Jan NBR

[higherbrow]

Game Rules: Sonnia Criid box set with Purifying Flame added against the Rasputina box set with Wendigo added. Both of us drew Treasure Hunt, my friend (with Tina) picked Breakthrough and Holdout, I picked Holdout and Raid. There was a hill in the very middle that the treasure ended up being on top of. None of the other terrain placed ended up mattering.

Rasputina cursed. How in December's name had that Criid woman found out about the cache? Rasputina had come with a few of her golems and a wendigo she had befriended to a cache of December's artifacts, including a book that had powerful spells. There was no help for it, she thought. She needed that book.

Sonnia smiled grimly, seeing the Golems stepping out on the other side of the field. She barked a few orders to her Witchlings, and turned to Samael. "I told you I felt an Arcanist around."

He shrugged, and grinned. "Normal bounty?"

The Witchlings were running for the hill, with the cache on it. Sonnia advanced, casting a Flame Wall just past the cache, noting in satisfaction that her Purifying Flame was mirroring her, blocking all access from Rasputina's side of the hill. Meanwhile, the golems were inching forward, Rasputina keeping behind them. Sonnia could hear the corruption in the arcane invocation Rasputina was chanting, as pillars of pure ice began to materialize to Sonnia's right, near the hill.

(end round 1)

Sonnia hustled up to the hillside, and launched off a Flame Burst at one of the witch's smaller golems, but frowned as the spell barely made a dent (minor damage). Her Purifying Flame kept the Flame Wall alive and roaring, albeit half the size. Rasputina advanced, and fired off a few spells, but Sonnia gritted her team, taking apart each rune as it was being cast. In frustration, Rasputina summoned a swirl of snow to obscure her and her nearby gamins. Samael, smirking, advanced and fired a shot into the snow, wounding the Wendigo. The golems advanced, two small ones along Sonnia's left, two along her right, as a Witchling ran up the hill and grabbed the cache, another went right with Samael, and the third went left to meet the advancing golems.

(end of turn 2)

(Sonnia wins initiative)

Samael said a few words under his breath, took aim, and fired his Colt as quick as he could, aiming for the witch (Flaming Bullets + Rapid Fire). The first shot missed, but the second took Rasputina right between the eyes (flipping a Red Joker for damage and grabbing a Severe for the second flip...hello 16 damage shot), the third shot flying off into the distance, as the Wendigo sprinted away. One of the smaller golems threw two chunks of ice at Samael. Sonnia threw Flame Bursts left and right, but nothing seemed to go her way, and her Purifying Flame had no better luck (my Samael massacre was balanced by my hand of 6 cards, none better than a 4, and my awful flips). The second Gamin threw more ice, and Samael went down, clearly injured. The gamin's second ice chunk took the Witchling on Sonnia's left flank down with just one shot (another RJ on damage). Sonnia's Witchling with the treasure turn and ran for the base camp, and the other Witchling squeezed a shot off with his pistol, damaging the large Ice Golem, dodging projectiles as he did.

(end of turn 3)

The Purifying Flame cast another Flame Burst, lightly damaging the two small gamins on the left flank (medium damage, 3-2 with armor down to 2-1), and Sonnia cast another with similar results. She smiled broadly, sensing the spirit inside the golem's weakness. Drawing her sword, she invoked the ancient runes on Malifaux, surrounding the badly wounded Gamin, trapping it's soul. Dark energy plunged into the runes, obscuring the beast momentarily, and as the energy receded, a Witchling Stalker knelt on the ground, with a brand new Runeblade rusting in its grasp. After a short laugh, Sonnia retreated a short distance, ready to turn her attention to the large Golem, watching as it advanced on her Witchling and smashed it. The nearby Gamin also advanced on her Witchling, but the Gamin failed to connect. The newly summoned Witchling engaged the Gamin it stood by, but did little else.

(End of Turn 4)

The Witchling on Sonnia's right flank focused on one solid attack, aimed at the nearby Gamin, and the strike took a good chip out of the gamin's torso. The Gamin attacked back, killing the Witchling off, but shrinking back from the resulting fire, then threw a ball of ice at Sonnia. Sonnia easily swatted the ice out of the air with her Runeblade, and smiled, invoking its dark magic once more, launching a pair fiery bursts at the large golem, not even waiting to see the results of her dark power. The gamin on the other side of the hill quickly smashed down it's former comrade (RJ on damage #3 for this game), and then threw ice at the Purifying Flame (which was too far away to Companion) The Golem attempted to swat the new Witchling it faced, but suffered from ill fate (ace on the first attack flip, black joker on the damage flip from the second attack).

End of Turn 5

The small gamin on the right flank surged forward, catching Sonnia off guard and landing a solid hit. She responded by chipping it twice with her sword, just nicking it the first try (BJ on damage, we seem to only pull jokers for damage flips this game), but dealing a solid blow the second. The ice golem finished smashing the Witchling, but seemed on the brink of falling apart as it advanced on Sonnia

End of Turn 6 We flipped a 12 on the flip to continue, so we moved to Turn 7.

Sonnia turned in desperation, lashing out at the golem with her blade, causing it to swell, then shatter outwards, raining razor sharp icicles all around her. She wiped blood from her eyes, and turned towards the gamin next to her, only to see it swelling, and ducked as it too sprayed shards of razor-sharp ice all around. The Witchling still holding the treasure in the base camp giggled maniacally at the carnage; it was the only survivor.

End of game points:

Sonnia Criid accomplished Treasure Hunt, Raid! (with a lone Witchling Stalker being the only surviving model), and Holdout for a total of 8 points.

Rasputina accomplished Holdout for a total of 2 points.

This was kind of a surreal game, with the jokers flying everywhere, two Violations getting Witchlings, and only one model surviving, only because it never engaged in combat. Probably the swingiest game I've played yet.

[SwordOfJustice]

Excellent. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Sword

[perplexiti]

Cool story, it does sound like you guys had a good game.

And it's good to see fellow guilders winning games...