Collette vs Rasputina 35ss

[Sholto]

Ridiculous:

another blizzard; the world

goes quietly white (Charles Lint)

VS

With the eternal frost gripping the land of Caledonia and ice setting white spears on everything that stayed still for more than ten minutes, it seemed only fitting that my latest game should be against Rasputina.

DangerousBeans brought:-

· Tina

· Wendigo

· 3 x Ice Gamin

· Ice Golem

· December Acolyte

· Convict Gunslinger

35ss (4ss cache)

I done brung:-

· Collette

· Cassandra

· 2 x Coryphee

· Performer

· Mannequin

· Mechanical Dove

35ss (7ss cache)

With so many models that can use SS, and with me planning on summoning one Mechanical Dove a Turn, I needed a large cache. I could have taken another Performer, but I’m not sure what they would have added. I could also have taken my own Convict Gunslinger, but I decided to keep it 100% Star Theatre.

The terrain was Industrial Zone, and we got a Magic Nexus. + to Cast and Resist flips for anyone within the Nexus. We used a fountain for the Nexus, and put it mid-table. It played no part in the game (no-one wanted to get wet).

Strategies:

DangerousBeans flipped and got Escape and Survive. 4VP to get 75% of his models at least 8″ away from their deployment zone. 2VP to get 50% there. Insignificant models count, so Tina needed to keep 6 models alive to get max VP, so I had to try and kill 3. Tina’s crew is slow, but even Tina’s crew can move 8″ in a game. Keeping them alive is the trick.

I flipped and got Turf War. 4VP if I had more models in his half of the table than he had in mine, and one in his deployment zone. 2VP for more models in his half of the table than he had in mine.

What This Means: If Tina got into my table half in any kind of numbers she would score VP for her own Strategy and deny me VPs for mine. I only had five non-Insignificant models vs Tina’s seven, and for Tina to win she needed to get six of them past the 14″ mark on her side of the table. If she managed that, I could not get any VP for Turf War, since at best I would have five models vs her six, and she would get full VP for Escape and Survive. If I killed the three models I needed to in Tina’s crew, and assuming the Wendigo (who is Insignificant) wasn’t one of them, Tina would be down to four non-Insignificant models left, versus my five – summary, I couldn’t afford to lose a single non-Insignificant model and if I did I was going to have to kill more of Tina’s crew to make up for it. This was going to be tricky.

Schemes:

DangerousBeans announced Bodyguard on Tina (keep her alive to win 2VP) and chose another Scheme, but did not announce it. From our previous games, and from his deployment of the December Acolyte, I guessed it was Sabotage on a large tower in my half of the table (interact with it to score 1VP). I was right

Since I was going to have to leave my half of the table to win, I picked Power Ritual (which I had to announce). 1 VP if I can interact with every corner of the board (I need a model within 8″ to do so), +2VP if I can complete this before Turn 5. I also picked and announced Breakthrough, which is a no-brainer vs Escape and Survive. It meant I had to get more models in Tina’s deployment zone at the end of the game than she did, for 2VP.

What This Means: DangerousBeans could get a maximum of +3VP from his Schemes, and I could get a maximum of +5VP. If I killed Tina before Turn 5, I got another +1VP thanks to the rules of Bodyguard.

So, even if Tina won her Strategy (4VP) and I lost mine (0VP), I could still win if I got all my Schemes and killed Tina before Turn 5. Right…

It is for calculations like these that Strategy and Scheme cards are (I have now decided) essential, so you can sit and work out all this before the game begins. Here are some great ones.

I deployed first. I didn’t take pics of the whole game, but you can see the deployment zones on this picture. 6″ in from each table edge. My deployment zone is shown by the red line at the top of the picture, and Tina’s is shown by the red line at the bottom. This pic was taken on Turn 2, which shows you how fast the Coryphee are!

My two new canal tiles are in the middle, and the new harbour tile is on the left, in Tina's deployment zone.

Turn 1

Init: Collette

I had taken care with my deployment (for a change). I had one non-Insignificant model within 8″ of the two table corners in my half of the board, so those models took a (1) Interact action when they activated, and secured me 2 of the 4 I needed for Power Ritual.

The Mannequin started in base contact with Collette, Linked to her, and would stay there the whole game.

I had to block the December Acolyte from getting Sabotage, so I managed to get a Coryphee between the Acolyte and the building. Those things are fast! Then Cassandra jumped forward and charged the Acolyte, doing some damage. The other Coryphee moved up to join its pal, and everyone else just moved forward. Collette made a Dove. I put my starting Dove within 3″ of the Coryphee just in case they needed to use a soulstone before they activated next Turn.

Tina’s crew put some ice pillars in front of my Coryphee, which was fine by me as it shielded them from ranged spell attacks. The ice pillars are the two white circles on the photo. An Ice Gamin charged Cassandra, and did nothing. The December Acolyte put two wounds on her. Everything else moved up, and the Convict Gunslinger (I forgot to mark him on the photo) took up position looking right down the length of the canal. He pretty much stayed there.

Turn 2

Init: Collette

I activated Cassandra first. She took a (1) Interact action with the table corner and got me my third of four table corners, then wailed on and killed the Acolyte. Tina tried to get some shots on the Coryphee, but failed to do any damage as line of sight was mostly blocked.

A Mechanical Dove attacked the Ice Golem with Magician’s Duel and did 3 Wds after armour, getting swatted in reply. Not the best use of the Dove. I should have been focusing on Ice Gamin, not the Golem.

Collette moved up behind the terrain piece on the left of the photo, and made another Dove.

I waited until after Tina had activated (never move out of cover until then!), and then the two Coryphee moved out from their ice pillar shield, past the Cassandra/ Ice Gamin duel (making their disengage easily), then Danced Together to form the Duet, ending up in cover as you can see in the photo. I didn’t want two of them together on the table taking double blast damage (a consideration I promptly forgot in Turn 3).

I moved the Mechanical Dove that had been with the Coryphee over to join them, for the same reasons as before.

Turn 3

Init: Collette

I activated Cassandra again, flipped the Red Joker for damage on the first hit and killed the Ice Gamin (taking 2 Wds from Shatter) and then moved up to join the Coryphee. I put her too close, however, making the trio of Duet, Dove and Cassandra far too tempting for Tina :snow:

Tina and the Wendigo Companion activated, and Tina sent some December’s Curse towards the Duet. She burned through all her remaining soulstones, but this ensured repeated Overpower triggers, letting her cast December’s Curse again and again for free. The first shot had a Casting total of over 30(!), and I flipped a 1 and a 2 for Defence on the Duet! Severe damage followed, and although the Duet only took a couple of points of damage, both Cassandra and the Dove were wiped-out by the blasts. Tina failed to kill the Duet off, despite repeated successful casts.

An angry Duet made a Healing Flip (2 Wnds back), moved into melee with Tina and her Wendigo and went to town. I needed 2 Moderate and 1 Severe damage to kill Tina, and I had the cards and soulstones to ensure the wintery bint didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell With Df2, she went down on the third hit.

The Convict Gunslinger decided to Rapid Fire the Duet. There followed an incredible series of card flips by DangerousBeans, where despite all the odds, all three shots hit the Wendigo instead of the Duet! I think his hands were shaking with the cold.

After that Collette moved forward and got within 8″ of the fourth and last table corner. I would have Power Ritual on Turn 4.

At this point DangerousBeans conceded the game. Three of his non-Insignificant models were gone (Tina, Ice Gamin and Acolyte) for one of mine (Cassandra), and his Wendigo was locked in melee with the Duet, who would surely kill it next Turn (and probably the Convict Gunslinger, too). I was about to get 5VP for my Schemes as well as +1VP for killing Tina, and as the most he could get was 3VP, there was no way he could win.

Summary: More than anything, this game has brought home to me the complicated ways the Strategies and Schemes interact, and how tactical a pure VP system can make a miniatures game. My crew had little chance in an outright fight with Tina’s, since she could wall me off with Ice Pillars and Ice Gamin and then slaughter me with December’s Curses and the Ice Golem. Fortunately, I got a Strategy that at least made the most of Collette’s crew’s amazing movement abilities, and my Schemes followed from that.

What could Tina have done differently? It is a solid Tina crew and DB knows it well, but I don’t think he was ready for the kind of movement that could get a 14ss model (the Duet) behind his lines on Turn 2. From there, Tina was exposed to a melee, which rarely happens. Collette’s crew has limited blast attacks, so grouping the Gamin around her would have kept Tina safe®. If the Golem was closer to her that might also have helped keep the Duet at bay.

I could have been more aggressive, and could have got the Duet easily into melee with Tina on Turn 2 if it had occurred to me, but I was crippled with second guessing myself about what I needed to do (a common theme of my Malifaux games with Collette’s crew). That would not have kept the Duet safe from December’s Curse, and would probably have kept Cassandra and the Dove alive.

Rules I Forgot: Models in melee receive +1Def for every model in melee with them when being shot at. Models in Hard Cover receive +1 Armour.

Edited December 24, 2010 by Sholto

[Jonas Albrecht]

Great breakdown of an albeit short Encounter, Sholto. I really enjoyed your summary. Strategies and schemes are the lifeblood of what make Malifaux such a great, complex game.

[oozeboss]

I really love your posts on this forum, Sholto, and this is no different.

It really is an object lesson in the importance of Strategies & Schemes in our game, and how they make this so unique a tabletop experience.

Thank you for such an illuminating, instructive & entertaining tale.

:marshmell:marshmell:marshmell:marshmell:marshmell

[Lorenz]

I suggest the essence of power for Tina it makes her even more of a canon

[Mach_5]

Great report! Love to see your pre-game strategy/scheme thoughts laid out.

Rules I Forgot: Models in melee receive +1Def for every model in melee with them when being shot at. Models in Hard Cover receive +1 Armour.

Also, totems get sacrificed if their master is killed or sacrificed, so the Wendigo wouldn't have outlived Rasputina!

[Sholto]

Thanks for all the comments, and the reminder about Totems is a good one, Mach 5