What's in a Name?

A little background: on the most recent episode of the Gamers’ Lounge, Brian was given a new nickname because he didn’t have one yet. I jokingly suggested “Skill-less Brian” and when he became defensive and then tried to give himself his own nickname – a clear violation of nickname policy – he became Skill-less Brian.

So after the podcast, we came up with a proposal for Brian: if he could defeat the three of us that were there when he was given the nickname (eChris, Bill and me), we would give him a better nickname. Skill-less Brian accepted the challenge and on Tuesday, he launched into two games, one against eChris and one against me.

You can check out the game against eChris over here.

Having lost his first match, I offered him the chance to face my Resserectionists, since I am considering moving to Neverborn for the upcoming league. We pulled out 30 stone lists. I flipped Supply Wagon and figured I should go with Nicodem, as his slow movement would not be as much a problem. Then Brian flipped Distract and I decided I might need speed after all and flipped over to McMourning.

McMourning, Chihuahua, Bette, Crooked Man x2, Sebastian, Canine Remains x2, 8 Stones
Perdita, Santiago, Nino, Francisco, Papa Loco, 7 Stones

I took Breakthrough and Kill Protégé: Santiago
He took Assassinate and Bodyguard

I may get some of the order wrong, but this is basically how things went.



Turn One – McMourning Initiative
This turn was pretty basic for most of it. There was a large open area in the center of the table and the family ran up to try to get a shooting gallery going while Papa Loco hugged some terrain near the side, trying to make it into melee with my guys. I moved up with my two Crooked Men, trying to have each one support the other in LOS. McMourning killed both his dogs for 7 body parts. Perdita double-moved forward and then Obeyed Nino to shoot one of my Crooked Men, putting a nice 3 wounds into him.

Turn Two – McMourning initiative
I started with the wounded Crooked Man, wanting to get some use out of him before he died. He channeled Cave In at Francisco, but Brian cheated high to make sure it missed (good on his part – I had the Red Joker lined up to kill Francisco if I got the straight damage flip). He activated Santiago and tried to shoot down my unactivated Crooked Man. He ditched the card for Rapid Fire, then found he was about a half an inch out of range. That Crooked Man, now knowing he was out of range, moved up and shot at Francisco again, this time only doing 2 wounds to the man with no blast markers. Nino activated and shot down the already-wounded Crooked Man. That Crooked Man used Slow to Die to send another Cave In at Francisco and hit him for 2 more wounds. I moved my Chihuahua out to keep near the Supply Wagon and Papa Loco rushed next to the ruins McMourning was beside. McMourning, fearing some Obey tricks, summoned a Flesh Construct next to Papa Loco and then booked it out of there. Francisco charged and did a few wounds to my last Crooked Man and Sebastian moved out and missed Francisco. Perdita wasn’t having any of that and charged in, killing off Sebastian. Bette popped up and used Depraved Tactics to paralyze living models. She attacked Perdita, forcing her to discard 2 soulstones or die (Brian was already out of cards), then attacked twice more, paralyzing Perdita for next turn. My Flesh Construct attacked Papa Loco, and then did so again at the end of the turn, dealing 6 wounds to the crazy man.

Turn Three – Perdita Initiative
Francisco killed off the Crooked Man, but Slow to Die failed to hit him back. My Flesh Construct killed Papa Loco, taking 5 wounds himself, and then moved up a little. Nino deliberated a bit, then decided to kill off the Flesh Construct that was approaching him and Santiago. I was running low on models, so I went with my Chihuahua who moved up and kicked another Body to McMourning. That, combined with the body from the Crooked Man, gave McMourning 4 more body parts. Santiago charged in and put Bette down, making sure she wouldn’t be around to annoy him. McMourning moved up and attacked Francisco, killing him, and summoned a new Flesh Construct near the Santiago/Perdita/McMourning/Chihuahua fight. The Flesh Construct attacked Perdita but missed, then did the same at the end of the turn.

Turn Four – Perdita Initiative
Damn – two turns in a row where I really wanted initiative, but no dice. Brian figured his best shot was to kill off McMourning this turn, so that’s what he tried. The last three family members all went for the alpha strike, starting with Perdita and Santiago blowing their wad at McMourning. I spent seven soulstones and managed to keep McMourning alive with three wounds remaining. Nino could not get a shot off at McMourning, so he moved around and shot the Chihuahua, dropping him by two wounds. The Chihuahua activated and channeled Dissection on Perdita, forcing her to use a Soulstone to make the attack miss. Then McMourning stabbed the Chihuahua with a knife, getting a body part for killing him, healing two wounds, and bringing Bette into play. McMourning attacked Perdita twice more, dealing three more damage, healing three wounds, and running her out of stones and leaving her hand low. Bette finished her off, and my Flesh Construct managed to take Santiago down to his Hard to Kill one-wound.

Turn Five – Perdita Initiative
Nino took a shot at the melee and managed to hit Santiago, killing him and denying me my Kill Protégé. His second shot hit McMourning, dropping him back down to only a few wounds remaining after a couple of Trigger Happy hits. Both Bette and the Flesh Construct ran to Nino, placing themselves in base-to-base so Nino could not see McMourning behind them without moving. At the end of the turn, the Flesh Construct hit Nino for a few wounds.

Turn Six – McMourning Initiative
Ah, thankfully I won this one. I started with Bette who paralyzed Nino, then moved into his deployment zone for Breakthrough. Nino skipped his activation, and the Flesh Construct killed him off while McMourning ran and using has last Body Part for fast, made it into Brian’s deployment zone.

Final score, 6 (4 for Supply Wagon, 2 for Breakthrough, 0 for Kill Protégé) to 0 (0 for Distract, 0 for Bodyguard, 0 for Assassinate).




So Brian walked out with two losses, hitting none of his three marks to lose his Skill-less moniker. Poor guy. No doubt he’ll come back swinging again next week.