and differential is six or more. Not to mention that you are no longer on negatives thanks to that. I used to play Molly quite regularily and paralyzing Master or Henchman who had a soulstone to use is something that happened to me only unintentionally, by flipping two severes on negative flip.

This is true.  If I'm honest, I was a bit tilted when she managed to get the first Paralyze off (which I think was on a negative flip), and blanked on stoning defensively on the second hit.  

 

 

On 11/20/2017 at 9:28 PM, Virtus said:

Thanks for sharing @Diceman87! I really enjoy reading your games because I learn about new Masters I've never faced before (which is a lot because my community is small). Too bad Dead Man Walking never seemed to work for you.

Question: Is it worth using Crate of Dynamite on Phillip and the Nanny?

Thank you!  Dead Man Walking is hit and miss, but I'm not fussed with getting free AP. 

I do think Crate of Dynamite will be worth it to force tests on Philip, and remove markers that he'd turn into cards.  The trickiest thing I've found is range - my opponents play Philip very cagey, so Parker hasn't been in range to blow them up. 

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 11/13/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/19/2017.  

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Corner
Strategy:  Ours
Schemes:  Eliminate the Leadership, Covert Breakthrough, Hold Up Their Forces, Take Prisoner, Vendetta

I declared Arcanist, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Rasputina + 7 SS

  • Cold Nights
  • Enveloped in Ice
  • Shattered Heart

Wendigo

Snow Storm

  • Imbued Energies
  • Sub Zero

December Acolyte
December Acolyte
Silent One
Arcane Effigy

I’ve been itching to give Raspy a try recently.  I’ve had her crew built and painted for ages, but never really did well with her.  I decided to play her regardless of strat and schemes this day, but this pool really played well into her M.O. of kill first, scheme later.  Crew-wise, I stayed in theme except for the Effigy, who is just so good for his cost.  I took as many minions as I could to maximize Sub Zero on Snow Storm.  

My Opponent’s List
Yan Lo + 7 SS 

  • Awakening
  • Follow Their Footsteps

Soul Porter
Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries

Toshiro the Daimyo

  • Command the Graves
  • Corpse Bloat

Datsue Ba

  • Spirit Whispers
  • Wronged Spirits

Chiaki The Niece
Goryo

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
I figured my crew would be ok at Eliminate the Leadership, Take Prisoner, and Vendetta.  The other two schemes were doable, but not ideal.  Seeing Chiaki and all of his pushes, my plan to Paralyze something for Take Prisoner seemed harder to achieve than just killing.  I opted for Eliminate the Leadership and Vendetta, with my Silent One against his Goryo.  

My opponent ended up taking Vendetta (Datsue Ba against Snow Storm) and Hold Up Their Forces.

Deployment
I win the cut for deployment, and have my opponent deploy first.  He picks a corner that puts me into a corner with a large piece of terrain to split up my crew.  He spreads out during deployment, staying within range of his various auras and push effects.  I deploy heavily on my rightmost flank, with only the Wendigo and Silent One on my left flank.  The Acolytes use From the Shadows conservatively, staying behind cover and well out of Lightning Dance range.

Turn 1
He Red Jokers on the initiative flip, and opens with the Goryo who summons a Seishin and drops a scheme marker for Philip.  I walk my Wendigo up and drop Ice Pillars next to the tree near the center to protect my Acolyte.  He has Datsue Ba summon a Seishin, drop a scheme marker for Philip and then take a walk.  I have the Effigy give Rasputina Brilliance, then walk.  Philip eats the scheme markers for cards.

Yan Lo goes next, Focusing Chi before Spirit Barraging both Seishin for Chi.  He then Instills Youth on the Goryo, healing him to full.  He ends by Ascending for Ash Ascendant and walking up.  I walk Snow Storm up and December’s Command Rasputina into a forward position. Toshiro rips out his spleen and summons an Ashigaru off of it, before walking up.  The Soul Porter walks to push Yan Lo.  I walk the Silent One up, and he Braces his Ashigaru.  

Rasputina is woefully out of range to blast anything this turn, so settles for dropping Ice Pillars (with Surge) to protect the Acolyte on my right flank, and walk to have as many Ice Mirrors in range.  His last activation is Chiaki, who walks and fails to heal Toshiro.   

At the end of the turn, no one scores any points.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
I spend a stone for cards this turn, and win initiative.  I have him go first, since we’re both still too far away to interact with each other.  He has his Goryo repeat last turn, summoning a Seishin and dropping a scheme marker.  I have the Effigy give Rasputina Brilliance and walk again, securing my deployment zone quarter for Ours.  He drops a scheme marker with his Ashigaru, and Braces again.  I have the Wendigo walk and drop Ice Pillars again.  Philip eats the two scheme markers for more cards.  We proceed to trade activations walking our models, with me walking both Acolytes and him walking his Seishin.  

Chiaki goes next, and tragically fails to heal Toshiro twice.  I walk Snow Storm into my far right quarter, and use December’s Command to pull up the Silent One.  He walks Datsue Ba, making a beeline for Snow Storm.  

I go with Rasputina and walk to be in position to Ice Mirror a December’s Curse at Yan Lo.  I stone for a Mask, declaring Overpower.  I flip the Red Joker on damage, and he spends a Soulstone to prevent 3 damage.  He also discards a card to avoid taking Burning.  I blast onto the Goryo, which drops him to one wound with Burning.  My triggered attack does weak damage, which he avoids with another stone.  With Rasputina’s last ap, I cast Ice Pillars with Surge to protect my crew from Yan Lo.  His Soul porter pushes Toshiro and Yan Lo.  I walk my Silent One up twice, figuring that I had given up Vendetta (but reminding my opponent he can put out the fire on the Goryo in hopes to subtly save him for next turn).  

He has Yan Lo activate next, Focusing Chi and Instilling Youth on the Goryo for 5 (huzzah!).  He then walks to Spirit Barrage Rasputina twice.  Thanks to Counterspell, he doesn’t gain any additional Chi.  I do spend a stone to prevent some damage.  He ends by Ascending to Spirit.  

With me out of activations, he has his two seishin walk and heal Yan Lo.  Toshiro walks and puts the fire out on his Goryo.  

At the end of the turn, I score the Strategy.  Neither of us score our schemes.

Score:  1 (Ours) - 0

Turn 3
We both stone for cards this turn, and I win initiative.  I open with the Arcane Effigy, putting Brilliance on Rasputina and using Accomplice to chain activate into her.  Rasputina drops an Ice Pillar behind Yan Lo, isolating him from the rest of his crew.  She then casts Freeze Over on him, and I cheat to secure the Paralyze.  With her last AP, she attacks him with December’s Curse and triggers Overpower, getting Weak and Moderate damage results.  He stones away one damage, but does take Burning from the second attack.

He has the Ashigaru walk up and Brace.  I have Snow Storm go next, ditching Imbued Energies for Fast.  I charge Yan Lo, and pump attacks into him.  When the dust settles, he spends three stones to prevent most of my damage, but I do manage to drop him below half and reveal Eliminate the Leadership.  Datsue Ba walks up and casts Weigh Sins on Snow Storm, but I cheat the Red Joker to avoid it, and he reveals Vendetta.  He summons a Seishin.  

Wendigo refreshes his Ice Pillars and walks again.  Toshiro tries to use War Fan, but fails, and walks.  I have an Acolyte take a pair of shots at Datsue Ba, getting the Maim trigger off on the first attack.  He spends his last stone to prevent the final attack.  

He walks Philip and the Nanny up twice.  I have my second Acolyte shoot his Seishin, getting a few more discards.  His Goryo walks twice.  I have my Silent One shoot his Goryo, revealing Vendetta and blasting some damage onto Philip.  Sadly, I fail to heal Snow Storm.  He walks Chiaki twice, then decides to concede.

Score:  4 (Ours, Vendetta, Eliminate) - 2 (Ours, Vendetta)

End of Game and Final Score
We discussed the way the game would have played out.  We felt that I’d be able to score Ours for the rest of the game, and he’d get one more point.  I felt it likely that I’d kill the Goryo, but not with my Silent One, so I’d get one more point on Vendetta.  He felt he would not be able to take down Snow Storm.  We agreed that I would be able to kill Yan Lo.  He felt comfortable scoring one point on Hold Up Their Forces.   

Our agreed final score was as follows:

Final Score: 9 (Ours +2, Vendetta +1, Eliminate the Leadership +2) - 4 (Ours +1, Hold Up Their Forces +1)

Thoughts
It was satisfying playing an elite crew into an elite crew in a spread out strategy and doing well.  The scheme pool definitely favored Rasputina’s kill-centric playstyle, but it was unusual for the current scheme pool.  It was a lucky flip for me during set up, not a fault of the pool itself.  

I had always played Rasputina with Armor of December, so using Shattered Heart felt really good.  I never had a chance to use Enveloped by Ice, but I still liked the option it gave me to stay relevant if I had gotten into an engagement.  Being able to isolate and shut down Yan Lo before he got too powerful was key in this game - if he had gotten Blood Ascendant up I don’t know if I’d have been able to hold on.

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On 11/23/2017 at 5:27 PM, Carecalmo said:

Thanks for all the battle reports! They've been really useful for getting a feel for the new strategies.

I also like reading your thoughts on crew and scheme selection and then following the results of those choices during each game.

Great work! :)

Thank you!

I have two more I still need to type up (Another Raspy and a Parker), so expect some new material soon!

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Great reporting.  I like your style - very clear without needlessly bogging down in the detail.  I particularly appreciate your section at the start where you explain the rationale for choosing your crew and schemes (and the honesty of writing that you picked e.g. Rasputina simply because you felt like playing her).  Threads like yours are a huge benefit to the community and help to balance out the tendency for untested 'theory-faux' on these forums with a bit of 'actual-faux'.

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@Argentbadgerthank you kindly!  I do appreciate the feedback.  I started this thread partially to see for myself if Parker was really as bad as the groupthink made him out to be- and by and large, I find him perfectly fine in practice. At the same time, I’ve been able to identify my own bad habits (Obey is non-Leader...) and start to break them.

On that note, if anyone had any suggestions on changes to my current format that they’d like to see, feel free to comment or PM me!  

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 11/13/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/19/2017.  

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Standard
Strategy:  Ply for Information
Schemes:  Surround Them, Covert Breakthrough, Set up, Search the Ruins, Recover Evidence

I declared Arcanist, and my opponent declared Resurrectionists.

My Crew
Rasputina + 7 SS

  • Cold Nights
  • Enveloped in Ice
  • Shattered Heart

Wendigo
Myranda

  • Imbued Energies

Ice Dancer
Ice Dancer
Silent One
Silent One
Arcane Effigy

With many more scheme marker based schemes, I wanted to try out the more schemey models in the Frozen Heart theme.  Myranda was going to turn into a Blessed at the first opportunity.  

My Opponent’s List
Molly Squidpiddge + 7 SS 

  • Back on the Job
  • Forgotten Life
  • Take Back The Night

Philip and the Nanny

  • Haunting Cries

Carrion Emissary

  • Conflux of Horror

Dead Doxy
Kentauroi
Necropunk
Necropunk

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
Kentauroi give Molly a ludicrous threat range, especially since the Emissary can make the Kentauroi fast.  Molly being 24” up the board before activating was something I wanted to avoid.  So I figured I’d try to kill first, and ask scheme later.  I opted for Set Up on Philip and the Nanny, and Search the Ruins.  Since I don’t need to declare who my Set Up target is for Back On The job, I figure it’ll keep Molly some distance away if I drop markers defensively.  

My opponent ended up taking Surround Them and Covert Breakthrough.

Deployment
I lost the cut and deployed first.  I spread out along my deployment line, putting my Ice Dancers on the outermost flanks, with Rasputina near the center.  He deployed centrally, with Molly next to the Kentauroi and behind some trees.

Turn 1
I win the flip for initiative turn one, and have him activate first to get the most of my activations this turn.  He has the Dead Doxy do her thing of dropping a pair of scheme markers with Take the Lead.  I walk an Ice Dancer up, failing to Work the Crowd and not bothering to bluff Surround Them because he knew my schemes (Back on the Job).  He has Philip draw cards.  I walk my other Ice Dancer up, and fail Work the Crowd.  He drops a scheme with a Necropunk for Surround them, then walks and Leaps up.  I walk Wendigo up and make some Ice Pillars.

His Carrion Emissary gives the Kentauroi Fast, then walks up and goes Defensive.  My Effigy gives Rasputina Brilliance, then walks up and drops a scheme marker.  We alternate walking his Necropunk, my Silent One, and his Kentauroi, dragging Molly along.  I walk my second Silent One up and try to attack molly, but fail.

He goes with Molly, and spends a stone to summon a Punk Zombie, using her (0) to get him to attack my Ice Dancer, but subsequently flips the Black Joker on that attack.  She then uses Whispered Secrets on the Ice Dancer, and I Butterfly Jump behind trees. She then attacks a Silent One, turning her into a statue and leaving her at 2 wounds, declaring I’ll Be There to push away.  

I go with Rasputina next, using December’s Curse on his Punk Zombie, flipping the Red Joker on the attack.  I opt for Overpower, getting Severe damage and blasting onto his Kentauroi.  He discards to avoid burning on the Kentauroi.  I kill the Punk Zombie off of the Overpower attack.  I shoot at the Kentauroi next, stoning for a positive and hitting, declaring Overpower.  I get minimal damage, and he discards another card to avoid burning.  I fail the subsequent attack.  With my last AP, I drop some more Ice Pillars.

My last activation is to have Myrand walk twice and summon a Blessed of December, who proceeds to drop the Kentauroi to one wound and Leap away.

At the end of the turn, no one scores any points.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
He stones for cards this turn, and then stones to reflip initiative.  He gets the Black Joker, so I go first.  I have an Ice Dancer Work the Crowd, walk over and kill the Kentauroi with the Slide Chasse trigger.  I drop a marker from Work the Crowd, then push with Forward Momentum.  He has the Emissary Charge the Ice Dancer, I Black Joker the first defense flip, and he declares Final Word.  When all is said and done, he kills my Ice Dancer and blasts onto the Blessed twice.  He drops some Shards of Kythera markers down to end his activation.  I have my Silent One heal the Blessed, walk and fail to hit the Necropunk with Freeze.  

He has the Doxy Take the Lead on Philip, then walk and drop a scheme marker.  I have the Effigy give Brilliance to Rasputina.  I chain activate into Rasputina, dropping an Ice Pillar to disrupt Molly further.  I then take a focused December’s Curse on the Emissary, declaring Surge and getting Burning on the Emissary.

Philip draws some cards, and converts one of my markers into a corpse with New Friends to Talk To.  I have a Silent One heal the Blessed for two, then walk and drop weak damage onto the Necropunk.  He has the Necropunk took a Leap and walk twice toward.  My Wendigo walks up and drops more Ice Pillars.  

Molly activates next, walking up to be in range to summon a Student of Viscera.  She then casts Revelation onto my Silent One, triggering Lost Toys while I trigger Frozen Statue.  She then commands her Student to walk and engage more of my models.  My Blessed Gathers Intel from his Student, before dropping him to one wound and leaping away.  He has his Necropunk heal two, walk into a Leap into a Gathered Intel.  I have my remaining Ice Dancer attack his Necropunk down to Hard to Kill, but can’t finish him off.  He walks the Student again.

At the end of the turn, we are tied for Gathered Intel, so no one scores it.  He summons a Mindless Zombie off of his Shard markers, and takes burning damage on the bird.  Neither of us score our schemes.

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 3
We both stone for cards this turn, and he wins the initiative flip.  I stone to reflip, and fail.  He has nearly-dead Necropunk go, healing back above Hard to Kill and Leaping away.  I have my Effigy give Rapsutina Arcane Brilliance, gather intelligence from his Student, then kill the Student.

I accomplice into Rasputina, who shoots Philip through an Ice Mirror. I score Weak damage, triggering Overpower and getting Moderate - he stones away one damage.  I attack a second time, but can’t get through his Prevention this time.  With my last AP, I flip the Black Joker on casting Ice Pillars.  He has Philip activate, attacking my Silent One near him twice, but hitting only once.  That Silent One then heals up my Blessed and shoots Philip twice, failing to hit both times.  His Carrion Emissary walks and shoots the Wendigo, getting a Red Joker on the damage flip to end him.  I walk my Ice Dancer and drop a scheme marker for Set Up, but fail to Work the Crowd.  

He activates Molly next, who walks again and casts Revelation on my Effigy, declaring Lost Toys.  She fails to hit with the second attack, then uses her (0) on Philip to get him to move.  I go with the Blessed who walks and Leaps to drop a scheme marker for Set Up.  His Doxy goes and takes the Lead on the Blessed, pushing into base contact with my marker as he does so.  With his last AP, he removes my marker.  His Mindless Zombie walks to engage my Effigy, and his other Necropunk walks twice after failing to Leap.

At the end of this turn, I score the Strategy.  Neither of us score our schemes.  

Score:  1 (Ply for Information) - 0

Turn 4
We both stone for cards, and he wins Initiative again.  He opens with Molly, who Whispers at the Blessed to give her Terrible Truths.  She follows up with a pair of Revelations for Lost Toys and I’ll be There Triggers, and gets the Red Joker on the last attack to kill my Blessed.  My Effigy gives Rasputina Arcane Brilliance, fails to hit the Zombie it’s engaged with, and proceeds to Gather Intel off of it.

I accomplice into Rasputina and walk her up to cast Freeze Over on the Carrion Emissary, Paralyzing it.  I then kill a Necropunk thanks to Overpower.  He has Philip go next, killing a Silent One with his Haunting Cry.  His second attack draws the Red Joker from my deck on defense, keeping my Ice Dancer alive.  Said Ice Dancer goes next (being my last model), Works the Crowd and drops a pair of scheme markers around Philip.  The Dead Doxy then walks and Takes the Lead on Philip, pushing him far away from any of my markers.  He drops a marker for Surround Them with his remaining Necropunk, and clears Paralyzed from his Emissary.

At the end of the turn, I score the Strategy again.

Score:  2 (Ply for Information) - 0

Turn 5
We both keep our hands at the start, and I win initiative.  I have Rasputina go first, shooting the Doxy but failing to kill her even with Overpower.  I then decide to walk and use Freeze Over to stop any further push shenanigans.  He has his Emissary charge at my Ice Dancer, cheating the Red Joker in for damage to kill her.  My Effigy Gathers more Intel from his Mindless Zombie.

He has the rest of the activations, and has Philip use New Friends to Talk To to wipe out my remaining scheme markers.  He walks his Necro towards my other corner, and tries to kill the Effigy with Molly but fails.  

The game does not continue. At the end of the game, I score the Strategy again.  I fail to score either of my schemes.  My opponent scores full points on Surround Them and two for Covert Breakthrough.

Final Score: 3 (Ply for Information) - 5 (Surround Them +3, Covert Breakthrough +2)

Thoughts
I could feel the absence of Snow Storm in this list.  The Blessed was a nice mobile beater, but lacked the sheer damage output that Snow Storm brought me.  I also feel that two Ice Dancers and two Silent Ones was too many points sunk into non-killy models.  I could have tried to keep the Ice Dancers back and run interference on his Necropunks, but then I’d have a hard time with Set Up.  

Set Up was not a good pick for me.  Notwithstanding Philip’s ability to convert my scheme markers to corpses, I completely discounted the Doxy’s ability to push him out of danger once he had activation control on me.  I lacked the damage output to catch up, and probably would have done better with Acolytes/ Snow Storm.  

It was nice being able to spread out as much as I did, as it limited his ability to summon with Molly.  The strategy discouraging summoning was also very helpful, as I got two of those points off of his mindless zombie.  

I’m probably letting Back on the Job bother me more than I should.  Letting my opponent know what schemes I’m picking is definitely an issue, but if I spent more time thinking about how my choices would impact their playstyle I might be able to psyche out an opponent.

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Here’s a battle report testing the GG2018 document, 11/13/2017 version, at Titan Games and Hobbies in Lutherville-Timonium on 11/22/2017.  

Photos from the game are here.  

Setup
Deployment:  Standard
Strategy:  Public Execution
Schemes:  Guarded Treasure, Covert Breakthrough, Set Up, Hold Up Their Forces, Take One for the Team

I declared Outcasts, and my opponent declared Guild.

Please note - I had saved the lists in my phone, but accidentally deleted the data.  Crew Builds (especially upgrades) may not be exact.  Additionally, my opponent proxied the Riot Breaker using the Eternal Flame.

My Crew
Parker Barrows + 6 SS

  • Black Market
  • Stick Up
  • Hail of Bullets

Doc Mitchell
Mad Dog Brackett

  • Oathkeeper
  • Lucky Poncho

Anna Lovelace

  • Oathkeeper

Hodgepodge Emissary

  • Conflux of Stolen Goods

Bandido
Bandido

Back to Parker, as I’m planning to take him to Capital City Winter Murderland, coming up soon.  (Anyone in the area who can go should sign up soon!).  The core of my list hasn’t changed, but knowing he had Guild I wanted to have a few more stones for healing/ dropping markers for Set Up/ Breakthrough, so swapped my minions for Bandidos.  My other reason for this was that with their Run and Gun, Bandidos can deny Hold Up by pushing out of engagements.  Otherwise, my list is pretty standard for the games I’ve been playing lately (see my other reports).

My Opponent’s List
C. Hoffman + 6 SS 

  • Arcanist Assets
  • Field Mechainc
  • Improved Harness

Mechanical Attendant
Joss

  • A Debt to the Guild
  • Numb to the World?

Ryle

  • A Debt to the Guild
  • Vengeance Bullet?

Guardian
Metal Gamin
Riotbreaker

Scheme Selection & Gameplan
I figured I had the option for Guarded Treasure with the Emissary being as tanky as he is, and able to account for at least one of the markers every turn.  Set Up is a near auto-include for me with Parker, given his ability to flip enemy markers into my own, and to drop all three markers for it in one activation if I needed to.  I ended up choosing Take One for the Team on my brunette Bandido, as I figured I could make a play late game with her and let her die to something more expensive than her.  Additionally, it never hurts to take a scheme that plays into a killy strategy.   

My opponent ended up taking Hold Up Their Forces and Take One for The Team.

Deployment
I win the cut for deployment, and have him go first.  He clumps up in the middle of his deployment zone, as I expected a Hoffball to do.  I spread myself out along my deployment zone, hoping to force him to unpack his crew.

Turn 1
He stones for cards this turn.  I lose the initiative flip.  He forces me to go first.  

I open with the Emissary, and use ‘Something in my Pack’ to give Mad Dog a Vitality Potion, drawing a card from the Conflux.  I then use ‘It Was Only a Loan’ to rip it off, dropping an enemy scheme marker and drawing another card.  I then use ‘Something in my Pack’ to give Mad Dog the Vitality Potion back, drawing a third card.  Hereinafter I’ll be referring to this sequence as ‘cycling’.  With my last (0), I use Weary Road to push up the board.

He opens with Hoffman, who Power Loops in the Metal Gamin and Mechanical Attendant.  He uses Redirect Power on the Guardian, triggering the ability to take the action again on Ryle.  He Machine Puppets Ryle, triggering Repeat Programming, to take a Walk action (dragging Hoffman up.  He then Machine Puppets Joss with the Fast trigger, having Joss walk up as well.  He ends by Shaking Down Joss.

Keeping the ‘minigame’ train going, I activate Parker next.  I discard Stick Up with Fast Getway, netting a Stone from Limited Supplies and a free Walk.  I use Five-Finger Discount on the marker I dropped from cycling on Mad Dog, attaching High Noon.  I use Dead Man Walking on Ryle, but he flips the Red Joker.  I ditch a Soulstone to keep the upgrade, and try again.  This time I hit, and cheat a Ram in for the Slow trigger, ditching a second stone to keep the upgrade.  With my last AP, I drop some Hail of Bullet markers.  At the end of Parker’s activation, I gain a Soulstone from This Looks Valuable.

He walks the Guardian up twice, casting Protect on Ryle.  We proceed to alternate walking up Anna Lovelace, the Mechanical Attendant, both Bandidos, the Metal Gamin and the Riotbreaker.  I walk Mad Dog twice as well, but also cast Blow It To Hell to take away the cover my Hail of Bullet markers were providing.  He walks Joss up twice and uses his fast AP for Defensive.  I walk Doc up and use Stitch Up on Mad Dog, fishing for a Crow but not getting it.

He ends the turn by having Ryle walk up dragging Hoffman, then walk again towards his Riotbreaker.  He uses Field Repairs on Joss for two wounds.  He makes sure to end his activation outside of the range of any of my projectile attacks. 

At the end of the turn, no one scores any points.  

Score:  0 - 0

Turn 2
He stones for cards this turn, and wins initiative.  He goes with Hoffman first, refreshing the Power Loop condition on his Metal Gamin and Mechanical Attendant.  He then uses Redirect Power on the Guardian, with the trigger to take the action again on Ryle.  He Shakes Down Ryle, then casts Update Hardware on Joss to give him Hydraulics.  He gets the Tome trigger to take this action again on Ryle, giving him Target Systems.  His last AP is to Machine Puppet Joss with the Repeat Programming trigger to move him up.  

I go with the Emissary, cycling off of Anna to give her the Pretty Floral Bonnet before pushing up the board, drawing three cards and dropping an enemy scheme marker in the process.  Ryle goes next, turning in Debt to the Guild with Paid in Blood.  He combos this with Targeting Systems and proceeds to shoot my Emissary.  He Red Jokers the first attack flip, declaring Concentrated Burst for 5 damage.  I cheat to avoid the second attack.  He uses Field Repairs to heal Joss two.  

I go with Parker, using Dead Man Walking on the Riotbreaker.  I opt to lose the upgrade, gaining a soulstone from Limited Supplies.  I then walk away from Joss, and use Five-Finger Discount to attach Stick Up.  I then drop Hail of Bullet markers in Joss’s path, and gain a soulstone from This Looks Valuable.  Joss goes next, and cares not for some bullets as he also uses Paid in Blood.  He makes his Nimble walk to be able to charge the Emissary, taking a point of damage from the Hail of Bullets.  He misses his first attack, but hits with his second and third attacks.  Thankfully, he flips the Black Joker on the damage flip.  

I immediately send Doc Mitchell up to heal the Emissary, getting the This’ll Numb the Pain trigger for Hard to Wound.  He walks the Mechanical Attendant.

I have a Bandido shoot the Riotbreaker, declaring Drop It on the first attack.  I miss the second shot.  He walks the Guardian Twice, clearly aiming to tie up my models on the left flank.  I have Anna use Swirling Damned on the Guardian twice, but only manages to stick one wound.  I then use Vortex to push the Guardian away.  He walks the Metal Gamin.  My second Bandido shoots his Guardian, netting a single point of damage as well.  The Riotbreaker walks twice, and the Bandido takes the shot offered by Dead Man Walking at him, failing to hit.  Mad Dog, having nothing better to do, walks up and drops a Scheme marker next to Joss.

At the end of the turn, I score Set Up on Joss for full points.  My opponent scores one point for Hold Up Their Forces.  Neither of us score the strategy.

Score:  3 (Set Up) - 1 (Hold Up Their Forces)

Turn 3
We both stone for cards this turn.  He stones to reflip initiative, getting the Red Joker.  He opens with Joss, who kills the Emissary and gains the Shed Blood condition.  He Nimbles to attack Anna, and I manage to prevent one point of his damage.  

I go with Parker, ditching Stick Up with Fast Getaway for a walk and triggering Limited Supplies for a Soulstone.  I shoot Joss with my Six-Shooters, declaring Drop It.  I then Five-finger Discount that marker into High Noon, and proceed to shoot Joss twice more with my Six-Shooters, opting for the trigger to ignore armor each time.  This leaves process leaves Joss on 2 wounds.  I end Parker’s activation and gain a soulstone from This Looks Valuable.

He charges his Guardian into Parker, failing to connect twice.  He casts Protect on Joss, healing him two.  I go with Anna, burning Oathkeeper.  She uses Vortex on the Guardian, but he cheats to avoid the push.  I then attack Joss with my Wretched Blade, on the second attack triggering Glimpse the Void.  The third attack drops Joss to Hard to Kill, and draws out his last soultone.  

He reactivates Joss, and punches Anna a few times, and I spend stones to keep her alive.  Mad Dog activates next, burning his own Oathkeeper for Fast.  He charges Joss, spending a Soulstone for a Crow twice on his Burning Cigar Attack in order to trigger Say Hello to my Little Friend, killing Joss.  This procs me to draw a card from Go Through Their Pockets on Parker, drop a scheme marker from Mad Dod’s Loot their Corpses, and lastly gain Shed Blood on Mad Dog.  Mad Dog then walks to a better firing position.  

Hoffman goes next, looping in the Mechanical Attendant and the Metal Gamin.  He uses Redirect onto Ryle with the Overload Trigger.  He then uses Machine Puppet to make Ryle walk.  He Machine Puppets again to have Ryle shoot at my Bandido, dealing severe damage.  He then shakes down Ryle.  Mad Dog takes the free projectile attack on Ryle (from Dead Man Walking), but misses.  

My wounded Bandido walks and takes a shot at Hoffman, but fails to hit.  Ryle Shoots at the wounded Bandido, flipping the Black Joker on the first attack.  I cheat to avoid the second attack, as I’m hoping my opponent is convinced that I don’t have Take One on her.  I figure I can get to the next turn this way, and score full points for that scheme.  

On the left flank, I charge my Bandido in on the Guardian, failing to hit twice.  The Metal Gamin walks twice.  Doc uses Get Over Here to push and walk towards Anna, and sadly flips the Black Joker on his Stitch Up for her.  He ends the turn by taking a focused shot on my Bandido with his Riotbreaker, but failing to hit.   

At the end of this turn, I score the Strategy.  He scores a point on Hold Up Their Forces.

Score:  4 (Public Execution) - 2 (Hold Up Their Forces)

Turn 4
I win the initiative flip.  I open with Parker, shooting the Guardian with the Ignores Armor trigger, and I cheat the Red Joker to kill him for Shed Blood.  I then take a focused shot on Ryle, opting for the Empty the Chamber trigger (discarding High Noon for Limited Supplies) but only getting a measly one point of damage through.  I end without using Five-Finger Discount, as I want maximum stones for prevention against Ryle’s counterattack.

Hoffman goes, looping in the Metal Gamin and the Mechanical Attendant.  He uses Redirect Power on Ryle.  He then uses Update Hardware on Ryle with the repeat trigger.  He gives Ryle Target Systems and Hydraulics.  He then Machine Puppets Ryle with the Push trigger, causing the Riotbreaker to also Push.  They then shoot at Doc, and I Black Joker the defense flip.  He manages to live on Moderate damage.  Hoffman then opts to Leap.  Doc goes next, healing Anna twice and giving her Hard to Wound.  

Ryle goes next, using his Target Systems but sadly failing to hit Doc with both shots.  He then uses Field Repairs on himself for two damage, then Nimbles into engagement.  Anna takes the  shot from Dead Man Walking (thanks to not randomizing with her gun), doing Moderate damage and summoning a Seishin.  

On the left flank, my Bandido shoots his Metal Gamin, doing one damage after all the armor.  He walks his Mechanical Attendant, and I use Spirit Protection with the Seishin to be sure I won’t give up easy Shed Bloods.  He uses the Riotbreaker to take a focused shot into engagement, and lands on Ryle.  He cheats for weak damage, not wanting to risk anything higher.

At this point, my opponent concedes.

End of Game and Final Score

At the end of the last turn, I score the Strategy.  We discussed the likelihood of scoring our other points.  He stated he would try to kill my Bandit with either Ryle or the Riotbreaker to score Shed Blood, which would give me full points for Take One for the Team.  He felt that despite that, I would probably get the Shed Blood off of some combination of his Metal Gamin, Mechanical Attendant, Ryle or Riotbreaker.  

He revealed that he also had Take One for the Team, and I felt it likely I’d give him full points given it was an easy Shed Blood target.  He did not feel that it was likely he’d get another Hold Up Their Forces.   

Final Score: 9 (Public Execution +2, Take One for the Team +3) - 5 (Take One for the Team +3)

Thoughts
This game went about as according to plan as it could have for me.  I appreciated getting the opportunity to use High Noon’s armor ignoring trigger on Parker, even though my opponent obliged by overextended his models (i.e. Joss, the Guardian) away from Hoffman’s ‘can’t ignore armor’ aura.  I was again impressed with Mad Dog’s ability to kill models in new and interesting ways, even if they cost a few soulstones.  Anna wasn’t as dominant this game as she’s been in other games, but she did draw a lot of attention.  I really liked the Bandidos this game.  I felt like they contributed more to the game at their cost bracket than the Dead Outlaws have been doing for me.  

For my opponent’s crew, I feel like he has a pretty good grasp of Hoffman’s Power Loop shenanigans.  The Arcanist Assets package didn’t impress me at first, but looking back on it I think if my opponent had stayed balled up a turn longer, I’d have had a much harder time removing Joss.  

Strategy wise, I was only able to dominate scoring because of how he sent his beaters in.  I’ve been considering swapping Mad Dog for McTavish lately, as another model who can shoot into engagements without randomizing who also holds his own in close combat.  I think in this case, Mad Dog was fine - but spreading out more might be the answer against ball crews like this in Public Execution.

Scheme wise, the pool felt fine.  Guarded Treasure is a good pairing for the strategy, becuase it is so hard for me to think of a time where I’d want to do it.  In this pool, I don’t think I’d make any major changes.   

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