Avatar Zoraida vs. Lilith, 35 Stones

Headed out to the Huzzah Hobbies last night to get a couple of games in. I had painted up my Avatar Pandora and Candy over the weekend, so I wanted to give them a try too, and wanted to give Avatar Zoraida another swing. I was pretty sure I would get two games in so I decided to figure out my strategies before deciding which direction to go. Here’s the first of them, and if I get a chance, I’ll post up the second.

GAME ONE - 35 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. LILITH
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 7 Stones
Collodi
Marionette x4
Wicked Doll
Stitched Together
Lelu


Lilith, 8 Stones
Mature Nephilim
Younger Nephilim
Black Blood Shaman
Terror Tot x3

Strategy: Destroy the Evidence (Zoraida) vs. Reconnoiter (Lilith)
Zoraida Schemes: Reclaim Malifaux, Bodyguard (Zoraida)
Lilith Schemes: Bodyguard, Assassinate

The terrain was one of Bill’s fixed boards set up with a fenced-in cemetery in the middle of the board and then a lot of ruins all along the outside of that. There were not a lot of places to completely block LOS, so we added in a few more pieces of terrain – more ruins. I deployed first in standard deployment and set up where I could grab the back three Reclaim Malifaux points quickly and then start moving out. My plan was to get Zoraida to manifest and then control the center of the board with Lelu and the Stitched Together while Collodi jumped all around grabbing all the points I needed. Lilith deployed along his deployment zone – I reminded my opponent to keep his key pieces out of LOS of Zoraida if he did not want to risk being Obeyed on turn one.

I apologize ahead of time – I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of activation order and the like. I’ll do my best to reconstruct what I can.

TURN ONE - LILITH INITIATIVE
The first turn was fairly basic early on. The Tots started moving up, and the Younger flew forward, keeping himself out of sight. I was at a problem, though. I needed a 7 of Masks for my Hex on Lelu to work, and I needed a 10 of Masks to get Crystal Ball to work. My high card in my hand was a 6, and I had a 5 and 4 of Masks to work with.

I had my Lelu, a Marionette, and the Stitched all move up and grab the back three Reclaim Malifaux points. I kept trying to cast spells with everyone I could to see if I could unbury a high mask to use with Bayou Two-Card, but that wasn’t working.

One of my Marionettes activated, moved up and then pulled strings to get Collodi near the middle fence of the cemetery to try to grab another Reclaim Malifaux point. My next Marionette jumped to him and grabbed the middle point, and the last Marionette jumped to him, moved out and grabbed the middle-right Malifaux point, giving me five points at the first turn.

Of course, things couldn’t be that good. Lilith moved up and Companioned the Mature Nephilim. She Transpositioned the Mature with a Tot near the cemetery and then put up an Illusionary Forest to hold off my Collodi group. The Mature Nephilim charged and killed two of my Marionettes. Collodi activated and used one of the Scrap Tokens to create a new Marionette, and then tried to give him Melee Expert, but my hand was pretty bad. I still had not unburied a high mask.

My new Marionette activated and attacked the Mature, doing one wound to him. Finally, Zoraida activated. I tried to cast Crystal Ball, figuring if I could succeed at that, I might get lucky and dig up what I needed for Hex. I tossed my 5 of Masks to cheat the spell, and then burned a Soulstone needing a 5 of any suit. I flipped a 3, failing. F---. So I cast Hex on Lelu, tossing my 4 of Masks and burning another Soulstone, this time needing only a 3. I flipped a 12 of Masks. At least one of my spells went off. I was already behind on Manifesting, though. I needed to catch up. With my last action, I Obeyed Lelu to move forward to get ready to grab another Reclaim Malifaux point.


TURN TWO - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I drew my hand of cards again and this time had an 8 high, and no Masks. Zoraida really did not want to Manifest.

So I had a Mature in my face and had to deal with it quick. To that end, I activated Collodi. I probably should have made my dolls fast, but I didn’t want to sit without four Marionettes very long, so I had him create the fourth Marionette. He then Breathed Life into two of them and pulled up Melee Expert. Finally, he said the Stitched was going to activate after him. He closed out his turn and activated the Marionettes. All four of them went to town on the Mature and finally the last attack from the last Marionette hit the Red Joker for damage and did the last four wounds to the Mature. I had the Stitched left to go so he moved up a bit and popped smoke to try to hide more of my crew.

Two of the Tots sprinted in on one of my Marionettes and together killed him, and then Lilith rushed in and killed off two more of my Marionettes leaving Collodi with one bodyguard. It wasn’t looking good. Meanwhile my remaining crew - a Wicked Doll, Zoraida and Lelu – decided they’d need to pick up the slack from the Collodi crew. I Obeyed Lelu to move up but he wasn’t in the right section of the board when he hit the Reclaim Malifaux. Zoraida turned into a bird and flew over near the Younger Nephilim and the Wicked Doll snapped to her and tagged the final middle point. I had the three back points to grab plus my three Destroy the Evidence markers.

The Younger Nephilim decided not to try to take on Zoraida and the Wicked Doll and pushed back to the middle of the board to protect the Destroy the Evidence markers.

With Collodi not long for this world and not drawing a good enough hand for Crystal Ball two turns in a row, I decided to abandon my initial plan and try a new strategy: use regular Zoraida’s speed with the Wicked Doll to grab all my objectives and use the Stitched Together and Lelu to hunt as many models as I could to deny him Reconnoiter.


TURN THREE - LILITH INITIATIVE
Damn. I had a plan to get Collodi and the Marionettes to kill the two nearby Terror Tots but instead Lilith goes first. She kills the last Marionette, then hits Collodi and her Greatsword gives her the straight flip for damage. She cheats in a Red Joker and flips a moderate for 10 wounds. I spend a stone to prevent (I really wanted to make sure Lilith would have to spend her last action on Collodi – I didn’t want her with one more AP out there) and he managed to flip a moderate to leave him at 1 life remaining. With her last action, Lilith swapped off Collodi’s head.

My Stitched Together moved up and Gambled his Life with a Terror Tot, killing it. His Black Blood moved up and gave his Younger Nephilim Flurry, but there was nothing close enough. He started moving towards the side of the cemetery with all the corpses from the Mature, no doubt trying to fuel his unnatural ways! His Younger activated and repositioned a bit, keeping an eye on Lelu. Zoraida activated and Obeyed Lelu to move closer, then turned into a raven, moved to the first evidence marker and destroyed it. My Wicked Doll snapped to her and activated the terrain for Reclaim Malifaux. Lelu charged the Younger and missed, then hit for 2 wounds and 2 poison. His two Terror Tots rushed Lelu but one was too far out and the other wasn’t able to hit him.


TURN FOUR - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I started out with Lelu attacking the Younger and knocking him down to two wounds left and two poison, then turned around and knocked the Tot to two wounds left and two poison, then tried to move away to avoid any retaliation, but the Tot held me in place. His Black Blood Shaman went and pulled his Nephilim towards him, then healed the Younger for two. Damn, I forgot about that ability. Should’ve finished him off!

Zoraida Obeyed Lelu to charge the Younger and kill him, marking off one of my Manifest requirements. Oops. I wasn’t meaning to do that since my whole plan was not to be an avatar this game at this point. No worries – as long as I didn’t cast Crystal Ball anymore, I wouldn’t need to worry about it until the final turn. Zoraida then double-moved to the far side of the board and the Wicked Doll snapped to her and took care of the Evidence Marker there.

Lilith dropped a forest on the Stitched Together, keeping him in place a bit, and then moved towards the middle to Lelu. She attacked him but didn’t kill him.


TURN FIVE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I could Manifest pretty easily, but still didn’t want to. I needed Zoraida’s speed. I started with Lelu and went for the Black Blood Shaman, knocking him down a bit. Lilith went and murdered Lelu.

I Obeyed the Stitched to move more and then moved Zoraida to the middle of the back end. Lilith and the Black Blood were too close to the Evidence Marker for me to be able to grab it. The last Terror Tot charged Zoradia, but missed. The Wicked Doll snapped in and grabbed the last Malifaux point. My Stitched Advanced on the Lilith/Black Blood.


TURN SIX - LILITH INITIATIVE
I paid my last soulstone not to Manifest. I didn’t want to lose my (-) flips on his attacks – I thought they’d keep me safer than Irresistible would.

Lilith charged Zoradia and missed the first attack, but hit the second knocking her down by 6 life. Ouch! Zoraida activated and Obeyed the Tot to charge the nearly-dead Black Blood. Lilith tried to stop the Tot and managed to. I cheated the attack so that it was a double-negative flip for damage, making it a straight negative. I didn’t want him to cheat the damage in case I got lucky. I did. Two moderates came up and Lilith killed her own Tot. Zoradia made a new Wicked Doll.

The Stitched moved up and used Gamble Your Life on the Shaman. It managed to turn it around on the Stitched and flipped two Severes on a (-) flip, killing it. That worked out well for me – if I could kill the Shaman on my first action, I could use my second to activate the last Destroy Evidence marker. Unfortunately it took both actions to kill the Shaman.

I flipped to see if the game ended and it did.

Zoraida had 2 from Destroy the Evidence, 2 from Bodyguard and 2 from Reclaim Malifaux.
Lilith had 0 from Reconnoiter, 2 from Bodyguard, and 0 from Assassinate.

6-2 Victory. Had the game gone on another turn, I don’t think Zoraida would have survived and it would have become a 4-4 tie.


This game showed me a bit more about Avatars. The idea that they are more powerful than their counterparts is simply not true. In some ways, they are. Avatar Zoraida gets more actions and can do more to control the game than regular Zoraida, but that didn’t matter as much in this game when compared with the ability regular Zoraida has to move around the board quickly. I ended up having to hold off manifesting simply because I needed to keep the maneuverability and defensive superiority of regular Zoraida. I feel strongly that had I manifested in this game, I would not have won.

And that’s okay with me. I like the idea that Avatars are not always the best move. But in the end, it’s interesting to me that I spent four soulstones over the course of the game related to my Avatar and ended up not manifesting (two to purchase at the beginning, one to try – and fail – to cast Crystal Ball on turn one, and one to prevent my automatic manifest on turn 6).

Malifaux List Size - Think Smaller!

I have to admit I was disappointed when I saw that the Masters of Malifaux tournament at GenCon was going to be 40 soulstones. It did not directly impact me since I wasn’t going to be there, but the fact that the tournament was pushing to that level made me a little sad.

I was introduced to miniatures gaming, more or less, at the beginning of Warmachine. Games were small then, but over time they grew from 500 points to 750 points. With Mark 2, the size of the game increased even more, though it was harder to see because the points changed so drastically. I do not play Warmachine anymore. I think it’s a great game and don’t regret any of my time playing, but it’s not the same game I started. I liked the small skirmishes and when the game moved away from that, I moved away from the game. There are a bunch of reasons why I left Warmachine, but the ever-increasing size of the game was one of them.

I know one tournament does not a trend make, but I’m keeping a careful eye open to see if other tournaments are going to start following suit to match GenCon’s 40 stone games. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m worried it will happen sooner or later. I’m already on record with my group in saying that there will eventually be a time I move on from Malifaux to the next game, and one of the things that could trigger that move is an increasing game size.

When I started Malifaux, our group grew eventually and were playing 30 stone games all the time. It wasn’t until a few of us went to tournaments outside our group before we came back and encouraged the 35 stone games as the standard since that seems to be what people used elsewhere. But honestly, I still prefer 30 stone games over the standard 35. One of the reasons for changing the game size to 40 in the tournaments was that it would be a more challenging atmosphere. I feel an even more challenging game is to push the points down to 30 or even 25 stones than to push the limit higher.

So much of Malifaux is taking the right tool for the right missions. If you can take a dozen tools, it doesn’t matter if you get a couple of them wrong. When you play with fewer stones, every model you take must contribute. You can’t afford any dead weight.

Additionally, there’s been a lot of talk about the FILTH list Bill brought to the Masters. While it didn’t win the tournament overall, it did win every game he played it, and win handily. His only loss and tie were when he strayed from that list. At 40 stones, that list is brutal. But cut out 10 stones and all of the sudden it’s a bit less frightening. Either it’s very slim with Nekima and two Lilitu’s, all of which become necessary, or it loses out on its redundancy with the second Lilitu and some of its ability to replace its own models with as many Terror Tots. Other powerful lists take a hit too. Colette has to choose between the Duet and Cassandra. The Dreamer’s not getting the twins and Copellius. The player must make hard choices and make the tightest list he can for the mission he’s playing.

Just random musings, but in my opinion, the perfect game size is 30 stones with a wide-open field of models to choose from. I can bring 100 models to a game, but I need to really focus and pick my best team for the mission ahead of me, and I’ve got no room for fat on the list.

Second Avatar Game, with successful Avatar Goodness

So after our first Zoraida and Seamus game, we reset our crews and started again. I decided to do something different than Collodi this time.

GAME ONE - 30 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. aSEAMUS
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 5 Stones
Doppelganger
Baby Kade
Lelu
Lilitu


Seamus w/ Avatar, 8 Stones
Rotten Belle x2
Crooked Man x2
Necropunk x2

Strategy: Turf War (Zoraida) vs. Reconnoiter (Seamus)
NB Schemes: Stake a Claim & Kill Protege (Crooked Man)
R Schemes: Kill Protege (Lelu) & Breakthrough

The terrain was the same, set up with a bunch of large buildings scattered throughout the board and there was almost nowhere where you could see from one side of the board to the other. Dan won deployment and had me deploy first. We were playing standard deployment, so he was able to make sure his crew was hidden after seeing where I deployed.

TURN ONE - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
Even with the Doppelganger helping out, Dan won initiative with a 9-low while I flipped a 7. He had a Necropunk fail leap and then double-move along the right flank, hiding behind buildings, trying to grab some corners while staying alive. I double-moved Baby Kade up behind the central building, keeping hidden.

He had his second Necropunk do the same thing along the left flank. Lelu double-moved forward near Kade, hidden behind the building.

The first Crooked Man moved up behind the central building on the other side. Lelu moved forward twice and then Lured Zoraida up a little.

The second Crooked Man moved out along the left side of the building, far out of range but keeping an eye on things. My Doppelganger copied Obey and Obeyed Lilitu forward a little more, then moved herself up. All these random spells I was casting really had only one point: try to dig to a 10 or better of masks. My high card in hand was a 7 and I didn't have any masks, and I wanted to get Crystal Ball to work at least once.

The first Belle moved up and lured Seamus forward to get more speed out of him. Zoraida went and used the high mask on top to cast Crystal Ball, then moved forward and Obeyed the Doppelganger up a bit more.

The second Belle moved up twice to the edge of the building, and then Seamus followed suit, casting Face of Fear.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 5 soulstones, 1x Crystal Ball
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 soulstones, 1x Face of Fear


TURN TWO - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
The Doppelganger's negative initiative failed again as Seamus flipped the Red Joker as one of the two cards and went first. Zoraida was in position to see the left Necropunk, so that one activated and leaped behind a building further down the table. I activated Lilitu (alone, no Bond) who moved out and then targeted the Kill Protege Crooked Man with Lure. Double take got him to clear the house and Lilitu hit him for some damage.

The Crooked Man activated and attacked Lilitu, figuring he was not long for the world, but missed. Lelu charged and killed the Crooked Man who in turn dropped a Shafted Marker next to Lelu. Lelu had no action to get out of the way so he took a flip, taking 3 damage. Ouch! But two points for Kill Protege, so a fair trade.

One of the Belles moved out and Lured Lelu forward, out into the open. I didn't like him there so I had my Doppelganger copy Lure and Dangerous Beauty to get the suits she needed and Lure Lelu back into cover behind the central building.

The second Crooked Man moved up but had no targets yet with his evil blast templates. I double-moved Baby Kade out to the right, trying to block off at least one of the Necropunks. He could also swing around the central building the back way if I needed to bring him back into the fight.

Seamus activated and moved around to put up Face of Fear and No Escape on Lilitu. I started to panic. I activated Zoraida and cast Crystal Ball again, using a 9 of masks and a stone to succeed in the spell. She then put up a Voodoo Doll on the exposed Belle but I couldn't Obey Lilitu to move away or Seamus would charge her.

The second Belle activated and Lured Lilitu, succeeding, and then Seamus charged her, pulling out all the stops to make sure Slit Jugular went off. I ditched my two cards to prevent myself from dying, but the damage had been done: Seamus had reached both of his Manifest requirements. My Voodoo Doll tried to cast Obey but failed. His last Necropunk stayed hidden from Baby Kade.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 4 Soulstones, 2x Crystal Ball (COMPLETED)
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 Soulstones, 2x Face of Fear (COMPLETED), No Escape / Slit Jugular (COMPLETED)


TURN THREE - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
Damn you, Doppelganger, what the hell am I taking you for?! Can't win an initiative to save my life! Seamus activated first and manifested for a one action. Dan grinned as he lifted the tiny Seamus model and replaced him with the gargantuan beast of a model. Lilitu, who was in base-to-base due to No Escape, did not look happy. aSeamus pounded his chest and then swung a meaty fist at Lilitu. He passed the Irresistible but I cheated high to make the damage a (-) flip. He hit her for 3 wounds. Second attack and he had to cheat to make the Irresistible, but hit her again. Again I tossed a high cheat to keep it at a (-) flip and again she took 3 wounds. aSeamus had triggered SQUEEEEEEZE! and I cheated to make sure she was slow, not paralyzed. She was alive with 1 wound left. Black Blood had damaged Seamus twice.

I activated both twins, starting with Lilitu. She passed Anathema and then moved around Seamus with one action and Lured Lelu in with her second. Lelu activated, regenerated two (healing himself and Lilitu) and charged aSeamus. I cheated to pass Anathema (I was running out of cards here) and he swung. aSeamus burned a soulstone and I missed. I swung with Melee Expert. Again, a Soulstone and I missed.

One of the Belles backed away from Lelu (staying within 2") and then lured him, pulling him further than 1" from aSeamus so his black blood wouldn't spill on the hulk. She missed the attack, though. I activated my Doppelganger, copying Zoraida's Obey and her Cast, and cast Obey on Lelu. It succeeded and Lelu attacked aSeamus. A soulstone wasn't enough to prevent the hit and Lelu connected for 1 damage (aSeamus has Armor 2) and two poison.

The Crooked Man charged Lelu and did some wounds to him, but not enough to make much of a difference yet. My Voodoo Doll activated and cast Obey on Lelu, making him hit aSeamus again. I was flipping trying to flip as many cards per damage flip as I could and had already seen the Black Joker this turn, so it was only a matter of time before the Red Joker showed up. It did here, followed by a weak. Seamus flipped to prevent two of it. I had hit the halfway mark with wounds and soulstones!

The second Belle activated but did not do much. Zoraida activated and Manifested as a (2) action, losing my Voodoo Doll in the process. She had two actions left and cast Obey on Lelu. It worked and triggered a second Obey. The first one, Lelu attacked and hit despite aSeamus' use of a soulstone, dropping him by another wound. My second Obey went off and Lelu swung again, hitting once more and flipped Severe damage. aSeamus prevented 1 of it, so he took 2 more. With her last action, aZoraida tried to cast Pins and Needles, but I didn't have the card to cheat and Lelu had already used my Bayou Two-Card on his attack so I just failed.

The Necropunks and Baby Kade continued their positioning game. At the end of the turn, Lilitu healed two which healed Lelu two, and Lelu dealt two wounds to aSeamus who used a soulstone to prevent them.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 4 Soulstones, MANIFESTED
Seamus - 3 wounds, 1 Soulstone, 2 Poison, MANIFESTED


TURN THREE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Don't think it wasn't touch-and-go here. Even with him at a (-) flip and me at a (+) flip, it took two tied initiative flips before we finally saw me win the third.

I started with the twins (naturally) and aSeamus was able to weather Lelu's hits taking only two wounds in total, though it burned his last soulstone. aSeamus' regeneration would be enough to counteract the poison he had, so if I didn't kill him here, he'd be able to respond in kind. Lilitu activated and missed aSeamus with her first attack, and then hit with her second, dealing the final wound to the beast. He howled and collapsed, leaving a crew of a few undead to face the onslaught of aZoraida and her horde of minions.

The football game was about to start so we called it there.


Two games, only saw the Avatars briefly in both. Lesson to all those out there: Avatars are not the be-all-end-all. They are another tool in your box. Don't overextend to bring them up.

First Avatar Game - Zoraida and Seamus

Dan has been chomping at the bit to get in a game with Avatar Seamus. I finally got Avatar Zoraida all painted up and ready to go. I asked Dan if he wanted to get a game in after work yesterday and his response was something between ecstatic and delirious. So I headed by his place and we ended up playing two games. We were short on time (the Redskins were playing, and we had plans to head out to Champs to see the game) so we mostly concentrated on Manifesting our Avatars and giving them a whirl. So when the game turned drastically south for one of us, we just re-racked the models and tried again.


GAME ONE - 30 STONES - aZORAIDA vs. aSEAMUS
Zoraida w/ Avatar, 6 Stones
Collodi
Marionettes x4
Wicked Doll x2
Stitched Together

Seamus w/ Avatar, 8 Stones
Rotten Belle x2
Crooked Man x2
Necropunk x2

Strategy: Contain Power (Zoraida) vs. Destroy the Evidence (Seamus)
NB Schemes: Kidnap (Crooked Man x2, Blue Belle) & Bodyguard (Zoradia)
R Schemes: Stake a Claim, Breakthrough

The terrain was set up with a bunch of large buildings scattered throughout the board and there was almost nowhere where you could see from one side of the board to the other. Dan won deployment and chose to pick the diagonal where my LOS to his deployment zone was completely blocked so Zoradia could not get off her first turn shenanigans.

TURN ONE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
My Stitched Together moved forward twice, heading towards the northern Evidence Marker, and popped smoke. Dan's first Necropunk tried to leap but failed, and then double-moved keeping behind some buildings but getting closer to the northern Evidence Marker.

My first Wicked Doll moved forward twice behind the Stitched Together. Dan's second Necropunk tried to leap but failed as well. He double-moved south behind some buildings, heading toward the Southern Marker. He'd have farther to go, but if he could get a well-timed Leap, it would do him well.

My second Wicked Doll moved up twice, getting between the Northern and Southern Markers. The first Rotten Belle moved forward, her speed boosted by starting near Seamus, and took a lead at the edge of the central building close to the Northern Marker.

Zoraida activated at this point. She cast Crystal Ball and succeeded, ticking off her first Manifest box and looking over Dan's top three cards. I stacked them with the high cards first, figuring he'd think I'd do the opposite and try to burn through his cards early. Zoraida used Casting Expert to Obey one of the Wicked Dolls forward, closer to the Northern Marker, and then moved forward twice herself. Dan's second Rotten Belle moved forward once and then Lured Seamus forward. She missed the resulting attack on the top-hatted fool.

My first Marionette moved out of the Deployment Zone and then pulled Collodi a bit more forward. Seamus cast Face of Death to start his Manifest requirements, and then moved forward closer to the front lines, trying to see if he could be in position when the smoke dropped.

My second Marionette snapped to Collodi with his (0) and then pulled Collodi forward, centralizing him within all my dolls. Dan moved both of his Crooked Man out to get ready for the smoke to drop while my last two Marionettes snapped up to Collodi and then spread out a little.

Finally, Collodi went and made all his Dolls Fast since Fast sticks around to the next activation. Meant that next turn I'd have a full activation with Collodi and all my Dolls were already Fast.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 6 soulstones, 1x Crystal Ball
Seamus - 12 wounds, 8 soulstones, 1x Face of Fear


TURN TWO - SEAMUS INITIATIVE
The Rotten Belle at the corner of the building started things off by moving out a little, then luring the Necropunk. She failed and had to cheat to succeed and Dan tossed out a 12 of Crows (!) to succeed. Either that was his low card, or he had a lot of crap in his hand that couldn't succeed in the cast. My Stitched Together, fast, moved up closer to the Belle and used Gamble Your Life twice. Being close enough to Collodi he was using an effective WP of 8, and the Belle lost both attempts. She ended up taking 7 damage total. Finally, the Stitched put up smoke to block off the Crooked Men and Seamus from seeing my crew.

The Necropunk that had been lured successfully cast Leap, moved up to the Northern Marker and destroyed it. My first Marionette moved up on the Necropunk and then discarded a card for Flurry. He hit for one damage, then missed twice.

Dan's Crooked Man in the back moved forward twice, getting in better position. My centralized Wicked Doll double-moved to the Southern Token, just trying to prevent another quick grab by the Necropunks.

The second Belle activated and moved forward, luring Seamus closer. She missed the resulting attack. My second Marionette pulled Collodi foward and then attacked the Necropunk twice and missed both times. I didn't want to kill the Necropunk... I had plans for him.

The second Necropunk tried to Leap but failed, so instead double-moved towards the Southern Marker, keeping just out of sight of my Wicked Doll around the building. My third Marionette snapped to Collodi and moved away, setting up for next turn.

Seamus activated and cast Face of Fear for the second time, achieving his first manifest requirement. He moved up into the smoke and put up No Escape on the Wicked Doll that had not yet activated. My last Marionette snapped to Collodi and moved into position for next turn.

The final Crooked Man double-moved to support the big scrum of models. He was out of activations and I still had a few to go.

I looked over the field and cursed myself - I had moved a Marionette between Zoraida and the Necropunk. I had planned on Obeying him twice (once with a Voodoo Doll) to get him to move through the smoke, then charge and kill the Belle with one wound left getting my Manifest Requirement, but I screwed myself up. Instead I cast Crystal Ball a second time, then put a Voodoo Doll up on one of my own Marionettes. The smoke was blocking my LOS to all the Ressers. Finally, she Obeyed my Stitched Together who tagged Seamus with Gamble Your Life. Dan spent a Soulstone and still failed the check and took 3 damage. My Voodoo Doll activated and Obeyed the Stitched Together again, and Seamus again burnt a Soulstone but failed to resist and took 3 more damage. Seamus used another Soulstone to prevent 2 of it. My Wicked Doll with passed so No Escape didn't go off, and then Collodi made all the Dolls fast again for next turn.

Zoraida - 10 wounds, 6 Soulstones, 2x Crystal Ball (COMPLETED)
Seamus - 8 wounds, 5 Soulstones, 2x Face of Fear (COMPLETED)


TURN THREE - ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I looked over the board and knew I had one shot to get rid of Seamus before he Manifested and tore my crew a new one. As much as I wanted to bring in Avatar Zoraida, I figured I could wait and if I could take care of Seamus, I would have a solid control over this game. I activated Collodi. Collodi tagged my Stitched Together telling him to activate. He then breathed life into three of the Marionettes, giving them Melee Expert. I activated all my Marionettes at that point. One at a time they started snapping to Seamus and hitting him for a little damage at a time, slowly burning away stones and cards until the onslaught of attacks from the Marionettes and Stitched Together took him down.

At that point we called the game. We still had enough time for a second game if we started then and I confess I really wanted to see Avatar Seamus on the board. But I wasn't just going to give it away... Dan had to earn it!

We decided that the No Escape Manifest requirement was not worth over-extending Seamus to achieve. Better to lure the target in for the No Escape rather than move Seamus out into the opponent's crew.

I'll post up the second game, which actually saw both Avatars hit the table, in a little bit.

High Level Neverborn-Centric Thoughts of Twisting Fates

I am a Neverborn player and have been since day one. When I was getting into the game, Lilith and her Nephilim horde interested me, quickly followed by Zoraida. I didn’t like her swamp critters so much, but everyone in my group was saying she was the weakest of the Neverborn, so I wanted to try her out.

Eventually, about six months after I started, book two came around and I got a whole slew of goodies. And now book three just came out.

I have to say I’m not overly impressed with Neverborn’s haul. I look at Ressurectionists and just grin looking at aSeamus and aKirai. I think their minions might be on the weaker side of things, but they got some great avatars. Then take aSonnia into the mix from Guild, and toss in aRamos and aColette. Their awesome new Showgirl, and the new toys for Kaeris. The Pale Rider and Exorcist for Guild. Rafkin and the Crooligans.

But when I look over the Neverborn, I’m just left with the feeling of “meh.”

Some of them are pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but overall I don’t feel like there’s really as much exciting this year. More things have me disappointed this time around than things that have me excited.

I’ll tell you what I like:
Avatar Zoraida (mostly)
Avatar Lilith (a bit)
Tuco
The Effigies (most of them)

Even the two avatars I like though are not without their own issues that make me think of them more as a “Yes, but…” kind of model.

I know a lot of my problem is that I am still comparing this book to my excitement from book 2 where I feel that Neverborn got the strongest haul. If the backlash on the forums and the showing at GenCon is any indication, maybe we need to be pulled back a peg. But it certainly is tough when I look at other factions and drool over their new options and look at mine and mostly just shrug.

I'm certain that I'm not getting all the connections for all these models yet. There will be some combinations that pop up that I have not seen yet and they'll completely turn me around on models, I'm sure. But overall, I can't look at Pandora and Dreamer without sighing about what I feel are missed opportunities.

Ah, enough griping. Like I said, book 2 was fantastic for Neverborn and it was probably needed for the game as a whole to have Neverborn step back a little with this release. But I sure wish they didn't have to!

Trying Out Hell Dorado

Everyone's off at GenCon this weekend, and after a long league and then a quick few weeks of helping to prep both Bill and Dixon for the Masters of Malifaux tournament in Indy, I was ready for a day of something other than Malifaux. Perfect time to pull out the new book I picked up and try out a few games of Hell Dorado.

I managed to get in my second and third games earlier today, playing my Demons both times. I don't have a ton of models, just the base set, so I ended up proxying what I was missing.

Overall, I enjoy the game. I'm glad Cipher ended up picking it up and doing something with the line. The miniatures, I think, look fantastic, and some of the rules and mechanics are quite cool.

I like the way casting spells works - that you cast the spell into a small model called a Lemure and that model then rushes out to the target. If your opponent takes down the Lemure before it's able to reach its target, the spell doesn't go off. But the spells tend to be pretty powerful.

I also like how if your opponent outnumbers you in models, you can pass when it's your activation and force your opponent to keep activating until you have the same number of models left. So the Malifaux tactic of out-activate your opponent isn't as devastating.

Terrain works in an interesting way. At the beginning of the game, you divide the board into nine different sections and bid secretly on each section. Each player reveals their bids and whoever bid the highest gets to place the terrain in that section. If there's a tie, no terrain is placed. It's a very interesting way to set up the board, but in both my games I found it very easy to heavily limit my opponents' ranged attacks by putting up huge areas of smoke and clouds.

I think the game might be weak on scenarios and the rules for them. I've only played two games with actual scenarios, though, so I could just be mistaken on how they work. But it's hard to, coming from Malifaux which I feel has done the best with scenarios of any game out there, see this game as having a nice and advanced system.

In the end, I don't think Hell Dorado has got a shot of replacing Malifaux as my game of choice. But it does slip in nice to the spot that's been vacated by Firestorm Armada for almost a year. It's a nice game to pull out when I need a break from Malifaux, and makes for a nice diversion from time to time. Looking forward to getting more games in with it.

News from GenCon

I am not at GenCon. I was in the middle of a day-long meeting (the third in three days) discussing a new eCompensation tool my company is purchasing today. Instead of finding out all the new games at GenCon, I was finding out all the features and limitations of a new compensation program. It didn't quite compare.

However, I did have several moles at GenCon who were able to provide a few snapshots of what's going on at the Wyrd booth there. These pictures come from a variety of sources, from Dan's brother Ryan (thanks!) to Bill (thanks again!) to TheCurkov's twitter feed where he talks about how things are going out in Indy (thanks once more!). I figured I'd post what I had in case anyone else was curious.



The Wyrd booth just after 10:00 AM when the doors swung open.



The display case of Malifaux models.



The table full of goodies.



Dan's take of goodies. Yes, that's Avatar Kirai in the stack. Evidently there was an error at the Wyrd website where Kirai didn't show up. They tell us she'll be up tonight, so no worries, those who want her. She'll be there soon.



We were trying to get Ryan to find Bill, and here's what Ryan found. Close enough.



One of the new Merc minions - a Boy Named Sue.