Taking Him For a Spin

Last night I ended up getting a game in with John with a few of my new models - I wanted to try them out and see what havoc they could spread. John hit the table with McMourning, the Resser I tend to have the most trouble with.

Dreamer, 2x Daydream, 3x Alp, Coppelius, Stitched Together, 8 stones
McMourning, Chihuahua, 4x Canine Remains, 2x Necropunk, Belle, Crooked Man, Nurse, 8 stones

We got corners deployment, and Shared Deliver the Message. For Schemes, I took Bodyguard and Kidnap on three of his Remains. He took McMourning's specific one (where he had to get five body parts off the opposing Master) and Kill Protege (on Coppelius).

I'll just hit the highlights here - the game ended in a 5-5 draw as he was able to get his message to me first with a drugged up Necropunk that hopped over the wall and got to the Dreamer before I could really do anything to stop him. He lost the Punk after that, but netted 3 VPs by being the first to get the message out. I was able to get the message to him with Coppelius later in the game, and managed to kill/allow to be sacrificed the three dogs I picked and kept Lord Chompy Bits alive. He was able to kill Coppelius, but wasn't able to get the Body Parts, so we tied.

Some of the fun parts (from my perspective - he'd have an entirely different view, I'm sure), were when he Lured a Daydream into melee with some of his guys, then killed it. It popped up Lord Chompy Bits (burying the Dreamer on the other side of the table). LCB swatted down one of the Necropunks, then shifted back into the Dreamer who flew back onto the other side of the board and dropped a trio of Alps on his Crooked Man, and put Coppelius in melee with it. The poor Crooked Man activated, got slowed, but threw out a Shafted marker. Coppelius finished off the Crooked Man and moved away from the Shafted counter. The Alps retreated and the whole group of them were promptly buried again by my Daydream, leaving only the Dreamer and Stitched Together (and the Daydream) on the table.

Later, I was able to rush near his deployment area (the entire battle was fought on his side of the board) and drop my Alps out amidst his dogs. He had to be really careful with who to activate because with so many Alps sitting around, he could easily start losing guys. While I did not do much damage to him as a result of his planning, I did manage to force him to make tough choices and give me the momentum in activating whoever I wanted.

Coppelius was able to steal an eye from a summoned Frankenstein model which freaked out the Nurse so much she turned to run. With one life left, Coppelius ate the eye, gaining back 3 life. He was again knocked down to one, but the Dreamer buried him before he could be killed that time.

Meanwhile, McMourning went out after the Dreamer, but was in melee range of the Stitched Together too. He had to attack the Stitched, and managed to kill him, but the Stitched wouldn't leave until the end of the turn. The Stitched successfully gambled, costing him one card and gaining me one card, and then used Gamble Your Life twice on McMounring, costing him three soulstones in twisting fate and reducing damage, and dealing 6 net damage to him. Lord Chompy Bits and the Daydream finished off McMourning.

Eventually the Dreamer was killed by a Frankenstein monster (he summoned two over the course of the game), but that just brought Lord Chompy Bits to bear. While Coppelius did end up dying, Lord Chompy Bits took down both Frankenstein monsters.

I was trying to think of my all stars for the game last night. Tough call. The Stitched Together had the best single turn for a model, I think, stealing a card, getting me a card, costing John 3 stones and 6 life, as well as preventing any damage from hitting the Dreamer. The Alps caused him to have to change his gameplay the most and forced him to deal with everything. And Coppelius successfully held down 3 or 4 models for a turn and a half as they tried to kill him and he terrified/paralyzed a bunch of other folks. Of course, then there's Lord Chompy Bits who killed two dogs, McMourning (and his totem), a Necropunk, and two Frankenstein Monsters over the course of the game. Really tough call.