Reports from a new league

[Barnaberible]

Our local gaming club has just started a new league, and after my second game last night I decided to share the battle reports with you all so you can pull us to pieces, I mean offer constructive criticism.

There are 11 players in the league and a mix of experience. No one is by any means an expert but 2 have attended national tounaments (where they both lost pretty spectacularily) and we have several newbies with only a couple of games under their belt and a mix in between.

As for me, I would put myself as around the 4th most experienced plyer in the league.

The masters being used are Hoffman, Seamus, Marcus, Viks, Ramos, McMourning, Lileth, Lady J, Perdita, Raspy and I am using Collette. All players are using masters that they have either never used or have only used once or twice.

at the start of each game a player stakes a territory which will give the player a small buff for the game (extra soulstome for hiring, extra card in hand for one round, tha kind of thing) and the winner takes the 2 territories giving them more choice for the next round. We try to flip for strategy in advance to give newer players a chance to consider their crew choice before the game. All games are 35ss

I will only be giving a brief report for each battle, any feedback or suggestions for either player will be welcomed.

Match 1 - Collette vs Rasputina (very new player)

Collette

Coryphee x 2 -

Cassie

Performer / Mannequin

Desperate Merc

7 pool

Rasputina

Snowstorm

Kaeris

fire gamin x 2

Taylor!

Strategy - Shared plant evidence

My Schemes - power ritual, sabotage (both announced)

his Schemes - as I remeber sabotage, stake a claim (both announced)

Location - bogs

Ok, first of all my opponent is very new, but being a league game I wasnt going to take it easy. I also was not expecting this crew build by any means, and now looking into it Im pretty sure he couldnt even take taylor but not to worry about that. The strategy suited me well and didnt suit raspy at all so I was pretty confident, but with Kaerus there I did have to think twice about a couple of things.

Turn 1 - Cassie pushed out, double moved and got sabotage for 2 vp in the bag (I think this is going to be a reccurring theme through the league with no restrictions on schemes). Coryphee moved up on the right, paired and hit kaeris for a low damage triggering the push and moving out of the way, merc shuffled up on the right, performer did power ritual and moved up, collette summoned a couple of doves and created a couple of soulstones, doves set off to harrass snowstorm.

As for Raspy, activations were poorly timed and she basically just shuffled up in a big mass, snowstorm moved some stuff and nothing much really happened.

Turn 2 - initiative again for me, coryphee hit and run on Kaeris, took a blow from kaeris but the cards werent with him and didnt do too much damage, collette swithced with cassie, dissapeared the snowstorm (getting the mannequin trigger right in the midst of Taylor and gamin, nice), Taylor hit my mannequin, which didnt die, performer wandered in a bit, cassie went on a walk about to get to the other board corners, merc wandered toward another corner. The rest of his crew tried to inflict some hurt on the mannequins and doves but the armour came to the rescue. Collette took a hit and swiched out with the showgirl ready to drop the snowstorm into some nasty terrain. Raspy didnt really do anything, again bad cards for him.

Unfortuatley I then realised that a. snowstorm has float so takes no damage for the terrain and b. I had dropped the snowstorm directly onto the terrain piece he had sabbotage on! I needed initiative.

Turn 3 - I got initiative, dissapeared the snowstorm and managed to switch relativey close to where cassie was. Cassie did power ritual and came up to support Collette. Kaeris blasted merc, which didnt die and wandered off again to do power ritual before leaving at the end of the turn (go Merc). My 2 doves, performer and mannequins were trying to finish off taylor, who was just refusing to die. Taylor and raspy between them took out the showgirl, mannequins and one dove. Wanting to get my second scheme finished coryphee had just sped off behind all this to plant evidence and do power ritual on final corner.

Turn 4 - Taylor died (at last, she's tough to get rid of), both the fire gamin, who were in the big taylor, dove, showgirl mellee, died, cassie killed snowstorm, collette created more doves, which then harrassed Raspy. Coryphee planted more evidence, Kaeris had a pop at coryphee but again didnt kill it. He was down to Raspy and Kaeris and hadnt managed to leave his table half where as I had one evidence left to plant and had only lost a showgirl and mannequin (not counting the merc and doves) It went downhill for raspy from there.

Turn 5 - Intitiative again!, Coryphee finished off Kaeris, raspy (who was now in mellee with coryphee) tried to hit them but failed, Cassie planted evidence and came round from the other flank to help finish off raspy, Collette did her make up.

Turn 6 - Well, Cassie and Coryphee finished off Raspy, Collette filed her nails. 8 - 0 none of his models even got out of the table half.

In reality I think he a. had his crew too close together and b. seemed intent on killing my mannequins / doves because they were in his face where as he should have been focussing more on his schemes. He also needs to learn his crew, this will come from experience.

League points - 6, League position - 1st

Match 2 - Collette vs Ramos

Collette

Ronin

Kaeris & Student

Cassie

Performer / Mannequin

Ramos

Avatar

Toolkit

Mech Rider

Steamborg

Large SPA

Spider

Strategy - Shared Turf War

my Schemes - Sabotage, Power Ritual (both announced)

his schemes - Eye for eye, 1 unanounced

Ok, last time I played the Ramos player it was his 3rd or 4th game and I 8 - 0'd him with McMourning, he lost his first league game and Ramos is a pussy so I want too worried. I decied to take Student & Kaeris as I havnt used them together before and a ronin so if needed I could summon another for turf was if I needed to. I wasnt going to take cassie (as without the coryphee she isnt as good ) but decided to go with it. Freeling confident I deployed quite dispersed while he deployed in a big mass.

Turn 1 - Cassie pushes out, moves and gets sabotage, kaeris and student move up the middle toward the steamborg which was heading for cassie and, just in range, Kaeirs tries to drop a world of hurt on the steamborg and completey fails, flipping ones with a soulstine dosent help. the rider which had flown out of the deployment zone like a madman, was coming up on Kaeris' left. Ronin did power ritual on left and walked up, performer did power ritual on right and walked up, mannequin linked to collette, collette swithched with cassie, summoned some doves which did a little bit of hurt on steamborg, created some soulstones (which I was a bit short on) and switched back with cassie. Ramos did some strange choppy choppy summoning thing which I want paying much attention to.

Turn 2 - Doves do what kaeris spectaculrily failed to do and drop hurt on the borg, magicians dueling a loads of damage. Steamborg takes this badly, kills 1 dove, hits knock aside trigger on the other and charges kaeris who is just in range, forces me to burn more ss to keep kearis alive, used melle expert, hit knock aside tigger again and charges collette, killing her and forcing her to use another ss as her slow to die to heal. Not impressed with all this Kaeris anhialates the rider with a red joker damage flip, collette kills steamborg, disseapearing acts a electical creation tha was getting close to kaeris flips with the showgirl and drop creation out of the way. Cassie wanders off to do power ritual and ronin moves up the left. Ramos Avatars!

Ok so at the end of turn 2 I'd gotten rid of the rider, steamborg, hadnt lost a model and all that was on the table was an old man on spider legs and a steampunk arrachnid swarm that has formed in turn 1. I went to get a coffee and consider the joys of winning 8 - 0 two games in a row and he sat there sracthing his head and reading his avatar ramos card for the next half hour.

Turn 3 is where it all started going horribly wrong!

Turn 3 - I now wanted to get Collette up the board so she could drop in a Ronin in his deployment zone if needed, so after Cassie had completed power ritual I switched her with Collette leaving the performer in cover in the middle of the board as my anchor. cassie was at the back just in case he decided to try for my deployment zone instead of just conceding there and then. Ronin moved up the left (a theme developing with this model here). Kaeris, limping a bit after the steamborg mauling, moved up with student to enagage the arachnid swarm.

Now this will teach me to be complacent, I had a vulnerable anchor model in the board centre, Collette on her way to his DZ, Cassie had done nothing and was now standing at the back, the Ronin had done nothin but walk up the board, a wounded kaeris and studnt were going to take on an acrachnid swarm and to top it all off I had the doves I had left and created I sent in to harrass aRamos, when I say doves I really mean mobile scrap counters.

Ramos activated, killed my doves, leapt up the board, summoned a large SPA enticingly close to my performer.

Turn 4 - Kaeris and Arachnid swarm start their 2 turn face off (I always forget how nasty they are, jus cos they dont look too menacing) Performenr lures and poisons SPA, SPA kills performer, Ramos summons another SPA and speeds up the board, Ronin (now incredibly isolated) moves up the left flank into his delpoyment zone and gets power ritual. Collette sits near his delpoyment zone, with her linked mannequin, thining, hmmm this want what I planned and decides to summon a dove

Turn 5 - Poisoned SPA dies (ramos collects yet more scrar), Dove manages to wound the other SPA, aRamos moves up the board and (guess what) summons a steam punk arachnid, Swarm kills kaeris, student kills swarm, Collette sits in deployment zone and makes more soulstones, Cassie looks down the battlefield at the old bloke on spider legs and the large spider heading towards her, gulps, unsheathes her sword and kills one SPA and moves in to engae the other just outside my DZ.

Turn 6 - Ronin stand on other side of board thinking 'well this is the easiest money I ever earned, 5 soulstones to walk down they left flank', Collette sits there, applies her make up and hires another Ronin. Cassie (bless her) get a disengaging strike on the SPA which was trying to go for the DZ stopping it just short and then tries and fails to kill it. aRamos (well, as you may guess) summons a SPA and a Watcher within my depoyment zone. Cassie activates again after end of final turn and has 2 options either a. try to run into his board half to deny him 1vp or 2 try to kill aRamos (who had been wounded pretty badly by a dove earlier) to deny him 1vp. She took the secnd option and flipped absolutely useless cards

Final VP's Collette - 2 for sabotage, 2 for power ritual, 3 for turf war (7)

Ramos - 2 for eye for eye, 3 for turf war (5)

So still a win, but after turn 2 it should have been by more (league points are calcualted on VP differential) and in hindsight I should have got stuck into aRamos when I had the chance. Lessons learned. 1 - Dont understimate people, the Ramos player had learned alot since I 8 - 0'd him with McMourning. 2 - kaeris eats soulstones, 3 - Ronin are wasted wandering up the left flank, 4 - Arachnid swarms are tougher than they look,5- dont have Collette more that 18" from showgirls (d'uh) 6 - aRamos is a beast.

league points - 9, League position - 1st

Next up is Hoffman, one of the 'tournament' players so it will be a stiffer test. Will update you all in a couple of weeks.....

Edited June 29, 2012 by Barnaberible

[Toonook]

Sounds like some fun games! Some things I noticed though:

The Rasputina player's crew was 36ss

When you Mannequin replacement a model that model is gone for the rest of the game, you don't place them back at the end of the turn. It's a devastating trigger.

If the Student was attached to Kaeris, when Kaeris died the Student would have been removed as you remove all totems attached to a master/henchman when it is killed or sacrificed.

[Barnaberible]

Thanks for the feedback..

1. It didn't make a difference and I didn't really pay too much attention to his crew selection

2. Wow, realy I never knew that, that is a devastating trigger

3. I did wonder about this after the game but it wouldn't have made a difference to the vp as the swarm was so isolated it could only have gone into my board half, and he got the vp for that anyway but it's good to get that confirmed.

[mattspooner]

As the aforementioned Ramos player, it was a really good game and although I lost, it was a great learning opportunity for my first use of aRamos.

I'm slightly in love with an old man with spider legs!

[Omenbringer]

What did you think about the location benefits?

[LordZombie]

Sounds like some fun games! Some things I noticed though:

The Rasputina player's crew was 36ss

When you Mannequin replacement a model that model is gone for the rest of the game, you don't place them back at the end of the turn. It's a devastating trigger.

If the Student was attached to Kaeris, when Kaeris died the Student would have been removed as you remove all totems attached to a master/henchman when it is killed or sacrificed.

Can Kearis even have a totem? Or is because she was a henchmen under a master?

[Omenbringer]

Can Kearis even have a totem? Or is because she was a henchmen under a master?

Yes, she can attach a Student of Conflict, Malifaux Child or Essence of Power while acting as a Henchman for an Arcanist crew. Her hiring prohibitions only apply when she is leading the crew.

[Barnaberible]

What did you think about the location benefits?

Hi, you mean the little buffs that come with each territory that you put up as a stake?

Yes they work quite well, its not enough to make a vast difference to the game but it does give a slight advantage if you chose the correct one. We have ones that give extra soulstone for hiring, allow deployment 3" outside zone, 0 action healing flip, extra card in control hand for one turn and counters 6" outside deployment zone.

[Omenbringer]

Hi, you mean the little buffs that come with each territory that you put up as a stake?

Yes they work quite well, its not enough to make a vast difference to the game but it does give a slight advantage if you chose the correct one. We have ones that give extra soulstone for hiring, allow deployment 3" outside zone, 0 action healing flip, extra card in control hand for one turn and counters 6" outside deployment zone.

Yes was asking about the little buffs particularly, it sounds like you all are using a version of the rule set I came up with and I am always interested in what players think of the buffs (from a stance of improving the rule set which is begining its fourth itiration).

[Barnaberible]

Just checked our clubs website and it's apparently based on the battle for Malifaux league format that is discussed somewhere on the forums, so if that's yours then yes, it works well, good concept (unless of course I loose tonight because of one of the buffs, then it will be bad, terrible idea, who on earth thought of that!)

The league we are running is part of an ongoing campaign with the same rules where each master (not player) keeps control of the territories to see if anyone of them can take complete control of Malifaux (think it might take a good few years before that happens)

[Omenbringer]

Yep that is the rule set I developed. Glad you are enjoying it our local group has as well.

[Barnaberible]

League Match 3 – Collette vs Hoffman

‘Reader, I murdered him’ – no, not Omenbringer for coming up with the buff list that lost the game for me but my opponent, the fabled Mr 18.

Collette

Cassandra

Moleman x 3

Gunsmith

Johan

Performer / Mannequin

Hoffman

Peacekeeper

Guardian

Ryle

Witchling Stalker

Death Marshall

Strategy – shared claim jump, Collette schemes – Sabotage, Bodyguard, Hoffman schemes – Eye for Eye, Kill Protégée

Let me first start by saying we don’t always do shared schemes, it just happens that I have done 3 shared in a row. We originally flipped contain power and Hoff re flipped and we ended up with claim jump.

The terrain was my terraclips theatre, basically an indoor theatre location with a small street section on three sides with several entrances into the theatre. The theatre itself has 3 floors, the lower floor about half the board representing the auditorium and stage, stairs up from the auditorium up to the lobby and bar area and again stairs up from the lobby and bar area to the gods balcony that overlooks the auditorium and stage.

The centre of the board was on the balcony and that’s where the claim was. We agreed that models below the claim marker were still in the 3” range, which would make for an interesting tactical battle rather that a stand up fight standing over the claim marker.

It has to be said I think he was expecting me to take the duet and I didn’t take the duet simply because I was afraid of Hoffs ability to control constructs and also the fact it doesn’t break armour. I decided that Collette needed to be more offensive and was planning to use Cassie as a Collette delivery system to use disappearing act to get rid of the Hoff ball I was expecting. I believe he took the witchling to disrupt my magic abilities and the death marshal because it couldn’t be buried. I was expecting Nino and his headshot ability so I was quite pleased when he didn’t show.

Hoff chose deployment and chose to deploy in the lobby, I was near the stage. Cassie pushes 6” ready to get sabotage.

Turn 1

Initiative to me, Cassie nimble’s across the auditorium and sabotages a table, 2 VP in the bag. I was, however, not prepared for the speed of the peacekeeper which then moved down the stairs and smacked Cassie right in the kisser, almost getting kill protégée turn one as well (I had very limited SS so took the damage), Hoff came down with the peacekeeper. Figuring I had to get Cassie out of the way I switched with Collette (also linked with the mannequin) who disappeared the Peacekeeper. Hoff then hit Collette, forcing me to burn SS as a slow to die. Turn one and Cassie and Collette almost bit the dust, may have to rethink starting with low SS. By this stage his Witchling had moved into the foyer, the Death Marshall was coming down his left flank toward the entrance to the auditorium, the guardian joined up with Hoff, my molemen (who tried to tunnel every turn and spectacularly failed) and performer had moved up toward the bar area on the opposite side and the gunsmith had decided he was in the wrong place and walked back toward the stage. Johan was advancing on the Hoff ball across the auditorium. Collette reactivated and switched with the performer, just in range to drop the Peacekeeper off the balcony for damage when he reappeared, it also fell directly into Johan’s Melee range, nice.

Turn 2

Initiative the me again, Johan flurried the Peacekeeper smashing it to pieces with a red joker damage, I can’t remember the exact happening below but my gunsmith moved into range, the performer who had switched in to get Collette out of the way, bit the dust, Johan took some damage down to one wound (making his hard to kill a bit useless). The Death Marshall moved down, the witchling moved through the auditorium toward the bar, my molemen, Cassie & Collette moved up to the bar toward the claim on the balcony.

Turn 3

I wanted initiative so Johan could charge Hoff. I didn’t get it, I reflipped and got it. Reflipping was a bit of a waste of time, Johan charged Hoff and didn’t hit. Ryle, standing in Johan’s very meaty 3” melee range, pushed out and blew him away before moving back up toward the upper balcony where I vastly outnumbered his models. Johan shot the Guardian as his slow to die but didn’t do much damage. My Gunsmith has a go at the guardian but didn’t do much before being blown away by the Death Marshall. The rest of my forces were strategically positioned in the bar area (I think Collette and Cassie needed a stiff drink after the beating they took in turn one) and swamped the poor Witchling who was a bit isolated cowering behind the door to the lobby. The witchling got a hit on Collette (forcing another slow to die) before finally going down to a concentrated moleman, Cassie and Collette beating.

Turn 4

I now had 5 significant models able to get near the claim and Hoff only had 4 models left on the table, he needed to get upstairs to try and take some of my force out of action.

I got initiative again and moved out of line of site of Ryle. Ryle moved up and shot one of the molemen (who had at last managed to tunnel and was now near the claim), he got bad flips and the armour saved the moleman. Hoff moved up with Ryle. The Guardian and Death Marshall decided that they couldn’t get to the action in time and stayed put under the claim marker. Cassie (my Collette delivery system) moved to in range, Collette switched with Cassie, disappeared Ryle and, in a true Scooby Doo style moment, dropped him off the balcony.

Turn 5

Ryle moved back up toward the balcony again, using his push for extra movement, quite a handy ability. All of my molemen moved up to the claim and dug in. I can’t remember what Hoff did (think he took out the dove), but he was a bit isolated. Collette finally managed to summon a dove (the only turn I had enough SS to do it) that then magicians duelled the Hoff (before being taken out) and Collette moved into cover but within range to move up next turn. Cassie moved into position for the grand finale. The Guardian and Marshall sat under the claim.

Turn 6

I got initiative again and used Cassie to sword dance and strike the now isolated Hoff, finishing him off. Ryle moved up and shot at Cassie, I Soul stoned it and avoided the damage. Collette moved to the claim, switched with Cassie and disappeared Ryle so I could drop him off the balcony away from the claim (hee, hee)

Results

Collette Claim Jump 2VP, Sabotage 2VP, Bodyguard 2VP

Hoffman Claim Jump 0VP, Kill Protégée 0 VP, Eye for Eye 0VP

Total Collette 6 – 0 Hoffman

League – Played 3, won 3, VP’s 21-5, position 1st.

Good result but on the drive home I was extremely smug as I thought I had won 8-0 but it turned out that my learned opponent has read the victory condition for individual claim jump and not shared so 6-0 it was, still a good result.

Lessons learnt – Well, first of all I nearly got a bloody nose in the first turn and with low SS cache I’m really leaving Collette and Cassie vulnerable if they get involved in a fight. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong with the gunsmiths but I have used them a few times now and they have failed to do anything spectacular, in hindsight I would probably have been better with a Soulstone Miner who could probably have taken Ryle out of the game. The molemen worked well for what I wanted them to do (but they are harder than I thought to get tunnelling with).

As for the Hoff, well on the way home we discussed what went wrong for him and couldn’t really think of a reason. My plan was always to out activate him and to try and take either Peacekeeper or Ryle out with a Collette / Johan combo, which worked. He forced me to burn alot of cards and stones and this almost worked, but not quite. I honestly think my key to the victory in the strategy was my molemen, 3 SS, significant, hard to get rid of and gave me 9 models on the table to start with against his 6.

I think the game really turned in turn 4 where he realised that he had to get rid of some of my models near the claim as I outnumbered him up there and both his kill protégée and bodyguard targets were up there as well. This stretched him out and allowed me to pick him off.

Next up is Marcus. His results so far would suggest he hasn’t got to grips with the crew yet but he’s a more experienced player than me so I would say it’s another key match for me.

[OldManMyke]

Great report, congrats on the win and taking top spot in the league (grrrrrrrr) Wouldnt 'Celebrity' have stopped Cassandra getting smacked around turn 1?

Also can I call shenanigans on changing the scores

[Barnaberible]

Great report, congrats on the win and taking top spot in the league (grrrrrrrr) Wouldnt 'Celebrity' have stopped Cassandra getting smacked around turn 1? QUOTE]

until you play next week at least, I think the fact that Cassandra did sabotage means she's fair game (I also always forget about celebrity!)

[Barnaberible]

OK, the next match report will be following this but time for a little pre match build up to be posted with the report.

The match is Marcus vs. Collette, the strategy for Marcus is line in the sand, and the strategy for Collette is Distract. On paper this is going to be quite tough as Marcus can bring some speed to the table to get to the dynamite and switch his walk / charge to get into my deployment zone late on in the game. If I were Marcus I would be bringing Night Terrors, Silurids, Kaeris and Student. As for me I am thinking 2 options.

1. Kill Marcus to guarantee my strategy, I could tie this in with assassinate but this may be putting all me eggs in one basket.

2. Hard to move models on dynamite counters

OK, so with this in mind and with what I think Marcus will be bringing I am planning Cassandra and Coryphee (fast with use SS ) as my Marcus kill team and if they are still alive possibly fast enough to disarm the dynamite. Johan (with his 3” melee to protect 2 dynamite) and a Performer / Mannequin. Collette will be targeting Kaeris (if she is in the list) with disappearing act and creating doves to hassle the Terrors / Silurid. If I can’t get the mannequin replacement off on Kaeris I might be in trouble.

Let’s see what happens!

Results are in, this is how it panned out (or rather how I remember it panning out)

Collette

Cassandra

Coryphée X 2

Performer / Mannequin

Johan

Dove

Strategy – Distract, Schemes – Sabotage & Bodyguard

Marcus

Jackalope

Silurid x 3

Waldergeist

Molemen x 2

Gunsmith

Strategy – Line in the Sand, Schemes - Sabotage & Bodyguard

I went with a standard showgirl load out (extra soulstone from my territory), I wouldn’t have normally taken a dove to start but wanted to get in quick. I think I can see what Mark was getting at by selecting molemen to sit on the dynamite.

Turn 1

Cassandra pushed and gets sabotage on a terrain piece near the board centre. Coryphée moved up and danced together on the right, Johan started making his way to the centre of the board, Mannequin linked to Collette, Collette and showgirl moved toward the left corner dynamite marker, Collette made soulstone and summoned a dove, The Dove flew up and magicians duelled a Silurid. For Marcus the Silurid’s leapt across the board, armed 3 markers and then got out of the way again, The Waldergeist came up on my left and did some moving forest trickery thing, the gunsmith moved into position and the molemen sort of moved up and dug in, Marcus stayed put at the back.

Turn 2

Mark gets initiative and shoots Cassie in the head. Wanting to save my Soulstones I let her take the damage which nearly killed her. Collette switch in with Cassie and disappeared the Gunsmith, I burned a Soulstone to try for the trigger and didn’t get it. A silurid separated himself on my right to arm a dynamite but didn’t have enough juice in the take to get far enough away from the Coryphée who span round to it and paralysed it, although I had to use another Soulstone to get this. Johan and Showgirl moved toward the centre of the board, the mannequin broke link with Collette and sat in cover in the middle, Cassie moved toward the left to engage the 2 Silurids, Waldergeist had a hit at my 2 doves in the forest but didn’t kill either. Moleman hit Colette who got the defence trigger to switch with the mannequin. Marcus bided his time. Collette dropped the gunsmith back into melee with Johan.

At the end of this turn there were 4 dynamite counters armed and I had Collette sitting in the middle of the board and, as I remember, only one Soulstone in my cache. The gunsmith had popped out quite close to the action with Colette and I was looking a bit vulnerable. I could have used the initiative.

Turn 3

Mark got the initiative and activated his gunsmith, moved into melee range of Johan and used his gunfighter to attack Johan. I flipped a 13 in defence, nice! In hindsight the gunsmith might have had enough room to shuffle round Johan and get into melee with Colette who was low on stones without leaving Johan’s 3” melee range.

Johan flurried the gunsmith and killed it then a silurid leapt onto his sabotage target and then moved as far away has he could get from anything I had on the board. The coryphée took out the paralysed silurid and moved round to get a strike on the silurid that had done the sabotage, it didn’t hit. The Waldergeist moved a forest to the middle of the table (or something like that) I threw everything I had at the sabotage silurid and it survived 3 magicians duels from Collette and doves so Mark got his 2 VP.

The moleman hit the mannequin Marcus started to move up on my left, the performer lured the Waldergeist, paralysed him and gave him poison gift.

Turn 4

Cassie and the doves took out the remaining Silurids, the performer hit the waldergeist who then activated and died from the poison, Collette switched out to the centre of the board (toward Marcus at the time) and my remaining doves made a beeline for Marcus, as did the coryphée. Cassie disarmed a dynamite and moved toward my left flank to protect a dynamite marker, Johan disarmed a dynamite. Marcus moved up a little on my left.

Turn 5

Not much left on the board for Marcus at this stage, there were a couple of molemen near his deployment zone, I had everything barring my mannequin who had finally been beaten down bt the moleman. A moleman charged Colette. A dove attacked Marcus who switched out with a Moleman, everything else I had either disarmed dynamite or moved toward Marcus.

Marcus then managed to move to just outside my table half in the corner using one of his abilities.

Turn 6

Final turn?

Mark pulled off a great movement trick with Marcus and moved him through all my models and intervening terrain into my deployment zone, my entire crew chased after him, I think a dove got a MD but nothing else could get close enough.

The molemen were standing at the back hitting Colette and the dove, Collette in turn was making soulstones.

OK, I couldn’t quite get near enough to kill Marcus, the turn was over and it was 4 VP’s each from our schemes. I desperately needed the flip for an extra turn to go my way, I flipped and got a 7. I used Colette’s ability to re flip and got a 12. One more turn.

Turn 7

Marcus had 2 options, stay put and face the entire wrath of everything I had in range, survive and draw 4-4, die and lose 8-2 or try to get out of range but still in my table half and lose 6-4 (and also try to kill Colette for a 4-4)

He decided to do a runner across the table. I moved the coryphée up and got a hit. The beauty of this was that Colette had been making Soulstones the last couple of turn so I had plenty to burn. Cassie moved into base contact with the Coryphée then moved up to try to smack Marcus about a bit more, again burning Soulstones to get the damage.

Marcus survived, just....

Cassandra then activated again as her final action and finished Marcus off.

Final VPs

Collette 8 - 4 for distract, 2 for bodyguard, 2 for sabotage

Marcus 4 – 2 for sabotage

Thought on the game...

Well Mark doesn’t like Marcus and isn’t having fun playing him, I can see why and his main model count died pretty quickly. That said this was my closest game yet. If I hadn’t got the re-flip with Colette to get turn 7 in it would have finished 4-4 which would have been a great result for Marcus.

As for me it all went to plan (just about) I must try not to leave Colette exposed with low Soulstones, this is going to cost me sooner or later but apart from that everything in my crew did exactly what they are supposed to do.

Mike, my main league opponent (at the minute) drew last night so I now have a bit of breathing space at the top of the league so I might now start playing a few more fun builds and trying different schemes.

League standing – played 4, won 4, VP diff 29-7

[Lionel d'Lion]

In case anyone's interested, the web pages Barnaberible mentions are:

• http://www.aftermath-club.co.uk/leagues/malifaux for the league, and
  
• http://www.aftermath-club.co.uk/campaigns/malifaux for the Malignancy campaign.

I'd like to add to Barnaberible's positive comments on Omenbringer's rules. They seem to be working rather well. The only major change made was for the campaign version in that the territories are attached to a master rather than to a player (so many players can use the same master and get the same choice of territories to gain or lose).

League games also count towards the overall campaign (and there's a gentlemen's agreement in place not to use a league master in friendly/campaign games).

Mike, my main league opponent (at the minute) drew last night so I now have a bit of breathing space at the top of the league so I might now start playing a few more fun builds and trying different schemes.

That sounds like a good idea. Please pay no attention to anyone else who may also have a 100% win record as that record's unlikely to last much longer anyway.

[Barnaberible]

That sounds like a good idea. Please pay no attention to anyone else who may also have a 100% win record as that record's unlikely to last much longer anyway.

Should say, the only 100% win record now I guess

---------- Post added at 06:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 AM ----------

Ok, so 2 leagues games during our 24 hour charity gaming weekend, the match reports may be a bit fuzzy but I’ll give it a try....

Game 1 Seamus vs Colette

aSeamus

2 x Drowned

Sebastian

Belle

2 x Canine Remains

3 x Night Terrors

Colette

Cassandra

2 x Performer & Mannequin

Moleman

Von Schill

Dove (using my extra soulstone from territory)

Strategy – Shared Reconnoitre- Seamus Schemes – Bodyguard, Army of Dead. Colette Schemes - Bodyguard, Sabotage

Ok so this was my first match of the 24 hour period, it seems like so long ago that I have forgotten what happened in which turn (probably through choice!) so it may not be 100% but here goes.

This match was against Mike (he of Malifools Podcast fame) and Mike was 2nd in the league behind me coming into the game. As Mike had drawn his last game I had a 4 point lead going into the game.

Mike deployed first and had Seamus, Sebastian and the Belle on my right, the Drowned down the middle and the terrors on the right. I deployed, Cassie, Collette, Performer and Moleman on my right, Von Schill facing off against the drowned and the dove and a performer on the left to take on the Night Terrors.

As I write this I really can’t remember what turn happened when so I have left out the turn headings.

I’ll mention the Moleman now, the Moleman spent the game attempting to tunnel or tunnelling down the right and ended up on the other side of the board, that what he did all game so I’ll no doubt forget to mention him (or her, its hard to tell) again. Cassie pushes and gets Sabotage, remains in cover. Seamus et al moves up, Colette makes a few stones, switches with Cassie, kills a dog.

Von Schill had a pop at the drowned and didn’t do much damage, the terrors flocked en mass toward my dove which magicians duelled them for a couple of wounds.

Colette disappeared Sebastian, I burned a SS to try for the triple tome and failed, and then switched with Cassie (I think from a defensive trigger), and then it started to go a bit wrong. Belle Lured Cassie who failed to resist despite burning a SS (so 3 stones down this turn so far with nothing to show for it). Cassie extracted a kind of revenge by slicing the Belle and the other dog to pieces.

Then it started to go really wrong. Seamus shot Cassie in the face, I can’t remember if we both stoned it but it was a negative damage flip, no problem surely he wouldn’t get 2 severe flips. He got 2 severe flips = 1 dead Cassandra.

Enraged by this, and the fact that the Night Terrors aren’t undead, the mighty Von Schill flew over to the scene (after being rip tided by the drowned) and destroyed the corpse counters and shot Seamus for a couple of damage.

Meanwhile.... The performer has paralysed and poisoned a night terror, The dove had failed to finish off another with a Mag Duel but was still alive.

I set up a mighty poisoning trap for Sebastian which he would appear into after emerging from the building I had dropped him into.

Colette moved across the board to take care of the night terrors...

During the next turn it didn’t get much better. Von Schill took a hit off Seamus and was made insignificant, he then flew across to finish off the drowned.

Sebastian wandered out of the building. One performer tried to lure him into range but I had to cheat in a lowish mask to get the trigger, he resisted with something crazy like a 13. The other performer.......was out of range due to his shambolic slow walk.

Colette was burning SS left, right and centre to get her spells off and did manage to summon a dove (by soulstoning the flip as well if I remember), she then, with only a stone or 2 left in her cache, went to finish off the Terrors.

Then it went from bad to worse. Having played McMourning in the past I can’t believe I forgot about Bloody Harvest but Seb used it, taking out my showgirls....

Still as we approached the final turns I was probably looking at a draw / narrow defeat. I had a healthy Colette easily capable of taking out the remaining night terrors and my trusty moleman to take 2 table quarters, Von Norris should be able to at least get rid of the corpse counters. Surely 2 table quarters each, 4 vp’s from my schemes against 4 possibly even 3 VP’s from Mikes schemes victory was assured.....

Well as I remember this happened in the last couple of turns.

aSeamus collected the corpse counters, Von Schill tried but failed to hurt Sebastian, Sebastian lingered around to claim a table quarter.

Colette had nothing left to switch with and took out a night terror. The remaining terror attacked her and Red Jokered the damage on a negative flip killing her and forcing me to use my last stone as a slow to die healing, which I got a low health from even with the +.

Last turn Mike won the initiative and the Night Terror Killed Colette before being taken out by a dove.

Game ended with Sebastian and aSeamus holding table quarters and a Moleman holding my table quarter. I did have a dove and Von Schill left but they were both insignificant and counted for nothing. Seamus was holding 3 corpses.

Score Seamus 6 (2VP Reconnoitre, 2 VP Bodyguard, 2 VP Army of Dead)

Colette 3 (1VP Reconnoitre, 2VP Sabotage)

Expect to see #Nightterrorsrule trending on Twitter, or at least on Mikes account.

Game 2 Colette vs McMourning

Great, more Ressres. Not falling for the ‘I know I’ll bring Von Schill against the undead who may not actually be undead’ trick again I reverted to the trusty Coryphée. I went with Molemen instead of Performer for the claim jump, and I had fallen out with the performers after game 1.

Colette

Cassandra

Coryphée x 2

2 x Moleman

Johan

McMourning and I think

Chawawa

2 x Punk Zombie

Convict Gunslinger

2 x Dogs

2 x Belle

Sebastian

The strategy was shared claim jump, and enraged by the dumpy circular saw wielding minion from game 1 I took Sabotage and Kill Protégée on Seb. Wrighty took Army of Dead and Eye for Eye.

We deployed pretty much behind cover, Cassie pushed out and got sabotage before switching with Colette to get her out of the way. The Coryphée mover up Duetted and hit a Belle, getting the push to take it out of harm’s way.

McMourning farmed some body parts, Colette created a dove Johan moved up into cover.

The dove then went on a crusade to cause mayhem. I magicians duelled the Gunslinger for severe. It then survived 2 attacks from the slinger and a charge from a punk zombie. I think Wrighty had my cards from the game against Mike.

The bulk of McMournings force had moved over to my right and Cassie headed over there. The Coryphée went for Seb and did a bit of damage (I was getting top flips on everything apart from damage), again pushing away.

The Belle (I hate Belles) lured the Coryphée directly into the range of McMournings main bulk of troops. Not liking this Colette switched with it and ran away.

Colette then went in to disappearing mode, shifting several things over the course of the next couple of turns, completely failing to get the tome trigger and dropping them in ‘Johan smash’ range.

Johan promptly smashed most of it taking a few knocks each turn before succumbing to a hit from a healthy Belle. As his slow to die he flipped red Joker double severe damage with a trigger to deal it 13 damage before slipping away. Bit of an overkill.

Cassie bit the dust from a created flesh construct that Colette kept disappearing and dropping behind a copse of trees.

McMourning was having trouble with another dove or 2 and by the time he had taken care of this the bulk of his crew were dead.

The Coryphée kept harassing Seb who had legged it behind cover at the back of the board.

The trusty Moleman had just wandered to the claim and dug in.

After dealing with the annoying Dove the Punk Zombie was taken out by the Coryphee and the Gunslinger was disappeared and dropped into some hazardous terrain to finish him off.

McMourning had managed to walk and scalpel sling his was up to collect all the body part counters from the carnage.

In the last couple of turns the Coryphée hunted down the cowering Sebastian and finished him off before heading back toward the claim and dancing apart.

Last Turn all that was left was a flesh construct that was too far away to do anything and McMourning about 8” away from the claim holding a large stash of corpse counters for Army of the Dead. I had everything bar Johan and Cassie alive and next to the claim.

McMourning decided to throw caution to the wind and get into range of the claim to deny me the 2 extra VP. We then flipped to see if there was another turn. If there was McMourning would have had to have withstand around a dozen attacks to avoid an 8-1 defeat.....

We flipped and re-flipped for Colette’s ability but the game ended.

Score Collette 6 (2vp Claim Jump, 2vo Sabotage, 2vp Kill Protigee)

McMourning 2 (2vp Army of Dead)

So, what have I learned from these 2 games. Well I suppose never assume anything and plan for if the cards go wrong. In the first game I couldn’t really have had much less luck with the cards but I should have set things up differently so I wasn’t putting myself in that much risk if they all flipped badly. In the second game it was completely the opposite, I was flipping everything and Wrighty got terrible flips and it went bad quite quickly for him.

Secondly I need to manage my stones more with Colette. I tend to be starting with low cache, which is fine but not if your going offensive in the first few turns. I need to remember I’m using cards and AP to generate stones but also that Colette burns stones at an alarming rate when casting, this combined with other sounstone users in the crew can leave you short if things go wrong.

Also, lose the showgirls and you can be in trouble. Even when facing a Night Terror. If I had got initiative in that turn I would have been able to create a stone and would have survived. If I had a showgirl I would have been able to get my slow to die trigger with a fresh hand of cards and survived. No stones, no girls and low wounds = trouble.

[OldManMyke]

It was a good game, was very concerned about it going into it as Colette has a lot of tricks that I just don't know how to counter with Seamus. I had it in my head from the beginning that hitting people with the bag of tools to make them insignifcant would probably be useful but the rest was just luck. I did have a bit of a rant when In Turn 1 I set up Seamus to do his first ever No Escape on Colette, only to find that the switcharoo, even though you are moving the model, isnt really moving the model as a 'movement effect' so it wouldn't go off. Sebastian was magnificent as always killing 2 showgirls in a turn with a combo of Bloody Harvest and Melee Expert. Was a good game though I am now very worried about the rematch

[PandaBearGuy]

Great battle reports, please keep them coming!

On a side note, I'd really like to see this campaign adopt a limit to how many times the same schemes can be used, as some models cough-cassie-cough can be abused.

[FearLord]

Last turn Mike won the initiative and the Night Terror Killed Colette before being taken out by a dove.

Great reports! The Dove should have been removed when Colette was.

[Barnaberible]

Thanks guys,

We are probably going to do scheme restrictions next time, but it sort of balances out a bit as the ressers can easily get army of the dead unless there is something that can destroy corpses.

In hindsight I think the dove had bought it the turn before and it was collettes slow to die strike that took out the night terror, my memory got a bit fuzzy after 24 hr straight gaming

[Barnaberible]

Next match report is in, it’s going to be a bit brief for 2 reasons, 1. I am typing with one hand which is annoying and 2. The game was quite brief!

The match was Colette v Vic’s, Emrys is a new player but had got off to a good start with the Vic’s, unfortunately he came a bit unstuck last week against Mike’s Seamus crew losing by 6 VP margin which means Mike had ramped up the pressure at the top of the league after beating me in a previous match, I needed to win and win big to stay in touch!

Colette

Cassandra

Johan

Killjoy

Moleman

Union Miner

Vic’s

Student of Conflict

Freikorpsmann

Freikorps Trapper

Ronin x 3

The Strategy for Colette was Claim Jump (again) and Vic’s was Supply Wagon. Colette schemes Sabotage & Stake a Claim, Vic’s Hold out & Stake a Claim.

We were playing on a swamp board so Emrys had gone for a crew that could ignore the terrain to keep up with the supply wagon, I had the perfect opportunity to give Killjoy a run out but without taking showgirls I was going to have to be quite careful with Colette.

We deployed corners, my claim marker was on my right hand side near my stake a claim. I deployed moleman and Johan on my right, Cassie on the left for the sabotage target, union miner and Colette in the centre (Colette standing on a hill for some stupid reason!) The Vic’s deployed on mass round the wagon. The trapper was having trouble finding somewhere to deploy due to all the objectives and settled on a hill with Colette squarely in his sights. Cassie pushed out 8” thanks to my buff and then a further 6.

Turn 1

I got initiative and Colette promptly scarpered down the hill, Johan and moleman moved down the right toward my claim, 2 Ronin set off in that direction for some Ronin on Johan action, Cass got the claim (yes I know boring but it’s a league and if I do it against some opponents and not others it wouldn’t be fair, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it) Ronin moved out and shot Cassie (missed) Trapper shot Cassie (missed) Vic’s then tried a slingshot to melee Cass but I remembered celebrity (I also remembered Southern Charm this game) and pointed this out so they both just moved up. Freikorpsmann moved up. Colette made some stones and summoned a Killjoy delivery system (sorry I mean a dove) which hid behind a wall.

Turn 2.

With only 2 showgirls on the table this is where it started to go a bit wrong...For the Vic’s!

Cassie nimbles out from behind cover and hit the Ronin with breath fire, I soulstone and cheat up to get a straight flip and cheat in severe to get double blast which catches both the Vic’s, and then again with the same. Despite prevention flips good old Cassie wipes out the Ronin and the Sword Vic. Cassie then survives some shooting from the other Vic with Emrys Soulstoning Aces before the dove flies in and drops Killjoy into melee with the 2 Freikorps. He takes a couple of hits before activating and killing the Freikorpsmann, one of the Ronin continues on its way toward Johan with the other diverting back to help out with the impending doom near the wagon and hitting Killjoy (with emrys flipping like 13,13,4 with the hard to wound on more than 1 occasion!). Colette has switched with Cass and dropped a dove in then starts to make her way towards the Vic’s deployment zone.

Turn 3

Killjoy kills the Ronin and Trapper with use of onslaught, the Vic then slaps Killjoy around a bit and takes out a dove using her trigger. Cassie has managed to move up and casts breath fire again into the Vic / Killjoy melee, she hits killjoy but with some liberal cheating in both directions gets severe damage and a blast, this leaves Killjoy on 1 wound and with the cards turning a bit Vic flips a red joker for prevention. The union miner unburied next to the wagon to prevent it from moving, Colette kills student and creates a dove to help harass the wagon.

Turn 4

Emrys finally gets some good cards and starts what could be the greatest comeback in history. Vic’s win initiative despite me flipping a 10 and gun Vic takes out Killjoy and the Union Miner thanks to some good cards from his hand and I think he flipped red joker damage for Killjoy, bit of an overkill for 1 wound remaining (I had 2 good cards in my hand and was saving them!). However with only 2 models left on the table it’s a too little too late kind of thing. Johan charges the remaining Ronin who has diverted off toward his stake a claim to try and get 2 VP. I cheat to get a straight flip and then cheat in the red joker to kill it outright (in my 7 games i think this is the 3rd or 4th time Johan has got red joker damage, Johan Smash) I think it was Cassie who took out the Vic in the end while Colette camped out in Vic’s DZ and created a dove to sit by the wagon.

Turn 5

Well there wasn’t a turn 5, we summed up remaining options as to what could get where and calculated victory points

Colette 8 – 0 Vic’s

Well I had some liberal help from the cards but the only models that had taken damage were Killjoy and union miner who were both dead (second time I have tried um’s and both times unspectacular)

My plan worked perfectly with Killjoy, expensive but effective, onslaught is awesome, beware of it! Also beware of leaving your masters too close to models that can be hit by blasts. Its also the second or third time I have tried shooting into melee at a friendly target to get a blast off, it has never worked but would have today of not for the red joker.

As for the Vic’s, well after the chaos of turn 2 it was a bit of a mess. I was expecting to see Von Schill and nobody I know is having much luck with student, perhaps he should have wrote off the supply wagon earlier and just tried to get everthing alive over to the claim, who knows?

League position 2nd with a game in hand. If I do win the league there will no doubt be rumblings of how someone can remain undefeated and not win the league, but it’s not just who ya beat, it’s how ya beat em!

[FearLord]

Another cool report! Were you actually doing Sabotage rather than Stake a Claim? You implied that Cassandra completed it turn 1, but neither Claim Jump or Stake a Claim can be completed until the end of the game...

[OldManMyke]

League position 2nd with a game in hand. If I do win the league there will no doubt be rumblings of how someone can remain undefeated and not win the league, but it’s not just who ya beat, it’s how ya beat em!

Rumble Rumble . Scott is of course dead right, the way the league runs mans that an 8 - 0 is better than a 7-2 etc. i have had a hard time with seamus not giving up some points to my opponent even if I pull out the win. The fact that Scott is a much better player than I am - he knows tactics and everything - has nothing to do with it! Oh alright then it might do .

It has made the league very exciting though

[Barnaberible]

Another cool report! Were you actually doing Sabotage rather than Stake a Claim? QUOTE]

Thanks, sabotage turn 1 for cassandra on left, johan got stake a claim at end of game on the other flank and moleman for claim jump

---------- Post added at 05:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 AM ----------

I wouldnt go that far, I think people are having difficulty knowing how to play against Colette as she requires different tactics than most others, you figured out what you needed to do and won (I did have bad cards) Jon almost got it early on before it went a bit wrong, Mark nearly drew.

I think the newer players will improve alot, its all about 1. focus on your strat and schemes then 2. try to stop your opponent getting vp. Its alot easier when you know what your crew does well and what your opposition does.

Mark and I played with new masters for the first time yesterday (Sonnia & Nico) and it was 8-8, we were too busy concentrating on what we were doing rather than trying to stop the other!

I expect I will be taught a lesson in how to play properly at York next week...