Going for Pro! A battle report thread

[LordZombie]

Hello, this thread is mainly for my local game shop's achievement league. Players can earn points by posting battle reports here. If you live in the Omaha, Ne area then feel free to check it out. The link to the details are here:

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33122-Going-for-Pro!-Achievement-league-and-events!

I should be updating reports here every Sunday. If you are not in the league, enjoy!

Edited July 21, 2012 by LordZombie

[EnternalVoid]

As I suspect most people will not post Battle Reports, as people will go for other points in that section, I will try and make Lord Zombie feel better even though I am not going any points from this; I got a Battle Report. Was a pretty close game for my second one in this achievement league.

30 point scrap against Viks

Viks- 6ss Cashe

Von Shill- 9ss

3 Ronin- 15ss

Zoraida- 7ss Cashe

Von Shill- 10ss

Doppelganger- 8ss

2 Stitched Together- 10ss

Will start off by saying my opponent wanted to try out this list, mostly to throw Von Shill and the Viks together. He had not played Von Shill a lot; I think maybe 1 or 2 at the most. I originally was going to go with a different list with Lilith but as he did not feel like going against her so I went for my tried and true Zoraida. At the very least no Student of Conflict and only 6ss cashe, though still a lot of killing power.

Strategies: He flipped Slaughter and I flipped Distract. That could have gone better. Killing machines and minions that can sac themselves and deny me in the slaughter race are never good. Also the Viks like mixing it up rather than hang back and their movement tricks can get one into my deployment easy if I am not careful. For schemes I went with Kidnap on the Ronin, as I suspect he will kill them himself to prevent me from killing them, and Stake a claim on a wall section on his half. I wanted to stay away from Hold Out as it felt like betting too much on stopping his mobile masters and henchman and Steal Relic was not ideal against such melee monsters in my opinion. Also as his strategy was slaughter I did not feel safe with Bodyguard as I knew it would only paint a bigger target on who ever I put it on. He went for Bodyguard on Von Shill and Holdout. He announced both of his and I announced Stake a Claim.

The table had a lot of broken wall segments, some high enough to hide behind. We had flipped corners and had Ancient Text as our special. My placed book was about 9-10” away from my deployment on the right side and his was about the same on his behind a wall out of sight. He choice to deploy first so he could get the corner with cover that was farther forward but ran into an interesting problem of making sure everything was out of sight. While the forward terrain could block some, having it be enough for the ronin and Von Shill was proving difficult. If he had knew where Zoraida was going to deploy he could have set up so they were all out of sight or the Viks were blocking line of sight but as she had a couple spots she could deploy and possible see at least one person it was a difficult choice. He knew well how rough Ill Omens can be with the Doppelganger.

In the end Zoraida could see one Ronin by deploying on the right edge of my deployment which also put her with in a single fly from the Ancient Text. The Doppelganger hung out behind the two stitched with Von Shill on point. I was also pointed in the right direction to get to my Stake the Claim.

Turn 1

He won first turn, I flipped low and his low of the two was like a 9. Activating both Viks he moved the Sword Vik into a spot to block Zoraida’s LOS to the one Ronin she could see and the other went speeding off to go after the book. It was a little short of reaching it, less than an inch so if it was going to pick it up next turn it would have to move and interact. In response my first stitched advanced on the right but did not do creepy fog as I did not want to give him more options on where he could hide his models to avoid my master’s watchful eyes.

So he moved his Von Shill next and went deeper on his right side and got him in btb with the Ancient Text so he could pick it up and the Gun Vik would not be slowed doing so next turn. He was also trying to wait out my activations so he could avoid me bringing out the Voodoo Doll early. Having the totem early, even if it is not connected to the best target is still worthwhile for the extra Obey, possible Reconnection, and activation advantage. Next up went the other stitched that went a bit closer to the center but still within 6” of the other stitched. In turn one of the Ronin activated and went wide on my right to keep a pillar blocking Zoraida’s sight. At this point I knew he was not going to give me any chance, as there was enough cover for maybe another where the first had gone and the last could hide behind the Sword Vik. So I decided to try and capitalize on him moving the Sword Vik forward into a possible exposed location if I could get some extra movement out of my Von Shill. So I activated the Doppelganger and had it move forward a tad, mimic Obey, and cast it on Von Shill to get him 5” forward on my right flank. Next Ronin activates and moved to where the first is hiding and it is Zoraida’s turn.

An Obey on Von Shill for another 5” to get him into position, 0 Action Raven Form, flying to the Ancient Text, and one interact later and Zoraida has thinks all set up for Von Shill and Arcane Reservoir. Von Shill would activate after his last Ronin found some cover and advanced a little outside Zoraida’s sight. His Nimble and Augmented Jump got him in range but the corner of the wall was going to give the Sword Vik hard cover. I decided against moving again for a strait shot and instead did a focused strike as it would give me the plus to damage and I had a decent hand. One shot later got me a hit on the Sword Vik and after the smoke cleared the Vik was wounds.

Turn 2

Thanks to Ill Omen his card I had Initiative. Activating Von Shill he used Nimble to get strait sight on the Sword Vik and opened up on her with both his shots. I can’t remember the exact damages but between the shot last turn, the two this turn, 2 soul stones used by Von Shill, it all ended up producing one dead Sword Vik. He also made sure to have his Augmented Jump activated. In response the closest Ronin moved twice and took a swing at Von Shill doing 2 Wounds. We both forgot about his Trigger though I am not sure where he would have gone exactly. Zoraida activated next, moved forward with her 3” and cast Obey on Von Shill to have him leave combat and hop over a nearby wall so he was outside range of the other two Ronin.

The rest of the turn was primarily positioning. His Gun Vik ran back towards the piece of terrain he had been hiding behind at the beginning of the game to regroup. The remaining two Ronin both ran back to meet up with her, one making sure they were within 2” of the Gun Vik. I had in my turns moved the Stitched into position and did their Creepy Fog to make sure he did not try anything. I did manage one Gamble your Life on the Gun Vick but I suffered 3 Wounds for it as it was just barely in range after moving. Doppelganger this turn had copied Creepy Fog and used it while advancing to make sure it was close to the front and protected.

Turn 3 (Slaughter: Him 0, Me 6)

I won Initiative this turn thanks to the Red Joker though it meant he knew he was safe from it. He had flipped a 3 and a 9 so it was not exactly like it was needed. As much as I wanted to try and kill Gun Vik this turn to prevent him from bringing its twin back I knew I could not get Von Shill in position for the shot without some Obeys and that would give him time to cast his spell. His Von Shill was going to be blocking LOS and I likely needed to move at least 11-12” to get my shot. So Zoraida went first and made a Voodoo Doll connected to the Ronin out in the open and closest to me. With an Obey later it was charging one of its fellow Ronin. I did not target the one with in 2” of the Gun Vik as it was likely going to be gone here shortly I figured. My plan was to use Von Shill afterward he cast the spell to kill a Vik if possible. The charging Ronin did 2 Wounds to its fellow and that was it. He would activate Von Shill next and have it take a pot shot and put down the wounded Stitched in front of it, getting him 5 slaughter points. I in turn activated the Stitched and went after the Gun Vik as I had the opening. A Black Joker on one and the second I got 3 Wounds on her. No lost so I did not die during my activation so no Reactivate at this time.

This is where I make a mistake as I was thinking about it but then while planning out my next action I did was already forgetting it. As the only Ronin that was not hurt or connected to the Voodoo Doll was the one within 2” he moved and cast the spell on the wounded one. I forgot to remind him that the spell is a 2 AP spell and he could not move and do it. Suffice to say he did not have the 13 in his hand he needed so he went with a 12 and an extra Soulstone. He summoned it out of the way to his right to protect it. At this point he was really hurting for stones as he had used one for Initiative Turn 2 and some trying protecting the Sword Vik. This left him drained and I should have sought more to capitalize on it. I should have targeted the Ronin right there and sought to kill them in single activations. With a Soulstone Von Shill should have been able to put down one of the Ronin.

Instead I went for the Gun Vik and thanks to Nimble and Augmented Jump got my shots. I put the Gun Vik down thanks to her damage and no Soulstones without committing to much resource to it. In turn the one connected to the Voodoo Doll went after him again and did 2 more Wounds putting him up to 4. My new Voodoo Doll used Obey to have Von Shill again retreat behind the wall preventing the other Ronin or his Von Shill having 2 attacks a piece on him.

The rest of this turn is slightly fuzzy for order of activations but the end results was this. His Non-Wounded untouched Ronin fled backward with the Sword Vik to my left side. He was clearly intending to work around to go after my deployment with the Vik and deny me Distract. I had my second stitched move to see my dead one and Gambled your Life with him to kill him for reactivate. You can only Gamble your Life with enemy models so this was my mistake, but I had the means for him to spell the other stitched to death so that would have been fine. Either way he in turn tried to Gamble your Life twice on his Von Shill and lost both of them anyhow. He died sadly but at least he had managed the 3 wounds to the Gun Vik that helped me kill her easier. My Doppelganger ended up in a very forward position with my remaining Stitched and thanks to a Gamble your Life and Zoraida’s WP 10 put 3 wounds on the Ronin that had went after Von Shill. I had been hoping for 4 Wounds so the poison from the Voodoo Doll would kill it but he flipped well for his WP and I could not get it.

Turn 4 (Slaughter: Him 5, Me 12)

This might well be called Mistake #2 for me. I won Initiative again thanks to the Red Joker though I only needed a 7+ to beat him. I debated on what to do. I knew if I did not activate the Doppelganger first he was likely going to kill it with Von Shill and that would have netted him some hefty slaughter points. I made the mistake here as I should have just activated the Doppelganger attacked the Ronin in front of it and let Von Shill kill it in turn. It would have gotten me 5 points for Slaughter and him 8 but left Von Shill in a bad spot to take it on the chin from my crew. But I wanted to try and preserve my Ill Omens and possible heavy hitting Doppelganger trick.

So I activated the Doppelganger and copied the Voodoo Doll’s defense and Zoraida’s proper manners and moved into position. Mistake. On his turn he activated the poisoned and wounded Ronin and had it Seppuku. Now he had Soulstones again. I really should have just bit the bullet and killed it first and denied him this and now it meant he was back in the game with Von Shill’s survival stuff and the last Vik. To try and turn it back around the Voodoo Doll and Zoraida activated together. The Voodoo Doll stepped around the corner and reconnected with Von Shill as the Ronin it was on before was now dead. Zoraida then cast Obey on Von Shill and sent him charging the last remaining Ronin and did 3 wounds to it. Zoraida then used her remaining AP to try and bewitch *which failed* and then move 3 more inches so she could see around the corner and possible see the last Ronin next turn for a Voodoo Doll if I had to.

In turn Sword Vik kept running to go wide and for my deployment. We both eyed the distance and knew if she got all her AP for moving she would be able to get into my deployment despite the terrain as the edge of the table was relatively open and unhindered. My last Stitched moved forward and got into position to go after them that way while putting up the Creepy Fog. It was with in Mimic range of the Doppelganger too. His Ronin activated and moved farther from Von Shill and mimicking the Sword Viks direction but more towards the corner in hopes of getting into that corner piece of terrain. He knew I had Kidnap and as they have to be minion it would be on the 3 Ronin. Von Shill did not have a good target due to Creepy Fog and he moved into position to retaliate if I sent anything after the Vik. My Von Shill then activated and moved his full 15” strait to intercept the Vik and Ronin.

Turn 5 (Slaughter: Him 5, Me 12)

I won Initiative again, I flipped really low but his was lower. He used a Soulstone and managed to match me and we flipped again with me yet again getting the Red Joker. Again I only needed to flip a 6+. I activated Von Shill first and used his jump and nimble to see both the Vik and Ronin. And cue Mistake #3. I should have targeted the wounded Ronin and just killed it, netting me my last Kidnap, 5 points in Slaughter, and denied him any more Soulstones. Instead I went after the Vik with my two shots and ended up only doing 3 Wounds and using reposition to get back behind the broken wall I had jumped over. I had been hoping to get another chance chasing the Vik and finishing it off. Instead his Von Shill took 2 wounds due to Poison, jumped in position, opened up on mine. I had 6 wounds left. First one he ended up getting a Severe with double Rams thanks to his last Soulstone and taking mine down. I used my last stone to do a healing flip. Then with his last shot we managed to tie, I flipped an 11 and him a 10 and he finished off my Von Shill. Mistake #4 was me forgetting to take my last shot back at his Von Shill to return the favor as I had a 10 of Rams in my hand. While I would not have killed him I would have made my efforts to finish his Von Shill easier.

My Doppelganger activated and copied what it needed to start hitting his Von Shill with a WP 10 Gamble your Life, he takes 2 Wounds putting him at 6. His Vik activates and makes its run for my Deployment. I activate the Voodoo Doll next and companion with Zoraida. Voodoo Doll moves and casts Obey on the Doppelganger and it hits Von Shill again for 2 more damage putting him at 4. Then Zoraida makes a new Voodoo Doll on the last Ronin and casts Obey on the Doppelganger for it to put 2 more wounds on Von Shill. I had been planning for the last Stitched to help then go after the remaining Ronin once it was its turn but he beat me to it…

I should have killed the Ronin rather than tried to shoot the Vik as he had it kill itself as realized thanks to Poison and the Voodoo Doll it was going to be killed. This gave him 2 more stones for Von Shill. So my Stitched tried to help put Von Shill down. He took 4 wounds for his efforts and Von Shill was still standing. Also my new summoned Voodoo Doll, now out of a Conduit reconnects for his one AP to Von Shill. Poison 2 is going to be back on him.

Turn 6 (Slaughter: Him 15, Me 12)

I won Initiative and opened up with the Doppelganger doing its mimic thing, barely won twice due to him having some pretty great flips/cards. He activates Von Shill and dies but shoots the Stitched as he went killing it. We made another mistake here, as it was ruled poison does not remember its source so I should not have gotten any points in Slaughter there. Meaning he was winning Slaughter at this point with 20 to 12. My Stitched did not have much to do as it could not catch the Vik and chased it, as it could not stake a claim or prevent Hold Out with it dying at the end of turn. His Vik ran into my deployment to deny me Distract.

My Voodoo doll tried to Obey the Doppelganger to get it to the piece I was staking a claim on but it failed and I did not have the card I needed to cheat it. Rather than try again it moved so it was there so I could Obey the Doppelganger with Zoraida to charge it and get to the terrain but it was going to turn up short. We pretty much called it here though as Zoraida could easily get into his deployment to prevent Hold Out and at the time we had not realized he was winning Slaughter. So we called it with me winning 2-0 when he was technically getting 2vp from Slaughter. Problem was I could have gotten Stake the Claim. I did not bring it up then as we were calling the game and our current campaign does not track VP. My Doppelganger was going to be place for a Repulsion to push it into the terrain I needed it to touch. With Raven form’s 10” and 4” from Invisible Servants Zoraida easily had Hold Out covered, the 10” might have even been enough alone. Suffice to say I did not bring this up as we thought I had already won, still I hate missing these things. Still overall it was a Very close game.

[EnternalVoid]

Lord Zombie, this one is for you.

For our achievement league that is grinding to a close one several of us fought a 2 on 2 Brawl so we could achieve the 50ss brawl achievement. Lord Zombie had ruled that that the 2 on 2 was enough to satisfy for this. So two neverborn took on two outcasts in a Deadheat game. No copies of uniques, each player could only have one special force, one scheme per player, seven card hands, and one extra ss per person from not having a third scheme. Also you switch activation between players on each side, so if I activate a model, my partner actives his next time it is time for our turn.

The match was over the sector 6. Though a warehouse district we were playing outdoors as the terrain was already set up. Ruined walls and a lot of broken earth for rough terrain markers. For our special feature we got Hazardous terrain which was put in the middle, two columns of fire/lava or whatever. Diagonal set up.

So right off the bat the two Outcasts started to construct their crews before they even flipped for strategy. After a quick reminder they flipped and got Deliver the Message and the Neverborn got Plant Evidence. This quickly started to remind me of the last game I had against one of the Outcasts as we had the same strategies. After reviewing the strategies, I and my cohort decided our masters. My cohort decided against taking the Dreamer like his original plan, as he felt it was not ideal to get too close to the enemy with them trying to deliver a message. As Lilith would likely have a similar problem I went with my trusty old Zoraida. We ended up having a fairly decent debate about what minions to take as with 25 stones each we were limited in a few regard. Originally we were going to take a Doppelganger but after playing around with numbers we ended up going with a different set up.

He took Pandora, Primordial Magic, Candy, a Stitched Together, and Coppelius. I took Zoraida, Ophelia, two Silurids, and an Insidious Madness. The idea was to use the Stitched as a mobile cover for our center as we were not going to be advancing our masters a lot unless we saw it was safe. With how things switched off on who activates me having the Madness allowed for me to move it into position and set up Pandora as needs be and gave us another model that might be able to plant evidence well. That was the purpose of the Silurids as well; they had served me well on planting evidence before and would force them to be mindful of ranges. Candy’s job was to heal Ophelia or help with the whole Self Loathing thing with Pandora. Coppelius… his job was to paralyze and be annoying. Plenty of people are willing to burn cards early in a turn and burn stones to insure that their masters don’t get paralyzed late in the turn when cards are low. So Pandora had 7 after he got the extra SS and I got 8 afterwards. For schemes he took Bodyguard and I took Stake a Claim.

They took the Viks and Von Shill as their crews. The Vik player took their Avatar, Student of Conflict, Misaki, a ronin, and a Desperate Mercenary. Von Shill went with himself, two trappers, the librarian, a trooper, and a Desperate Mercenary. Von Shill had 4 stones as he was limited by his henchmen number and the Viks had 7. For their schemes they took Bodyguard on Von Shill and Stake a Claim. Apparently the Vik player had been trying to get the achievement for manifesting and had been denied the last few games by bad luck or timing. So he was gunning for it. Their claim was on a piece of broken earth on the edge of our deployment and ours was a ruined building on their half of the table. Of the pieces we could plant on for our strategy there was 2 pieces in their deployment and 3 others on their half of the table. Meaning they would easily be able to guard certain ones if they wanted as they were not big pieces. We won the flip for who places and we let them pick their zone so that we could see where they set stuff up.

Turn 1

Right off the bat it was decided the Student of Conflict had to die. The problem was my hand was five cards that were less then great. A 4, 3, and two 1s plus the black joker. Last cards were an eight and ten. Zoraida had set up able to see Misaki and quickly made a Voodoo Doll and cast Obey. First stone used here as I did not have the cards to get high without it and I wanted to take a crack at the Student that was in her reach. A swing later and the student went down to 2 wounds. Without a high card she almost missed completely if not for that ten and the student’s lower defense.

In turn for this the Viks went Fury and killed the student after it gave one of them fast so that they could earn one of their manifesting requirements. The fast Vik would later move into a more central spot nearing the board center and pull the other Vik to her. During this the Stitched moved forward and made our fog cover while we shifted our position a little. Ophelia and the madness tried to hide in the fog while the Silurids advanced. I had forgotten about their silent ability at first so I thought I had to stay back a bit in fear of the Trappers. Luckily was reminded before turn 2 so I did not have to keep back so much. The madness took a wound from the trapper but was healed by candy as she moved up and lurked behind it.

Misaki advanced through our claim in attempt to flank and get away from her own models while the Ronin hung out in the back ready to protect terrain features if the Silurids broke through next turn. Desperate mercs took up a forward position closer to the center. Von Shill and his crew mostly advanced towards the center in preparation for moving closer. One trapper stayed still to be safe from Ophelia till he decided to activate next turn.

Turn 2

Neverborn won initiative and had the Stitched go first to create his Fog again and advance like 2” with a defensive stance. We wanted to keep the outcasts moving forward and prevent them from getting lucky shots in. The fact that the Vik player had not dropped that many cards for not using very many last turn and that worried me.

A lot of position and activation dueling this turn as each side knew that taking too much of an initial hit from the other side might cripple them. Eventually Misaki came out of the building and almost crossed the center line on our left flank, putting her about 8” from Coppelius. Using Zoraida I cast Obey with an 18, saving my stones this time. The plan was to have Misaki charge Coppelius and then cheat down the result so that it missed and then Coppelius could get all three of his attacks on her. Not wanting this the Vik player threw out a 13 to protect her. So Zoraida bayou two carded the 12 I had used to cast Bewitch on Misaki next. A few moments later and another 13 is thrown down to stop this. This got us very concerned about his hand. Zoraida moves a bit so that she can start advancing if needs be up the right flank.

Other highlights of this turn; Silurids fly up the right flank getting into the far corner and setting up to start trying to tag terrain next turn. A trapper and the trooper of Von Shill’s tried to set up to stop them. Von Shill, the Librarian, and the Von Shill’s Desperate Merc move to our left flank to support Misaki. Von Shill also takes a pot shot at Coppelius and does 3 wounds. Seeing the opposition setting up against Coppelius we decided it was better for him to retreat back towards Pandora and let them take another turn advancing. We figured the poison from the Voodoo Doll’s stuff would soften Misaki up some more for us. Pandora has her second turn of really not doing much but minor movements.

Right after Pandora went the Viks went, as they were waiting for this it seems. One would advance more to the center and pull the other forward. The other Vik then uses an (All) action to manifest and put the Avatar in the center. This ended up with a desperate merc directly in front of the Avatar and a trapper with in 2”. He could not avoid them that well due to the hazard markers being right next to him. Realizing the threat Ophelia advanced a little and took a shot at the Viks but upon realizing they have Bulletproof 2 decided to use her Reckless action to move backward to behind the Stitched and Candy. She has 2 wounds from using Calculated Luck and Reckless. My last model to activate is the Madness and I have it shoot through a wall and get onto their half of the table. This puts it in the Avatar’s line of sight as I would rather have it go backward towards their deployment then towards us.

Turn 3

First, yet Again I have a horrible hand. Best card is an 11 of mask, but I did have three 7’s so I felt safe getting my leaps off at least though I ended up only needing 1.

Neverborn win Initiative again so the Stitched goes first again. He Gamble’s your Life with the Desperate Merc in front of the Viks but cheats down when he wins so that it only takes 3 wounds, in hindsight not the best idea as the Pandora player decided after the attack. But we put up the Creepy Fog so that the Viks can’t see any of our models. We know we are only delaying or holding them for a short time but we want to try and force him to activate the Avatar if all possible. With the Ronin, Misaki, and his Desperate Mer he does not have a lot of models to try and stall us out without setting up a way for him to get the Avatar into combat. He activates his Desperate Merc first and it uses its for my Family and goes into the fog to attack the Stitched and manages to hit and wound him. In turn though the Stitched spills his rotten contents and kills the Merc and wounds Candy. Not what we wanted as the Avatar got a healing flip from the damage I had done on it earlier. Zoraida activates next and her attack Von Shill. Not wanting to use a stone Von Shill allows a double negative flip. Second card turns out to be a Red Joker and Von Shill takes 8 wounds, reduced to 7 due to armor. With Zoraida’s other AP she raven forms and moves to the right flank in preparation to start her flight toward the Claim or some terrain to plant evidence.

A by passer reminds us that the Viks have a spell that swaps place with a friendly model in combat and it becomes clear that is the new plan for them. Next up Von Shill activates and uses Leader on the Librarian. He then does his Augmented Jump and moves 15” towards the center of the mess hiding behind the Stitched fog. Clearly Von Shill is planning to be the swap target for the Avatar. The Librarian heals Misaki thus denying extending her life. Then it moves towards where Von Shill will end up once swapped.

So Pandora goes next with a very solid hand. The plan is to have her trigger send Von Shill fleeing and thus not give them a model next turn to swap with the Avatar. Also some Self Loathing will drain Von Shill of more Soulstones as he not only tries to defend himself but uses them with slow to die as he does not want to merely be killed. With a Red Joker, a 10, and 7 of crows in his hand Pandora had a fair chance. So first Pandora used Incite on Von Shill and won. This allowed her to push away a bit so if the Avatar comes in Pandora will not be in combat. This also put Von Shill at 2 wounds. So first Self Loathing is cast with the 10 of crows and on the flip gets another 6. Von Shill cheats in a good card and uses a Soulstone to beat it by 2. Second attempt sees Pandora flipping a 13 of rams and rather than cheating in the Red Joker we go with it and get a second 13 on the soulstone. So should have used the Red Joker. Losing Von Shill takes a wound and then hits himself for a second wound and kills himself. His slow to die triggers and he heals 3 wounds. Last Self Loathing we use the red joker but only flip a 5 on the Soulstone. Still that is nothing to trifle with. So Von Shill uses a Red Joker as well and flips higher than us with his soulstone. Ouch that was not good, only thing we got out of it was draining all of Von Shill’s stones and leaving him at 3 wounds.

Avatar goes next and takes a swing at the Trapper behind it. They cheap the defense up and not the attack so that the Viks miss. At this point he Avatar casts its spell and swaps places with Von Shill putting them in combat with Candy, the Primordial Magic, Ophelia, and Coppelius. We forget about terrifying at this point but remember later when it comes up again. So the Avatar decides to start with Candy, as she has not healed herself yet those 2 wounds putting her at 6. Harmless almost stops the Viks but a cheated card later they are swinging away. Thanks to a 13 from the Pandora’s player’s hand the Vik player cheats a Mask and uses a Soulstone to get a positive flip. Second card is a Black Joker and stalls his whirlwind as he did not damage the defender. As he cheated in a midrange masks we figure he had a decent hand of high cards, but not masks. For the second swing we burned an 11 to insure he had to use another card or Soulstone, to which he burns a stone to insure a strait flip. He also gets Whirlwind. Candy goes down when he cheats a severe in as weak and moderate was not enough. Using the free swing he goes after the Primordial Magic and kills it with a Weak damage due to magical weapons. With its last attack the Avatar goes after Coppelius, cheats a 12 of rams. With the double critical strike to kill Coppelius a severe was still need. On the last damage flip the 13 of crow came up and put down the nightmare. Using one of its abilities it pushed towards Coppelius as he died so it could get Pandora in its reach again. But the 4 wounds from killing the Nightmare plus the one left over from before left the Avatar at 7 wounds.

It is pretty clear at this point we have to put the Avatar down, but we already realized we had a little time to attempt it. So first came up the first Silurid and it leaps into combat with the freikorp trooper. Using its self-preservation it pushes out of combat and into base to base with a piece of terrain behind him. Tagging it the Silurid would move towards one of the back most pieces of terrain which is one of the two in their deployment. The desperate merc on the left flank moves full speed towards the Avatar but can’t get that close. At which point the Pandora player realizes he is out of models as many of them were killed before they activate so I get his activates for the rest of the turn. The next Silurid leaps, uses self-preservation, and goes and tags another piece of terrain giving us 2.

At this point Misaki activates and moves as fast as she can towards the Avatar and the action as well, as they were running out of time to deliver the message for its full VP or even pull it off at all. Next up is the Madness that tags one of the back pieces of terrain getting us the first one in their deployment and setting up to possible reach the last piece next turn. In hindsight I should have kept 8” from that piece so that the Ronin back there could not use it as a stringboard. One of the Trappers by the trooper would turn and shoot the second Silurid and do 1 wound.

Seeing we were down to nothing else the Voodoo Doll went next and used Obey to have Ophelia charge the Avatar. When it had pushed after killing Coppelius it had left Ophelia behind. Is suspect that they had not attacked Ophelia as they knew at the time I had a good Mask in my hand and plenty of stones. But I had been forced to use the 11 of mask to protect a Silurid. This left the best card in my hand as an 8 and then a pair of 7s. Still the Viks player’s hand was burned to the bones, only one card left and I suspect it was not a very high one. Still the charge does not do poorly and Ophelia soulstones to insure a higher total. The Avatar in turn uses a soulstone and wins. The Ronin activates next and charges the Madness. Hits with double positive due to sword and charge kills the Madness with a Severe damage flip. Using the Trigger it pushes after the Silurd near the last piece of terrain we need to mark. Luckily I defend but now the Ronin is in place that you can’t touch the marker without being engaged in combat with it.

Ophelia activates next and starts working on the Avatar. When the smokes clear the Avatar is gone due to running out of Soulstones but Ophelia has taken 3 more wounds and down to 4. Trooper charges the Silurid that is engaged with the ronin and does 1 wound to it. Both Silurids take a wound due to being roughly 8” apart leaving them both at 4 wounds remaining. Last Desperate Merc also goes home.

Turn 4

At this point it is pretty clear that the Outcasts are not delivering the message. And Stake a Claim might be outside their reach as it is on our right flank and the majority of their models are in the center, left, and backfield. Pretty clear unless something happens Neverborn has this now. Winning Initiative helps this direction as Ophelia goes first. Moving forward she shoots Von Shill despite some cover due to paired pistols and uses calculated luck to insure he dies. He shoots at the Silurid that is not engaged to try and hurt it but fails due to cover then dies. Taking a wound from the shot and now being down to 3 put Ophelia is in a bit of a pickle as Misaki and the trappers were still on the field. I considered using Reckless to get another shot on Misaki but due to the Librarian healing her last turn she had 5 wounds, meaning I needed Calculated Luck again to insure she died and it would leave Ophelia at 1 wound. Instead she went Reckless and used a Soulstone to heal 2. Not the best exchange but it made her feel safer with 4 wounds.

The trooper in the back went next and using Furry managed to kill the Silurid by the last piece of terrain. In retaliation Pandora activated and moved forward on Misaki. She does enough to kill Misaki as we did not want the Librarian healing her again before she died. Pandora then incited the Librarian to push back 4” to try and get safer. The Ronin would then activate and shoot at the remaining Silurid. Red Joker for damage sees it dead. Voodoo Doll uses Obey on the Stitched to move him forward. The Librarian uses Ancient Words at Ophelia but she avoids. The Stitched went next and moved twice to get into combat with the Librarian and be about an inch from the claim we need. Zoraida goes next and flies so she near the final terrain we need for plant evidence but not with in 2” of any of their remaining models. The Trapper shot at Ophelia but she dodges the focus shot. The other trapper takes two shots and manages to do 5 wounds to Pandora.

Turn 5

They win initiative and the Ronin goes after Zoraida and forces her to use a Soulstone to avoid a strike. She then activates and repulses the Ronin and the trooper so she can Raven form and tag the final piece of terrain. For her effort the Trooper focus shots and does 3 wounds to her. I have one soulstone left so I don’t want to prolong that fight. The stitched goes after the Librarian and kills it. Nothing else much happens as Pandora retreats, the Ophelia escapes due to an Obey from the Voodoo Doll and her 12” on her activate to reach the claim and hide on it. We call it here as there is not much else for the Outcast to do as they were not going to get their claim, lost Von Shill and the bodyguard, and did not deliver the message. 8 vs 0 victory for the Neverborn though most of our force was in tatters there at the end as the only model on our side not hurt was the Voodoo Doll.