NoVA Open, Part Three

And to finish out the story of the NoVA Open.

I had just successfully defended the top table in round three ending with a score of (9/+14/19) and was waiting on the other games to finish out before I’d find out who my opponent would be. The second table had Dixon facing off with another local of ours, Tim, in a Neverborn vs. Outcasts clash. As time was called, Tim had the lead and won the game in a close match. Dixon dropped out of the top tables and Tim joined me playing for first place.


ROUND FOUR - TIM, SHARED CLAIM JUMP

Tim and I have played each other several times in the past and I’ve always gotten the better of him. I knew his collection of Neverborn wasn’t that large and was pretty certain which master I’d be facing just on how I knew him. I didn’t want to take that into account in how I selected my crew, though – it seemed a little sketchy – so when he suggested that we play a true mirror match, I jumped at the chance. I suggested we add another addendum to that: only play with book 1 models. He liked the idea and we came up with a list we could both agree on.

Our schemes, unfortunately, could not be identical since we both had different schemes left.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Younger Nephilim, Terror Tots x3, 7 Soulstones

My Schemes: Kill Protégé: Mature Nephilim, Eye for an Eye

His Schemes: Hold Out, Kidnap: Terror Tots

The game was fairly hilarious as far as a mirror match goes. On the first turn, we each killed one of the other’s Terror Tots so we were even on models. On the second turn, I killed a second of his Terror Tots and grew one of my Tots into a Younger and he killed my other Younger, so we were still even on models. Our key pieces – Lilith and the Matures, were still hovering back on the field.

On the end of the second turn, I decided to throw caution to the wind and charged in at his Lilith with mine. I didn’t hit once, though I did drain a few of his stones. His Mature jumped in to the mix but missed my Lilith and I charged his Lilith with my Mature. A whole bunch of nothing happening in the middle, but at least we were all together.

Turn three started and he won initiative, going with Lilith hitting Defensive Stance. She attacked my Mature, doing some wounds, and then activated his Mature after who finished off mine. Meanwhile I had managed to kill off his Younger and grow a second Younger of my own. Lilith killed off his Mature and he had enough Blood to grow his Tot to a Younger and then to a Mature straight away. Our armies were at Lilith with the Primordial Magic and a Mature (Tim) against Lilith with a Primordial Magic and two Younger (me). Tough spot.



He won initiative again on turn four but I drew a 13 and the Red Joker into my hand, so I was pleased. He had Lilith Defensive Stance again while his Mature went after my Youngers, killing one. I had my Lilith attack his, stoned in and hit her for a straight flip. I dropped the Red Joker and flipped a Weak damage for 9. He prevented 3 of it. My Younger worked on his Mature but didn’t kill it. My Primordial Magic, who was also engaged, decided to get in the fun and attacked for a couple damage himself. Combat 3’s not that bad when he’s only Defense 4.

I finally won initiative on turn five and he was almost out of stones. I started with Lilith and she swung and missed, though it burned out the last of Tim’s stones. Lilith swung a second time and this time killed off Tim’s Lilith. I didn’t have enough room to go after his Mature, so I backed away to the center of the board and the Claim Jump. My Younger went next and brought his Mature down to one. His Mature killed my Younger.

On the last turn, Tim decided he had to risk going after Lilith. I had no stones and if he got a hit with a Red Joker, he’d kill Lilith and win. I cheated the first defense too high so that he got the -2 Combat from my defensive trigger, and the second attack missed. Lilith went and cut the Mature in half, leaving Tim with no models left. I held the center and won, 8-4.

So the tournament ended with me as the lone undefeated player. I ended up at (12/+19/27)


The second table was a Neverborn and Resserectionist player facing off, and the Resser won. On table three, Second Generation Awesome Dan was facing Wyrd Zee in a Resser/Archanist battle. Wyrd Zee pulled out an Archanist win, giving us a Neverborn/Resser/Archanist top three.

My prizes were a plaque (which is good – Chris, the owner of Huzzah Hobbies, said we weren’t allowed back if we didn’t bring back a prize), a Rules Manual, Twisting Fates, a painted Von Schill crew, and a $25 gift card to Battlefoam. I handed off the Rules Manual to one of the players who didn’t have one yet and handed off the Twisting Fates to the guy who took 4th Place, another local who didn’t have it yet. Dan had painted up the Von Schill crew and offered to buy my dinner in exchange for it since he painted it up and wanted to give the Freikorps a try. I already owned them, so I figured it was a good deal. I did finally order a new transport bag from BattleFoam, though. Romeo was there and showed me the new Go PACK – an awesome new backpack bag that was coming out a few days later. He didn’t have any to sell there, but I put one on special order and should be getting my new bag in a week or two.

I called it a day for Malifaux as my head was already starting to hurt. I don’t like playing in tournaments much – my head can’t take too many games in a row. We hit dinner with the Atlanta gang – a great group of guys – headed out to CVS for some medicine, handed in our Friday Achievement League packets and then went home.

The next morning I showed up back at Dan’s place and we headed out. When we arrived, we found out that Dan had won the Ressers Achievement prize for Friday: a Collodi Box set. Fantastic news, since Dan wanted to pick it up for his Leviticus crew, only he had literally just picked it up on the way in to the gaming area as we passed by the WarStore booth. Fortunately Tim also wanted it, so he was able to swap the Collodi box for a Viktoria box set.

Today was going to be mostly casual play. I won’t go into each game I played (mostly because I don’t remember them), but I do remember the basics of what I was facing off against.

My first game was me playing McMourning against Dan’s new Freikorps box set. I had him put together a 25 stone list and we just went to town in the M&SU Bar setup. It was a hilarious game of massive death everywhere. McMourning was finally able to Scalpel Sling Von Schill and carve him up while Mortimer (I think that’s his name) went out to collect all the bodies left behind for him. McMourning ended up with 21 body part tokens and a wicked grin on his face. I went home and painted this guy up – he’s a bundle of fun!



I also played against Zee. He used a Lucius list while I played Zoraida with Collodi in Shared Deliver the Message. I sold out to deliver him the message on turn one and failed by one on my flip and he was able to deliver the message to me on turn two when he won initiative. Even still, my Zoradia and Collodi pair managed to wipe out the entire group of Guild by turn six, and I moved Zoraida into his deployment zone to break his hidden scheme of Holdout. Meanwhile, I managed to nab two points from Deliver the Message, another two from Kill Protégé: Guild Guard Captain, and one from my hidden Holdout to win the game 5-4.

I got a rematch in against Chuck’s Perdita, this time playing with Zoraida and a few Nightmares (no Collodi) and pulled the game out there as Zoraida got near the gunslinger and managed to explode three Wicked Dolls on her to kill her.

eChris pulled out his Colette crew with a very unusual setup – Colette, Cassandra, and three pairs of Performer/Mannequins. He managed to turn three of the Dreamer’s models – Lelu and both Night Terrors (I LOVE those guys, by the way) into Mannequins over the course of the game, but I still hung on tooth and nail to win 6-4.

Finally, I got another game in against Dan, Dreamer against Vikis. I could tell by now my head was not in the game because I kept having to ask Dan what I was supposed to be doing and what he was supposed to be doing. I gave up two points for First Blood because I couldn’t remember what he took, even though it was only turn two. I then dropped Lord Chompy Bits between both Vikis, killed them both, and forgot to bring out the Dreamer so LCB died in return. If it weren’t for a bad flip by Von Schill and his fleeing from Lord Chompy Bits, Dan would have Delivered the Message too. I managed to wipe out his models, but far too slowly as he killed off Lelu for Kill Protégé. He ended up with 4 points, never managing to Deliver the Message after he failed the Terrify check, and I somehow pulled in 6 points, though Dan did have to remind me what I was doing nearly every turn.

With my brain clearly being mush, the Hurricane threatening to spill torrential rains on us, and me not wanting to stay awake until 5 AM, then drive home and have less than a day to recover before working again, Dan and I decided to clear out. We hung out for a little while longer, then turned in our Achievement sheets and headed out. Got a text from Bill the next day saying I’d won the Neverborn Saturday Achievement prize. Good deal!

Overall, a fantastic weekend. I got in 9 games of Malifaux against some old friends and some people I’d never faced before. Got to meet Zee finally, and won a tournament to boot. I think my only regret was not playing Bunniegod, who I didn’t put together was the guy who won GenCon until I was on the road home chatting with Dan. Evidently people had mentioned that fact several times over the course of the convention, but being deaf and having taken my hearing aids out for the convention (I don’t function well in loud, big areas), I managed to miss it every time someone mentioned that fact. He seemed like a really cool guy, and a lot of fun. I’d like to face him at some point – seems like he’d be a really good challenge.

Thanks to Bill for putting together a great series of events. Hopefully you’ve managed to recover.

Now to wait for my Go PACK to arrive. That thing is awesome! Seriousness, check it out if you haven’t already.

NoVA Open, Part Two

So to continue my tale...

After round two ended, I found myself at first with a score of (6/+7/12). We took a short break and then lined up for our third round. Outcasts and Neverborn seemed to be pulling to the top of the pile.


ROUND THREE - BRAD, SHARED DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

As before, I told my opponent I was playing Neverborn and asked if there was anything with which he was unfamiliar and wanted to avoid seeing. Brad said he didn't want to see Zoraida anymore - evidently she's seeing a lot of face-time in his local area (Maryland, if I remember right) - so I narrowed my choices to the other three masters. I decided against Lilith since I had already played her, and given that the mission was Shared Destroy the Evidence, I decided to go with a fast list: Pandora/Collodi. I wanted to make sure I got the center objective first. I also went for two of the schemes I had been saving, figuring that if I could put this game away well enough, I'd be in great shape to hold one of the top three spots.

Pandora, Primordial Magic, Collodi, Marionettes x4, Stitched Together x2, 7 Soulstones (Kidnap: the Alps, Bodyguard)

Dreamer, Daydream, Coppelius, Alps x3, Stitched Together x2, 5 Soulstones (Eye for an Eye, Holdout)

I love it when people take Holdout against me. Most people look at it as an easy pair of victory points, and I look at it as a fairly simple Scheme to break.

The game started and I flipped and won initiative. After a little conversation, Brad decided it was probably in his best interest to try to stone to win initiative, even though he was aiming to beat an 8. The winner of the initiative flip essentially decided who got the middle objective. He flipped again and still lost initiative.

I started with Collodi and the Marionettes, snaking my way up to the objective, grabbing it, and then pulling Collodi back to safety with my last Marionette. The Dreamer was not too happy with that and he (with a Daydream's help) jumped out to the middle of the board and killed both the Marionettes that had been left up front, but failed to activate "All Done" and failed to summon another Daydream. One of my Stitched Togethers was able to get up near him within Collodi's 4" WP boost and start pounding on the beast with Gamble Your Life until he was down to only a couple of life remaining. The Dreamer's Alps, Coppelius and Stitched Togethers all advanced to catch up to Lord Chompy Bits while Pandora and her crew moved up to try to take down the big guy before he could be brought back to safety.

The next turn he was able to bury LCB and get him away before I could kill him, but he was already out of stones and my Stitched Together ended up killing off Coppelius instead. His two Stitched Togethers split up to go for two of the objective markers while Collodi and his now-three Marionettes moved out to try to sprint towards more of them. A bloody fight went back and forth where I was able to get LCB back on the table and kill him, and then the Dreamer as well, just as the Alps were moving into position around my crew. Pandora and the Stitched took care of them, losing one of my Stitched in the process. I was able to kill one of his with Collodi and his friends, then move on past to get to my objectives. His last Stitched reached his objective marker, ready to tag it with Reactivate, but Pandora managed to make him flee before killing him, meaning he was too far away to reach the objective. Finally, my Collodi group was running out of time so I claimed only two of the three objectives (one in the field and one in the deployment zone, both getting the victory points there and breaking Hold Out).

Final score for the game turned out to be 7-0 in Pandora's favor. My tournament record was at a healthy (9/+14/19) putting me in a resounding first place at the moment. There were several people with two wins and a tie, though, so if I lost and one of them won, I was still out of the running.

NoVA Open, Part One

I was unable to go to GenCon this year, so when Bill (of the Gamers Lounge - if you don't listen to the podcast, check it out) suggested that I head out to NoVA Open this year - that it was going to have a nice-sized Malifaux presence - I took him up on it. I haven't been to a lot of conventions outside of GenCon, so I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. I told my new job I'd be taking Friday off and then woke up early to head out to Dan's place so we could hit the road to NoVA Open.



After stopping for breakfast we made it out to Arlington, Virginia and found our way through the hotel to where we'd be staying. We passed by booths set up by Battlefoam, the Warstore, and Spikey Bits. Picked up our bag of swag which was overloaded with Games Workshop-centric stuff, and headed on in to find the Malifaux space.



Clearly we had to walk a long way just to find the Malifaux tables. We were tucked away in the corner of the gaming space. But it turned out to be just fine - we had about a dozen tables set up for Malifaux games with all manner of varied terrain. A lot of city boards, a desert board, a couple of Terraclips boards. We had a few ruins and outdoor scenes, and then we had Bill's new gaming table of the M&SU Bar - an entirely interior board designed to look like a pub in Malifaux complete with stage, tables, a bar with kegs, etc. It looked pretty awesome. A big shout out to our local, John, who constructed the thing (and a lot of the terrain there, in fact).

Dan and I checked in and received our first achievement packets. Throughout the day, as you accomplished different tasks, you would receive stamps in your packet worth different points, and at the end of the day the top of each faction would win a plaque and a prize.

The area was crowded too - there were a ton of people there. When Bill called for the start to the first tournament - Through the Breach - I think he said we had 22 people signed up for it. The biggest Malifuax tournament I'd played in.

I brought my Neverborn, mostly because that's pretty much what I own. I've been playing them since day one and despite all the whining on the forums that had been getting me down on playing my faction anymore, I decided to say "screw you" to the complainers and play what I enjoyed anyway. The tournament was going to be 30 stone matches, domination style (TP/Diff/VP), no repeating schemes.


ROUND ONE - CHUCK, SHARED SLAUGHTER

My first game was against one of our NoVA locals, Chuck. I asked him if there was anyone he wanted to face or didn't want to face in Neverborn, and he said he had a lot more experience against Lilith than the other masters, so I pulled out Lilith. The mission was Shared Slaughter, so I felt she could do well for me. The board had LOS across almost the entire table with a lot of small ridges and bushes to provide some cover as you crossed. We revealed crews and picked Schemes.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Younger Nephilim, Terror Tot x3, 7 Soulstones (Breakthrough, Grudge: Francisco)

Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, Nino, Abuela, 6 Soulstones (Assassinate, Frame for Murder: Francisco)

I panicked a little. I would be advancing down an almost completely-open board with barely anything to block LOS against an Ortega gunline. This was going to be interesting. There was no way I'd make it to him with everything.

The first turn went predictably. On my first turn I moved everything up a bit, hiding my Tots (because there was some HT2 terrain on the board) and advancing with my larger models once the Family was all done activating.

On turn two I drew the Red Joker and breathed a sigh of relief. Now I just needed to get Lilith to Perdita. I tried to run one of my Tots around the back of his board, but Francisco leveled his gun and killed him in one shot. Another Tot got taken out by Perdita as he tried to dodge between cover. My Younger jumped behind some small rocks and got nailed by Nino, dropping him to one wound left. He had Santiago left and I had Lilith, the Primordial Magic, and the Mature Nephilim. I had the Mature fly out ahead of Lilith, hiding behind some small trees. Santiago moved out and tried to finish off the Younger Nephilim, but I cheated to keep him alive. The Primordial Magic moved up, used Transposition to switch the Mature with Lilith, and then Lilith charged Perdita. I used a Soulstone to hit, and the Great Sword gave me a straight flip. I cheated in the Red Joker, then added another Severe to the damage, pasting Perdita.



The next turn, my Younger charged Abuela and knocked her down to one life, and the old lady shredded him with her shotgun. My Mature was Transpositioned by the Primordial Magic with my remaining Tot, bringing him back to the front line, and he charged in to Francisco and Nino, killing Francisco and taking Grudge. Lilith charged in to Abuela, killing her, and then moved on Santiago. At that point, the Family was pretty much out of options.

We tallied up points a little too quickly and made a mistake in the scores we reported - I had Breakthrough and Grudge, along with full Slaughter, but we misunderstood Frame for Murder and awarded two points for that, so our game got reported as an 8-2 victory. My score, then, was currently at (3/+6/8).


We took a long break for lunch and went out with a few of the guys from other areas including Wyrd's Zee and GenCon's champion, Bunniegod. After lunch we headed back for our new pairings.


ROUND TWO - RICK, SHARED RECONNOITER

Reconnoiter is one of my least favorite main missions. For whatever reason, I just do terrible at this one.

The board was a Terraclips sewers board with a few buildings, some catwalks, and a large open alley down the center of the board. Unfortunately I was getting so engrossed in my games at this point that I had forgotten to take any pictures again until round four.

I asked Rick if there was anything in Neverborn he didn't want to face and he said he wasn't too keen on seeing Pandora on the table (and maybe the Dreamer too... I couldn't remember) so I picked Zoraida.

Zoraida, Collodi, Marionettes x4, Stitched Together, Lelu, 7 Soulstones (Stake a Claim, Reclaim Malifaux)

Lady Justice, Executioner, Death Marshall x2, Witchling Stalker x2, Guardian, 4 Soulstones (Stake a Claim, Holdout)

Fortunately I had Stake a Claim on a building that touched his deployment zone, so I could break Holdout and grab Stake a Claim with a single model.

The Guild crew busted through some walls in the sewers in order to keep out of LOS of Zoraida as they advanced down the board while a Death Marshall and Stalker advanced down the opposite side to try to grab the quarters. I decided to leave everyone but Zoraida to deal with the massive group of Guild and then sent Zoraida to pick up the last few Reclaim Malifaux points after the end of the second turn. She kept flying around and interacting with terrain to try to grab the objectives while the Stitched, Lelu and Collodi faced down against the Executioner and Lady Justice. I managed to get Lady Justice knocked down to 2 wounds with 2 Poison on her, but the Executioner was still fully healthy as the Guardian was taking all his wounds from the Stitched Together. The Guardian moved up to Lady Justice and tagged himself onto her to make sure he took the wounds from Poison. Lelu attacked her again and killed her and the Guardian, thankfully, before she was able to kill off my crew. The Executioner killed off the Stitched and moved on away after Lelu, knocking the boy down to 1 life left. I was in a tight spot. I could kill the Executioner with Collodi (the Executioner was dropped to one life on the Stitched's reactivate), but then he'd kill Lelu and be fine. I could not get Zoraida over to Hex the Executioner fast enough and even if I was able, I didn't have the time to turn away from Reclaim Malifaux. So Collodi stabbed Lelu, killing him, and spilling Black Blood onto the Executioner. The Executioner attacked Collodi, trying to kill him, but I spent two Soulstones (one on the defense flip and one on the damage prevention) and he survived with one wound.

In turn six, Zoraida flew next to the last Malifaux section and reclaimed it, grabbing 2 for that, 2 for being next to the Stake a Claim, and denying the Holdout. A huge point shift. He managed to bring his last Death Marshall over to kill off Collodi which freed his Witchling Stalker to go after the Claim Jump. Unfortunately, though, he was only able to grab one quarter at that point as Zoraida and the other Stalker were contesting the final one.

Final score, Zoraida wins, 4-3, and my tournament score was now (6/+7/12). This bumped me up into the lead and as one of the games ahead of me ended up in a draw, there were only three undefeated players left.


I'll be back to talk about the final two rounds and the rest of the NoVA Open in the next post.

Poor Avatar Pandora

I don’t like Avatar Pandora. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of regular Pandora either, though for entirely different reasons. She is far and away my least-used Neverborn master. I don’t like to use her because I think she’s a negative play experience for my opponents most of the time. Even with the plethora of changes that have come down for her over time, some directly to her rules (not being able to Incite/Pacify friendly models anymore, etc.) and others that have happened to rules she uses (making fleeing not quite as devastating as before), she is still a top tier master. It’s not that I think top tier masters are negative play experiences, it’s just that the way Pandora tends to win can be a negative play experience for your opponent. Everything fleeing when it’s least convenient, and all your massive melee beasts whacking themselves to death with their own weaponry… that can start to grate on people. Add to that her defenses which are ample… “You tried to hit me? Sorry, failed your WP duel so you take a wound AND I push out of the way so you can’t even try again.”

But I digress. This article is not about how good regular Pandora is. It’s about how bad Avatar Pandora is. And quite frankly, it comes down to a single ability on her card that makes her terrible: Immobile.

Immobile: This model’s position in play may not be changed by movement effects or placement effects. This model cannot be buried.

I get that the fluff has her planted to the ground and tentacles shooting out of the ground all around her. I get that it fits with the fluff to have that ability. But really? A master who is completely unable to move. Come on. So much of this game is dependent on maneuvering that planting your feet when you manifest does two things:

1. It prevents you from reaching any schemes or strategies that you need to move to get to.

2. It allows your opponent to move freely towards their strategies and schemes that you have not planted yourself on.



So what do you gain from manifesting? You do one damage whenever your opponent fails a WP duel, which you could do anyway. You can make your opponent hit themselves with their weapon, which you could already (admittedly you can sometimes make them hit themselves harder than you used to). And if you get a crow on that spell, you paralyze them too! Though you used to make them fall back, which is generally a stronger effect. You get Anathema for your Terrifying, but it’s so easy to avoid a model that can’t move that it’s no big issue.

The problem is that once Avatar Pandora plants, unless she’s planting where she needs to be for the rest of the game, you’ve lost her as a useful model. You’ve traded one of the fastest models in the game for the slowest. You get Candy in the trade, but she’s more fragile and a bit slower.

My issue is that anything Avatar Pandora can do, regular Pandora tends to be a better call for. And in certain situations, Avatar Pandora’s Immobile is such a disadvantage that it actively hurts your ability to play.

I have used Avatar Pandora a fair shake of games. The majority of the games went in a familiar pattern: Pandora came out strong, was winning early on, then manifested and due to her limitations manifesting, my opponent was nearly able to recover and push the game back in their favor. Had I remained with regular Pandora, I would have wrapped the game up earlier. I still win games with Avatar Pandora. It's just that often it is in spite of manifesting rather than because of it.

It’s really too bad. I love her model.

Avatar Pandora vs Lilith, 35 Stones

Headed out to the Huzzah Hobbies last night to get a couple of games in. I had painted up my Avatar Pandora and Candy over the weekend, so I wanted to give them a try too, and wanted to give Avatar Zoraida another swing. I was pretty sure I would get two games in so I decided to figure out my strategies before deciding which direction to go. Here’s the first of them, and if I get a chance, I’ll post up the second.

GAME TWO - 35 STONES - aPANDORA vs. LILITH
Pandora w/ Avatar, 7 Stones
Coppelius
Lelu
Lilitu
Sorrow x2
Primordial Magic


Lilith, 8 Stones
Younger Nephilim
Younger Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot x3
Primordial Magic
Desperate Merc

Strategy: Treasure Hunt (Pandora) vs. Line in the Sand (Lilith)
Zoraida Schemes: Hold Out, Bodyguard
Lilith Schemes: Breakthrough, Hold Out

We kept the same board as before. The terrain was one of Bill’s fixed boards set up with a fenced-in cemetery in the middle of the board and then a lot of ruins all along the outside of that. There were not a lot of places to completely block LOS, so we added in a few more pieces of terrain – more ruins. This time our deployment was diagonal, and he put most of his crew behind some ruins while I kept mine up close and near the center of the board. I had Coppelius down on the southern end to dissuade any quick grabs of the dynamite markers down there, but that’s about it.

I apologize ahead of time – I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of activation order and the like. I’ll do my best to reconstruct what I can.


TURN ONE - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off by having both of my Sorrows link to Pandora while the Desperate Mercenary realized what he was getting himself into and ran ahead. The Black Blood Shaman moved up, cut himself for a blood, and pulled all the Nephilim towards him, and a Younger cut the Desperate Merc in half, taking the blood, and giving the Shaman his second blood token and a healing flip. The Younger then Matured into a Mature Nephilim.

I moved Lilitu up and grabbed the Mature with a Lure, bringing him closer to me but failing to double-take the action. Sadly it didn’t do too much more for me. The other Tots darted for the northern section of the board and those two dynamite markers. Coppelius covered the south, keeping out of range of attacks but close enough to move in with a paralyze if I needed it next turn. Lilith dropped a forest right between the Mature and Pandora and then moved around the side. Pandora moved up and pricked Lilith for a point, but had to spend most of her actions moving and couldn’t do much else.


TURN TWO - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off with what was probably a bad idea. I Bonded the twins and had Lilitu move up and Lure Lilith forward. I got another wound on her but couldn’t do much more and then had Lelu charge Lilith and miss twice. Lilith activated and companioned the Mature. She took three attacks to kill Lelu, and the Mature used Diving Attack to charge one of the Sorrows and kill it, then cut down the second one with his Melee Expert. Ouch! Not at all how I expected the turn to start.

I activated the Primordial Magic and channeled Project Emotions onto Lilith, but she used a Soulstone and prevented it. The Tots continued to move after the Dynamite, triggering the first one. Coppelius moved out and Paralyzed the Mature. I wanted to see which model I had to deal with quickly. The Younger moved up nearby, preparing to launch himself into the fight. Pandora activated and hit Lilith with Project Emotions, flipping a Crow on the flip and making her flee after both of us spent a soulstone to try to make sure it went our way. Pandora then slid around on Incites and zapped the Younger with Self Loathing, flipping two Severes for damage and knocking him down to one while making him flee. Finally, she pounded on the Black Blood Shaman for a point. This got her first manifest requirement to complete, though it took a couple soulstones.

The Black Blood moved up into the forest, and the fleeing Younger rallied. Lilith, on the other hand, would have to wait until next turn to rally.


TURN THREE - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I got lucky with initiative here and led things off with Lilitu. Since Lilith hadn’t rallied yet, and I drew a hand with a 13, 11, and 9 of masks, I started off with Luring her. She had (-) flips to resist and I pulled her in with my masks, triggering Double Take as much as I could. Soon she was taking damage just for being near Pandora, and my free attacks were even hitting because of Lilith’s (-) flip. Lilitu ended her activation where Lilith had 3 wounds left.

Lilith went and rallied, then went defensive stance and focused a strike at Lilitu, killing the poor girl. No worries, though, she had done her job. I went with the Primordial Magic channeling Project Emotions and spending a Soulstone to boost the resist. The spell spilled onto the Mature Nephilim and both Lilith and the Mature had (-) WP flips. The Tots moved in towards the next Dynamite while another one slid back towards my deployment zone trying to hide.

Pandora activated and hit Lilith with Self Loathing, killing Lilith. Then she did the same with the Mature, and finally finished off the Blood Shaman with her last casting. The Younger flew back to keep hidden from Pandora and try to fly around the long way to the southern dynamite markers while Coppelius moved over to the closest Terror Tot and plucked an eye from him, leaving him with 2 wounds and poison 2.


TURN FOUR - PANDORA INITIATIVE
I started off with Pandora, tossing some wounds on to the various minions out there and trying to reach the Younger Nephilim, but without as many targets, I wasn’t able to Incite around the board effectively and had to spend some actions just walking. The poisoned Tot died. Coppelius summoned an Alp next to the treasure marker then went after the Terror Tot in my backfield, but missed the attack. His last Tot used the blood from the Younger Nephilim and Grew into a second Younger. I had two sprinting back to pick up more dynamite markers.

The Tot near Coppelius activated but failed his Terrifying check, taking a wound from Pandora and more from Coppelius, killing himself. The Alp picked up the treasure.


TURN FIVE - LILITH INITIATIVE
One of the Younger Nephilim sped to the side and my Alp double-moved back with the treasure. The second Younger followed up and Pandora started her turn. She Pacified the first Younger, wounding it and moved into range of the second one. She Pacified that one, killing it since it had only one wound left. Two Self Loathings later and the last Younger was dead. Coppelius double-moved towards Lilith’s deployment zone to break Hold Out.


TURN SIX – n/a INITIATIVE
Pandora manifested automatically – I had the soulstone saved to prevent it but since there was nothing left for Pandora to do, it didn’t matter. Coppelius made it into Lilith’s deployment zone to break Hold Out and the Alp got the treasure back into my deployment zone.


Final score: Pandora wins, 8-0.


The game started out pretty bad for me, but the turn where I paralyzed the Mature and made both Lilith and the Younger flee proved key. Even down models at that point, I was able to eliminate the three hardest hitters and take care of them one at a time. Lilith’s biggest struggle is her willpower, and Pandora can handle that pretty well.

Regarding the avatars themselves, this was the second game out of two where I found manifesting was not going to help me out in the game. Had things been one turn behind and the Younger Nephilim were still out on turn 6, I likely would have needed to use my soulstone to prevent myself from Manifesting because the two Nephilim were farther than 12” from me and I needed Pandora to move to reach her targets. It will certainly require more testing, but Avatar Pandora’s Immobile is a massive disadvantage, and a huge drawback to manifesting her in most games.

Avatar Zoraida vs. Lilith, 35 Stones

Headed out to the Huzzah Hobbies last night to get a couple of games in. I had painted up my Avatar Pandora and Candy over the weekend, so I wanted to give them a try too, and wanted to give Avatar Zoraida another swing. I was pretty sure I would get two games in so I decided to figure out my strategies before deciding which direction to go. Here’s the first of them, and if I get a chance, I’ll post up the second.

GAME ONE - 35 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. LILITH
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 7 Stones
Collodi
Marionette x4
Wicked Doll
Stitched Together
Lelu


Lilith, 8 Stones
Mature Nephilim
Younger Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot x3

Strategy: Destroy the Evidence (Zoraida) vs. Reconnoiter (Lilith)
Zoraida Schemes: Reclaim Malifaux, Bodyguard (Zoraida)
Lilith Schemes: Bodyguard, Assassinate

The terrain was one of Bill’s fixed boards set up with a fenced-in cemetery in the middle of the board and then a lot of ruins all along the outside of that. There were not a lot of places to completely block LOS, so we added in a few more pieces of terrain – more ruins. I deployed first in standard deployment and set up where I could grab the back three Reclaim Malifaux points quickly and then start moving out. My plan was to get Zoraida to manifest and then control the center of the board with Lelu and the Stitched Together while Collodi jumped all around grabbing all the points I needed. Lilith deployed along his deployment zone – I reminded my opponent to keep his key pieces out of LOS of Zoraida if he did not want to risk being Obeyed on turn one.

I apologize ahead of time – I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of activation order and the like. I’ll do my best to reconstruct what I can.

TURN ONE - LILITH INITIATIVE
The first turn was fairly basic early on. The Tots started moving up, and the Younger flew forward, keeping himself out of sight. I was at a problem, though. I needed a 7 of Masks for my Hex on Lelu to work, and I needed a 10 of Masks to get Crystal Ball to work. My high card in my hand was a 6, and I had a 5 and 4 of Masks to work with.

I had my Lelu, a Marionette, and the Stitched all move up and grab the back three Reclaim Malifaux points. I kept trying to cast spells with everyone I could to see if I could unbury a high mask to use with Bayou Two-Card, but that wasn’t working.

One of my Marionettes activated, moved up and then pulled strings to get Collodi near the middle fence of the cemetery to try to grab another Reclaim Malifaux point. My next Marionette jumped to him and grabbed the middle point, and the last Marionette jumped to him, moved out and grabbed the middle-right Malifaux point, giving me five points at the first turn.

Of course, things couldn’t be that good. Lilith moved up and Companioned the Mature Nephilim. She Transpositioned the Mature with a Tot near the cemetery and then put up an Illusionary Forest to hold off my Collodi group. The Mature Nephilim charged and killed two of my Marionettes. Collodi activated and used one of the Scrap Tokens to create a new Marionette, and then tried to give him Melee Expert, but my hand was pretty bad. I still had not unburied a high mask.

My new Marionette activated and attacked the Mature, doing one wound to him. Finally, Zoraida activated. I tried to cast Crystal Ball, figuring if I could succeed at that, I might get lucky and dig up what I needed for Hex. I tossed my 5 of Masks to cheat the spell, and then burned a Soulstone needing a 5 of any suit. I flipped a 3, failing. F---. So I cast Hex on Lelu, tossing my 4 of Masks and burning another Soulstone, this time needing only a 3. I flipped a 12 of Masks. At least one of my spells went off. I was already behind on Manifesting, though. I needed to catch up. With my last action, I Obeyed Lelu to move forward to get ready to grab another Reclaim Malifaux point.


TURN TWO - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I drew my hand of cards again and this time had an 8 high, and no Masks. Zoraida really did not want to Manifest.

So I had a Mature in my face and had to deal with it quick. To that end, I activated Collodi. I probably should have made my dolls fast, but I didn’t want to sit without four Marionettes very long, so I had him create the fourth Marionette. He then Breathed Life into two of them and pulled up Melee Expert. Finally, he said the Stitched was going to activate after him. He closed out his turn and activated the Marionettes. All four of them went to town on the Mature and finally the last attack from the last Marionette hit the Red Joker for damage and did the last four wounds to the Mature. I had the Stitched left to go so he moved up a bit and popped smoke to try to hide more of my crew.

Two of the Tots sprinted in on one of my Marionettes and together killed him, and then Lilith rushed in and killed off two more of my Marionettes leaving Collodi with one bodyguard. It wasn’t looking good. Meanwhile my remaining crew - a Wicked Doll, Zoraida and Lelu – decided they’d need to pick up the slack from the Collodi crew. I Obeyed Lelu to move up but he wasn’t in the right section of the board when he hit the Reclaim Malifaux. Zoraida turned into a bird and flew over near the Younger Nephilim and the Wicked Doll snapped to her and tagged the final middle point. I had the three back points to grab plus my three Destroy the Evidence markers.

The Younger Nephilim decided not to try to take on Zoraida and the Wicked Doll and pushed back to the middle of the board to protect the Destroy the Evidence markers.

With Collodi not long for this world and not drawing a good enough hand for Crystal Ball two turns in a row, I decided to abandon my initial plan and try a new strategy: use regular Zoraida’s speed with the Wicked Doll to grab all my objectives and use the Stitched Together and Lelu to hunt as many models as I could to deny him Reconnoiter.


TURN THREE - LILITH INITIATIVE
Damn. I had a plan to get Collodi and the Marionettes to kill the two nearby Terror Tots but instead Lilith goes first. She kills the last Marionette, then hits Collodi and her Greatsword gives her the straight flip for damage. She cheats in a Red Joker and flips a moderate for 10 wounds. I spend a stone to prevent (I really wanted to make sure Lilith would have to spend her last action on Collodi – I didn’t want her with one more AP out there) and he managed to flip a moderate to leave him at 1 life remaining. With her last action, Lilith swapped off Collodi’s head.

My Stitched Together moved up and Gambled his Life with a Terror Tot, killing it. His Black Blood moved up and gave his Younger Nephilim Flurry, but there was nothing close enough. He started moving towards the side of the cemetery with all the corpses from the Mature, no doubt trying to fuel his unnatural ways! His Younger activated and repositioned a bit, keeping an eye on Lelu. Zoraida activated and Obeyed Lelu to move closer, then turned into a raven, moved to the first evidence marker and destroyed it. My Wicked Doll snapped to her and activated the terrain for Reclaim Malifaux. Lelu charged the Younger and missed, then hit for 2 wounds and 2 poison. His two Terror Tots rushed Lelu but one was too far out and the other wasn’t able to hit him.


TURN FOUR - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I started out with Lelu attacking the Younger and knocking him down to two wounds left and two poison, then turned around and knocked the Tot to two wounds left and two poison, then tried to move away to avoid any retaliation, but the Tot held me in place. His Black Blood Shaman went and pulled his Nephilim towards him, then healed the Younger for two. Damn, I forgot about that ability. Should’ve finished him off!

Zoraida Obeyed Lelu to charge the Younger and kill him, marking off one of my Manifest requirements. Oops. I wasn’t meaning to do that since my whole plan was not to be an avatar this game at this point. No worries – as long as I didn’t cast Crystal Ball anymore, I wouldn’t need to worry about it until the final turn. Zoraida then double-moved to the far side of the board and the Wicked Doll snapped to her and took care of the Evidence Marker there.

Lilith dropped a forest on the Stitched Together, keeping him in place a bit, and then moved towards the middle to Lelu. She attacked him but didn’t kill him.


TURN FIVE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I could Manifest pretty easily, but still didn’t want to. I needed Zoraida’s speed. I started with Lelu and went for the Black Blood Shaman, knocking him down a bit. Lilith went and murdered Lelu.

I Obeyed the Stitched to move more and then moved Zoraida to the middle of the back end. Lilith and the Black Blood were too close to the Evidence Marker for me to be able to grab it. The last Terror Tot charged Zoradia, but missed. The Wicked Doll snapped in and grabbed the last Malifaux point. My Stitched Advanced on the Lilith/Black Blood.


TURN SIX - LILITH INITIATIVE
I paid my last soulstone not to Manifest. I didn’t want to lose my (-) flips on his attacks – I thought they’d keep me safer than Irresistible would.

Lilith charged Zoradia and missed the first attack, but hit the second knocking her down by 6 life. Ouch! Zoraida activated and Obeyed the Tot to charge the nearly-dead Black Blood. Lilith tried to stop the Tot and managed to. I cheated the attack so that it was a double-negative flip for damage, making it a straight negative. I didn’t want him to cheat the damage in case I got lucky. I did. Two moderates came up and Lilith killed her own Tot. Zoradia made a new Wicked Doll.

The Stitched moved up and used Gamble Your Life on the Shaman. It managed to turn it around on the Stitched and flipped two Severes on a (-) flip, killing it. That worked out well for me – if I could kill the Shaman on my first action, I could use my second to activate the last Destroy Evidence marker. Unfortunately it took both actions to kill the Shaman.

I flipped to see if the game ended and it did.

Zoraida had 2 from Destroy the Evidence, 2 from Bodyguard and 2 from Reclaim Malifaux.
Lilith had 0 from Reconnoiter, 2 from Bodyguard, and 0 from Assassinate.

6-2 Victory. Had the game gone on another turn, I don’t think Zoraida would have survived and it would have become a 4-4 tie.


This game showed me a bit more about Avatars. The idea that they are more powerful than their counterparts is simply not true. In some ways, they are. Avatar Zoraida gets more actions and can do more to control the game than regular Zoraida, but that didn’t matter as much in this game when compared with the ability regular Zoraida has to move around the board quickly. I ended up having to hold off manifesting simply because I needed to keep the maneuverability and defensive superiority of regular Zoraida. I feel strongly that had I manifested in this game, I would not have won.

And that’s okay with me. I like the idea that Avatars are not always the best move. But in the end, it’s interesting to me that I spent four soulstones over the course of the game related to my Avatar and ended up not manifesting (two to purchase at the beginning, one to try – and fail – to cast Crystal Ball on turn one, and one to prevent my automatic manifest on turn 6).

Malifaux List Size - Think Smaller!

I have to admit I was disappointed when I saw that the Masters of Malifaux tournament at GenCon was going to be 40 soulstones. It did not directly impact me since I wasn’t going to be there, but the fact that the tournament was pushing to that level made me a little sad.

I was introduced to miniatures gaming, more or less, at the beginning of Warmachine. Games were small then, but over time they grew from 500 points to 750 points. With Mark 2, the size of the game increased even more, though it was harder to see because the points changed so drastically. I do not play Warmachine anymore. I think it’s a great game and don’t regret any of my time playing, but it’s not the same game I started. I liked the small skirmishes and when the game moved away from that, I moved away from the game. There are a bunch of reasons why I left Warmachine, but the ever-increasing size of the game was one of them.

I know one tournament does not a trend make, but I’m keeping a careful eye open to see if other tournaments are going to start following suit to match GenCon’s 40 stone games. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m worried it will happen sooner or later. I’m already on record with my group in saying that there will eventually be a time I move on from Malifaux to the next game, and one of the things that could trigger that move is an increasing game size.

When I started Malifaux, our group grew eventually and were playing 30 stone games all the time. It wasn’t until a few of us went to tournaments outside our group before we came back and encouraged the 35 stone games as the standard since that seems to be what people used elsewhere. But honestly, I still prefer 30 stone games over the standard 35. One of the reasons for changing the game size to 40 in the tournaments was that it would be a more challenging atmosphere. I feel an even more challenging game is to push the points down to 30 or even 25 stones than to push the limit higher.

So much of Malifaux is taking the right tool for the right missions. If you can take a dozen tools, it doesn’t matter if you get a couple of them wrong. When you play with fewer stones, every model you take must contribute. You can’t afford any dead weight.

Additionally, there’s been a lot of talk about the FILTH list Bill brought to the Masters. While it didn’t win the tournament overall, it did win every game he played it, and win handily. His only loss and tie were when he strayed from that list. At 40 stones, that list is brutal. But cut out 10 stones and all of the sudden it’s a bit less frightening. Either it’s very slim with Nekima and two Lilitu’s, all of which become necessary, or it loses out on its redundancy with the second Lilitu and some of its ability to replace its own models with as many Terror Tots. Other powerful lists take a hit too. Colette has to choose between the Duet and Cassandra. The Dreamer’s not getting the twins and Copellius. The player must make hard choices and make the tightest list he can for the mission he’s playing.

Just random musings, but in my opinion, the perfect game size is 30 stones with a wide-open field of models to choose from. I can bring 100 models to a game, but I need to really focus and pick my best team for the mission ahead of me, and I’ve got no room for fat on the list.

Second Avatar Game, with successful Avatar Goodness

So after our first Zoraida and Seamus game, we reset our crews and started again. I decided to do something different than Collodi this time.

GAME ONE - 30 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. aSEAMUS
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 5 Stones
Doppelganger
Baby Kade
Lelu
Lilitu


Seamus w/ Avatar, 8 Stones
Rotten Belle x2
Crooked Man x2
Necropunk x2

Strategy: Turf War (Zoraida) vs. Reconnoiter (Seamus)
NB Schemes: Stake a Claim & Kill Protege (Crooked Man)
R Schemes: Kill Protege (Lelu) & Breakthrough

The terrain was the same, set up with a bunch of large buildings scattered throughout the board and there was almost nowhere where you could see from one side of the board to the other. Dan won deployment and had me deploy first. We were playing standard deployment, so he was able to make sure his crew was hidden after seeing where I deployed.

TURN ONE - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
Even with the Doppelganger helping out, Dan won initiative with a 9-low while I flipped a 7. He had a Necropunk fail leap and then double-move along the right flank, hiding behind buildings, trying to grab some corners while staying alive. I double-moved Baby Kade up behind the central building, keeping hidden.

He had his second Necropunk do the same thing along the left flank. Lelu double-moved forward near Kade, hidden behind the building.

The first Crooked Man moved up behind the central building on the other side. Lelu moved forward twice and then Lured Zoraida up a little.

The second Crooked Man moved out along the left side of the building, far out of range but keeping an eye on things. My Doppelganger copied Obey and Obeyed Lilitu forward a little more, then moved herself up. All these random spells I was casting really had only one point: try to dig to a 10 or better of masks. My high card in hand was a 7 and I didn't have any masks, and I wanted to get Crystal Ball to work at least once.

The first Belle moved up and lured Seamus forward to get more speed out of him. Zoraida went and used the high mask on top to cast Crystal Ball, then moved forward and Obeyed the Doppelganger up a bit more.

The second Belle moved up twice to the edge of the building, and then Seamus followed suit, casting Face of Fear.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 5 soulstones, 1x Crystal Ball
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 soulstones, 1x Face of Fear


TURN TWO - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
The Doppelganger's negative initiative failed again as Seamus flipped the Red Joker as one of the two cards and went first. Zoraida was in position to see the left Necropunk, so that one activated and leaped behind a building further down the table. I activated Lilitu (alone, no Bond) who moved out and then targeted the Kill Protege Crooked Man with Lure. Double take got him to clear the house and Lilitu hit him for some damage.

The Crooked Man activated and attacked Lilitu, figuring he was not long for the world, but missed. Lelu charged and killed the Crooked Man who in turn dropped a Shafted Marker next to Lelu. Lelu had no action to get out of the way so he took a flip, taking 3 damage. Ouch! But two points for Kill Protege, so a fair trade.

One of the Belles moved out and Lured Lelu forward, out into the open. I didn't like him there so I had my Doppelganger copy Lure and Dangerous Beauty to get the suits she needed and Lure Lelu back into cover behind the central building.

The second Crooked Man moved up but had no targets yet with his evil blast templates. I double-moved Baby Kade out to the right, trying to block off at least one of the Necropunks. He could also swing around the central building the back way if I needed to bring him back into the fight.

Seamus activated and moved around to put up Face of Fear and No Escape on Lilitu. I started to panic. I activated Zoraida and cast Crystal Ball again, using a 9 of masks and a stone to succeed in the spell. She then put up a Voodoo Doll on the exposed Belle but I couldn't Obey Lilitu to move away or Seamus would charge her.

The second Belle activated and Lured Lilitu, succeeding, and then Seamus charged her, pulling out all the stops to make sure Slit Jugular went off. I ditched my two cards to prevent myself from dying, but the damage had been done: Seamus had reached both of his Manifest requirements. My Voodoo Doll tried to cast Obey but failed. His last Necropunk stayed hidden from Baby Kade.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 4 Soulstones, 2x Crystal Ball (COMPLETED)
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 Soulstones, 2x Face of Fear (COMPLETED), No Escape / Slit Jugular (COMPLETED)


TURN THREE - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
Damn you, Doppelganger, what the hell am I taking you for?! Can't win an initiative to save my life! Seamus activated first and manifested for a one action. Dan grinned as he lifted the tiny Seamus model and replaced him with the gargantuan beast of a model. Lilitu, who was in base-to-base due to No Escape, did not look happy. aSeamus pounded his chest and then swung a meaty fist at Lilitu. He passed the Irresistible but I cheated high to make the damage a (-) flip. He hit her for 3 wounds. Second attack and he had to cheat to make the Irresistible, but hit her again. Again I tossed a high cheat to keep it at a (-) flip and again she took 3 wounds. aSeamus had triggered SQUEEEEEEZE! and I cheated to make sure she was slow, not paralyzed. She was alive with 1 wound left. Black Blood had damaged Seamus twice.

I activated both twins, starting with Lilitu. She passed Anathema and then moved around Seamus with one action and Lured Lelu in with her second. Lelu activated, regenerated two (healing himself and Lilitu) and charged aSeamus. I cheated to pass Anathema (I was running out of cards here) and he swung. aSeamus burned a soulstone and I missed. I swung with Melee Expert. Again, a Soulstone and I missed.

One of the Belles backed away from Lelu (staying within 2") and then lured him, pulling him further than 1" from aSeamus so his black blood wouldn't spill on the hulk. She missed the attack, though. I activated my Doppelganger, copying Zoraida's Obey and her Cast, and cast Obey on Lelu. It succeeded and Lelu attacked aSeamus. A soulstone wasn't enough to prevent the hit and Lelu connected for 1 damage (aSeamus has Armor 2) and two poison.

The Crooked Man charged Lelu and did some wounds to him, but not enough to make much of a difference yet. My Voodoo Doll activated and cast Obey on Lelu, making him hit aSeamus again. I was flipping trying to flip as many cards per damage flip as I could and had already seen the Black Joker this turn, so it was only a matter of time before the Red Joker showed up. It did here, followed by a weak. Seamus flipped to prevent two of it. I had hit the halfway mark with wounds and soulstones!

The second Belle activated but did not do much. Zoraida activated and Manifested as a (2) action, losing my Voodoo Doll in the process. She had two actions left and cast Obey on Lelu. It worked and triggered a second Obey. The first one, Lelu attacked and hit despite aSeamus' use of a soulstone, dropping him by another wound. My second Obey went off and Lelu swung again, hitting once more and flipped Severe damage. aSeamus prevented 1 of it, so he took 2 more. With her last action, aZoraida tried to cast Pins and Needles, but I didn't have the card to cheat and Lelu had already used my Bayou Two-Card on his attack so I just failed.

The Necropunks and Baby Kade continued their positioning game. At the end of the turn, Lilitu healed two which healed Lelu two, and Lelu dealt two wounds to aSeamus who used a soulstone to prevent them.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 4 Soulstones, MANIFESTED
Seamus - 3 wounds, 1 Soulstone, 2 Poison, MANIFESTED


TURN THREE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Don't think it wasn't touch-and-go here. Even with him at a (-) flip and me at a (+) flip, it took two tied initiative flips before we finally saw me win the third.

I started with the twins (naturally) and aSeamus was able to weather Lelu's hits taking only two wounds in total, though it burned his last soulstone. aSeamus' regeneration would be enough to counteract the poison he had, so if I didn't kill him here, he'd be able to respond in kind. Lilitu activated and missed aSeamus with her first attack, and then hit with her second, dealing the final wound to the beast. He howled and collapsed, leaving a crew of a few undead to face the onslaught of aZoraida and her horde of minions.

The football game was about to start so we called it there.


Two games, only saw the Avatars briefly in both. Lesson to all those out there: Avatars are not the be-all-end-all. They are another tool in your box. Don't overextend to bring them up.

First Avatar Game - Zoraida and Seamus

Dan has been chomping at the bit to get in a game with Avatar Seamus. I finally got Avatar Zoraida all painted up and ready to go. I asked Dan if he wanted to get a game in after work yesterday and his response was something between ecstatic and delirious. So I headed by his place and we ended up playing two games. We were short on time (the Redskins were playing, and we had plans to head out to Champs to see the game) so we mostly concentrated on Manifesting our Avatars and giving them a whirl. So when the game turned drastically south for one of us, we just re-racked the models and tried again.


GAME ONE - 30 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. aSEAMUS
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 6 Stones
Collodi
Marionettes x4
Wicked Doll x2
Stitched Together

Seamus w/ Avatar, 8 Stones
Rotten Belle x2
Crooked Man x2
Necropunk x2

Strategy: Contain Power (Zoraida) vs. Destroy the Evidence (Seamus)
NB Schemes: Kidnap (Crooked Man x2, Blue Belle) & Bodyguard (Zoradia)
R Schemes: Stake a Claim, Breakthrough

The terrain was set up with a bunch of large buildings scattered throughout the board and there was almost nowhere where you could see from one side of the board to the other. Dan won deployment and chose to pick the diagonal where my LOS to his deployment zone was completely blocked so Zoradia could not get off her first turn shenanigans.

TURN ONE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
My Stitched Together moved forward twice, heading towards the northern Evidence Marker, and popped smoke. Dan's first Necropunk tried to leap but failed, and then double-moved keeping behind some buildings but getting closer to the northern Evidence Marker.

My first Wicked Doll moved forward twice behind the Stitched Together. Dan's second Necropunk tried to leap but failed as well. He double-moved south behind some buildings, heading toward the Southern Marker. He'd have farther to go, but if he could get a well-timed Leap, it would do him well.

My second Wicked Doll moved up twice, getting between the Northern and Southern Markers. The first Rotten Belle moved forward, her speed boosted by starting near Seamus, and took a lead at the edge of the central building close to the Northern Marker.

Zoraida activated at this point. She cast Crystal Ball and succeeded, ticking off her first Manifest box and looking over Dan's top three cards. I stacked them with the high cards first, figuring he'd think I'd do the opposite and try to burn through his cards early. Zoraida used Casting Expert to Obey one of the Wicked Dolls forward, closer to the Northern Marker, and then moved forward twice herself. Dan's second Rotten Belle moved forward once and then Lured Seamus forward. She missed the resulting attack on the top-hatted fool.

My first Marionette moved out of the Deployment Zone and then pulled Collodi a bit more forward. Seamus cast Face of Death to start his Manifest requirements, and then moved forward closer to the front lines, trying to see if he could be in position when the smoke dropped.

My second Marionette snapped to Collodi with his (0) and then pulled Collodi forward, centralizing him within all my dolls. Dan moved both of his Crooked Man out to get ready for the smoke to drop while my last two Marionettes snapped up to Collodi and then spread out a little.

Finally, Collodi went and made all his Dolls Fast since Fast sticks around to the next activation. Meant that next turn I'd have a full activation with Collodi and all my Dolls were already Fast.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 6 soulstones, 1x Crystal Ball
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 soulstones, 1x Face of Fear


TURN TWO - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
The Rotten Belle at the corner of the building started things off by moving out a little, then luring the Necropunk. She failed and had to cheat to succeed and Dan tossed out a 12 of Crows (!) to succeed. Either that was his low card, or he had a lot of crap in his hand that couldn't succeed in the cast. My Stitched Together, fast, moved up closer to the Belle and used Gamble Your Life twice. Being close enough to Collodi he was using an effective WP of 8, and the Belle lost both attempts. She ended up taking 7 damage total. Finally, the Stitched put up smoke to block off the Crooked Men and Seamus from seeing my crew.

The Necropunk that had been lured successfully cast Leap, moved up to the Northern Marker and destroyed it. My first Marionette moved up on the Necropunk and then discarded a card for Flurry. He hit for one damage, then missed twice.

Dan's Crooked Man in the back moved forward twice, getting in better position. My centralized Wicked Doll double-moved to the Southern Token, just trying to prevent another quick grab by the Necropunks.

The second Belle activated and moved forward, luring Seamus closer. She missed the resulting attack. My second Marionette pulled Collodi foward and then attacked the Necropunk twice and missed both times. I didn't want to kill the Necropunk... I had plans for him.

The second Necropunk tried to Leap but failed, so instead double-moved towards the Southern Marker, keeping just out of sight of my Wicked Doll around the building. My third Marionette snapped to Collodi and moved away, setting up for next turn.

Seamus activated and cast Face of Fear for the second time, achieving his first manifest requirement. He moved up into the smoke and put up No Escape on the Wicked Doll that had not yet activated. My last Marionette snapped to Collodi and moved into position for next turn.

The final Crooked Man double-moved to support the big scrum of models. He was out of activations and I still had a few to go.

I looked over the field and cursed myself - I had moved a Marionette between Zoraida and the Necropunk. I had planned on Obeying him twice (once with a Voodoo Doll) to get him to move through the smoke, then charge and kill the Belle with one wound left getting my Manifest Requirement, but I screwed myself up. Instead I cast Crystal Ball a second time, then put a Voodoo Doll up on one of my own Marionettes. The smoke was blocking my LOS to all the Ressers. Finally, she Obeyed my Stitched Together who tagged Seamus with Gamble Your Life. Dan spent a Soulstone and still failed the check and took 3 damage. My Voodoo Doll activated and Obeyed the Stitched Together again, and Seamus again burnt a Soulstone but failed to resist and took 3 more damage. Seamus used another Soulstone to prevent 2 of it. My Wicked Doll with passed so No Escape didn't go off, and then Collodi made all the Dolls fast again for next turn.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 6 Soulstones, 2x Crystal Ball (COMPLETED)
Seamus - 8 wounds, 5 Soulstones, 2x Face of Fear (COMPLETED)


TURN THREE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I looked over the board and knew I had one shot to get rid of Seamus before he Manifested and tore my crew a new one. As much as I wanted to bring in Avatar Zoraida, I figured I could wait and if I could take care of Seamus, I would have a solid control over this game. I activated Collodi. Collodi tagged my Stitched Together telling him to activate. He then breathed life into three of the Marionettes, giving them Melee Expert. I activated all my Marionettes at that point. One at a time they started snapping to Seamus and hitting him for a little damage at a time, slowly burning away stones and cards until the onslaught of attacks from the Marionettes and Stitched Together took him down.

At that point we called the game. We still had enough time for a second game if we started then and I confess I really wanted to see Avatar Seamus on the board. But I wasn't just going to give it away... Dan had to earn it!

We decided that the No Escape Manifest requirement was not worth over-extending Seamus to achieve. Better to lure the target in for the No Escape rather than move Seamus out into the opponent's crew.

I'll post up the second game, which actually saw both Avatars hit the table, in a little bit.

High Level Neverborn-Centric Thoughts of Twisting Fates

I am a Neverborn player and have been since day one. When I was getting into the game, Lilith and her Nephilim horde interested me, quickly followed by Zoraida. I didn’t like her swamp critters so much, but everyone in my group was saying she was the weakest of the Neverborn, so I wanted to try her out.

Eventually, about six months after I started, book two came around and I got a whole slew of goodies. And now book three just came out.

I have to say I’m not overly impressed with Neverborn’s haul. I look at Ressurectionists and just grin looking at aSeamus and aKirai. I think their minions might be on the weaker side of things, but they got some great avatars. Then take aSonnia into the mix from Guild, and toss in aRamos and aColette. Their awesome new Showgirl, and the new toys for Kaeris. The Pale Rider and Exorcist for Guild. Rafkin and the Crooligans.

But when I look over the Neverborn, I’m just left with the feeling of “meh.”

Some of them are pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but overall I don’t feel like there’s really as much exciting this year. More things have me disappointed this time around than things that have me excited.

I’ll tell you what I like:
Avatar Zoraida (mostly)
Avatar Lilith (a bit)
Tuco
The Effigies (most of them)

Even the two avatars I like though are not without their own issues that make me think of them more as a “Yes, but…” kind of model.

I know a lot of my problem is that I am still comparing this book to my excitement from book 2 where I feel that Neverborn got the strongest haul. If the backlash on the forums and the showing at GenCon is any indication, maybe we need to be pulled back a peg. But it certainly is tough when I look at other factions and drool over their new options and look at mine and mostly just shrug.

I'm certain that I'm not getting all the connections for all these models yet. There will be some combinations that pop up that I have not seen yet and they'll completely turn me around on models, I'm sure. But overall, I can't look at Pandora and Dreamer without sighing about what I feel are missed opportunities.

Ah, enough griping. Like I said, book 2 was fantastic for Neverborn and it was probably needed for the game as a whole to have Neverborn step back a little with this release. But I sure wish they didn't have to!

Trying Out Hell Dorado

Everyone's off at GenCon this weekend, and after a long league and then a quick few weeks of helping to prep both Bill and Dixon for the Masters of Malifaux tournament in Indy, I was ready for a day of something other than Malifaux. Perfect time to pull out the new book I picked up and try out a few games of Hell Dorado.

I managed to get in my second and third games earlier today, playing my Demons both times. I don't have a ton of models, just the base set, so I ended up proxying what I was missing.

Overall, I enjoy the game. I'm glad Cipher ended up picking it up and doing something with the line. The miniatures, I think, look fantastic, and some of the rules and mechanics are quite cool.

I like the way casting spells works - that you cast the spell into a small model called a Lemure and that model then rushes out to the target. If your opponent takes down the Lemure before it's able to reach its target, the spell doesn't go off. But the spells tend to be pretty powerful.

I also like how if your opponent outnumbers you in models, you can pass when it's your activation and force your opponent to keep activating until you have the same number of models left. So the Malifaux tactic of out-activate your opponent isn't as devastating.

Terrain works in an interesting way. At the beginning of the game, you divide the board into nine different sections and bid secretly on each section. Each player reveals their bids and whoever bid the highest gets to place the terrain in that section. If there's a tie, no terrain is placed. It's a very interesting way to set up the board, but in both my games I found it very easy to heavily limit my opponents' ranged attacks by putting up huge areas of smoke and clouds.

I think the game might be weak on scenarios and the rules for them. I've only played two games with actual scenarios, though, so I could just be mistaken on how they work. But it's hard to, coming from Malifaux which I feel has done the best with scenarios of any game out there, see this game as having a nice and advanced system.

In the end, I don't think Hell Dorado has got a shot of replacing Malifaux as my game of choice. But it does slip in nice to the spot that's been vacated by Firestorm Armada for almost a year. It's a nice game to pull out when I need a break from Malifaux, and makes for a nice diversion from time to time. Looking forward to getting more games in with it.

News from GenCon

I am not at GenCon. I was in the middle of a day-long meeting (the third in three days) discussing a new eCompensation tool my company is purchasing today. Instead of finding out all the new games at GenCon, I was finding out all the features and limitations of a new compensation program. It didn't quite compare.

However, I did have several moles at GenCon who were able to provide a few snapshots of what's going on at the Wyrd booth there. These pictures come from a variety of sources, from Dan's brother Ryan (thanks!) to Bill (thanks again!) to TheCurkov's twitter feed where he talks about how things are going out in Indy (thanks once more!). I figured I'd post what I had in case anyone else was curious.



The Wyrd booth just after 10:00 AM when the doors swung open.



The display case of Malifaux models.



The table full of goodies.



Dan's take of goodies. Yes, that's Avatar Kirai in the stack. Evidently there was an error at the Wyrd website where Kirai didn't show up. They tell us she'll be up tonight, so no worries, those who want her. She'll be there soon.



We were trying to get Ryan to find Bill, and here's what Ryan found. Close enough.



One of the new Merc minions - a Boy Named Sue.