Diceman87's 3rd Edition After Action Reports

[James Dyson]

@Zebo oops - that's a typo on my part.  I meant 3".  That's what I get for not proofreading!

As far as the rifleman shot, My opponent got lucky.  I had him on a negative twist to damage, and he proceeded to flip a 6 and 8 on Mah, and then he flipped a cheeky pair of 13 on the ricochet!  

[Trample]

On 5/25/2020 at 11:57 PM, Diceman87 said:

Dashel goes next, summoning a pair of Riflemen.  He then moves and tries to heal his Mounted Guard, but fails.  He Concentrates to end his activation.  I have a Bushwhacker kill one of his summoned Riflemen thanks to a focused shot, then try to shoot the Dispatcher.  He opts to pass the attack off to the Mounted Guard in Concealing terrain, and I fail to hit.

I don't think he is reading this correctly. A pair of riflemen would require a 22 to summon and the highest value he could achieve would be a 20 with the red joker summoning off of an enemy scheme marker. 

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for a game played via Vassal on 07/12/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and @Nagi21 generated using the Malifaux App.   

Set Up
Standard Deployment
Public Enemies
Let them Bleed, Take Prisoner, Vendetta, Runic Binding, Leave Your Mark

I announced Bayou, he announced Outcasts.  I announced Somer, and he announced Barbaros.  

The crew I built was:

6ss
Som’er Teeth Jones
2x Skeeter
Lenny Jones
Big Brain Brin
Georgy and Olaf
Old Cranky
Gremlin Crier w/ Twelve Cups of Coffee
Banjonista

His crew:

4ss
Barbaros
Hodgepodge Effigy w/ Effigy of Fate
Rusty Alice
Hayreddin
Black Blood Shaman
Mature Nephilim w/ Soldier for Hire
Young Nephilim

I figured that I’d want to kill my opponent, I might as well double-down on it.  I chose Vendetta (Georgie and Olaf vs Mature Nephilim) and Let Them Bleed.  I chose Georgie and Olaf for this because they are the most likely source of reliable damage.  He chose Vendetta (Black Blood shaman on Gremlin Crier) and Leave Your Mark.

Deployment
He was the attacker.  He chose the top half of the board.  I had him deploy the Mature Nephilim, Rusy Alyce, Young Nephilim and Effigy first to see the greatest threat vectors in his crew, by my estimation.

I deployed on the bottom half, bubbling up.  He deploys the rest of his crew in a bubble around the Shaman.

Turn 1
Summary:
We both play the positioning game, and he tries to pull Somer out of Position.  I'm able to keep my bubble intact, summon some models, and begin to spread focus around my crew.  He manages to kill several of my models, but only the newly summoned ones.  

Play by play:
He stones for cards this turn.  I win initiative, and give him first activation.  He gains 2 pass tokens.

The Black Blood Shaman attacks Hayreddin, getting his Mask trigger.  He proceeds to do minimal damage, then eats the corpse marker to pulse out focus.  He tries Knifing Hayreddin again, but doesn’t get the trigger to drop a corpse.

I have the Banjonista activate, pulsing out the move from Foggy Bayou Hoedown.  I then walk up and drop a scheme marker.  The Effigy walks, concentrates, then fails to put up his aura.  I walk a Skeeter and concentrate it behind the building on the right.  He has his Young Nephilim Fly with the Effigy, walk and concentrate behind terrain.

I have a Skeeter walk and concentrate, using behind terrain.  He has Hayreddin walk twice and flip Black Joker on his bonus action.  Cranky uses Obey on Lenny to Toss Somer, who relents, moving with the trigger.  I then concentrate.

Barbaros walked and tried Bring It! On Somer, who was a smidge too far up the board.  Thanks to high cards in hand and Bayou Two Card, I avoid both attempts.  Brin is my next activation, and a cheeky Intuition allows me to discard the Black Joker with Calculate the Possibilities.  I Pull the Strings on the Crier (eating the marker I dropped earlier) and have him walk forward.  To end, I sober up Somer for some focus.

My opponent spends a Pass token, so I activate Somer.  I spend a stone and summon a Spit Hog and a Bayou Gremlin to block his charge lanes, and maybe get a Lure off.  I try a focused shot at Barbaros, failing due to cover.  I drop a scheme marker and Focus as a bonus with Old Cranky.

My opponent spends another pass token, so I have Lenny toss Brin up the field, walk up and focus as a bonus from Cranky.  Another Pass token, and I have my Spit Hog focus as a bonus and use it to Lure Barbados.

The Mature Nephilim flies Alyce forward, then walks and punches the Spit Hog.  Thanks to Bayou Two Card, I dodged.  Georgie and Olaf walk up, concentrate and use Lenny to hide from Somer so I can pulse focus onto my minions.

Alyce takes a focuses shot at the Spit Hog, and thanks to Bayou Two Card he kills the hog.  I resolve Pig Eating Grin for Lenny, doing weak damage to the Mature.  He proceeds to kill the newly summoned Bayou Gremlin, and Rapid Fires onto the other Bayou Gremlin.  He only lives thanks to the Red Joker.  

The Crier Marks Territory for a focus, then charges the Mature and slows him.  I then concentrate.  The remaining Bayou walks and concentrates.

At the end of the turn, he discards his pass tokens to Bigger Hat than You.

Turn 2
Summary:
The crews meet in the center, and the Nephilim Crew is unable to chew through the Big Hat bodies.  Importantly, the Big Hat beaters are able to get ahead on the attrition game, killing the Young and a summoned Tot.  We both score the strategy and reveal Vendetta.

Play-by-Play:

I stone for cards.  He cheats to go first, and gains 3 pass tokens.

Hayreddin opens with Life from Blood, then walks and uses Black Blood Pustule on the Nephilim, killing a Bayou and summoning a Tot. Somer gives Lenny a shot with Pig Eating Grin, but fail to hit.

I reply with Georgie and Olaf, who take a focused shot on the Mature and drop it to half wounds with Moderate damage.  I then shoot the Terror Tot (aiming for a Ricochet) but fail to hit.  I pulse out more focus and then reveal Vendetta.

The Black Blood Shaman moves up to Pustule the Mature to heal and drop the Crier below half wounds. He then Flies Alyce to a better vantage point.  He reveals Vendetta.

The Banjonista moves my crew forward then runs up next to his crew and pulses Distracted onto the Mature, Tot and Barbaros.

The Young Nephilim charges into the Crier, killing him with Pick the Bones.  He swings in the Banjonista, declaring Onslaught.  I negate the trigger with Brin, so the Banjonista lives.  The Young gains some Bounty points.  

Somer goes next, blowing up the Banjonista (Alyce claims the Bounty point) to get some cards and damage.  I stone to summon a Spit Hog and a Bayou, getting the trigger so the Spit Hog isn't Slow.  The Spit Hog comes in to block Hayreddin's aura that summons Tots.  I put up his Bonus aura, then blow up the remaining Bayou Gremlin.  Pig Eating Grin shots bring the Mature down some.

The Mature Nephilim goes to try and live with Regen 2, then walks and eats a corpse to end at 6 wounds.   A Skeeter flies and engages Rusty.  The Effigy walks up and fails to heal the Young Nephilim, but puts up his aura.  

He Accomplices into Alyce, who fails to hit the Skeeter thanks to my many stacks of focus.

Lenny swings and kills the Tot.  This gave him freedom to shoot the Young, killing him.  Lenny gains enough Bounty points for the score this turn.  I go for Random About if Brilliance, leading Lenny to walk backwards a little.

Barbaros gets stuck in with the Spit Hog, missing the first hit and connecting on the second with Knock Aside - which I cancel with Brin.  He does his bonus to pulse out damage and kill the Spit Hog.  The new Bayou walks and concentrates.

Brin uses Pull the strings on the Bayou to remove the scheme marker he had dropped with the Young.  The Bayou walks to be in pulse range of Hayreddin and Barbaros.  I calculate the Possibilities with the trigger to Stun Barbaros.  I then charge Barbaros and slow him with Sharp Wit.   his marker. 

Cranky eats a corpse to no gain and fails to Obey Barbaros.  I move a Skeeter to engage Hayreddin.

At the end of the turn, he has to discard his pass tokens to my Bigger Hat.  We both score the strategy and Vendetta.  

The score was 2-2.

Turn 3
Summary:
My opponent concedes early this turn, after the attrition games goes further into my favor.  Between my ability to dodge hits, summon new models and just generate value at an intense rate, he was having a hard time catching up.  

Play-by-Play:
We both stone for cards.  He replaces the Effigy with the Emissary.  I win initiative thanks to Cranky.

I open with Georgie and Olaf, taking two Focused Shots on the Mature.  I hit Ricochet on the first, which hit Rusty.  The second shot drops the Mature to Hard to kill.

Again, he activated Mature to survive.   Regen 2 brings him above hard to kill, then he Charges my Skeeter, but focus lets me live.   He swings on a Bayou Gremlin, but I dodged that too.  He eats a corpse to go to 5 wounds.  

Somer goes next to finish the job.  He blows up a Bayou, killing the Skeeter and getting a Pig Eating Grin off from Georgie that drops the Mature to hard to Kill again, with the ricochet trigger onto Barbaros who eats a stone.  I then take a focused Boomer shot and kill the Mature, blast into Barbaros to eat another stone.  I then summon a Spit Hog next to Brin, but leaving a gap so Brin can deny Hayreddin's triggers.  I then put up Smarter Than I Look.

Hayreddin casts life from blood with the Red Joker, then casts Black Blood Pustule on Barbaros with the trigger, which Brin negates.  He takes a Focused shot on the Spit Hog, but I cheat to dodge.

At this point my opponent concedes.

Post-Game Thoughts
To get it out of the way - I was completely blindsided by an Outcast Nephilim crew. I consider hiring a Henchman-lead crew a risky venture, as I feel the power level difference between them and Masters is significant.  I do think that the ‘dark horse’ factor can help certain crews - the Mature Nephilim with Hard to Kill was a real pain - but they don’t always outweigh the weaknesses.

In past games against Nephilim (lead by Nekima), I’ve experienced the blistering aggression they can bring and expected a similar outcome here.  I think Barbaros as a leader just doesn’t bring the same level of aggression, and as a result I was able to apply more pressure at range.  The biggest issue for him seemed to be the fact that the Big Hat crew has so much draw and hand cycling natively, that adding Brin’s Arcane Reservoir and Calculate to the mix it becomes a real uphill battle.  The subtle stats of the keyword were also in my favor - I was often defending on effective 6 stats, and attacking at effective 7’s.  

I was on track to score the Strategy at least once more, and I had pretty well denied his Leave Your Mark.  With capping his Vendetta and slow-feeding him cheap minions, the attrition game was heavily in my favor.  

One rules question that came up for us was when I tried to Obey Barbaros.  The rules currently say that you can’t Obey a Master - but nothing about a Leader.  We weren’t sure if the intent is that Leaders can’t be Obeyed (because they’re often Masters) or if Henchmen Leaders can be Obeyed by design.

Thank you for reading!
 

[Nagi21]

Df 7 on cheap models is OP, and free cheating with bayou two card is OP, and anyone who disagrees needs to get hired by Wyrd as a designer apparently...

Nekima would've had just as much issue, because Brin shutting down triggers along with stupid amounts of card cycling just causes issues with the crew.  The attrition wasn't the issue, it was that there was no reasonable way to break the Somer, Lenny, Brin, Georgie setup with how mindbogglingly tanky they all are...

Also the 2,2,4,4,8,9 hand on T3 didn't help lol.

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for a game played via Vassal on 7/24/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and @dannydb (shoutout to Dan!) generated using the Malifaux App.   

I'm trying something new with this post - hiding the blocks of text in Spoiler blocks to save space.  Please let me know what you think!

Set Up
Flank Deployment
Recover Evidence
Take Prisoner, Claim Jump, Vendetta, Hidden Martyr, Leave Your Mark

I announced Guild, he announced Arcanists.  I announced Nellie, and he announced Charles Hoffman.  

The crew I built was:

6ss

Nellie
Printing Press
Phiona Gage w/ Lead-Lined Coat
Undercover Reporter
Guild Steward
2x Field Reporter

His crew:

5ss

Hoffman
Mech attendant
Howard w/ Diesel Engine
Union Steamfitter
Mobile Toolkit
Guardian w/ Magical Training
Mechanical Rider w/ Diesel Engine

I picked Nellie for Recover Evidence because of her ability to control enemy Interacts, and how surprisingly durable her keyword can be (through using Phiona to take the hit and multiple layers of debuffs).  When I saw Hoffman, I figured I’d need to maximize my denial play as I wasn’t expecting to kill more than a handful of models due to their armor and healing.  I opted for two Field Reporters to spread the ping damage to account for armor, and for their debuffs.

When the crews were revealed, I discounted Take Prisoner and Assassinate, given how tough and mobile Hoffman can be.  I didn’t want to go for Vendetta, as I didn’t exactly have damag eon a durable cheap model.  This left me Leave your mark and Hidden Martyr. I identified both Field Reporters, making them killable enough to score the first point, and likely to score the second if it lives.

Deployment
I was the Attacker.  I chose the bottom left corner, figuring I could limit his ability to get into melee by using the blocking terrain to my advantage.  I clustered on left corner, while he spread out.  I deployed the Undercover Reporter buried.

I put my Intel tokens on Howard, the Union Steamfitter, The Mechanical Attendant, The Guardian, and the Mechanical Rider.  He put his Intel tokens on Phiona, Allison, the Steward and both Field Reporters.

Turn 1
Summary
We both keep our hands.  He wins initiative, and gains a pass token.  His crew spent the first few activations handing out focus, power tokens, and other manner of buffs.  I spend mine unpacking, (hampered by poor deployment on my part).  The big action this round comes from Phiona dragging in the Guardian after it had activated, and Nellie proceeding to interrogate it and leave it on two wounds with nearly every condition under the sun.  Hoffman came to it’s rescue, but I was poised to have his beaters offense at least blunted going into turn 2.

Play by Play

I open with a Field Reporter, and walk twice to stand next to boxes.  

The Mobile Toolkit uses Tune Up on the Guardian twice for Focus both times.

The Printing Press pushes Phiona and Nellie up with Hot Off The Presses.

The Union Steamfitter uses Encase in Steel on Howard for Shielded and Focus, drops a Scrap marker and walks. 

The Guild Steward uses Dispel Magic on Phiona and Nellie to clear Burning, triggering Galvanize to give Focus to Allison Dade, then uses Foul-Mouthed Motivation on Phiona for Focus.

The Guardian walks up and Concentrates.

Allison Dade walks (to unpack my deployment), gives Phiona Shielded with Impassioned Defense and Interacts for a Scheme Marker.

The Mechanical Rider uses Ride with Me on Hoffman, Walks and throws a Spear at Phiona, who dodges.

Phiona uses Bring It on the Guardian twice, hitting the Slander Trigger once.  The Guardian strips a single Shielded with it’s free attack.  Phiona then uses I’ve Got Your Back on Nellie, hitting the Knock Aside trigger for a free swing on the Guardian to strip it’s own Shielded.

The Mechanical Attendant pushes Howard and the Toolkit away, then walks.

I have the Undercover Reporter stay buried and use Confusion in the Ranks on the Guardian, hitting the Slander trigger for a pip of damage.

Howard eats the Scrap marker for a Power token, Walks and Charges the Guardian who Relents.  He flips the Heave trigger, and tosses the Guardian onto the other side of the fence.  He then retreats by using Transfer Power on himself.

Nellie starts with Slow News Day, declaring the Fake News trigger to cycle three cards.  She asks the Guardian two questions, first hitting the built-in Headline:  Secrets Exposed! Trigger to pulse Focus to my crew (he opts to drop a scheme marker), then the Slander trigger to ping him some damage and give him Slow, Staggered, Stunned and Distracted.  I then use Get the Story on my remaining Field Reporter.

Hoffman goes next, pulsing out Power tokens.  He walks up, uses Emergency Power Transfer from Howard to the Guardian, removing Stunned and declaring the built in Advance trigger.  He then charges the Guardian and punches him twice, declaring Temper Steel both times to heal him 6.

My last Field Reporter uses Flash Photography on the Guardian twice, Stunning him again and giving him more Distracted.

Turn 2
Summary
I stone for cards.  I win initiative this turn, and he gains a pass token.  

I opt to take the play this turn, and aim to gain activation control by removing one of his weaker models.  The Undercover Reporter pops up next to the Union Steamfitter (who stays engaging him because it was in my opponent’s deployment zone) and kills the Mobile Toolkit with his Hidden Knife.  Unfortunately, this move wound see the Undercover Reporter die in retaliation at the end of the turn.  He bounces Hoffman between Howard and the Guardian this turn, and Howard starts to force my hand by putting up a Vent Steam cloud that covers nearly my entire crew.  He leans hard into an Assassinate bluff, and I spend a ton of resources to get Nellie back on her feet.  My opponent is able to reveal Claim Jump this turn.

Play by Play

Undercover Reporter unburies on the Union Steamfitter, and attacks the Mobile Toolkit.  I use the Red Joker and declare Critical Strike, killing it.  I use Confusion in the Ranks on the Steamfitter, forgetting that he was engaged and unable to take the Interact action. 

Howard uses Vent Steam before Charging Nellie, hitting even though I used Focus defensively.  He does Severe damage, which I only stone 1 damage off of.  He then uses Trail of Gore to hit a second time with focus, getting the Heave trigger and dropping Nellie in the aura for even more damage.

Phiona walks through the Steam with no problem (thanks, being a Construct!), then uses I’ve Got Your Back to rescue Nellie.  With nothing else to do, she Concentrates.

The Union Steamfitter eats the Scrap marker for a Power token, discards a card to drop another Scrap token, then swings on the Undercover Reporter twice.  The First attack hits moderate damage with the Devastating Strike trigger, and the second swing hits the Blaze trigger on Moderate with a Power token.

The Guild Steward walks, heals Nellie for three with Foul-Mouthed Motivation, then Dispels Magic on the Guardian to strip his Focus.

Hoffman pulses out Power tokens.  He Walks and then Charges Howard, spending a Power token from the Guardian for a Mask on his Enhanced Fists.  Howard Relents, and gets Knocked back into engagement with my crew.  He then uses Overcharge on Howard for Fast and pulses out the duel to my crew, most of whom fail and take a pip of damage.  He uses his bonus to give the Guardian a Power Token.  

The Printing Press concentrates and uses this to try Hot Off the Presses on Howard (to negate his Concealment) but fail.

The Guardian uses his Power Token to swing on Phiona through Distracted, doing 2 damage after stones.

Nellie activates, spending Focus on Twisting Their Ideals on Howard.  I force the mask trigger so Howard charges Hoffman, spending the Power token for an Execute but missing the swing.  She then Interacts twice to heal 4 thanks to Plant Evidence.

The Mechanical Attendant spends a Power Token and Focus to shoot the Undercover Reporter, hitting Daze and dropping him to one wound.

I have a Field Reporter drop a scheme marker and concentrate.

The Mechanical Rider uses Ride with Me to get into position to Concentrate and throw a spear at Allison, but to no effect.

Allison walks out of the Steam, and uses Blackmail on the Guardian and declare the built in trigger to draw 2, and uses impassioned Defense on the remaining Field Reporter.

The remaining Field Reporter hits Howard with Flash Photography, then concentrates and uses Follow a Lead to get Hoffman and Howard in her various auras.  The Shielded eats two of the pings from the Vent Steam.

At the end of the turn, the Undercover Reporter dies to Burning.  My opponent reveals Claim Jump with his Mechanical Rider, which gives Allison Fast. 

The score was 0-1.

Turn 3
Summary
He stones for cards, and he wins initiative this turn.

The scrum enters the grindy phase, where I apply hand pressure that he circumvents with his Power Tokens and healing.  I prove unable to stop him scoring the Strategy.

Play by Play

Howard activates and discards a card due to the nearby Field Reporter.  He Vents Steam, then walks to cover my crew in the effect.

Nellie takes some damage by using Slow News Day, concentrating and once again using Twisting Their Ideals on Howard, this time Stoning for the trigger to make him charge away.

Hoffman activates and discards to the nearby Field Reporter, giving out more Power tokens.  He repeats the last turn by walking and charging Howard, spending a Power Token to knock Howard back into my crew.  He then uses Power Transfer on the Guardian to strip Distracted.

The Field Reporter walks, eats the enemy scheme marker with Follow a Lead and push into range of the Mechanical Rider and Guardian.  She then tries to use Flash Photography on the Guardian, but fails.

The Guardian discards a card to the Field Reporter, and swings on the Reporter burning resources to get around Serene Countenance.  He hits moderate, killing the Reporter (dropping her Evidence marker) and triggering Nellie’s Public Outcry, which gives him Stunned in addition to Distracted and Adversary (Enemy).  He then swings on Phiona, hitting with the Red Joker but only doing a point of damage due to no triggers.

Phiona disengages from the Guardian and walks around Hoffman to engage the Mechanical Rider.

The Mechanical Rider uses Ride with Me to escape engagement and picks up the Evidence marker, which gives my crew some Focus.  She then charges Phiona, to little effect.  

The Printing Press pushes Allison and the remaining Field Reporter out of Howard’s Aura with Hot Off the Presses.

The Union Steamfitter walks up and charges Phiona, doing weak damage.

Allison asks Hoffman three questions, hitting the Slander trigger each time to drop him to 8 and a nice stack of Distracted on top of his Stunned.  She then puts shielded on the Field Reporter.

The Mechanical Attendant walks, concentrates and heals Hoffman for one. 

The Field Reporter walks and takes a Photograph of the Mechanical Rider for some negative conditions.

The Guild Steward walks and dispels magic from Allison, hitting Galvanize for Focus on Phiona.  He then uses Foul-Mouthed Motivation on Nellie.

At the End of the turn, the Field Report takes no damage from Burning.  I reveal Hidden Martyr.  He scores the Strategy.

The score was 1-2.

Turn 4
Summary
He stones for cards.  He wins initiative.  

With equal activations this turn, my opponent continues to put some pressure on me.  I am able to kill Hoffman this turn (should have taken Assassinate!), and am able to engineer the reveal of my second Scheme this turn.  My opponent is able to kill Phiona and my other Field Reporter, but I am able to deny his ability to score the Strategy this turn. 

Play by Play

Hoffman discards a card to the Field Reporter and pulses out Power tokens.  He uses Emergency Power Transfer onto the Rider to remove it’s stunned.  With one more action (due to Slow) he uses Analyze Weakness on Phiona.

Phiona goes before she dies, and takes a pair of swings on Hoffman.  Thanks to her Grit, she drops him to 2 wounds even after stones and armor (Moderate 5 is tasty).  She then uses I’ve Got Your Back on the Guild Steward, hitting the Mask trigger to get a third swing on Hoffman which kills him.

The Guardian activates and eats a Scrap marker for a Power token.  It swings on Phiona twice and kills her, dropping an Evidence marker and triggering Nellie’s Public Outcry.

Allison walks to cover the Evidence Markers with her auras.  She gives herself some Shielded, then asks the Mechanical Attendant One More Question with the tome trigger to force an interact.  I Black Joker her damage flip. 

The Mechanical Attendant pushes itself out of engagement, then takes a focused shot on the Field Reporter.  HIts the Daze trigger, and I discard for it but it still kills her, dropping a second Evidence marker and denying my second Hidden Martyr point.

Nellie walks to cover the newly exposed Evidence Marker, uses Slow News Day, and asks the Mechanical Rider a question, forcing an Interact (which I control), so I drop one of my Markers in Leave Your Mark range. 

The Mechanical Rider is slow, attempts Revel in Creation but fails.  She then settles for a Concentrate.

The Printing Press walks and charges Howard, hitting him for weak and hitting the tome trigger to drop a scheme marker and give out some focus.

Howard disengages from the Printing Press and charges Nellie, but I dodge the swing.

The Guild Steward slows the Union Steamfitter and heals Allison.e

The Union Steamfitter swings on the Steward but fails to hit.

At the end of the round I reveal Leave Your Mark.

The score was 2-2.

Turn 5
He stones for cards and wins Initiative.

We begin the turn, but it’s apparent very early on that I am unlikely to score any further points this turn.  I lacked the damage to drop any of his models to a point where I could get an Evidence marker out unless Nellie put some attacks in, and she was the only one with Don’t Mind Me.  I didn’t have the ability to cheese three markers near the center for Leave Your Mark, and flat out couldn’t score Hidden Martyrs.  

My opponent rightly believed he could score the second point of Claim Jump (because I lacked the damage), and felt that he wouldn’t be able to score the Strategy (Allison and Nellie were too tanky to be killed with enough actions left to pick up an Intel Marker).  His other scheme of Hidden Martyrs was a problem because I lacked damage, and most of my crew lacked Engagement ranges.

We agreed to a final score of 2-3.

Post-Game Thoughts
First off - hats off to my opponent.  He was gracious with me forgetting effects, and tolerated my terrible Hoffman puns.  This was a very low scoring game, which fits for a pair of Denial style crews.  I haven’t faced Arcanist Hoffman much, so I didn’t appreciate how mobile his crew could be.  Power Tokens really helped him get around my passive defenses of Serene Countenance/ Distracted.  I still feel I was able to put out such a volume of negative conditions that it impacted his action economy.  

I made plenty of mistakes this game.  I still need to figure out how I want to deploy the Journalists, and need to be more mindful of terrain with them.  They have a lot of pushes but they do need setup (scheme markers).  I also threw the Undercover Reporter away this game.  I think I could have given him another turn Buried, or sent the debuffed Guardian back to my opponent’s deployment zone on turn 2.  

I was surprised by the damage the crew put out.  Sure it wasn’t a lot - but I did kill Hoffman, and I nearly killed the Guardian turn 2 (without Phiona doing any actual damage!).  It’s easy to say “what if”, but I was a single pip of damage away from getting a Strategy point so I feel pretty comfortable with taking more punchy schemes.  

Scheme wise, I feel like my opponent did a good job of bluffing Assassinate (or at the very least, putting pressure on Nellie early) which did put me on the back foot.  I made things hard for myself with my scheme selection, given how much of the strategy relied on doing damage.  I think Leave Your Mark was a fine pick, but I should have taken a False Witness in place of a Field Reporter for the ability to secure the second point.  With the list I took, I should have bitten the bullet and gone for Assassinate.  Hindsight being 2020 I know I could have scored it, but I honestly didn’t expect to.  I could have swapped my Hidden Martyr to the Undercover Reporter and the Field Reporter, which would’ve made the second point a little easier to control for.  

In any event, I think I’d keep Phiona, Allison, Steward and the Undercover Reporter.  Part of me thinks taking Grimwell would have been better than the two Field Reporters for more Stunned and discards.  Another consideration would be Pale Rider (for another mobile, durable and damaging piece) or a Peacekeeper (to eat his Scrap markers).  

Thank you for reading!
 

[dannydb]

Great game, really enjoyable, yer hope was to keep you pinned behind the fence as much as possible which I managed to do but yer some really close situations and a few different choices/flips might have ended in a really different game

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for a game played on Vassal on 08/08/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and a player going by Master of Melee on discord. The scenario was generated using the Malifaux App.   

Set Up
Vassal Map - Forest of the Loom
Wedge Deployment
Recover Evidence
Claim Jump, Vendetta, Sabotage, Hidden Martyrs, Breakthrough

I announced Guild, he announced Arcanists.  I announced Hoffman, and he announced Mei Feng.  

The crew I built was:

4ss
Hoffman
Mechanical Attendant
Joss
Phiona Gage w/ Lead Lined Coat
3x Hunter

His crew:

7ss
Mei Feng w/ Diesel Engine
Forgeling
Metal Golem w/ Soulstone Cache
Sparks leBlanc w/ Soulstone Cache
Mechanized Porkchop
Survivor w/ Magical Training
Metal Gamin

I went Hoffman against arcanists, because irreducible damage seems pretty keen against their armor.  Seeing Mei Feng, I figured that I’d have a hard time outmaneuvering her.  I went with Phiona because she just does so much with Hoffman (Bring it + Take the Hit + Welding Torch = a fantastic tank), and Joss for irreducible damage.  I then opted for three Hunters to have more offensive repositioning (to take advantage of the hazardous terrain) and End of Turn movement.

I opted for Vendetta (Joss on Metal Golem) because I needed to kill anyway, so figured I’d get points from it.  Joss could stone, could get healed, and had the ability to force damage through to secure the reveal point.  My second was Hidden Martyrs, taking the Totem and the first Hunter.  I figured that the Totem would be an easy kill, and I could keep the Hunter up or run him away to secure the second point.  

My opponent ended up focusing on his mobility and took Sabotage (on a big forest on my deployment zone) and Breakthrough.

Deployment
My opponent was the attacker, and took the bottom zone.  I deployed clustered around Hoffman and the Mechanical attendant, in order to get the most out of my pushes and power token pulses turn 1.  My opponent played back a bit, blunting my offense (he was just outside of Bring It range) and used the height 2 terrain to his advantage.

We took turns putting Intel markers on our respective models.  I put mine on the Forgeling, Metal Gamin, Mechanical Porkchop, Metal Golem, and Sparks.  He put his on the Mechanical Attendant, Hunters 1 & 2, Phiona and Joss.

Turn 1
I win initiative, and have him go first.

Summary

This turn saw more action that I typically do.  My opponent was able to create a solid network of scrap markers for Ride the Rails, but didn’t do a ton of damage.  At the same time, while I was able to mix it up a little bit I lacked the cards in hand to force things to go my way.  We set up for a bloody turn 2.

Play by Play

Sparks starts for him by putting Bombs in the Metal Golem’s belly, then charges Mei to give her Bombs as well.  

I have a Hunter walk up and concentrate, to get in range to receive Power tokens from Hoffman.

The Forgeling activates, giving the Metal Golem burning.  It strips the burning with Remove Purity, dropping a scrap marker and walking before concentrating.

I go early with Hoffman, pulsing out Power tokens.  I then use Welding Torch on Phiona for the irreducible armor, then overcharge her and Joss each for fast.

The Metal Gamin walks and schemes, then Magnetizes towards the Survivor. 

The Mechanical Attendant uses internal magnet twice, failing once to push the crew up.  He then Transfers Power to move himself up.

The Survivor walks onto the barrels and shoots Phiona, doing weak damage.  He then uses Magnetism to the Metal Gamin to hide.

A second Hunter concentrates, pushes itself with Transfer Power, and then drops a scheme marker for Phiona.  I misjudge where the marker goes, shooting myself in the foot later.

The Mechanized Porkchop walks and concentrates, dropping a scrap on the right flank.

The last Hunter walks and concentrates, then Transfers Power to itself to head off the right flank.

The Metal Golem jumps to the right flank with Ride the Rails, concentrates and gives itself Shielded with Reform Plating.

Phiona walks up into Bring It! Range on the Forgeling, but too far from the scheme marker to get her Hero bonus.  I do succeed in pulling the Forgeling with the Slander trigger, but fail the second Bring It!

Mei Feng jumps up with Ride the Rails and takes a Breath of Fire attack on Phiona, getting Vent Steam as a trigger.  She does weak damage and gives Phiona burning, then uses Freight Train on herself to drop more scrap with the Ram trigger.

Joss uses Command Construct on Phiona to use Bring it! On the Forgeling again, stoning for the tome, but the resulting attack fails.  This hurt, as it felt like a real waste of resources.  He then used fast to walk twice and charge the Forgeling, but missed the attack.

Turn 2
We both Stone for cards this turn.  He wins initiative, and goes first.  

Summary

This turn I learned to respect Mei Feng and the Metal Golem.  Mei Feng herself scored us each a VP, and took down one of my tanky Hunters all by herself.  I continued to move the Hoffball towards the center, feigning Claim Jump while also securing a Hidden Martyr’s point.  My opponent learns to respect Phiona, and Joss continues to prove he needs a bit more support than I thought.

Play-by-Play

Mei Feng is the first to go, using Freight Train on herself with the Ram Trigger, eating 2 scrap.  She damages the Hunter with this, then proceeds to kick the Hunter to death with Jackhammer triggers. He cheats a Red Joker in for damage, which leaves him enough actions to pick up the strategy marker.  

Joss kills the Forgeling to maintain activation control, but has to swing twice to kill it.  He fails to command Phiona.

The Metal Gamin relocates with Ride the Rails to the right flank.

Hoffman uses his bonus to transfer Power tokens between Phiona and the Mechanical Attendant, curing Phiona of her burning.  He charges her and heals her to full with his Welding Torch, then Overcharges her and a Hunter.

The Survivor uses Ride the Rails, walk and Magnetize to get deep into my right flank.

Phiona walks, picks up the Strategy marker and then drops a scheme marker to turn on her Hero aura.

The Metal Golem Rides the Rails, Reforms Plating and then goes off the Rails to damage Phiona.  He then swings on Phiona for Weak

A Hunter spends a power token to Pounce on the Metal Golem for the Ram trigger, tossing him into Hazardous terrain.  I then walk it to use the Harpoon gun on the Survivor to pull him back, but miss.

Sparks jumps to the Porkchop with Ride the Rails, and gives him Bombs in his belly.  He then makes him a Robot with a Crow for the burnout trigger.  

The fast Hunter Transfers Power to itself, walks and charges the Survivor, but only hits once with Critical Strike for weak.

The Mechanized Porkchop Rides the Rails to charge my Hunter on the right flank, and I dodge.  The Trigger pushes him to engage my Mechanical Attendant.

The Mechanical Attendant Transfers Power to push out of engagement, then walks and uses his magnet to pull Phiona, Joss and Hoffman towards the Metal Golem.

We both score the Strategy, and I reveal Hidden Martyrs.  The score was 2-1.

Turn 3
I stone for cards.  He wins initiative.

Summary

Mei continues her rampage, killing another Hunter and scoring another Strategy point.  My opponent is able to get enough schemers into my backfield to secure either Sabotage or Breakthrough, and opts for Sabotage.  He denies me any points this turn, but I am able to maintain some attrition advantage.  I go hard on damaging the Metal Golem, but Sparks comes in and really ruins my day with Hostile Work Environment.  Phiona continues to prove a thorn in my opponent’s side.

Play-by-Play

Mei goes first again, charging the Hunter on the right flank.  A few Jackhammer triggers later, and she’s killed him and picked up the strategy marker.

Joss charges the Metal Golem, but I can only manage two irreducible weak hits (not enough to reveal Vendetta).  He Transfers power to the Mechanical Attendant, but unfortunately the bombs upgrade meant that I still took a fair bit of damage from my own attacks.

Sparks jumps to the Metal Golem and heals him, then knocks him through terrain and into the Mechanical Attendant.

The remaining Hunter tries to Pounce on Sparks, but fails.  He then charges Sparks and does Moderate damage, but Sparks stones 3 away and then scampers to safety.  I take a shot with my Harpoon gun for weak damage.

The Mechanized Porkchop heals by eating a scrap, then moves to drop a marker for Sabotage.

Hoffman analyzes weakness on the Golem, heals the Mechanical attendant (who is hidden from Sparks’ aura), then charges the Golem.  Using power tokens, I hit severe and Knockback trigger, which leaves the Mechanical attendant at 2 wounds again from the blast, but pushes the Golem into the hazardous terrain and gives more injured.

The Metal Golem goes Off the Rails through Joss and the Hunter, punches the Hunter, and then Rides the Rails to the right flank and safety.

Phiona uses Bring It! on Sparks, then smacks him for weak damage.  His last stone keeps Sparks standing.

The Metal Gamin jumps to punch the Hunter, and I dodge thanks to a Power token.

The Mechanical Attendant heals itself to full, and takes a focused shot on Sparks but fails to hit.

The Survivor walks and secures Sabotage. 

At the end of the Turn, my opponent scores the Strategy and declares Sabotage.  The score was 2-3.

Turn 4
We both keep our hands, and I win initiative.  

Summary

This turn saw things still going in my opponent’s favor, but near the end of the turn I started feeling more confident.  Mei’s rampage continues unabated this turn, although Phiona is finally able to smack some sense into her.  A few of his models start to go down, although the Survivor lives up to his name with irritating accuracy. 

Play-by-Play

Hoffman is my first model to go, and I kill Sparks immediately, picking up his Strategy marker and making Joss fast.

Mei Feng returns the favor by walking, concentrating and breathing Fire on the Mechanical attendant.  I take the hit with Phiona.  Mei uses Freight Train on herself to make a scrap marker for Ride the Rails.

Mechanical Attendant heals Phiona 3, then concentrates and Assists the burning off of her.

The Metal Gamin charges my Hunter, and a Red Joker later and my Hunter was dead.  He then Rides the Rails up the board.

I spend a Pass token

The Survivor walks and drops a new scheme marker.

Phiona swings on Mei twice, getting the Blank Stare trigger off to slow her.  We forget that Sparks was the model who dropped blast markers from the Bombs upgrade, so I blasted damage back onto Phiona and the Attendant.

The Mechanized Porkchop drops a scheme, goes reckless and charges my Attendant.  I take the Hit on Phiona instead, who tanks like a boss.

Joss walks and shoots the Survivor, spending his last stone to get around Concealment.  I cheat for the Convulsions trigger, then charge him and drop him to Hard to Kill.  he scampers away, but I drop a Strategy marker for myself.

The Metal golem Rides the Rails, then goes Off the Rails back into the middle of my Hoffball.  

At the end of the turn, we both score the Strategy.  My opponent goes to reveal Breakthrough, until I point out I had 4” and LoS to his relevant models.  The score was 3-4.

Turn 5
We both are out of stones at this point, so we keep our hands.  He wins initiative.

Summary

The final turn, and I’m down a point.  My opponent is able to finally break Phiona, but due to my ability to bluff Claim Jump I was able to secure the second point of Vendetta.  Most of the turn revolved around him lacking the ability to put the Mechanical Attendant down.

Play-by-Play

The Metal Golem went first, punching Hoffman.  I took the hit on Phiona but he cheats in Severe damage, which drops her to hard to kill despite her armor.  He reforms Plating on himself, then uses Off the Rails to eat cards from my hand to save Phiona.  He ends in the hazardous terrain, which strips the shielded he just gave himself.  His last action is to punch Hoffman, which I let go through.  He dies from the Hazardous, which kills Phiona with his Demise.  

Hoffman picks up the Strategy marker the Metal Golem dropped, heals the Attendant, then walks to block Mei’s line of sight to the Attendant.

The Mechanized Porkchop rides the rails to eat my scheme marker, goes reckless and charges my Mechanical Attendant, but I dodge the hit.

I have Joss charge the Survivor, but I black joker the attack.  I’m able to kill it, but I’m unable to pick up the scheme marker to deny Sabotage.

The slow Mei Rides the Rails to pick up a Strategy Marker.

My last model is the Mechanical Attendant, who pushes and walks to block the Metal Gamin in engagement with Hoffman.

The Metal Gamin uses Ride the Rails to get away.

At the end of the turn, we both score the Strategy.  He scores the second point of Sabotage, and is unable to reveal Breakthrough.  I score the second point of Hidden Martyrs, and reveal the end game condition for Vendetta.  

The final score was 6-6.

Post-Game Thoughts
Talk about a nail-biter!  I was playing down early when my opponent denied the strategy point in turn 3, and I knew he had the ability to kill my Attendant if I let him.  I know that Mei is a mobile crew, but I didn’t appreciate just how much damage she could put out when given a chance.  She was a hungry master though, because each of her activations often saw my opponent cheat at least a third of his hand.  

I found Hoffman’s crew to be just as fun to play with as to play against.  Hoffman himself had plenty to do, and I found he could change gears from support to damage easily enough.  The Mechanical Attendant was a fine totem, but ended up scoring me two scheme points!  Phiona was once again the star of the show, and she’s quickly becoming one of my favorite models in the faction.  Joss was less impressive, and I think I’ll need to bring a Mobile Toolkit to load him with Focus to get the most out of his irreducible damage.  The Hunters were alright, though I think I need to give them a little more table-time before I settle on them.

My three takeaways were:

1. I need to be more mindful of ranges with Phiona.  Specifically, needing to set up her Hero aura takes foresight on where I need her to cover.  In the future, I’ll take the time to make sure I know where I want her to be before I drop a marker.  I might even take a Watcher or other dedicated scheme runner to set it up.
2. Models that go off on their own need to be able to survive against mobile, scalpel units like Mei Feng.  I know this intellectually, but my opponent was able to eat my Hunters each turn because they were off on their own.  
3. Most importantly, this crew has a surprisingly low damage profile generally speaking, and it was frustrating to put as many resources as I did into my main beaters (Joss, Phiona) only to see them not kill their target.  In a killy pool, I really need to either bring more Focus (Mobile Toolkit) or Min 3 (Howard, Peacebringer).  

Thank you for reading!

At the end of the turn, Phiona takes damage from burning and I push the Hunters aggressively.

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for the first round of the Dead Summer Vassal League played on 08/09/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and Andrew (shoutout to Andrew!).   

This league had the following special rules:
Single master hiring only
Must play a new keyword every round- however, you can hire Out of Keyword models (other than a second Master)
No DMH

Set Up
The Village
Standard Deployment
Public Enemies
Sabotage, Claim Jump, Assassinate, Spread Them out, Breakthrough

For this league, I had selected Guild and my opponent had selected Ten Thunders.  I had the following keywords available - Guard, Augmented, Journalist, Marshal and Frontier.  My opponent had the following keywords available - Oni, Ancestor, Wastrel, Monk and Last Blossom.

So, a standard Public Enemies to start the event.  There was one killy scheme, one positional scheme, and three scheme-marker based schemes.  To me, this pool requires some amount of killing, so going for Assassinate just makes sense for any crew.  The scheme marker based schemes seem to encourage some amount of scheme runners.

Looking at his faction/ keywords, I know I likely won’t be able to out-gun him (Fuhatsu and 2x Ninja Samurai exist as a possibility).  Out of his keywords, the ones that made the most sense would be Monk, Ancestor, or Last Blossom.  Out of these, Monk has irreducible damage, Ancestor has lots of armor and healing, and Last Blossom has teleportation tricks.  To combat this, I think it makes the most sense to go with Marshal.

Lady Justice can be a dedicated killer, which lets her flex into either scheming or the strategy in this pool.  Likewise, the Lone Marshal is a speedy model for Breakthrough or Spread them Out.  The rest of the crew will be dependent on the enemy Keyword.  I also figured I could lean into a Death Marshal Recruiter build to downgrade my opponent’s Public Enemy points.

The crew I built was:

6ss
Lady Justice w/ Lead-lined Coat
Scales of Justice
The Judge
The Lone Marshal
Death Marshal Recruiter
Domador de Cadaveres
Exorcist w/ Expert Marskman

His crew:

6ss
Yan Lo
The Soul Porter
Manos the Risen
Minako Rei
Izamu the Armor
Chiaki the Beacon
Gokudo
Ashigaru

Seeing a crew that I somewhat expected, I opted to go for Assassinate and Breakthrough.  I know that Yan Lo can snowball hard, and I’d have to go for him early - I wasn’t sure if this was a good plan, but it’s a killy pool and if I didn’t kill him he’d kill me.  The other scheme was Breakthrough, since the Lone Marshal could get that pretty reliably for the first point, and hopefully I could get the second point at the end of the game.  I didn’t expect to do all that great, to be honest.

Deployment
He was attacker.  He chose the bottom deployment zone.  I had him deploy Yan Lo, Izamu, Chiaki and Soul Porter first.  He placed them centrally.  

I placed my crew in a line on the right of center of my deployment zone, in a bit of a refused flank.  He responded by filling out, with a Gokudo on the left flank.

This is an after-action report for the first round of the Dead Summer Vassal Leage https://www.facebook.com/events/2563549963975689/?active_tab=about
played on 08/09/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and Andrew (shoutout to Andrew!).   

This league had the following special rules:
Single master hiring only
Must play a new keyword every round- however, you can hire Out of Keyword models (other than a second Master)
No DMH

Set Up
The Village
Standard Deployment
Public Enemies
Sabotage, Claim Jump, Assassinate, Spread Them out, Breakthrough

For this league, I had selected Guild and my opponent had selected Ten Thunders.  I had the following keywords available - Guard, Augmented, Journalist, Marshal and Frontier.  My opponent had the following keywords available - Oni, Ancestor, Wastrel, Monk and Last Blossom.

So, a standard Public Enemies to start the event.  There was one killy scheme, one positional scheme, and three scheme-marker based schemes.  To me, this pool requires some amount of killing, so going for Assassinate just makes sense for any crew.  The scheme marker based schemes seem to encourage some amount of scheme runners.

Looking at his faction/ keywords, I know I likely won’t be able to out-gun him (Fuhatsu and 2x Ninja Samurai exist as a possibility).  Out of his keywords, the ones that made the most sense would be Monk, Ancestor, or Last Blossom.  Out of these, Monk has irreducible damage, Ancestor has lots of armor and healing, and Last Blossom has teleportation tricks.  To combat this, I think it makes the most sense to go with Marshal.

Lady Justice can be a dedicated killer, which lets her flex into either scheming or the strategy in this pool.  Likewise, the Lone Marshal is a speedy model for Breakthrough or Spread them Out.  The rest of the crew will be dependent on the enemy Keyword.  I also figured I could lean into a Death Marshal Recruiter build to downgrade my opponent’s Public Enemy points.

The crew I built was:

6ss
Lady Justice w/ Lead-lined Coat
Scales of Justice
The Judge
The Lone Marshal
Death Marshal Recruiter
Domador de Cadaveres
Exorcist w/ Expert Marskman

His crew:

6ss
Yan Lo
The Soul Porter
Manos the Risen
Minako Rei
Izamu the Armor
Chiaki the Beacon
Gokudo
Ashigaru

Seeing a crew that I somewhat expected, I opted to go for Assassinate and Breakthrough.  I know that Yan Lo can snowball hard, and I’d have to go for him early - I wasn’t sure if this was a good plan, but it’s a killy pool and if I didn’t kill him he’d kill me.  The other scheme was Breakthrough, since the Lone Marshal could get that pretty reliably for the first point, and hopefully I could get the second point at the end of the game.  I didn’t expect to do all that great, to be honest.

Deployment
He was attacker.  He chose the bottom deployment zone.  I had him deploy Yan Lo, Izamu, Chiaki and Soul Porter first.  He placed them centrally.  

I placed my crew in a line on the right of center of my deployment zone, in a bit of a refused flank.  He responded by filling out, with a Gokudo on the left flank.

Turn 1
Summary
I give him first activation, and use my pass token to have Lady J go in last.  We both were very conservative with our plays this round as most of our movements were walks and concentrates.  As a result, I wasn’t able to get Lady J into Yan Lo with more than a single attack (and close to the Ashigaru to boot).  I was able to kill Izamu, and get my Bounty points ready for the next turn.  My opponent punishes my misplay with the Scales to stagger the Judge.

Play by Play

We both keep our hands.  I win initiative, and give him first activation.  I gain a pass token.

He has Chiaki use Spirit Flute with the Mask trigger to push Izamu, Manos, Yan Lo, Soul Porter and Ashigaru.  She gives out the Izamu reliquary to the Ashigaru.  Then she Walks and Concentrates

I use my Pass token, and he has the Gokudo walk and concentrate.

The Judge walks up and concentrates, then uses Risk of Reason for 3 and draws 3 cards.

The Ashigaru walks twice, to be behind a building.

The Scales of Justice fail it’s Negation aura, and walks up twice and toes into the forest. This was my first misplay, as I should have kept it behind the forest.

The Soul Porter pushes Izamu and Manos.  

The Recruiter walks and Concentrates.

Manos concentrates and shoots the Scales, killing it with the trigger to Stagger Judge.  He then fails his leap.

Lone Marshal walks and charges, shooting Izamu with Run and Gun.  I hit the Maim trigger and moderate damage.

Minako draws with Equality, then walks twice to hide behind the building on the right.

The Exorcist pushes up behind some barrels and concentrates.

Yan Lo attaches Spirit Ascendant, then heals Izamu for 2.  He concentrates, walks and takes a shot on the Recruiter and fails.

The Domador walks behind the barrels and concentrates.

Izamu walks and concentrates

Lady J stones for a mask on her Leap, then charges Izamu. I spend two more stones for Critical Strike triggers, and end up killing Izamu.
 

Turn 2
Summary
I’m able to get an early lead here, as Lady Justice continues to score me points.  I start to regret my crews lack of cheap activations, while my opponent has several that he can use to bait me out.  I am able to get an early lead on Breakthrough, but I start to lose the attrition game.

Play by Play

He stones for cards.  I keep my hand.  He wins initiative, I gain a pass token.

Yan Lo goes first and attaches Blood Ascendant.  The free Darkest Magics goes on Lady J, hits the Drain magic trigger.  I stone the damage away.  He shoots her twice more, and I dodge both shots.  He ends by rebuilding Izamu from the Ashigaru.

Judge walks into the forest, Risk of Reason for 3 and hits the crow trigger to do one damage to Yan Lo.  I take a shot on Yan Lo with the peacebringer, but he Red Joker’s the defense.

Chiaki plays her Spirit Flute again, giving Manos her own Reliquary.  She then Beckoning Calls the Gokudo back, and walks up.

I use a Pass token

Gokudo uses Risky Maneuver, then throws some shuriken at lady J.  The first misses, and the second hits.  He still cheats to cycle cards with Know the Warrior.

Exorcist moves and shoots Izamu, cheating the Into Dust trigger in to force a discard.

Minako walks and charges the Lone Marshal, but black jokers the attack flip.

The Recruiter walks and charges Minako with Pine Box, burying her with the Drain Magic trigger.  Unfortunately, this was a next mistake as it left my Exorcist outside of his recruitment aura.

Soul Porter walks twice, then eats my corpse marker to heal Izamu 1.

The Lone Marshal kills the Soul porter, then uses Run and Gun to shoot Izamu with Maim.  I then Stagger Izamu.

Izamu walks twice, and heals to full with Juggernaut.

Domador walks and Decays Izamu, doing weak and getting Severe Injury.

Manos leaps, siphoning power off of Chiaki.  He then charges the Exorcist, and kills him for a bounty point.  This would prove to be enough points for my opponent to score, so it was significant.

Lady J just walks twice, leaps and interacts for Breakthrough
 

At the end of the turn, we both score the strategy.  I reveal Breakthrough.  The score was 2-1.

Turn 3
Summary
This turn saw me lose more of my smaller models, so my opponent would get to his third point on the strategy easily.  I was down too many activations, and I found myself shifting from a score to a denial mindset.  Even so, I knew that I had made too many mistakes and they were compounding.

Play by Play

He stones for cards while I keep.  I gain a pass token, while he wins initiative.

Izamu starts by charging the Lone Marshal, hitting twice and giving him adversary.

The Domador heals the Lone Marshal 4.

Yan Lo attaches Bone Ascendant, and I figure I’m about out of time with Assassinate.  He makes Izamu take a free swing, but misses.  Yan then walks and charges the Lone Marshal, finally killing the Lone Marshal.  He the heals Izamu back to full.

Judge refreshes my hand with Risk of Reason, except two of them are tomes so he takes 4 irreducible.  I then walk twice to confront the right flank.

Minako cheats to Unbury, then draws a card with Equality of fate. She then swings at the recruiter twice, hitting once for Moderate.  

The Death marshal recruiter reburies Minako with the Drain Magic trigger and concentrates.

Gokudo walks twice and uses Risky Maneuver to get away from Lady Justice.

Lady J concentrates, leaps and kills Chiaki before dropping a scheme marker.

Manos charges the recruiter and kills him, then leaps into the center.

He scores the strategy.  He reveals Claim Jump.  The score was 2-3.

Turn 4
Summary
My opponent is able to set up to score both of his schemes for the end game this turn, and I’m still struggling to make a comeback.  I was able to kill Minako, and otherwise I focused on actions that I knew would score me VP first.  I was able to tie the game, but I knew going into the last round I’d have to focus on denial.

Play by Play

Neither of us stone for cards.  He cheats to go first.

Gokudo walks and Risky Maneuvers again and drops a marker for Breakthrough.

Judge charges Minako, and kills her (she stoned to prevent the final attack and flipped Black Joker), then uses Crumble Away on Izamu for moderate damage.

Izamu healed himself back up, then walked twice.

Domador used Vile reclamation and Decay on Izamu to build up injured, then healed the Judge.

Yan Lo attached Ash Ascendant, then charges into the Judge and drops him to near death after a few swings.  He ends by instilling youth in Izamu.

I use a Pass token

Manos Stones for a leap to move up and drop a Breakthrough marker, thus denying me the ability to send Lady J in to deny it.

Lady J opts to secure Breakthrough with a pair of interacts and leaps.

At the end of the turn, I score the strategy.  He reveals Breakthrough.  The score was 4-4.

Turn 5
Summary
The last turn went as expected, with my opponent handily securing a full 3 victory points to my one.  I left myself little wiggle-room, and as a result had to try for several risky plays that ended up not going in my favor.

Play by Play

He spends his last stone on cards.  I win initiative.

I have the Judge go first, and use Risk of Reason to draw the Red Joker and hit the trigger to damage Yan Lo.  I swing on him twice to try and drop him to Assassinate levels (I forgot about Flesh Ascendant), and kills himself from Ash Ascendant.  Yan claimed the 3 bounty points from the Judge.

Yan Lo attached Flesh Ascendant and heals to full.  He then teleports to the Domador, shoving her into Izamu.  Then he walks into my deployment zone and drops a scheme marker.

I use a Pass token

The Gokudo walks and drops another Breakthrough marker.

The Domador tries to disengage from Izamu twice (because I figured if I could get away and live, and kill Manos I’d deny him the Strategy point/ claim jump point).  Unfortunately I fail both attempts and manage a measly 2” push away.

Izamu charges into the Domador, and kills her.

Lady J does a hail-mary run to swing on Yan Lo, but due to Incorporeal I cannot drop him below half (he was 1 above the limit) for assassinate.

Manos walks and leaps to the center

At the end of the turn, my opponent scored full points on both schemes and the strategy.  I score the second point of Breakthrough.  The score was 5-7.
 

Post-Game Thoughts
I had a fine time this game, although I do believe my list was made with too many conditional factors in mind.  The package of Recruiter and Exorcist could have easily been a Phiona, or a Pale Rider, or a Guild Steward.  In actuality, having Lady J get a ride up with the Pale Rider might have allowed me to kill Yan Lo early enough to make a difference.  The Exorcist was cute, but the amount of stones I put into him was not at all worth what I got for him.  The Recruiter was likewise not impactful, as while he buried Minako she never stayed buried long.  Assassinate was still likely my best bet, I just didn’t take a list that could reliably score it against his crew.

I know I made several mistakes after deployment as well.  For starters, I let my opponent get my easy kills (Scales, Exorcist) with sloppy placement.  I know Malifaux has a ton of auras, but I really need to be more mindful about them when I’m moving other models.  I was also perhaps too conservative with my Pass tokens, and could have killed the Gokudo with Lady Justice before it became a Breakthrough piece.

I was also going into the game with a different understanding of the strategy.  My understanding of the Bounty Points needed to score was 3, 4, 5, 6 while my opponent’s was 2,3,4,5.  We ended up playing it as the 2,3,4,5 system, which is what allowed my opponent to score turn 2 (I assumed he was 1 bounty point away).  

Thank you for reading!
 

[dannydb]

just to point out, chaki isn't in the effect of spirit flute so cant hand out her reliquary with it

 

scoring for bounties is 2,3,4,5 as its two plus points scored so far as you haven't score any when you score the first point so can't be 3

[James Dyson]

34 minutes ago, dannydb said:

just to point out, chaki isn't in the effect of spirit flute so cant hand out her reliquary with it

 

scoring for bounties is 2,3,4,5 as its two plus points scored so far as you haven't score any when you score the first point so can't be 3

Good to know about Chiaki!  

And yeah, I had misread the wording for bounties.  My opponent was very patient walking me through it

[Zebo]

Although I like your idea of using the spoiler windows, I think the execution fails. 

 

Instead of doing a kind of Russian doll type of windows, I think it would be easier to read if you left all but the play-by-play in plain sight. 

[James Dyson]

@Zebo - Thanks for the feedback.  I'll give that a shot and try to adjust the old posts too.  

[Zebo]

Great, maybe my post seemed a bit harsh. 

I really love your reports, only wanted to add a comment. 

[Adran]

I would agree with Zebo on the Russian doll windows

If I'm reading on my phone, it is a fair amount  of hassle to go through each of the spoiler boxes and open them up, or close them. It also puts them in boxes. which mean I end up with half the screen being boxes in boxes. Its not such a hassle on a computer with a proper screen.

I like the idea of hiding sections. It might make my scrolling to the most recent posts easier, I don't know yet. But I would suggest not hiding sections in sections. Possible write out the summary of each section, and hide the details. So without expanding anything you can see the summery of the turn and the outcomes, and if you want more detail on a set turn you can go and look at that.

Other than that, thank you for trying something to help your readers, I certainly hadn't even thought of it as an idea. And thank you for the reports. It is nice to read about other peoples games.

[James Dyson]

I do appreciate the feedback!  I apologize for my short response yesterday.   I intended it to mean tweaking all of the older posts to be more readable (I'm also thinking of updating the first post with scores and win/ loss information)

I'll be honest - the Russian Doll effect is due to me not knowing what the Waldo I'm doing with forum code.  I thought I had figured out spoiler tags, but now every time I try to use the spoiler tags in a (spoiler)text(/spoiler) format (where ( = [ and vice versa), it seems to default to the nesting sections instead 😕

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for a game played on Vassal on 8/14/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and @goth (shoutout to Harry!) generating using the Malifaux App.   

Set Up
Map was Desert Oasis 
Flank Deployment
Corrupted Ley Lines
Sabotage, Spread Them Out, Let Them Bleed, Assassinate, Breakthrough

I announced Guild, he announced Bayou.  I announced Lucius, and he announced Brewmaster.  

The crew I built was:

7ss
Lucius Mattheson
The Scribe
Agent 46
Doppleganger
Guild Steward
Guild Lawyer x2
Changeling x2

His crew:

2ss

The Brewmaster w/ Twelve Cups of Coffee
Apprentice Wesley
Spawn Mother
Cooper Jones
The Sow
Whiskey Gamin w/ Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit
Rooster Rider w/ Inferiority Complex
Akaname

I wanted to lean into Lucius’ board control and scheming power, so I oped for Breakthrough and Spread Them Out.  I’ll admit that I didn’t expect to have the power to Assassinate Brewmaster, and his ability to summon models without upgrades meant Let them Bleed secondary would be tough.  I figured I could do enough to deny the scheme marker schemes.

He ended up taking Breakthrough and Spread them Out as well.

Deployment
I was the attacker.  I took the bottom left zone to force him to have a large portion of his deployment zone filled with severe terrain.  

We put the Lodestones on Changeling and Whiskey Gamin

Turn 1
Summary
We unpack our crews, but he is forced to split his crew into two teams.  I’m able to scalpel out Cooper and the Akaname, shutting down his top/ left flank pretty well.  He is able to build up steam on the right flank, and we jockey for the center.

Play by play
I lose initiative and he has me go first.  He gets a pass token.

I start with Guild Steward concentrating, then using Foul-Mouthed Motivation to give Agent 46 focus.  I then Dispel Magic from the Scribe with the Galvanize trigger to give Agent 46 a second focus.

Wesley gives the Gamin a fat stack of poison, and hits the RJ on his bonus.

The Changeling with the Lodestone moved and used Just Like You! To copy Issue Command from Lucius, and issue a command to Lucius to walk.  He does so, moving my crew with Entourage.

Opponent uses a Pass token, I forget to draw a card from Mastermind.

Guild Lawyer uses Tools for the Job to grab a 13 of crows, then gives Shielded ot the Doppelganger and Agent 46.  I concentrate and interact, dropping a marker in case my opponent went for Sabotage.

Akaname walks out of the woods and drops a scrap with Foul Gift. 

The Scribe walks up and concentrates.

Cooper walks up and summons a new Whiskey Gamin, then concentrates.

Lucius Issues a command to the Changeling, to have it issue command to him right back.  This interact nabs me a card from Following Orders, and then Lucius shoots the Akaname.  I get a Critical Strike trigger and hit Moderate, killing the Akaname.  I then Issue Command a second time, through the other Changeling but fail.  I then walk and move the crew with Entourage.

Rooster Rider goes Reckless and walks up, gaining focus from Swagger and dropping a marker for Sow.

Changeling 2 uses Just like You! To issue command to Agent 46 to walk, then walks themself.

Sow walks up and tries to birth a piglet but black jokers.  She goes reckless and walks again.

I spend a Pass token

Spawn Mother Walks, lays an Egg, and then stones for a ram to summon a Gupps while keeping the Egg.

Doppelganger walks, mimics her own Lure to pull in Cooper with Love Hurts.

Brewmaster walks twice, lures a Changeling into melee and fails his bonus action.

A Guild Lawyer  grabs the 13 of masks with Tools for the Job.  I then Obey the Agent to Analyze Weakness on Cooper, hitting the trigger to place into base contact.  The Lawyer then uses Impassioned Defense with Surge on the Changeling and Walk.

Whiskey Gamin pushes and walks to the central Leyline, then takes a bonus shot from the upgrade on Doppelganger, doing 2 damage through shielded.

Agent 46 activates Inhuman Reflexes, then flips the Red Joker on the swing on Cooper and kills her.  I make an error here and mimic Lure, pulling the Whiskey Gamin off the Leyline. Mimic Lure, lure Gamin off Leyline.  I should have done something like Concentrate.

Gamin 2 shoots the Gamin with the Lodestone back to the lodestone with Moonshine dispenser.

At the end of the turn, we both claim a Leyline.

Turn 2
Summary
I consolidate my hold on the center, and begin to penetrate deep into the backfield.  At the same time, my opponent reaches critical mass with summons and runs rampant along my backfield. I make a critical error by forgetting the Scribe was insignificant, and in doing so deny myself a scheme point.  

Play by Play
He spends his last stone for cards.  I keep.  He wins initiative, and goes first.

The Whiskey Gamin pushes and shoots Agent 46, but misses.  He then walks twice, but mismeasured and doesn’t have the range to get to the next Leyline marker.

Guild Lawyer grabs a 12 with Tools for the Job, then Obeys Agent 46 to charge and kill the recently summoned Gamin.  I then Obey the Scribe to walk, drawing from Following Orders.  I then give Doppelganger shielded and hit the Surge trigger.

Brewmaster uses Trusty flask, then tries to Lure Lucius three times, but I escape due to Serene Countenance.  I do burn the Black Joker on the third Lure, but he doesn't make his TN.

Changeling walks and issues command to Lucius to walk, and free my crew with Entourage.

The Sow walks, goes reckless, walks some more and then summons a Piglet off the marker I dropped last turn.  That’ll teach me to drop markers against the Sow!

Guild Steward tosses the lodestone from the Changeling to Doppelganger, heals Doppelganger and then concentrates.

Wesley walks twice to get closer to the Leyline.

A Guild Lawyer grabs my Red Joker with Tools for the Job, then obeys a Changeling to issue command on Lucius to walk for Entourage.  I then Obey Agent 46 to walk, hitting the trigger to drop a scheme marker.  I end by giving Lucius Shielded with the Surge trigger.

Spawn Mother lays eggs, walks and summons Gupps again for 3 gupps.

The other Changeling issues command to Lucius to walk for more Entourage, then walks itself.

The Rooster Rider goes reckless and runs into my deployment zone.

Agent 46 walks and drops another marker, in Breakthrough position.

The Gupps leap, walk, and concentrate.

I walk the Scribe twice towards my left flank, forgetting he was insignificant.  I had planned for him to drop my third Spread Them Out marker.

Doppelganger walks to the center Leyline and drops a marker for Spread Them Out.

Lucius walks, Issues Command to the Scribe and realize my mistake.  I have him walk anyway, then issue command to a Lawyer to walk back to hopefully disrupt the forces pushing into my deployment zone.

At the end of the turn, I reveal Breakthrough.  We both score the strategy.  I claim a second Leyline.  The score was 2-1.

Turn 3
Summary
The game gets called here, but I once again deny my opponent a Leyline claim.  I was able to take out a few more of his models, and while he was getting into my face I still had most of my crew intact.  

Play by Play
We both keep our hands.  I get a pass token and win initiative.

I have the Scribe walk and concentrate.

Brewmaster charges a Lawyer. Between Intimidating Authority and lucky flips, he is able to drop the Laywer to 2 wounds and a fat stack of poison.

My other Guild Lawyer goes, building in a tome with Tools for the Job.  I obey the Scribe with the trigger to drop a scheme marker to set up Spread them Out, then give my wounded Lawyer Shielded.  With nothing much else to do I concentrate.

The Piglet walks, interacts, then goes reckless and walks again.  

Guild Steward walks away from Brewmaster’s distraction aura, then heals my Lawyer and removes it’s poison, galvanize giving Lucius a focus.

The Rooster walks, interacts, goes reckless and walks.

A Changeling fails Just Like You! And it’s other tactical action.

The Whiskey Gamin pushes out of the water, tossing Wesley the Lodestone before failing a shot on Doppelganger.

My other Changeling walks and fails to Issue Command.

Wesley walks to the Leyline.

Agent 46 activates Inhuman Reflexes, walks and charges Wesley.  I stone for a ram, and cheat a high enough ram in to secure the min 4 to kill Wesley. 

The game was called at this point.  My opponent revealed that he had breakthrough and spread them out.

Post-Game Thoughts
A short game due to time, I still greatly enjoyed Lucius’ keyword and shenanigans playstyle.  I was surprised at how efficiently Agent 46 was removing specific targets.  Having Doppelganger provide the lure was also a nice effect.  My opponents list was unorthodox, but I do think he was poised to get full points on his schemes.  At best, I’d be able to Obey him to pick up markers to deny them.  I don’t know how likely it would be for me given I had very little way to deal with Brewmaster in my face.

Mistakes, I made a few.  Forgetting the Scribe was insignificant nearly cost me Spread Them Out, and is not a mistake I’ll make again.  Likewise, remembering when I use Inhuman reflexes on Agent 46 and not trying a second bonus.  I also forgot Lucius’ Mastermind, but that only came up once and I do not know how often I’ll have more models than my opponent.

MVPs of the game go to the Lawyers.  I was able to reclaim a good number of severe cards with Tools for the Job, and the extra Obeys turning into card draw with Following Orders was delightful.

Thank you for reading!

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for the first round of the Dead Summer Vassal League played on 08/15/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and @Balseraph(shoutout to Ed!).   

This league had the following special rules:

• Single master hiring only
• Must play a new keyword every round- however, you can hire Out of Keyword models (other than a second Master)
• No DMH

Set Up
Vassal Map was Welcome to the Jungle
Wedge Deployment
Corrupted Leylines
Assassinate, Sabotage, Take Prisoner, Claim Jump, Spread Them Out

I announced Guild, he announced Ten Thunders.  I announced Dashel, and he announced Asami.  

The crew I built was:

6ss
Dashel Barker
The Dispatcher
Allison Dade
Guild Steward
Mounted Guard w/ Lead-Lined Coat
Guild Lawyer
2x Guild Rifleman

His crew:

6ss
Asami Tanaka w/ Trained Ninja
Amanjaku
Ohaguro Bettari
Ama No Zako
Kamaitachi
Wanyudo
Jorogumo
Terracotta Warrior

Going into this pool, I tried to keep a closer eye on the scheme pools in the remaining rounds.  I noticed this one had the most scheme-marker based schemes, and as a result I wanted to go with someone who could make it hard to score those schemes.  That would be either Dashel or Nellie with the keywords I had, and seeing the strategy I wanted Dashel for Mounted Guard.  

When I saw Asami across the table, I figured I’d lean into Dashel’s ranged game.  Two Riflemen and the Steward made a solid firebase, and as mentioned a Mounted Guard with Lead-Lined Coat (for Laugh Off) to be my Lodestone carrier.  With my remaining stones, I took a Lawyer for offensive Obeys to threaten moving my opponents models off of leylines and recouping my severe cards.  Allison is a bit of an experiment - She is another source of shielded in the crew to make me surprisingly durable; she can force discards (which might hamper my opponents efforts to summon), and she can control interacts.  This gives me another vector to disrupt scheme marker schemes, and maybe force a tossed lodestone at an opportune time.  

I ended up going for Assassinate despite Asami having stealth, because I knew she could hurt herself, and I needed to go for her if I wanted to win the attrition game.  I also went for spread them out, figuring I could summon a Mounted Guard later to run and get the markers out.  At the very least, I could drop markers with the Lawyer at range.

Deployment
I was attacker, so I took the left board edge to deny my opponent the benefit of Concealment.  Given how many of his models could get around the Severe trait, I figured I could deny him the benefit.  Unfortunately, I put myself into Concealing terrain which would end up trapping me for the rest of the game.  

We placed our Lodestones on the Mounted Guard and Wanyudo respectively.

Turn 1
Summary
We have a surprisingly bloody first turn, with my opponent introducing me to the Flicker-Bomb.  I am able to bring an Executioner into play and land a few punches back.  Unfortunately, I set up a gameplan that relied a bit on passing more simple duels than I could manage which left Allison behind, and me generally stuck in my deployment zone.

Play by Play
I win initiative, and chose to go first.  I chose the play because of how close we were, and wanting to protect the Dispatcher (who was within a first turn charge by the Jorogumo). 

I opened with Dashel, who stoned to summon an Executioner.  My opponent drew a card from the Kamaitachi, which proved to be a repeat thing this game.  I shouted some Foul-Mouthed Motivation at a Rifleman, concentrated and dropped a scheme marker on the off change my opponent took Sabotage.

Asami returned the favor, activating first.  She walked up, summoned an Obsidian Oni, and then used A Mother’s Love to give it some focus.

The Dispatcher used Consolidate Power with the Internal Affairs trigger to drop a scheme marker near the Guild Steward, drawing me two cards.  I then walked him and concentrated, so that the Steward could see the Executioner to remove his slow.

The Obsidian Oni walked and charged into my Rifleman, Dashel, Dispatcher, Guild Steward group.  He swung on the Rifleman, popping a Flicker and his Focus to hit for Moderate with Crit Strike.  This proved to be enough to give it three Flicker and explode, and he hit all the above mentioned models (and kill the Rifleman!).

Guild Steward went next, assisting the Burning off of the Dispatcher and then Healing up the remaining Rifleman.  I completely forgot to strip Slow off the Executioner.  

Wanyudo walks to a Leyline and concentrates.

Guild Laywer activates, grabbing a moderate with Tools for the Job.  He then walks and obeys the Steward to Dispel Magic from the Executioner, hitting Galvanize to give the Rifleman another focus.  I then give the Dispatcher shielded, hitting the Surge trigger.

Amanjaku walks twice and puts up his concealing aura.

The Rifleman took two shots at the Kamaitachi, discarding a card to get enough focus to reach out and hit him.  Unfortunately, I only hit once for weak.

Kamaitachi walks to hide behind the rocks near the top right Leyline.

The Mounted Guard fails his Ride with Me on Allison, settling with a walk and concentrate on a Leyline.

We both spend our Pass tokens

Terracotta walks and concentrates.  

Allison walks and concentrates, then puts Shielded on the Executioner.

Ama no Zako walks and fails her Miasma aura.

Executioner uses Trial of Gore on the Dispatcher, concentreats, then walks to be just outside of the Jorogumo’s charge range.

Bettari charges forward, and lures the Executioner forward.

Jorogumo follows up and charges the Executioner, stacking Flicker to hit for Severe, and hit again to leave the Executioner Slow and at 2 wounds.

At the end of the turn, some burning happens.  We both claim a Leyline.

Turn 2
Summary
This Turn we start the attrition game in earnest.  He’s able to get Ama no Zako stuck into Dashel’s firebase and put it down, but takes some punishment in return.  We both are able to get our second Leyline set.  I’m unable to deny his first scheme, but figure this was expected.  Surprisingly the Executioner took a ton of punishment, and dished a ton out as well.  I was fortunate enough to kill his Jorogumo. 

Play by play
We both stone for cards.  I win initiative, and opt to take the first activation.  

The Executioner takes a focused punch on the Jorogumo, landing a lucky Red Joker with Critical Strike.  This drops the Jorogumo to 3 wounds.  I Trail of Gore for free due to Grit, but miss the second swing.

Ama no Zako charges into the other Rifleman, and kills him.

The Dispatcher assists Burning off the Steward, then walks up and fails to Consolidate Power on the Mounted Guard.

Terracotta Warrior copies Mother’s Love onto Jorogumo and Concentrates.

Allison walks, puts shielded on Dashel, then takes a focused One More Question on Jorogumo, and kill him.

Bettari charges the Executioner, missing the first attack and hitting Shove Aside on the second swing.

Dashel summons a Warden (best I could with my hand), then heals the Dispatcher with Foul-Mouthed Motivation.  He then charges Ama no Zako and hits with a Focused Coordinated Attack, doing severe damage which he only stones 1 damage off.  I swing again, stoning for Critical Strike.  This hit for weak, which he stones to prevent entirely.  Dashel eats a Rifleman corpse for a stone.

Asami charges the Executioner and kills him.  She summons an Obsidian Oni, taking some damage to reduce his flicker.  She then eats the Executioner’s corpse to heal up, and then uses her Mother’s Love on the Oni.

Guild Lawyer charges the Oni, using Sharp Wit to slow him.  He then put Shielded on the Dispatcher, and concentrates.

Obsidian Onis swings on the Lawyer, using Flicker and Focus to hit over his Intimidating Authority.  He ends by going for his bonus action to put Hazardous up next to my Mounted Guard.

Guild Steward heals Dashel for 2, removes the Warden’s slow, and fails to dispel magic on Dashel.

Kamaitachi concentrates and creates a Dust Devil to clear some flicker.

Warden takes a focused swing on Ama no Zako, failing to connect.  The next swing comes up Black Joker.

Amanjaku walks and puts up his concealing aura.

The Mounted Guard uses Ride with me and two walks to get to the top left Leyline.  This does take 2 damage from the Obsidian Oni’s aura.

Wanyudo charges the Terracotta warrior to slingshot up to the top right Leyline. 

At the end of the turn, we both score the strategy and claim a Leyline.  He reveals Claim Jump with Bettari.

The score was 2-1.

Turn 3
Summary
The grind continues, I start to make headway in the Attrition game.  Ama no Zako and Bettari both die this turn, which locks him out of a second Claim Jump point.  Unfortunately for me, I pull an amateur move and forget one of my schemes!  I replaced ‘Spread them Out’ in my mind with ‘Claim Jump (Allison)’, and when she dies I switch to trying to figure out an Assassinate plan.  

Still, I figured he had Assassinate on Dashel (given how hard Ama was going for him), and if I could keep him up and kill Asami, I could hopefully pull out ahead in points.

Play by Play
We both stone for cards.  I luckily win initiative a third turn in a row.

Dashel opens up summoning an Executioner, then stoning for Critical Strike on an attack on Ama no Zako.  This does Moderate, dropping her to near death.  I use Shouting Orders for a focus and swing again, but he cheats the Red Joker to dodge.

Ama goes before she dies, flipping Black Joker on the attack on Dashel.  She swings again, hitting him with a slow trigger.  Unfortunately, she had built up too much flicker and dies at the end of this activation.

The Dispatcher uses Consolidate Power on the Warden with the Internal Affairs trigger to draw 2 cards.  He then walks and takes a focused shot on Bettari, which he dodges.

Obsidian Oni kills the Lawyer with flicker, then charges the Executioner to hit for moderate.

Guild Steward strips the slow off the Executioner, and heals the Dispatcher up.

Asami summons a Jorogumo with a stone.  She then uses Mother’s Love on the Jorogumo twice.

Allison blackmails Bettari, and he opts to discard two cards.  I try to Blackmail the Oni, but fail.  She tries One More Question on Bettari and fail.  She tries Impassioned Defense and fails.

Jorogumo swings on Allison, hitting twice with Focus and Flicker.  When the dust settles, she was mincemeat.

Warden assists Dashel to remove burning.

Kamaitachi just concentrates.

Executioner walks and charges Bettari.  He hits with Execute and does moderate damage.  He swings again with Trail of Gore, but Bettari dodges with Flicker.

Terracotta walks and uses Mother’s Love on Bettari.

The Mounted Guard fails Ride with Me, so opts to walk and charge Bettari.  He luckily flips Red Joker on damage to kill her.

Wanyudo walks and charges the Executioner, running over the Mounted Guard.  When the dust settles, the Executioner was left on burning and 1 wound, and the Mounted Guard had some burning.

Amanjaku walks and assists the burning off the Terracotta.

At the end of the turn, burning kills the Executioner.  We both claim the center Leyline, and both score the strategy.  

The score was 2-3.

Turn 4
Summary
We both start running out of steam here.  My opponent is able to claim his fourth Leyline despite my effort to stymie him, and he’s able to kill my Dispatcher.  It was a calculated trade, as it protected Dashel.  I’m really feeling the punishment for not being able to get out of my deployment zone at this point.

Play by Play
I win initiative for the fourth turn in a row.  

I open with the Mounted Guard, who tries a risky play.  I attack Wanyudo, cheating Red Joker for the Rear Up trigger which hits Wanyudo and Amanjaku.  I use the hit to place onto the other side of the Wanyudo.  I then use Ride with Me to get out of engagement, and walk to the top right Leyline.

Wanyudo walks twice to the bottom left Leyline.

Dashel summons a Rifleman (best I could do), then uses Foul-Mouthed Motivation on the Rifleman for some focused.  He then concentrates and eats a corpse for a stone.

Asami Summons her third Obsidian Oni, and uses a Mother’s Love on it twice.

The Dispatcher Consolidates Power on the Warden with the Internal Affairs trigger to draw two cards, then walks twice to engage the Obsidian Oni.  I figure at this point, I’d take more damage from the Oni if it could get to Dashel.

Amanjaku walks and Concentrates

Steward heals Dashel for 2, and strips slow off the Rifleman.

Kamaitachi walks and punches the Mounted Guard for severe, then clears his flicker with his bonus.

The Rifleman kills Wanyudo with a focused shot, which passes the Lodestone to the Obsidian Oni.  I take a second focused show at the Terracotta Warrior, but fail to connect.

Obsidian Oni swings on the Dispatcher, hitting through serene countenance with Flicker and Focused, then walks to the Leyline.

Warden walks and takes a focused shot on the Terracotta Warrior, and my opponent cheats the Red Joker to dodge.

Terracotta walks twice.

At the end of the turn, we both claim a fourth Leyline.  We both score the Strategy.  The score was 3-4.

Turn 5
Summary

The final turn, and not much changed.  I gave it my all to get a point of Assassinate and tie the game, but ultimately was a day late and a dollar short.  That said, I was impressed with the Guard keyword and it's ability to overcome my mediocre piloting to claw back to a 1 point differential.

Play by Play
He stones for cards.  I cheat to go first.

Dashel summons his third Executioner, then walks and shoots the Terracotta warrior with Focus, but he cheats to dodge.  I then give the Executioner some focus.

Obsidian Oni charges my Rifleman, hitting twice to kill him and put some damage on the Executioner.  He then explodes onto the Executioner.

Warden gains a focus with Shouting Orders before charging and killing Terracotta Warrior.  He then uses his Restraint Claw on Asami, hitting the Pull and Drag trigger.

Asami summons a fourth Obsidian Oni, walks and eats corpses to heal up.

Guild Steward concentrates and strips Slow off the Executioner, and give him more focused.

The Obsidian Oni charges Dashel, but I dodge by burning focus.

The Executioner charges Asami, but even with focus I can’t land more than on hit.

Amanjaku walks and charges Dashel, hitting with Focus and Flicker but dropping him to 7. 

Mounted Guard walks, rides with me and takes a shot on Asami, but can’t drop her low enough.

At the end of the turn, we both score the strategy.  The final score was 4-5.

Post-Game Thoughts
This was a grinder of a game.  I summoned three Executioners, a Rifleman and a Warden.  That’s nearly a whole crew’s worth of Soulstones!  For his part, my opponent summoned a Jorogumo and four Obsidian Oni.  Not as many stones, but good googly moogly did those Obsidian Oni do work.

To be explicit for the readers - the Flickerbomb is a term of art for sending an Obsidian Oni into the middle of the enemy crew.  You have enough actions to give the Oni enough flicker to die, which activates it’s Demise ability to do 2 damage and 2 burning.  On top of a pair of decent melee attacks (often at double positive to attack and damage due to Focus and Flicker) you can easily get 6-12 damage out of an activation with them, to say nothing of the burning.  This naturally was a great weapon against a bubbled up crew like my Dashel firebase.

On the whole I was impressed with how the Guard keyword played.  They took several severe blows, but managed to come back swinging hard enough to chew through his biggest threats.  Dashel hit surprisingly hard, and while he needed some resources to do it I feel like his ability to play defensive lineman/ counterpuncher is pretty good.

The stars of the show continue to be the minions.  The Executioners put out a ton of damage despite my opponent mitigating their offense consistently, and they took a ton as well.  The Mounted Guard scored me all of my VP by itself, which is no mean feat.  

My biggest disappointments were in my deployment; my loss of focus on my second scheme; and my inclusion of Allison.  I blocked myself into the deployment zone with the severe terrain, and as a result I couldn’t get to the centerline much less my opponent’s side of the board.  With as much threat as my opponent sent at me, I didn’t feel like I had the luxury of summoning another Mounted Guard at any point.  

Forgetting my second scheme was simply bad play on my part.  One thing I could try to do to mitigate it in the future is mindfully checking my schemes every turn, to remind myself of what I need to do to score points.  

Allison was a risky choice - and she did not pay off.  I didn’t consider that Asami’s keyword had consistently high Willpower, so I didn’t have a reliable patsy to Blackmail.  He also was able to go with her early enough to still summon, so my discarding wouldn’t really do much.  Likewise, the Guild Lawyer was a nice enough choice, but ended up being a piece I traded for a summoned Oni.

If I had the chance to do it over, I think I’d drop Allison for an Executioner with Lead-Lined Coat, and gone for Claim Jump.  Adding Laugh Off and Armor to a Hard to Kill, Juggernaut model feels more reliable for scoring Claim Jump, especially when you add in Scatter.  Keeping him back until turn 2 or 3 and running forward and pushing everyone away is a reliable one point, and if I can keep Dashel/ the Steward with him I can keep him topped up in wounds.

I also found I had a ton of enemy scheme markers from the Dispatcher’s Internal Affairs trigger.  I wonder if trading a Rifleman in for an Investigator might not be a good choice, to convert those markers into movement and additional resources.   

Thank you for reading!

[James Dyson]

This is an after-action report for the first round of the Dead Summer Vassal League played on 08/15/2020.  It was a 50ss game between myself and Jonathan (shout out to Jonathan!).   

This league had the following special rules:

• Single master hiring only
• Must play a new keyword every round- however, you can hire Out of Keyword models (other than a second Master)
• No DMH

Set Up
Forest Ruins Map
Flank Deployment
Symbols of Authority
Claim Jump, Research Mission, Vendetta, Hidden Martyrs, Leave Your Mark

I announced Guild, he announced Resurrectionists.  I announced Cornelius Basse, and he announced Kirai Ankoku.  

The crew I built was:

5ss
Cornelius Basse w/ Lead-lined coat
Bernadette Basse
Jonathan Reichart w/ Lead-lined coat
Paul Crockett
Pathfinder
3x Frontiersmen 

His crew:

8ss
Kirai Ankoku w/ the Whisper
Ikyrio
Datsue Ba
Lost Love
Jaakuna Ubume
2x Shikome
2x Seishin

Well, up against a Summoning master with the ability to dodge my severe terrain, I was expecting him to be able to bring the pain early.  With that in mind, I figured I’d want to take schemes that I could reliably score at least one point on.  I also knew I’d want a lot of relatively survivable, fast models to try and get to the strategy markers and rely on numbers to save me.  I didn’t want to take more than one scheme that relied on models living until the end of the game.  To this end, I didn’t lean into Clockwork Traps and opted instead for the Frontiersmen.  I gave Basse and Jonathan their Coats for a bit of more durability, and figured I’d create a scrum in the center with my named models, while my posse of Frontiersmen ran for the strategy markers.  If my opponent went for the Frontiersmen, I could force him back to my central bubble with Bring it and Caught in Quicksand.

After seeing his crew, I knew I would have to score early if I wanted to score at all.  Given how well her crew could kill, I chose Hidden Martyrs on the Pathfinder and Frontiersman 1.  Since I could start on the centerline, I took Leave Your Mark since I figured I could spare an action to drop a marker turn 1.  

My opponent ended up taking Research Mission and Claim Jump on Ikyrio, which we agreed to switch to Datsue Ba when he realized that the Ikyrio that was summoned would not be the same Ikyrio that had started the game.

Deployment
He was the attacker, and chose the bottom right corner.  We both placed our Symbol markers in typical locations, such that we only had one ‘easy’ marker each.  

He hid his crew inside the building, so that I would not be able to get any good sight-lines for my guns to fire on his crew.  This does bunch his crew up nicely, and so he has to do a lot of work unpacking. 

I deployed on the centerline, clustered around the center of the board.  I put the traps in positions where I hoped they’d be able to jump on his crew. 

Turn 1
Summary
With my ability to deploy on the centerpoint, I’m able to set up Leave Your Mark reliably.  My opponent took his time unpacking from the building he hid from me in, and my Traps were able to get some incidental damage in.  I was able to deny Ikyrio a first activation, but she came back and unsurprisingly got in my face.  Thankfully, it was in such a way as to set me up to score Hidden Martyrs next turn.  He sends a Shikome out wide on my right flank.

Play by play
He stones for cards.  He wins initiative, and opts to make me go first.  He gains a pass token.  I have the Pathfinder use Follow my path on a Clockwork Trap.

I open with Basse, walk up to be in range to hit Ikyrio, who was hiding in a forest, with Caught in Quicksand.  I luckily Red Joker the damage, and toss her on the far side of the forest from me.  I concentrate, then kick up a dust cloud under Paul.

He has a Seishin walk Ikyrio back to where she started, then tell a Shikome to walk on the right flank.

I have the Pathfinder take a shot on Ikyrio, getting the Slow trigger.  This didn’t matter, as I end up killing her with the damage flip.  I fail to summon another trap, and drop a marker for the scheme.  At the end of his activation, I walk the traps up again.

Kirai looks at some cards with Whisper, then summons Ikyrio back and a Drowned.  She ends by concentrating.

I send a Clockwork Trap into the Drowned, hitting the Mask for You’re Coming With Me.  The push ends with the Trap engaging the Drowned, Kirai and the Seishin.  With only 2 wounds, I opt to Concentrate instead of swinging (as I’d die from the ping damage)

Lost Love heals Ikyrio with the Burn Out trigger, then uses Dispel Magic on the Trap to remove it’s focus, and give it Adversary.

My other Clockwork Trap walks twice, then uses Creep Along to my other Trap to engage Ikyrio and the Shikome.

The Shikome challenges my trap, swings but due to some abysmal flips leaves the Clockwork Trap at 1 wound.

Frontiersman 1 kicks up dust, walks and Concentrates.

The Drowned kills the Trap.

Frontiersman 2 moves Johnathan up, concentrates and walks.

Datsue Ba uses Guide Spirit on Kirai with a Mask, so that she could charge my Trap.  She kills it with the Red Joker, freeing Ikyrio to be Guided into a walk.

Frontiersman 3 walks, concentrates and moves Paul into the Forest 

Ikyrio walks and charges Frontiersman 1, and thanks to a lucky Black Joker the Frontiersman survives!

Bernadette walks, and uses Bring it! On Kirai, but he tosses the attack onto a Shikome.  It fails.

A Seishin tells Kirai to walk, hiding from my crew.  

Paul walks a little bit and tries to shoot Ikyrio, but fails.

Shikome walks twice towards my right flank.

John heals Basse and concentrates.

Jakuuna walks and concentrates.

Turn 2
Summary
This turn was dominated by Jakuuna being moved around the center of the board, with me doing my best to mitigate her hazardous aura.  As I had hoped, I was able to score both of my schemes and the strategy this turn, while preventing my opponent from scoring anything.  This score early, then deny strategy seemed to be off to a good start.  For my opponent, his models and various healing abilities started to make headway in the attrition game.

[I neglected to take a photo of the end of turn 2]

Play by Play
We both stone for cards.  He wins initiative.  I move Basse up with Pathfinder.

Jakuuna goes first, putting up her Drowning Aura and charging a Frontiersman.  I dodge both attacks.

I send the Pathfinder towards the Symbol marker on the right of the board, dropping a Trap that moves to engage his Shikome at the end of his activation.

The Shikome attacks my trap, but I Red Joker the defense flip.  The second swing kills teh Trap, but it had succeeded in its job of denying a Strategy point this game.

Basse kicks up some dust for the Reposition trigger, dropping the cloud under Jakuuna.  I then hit her with Caught in Quicksand to throw her away from my crew.  I then take a Concentrated Quicksand attack on the Drowned, but fail.

Ikyrio kills my Frontiersman, then charges Bernadette and hits Black Joker on the damage flip.  

Frontiersman 2 grabs a Symbol marker for me, and creates a dust cloud.

Shikome walks and charges Bernadette, leaving her at 2 wounds.

Frontiersman moves Reichart up, then walks and concentrates.

Seishin walks and tells Jakuuna to walk back into my crew, healing her Injured.

Jonathan stones to get around Serene Countenance twice on Jakuuna - first with Bring it!, and second with a Critical Strike to drop her to 3 wounds.

Kirai concentrates, walks and summons a Goryo.

Paul walks, fails a shot and kicks up some dust.

Lost Love telepors to Jakuuna, then heals her back to 7 wounds.

Bernadette walks and punches the Shikome, hitting with her built in trigger to heal.  Unfortunately, she flips the Black Joker on the heal and ends on 1 wound.

Seishin tells the Drowned to walk, failing the second attempt.

Drowned concentrates, and Staggers Basse.  Vomits on Basse who dodges. 

Goryo challenges a Frontiersman before punching him.

Datsue Ba walks and concentrates, failing her bonus.

At the end of the turn, I reveal Hidden Martyr and Leave Your Mark.  I score the Strategy.  The score was 3-0.

Turn 3
Summary
I’m starting to feel the pressure this turn as my Frontiersmen and Bernadette are finally killed off.  I sink more resources than I should have into healing Basse up, finding that the Vengeance damage alongside Incorporeal had me coming out even, if not in the red, in the damage race.  Hitting Blak Joker on a heal flip the second turn in a row definitely stung, but the cards are what they are.  Complaints aside, I was able to remove Jakuuna and maintain my hold on the center, while also denying any VP to my opponent for a third turn.  

Play by Play
He stones for cards.  I win initiative, and opt to go first.  The Pathfinder pushes Paul.  

Basse opens for me, charging and pumping shotgun shells into Jakuuna until she died.  High Noon helped mitigate the Vengeance damage.  He ends by kicking up dust near Paul.

Shikome punches Bernadette, killing her with the trigger to heal Kirai, then flies to be in position to score the Strategy next turn.

My Pathfinder summons another trap, then walks to a Symbol marker.  The trap engages his other Shikome.

Ikyrio walks and charges Basse, doing moderate damage.

Clockwork Trap tries to bike Shikome three times thanks to it’s bonus, but fails to connect.

Datsue Ba takes a focused shot at a Frontiersman, spending a stone for a mask.  The attack kills the Frontiersman and summons an Onryo.  She Concentrates and fails to Stagger Basse.

The remaining Frontiersman punches the Goryo with focus twice, getting Field Kit but flipping Black Joker on the flip to heal Basse.

Kirai summons another Goryo, then pulls the wounded Goryo out of combat.  She shoots Jonathan with the Coordinated Strike trigger, and when the dust settles he was at half wounds.

Jonathan nods at Basse twice to bring him up.  Unfortunately I fail the first test, choosing not to cheat.  Naturally, I flip the Red Joker on the next duel (would’ve been a RJ heal if I had cheated!) which results in a measly 1 wound returned to Basse.  Overall, a terrible activation.  Jonathan ends by kicking up dust.

Seishin walks and tells the Drowned to walk.

Paul fails to shoot a Seishin, then charges the Drowned for a cheeky Moderate damage result.  He ends by kicking up dust on the Lost Love.

The Drowned fails to vomit on the Pathfinder twice. 

The Shikome kills the Clockwork Trap, then walks to the Strategy Marker. 

Onryo just concentrates

Goryo walks and charges my remaining Frontiersman, killing him.  It then pulses out some Violent Ghosts for some damage.

The other Goryo fails to hit Jonathan, then makes some Violent Ghosts hit my remaining models.

Seishin walks and tells Kirai to walk.

Lost Love heals the Drowned back to full.

At the end of the turn, neither of us score anything.  The score was 3-0.

Turn 4
Summary

The last effective turn of the game, and I do my best to keep the denial train going.  He manages to get his first points however, scoring Leave Your Mark and a Strategy point after wiping Basse, Paul and Jonathan off the board.  All the nodding in the world wasn't enough to keep my boys up.  At the same time, I manage to snag my final point for the game with the Pathfinder.

Play by Play
He stones for cards.  I win Initiative, and gain a monstrous 8 pass tokens.  I choose to activate first and secure what precious VP I could.

I activate the Pathfinder and tear down a Strategy point, concentrate and kick up dust to protect him.

Ikyrio punches Basse, and I cheat for his defensive trigger to end her activation.  She flips Red Joker on damage anyway, dropping Basse to 1 wound.

Jonathan Nods at Basse to bring him to 4 wounds, then kicks up dust.

Drowned Staggers Paul, then vomits on him.

Paul concentrates, makes a dust cloud and walks.

Goryo pulses out some Angry Ghosts, then swings on Paul.  I use focus defensively, hit the Black Joker, and die.  He then hits Jonathan for 1.

Basse walks, repositions by kicking up dust, then uses Caught in Quicksand on Jonathan to pull him onto the other side of the woods, covering the center with his 2” engagement.  Basse then drops a scheme marker, to turn off Leave Your Mark in case he took that scheme.

Shikome walks and grabs a Strategy.  

The other Shikome charges Basse with Rams active, dropping Basse to Hard to Kill.  It then punches Jonathan down to Hard to Kill.  

Seishin tells Goryo to walk.

Datsue Ba walks and charges Basse, killing him.

Goryo walks and whiffs on Jonathan.

Kirai kills Jonathan.

Seishin tells the Onryo to walk, who proceeds to walk twice further.

At the end of the turn, he reveals claim jump (which, as discussed above, was Datsue Ba after a discussion about summoning non-minions).  We both score the Strategy.  The score was 4-2.

Turn 5
With only one model left, versus most of his crew, we agreed to talk out Turn 5.  He revealed that he had Research Mission, and could easily get a model into position with all of my corpses.  I wouldn’t be able to stop that, a Strategy Point, or a second point of Claim Jump.  

While I needed the Pathfinder to live to score the second point of Hidden Martyrs, I was not confident I could do that with all of the out of activation movements, Kirai’s ability to summon something in my face, and his general squishiness.  

 Agreed final score was 4-5

Post-Game Thoughts
It felt good to hold a summoner to such a close game by focusing on the schemes and strategies.  My plan to score early paid off, as I was in the lead up until the 4th turn.  I really liked how the Frontier keyword played and synergized with itself in this game - the board control that I felt I had was very nice.

That said, there were a lot of wasted actions/ activations this game.  Jonathan in particular spent almost half of his actions on Stoic Nod, which doesn’t feel good.  I appreciate using it in order to prevent giving up potential Hidden Martyr points, but the turn where I burned the Red Joker on a duel because I opted not to cheat hurt.  It also hurt to Black Joker multiple healing flips over the course of the game, including the one that cost me Bernadette.  She held her own against a Shikome and an Ikyrio!  I feel like if she lived one more turn, I might’ve been able to deny a third Strategy point from my opponent.

I like Frontiersmen, despite them being rather unremarkable.  Deputy never really came up (discarding to enable Vengeance feels bad), but opportunities to get Field Kit off did help.  Paul’s aura didn’t really do as much as I would have liked, because I kept putting him in severe terrain.  This of course was me forgetting that Paul doesn’t ignore Severe Terrain like the rest of the keyword.  

MVP of the match has to go to my Pathfinder, though.  That one model:

• Held up a Shikome for two turns with Traps
• Scored me a point for Hidden Martyrs by living, a point for Leave Your Mark, a Strategy Point.  That’s 75% of my VP!  

I don’t know that I’d want to take more than 1 instead of Paul yet.  Paul adds some much needed decent melee, and the Tn on traps is already tough when only one model is trying to summon them.  I think there are diminishing returns here.

Basse himself did a solid job of tossing my opponent’s models all over the board, and could still delete a model when needed.  I was impressed with his performance as a denial piece. 

Thank you for reading!

[LeperColony]

What did you think of Jonathan?  From my admittedly limited experience, his main value in a Basse crew over a first class versatile/OOK beater is the fact that he can set up forward with the rest of the gang since he also has Home on the Range.  Whereas if you take a better model like the Pale Rider or the Brutal Emissary, it can't.

Reading your report it seems like you struggled to really get top value from him.  A guild steward may even have done nearly as much as he did. 

If he had Extended Reach instead of Disguised, I think then there'd be a fair argument in his favor.  I don't believe simply giving him a 3rd AP is the answer, but maybe a trigger on Kick up Dust to do a free Stoic Nod.

 

[Joooohan]

Diceman you have been playing a crap load of games, I'm jealous. Really nice write ups that are super easy to follow, good stuff man 

[dannydb]

1 hour ago, Joooohan said:

Diceman you have been playing a crap load of games, I'm jealous. Really nice write ups that are super easy to follow, good stuff man 

Well if you can try out vassal a great way to get in games and we have a really booming community atm

[James Dyson]

@JoooohanThank you!  I'm glad you enjoy them.  Like @dannydb says, vassal is a great way to get games in.  Heck if you'd ever like to try it out, don't hesitate to let me know!

@LeperColonyYou're on the money.  The big thing I've found about Jonathan is that he is a beefy boy with soulstone use, who can tarpit.  But Phiona can tarpit better, can have a comparable damage track (including the blasts) and a relevant bonus action to keep Basse mobile.  I've cooled on Basse lately, but if/when I get back to him I will experiment more with the versatile options (and maybe some Explorer's options as well).

[Plaag]

On 7/16/2020 at 5:00 AM, Nagi21 said:

Df 7 on cheap models is OP, and free cheating with bayou two card is OP, and anyone who disagrees needs to get hired by Wyrd as a designer apparently...

Nekima would've had just as much issue, because Brin shutting down triggers along with stupid amounts of card cycling just causes issues with the crew.  The attrition wasn't the issue, it was that there was no reasonable way to break the Somer, Lenny, Brin, Georgie setup with how mindbogglingly tanky they all are...

Also the 2,2,4,4,8,9 hand on T3 didn't help lol.

somer is so unbalanced, who tested him?

just look at this huge stats, insane healing from spit hog, obey from crier(ignore engagement and insignificant, so stupid with built in mask), card draw from somer and all this dmg without resist

[Rufess]

5 hours ago, Plaag said:

somer is so unbalanced, who tested him?

just look at this huge stats, insane healing from spit hog, obey from crier(ignore engagement and insignificant, so stupid with built in mask), card draw from somer and all this dmg without resist

Som'er without a doubt is a decent master who can be rough to fight against in certain setup, while struggles a lot in the others. Unlike other all-rounded top masters, he has some obvious weakness and hard counter, and can be punished by a prepared opponent with no effort.

[Plaag]

4 hours ago, Rufess said:

Som'er without a doubt is a decent master who can be rough to fight against in certain setup, while struggles a lot in the others. Unlike other all-rounded top masters, he has some obvious weakness and hard counter, and can be punished by a prepared opponent with no effort.

no, somer is one of the top masters with this unbalanced models, abilities