Lost love- A tournement report

[Adran]

Lost love Tournement in Tabletop Nation

Pool -

Marcus

Sabretusk Cerberus

Razorspine Ratler

Myranda

Blessed of December

Jackalope

(Transformation pool - Cerberus, Rattler, Slate Ridge Mauler)

4 games 25 Soulstone each. Unique schemes through the tournement

Game 1 Vs Dreamer , coppelius 2 stiched 3 daydreams Chris (AngelofRuin)

Shared Slaughter

Marcus Razorspine Ratler Myranda Blessed of December Jackalope

Frame for murder - Myranda

Feral

Turn 1, Just missed charge on Coppelius with Rattler (hoping for poison to kill him to save me taking the 4 wounds). Chompy Eats Snake unexpectedly and gets left on the field. Marcus Charges Chompy, and kills him in 1 hit.

Turn 2 Marcus kills daydream after beasting it, and then it turns into A stiched who manages to gamble in a red Joker to kill an othewise uninjured Marcus.

Blessed manages to get some damage on Copellius, but is in trouble, gets some Alp Killage

Myranda Manages to Transform. Turns into a Cerberus to Charge a stiched togetehr. The Charge reachs, but only to hit with Claw attacks. (so unable to use 3 headed)

Myranda manageds to kill 1 stiched, and goes into the dreamer. gets another day dream kill. The Dreamer ends up having to kill myranda with his twist reality. Whoot, manage Frame for Murder! The Blessed doesn't do well against a moded that can paralyse easily. I lose 6 -2 as the dreamer player mis-read frame for murder and thought it meant he wanted his master to kill an enemy model.

I was slightly over reaching here, especially as the Dreamer player was a new player, I could have possibly held back more.

Seeing the chance to kill Chompy on Turn 1 made me think the Rattler charge had paid off, even though it was just short of hitting. I held the Red Joker and knew my best chance was on the charge to play it, but didn't expect the double severe and poor damage prevention flip. It did cost me from killing Chompy as a beast. As I write this I have a feeling that I may have got the rules wrong and done too much damage to Chompy. I know that Marcus can't do more than 10 damage, but might have not remembered that at the time. Sorry Chris if I didn get this wrong on the day

Losing Marcus to Gamble your life is never good. I think I left my willpower flip at the point a 13 was needed to cheat. My opponent had the 13 to cheat, and the red joker in hand. Obviously in hindsight the soulstone would have been best spent on increasing my willpower, but I didn't want the stiched to die and make me burn through all my soulstones that turn.

Game 2 Shared Treasure hunt (2013 edition)

Mei feng Starter box only- Pete (OTP)

Marcus Razorspine Ratler Myranda Blessed of December Jackolope

Grudge against a rail worker

Hold out.

The Blessed manages to reach the grudged rail worker on turn 1. Gets him down to 2 wounds. Macus moves up to help out, but just misses his charge (less tha 1/2 inch) Myranda moves up, but does nothing else. Rattler moves up.

Turn 2

I win Iniative, and make the mistake. I choose to activae the Blessed, who kills the rail worker, and then attacks Kang. I manage a couple of good hits, but then with 1 activation point left Kang manages to hit back and knock the blessed away (into the treasure counter). I fail my leap to get into combat, and don't do anything useful with the last point ( Think I might have tried to scare Kang away)

Mei gets one of those activations. she railwalkers into a jackhammer kick into Marcus, and then manged to tiger claw 4 times into Marcus and the Blessed untill they are both dead, and on the final trigger pushes towards myranda and jackhammer kicks into base with her. Myranda turns into a Cerberus (Had over 4 wounds so was hoping that the 3 headed attacks would be best), but does nothing signifigant to Mei with her last Ap, 2 3-headed attacks and then turning back into myranda to get the melee expert attack. Prehaps Slate ridge would have been better. Oh well.

Her next turn sees her bounce between the Rattler and Myranda until they are both dead.

Again, I over commited, and left models too close to each other. If I had Activated Marcus and gone and attacked Mei, I probably had a good chance to kill her or at least deplete her hand. Alternatly I could have Companioned in the Blessed and only got 1 attack against Mei, but it would have seperated my forces. Despite playing turns 3-6 my opponent forgot my Holdout and once he had completed his sabotage he didn't bother moving a model.

8-4 loss.

Game 3

Shared Supply Wagon

Marcus Razorspine Ratler Myranda Blessed of December Jackalope

Against Mei Feng,Embrling, Rail Golem, Kang, Rail worker -Adam(hotshot)

Picked Sabotage and Kill protogee (rail Golem)

I tried to hold back in this game and not over extend. Turn 1 saw my force move slowly up, and Myranda turn into a bear. The Jackalope lept and went forward, as I'm very happy for AP to be spent attacking him. The Blessed made a move towards my announced sabotage.

My Opponent had only recently started playing Mei and was used to Leveitcus. As such I think there were a few things I would do differently. He didn't link the emberling on turn 1. He didn't use the rail worker to add a burning token to the Golem on Turn 1. He didn't use Meis casting expert to move via rail walk, he just walked twice with her.

Turn 2 I used my Blessed to leap and Sabotage the wall. He contemplated just letting the Blessed live, but decided he could kill it this turn, so he moved his Golem (double walk) towards her, and used a burning token to give his next attack flip a bonus (to get it at 3 so as not to take a wound or slow).

I think he could have used a token to try and Charge Marcus. It would have been close and got him in at least a good a spot as he was. I sent my rattler against his rail worker to harass it. It worked, I poisoned it. Mei went after the blessed, using casting exper to railwalk to the golem, and then charging the Blessed. She was able to hit, but not kill in the one attack, and my sabotage was safe. I then charged the Golem with my bear and got good damage over the charge and the melee expert. It was the first time I had used the bear, and was impressed with its combat and damage. Kang went after the Rattler. My Jackolope went afte kang. Marcus was saved until last and was able to finish off the badly injured rail golem which took the wind out of my opponents plans. He was then able to kill off the emberling, and threaten the wagon.

Kang killed the snake and the Jackalop, but the poison was enough to kill the rail worker. The Blessed managed several bites on Mei, Healing up and getting to attack again. Mei didn't use her soulstone here, I asked about it afterwards, and my opponet said he is used to having no pool so doesn't use it. Mei was able to kill off the blessed eventually, but she was out of positon and no constructs were left. Marcus charged into Kang, and managed to kill him. The Bear moved up but wasn't quiet able to kill the wagon.

Mei went after by Bear, and killed it, but I now had Marcus with plenty of pool and I easily killed Mei, and stopped the Wagon.

I thought I played well, but I think my opponents inexperience with the crew was the main reason I won. He was also flustered when I killed the golem, and I think he was almost ready to give up on the chance of winning. I actually had good cards here. I got multiple leaps and successfully transformed Myranda when I wanted to. That made life a lot easier. I had planned on using the Jackalope to hold up the opponents wagon, but as his crew started to die I decided to use it to tie up kang, and then protect my wagon from Mei.

Its Multiply ability is very handy at moving it about the board, and bringing it back from the dead, and its High defence and Willpower mean its not a push over.

Mei being tied up for effectively 3 turns failing to stop my blessed and then killing it before having to walk back into the fight allowed me to finish off everything else he had with most of my crew.

8-2

I was too busy hitting the wagon to remember to stop his hold out. Ironic after my last game really.

Game 4

Claim Jump VS Zoraida. Mike (Crikeymike)

Zoraida, Bad JuJu 2 silurids and a Stiched together

Marcus Razorspine Ratler Myranda Blessed of December Jackalope

Assinatate and BodyGuard

I decided that if Zoraida was alive at the end of the game, I probably wasn't going to be able to get Claim Jump. So All out assault on her.

Deployment saw me spread my forces out so they couldn't hurt one another. She chose to conduit the Snake, and it tried to hit the Jackolope. The Stiched put up a cloud that zoraida was partly in, and the silurids hid on one side in a forest ready to attack Myranda if the could. Myranda headed up towards the claim. The Snake rushed forwads and the blessed leapt and moved into a hidden place near Zoraida to tray and Stalker towards her. Marcus went on a beeline to Zoraida and was able to charge her on the first turn - picking the pared wild hear ability rather than the damage bonus, as well as walking Charge, and a 0 action to charge giving him 26" threat range.

Juju didn't show.

Turn 2 saw Zoraida try and stop Marcus cheating. It used a lot of my stones to stop her, but she in the end didn't manage anything. I moved the Snake to Charge the Stiched, and left it blocking line of sigth to Marcus. Marcus took Paired, +2 damage and the bonus attack, and went after Zoraida. She couldn't survive very long. The Stiched was able to kill the snake but I brought the Jackolope into the fight and kept the poisoned stiched at bay.

Myranda moved up to the claim, and the silurids lept in, charged her, and then pushed away. JuJu showed up near here, and things were looking potentially bad for myranda.

Turn 3 I maanged to kill zoraida, and then had the AP left to howl at the Stiched ready for its death by poison. He tried one gamble your life, but lost, then resorted to a melee attack against the Jackalope, and in his reactivation charged Marcus. I don't think I have ever seen a stiched declare a charge before. Myranda furiously cast to try and get a 9 of tomes. She failed, but managed to heal instead (If you cast Animal instincts, you effectively get to pick which spell you cast after you see the flip).

The blessed, Marcus and The Jackalope came over to help wipe out Juju and the 2 silurids. The only really notworthy thing was that I made 3 more furious casts before I suceeded in Shapechanging. I also remembered to stop my opponents hold out.

8-0

Tournement Views as a whole.

I think it was very well organised and run. We got 4 games into the day, and I finished all my games well before time every time. I had some great opponents and thougth the spirit of the event was good.

I enjoyed the events pool restriction. I liked knowing what masters were selected before hand, and was glad to see such a wide range represented (25 different leaders in 31 players and no leader had more than 2 players).

Whilst the concept of a summon pool seemed to confuse initially, I think it fitted what was suppose to be a beginners tournement and not requiring too many models to compete. My Transform was restricted by that pool as well.

I'm glad I took Marcus, I enjoy playing with him and his rabbit, and its been a while since I've given him a propper run out. Being forced to use his starter box was good. Whilst I use the Rattler occasionally in arcanists generally, I've not put a cerberus or Myranda on the table for quite a while.

My crew selection in every game was the same. Blessed, Jackolope, Myranda and Rattler with a cache of 6. The blessed and the Cerberus basically compete for the same spot, and I out right rate the blessed as better. It doesn't lose half its power when hurt and gets to heal. From that point of view I didn't really want both in the list. Myranda can always turn into one and I like the natural terrifying on the Snake over the possible howl.

I still like the snake, but wish it automatically triggered poison as its damage is a little lack luster.

Myranda, what can be said that hasn't already? Well a melee expert with Cb4 and 1/2/3 damage is never a good start. If she didn't have animal instints she would be completly rubbish. With it she has some possible uses, but is still a little reliant on cards. Facing Zoraida in the third game, as she tried to change I managed to cast Decembers Gaze on an 8, which was not appaling. needing an 8 rams for the Heal or a 9 Tomes to shapechange is possibly just too much.

If there was a beast with a spell like Electrical fire nearby, then she could be well worth it, but the Rogue necropmancy is once per activation with his acid breath, and the next nearest are the spells on the Lawyer (and I think I handicapped myself enough already) and I think they all require crows.

She can increase her claw damage with a 0 spell, and she can get a poison trigger off.

I did manage to twice turn into a cerberus and twice into a slate ridge mauler, and they served some purpose (although my poor estimation in the first game reduced its actual use).

I never saw the need to turn into a rattler, possibly because I had one on the table already, or possible I'm not really that sure of it. I was impressed with the Bear, and hope to actually take it in its own right soon.

The Blessed is a top minion. it is faily mobile, and its leap isn't to hard to achieve. It has Melee expert and a good range of Triggers. I managed quite a few bites to heal my blessed, and then get another bite attack on the trigger. I also liked the bonus damage to un-armoured models. Should fit well in any arcanist crew.

A great day out. 4 enjoyable games. A well run event that didn't have time problems despite containing a large number of newer players. Thank you to Clousseau for running it and everyone that came along.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Adran

[Argentbadger]

Thanks for taking the time to write up a very good tournament report. I really like that you took the time to analyse your crew performance over all too.

[Clousseau]

Excellent report and glad you enjoyed your day.

I look forward to seeing you, or even playing you, at a future tournament.

[OTP]

Nice write up Adran, I feel i should add that you gave me every chance to remeber your hold out, promoting me each turn "do you want to do anything" and even" flip for an extra turn"

I enjoyed playing you, and hopefully we catch up with you again at another event soon

[Adran]

Nice write up Adran, I feel i should add that you gave me every chance to remeber your hold out, promoting me each turn "do you want to do anything" and even" flip for an extra turn"

I enjoyed playing you, and hopefully we catch up with you again at another event soon

Thanks, although that just makes my next game forgetting to stop my opponents sound even more stupid...

I think you misled me, having picked up the spoon last tournement we were both at, and then telling me you have rotten luck, to pull those two turns with Mei, and finish off with 3 wins out of 4. Next time I won't be so easily fooled.

[Math Mathonwy]

That was a great read! Thank you so much for posting it.

The only thing I'm kinda weirded out about is the incredible lethality of your matches. I mean, it seems that Masters were dying left and right on turn two and three at the latest. My own games seem to be a lot less deadly. Is this something that usually happens over there or were these games a bit of an anomaly?

[scuttlebut]

That was a great read! Thank you so much for posting it.

The only thing I'm kinda weirded out about is the incredible lethality of your matches. I mean, it seems that Masters were dying left and right on turn two and three at the latest. My own games seem to be a lot less deadly. Is this something that usually happens over there or were these games a bit of an anomaly?

It could very well be the format of the event. The hiring pool for all of the games was box set, 1 blister and a totem. As this cuts down on the options open to a lot of crew, a lot of the slack had to be picked up be masters which may have meant they got put in positions where they would not normally have ended up.

Also it was advertised as a new player event and there were a fair few new players there who may not have realised that there isn't a killing/winning correlation in Malifaux.

[Adran]

I find that it is not that uncommon for Masters to be involved in the fight by turn 2. Especially not if both players are playing aggressive masters in shared stratergies as was the case in all but 1 of these games. And 2 of the deaths were red joker related, and I generally don't allow for those when I plan (unless its my red joker in my hand)

I had a crew with great mobility and melee and so in theory I want to be in the right fights

Game 1 lost Chompybits on Turn 1 to a slightly over enthisatic attempt to gain VPs and me holdign a red Joker. Marcus died on Turn 2 again to a red joker.

Game 2 had a master with multiple attacks and a good hand attack into a slightly over enthusiactic marcus. In all honesty this was me a little gung-ho, but Kang being able to Knock the blessed into a position where the tiger claw trigger would work, and me not changing that were also my fault.

Game 3 the masters lasted until late, pertailly as I was able to draw Mei away. And I was also gettign fed up of over committing Marcus. And Mei is good with the right cards, but she isn't going to easily take on multiple opponents with melee expert who are all to far apart for her to trigger off of.

Game 4 I felt I needed the offensive and the Zoraida deployment was fortuante for me. If he had tried to run with Zoraida instead of trying to stop marcus cheating, then I would have struggled a lot more, but I don't think Mike had faced Marcus before. And certainly not one so in your face as mine was that game.

When I use other masters I find the survivability is generally longer. My two main opponents at my local club are of the kill the opponent first and sort out Victory points afterwrds school of thought, and they have got very good at the killing, so I have learnt how to face that sort of thing.

So its a bit of a two way thing. This was more kill than I would normally expect, btu I was playing a master who is good on the first strike, and can attack at 26" from his deployment. Game one I did try keeping Marcus away from the main bulk of enemy troops, but forgot that killing a daydream will get another nightmare out. Game 3 I seperated Mei out, and then used my master and speed advantage in the middle to take out his support and Game 4 I was pretty sure my only hope was killing Zoriada. Fortunaly he only left a stiched to bodyguard her, whilst the rest of the crew were elsewhere making hit and run attacks on my other models.

Game 2 was one where I over commited, but the scenario starts earning VPS from Turn 2, so I wanted to try and get in their fast.