It has been about six months since my last tournament. I have been having a very busy time at work these last few weeks, and this past Saturday was the first day off I had in over two weeks. I figured I'd sleep as long as I wanted, and if I woke up in time for Bill's tournament, I'd head out for it. Well, I woke up in time. Still exhausted, but I have a hard time falling back to sleep in the mornings.
I couldn't figure out what crew to bring. I had Guild and 10T that I had been playing a lot recently. I figured it would be fun to try something different, so they both sat home. I considered going back to Neverborn and taking a mix of just Lilith and Jakob, but I wanted to bring my travel pack and the Hungering Darkness was too big to fit in that bag. Same for my attempt to bring Izamu. So I decided on Von Schill (which quickly turned in to the Viktorias when I realized I did not have enough models to field Von Schill alone at 30 or 35 points... where's the Strongarm Suit when you need it!).
So I packed my bag and headed out to Huzzah Hobbies for the tournament. Chris, the store owner, pulled me aside and told me there would be a lot of ridicule if our store failed to win the "Best Store in NoVA" trophy and the "Best Store on the East Coast" plaque.
When I walked in the store, Dan was happy to see I made it, then asked what I picked to play. "Viki
There were a lot of people showing up - 19 total. We lined up for pairings as Bill read them out.
ROUND ONE - NAYTE (Victory Comics), 35 Stones
VIKTORIAS vs. aMcMOURNING, SHARED LINE IN THE SAND (new version)
I started at table 7 with Nayte from Victory Comics, a friend of mine I haven't played in months. He set the tone for this being a casual tournament (which is exactly what I was hoping for - the bug of competition in Malifaux has been waning) by asking me if there was any Resser master I wanted to see or didn't want to see. I told him I'd love to see Yan Lo since I hadn't played him much, but he seemed a little hesitant. He had very little experience with the old man. So I revised to say "no Kirai". I was tired of playing her. Not that I felt like I couldn't take her down (the Vikis are a great matchup against her), but I didn't feel like going through the slog.
So out came Avatar McMourning - a model I've seen played but never with the same skill that Nayte has with him. I pulled out my basic 35 stone Viktoria crew and we were off.
My Crew: Viktorias, Student of Conflict, Von Schill, Freikorps Trapper, Convict Gunslinger, Ronin, 7 stones
My Schemes: First Blood (Viki-specific), Stake a Claim
Nayte's Crew: McMourning w/ Avatar, Chihuahua, Canine Remains x2, Belle x2, Crooked Man x2, Night Terror x2, Sebastian, 6 stones
Nayte's Schemes: Stake a Claim, A Piece for Me (McMourning-specific)
Before I go on, this games was something of a hilarity. I was barely able to talk straight due to being exhausted and asleep on my feet. Nayte, on the other hand, was jittery with several cups of coffee in him already. I couldn't work up energy for the life of me, and he couldn't keep still.
Nayte was able to out-activate me early on in the game, but that would not last forever as he farmed his own dogs for body parts. Having played as and against McMourning, I was pretty confident that First Blood would be easy to get. Even if he forced me to fight for it by killing only one of his dogs early, I had enough guns to get the second kill quickly, I figured.
Sure enough, he killed off both dogs early, netting me my First Blood scheme, and then started going after the Line in the Sand markers. I was in a spot of bother being outnumbered as much as I was. I sent a Ronin after one of the markers opposite a Crooked Man, sent my Trapper after the Night Terrors (I figured shooting and then Repositioning forward would get me up the field, but in the first two rounds he missed all four shots, so I ended up just having him run up the field to get objectives). Von Schill, the Convict and the Vikis held the center pretty well. Von Schill got an early Red Joker kill off on a Belle, and soon the activation order was swinging my way. Still, he managed to grab the Strategy points on turns 2, 3 and 4, giving him a 3-2 lead at that point.
During turns 3 and 4, I popped as many shots on McMourning as I could. I didn't want the Avatar to hit the table, and I certainly wanted to deny him his scheme points since he had the advantage in Strategy. While my Ronin was killing Sebastian (and getting knocked down to 1 wound remaining herself, though her DF8 was able to keep her alive the rest of the game), Von Schill and the Convict killed the summoned Rouge Necromancy while the Viktorias charged down the fleeing McMourning, pasting him.
Outnumbered now, my crew flipped the dynamite markers to the correct side and I gained points on turns 5 and 6 while I chased down and killed off his last two models. Final score: 6-3.
ROUND TWO - ALEX (North Carolina), 30 Stones
VIKTORIAS vs. LEVITICUS, SHARED RECONNOITER (new version)
After a victory, I ended up on the second table. I looked down the line and saw that the first table was Outcast vs. Outcast (Vikis vs. Hamelin - both of them had played Leviticus the first game). The second table was Outcast vs. Outcast (Vikis vs. Leviticus). The third table was Outcasts vs. Archanists (Gremlins) and the fourth table was Outcasts vs. Ressers (Gremlins again). Neverborn overpowered? I don't think so.
Of course, this could have something to do with the fact that only one Neverborn player was at the tournament, and there were seven Outcasts.
My Crew: Viktorias, Student of Conflict, Von Schill, Freikorps Trapper, Convict Gunslinger, 7 stones
My Schemes: Holdout, Bodyguard
Alex's Crew: Leviticus, Canine Remains, Collodi, Marionette x4, Wicked Doll, Watcher, 6 stones
Alex's Schemes: Soulless Life (Leviticus-specific), Breakthrough
Alex and I bantered a little and I learned that I have a new power in tournaments: being on a podcast can be used to intimidate other players. (Well, only the ones that don't know me personally - once they figure out I don't know as much about the game as I pretend to, the intimidation factor drops to about zero.) We were playing Reconnoiter and I could see my crew was starting out outnumbered 10-6 (after the Waif was placed on the board).
My goal was simple: kill either Collodi or Leviticus. I figured with one of those two down, I could handle the rest of the crew.
I deployed with my Convict and Trapper on one side of the board, my Vikis on the other with my Student, and Von Schill ready to support either way. I wanted to take out the Watcher first because it was the most autonomous model in his crew and I didn't want it to lock down his Breakthrough and deny my Holdout. So the Trapper killed it, and then Von Schill killed the Steam-thing that Leviticus summoned out of it.
Collodi and his dolls started coming around the side of the board and on turn three, they launched themselves into my Sword Viki. I had seven soulstones, and by the end of the massive onslaught, I was down to a hand of only 3 4's, 3 soulstones, and had taken 3 wounds. My Viktorias responded in turn. The Student of Conflict gave Fast to the Gun Viki. The Gun Viki gave the Sisters a (+) flip to hit (with all the Marionettes out there, two of them Filled with Stones, I wanted to get as many Whirlwind attacks as I could). She killed off a Marionette and knocked one with stones in it down to 1 wound. The Sword Viki then went and killed off the other Marionettes, then sapped a few Soulstones from Collodi.
Meanwhile, Von Schill forced Leviticus back by killing the advance Waif after Levi killed my Convict Gunslinger.
The next turn, Leviticus got initiative. Collodi activated first, making a new Marionette to get him out of dodge. My Viktorias activated and killed off Collodi and the Marionette. Levi went after my Gun Viki, but I burned my soulstones to keep her alive. With Leviticus dead and a good hand of cards, it was my chance to take out Levi too. My Trapper moved forward and shot one Waif through a window, killing her. Von Schill jet-packed down the field and got one shot off on the second Waif, killing it too. Collodi down, Leviticus down. Over the next few turns I racked up the Reconnoiter points and pulled a win, 8-0.
ROUND THREE - DAN (Huzzah Hobbies), 25 Stones
VON SCHILL vs. VIKTORIAS, SHARED KING OF THE HILL (new version)
The final round had four players still undefeated. The top two undefeated players faced for first place, and the bottom two undefeated players faced for second place. Since we both brought the same crew, we decided to make the game a little more fun than just a mirror match. We agreed to split the gift certificate no matter who won, and then made a deal for crew creation: since he had not brought all his Von Schill stuff, he would play Vikis with no Freikorps, and I would play Von Schill.
Of course, this meant I had no choice but to play his box set - the only Freikorps models I owned. Still, it would be great to have a game that didn't come down to "who got the initiative".
My Crew: Von Schill, Freikorps Specialist, Freikorps Librarian, Freikorps Trapper, Freikorpsman x2, 3 stones
My Schemes: Breakthrough, Kill Protege (Convict Gunslinger)
Dan's Crew: Viktorias, Student of Conflict, Ronin x2, Convict Gunslinger, 7 stones
Dan's Schemes: Bodyguard, Eye for an Eye
Unfortunately, the game did come down to "who got the initiative" anyway, and Dan flipped a 13 on that one. The round before, I had moved Von Schill up, taken a shot on one of the Vikis, and dropped 8 wounds on her. She prevented 2 of them leaving her still alive. She charged me and tried to kill me, but couldn't quite pull it off. And my Librarian (and my fate hand) never saw a Ram after the first turn, so no healing. Three stones are not much against an onslaught of Vikis.
Von Schill fell, then his Sword Viki fell. His Gun Viki came in to kill a Freikorpsman, and my other one charged her (Red Joker in hand for damage that would kill her), got to the straight flip, and then flipped the Black Joker on damage.
It was mostly cleanup by then. My Trapper managed to kill the Student of Conflict and Gunslinger. Both Ronin were dropped to 1 wound, and then one sacrificed itself for two Soulstones which Viki used to create a new Viki out of the other one.
Overall, there were about six flips that I needed probably two or three to go my way during the game. I got one of them (the Red Joker damage on the Viki with Von Schill) and it wasn't quite enough to push the game in my favor.
Still, seeing Von Schill's box set take the game that close against a tailored Viki crew was pretty awesome. I think the Strongarm Suit is going to be a big help for the crew - giving them a melee option, finally. I would have probably dropped the Specialist in favor of the Suit. While the Specialist spilled out a lot of wounds when he detonated his pack, none of those wounds actually mattered since they didn't kill anyone, and I had pretty much no one left to capitalize on the wounded models.
Final score: 8-4
FINAL THOUGHTS
After not being sure I was going to go to the tournament and making a last-minute decision to go, and then picking up a crew that I hadn't touched in six months, I figure I did pretty well. I went 2-1 with 18 total Victory Points and a +7 VP Differential.
Congrats to Dan on his victory! He led the Huzzah Hobbies crew in keeping both the Northern Virginia and East Coast prizes in Huzzah. We'll be working on another tournament in the near future to give other stores another chance to wrest the prize from our hands.
