Jakob's First Battle

Monday was a sad day.  I had popped open my new Gencon Neverborn models and started working on painting them, but Dan called and challenged me to a game, so while I hit the table with Mr. Lynch, Mr. Tannen, the Hungering Darkness and a Depleted painted up, I also played with an unpainted Mr. Graves, Depleted and Beckoner model meaning that my New Years’ resolution of playing with only painted models has now failed.  I have since painted up my second Depleted, an Illuminated, Mr. Graves and my wife has painted two Beckoners, but the damage is done.  The resolution is lost!

But on the plus side, I did get to put Jakob on the table Monday against Dan’s Kaeris crew.  We played 30 stones.

10 Thunders (Mike)
Crew: Jakob, Hungering Darkness, Beckoner, Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Depleted x2, 6 stones
Strategy: Shared Supply Wagon
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Rail Golem), Hold Out

Archanists (Dan)
Crew: Kaeris, Rail Golem, Willie, Fire Gamin x2, Iggy, 5 stones
Strategy: Shared Supply Wagon
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Mr. Graves), Eye for an Eye

Kill Protégé on the Rail Golem may not have been the best idea, but after I saw how tall it was compared with Nightmare Chompy (they’re nearly of the same height) I had to beat that thing down to show it what for.

The terrain had three open houses on one side of the board and then a couple forests on the other side with tons of crates and barrels to help out with cover all around.  I deployed in one big ball while Dan spread out his crew, putting Willie and Iggy on one side with the forests with the rest of them on the other side.

It’s been a little while, so I will probably be off on some of what happened.  But it’s close enough.


TURN ONE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I started off with Mr. Graves using Bar’s Closed putting the point behind my crew, pushing them all out from it.  A few models pushed straight forward, the others pushed out a bit to the side too.  Mr. Graves followed behind them and took some cover behind a gravestone.  Willie moved up from Dan’s side and tossed out a dynamite marker up in front of him.  The rest of the turn was some positioning.  The two Depleted used Drawn to the Light to push towards a model with Brilliance, then double-moved into position.  Mr. Tannen took up position near the back of my group to keep safe.  Mr. Lynch stuck near him, and the Beckoner took up near the front with Mr. Graves.

Kaeris moved out to the left flank, Iggy moved to the right, the two Fire Gamin moved up the middle and the Rail Golem stuck back a little, building up some burning tokens to get ready for a big show.


TURN TWO – KAERIS INITIATIVE
Willie popped farther forward and dropped another dynamite marker.  My Beckoner tagged him with Honeyed Words to give him Brilliance.  I had a dynamite marker near where my Hungering Darkness was, and another near where Willie was, so it would take a bit of effort to avoid them.  In the end, I decided to screw it and charged Willie.  One of the dynamite markers went off, damaging the HD and a Depleted, and the HD pasted Willie as he was softened up by the Beckoner and had Brilliance on him.  Willie’s dynamite blew up dropping blasts onto the HD damaging him a little.  At the end of the activation, he had no Brilliant targets nearby so he took a wound.  Iggy and the Fire Gamin put some wounds onto the HD but didn’t kill him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Graves used Bar’s Closed to push one of the Fire Gamin that had activated into the path of the Rail Golem making sure he couldn’t get too far this turn.  Instead he climbed over the barrels and positioned himself near the middle of the board for the next turn.


TURN THREE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I led off with the Hungering Darkness charging Iggy, knocking him down to two wounds remaining and taking a wound himself.  He used Consume Brilliance to try to steal a wound from Iggy, but Iggy resisted.  He did manage to feed off a nearby Depleted, though, dealing two wounds to the Depleted and healing himself for two wounds.  At the end of the turn, he dealt another wound to Iggy and healed another one himself.  Mmmm…. Brilliance is tasty.

It didn’t last, though, as Iggy blasted through the HD.  My other Depleted moved up to the Rail Golem who promptly pasted him, spreading Brilliance onto him and the nearby Fire Gamin.  I could have put out a new HD, but he would only come out with three wounds (I had a pair of 6s) and would likely die to the Rail Golem.  I decided to wait instead.  Soon thereafter I killed the Fire Gamin with Brilliance and brought out a new HD who killed off Iggy and then Consumed Brilliance back to nearly full life, spreading a lot of damage onto my own crew and a little onto Dan’s.

Lynch, meanwhile, was standing back a bit using Dead Man’s Hand to draw more and more cards.  My targets were too far away for Tannen to get in the fun yet, but that moment was coming soon.  The Rail Golem moved around to the side of my crew, but the Beckoner reduced its AP by 1 the next turn.


TURN FOUR – KAERIS INITIATIVE
Kaeris’ wagon was unguarded so she tried to kill off Mr. Graves to keep it safer, but the Black Joker on her second flip conspired to keep her from being able to do anything.  Graves activated and destroyed the wagon, then used Bar’s Closed to push the Rail Golem back away from my crew.  Without two AP, he couldn’t charge, so he walked in to my melee and attacked Jakob, but I was able to cheat after him and make sure he missed.  Mr. Tannen put up Dampen Fate to make sure Dan drew one less card each time and then cast Dead Man’s Hand on him a couple times.  I got to take my cards in hand, he had to discard, but he couldn’t draw when the spell would normally allow him too.  Sucker!  Jakob then shot him with his extra AP and I took Malifaux Roulette, pulling the Red Joker from Dan’s hand and choosing to paralyze the Rail Golem.  At the end of the turn, I took the wound from Burning on Mr. Graves, killing him, and denying Dan his Kill Protégé.

TURN FIVE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I knocked the Rail Golem down to one wound remaining with the Hungering Darkness.  Kaeris charged my other Depleted, killing it and making it explode to kill the Rail Golem, which also exploded and killed the Beckoner.  Ouch!  She then Turned it Up on Jakob, killing him in a couple more hits.  I was left with Tannen and he was left with Kaeris.  He couldn’t kill my Wagon with Kaeris so he instead ran to my deployment zone to break Holdout while Lynch chilled at the center of the board with my wagon.


Final score:
Jakob 6 (4 Shared Supply Wagon, 2 Kill Protégé, 0 Hold Out)
Kaeris 2 (0 Shared Supply Wagon, 0 Kill Protégé, 2 Eye for an Eye)