Lucius Travels to Prospect

[Adran]

Here is a report on the three games I played from the recent "An Interesting Prospect" run by the Clapham Wargamers

Retaking Prospectus.

The Diary of Lucius, Secretary to the Govenor General

I can’t believe that foul woman thought to try and set up a town outside of Guild Control. Unfortunately with the recent neverborne incursions it has taken me this long to persuade the Governor General that we should not allow this kind of lawlessness to go on.

I have persuaded Lady Justice to lead our forces into this nest of Lawlessness. But the current problems in Malifaux have left us short staffed, and we have seen the need to hire Victoria to aid us.

First things first. We must make claim to some territory from which we can secure our base.

I feel laying claim to the old town, with its gallows will suit our purpose and show those other fools the consequences of facing the law. It only down side is that the blithering fool Leveticus is in the area. I shall make sure I lay claim to the area. We will make sure that he gets the message that the Guild is in town. And, should matters not go according to plan, We had better hold on to the areas we currently have, making sure he does not cut off our retreat.

Game One Shared Claim Jump 30 soulstone

Lucius Vs Leveticus.

I fielded Lucius, Ryle, Guard Captain, Austringer, 2 Guild Guards and a Drill Sergeant. The mission was shared stake a claim, and I announced holdout and deliver a message.

Adrian fielded Leveticus, Alyce, 3 Necropunks, a Canine remains and Killjoy.

The first turn saw rapid movement from the guild crew into the middle of the board. Reinforcements was used on the Austringer to place him well up to be able to threaten hollow waifs from turn 2 onwards, and the linking the Drill Sergeant to Ryle gave me good control over the push from Ryle. The Guard Captain was left in the deployment area. Enough damage was attempted by the guild to have used up most of Leveticus’ cards. He also moved up far enough from Alyce that she wouldn’t give him extra cards next turn. He did turn the canine remains into another hollow waif, to give him some survivability, hiding them both behind different buildings.

Turn two I saw an opportunity, and pushed Ryle into a shooting position against Leveticus, and was able to kill him. He then carried on out of the square and killed one of the necropunks, who promptly turned into Killjoy. I waited out before springing the trap, allowing Killjoy to kill Ryle, Alyce to try shooting Lucius and the necropunks to spread out a little.

Lucius moved further up field beyond the claim and calling in re-enforcements. This put the Guard Captain in line of sight to both waifs. With casting expert I ordered him to killed them, and one fell in a hail of bullets. Activating the Captain allowed me to kill the other waif, and then it was down to clear up. Clever use or Cordon and buildings blocked Killjoys easy route into the claim marker, and when he was forced to take the long way round the houses, I was able to put enough damage on him for him to eventually die. Even if he had survived, careful placement of Lucius meant he was within the 3 inchs of the claim, but the Killjoy charge wouldn’t be, and I was comfortable with Lucius’ ability to live due to slow to die and 2 soulstone left.

The Necropunks were easily mopped up by guard firing, and the end of the game had me achieving Holdout and 4 points from the shared stake a claim. I hadn’t delivered the message to Leveticus, but it was a message in a way, and seeing the chance to get him out of the way early seemed too good to miss. 6-0 result

That inconvenient fool, he died before I could give him a message for his masters. I will just have to hope that his death will get the message across. Justice did well dealing with some ressurectionists, but the fool of a girl Victoria couldn’t handle the upstart Pandora. Well we have two secure bases now, it is a good time for Justice and myself to plant evidence around the town to make sure that we can get the rag of a newspaper to see how debauched the upstart Mary Belle Prospect was, and that the Guild governed townships are so much the safer. I’ll send Victoria out to reconnoitre the area and see what she can see. I will head into the mountains where Justice saw those ressurectionists, they always make good scapegoats. Perhaps if I kill the most promising one of them, I can bring it back as further proof.

Game 2Shared plant evidence 20 Soulstone (1 scheme only)

Lucius vs Seamus (Aaron)

I fielded Lucius, Ryle, the Drill Sergeant, a Guard Captain and a Guard.

Seamus came with 1 Crooked Man, 1 Punk Zombie 2 Belles and a Grave Spirit.

I announce Kill protégé on the Punk Zombie.

I move up and am moved further up thanks to some Lures. Ryle is able to gun down the punk zombie and the Crooked man before we’re involved in a big brawl.

The big fight takes place on turn three with Seamus charging in on a badly injured Lucius (Having focused shot him beforehand twice) next to a Guard Captain. Lucius lives, just flipping the black joker on the slow to die healing flip, and me using the team re-roll to re flip. I activate him next. I issue command on the Captain, and strike Seamus, 3 down, only 9 wounds to go. I issue command again, hit and am on a -3 damage flip. The fourth card from my deck was the red joker. I do 10 points of damage in that one flip, leaving Seamus on 1 wound thanks to hard to kill. The Third issue command is enough to kill off Seamus.

Lucius dies to a belle next activation, but Ryle, a guard and the captain are enough to take out the remaining belles. The time it takes only allows me to plant 3 pieces of evidence before the 6th turn, but that is enough to get me 5 Vps to none.

Well, that should be enough evidence planted to further the guilds aim in stopping anyone else as stupid as Mary-Belle setting up their own town. The head off that Punk Zombie should be most useful indeed. Unfortunately Justice was less successful this time, running into Criid, and between the two of them the guild aims weren’t furthered at all. Victoria showed her worth. It seems that there is something very interesting in the Bayou area. If I can manipulate Justice into slaughtering some gremlins, whilst Victoria is engaged in a turf war, I should be able to get to this treasure un-opposed.

Alas, Justices attacks against the gremlin has brought out that witch Zoraida as the true power in the bayou, and she seems intent to keep me out.

40 soulstone Lucius vs Zoraida

I added a 3rd guard and the lawyer to my 30 soulstone crew. I opened my event card and discovered I was a tactical genius. This allowed me to repeat one of my schemes. I chose to repeat Hold out, figuring that I was trying to keep Zoriada out due to the turf war, and I picked Body Guard Lucius.

The Zoraida crew lead by Thomas had 3 wicked dolls, Candy, Kade, tealor and Bishop in.

He was Running a turf war, bodyguard Zoraida and the Zoraida specific scheme of obeying one of my minions to kill Lucius. Probably a tough call since most of my decent melee could not be obeyed and they would all be on negative flips to hit.

The board was set out with two rivers running across the board, with the treasure in between them. This was good in slowing down the neverborne as they had to cross both of them to get to my deployment, but had the potential downside of long lines of sight. Good for my guns, less good for conduiting Voodoo dolls (well from my point of view...)

Turn One saw one of my guard get voodoo dolled and fail to attack Lucius. The rest of His forces run up to the first river. I Ran Lucius forward and then called in reinforcements to get an un-activated guard in base contact with the treasure. She quickly picked it up and started the run home. Lucius, with the Drill sergeant linked went down the side of one river to shoot as much as he could.

Turn Two Zoraida moved right up to Lucius to try and stop me getting the treasure away. I responded by carrying on the walk back to my deployment zone with her, and bringing the other guards and the captain into the fight. This fight lasted for quite some time. Once I realised the problem with my proper manners, I brought the drill sergeant over to the guard captain and linked him to give plus flips in melee. It wasn’t quite enough to kill Zoraida, but made the sergeant target number one. He died to a blow from Lady hammerstrike. Ryle managed to kill Bishop on the charge, but I was running out of models in the middle. The lawyer took the treasure from the guard, who was quickly called to reinforce the line.

Candy was the bane of my life, healing her crew, and then poisoning Lucius. Twice. He finally died on Turn 5 when he spent his last soulstone on a slow to die healing flip from the poison and flipped the black joker.

Candy ran towards my deployment zone whilst Zoraida was in combat with my Captain still. Ryle got into base contact with Candy ready to try and kill her turn 6.

Turn 6 came, and I looked at the hand, it was good. I won initiative, and made two melee attacks on Candy, despite me using an 11 and a 13 I still missed, so I pushed away and made one last attempt to shoot her. Again I used a double figured card, and again she cheated a higher card. She lived and made it into base contact with my lawyer. Whilst I was trying to kill her, Zoraida repulsed my guard captain, and flew into my deployment zone as well, denying me the chance to kill her. I was left with a fully healthy Lawyer, Ryle and Austringer, and a Guard captain who only took his first points of damage on turn 5 ( which was 9 points from Taelor, so not too healthy now), but with an injured Zoraida and Candy in my deployment, he achieved his Turf war, and bodyguard for 6 points, whilst I just had 4 points from the treasure hunt.

The witch gave me a beating, and I was forced to turn tail and run, but at least I was able to retrieve the treasure, to bring it back to Malifaux for further study

Lady Justice made short work of the Gremlins, and after the first disappointing show from the mercenaries, Victoria was able to prove her worth. It is time to head back home. The newspaper has discovered the evidence I planted in the mountains and is now running stories about the dangerous bandits in the hills. The mission was a success, but the damage I took from the witch still smarts. Revenge will be taken

[Sholto]

That was a fantastic read, thanks It also sounds like a bit of a masterclass in how to play Lucius as a Master, good job. Bit unlucky flipping the Black Joker twice on StD Healing Flips!

[Iamwyrd]

I've always wanted to run Lucius as a master but he seemed lack luster. So from your games with him, do you think he can handle himself as a master?

[FrereSebastian]

Removed

Edited April 4, 2011 by FrereSebastian

[Adran]

Why can't I link a drill sergent to Ryle?

Link doesn't have to be done to a friendly model.

I was worried that Lucius couldn't be relied on to pull his weight as a master, but having played him a few times I'm much less concerned about it. There are soem bad matchups for him, and he does rely on his minions more than any other master I can think of, but he seems to do well. As the games get bigger he struggles more I find, but that might be because he can't call in any other big hitters to back him up (Although Ryle and the Guard Captain are no slouches). Up to 35 soulstone he is a threat, at 40 I was less convinced. Also his inablity to have a cache above 4 is more limiting in larger games.

[FrereSebastian]

Adran; You are completely right I have edited my previous post and will stop commenting on things that I actually seem to have no idea on.

I'm sorry if that came off as rude it was not meant to be :/

Edited April 4, 2011 by FrereSebastian

[Adran]

Not a problem FrereSebastian. I didn't see it as rude, and was interested as to what I had missed.

I do miss things, but had had the linking a drill sergent to Ryle discussion with other people. I end up doing most of my posting without access to the books or cards so can often make a mistake.

Its worth noting, that under the current wording of Terrifying if you issue commands to a minion, they make the action, so will have to take the terrifying test at the end of that action, so my killing of seamus should have had a terrifying test in there.