FearLord Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 So after a bit of a break during the Warmachine Tournament season in the UK, I’ve been looking forward to getting in some games of Malifaux as a bit of a palette cleanser. The new stuff coming out has inspired me to start playing Ten Thunders as a faction, and I’ve also been able to convince some of my Warmachine playing friends to start up the game as well! While I wait for my Gen Con order to arrive however, I’ve got a few games in over the last few weeks with my Guilds. Mostly learning games with new players, but in this case, one of my long time opponents and I chose to throw down – me to get back into playing, him to try out some of his newer models. My Crew: C. Hoffman -Mobile Toolkit PeaceKeeper Guardian Ryle, Guild Pawn Watcher Santiago Ortega Starting Soul Stone pool – 6 Strategy – Destroy the evidence Schemes – Bodyguard (Hoffman) Stake a claim (Woods) My opponent’s Crew: Pandora -Avatar of Insanity Candy Iggy Mysterious Effigy Arcane Effigy Stitched together Sorrow Doppleganger Starting Soul Stone pool – 5 Strategy - Escape and Survive Schemes - Bodyguard (Pandora) Hold Out I took Hoffman, mainly because he’s my favourite and I hadn’t really played him properly against Pandora (as the last time I did, he mostly hid at the back while Lucius and a Guild Guard achieved Deliver a message on turn 1…) I took some of my most standard things with Hoffman – A PeaceKeeper and Guardian are usually first on my list, followed closely by the Watcher in 99% of situations. Ryle can be excellent ranged support, and I took Santiago to act as additional shooting support and a launching platform for Ryle’s ‘Socially Repressed’ ability. The Tool Kit is expensive but can be useful – I don’t always take it, but at 40ss I felt I could afford it. My opponent’s crew had 4 models I hadn’t played against yet (the Effigies, Iggy and the Avatar) as well as the Neverborn model I hate above all others: the Doppleganger – I find the negative flip on initiative has cost me too many times… Deployment (all directions from my point of view) We flipped standard deployment and my opponent set up first, mostly bunching up on the left of the board behind my evidence marker. The other evidence marker was over on the right in front of a wood (my stake a claim target) and the final one was towards the other end of this wood, in my opponent’s deployment zone – this could be a potentially lucrative supply of VP’s with everything close together… I deployed the Hoffman Brick on the left to go for the stranded evidence marker (PeaceKeeper first, Hoffman behind, Tool Kit behind that and Guardian to the side). I deployed the Watcher directly opposite the right hand evidence marker, with Ryle and Santiago slightly to his left. My crew had split to go around a large rock formation in the centre of the board. Turn 1 I lost the initiative flip… My opponent started with the Arcane Effigy, but chose to activate the Mysterious one straight afterwards with their ‘Aetheric Connection’ ability. The Arcane granted Pandora an additional AP for Spells with ‘Conduct Aether’, and moved forwards slightly. The Mysterious moved up and cast its ‘Obfuscate’, protecting most of Pandora’s crew in the aura. I started with the Guardian who cast ‘Protect’ on the Toolkit, used ‘Disrupt Magic’ and walked forwards. The Sorrow ‘Linked’ to Pandora. Hoffman made the Toolkit slow with ‘Tap Power’, walked forwards (to bring the Guardian back into 6”) and ‘Assimilated’ the Protect Spell, which he then cast on to the PeaceKeeper. He had an extra AP from fast, but didn’t really need it at this point, so walked back to where he started… The Doppleganger copied Candy’s Walk to move over between the effigies and copied a higher defence as well (although he realised afterwards that he should have copied Candy’s higher Df as well). The Tool Kit was now slow, but cast ‘Protect’ on Hoffman, through ‘Magical Extension’ – the protect chain was complete! The Stitched moved up and used its ‘Creepy Fog’ to shield its allies further. On the other side of the board, the Watcher flew straight onto the right hand evidence marker, ready to destroy it next turn. Seeing me make a move on this side, Iggy advanced twice toward the Watcher. He wanted to use ‘Incite’ on it, but I pointed out it was ‘immune to influence’ and too far away from Pandora (although re-reading ‘incite’, I don’t think the model its used on is the defender, so it should actually have worked). Iggy shot the Watcher with ‘Ranged Expert’, scoring only weak damage, but still reducing it to only 2 wounds… Ryle used ‘Socially Repressed’ to push away from Santiago, walked twice and used ‘Ranged Expert’ to shoot at Iggy. Unfortunately, I missed with it due to his high Defence… Candy moved up behind a low wall. Santiago walked twice towards Iggy, but was still some way from the action. Pandora didn’t really have a use for the additional casting AP she got from the Effigy as nothing was in range, so she just moved up behind a wall next to Candy. The PeaceKeeper advanced 3 times (discarding a card for ‘Relentless’ but not moving the full distance, to not leave the Guardian too far behind). Hoffman kept pace with ‘Drawn to metal’ and the Toolkit snapped to Hoffman at the end of its activation with ‘Handy’. At the end of the turn, the Guardian pushed to Hoffman with ‘Over Protective’. Turn 2 I lost the initiative flip, thanks once again to the Doppleganger’s negative flip… Iggy promptly blasted the poor Watcher out of the Sky with his ‘Ranged Expert’ AP. Loyal to the last, the little fella destroyed the evidence with his ‘Slow to Die’ action… With two burly Guild agents bearing down on him, Iggy decided it was time to get to safety – He walked twice, putting the large central rock formation between him and the gun men. He used ‘Incite’ on the PeaceKeeper who was in range of Pandora’s ‘The Box Opens’ but failed to beat the Guardian on his second attempt. He still managed to push even further away from his pursers and the PeaceKeeper took a wound from Pandora’s ‘Emotional Trauma’. The PeaceKeeper was forced to activate next, but this was a relatively good idea anyway. It advanced onto the left hand evidence marker, destroyed it and then used ‘Relentless’ to retreat back to the Hoffman brick. I had considered using its last move aggressively and pulling Hoffman with it, but I decided to play more cautiously. The Effigies both activated, but the Mysterious one couldn’t cast its ‘Obfuscate’. The Arcane gave Pandora the extra AP for spells again. Ryle made an advance, and then pushed away from Santiago, getting line of sight to both the Doppleganger and Iggy. With Iggy close to the Hoffman brick now, I was initially planning to kill the hated Doupleganger, but I realised that I’d made a serious mistake with my positioning – Ryle had come within 12” of Pandora, and therefore would be unable to ignore her ‘Harmless’ and would also be only Wp 2 for the test (from ‘Destructive Impulse’ as he hadn’t killed anyone yet). Because of this, I chose to attack Iggy instead and managed to reduce him down to 2 wounds with my 2 shots… Sadly, my positioning error wasn’t just going to reduce my damage potential – The Stitched Together advanced towards Ryle, used ‘Gambler’ to blast my hand, and then ‘Gamble Your Life’ to blast Ryle. With a combo of severe damage and the wound from losing both the Wp duels in Pandora’s ‘Emotional Trauma’ range, Ryle was reduced to scrap… I activated the Tool kit and Hoffman via companion. The Toolkit repaired the damage the PeaceKeeper had taken and Hoffman used ‘Overide Edict’ to Reactivate the PeaceKeeper. He ‘Tapped Power’ on the Toolkit, using the extra AP for a Machine Puppet on the PeaceKeeper’s harpoon, which easily finished off Iggy. Hoffman also used his ‘Linked In’ to activate the Guardian as well. The PeaceKeeper walked twice, pulling Hoffman with him and getting the Stitched into melee range and smacked him for 5 damage (not entirely sure why I didn’t just charge looking back in it now…). The Guardian advanced Twice to block Hoffman. Pandora activated next, using ‘Pacify’ on the Guardian and the Toolkit (he couldn’t see Hoffman from where Pandora was and was quite happy to stay where he was in the cover of the wall) inflicting a couple of wounds on my models. He followed this up with a casting of ‘Project Emotions’ choosing the ‘Pity’ effect and catching Hoffman, the tool kit, the Guardian and the PeaceKeeper in the blast. He used a Soulstone to drive up the casting number and only Hoffman was able to resist it (thanks to using a Soulstone himself) which spread some more wounds around. He then used ‘Self-Loathing’ on the Guardian, and flipped the Red Joker for damage, following up with a moderate, which actually killed the Guardian out right! This left me in a slightly dodgy position with the Toolkit at the bottom of the protect chain with a single wound, and Hoffman having already taken some wounds for the PeaceKeeper… Pandora used ‘Self-Loathing’ a few more times, damaging the PeaceKeeper. I was just left with Santiago, who was woefully out of position and just ended up walking around the rock. He had now managed to bring the Doppleganger into his sights, but couldn’t attack… The Sorrow cast ‘Self- Loathing’ on Hoffman, forcing me to burn a Soulstone to resist it. Candy ‘Pacified’ him and used ‘Self-Loathing on Hoffman again, forcing me to reduce the damage I was taking with Soulstones (but the ‘Emotional Trauma’ was still taking its toll…) I can’t seem to remember what the Doppleganger did this turn, but it must have done something… Turn 3 Initiative would be vital on this turn, but I still hadn’t got rid of that damn Doppleganger… so I lost, again… His flip was pretty low though, so I burned a stone to reflip, but got the Black Joker… Most of this turn was a bit of a blur, so apologies if I make any mistakes with the ordering – I’ll get my opponent to stop in and take a look and hopefully correct me where the ordering went wrong… Pandora killed Hoffman and the Toolkit, despite me using up my last few stones attempting to reduce damage and resist spells. The PeaceKeeper made a mad dash for the last Evidence Marker, destroying it before being taken out by the Stitched together. Santiago finally did something useful, ‘Rapid Firing’ into the Doppleganger, easily making the ‘harmless’ check. This proved to be overkill as the first shot generated a further 2 shots thanks to having the masks for ‘Trigger Happy’. The Woe was torn apart before I even needed the second proper attack, so I would have been better off firing a single shot and then shooting at the Stitched… Still I took some grim satisfaction from finally killing that hated thing! Most of the rest of Pandora’s model’s got into position for an attack on turn 4… Turn 4 With the Doppleganger dead, I finally won the initiative flip! My opponent tried to reflip with a stone, but failed. Santiago moved and tried to shoot the Mysterious Effigy. I should have gone for the nearly dead stitched, but I was hoping that I would get great cards like last turn and would be able to kill a healthy minion. Sadly, it wasn’t to be and I only had a single shot that left a mark, but not a significant one… The Mysterious Effigy did its ‘Rapid Acceleration’ action and charged into Santiago for some damage and then Candy, Pandora and the Stitched finished him off (Pandora Manifesting half way through her activation for good measure). This left him with two turns to move his surviving minions that could move away from his deployment zone for the strategy. He wanted to call it straight away, on the death of Santiago as he’d miss read Escape and Survive as having to be within 8” of his deployment zone, but he’d earned the win, so I explained the mistake and he moved all 5 remaining minions out. Final score: Me: - Destroyed all 3 Evidence Markers = 4VP - Hoffman Dead = 0VP - No Model touching wood = 0VP Him: - At least 50% of crew alive and 8” away from deployment zone = 2VP - Pandora Alive = 2VP - No enemy in deployment zone = 2VP Pandora wins 6 – 4!!!! This game demonstrates just how rusty I am – I made some serious mistakes right from the get go. I knew he was probably going to be using Pandora as he wanted to try the Avatar out a bit more, but I felt taking Perdita would have been a bit one sided… I really should have used Sonnia who I’ve had great success with since she can damage Pandora and crew without having to target them and can ‘Counterspell’ Pandora’s worst spells if you keep a few cards in hand (especially tombs!) With the Avatar in play, the ‘Blazing Counter spell’ seriously reduces what Pandora can actually do… My deployment was also wrong – I deployed my brick opposite Pandora’s crew and a single evidence marker when I would have been best served deploying on the opposite side, where I could have used the PeaceKeeper’s ‘Arachnid’ and the wood to achieve my schemes and keep my main force safe, while putting the Watcher on the left would have allowed me to get the left evidence marker for the sacrifice of that one model… Once the PeaceKeeper had grabbed the left most evidence, I should have retreated my Hoff brick to meet up with Santiago who spent most of the game trying to get into position to do something. As it was, sent the lot of them off to die to Pandora’s powers (once she slapped the blast over all of them and had them all on negative Wp flips, it was all over bar the shouting!) and all they got out of it was 5 points of damage on the Stitched. I should have regrouped ready for the next few turns, forcing him to come out of the cover and into range of my guns. If I’d been slightly more careful with Ryle on turn 2, he would have been much more effective – as was I lost an expensive model easily and without doing much useful stuff… The Arcane Effigy seems insanely good, especially for Neverborn who don’t even need to give up their totems for him… an extra card in hand is a huge advantage, and so is an additional AP for spells, which for me at least has pushed Pandora into scarily powerful! The Doppleganger was annoying as always, keeping me activating second every round which crushed me on turn 3… Iggy seems pretty good – not crazy, but a useful model for his points cost – if I pick up Kaeris, I’ll be more than willing to give him a go. The Avatar didn’t really need to do anything, so I didn’t get much of a feel for it, but it did give a speed boost to Candy (by moving her across the board when Pandora Manifested, and Candy’s double bash spell did plenty of damage to Santiago)… My opponent played a pretty good game, although I did make it easier for him than it had to be… He was getting some pretty crazy casting flips on turns 2, 3 and 4 however, which left it very hard for me to resist anything he was throwing out… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Godlyness Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 One question how was Hoffman effected by project emotions. His super sweet backpack aka dampneing field make it impossible. Heck you can't turn it off if you wanted to. (unless you have mechanical attendant with his maintain machines) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnternalVoid Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Enjoyable read, to bad about the lost but at least it sounded like a pretty good game. One thing, pretty sure the Doppelganger was no longer harmless when Ryle came around. Harmless says when they take any action that is not (1) Walk or (1) Pass. So using their (0) actions to get Mimic should end harmless unlike she went through the effort to use the (0) action that allows it to regain Harmless before Ryle had activated turn 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearLord Posted August 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 One question how was Hoffman effected by project emotions. His super sweet backpack aka dampneing field make it impossible. Heck you can't turn it off if you wanted to. (unless you have mechanical attendant with his maintain machines) That is a very good point, that I unfortunately forgot! That would have considerably limited the damage as well, as the Constructs mostly have a decent Wp and would have been able to resist some of her other tricks without that negative flip... Doh! Just goes to show how out of practice I am! ---------- Post added at 08:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 AM ---------- Enjoyable read, to bad about the lost but at least it sounded like a pretty good game. One thing, pretty sure the Doppelganger was no longer harmless when Ryle came around. Harmless says when they take any action that is not (1) Walk or (1) Pass. So using their (0) actions to get Mimic should end harmless unlike she went through the effort to use the (0) action that allows it to regain Harmless before Ryle had activated turn 2. Hmmm - I do seem to remember him being Harmless at that point... perhaps he did activate it instead of getting the Df, or perhaps we missed it - I'll ask my opponent to confirm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Albrecht Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Hoffman and Special Wallace died. That makes me sad. *takes down his autographed Fearlord poster* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearLord Posted August 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Hoffman and Special Wallace died. That makes me sad. *takes down his autographed Fearlord poster* Yeah... not my finest hour I'm afraid... I blame a combination of lack of play, baby brain and just general stupidity... But let this be an abject lesson for new players - focus on the strategy and schemes and do not get distracted by killing minions that aren't getting in the way of this... Still, I've got another game lined up for the same opponent for next week once I'm back from holiday, so I'll have a chance to restore my honour (and I am assuming my Gen Con order won't be here by then, so the Guild will strike back!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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