The stars aligned, though, and Skill-less Brian and I loaded into the car Saturday morning and drove on out.I had just gotten a Battlefoam Pack Mini and wasn't relishing the idea of hauling around a full pack of models, so I decided to pick a few models to travel with. Since I had only limited space, my Ressers weren't going to be making it. Also, since another friend of mine, Josh, was planning on showing up with the Viktorias, I decided to bring my Neverborn.
I asked Second Generation Awesome Dan who he thought I should bring and he told me "Collodi!" I asked him "With who?" and he said, "No. Just Collodi!" I had two new Effigy Dolls I had not put on the table yet and wanted to field, so I figured, why not. He sent a list idea (which was just about everything Collodi could take at the moment, save Wicked Dolls) and I packed it all up. I panicked a little thinking I might get bored with one crew and packed Zoraida, a pair of Twins, Tuco, Baby Kade, the Voodoo Doll, and her Avatar form, but by the end of the four rounds, they never saw the table. As Dan (and then the TO) suggested, I stuck with Collodi and the same list all four rounds.
The list was:
Collodi +6 soulstones
- Marionette x4
- Stitched Together x3
- Carrion Effigy
- Brutal Effigy
The tournament was a 30 soulstone affair with random Extended Schemes. The only wrinkle to the plan was that Aaron added an additional step after you flip your Strategy but before you choose your crew: you have to announce your Master.
There were three prizes being fought over: the King of NoVA trophy which would go to the person who won overall (with TP being the most important); the Best Store in NoVA trophy which would tally the scores of the people who came from the various local Northern Virginia stores and determine which of them won - they would get the trophy to display until the next NoVA tournament when another store could win it away from them; and the Best Store on the Eastern US plaque, which was a similar idea but could travel beyond NoVA since the TO did not pay a lot of money for it. I believe the plaque was donated to the tournament by another Henchman, so it was cool to see some support and rivalry being brought up from around the area.
Twelve players showed up, primarily from Huzzah Hobbies (my store) and Victory Comics (the store that was hosting). We did have a few players from Pennsylvania, I believe, and Guy in Suit (winner of Adepticon) arrived from New York.
ROUND ONE - COLLODI (Supply Wagon) vs. aNICODEM (Treasure Hunt)
SECOND GENERATION AWESOME DAN
So Round One arrived and Aaron announced the pairings. To no one's surprise, for the third tournament in a row, Second Generation Awesome Dan and I were paired off against each other. After some grumbling on our part (facing him essentially meant that one of the two of us was knocked out of the tournament very early in the day), we picked our table and quickly became "That table" to the TO, calling him over to accuse Dan of cheating when he drew his hand before deploying his models (accidentally - he wasn't thinking), and then asking what the large piece of terrain that looked like a Stargate did if my models interacted with it. After some random joking and Aaron threatening to toss us out of the store (again, good-naturedly), we buckled down and got our game on.
Dan was playing Avatar Nicodem (who looks fantastic, by the way) and I pulled out a very familiar crew to him. He laughed a little when he saw I actually was using the Carrion Effigy until we both realized that he could allow my crew to eat his zombies since they counted as corpse tokens (at least until he avatared and they lost that rule).
I remember the least about this game since it was early in the day, but I do remember that the terrain created a small bottleneck to get to the treasure in the middle of the board. I started out strong by killing off his Crooked Men and a summoned Flesh Construct. He had killed off my Carrion Effigy. When I killed one of his Crooked Men with a Gamble Your Life, he Slow-to-Die cast a Cave In at one of my Stitched Togethers. I cheated so it would be a (-) flip, and he still managed to flip double-severe, knocking all my Marionettes down to 1 wound remaining. A Decay that randomized off his own model onto mine later, he wiped out Collodi's Marionettes, turning the game around completely.
I was able to kill off his Dead Rider and put pressure on him enough that his crew was held back from the center of the table away from the treasure marker. Finally on turn 6 he managed to pick it up as he had a few Punk Zombies, Avatar Nicodem, and a bunch of Mindless Zombies around versus my Collodi. The game did not go on, however, and I squeaked out a 6-4 victory as my Supply Wagon reached the middle and Kidnap got the Crooked Man and Canine Remains.
My score so far was (3 TP/+2 Diff/6 VPs) putting me at the upper side of the middle of the pack.
ROUND TWO - COLLODI (Shared Line in the Sand) vs. SOM'ER (Shared Line in the Sand)
MUSTACHE MATT
We flipped to see who would be the attacker and who the defender and I got the choice. Naturally, I took attacker. Shared Line in the Sand is such a terrible strategy. The attacker gains such an advantage over the defender, but when given the choice, I couldn't pass on the disparity.
Matt had the Easter Rooster painted up for one of his pigs, and his crew was absolutely gorgeous. We were all playing with painted crews (it was in the rules to do so), but Matt's were the best I would see throughout the tournament.
The game began with the Rooster and two Piglets popping throughout my mass of models, killing Marionettes left and right. But Gremlins against WP 8 Gamble Your Life from my stitched were just not going to stand up, and pretty quickly I had run him out of his first wave. I grabbed 4 of the dynamite markers pretty quick and started moving in on his gremlin firing line, needing to Steal a Relic from Som'er and needing to Assassinate him. By turn 5 I was able to do just that, having a Marionette grab his Relic and then finish him off.
Meanwhile, my Carrion Effigy was working on holding off one flank. He managed to flip a dynamite marker, kill a Piglet, and later kill another Gremlin. Granted I needed a Red Joker to kill the Piglet and the Gremlin had only a wound or two remaining, but still - the Carrion Effigy was on fire!!
The game ended with me wiping him out on turn 6 and grabbing the last dynamite marker for a solid 8-0 win. Added bonus, this game counted for the Best Store in NoVA trophy, so it was a nice boost for our store.
My score at this point was (6 TP/+10 Diff/14 VPs) putting me as one of three remaining undefeated players (aside Gamers' Lounge Bill and GuyinSuit Andrew).
ROUND THREE - COLLODI (Supply Wagon) vs. VIKTORIAS (Escape and Survive)
GUY IN SUIT ANDREW
Andrew had never faced the Effigy Dolls yet, so I quickly gave him an explanation of what they did: the Brutal had a heal and could hit for a lot of damage. The Carrion didn't do much other than fly around.
He pulled out a very familiar Viktoria crew - the Vikis, Student of Conflict, Convict Gunslinger, Von Schill, and Trapper. I felt a little swell of validation to see that the list I always use was also being taken by other good players.
We started off our game and he killed off two of my models in quick succession to get his First Blood scheme from Von Schill, Gun Viki and the Trapper taking shots at my Marionettes. Soon thereafter, the Sword Viki was in my lines cutting down my Marionettes faster than Collodi could resummon them. My Stitched knocked out Sword Viki, and the next turn did the same to Gun Viki. I had a Stitched Together knock his Gunslinger down to 1 wound, and then on turn 4, my Brutal Effigy moved to where my Wagon would end and killed off the Gunslinger and Student of Conflict. His Escape and Survive was blanked, but he was probably going to get his Bodyguard on Von Schill.
I stopped worrying about killing Von Schill and instead went after my VPs. Keep the Wagon safe, and grab as many spots for Reclaim Malifaux as I could. Here, the Carrion Effigy was invaluable, grabbing 4 of the 9 spots on the board I needed, and then defending the Wagon on turn 6. We flipped to see if the game went on and it didn't. I pulled out a close win, taking a 6-4 victory as I got Reclaim Malifaux and a full Supply Wagon while he got Bodyguard on Von Schill and First Blood.
My score now was (9 TP/+12 Diff/20 VPs) putting me as one of two undefeated players remaining. My limit of games I could take was rapidly approaching and my head was killing me. I popped a few Advil and found a nice spot to rest for a little while before the fourth round came up.
ROUND FOUR - COLLODI (Line in the Sand) vs. ZORAIDA (Slaughter)
GAMERS' LOUNGE BILL
On the first turn, I moved up to the middle of the board and grabbed the dynamite on the bridge with a Marionette. Bill sent his Collodi and Marionettes up the board at the beginning of the second turn to kill that Marionette and reflip the dynamite. My WP 8 Stitched Togethers ripped through his Collodi killing him off and losing the Marionettes along with it. He had two other Stitched Togethers there that I managed to kill, and in return, he killed one of my Stitched Togethers and a Marionette.
By the end of turn three, he was down to Zoraida and a Wicked Doll while I still had Collodi with three Marionettes, two Stitched Togethers, and both Effigies. Over the next couple turns, I tracked down all the dynamite markers and brought my three Paired Marionettes into melee with Zoraida, killing her off too.
My Carrion Effigy again did pretty well this game by staying entirely away from the fighting. He grabbed two of the far-away dynamite markers and sat on my Stake a Claim point, helping to max out my points. The game ended 8-0 as I broke Bodyguard and Extermination.
At the end of the tournament, my score was (12 TP/+20 Diff/28 VPs).
THE END
As the only remaining undefeated player, I got the King of NoVA prize.
We tallied up the NoVA stores and Huzzah Hobbies ended up beating out the other local stores and got to take home the Best Store in NoVA cup. Bill, Huzzah's Henchman, got to carry it to the store for us.
And the Best Store in the East plaque went to the Warmongers of New York for Andrew's fantastic solo-showing where he schooled just about everyone in Virginia on how Malifaux really works.
Congrats to all, and thanks to Aaron for putting on a great show.
No comments:
Post a Comment