Tournament Report! 6/19 Art of War, Cincinnati

[LoboStele]

We had a 12 player tournament at our LGS yesterday. Awesome turn out for our group, especially considering it was Father’s Day! We even had 3 guys come about an hour or more away (from Dayton!) to join us. So thanks to Alan, Sean, and Christian for bolstering our ranks for the day. This was quite possibly the most fun tournament we’ve had yet, in my opinion.

We used the basic Gaining Ground format, single Faction, Domination format. All Schemes were available to use, with no restrictions (my favorite, though I also like the idea of only being able to use each scheme only once during a tourney…may discuss with our TO about trying that next time).

So, for the first round, the Shared Strategy was Deliver a Message. This was probably the best part about the tournament, that all 3 rounds ended up being Strategies which were less dependent on just killing each other. I was matched up against Brandon, knoezer, on the forums here. With Outcasts as my faction, I stuck to my recent favorite, Leveticus. My crew consisted of 4 Steampunk Abominations, Alyce, a Watcher, a Necropunk, and a Canine Remains. Brandon was running Sonnia, along with Samael, Nino, the Executioner, an Austringer, and a couple Witchling Stalkers. The game began by him trying to take long-range pot-shots with Nino and the Austringer at my SPAs, but they survived long enough to form into the Desolation Engine. Unfortunately though, I ended up about ½” out of range for any attacks in the first round. Doh! I then lost initiative, and the Desolation engine got pounded. The worst part was, I had set up the Necropunk just slightly behind the DE, trying to hide, and it got hit by blast damage on the first strike. I got lucky with Brandon getting a Black Joker flip in there somewhere, and only getting blasts on the first attack. So my Necropunk survived, and then used Leap to leapfrog over the DE, and complete Deliver the Message to Sonnia. Though both the DE and Necropunk died shortly after, this already put me up 4-0 early in the game. My other schemes were Soulless Life and Hold Out, while Brandon had taken Grudge (Watcher) and Kill Protégé (Alyce). He eventually managed to take down Alyce, though I made him work for it, with her Misdirection causing lots of struggles. The game ended 8-2, but I only had Levi, my 2 Waifs, and the Watcher left, while Brandon had both Nino and the Austringer at full health. Was a well-played game overall!

Round 2 I had to face Mike, king of the Neverborn in our store. Our Shared Strategy for this one was Distract, and so I decided I would rather go with the option of two leaders (the Viks) rather than risk Nightmares or something else sniping my Waifs. So I brought along Von Schill, the Librarian, the Specialist, a Ronin, and the Student of Conflict. Oddly enough, I expected Mike to run Chompy, but he instead opted for Pandora, along with 2 Sorrows, the Doppleganger, an Insidious Madness, Primoridal Magic, and Lelu and Lilitu. I decided to go for Breakthrough and Assassinate for Schemes, while Mike chose Breakthrough and Bodyguard. Our game got incredibly dense in Turn 2, as we both managed crazy good card draws between the first two turns (I had three 13’s, an 11, and two 10’s in my hand). Then more crazy things happened, when Mike won init, but Pandora failed to do much because even though he cheated in a 13 and then burned a Soulstone with an 11, Von Schill’s +2 for Stubborn gave me enough edge that I cheated a 13 and burned a SS and got lucky with an 11 as well, winning by 1. And that’s sort of how it went. We both had crazy flips, and crazy card hands when we needed them. Von Schill used the Rams I had in hand to one-shot each of the Sorrows. Then my SoC gave Fast to the Sword Vik who moved once, then Charged Pandora, followed by the Melee Expert Attack. Then I had the Gun Vik swap out, and try to wail on Pandora further. I lost a Ronin due to Lure and getting eaten by Lelu in the meantime, but by the end of TURN 2, we were BOTH out of Soulstones, haha. So turn 3, he won init again, and wasted my Gun Vik thanks to good flips when he needed them, and a moderate flip for Self-Loathing. He then tried to escape, moving Pandora as far as she could get. But Von Schill was able to win the Wp-Wp duel, and shot her in the back as she ran, doing just enough damage to kill her. From there, I worked to keep my other Vik alive and try to get to the deployment zone. I almost made it, but then as time was running out for the round, Lilitu managed to Lure my Vik twice and move me far enough that I was still on Mike’s side of the table, but couldn’t get to his Deployment Zone. So the final score ended up 4-0, but could have been MUCH closer. Overall it was an incredible game, and one of my best games ever with Mike. He’s always a blast to play against.

Final round of the day was against Dave and his Guild crew. I despise Dave’s Guild, particularly his Nino, as he almost always seems to have the Crows needed for Headshot. Anyway, this time our Shared Strategy was Destroy the Evidence, and so Dave and I knew right away the central Evidence marker would be key. I took Breakthrough and Soulless Life this time, while Dave took Breakthrough and Bodyguard. I ended up playing Levi again, with the same list as the first game (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!), while Dave ran Perdita, Sammael, Francisco, Nino, Convict Gunslinger, and a Witchling Stalker. First round, Dave ended up rushing Perdita and Samael straight for the center marker, which was a smart move, because otherwise, I could have got it easily with the SPAs and Desolation Engine (Rusty Alyce for Burn Out ). Meanwhile, my Watcher and Necropunk went down the right side of the table, headed for my other Markers and the Convict Gunslinger, while the rest of Dave’s crew headed down the left side for his markers. Most of the excitement happened at the end of Turn 1 and the beginning of Turn 2, as Levi unloaded on Perdita after she reached the middle, followed by the SPAs moving up to the middle, and forming the Desolation Engine to further beat on Perdita. Even with some decent flips, Dave was forced to burn through most of Perdita’s Soulstones to keep the DE from hitting her. Turn 2, I lost init, and the Desolation Engine quickly bit the dust, but Perdita failed to kill one of the summoned SPAs, leaving her and Sammael still engaged with enemy models and unable to grab the center Marker. With Alyce and Levi unloading on her again, she exhausted her Soulstone pool, while I still had 3-4 remaining, and down went Perdita. Meanwhile, my Necropunk got one Evidence Marker, while my Watcher made a bee-line for the Marker in Dave’s deployment zone. Dave’s Francisco, Nino, and Stalker nabbed one of their Evidence Markers as well. Here’s where I had a bit of fun, and when the Stalker ran up to one of the Evidence Markers, I had Levi summon his Hollow Waif during the Closing Phase, right next to the Stalker, so he would be engaged in combat and couldn’t Interact. It didn’t matter much though, as I won init and finished off the Stalker, turning him into an SPA, and then finished off Samael as well, making another SPA. I ended up having Levi get stuck on the table with 2 Wds left at the end of the turn though, because I wasn’t paying close attention. So that really hurt, since I had a whopping 2 cards in my hand the next turn (thankfully was close to Alyce). So, as I expected, I ended up losing Alyce to a Nino Headshot because of that blunder, but I was able to still do a little bit with Levi, and have him resurrect the following round for the final oomph that I needed. I already had 3 SPAs at this point, so Levi summoned one more, and then hit the Convict Gunslinger with some Unnatural Wasting, making sure he would be down to 1 Wd at the end of the turn. I needed to leapfrog Levi and the Waifs to get to the last Evidence Marker. The SPAs combined to make the DE, and camped on top of the middle Marker. Nino then moved to his last Evidence Marker. Last round, Dave caught me off guard, and had Nino move off his evidence Marker, in an attempt to wipe out Levi, which was a smart move. But the only way he could do it was with a bunch of lucky Trigger Happy triggers, but Headshot was the best he was able to get. Unlucky for him, I had plenty of cards left in my hand. So Levi took his 2 Wds for a free walk to move and interact with my last Evidence Marker, and then killed the Convict Gunslinger turning him into an SPA. Meanwhile, the DE grabbed the middle Marker. So, rather hilarious that the middle marker didn’t end up getting claimed until all the way at the end of the game! The score ended 6-4, thanks to me getting Soulless Life, as I didn’t complete Breakthrough (was about 1.5” short). EXCELLENT game overall though, and a very tough fight. Could have gone either way a couple of different times.

So, I finished out the tournament being the only person with 3 wins and 0 losses, with a total of 18 VP. So I got a Gift Certificate for the LGS, and promptly turned around and spent it to help pre-order the Dead Rider. Yay more Levi constructs!

So, if anybody is in the Cincinnati area, definitely come check out Art of War Miniatures and Gaming (www.aowcinci.com). They do an excellent job hosting events, and have, by FAR, the largest selection of Malifaux product in the area. Can’t wait till next month’s tournament!

[Drake]

Good report. Nice easy to follow read and informative. Nice selection of Strategies chosed by the TO for the limited number of games. I enoyed reading this, and gave some insight to levetocus who I haven't seen..yet..