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!