Sunday, 12 June 2016

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month 2

I've made my purchases for month 2, which I have had Angelica for a while, but the Silent Ones were picked up at the start of the month. The balance sheet currently looks like this:

Month 2: £15.81
Angelica £6.38
Silent Ones £10.20

so slightly overspent, but will take that out of next months, so will have £14.33 next month.

To start off Month 2 I had a game against Stephen.
Strategy: Interference
Schemes: Convict Labour, Search the Ruins, Hunting Party, Exhaust their Forces and Frame for Murder.
Board: Flank Deployment.

I decided to use Colette, partly due to the fact I had just finished painting her, and also because I left all but her and Rasputina's cards at Martins...

I took:
Colette, Lady's Secret, Nothing up My Sleeve and Shell Game. +4SS
Cassandra, Smoke and Mirrors, and Recharge Soulstone (forgetting as Ressers there would be less living models dying).
Angelica, Imbued Energies (was planning to take Frame for Murder, with this upgrade, but in the end decided against it).
Performer
Mannequin
2 Corphyee
Mechanical Dove.


Stephen took:
Molly, Take Back the Night, Forgotten Life, +4SS
Sybelle
Sebastian, Those are Not Ours
Mortimer
2 Rotten Belles.


We realised after the game that this was only 41SS....



Deployment, i flipped highest, and happy with my side of the board i chose the left corner to deploy in, going for two main groups, the Coryphee and Cassandra and then everything else.
Stephen had Mortimer out on one flank and then the rest fairly close together on the other.


Turn 1 was fairly uneventful due to the distance that we were apart, however one highlight was the summoned (reactivating) Punk Zombie, that appeared before Angelica, using Slice and Dice on her and her using Get off the Stage, to send him into base contact with the Scheme Marker that Mortimer had dropped about 20" away!


This was my hand I drew for turn 2...after stoning....

Turn 2 was a bit of carnage, with Molly summoning Punk Zombies next to Angelica, Cassandra and a Performer, there were a lot of damage being thrown about from Slice and Dice this coupled with Black Blood from a Rotten Belle? (due to the proximity of Molly with Forgotten Life) this meant everything was taking a lot of damage, the Performer died, giving Reactivate to Angelica, unfortunately I had hoped to pass it to Cassandra but she was an inch to far away. Angelica ended up on 1 wound, and Cassandra at this point had 2 left. The flank was looking dicey, and in the end I had to use Colette's Disappearing Act on Cassandra to get her out of harms way. 
On the other flank Mortimer was bumped off with combined attacks from the Corphyee, who were later prompted to Dance Together to form the Duet. I had hoped  to kill off one of the two Punk Zombies they were engaged with but due to Hard to Wound and Hard to Kill, they were both still standing. I was being out activated due to summoning, although this was somewhat lessened with the plethora of models with Companion or Accomplice in Stephen's crew.



If last hand was bad, this hand was worse! I kept the Black Joker, so this is what i drew, I ended up stoning for a single slightly higher card, (i think about a 10)!

If turn 2 was brutal, turn 3 didn't give much respite. Angelica died, which thankfully allowed me to draw 4 cards, giving me a slightly better hand, due to Imbued Protection.
The Corphyee duet managed to kill both Punk Zombies, which at this point were on 1 wound each I think. 
I managed to make a mistake with Colette, using Disappearing Act on her to move her into contact with a Scheme Marker near the centre of the board, then dropped one to replace the one that was discarded, this was ideal for Search the Ruins, however I then moved her away, leaving her with no option for Now You See Me this proved to be almost fatal as she was reduced to a single wound with no options to reduce the damage, other than stones, which I was having to use on Cassandra for damage prevention. This isn't something I have had problems in the past, often being very cautious with her, so it came as a bit of a shock. I had thought about stoning for the mask for the Encore trigger to keep the Scheme Marker, but had felt the Artificial Soulstone would be better utilised for defensive triggers....the irony! 
Stephen summoned in a Necrotic Machine next to Colette and Cassandra, trying a last gasp assassination attempt on both through Black Blood and its attacks, thankfully I was able to kill it and survive on 1 wound with each.


At the end of the game it was a victory to me 6-3 (3 for Search the Ruins, and 3 from Hunting Party). Stephen scored 1 from Interference and 2 from Convict Labour, his other scheme was Search the Ruins.

I was surprised to win, I ended the game in a bit of an all or nothing fashion, as time was against us, I knew it would be the last turn. I had 4 wounds on the table at the end of the game, with a single stone, the next turn would not have gone well....

A few points to consider:
1. Stephen had 9ss less than me, although we only realised this later.
2. Black Blood is only 1" range, not the 3" he was playing it as, I'm not sure how much of an effect this had, but it took at least 3-4 wounds from Cassandra.
3. Write battle reports sooner, I couldn't remember a lot whilst i was typing the post. I think i need to make notes, or write that evening.
4. Painted crews look awesome on a painted board. I will try to endeavour to only use painted models.
5. The crew wasn't the best choice for the scheme pool, if I had taken my cards I would have gone for a different option.

On the friday I got another game in, this time against Martin (McCabe) and I used Kaeris. I snuck a 8-6 victory, despite being behind until the last turn. I didn't take many photos, but here are a few of my newly painted Kaeris crew, which I'm really happy with.









       

Monday, 6 June 2016

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month 1 (End)

So we're just into the start of Month 2, and with it come a few new purchases, and hopefully will be followed with a few more games.
I've managed to paint the Month 1 purchases, which was slightly past the deadline, but due to college hand-ins was a necessity.
I'm relatively happy with how the crew turned out, although I may need to revisit Colette and a Performer to pick out their eyes if possible. The only model that it is unpainted is Miss Step, but she didn't turn up until last week, so it will take a bit longer.

So to the pics:

The finished crew.


Colette


Cassandra


Performer 1


Performer 2


Mannequin 1


Mannequin 2


Corphyee Duet


Corphyee Duet (Dance Together)


Mechanical Doves

Overall I'm happy with how they look, I'm looking forward to seeing them on the battlefield. They have had plenty of outings so far, with mixed success. 

I used them in all of the games at our first tournament, in Game 1 I played Kit (Hamelin) which was a closely fought draw, 5-5. I faced Hamelin and Ashes & Dust for the first time which seemed to be a bit of a nuisance, we both got suckered into killing the frame for murder targets, Angelica and Nix, killing them off quickly for maximum VP's. The game feel pretty evenly matched, it would have been a good one to fight further to see how it would end, but due to time it finished in turn 3.


Game 2 was against Michael (Lilith), which I lost. I had rather foolishly taken Covert Breakthrough as a scheme, which I should have thought about, as being a tournament with timed rounds it was going to be tight to get the models into the opposing deployment zone. I only managed 1 VP from this scheme, causing the loss. I felt with another turn I may have snuck it, but alas. The one cool moment was Colette using Now You See Me, on an enemy scheme marker jumping out of range of a charging Lilith, then using Disappearing Act on herself to jump into a Mechanical Dove which had flown into their deployment zone, moving over 20" in total her turn.


I had a bye in round 3 so had to wait it out, which allowed me to do a spot of photography and watch the other games. Whilst pondering my choice of crew. I had used the same models for the first two games, and although I was tempted to switch it up and take another master against Martin, the likes of Kaeris or Ironsides, (still haven't tried Marcus) I decided to keep going with Colette.

Game 4 was a really closely fought game, and my chance to avoid the wooden spoon, I was playing Martin, and it was looking good for me throughout the game, I was ahead on VP's, Models and it seemed that fate was on my side as i had some great hands, and had done a good job in neutralising Martins Crew (Lucius). I score maximum points early on for Public Demonstration, was scoring a lot for Stake a Claim, and maxed out for Catch and Release. Things were looking rosey until the Doppleganger mimicked the Corphyee Duet's attack and then flipped Red Joker on them for damage killing them off on the final turn, forcing me into using Colette to hold one of the claim markers and moving her away from the last performer and scoring him maximum points for Take Prisoner, losing me the game by 1 VP, rooting me to the bottom of the leaderboard, winning Martin the tournament...grumble!



Its been a good month of gaming, and hopefully with more to follow. The Archaists have been great fun to play with so far, and I have perhaps been bitten by their bug, pledging my services to the M&SU by purchasing Ironsides, Kaeris and Rasputina, along with trading for Marcus, and picking up the Cult of December range to go with the Ice Witch herself.
I've used them all once (apart from Marcus) with mixed results, Kaeris had a great game against Lucius (Martin), Ironsides had a less than stellar showing against Von Schill (Sean) and to start June off with a bang, Rasputina gave Lynch a beating (Stewart).  

Hoping to get started on painting of Month 2's purchases soon (Angelica and Silent Ones), with hopefully some pics to follow.