Hamelin the Plagued VS Lady Justice

[Ensiferum]

First battle report ! (Not my first battle though)

40 points

On my side: Hamelin + Obedient Wretch + Nix + 2x Rat-Catchers + 2x The Stolen + 6x Malifaux Rats

Opponent: Lady Justice + Lucius + 2x Guild Guards + 2x Guild Austringer + Drill Sergeant + Death Marshall + Lawyer

My Strategy was Contain Power, so Lady Justice had to die >:|

I also picked Plague On Malifaux (for the fun) and Stake A Claim.

On the other side, LJ had Bodyguard on her, Frame For Murder (not announced) on a Guild Guard and the Strategy was Distract.

The first few turns, nothing really happened. Basically my opponent knew he was going against a quite resilient crew and decided, since the strategies were what they were, that the best course of action was to take half his crew (Lady Justice included) and climb up a building, to safety. The rest stayed on the ground, shooting from afar.

I was not too happy about that because Rats aren't renowned to climb tall buildings (Ht4) with their (-1)slow and 5 Spd. Which meant that not only my 4VPs were safe and sound on top of a building but also my opponent's extra 2 VPs were in the exact same spot.

So turns 1, 2, 3 and 4 were mostly about Stolen getting shot or sacrificed (i wouldn't want that job), a few Rats spawning and Hamelin making as many targets Insignificant as he could.

The situation didn't look good. My main meal was sitting on a platter way to high for my swarm to get and i couldn't send anyone with enough movement up there since it would mean certain death upon arrival. With that, my Plague On Malifaux scheme was going nowhere since the Guild was not anxious to shake my hand. I did get a kill for that but unfortunately it also was the Frame For Murder of my opponent (what a coincidence !)...

Anyway we come to Turn 5 where the action happened. As i was desperately trying to catch up to a Lucius running away with my 8-or-so Rats, the ennemy Lawyer made one of my Rat-Catchers run away in fear of the law arresting him for possession and use of deadly homicidal Rats.

So he ran, making for the closest table edge which also happened to be near the building from where Lady Justice was taking cover and raining bullets on whatever came in sight (mostly Nix for some reason).

Seeing that man-rat hybrid stinking old cheese must have triggered something in her head because she jumped down the building and cut off his head, triumphantly watching as the body was being eaten away by Rats.

The game stopped for me. Lady Justice was on the ground. Not only my 4VPs but also the opponent's 2VPs were stading in the open, about 14" or so away from my 8 hungry Rats. I could NOT make any mistake as next turn she'd be back up on her roof safely, my certain doom tagging along.

The Rats turned around at once, forgetting about Lucius (who climbed up the building in a hurry), and moving towards Justice. Of course the Rat that was spawned from the ex-Rat-Catcher served as an anchor point for a LOT of (0)Writhing Mass, bringing my rats less than 5" away from the target.

My second Rat-Catcher came nearby and slaughtered them all to make brand new ones, but this time most of them already in melee with the target.

Nix came along, placing himself less than 2" from Justice to engage her and popped (0)Emptiness.

The game was getting tense. Lady Justice, so close from climbing back up to safety was now swarmed with angry yellow-teethed writhing little beasts.

I activated the newly spawned Rats. First thing 3 of them (who weren't in melee) did was to sacrifice themselves and get me a new Rat-Catcher. Oh but wait ! 3 sacrifices ! Nix likes sacrifices ! So to thank them he gave to 3 of their Rat buddies (0)Unconscious Behavior.

So my 4 Rats left then started biting at Lady Justice. She had a (-) and the Rats had a straight because of (0)Impetuous. They dealt about 4 wounds but she used up most of her soulstones, keeping only 2 of them on the initial 5 she had for the fight.

She was still alive but it wasn't over. My newly summoned Rat-Catcher still had to activate. The Guild tried to shoot him down but with Armor+2 it wasn't that easy and he lived to activate.

Upon activation he slaughtered the rats and spawned new ones. He also tried to give the new ones (1)Vermin Frenzy but my best friend Black Joker decided it was time to show his ugly face. After all, he'd kept quiet on both sides for the rest of the game...

Anyway i could then activate the new rats to take another bite at Lady Justice, bringing her to 4 wounds left and 1 soulstone remaining.

Everyone had activated. Everyone except one Stolen i'd summoned that turn. He went for a (1)Bleeding Disease on Justice but in a last effort she used her last soulstone to overcome the feeble mind of the child and survived.

Everything was then played on the Initiative of Turn 6... which i won. Hameling and the Wretch activated, the Wretch cast Bleeding Disease, killing Justice and Hamelin trotted off whistling to the deployment zone of my opponent to contest his Strategy.

The game stopped there, we didn't check to see if my one Rat holding the Stake A Claim building would survive and bring me 2 VPs so we decided the game would be considered won by Hamelin the Plagued 2VPs versus 1VP for the Guild.

Thoughts:

Hamelin is not that easy to use and you need to know how each model is supposed to work in the crew in order to accomplish anything (thanks to Sandwich and his awesome Tactica about Hamelin! http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18577&highlight=hamelin), but once you understand how everything goes back to the Rats and getting more of them, you can do some pretty awesome things.

The Rats are MVPs. With the help of Nix and the Rat-Catchers, they're EXTREMELY fast and dangerous to ANY model. With the help of Hamelin and the Stolen, Nihilism stays in play and the Rat-Catchers become quite the tanks with Armor+2 and Ruffian.

In short, awesome crew with a very specific gameplay based around Rats and how to get them to their targets.

Only problem was the building. They can't climb it (it was Ht4). I didn't try to see if i could have made it crumble by eating off the walls but even then it would have taken way more time than i had with 6 turns. Also Hamelin's crew has NO RANGE until you get some Blight Counters out there.

It was quite comical to see the Guild bunched up on top of a building, trying to fend off a swarm of Rats. If i hadn't had Contain Power i would have had an easier time trying to win instead of waiting for my opponent to COME DOWN >:|

Edited April 27, 2011 by Ensiferum

[BigTed]

Great game

(thanks to Sandwich and his awesome Tactica about Hamelin!)

where is this tactica?

thanks

BigTed

[Ensiferum]

Oh right sorry, i'm adding it here and in the OP.

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18577&highlight=hamelin

[korto]

Yeah well, seeing you check mate by turn 3 got me generous so I got down, not knowing what could come my way but eh, I had no reason to do that, victory was secured. Any competitive player would have stayed right there but eh, knucklehead move from me ! Next time I got my opponent in a headlock, I'll keep my grip on his neck and snap it clean, even if it means leaving my opponent helpless, waiting 3 long turns of agony ! At least I know Lady J can beat Hamelin !

Edited April 27, 2011 by korto
(adding comment)

[BigTed]

Many Thanks

[Ensiferum]

Yeah well, seeing you check mate by turn 3 got me generous so I got down, not knowing what could come my way but eh, I had no reason to do that, victory was secured. Any competitive player would have stayed right there but eh, knucklehead move from me ! Next time I got my opponent in a headlock, I'll keep my grip on his neck and snap it clean, even if it means leaving my opponent helpless, waiting 3 long turns of agony ! At least I know Lady J can beat Hamelin !

Actually... uhm. I could've climbed. Somebody just made it clear. It's on page 35 of the rules manual. I can climb and if i fall short, i just mark the position where i am. I think if i get a rat up on a building then (0)Writhing Mass then gets the rest up there too. Soooo yea. My mistake! Next time i'll know for sure!

Still, it's not a bad strategy to make some sort of bunker up a building as it forces the attacker to plan his move very well or have all his models dying one by one. I'll see how it goes next time ! It was nonetheless a great game and i can't wait to see Lady J take her revenge, this time by going in there and cutting some heads... just don't cut rat heads!

[Sandwich]

It was quite comical to see the Guild bunched up on top of a building, trying to fend off a swarm of Rats. If i hadn't had Contain Power i would have had an easier time trying to win instead of waiting for my opponent to COME DOWN >:|

Oh, little tip that isn't in the Tactica yet.

When your opponent is playing keep away on unclimbable terrain, you can still easily get your Rats to them.

What you do is

1. Move Hamelin to within 6" of the Terrain.

2. Using (1)Lure Malifaux Citizen, place a The Stolen right in the middle those models.

3. Activate The Stolen and (All)Abandon to sacrifice yourself and produce a Malifaux Rat.

4. You may now (0)Writhing Mass your entire swarm to that freshly produce Rat and proceed to nom away.

[Buhallin]

I'm not sure how well any of that would work. Depending on the terrain you're playing on, there always has to be enough room to place the base. So I'm honestly not sure how pushing into contact with a model halfway up a wall would work, since there's nowhere for the base to go... And up top you could certainly limit the swarm potential by ensuring there's not room for many (or even any) rats to fit.

[Sandwich]

I'm not sure how well any of that would work. Depending on the terrain you're playing on, there always has to be enough room to place the base. So I'm honestly not sure how pushing into contact with a model halfway up a wall would work, since there's nowhere for the base to go... And up top you could certainly limit the swarm potential by ensuring there's not room for many (or even any) rats to fit.

Hm.

I suppose if there's absolutely no room for you Rats, just use the Stolen to engage the DM in melee so they can't shoot Hamelin and spam (1)Understand the Soulless til you can (1)Irresitible Lure whatever you want off the cliff.

I suppose you're right, however.

[Angor]

Good job in the battle and thanks for the battle report, it was a good read. I think you deserve +1VP just for choosing the scheme Plague on malifaux.

Also thanks to Sandwich for his tactica.