Skyrim

Evidently there’s a game called Skyrim out there that’s taking off. A week and change ago I did a little research (it’s really hard not to do research on this game – just going to any nerd blogs or sites I was bombarded by images and stories) and decided that this might be a game for me. I loved Fallout 3, and I liked Dragon Age, so combining the two sounded pretty cool.

This game has been a tremendous ride so far. I jumped in, was lost as to what to do for a little while, went meandering around, happened back upon the main story for a while, and have now spent the last 20+ levels ignoring what the game is telling me to do and just wandering around finding bandits to kill and tombs to rob. Evidently there’s a civil war going on that I can join a side in. And I guess I could find out why all the dragons are back. But I’m having too much fun amassing a massive fortune and exploring the world.

One thing I like about it is how it doesn’t really go easy on you in the early game. When I was level 5 or 6, I spotted a fire off in the distance so I headed that way. I saw wooly mammoths and thought, “that’s awesome!” Then I saw a giant tending them. Sweet! The giant spotted me as I tried to sneak around and see what else was around. He took two huge steps, swung his club, and in one hit, I was flying through the air dead.

Okay, lesson learned. Don’t see the giants. But it gave me a goal – now I can take on the giants without worrying too much, so long as I plan things out right. Can’t take out a pair of giants and their wooly mammoth friends, though.

I had a similar experience the first time I found a troll. I learned quickly how to sneak at that point and managed to bypass him, but it took a few failed fights to figure out that I should try things differently.



Outside the main story, the first time I saw a dragon was hilarious. In the main story you end up fighting one with a large group of soldiers at your side and manage to kill it off. But soon, dragons start appearing elsewhere as you’re wandering around. I remember I was in the mountains by the river near a waterfall when a huge shadow passed over me. I looked up and… “OH SH--!!!! DRAGON!!!!!” It kept flying past me and breathing fire on me. I tried to get to high ground to be able to attack it, but it kept out of reach. I tried to pull out my bow and shoot at it, but I was pretty bad with my bow. Soon, dying, I decided escape was the best route. I dove into the river and followed the rapids, trying to outpace the dragon. I saw white foam ahead a little too late, tried to fight the current, and got swept over the edge of the waterfall, crashing on the ground dead.

I spent the next few levels learning how to shoot a bow.

The next time a dragon came around, I was in Riverwood, heading out from selling off a bunch of loot. The dragon attacked and I dodged from building to building, pulling out my bow and taking shots as I could. Finally the beast was grounded and I charged it with my sword, cutting it down. It was awesome.

The people of Riverwood hauled the skeleton of the dragon out of their village and left it in the road as a warning for other dragons not to mess with Riverwood. It didn’t work. There are now three dragon skeletons out front serving warning. Riverwood is under MY protection, bitches!

After a Lapse... more Malifaux

Been a while since I last posted – my apologies. Work has been difficult, and… well… honestly, Skyrim has been taking up a lot of time when I get home. Man, that’s a fun game! First time a dragon cleared the hill over a waterfall and swooped down at me, I was scared s-less… and hooked.

But this post is not about Skyrim. Maybe I’ll post something up about that in a bit. This post is about the Malifaux Winter League we’ve been running through these past weeks.

I’m 13 games into the league and we’re in week 5. Finish out this week and one more to go before the end. Last night I headed out to the store and got two games, one against a local Zee who’s just started. He’s been coming out for a few weeks in a row and has been showing clear improvement each week. This was my third game against him. My second game was against Bill trying out his Colette crew. Both games were 25 stones as my opponents were getting their learn on with their crews.

GAME ONE VS ZEE
Zee has played against my Lilith and Zoraida masters and wanted to try to face something different. I didn’t want to pull out Pandora. I considered the Dreamer a moment, but settled with Collodi after he mentioned he’d never seen the puppet master before. I gave him a quick overview of how Collodi works with his speed and pulling around effects, and the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that the Marionettes and Wicked Dolls pull off.

Collodi, Marionette x4, Wicked Doll x3, Stitched Together x2, 5 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Schemes: None (there’s an achievement in the league for winning with no schemes)

Marcus, Raptor x4, Shikome, Trapper, 5 stones
Strategy: Reconnoiter
Schemes: Sabotage, Bodyguard

The Trapper deployed normally and the Shikome picked Collodi as her prey.





TURN ONE – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I started out this turn with the plan of doing pretty much nothing other than showing Zee what my crew does. The Stitched Togethers moved up and popped some smoke, the Marionettes pulled Collodi along a little and then snapped to him, and the Wicked Dolls jumped up to Collodi. The idea here was that after telling him how Collodi’s crew worked, I figured it might help to show him how fast they can be before actually getting into the fight. In the end, my whole crew ended up bunched together about 10” in front of where they had been and Collodi finished off by giving all my dolls fast, prepping them for the next turn.

Meanwhile, one of the Raptors made the Trapper a Beast and the Raptors and Shikome rushed towards the Sabotage, keeping hidden from me, while Marcus and the Trapper each took a tall hill overlooking the puppet swarm.


TURN TWO – MARCUS INITIATIVE
With no schemes to help me out, I knew I had to get the full 4 points for Deliver the Message, especially since he was so close to Sabotage already. I needed to Deliver the Message to Marcus and then kill him. With three of his Raptors swarmed together, I knew the best he’d be able to do with his crew would be 5 activations. I could stretch out my crew to 10. That would give me a lot of models left once he was finished.

He activated Marcus, Howled to drop my Stitcheds’ Willpower and increase his own, and then hopped back to the Trapper. He activated the Trapper with his (0) Companion, and the Trapper took a couple shots at one of the Stitched Togethers. A Black Joker meant only one hit for damage, and he took only one wound. I started with a Marionette who dragged Collodi over to the center of the board, then ran and hid behind a house. His Shikome moved out, Sabotaged the hill, and backed away again, not wanting to be killed before the end of the turn. I kept wasting activations until he was all spent, then dragged Collodi up to the front of the board near Marcus. A Wicked Doll pulled up next to Collodi, Delivered the Message to Marcus, and then used his Fast to attack Marcus, triggering Poison and a couple wounds. My last Marionette tried to drag Collodi away, but Marcus managed to hold him in place with a disengaging strike. I brought my last Wicked Doll up and put another couple hits on Marcus, dropping him a little more. Collodi finished things out by making both Stitched, two Wicked Dolls, and the Marionette fast for the next turn.


TURN THREE – MARCUS INITIATIVE
I considered stoning to try to win the initiative, but decided against it. It would have been nice to go with a Stitched Together against Marcus before he Howled, but I’d need a pretty high flip. Marcus started off and Zee decided he wanted to try something different. He used Feral to turn Collodi into a beast, used Stare Down, Howled, and then attacked him once, doing a couple damage which I used a Stone to prevent all of. I went with a Wicked Doll hoping to finish off Marcus and get rid of Stare Down before the Shikome got to me. Three attacks later, though, Marcus was still alive with one wound left (though he was out of stones). The Wicked Doll ended by healing Collodi with his (0) action.

The Shikome swept in on Collodi, gained Fast, and attacked three times. The first hit Mauled my Marionette. The second one hit Collodi for five wounds, but a Severe Prevention meant I took only 2. His third attack did another set of wounds and a Moderate Prevention cut down the damage a bit. My second Wicked Doll finished off Marcus, getting rid of Stare Down, and then went on the Trapper to attack him for a couple wounds. He finished by healing Collodi a little more too.

The Raptors all swarmed in to Collodi, but now without Stare Down, he was able to defend himself a bit better. The Trapper knifed a Wicked Doll. Over the course of the turn, I yanked all my puppets in and killed the Shikome and two Raptors.


TURN FOUR – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I started to get ready for the turn, but it was looking like a foregone conclusion at this point. With only a Trapper and two Raptors left, and my Stitched Togethers finally in a position to do something, we called it.


Final Score: Collodi 4 (Deliver the Message), Marcus 2 (Sabotage)

Overall, Zee did a fantastic job containing the Stitched Togethers. Other than tossing up smoke and missing in melee attacks, they did nothing all game. Marcus’ Howl was a nice advantage to him there.

I’ll post up the second game in a bit. Bill took pictures so I need to wait and steal those off his website so I can post a battle report with photos. That gets me an achievement in the league.

Winter League Continues

Bill has been plugging the winter league for a few weeks now, and is hosting a Malifaux at Huzzah for three days this week. Tuesday was the official launch, and Thursday night he came out again to try to bring more people out. Three regulars came out – Bill, Skill-less Brian and me – and we had three new players join us.

My first opponent of the evening was Mike S, a local from a few towns over who works nearby the store. After I got a look at his models – he did a fantastic job with gear-themed bases and put together one kick-ass conversion for a Widow Weaver – we lined up our models for a 35 stone game. He played Lilith primarily before, so he was trying something new: a Zoraida crew. Rather than playing Neverborn against Neverborn, I grabbed my Viktorias and put together a list with them.

GAME ONE

Viktoria, Student of Conflict, Ronin x3, Convict Gunslinger, Freikorps Trapper, 6 stones
Strategy: Slaughter
Schemes: Exterminate (Nightmares), Assassinate (Zoraida)

Zoraida, Killjoy, Stitched Together x2, Widow Weaver, Terror Tot, 6 stones
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Bodyguard, Breakthrough

We played on the ruins board with several ruins around the edges of the terrain to get cover and a more open center with a fenced-in graveyard. Looking over the terrain, there was almost no way to keep Zoraida from picking an early target for her Voodoo Doll, especially since I deployed first. I accepted it and strung out my models, hoping for initiative so I could start getting my more dangerous models up to cover.

TURN ONE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Well shoot. Guess not. Zoraida activated first and tossed a Voodoo Doll up on my Convict Gunslinger who promptly turned to the Ronin next to him and shot her… twice… three times, to knock her down to one life left. Useless Harmless. Thank you Hard to Kill. Friggin Trigger Happy. I led off with my Trapper, curled up on top of one of the ruins, trying to kill off the Terror Tot before he could become a Killjoy. I took a focus strike (I wanted the (+) flip for damage so I could cheat in a card to kill the Tot), but he flipped a 13 for defense and there was nothing I could do. I moved up my Ronin and sent my Convict around the other side of the ruins to separate him a bit while the Stitched Togethers moved up and the Weaver Widow grabbed a Scrap counter. Finally, the Terror Tot sprinted forward to underneath the Trapper and sacrificed himself for Killjoy. Killjoy smiled and cut clean through the Trapper. Poor guy – he had no chance. My Student of Conflict had made my Gun Viki fast and she gave the sisters +2 Damage, moved up, and called her sister forward. The Sword Viki moved in on Killjoy and attacked him twice, netting 11 of his 12 wounds – not quite enough to kill him.

TURN TWO – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
Twice in a row he flipped a 12 for initiative! Damn. No real choice here – Killjoy went and attacked the sword Viki 3 times, but three soulstones and a cheated Red Joker meant he missed all of them. The Sword Viki went, killed Killjoy with her Melee Expert, dodging the return strike. She then switched places with her sister, and then yanked her sister back away from the front lines. The two Stitched Togethers were approaching and I did not want to get caught in the open against them. Zoraida and the Voodoo Doll activated, Obeying the Convict to shoot the wounded Ronin, killing it, then Obeying the Widow Weaver to get a Scrap token. I moved the Convict even farther away, now out of range of my crew. He took 2 poison from the Voodoo Doll. The Stitched Together moved up to where Killjoy was and put up some smoke. I moved a Ronin up and attacked the Stitched once for a couple points of damage. The second Stitched moved up a little behind and I brought my second Ronin up to do a little more damage to the first Stitched. The Widow Weaver started moving out and collected a third Scrap counter. My Gun Viki moved forward and killed the wounded Stitched Together, triggering Does Not Die. It retaliated by using Gamble Your Life to drop one of my ronin to 1 wound remaining (frigging double-severe on a (-) flip) and dropping the other one by 3 wounds.

TURN THREE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I flipped an 11 for initiative and told Mike there was no way he could flip another 12 for his initiative – three turns in a row was too much. He obliged and flipped a 13 instead. The Stitched Together activated and killed off my Ronin with 1 wound remaining, then tried to Gamble his Life with the other Ronin and lost, taking a bit of damage back. My Ronin activated and finished off the Stitched Together. The Voodoo Doll and Zoraida activated again, Obeying the Convict to move backwards so he would not get into range of shooting his models this turn. Zoraida went next and used Repel to push his models out a bit. She used Obey on the Widow Weaver to give it a free move farther up, and then walked up a bit herself. My Student of Conflict made my Sword Viki fast and the Widow Weaver got her fourth counter and moved a little farther back, holding the scrap in hopes of getting a high enough Mask the next turn. The Vikis activated together with the Gun Viki moving up and dragging her sister forward. The Sword Viki moved forward once and then charged the Widow Weaver, hitting twice with Melee Expert for a total of 9 wounds. The Stitched Together finally reactivated and dropped my Ronin to 1 wound remaining before he went away.

TURN FOUR – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
Ah, finally. My Sword Viki activated and killed off the Widow Weaver, then yanked her sister forward to keep her close at hand. The Voodoo Doll and Zoraida went, obeying the Convict to shoot the Gun Viki, but he was just out of range. Zoraida turned into a Raven and booked it to the far side of the board. Yeah, she’s fast. My Ronin rushed to his side of the board to hold his deployment zone. My Convict shot a couple times but didn’t do much.

TURN FIVE – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
I activated both of my Vikis, starting with the Gun one who moved forward and then brought her sister up too. The Sword one then charged Zoraida, hitting twice for a little damage. We were both out of stones at this point. Zoraida tried to attack the Viki back but did not manage to hit. My Student of Conflict ran up next to the Sword Viki, and my Convict Gunslinger finally died of poison.

TURN SIX – VIKTORIA INITIATIVE
I activated my Student and Sword Viki. The Student gave Viki Fast, and Viki attacked and killed Zoraida in two more hits, then moved twice back to his side of the board. My Gun Viki moved into his deployment zone, and I flipped a card to see if the game would go on. No such luck.

FINAL SCORE:
The Viktorias took 2 points in Slaughter (I killed 30 points (9 Widow Weaver, 10 Zoraida, 11 Killjoy… Stitched Together do not count since I did not kill them) and he killed 21 points (10 for two Ronin, 5 Convict, 6 Trapper), 2 points for Assassinate, and 2 points for Exterminate
Zoraida took 0 for Turf War, 0 for Bodyguard and 0 for Breakthrough
The Viktorias won, 6-0



After that game, Mike and I chatted for a bit about the game, how to use Zoraida differently, and I told him when we usually head out to the store. Hopefully he’ll make it out next week for another match.

Bill had finished his game against another new player, and after a couple minutes of conversation, we decided to put down a game between the two of us. Bill was working with Rasputina still, and since we decided to play 25 stones and I knew I’d need to win a game led by Collodi at some point, I figured this was a good shot to try.


GAME TWO

Collodi, Marionette x4, Stitched Together x3, Wicked Doll, 6 stones
Strategy: Treasure Hunt
Schemes: Steal Relic, Kill Protégé (Sabretooth Cerberus)

Rasputina, Essence of Power, Silent One x2, Sabretooth Cerberus, 7 stones
Strategy: Deliver the Message
Schemes: Sabotage, Stake a Claim (I think it was Sabotage, but I can’t remember for sure)

The board was set up with a lot of buildings all spread out giving a few avenues to move towards the center, but a lot of LOS blocking stuff on the way in. A nice change of pace from the openness of the last board.

TURN ONE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
This turn was pretty basic with the Essence of Power linking to Rasputina and putting up a couple of Ice Pillars to block off one avenue of approach to the treasure counter. I sent one Stitched together around a big building and took the rest of my crew the other way after the Ice Pillars were cast, blocking off more of that path. My other two Stitched gave me some smoke cover and after I out-activated Bill, my Marionettes Pulled Strings to get Collodi up next to the Treasure Marker. My Wicked Doll jumped to it, picked it up and booked it behind the ice pillars while my last Marionette pulled Collodi back to the cover of my two Stitched Togethers. With my last activation, Collodi made all my dolls around him (three Marionettes and two Stitched Together) Fast for next turn. Since Fast specifically says it lasts until your next activation, it will stick on the models into the next turn if that’s when the next activation is. Neat trick.

TURN TWO – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Darn, I was hoping to go first here and get my Wicked Doll completely out of LOS. Instead, a Silent One moved around the corner and zapped my Wicked Doll, killing him and making him drop the treasure. I was afraid that the Sabretooth Cerberus would grab the treasure if I left it out there, so my lonely Stitched Together moved up to the treasure, picked it up and popped smoke. The second Silent One zapped my lonely Marionette and killed him. I sent one of my Fast Stitched Togethers out and he used Gamble Your Life on a Silent One. I cheated a 12 for my WP duel to get a straight flip, and then cheated my other Severe to do 7 wounds. Boom – dead Silent One. With his (0) he put up some smoke, giving my flimsy puppets a bit of cover from the Ice spells. Bill dropped some Ice Pillars cutting off my two Stitched Togethers from my Marionettes and Collodi, and I went ahead and used my last Stitched to move out and kill the Essence of Power. The Cerberus leapt into my mess of Collodi and Marionettes and brought one of the dolls down, but couldn’t break through Collodi’s soulstone-infused defense. Collodi created a new doll to replace the one he lost and then had a different Doll kill off the Cerberus with some very lucky flips (got Severe twice in three attacks!). The other two Dolls pulled Collodi around to get him ready to support the Stitched Togethers.

TURN THREE – COLLODI INITIATIVE
That could be unfortunate for Bill. I started with Collodi who moved twice to get in the middle of all my Marionettes so I could activate all of them. He used his (0) to activate a Stitched after him and then tried to Breathe Life, but failed. One of the Marionettes moved in and dragged Collodi up to the front. The other two jumped in and made some attacks on Rasputina, forcing her to use stones a few times to avoid being rendered Slow my their trigger. Finally, the Stitched Together moved up and bled a card from the Silent One, then put a hit in on Rasputina. Rasputina took advantage of her massive hand of godliness and started zapping my Stitched Together – the only guy not in melee with Rasputina – through the Silent One. Soon the Stitched was dead and blast markers had wasted all three of my Marionettes. But there was still more to come. Overpower, overpower, overpower, overpower and slowly Bill’s hand disintegrated along with his soulstones. But Id lay wager to no fewer than 10 casts of that damn AOE spell. Fortunately I had a lot of stones myself and with three prevention flips, I was able to keep Collodi at half wounds. I was very glad I killed off the Essence of Power because the only think keeping me alive was the fact Bill couldn’t cheat in to get more AOEs most attacks. With her last action, Rasputina gave herself Armor. My reactivated Stitched moved up and Stole Rasputina’s Relic. He considered using his last stone to stop me, but thought better of it. My other Stitched in the scrum killed the Silent One while my Stitched with the Treasure made it to my deployment zone.

TURN FOUR – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina used a (2) action to Deliver the Message to Collodi, getting Bill 4 VPs, and then gave herself Armor. Collodi made the Stitched Fast and gave him a Casting Expert, and then the Stitched blasted into Rasputina, dropping her wounds by half.

TURN FIVE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Bill flipped the Red Joker for initiative, wishing he had it in his hand, but settled for going first instead. Two armor and then Rasputina went to work. Since she was in melee with Collodi, she could not cast her big spells, but she did manage to drop him a few wounds with her (0) before I cheated high enough to stop it. I managed to eat away another couple of wounds on her with my 8 Willpower Stitched Together. My Treasure-hugging Stitched just hung out in the back.

TURN SIX – COLLODI INITIATIVE
I flipped an 11 for initiative and asked Bill if he wanted to stone to reflip his. He refused. Good thing, too, because it turned out his next card was a 13. Collodi and my Stitched Together made short work of Rasputina when she had no armor, and the game ended.


FINAL SCORE:
Collodi took 4 for Treasure Hunt, 2 for Kill Protégé, and 1 for Steal Relic (the model that stole the relic did not survive to the end of the game)
Rasputina took 4 for Deliver the Message, 0 for Stake a Claim, and 0 for Sabotage
Collodi won 7-4

Winter League 2011 Launches

Yesterday started Bill’s winter Malifaux league in Northern Virginia. I have been hemming and hawing for the past few weeks, trying to figure out exactly what crew I was going to take. Would I continue my Resser experiment, or go back to Neverborn? I have been enjoying playing the Ressers, but the league is a six-week commitment and having played Ressers for six weeks prior, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue for another month and a half with them, no break. Besides, I was already missing my Neverborn.

So I arrived at the store yesterday, put down my $15, and declared “Neverborn”! Bill said, “Ah, you’re the fourth one.” Huh? Four of us? Damn. So I immediately changed… to Outcasts! Then I sat around waiting for a game and decided that it was really Neverborn I wanted to play and that playing Outcasts when I only own Hamelin and Viki, and dislike playing Hamelin, would not lead to a fun experience. So I re-declared Neverborn and launched into my first game of the league… against Bill.

I asked Bill how many stones he wanted to play and he said he had only played the 25 stone level, so he was open for anything else. I rephrased the question: how many stones of Archanists do you have with you and what level can you comfortably play at? That elicited a different response: 30 stones.

I decided since Bill was playing a crew he wasn’t overly familiar with, I’d make a more fun list and not go for the throat.

Zoraida w/ Avatar, Wicked Doll x2, Teddy, Baby Kade, Stitched Together, 7 stones
Strategy: Deliver a Message
Schemes: Hold Out, Bodyguard (Zoraida)

Rasputina, Essence of Power, Ice Gamin x3, Silent One, Razorspine Rattler, 7 stones
Strategy: Supply Wagon (he chose it after flipping the Red Joker)
Schemes: Ice Mirrors (kill 3 models with Ice Mirrors), Sabotage

The board was set up with a bunch of ruins around the edges of the board and a graveyard in the middle with a fence around it. Lots of cover, but little to block Line of Sight.

I deployed first with my crew essentially set on the front of the standard deployment line and with Zoraida up on top of some ruins. Bill deployed so if I got initiative with Zoraida, I couldn’t do too much damage to his people with a Voodoo Doll. His Rattler didn’t have a charge lane to anything important, etc.



TURN ONE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I didn’t want to go for the throat so I led off with someone other than Zoraida and let him get some ice pillars up first. Baby Kade just double-moved to some cover and the Essence of Power put up some Ice Pillars to block off Zoraida’s LOS to most of the crew. Most of the turn was just movement with my crew using the Stitched Together’s fog and the Ice Pillars to advance under some cover. Zoraida just summoned a new Wicked Doll and hung out in the back, casting Crystal Ball for her first Manifest tick.


TURN TWO – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina and the Essence of Power went first, putting up more Ice Pillars to block Teddy off from getting to most of his crew, and then blasting through the Stitched Together and killing him, killing a Wicked Doll behind him too. A Wicked Doll moved up behind the Ice Pillars, forcing him to take another activation. He just moved an Ice Gamin. Teddy grew wings and flew over the Ice Pillars, offering a nice, juicy target. A Gamin charged him but missed, and the Stitched Together killed the Ice Gamin, doing some damage to Teddy. Another Ice Gamin moved into position and shot Teddy for a little damage. Baby Kade walked out, knifed the Stitched Together in the back to give him Reactivate, and then moved off. The Silent One tried to zap the Stitched Together to freeze him in place, but Bill misread the card and combo. We backtracked so he could try it again (he had to give the Stitched Frozen Heart first) and he managed to get near enough to freeze the Stitched Together while being far enough away to avoid the retaliation. I went with Zoraida, trying to Obey the Stitched but he was too far away. Zoraida turned into a raven and flew 20” across the field next to Rasputina. The Rattler charged and finished off Teddy, then slid towards Baby Kade. My Wicked Doll snapped to Zoraida and delivered her the message, getting me 4 Victory Points. Bill was playing on his back foot now. Finally, my reactivated Stitched Together was in range of the Rattler (a mistake by Bill) but he had 2 armor from Rasputina and took only 2 wounds from my Gamble Your Life.


TURN THREE – ZORAIDA INITIATIVE
I led with Baby Kade who Backstabbed the Rattler, killing it. Not bad. He then used Incite on the Silent One, making sure that he could not activate Rasputina next. The Silent One went and ended up hitting Baby Kade for 2 wounds. I activated Zoraida, cast Crystal Ball and looked at my next three cards. I stacked a low card, then an 11 Masks, then a 13. I manifested as a (2) action, and then cast Pins and Needles on one of the Ice Gamin. Flipped a 2, cheated a moderate card, and then stoned to get the high Mask for my trigger. He couldn’t resist, so I flipped damage and got a Severe. He took 4 wounds (armor) with 2 Poison and I drew 4 cards. I used my second Casting Master to cast the same spell at the other Ice Gamin. I cheated a 9 of Masks I had drawn, stoned for another card, and then for damage, tossed my only Severe for 4 more wounds, 2 poison, and 4 more cards. I had a mitt-full of 10 cards, but none of them were higher than a 9. Rasputina activated and reflected spells at the melee of aZoraida, my Wicked Doll, and his Silent One. Twice he hit the Silent One, managing to spill 4 damage onto aZoraida, but also killing his Silent One in the process. It’s all good – that was his second model killed by an Ice Mirror – he was one away from his scheme. My Wicked Doll sacrificed himself to kill the Essence of Power, and my other Wicked Doll died in a poisonous explosion from one of the Ice Gamin. By the end of turn three, I had aZoraida and Baby Kade, and he had Rasputina. Brutal!


TURN FOUR – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
I get my (+) flip for initiative and get a 5. He flips a 6. I stone and flip yet another 5. Even discarding 9 of the 10 cards in my hand, I can’t seem to dig to anything higher than a 6! Rasputina, over an inch from aZoraida, casts twice and manages to Overpower in there a couple times and takes my poor girl from 4 wounds on her to dead. Crowning moment: when he hit me for severe and I flipped the Black Joker to prevent, instead taking the full 5. On the plus side, he was out of stones when aZoraida died. Baby Kade double-moved into melee with Rasputina and knifed her, making her slow and cutting her down for 2 wounds (he had Armor 2 so the 4 wounds were reduced).


TURN FIVE – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina tried to move away but failed, and then used his (0) to drop Baby Kade to 1 life left. She put up armor on herself. Baby Kade slid around and stabbed the Supply Wagon, cheating in Severe damage to drop it by one wound, and lowering Bill’s total points by 2, then stabbed Rasputina and made her slow again and did 1 more wound.


TURN SIX – RASPUTINA INITIATIVE
Rasputina tried to move away again but failed, instead sliding around to melee with the Supply Wagon so I could not attack it again (I had two severes in my hand to kill it off, so that was a good move). Baby Kade attacked Rasputina three times, making her slow again and dropping her to a couple wounds left. Having activated the last model, I flipped to see if the game would go on and it didn’t, so we tallied up the scores.



SCORE: AVATAR ZORAIDA WINS 6-2
Zoraida had 4 for Deliver the Message, 2 for Holdout, and 0 for Bodyguard
Rasputina had 2 for Supply Wagon, 0 for Reflections (the Ice Mirror one), and 0 for Sabotage



So there we have it – my first game of the league and already I’m coming out swinging. Top of Neverborn, here I come!

Two Resser Battles

We had no further chances for Skill-less Brian to reclaim his name on Tuesday, sadly, as he was unable to make a trek out to the store. I did manage to play two games with my undead, though, bringing me up to about 18 games between the Resser masters. Picked up Molly’s box, too, along with the Necrotic Machine and two more Night Terrors. Got the Night Terrors painted up, but I’m saving the Necrotic Machine and Molly’s box until Bill’s new league starts up next week. Painting up a blister and a box are two of the goals to achieve.



GAME ONE
So the first game last night was against Dixon, the hero of Adepticon 2011. We were just looking to have a random fun game, so he pulled out a Viki list with some old-timers (Bishop and Hans) and I pulled out Nicodem.

Nicodem, 7 Soulstones, Grave Spirit, Dead Rider, Crooked Man x2, Canine Remains x4, Necropunk
Strategy: Claim Jump
Schemes: Stake a Claim, Kill Protégé (Bishop)

Viktorias, 4 Soulstones, Student of Conflict, Bishop, Hans, Ronin x2
Strategy: Reconnoiter
Schemes: First Blood, Horde Soulstones (or whatever the one is where you need more SS than your opponent)

Turn One – Nicodem Initiative
Not much of note happened here. I moved up with the Dead Rider/Grave Spirit and hid behind the only place on the board large enough to keep him safe from Hans. I had him supported by a Crooked Man, Necropunk and two Canine Remains. Nicodem moved up the side towards the Claim Jump with the other two dogs and Crooked Man. On his side, the two Ronin split up to take the two corners of the board that were not likely to see much contention.


Turn Two – Nicodem Initiative
I had a shot on Bishop with my Dead Rider, so I took it. He Adjusted Purpose to gain Fast, then Mounted Combat-ed out to Bishop, attacking him. Dixon cheated in the Red Joker – I was holding a 13 myself – and put himself out of range of my attack. Not wanting his head blown off, the Dead Rider retreated back to the rock. Bishop moved in with DEF 8 and Hans took some shots, killing off one of the Canine Remains. Nicodem made a zombie out of it and he started heading over to help out against Bishop.


Turn Three – Nicodem Initiative
I had to burn a soulstone to win this initiative, but felt it was worth it. I led with the Dead Rider again, this time rolling out to get an attack against one of the Viktorias. A cheat and soulstone and it was out of my range of hitting. The Dead Rider retreated again. Bishop went and managed a single wound on the other Canine Remain. My Necropunk tried to do some damage, but failed to hit Bishop. The Vikis jumped into the mix, using Whirlwind to kill off my Necropunk and Canine Remain, as well as putting a few wounds on the Dead Rider. I had to cheat a bit and forced Dixon to use two soulstones himself. My other two Canine Remains broke off to lend some support to the massive fight as well and my Crooked Man walked on alone to the Claim Jump. Nicodem paralyzed both Bishop and Viki with Rigor Mortis and tried to summon a Samurai Zombie next to Bishop, but Hans blew off its head before it could attack.


Turn Four – Nicodem Initiative
I got the fourth initiative too, but again had to burn a Soulstone to get it. The Dead Rider attacked Viktoria three times, burning her last soulstone and only doing 6 wounds to her. Her sister swapped places with her and attacked the Dead Rider, hurting the poor guy but not killing him. My two dogs charged in to Viktoria and did some wounds to her, but not enough to kill her. Nicodem paralyzed the new Viktoria and raised four new zombies around her and Bishop. Hans killed off the Crooked Man near Bishop and my other Crooked Man got to the Stake a Claim near the Claim Jump. His job now: live.


Turn Five – Viktoria Initiative
Bishop went and tried to kill the dogs around him but failed. The dogs attacked Bishop and managed to drop him to 1 life left. All my work was paying off. The unparalyzed Viki jumped in and killed off the dogs, the zombies and Nicodem with her attacks, and then sacrificed Bishop for a Soulstone. The Ronin near the Claim Jump jumped out of hiding and went after the Crooked Man, but missed him.


Turn Six – Nicodem Initiative
I didn’t really want initiative here, but I can’t complain about winning initiative five times (though it did cost me two soulstones to do it). I led with the Dead Rider, not wanting to give Viki any attacks on him. He Mounted Combat-ed away from Viki and then moved next to the Claim Jump. Dixon repositioned his Ronin, Viki and Hans to grab three of the board corners.


Final score: Dixon wins, 7 (3 Reconnoiter quarters, 2 for First Blood, 2 for Horde Soulstones) to 6 (4 for doubling him at the Claim Jump, 2 for Stake a Claim, 0 for Kill Protégé). Close game, and a good time.

In retrospect, going after Bishop with Kill Protégé was a pretty dumb idea. I hadn’t played against Bishop before – or if I have, it’s been a very long time – so I had no idea what he could do. Evidently, not much. He can keep himself alive very well, but he does almost nothing else. He was struggling to kill a Canine Remain, for crying out loud. I would have been better off just ignoring that model and going after other things. The number of attacks I put in him could easily have killed off both Vikis and left me really only worrying about Hans out there.



GAME TWO
My second game of the evening came against Chris (not of the eChris variety). He’s been coming out more of late and getting games in with Kaeris. Well, now the box is out and he didn’t have to proxy. Well, except for Iggy, but that’s okay. We played a 35 Soulstone match, Kaeris against McMourning. I really wanted to justify buying two more Night Terrors, so I knew I was going to be using at least three of them in my list. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure.

McMourning, 8 Soulstones, Chihuahua, Crooked Man, Night Terrors x3, Canine Remains x2, Bette, Sebastian
Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Holdout, Stake a Claim

Kaeris, 4 Soulstones, Gunsmith x2, Johan, Iggy, Fire Gamin x3
Strategy: Supply Wagon
Schemes: Breakthrough, Sabotage


Turn One – Kaeris Initiative
Fairly basic stuff. People move up on both sides to gain position. McMourning knifes and kills one dog, and then knifes the other for some wounds, ending with 5 body parts.


Turn Two – Kaeris Initiative
One of the Fire Gamin takes a shot at one of the Night Terrors, bringing all three of them flocking towards him. One of the three breaks off and flies into the middle of the Archanists near Iggy, putting up his Night Falls spell with the trigger, lowing WP and RG all around him. Iggy goes and spends his whole activation killing the Night Terror. Sebastian moves up behind a rock and uses his Pulse damage, catching one of the Fire Gamin in it and dropping it to 1 life left. The other Fire Gamin runs to his side but can’t attack him yet. There’s some shuffling back and forth, trying to keep out of range. My Night Terrors flock into Kaeris but can’t do anything to her, and Kaeris blows one of them up. Finally, McMourning kills his last dog for three more body parts, then moves up and summons a Rouge Necromancy near a Gunsmith. Kaeris is out of activations and the Rouge Necromancy (Chris dubbed him “Steve”) eats the Gunsmith. I start shuffling and realize I should have placed out Bette. But oh well, too late now. I have to remember I have her.


Turn Three – McMourning Initiative
A good time to win initiative. Steve activates and kills Iggy, then moves in on Johan and Kaeris. Kaeris is none too happy and kills Steve and my last Night Terror. Not a great showing for those guys. This time I remember Bette and she pops out, puts up her auto-paralyze, and charges Kaeris but misses (I think a soulstone was involved). Johan kills Bette but she uses One with the Night. Over on the other side, Sebastian pops again, killing one Gamin and dropping another to one. McMourning flies through the mess and gets some attacks on the Gunsmith, but not enough, and the Gunsmith shoots McMourning back with Gunfighter for 3 wounds. By now there’s a whole mess of corpses everywhere.


Turn Four – McMourning Initiative
I lead with McM, killing the Gunsmith, healing himself, and then putting up a Flesh Construct between him and Kaeris, making sure she can’t target the master. Kaeris spends the turn killing the Flesh Construct as Sebastian kills the Fire Gamin and moves in on the Supply Wagon, but fails to damage it. The Crooked Man tries too but misses. As the Flesh Construct died, Bette reappeared and charged Johan, trying to paralyze him, but missed again (she’s got to get some practice in). To make matters worse, Johan swings his big hammer at her, kills her, and she tries One with the Night but flips the Black Joker. Ouch!


Turn Five – Kaeris Initiative
Kaeris flies up on a hilltop and tries to burn down the Crooked Man and Sebastian, but only kills the Crooked Man. She puts up a wall of fire between McMourning and Johan. McMourning cares not – he runs through the fire picking up about 6 bodies on the way, gains fast, and drops Johan by about 3. He also summons Steve back up next to Kaeris on the hill. Sebastian finally hits the Supply Wagon, damaging it. Johan whacks McM a lot, dropping him to 1 life left and no stones remaining. Steve drops Kaeris to 1 life left and 2 poison. Ouch.


Turn Six – McMourning Initiative
Kaeris stones with her last stone for initiative, but fails. McMourning hits Johan and flips the Red Joker + Severe for damage, dropping Johan to 1 but healing as much damage as he dealt. Mmm… fully healed. He proceeds to kill off Johan and moves further on to Chris’ side of the board. The Fire Gamin tries and fails to kill Sebastian, so Sebastian kills him. Kaeris dies, and Steve joins McMourning on the road to victory.


Final score: I win, 6 (2 Turf War, 2 Stake a Claim, 2 Holdout) to 2 (2 a wounded Supply Wagon, 0 Breakthrough, 0 Sabotage). Close game again, and a good time. McMourning could easily have been killed that last turn by Johan if Chris had won initiative.



All in all, I’ve played about 18 games of Ressers over the past couple months. Next week starts Bill’s winter league, a six-week single-faction extravaganza. I’m still on the fence about what faction to take. I’ve played Ressers exclusively for a while now, and I’m still enjoying them, but I don’t know if I want to commit to another six weeks of them. Especially since I’m already itching to get a few games of Neverborn under my belt.

As far as I know, there are already two Neverborn players and two Resser players in the league. There are also two Archanists, a Guild and an Outcast. I could try Outcasts, but all I’d be able to play would be Viki and Hamelin, and I think I would bore too easily.

Right now I’m leaning Neverborn, but we’ll see how things roll by next week.

TV I'm Watching

Some Spoilers Below – I block out which TV shows I’m talking about when, so if you don’t want any spoilers on any of them, just skip ‘em.

Most television seasons, I’m lucky if I can find one show worth watching. From time to time I’ll hit on a winner, but for the most part I don’t find anything really worth watching and resign myself to watching DVDs of old shows instead.

So to my enjoyment, I have not one, but three shows this season that have captured my interest enough to watch: The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, and American Horror Story. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise from those three titles to find what kind of story I like. Give me depressing, give me good characters, give me horror, and give me well-weaved stories.




The Walking Dead
Okay, so really I found this one last season and am only continuing it as it comes out now, but that counts, right? I have heard more than a few gripes about the first couple of episodes of Season 2, but personally I put this current arc at the top of the series, up there with the first couple of episodes last season. I was not a big fan of the CDC part last season – it seemed too… I dunno… off for what I want to be a survival story focusing on the characters.

But Season 2 has started off fantastically. I was the person who watched Lost for the characters more than the mysteries, so when Walking Dead spends as much time focusing on a conversation between two characters on a porch looking out over a farm as it does on a scene with a fight with dozens of zombies, I’m happy. The show is really taking its time with the story and dealing with how the people are reacting to what’s happening around them more than the gore or horror of zombies. Personally, I think watching some characters looking for hope while others dip into hopelessness is much more interesting than getting in a shootout with zombies.

The cast of characters is great too. Dale’s manipulating the group to stay put while they look for the missing girl and his forcing Andrea’s hand back at the CDC show him to be a bit deeper than I expected. He’s one of the good guys, but he’s clearly not above manipulating situations as he can to do what he thinks is right. T-Dog’s fevered conversation with Dale made me more interested in him too – how terrified he is not only of the zombies, but of his role in the group and how he feels on the outside. Daryl’s development has been very interesting too, though I’m starting to get worried that they’re making him too much of the “I can do anything” character. It’s still believable at the moment, but they’re starting to stretch it. He did have one of my favorite parts of the last episode. When the women were talking about praying to find the lost girl, Daryl replied that praying and hoping was useless and a waste of time. They were going to find the girl and she was going to be alright. No amount of praying or hoping would change that.

By the way, just heard that the series was renewed for Season 3. Yay!




Once Upon a Time
Having completed my run of the Grimm roleplaying game a few months back, we were pretty excited to see that there would be a television show based on all the fairy tales. So now here it is, and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about it going in to Sunday night, but all in all, I was pleasantly surprised.

The story flips back and forth between the real world and the storybook world. Evidently some 28 years ago, a Witch put a curse on the storybook characters wiping their memories clean and bringing them into the real world, a place where there are no happy endings.

Snow White’s daughter was saved from the witch’s curse and sent to the real world without being affected by the curse. She was just born at the time, and now, 28 years later, she has found her way to the town with all the fairy tale characters. Evidently she’s destined to battle the witch and save the world.

I am very curious to see where they’re going with the story. Is she going to be bouncing around “waking up” the fairy tale characters? The witch (as the mayor of the town) has vowed to destroy Snow White’s daughter if she stays around town – how is their conflict going to play out?

I have enjoyed trying to pick up on different fairy tale pieces in the story. Like at the beginning when Emma puts a star-shaped candle on her birthday cake and blows it out, she’s wishing on a star. Or at the end when the witch is standing in front of the mirror – is that the mirror that talks to her (“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”)?

It’s grabbed my attention and I will be sticking with this show for at least a few more episodes, and hopefully it’ll keep going strong.




American Horror Story
I had never even heard of this show until last week when it popped up on two blogs I read, both with stellar reviews. I love horror stories, the first episode was up on Hulu, so at noon on Sunday, I gave it a try.

I was alone in my house, but all the lights were on. And it was noon, for crying out loud!

But that show freaked me out.

It centers around a haunted house and the family that just moved in. They have their own issues – the mother just miscarried less than a year ago and the husband ended up cheating on her and she caught him in the act. The daughter’s clearly got issues too, though mostly of the adolescent depressed/angst variety. The family moved out west to start over and bought this house – great price for the house.

And slowly we’re learning about its history and the things that have happened in it. I think I can count three or four murders that have all happened in the house. Maybe five? I’m not sure yet. And there are certainly a bunch of different entities in the house, from the voices that compel the husband to sleepwalk and turn on fires throughout the house to the housekeeper who looks like an old hag to women and a young seductress to men. Then you toss in the burned guy with the creepy smile, the down’s syndrome girl who loves telling people that they’re going to die, the nosey neighbor, the twin boys, the gimp, and the kid who’s being treated for his psychological issues (the husband is a psychiatrist) and this show is suitably frightening.

It reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks in a way. There’s a ton going on, some of it supernatural, and it’s all weaving together to form a larger story. I know the second episode is already up on Hulu, so I’ll be watching it soon. But this is certainly a keeper for me, especially around Halloween.




So there we have it, the three shows I’m watching this season. And I’ll be giving Alcatraz a try when it comes out in January too. Plus I’m still watching Fringe with my wife and mother, though we’re at the beginning of Season 3 right now, so we’re pretty far behind.

What's in a Name?

A little background: on the most recent episode of the Gamers’ Lounge, Brian was given a new nickname because he didn’t have one yet. I jokingly suggested “Skill-less Brian” and when he became defensive and then tried to give himself his own nickname – a clear violation of nickname policy – he became Skill-less Brian.

So after the podcast, we came up with a proposal for Brian: if he could defeat the three of us that were there when he was given the nickname (eChris, Bill and me), we would give him a better nickname. Skill-less Brian accepted the challenge and on Tuesday, he launched into two games, one against eChris and one against me.

You can check out the game against eChris over here.

Having lost his first match, I offered him the chance to face my Resserectionists, since I am considering moving to Neverborn for the upcoming league. We pulled out 30 stone lists. I flipped Supply Wagon and figured I should go with Nicodem, as his slow movement would not be as much a problem. Then Brian flipped Distract and I decided I might need speed after all and flipped over to McMourning.

McMourning, Chihuahua, Bette, Crooked Man x2, Sebastian, Canine Remains x2, 8 Stones
Perdita, Santiago, Nino, Francisco, Papa Loco, 7 Stones

I took Breakthrough and Kill Protégé: Santiago
He took Assassinate and Bodyguard

I may get some of the order wrong, but this is basically how things went.



Turn One – McMourning Initiative
This turn was pretty basic for most of it. There was a large open area in the center of the table and the family ran up to try to get a shooting gallery going while Papa Loco hugged some terrain near the side, trying to make it into melee with my guys. I moved up with my two Crooked Men, trying to have each one support the other in LOS. McMourning killed both his dogs for 7 body parts. Perdita double-moved forward and then Obeyed Nino to shoot one of my Crooked Men, putting a nice 3 wounds into him.

Turn Two – McMourning initiative
I started with the wounded Crooked Man, wanting to get some use out of him before he died. He channeled Cave In at Francisco, but Brian cheated high to make sure it missed (good on his part – I had the Red Joker lined up to kill Francisco if I got the straight damage flip). He activated Santiago and tried to shoot down my unactivated Crooked Man. He ditched the card for Rapid Fire, then found he was about a half an inch out of range. That Crooked Man, now knowing he was out of range, moved up and shot at Francisco again, this time only doing 2 wounds to the man with no blast markers. Nino activated and shot down the already-wounded Crooked Man. That Crooked Man used Slow to Die to send another Cave In at Francisco and hit him for 2 more wounds. I moved my Chihuahua out to keep near the Supply Wagon and Papa Loco rushed next to the ruins McMourning was beside. McMourning, fearing some Obey tricks, summoned a Flesh Construct next to Papa Loco and then booked it out of there. Francisco charged and did a few wounds to my last Crooked Man and Sebastian moved out and missed Francisco. Perdita wasn’t having any of that and charged in, killing off Sebastian. Bette popped up and used Depraved Tactics to paralyze living models. She attacked Perdita, forcing her to discard 2 soulstones or die (Brian was already out of cards), then attacked twice more, paralyzing Perdita for next turn. My Flesh Construct attacked Papa Loco, and then did so again at the end of the turn, dealing 6 wounds to the crazy man.

Turn Three – Perdita Initiative
Francisco killed off the Crooked Man, but Slow to Die failed to hit him back. My Flesh Construct killed Papa Loco, taking 5 wounds himself, and then moved up a little. Nino deliberated a bit, then decided to kill off the Flesh Construct that was approaching him and Santiago. I was running low on models, so I went with my Chihuahua who moved up and kicked another Body to McMourning. That, combined with the body from the Crooked Man, gave McMourning 4 more body parts. Santiago charged in and put Bette down, making sure she wouldn’t be around to annoy him. McMourning moved up and attacked Francisco, killing him, and summoned a new Flesh Construct near the Santiago/Perdita/McMourning/Chihuahua fight. The Flesh Construct attacked Perdita but missed, then did the same at the end of the turn.

Turn Four – Perdita Initiative
Damn – two turns in a row where I really wanted initiative, but no dice. Brian figured his best shot was to kill off McMourning this turn, so that’s what he tried. The last three family members all went for the alpha strike, starting with Perdita and Santiago blowing their wad at McMourning. I spent seven soulstones and managed to keep McMourning alive with three wounds remaining. Nino could not get a shot off at McMourning, so he moved around and shot the Chihuahua, dropping him by two wounds. The Chihuahua activated and channeled Dissection on Perdita, forcing her to use a Soulstone to make the attack miss. Then McMourning stabbed the Chihuahua with a knife, getting a body part for killing him, healing two wounds, and bringing Bette into play. McMourning attacked Perdita twice more, dealing three more damage, healing three wounds, and running her out of stones and leaving her hand low. Bette finished her off, and my Flesh Construct managed to take Santiago down to his Hard to Kill one-wound.

Turn Five – Perdita Initiative
Nino took a shot at the melee and managed to hit Santiago, killing him and denying me my Kill Protégé. His second shot hit McMourning, dropping him back down to only a few wounds remaining after a couple of Trigger Happy hits. Both Bette and the Flesh Construct ran to Nino, placing themselves in base-to-base so Nino could not see McMourning behind them without moving. At the end of the turn, the Flesh Construct hit Nino for a few wounds.

Turn Six – McMourning Initiative
Ah, thankfully I won this one. I started with Bette who paralyzed Nino, then moved into his deployment zone for Breakthrough. Nino skipped his activation, and the Flesh Construct killed him off while McMourning ran and using has last Body Part for fast, made it into Brian’s deployment zone.

Final score, 6 (4 for Supply Wagon, 2 for Breakthrough, 0 for Kill Protégé) to 0 (0 for Distract, 0 for Bodyguard, 0 for Assassinate).




So Brian walked out with two losses, hitting none of his three marks to lose his Skill-less moniker. Poor guy. No doubt he’ll come back swinging again next week.