UK GT Soul Puppet's story

[Soul Puppet]

So this was most likely the last 1.5 tournament of notable size in the UK. Going into the event I was feeling fairly confident, despite losing my only warm up game to Shakes1066 a few days beforehand.

Game 1 was 35SS Beatdown Vs Matt

Crews

Me: Rasputina with the Essence of Power, Von Schill, Snowstorm and 2 Ice Gamin

Matt: McMourning with Zombie Chihuahua, Izamu, Jack Daw, Yin and Chiaki

Schemes

Me: Reflections of December, Kill Protégé (Izamu)

Matt: This One’s a Keeper, Death After Death

This game was effectively decided by the Initiative Flip for Turn 2! Matt had moved McMourning right up within a few inches of Rasputina as the last action of Turn 1. The flip went my way and the good doctor was turned into an ice cube in short order. The rest of the game mostly consisted of me picking off Matt’s models, except for Chiaki (who hid in Matt’s deployment zone) and Jack Daw (who just wouldn’t die). I won 5-2

Game 2 was 35SS Line in the Sand Vs Joel

Crews

Me: Colette, Cassandra, 2 Coryphée, Performer & Mannequin, Mechanical Dove

Joel: Jakob Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Collodi, 4 Marionettes, 2 Beckoners, Brutal Effigy

Schemes

Me: Bodyguard (Colette), Sabotage

Joel: Bodyguard (Jakob), Breakthrough

Note that Joel was the only player to beat me at the UK Masters this year and has been doing rather well on the UK tournament scene, so I knew this was going to be a tough game. It started well enough, with me getting my Sabotage objective on Turn 1 and almost killing both of Joel’s Beckoners in Turn 2 (the second one was saved by a Black Joker damage flip). Joel is too cool a customer to get distracted from his game plan though, so after this my crew got bogged down dealing with Huggy, whilst Collodi flipped dynamite and Jakob slunk off down one side of the table with his Brutal Effigy bodyguard in tow. By the end of Turn 3 I could see which way the Strategy was going to go if I didn’t take drastic action. I went after Jakob and tried to slow Collodi down (yes, I know it’s almost impossible). In the end though, Joel managed to get Jakob, Collodi and a Marionette into my deployment zone and I only had Colette available to try and stop him. Of course it proved too big a task for her and the game ended 7-4 to Joel.

Game 3 was 35SS Treasure Hunt Vs Phil

Crews

Me: Colette, Cassandra, 2 Coryphée, Performer & Mannequin, Mechanical Dove

Phil: Marcus, Jackalope, Rail Golem, Blessed of December, Shikome, 2 Night Terrors

Schemes

Me: Breakthrough, Eye for an Eye

Phil: Marcus’ own one (I forget the name) and I forgot the other scheme too!

Phil opened up quite aggressively and moved most of his crew towards the Treasure marker in the first turn. I held back slightly, curious to see what he was up to. Phil’s last activation was to send Marcus right into my face. He intended to go after Cassandra but forgot about ‘Celebrity’ so had to console himself with hitting a Performer instead, taking her to her last wound. Not being one to pass up an opportunity, Cassandra used Blonde Act and then Breath Fire on Marcus, Phil helpfully asked if I wanted to hit any of my own crew using the splash damage... hmmm, kill the Performer and thus gain Reactivate from ‘Precious’ on Cassandra? Yes please! Marcus was turned into crispy beastmaster in short order. Colette put a dress on the Rail Golem in the next turn and the rest of the game consisted of me killing off the rest of Phil’s crew. I won 7-0

Game 4 was 45SS Master of the Hill Vs Markus

Crews

Me: Colette, Cassandra, Angelica, 2 Coryphée, Performer & Mannequin, Mechanical Dove, Johan

Mark: Pandora, Primordial Magic, Collodi & 4 Marionettes, Widow Weaver, 2 Stitched Together, 2 Sorrows

Schemes

Me: Assassinate (Pandora), Hold Out (unannounced)

Mark: Breakthrough, Kidnap

I put myself at a huge disadvantage before this game even started, when we discussed terrain and Mark wanted almost everything to be seen through or over. I knew he would most likely take Pandora but I agreed to most of his suggestions anyway. This did of course mean that I was outnumbered and on the defensive straight away. The first couple of turns were very cagey, I did manage a mini alpha strike on Turn 2 and managed to kill two Marionettes and badly wound a third but Mark quickly recovered and moved out of reach. I needed to think out numbers to give myself any chance at the Strategy, so I sent Doves out to knock a few wounds off models and then the Duet moved next to a Stitched that had taken two wounds, Cassandra switched places with them and then did Blonde Act and Breath Fire (it was at this point I made my second mistake, the first being the terrain discussion pre game). I was overconfident and neglected to use a Soulstone in the casting flip, Mark flipped an 8 and a 9 on his negative Df flip, which was just enough to bring the difference into a negative damage flip! Had I got the severe, I would have covered quite a large part of Mark’s crew with the blasts (including Pandora), not only that but the Stitched ‘Does not Die’ meant I would have been able to do the same again (and I was still holding the Red joker and 2 severes in my hand). I withdrew using Colette to bounce Cassandra out and then Mark went with Pandora. He walked twice, Incited the Dove and pushed just far enough to see Johan and with casting expert made him hit himself with his hammer… double Severe on a neg damage flip meant 6 wounds, plus one for Emotional Trauma and Johan was on his Hard to Kill instantly. Not wasting any further time, Mark Incited Johan to finish him off. The Stitched then managed to get close enough to Angelica to Gamble his Life with her and killed her also. At this point I had only one option left, so I went all out and managed to kill Pandora. Sadly, not before she had made the Duet run to the table edge though. The rest of Mark’s crew killed off mine bit by bit and I had just Colette left to try and stop his Breakthrough. It wasn’t to be though and Mark won 8-2.

Game 5 was 45SS Land Grab Vs Austin

Crews

Me: Colette, Cassandra, Angelica, 2 Coryphée, Performer & Mannequin, Mechanical Dove, Johan

Austin:Lady Justice, Von Schill, 3 Death Marshalls, 3 Witchling Stalkers, 3 Guild Riflemen

Schemes

Me: Power Ritual, Stake a Claim

Austin:Kill Protégé, Eye for an Eye

Von Schill opened up early and shot Johan after an Augmented Jump onto a rooftop. Johan took 6 wounds and his only remaining contribution to the game was to sit behind a house and score in Land Grab. My Doves revenged Johan’s injury by Magician’s Duelling Von Schill to death over 2 turns (and a few Slow to Die healing flips). Cassandra and the Coryphée combined to kill off the Riflemen and then Lady J (who was now out of stones). So the game was practically mine. Austin tried picking off some of the Showgirls and got the Performer with a Death Marshall (her death reactivated Angelica who killed the Death Marshall in turn). A Witchling Stalker took a pot shot at Cassandra (who had taken 2 wounds from Lady J) and just managed to hit her with a double negative damage flip… Red Joker and Severe meant Cassandra needed a Red Joker on a Wound Prevention flip… she died and Austin got his Kill Protégé which I had somewhat cockily announced was a bad choice for him scheme wise at the start of the game (what do I know eh? ;0). The last action of the game was the Coryphée Duet placing my last Power Ritual marker, whilst Austin’s last three remaining crew members watched on helplessly. I won 8-3

In the end, there were 4 tournament points separating the top 10 players, which goes some way to showing how tough it had been but total congratulations to Joel for his well deserved win!

I finished in 9^th overall, which I wasn’t too unhappy with. Talking to some of the other players afterwards, they were wondering why I agreed to the terrain so easily with Markus in my 4^th game, when I knew he would take Pandora. To be honest, I can’t give a real answer to this. Maybe I felt like a challenge, maybe I didn’t give enough thinking time to it or maybe Markus confidence tricked me into it and I wasn’t aware what was going on until it was too late! ;0) It has brought back some thoughts I've had on the psychology of wargames, which I may post about in the future if I can formulate it properly.

I still had a great weekend and even somehow managed to win the 15SS Hardcore tournament on Saturday night (using Colette, Cassandra, Performer & Mannequin) so in my own mind I'm still great! ;0)

[Joel]

And in our minds too! . Great write up Martin, and congrats again on the hardcore crown!

[Clousseau]

Thanks for the write up, and I was amazed at how close it was, especially with so many draws on the Sunday. Good to read these reports of games I saw bits & pieces of.

[Hagisman]

Nice report.

Question about the Terrain, it wasn't set up by the Tournament organizer?

Only tournaments I played in had the boards setup before hand. I am terrible with placing terrain so I take it for granted I guess.

[Joel]

It was set up by the TO, but then it's up to players to discuss/decide the height/details of the pieces so that there is no confusion.

[Soul Puppet]

Nice report.

Question about the Terrain, it wasn't set up by the Tournament organizer?

Only tournaments I played in had the boards setup before hand. I am terrible with placing terrain so I take it for granted I guess.

Thanks.

Terrain was set up by the tournament organiser but to save arguments during a game, it's usually best to discuss things like height and whether something is obscuring or blocking.

With the game in question, there were a number of very small woods, a couple of farm style fences and various ruins on the board. Markus wanted all the woods to be obscuring rather than blocking and all walls to be height 1 except where they had variations built in. This obviously favours Pandora quite heavily, especially in a scenario like Master of the Hill, where you have to be quite close together.

I'm not complaining, because I agreed to it, so I only have myself to blame. ukrocky played against Markus on the same table in the next (and last) game of the tournament and he approached it very differently.