NoVA Open, Part Three

And to finish out the story of the NoVA Open.

I had just successfully defended the top table in round three ending with a score of (9/+14/19) and was waiting on the other games to finish out before I’d find out who my opponent would be. The second table had Dixon facing off with another local of ours, Tim, in a Neverborn vs. Outcasts clash. As time was called, Tim had the lead and won the game in a close match. Dixon dropped out of the top tables and Tim joined me playing for first place.


ROUND FOUR - TIM, SHARED CLAIM JUMP

Tim and I have played each other several times in the past and I’ve always gotten the better of him. I knew his collection of Neverborn wasn’t that large and was pretty certain which master I’d be facing just on how I knew him. I didn’t want to take that into account in how I selected my crew, though – it seemed a little sketchy – so when he suggested that we play a true mirror match, I jumped at the chance. I suggested we add another addendum to that: only play with book 1 models. He liked the idea and we came up with a list we could both agree on.

Our schemes, unfortunately, could not be identical since we both had different schemes left.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Younger Nephilim, Terror Tots x3, 7 Soulstones

My Schemes: Kill Protégé: Mature Nephilim, Eye for an Eye

His Schemes: Hold Out, Kidnap: Terror Tots

The game was fairly hilarious as far as a mirror match goes. On the first turn, we each killed one of the other’s Terror Tots so we were even on models. On the second turn, I killed a second of his Terror Tots and grew one of my Tots into a Younger and he killed my other Younger, so we were still even on models. Our key pieces – Lilith and the Matures, were still hovering back on the field.

On the end of the second turn, I decided to throw caution to the wind and charged in at his Lilith with mine. I didn’t hit once, though I did drain a few of his stones. His Mature jumped in to the mix but missed my Lilith and I charged his Lilith with my Mature. A whole bunch of nothing happening in the middle, but at least we were all together.

Turn three started and he won initiative, going with Lilith hitting Defensive Stance. She attacked my Mature, doing some wounds, and then activated his Mature after who finished off mine. Meanwhile I had managed to kill off his Younger and grow a second Younger of my own. Lilith killed off his Mature and he had enough Blood to grow his Tot to a Younger and then to a Mature straight away. Our armies were at Lilith with the Primordial Magic and a Mature (Tim) against Lilith with a Primordial Magic and two Younger (me). Tough spot.



He won initiative again on turn four but I drew a 13 and the Red Joker into my hand, so I was pleased. He had Lilith Defensive Stance again while his Mature went after my Youngers, killing one. I had my Lilith attack his, stoned in and hit her for a straight flip. I dropped the Red Joker and flipped a Weak damage for 9. He prevented 3 of it. My Younger worked on his Mature but didn’t kill it. My Primordial Magic, who was also engaged, decided to get in the fun and attacked for a couple damage himself. Combat 3’s not that bad when he’s only Defense 4.

I finally won initiative on turn five and he was almost out of stones. I started with Lilith and she swung and missed, though it burned out the last of Tim’s stones. Lilith swung a second time and this time killed off Tim’s Lilith. I didn’t have enough room to go after his Mature, so I backed away to the center of the board and the Claim Jump. My Younger went next and brought his Mature down to one. His Mature killed my Younger.

On the last turn, Tim decided he had to risk going after Lilith. I had no stones and if he got a hit with a Red Joker, he’d kill Lilith and win. I cheated the first defense too high so that he got the -2 Combat from my defensive trigger, and the second attack missed. Lilith went and cut the Mature in half, leaving Tim with no models left. I held the center and won, 8-4.

So the tournament ended with me as the lone undefeated player. I ended up at (12/+19/27)


The second table was a Neverborn and Resserectionist player facing off, and the Resser won. On table three, Second Generation Awesome Dan was facing Wyrd Zee in a Resser/Archanist battle. Wyrd Zee pulled out an Archanist win, giving us a Neverborn/Resser/Archanist top three.

My prizes were a plaque (which is good – Chris, the owner of Huzzah Hobbies, said we weren’t allowed back if we didn’t bring back a prize), a Rules Manual, Twisting Fates, a painted Von Schill crew, and a $25 gift card to Battlefoam. I handed off the Rules Manual to one of the players who didn’t have one yet and handed off the Twisting Fates to the guy who took 4th Place, another local who didn’t have it yet. Dan had painted up the Von Schill crew and offered to buy my dinner in exchange for it since he painted it up and wanted to give the Freikorps a try. I already owned them, so I figured it was a good deal. I did finally order a new transport bag from BattleFoam, though. Romeo was there and showed me the new Go PACK – an awesome new backpack bag that was coming out a few days later. He didn’t have any to sell there, but I put one on special order and should be getting my new bag in a week or two.

I called it a day for Malifaux as my head was already starting to hurt. I don’t like playing in tournaments much – my head can’t take too many games in a row. We hit dinner with the Atlanta gang – a great group of guys – headed out to CVS for some medicine, handed in our Friday Achievement League packets and then went home.

The next morning I showed up back at Dan’s place and we headed out. When we arrived, we found out that Dan had won the Ressers Achievement prize for Friday: a Collodi Box set. Fantastic news, since Dan wanted to pick it up for his Leviticus crew, only he had literally just picked it up on the way in to the gaming area as we passed by the WarStore booth. Fortunately Tim also wanted it, so he was able to swap the Collodi box for a Viktoria box set.

Today was going to be mostly casual play. I won’t go into each game I played (mostly because I don’t remember them), but I do remember the basics of what I was facing off against.

My first game was me playing McMourning against Dan’s new Freikorps box set. I had him put together a 25 stone list and we just went to town in the M&SU Bar setup. It was a hilarious game of massive death everywhere. McMourning was finally able to Scalpel Sling Von Schill and carve him up while Mortimer (I think that’s his name) went out to collect all the bodies left behind for him. McMourning ended up with 21 body part tokens and a wicked grin on his face. I went home and painted this guy up – he’s a bundle of fun!



I also played against Zee. He used a Lucius list while I played Zoraida with Collodi in Shared Deliver the Message. I sold out to deliver him the message on turn one and failed by one on my flip and he was able to deliver the message to me on turn two when he won initiative. Even still, my Zoradia and Collodi pair managed to wipe out the entire group of Guild by turn six, and I moved Zoraida into his deployment zone to break his hidden scheme of Holdout. Meanwhile, I managed to nab two points from Deliver the Message, another two from Kill Protégé: Guild Guard Captain, and one from my hidden Holdout to win the game 5-4.

I got a rematch in against Chuck’s Perdita, this time playing with Zoraida and a few Nightmares (no Collodi) and pulled the game out there as Zoraida got near the gunslinger and managed to explode three Wicked Dolls on her to kill her.

eChris pulled out his Colette crew with a very unusual setup – Colette, Cassandra, and three pairs of Performer/Mannequins. He managed to turn three of the Dreamer’s models – Lelu and both Night Terrors (I LOVE those guys, by the way) into Mannequins over the course of the game, but I still hung on tooth and nail to win 6-4.

Finally, I got another game in against Dan, Dreamer against Vikis. I could tell by now my head was not in the game because I kept having to ask Dan what I was supposed to be doing and what he was supposed to be doing. I gave up two points for First Blood because I couldn’t remember what he took, even though it was only turn two. I then dropped Lord Chompy Bits between both Vikis, killed them both, and forgot to bring out the Dreamer so LCB died in return. If it weren’t for a bad flip by Von Schill and his fleeing from Lord Chompy Bits, Dan would have Delivered the Message too. I managed to wipe out his models, but far too slowly as he killed off Lelu for Kill Protégé. He ended up with 4 points, never managing to Deliver the Message after he failed the Terrify check, and I somehow pulled in 6 points, though Dan did have to remind me what I was doing nearly every turn.

With my brain clearly being mush, the Hurricane threatening to spill torrential rains on us, and me not wanting to stay awake until 5 AM, then drive home and have less than a day to recover before working again, Dan and I decided to clear out. We hung out for a little while longer, then turned in our Achievement sheets and headed out. Got a text from Bill the next day saying I’d won the Neverborn Saturday Achievement prize. Good deal!

Overall, a fantastic weekend. I got in 9 games of Malifaux against some old friends and some people I’d never faced before. Got to meet Zee finally, and won a tournament to boot. I think my only regret was not playing Bunniegod, who I didn’t put together was the guy who won GenCon until I was on the road home chatting with Dan. Evidently people had mentioned that fact several times over the course of the convention, but being deaf and having taken my hearing aids out for the convention (I don’t function well in loud, big areas), I managed to miss it every time someone mentioned that fact. He seemed like a really cool guy, and a lot of fun. I’d like to face him at some point – seems like he’d be a really good challenge.

Thanks to Bill for putting together a great series of events. Hopefully you’ve managed to recover.

Now to wait for my Go PACK to arrive. That thing is awesome! Seriousness, check it out if you haven’t already.

NoVA Open, Part Two

So to continue my tale...

After round two ended, I found myself at first with a score of (6/+7/12). We took a short break and then lined up for our third round. Outcasts and Neverborn seemed to be pulling to the top of the pile.


ROUND THREE - BRAD, SHARED DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

As before, I told my opponent I was playing Neverborn and asked if there was anything with which he was unfamiliar and wanted to avoid seeing. Brad said he didn't want to see Zoraida anymore - evidently she's seeing a lot of face-time in his local area (Maryland, if I remember right) - so I narrowed my choices to the other three masters. I decided against Lilith since I had already played her, and given that the mission was Shared Destroy the Evidence, I decided to go with a fast list: Pandora/Collodi. I wanted to make sure I got the center objective first. I also went for two of the schemes I had been saving, figuring that if I could put this game away well enough, I'd be in great shape to hold one of the top three spots.

Pandora, Primordial Magic, Collodi, Marionettes x4, Stitched Together x2, 7 Soulstones (Kidnap: the Alps, Bodyguard)

Dreamer, Daydream, Coppelius, Alps x3, Stitched Together x2, 5 Soulstones (Eye for an Eye, Holdout)

I love it when people take Holdout against me. Most people look at it as an easy pair of victory points, and I look at it as a fairly simple Scheme to break.

The game started and I flipped and won initiative. After a little conversation, Brad decided it was probably in his best interest to try to stone to win initiative, even though he was aiming to beat an 8. The winner of the initiative flip essentially decided who got the middle objective. He flipped again and still lost initiative.

I started with Collodi and the Marionettes, snaking my way up to the objective, grabbing it, and then pulling Collodi back to safety with my last Marionette. The Dreamer was not too happy with that and he (with a Daydream's help) jumped out to the middle of the board and killed both the Marionettes that had been left up front, but failed to activate "All Done" and failed to summon another Daydream. One of my Stitched Togethers was able to get up near him within Collodi's 4" WP boost and start pounding on the beast with Gamble Your Life until he was down to only a couple of life remaining. The Dreamer's Alps, Coppelius and Stitched Togethers all advanced to catch up to Lord Chompy Bits while Pandora and her crew moved up to try to take down the big guy before he could be brought back to safety.

The next turn he was able to bury LCB and get him away before I could kill him, but he was already out of stones and my Stitched Together ended up killing off Coppelius instead. His two Stitched Togethers split up to go for two of the objective markers while Collodi and his now-three Marionettes moved out to try to sprint towards more of them. A bloody fight went back and forth where I was able to get LCB back on the table and kill him, and then the Dreamer as well, just as the Alps were moving into position around my crew. Pandora and the Stitched took care of them, losing one of my Stitched in the process. I was able to kill one of his with Collodi and his friends, then move on past to get to my objectives. His last Stitched reached his objective marker, ready to tag it with Reactivate, but Pandora managed to make him flee before killing him, meaning he was too far away to reach the objective. Finally, my Collodi group was running out of time so I claimed only two of the three objectives (one in the field and one in the deployment zone, both getting the victory points there and breaking Hold Out).

Final score for the game turned out to be 7-0 in Pandora's favor. My tournament record was at a healthy (9/+14/19) putting me in a resounding first place at the moment. There were several people with two wins and a tie, though, so if I lost and one of them won, I was still out of the running.

NoVA Open, Part One

I was unable to go to GenCon this year, so when Bill (of the Gamers Lounge - if you don't listen to the podcast, check it out) suggested that I head out to NoVA Open this year - that it was going to have a nice-sized Malifaux presence - I took him up on it. I haven't been to a lot of conventions outside of GenCon, so I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. I told my new job I'd be taking Friday off and then woke up early to head out to Dan's place so we could hit the road to NoVA Open.



After stopping for breakfast we made it out to Arlington, Virginia and found our way through the hotel to where we'd be staying. We passed by booths set up by Battlefoam, the Warstore, and Spikey Bits. Picked up our bag of swag which was overloaded with Games Workshop-centric stuff, and headed on in to find the Malifaux space.



Clearly we had to walk a long way just to find the Malifaux tables. We were tucked away in the corner of the gaming space. But it turned out to be just fine - we had about a dozen tables set up for Malifaux games with all manner of varied terrain. A lot of city boards, a desert board, a couple of Terraclips boards. We had a few ruins and outdoor scenes, and then we had Bill's new gaming table of the M&SU Bar - an entirely interior board designed to look like a pub in Malifaux complete with stage, tables, a bar with kegs, etc. It looked pretty awesome. A big shout out to our local, John, who constructed the thing (and a lot of the terrain there, in fact).

Dan and I checked in and received our first achievement packets. Throughout the day, as you accomplished different tasks, you would receive stamps in your packet worth different points, and at the end of the day the top of each faction would win a plaque and a prize.

The area was crowded too - there were a ton of people there. When Bill called for the start to the first tournament - Through the Breach - I think he said we had 22 people signed up for it. The biggest Malifuax tournament I'd played in.

I brought my Neverborn, mostly because that's pretty much what I own. I've been playing them since day one and despite all the whining on the forums that had been getting me down on playing my faction anymore, I decided to say "screw you" to the complainers and play what I enjoyed anyway. The tournament was going to be 30 stone matches, domination style (TP/Diff/VP), no repeating schemes.


ROUND ONE - CHUCK, SHARED SLAUGHTER

My first game was against one of our NoVA locals, Chuck. I asked him if there was anyone he wanted to face or didn't want to face in Neverborn, and he said he had a lot more experience against Lilith than the other masters, so I pulled out Lilith. The mission was Shared Slaughter, so I felt she could do well for me. The board had LOS across almost the entire table with a lot of small ridges and bushes to provide some cover as you crossed. We revealed crews and picked Schemes.

Lilith, Primordial Magic, Mature Nephilim, Younger Nephilim, Terror Tot x3, 7 Soulstones (Breakthrough, Grudge: Francisco)

Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, Nino, Abuela, 6 Soulstones (Assassinate, Frame for Murder: Francisco)

I panicked a little. I would be advancing down an almost completely-open board with barely anything to block LOS against an Ortega gunline. This was going to be interesting. There was no way I'd make it to him with everything.

The first turn went predictably. On my first turn I moved everything up a bit, hiding my Tots (because there was some HT2 terrain on the board) and advancing with my larger models once the Family was all done activating.

On turn two I drew the Red Joker and breathed a sigh of relief. Now I just needed to get Lilith to Perdita. I tried to run one of my Tots around the back of his board, but Francisco leveled his gun and killed him in one shot. Another Tot got taken out by Perdita as he tried to dodge between cover. My Younger jumped behind some small rocks and got nailed by Nino, dropping him to one wound left. He had Santiago left and I had Lilith, the Primordial Magic, and the Mature Nephilim. I had the Mature fly out ahead of Lilith, hiding behind some small trees. Santiago moved out and tried to finish off the Younger Nephilim, but I cheated to keep him alive. The Primordial Magic moved up, used Transposition to switch the Mature with Lilith, and then Lilith charged Perdita. I used a Soulstone to hit, and the Great Sword gave me a straight flip. I cheated in the Red Joker, then added another Severe to the damage, pasting Perdita.



The next turn, my Younger charged Abuela and knocked her down to one life, and the old lady shredded him with her shotgun. My Mature was Transpositioned by the Primordial Magic with my remaining Tot, bringing him back to the front line, and he charged in to Francisco and Nino, killing Francisco and taking Grudge. Lilith charged in to Abuela, killing her, and then moved on Santiago. At that point, the Family was pretty much out of options.

We tallied up points a little too quickly and made a mistake in the scores we reported - I had Breakthrough and Grudge, along with full Slaughter, but we misunderstood Frame for Murder and awarded two points for that, so our game got reported as an 8-2 victory. My score, then, was currently at (3/+6/8).


We took a long break for lunch and went out with a few of the guys from other areas including Wyrd's Zee and GenCon's champion, Bunniegod. After lunch we headed back for our new pairings.


ROUND TWO - RICK, SHARED RECONNOITER

Reconnoiter is one of my least favorite main missions. For whatever reason, I just do terrible at this one.

The board was a Terraclips sewers board with a few buildings, some catwalks, and a large open alley down the center of the board. Unfortunately I was getting so engrossed in my games at this point that I had forgotten to take any pictures again until round four.

I asked Rick if there was anything in Neverborn he didn't want to face and he said he wasn't too keen on seeing Pandora on the table (and maybe the Dreamer too... I couldn't remember) so I picked Zoraida.

Zoraida, Collodi, Marionettes x4, Stitched Together, Lelu, 7 Soulstones (Stake a Claim, Reclaim Malifaux)

Lady Justice, Executioner, Death Marshall x2, Witchling Stalker x2, Guardian, 4 Soulstones (Stake a Claim, Holdout)

Fortunately I had Stake a Claim on a building that touched his deployment zone, so I could break Holdout and grab Stake a Claim with a single model.

The Guild crew busted through some walls in the sewers in order to keep out of LOS of Zoraida as they advanced down the board while a Death Marshall and Stalker advanced down the opposite side to try to grab the quarters. I decided to leave everyone but Zoraida to deal with the massive group of Guild and then sent Zoraida to pick up the last few Reclaim Malifaux points after the end of the second turn. She kept flying around and interacting with terrain to try to grab the objectives while the Stitched, Lelu and Collodi faced down against the Executioner and Lady Justice. I managed to get Lady Justice knocked down to 2 wounds with 2 Poison on her, but the Executioner was still fully healthy as the Guardian was taking all his wounds from the Stitched Together. The Guardian moved up to Lady Justice and tagged himself onto her to make sure he took the wounds from Poison. Lelu attacked her again and killed her and the Guardian, thankfully, before she was able to kill off my crew. The Executioner killed off the Stitched and moved on away after Lelu, knocking the boy down to 1 life left. I was in a tight spot. I could kill the Executioner with Collodi (the Executioner was dropped to one life on the Stitched's reactivate), but then he'd kill Lelu and be fine. I could not get Zoraida over to Hex the Executioner fast enough and even if I was able, I didn't have the time to turn away from Reclaim Malifaux. So Collodi stabbed Lelu, killing him, and spilling Black Blood onto the Executioner. The Executioner attacked Collodi, trying to kill him, but I spent two Soulstones (one on the defense flip and one on the damage prevention) and he survived with one wound.

In turn six, Zoraida flew next to the last Malifaux section and reclaimed it, grabbing 2 for that, 2 for being next to the Stake a Claim, and denying the Holdout. A huge point shift. He managed to bring his last Death Marshall over to kill off Collodi which freed his Witchling Stalker to go after the Claim Jump. Unfortunately, though, he was only able to grab one quarter at that point as Zoraida and the other Stalker were contesting the final one.

Final score, Zoraida wins, 4-3, and my tournament score was now (6/+7/12). This bumped me up into the lead and as one of the games ahead of me ended up in a draw, there were only three undefeated players left.


I'll be back to talk about the final two rounds and the rest of the NoVA Open in the next post.