Kirai vs. Hoffman, 35 Stones

Now that Kirai's crew is all painted up, I got to put her out for the first game (I did borrow Dan's crew once before to try her out, but this is the first time I used my own models). Brian and I stopped by Huzzah with his son, Ben, in tow. Ben spent the afternoon building his own towns out of terrain while we fought against each other for supremacy.

We had time for only one game, so we went with 35 stones. I flipped Turf War and Brian flipped Destroy Evidence. Our terrain was Diagonal.

Crew: Kirai, Lost Love, 3x Seishin, Jack Daw, Insidious Madness, Datsu-ba, Desperate Merc, Canine Remain, 6 stones
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Breakthrough, Assassinate

Crew: Hoffman, Mechanical Attendant, Peacekeeper, Guardian, Large Steampunk Arachnid, 2x Watcher, 8 stones
Strategy: Destroy the Evidence
Schemes: Breakthrough, Stake a Claim

Brian put his eggs in one basket tossing the Stake a Claim terrain piece in my deployment zone. Getting it would likely mean getting both that and Breakthrough.

I took Breakthrough because I figured I could summon a model close enough to his deployment zone late in the game if I needed to, and I was likely to outnumber him anyway. I also took Assassinate because I figured I wanted to see how much damage this crew could do and how better to do that than try to kill his master. Especially with Hoffman, since that usually meant I had to plow through several other models first.

We had a couple of unfortunate matchups. My Jack Daw was not going to do much to his Immune to Influence models, but on the flip side, Datsu-ba and Ikiryo would be better as they cut through his armor.

Our table was littered with small houses, walls, etc. There were very little long avenues with LOS. Against a normal Guild crew, that might be a bit more of an issue, but Brian's crew didn't rely as heavily on ranged attacks. This also let him hide the Evidence Markers and essentially leapfrog his Watchers behind cover to them.



TURN ONE - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
This turn was pretty funny for me as I did just about everything possible to kill my Canine and Desperate Merc. I had the Merc activate, Defensive Stance, and then attack the Dog. The dog returned the favor. Then a Seishin gave the Lost Love a bonus to attack and it dropped the Desperate Merc by another wound. The Insidious Madness did some attacking and finally both were left at one wound remaining.

Meanwhile, Hoffman didn't do much. He moved out towards the center of the board with his crew sans the Watchers. Those two started flying the flanks to get to the Evidence markers.

Finally, Kirai activated, summoned an Ikiryo out about 5" from the Peacekeeper (I took the extra wound for that), then cast Into the Spirit World. She gave herself a healing flip and inched forward, staying near the two living models. Datsu-ba Weighed the Sins of both models, killing the Desperate Merc (which healed Kirai) and the Canine Remains. Weigh Sins brought out a Gaki with a Corpse token for each, and Kirai summoned two Seishin to bring her to full. Finally, Ikiryo moved up to the Peacekeeper and hit it for 2 Armor-ignoring wounds. He ended by bringing all my spirits 4" closer to the fight, and the Gaki each moved up behind him to get ready for the next turn.


TURN TWO - KIRAI INITIATIVE
Brian originally won with a 7 but I spent a stone and flipped a 7. We reflipped and I got the Red Joker, going first. Ikiryo started off and swung three times, hitting all three and killing off the Peacekeeper. I had to cheat my only Severe card in hand, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, I was left with a mitt-ful of cards 7 or under. Killing the Peacekeeper healed Kirai her last wounds so she was back to full.

The Large Steampunk Arachnid charged Ikiryo, but some good flips on my part kept Ikiryo at 1 wound left. I had my Insidious Madness double-move up to block one of the Evidence markers, but I was out by about 1/2". Brian activated Hoffman who Machine Puppet-ed the Large SPA to kill Ikiryo, then had the Guardian activate next. It moved up after one of the Gaki but couldn't attack it yet.

The Gaki both activated and swung ineffectively, but that was okay. Jack Daw zapped the Machine Puppet, making it ditch two cards for Heart Stopper. He was left with one card, and I had a bunch but nothing good. Jack Daw ended by putting up his no-cheating/no-stoning bubble, catching both the Guardian and Large SPA. Kirai stayed where she was and cast Into the Spirit World again. Luck had it that I flipped the Mask I needed. She summoned Ikiryo by using a Soulstone and a low Crow between the Large SPA and Guardian, then used a healing flip on herself and swapped the places of Datsu-ba and the Gaki in the front lines. No one up there could cheat anymore, but Datsu-ba and Ikiryo killed off the Guardian.

Brian's Watchers both moved after objectives. One was set to flip it the following turn, and the other one, near the Insidious Madness, was just out from destroying it this turn.


TURN THREE - KIRAI INITIATIVE
I had an 8 on my card, and Brian tried to stone into an initiative, but failed. I started with Ikiryo and killed off the Large Steampunk Arachnid leaving Brian without any more heavy-hitters. Brian activated his Watcher near the Insidious Madness and destroyed the objective, then moved around the building slightly. Datsu-ba walked through the house and attacked the Watcher but didn't do much. The Mechanical Attendant moved up to Hoffman, then moved on to the Watcher and brought Hoffman with him.

Ikiryo wasn't dead. Kirai couldn't resummon her. I know I could have had her swap places with a nearby minion, then eaten her and resummoned her, but that's a lot of actions. Plus I don't think I had the crow in hand to make sure it would work. Instead I had Jack Daw fly over near the scrum but did not put up his no-cheating bubble. I was afraid I'd catch Kirai in it. Kirai didn't really succeed in doing much this turn, but got herself positioned and healed up.

My Insidious Madness tried to get away from melee but couldn't, and the Watcher destroyed one of the objectives and moved on to the last one.


TURN FOUR - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
The Watcher next to Hoffman took off and got away from my models trying to block him, carrying Hoffman out near Kirai. Kirai looked at the stack of 7 or 8 scrap tokens worriedly. I wasn't sure what Hoffman could do to me, and I wasn't sure what I could withstand, so I took no chances. Kirai went, sacrificed two of her Seishin to create a Shikome a bit farther away with Hoffman as its prey. Then I jumped into the Spirit World snapped to a Gaki farther away from Hoffman. Finally, I healed myself up and moved away from the Gaki, getting myself some separation.

The Mechanical Attendant tried to get away unsuccessfully and the Shikome moved towards Hoffman with Nimble, then charged him. With the extra action from gaining Fast near her prey, the Shikome dealt a good 2 wounds a two poison to Hoffman, and drained him of two stones. Hoffman had the Watcher Machine Puppet into the Shikome, but only dealt four wounds total thanks to Spirit.

My Insidious Madness ran onto the last objective point and the Watcher there tried to bash him a couple times, but was mostly ineffective. Only got one wound in the trade. Of course, my Insidious Madness didn't even get one wound against the Watcher with a couple of Bashes.

I moved Jack Daw towards Brian's Deployment Zone for Breakthrough, and brought the other models back. Except Datsu-ba. She managed to Weigh Sins on the Mechanical Attendant and make a third Gaki.


TURN FIVE - HOFFMAN INITIATIVE
Brian sent his Watcher near Hoffman over to Kirai, carrying Hoffman with him. I looked over the board and knew I could probably get Kirai away, but might risk leaving my Seishin behind to do it. Besides, with my Lost Love still alive, I felt in good shape. I had the Lost Love double-move out of sight of Hoffman in case Brian had some crazy plans that could kill both Kirai and the Lost Love.

Hoffman activated and I sacrificed one of my Seishin to make sure Kirai and my last Seishin were immune to blasts, pulses and auras. Hoffman Machine Puppeted himself and whacked the Seishin. He turned attention to Kirai and whacked her, failing the Pitiful check and taking two wounds for it. He gained Fast at the cost of his Watcher gaining Slow, and then attacked again. The last hit pasted Kirai, leaving her dead, but she remained courtesy of the Lost Love.

My Shikome moved in and charged Hoffman, leaking more stones and putting up more wounds. My Gaki tried to attack and another one double-moved to get close to Kirai. The last Gaki moved up to get near the Watcher on the objective marker. Kirai dropped both Gaki near her to summon a second Shikome, also hating Hoffman. That Shikome killed Hoffman leaving Brian with two Watchers to face down my spirits. We called the game here.


FINAL SCORE: 8-2, Kirai wins



Kirai is difficult to kill. Very difficult. She has so many layers of defense it's ridiculous. She's got her Pitiful, her Seshin, the fact she's usually a Spirit, and then the Lost Love. I got lucky with a few heal flips and becoming a Spirit with Into the Spirit World, but she is quite a pain to pull down all her defenses. Even without getting more spirits from killing living models, I was still doing fine with Seishin.

Ikiryo was on fire. She only really did anything the first three turns, but in that time, she killed the Peacekeeper, part of the Guardian and part of the Large Steampunk Arachnid. Being able to teleport Datsu-ba up to the front lines and add some more hurting and potential summoning really helped too. I have a hard time seeing the dislike for Datsu-ba that I seem to read about on the forums.

Overall, a good debut for Kirai. Though I did end up having to proxy a third Gaki and a second Shikome during the game. That meant only one thing - on the way out I bought my 3rd and 4th Gaki and my 2nd Shikome.

Updates and Kirai

It's been a while since I've updated on how my gaming is going, so here we have it. Work has been really busy of late so I have not been able to get my battle reports put up. Sadly today's going to be no different. No time for battle reports today either.



The last of my Resser crews, Kirai, is just about ready to field. As part of my new years resolutions, I vowed not to put any unpainted Malifaux stuff on the table, so I'm trying to plow through the last of the crew. I have only 4 Seishin and 2 Gaki left to paint before I feel ready to get them out and on the field. I'll be ready to roll with Kirai, the Lost Love, Datsu'ba, Shikome, 5 Seishin, 2 Gaki, 2 Onriyo, Jack Daw, and 2 Insidious Madnesses. I'm missing the Hanged and Drowned, and possibly more Gaki and another Shikome. But it's enough to get a start. I figure I'll have the last of the crew painted up this weekend and put her up on the table by Tuesday.

Got two games in last Tuesday. The first was a game against Dan. We played a quick 25 stone game: Dreamer with a couple Teddies and Daydreams against the Vikis with some Ronin, Sue and the Student of Conflict. We both took Assassinate and we both took Kill Protege. It wasn't really the plan from the outset, but we ended up with one of the most brutal games I've played in a while. By the end of turn two, I had achieved Assassinate and Kill Protege and he had achieved Kill Protege. By the end of turn four, his army was wiped and I had LCB with a couple wounds left, the Dreamer, and both Daydreams (one of which was buried and the other was too far away to do anything). Hilarious match, especially when we were both just throwing down to waste a little time and ended up playing our entire game in the time it took Brian and Bill to do a couple activations in their game going on at the same time.

Second game was against Tim, a local Neverborn player. I took Seamus and his Avatar and he took Lilith with the twins and Black Blood Shaman. It was a long-drawn game. I hit a couple bad patches with my Dead Rider getting the Black Joker on damage to try to finish off Lelu, and then Avatar Seamus flipping the Black Joker on damage later on at the end of the game. But he had a rough flip of the Black Joker in defense for Lelu when aSeamus finally pasted him. In the end, I couldn't quite get aSeamus to frighten everyone away and lost the game 2-6 when Lilith stuck around my Claim Jump marker and I had only aSeamus left.



Almost got a game of Warmachine in too. I used to play way back in MK1, and when everything moved to MK2, I was getting very excited by the way Cygnar were in the playtest. Then, when the book was released, a lot of what Cygnar did well had been stripped from them and they're back at the bottom of the totem pole again. Still, I love the way the models look and I own a bunch of them, so I brought them out for Slaz to borrow for a game against Dan. If timing was a little different, I would have given them a whirl. Maybe later. I did end up picking up Wrath to thumb through. I'm very excited about the IK RPG coming out soon, and the video on the Colossals looks fantastic. Jay is running a WM league at the store so I might have an easier time finding a game. Just got to pack up three bags of miniatures now instead of one when I head out - one Malifaux and two Warmachine. That's a lot of metal.

Building a Malifaux List

I tend to be a fairly scattered person. My friends constantly tease me because I never seem to be able to make and stick with a decision with games. When we sit down to a new roleplaying game, I am the guy who comes away from the table with three or four characters made before I decided on one. In our most recent league, the line that said “Faction” has a few of them written and then scribbled out before I finally wrote “Neverborn, I guess” at the top.

It used to be easy to start a game of Malifaux. I had only one faction, so I would always announce that faction. Now I have essentially three factions so I have to already start narrowing down my options before the game even really begins. I hate having to pick my faction before knowing my strategy, but I do manage to do so.

Once I get down to creating a list to play though, I tend to have a very strict set of rules I follow to create a list. Assuming that I did not come into the game specifically intending to play a certain master or certain minions, and assuming that I did not come into the game with my opponent having asked to face a certain master or certain minions, there are several steps I take when crafting a Malifaux list.

So I’ve decided on my faction. Let’s say it’s Neverborn.



There are certain points in the list building process where I have to narrow things down, and at each of those points, I have a little more information about what I’m doing and who I’m facing.

Before Strategies are even flipped, I already know four things:

1. I know what player I am facing. This only really helps when playing against people you know well. I know, for example, what Bill favors versus what Dan favors. I know some tricks I’ve been able to pull against different people and have take those into account. I might know what my opponent is strong against. Even if I am very good with Dreamer, I know Dan can beat the Dreamer, so he might take a step back.

2. I know what faction my opponent is playing. This limits my possible opposing leaders to five, and gives me an idea of what matchups might not work. If my opponent chooses Ressers, I don’t want to play a list that relies heavily on Terrifying.

3. I know what faction I am playing. This is a pretty obvious one, but it limits me to five choices for my leader, and dictates what kind of tricks and tactics I can utilize.

4. I know what the terrain is set up to look like. Are there are a lot of open areas where guns can shoot me? Are there perches for flying models to reach and keep relatively safe? Is there a spot where Zoraida can start the game with a nice view of the opposing army? All of these things should play part in crafting my crew. If there’s plenty on the field to cover LOS, maybe I don’t need the Stitched Together’s cloud.

Next, Strategies are flipped and I learn two more things:
5. What am I trying to do?
6. What is my opponent trying to do?

Often I find that people forget about this second part. When starting to play, people focus heavily on what they do and forget that even if they get max points, their opponent can still tie them. It’s important to not only max out your points, but also to minimize your opponent’s points.



So if my opponent flips A Line in the Sand, for example, I know I want a lot of cheap models that can quickly get to his objectives and flip them back over. If he flips Supply Wagon, I know I need to get to his wagon somehow without it being in melee and hit it. Maybe a Mature that can fly over his crew and just needs to tap it 3 times, or maybe a Terror Tot that can speed its way from way back and toss a Severe to wound it. Thinking about how to block your opponent’s mission is just as important as it is for you to figure out how to achieve yours.


Now we’re finally to the point of creating lists. There are a couple of other things I also take into account here:
7. What schemes should I take?
8. Do I have the tools to stop a fair number of his schemes?

Generally there are a few facets of an army that I try to make sure I’ve shored up. It’s nearly impossible to cover all the bases, but it’s good to get as many as possible.

Melee power – This is pretty straight forward. Do you have something in your crew that can land a hit in melee? There’s a lot in the game that hinders ranged attacks, and odds are solid that something is going to end up in melee at some point. Can you put a hit down that your opponent will feel?

Ranged power – This is not quite as straight forward as Melee. Ranged power can come in a bunch of forms – spells with blasts, guns with high damage, something that has a great trigger. Paired and Hunter are great abilities on shooters because it allows you to bypass the annoying cover some models get.

Speed – For my playstyle, this is king. The game is about grabbing victory points, not about killing things, and most times your speed will get you victory points better than your ability to land a punch. This becomes especially important in Shared strategies where the first person to achieve something gets a bonus. When you know you’ve got Shared Destroy the Evidence, you should have a way built into your list to at least contest the center objective marker on your first activation if not to outright destroy it. If you have Shared Deliver a Message, if your list can reach your opponent’s master on turn one with actions to spare, you’ve got a nice boost.

Durability – Sometimes just getting to an objective is not good enough. You have to stay there. If I am playing Claim Jump, I’m less likely to take something like a Terror Tot and more likely to take something like a Stitched Together. Durability can come in more than just having a lot of wounds or high defense. The Hooded Rider is durable against certain crews because in Night Stance he can’t be shot.

Activation Control – Simply put, can you outactivate your opponent. Collodi is king here, giving me 4 Marionettes for 8 points, and also letting me alpha strike with those dolls if I need to. Being able to out-activate your opponent means that you can force him to finish his turn before you’ve gone with your key pieces.

Non-conventional Attacks – Some models are great against basic attacks. Bring in something that will target WP or CA instead of DF. You want to have a varied set of things to strike. Don’t go all-out with Stitched Togethers who excel against WP. Your opponent might be Immune to Influence and then you’ve got some unhappy sacks.



Building the perfect list for me is an impossible goal. It’s one of the reasons I love playing at 30 soulstones. I can never reach that ideal of covering all my bases. It forces me to play better to cover my deficiencies. But when I sit down to create my list, I try to take into account all the information that’s provided to me and build what I believe to be the best choice given what I know.

Breaking Bad

For Christmas my wife bought me the first two seasons of Breaking Bad. Well, actually I bought them myself, then handed them to her and she wrapped them up and gave them back to me for Christmas. Over this past weekend, Laura was off skiing at a bachelorette party, so I was left to my own devices. With nothing better to do some of the time, I popped in the show and started watching.

The show had been recommended to me by an old college buddy, Adam. The basic premise is that a high school chemistry teacher turns 50, finds out he’s got inoperable terminal lung cancer, and decides he needs to make money to leave his family, and quickly. His brother-in-law works for the DEA and he sees him on TV and sees how much money they had recovered from a drug bust. His brother-in-law invites him to go on a drug raid with them (as an observer safe in the car, etc.) and he finally agrees to take him up on it. There he sees how most meth dealers operate and figures he can probably do this too. He spots one of his former students who escapes from the raid and tracks the guy down and the two start going into business together.



The show is fantastic. While the premise feels a bit stretched, the exploration of all the characters has been great through the first season. Watching the teacher try to keep his drug life and home life separate, watching the former student realizing he’s getting in over his head working with the teacher, etc. The whole story continuously has the teacher put down a new line that he will not cross in his quest for money, but each time he finds a reason that… well… it’s not that bad THIS time and pushes the line just that much more. Once you’re to the end of the season and see how far he’s gone, and how delicate his situation is, it’s crazy, but as you’re taking each step with him, it does seem somewhat reasonable given what he’s going through.

I just ordered the third season, and I think the fifth season is on TV now (or will be starting up soon). Really looking forward to watching more of this one.

Been a While for Board Games

Yesterday my wife and I headed out to a friend's house to play some Battlestar Galactica. It's been months since I've been able to play that game, and even getting only half a game in (we had barely cleard our third jump before we had to go), it reminded me of how much I love that game.

Okay, so the game we played wasn't great for me. We had seven players, so we had to use the Revealed Cylon. Since I was the most experienced player and I got to pick first, I grabbed the Cylon straight away. My goal was to make sure the humans won and to also play a Super Crisis card. My game went like this:

Turn one: I drew two cards and the infultrated Galactica, getting a Crisis card.
Turn two: I drew three cards, then shot myself in the head and hit the Resurrection ship.
Turn three: I drew one card and then stayed on the Resurrection ship so I could draw a Super Crisis card.
Turn four: I drew one card, then moved to Caprica and played my Super Crisis card.

Finally, I could start helping. Unfortuantely, by that point we had three resources in the red, including Morale which would have gotten Dee to shoot herself if it dropped any more. The Sympathizer was a bad guy and had just pulled a crisis that let her choose whether she was going to make things kinda tough on us or really tough on us. Guess which one she chose. Our President was a Cylon, though he was still under cover. And we were fighting with each other about who the last one was. Plus no one actually believed I was good because I was spending my entire game getting a Super Crisis card to play.

Needless to say, we were on the path to destruction. But even with all that, I remembered how much I love playing this game. Gonna have to figure out a way to get a few more games in.

Also made me think of Last Night on Earth. I got all the heroes painted up and then only played another game or two of it. It's another that will need some more playing.

Fortuantely I'm gearing up for the Second Annual Fearsome Foursome Reunion Tour in March. It sounds impressive, but it's really just three of my college buddies and I renting a hotel suite for a weekend and playing board and roleplaying games all weekend. Good times will be had.

Also got a few newer (to us) games. The DnD games (Castle Ravenloft), Seven Wonders, and Quarriors have all made an appearance in our gaming group. Dan also picked up the Bloodbowl card game, which is a bundle of fun.

Overall, I'm loving some of the new games we play. Some get played a couple times and then dropped, and others manage to stick.

As with everything, it's all a matter of time. If I had enough time, I'd be playing all of these games a lot more, but when I only get a few hours here and there, I have to be more choosey.

Avatar Zoraida and a Widow

For various reasons, our Malifaux gaming group has been talking about the Weaver Widow recently. Bill has tested her for a couple of games, and I decided to give her a swing yesterday too in a game against Dan. The store was packed yesterday with people finally back after vacations and the like. I think at our height we had 11 Malifaux players, including a couple of new faces, playing games. I only got one game in all night, but it was alright.

Dan and I lined up for a match, him taking Archanists and me taking Neverborn. We played 30 stones.

Me
Crew: Zoraida w/ Avatar, Widow Weaver, Hooded Rider, Baby Kade, Terror Tot, 7 stones
Strategy: Claim Jump
Schemes: Bodyguard (Zoraida), Stake a Claim

Dan
Crew: Kaeris, Gunsmith x2, Soulstone Miner, Fire Gamin x2, Large Steampunk Arachnid, 4 stones
Strategy: Distract (or Contain Power… whichever one keeps my master out of his deployment zone)
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Widow Weaver), Sabotage

Dan’s reaction to my crew as I pulled it out was hilarious. He knew I was playing Zoraida. I started with a Terror Tot and he just looked at me funny until I explained that I had a few extra stones and figured he’d be a good call. Then I pulled out Baby Kade. Then the Hooded Rider. Knowing I was also playing the Widow Weaver, he said, “Are you even trying here?”

In the end, though, the Immune to Influence and the Night Stance on the Hooded Rider proved a tough nut for him to crack, and Baby Kade’s Harmless and DEF 7 were really solid. And the Terror Tot gave me an objective runner that he had to contend with.

Since we were the last game to set up a game table last night, we had slimmer pickings on terrain. We pulled out a bunch of ruins from 40k style games. Unfortunately, there were windows all over the place so while there was cover, there was also a lot of LOS. We fixed that by saying all windows were covered, but any model within an inch of a window could take a (1) interact to break the window to provide LOS through it for the rest of the game. That way Zoraida’s Voodoo Doll on turn 1 wouldn’t screw up Dan’s game.

My Hooded Rider began the game in Night stance.




TURN ONE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I drew three Masks in my opening hand. Unfortunately they were a 2, 3 and 7. None of them would get me a Crystal Ball use which I needed to manifest. I activated my models, moving out a bit, then had my Terror Tot sprint twice. I didn’t really care if he succeeded – I was just hoping to flip a 10 or better of Masks that Zoraida could later use with Bayou Two-Card. No luck. Finally I was down to Zoraida and my Widow Weaver. Zoraida activated and used Crystal Ball. I failed the initial flip, cheated my 7 of Masks, and then burned a stone needing a 3 or better. I flipped a 1. Darn. She moved up a little, then cast Obey on the Widow Weaver, forcing it to ditch two cards for a Scrap. On the Widow’s activation, it moved forward and ditched two more cards for a second scrap.

Over on Dan’s side of the board… not much happened. The Soulstone Miner dug up a Soulstone and cut its wounds to 3, and the rest of his crew started moving forward, led by the Gamin followed up by the Arachnid, Gunsmiths, and Kaeris.


TURN TWO – KAERIS INITIATIVE
My hand had no masks this turn, and a high card of a ten. Not the best look. I think my deck was squaring with me for leaving it to go to Ressers for a while. Or maybe it was trying to teach me just how useful the Widow was. Either way, it wasn’t looking good.

Dan wanted to force me to start moving folks out early, so he moved up with a Gamin for position. My Tot burned a couple of Sprints, hoping to flip into a good Mask, but no dice. The other Gamin moved into position near the first one. My Hooded Rider used Mounted Combat to ride out a couple inches, paste one of the Gamin, and then back away a good 7”, trying to get out of range of Kaeris. The Hooded Rider took a wound and a burning token in the exchange.

The Soulstone Miner buried itself, and I activated Zoraida. I had another Mask on the top of my deck and felt I had a good shot of stoning into the Crystal Ball. I cast the spell and stoned, getting my first Crystal Ball off. None of my cards were going to help me get a Teddy from the Widow, so instead I set myself up to Obey the Widow. After casting, the Widow ditched two cards for another Scrap token, leaving me one away from getting to a Teddy. Zoraida ended up by summoning a Wicked Doll next to a window Zoraida would be able to use to see the other side of the battle if it were broken.

Kaeris went and tried to burn Kade, but the kid’s Harmless and Defense 7 kept him safe. She moved up and then put up the inferno that hurt people that were burning, blasting the Rider for 4 wounds. Rather than take the damage, I ditched the burning token and took Paralyze. I wasn’t counting on the Rider to do much in the way of wounds, and I wanted to keep him alive. I figured his Night stance would probably keep him around a little longer.

My Widow ditched two cards for another Scrap, then tried to cast the Teddy summon blind, but failed the flip. I opted not to spend the four scrap, failing the spell for that reason too. The Widow just moved up a little more to get ready for the next turn.

The Gunsmiths moved up into position while my Wicked Doll smashed open the window and Baby Kade ran to the far side of the table a little behind Kaeris. The Large Steampunk tried to get to Kade, but didn’t manage to get through his Harmless.


TURN THREE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Hmm… still no masks. The Miner had moved 8” up the table but stayed buried. I honestly don’t remember a lot about this turn. I know Zoraida got her second Crystal Ball to work, and I know Baby Kade tried to Backstab Kaeris. I missed with the Backstab and then hit with the Melee Expert attack, but didn’t get any triggers so he lost Harmless and only barely scratched Kaeris. He got hit for four wounds himself, falling to nearly dead. The Widow Weaver tried and failed to cast a summon for a Teddy, then failed again to summon a Wicked Doll. It ditched two more cards for another Scrap, meaning I could cast both summons in a turn if I got lucky next turn. The Gunsmiths shot my Widow Weaver for a solid 6 wounds.


TURN FOUR – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Did I get a mask? No. To make things worse, the Miner moved its 8” up to the Widow and popped out. Poor Widow Weaver. Fortunately I won initiative and led with the Widow. Blind, I tried to summon a Teddy and flipped an 11 of Masks. Holy smokes! I managed to spend 9 soulstones to summon a 9 soulstone model (only costing me 8 cards and a bunch of wasted Obeys and actions in between). The Widow attacked the Soulstone Miner twice more, ignoring its armor, but only dealt two wounds to it. The Soulstone Miner went ahead and killed the Weaver, netting Dan the first 2 points of the game.

Baby Kade activated next to Kaeris. He had taken a wound from Burning and was down to 1 wound left. He attacked with Melee Expert, dealing a wound to Kaeris, and then used a (2) to swap spots with my Slow Teddy. Kaeris blasted Teddy, but couldn’t Turn It Up because no other models were in 2” of her. She dealt a couple wounds to Teddy, but the bear didn’t mind. He Regenerated and clawed Kaeris for 3 more wounds. The Steampunk Arachnid tried to hurt Teddy but my Bear’s defense was off the chain! My Hooded Rider rode in to hit Kaeris for some more wounds, but missed, and then rode back. The Gamin charged my Rider (a mistake on Dan’s part – he had him in position to Sabotage but forgot). Zoraida Obeyed the Gamin to charge the Large Steampunk, then flew next to a Gunsmith in the middle of the board and manifested.


TURN FIVE – aZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I started off with aZoraida. It seemed the thing to do. I had a 10 of Masks (finally, now that I didn’t need it as much) and another low one. As well as an 11 and 13 off-suit. I had aZoraida cast Pins and Needles at the near-dead Gunsmith next to her, cheating in the 10 of Masks to hit and then Stoning to push it out of range. I got a (+) flip and got a severe, finishing off the Gunsmith and drawing cards equal to the wounds he had left (since I did more wounds than he had). I then shot off at the second Gunsmith, killing her in two shots and getting one trigger to build my hand a bit more. My last action was to start moving towards the objective marker on his side of the board.

Kaeris needed to heal, so she took a wound from all the M&SU guys around her. That killed the Soulstone Miner, and hurt a couple others around but healed her back up 4. She blasted the Teddy, trying to kill it, but couldn’t quite finish it off. Teddy went and attacked Kaeris three times, burning her down to 1 stone left. The Steampunk Arachnid killed off Teddy, and the Hooded Rider swung by and finished off the Large Steampunk Arachnid while the Tot and Baby Kade started running for the objective. The Gamin moved up and Sabotaged the building it needed to.

At the end of the turn, it was just Kaeris and a Gamin against a Tot, Baby Kade, the Rider and aZoraida.


TURN SIX – KAERIS INITIATIVE
Kaeris booked it towards the objective as well, putting a Flame Wall up between her and aZoraida so I couldn’t see her. Baby Kade, the Rider and aZoraida all moved towards the marker.


I think we miscounted our turns here because we played one more turn after this. Both Dan and I agreed that it was turn 5, so I had my Terror Tot charge Kaeris and deal some more wounds to her. If I had known it was turn 6, the Tot would have stayed in place and I would have won, 6-4. Instead, I moved away from the Claim Jump and we played one more turn.


TURN SIX-AND-A-HALF – aZORAIDA INITIATIVE
My Hooded Rider rode in and tried to finish off Kaeris but left her with a wound left. Kaeris couldn’t attack the Tot because it would bleed on her and she’d die. She put up a Flame Wall to try to block aZoraida from getting to the marker, and tried to attack the Hooded Rider but couldn’t do much to him. The Tot attacked and burned the last stone from Kaeris, and then aZoraida and Baby Kade got into position by the Claim Jump and Stake a Claim. aZoraida finished off by casting Obey on the Tot and having it attack Kaeris for the last wound. The triggered double-obey did not prove necessary, though I had it in pocket in case.

We flipped to see if the game would go on and it didn’t. aZoraida won, 8-4.





So the whole goal of this was to see how the Widow Weaver would perform.

On turn one, it got Obeyed and ditched four cards for two Scrap.
On turn two, it got Obeyed and ditched four cards for two Scrap.
On turn three, it ditched two cards for a Scrap, and got shot for 6.
On turn four, it luck-boxed into being able to summon a Teddy and dealt two wounds to a Soulstone Miner before being killed.

So I spent 9 soulstones, two Obeys and ten cards for a 9 soulstone Teddy.

Color me unimpressed.

Now granted I had very poor luck with my hand never drawing the Mask I needed. I will be trying her again, with Collodi in some builds, without him in others, to see if I can figure her out. I’m not even sure if she should be focusing on her summoning, but given that she has 4 defense, 10 wounds, and no real defenses to help, she’s not that survivable up close either.

Anyone else have luck with her?

2012 Gamer Resolutions

Last year I did pretty well at trying to hit my goals, and I believe that they did influence my behavior over the course of the year. Just knowing I had set my goals out for others to see made me more conscious throughout the year. I remember seeing video games that looked fun, but rather than purchase them on a whim, I decided I wanted to save my four games for the year for something I felt would be better. So this year I decided to come up with a new list of resolutions. Some of the old ones made it back in some fashion, others dropped away, and new goals were added.


1. Read 3500 pages.
I know that's not a huge goal. I mean, that's less than 100 pages a week. But I've been so bad with reading lately that I didn't want to give myself a goal that was impossible for me to reach and then become discouraged. My hope is that I'll hit this goal well before the end of the year and that a new habit of reading will have been formed. I'm already on a roll, about 25 pages away from finishing my first book (and first 400 pages) of the year. There's still a queue of books I'd like to get to including George RR Martin's new one, a couple of non-fiction books I heard about through work, and a sci-fi series my in-laws gave me for Christmas.


2. Finish running Scion.
This is basically a repeat of my last years' goal of finishing Grimm. There were times when I was close to the end of running Grimm last year where I kept thinking, "Only a few more sessions - I've done the heavy lifting... finish the campaign and I can mark this resolution a success." So in the interests of giving myself the same excuse in case Scion hits a rough patch, I want to say now that I will run this campaign to a conclusion.


3. Limit my purchases to 3 computer games in the year.
Another repeate one, this time dropping the number of games I can get this year to three instead of four. It wasn't that hard to limit myself to four last year, and I want to keep tightening my belt. I have plenty of old good games I can play, so rather than buy the next new thing, keep playing old games.

Speaking of which, I got myself a new character in Skyrim. Instead of going with the name of "Red", now I'm coming out of the gates with "Blue"! The game is going much differently this time around. I haven't been killed yet, and I've already bought and fully-furnished my first house by level 8. I still have 3 perks unassigned from my level-ups because I can't figure out what I want to do with my character yet. I'm wearing heavy armor and sometimes switching over to use magic, but overall I really enjoyed my last sneaking character and part of me wants to do that again. Ah well, we'll see how Blue progresses.


4. Paint and base all Malifaux models before playing them.
So I've mostly been doing this already, but I just want to keep it up. No Malifaux models hit the table until they're painted and based. I've got a small backlog of Resser models, but beyond that I'm already set on that.


5. Actively play no more than two miniatures games at once.
Malifaux's taking up one of those slots, and the idea is that I won't purchase and play more than one additional game. I think I'm going to set this by quarter. So in the first quarter, I can pick two games to play. If I pick up a second game in February, I can't then pick up a different second game in March. I don't think I really need to be that rigid, but just in case I try to game the system.


I excluded anything like winning tournaments or playing in events or anything like that. Mostly because I have a hard enough time enjoying them as it is and I don't want to make it seem like a chore to do those kind of things.

I did want to get another roleplaying-oriented goal. Maybe "play/run in four different roleplaying games in the year" but that's less of an issue of desire to play the games and more an issue of time.

And as much as I'd love to put "Win fantasy football" in my goals, as long as Dan's wife Ellen is in our league, I think that's an impossibility. I haven't been able to defeat her in three seasons despite playing each other six times over that span, including playoffs. Maybe I should spite her by saying, "Draft Calvin Johnson if he falls to me." Heh heh heh. That'd really get her goat.