My Marcus blog leading up to big tourney in April

[Tpenksa]

This year I will be attending the second annual Walpurgis Malfaux tournament in Bellingham, Washington. Last year we had had 22 players show up from all along the coast (All the way from Portland, OR to Vancouver B.C.). This year we have opened it to 24 players and so far 18 have signed up and paid.

Tournament rules:

40$ to enter with everyone getting a storied/narrative campaign book. A wooden eengraved token/counter set with 5 corpse/scrap counters and all the counters needed for every strategy/and scheme. Also a custom designed tournament fate deck with local artwork for the card backs and fronts. Last year everyone got a "spawn pool" for a custom scenario, and a model created by the tournament director featuring Tillinghast Beast (also used in a custom twisted version of the Shared Treasure Hunt strategy.) and tons of other raffle prizes.

There are 6 rounds.

Everyone picks one master to use for the weekend.

Everyone picks a 50ss "pool" of models to use for the weekend that can be hired in the typical fashion before schemes.

Rounds are anywhere from 25-45ss.

You may only pick a scheme once for the entire weekend.

Strategies are pre-decided each round (see the campaign story book).

First three rounds are randomly matched, after that its by current ranking.

Each round has a bonus objective that has an affect on your next match (not actual VP but last year was like a free 4" move on wagon supply if you got the special condition, or a one free interact).

Their are custom trophies for first place, favorite opponent voted by players, and best painted. Also TONS of raffle prizes!

Last year my results were:

I took Rasputina, which REALLY hurt only being able to take schemes once. Most of the time I took one do-able scheme and extra SS.

I took second (tied with two others) in voting for favorite opponent. Fourth in painted. And I WAS 3rd in overall VP going into Sunday (last two rounds), until I got my butt handed to me by a great Kirai player.. I do blame some of the loss on the fact that round players were NOT ALLOWED to use any soul stones unless it was for initiative, or abilities like the soulstone Miner's "Discard soulstone to get overdrive." That REALLY hurt me getting casts off oh man. The round being reconnoiter didn't help either with Raspy vs Resser crew. Haha yes I am still mildly bitter about that condition. After that plus me playing a bad game verse Nicodem and lost big again (no excuses, my opponent was great and played a great smart game) finished respectably middle of the pack. Overall the entire weekend was the most fun gaming I have ever had... OH and I also won a Hoffman box set in the raffle!

This year I wanted something very different from Raspy and I wanted a master that could achieve most schemes... Last year with their only being me and one other Raspy players, and no one with Marcus... I decided to give Marcus some love this year. In order to help motivate me I wanted to post a blog on my Marcus adventure/progress and hopefully continue to get more help from people on the board.

So far my 50ss pool looks like this (after much help from all of you!)

Marcus

Kaeris

Jackalope

Student of Conflict

Soulstone Miner

Gunsmith

Waldgeist

Sillurid x2

and Night Terror x3

Total = 50 on the dot

I bought McTavish and I want to try the Slateridge Mauler as a possible replacements if I see enough out of them... not sure who I would get rid of though.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Tpenksa

[Tpenksa]

Pictures from last year's Walpurgis!

Inside the swag bag everyone got by participating before the first round! Not in the picture is the awesome campaign book.

What the fate deck looked like (I still use it I love it!)

Some of the game boards (all had their own special event attached [falling rocks, campsite... etc])

This is the tournament pic of my crew!

[Orboros]

God im jelous. I wish i had the resources and player base for tournamemts like that.

[Ebonstar]

Can't use SS? Lol is that some sort of anti-Collette rule?

[Tpenksa]

I had my second game with Marcus today against the Viktoria's.

My first game I will not get into too much detail, as it was last week.... I did win 8-6 getting my 8 VP in three turns (deliver a message, sabotage and power ritual). I definitely learned how fast the crew can be and Silurids with leap = amazing for deliver a message/sabotage!

Anyway today we played a 35ss game at my house (meaning terrain was lame).

My crew:

Marcus, Kaeris, Student of Conflict, Soulstone Miner, Waldgeist, Gunsmith, Desperate Merc... 7ss Pool.

I got slaughter, and took sabotage and kill protegee on Misaki.

Opponents crew:

Viktorias, Ronin x2, Lazarus, Freikorp Trapper, Misaki, Desperate merc... 2ss

He got claim jump, and took stake a claim and breakthrough.

Turn one, Kaeris + student moved behind a small section of ruins on the left flank. Desperate Merc, Gunsmith and Marcus moved up the middle behind a section of forest. Soulstone miner took defensive stance, overdrive and tunnel, withe Waldgeist moving up to touch the forest and cast uproot to push toward a small hill holding my opponents Trapper blocking him from seeing much. My opponent mainly moved up without any casting/effects with the trapper moving off the hill on my left flank with a ronin in front, viktoria's up the middle with the gun viki going into the forest, Laz and the merc moved up my left flank toward his claim jump, and misaki moved up the middle cautiously.

Turn two - Student companioned Kaeris and used assist. Kaeris killed the ronin and hopped back in cover. His viktorias activated and killed my gunsmith and attempted to use his last AP to attack my waldgeist only to flip the black joker. My waldgeist then attacked his paired viktoria doing getting a neg flip and getting a double severe, then I got a weak damage on a double negative to kill the vik but he used a stone flipping moderate to ignore the damage. Laz killed my desperate merc. Marcus did a swift hit and run attack finishing off the wounded Vik and ran out of sight from anything else. Everything else kind of moved into position.

Turn 3 - I unburied my Miner next to his gun viktoria and won initiative. I activated the Miner and after three attacks with the first inflicting severe I killed the viktoria while activating his trigger to gain a soulstone and still had an AP to re-tunnel. I don't remember how but his Ronin got too ansy (he said he was too nervous of that Kaeris would kill that one next activation) and charged my Waldgeist. The waldgeist survived and in turn did enough wounds to get the ronin to one wound. His Merc shot and did a few more wounds killing my waldgeist. Marcus charged and finished off the ronin and then ducked back around the forest toward my oppenents table edge going the "back way" to the sabotage piece (laz and desperate misaki were sitting on it). The trapper fired at Kaeris doing two wounds, Kaeris drew a card suffering another wound (good thing I got a 10 and nothing else really in my hand), and finished off the trapper using all of her AP (and used the 10 I drew to land the killing blow). Laz and Misaki moved back laz being about 4" from Marcus, Misaki 6" away who then attacked Marcus twice (after getting wind) burning a few of Marcus' soulstones.

Turn four - Soulstone miner appeared and I won initiative again. He then attacked and killed Misaki gaining another stone in the process and reburied. Laz did some 4 wounds to marcus and Marcus did like 8 or 9 wounds to Laz... but really amounted to 5 or 6 with his patchwork armor. Kaeris + student just moved to support Marcus.

Turn 5 - Miner popped up again with my opponent getting initiative and doing a two more wounds to Marcus... Marcus swung back killing Laz. Miner tagged sabotage and we called it game

Final score 8-0 Marcus!

Individual model thoughts:

Marcus - is awesome! Wild heart is ridiculously handy for any situation. He is very underrated in his damage output.

Kaeris - I was shocked at how decently easy it was to get off ignite + immolate on the same target. I used two stones with her though to kill the trapper... but from advice from Ukrocky I purposely saved two stones just for her. She is really annoying for opponents with the student allowing her to stay out of sight.... couple that with Marcus and his "drive-by's" is really nasty.

Gunsmith - Didn't do anything for me this games, viks killed him too early.

Soulstone Miner - MVP!!! Killing a viktoria + Misaki both times gaining a soulstone... He also got me 4 VP's (2 for announced sabotage, and two for announced kill protegee n Misaki)... He also got me 13 points toward slaughter. Overall, this so far is my favorite model .

Waldgeist - Uproot worked really nice blocking some LOS, he also did most of the damage on the first viki. He is obviously durable for a 6ss model but I was pleasantly suprised at his damage output. I was lucky enough to get severe and moderate but 2/4/5 is not bad!

Desperate Merc - Blah didn't do anything, oh well. I have taken them a few times with different masters sometimes they arent even worth their 2ss sometimes they more than are worth it.

Overall: Yes I learned from Ukrocky that I played sabotage wrong with the Miner being Insignificant when he pops up... but I had another free turn and Kaeris was pretty close by also. I so far am having a BLAST with Marcus. I have used Rasputina, Hoffman, and Zoraida but so far Marcus is the most enjoyable (yes he is still my new toy but oh well). What did help this game is I won every initiative but turn 5 when it was pretty much over. Also when the soulstone miner hit the gun viki, I flipped a red joker on the attack, he flipped a black joker for defense. With my positive flip I did severe and 5 wounds while triggering a crow with the joker. I definitely had some luck go my way at the right times!

[Tpenksa]

Can't use SS? Lol is that some sort of anti-Collette rule?

Yes the tournament director got an earful for the round. He admitted it wasn't a good idea looking back, but no one got too overly upset with him. He put on a great tourney and was just trying to introduce new things and get creative with the whole thing. He already said he is not doing that again this year... whew!