O Candy Town of Malifaux

[Hateful Darkblack]

O candy town of Malifaux

how still we see thee lie;

above thy deep and dreamless sleep

the wails of addicts cry!

Yet in thy dark casinos shine

the all-consuming light;

the wails and tears of all the years

are met in thee tonight.

A child is hooked on Brilliance,

and gathered all about

while Unions weep, the Neverborn keep

the child from straying out.

The Beckoners and Mr. Graves

Surround the hapless child

And move him 'round with cooing sounds

And gifts for the beguiled!

How angrily, how suddenly

the Union hits the town!

Kaeris imparts with Smould'ring Heart

to burn the casino down.

The Soulstone Miner whirs to life

And slices up a guy,

While Neverborn still gather round,

To hand that child some pie.

O candy town of Malifaux!

Descend to us, O Kae,

For then we'll strike with railroad spike

And stop your protest play.

We hear the Darkness Hungering,

the great destruction tell;

O come to us, get Brilliant with us,

Then we'll eat Iggy as well.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Hateful Darkblack]

25 Soulstones

Story Encounter: Special Delivery

Special rules: All terrain was gingerbread. Even the rivers (those were water but breakable and edible) and the snowmen (those were forests but breakable and edible).

We also agreed beforehand that destroying a piece of terrain left a "shadow" that would still qualify for schemes. That way, I couldn't eat the Honey Pot to make it immune to sabotage, for instance, and he couldn't eat his snowman forest to make it immune to Stake a Claim.

JUSTIN: TEAM KAERIS

Leader: Kaeris + 2 soulstones

Totem: Special Malifaux Child

Joss

Sue

Iggy

Soulstone Miner

Schemes: Bodyguard (Kaeris), Sabotage (Honey Pot)

Justin specifically chose models that would take damage to give him resources (Control Cards, extra activations, Soulstones, etc.) because he wanted to eat as much terrain as possible.

TED: TEAM JAKOB

Leader: Jakob Lynch + 4 soulstones

Totem: Hungering Darkness, Special Malifaux Child

2 Beckoners

Illuminated

Mr. Graves

Schemes: Bodyguard (Jakob), Stake a Claim (Gingerbread!)

Ted took a lot of movement-controllers, figuring that would make it easier for him to give the Malifaux Child presents.

SETUP:

Ted won the deployment flip and chose for Justin to go first. Justin picked sides so that the Jakob Lynch crew would start in the Honey Pot, which was a nice touch.

We both announced all schemes, and realized we'd picked nearly identical schemes.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Hateful Darkblack]

TURN ONE

Initiative: Justin wins (Ted flips Black Joker)

J: Iggy moves up 5". Targets Malifaux Child with Incite, but we both cheat and the Incite fails. Iggy moves up another 5".

T: Mr. Graves uses Bar's Closed and flips a red joker. Pushes the two Beckoners forward and the Hungry Darkness kinda forward and toward the side. Then moves up twice, shoving through the Beckoners.

J: Sue uses Hurt for 3 Wd. Then eats a piece of gingerbread terrain maze. Then activated Disrupt Magic.

(Sue was kind of surrounded by delicious terrain. This was no accident. Justin put him snuggled in the middle of a bunch of terrain.)

T: Hungering Darkness moves toward Malifaux Child. Casts Light Inside with You Are Mine trigger on Malifaux Child, cheating in a 12 Mask so resistance was impossible. Then casts Heed My Voice on the Malifaux Child, but the spell failed.

J: Soulstone Miner moves across the river with Scout, then activates Burrow and tunnels down.

T: Beckoner 1 activates Know My Client for the Ca +2 bonus. Casts Come Hither on the Malifaux Child, cheating to a 13 to make it impossible to resist. Then gives the Malifaux Child a gift.

J: Joss gains a Power Token, then charges Hungering Darkness to gain a second Power Tower and move up -- he wasn't anywhere near H.D., but it's a free Power Token.

T: Malifaux Child tries to cast Misplaced Sympathy to pull that Black Joker into my hand, but the spell fails. Tries to move into cover, but the other Malifaux Child (pulled into position by the Beckoner) stops him on a Disengaging Strike. Malifaux Children are great a disengaging strikes! 4 paired Ca versus a Df 3 means no escape. Presumably, there's a lot of hair pulling and shrieking as they fight. Malifaux Child tries to cast The Source using Magic Extension, and fails.

J: Kaeris activates Inner Fire. Walks twice over the river with Flight. Casts flame wall ("cinnamon rock candy") between Jakob (and the Illuminated) and the cluster of Malifaux Children and Brilliance models in the middle.

T: Jakob uses Card Trick to move around wall. Moves another 4". Tried to cast Dead Man's Hand on the Malifaux Child (he was not quite close enough to give a gift) and failed.

J: Malifaux Child casts Flame Wall via Magical Extension. Flips exactly the 10 book needed. Places the Flame Wall next to the other flame wall, sealing off the Illuminated from the action. Then attacks Mr. Graves, and cheats up to hit. Does 1 damage. Mr. Graves' Black Blood does nothing, since everything nearby is either Neverborn (most of my Crew) or immune to damage (both Malifaux Children).

T: The Illuminated moves the far end away from the wall and hides behind an outhouse, not really near the action.

Justin's out of models, so it's the Ted Show.

T: Beckoner 2 moves behind a giant candy cane and casts Come Hither on the friendly Malifaux Child to pull it back behind the giant candy cane too, so it's behind cover and harder to reach.

End of Turn One

Hungering Darkness drains 1 Wd from the Illuminated.

The Soulstone Miner moves up close to the Illuminated and surfaces again.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Hateful Darkblack]

TURN TWO

Initiative: Ted wins

(Ted simultaneously activates Jakob, Hungering Darkness, and the Malifaux Child with Companion.)

T: Hungering Darkness gives a gift to the Malifaux Child. Then tries to move away, but the Malifaux Child stops the Hungering Darkness with a disengaging strike -- the Hungering Darkness cheats and spends a Soulstone in order to escape. Walks up to the Soulstone Miner.

(Then I made a mistake and declared I was attacking the Soulstone Miner with my last action, which I couldn't do, because it was a casting action. I wasted a lot of cards on it, and Justin agreed to let the attack hit, but ignore the "You Are Mine" trigger. Totally my mistake. Oops. The attack did 3 Wd. Sorry about that, Justin!)

T: Jakob casts Dead Man's Hand on the Malifaux Child, and gets a 4, a 12, and a 10 -- Justin draws three times. Then uses Card Trick to give the Malifaux Child a gift. Then uses Dead Man's Hand a second time, and gets an 11, a 7, and a 9 -- Justin discards three times.

T: Malifaux Child casts Misplaced Sympathy on the other Malifaux Child, and gets a 10 on the casting, enough to cast. Justin discards his lowest card (a 9, thanks to getting so much card filtering from Dead Man's Hand) and pulls a 3. Malifaux Child then moves away further, away from the action and toward the Gingerbread Manger.

J: Soulstone Miner activates and spends a soulstone on Overdrive. Eats a piece of terrain to heal 2. Then attacks the Illiminated, doing 3 damage that ignores armor. Then attacks again and does moderate damage, another Armor-ignoring 3 Dg, which kills the Illuminate. Uses the trigger to gain a Soulstone from this. Then burrows down again.

T: Beckoner 2 moves up to the Malifaux Child and gives a gift.

J: Joss activates, gains a Power Token, and spends 3 tokens plus some damage to gain a Reactivate. Moves up, then attacks a fallen piece of candy cane ruins -- does weak damage, but cheats up to Severe.

T: Mr. Graves activates, and gives a give to the Malifaux Child. Casts Show Ya Tha Door on the Malifaux Child to move it 5" toward Jakob, then pushes himself into base contact. He could have made an attack too, but there would have been no point since the Malifaux Child is immune to harm.

J: Sue uses Hurt again for 3 damage and 3 cards, and eats another piece of nearby Terrain (a ritual table.) Justin comments that in this case, Sue is a lot less like Johnny Cash and a lot more like Fat Elvis: staying in one place near a casino, singing the blues, and eating everything.

(The little Sour Patch Kid sacrificing another Sour Patch Kid with a candy cane shard on a gingerbread altar was offensive to Sue's sensibilities, so he ate it.)

T: Beckoner 1 attacks Kaeris with Honeyed Words, Kaeris defends successfully but Beckoner cheats up, doing 1 Wd and inflicting Brilliance. Then casts Know My Client and tries to cast Come Hither on Kaeris -- with a 12 Crow for a total of 20 plus a trigger. Kaeris does Smouldering Heart for +3 Wp and flips a Red Joker -- which is impressive, since even a red joker alone wouldn't have resisted without the Smouldering Heart.

J: Iggy doesn't have line of sight to the Malifaux Child, thanks to a bunch of terrain. Incites Beckoner 2 and cheats to win, pushes toward her. Then tries to incite the Malifaux Child, both cheat, and the Malifaux Child wins. Can't Incite any more. Then uses Ranged Expert to make an attack against Jakob, which misses.

This was my second mistake here. I declared the Five of a Kind trigger and show back, spending a soulstone on the shot and discarding toward cards for "Pipe the Ace" to do more damage.... then I realized that Five of a Kind only works for spells, not ranged attacks. I took my soulstone back, but left the cards, and undid the damage. Oops, dumb me.

But Iggy, still incensed at the whole thing, charged Jakob. Jakob cheated and declared "Squeel!" as a trigger. Iggy inflicted 1 Wd and a Burning Token (a Red Hot cinnamon candy) on Jakob.

T: Malifaux Child walked away twice, getting further and further from the rest o fthe combat.

J: Kaeris used Inner Fire to grab a card, then moved up. Cast Immolate on Jakob, cheating in a 12 and spending a soulstone for a miserable 3. Jakob flipped a Red Joker on the resist, then spent a soulstone and flipped a 13. Jakob activated his tragger Five of a Kind for real this time, shooting back. Jakob was going to miss, but thanks to Cheatin' Bastard, Kaeris had to cheat first, which she didn't, and then Jakob cheated up to hit just barely (two negative twists for damage) and used the Malifaux Roulette trigger. Flipped a crow to do Poison 2 -- which was lucky, since Justin had a Black Joker in his hand and only 3 cards in there. Then, Kaeris tried to cast Immolate again, but flipped a 6 of crows, then spent a soulstone and got a 2 of Rams on the flip, which was not enough to cast the spell so it fizzled.

(Ted was out of models at this point, so it was the Justin Show)

J: Joss activates and gains a Power Token. Powers up with the Power Token, then charges the Beckoner, hitting for a brutal 5 Wd.

J: Malifaux Child attempts to cast Immolate (through Magical Extension) on Jakob and succeeds, with two negative flips to damage. Does 1 Wd to Jakob, which is enough enough to make him turn into a pillar of fire.

End of Turn 2

Hungering Darkness was just outside of 5" from Kaeris, so he had to drain Wd from Mr. Graves instead.

The Soulstone Miner came up in about the same place.

Jakob chose to take an addition 1 Wd from the Burning Token rather than gain Slow.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Hateful Darkblack]

TURN THREE

Initiative: Justin won, flipping a 13 vs. Ted's 8. (With a flip of 13, it's not worth trying to Soulstone.)

(The Store Manager asks if we think we can be done in 45 minutes. We say we think so, yes. The Store Manager and other patrons have also been taking pictures of the terrain the whole time, so it's generally a jolly mood.)

J: Soulstone Miner attacks Jakob and is about to hit. Jakob uses a Soulstone on defense and gets a 30. Soulstone Miner attacks Jakob again, and cheats up to a 17 on the attack, but Jakob cheats up to an 18. Go Cheatin' Bastard.

(Ted activated Jakob Lynch and the Hungering Darkness)

T: Hungering Darkness drains from everyone nearby, which does 1 Wd to a bunch of friendly troops but does 1 Wd to Kaeris -- this is worth it even though Hungering Darkness doesn't need to heal, because he wants to hurt Kaeris. Then, it attacks the Soulstone Miner, cheats up to moderate damage, and kills the Soulstone Miner. Then Hungering Darkness tries to use Heed My Voice to force Iggy to attack Kaeris, but flips a Black Joker on the casting. Then, it attacks Iggy, cheating up to a 16 and using a Soulstone. Kills Iggy.

T: Jakob Lynch activates and shoots Kaeris. Uses Malifaux Roulette and gets a Crow for Poison 2, which is a waste because she already has Poison 2. Then, shoots and hits again, again for Poison 2. Then, does a Card Trick for an extra action, shoots and hits again, again for Poison 2. I should not have used that trigger.

J: Sue Activates, uses Hurt for another 3 Wd, then moves up to another piece of gingerbread maze to eat it.

T: Mr. Graves activates, and uses Show Ya The Door on the Malifaux Child to push it up near Kaeris, and pushes himself nearby to get close to Kaeris. Then attacks Kaeris with a Fence Post and kills her.

At this point, Justin concedes, since we needed to clean up anyway and he was going to have a hard time with no master.

SCORING

We figured, VP-wise, I got all 4 VP for the Strategy, and would probably have Bodyguard too. Most likely, Justin would have been able to get Sabotage, or to stop me from geting Stake a Claim, but not both, and would have probably been able to give gifts to his own Malifaux Child for 1 VP.

So the score probably would have been either 8 VP to 3 VP, or 6 VP to 1 VP, Jakob Lynch winning.

CLEANUP

We were so sick of candy at this point that we were very very happy to give the terrain to other gamers at our FLGS, who happily took it home and ate it.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Hateful Darkblack]

LESSONS LEARNED:

It's good to attack Jakob Lynch, rather than the Hungering Darkness, but Jakob Lynch has a lot of defensive tricks.

Malifaux Roulette is worth using only once. Otherwise, it's often better to do damage, or better yet, use Dead Man's Hand and let your crew do the beatdowns.

Iggy can zip up super fast, but only if he gets an Incite chain.

Mr. Graves and the Beckoners do a great job of moving themselves and other models around.

Kaeris is a lot more fragile than you might think, and can't quite wade into the fray safely.

Flame Wall is handy. And putting a Burning Counter and casting Immolate is a great way to do a lot of damage or possibly drain a lot of resources.

The Soulstone Miner is a whirring machine of destruction, and it will often disappear before you can hit it back.

Terrain is delicious.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack

[Gruesome]

OMG...

Have not read the battle reports yet, but the board is pretty fantastic!

[Justin]

This is awesome.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Ooops. I totally should have put "December" in the title.

If I can, I'd still like to toss my hat into the ring for the monthly contest. I can't seem to edit the title, though, so if I can't, that makes sense -- the rules were quite clear.

---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 AM ----------

This is awesome.

Yay! Thanks. It was a lot of fun to do.