Learning in Malifaux

So I got three games of Malifaux in over the weekend in addition to the buildings I crafted.

The first couple games, I just played Zoraida with her box. Bad Juju and three salads. The first game was very quick, ending on turn two when Zoraida Obeyed Papa Loco and used him to blow up the rest of his force, killing off several other minions in a nice blast and leaving a distinct advantage in my favor. The second game was pretty poor for me, ending with Chiid engaging Zoraida and keeping her from casting any spells. There were a few things I could have done to make the game go better for me, but I’m still figuring out everything I can do with this army.

The last game was against Dan and Seamus, this time picking our own 30 stone lists. I took a few things I’d never tried before, just to see how they’d work. Dan took some stuff I’d never seen before too. We had…

Zoraida
- Mature Nephlim
- Younger Nephlim
- Candy
- Baby Kade

Seamus
- Rotten Belles x2
- Grave Spirit
- Madame Sybelle
- Necropunks x2
- Convict Gunslinger

After that, we each rolled our missions and took our secondary objectives.

Zoraida: Treasure Hunt, Kidnap (Seamus), Bodyguard (announced)
Seamus: Treasure Hunt, Army of Dead (announced), Hold Out (hidden)

I had 8 points available, and he had 7. That proved to be the key, as both of us were able to max out our victory points that game. I’m not going to go into great detail about the game (Dan has a pretty solid battle report on his blog), but I will talk about a couple things I learned:

1. OBEY is an awesome spell. In my first game, I used it much more against Ryan’s models, but against Dan, I used it a lot on my own turn. I was able to use Obey to create an awesome assassination-run on Seamus with my Mature Nephlim. I Obeyed him to charge with my Voodoo Doll, then on my Nephlim’s turn, he attacked three more times, then Zoraida Obeyed him to attack again and created a new Voodoo Doll. Seamus was able to luck into not one but two Slit the Throats on his two attacks, and killed my Mature Nephlim, but by that point, he was down to 1 life and had used all his Soul Stones. If I had planned my activations better, I would have been able to kill him before that. I still had one more opportunity to cast Obey (my new Voodoo Doll) but didn’t get the chance before the Nephlim died. Six attacks by that beast in one round is just awesome.

I was able to kill off Seamus the next round by using the same trick, only this time with Baby Kade. That baby’s a beast in combat!

2. PACIFY is surprisingly useful. That was the other crucial part of my plan. Candy was able to get Pacify on Seamus both times I set up my assassination run, ensuring that Seamus wouldn’t be able to go until everything else in his army was finished. It kept me able to keep his master activating when I wanted him to. Not too bad. Baby Kade’s got the opposite of that, INCITE, and I’ll have to give that one a whirl. Pandora’s got both, I know. Can’t wait to try them out.

Can’t say much more – I’ve got to get back to work. But all in all, a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next match.