Mr. Lynch Overview

I talked about my favorite master from the new book, McHammish, a few days ago.  Now I’m going to talk a little about the master I was already able to get out on the table after Gencon: Jakob Lynch!  Okay, now I’m going to call him Mr. Lynch from here on out because honestly it sounds pretty badass to have Mr. Lynch, Mr. Graves and Mr. Tannen wandering about together.

The first thing you notice looking at Mr. Lynch is that he seems a little low on the power side.  I mean, he’s got low stats for the most part, low damage.  He’s got a few neat rules like Cheating Bastard and Ace in the Hole which allow him to cheat second in every duel and use the 1M as a Red Joker, but those only really work on him.  He can discard a card for another action that can’t be used for a spell, and he gets to Mulligan his hand once a game.

His best ability, I think, is his Dead Man’s Hand spell.  It has to be used on an enemy and cannot be cast with Magical Extension (and it’s a damn good thing too).  It’s an easy cast and lets him pull up three cards one at a time.  After each pull, if it’s an Ace or Eight, it gets discarded.  Then , if it’s even, your opponent draws a card, and if it’s odd, your opponent discards a card.  So it is POSSIBLE to have a six-card swing in a single cast, but not overly likely.  Similarly, it is possible that there will be a no-card swing, but unlikely.  More often Mr. Lynch will draw 3 cards and your opponent will net gain or lose one card.

So Mr. Lynch’s going to get you a huge hand.  People are already talking about taking him with Doppelgangers, Arcane Effigies, and Sorrows to get more mileage out of the spell.  All are good options, though I think the Arcane Effigy is probably the best bet.  Of those choices, only the Sorrows can be added to a Ten Thunders list led by Mr. Lynch.

Mr. Lynch has got a few ways to get away from trouble.  He has only 8 wounds and his Soulstone Cache is only 2, so he’s light there, but with Quick Retreat, a (0) that can get him out of melee, Squeel! being an auto-trigger, a trigger that can get him out of dodge when he’s hit in melee, and cheating second with Cheating Bastard, he can usually keep himself safe a few hits.

All stacked up, though, he certainly doesn’t rate.

His totem, however, is where he really starts to shine.  The Hungering Darkness reads like a master.  He’s got pretty good stats down the line.  A high cast, 3” reach with paired 6s for his CB, and a nice damage track.  He’s going to be doing a lot.  He’s terrifying, he saps away wounds from nearby models with Brilliance to heal himself, and he has an Obey-like spell that only works on enemies but works better on enemies with Brilliance.

Because he relies so much on Brilliance, he has a couple ways to dish it out.  Anyone he hits in melee gets Brilliance, and he has a spell that can put Brilliance up.  If he gets a Mask on the CB or CA (it’s required on the CA to even cast the spell), he puts it up permanently on the target.

He’s only got 7 wounds and DF 4, but he’s a Spirit and can Use Soulstones so that will help keep him around.  He has a (0) that will draw wounds from models with Brilliance around him, friend or foe, and heal those wounds on himself.  Finally, at the end of the turn he picks a model with Brilliance within 5” of him and saps a wound away from them.  If no one is close enough, he takes that wound on himself instead.

He will die if he’s up front (which is clearly where you want him to be), but that’s okay.  If a model with Brilliance, friend or foe, dies while he’s not on the board, you can discard a pair from your hand and bring him back to play with half that many wounds.  So a pair of 6s will bring you in with 3 wounds.  From there, the Hungering Darkness can start sapping away wounds and heal back up.  Also, when he comes back into play, he forces a Morale check against all enemies, ignoring their Immunities to Morale checks, possibly sending them running for the hills.

He’s got three triggers on melee – one to make the permanent Brilliance, one to possibly cause more damage, and one to give him a healing flip if he kills a living model.  And he’s got a nice selection of spells.  Beyond Heed My Voice (the Obey-like one) and the Light Inside (the make-you-Brilliant one), he has Magical Extension and Serve Me, a way to reactivate friendly Brilliant models (though it kills them after).

The big push with Mr. Lynch and the Hungering Darkness seems to be to have Lynch build up a big hand, possibly sucking cards away from the opponent too, and then have the Hungering Darkness roll in and do all the heavy lifting.  Since he’s not likely to survive, you can bring him back to do the whole thing again.

All in all a bundle of fun.

Jakob's First Battle

Monday was a sad day.  I had popped open my new Gencon Neverborn models and started working on painting them, but Dan called and challenged me to a game, so while I hit the table with Mr. Lynch, Mr. Tannen, the Hungering Darkness and a Depleted painted up, I also played with an unpainted Mr. Graves, Depleted and Beckoner model meaning that my New Years’ resolution of playing with only painted models has now failed.  I have since painted up my second Depleted, an Illuminated, Mr. Graves and my wife has painted two Beckoners, but the damage is done.  The resolution is lost!

But on the plus side, I did get to put Jakob on the table Monday against Dan’s Kaeris crew.  We played 30 stones.

10 Thunders (Mike)
Crew: Jakob, Hungering Darkness, Beckoner, Mr. Tannen, Mr. Graves, Depleted x2, 6 stones
Strategy: Shared Supply Wagon
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Rail Golem), Hold Out

Archanists (Dan)
Crew: Kaeris, Rail Golem, Willie, Fire Gamin x2, Iggy, 5 stones
Strategy: Shared Supply Wagon
Schemes: Kill Protégé (Mr. Graves), Eye for an Eye

Kill Protégé on the Rail Golem may not have been the best idea, but after I saw how tall it was compared with Nightmare Chompy (they’re nearly of the same height) I had to beat that thing down to show it what for.

The terrain had three open houses on one side of the board and then a couple forests on the other side with tons of crates and barrels to help out with cover all around.  I deployed in one big ball while Dan spread out his crew, putting Willie and Iggy on one side with the forests with the rest of them on the other side.

It’s been a little while, so I will probably be off on some of what happened.  But it’s close enough.


TURN ONE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I started off with Mr. Graves using Bar’s Closed putting the point behind my crew, pushing them all out from it.  A few models pushed straight forward, the others pushed out a bit to the side too.  Mr. Graves followed behind them and took some cover behind a gravestone.  Willie moved up from Dan’s side and tossed out a dynamite marker up in front of him.  The rest of the turn was some positioning.  The two Depleted used Drawn to the Light to push towards a model with Brilliance, then double-moved into position.  Mr. Tannen took up position near the back of my group to keep safe.  Mr. Lynch stuck near him, and the Beckoner took up near the front with Mr. Graves.

Kaeris moved out to the left flank, Iggy moved to the right, the two Fire Gamin moved up the middle and the Rail Golem stuck back a little, building up some burning tokens to get ready for a big show.


TURN TWO – KAERIS INITIATIVE
Willie popped farther forward and dropped another dynamite marker.  My Beckoner tagged him with Honeyed Words to give him Brilliance.  I had a dynamite marker near where my Hungering Darkness was, and another near where Willie was, so it would take a bit of effort to avoid them.  In the end, I decided to screw it and charged Willie.  One of the dynamite markers went off, damaging the HD and a Depleted, and the HD pasted Willie as he was softened up by the Beckoner and had Brilliance on him.  Willie’s dynamite blew up dropping blasts onto the HD damaging him a little.  At the end of the activation, he had no Brilliant targets nearby so he took a wound.  Iggy and the Fire Gamin put some wounds onto the HD but didn’t kill him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Graves used Bar’s Closed to push one of the Fire Gamin that had activated into the path of the Rail Golem making sure he couldn’t get too far this turn.  Instead he climbed over the barrels and positioned himself near the middle of the board for the next turn.


TURN THREE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I led off with the Hungering Darkness charging Iggy, knocking him down to two wounds remaining and taking a wound himself.  He used Consume Brilliance to try to steal a wound from Iggy, but Iggy resisted.  He did manage to feed off a nearby Depleted, though, dealing two wounds to the Depleted and healing himself for two wounds.  At the end of the turn, he dealt another wound to Iggy and healed another one himself.  Mmmm…. Brilliance is tasty.

It didn’t last, though, as Iggy blasted through the HD.  My other Depleted moved up to the Rail Golem who promptly pasted him, spreading Brilliance onto him and the nearby Fire Gamin.  I could have put out a new HD, but he would only come out with three wounds (I had a pair of 6s) and would likely die to the Rail Golem.  I decided to wait instead.  Soon thereafter I killed the Fire Gamin with Brilliance and brought out a new HD who killed off Iggy and then Consumed Brilliance back to nearly full life, spreading a lot of damage onto my own crew and a little onto Dan’s.

Lynch, meanwhile, was standing back a bit using Dead Man’s Hand to draw more and more cards.  My targets were too far away for Tannen to get in the fun yet, but that moment was coming soon.  The Rail Golem moved around to the side of my crew, but the Beckoner reduced its AP by 1 the next turn.


TURN FOUR – KAERIS INITIATIVE
Kaeris’ wagon was unguarded so she tried to kill off Mr. Graves to keep it safer, but the Black Joker on her second flip conspired to keep her from being able to do anything.  Graves activated and destroyed the wagon, then used Bar’s Closed to push the Rail Golem back away from my crew.  Without two AP, he couldn’t charge, so he walked in to my melee and attacked Jakob, but I was able to cheat after him and make sure he missed.  Mr. Tannen put up Dampen Fate to make sure Dan drew one less card each time and then cast Dead Man’s Hand on him a couple times.  I got to take my cards in hand, he had to discard, but he couldn’t draw when the spell would normally allow him too.  Sucker!  Jakob then shot him with his extra AP and I took Malifaux Roulette, pulling the Red Joker from Dan’s hand and choosing to paralyze the Rail Golem.  At the end of the turn, I took the wound from Burning on Mr. Graves, killing him, and denying Dan his Kill Protégé.

TURN FIVE – JAKOB INITIATIVE
I knocked the Rail Golem down to one wound remaining with the Hungering Darkness.  Kaeris charged my other Depleted, killing it and making it explode to kill the Rail Golem, which also exploded and killed the Beckoner.  Ouch!  She then Turned it Up on Jakob, killing him in a couple more hits.  I was left with Tannen and he was left with Kaeris.  He couldn’t kill my Wagon with Kaeris so he instead ran to my deployment zone to break Holdout while Lynch chilled at the center of the board with my wagon.


Final score:
Jakob 6 (4 Shared Supply Wagon, 2 Kill Protégé, 0 Hold Out)
Kaeris 2 (0 Shared Supply Wagon, 0 Kill Protégé, 2 Eye for an Eye)

Gencon Recap

 

Back from Gencon and what a whirlwind trip it was.  I traveled with Laura (my wife), Dan (my awesome brother), Ellen (his wife) and Ryan (another buddy).  It was a long drive, made worse for me by my lingering dizziness.  I thought I might be pretty bad off during the Gencon week, but once the show started, my head cleared and it was go-time.

I won’t bother with a blow-by-blow.  That would take far too long.  Instead, I’ll hit the different games we tried out and my thoughts on them.

Evil Baby Orphanage (Wyrd Miniatures):

This was a game several of my friends were looking forward to.  I was on the fence about it, but when we got an advance preview of the game, I jumped at the chance.  It’s a non-collectable card game involving capturing evil people when they’re babies and building a child-friendly orphanage to keep them all calm and not hurting each other (no Genghis… don’t bite Hitler!).  The game was fun, but turned out to be much longer than I expected.  Dan ended up picking this one up (he had funded the Kickstarter for it) but I found it to be a “pass” myself.  I’d play it if it came up, but it would be low on my list of things I’d want to try.

Verdict: TOO LONG, NO THANKS

Attack on Planet Earth (Flying Frog Productions):

Laura, Ellen, Dan and I lined up for a demo of Attack on Planet Earth.  The game can be played co-op or competitively and is designed around a bunch of alien races all trying to take over the planet.  You move your aliens to different places, attack the resistance, and subjugated humans while trying to stop other aliens from doing the same.  It was actually pretty different in gameplay from a lot of other Flying Frog Games, but wasn’t enough to really warrant a purchase.  Especially since I had just spent a lot of money at the booth on something else…

Verdict: WAS FUN, BUT NO THANKS

Last Night on Earth: Timber Peak (Flying Frog Productions):

The first of the games I actually went to find a Gencon and it did not disappoint.  A whole new set of boards, new experience abilities, new characters, new cards.  I picked this up and we played a couple games at the hotel room that night.  Dan wasn’t feeling well (bad food) so Laura, Ellen and I played.  There has often been concern that the humans are at a real disadvantage in the game.  Let me tell you, the experience abilities seemed to turn that right around.  Both games the humans had a pretty solid time of it turning back the zombie horde.  I’m looking forward to combining the games and seeing if they bring a nice balanced mix to the whole thing.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, AND HAPPY I DID

Level 7 (Privateer Press):

The second of the games I actually went to find.  The line for the PP booth was hours long, but Dan spotted one of our locals and asked him if he wouldn’t mind picking up Level 7 for us when he reached the front.  It took a day later to get the game, and we played it on Friday night.  Now understand we were reading the rules around midnight in order to start playing, so we did get a lot wrong, but we had a ton of fun playing.  The game is a board game with tile exploration similar to the Dungeons and Dragons board games.  It’s semi-cooperative in that the players work together, but you can win without the other players winning.  It’s an alien horror game, and does very well at keeping the horror feel going throughout.  We ran into trouble at the end of the game when it seemed to fall apart, but on Sunday I went back to the PP booth to ask some questions and sure enough we played it wrong a little.  Still, fantastic game and really looking forward to the next time it comes out.

Verdict: PURCHASED, AND REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING IT BACK OUT

Chupacabre (Moostache Games):

This was a simple dice game that could be played very quickly.  Each person has six dice with different animals on them.  You roll your dice, put all the like animals together, and then anyone who rolled the evil Chupacabre could start trying to eat other animals, so long as there were not too many of them to overpower him.  Any that he ate, you got to keep the dice and then you all roll again.  Whoever ends up with all the dice wins.  We did notice that the game got to the point of one person winning was pretty much impossible to stop, but made a houserule to help out with that.  Plus, since one-on-one games ended in about 2 minutes, it’s not a big deal.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, IT’S A NICE GAME TO PULL OUT WHEN YOU’RE WAITING FOR SOMETHING ELSE

Smash Up (AEG):

This was a new non-collectable card game where you took two of eight different decks and put them together to make your one deck.  So you could be playing Zombie Robots against Pirate Aliens and then the next game be playing Zombie Wizards against Robot Tricksters.  There were eight factions so you could play up to four players.  Each group had its own feel.  Zombies brought creatures back from the discard pile.  Dinosaurs had lots of strength (and lasers).  Ninja were all about killing and moving their people around.  You had to attack different locations and earn victory points as the game progressed.  A fun diversion, but I think there would quickly become “best deck combinations” and if you happened to get two that played together well, you’ll end up with a leg up over everyone else.  Dan ended up picking it up, so I’m sure it’ll hit the table again soon.

Verdict:  PASS, BUT I’LL PLAY IT WHEN DAN BRINGS IT OUT

Mage Wars (?):

This was the “surprise” game for me this year.  Almost every year there’s a game I get that I didn’t even know existed before I got there.  This year it was Mage Wars.  We got a demo of the game and it sounded really interesting, so I tried to buy one.  But they were sold out.  But they said on Saturday morning they would have 80 more copies to sell.  I managed to get one of those copies and sat down with Laura to try to figure out all the rules on Saturday night.  Wow, it was complicated.  We got through part of it, but it was going to take me a long time just to figure out how to do everything, so we put it away until I had a few hours to devote to learning how to play it.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, BUT NOT EXACTLY SURE HOW GOOD IT IS YET

X-Wing (Fantasy Flight):

We demoed the new X-Wing game and Dan dubbed it “Wings of War 2!”  I never played Wings of War, but it seems like it’s pretty much the same game as this one, except this one has more customization available and used more ships at a time.  We had an enjoyable demo where Laura and I (the TIE Fighters) all ran into Dan and Ellen (the X-Wings) and stuff blew up.  I checked out the game itself – it was being sold as two TIE Fighters and one X-Wing, and then expansion packs of $15 were another single ship.  Wow.  A bit too rich for my blood.

Verdict:  PASS, BECAUSE IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE

Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game (Privateer Press):
We bought tickets to play in the new IK RPG on Friday morning.  By this point we already knew that we weren’t going to get a copy of the game.  Only 350 copies arrived at Gencon and they sold out quick.  Still, we wanted to try out the game, so there we were.  We had five people (Slaz joined us for this one) but the game only allowed four.  We managed to convince the GM (Doug Seacat, no less!) to let me step in as the warjack so we could all play in the same game.  By the end of it, we were all smitten with it.  Fantastic game, I love the world (I always have – I was playing in Iron Kingdoms back when the only thing PP had to their name was the first Witchfire Trilogy book), and the rules actually seemed to flow very well.  Even my wife, who hates new rules, said she would love to play this one.

Verdict:  OHMIGOD I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS BOOK TO ARRIVE IN STORES!!!

Flashpoint (Indie Games):

I had played this one before, but I didn’t realize they were going to be at Gencon and when I was on my own for a short time, I wandered past them and did a double-take.  I sat down to play a demo mostly because this is one of my favorite board games of all time and I did not own it yet.  I’m going to tell you what it’s about and ask that you ignore the “meh” comment that comes up when you hear it: you’re a team of firefighters trying to save people in a building.  Yeah, doesn’t sound that interesting.  But trust me, it’s awesome.  I had the same reaction as you but my buddy, Zusmer, kept raving about it and I tried it.  At Gencon I bought it and convinced Dan, Ellen and Laura to play it despite their “meh” reactions and it ended up being one of the best board games we played all weekend.  Give this game a try if you like cooperative games.

Verdict:  PURCHASED, ONE OF THE BEST GAMES I HAVE PLAYED

Zombicide (Cool Mini or Not):

I picked this one up through the kickstarter but I figured I’d see how the game itself played.  Laura and I sat down for a demo and got what I would dub “the worst demo this year”.  The girl who was trying to teach us the game (“trying” is probably the wrong word… “reluctantly” might be better in its place) could not care less about us.  She texted on her phone, talked to other people at the booth, and randomly flipped cards and moved zombies and told us we were dead.  Had I not already purchased the game, this demo would have certainly turned me off from getting it at the con.  But I do have it already, and will have to give it my review later when I can actually play it.

Verdict:  WORST DEMO OF THE YEAR, THOUGH I ALREADY OWN THE GAME AND HEAR IT’S GOOD

True Dungeon:

This isn’t really a board game or anything, but rather the whole True Dungeon event that I always hear about.  This was my third Gencon and the first time I had done True Dungeon.  I didn’t know anything about what I was doing.  We had seven people in the game that I knew and were joined by three others – one who was a veteran who was really nice and helped us out, and two adolescent girls, one who was nice and the other who spent the whole time complaining and yelling at people.  She almost singlehandedly ruined the experience for me until she was pulled out of the game halfway through (for unrelated reasons).  Overall, the word I have to say about it is: confused.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, the people who were running the event didn’t really explain anything, and poor Slaz had to help four brand new people who had no idea what was going on.  Add to that the rooms were all quite dark so no one could read the primers that they offered the new players so they would know what was going on.  It wasn’t until around room 4 or 5 (after the annoying girl was gone) that I finally started to understand the game.  And by then, the game was nearly over.  I would probably enjoy it more the next time, but it’s priced pretty high for the entertainment value.

Verdict:  WOULD DO IT AGAIN IF WE COULD GET ALL OUR OWN PEOPLE IN ONE EVENT, BUT WOULDN’T MIND PASSING ON IT TOO

Indianapolis Brew Tour:

On Saturday afternoon when the floor was packed, Laura, Ellen, Dan and I all went on the Indy brew tour of four different breweries.  Some were bad, some were fantastic, some were bland and some were nice middle-of-the-road.  We spent almost four hours drinking and chatting with other Con-goers in a non-gaming-atmosphere.  A great break from everything else happening.  My only worry about doing it again would be that I would want to see different breweries.

Verdict:  WOULD DO IT AGAIN IF I KNEW IT WAS NEW BREWERIES, GLAD I DID IT

Tracy Hickman’s Breakfast:

About 500 people piled into an auditorium-style room to watch Tracy Hickman do an improv/gaming session where he kills lines of people at a time.  The people often have their own things they do to try to mess with Hickman.  The concept seems really fun, except that I could not hear anything anyone was saying.  My wife could only hear every other word.  And half of the people who tried to do something funny just turned out to be lame instead.  I left after an hour of not being able to hear any of the jokes so that I could get in line to get Mage Wars instead, and Dan, Laura and Ellen left not too long after that.

Verdict:  NEVER AGAIN

Fortune and Glory (Flying Frog Productions):

I usually remember the terrible demos I receive, but this is without a doubt one of the best demos I received.  I didn’t really want another FFP game (they all play similarly and we have many of them already), but this one looked interesting.  It’s a competitive game where you all play Indiana Jones-type treasure-hunters going around the world to search for treasure.  As you do, Nazis are trying to thwart you, and you have to go through obstacles to reach the prize.  Sometimes you have to race against other players to reach the goal.  If you fail at a challenge, it flips over and becomes a Cliffhanger!  (Will the Doctor manage to escape the plane crashing into a mountain?  Find out next turn!)  The woman running the demo did great at selling the game like a story, hamming it up as much as she could.  If I didn’t already have a ton of loot and were it not already Sunday, I might have made this my impulse buy of the con.

Verdict:  PASS, THOUGH IT DOES LOOK LIKE A VERY FUN GAME

So there you have it – most of the events and games I tried (I left a couple out because I didn’t really care enough about them one way or the other).  An exhausting con, but had a fantastic time.

The Man They Call…. McHammish!

As you’ve read earlier on the blog, I have recently made a move to pick up some Guild models.  The model that pushed me over the edge to finally pick them up has finally been revealed: McHammish!  He’s a treasure hunting, spoiled rich kid who’s come to Malifaux because… well… who’s going to stop him?

Book Four has a lot of great models to discuss.  There may be a bit of conversation about the new way the new Neverborn/Ten Thunders master works (the totem is the really powerful one!) or the way Misaki’s new master has so many AP with which to murder, but for me, the most interesting change on the way masters work has to come from McHammish.  (I’m going to caveat that by saying I reserve the right to change my mind in the future)

Okay, so what makes him so interesting?  McHammish is on a horse!  Yeah, I know we’ve already got that with Avatar Leviticus, but aLevi can’t actually get off his horse.  McHammish has mastered the art of… dismounting!  Okay, so he can’t re-mount his horse afterwards, but give the guy a break – it took four years for someone in Malifaux to figure out how to get off a horse.

So what does he bring to the table?  Well, for one, the fastest Master Guild can get.  I mean, he’s clocking in with a walk as fast as a lot of people can charge, and his charge gets him across a third of the table.  He’s got a healthy WP and CA, and an average DF (though that increases when he dismounts).  His wounds are the highest for any single master: a whopping 13 (though those are split between the horse and himself).

He’s got two melee attacks, one designed to do damage and another that can trigger to pass out some Slow.  He’s getting harder to hit the more people he’s near, and he’s got Bearskin Armor to help keep him alive.  He’s a Ranged Expert, which is nice to go along with his Net Gun.  Whoever he hits with the gun is automatically Slow, and if you get to Severe damage, he’s Paralyzed too.  Plus, the net spills over nearby models and has a chance of making them slow too.

He can use a (0) action to help move his crew faster, pushing them towards him if they’re close enough to hear him.

He’s also got a couple spells – one to debuff a large area of the enemy crew, dropping their DF and WP, though it needs a Tome to cast.  His other spell can only be used on a Slow model and it replaces Slow with Paralyze.  Remember all those Slows you’re dropping with your attacks?  Yeah.  Nice, isn’t it?

But that’s not all!  He comes with a 6 stone cache (bwah??!!?!).  Now that’s a bit deceptive because what treasure hunter wouldn’t travel along with some treasure?  He spends his soulstone cache on at least two of a list of treasures, each with a varied cost.  Want more soulstones?  Take the weaker treasures.  But trust me, there are some real gems in there.  Drop your cache by 3 to grab Armor +2.  Give your melee swords Paired.  Get a (0) action to heal.  Gain a spell that can Reactivate certain members of your crew.  There are a couple others out there too.

Then, when he dismounts, either by having his horse run out of hit points or by using a (0) to dismount, he loses his Ranged Expertness and gains Melee Expert.  A lot of his stuff stays the same but instead of tossing out Slow as much (he still can some), he can do things like Loot the Dead, getting a special ability after killing enemy models.  He can toss out Traps (a new Guild Minion) to help Paralyze nearby models.  And finally, if he’s almost-but-not-quite-dead when he gets to activate, he can do some real damage, using a (0) to pretty much double his actions for the turn, but sacrifice himself at the end of the turn (counts as killed by the enemy for VP conditions).

So there’s one of my new loves – I can’t wait to get him painted up and on the table.  McHammish for President!

Malifaux Teasers for Gencon

Wyrd Miniatures has been going gangbusters for their Malifaux releases at Gencon.  While it looks like they might fall short of the 70% of Book 4 release goal they had (reports are that they will have a lot of Neverborn and Archanists, possibly a lot of Ten Thunders, and nothing from Guild, Ressers or Outcasts), what they are bringing looks very nice.

First, they're moving to plastics with this release.  Metal has just become too expensive to keep up with the rising cost, and they're looking to make some changes to make sure they don't have to increase prices.  While I do like the heft of a nice metal model, I have to say the detail they're putting in to these models looks fantastic.  That, plus the more easily customized models, makes the move to plastic a good move in my book.

NEVERBORN
My first faction and my true love.  They're getting a whole new crew that looks very different from the other Neverborn models.  We've got some dapper gentlemen and some... female entertainers.  On the Breachside Broadcast, they once had an advertisement for a new casino called the Honey Pot, which ended with "Tell 'em Jakob sent ya."  And now we finally get to see Jakob himself.

I've decided I am going to refer to Jakob as Mr. Lynch so that I can have Mr. Lynch, Mr. Tannen and Mr. Graves walking around in their tuxedos kicking butt.  I am really looking forward to this line.
 

 

ARCHANISTS
I have to be honest, these guys don't really do it for me, but I can't deny that they look cool.  The metal/rail road theme isn't really my speed, but Mei herself looks fantastic with the exploding rubble around her.  She's got that kung fu look to her - maybe Archanists will finally get a melee-centric master.

I'm not a huge fan of the Metal Gamin, though I love the look of the Rail Golem.  Willie looks pretty hilarious, but I don't think it's enough to push me into picking up the crew.

 

TEN THUNDERS
Of course, we had to see some of the new faction on the block.  Misaki graduated from a minion in the Outcast line to a master in the new Ten Thunders crew.  They sport a very Asian look.  As a long-time player of the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game, I wholeheartedly approve.

I don't like the way Misaki herself looks - she's far too dynamic of a pose.  It looks like they tried to do too much with her.  But Yamaziko looks fantastic, and the Archers look really nice too.

 

EXTRAS
We also got a good look at the new Miss mode, Miss Terious (an alternate Death Marshall).  There's going to be a Santiago alternate sculpt, Santana, which is available only to Henchmen.  And finally, the Nightmare model for this time around is the Hanging Tree featuring Nathan and Eric, the founders of Wyrd.

All three models are top notch.  I'll certainly be getting the Miss Terious and the Hanging Tree.  If I can manage to get my hands on a Santana, I'll be doing that as well.

And because seeing the new plastic models was not enough for Wyrd, they've also gone out to release different pages from the upcoming book to generate even more excitement.  Below are some of the pages they've put up.  All of them look fantastic.  A Resser model with 10 wounds, Riposte, and Object 2?  A Guild model that can pour out tons of ranged damage?  A Neverborn model that shuts down card draw and plays with fate?  An Archanist model that tosses dynamite around and control the field a bit?  And a Ten Thunders six-stone minion with Use Soulstone?  All very awesome.

In short, Gencon cannot get here fast enough.  Less than a week away, and I'm already counting down the hours.

Huzzah's August Tuesday Tussle

A week ago, Bill had a fantastic idea: run a Tuesday night Malifaux tournament.  With only a week notice, he still managed to pull out 12 attendees.  Not too shabby.  We had three Neverborn, one Guild, three Ressers, three Outcasts, and two Archanists.

The tournament was a 25-stone, fixed faction, Domination-style format.  Strategies were random Shared.  Schemes were unique through the whole event, and we had 60 minute rounds with 15 minutes in between.  So it was a fairly condensed format.  We had a lot of newer players as well as some of the vets.  Dave, a henchmen from Rochester who has been visiting DC for the summer, was making his last appearance in DC with us.  Slaz, a local Archanist player, came out for his first Malifaux tournament (he likes tourneys even less than I do).

Overall, the tournament did reinforce one thing: I am glad I did not sign up for a tournament at Gencon.  Just playing the three games gave me a headache, and while I enjoyed the whole tournament, it’s not what I’m going to Gencon to do.  Adepticon next year is a different story – I’ll be there for the tournaments, so that’s what I will be playing.

I came with Neverborn, taking Dan’s advice and filling the case I intend to bring to Gencon with the models I intended to bring so I could see how they’d do.

ROUND ONE – ANDREW (MARCUS/KAERIS)

SHARED DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

Andrew is one of the newer players who has been coming for the past few months from Game Parlor Chantilly.  He’s a great opponent – a lot of fun to banter with and someone who legitimately enjoys the game, no matter which way the flips go.

With Shared Destroy the Evidence, I took Zoraida, Collodi, Four Marionettes, and the Doppelganger.  Collodi was there to get the objective markers, Zoraida was there to survive and help out with her movement if need be, and the Doppelganger was there to get me initiative on the first turn.  Andrew took Marcus, Kaeris, and three Silurids.  I had Bodyguard (Zoraida) and Stake a Claim for my schemes, and he had Power Ritual and Bodyguard (Marcus).

I won initiative on the first turn and was able to use Collodi and the Marionettes to grab the middle objective marker as well as one of my farther-forward objectives on the first activation.  He came in and killed off a Marionette, failing to kill two of them with an ill-timed Black Joker on the damage.  My Doppelganger, Voodoo Doll (on a Silurid) and Zoraida stuck around the back to hold off against the tide of Archanists that would be trying to destroy all his Evidence markers.

By the end of the game, my Voodoo Doll and Doppelganger (with Zoraida’s Obeys) were able to kill off the Silurids before they finished their job.  He managed to use Marcus to grab a second Objective Marker to get 1 point, got a point out of Power Ritual, and succeeded in Bodyguard, while I swept the markers and got my two schemes as well.  I advanced with an 8-4 victory giving me 3/+4/8 (TP/Diff/VP).

ROUND TWO – CJ (McMOURNING)

SHARED DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

CJ is another newer player, though he has become very good over the last few months.  Since we had the same strategy as before, I took the same crew, figuring on getting a bunch of VPs and trying to win that way.  CJ took McMourning, Dead Rider, Chihuahua, two Dogs, and three Night Terrors.  I took Kidnap on the three dogs (two Canine Remains and Chihuahua) and Steal Relic.  He took Kill Protégé on my Doppelganger and Breakthrough.

I won initiative on the first turn and Collodi did his thing, grabbing the middle objective and then withdrawing to safety.  I dropped a Voodoo Doll on the Chihuahua on the first turn, and he killed off his own dogs for Body Parts, so I was able to grab Kidnap pretty quick.  It was the last time any of his models would die.  I dropped Zoraida by McMourning and tried to steal the relic, but failed.  He Dissected her for 10, and I prevented two of the wounds.

The next turn I won initiative and Zoraida won the Steal Relic, then ran away as a Raven.  Meanwhile, Collodi was gathering all the Objectives for me while the bats were gathering all them for him.

Soon thereafter, though, McMourning killed off Collodi and the Marionettes after he finished off the Doppelganger, leaving me with only Zoraida.  He also summoned a Rouge Necromancy and the rest of the game he tried to chase down Zoraida, but she survived to the end.  We both got our schemes, and I got the center objective marker giving me a narrow 8-7 win.  I was now at 6/+5/16 (TP/Diff/VP).

I figured at this point I would be the bottom of the undefeated players (there were three of us) with my Differential being low at +5.  It turned out the other two, Dave with his Neverborn and Slaz with his Archanists, were both at +4.  I would end up facing one of them.

ROUND THREE – DAVE (ZORAIDA)

SHARED DISTRACT

Dave chuckled as he lined up against me, saying that I knew his crew better than he did.  I finally moved off of Zoraida and opted for Pandora this time around.  I knew he had Lilith and Zoraida as his options, and thumbing through my options, Pandora seemed the safest given the mission.  Zoraida… I was kinda done with her for the night, so she didn’t really fit in.  And Lilith was a toss-up if he pulled Lilith too.  Having played that matchup in the finals at NoVA Open, I didn’t want to risk losing it this time around.

So Dave had Zoraida, Tuco, Lelu and Lilitu (he played down a stone) and I took Pandora, Tuco, Coppelius, Primordial Magic, and a Stitched Together.  My schemes were Kill Protégé on Lelu, and Eye for an Eye.  He took Reclaim Malifaux and Steal Relic.

On the first turn he grabbed five of his Reclaim Malifaux points while I moved up the board in a line, trying to find a good target (hopefully Lelu).  On the second turn I was able to get Pandora around to Lelu and killed him with a series of Self Loathings.  I had to start spreading my crew out a little, not wanting my Stitched Together within 6” of one of my own models, and not wanting Coppelius within 2” of one of my own models because I didn’t want to get Obeyed to hurt my own crew.

I managed to get my Stitched around the corner to Lilitu and kill her off after he had brought his Reclaim Malifaux total up to 7.  Pandora lined up against a Zoraida that had just stolen the relic and blasted her with a (-) flip to DF.  I cheated a 13 of crows, and stoned a 12.  He flipped the Black Joker on resist and couldn’t stop it, so he double-moved back to his board edge.  Coppelius moved in and tried to Paralyze her but failed to do so.

On the next turn, I got initiative and Coppelius channeled his spell to make Zoraida flee.  I cheated the Red Joker to cast it, and Zoraida was out of stones.  The only card that could save her was the Red Joker, and it didn’t come up so she ran off the table.  I brought my crew up together, killed off his Tuco, and then sacrificed my crew for stones to get to Eye for an Eye while moving Pandora into the deployment zone.  Final score here, 8-2 as he got a point each for Steal Relic and Reclaim Malifaux.  My final score came out to 9/+11/24 meaning for Slaz to beat me out for first, he would have to win 8-0.

FINAL RESULTS

Slaz ended up playing to a bizarre 0-0 tie against CJ on the next table over, putting him in second place with 7 Tournament Points and securing my lead.  The final standings ended up being:

Mike (9/+11/24) – Neverborn

Slaz (7/+4/12) – Archanists

Dan (6/+6/19) – Ressers

Dave dropped into 4th place with his loss.  There was also a painting contest in which Slaz took the prize with his Kaeris model.

My Nemesis

Evidently, I have met my match.  I have found my kryptonite.  Indiana Jones fears snakes.  The Wicked Witch fears a glass of water.  Green Lantern fears the color yellow (yeah, that’s totally a thing).  Me?  I fear Avatar Ramos.

I don’t have a plethora of experience against him yet, mind you.  Only four games, and that can hardly be enough to fully judge a model.  But my record against him in those four games is atrocious.  I stand at 1-3.  And every time I face him, my tactics seem to come woefully.

I should mention that all four games I have played against him so far have been against the same opponent (Slaz) and I have used the same master (McMourning).  Maybe I am a glutton for punishment, but I wanted to keep going until McMourning was doing well.  After losing my first two, I managed to pull a win a few weeks ago.  Yesterday I faced off again, expecting to pull even, and instead McMourning was surrounded and slaughtered.

In every game, Slaz played to get Avatar Ramos out as fast as possible and have him carry the load.  In all four games he hit the table with an (All) action on turn 2.  My four games ended thusly:

The first game, I lost my crew save McMourning, and then he was surrounded by aRamos and a bunch of Large Steampunk Arachnids who, after losing initiative, all were Obeyed to wreck McMourning’s face.

The second game, McMourning got a few attacks off but kept getting Pneumatic Gripped on his early attacks and could no longer fight against aRamos.  My crew was taking care of aRamos’ crew, but he was able to resummon his Large SPAs pretty quick without much effort.  Soon after, aRamos killed McMourning with several bugs surrounding him.

The third game was the one I won.  After failing to channel Dissection at him with my totem (black joker) I managed to get the Dead Rider to grab him and yank him back to McMourning and through sheer volume of attacks, and no Pneumatic Grip trigger, I managed to kill aRamos.  My crew rushed through for the VPs after that.

The fourth game I tried, McMourning’s crew got wrecked quickly by Johan and the Large Steampunk bugs.  Even after killing more than half of his crew, aRamos resummoned them and then Obeyed them all to kill McMourning.

My original thought was that McMourning should have the advantage over aRamos.  After all, his attacks ignore all the armor that much of his crew enjoys.  But McMourning relies heavily on making a lot of attacks, he can quickly and easily be locked down by Pneumatic Grip.  And if he chooses to go after the crew instead, it is very easy to replenish what is lost as Hasty Assembly is simply a (1) action.  And all the while, whether he’s going after aRamos and risking not doing much due to Pneumatic Grip, or whether he’s going after the crew and seeing his work undone by a few uses of Hasty Assembly, McMourning is contending with his low DF stat against a large number of attacks from nearby models.

So how do you combat Avatar Ramos?  Clearly, given my record, I haven’t figured it out yet.  Here have been my struggles so far:

My games have been very initiative-dependent.  I know this is no surprise in a Malifaux game, but I feel like my games against Avatar Ramos have been even more on that slate.  If I do not win initiative, McMourning does not get the chance to heal up from his wounds taken last turn, and I cannot force aRamos to use his actions either resummoning models or force him to use his stones defensively.  At least two of McMourning’s deaths have resulted after failed initiative flips.

aRamos gets a ton of attacks.  Whether he’s attacking five times himself or whether he’s ordering his crew to all make attacks at the cost of a single Soulstone, he’s putting out far more attacks than McMourning can handle.  And by keeping his crew close together (strategies like Supply Wagon and Turf War help here), I am unable to strike against him where I have numerical superiority.

Killing his minions does not seem to matter.  With the ease at which he resummons new ones, especially given how easily he gains new scrap (Large Steampunk drops three scrap and costs two to resummon).  That each summon is only a (1) action means I need to be killing more than two minions a turn just to make progress.

And if I do attack aRamos himself, it seems to come down to who gets the luckier flip on the soulstone.  I prefer to have a more sure-bet than a lucky stone flip, especially if I am to face aRamos in a tournament.

My overall goal is just that – to be able to beat aRamos in a tournament game.  I want to walk in to a game with him with a set method by which I plan to beat aRamos.  So far, I’ve been unable to find one.  But I’m not ready to give up yet.  I may be struggling with McMourning, but I’m ready to try other tactics.  So what are some new ideas?

Attack him early.  Ramos spends the first two turns, essentially, powered down while he’s manifesting.  If I can find ways to attack Ramos early and put a lot of wounds in to him before he manifests, I’d be more comfortable betting things on a lucky hit.  At present, I know I have to be lucky at least twice once he’s manifest to kill him.  If I can cut that down to once, it gives me the upper hand in fights.

So how to do this?  Using the Dead Rider to drag my master closer to the fight could work.  Pulling in Pandora or Collodi could also give me speed in Neverborn.  Guild I am too fresh with at the moment, but I think they might be able to threaten a bit with ranged attacks instead.

The second thought I have is to attack his soulstones.  This is a primary way I deal with Von Schill and with Colette, so I’m used to doing this.  Cheat cards to force Avatar Ramos to use soulstones, especially on defense.  Hit him with a mass of attacks so that he’s got to start burning through his stones.  Without his stones, Pneumatic Grip becomes far less frightening.

 

If someone else out there has some thoughts or experience around aRamos, please give me some advice.  Slaz is stilling happy on a nice pile of victories over me, and I’ve got to find a way to start evening the score.

In the meantime, though, between Avatar Ramos and Colette, and possibly this crazy new Mei that they’re getting in a few weeks, will Archanists become one of the top tournament factions?  They have some fantastic options available now.  The best master in the game, and now perhaps the best avatar in the game.

I’ll figure him out though… he won’t keep me down forever.

Until next time, keep gaming!