GenCon 2012 is Coming....

This year I will be heading out to GenCon with my wife and some friends.  Joining us will be Second Generation Awesome Dan and his wife, Ellen.  We will be meeting up with Gamers’ Lounge Bill and his wife too.

Since the tickets to events open up this weekend, we were trying to decide what to do.  In the past when I’ve gone, sometimes I’ve taken on more than I actually ended up wanting to do when I was there.  I enjoy wandering the vendors hall and playing demos of new (or old) games I’ve never tried before.

So for this year, here’s what we’re starting with:

1.       We want to get into a game of True Dungeon.  My wife and I have never played it (this will be her first time at the convention) and we’ve heard good things about it.  Should be fun to get in for a round to see what all the fuss is about.

2.       I’d love to get into a roleplaying game of Iron Kingdoms, but evidently it’s not on the table yet.  Instead we’re signing up for a late-night game of Call of Cthulhu so we can get some good roleplaying in.

3.       We’ll also be going on a local beer tour.  All of us really like craft beers, so being able to head around town to see what’s offered should be fun.  I am a little disappointed that Alcatraz is no longer in business (so I’ve heard) – I thought they had the best beer within walking distance of the convention center.

4.       If possible, we’d like to get a game of Arkham Horror in with someone important.  I remember they used to let you play the games with the creators in the past – not sure if that’s possible, but it would be fun to try.

One thing you’ll notice I will not be doing is playing in any Malifaux tournaments.  Long-time readers will know how little I like tournaments.  Those who have joined up recently now know – I don’t like tournaments.  I’ve been to GenCon twice before and both times I’ve gone, I’ve signed up for a tournament in the game that I happen to be playing at the time (Warmachine both times before).  By the time I finished up at GenCon, I could say with confidence that my day playing in the tournaments has always been my least favorite day of the trip.

The only reason I’d want to play in the tournament is to see how I’d do faced up against other players from around the nation (world?), but the way that Wyrd set up the tournaments this year wouldn’t allow me to do that unless I devote two days to the event.  Rather than having a major tournament, they have a bunch of tournaments all of which allow you to get an invitation to another tournament on Sunday.

It is a little bit of a shame, because it would be fun to see how I would do, but after balancing the fact that what has looked like fun in the past (playing tournaments at GenCon) has actually turned out to be a disappointment, plus the fact I’d have to devote a large amount of time to it, means I’m just going to avoid it altogether.  I’ll have models with me to play pickup games, but no tournaments.

King of NoVA Tournament

Saturday was the King of NoVA tournament at Victory Comics, the first Malifaux tournament that they ran out there.  The tournament was a couple towns over from where I live, so it would not be a long drive.  However, my wife was flying back from a week away that day, so I wasn't completely sure I would make it.

The stars aligned, though, and Skill-less Brian and I loaded into the car Saturday morning and drove on out.I had just gotten a Battlefoam Pack Mini and wasn't relishing the idea of hauling around a full pack of models, so I decided to pick a few models to travel with.  Since I had only limited space, my Ressers weren't going to be making it.  Also, since another friend of mine, Josh, was planning on showing up with the Viktorias, I decided to bring my Neverborn.

I asked Second Generation Awesome Dan who he thought I should bring and he told me "Collodi!"  I asked him "With who?" and he said, "No.  Just Collodi!"  I had two new Effigy Dolls I had not put on the table yet and wanted to field, so I figured, why not.  He sent a list idea (which was just about everything Collodi could take at the moment, save Wicked Dolls) and I packed it all up.  I panicked a little thinking I might get bored with one crew and packed Zoraida, a pair of Twins, Tuco, Baby Kade, the Voodoo Doll, and her Avatar form, but by the end of the four rounds, they never saw the table.  As Dan (and then the TO) suggested, I stuck with Collodi and the same list all four rounds.


The list was:
Collodi +6 soulstones
- Marionette x4
- Stitched Together x3
- Carrion Effigy
- Brutal Effigy

The tournament was a 30 soulstone affair with random Extended Schemes.  The only wrinkle to the plan was that Aaron added an additional step after you flip your Strategy but before you choose your crew: you have to announce your Master.

There were three prizes being fought over: the King of NoVA trophy which would go to the person who won overall (with TP being the most important); the Best Store in NoVA trophy which would tally the scores of the people who came from the various local Northern Virginia stores and determine which of them won - they would get the trophy to display until the next NoVA tournament when another store could win it away from them; and the Best Store on the Eastern US plaque, which was a similar idea but could travel beyond NoVA since the TO did not pay a lot of money for it.  I believe the plaque was donated to the tournament by another Henchman, so it was cool to see some support and rivalry being brought up from around the area.

Twelve players showed up, primarily from Huzzah Hobbies (my store) and Victory Comics (the store that was hosting).  We did have a few players from Pennsylvania, I believe, and Guy in Suit (winner of Adepticon) arrived from New York.


ROUND ONE - COLLODI (Supply Wagon) vs. aNICODEM (Treasure Hunt)
SECOND GENERATION AWESOME DAN
So Round One arrived and Aaron announced the pairings.  To no one's surprise, for the third tournament in a row, Second Generation Awesome Dan and I were paired off against each other.  After some grumbling on our part (facing him essentially meant that one of the two of us was knocked out of the tournament very early in the day), we picked our table and quickly became "That table" to the TO, calling him over to accuse Dan of cheating when he drew his hand before deploying his models (accidentally - he wasn't thinking), and then asking what the large piece of terrain that looked like a Stargate did if my models interacted with it.  After some random joking and Aaron threatening to toss us out of the store (again, good-naturedly), we buckled down and got our game on.

Dan was playing Avatar Nicodem (who looks fantastic, by the way) and I pulled out a very familiar crew to him.  He laughed a little when he saw I actually was using the Carrion Effigy until we both realized that he could allow my crew to eat his zombies since they counted as corpse tokens (at least until he avatared and they lost that rule).

I remember the least about this game since it was early in the day, but I do remember that the terrain created a small bottleneck to get to the treasure in the middle of the board.  I started out strong by killing off his Crooked Men and a summoned Flesh Construct.  He had killed off my Carrion Effigy.  When I killed one of his Crooked Men with a Gamble Your Life, he Slow-to-Die cast a Cave In at one of my Stitched Togethers.  I cheated so it would be a (-) flip, and he still managed to flip double-severe, knocking all my Marionettes down to 1 wound remaining.  A Decay that randomized off his own model onto mine later, he wiped out Collodi's Marionettes, turning the game around completely.

I was able to kill off his Dead Rider and put pressure on him enough that his crew was held back from the center of the table away from the treasure marker.  Finally on turn 6 he managed to pick it up as he had a few Punk Zombies, Avatar Nicodem, and a bunch of Mindless Zombies around versus my Collodi.  The game did not go on, however, and I squeaked out a 6-4 victory as my Supply Wagon reached the middle and Kidnap got the Crooked Man and Canine Remains.

My score so far was (3 TP/+2 Diff/6 VPs) putting me at the upper side of the middle of the pack.


ROUND TWO - COLLODI (Shared Line in the Sand) vs. SOM'ER (Shared Line in the Sand)
MUSTACHE MATT

A few of my buddies have played against Mustache Matt over the last couple months and all came away saying it was a fun game and he was a great guy to play against.  This was my first opportunity to play against him and I have to say, he really is a top-notch opponent.  It was my most entertaining game, mostly because of his attitude and jokes.

We flipped to see who would be the attacker and who the defender and I got the choice.  Naturally, I took attacker.  Shared Line in the Sand is such a terrible strategy.  The attacker gains such an advantage over the defender, but when given the choice, I couldn't pass on the disparity.

Matt had the Easter Rooster painted up for one of his pigs, and his crew was absolutely gorgeous.  We were all playing with painted crews (it was in the rules to do so), but Matt's were the best I would see throughout the tournament.

The game began with the Rooster and two Piglets popping throughout my mass of models, killing Marionettes left and right.  But Gremlins against WP 8 Gamble Your Life from my stitched were just not going to stand up, and pretty quickly I had run him out of his first wave.  I grabbed 4 of the dynamite markers pretty quick and started moving in on his gremlin firing line, needing to Steal a Relic from Som'er and needing to Assassinate him.  By turn 5 I was able to do just that, having a Marionette grab his Relic and then finish him off.

Meanwhile, my Carrion Effigy was working on holding off one flank.  He managed to flip a dynamite marker, kill a Piglet, and later kill another Gremlin.  Granted I needed a Red Joker to kill the Piglet and the Gremlin had only a wound or two remaining, but still - the Carrion Effigy was on fire!!

The game ended with me wiping him out on turn 6 and grabbing the last dynamite marker for a solid 8-0 win.  Added bonus, this game counted for the Best Store in NoVA trophy, so it was a nice boost for our store.

My score at this point was (6 TP/+10 Diff/14 VPs) putting me as one of three remaining undefeated players (aside Gamers' Lounge Bill and GuyinSuit Andrew).


ROUND THREE - COLLODI (Supply Wagon) vs. VIKTORIAS (Escape and Survive)
GUY IN SUIT ANDREW

Andrew had just come off of winning Adepticon and had already won two decisive games, so I knew this was going to be a challenge.  I stared at my Zoraida model sitting in my case longingly, but finally decided that no, I was going to win or lose the tournament based solely on Collodi.

Andrew had never faced the Effigy Dolls yet, so I quickly gave him an explanation of what they did: the Brutal had a heal and could hit for a lot of damage.  The Carrion didn't do much other than fly around.

He pulled out a very familiar Viktoria crew - the Vikis, Student of Conflict, Convict Gunslinger, Von Schill, and Trapper.  I felt a little swell of validation to see that the list I always use was also being taken by other good players.

We started off our game and he killed off two of my models in quick succession to get his First Blood scheme from Von Schill, Gun Viki and the Trapper taking shots at my Marionettes.  Soon thereafter, the Sword Viki was in my lines cutting down my Marionettes faster than Collodi could resummon them.  My Stitched knocked out Sword Viki, and the next turn did the same to Gun Viki.  I had a Stitched Together knock his Gunslinger down to 1 wound, and then on turn 4, my Brutal Effigy moved to where my Wagon would end and killed off the Gunslinger and Student of Conflict.  His Escape and Survive was blanked, but he was probably going to get his Bodyguard on Von Schill.

I stopped worrying about killing Von Schill and instead went after my VPs.  Keep the Wagon safe, and grab as many spots for Reclaim Malifaux as I could.  Here, the Carrion Effigy was invaluable, grabbing 4 of the 9 spots on the board I needed, and then defending the Wagon on turn 6.  We flipped to see if the game went on and it didn't.  I pulled out a close win, taking a 6-4 victory as I got Reclaim Malifaux and a full Supply Wagon while he got Bodyguard on Von Schill and First Blood.

My score now was (9 TP/+12 Diff/20 VPs) putting me as one of two undefeated players remaining.  My limit of games I could take was rapidly approaching and my head was killing me.  I popped a few Advil and found a nice spot to rest for a little while before the fourth round came up.


ROUND FOUR - COLLODI (Line in the Sand) vs. ZORAIDA (Slaughter)
GAMERS' LOUNGE BILL

It was the last round and Bill and I were the last two undefeated players.  He decided not to play Pandora since all the extra WP to my dolls would prove more difficult to cut through.  Instead he pulled out Zoraida and Collodi against my Collodi crew.

On the first turn, I moved up to the middle of the board and grabbed the dynamite on the bridge with a Marionette.  Bill sent his Collodi and Marionettes up the board at the beginning of the second turn to kill that Marionette and reflip the dynamite.  My WP 8 Stitched Togethers ripped through his Collodi killing him off and losing the Marionettes along with it.  He had two other Stitched Togethers there that I managed to kill, and in return, he killed one of my Stitched Togethers and a Marionette.

By the end of turn three, he was down to Zoraida and a Wicked Doll while I still had Collodi with three Marionettes, two Stitched Togethers, and both Effigies.  Over the next couple turns, I tracked down all the dynamite markers and brought my three Paired Marionettes into melee with Zoraida, killing her off too.

My Carrion Effigy again did pretty well this game by staying entirely away from the fighting.  He grabbed two of the far-away dynamite markers and sat on my Stake a Claim point, helping to max out my points.  The game ended 8-0 as I broke Bodyguard and Extermination.

At the end of the tournament, my score was (12 TP/+20 Diff/28 VPs).


THE END
As the only remaining undefeated player, I got the King of NoVA prize.

We tallied up the NoVA stores and Huzzah Hobbies ended up beating out the other local stores and got to take home the Best Store in NoVA cup.  Bill, Huzzah's Henchman, got to carry it to the store for us.

And the Best Store in the East plaque went to the Warmongers of New York for Andrew's fantastic solo-showing where he schooled just about everyone in Virginia on how Malifaux really works.

Congrats to all, and thanks to Aaron for putting on a great show.

My Favorite Malifaux Masters to Play

I have been playing Malifaux for quite some time.  Except for the disastrous demo I received when the game was first released at GenCon, I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of it.  A shout out to Slaz and Dan for making me pick the game back up and give it another try as my interest in Warmachine was waning with the advent of the new version.

In all that time, I have tried out a bundle of different masters (and henchpersons).  Some of them only got a couple games before being shelved in favor of other options.  Others I borrowed to use.  Three masters I ended up picking up for one game only during the Pied Piper tournament.  But of the masters I have used most often, here’s how I rank them:

Zoraida – My first and favorite master.  She used to be considered the worst of the Neverborn masters and that underdog feeling made me really enjoy playing her.  Plus, she could do everything pretty well.  I’ve gone through many phases with her, from using Obey tricks, to using maneuvering tricks, to even putting her in combat for a few games to get her poison on people.  Some of my favorite stories in the game revolve around Zoraida.  Like when she obeyed an opponent’s Executioner to kill his Governor’s Proxy on turn one, and then cheated to fail the resist that killed the Executioner too.  Or when she walked up to one of the opponent’s models that was holding a treasure and politely Obeyed that model to hand the treasure to Zoraida.  Her avatar has just made her even more fun, allowing me to switch to a more offensive version of her if I need to.  She can work with virtually any crew and help them all.  And no one seems to expect big things from her.  But she does deliver.

Lilith – She stands as the only master I’ve played more often than Zoraida and she sits just below her in terms of my favorite masters to play.  She’s a challenge to make her work well with her crew, but on her own she’s a wrecking machine.  Like Zoraida, she can function fine with just about any crew.  She doesn’t actually need Nephilim to work well.  But she has a nice variety of lists she can pull.  She hits hard, she moves fast, and she has more tricks to her than most of the other melee masters.  I love her ability to withstand enemies too.  Recently I threw her into a melee with Avatar McMourning, Adam, and a Rouge Necromancy and she killed all three of them, taking only 2 wounds in the exchange (I had already run McM out of stones, so that helped).  Beautiful!

McMourning – This guy has been just a bundle of fun as I’ve been trying out Ressers.  I’ve played him almost as many games as I’ve played Pandora, which, given how little time I’ve owned McMourning versus Pandora should tell you something.  I like that he sits on a different end of melee power from Lilith.  With Lilith I feel like I can toss her into just about any situation, McMourning takes more finesse.  He’s got to pick his battles more carefully, but he can wreck face when he does.  And if things are looking tight, he can always summon in a Flesh Construct or Rouge Necromancy to handle things.  I’m really looking forward to Adam coming out this month.  He’ll be making an appearance very soon.

Viktorias – Let’s face it, these girls really are Neverborn in disguise.  They move fast and they hit hard.  Really hard.  People seem to forget just how hard these girls can hit.  And with two of them, they’re beyond crazy.  If you get a bunch of Masks, you can just whirlwind your way around an entire crew, cutting them down one at a time.  I don’t rank them as highly because I’m not as big a fan of their supporting models as I am the Neverborn and Ressers.

Kirai – I feel like I’m cheating when I take her.  But playing her successfully feels like conducting a perfect dance (I know people say that about Colette, but I’ve never played her).  You’ve got dozens of models sitting on the table, each doing their specific things and working together to bring down death.  More than any other crew, Kirai has the synergy I love.  Stuff dies and makes spirits, which kill more stuff or are sacrificed to make more spirits, which continue this crazy cycle that your opponent can’t really stop.  On good days, I walk out of the game with more points in models than I started.  And her ability to score victory points with objectives is just insane.  There’s a reason I think she’s the second best master.  And were Archanist schemes for Colette not so easy to get points with no real contention, Kirai would take the top spot.

Von Schill – I know he’s not really competitive, but what can I say, I like the guy?  I think it’s the fact that, of all the lists above, I have no ranged lists.  And Von Schill is a pretty solid crew to use ranged attacks for.  I like the Trapper a lot.  I think the Specialist, if you get the right game, can be really fun.  (Just don’t play him against a crew with Obey).  The Librarian is good too as a healing battery.  Overall, I think the crew is probably one or two models short of being viable, but for now they make a fun match when I’m just trying to get an entertaining game in.

Avatar Seamus – I have to specify the Avatar here, because I don’t care for the original Seamus and only ever take him with his Avatar.  Doesn’t mean I rush to Avatar him, it’s just that I really like his Avatar form.  Honestly, it’s the reason I picked up Ressers in the first place.  Seamus himself is decent with his gun, but I always feel like I’m not using him to his fullest.  Once I go to Avatar Seamus, though, the fun really begins.  Pounding folks, scaring folks… how can you go wrong there?

Dreamer – Honestly, I’m a little surprised he ranked this low on my favorite masters.  I think my biggest gripe with him has been twofold: first, people tended to groan when I pulled him out (except my most common opponents, who were much happier to see me with him than with, say, Zoraida).  Second, his crew selection is fairly limited.  Since his errata though, I’ve been more inclined to get him on the table.  It just took me a long time to remember to print out what his new rules were so I didn’t play him incorrectly.  He may hit the table a bit more often, and he’ll probably climb up in rankings now that I don’t have people groan their way through a game against him, but for now he’s here.

Pandora – Okay, she is probably the best of the Neverborn masters, and I am fairly good with her when I play her (got to be careful not to say I’m great with her or Aaron will challenge me to another game and punch me in the face).  When I play her, the game largely feels like solitaire.  What my opponent does usually doesn’t matter much.  I just bounce around the board wherever I like, zap whatever I like, and hide away safely.  It’s just not really that much fun.

Collodi – This ranking will change soon, I figure, what with the Effigies coming out.  My biggest feeling about Collodi is that his options have been really slim until the Effigies hit the stores.  He has only a few models he can take, and his extra soulstones are so high, that usually I’ve taken all his Marionettes, all his Stitched Togethers, and as many Wicked Dolls as I could fit.  Why?  Because that’s what was available.  But now with the Effigies, I think I can do a lot more with him.  They’re not Insignificant, so they can get a little away from him.  And now my options have moved beyond a ton of small attacks or a few big WP-based attacks.  I can try to be trickier with him.  That said, I love using Collodi as a henchman.  When it comes to grabbing objectives, very few do it better.

Nicodem – I know he’s really good.  I know Dan has proven time and time again that the internet is wrong and that Nicodem will eat you if you’re not careful.  I just don’t get him.  To me he feels like the Zoraida of the Resser crew – he’s deceptively powerful and until you see someone who finally figures him out, you’re going to be stuck thinking he sucks.  I just haven’t taken the time to learn how best to use him.

Hamelin – I hate Hamelin.  I hate playing Hamelin.  He’s labor intensive to play and pretty boring for both sides of the board.  It’s a real shame because I love the concept behind him.  But the rats are annoying, and his Insignificance-making is annoying, and I just don’t like him.

So there we have it.  My list of masters, favorite to least.  I’ve played each of these ones at least a handful of games.  Ones that I’ve played that didn’t make the list were Kaeris, Ramos, Marcus and Lucius.  I just don’t feel like I’ve got enough a handle on them.  Though from my initial game or two with them, I’d put Lucius up near the top, Marcus in the middle, and Ramos and Kaeris near the bottom.  If I were to get into Guild, it would be grabbing Lucius, no question.

A Few Tuesday Games

Showed up last night with one goal: play my newly painted aKirai and Jaakuna models.  Unfortunately, the closest I came was to have my aKirai card borrowed by another player.  I did manage three games though, which is more than my usual night.

GAME ONE

The first game was against Aaron, another local Henchman (and the one who kicked my butt with Leviticus against my Pandora list a few weeks back).  This time he played Rasputina and I played McMourning at 30 stones.  I put Rafkin and a pair of Crooligans on the board, wanting to see if they were actually any good.

They weren’t.

They actually didn’t really do much of anything.  On turn two, while cowering from a Gunsmith, they both tried twice to cast their Mist spell and failed all four times.  And me without a moderate card to cheat and not feeling it was worth a severe.  They ended up being killed off rather unceremoniously by the Gunsmith and it wasn’t until Rafkin joined the fray that I was able to win that front and grab my Stake a Claim scheme.

Overall the rest of the game went like this: with Raspy and a Silent One taking one flank around a building and Snowstorm coming up the middle, I was finding myself kinda hemmed in.  He blasted into McMourning and dropped some Blast markers on top of my Chihuahua and a nearly-dead dog, grabbing some quick points for his Slaughter mission.  Them, combined with the two Crooligans, left me in a bad spot.  I sent McMourning charging into Rasputina, knowing the best way to keep her from hurting too much was to put her in melee.

Of course, he had the Avatar at the ready.  I felt confident I could keep McM alive though, with his plethora of stones and high wounds.

Didn’t turn out to matter as I won initiative and McM chopped through Raspy right quick (well… it did take all of his attacks, so it wasn’t really RIGHT quick).  From there, my Belle lured the Snowstorm up to my lines and eventually McM cut through the Silent One and dropped a Rouge Necromancy on the Snowstorm.  A couple turns later, it was over.  I didn’t have enough models to grab Reconnoiter anymore, and there were a few people waiting for games, so we tallied up the likely final score of 4-2, McMourning’s favor.

GAME TWO

Another player from Victory, Nayte, was by yesterday looking to get some games in.  He’s a strong player for the amount of time he’s been playing, and has a lot of room to grow.  He’s been talking to Dan and me about Ressers (mostly Dan, since pretty much everything I know about Ressers I learned from Dan) and been trying to get them to work.  He’s been pretty successful with them, taking second in a recent New York tournament, and moving up in the pile of players we have each week.

He and I haven’t played in a few months, so we lined up to face off.  He hadn’t played many Neverborn players, and since they were my primary faction, I figured I’d give him some more experience.  I asked him between Lilith, Pandora and Zoraida who he most wanted to get some experience against (I don’t have the Dreamer’s new rules printed out) and he said Lilith.  He’s seen the others played, but wanted to see a good Lilith player again.

So we played 30 stones, him taking McM with the Avatar and Von Schill, and me taking Lilith with some twins, tots, and a Stitched.  Early on I moved one of my Tots up near Von Schill and tempted him to come after him.  He did, shooting the Tot for 3 wounds.  I had Lilitu move around and Lure Von Schill into my lines with Lilith and Lelu.  Both models went to town on him, dropping him to Slow to Die and forcing him to use a bunch of stones just to keep alive.

By sapping his stones away, I was able to get him to about one stone left before Lilith had to use any of hers.  Pretty soon, Lilith and Lelu moved in to the rest of the Resser crew and McM didn’t have much he could do left.

Meanwhile, three Night Terrors were swooping around my back lines, grabbing Plant Evidence markers and wrapping up VPs.  Lilitu and a Tot went after the bats and had killed one off, and were closing in on the others, when we called the game so we’d have time for another.  I had 8 points wrapped up, and he was capped at 4.

GAME THREE

Nayte told me to re-rack my crew and he’d come at me again, this time with a few tweaks.  He dropped the Night Terrors and picked up Sebastian and a second Canine Remains.  I took the same selection again.  This time I got to choose my strategy and took Supply Wagon, figuring it might be interesting to try to anchor my usually mobile crew somewhere.  He had Contain Power.

I wasn’t able to get to his Von Schill on the first turn this game, so I slowly moved up to the middle of the field and waited until the second turn to start going after him.  I got to Sebastian on the second turn while he was bringing Von Schill around the back of the board to flank me and go after the wagon.  Lilith and a Terror Tot cornered Von Schill, forcing him to start dropping stones again just to stay alive.  Every stone he lost was one less McM could have when I went after him.  Meanwhile, McM killed off my Stitched which killed off his Chihuahua in response.  Almost killed off the Belle too, but my damage flip ended up with a Red and Black Joker in it.  Damn.

Von Schill jumped over to the wagon with only a wound remaining and a stone or two left.  Lilith had to let him go because I needed to get around to killing off McM and the rest.  My twins had gotten up to McM but he killed off Lelu and LIlitu didn’t have much to do anymore.

My Primordial Magic and Terror Tot kept close to the wagon to keep it safe and I spent high cards keeping them alive.  McM summoned a Rouge Necromancy, then manifested, dropping Adam on Lilitu.  She died pretty quickly there.  I was down to Lilith, two Tots, and my Primordial Magic against aMcM, Adam, a Rouge Necromancy, a Belle, Von Schill, and the Grave Spirit.

Lilith charged into McM and killed him (I had drawn a Red Joker into my hand and had stones while he didn’t).  The Rouge Necro and Adam jumped on Lilith, but I was able to stone to make sure their first attack missed, then the -2 CB made sure the rest of theirs also missed.  My Primordial Magic charged into Von Schill and between him and the nearby Terror Tot, I managed to finish him off.

Lilith hit the Rouge Necro to knock off its two heads, then put some wounds into Adam, then turned back to the Rouge Necro to kill it off.  Adam managed to hit Lilith once, dealing two wounds, but Lilith waxed him the next turn and stepped onto the Stake a Claim, keeping about 2” from the Belle so she couldn’t try to run in front of the wagon to stop it.  Two attempts later, she was dead from Wicked.  The wagon rolled into place and I pulled an 8-0 victory.

Dan managed to pull out a victory in his Game of the Week this week, but still owed me a beer from last week when I bet that Nayte would beat Skill-less Brian.  We headed out for dinner and to settle some drinks.  During the conversation, I decided enough was enough and tossed down the gauntlet, challenging Nayte to the next Game of the Week.  Told him to bring Kirai, and asked him who he wanted to face.  Lilith had just beaten him twice, so he wanted his revenge.  Next week: Kirai vs. Lilith... grudge match!

April Eats My Wallet

I knew it would happen.  I've been in a drought of models for Malifaux for so long that I knew there would one day come a time where I had to open my wallet and bend over.  That time has finally arrived.  April's Malifaux releases kicked off the flood, and May is going to be nearly as bad.  My painting queue has gone from empty as it has been for months to overflowing in the span of one trip to Huzzah Hobbies.

Soon appearing to a table will be:



Avatar Kirai

I know technically she's not a new release this month, but I finally got around to picking her up.  Regular followers of my blog will know how strong I think Kirai is, and looking over her Avatar form has me salivating.  I don't think she'll be as strong in her new form, but she certainly does look like a bundle of fun.  I was lucky enough that my wife painted her up for me over the weekend, as she had painted Kirai and Ikiryo when I first got my Kirai crew, so she'll probably hit the table tonight for the first time.

  Jaakuna Ubume


Here's the first of the actual April models I picked up.  She too is already painted and ready to hit the tables tonight.  I wanted to clear out one of my sets of models - be it my spirits, my Nephilim, or my Effigies.  The spirits won out since my wife was able to get aKirai done.

Jaakuna is an interesting girl.  I haven't figured out whether it's better to start with her in play or summon her in on the first turn if possible.  I'm leaning towards the latter, relying on ditching one of my cheaper models to get this one on the table.  She has a bunch of tricks up her sleeve and I can't wait to see how she does.

 Avatar Lilith


I put this model together already and my wife has claimed it as her next project to paint.  I'm not going to refuse her - she's a far better painter than me.  I have not tested her much since way back in the day, but she was certainly a lot of fun early on.  Like Avatar Kirai, I don't think you're actually getting a boost in power by switching to her, but she does have some fun options, especially if the table you're playing has starts with any forests.  If it doesn't, she'll still drop a couple down on to try out.

 Tuco

Here's one of the models I was most looking forward to in the new set.  He's a great pose, a great theme, and a great set of rules.  I love the idea of one of Perdita's family who turned under long attention from the Nephilim.  Getting a shooting-based model with From the Shadows (or whatever that advanced deploy rule is) just makes me salivate.  I know he's slower than most, but Lilith has plenty of ways to help him keep up.  Earthquake, Transposition, a Mature Nephilim's Carry.  He'll be just fine. 

 Brutal Effigy


Of course the Effigies are starting to hit the shelves.  I have to admit, I am a bit confused why they're bordered anything but Purple.  These guys have a hefty penalty... unless you're Neverborn.  And Neverborn can take all of them without worrying about it.  They don't eat into the Special Forces for them.

Anyway, that aside, the Brutal Effigy is my favorite of the bunch.  For four stones he hits hard, has Object 1, and has a nice heal that requires no suit.  He's a melee expert, which many models more than twice his cost still can't score.  This guy's a beast in himself.

Carrion Effigy

Which, of course, leads us to the weakest of the Effigy dolls.    The Pharaoh once mentioned that he had come up with a great use for the Carrion Effigy, but he left the country before he could tell any of us and now we're all left wondering what his plan was.

In the meantime, I still couldn't resist picking him up.  I was going to grab all the rest of them, so how could I pass on the Carrion.  One of these days I'll lay down Collodi with all his Effigies, just seeing how these boys all work together.

Alternate Lilith

Finally, there's the Alternate Lilith sculpt.  I loved the picture in the third book and knew that, even if I passed on nearly every other Alternate sculpt out there, this was one I needed to pick up.


So now I have it.  But I don't know if I'm actually going to paint her up.  Problem is I like her original sculpt so much that even if this one was painted up, I'm not sure if I'd go with it.

Game of the Week - 4/17/12

I have been trying to get this battle report posted for a week now, but work and vacation plans have conspired against me. A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of boasting that I had a very good record with Pandora (hadn’t lost with her since my early days of playing her). True and deserved, Aaron, one of our local henchmen, challenged me to a game with his Leviticus crew for last week’s Game of the Week.

We rolled up with 30 stones each. Aaron asked if I would prefer to face Collodi or Ashes & Dust. I have faced Collodi many times before, but had yet to see Ashes & Dust used to its utmost. Plus, Aaron liked to talk about how good a model it was, so I asked him to put it on the table so I could see what it was all about. We flipped Strategies and I ended up with A Line in the Sand. My first instinct with Neverborn and that strategy would be to take Collodi, but having just told Aaron not to use him, I felt like I couldn’t justify turning around to use him myself. So instead I took a basic Pandora list and counted on my superior intellect and skill to guide me to a victory.

Crew: Pandora +8, Primordial Magic, Lilitu, Lelu, Baby Kade, Stitched Together  
Strategy: A Line in the Sand
Schemes: Stake a Claim, Kidnap (Ashes & Dust, Canine Remains, Watcher)  

Crew: Leviticus +4, Canine Remains, Rusty Alice, Ashes & Dust, Watcher  
Strategy: Supply Wagon  
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Lelu), Soulless Life

It’s been a little while since the game was played, so I’ll try to recall as best I can.

TURN ONE Most of this turn went pretty simple. I was being out-activated as the Waifs and Canine Remains moved up to do stuff. I moved Baby Kade up on his own towards one of the side Dynamite markers. Leviticus moved up and got himself killed so that he could come back and move the tracker on Soulless Life. At the end of the turn, Ashes & Dust moved out with Reactivate on it from Rusty Alice, then went after Baby Kade and killed him with a couple swings, Harmless and DF 7 be damned! No doubt this shocked me, and threw a wrench in my plans. I was intending to use him as my primary objective grabber.  

TURN TWO I pulled Pandora and Lilitu in the middle of the field with Lelu going after another objective himself. The Stitched Together held the center while I had Lilitu yank the Watcher into killing range. A quick shot later from Pandora and I had wrapped up two victory points (the Canine Remains had been turned into a Waif, the Ashes & Dust had already separated, and now the Watcher was dead).  

TURN THREE Pandora activated and zapped Leviticus, making him turn around and run away. It managed to get rid of an activation for him this turn, but Rusty Alice just shot him in the head and killed him anyway. In the meantime, Ashes & Dust rolled over and killed off Lelitu. My Stitched Together killed the Ashes & Dust, but I lacked the ability to do any more damage to him after that. The Ashen Core stuck around the middle while the Dust Storm jumped to one of the sides and started coming in.  

TURN FOUR Levitius popped back up and with the newly reformed Ashes & Dust managed to kill off the Stitched Together. The poor Stitched had nothing else left he could do, so he died a lonely death. Lelu had activated one of the markers and was moving in to another of them. I moved my Primordial Magic up to the center, trying to find a way to squeeze out some points. Pandora managed to thread the needle and hit Rusty Alice to make her run away. The woman dropped to 1 wound left, but was too far away to finish off by that point.

TURN FIVE The Ashes & Dust split apart and the Dust Storm deactivated the Dynamite marker on the board edge that I had flipped with Lelu. Very sneaky. The Primordial Magic gave Pandora Dementia and she activated two Dynamite Markers herself that turn, while Lelu activated yet another one.  

TURN SIX The Ashes & Dust reformed and killed off the Primordial Magic while Leviticus killed off Pandora and the slowly-dying Lelu. The game blessedly ended and my Pandora streak came to a well-deserved end. I ended up losing the game, 2-8.

 Fortunately, Aaron’s not a drinker, so I only had to buy him a soda at dinner. But Dan had also bet on me, and had to buy Pierre a beer.

Game of the Week - 3/27/12

It’s almost a week late, so my memory might be a little hazy on what specifically happened during the game, but I figured I’d post up how my second Game of the Week went last week. Skill-less Brian challenged me to a Guild vs. Resser game to try to knock off his Skill-less moniker. He had to defeat the three people around when he received the nickname. So far he has beaten Bill and eChris. I’m the last hurdle.

So we decided on a 35 point match, and flipped strategies beforehand. He flipped Deliver the Message and I flipped Plant Evidence. With a week to go between the games, we announced our Masters – I took Kirai and he took Lady Justice. He and Dan worked up a few strategies (Dan’s better at Ressers than me, so I was curious to see how he would suggest coming out to beat Kirai) and finally the game started.

Kirai, Lost Love, Insidious Madness x2, Night Terror x2, Datsu-ba, Canine Remains, Desperate Merc, Seishin x2, 7 stones
Strategy: Plant Evidence
Scheme: Kill Protégé: Guild Captain, Breakthrough

Lady Justice, Lucius, Governor’s Proxy, Guild Guard Captain, Guild Hound x2, Witchling Stalker x2, 8 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Scheme: Stake a Claim, Bodyguard (Lucius)

The board was terrain-heavy though there was little to block LOS entirely. Fortunately neither of us had a shooting-based crew, so it wasn’t as much a problem. I set up my crew spread out along pretty much the entire board so that I could use models to go after Evidence points regardless of what he set up to oppose. My main bunch of models – the non-Spirits, Datsu-ba, and Kirai, were all fairly centrally located. He deployed fairly opposite my Kirai grouping with his dogs taking a flank.

Sadly I don’t remember many of the initiatives, so I won’t be able to keep track of those, but I have the highlights of the turns.



TURN ONE
This turn went pretty straight forward for both of us. I moved out my Terrors and an Insidious Madness towards the side of the board that had the least opposition, counting on them to shore up my Plant Evidence markers throughout the game. Brian sent one Stalker after them to try to keep them honest, put his totem up on a building to keep him safe and give LOS to his whole crew, and slowly started bringing models up. Kirai sacrificed both her Seishin for a Shikome to go after the Captain, and then got two Seishin back when Datsu-ba killed both the Canine Remains and the Desperate Merc. The Merc healed Kirai back up and a Gaki and Onryo poured onto the table. I moved my Shikome forward, then charged the Captain hoping to get two attacks at him but was out of range and my last action just moved me into melee, wasting the turn of attacks.


TURN TWO
I led here with my Shikome attacking the Captain, knocking him to four wounds left and Poison 2 on him. Brian tried to kill my Shikome but I sold my hand to keep her alive, forcing Lucius to bring Lady Justice in for the kill. Meanwhile, my objective grabbers moved out a bit more and grabbed one objective on the way through. I brought my other Insidious Madness to help out, but the Witchling Stalker over there charged the Madness. Kirai, meanwhile, did very little this turn, not having a crow or mask in hand to use. The dogs continued their cautious advance. My Gaki and Onryo moved up towards the middle scrum to keep anyone from launching at Kirai.


TURN THREE
The Witchling Stalker engaged with my Insidious Madness waxed the poor spirit while my objective grabbers nabbed my second and third points, and positioned themselves for the fourth. Meanwhile, the dogs rushed around near Kirai in position to deliver her a message the following turn if I wasn’t careful. I knew I had to keep him from reaching me before turn 5 to have a good shot, so I brought Kirai towards the dogs (and away from the melee scrum with Lady J) and dropped Datsu-ba and Ikiryo on them. Both were killed and brought up new Seishin, and one was turned into a Gaki by Datsu-ba. In the melee scrum, I was able to keep Lady Justice in place though she managed to kill an Onryo and left herself with an opening towards Kirai.


TURN FOUR
No masks in my hand, so I couldn’t launch myself towards my Lost Love and get away as was my plan. Instead I tried to shore up as many models between Lady J and Kirai as I could, but I couldn’t get enough and Lady J double-moved into range of Kirai. Kirai summoned a new Shikome next to Lady J on the off-chance that I could kill her, but I was unable. Ikiryo jumped in to help, but she couldn’t do it either. My other models grabbed the last objective and hid in Brian’s Deployment zone, while I started moving after the second Witchling and Captain.


TURN FIVE
I stoned to win initiative but had no masks. I tried to cast Into the Spirit World and did not flip a Mask. I tossed another stone (I had a bunch left) and tried to luck into a Mask, but no cigar. Kirai cast a spell at Lady J to give her (-) flips against spirits. Brian let it go off since he knew Lady J would get him 2 VPs and he wanted to save his stones to keep Lucius, his Bodyguard, alive. Lady J activated and Delivered the Message, then smacked a Seishin. The Shikome and Ikiryo shredded Lady J, and the Shikome started moving after the Captain. Brian sent his Witchling Stalker charging the Captain to kill him and deny me 2 VPs. I gave Brian a hard time for that move, though after reflection, it was the right move for him to make since I had already denied him two VPs from his objective. Lucius moved after the Stake a Claim marker, and his other Witchling Stalker joined the race.


TURN SIX
Kirai summoned another Shikome as Lucius got himself next to the objective marker. Between the two Shikome, Datsu-ba and Ikiryo, I managed to burn through his stones and finally kill Lucius as my Insidious Madness held one of his Witchling Stalkers up and my Gaki and Kirai held up the other one.


We flipped to see if the game would continue and it did not – we finished with a hard-fought 6 points for the Ressers (4 Plant Evidence, 2 Breakthrough, 0 Kill Protégé) to the 2 points for the Guild (2 Deliver the Message, 0 Bodyguard Lucius, 0 Stake a Claim).



In the balance, a bunch of drinks exchanged hands:
I won a drink from Brian
I won a drink from Slaz (for not killing my master round one to prevent Deliver the Message)
eChris won a drink from Dan (for betting on me)
Pierre won a drink from… someone, I think… don’t remember if someone else bet


Overall, the game just helped to solidify my opinion of Kirai. After the beating that the Dreamer took from errata (and I never thought he was one of my top masters in the game), it surprises me to see other crews that work even better than his still have a strong presence and get less attention. It’s probably fair to say that I’m biased in my opinions of the top masters based on our local meta – I always get fits playing against Colette and Kirai – but I have a hard time seeing how to defeat them in most matches straight up. Colette’s got the ability to wrap up 8 VPs pretty easily in many games, and then the best thing you’re playing for is a tie. Kirai requires more interaction with your opponent, but even still, her movement and the sheer volume of models she can put out is insane!