Third Game - Kaeris will roast your face with fire

[hakoMike]

Got out to RIW again last night for my absolute 3rd game of Malifaux vs. the unflappable Glenn. I also had my 12 year old daughter with me for the first time! As usual, the match was 35ss. The scenario was shared Deliver the Message. I took assassinate and bodyguard and he took bodyguard and sabotage.

I took:

McMourning (and his yappy zombie Chihuahua)

Sebastian

2 Nurses

5 Canine Remains

Convict Gunslinger

He took:

Ramos (and mobile toolkit)

Kaeris

2 Gunsmiths

Soulstone Miner

The board was fairly dense with terrain, and had a soulstone vein in the middle, which neither of us used it even once.

Okay, last game I made the huge mistake of picking on Taelor with my flesh construct. Taelor took him apart. This game I made a similar error... well, let's call it a learning experience. I rushed all 5 dogs up, companioned with Sebastian, and put them in a tight grouping looking forward to the nurses moving up and creating some dog bombs. Kaeris responded by turning them into permanent pillars of fire. Seriously, all 5 were killed in turn 1, leaving a couple 50mm obscuring flame pillars that were placed in the terrain to almost completely deny me the middle of the table. So, 10ss down the drain with the roasted dogs.

Things were looking bad for the Resurrectionists.

One nice thing about all my dogs dying is that they left me corpse counters! McMourning stepped up, grabbed a bunch and cast Monstrous Creation to summon a flesh construct past the wall of fire pillars, right next to where his crew was bunched up. With his one AP I moved him to within 2" of Ramos and took a swing in the closing phase (flesh constructs can do that.) With 10 wounds and Hard To Wound 2, I was really counting on that flesh construct to live to turn 3, and he did! I discarded to remove slow from him (another flesh construct thing... they have odd rules. He is slow unless you discard, and discarding a Joker makes him fast, and he also gets to either move or attack in the closing phase. That's potentially 4 pretty brutal attacks under the right circumstances) and used his 2 AP to Deliver the Message to Ramos. Wooo! Turn 3 objective complete! 4 VP for me!

My victorious delivery was soon tempered by all the dying.

Arcanists bring an interesting combination of scary spells and exploding beasties. I had hoped that the flesh construct plus the flanking convict gunslinger would be able to take Ramos down, or at least burn a bunch of stones, but he dished it out pretty good himself. No assassinate for me, and he successfully bodyguarded.

Nurses. I can't figure out Nurses. I have taken 1-2 in every list I've played and they have yet to do anything. Seriously, they have neither damaged a single model or helped a friendly one. Healing? 2" range, 8+crow and an (all) action, so she can't go to help. The model in need of healing has to go to her. She has furious casting, but I can only really imagine using it for her other big ability, Massive Dose. But, again, that would require no movement from the Nurse.

So, the Nurses did nothing and died. The dogs did nothing and died. The gunslinger got some shots off and died. Sebastian actually charged and did some hurt on Kaeris before the gunsmiths and Kaeris turned and made a corpse counter out of him. McMourning... well, McMourning was chased around by the soulstone miner, took a bunch of damage from it, eventually killed it (getting a bunch of wounds back) and then was chased by the entire Arcanist crew and killed.

So I got tabled on turn 4. No bodyguard for me.

He protected Ramos... 2 VP for him! He presumably sabotaged the terrain piece in my deployment voice... 2 VP for him! He did not deliver the message to McMourning (unless it was written on a bullet, which doesn't really count.) I did deliver the message in turn 3, so 4 VP for me! It's a tie! I got tabled and only destroyed one model in his original list and scored a tie.

I love that about Malifaux.

[Necromorph]

Nurses are pretty crap, but to use them to any effect at all you don't want to "rush the dogs up."

Move them up a little, maybe behind a piece of terrain and then use Furious Casing for 3 Massive Doses on a pair of dogs. Give dog A reactivate and stimulant, and give dog B reactivate. Trust me, with reactivate they can cross insane distances on the board so you don't need to be far upfield. You move, reactivate, charge with the stimulant dog, and then on the same target you move, reactivate, move charge (via Bloodhound, charges are 1ap if you are charging a model that took wounds). They can do a lot of damage, and it's kinda cool to see their speed. It won't be effective against every crew however (Kirai with Spirits and Hoffman with Armor for example) but it can work decently. The downside is you have to build your list around that tactic and sink a lot of points into dogs.

[Sholto]

Great batrep - very entertaining

[schristofersen]

yup schemes and strategies are a big part of why Malifaux is such a great game. Looks like a good learning experience and great fun. Thank you for sharing!

[Iamwyrd]

Great battle Rep, me want kaeris now!!!!!! But in all seriousness I've always wanted her and go figure she is one of the last henchmen to get made. Same thing happened with the hooded rider from book one.

But great battle report and mcmorning is a tricky Guy, but when used right, he is a beast. Good luck on your next games, and maybe try without a nurse and see how it goes.

[maverickman5]

It was a great game Mike, I look forward to playing you again. Soon you'll be beating the pants of the rest of us with the ressies.

[Peoples Champ]

Sounds like a great game. It shows if you just focus on the objectives the rest is a fun sideshow.

[Kisada]

I find with the dogs, all you need to do is keep one by the nurse, or make one with sebastian or McM if the chance randomly comes up for the nurse to dose. Reactivate + Stimulant makes for an incredibly powerful dog, i usually just take one nurse though as like you said, besides having one neat trick (and i have pulled the heal off occasionally) they aren't worth taking 2. If you get the chance, try using the other 5 points for a punk zombie - with nurse doses he becomes a cb 11 paired weapon monster for a turn.