Gamer Resolutions Revisited

At the beginning of the year, I set forth a few Gamer Resolutions for the year. We're closing in on the end of the year, so I figured I'd see how I did.

My first goal was to run a roleplaying game I had started the previous year, Grimm, through to its conclusion. I have a tendency to have grand plans for my games and then not see them through to conclusion, leaving half-finished storylines and the like. I've been trying to get better at it. Actually, I'm on a roll for finishing out games now. And Grimm was successfully finished. I tried to keep the story small and mapped out from beginning to end while still allowing myself the opportunity to tie together loose strands as I go. I tend to be a more improv GM so it was hard to stay fixed to a course, but that certainly did help. I finally got everything wrapped together as the characters slowly figured out how their imagination in Grimm was changing the real world, and that there were a group of people in the real world that were trying to harness that imagination. A member of that group had been part of an experiment that had failed and left him in a coma, only his imagination had been split apart from him and he was running around in all the Grimm worlds, destroying everything in his anger. The characters went to Oz, overthrew the Wicked Witch who had tried to control the reckless imagination guy, and then fought off his army and saved Grimm. They were finally able to return home and, understanding better their powers, remade the world to put it back the way it should be. A very cool ending to a story that was not without its problems.

I also wanted to run my play-by-post roleplaying game, Rembaldi, for at least six months out of the year. I started out strong, hitting four months in a row, but work, being laid off, finding a new job, and then working to keep that new job basically killed my chances at Rembaldi continuing strong for the year. It's my on-again-off-again story that I hope will some day be resolved. I have so many of the final reveals already in mind and I'd just love to see the story get there. I calculate I'm probably 2/3's of the way through telling it. I've been running it for almost 10 years. So I failed at this one.

My third goal was to sell either my Cygnar or Legion, if not both. I managed to sell my Legion to Bill from the Gamer's Lounge so that he could get started with his Warmachine habit. I gave him a great deal on it, mostly because I just wanted to move it out of my house. I think I'm going to hold on to my Cygnar at this point unless someone gives me an offer - Dan's been getting back into the game, and I don't know if I'll give it a swing again at any point. But still, sold my Legion, so made that goal.

My fourth goal was to play at most three miniatures games at any given time. I hit this one easily, playing Malifaux all year and then mixing in a little bit of Pulp City at one point, and some Hell Dorado at another, neither overlapping. I managed to keep my miniatures habit under control here - not too bad!

My last goal was to buy no more than 4 video games over the course of the year. Again, made that one easily, buying only Fallout 3: New Vegas, Dawn of War: Chaos Rising and Skyrim all year. I could still buy another, but no need. Skyrim's kept me nice and cozy. Next year's got Mass Effect 3 coming out, and who knows what else on the horizon.

So four out of five, not that bad. I am really bummed about the one I missed - I figured with starting out strong in the year I'd have no trouble hitting it, but that last month has just been very elusive.

I guess I'll start thinking of some new ones. Some of these might come back in some form, others might just drop away. I don't feel like I'm in danger of grabbing a ton of miniatures games next year like I thought I would this year. I haven't been as big into video games either. I do still need encouragement to keep my roleplaying games going - I love running them but I know my tendency to chase the next story I have in mind. Who knows - we'll see how next year's goals shape up.

Red Retired

Today marked the end of Red's career in Skyrim. Dragon attacks were becoming more and more rampant and I decided it was time to do something about it. Whiterun had been built to hold a dragon, so it was there that I started my journey to defeat the evil world-ender black dragon. The journey took me far and wide, trying to broker a truce between the two armies long enough to handle the dragon situation. While I was sitting in the council, I realized that there would be no lasting peace in the lands until I did something about it.

Once I returned to these lands after defeating Aldrun, I went to Solitude and joined the army. Over less than 24 hours, I put Stormcloak after Stormcloak to the sword, liberating many forts with the help of my trusty horse, the only friend I had who joined me.

Honestly, the army at my back was kinda superfluous. They just succeeded in getting in the way of my sword from time to time while I was killing Stormcloaks.



With the forts liberated, Windhelm sacked, and the leader of the rebels dead by my hand, I retired from my life in the army.

I tried a few more minor quests, trying to help out some people I had met along my journey, but they all left me feeling hollow. Nothing I was to accomplish in the future would ever stand up to what I had already done. I finally decided it was time to get married and retire from adventuring altogether.

I went to the town that I had spent my whole early career defending - Riverwood. There I went to the merchant and his sister who I had helped earlier. The merchant didn't want to marry me, but his sister did, so we set a date and headed off to the chapel to get married.

I forgot about the dress code and showed up fully dressed in my armor.



From there, my wife and I moved to Solitude where my house was. I hung up my sword, set my armor aside, and lived out my days in peace.

Lessons from Skyrim

It's been a while since I've written about Red, my warrior-turned-sneaky-git-turned-assassin-turned-blacksmith-and-enchanter. She's been traveling around Skyrim killing dragons, saving people, killing people, etc. I swear, this is one f-ed up land. Here are a few things I've learned:

ON MEETING NEW PEOPLE
When I see someone in the distance, unless I'm in a city, my instinct is to drop down, sneak up, and either shoot them with a bow or, if I'm feeling gutsy, slit their throat with a knife. What ever happened to... I don't know... talking to people you just met?

I guess it comes down to learning. Early on in my career, I tried talking to people, but it turned out they were more interested in killing me. I'd walk into a set of ruins, see someone practicing with a sword and try to shout out, "Hey, sorry to interrupt. Would you happen to know where the closest merchants are to here?" And they'd say, "Hurry up and die so I can count your coin!" And I'd say, "Whoa, whoa, it's not that kind of day. We don't need to get into this violent intercourse!" And they'd reply with "You're easier to rob when you're dead!" By this point, all their friends would be joining in, shooting me with their bows, casting black magic on me, and stabbing me with their swords. I'd sigh, take a hint, and kill them all.

It became fairly predictable, so now my first instinct is to shoot someone as soon as I see them. Only every 20th time or so do I make a mistake, but I figure if I'm killing 19 evil people for every one good person, I'm still coming out ahead, right?




ON THE HOUSING MARKET
So anyway, as my career has progressed, I found myself needing someplace to live. I had two barrels in Riverwood that I used to stash all my stuff (I'm quite glad none of the people who lived there stole it all) but that wasn't enough. Soon I found a nice cave with a tanning station, a cooking fire, a sharpening grindstone, and a ton of barrels. So I walked in and asked politely if I could move in. I was rebuked, so rather than seek the next domestic option, I killed the previous owners. I'm glad the real housing market's not like that. Soon enough, I was moved in and living large. Someone even came in and cleared out all the bodies for me one day. Very polite.

Only soon I found out that if I stayed in the cave too long, someone would steal all my stuff. Well crap, I didn't want that to happen. So I explored my options and decided that Solitude was the city for me. I performed a few tasks, and was given permission to purchase a house. I did so, then went and checked it out. It was sparse. So I ditched all of my gear in a barrel the house (I needed as much room to carry stuff from cave to house as I could), went back to purchase some upgrades, then started the long task of carrying all my stuff from my cave to my house.

I got quite a few comments from people about running around naked and why I should not do that. I ignored them. If I put on my armor, it was one less Dragon Bone I could carry each trip!

So I finally got everything moved in a couple hours and went to the barrel to get my stuff. Only the barrel was gone and had been replaced with a houseplant! I lost all of my best armor and weaponry. Fortunately, I had been spending time learning to Smith and Enchant, and managed to recreate my entire wardrobe.


ON BUILDING A STRONG RESUME
Now finally decked out and having my new house, I embarked on several career paths. I visited the mage's college where I continued my education despite the fact that I completed nearly every task they gave me while using only a sword and shield. Evidently they didn't check my work. They just wanted results. So when they saw they re-dead undead guy, they gave me an "A" for Destruction Magic Use rather than looking at him and realizing there were sword cuts all over him and not a sign of magical fire. Through a series of what I consider colossal blunders in their applicant screening process, I managed to rise the ranks until finally I was chosen to be archmage.

Decked out in some new threads (which I promptly put on a mannequin in my home and redonned my dragonscale armor), I decided to explore other options. I joined the Companions, a group of fighters, and due to an unfortunate mishap that claimed the life of their leader, I was given the role of being the new leader with less than a week's membership under my belt.

Next I joined both the theives' and assassin's guilds. It's harder to accomplish these two at the same time because they have very different methods. The assassins want me to kill their targets and the thieves want me to keep their targets alive to be exploited yet again. It leads to rather amusing conversations like one I had at the thieves' guild a few days ago:

THIEVES' GUILD LEADER: "So you need to go and find this guy. He's betraying us!"
RED: "Betraying us? I'll slit his throat for that!"
THIEVES' GUILD LEADER: "Whoa, simmer down there, Red. We don't want to kill him. He'll still be useful later."
RED: "Oh, right."

I'm also evidently learning to become a cannibal, a treasure hunter and a pirate-killer on the side. I checked back over my completed quests yesterday and I'm quite versatile.

Until I realize that each of those quests accounts for, on average, ten people dead. Then I realize I'm a sociopath.




ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDS
Having selected, primarily, the assassin track, I have found my jobs are much easier when I'm doing them alone. But in the past few days, my circle of friends has expanded from zero to three.

First, I befriended an undead ghost. Well, maybe "befriended" is too strong a word. I achieved some task and was given the ability to summon him once a day. So really, this guy has no choice but to be my friend. I think he likes me, but he's usually kinda freaky. If I'm the silent sociopath, he's the loud and bragging one.

On the plus side, he makes my looting much easier. I mean, I have no reason to loot anymore - I have more food, ingredients, magical weapons, potions, scrolls, wooden bowls, armor, gems and money than I can possibly need in a lifetime, but I can't help put steal every potato and set of butterfly wings I can find. So when I summon my new friend, he'll go running head-first into a fight while I wander around and pick up apples and grilled leeks until he's killed (again).

My second friend is a horse that came out of a black pit of tar or something. I'm a little hazy on how all this works, but now I have a black horse with red eyes. Very unnatural. I couldn't get the hang of riding a horse and was hoping honestly that its owner would take him back, but she gave him to me instead and now I'm stuck with a horse. I was unhappy until the first time a dragon appeared when I had my horse and the horse ran up and started attacking the dragon. Good on him! I mean, he was severely outclassed, but still. That's some initiative, right?

Had another occasion where I was coming up on a group of folks. I jumped off my horse and crept closer, getting a count and eye on my targets (remember, I don't talk to people first... just kill them). Only before I could get to them, I found that my horse had found them first and was engaged in combat with three bandits. Hilarious to watch!

My third friend was a little unusual. I was wandering around Solitude, headed out for some quests, and then came back to my house and there was a woman sitting in my chair. "You get lost?" she asked demandingly. I was freaked - what was this woman doing in my house?! But then I remembered - my Jarl told me she was assigning me a Housecarl because I was the new Thane (add that to my resume). Now she hangs around my house all day in her armor. I think she secretly wants me to ask her if she wants to join me on a quest. Like the teenager who sits by the telephone in case it rings, she doesn't want to miss that one opportunity. So she sits in my front chair watching the door dressed and ready to go adventuring.




ON MARRIAGE
I did talk to her at one point. It was very odd - she commented on my medallion, and than said she was surprised that I wasn't already taken. I asked her if she was interested in me, and she said that of course she was, then asked if I was interested in her. I exited that embarrassing conversation right quick.

She's not the first person to hit on me. The archer in the Companions also hit on me and asked me to marry her.

Laura (my real-life wife) was watching the game at that point and thought it was hilarious how only women seemed to want my character, who was also a woman. We went back through some of the other characters in the game we had met and decided immediately on who we wanted to marry:

J'zargo.

I mean, that man is the best! He's funny, confident. As J'zargo says, there is much for J'zargo to be confident about. Magical prowess, charm. He's got it all. He is a cat, which would be a little odd with the copulating and the shedding, but I think we could get around that with an open mind.

So I went off to the mages' college to talk to J'zargo. I had already done a lot to help him in the past (reading scrolls to undead and getting burned in the process), and he had joined me several times when dragons attacked the college. Plus I was his superior officer, so I had the whole sexual harassment angle I could pull too. I found him, cornered him, and started talking. "Ah, you are a woman to warm the heart of J'zargo in this cold place," he said. Great intro, right? Only he never gave me the chance to ask him to marry me. J'zargo's too much to be a one-lady man, I guess.

McMourning Faces Down the Dreamer

After the end of the Winter League, I pulled out some non-Neverborn to play. I had just packed up some of my new Ressers and was ready to roll. Dixon challenged me to a game and I decided to go with my favorite Resser master: McMourning.

McMourning, Zombie Chihuahua, Canine Remains x2, Bette, Sebastian, Crooked Men x2, 8 Stones
Strategy: Slaughter
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Coppelius), Assassinate

Dreamer, Daydreams x2, Lelu, Lilitu, Coppelius, 8 Stones
Strategy: Claim Jump
Schemes: Bump in the Night, Eye for an Eye


TURN ONE – DREAMER INITIATIVE
Since most of our first turn was solo setting up for our crews, I’ll tell them separately.

Dixon started with all his Nightmares on the table. He began with Coppelius, having him steal an Eye from Lelu, use it to summon an Alp, and then steal another Eye from Lilitu. Both of the twins took 2 wounds and ended up with two poison on them. Lelu activated, took two wounds from Poison and healed two wounds from Regenerate, healing himself and Lilitu. He took a Defensive Stance. Lilitu took a Defensive Stance after taking two wounds from Poison as well, and one of the Daydreams buried the twins and Coppelius. The Dreamer and both Daydreams moved up the table a little, preparing for the next turn.

Meanwhile, I had both of my Canine Remains take Defensive Stances and move forward. McMourning tossed his knife at one of the dogs for a Body Part, then killed that dog for three more. His last action killed the second dog to give him a total of 7 body parts to play with starting the second turn. My Chihuahua moved up and both Crooked Men moved up to flank the whole block. I was taking position on his Claim Jump to make him come to me.


TURN TWO – DREAMER INITIATIVE
Dixon linked all three of his models, started with a Daydream, and jumped up the table. The Daydream summoned Chompy. Chompy killed one of my Crooked Men in two hits, then hit Sebastian once, triggering All Done bringing the Dreamer back up. The Dreamer brought up all his friends putting the twins, Coppelius and the Alp on the table, then gave them all Terrifying. Finally, the second Daydream completed the Companion chain by summoning Lord Chompy Bits in the backfield and then putting him away.

I went ahead and companioned the Chihuahua and McMourning. The Chihuahua channeled Dissection at Lelu, cheating in a 13 and then stoning to put the spell out of reach. Lelu failed the resist and on my (+) flip for damage, I flipped a Severe, dealing 10 damage to Lelu. McMourning activated next and passed his Terrifying checks, moved up on Coppelius, ate a Body Part to become fast, and Channeled Dissection on Coppelius. I wanted to Channel for the (+) damage flip so I’d be all but assured a straight flip. Sure enough, I got the straight flip using a Stone to push the result high, then cheated in a Severe to one-shot Coppelius too.

The Alp and Lilitu combined to kill off Sebastian. I didn’t put Bette into play yet because I lacked the 10 to pull her back if need be, and Lilitu still had one more action to go.


TURN THREE – MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
I started with the Chihuahua and McMourning again, having the Chihuahua try to kill off Lilitu but he wasn’t able to do enough wounds. After that he kicked the body parts he had over to McMourning. McMourning slapped the Alp killing it and healing himself back to full after taking wounds for killing Coppelius. Finally he used the body parts to give Chompy something tempting to kill: he summoned a Rouge Necromancy next to Lilitu. The Daydreams and Dreamer activated again. A Daydream moved up and summoned Chompy, then buried him. The Dreamer tagged the Rouge Necromancy with a (-) flip against Nightmares and brought Chompy into play. Chompy wrecked the Rouge Necromancy, but in his attacks, did not manage to trigger All Done. Bette popped up from the Rouge Necromancy’s death. Trying to get away, the last Daydream moved forward and pulled Chompy 4” towards him, then buried him for the Dreamer. Bette activated and Flurried Lilitu, killing her. My Crooked Man focused a Cave In and I cheated a 13 to hit, dealing moderate damage, spilling onto the second Daydream. Both were dead.


TURN FOUR – MCMOURNING INITIATIVE
I started with my Crooked Man, focusing another attack on the Dreamer with Cave In. I managed to hit, but did only 2 wounds. Dixon looked over the board and called it there – getting Lord Chompy Bits up to kill all my models before they managed to kill him was going to be all but impossible, and with a healthy lead on him in Slaughter and sitting on his objective, things weren’t looking promising. He couldn’t get Eye for an Eye without killing my minions (and I was prepping to summon more), though Bump in the Night was probably if he went after the Crooked Man and Chihuahua. But if he left Chompy out, McMourning could finish him, and if he left the Dreamer out, he would die at the next hit.


We talked after the game - both of us were a bit rusty with our crews though it seemed Dixon had been away from the Dreamer longer than I'd been away from McMourning. The biggest mistake he made, I said, was neglecting the All Done trigger. It's my number one rule playing the Dreamer - don't forget to go for All Done. If the choice is between leaving your enemy with 2 life left by using All Done, or killing him but leaving Chompy on the table, make sure you take the All Done. I fail at that piece of advice myself from time to time, and I always regret it in the long run.

This was the first game I had used Dissection really well. I've rarely tried it before, but seeing Coppelius and Lelu lined up in position, and me holding three Severe cards in my hand, I felt like I'd never get a better opportunity.

Overall, a great, fun, fast-paced game. With each of us losing two models by turn two, I knew this was going to be a bloody match.

Victory!

Had the final weekend of the league over the last weekend. I was supposed to be in New York at the time, but due to a rash of illnesses where I believe I was the only person out of the six who would be involved who was not ill or just recently recovering from being ill, we postponed the trip. That left me with an open Saturday.

So after some Skyrim playing (I'm now the head of the Mages' Guild despite not being a mage, and the head of the Champions despite not really being much of a fighter... at least now I'm working my way up the ranks of the assassins and theives... oh, and now I own a house and don't just live in a cave anymore), I headed out to Huzzah for the last day of playing. Got in two last games, one against Zee and another against Bill. Good games, both of them, and I pulled them both out. Against Zee I was fighting Perdita and managed to hold him off from reaching his objectives and the second one I swapped lists with Bill and luckily the game went to turn 7 and a 3-4 loss turned into a 5-4 victory.

Points were tallied and in the end, I took best Neverborn and Overachiever for the second straight time. I got in far fewer games this time around than I did last time, but luckily so did most other players. Bill took the best Archanist, Dan got the best Resser (his favorite word: Default!), Skill-less Brian took the Guild, and another player took our Outcasts (sorry, I don't remember the name). Zee took home Good Ol' College Try, a nice reward for our most enthusiastic new player.

Next league I'll try to time things better so I'm ready to move off of Neverborn and try something different. Maybe by then I'll have the last two Resser boxes ready to go too.

Two More Malifaux Games

We’re winding down to the end of the winter league. I have to say, I’m looking forward to it finishing. Not because I did not enjoy it – on the contrary I had a great time getting back to my Neverborn. But after six weeks, I’m actually finding that I’m itching to play some Ressers and even the Vikis again.

I got in two games last night against two locals. By the time I had arrived at the store, there was only one player without a game going. So I challenged Second Generation Awesome Dan to a match and we set up our game. I had been told that I sound arrogant when I ask my opponent who they would want to or not want to face, so instead I told Dan that it did not matter who I played – that he had no chance anyway – and who would he want to lose to or not lose to. Some of the players in the store were satisfied with my new message. Dan refused to restrict my choices.


GAME ONE VS SECOND GENERATION AWESOME DAN, 30 Stones

Skill-less Brian had been talking about a Grow List in emails earlier in the day and it reminded me that I hadn’t played one in a while. Later someone in my email conversations mentioned the Dreamer, and I decided I wanted to play him too. So my goal of the evening was to play one game of each. I decided to start with a Lilith grow list.

I know a lot of other people have been saying the Grow list works better with Zoraida. She does have some nice benefits – Obey to get more bang out of your models helps, and helping them get the extra actions to grow and move is a nice boon. But I’m still a fan of bringing Lilith to the table in a grow list. In my experience, a couple Matures are really nice, but they’ll drop before they take everything down, and Liilith is the perfect clean-up tool at that point. By herself, Zoraida’s a bit harder to finish games, but Lilith’s got the speed and melee power to put people in their place if need be.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Nekima, Terror Tot x3, Desperate Merc x2, 6 stones
Strategy: Reconnoiter (not a great list for it, but I didn’t care)
Schemes: Bodyguard, Stake a Claim

Seamus w/ Avatar, Molly, Belle x2, Sybelle, Necrotic Machine (on Molly), 7 stones
Strategy: Consolidate Power
Schemes: Breakthrough, Kill Protégé (Nekima)

TURN ONE – SEAMUS INITIATIVE
This turn saw very little action yet, but saw some Belles trying to mess with my plan. One of them moved up and Lured a Desperate Merc away from my lines. The Merc walked back towards her death, only to be Lured again by a the second Belle. I managed to get both Mercs killed and one Tot to a Mature and another to a Younger by the end of the first turn. Lilith put up a forest to block LOS to my army while it was prepping. Seamus put up Face of Fear for his manifest requirements.

TURN TWO – SEAMUS INITIATIVE
One of the Belles moved around the forest (when they activate near Molly and Seamus, those things can truck it!) and lured my Mature towards his doom. I activated Lilith and used Transposition to swap a Belle with the Tot, then killed the Belle, grabbing a blood token. Seamus put up Face of Fear again, completing one requirement, then put up No Escape on my Tot. Nekima gave my Younger and Tot an extra Mask on Combat, and then pulled another blood. Sybelle ran around the far side of the board by herself, trying to get to breakthrough. My Tot moved back, giving Seamus the option to charge it. With another Belle out there, he was going to trigger No Escape no matter what, and this way I could force him to charge towards my lines and hopefully get out in the open. He charged, got his trigger, but I ditched two cards to stay alive. No matter – Avatar Seamus was ready to come play. My tot used its second action to attack Seamus, hitting with an automatic Flay, taking 3 wounds off him. The other Belle lured Seamus back out of my lines and my Younger turned into a Mature.

TURN THREE – LILITH INITIATIVE
I think I won initiative here, but I can’t remember. One of my Matures charged Seamus. I wanted to do as much damage to the guy as I could before he manifested. Run him out of stones or cards or something to minimize the damage. I managed to hit twice, sapping stones from him to prevent wounds, and in the end he took 4 more damage putting him 7 down. I expected aSeamus to come play, but forgot about the Necrotic Machine. It licked its lips, moved up on the Mature, and sacrificed itself to kill him. Oops. My other Mature charged in and knocked Seamus down even more, running him completely out of stones. Finally aSeamus came to play. He dropped his WP to increase his Anathema, then pounded the Mature once for 3 wounds. Lilith killed off the second Belle, and Nekima started going after Sybelle. Molly tossed her damage spell at the Mature but I cheated to prevent damage.

TURN FOUR – aSEAMUS INITIATIVE
I really wanted to win this one, but he flipped high enough to discourage me. aSeamus started. I had a hand with a 13 and two 11s, so I was feeling good, especially since he had no stones. If I could keep the Mature alive, I could probably kill aSeamus. Just needed to stop one hit. Sure enough, three swings later, the Mature was alive with two wounds left. He activated and flipped a 12 to bypass the 17 Anathema at that point (I still had an 11 in hand in case I needed it) and then ripped apart aSeamus. Molly, upset, blasted the Mature to death and created a new Necrotic Machine to go after Nekima. Nekima went after Sybelle, cutting her wounds down but not killing her, and Lilith moved in on Molly and my one attack scored a hit and I cheated the 11 for Severe damage.

TURN FIVE – LILITH INITIATIVE
The Necrotic Machine was close enough to Nekima that if the girl went after Sybelle and didn’t finish her off, there was a chance of killing Nekima. Nekima activated, killed Sybelle, and then flew away. The Necrotic Machine chased her and my Primordial Magic charged it, hitting for 1 wound. Meanwhile, Lilith spent all three attacks on Molly, but Pitiful prevented one attack, she took wounds from the second dropping her to 2 left, and the third was ignored when she flipped a crow on defense and dropped two cards. She revealed Phillip’s head a bunch, but Lilith was unimpressed.

TURN SIX – LILITH INITIATIVE
Nekima moved up and finished off the Necrotic Machine, then moved back to Stake a Claim. The Primordial Magic stuck with her. Molly gave herself Terrifying, Pitiful, and Revealed Phillip a bit more. Lilith passed all her tests and started attacking. Pitiful prevented one hit, and then Dan was able to cheat in one crow and ditch two cards, then flipped his second crow and ditched his last two cards to prevent my hits.

We checked to see if the game went on another turn. I flipped a 13 and we continued.

TURN SEVEN – LILITH INITIATIVE
Finally broke through Molly’s defenses and finished of the crying girl. Nekima stuck by her Claim Jump. The Primordial Magic joined her. Because it was one of the achievements to go to 8 turns, we flipped to see if the game went on. It went on to turn 8, but stopped before turn 9.

FINAL SCORE
Lilith 4 (0 Reconnoiter, 2 Bodyguard, 2 Stake a Claim)
aSeamus 0 (0 Contain Power, 0 Breakthrough, 0 Kill Protégé)


Before my second game, Skill-less Brian decided to have a lapse of sanity and start spouting nonsense from the rules manual. There was a brief but heated argument with a lot of finger-waggling and raised voices, then things settled down with no resolution and Brian and I racked up to get a game in.


GAME TWO VS SKILL-LESS BRIAN, 30 stones

Having just played a Grow list, I decided I’d go with the Dreamer this time. We settled on 30 stones and drew out scenarios.

Dreamer, Daydream x2, Stitched Together x2, Lelu, Lilitu, 7 stones
Strategy: Contain Power
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Nino), Bodyguard

Perdita, Nino, Santiago, Francisco, Death Marshall x2, 5 stones
Strategy: Plant Evidence
Schemes: Breakthrough, Steal Relic

Seeing him put down a bunch of models with Immune to Influence or Stubborn made me sad. I guess my Stitched Togethers were going to be less effective. Though given that I was facing a gun line, it meant their smoke would be all the more useful.

Dreamer’s one of my less used Neverborn masters, so I know I made a few mistakes this game.


TURN ONE – PERDITA INITIATIVE
This turn was all pretty basic. Perdita’s crew all moved up with a Death Marshall running around each flank to try to swing past the Dreamer. I had a Stitched put up smoke, another go to ground, and Lilitu go to ground, then buried everyone except the Dreamer and a Daydream. Brian had been dropping his models into defensive stances, so I didn’t bother with a slingshot (I’m still not a huge fan of the tactic in the first place) and instead moved up the field to prepare for turn two.


TURN TWO – DREAMER INITIATIVE
The Daydream started by moving towards the Death Marshall on the right flank, dropping Lord Chompy Bits, then burying him for the Dreamer. The Dreamer activated and summoned his Nightmares himself, triggering All My Friends. Lord Chompy Bits dropped out in front of the Death Marshall and everyone but one Daydream popped out too. The Stitched with smoke up stuck himself between the Nightmares and the gunline, blocking their sight. LCB went after the Death Marshall and did manage to kill him, though some poor flips meant it cost me two of my stones to do so. Perdita’s crew just moved up, Francisco and Perdita getting up near the middle of the field while Santiago held firm a little behind them and Nino kept further back, trying to avoid being too big a target (he didn’t companion to do all this – I just don’t remember the order it all happened). Finally, Lilitu lured Francisco towards her, hitting him for 2 wounds. I looked over the field and thought I might have the distance for Lelu to reach Perdita and start hitting her. He double moved, and I was short on reaching Perdita and too far to hit Francisco. Oh, somewhere in there he killed a Daydream and forced me to unbury my second one.


TURN THREE – PERDITA INITIATIVE
This was going to hurt. Perdita, Santiago, and Francisco all activated. Santiago shot Lelu to death while Francisco attacked Lilitu for some damage. Perdita tagged one of the Plant Evidence points, shot the last Daydream, then moved to the second activation point. Francisco attacked Lilitu, killing her off. I went with the Dreamer who moved up, then unburied Lord Chompy Bits near Perdita. Thank god for 3” reach, because that’s what had me in range to counter. Chompy had two attacks. He hit with the first triggering Flay for four wounds. Brian prevented one. He hit a second time with Onslaught, then hit again with Onslaught. Brian had only one stone, and the last hit came in. I flipped the Red Joker for Flay, and then flipped a Severe on the Damage flip, dealing her 8 wounds of the 4 she had left. Rather than risk the 1 in 54 chance of getting the Red Joker (he had no hand and had just reshuffled his deck), he held the stone for initiative later. Nino spotted Lord Chompy Bits and opened fire, hitting for a massive stroke of wounds. I prevented three of them and took only 4 over the shots. My Stitched moved into Francisco and attacked him in melee, while the other one moved in and attacked Nino in melee. The Death Marshall grabbed an objective point too.


TURN FOUR – PERDITA INITIATIVE
Nino tried to move out of range of the Stitched, but was held firm, and then attacked it but did no wounds. Lord Chompy Bits moved up between Francisco and Santiago and attacked Santiago twice. I was hoping for some Onslaught magic, but instead dropped him to 2 wounds left and turned into the Dreamer who promptly flew next to Francisco and the Stitched. All the wounds dealt were able to bring LCB back to only 1 wound on him. Nice, right? Francisco hit the Stitched for a little damage, and Santiago moved in to help, but they did not kill him. My other Stitched put some wounds on Nino. The Death Marshall got the third Plant Evidence point. He was too far for me to deal with.


TURN FIVE – DREAMER INITIATIVE
The Dreamer activated dropped the (-) flip on Santiago against Nightmares, then brought LCB back out to play. He attacked Santiago twice, killing him, and Francisco once, killing him. My Stitched started rushing towards Nino and tried to Gamble His Life to deal some wounds, but died instead. He reactivated and did it twice more, failing both times. My other Stitched just attacked Nino in melee, dropping him to one wound left. The Death Marshall was in my deployment zone now and got the fourth point. The current tally of points was 6 to me (2 Bodyguard, 0 Kill Protégé, 4 Contain Power), and 6 to him (2 Breakthrough, 0 Steal Relic, 4 Plant Evidence).


TURN SIX – DREAMER INITIATIVE
The Stitched killed Nino in melee, finally netting me my Kill Protégé, and Lord Chompy Bits rushed into my deployment zone to hold off the Breakthruogh. The Death Marshall did not want to get any closer, instead hanging further away.


FINAL SCORE
Dreamer 8 (4 Contain Power, 2 Kill Protégé, 2 Bodyguard)
Perdita 4 (4 Plant Evidence, 0 Breakthrough, 0 Steal Relic)


There's a chance these might be the last games of the league for me, or I might be able to make it out to play a couple more on Saturday. We'll see. Either way, the league's been great fun. I've played against a few new people, and got to test my mettle against some old friends. Final results and prizes will be handed out on Saturday.

Lunch hour... it's not just for eating anymore

I am lucky enough to have a job that's only a few minutes away from my house. Lately around 1:30 or so I'll roll out, head home, throw some lunch on the stove and then fire up Skyrim. Today was no exception. Also, I figured out how to take snapshots during the game, so I have a few scenes from my journeys.

I started out heading to my cave I live in. There's a bunch of dead bodies and heads on pikes out front, but I swear that's from the previous tenants. I dropped off a bunch of stuff, picked up about 15,000 gold, and headed out into the great wide world. I was close to level 41, so I wanted to pay someone to make me smarter at something. My goal was to get my Smithing or Enchanting up, but after wandering around for a while and not finding anyone who wanted to teach me, I settled for the first person I could find at the mages' place. A rather unattractive and mousy woman came up to me and practically begged me to tell her that Restoration Magic was a real type of magic (it reminded me of my college days when I tried convincing people that my major, psychology, was a real science). I rolled my eyes and told her she was special too, then paid her a bunch of money to teach me Restoration magic.



From there I headed north to the great snowy lake. It looked cold. I mean real cold. I wandered around looking for somewhere to explore and saw a boat on my map. Crazy, I've never been to a boat. I kept following it until it forced me out to sea. I wondered briefly if I would freeze to death in these waters, but evidently not. I swam and swam and soon passed the boat. Huh? I swam back and passed it again. I pondered for a minute, then dove underwater. Holy hecks, there's a huge shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean! I swam around it for a while, exploring, and then my life started draining. Uh oh. I pushed out of the boat and started swimming to the surface but got caught under a piece of ice and drowned.

I considered going back to the boat after I respawned, but decided I'd better wait until I had something to help me breathe underwater. I got to the boat so it would be on my map, and then headed out another way. I found an undead guy chilling on an ice island and put him in his place. He rewarded me with a sweet bow that has a chance of paralyzing people. Not too bad, right?

From there I headed to the next place to explore on my map. It was a cave of some kind, and I snuck in down the ice tunnel. Soon enough I found what looked to be a huge brass box.



There was a guy in the cave who talked nonsense and told me to go get him some stuff so he could figure out the box. Whatever. I'll get to it soon enough.

From there I swam to the end of the world. There was nothing there but more snow and ice. So I headed back.

After a misadventure at a huge fort where I was experimenting at blowing up undead with a friend's scrolls and got killed by two arch conjurers, I decided to go where it was warmer. I found a cave and went digging around in it. It was filled with those blind elf-looking critters. I killed a few of them and then crept into a room with two of them. They spotted me and charged me, flanking me. I took one down and then turned around to kill the other one. As soon as I delivered the killing blow, he disappeared. I couldn't find him to loot him. Until I looked on the ceiling. Crazy - he fell up and got stuck on the ceiling of the cave!



I kept heading deeper in to the caves and found some more dwarven architecture. Cool stuff! Until a dwarven mechanical guard came after me. He was quite frightening. Until I started fighting him, that is. At that point he just stopped moving and looked at me as I dismantled him. Odd, right?

I guess that's good enough for lunch. I signed off and headed back in to the office.

It's a... What Kind of Dragon is it?

It had been a long, harrowing trip. I found some dwarven shields, lots of ore, weaponry and jewelry. I was able to enchant them to get better with magic and to increase their value. Things were looking good for Red, local adventurer extraordinaire. I packed up my ill-gotten loot and headed to Riverwood to sell it. Seriously, this merchant always has money and he loves me. Good man.

I walked into Riverwood and heard the tell-tale music again. A shadow crossed overhead. I started looking around, saw the dragon, drew back my bow and laughed. What a fool, coming to MY town. Let the arrow go and it scored a direct hit, and the enemy name came up: Elder Dragon. The life bar moved down a hair. Oh S---! It saw me, chased me, and breathed on me. My life dropped by a third immediately and even after he stopped breathing on me, I kept burning. I put away my shield and pulled out my healing spells. I ducked under an awning as I heard other villagers scream in terror. No time for that – I had to heal myself back up. I peaked around and shot arrows.

After about 10 minutes, I finally grounded it in the streets and charged it. It turned its head, saw me, and breathed a massive gulf of flame on me. I cut the dragon a couple times, but before I could pull out my potion to heal myself, I was burned down.

Respawn, find the dragon again.

This time I tried to lure him down the river away from Riverwood (as I did, I realized why the Elder Dragon decided to attack - someone had gotten rid of all the dragon skeletons! He didn't know he was going to die here!) I hustled to the river and found a rock outcropping to put my back to as the dragon came by. Didn’t even slow down – just put fire on me and flew on. Damn. He circled and did it again. The rocks weren’t helping. I dove underwater to try to avoid being shot at by the breath weapon. Eventually the dragon bored of fighting me and went back to breathing on the town. I ran back to help out and the dragon landed on a building. He looked at me as I shot him and, no joke, one breath took me IMMEDIATELY from full to dead. Ouch! Crit, I guess.

Respawn again.

This time I was more cautious, using the buildings to shoot at him from afar. I’d take only a couple shots and if he ever looked like he was about to breathe on me, I ducked for cover. Finally grounded him back in the lumberyard and kept shooting from a bit away. There were villagers for the dragon to kill instead of me, so that's good, right? Eventually he was low enough that I charged him with my sword and cut him down.

Take that, Elder Dragon!

Skyrim

Evidently there’s a game called Skyrim out there that’s taking off. A week and change ago I did a little research (it’s really hard not to do research on this game – just going to any nerd blogs or sites I was bombarded by images and stories) and decided that this might be a game for me. I loved Fallout 3, and I liked Dragon Age, so combining the two sounded pretty cool.

This game has been a tremendous ride so far. I jumped in, was lost as to what to do for a little while, went meandering around, happened back upon the main story for a while, and have now spent the last 20+ levels ignoring what the game is telling me to do and just wandering around finding bandits to kill and tombs to rob. Evidently there’s a civil war going on that I can join a side in. And I guess I could find out why all the dragons are back. But I’m having too much fun amassing a massive fortune and exploring the world.

One thing I like about it is how it doesn’t really go easy on you in the early game. When I was level 5 or 6, I spotted a fire off in the distance so I headed that way. I saw wooly mammoths and thought, “that’s awesome!” Then I saw a giant tending them. Sweet! The giant spotted me as I tried to sneak around and see what else was around. He took two huge steps, swung his club, and in one hit, I was flying through the air dead.

Okay, lesson learned. Don’t see the giants. But it gave me a goal – now I can take on the giants without worrying too much, so long as I plan things out right. Can’t take out a pair of giants and their wooly mammoth friends, though.

I had a similar experience the first time I found a troll. I learned quickly how to sneak at that point and managed to bypass him, but it took a few failed fights to figure out that I should try things differently.



Outside the main story, the first time I saw a dragon was hilarious. In the main story you end up fighting one with a large group of soldiers at your side and manage to kill it off. But soon, dragons start appearing elsewhere as you’re wandering around. I remember I was in the mountains by the river near a waterfall when a huge shadow passed over me. I looked up and… “OH SH--!!!! DRAGON!!!!!” It kept flying past me and breathing fire on me. I tried to get to high ground to be able to attack it, but it kept out of reach. I tried to pull out my bow and shoot at it, but I was pretty bad with my bow. Soon, dying, I decided escape was the best route. I dove into the river and followed the rapids, trying to outpace the dragon. I saw white foam ahead a little too late, tried to fight the current, and got swept over the edge of the waterfall, crashing on the ground dead.

I spent the next few levels learning how to shoot a bow.

The next time a dragon came around, I was in Riverwood, heading out from selling off a bunch of loot. The dragon attacked and I dodged from building to building, pulling out my bow and taking shots as I could. Finally the beast was grounded and I charged it with my sword, cutting it down. It was awesome.

The people of Riverwood hauled the skeleton of the dragon out of their village and left it in the road as a warning for other dragons not to mess with Riverwood. It didn’t work. There are now three dragon skeletons out front serving warning. Riverwood is under MY protection, bitches!

After a Lapse... more Malifaux

Been a while since I last posted – my apologies. Work has been difficult, and… well… honestly, Skyrim has been taking up a lot of time when I get home. Man, that’s a fun game! First time a dragon cleared the hill over a waterfall and swooped down at me, I was scared s-less… and hooked.

But this post is not about Skyrim. Maybe I’ll post something up about that in a bit. This post is about the Malifaux Winter League we’ve been running through these past weeks.

I’m 13 games into the league and we’re in week 5. Finish out this week and one more to go before the end. Last night I headed out to the store and got two games, one against a local Zee who’s just started. He’s been coming out for a few weeks in a row and has been showing clear improvement each week. This was my third game against him. My second game was against Bill trying out his Colette crew. Both games were 25 stones as my opponents were getting their learn on with their crews.

GAME ONE VS ZEE
Zee has played against my Lilith and Zoraida masters and wanted to try to face something different. I didn’t want to pull out Pandora. I considered the Dreamer a moment, but settled with Collodi after he mentioned he’d never seen the puppet master before. I gave him a quick overview of how Collodi works with his speed and pulling around effects, and the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that the Marionettes and Wicked Dolls pull off.

Collodi, Marionette x4, Wicked Doll x3, Stitched Together x2, 5 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Schemes: None (there’s an achievement in the league for winning with no schemes)

Marcus, Raptor x4, Shikome, Trapper, 5 stones
Strategy: Reconnoiter
Schemes: Sabotage, Bodyguard

The Trapper deployed normally and the Shikome picked Collodi as her prey.





TURN ONE – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I started out this turn with the plan of doing pretty much nothing other than showing Zee what my crew does. The Stitched Togethers moved up and popped some smoke, the Marionettes pulled Collodi along a little and then snapped to him, and the Wicked Dolls jumped up to Collodi. The idea here was that after telling him how Collodi’s crew worked, I figured it might help to show him how fast they can be before actually getting into the fight. In the end, my whole crew ended up bunched together about 10” in front of where they had been and Collodi finished off by giving all my dolls fast, prepping them for the next turn.

Meanwhile, one of the Raptors made the Trapper a Beast and the Raptors and Shikome rushed towards the Sabotage, keeping hidden from me, while Marcus and the Trapper each took a tall hill overlooking the puppet swarm.


TURN TWO – MARCUS INITIATIVE
With no schemes to help me out, I knew I had to get the full 4 points for Deliver the Message, especially since he was so close to Sabotage already. I needed to Deliver the Message to Marcus and then kill him. With three of his Raptors swarmed together, I knew the best he’d be able to do with his crew would be 5 activations. I could stretch out my crew to 10. That would give me a lot of models left once he was finished.

He activated Marcus, Howled to drop my Stitcheds’ Willpower and increase his own, and then hopped back to the Trapper. He activated the Trapper with his (0) Companion, and the Trapper took a couple shots at one of the Stitched Togethers. A Black Joker meant only one hit for damage, and he took only one wound. I started with a Marionette who dragged Collodi over to the center of the board, then ran and hid behind a house. His Shikome moved out, Sabotaged the hill, and backed away again, not wanting to be killed before the end of the turn. I kept wasting activations until he was all spent, then dragged Collodi up to the front of the board near Marcus. A Wicked Doll pulled up next to Collodi, Delivered the Message to Marcus, and then used his Fast to attack Marcus, triggering Poison and a couple wounds. My last Marionette tried to drag Collodi away, but Marcus managed to hold him in place with a disengaging strike. I brought my last Wicked Doll up and put another couple hits on Marcus, dropping him a little more. Collodi finished things out by making both Stitched, two Wicked Dolls, and the Marionette fast for the next turn.


TURN THREE – MARCUS INITIATIVE
I considered stoning to try to win the initiative, but decided against it. It would have been nice to go with a Stitched Together against Marcus before he Howled, but I’d need a pretty high flip. Marcus started off and Zee decided he wanted to try something different. He used Feral to turn Collodi into a beast, used Stare Down, Howled, and then attacked him once, doing a couple damage which I used a Stone to prevent all of. I went with a Wicked Doll hoping to finish off Marcus and get rid of Stare Down before the Shikome got to me. Three attacks later, though, Marcus was still alive with one wound left (though he was out of stones). The Wicked Doll ended by healing Collodi with his (0) action.

The Shikome swept in on Collodi, gained Fast, and attacked three times. The first hit Mauled my Marionette. The second one hit Collodi for five wounds, but a Severe Prevention meant I took only 2. His third attack did another set of wounds and a Moderate Prevention cut down the damage a bit. My second Wicked Doll finished off Marcus, getting rid of Stare Down, and then went on the Trapper to attack him for a couple wounds. He finished by healing Collodi a little more too.

The Raptors all swarmed in to Collodi, but now without Stare Down, he was able to defend himself a bit better. The Trapper knifed a Wicked Doll. Over the course of the turn, I yanked all my puppets in and killed the Shikome and two Raptors.


TURN FOUR – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I started to get ready for the turn, but it was looking like a foregone conclusion at this point. With only a Trapper and two Raptors left, and my Stitched Togethers finally in a position to do something, we called it.


Final Score: Collodi 4 (Deliver the Message), Marcus 2 (Sabotage)

Overall, Zee did a fantastic job containing the Stitched Togethers. Other than tossing up smoke and missing in melee attacks, they did nothing all game. Marcus’ Howl was a nice advantage to him there.

I’ll post up the second game in a bit. Bill took pictures so I need to wait and steal those off his website so I can post a battle report with photos. That gets me an achievement in the league.

Winter League Continues

Bill has been plugging the winter league for a few weeks now, and is hosting a Malifaux at Huzzah for three days this week. Tuesday was the official launch, and Thursday night he came out again to try to bring more people out. Three regulars came out – Bill, Skill-less Brian and me – and we had three new players join us.

My first opponent of the evening was Mike S, a local from a few towns over who works nearby the store. After I got a look at his models – he did a fantastic job with gear-themed bases and put together one kick-ass conversion for a Widow Weaver – we lined up our models for a 35 stone game. He played Lilith primarily before, so he was trying something new: a Zoraida crew. Rather than playing Neverborn against Neverborn, I grabbed my Viktorias and put together a list with them.

GAME ONE

Viktoria, Student of Conflict, Ronin x3, Convict Gunslinger, Freikorps Trapper, 6 stones
Strategy: Slaughter
Schemes: Exterminate (Nightmares), Assassinate (Zoraida)

Zoraida, Killjoy, Stitched Together x2, Widow Weaver, Terror Tot, 6 stones
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Bodyguard, Breakthrough

We played on the ruins board with several ruins around the edges of the terrain to get cover and a more open center with a fenced-in graveyard. Looking over the terrain, there was almost no way to keep Zoraida from picking an early target for her Voodoo Doll, especially since I deployed first. I accepted it and strung out my models, hoping for initiative so I could start getting my more dangerous models up to cover.

TURN ONE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Well shoot. Guess not. Zoraida activated first and tossed a Voodoo Doll up on my Convict Gunslinger who promptly turned to the Ronin next to him and shot her… twice… three times, to knock her down to one life left. Useless Harmless. Thank you Hard to Kill. Friggin Trigger Happy. I led off with my Trapper, curled up on top of one of the ruins, trying to kill off the Terror Tot before he could become a Killjoy. I took a focus strike (I wanted the (+) flip for damage so I could cheat in a card to kill the Tot), but he flipped a 13 for defense and there was nothing I could do. I moved up my Ronin and sent my Convict around the other side of the ruins to separate him a bit while the Stitched Togethers moved up and the Weaver Widow grabbed a Scrap counter. Finally, the Terror Tot sprinted forward to underneath the Trapper and sacrificed himself for Killjoy. Killjoy smiled and cut clean through the Trapper. Poor guy – he had no chance. My Student of Conflict had made my Gun Viki fast and she gave the sisters +2 Damage, moved up, and called her sister forward. The Sword Viki moved in on Killjoy and attacked him twice, netting 11 of his 12 wounds – not quite enough to kill him.

TURN TWO – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Twice in a row he flipped a 12 for initiative! Damn. No real choice here – Killjoy went and attacked the sword Viki 3 times, but three soulstones and a cheated Red Joker meant he missed all of them. The Sword Viki went, killed Killjoy with her Melee Expert, dodging the return strike. She then switched places with her sister, and then yanked her sister back away from the front lines. The two Stitched Togethers were approaching and I did not want to get caught in the open against them. Zoraida and the Voodoo Doll activated, Obeying the Convict to shoot the wounded Ronin, killing it, then Obeying the Widow Weaver to get a Scrap token. I moved the Convict even farther away, now out of range of my crew. He took 2 poison from the Voodoo Doll. The Stitched Together moved up to where Killjoy was and put up some smoke. I moved a Ronin up and attacked the Stitched once for a couple points of damage. The second Stitched moved up a little behind and I brought my second Ronin up to do a little more damage to the first Stitched. The Widow Weaver started moving out and collected a third Scrap counter. My Gun Viki moved forward and killed the wounded Stitched Together, triggering Does Not Die. It retaliated by using Gamble Your Life to drop one of my ronin to 1 wound remaining (frigging double-severe on a (-) flip) and dropping the other one by 3 wounds.

TURN THREE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I flipped an 11 for initiative and told Mike there was no way he could flip another 12 for his initiative – three turns in a row was too much. He obliged and flipped a 13 instead. The Stitched Together activated and killed off my Ronin with 1 wound remaining, then tried to Gamble his Life with the other Ronin and lost, taking a bit of damage back. My Ronin activated and finished off the Stitched Together. The Voodoo Doll and Zoraida activated again, Obeying the Convict to move backwards so he would not get into range of shooting his models this turn. Zoraida went next and used Repel to push his models out a bit. She used Obey on the Widow Weaver to give it a free move farther up, and then walked up a bit herself. My Student of Conflict made my Sword Viki fast and the Widow Weaver got her fourth counter and moved a little farther back, holding the scrap in hopes of getting a high enough Mask the next turn. The Vikis activated together with the Gun Viki moving up and dragging her sister forward. The Sword Viki moved forward once and then charged the Widow Weaver, hitting twice with Melee Expert for a total of 9 wounds. The Stitched Together finally reactivated and dropped my Ronin to 1 wound remaining before he went away.

TURN FOUR – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
Ah, finally. My Sword Viki activated and killed off the Widow Weaver, then yanked her sister forward to keep her close at hand. The Voodoo Doll and Zoraida went, obeying the Convict to shoot the Gun Viki, but he was just out of range. Zoraida turned into a Raven and booked it to the far side of the board. Yeah, she’s fast. My Ronin rushed to his side of the board to hold his deployment zone. My Convict shot a couple times but didn’t do much.

TURN FIVE – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
I activated both of my Vikis, starting with the Gun one who moved forward and then brought her sister up too. The Sword one then charged Zoraida, hitting twice for a little damage. We were both out of stones at this point. Zoraida tried to attack the Viki back but did not manage to hit. My Student of Conflict ran up next to the Sword Viki, and my Convict Gunslinger finally died of poison.

TURN SIX – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
I activated my Student and Sword Viki. The Student gave Viki Fast, and Viki attacked and killed Zoraida in two more hits, then moved twice back to his side of the board. My Gun Viki moved into his deployment zone, and I flipped a card to see if the game would go on. No such luck.

FINAL SCORE:
The Viktorias took 2 points in Slaughter (I killed 30 points (9 Widow Weaver, 10 Zoraida, 11 Killjoy… Stitched Together do not count since I did not kill them) and he killed 21 points (10 for two Ronin, 5 Convict, 6 Trapper), 2 points for Assassinate, and 2 points for Exterminate
Zoraida took 0 for Turf War, 0 for Bodyguard and 0 for Breakthrough
The Viktorias won, 6-0



After that game, Mike and I chatted for a bit about the game, how to use Zoraida differently, and I told him when we usually head out to the store. Hopefully he’ll make it out next week for another match.

Bill had finished his game against another new player, and after a couple minutes of conversation, we decided to put down a game between the two of us. Bill was working with Rasputina still, and since we decided to play 25 stones and I knew I’d need to win a game led by Collodi at some point, I figured this was a good shot to try.


GAME TWO

Collodi, Marionette x4, Stitched Together x3, Wicked Doll, 6 stones
Strategy: Treasure Hunt
Schemes: Steal Relic, Kill Protégé (Sabretooth Cerberus)

Rasputina, Essence of Power, Silent One x2, Sabretooth Cerberus, 7 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Schemes: Sabotage, Stake a Claim (I think it was Sabotage, but I can’t remember for sure)

The board was set up with a lot of buildings all spread out giving a few avenues to move towards the center, but a lot of LOS blocking stuff on the way in. A nice change of pace from the openness of the last board.

TURN ONE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
This turn was pretty basic with the Essence of Power linking to Rasputina and putting up a couple of Ice Pillars to block off one avenue of approach to the treasure counter. I sent one Stitched together around a big building and took the rest of my crew the other way after the Ice Pillars were cast, blocking off more of that path. My other two Stitched gave me some smoke cover and after I out-activated Bill, my Marionettes Pulled Strings to get Collodi up next to the Treasure Marker. My Wicked Doll jumped to it, picked it up and booked it behind the ice pillars while my last Marionette pulled Collodi back to the cover of my two Stitched Togethers. With my last activation, Collodi made all my dolls around him (three Marionettes and two Stitched Together) Fast for next turn. Since Fast specifically says it lasts until your next activation, it will stick on the models into the next turn if that’s when the next activation is. Neat trick.

TURN TWO – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Darn, I was hoping to go first here and get my Wicked Doll completely out of LOS. Instead, a Silent One moved around the corner and zapped my Wicked Doll, killing him and making him drop the treasure. I was afraid that the Sabretooth Cerberus would grab the treasure if I left it out there, so my lonely Stitched Together moved up to the treasure, picked it up and popped smoke. The second Silent One zapped my lonely Marionette and killed him. I sent one of my Fast Stitched Togethers out and he used Gamble Your Life on a Silent One. I cheated a 12 for my WP duel to get a straight flip, and then cheated my other Severe to do 7 wounds. Boom – dead Silent One. With his (0) he put up some smoke, giving my flimsy puppets a bit of cover from the Ice spells. Bill dropped some Ice Pillars cutting off my two Stitched Togethers from my Marionettes and Collodi, and I went ahead and used my last Stitched to move out and kill the Essence of Power. The Cerberus leapt into my mess of Collodi and Marionettes and brought one of the dolls down, but couldn’t break through Collodi’s soulstone-infused defense. Collodi created a new doll to replace the one he lost and then had a different Doll kill off the Cerberus with some very lucky flips (got Severe twice in three attacks!). The other two Dolls pulled Collodi around to get him ready to support the Stitched Togethers.

TURN THREE – COLLODI INITIATIVE
That could be unfortunate for Bill. I started with Collodi who moved twice to get in the middle of all my Marionettes so I could activate all of them. He used his (0) to activate a Stitched after him and then tried to Breathe Life, but failed. One of the Marionettes moved in and dragged Collodi up to the front. The other two jumped in and made some attacks on Rasputina, forcing her to use stones a few times to avoid being rendered Slow my their trigger. Finally, the Stitched Together moved up and bled a card from the Silent One, then put a hit in on Rasputina. Rasputina took advantage of her massive hand of godliness and started zapping my Stitched Together – the only guy not in melee with Rasputina – through the Silent One. Soon the Stitched was dead and blast markers had wasted all three of my Marionettes. But there was still more to come. Overpower, overpower, overpower, overpower and slowly Bill’s hand disintegrated along with his soulstones. But Id lay wager to no fewer than 10 casts of that damn AOE spell. Fortunately I had a lot of stones myself and with three prevention flips, I was able to keep Collodi at half wounds. I was very glad I killed off the Essence of Power because the only think keeping me alive was the fact Bill couldn’t cheat in to get more AOEs most attacks. With her last action, Rasputina gave herself Armor. My reactivated Stitched moved up and Stole Rasputina’s Relic. He considered using his last stone to stop me, but thought better of it. My other Stitched in the scrum killed the Silent One while my Stitched with the Treasure made it to my deployment zone.

TURN FOUR – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina used a (2) action to Deliver the Message to Collodi, getting Bill 4 VPs, and then gave herself Armor. Collodi made the Stitched Fast and gave him a Casting Expert, and then the Stitched blasted into Rasputina, dropping her wounds by half.

TURN FIVE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Bill flipped the Red Joker for initiative, wishing he had it in his hand, but settled for going first instead. Two armor and then Rasputina went to work. Since she was in melee with Collodi, she could not cast her big spells, but she did manage to drop him a few wounds with her (0) before I cheated high enough to stop it. I managed to eat away another couple of wounds on her with my 8 Willpower Stitched Together. My Treasure-hugging Stitched just hung out in the back.

TURN SIX – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I flipped an 11 for initiative and asked Bill if he wanted to stone to reflip his. He refused. Good thing, too, because it turned out his next card was a 13. Collodi and my Stitched Together made short work of Rasputina when she had no armor, and the game ended.


FINAL SCORE:
Collodi took 4 for Treasure Hunt, 2 for Kill Protégé, and 1 for Steal Relic (the model that stole the relic did not survive to the end of the game)
Rasputina took 4 for Deliver the Message, 0 for Stake a Claim, and 0 for Sabotage
Collodi won 7-4

Winter League 2011 Launches

Yesterday started Bill’s winter Malifaux league in Northern Virginia. I have been hemming and hawing for the past few weeks, trying to figure out exactly what crew I was going to take. Would I continue my Resser experiment, or go back to Neverborn? I have been enjoying playing the Ressers, but the league is a six-week commitment and having played Ressers for six weeks prior, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue for another month and a half with them, no break. Besides, I was already missing my Neverborn.

So I arrived at the store yesterday, put down my $15, and declared “Neverborn”! Bill said, “Ah, you’re the fourth one.” Huh? Four of us? Damn. So I immediately changed… to Outcasts! Then I sat around waiting for a game and decided that it was really Neverborn I wanted to play and that playing Outcasts when I only own Hamelin and Viki, and dislike playing Hamelin, would not lead to a fun experience. So I re-declared Neverborn and launched into my first game of the league… against Bill.

I asked Bill how many stones he wanted to play and he said he had only played the 25 stone level, so he was open for anything else. I rephrased the question: how many stones of Archanists do you have with you and what level can you comfortably play at? That elicited a different response: 30 stones.

I decided since Bill was playing a crew he wasn’t overly familiar with, I’d make a more fun list and not go for the throat.

Zoraida w/ Avatar, Wicked Doll x2, Teddy, Baby Kade, Stitched Together, 7 stones
Strategy: Deliver a Message
Schemes: Hold Out, Bodyguard (Zoraida)

Rasputina, Essence of Power, Ice Gamin x3, Silent One, Razorspine Rattler, 7 stones
Strategy: Supply Wagon (he chose it after flipping the Red Joker)
Schemes: Ice Mirrors (kill 3 models with Ice Mirrors), Sabotage

The board was set up with a bunch of ruins around the edges of the board and a graveyard in the middle with a fence around it. Lots of cover, but little to block Line of Sight.

I deployed first with my crew essentially set on the front of the standard deployment line and with Zoraida up on top of some ruins. Bill deployed so if I got initiative with Zoraida, I couldn’t do too much damage to his people with a Voodoo Doll. His Rattler didn’t have a charge lane to anything important, etc.



TURN ONE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I didn’t want to go for the throat so I led off with someone other than Zoraida and let him get some ice pillars up first. Baby Kade just double-moved to some cover and the Essence of Power put up some Ice Pillars to block off Zoraida’s LOS to most of the crew. Most of the turn was just movement with my crew using the Stitched Together’s fog and the Ice Pillars to advance under some cover. Zoraida just summoned a new Wicked Doll and hung out in the back, casting Crystal Ball for her first Manifest tick.


TURN TWO – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina and the Essence of Power went first, putting up more Ice Pillars to block Teddy off from getting to most of his crew, and then blasting through the Stitched Together and killing him, killing a Wicked Doll behind him too. A Wicked Doll moved up behind the Ice Pillars, forcing him to take another activation. He just moved an Ice Gamin. Teddy grew wings and flew over the Ice Pillars, offering a nice, juicy target. A Gamin charged him but missed, and the Stitched Together killed the Ice Gamin, doing some damage to Teddy. Another Ice Gamin moved into position and shot Teddy for a little damage. Baby Kade walked out, knifed the Stitched Together in the back to give him Reactivate, and then moved off. The Silent One tried to zap the Stitched Together to freeze him in place, but Bill misread the card and combo. We backtracked so he could try it again (he had to give the Stitched Frozen Heart first) and he managed to get near enough to freeze the Stitched Together while being far enough away to avoid the retaliation. I went with Zoraida, trying to Obey the Stitched but he was too far away. Zoraida turned into a raven and flew 20” across the field next to Rasputina. The Rattler charged and finished off Teddy, then slid towards Baby Kade. My Wicked Doll snapped to Zoraida and delivered her the message, getting me 4 Victory Points. Bill was playing on his back foot now. Finally, my reactivated Stitched Together was in range of the Rattler (a mistake by Bill) but he had 2 armor from Rasputina and took only 2 wounds from my Gamble Your Life.


TURN THREE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I led with Baby Kade who Backstabbed the Rattler, killing it. Not bad. He then used Incite on the Silent One, making sure that he could not activate Rasputina next. The Silent One went and ended up hitting Baby Kade for 2 wounds. I activated Zoraida, cast Crystal Ball and looked at my next three cards. I stacked a low card, then an 11 Masks, then a 13. I manifested as a (2) action, and then cast Pins and Needles on one of the Ice Gamin. Flipped a 2, cheated a moderate card, and then stoned to get the high Mask for my trigger. He couldn’t resist, so I flipped damage and got a Severe. He took 4 wounds (armor) with 2 Poison and I drew 4 cards. I used my second Casting Master to cast the same spell at the other Ice Gamin. I cheated a 9 of Masks I had drawn, stoned for another card, and then for damage, tossed my only Severe for 4 more wounds, 2 poison, and 4 more cards. I had a mitt-full of 10 cards, but none of them were higher than a 9. Rasputina activated and reflected spells at the melee of aZoraida, my Wicked Doll, and his Silent One. Twice he hit the Silent One, managing to spill 4 damage onto aZoraida, but also killing his Silent One in the process. It’s all good – that was his second model killed by an Ice Mirror – he was one away from his scheme. My Wicked Doll sacrificed himself to kill the Essence of Power, and my other Wicked Doll died in a poisonous explosion from one of the Ice Gamin. By the end of turn three, I had aZoraida and Baby Kade, and he had Rasputina. Brutal!


TURN FOUR – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
I get my (+) flip for initiative and get a 5. He flips a 6. I stone and flip yet another 5. Even discarding 9 of the 10 cards in my hand, I can’t seem to dig to anything higher than a 6! Rasputina, over an inch from aZoraida, casts twice and manages to Overpower in there a couple times and takes my poor girl from 4 wounds on her to dead. Crowning moment: when he hit me for severe and I flipped the Black Joker to prevent, instead taking the full 5. On the plus side, he was out of stones when aZoraida died. Baby Kade double-moved into melee with Rasputina and knifed her, making her slow and cutting her down for 2 wounds (he had Armor 2 so the 4 wounds were reduced).


TURN FIVE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina tried to move away but failed, and then used his (0) to drop Baby Kade to 1 life left. She put up armor on herself. Baby Kade slid around and stabbed the Supply Wagon, cheating in Severe damage to drop it by one wound, and lowering Bill’s total points by 2, then stabbed Rasputina and made her slow again and did 1 more wound.


TURN SIX – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina tried to move away again but failed, instead sliding around to melee with the Supply Wagon so I could not attack it again (I had two severes in my hand to kill it off, so that was a good move). Baby Kade attacked Rasputina three times, making her slow again and dropping her to a couple wounds left. Having activated the last model, I flipped to see if the game would go on and it didn’t, so we tallied up the scores.



SCORE: AVATAR ZORAIDA WINS 6-2
Zoraida had 4 for Deliver the Message, 2 for Holdout, and 0 for Bodyguard
Rasputina had 2 for Supply Wagon, 0 for Reflections (the Ice Mirror one), and 0 for Sabotage



So there we have it – my first game of the league and already I’m coming out swinging. Top of Neverborn, here I come!

Two Resser Battles

We had no further chances for Skill-less Brian to reclaim his name on Tuesday, sadly, as he was unable to make a trek out to the store. I did manage to play two games with my undead, though, bringing me up to about 18 games between the Resser masters. Picked up Molly’s box, too, along with the Necrotic Machine and two more Night Terrors. Got the Night Terrors painted up, but I’m saving the Necrotic Machine and Molly’s box until Bill’s new league starts up next week. Painting up a blister and a box are two of the goals to achieve.



GAME ONE
So the first game last night was against Dixon, the hero of Adepticon 2011. We were just looking to have a random fun game, so he pulled out a Viki list with some old-timers (Bishop and Hans) and I pulled out Nicodem.

Nicodem, 7 Soulstones, Grave Spirit, Dead Rider, Crooked Man x2, Canine Remains x4, Necropunk
Strategy: Claim Jump
Schemes: Stake a Claim, Kill Protégé (Bishop)

Viktorias, 4 Soulstones, Student of Conflict, Bishop, Hans, Ronin x2
Strategy: Reconnoiter
Schemes: First Blood, Horde Soulstones (or whatever the one is where you need more SS than your opponent)

Turn One – Nicodem Initiative
Not much of note happened here. I moved up with the Dead Rider/Grave Spirit and hid behind the only place on the board large enough to keep him safe from Hans. I had him supported by a Crooked Man, Necropunk and two Canine Remains. Nicodem moved up the side towards the Claim Jump with the other two dogs and Crooked Man. On his side, the two Ronin split up to take the two corners of the board that were not likely to see much contention.


Turn Two – Nicodem Initiative
I had a shot on Bishop with my Dead Rider, so I took it. He Adjusted Purpose to gain Fast, then Mounted Combat-ed out to Bishop, attacking him. Dixon cheated in the Red Joker – I was holding a 13 myself – and put himself out of range of my attack. Not wanting his head blown off, the Dead Rider retreated back to the rock. Bishop moved in with DEF 8 and Hans took some shots, killing off one of the Canine Remains. Nicodem made a zombie out of it and he started heading over to help out against Bishop.


Turn Three – Nicodem Initiative
I had to burn a soulstone to win this initiative, but felt it was worth it. I led with the Dead Rider again, this time rolling out to get an attack against one of the Viktorias. A cheat and soulstone and it was out of my range of hitting. The Dead Rider retreated again. Bishop went and managed a single wound on the other Canine Remain. My Necropunk tried to do some damage, but failed to hit Bishop. The Vikis jumped into the mix, using Whirlwind to kill off my Necropunk and Canine Remain, as well as putting a few wounds on the Dead Rider. I had to cheat a bit and forced Dixon to use two soulstones himself. My other two Canine Remains broke off to lend some support to the massive fight as well and my Crooked Man walked on alone to the Claim Jump. Nicodem paralyzed both Bishop and Viki with Rigor Mortis and tried to summon a Samurai Zombie next to Bishop, but Hans blew off its head before it could attack.


Turn Four – Nicodem Initiative
I got the fourth initiative too, but again had to burn a Soulstone to get it. The Dead Rider attacked Viktoria three times, burning her last soulstone and only doing 6 wounds to her. Her sister swapped places with her and attacked the Dead Rider, hurting the poor guy but not killing him. My two dogs charged in to Viktoria and did some wounds to her, but not enough to kill her. Nicodem paralyzed the new Viktoria and raised four new zombies around her and Bishop. Hans killed off the Crooked Man near Bishop and my other Crooked Man got to the Stake a Claim near the Claim Jump. His job now: live.


Turn Five – Viktoria Initiative
Bishop went and tried to kill the dogs around him but failed. The dogs attacked Bishop and managed to drop him to 1 life left. All my work was paying off. The unparalyzed Viki jumped in and killed off the dogs, the zombies and Nicodem with her attacks, and then sacrificed Bishop for a Soulstone. The Ronin near the Claim Jump jumped out of hiding and went after the Crooked Man, but missed him.


Turn Six – Nicodem Initiative
I didn’t really want initiative here, but I can’t complain about winning initiative five times (though it did cost me two soulstones to do it). I led with the Dead Rider, not wanting to give Viki any attacks on him. He Mounted Combat-ed away from Viki and then moved next to the Claim Jump. Dixon repositioned his Ronin, Viki and Hans to grab three of the board corners.


Final score: Dixon wins, 7 (3 Reconnoiter quarters, 2 for First Blood, 2 for Horde Soulstones) to 6 (4 for doubling him at the Claim Jump, 2 for Stake a Claim, 0 for Kill Protégé). Close game, and a good time.

In retrospect, going after Bishop with Kill Protégé was a pretty dumb idea. I hadn’t played against Bishop before – or if I have, it’s been a very long time – so I had no idea what he could do. Evidently, not much. He can keep himself alive very well, but he does almost nothing else. He was struggling to kill a Canine Remain, for crying out loud. I would have been better off just ignoring that model and going after other things. The number of attacks I put in him could easily have killed off both Vikis and left me really only worrying about Hans out there.



GAME TWO
My second game of the evening came against Chris (not of the eChris variety). He’s been coming out more of late and getting games in with Kaeris. Well, now the box is out and he didn’t have to proxy. Well, except for Iggy, but that’s okay. We played a 35 Soulstone match, Kaeris against McMourning. I really wanted to justify buying two more Night Terrors, so I knew I was going to be using at least three of them in my list. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure.

McMourning, 8 Soulstones, Chihuahua, Crooked Man, Night Terrors x3, Canine Remains x2, Bette, Sebastian
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Holdout, Stake a Claim

Kaeris, 4 Soulstones, Gunsmith x2, Johan, Iggy, Fire Gamin x3
Strategy: Supply Wagon
Schemes: Breakthrough, Sabotage


Turn One – Kaeris Initiative
Fairly basic stuff. People move up on both sides to gain position. McMourning knifes and kills one dog, and then knifes the other for some wounds, ending with 5 body parts.


Turn Two – Kaeris Initiative
One of the Fire Gamin takes a shot at one of the Night Terrors, bringing all three of them flocking towards him. One of the three breaks off and flies into the middle of the Archanists near Iggy, putting up his Night Falls spell with the trigger, lowing WP and RG all around him. Iggy goes and spends his whole activation killing the Night Terror. Sebastian moves up behind a rock and uses his Pulse damage, catching one of the Fire Gamin in it and dropping it to 1 life left. The other Fire Gamin runs to his side but can’t attack him yet. There’s some shuffling back and forth, trying to keep out of range. My Night Terrors flock into Kaeris but can’t do anything to her, and Kaeris blows one of them up. Finally, McMourning kills his last dog for three more body parts, then moves up and summons a Rouge Necromancy near a Gunsmith. Kaeris is out of activations and the Rouge Necromancy (Chris dubbed him “Steve”) eats the Gunsmith. I start shuffling and realize I should have placed out Bette. But oh well, too late now. I have to remember I have her.


Turn Three – McMourning Initiative
A good time to win initiative. Steve activates and kills Iggy, then moves in on Johan and Kaeris. Kaeris is none too happy and kills Steve and my last Night Terror. Not a great showing for those guys. This time I remember Bette and she pops out, puts up her auto-paralyze, and charges Kaeris but misses (I think a soulstone was involved). Johan kills Bette but she uses One with the Night. Over on the other side, Sebastian pops again, killing one Gamin and dropping another to one. McMourning flies through the mess and gets some attacks on the Gunsmith, but not enough, and the Gunsmith shoots McMourning back with Gunfighter for 3 wounds. By now there’s a whole mess of corpses everywhere.


Turn Four – McMourning Initiative
I lead with McM, killing the Gunsmith, healing himself, and then putting up a Flesh Construct between him and Kaeris, making sure she can’t target the master. Kaeris spends the turn killing the Flesh Construct as Sebastian kills the Fire Gamin and moves in on the Supply Wagon, but fails to damage it. The Crooked Man tries too but misses. As the Flesh Construct died, Bette reappeared and charged Johan, trying to paralyze him, but missed again (she’s got to get some practice in). To make matters worse, Johan swings his big hammer at her, kills her, and she tries One with the Night but flips the Black Joker. Ouch!


Turn Five – Kaeris Initiative
Kaeris flies up on a hilltop and tries to burn down the Crooked Man and Sebastian, but only kills the Crooked Man. She puts up a wall of fire between McMourning and Johan. McMourning cares not – he runs through the fire picking up about 6 bodies on the way, gains fast, and drops Johan by about 3. He also summons Steve back up next to Kaeris on the hill. Sebastian finally hits the Supply Wagon, damaging it. Johan whacks McM a lot, dropping him to 1 life left and no stones remaining. Steve drops Kaeris to 1 life left and 2 poison. Ouch.


Turn Six – McMourning Initiative
Kaeris stones with her last stone for initiative, but fails. McMourning hits Johan and flips the Red Joker + Severe for damage, dropping Johan to 1 but healing as much damage as he dealt. Mmm… fully healed. He proceeds to kill off Johan and moves further on to Chris’ side of the board. The Fire Gamin tries and fails to kill Sebastian, so Sebastian kills him. Kaeris dies, and Steve joins McMourning on the road to victory.


Final score: I win, 6 (2 Turf War, 2 Stake a Claim, 2 Holdout) to 2 (2 a wounded Supply Wagon, 0 Breakthrough, 0 Sabotage). Close game again, and a good time. McMourning could easily have been killed that last turn by Johan if Chris had won initiative.



All in all, I’ve played about 18 games of Ressers over the past couple months. Next week starts Bill’s winter league, a six-week single-faction extravaganza. I’m still on the fence about what faction to take. I’ve played Ressers exclusively for a while now, and I’m still enjoying them, but I don’t know if I want to commit to another six weeks of them. Especially since I’m already itching to get a few games of Neverborn under my belt.

As far as I know, there are already two Neverborn players and two Resser players in the league. There are also two Archanists, a Guild and an Outcast. I could try Outcasts, but all I’d be able to play would be Viki and Hamelin, and I think I would bore too easily.

Right now I’m leaning Neverborn, but we’ll see how things roll by next week.