3/11/17 Montag's Malifaux Tournament!

So as promised I'll be catching up with updating the blog for my recent tournaments. This post will be on my Malifaux tournament here in Houston!

This first game was against Travis, Malifaux Extraordinaire. Lately I'd been successfully winning in practice games against him and have gotten a very good grasp on his crew mechanics. Turns out it didn't count when it mattered...

It was Flank Deployment, the strategy was Headhunter. The schemes were Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Leave Your Mark, Undercover Entourage, and Search the Ruins. I chose Claim Jump and Frame for Murder, he ended up choosing Leave Your Mark and Undercover Entourage.

I ended up taking Viktorias due to being able to handle his Yasunori charge better than Leve could, I knew I'd be engaged very fast because of it and had to provide a deterrent with Blood.

My deployment, the Winged Plagues were far out on the flank

The beginning was standard fare, positioning for a prime assault for both sides. I moved the Winged Plagues on my left in anticipation of Claim Jump, but he answered by moving Asami and summoned some Yokai to counter it. I realized I should have split them up after that, too late.

He also summoned Obsidian Oni to clog up charge lanes to Asami.

My positioning at the end of turn 1

The Winged Plagues, realizing they may have made a bad move...

With the way we were set up and the experience we've had playing each other, we both said this game comes down to who wins initiative for turn 2. If I won then I'd be able to wipe out his critical models including Yasunori and his Henchman. If I did this then there'd be almost no retaliation capable of killing Blood or my other models. If he won then he'd be able to stop my crew from advancing and feed Blood one model at a time, slowly picking away at my crew while achieving his schemes and denying mine.

Guess who won? Well, of course I didn't...

It was a blood bath...

Yeah... So I lost initiative, of course, even after spending a stone.

There isn't much to say after that, things happened and I took less pictures because I was losing models left and right. Yasunori killed Hannah, the Henchman, Graves and Yokai ended up clogging my right side so I had to choose between targets and the Yasunori lived. There were corpse and Head markers absolutely everywhere. I felt bad for the Malifaux clean up crew that was responsible for clearing dead bodies afterward.

Because of this I was unable to perform any of my schemes since I was on the defensive the whole time. I ended up getting 2 VP for Frame For Murder on turn 3, and by that time I had hardly anything left. He scored his full 10 VP for the game. On the last turn I managed to pick up one Headhunter marker, ending in a loss of 10-3.

My second game was against Brian, a newer player. He declared Nicodem, a master I have only had one game against and it was brutal as it was Travis' most successful list to date with his favorite Rezzer master. He admitted to not having a large model pool for his crew, which is scary as he has a pretty good understanding of the game and will only get better once he gets the right models.

During lunch we talked before we played and I ended up explaining to him how the Viktorias worked since he'd never faced them. It made this game interesting since he knew how my crew in particular worked right before the game, with both Mike and myself explaining how you can counter it.

It was Standard deployment with Stake a Claim as the strategy. I really hate this strategy as Outcasts don't have solutions like a Necropunk to move and do 2AP interact actions. The Schemes were Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Hunting Party and Mark For Death. I decided on Viks as I could stop the sheer amount of summons every turn by killing them and hopefully distract him into committing to my main crew more and letting my scheme runners run more free, and Hunting Party seemed to be an easy score for me with two henchman and easy summons to kill.

I ended up taking Hunting Party and Claim Jump. He took Claim Jump and Hunting Party as well.

On turn 1 I moved my Vik block up while keeping the Winged Plagues on opposite table edges (I learned!) with the Freikorpsman in the middle just in case. He moved his Carrion Emissary, Mortimer, Rotten Belle, Nicodem and Valedictorian (can't remember if this was summoned or not) up the middle, with the Necropunk going toward my right.

He couldn't really Lure anything since Hannah blocked LOS, and he used his Emissary's ability to block LOS and eventually summon Mindless Zombies into that charge lane. He also summoned a Punk Zombie to get into my clump.

In the end, though, Blood got them all lol.

Notice a lot of models disappeared!

So I ended up winning that crucial turn 2 initiative. I charged Blood into the clump and killed pretty much everything there. The rest of my block moved forward and things were looking good.

Although I was able to gain the upper hand on the table Brian ended up doing a very good job at denying my score and catching up in VP. I found myself unable to deny his Stake a Claim with the Necropunk without sacrificing my VP for Claim Jump and Stake a Claim. He summoned models to deny my Claim Jump and Stake a Claim as well.

On the left he shifted Mortimer, who escaped the range of Whirlwind, to deny that side as well.

In the end I got the win 6-5, which was much tougher than I anticipated on turn 2.

In game 3 I played Parker, who was using Ramos. I didn't take many pictures during this game because I was pretty engaged the whole time.

It was Corner Deployment with Squatter's Rights as the strategy. Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Leave Your Mark, Mark for Death and Tail 'Em were in the scheme pool. I ended up taking Leveticus as he tended to be a good counter to Parker's lists. I took Leave Your Mark and Claim Jump, he took Frame For Murder and Mark For Death.

He was running a very elite list and had a shocking 5 models in his list. Granted, he had a lot of summoning power between Ramos and the Mechanical Rider, and the rest had some hitting power with Joss, Howard Langston and the Arcane Emissary.

He ended up hitting me very strongly with Howard, the Emissary and the Mech Rider. I managed to live through most of the attack, as I was using a pure Outcast Leve list that was untested but seemed to work fine. The Strongarm took the brunt of the Emissary's insane attacks, and Sue lived through assaults from the others. Because Sue had his aura of burning up he ended up giving burning 3 to all of these guys, lived with Hard to Kill, and got an insane amount of free attacks due to the Return Fire upgrade - I was just throwing out low Crow cards just to get it! On top of that the Librarian and Hannah were healing these guys up slowly. The Winged Plagues were running schemes unchallenged as well.

In the end I got the win 8-5!

That's all for now, next time I'll update you on last week's tournament in Austin!

6/4 Malifaux Tournament Report!

Howdy ya'll!

So on Saturday I got to attend an out-of-town tournament for Malifaux in the illustrious city of Austin! I went with my buddy Dreads, who is an astute competitor for Malifaux and is pretty known in the community for his experience, as well as Parker who plays his Colette crew damn well.

It was hosted at Dragon's Lair, which, to be honest, is the coolest damn store I've set foot in.

Ginormous...

I know the picture doesn't do it justice. Yes, it's huge. But what it offers beats out anything I've come across. I saw people playing crazy obscure board games, having intense RPG sessions, looking for comics all while hosting a 12 player Malifaux tournament. Impressive.

An example of what else took place in the store. This is an 8 player 3000 pt each game.

It was awesome. Like the Mecca of gaming. 

But that's not even the best part. This is:

Dear lord in heaven I wish I lived in Austin

You may not understand this. You could ask my wife, she hears it from me all the time. I have been dying for a good Kebap since I moved away from Germany 12 years ago. It was what I ate religiously while I lived there, almost every day! And it was right... there... 10 feet away from the store...

I forced my companions to eat there for lunch and dinner.

Anyway, onto the tournament!

So the Houston community came out in strength to represent in Austin. Besides us three our friend Karl, who plays Ten Thunders, and Nick, who plays Outcasts, showed as well which was a pleasant surprise. We almost outnumbered the locals there. They were all super friendly. I believe almost, if not all, of them were extremely new to the game. It was mentioned that when they play a full five turn game it takes them 5 hours, and were completely flabbergasted that we can get a full game usually in under an hour.

It was basically going to be a full on shock to them when they see our playstyle...

Game 1: Jack Daw & Thoughts for new players

Leve setting up the kill

So, my first pairing was against a local (Josh I think, I don't have my notes with me). He was playing Outcasts as well. I know Outcasts very well from my side of the table, and have experienced enough to get the gist of crews I don't play, so I stuck with Leve for comfort using the latest iteration of my list that has done even better than before.

In case you're interested it's this:

Leveticus - 5 SS

• To the Earth Return
• Pariah of Bone
• Desolate Soul

Ashes and Dust

• Scramble

3x Flesh Constructs

Necropunk

Rotten Belle

2x Hollow Waifs

It's a doozy of a list that works in a ton of situations. I used this list for all three of my games that day.

The first game's pool wasn't that great for me. The Strategy was Reconnoiter. It was Flank Deployment. Convict Labor, of course, was in. It had Neutralize the Leader in it, which spells out doom for Leveticus, but this time I stuck with my guns and took him anyway since the last time I punked out of this scheme it cost me anyway. Inspection and Leave Your Mark were also there, but I can't remember the last one off the top of my head.

He ended up using Jack Daw, Sloth, Gluttony, 2x Guilty, a Nurse and I think 2x Crooked Men.

Let me preface the action with this: I appreciated the fact that this guy was a new player, after we played he stated he only got into this game 3 months ago. I also want to point out that this guy was very friendly, and only showed minor frustration at one point since I was clearly in control of this game, but even that moment of frustration didn't deter my opinion of him being a friendly new player. I had no indication nor any suspicion that how the game played was intentional or malicious.

This game single-handedly convinced me that Malifaux tournaments need some sort of chess clock.

To begin with, he was doing what most players do and made his crew composition based on strats/schemes, so it took him a bit. The thing is, we were given a copy of the strats/schemes for every round probably about 30-45 minutes before we started playing, so an idea should have already formed of what may be good to bring. He's new though, so we'll excuse that happily.

But we didn't get to the first initiative flip until almost 30 minutes into the round, maybe longer. Dreads was playing next to me and they were almost to round 2 of their game before we even started.

When we finally did start it was still very very slow. He took about five minutes every activation. When he was activating Jack Daw he spent a while thinking about his first AP, which ended up being a walk, then after all 3 AP were spent he spent almost 10 minutes thinking about his (0) action, which he ended up not using. So that was a 10 minute "I'm done, you're turn" moment.

The Necropunk, agonizingly waiting for his activation

So what ended up happening was he moved almost his whole crew toward the corner to his right, with Sloth and a Guilty going toward the opposite corner. Seeing this from Deployment told me he had Inspection, so I had Ashes and Dust go after the corner with most of his models and the Necropunk off to annoy the other side, with Leve and the rest in the middle to pick them off one by one. He had one Guilty going slightly toward Leve, so a Belle Lured him closer and Leve shot him off the board, making an Abomination. Ashes ended up charging a Crooked Man and killing him outright, also making an Abomination right in the middle of his models. At this point he noted that I had this in the bag, but his decisions were still getting slower by the minute.

At this point the TO announced that there was only 20 minutes left in the round, WE HADN'T EVEN FINISHED THE FIRST ROUND. These rounds were 2 hours long each. Really. Now, I know my crew inside and out, so imagine that an hour and forty minutes have gone by, and each of my activations took less than a minute each at max since I was rushing to get something done. That's how slow it was.

Flesh Constructs making their slow... and ceaseless advance

Once that announcement came my mood had instantly shifted. I was very patient, and when you're playing sometimes the time flies by and you don't notice by how much. But once I realized we spent the better part of 2 hours for essentially one player it sunk in how this can negatively affect me.

You see, at that point I had to keep in mind the fact that now this game is definitely ending turn two no matter what. So I now was put in a position that forced me to score as much as possible in one turn. This also meant that there's no damn way I'll get even close to full points, which can affect your differential and in essence your place in the tournament.

Sloth, a fitting model for the game

So with turn 2 I placed enough markers to score Convict Labor. I knew I couldn't get Leave Your Mark, so I attempted to deny his Convict Labor and Inspection. Due to my frustration at the game I was rushing and didn't stop to think of the best way to deny it and he ended up getting a point from Convict anyway. Due to the fact that I only had two turns to get a whole game's actions in we ended up in a draw 2-2.

I felt pretty livid, I did my best to contain my frustration. Due to something completely out of my control I ended up doing the worst of the Houston players in the first round. It was probably the first time I didn't say "Good Game" after, even while shaking hands, which for me is pretty telling as no matter what I try to be friendly.

His crew was painted pretty well, though - especially his Jack Daw

When I say out of my control, I really mean it. Yes, you can report to the Judge/TO in the game as to speed things up, you can politely inform the player to move a bit quicker. No matter what, even with a friendly demeanor, you still don't win. The situation is fragile, as calling a judge can be seen as accusations of deliberate Slow Playing, which for some players like this one is simply not true. When you talk with the player you can be seen as trying to rush them, or in the case of any actual deliberate slow players they can just ignore you. Any report will be retaliated with a case of unsportsmanlike conduct, and some tourneys have prizes for sportsmanship.

This brought a sour taste to my mouth, one that I hadn't seen since my days of Warhammer. I once played at Bayou Battles, an annual Warhammer Fantasy (maybe also 40k) tournament with huge attendance and great displays of hobby craftsmanship, although my last one was a terrible experience both from an organizational and player experience. On an unrelated note they decided that year that each Army Composition would be reviewed for allowance, not based on any scoring system like Swedish Comp or rules, simply by the reviewer looking at the list and deeming if it's allowed or not. They denied my entire group's lists based on their perceptions of OP and only allowed us to play severely neutered lists in order to enter. When we arrived it turned out that several others had lists extremely similar to ours, which we find later that they were friendly with some judges. That coincidence may be chance, but under no circumstances should a list be banned for one player and allowed for another.

But in a related anecdote this incident reminded me of an actually intentional slow play. I had to play him in two consecutive years at this tournament, and although I don't know him personally he was nicknamed "Sloth" for his play style, and even came to the tournament with a shirt stating his nickname. Both years I ended up losing due to not finishing out a whole game, and the last one resulted in me not having lunch since we didn't have time, which is more of a travesty.

After having played Warmachine and seeing how their Chess Clock works in tournament play I am completely convinced all games should do so. Friendly games don't need one. But in tourney play it is impartial, fair, and completely eliminates any arguments of time as well as encourages fast action. I know that Malifaux is different due to alternating activations, but if Guild Ball can make a format Malifaux should at least attempt it. As of right now with the 2016 tournament scenarios a savvy and shrewd player can tell if the game is going their way turn one and slow it down to their advantage. A lot of schemes, especially the easy ones, depend on scoring turn after turn, with the end of game ones being very difficult to score early on. Seeing how a Draw in the first round can position you to potentially play an easier opponent while maintaining no negative differential is shady but possible.

I want to point out again that this is in no way a jab at my opponent, in fact I feel terrible how I acted as my anger was definitely evident. I had informed him in the friendliest way I could that I was frustrated at the pace, and how it prevented me from obtaining a win that we both agreed would have gone to me. He even apologized to me before we ate lunch, and I appreciate that.

But this goes to a few points players can do to prevent this from occurring due to their actions. I know Dreads and Mike Guy discussed this at length in a Podcast (Flippin Jokers).

• Know your models
• Reading your cards repeatedly helps reinforce your knowledge of each model's abilities and how they interact with each other. This makes it possible to have less time spent in game looking at your cards for possibilities, and every moment spent looking at your cards is time wasted for both players.
• Practice with your models
• Simply reading your cards does not equate to knowing them fully. Seeing them on the table is what solidifies your knowledge, especially with players like me whose memory depends on actual hands on experience. Also making lists that have repeated minions can help out as well, as each repeat is a model you are getting to know twice as well.
• Use the same crew over and over
• This goes with practicing your models. Make a list that you think will be effective for most matchups and pools, then exclusively use that crew for multiple games. I'd say about 10 games will make you comfortable with the interactions and model abilities. Once you're comfortable you can then adjust for taste, but I'd recommend only one model swap at a time unless you're really seeing something significant needing change. This allows for you to adjust to your new strategy by introducing only one new element, and it shows you how changing that one variable can affect your game. By practicing it over and over you can see how a model's true benefit comes through. Using it only once won't show you all the dimensions your models are capable of. If I only used Ashes and Dust once and saw it get demolished in one game before it did anything I may jump to the conclusion that it's not worth the stones and dismiss it from lists completely. But after 10 games if I see it do terribly it's a much better conclusion. Often though after ten games you'll see it's worth it. This goes for every model and master. In our podcast we actually think it takes probably closer to 20 games minimum before your list is completely mastered, but for testing purposes you can lower that to 10. Once you're swapping out a model every game you're actually keeping that testing consistent by having your other models getting their 11th game in with one new one, next game you have their 12th game in, with one having two games and one new. Keep that up and your master has tons of games, a few key models have close to 20, and your crew will be shaping up to be very formidable.

Doing this will not only speed your game up significantly, it will make you a much better player. A large chunk of what makes you good at a game is simply knowing your crew inside and out. You gather the tools necessary to tackle several situations every game, and at a certain point you will be able to recognize an instance in a game where you know what needs to be done to handle it. See a lot of armor? What have you done before to mitigate that? Apply as necessary.

By making yourself commit to knowing your side of the table you're speeding things up and becoming better. If your opponent is doing the same then you're having a full, great game and can concentrate on other things that need attention like matchups and schemes, to a point where eventually you'll know how to dictate the pace and set the tempo to where your opponent is reacting to you rather than you being reactionary.

Overall, if you're new to the game and are interested in playing competitively or at least in tournaments, practicing will be a great service to both yourself and your opponents.

To summarize the game I didn't learn much new about Jack Daw, as I hardly had any interactions with him. From what I've gathered playing 3 games against him, he really needs a crew that capitalizes on his debuffs. He doesn't need more help debuffing, so a Freikorps crew with him as a master seems more viable than having his starter box set the tone of the crew. Having just one of his debuffs on a model is all that's needed for one of his crew to go to town on them, and it acts as a force multiplier since all models benefit from the debuff against the target.

I did learn to not depend on just Leveticus to eliminate Sloth. His defensive trigger is too damaging for me to divert shots on, as he can end his entire activation from just one cheated card for defense.

Game 2: Molly

The Board State around Turn 3

This game was set against Molly, he brought Sybil, 2x Guild Autopsies, Bete Noir, Killjoy and maybe some other stuff, I'm not sure. I had never played against Molly before but I knew she can be a pain as her summoning is excellent. I am very familiar with Killjoy, and know that Bete Noir can pop up out of nowhere. He did decide to start those two buried, which is perfect for me as that allows me to out activate him early on, as well as dictate where those two appear fairly well.

The strategy was Extraction, one of my favorites as it's essentially Turf War. It works to my advantage as I have both staying power, numbers and can kill a model a turn with Leve. Once that marker starts moving toward my board edge it's usually a cinch for me and allows me to dictate the place where the action is. The schemes were Convict Labor, Set Up, Hunting Party, and others I can't remember - I've really got to remember to bring my notes with me when I post these. I took Convict Labor, which I always do, and Set Up, as the others were terrible for me.

The deployment was usual for me, and I had to deploy first. I placed the Necropunk and A&D opposite of each other on the board edges with the rest of the crew in the center for the Strategy. He deployed his entire crew to the left side, opposite of the Necropunk, which struck me as odd but I didn't have experience with Molly so I was very cautious of the decision.

I didn't take many pictures of this game because I was pretty engrossed in it. It started off with Ashes, completely unopposed, going forward for Scheme Markers. I activated most of my center short of the Belle and Leveticus, waiting for him to put his models up further and choosing which one for Leve to shoot. He moved everyone up and had Molly summon off the Necropunk, making a Punk Zombie right in front of him. He also summoned a Necrotic Machine, which promptly died to bring out the Bete Noir. This is a ton of aggression toward my tiny little 5ss scheme runner, who did not hesitate to leap out of that mess. This left those two on their own, so I could easily avoid dealing with them for that turn and possibly turn two. I decided to have the Belle lure in a Guild Autopsy, the closest model to the center, and Leve shot him down making an Abomination for him to deal with. He summoned Killjoy from it, leaving him to be engaged by the Abomination. This little guy acted as a speed bump to prevent attacks from Killjoy, who can cut a swathe through my Flesh Constructs.

Turn two saw a ton of action. He had his Bete Noir and Punk Zombie chase after my Necropunk - he really wanted that thing dead. The problem with Necropunks is they aren't easy to kill and he proceeded to leap out of the way again, heal, and put down a scheme marker. Killjoy killed the abomination easily enough, but he did his job and prevented a charge to important stuff. Once it was gone he charged my Rotten Belle who lived from two attacks, adding yet another speed bump to his rampage.

He moved Molly over to summon off my Necropunk, who was getting surrounded by the rest of my crew over the Extraction marker. He brought in two Rotten Belles to try to get numbers over the marker, but when I got to the marker and shot them off there was no one other than my crew to claim the marker. I scored from Convict Labor and the Strategy.

Turn three was where it was the beginning of the end for him. He killed the Rotten Belle with Killjoy, but left him open for Leve to take him down to manageable levels for a Flesh Construct to finish off. He placed enough markers to get Convict Labor, and when I put the Necropunk in the middle of his crew to deny it he finally managed to kill him. It was a funny thing because he put an incredible amount of effort trying to kill that guy, but it should have been resources spent to work on my main crew. He did manage to summon a Guild Autopsy in the middle of my crew before that happened and caused WP duels for a ton of models but it wasn't anything of consequence. Since Ashes and Dust was completely ignored he went over to the middle just in case, placing a Scheme Marker around the swarm of models. In the end he moved Bete Noir to attack a Waif, but since my Flesh Constructs were placing markers every turn he walked right into Set Up, which was something I didn't see happening until then. It's good to plan, kiddos!

The scrum over the Extraction Marker

In the end he got Convict Labor and all Hunting Party points, but I had scored my maximum points and ended 9-4. Dreads pointed out to me that in my last turn I could have moved a Flesh Construct up to deny his point and increase my differential, so that's something I have to keep in mind when something like this happens again. I got overzealous trying to kill the Guild Autopsy when his presence didn't deny me anything, if I had kept that in mind I would have done a bit better. But it's a solid victory, and there isn't anything to complain about, just learning points as you should always try to take away something from a game that you can improve on.

Game 3: Pandora

Start of Turn 1, things were well in control already

So this game had me going against Neverborn. I saw my opponent playing earlier in the tournament and saw he had used Pandora twice, so I was preparing what to expect when we started. Pandora is always a frustrating master to face, and it seems near impossible for me to kill her. I used my same crew, as it seems to work on all cylinders against every opponent I've tried it on. The strategy was Collect the Bounty, a great one for Leve, with Close Deployment. Close deployment allows some interesting strategies for crews, as it eliminates first turn moves to get right into the action a lot of the times. People tend to forget that even though it's 12" up for your deployment zone it doesn't force you to go that close. I can see why he did, as he was using Sorrows with his crew and therefor being close benefits him, but you always have to keep in mind what your opponent can do when he's only 12" away. That's a range that allows dedicated shooters to reach out and wreck face without moving.

The schemes were Convict Labor, Leave Your Mark, Show of Force, and other stuff. I chose CL and LYM.

The Belle sees all

Along with Pandora he had 3 Sorrows, Mysterious Emissary, Iggy, Primordial Magic, a Changeling and two Insidious Madness(es)(i)(?). I won the flip and made him deploy first. He put Iggy and Magic toward the left, the Madnessessesss on the right and everything else in between, all on the deployment line. I did my exact usual deployment, with a small exception being the Belle behind the center on elevation to have full LOS.

So I had won initiative and got to work. Because I deployed Leveticus directly in front of the Insidious Duo I knew I had to get rid of them early on. They're his only scheme runners, and with them gone he'll have a very tough time getting what I suspected he had chosen. I spent two stones in his attacks to make sure that when he hit them he'd summon Abominations and succeeded. Not only did both of them die I also had two minions nearly 6" away from the center line unopposed, pretty much ensuring I'd be able to have Leave Your Mark done every turn.

He started moving Magic and Iggy toward my Necropunk, which I knew would not ever be enough to kill him short of any miraculous flips. He moved to the center line and placed a marker for Convict Labor. I knew not to count on the marker because with two opposing models he can easily deny the scheme.

After placing this marker I decided that from then on the only job the Necropunk has is to kill the Primordial Magic and tie up Iggy. My 5 stone model can do a fairly good job at this, and with 7ss of models that he ties up I end up with a net gain.

Turn 2 saw some significant damage. With Ashes and Dust finishing out Convict Labor and my Abominations doing Leave Your Mark as well as leaving a backup marker for CL I had the rest of my crew free to do whatever they like. This meant concentrating on getting the most points to score for Collect the Bounty while denying Pandora's mechanic. I started with Leve killing two of the sorrows, but not before Pandora started forcing WP duels on a Flesh Construct, which did tons of damage at once and brought one down to a single wound. After getting rid of those two I knew it would be a much easier time, but it was quite a shock to see a Flesh Construct almost killed in one activation, something you hardly ever see.

At the end of the turn I had scored the Strategy since he killed nothing and both of my schemes, while he didn't score at all.

Ashes getting ready to join the fight

Turn three was more of the same. The Necropunk killed the Primordial Magic using Flurry, but Iggy was ignoring him and moving past the center line which told me he had Leave Your Mark as well. Pandora did some damage and ended up getting the wounded Flesh Construct killed, while an Abomination kept denying the Changeling's abilities. My Belle lured in the Mysterious Emissary behind my lines in LOS of Leveticus, who shot him down to two wounds. Ashes charged in to finish the job and locked my strategy point. I scored 3 again this turn while he couldn't get any.

Ashes finishes off the crew

Turn four went pretty fast, as he was down to three models while I had only lost a Flesh Construct. I had the Necropunk engage Iggy and flurried him. It didn't kill him but it prevented any attempts to try to get his scheme going. Iggy responded by putting 5 burning tokens on him, but due to Hard to Kill he wasn't going anywhere anyway.

The only thing Pandora managed to do was kill the Abominations in the middle of her crew to free up the Changeling, but nothing came out of it. Ashes went in and destroyed the remaining Sorrow and Changeling. The game ended at that point as he had nothing to activate and couldn't deny my schemes at all, ending the game 9-0 in my favor.

To the Victor go the Spoils

Due to my ability to pick myself back up after that first game I ended up getting third place, which was close as Nick was only 2 VP behind me and nearly stole it from me. Dreads got first place, which was no surprise, and Karl got second with his Ten Thunders. I ended up getting a Mystery Box, which had a limited edition Gator for Gremlins and a $20 gift card at the store. The Scrip chip is my second one I've gotten, and from what I hear you'll be able to use it to purchase limited edition items from the web store. I'll be saving mine up for the Hamelin re sculpt, as I can't stand the plastic box version of him.

Overall it was very fun and great to see some enthusiastic new players to this awesome game. A few of them stuck around afterward and picked our brains as to how we play Malifaux, as it seems our Meta operates a lot differently than others. Dreads' insights offer a lot of validity to this thinking as he travels the country often to partake in various tournaments. Since I've known him he's won every small tournament outside of Houston he's participated in, often wins our local ones, and placed eighth at Adepticon with his exact same Lilith list. He would have done better, but due to a discrepancy in rules that resulted in an official FAQ immediately after Adepticon he didn't place top three. But there were tons of players in that one, so even 8th is something of an achievement.

It was a great tournament, and a lot of those players are planning on making a trip down to our next one in Houston. We'll be glad to have them!

4/30/16 Malifaux Tournament Success!

Howdy ya'll!

So on 4/30/16 I attended the local Malifaux tournament, hosted by the excellent Montag's games. It was the third I've attended, and the largest so far at 12 players. Also, I placed second! That's pretty validating for me, as the competition is pretty stiff with the regulars in our group all being in attendance short of our neighborhood Gremlin player who was attending to his little Gremlin at home.

The games were very fun, and got off to a rocky start for me but I managed to pick up my last two. I was lucky enough to play against folks I've had experience against, but it was no picnic.

My first game was against Devin, who plays Ten Thunders and generally sticks with Misaki. I didn't bring my notes with me for the blog, so I'll try to recall the Scheme Pool as best as I can. The Strategy was Reconnoiter with Flank Deployment. The Schemes were Convict Labor, Leave Your Mark, Show of Force, Hunting Party (I Think), and I can't recall the other one. 

I heavily debated using my Viktoria list featuring RatJoy for this table. There were clear lanes of walking, hardly anything to impede movement, and LOS can be drawn from each others' deployment zone. Couple this with the fact that my opponent most likely hasn't seen RatJoy on the table as well as having only seen one iteration of the Viks from his wife/girlfriend (I don't know which, apologies to Devin!) it would have been a good time to spring the surprise - as these sort of tricks only work once reliably then the opponent is ready for it. I opted not to use it, one reason being that I had not practiced it myself yet, and the second reason knowing what he likes to bring to the table, meaning his forces are most likely going to separate from the master considerably. I really wanted to, especially as he had 3 models going for the center via the bridges making the Vik Missle and Killjoy especially potent in a confined area and have hard cover/LOS blocked from elevation. Alas, my fear of the unknown quantity of not practicing a relatively complex mechanic got the better of me. Before I made my decision I also realized that with the strategy being Reconnoiter should I fail to perform the bomb correctly I'd be left in the wind struggling to recover and score VP.

With that panicked thought process I chose my Leve crew, completely unchanged from my last two games. Currently it is thus:

Leveticus

• To the Earth Return
• Desolate Soul
• Pariah of Iron

Hollow Waif x2

Ashes and Dust

• Scramble

Mechanical Rider

• Oathkeeper

Necropunk

Hodgepodge Effigy

Flesh Construct

This is my most current iteration of my Leve list, and it works very well with my play style. If I had my notes with me I'd be able to tell you how many games I've played using this (almost) exact same list for every scheme pool, but I'd estimate it's close to 10 games in a row at least. There's a stigma in the Malifaux community that preaches, "it depends on strats and schemes," which in our group isn't the best way to look at list building. We go into it at great length from our podcast "Flippin' Jokers," but it's a philosophy that I had believed in well before meeting these guys after reading the rules for the first time (Not building to strats and schemes). Considering that all models short of insignificant can perform interacts for schemes, and with the relative similarity among certain scheme categories, you can make anyone a scheme runner should you need it. Taking multi-purpose models capable of handling several scenarios as well as excelling at some should be a priority, and a good list should be able to handle any scheme pools that pop up, short of a tech piece or two.

Anyway, I digress, that can be a whole other entry. I should also revisit my previous entry on my Leve list with what I've changed and learned.

So my opponent declared Ten Thunders, and used Misaki as I figured he would. The last time I played him he used a list he admitted he didn't like, so I figured I'd see some different models on the table short of a few key ones like Sensei Yu. From what I remember he took the following:

Misaki

• Recalled Training
• Misdirection
• Stalking Bisento

Sensei Yu

• Wandering River Style

Tengu

Katanaka Sniper

Lone Swordsman (He may have had Recalled Training on him, don't think he used it)

Convict Gunslinger

I think that was it, but it seems a bit short on models - I can't remember any more, and he very well may use only 6 models although I doubt it.

The scheme pool makes it easy for my choices, as any time Leave Your Mark comes up I take it regardless of any other factors. It's just such an easy scheme to get going (usually, this game will prove otherwise). I almost always take Convict Labor as it's always in the pool and I generally get 3 VP from it consistently.

So with deployment I had him deploy first so I could see where he stacked his models and react accordingly. He deployed the sniper in the middle on the bridge, as I figured he would as it's one of the better placements on the board for him. He wisely places it not too far up, about 8-10 inches from the center, as to deny simply walking up the bridge to him. He places the majority of his crew to my right and nothing left of the center of the board.

I react by placing Ashes and Dust as far right as I could. Being that the majority of the opposing models on that flank would be easily denied by Ashes being so close to a table edge it seemed like an even match. I deployed the Necropunk as far left and forward as possible, being that he's very mobile and relatively unopposed on that flank should be an easy scheme run for him. Any models that move toward him due to his movement will easily deny a turn or two of use as they will most likely cross the center bubble and not help with the strategy and spend those turns only moving.

The Mechanical Rider and a Waif deployed next to him for any support, and her mobility also helps her quickly aid the other side if in need. The Flesh Construct and a Waif will weather the storm of walking up the bridge, as he should be able to deny the sniper's damage with his Hard to Wound and healing abilities, while the Waif gives me options for Leve's reappearance. The Hodgepodge Effigy is right behind, as from the middle he is able to double walk and give Leve Loyalty to the Coin whenever necessary. Granted, I forgot to deploy him, but seeing as how when I remembered him it was still early in the game and his activation would have been inconsequential, my gracious opponent allowed me to put him back on. Lastly Leve was deployed center-right, waiting for any models to get within range on turn one for a pot shot.

Some of these details are out of order as I'm only recalling them, but I'll try to make them as accurate as possible...

Turn one had us moving around mostly, with his Sniper failing to do any significant damage. He moved his Tengu and Lone Swordsman directly toward Ashes, who moved as far right as possible and placed a scheme marker near the center line for Convict Labor. Sensei Yu pushed Misaki to my left in reaction to my Necropunk, who leapt forward and placed another Scheme Marker for Convict Labor behind the safety of a building. She then ran toward him after Stalking my Flesh Construct. The Convict Gunslinger moved left as well to stay near the sniper and got on the bridge. My Flesh Construct inched his way forward with a Waif in tow, and Leve walked forward and popped a shot off on someone (I can't remember who, possibly the missing model) then summoning a Waif behind the safety of a center building. The Hodgepodge Effigy ran up behind the Waif.

Misaki going hunting...

With turn two came some significant moves. Hodgepodge gave Loyalty to the Coin to Leve, who then Accompliced to activate. Leve killed the mystery model and summoned an Abomination for a speed bump, then summoned a Waif to hide behind the building. Misaki walked in order to get my Hodgepodge in LOS, discarded Recalled Training, then charged him trying to get blasts on my Waif. He managed to damage the Waif once, and would have killed my Effigy had it not been for Hard to Kill, and was stuck in melee (he keeps forgetting to use his Next Target trigger, which I constantly remind him is built in).

Ashes and Dust got hit by the Lone Swordsman but weathered it well. In retaliation he charges him back, catching the Tengu as well. He damages him down to 2 wounds left. The Tengu says, "Screw this..." and flies out of melee directly toward the Necropunk on the other side. The Sniper kills the summoned Abomination.

My Necropunk activates last, mostly so that he's protected during the turn and can pop the scheme marker in the best place for him while avoiding whatever models that are coming his way. Unfortunately through my zeal I spent the card I was saving for his Leap and failed it. He had to walk to place a marker, which is okay but really puts a hamper in things as he isn't as far away from the Tengu as he wants to be.

We ended up both scoring for Reconnoiter, as we had two table quarters each. I scored for Convict Labor as well.

Quite a predicament I'm in...

Turn three seemed pretty explosive. Misaki charged up the platform to the Mechanical Rider, with the Waif not far behind. Luckily the rider had some good damage reduction by then and only took 4 damage in total. Hodgepodge gave Loyalty to Leve, who then proceeded to obliterate the Convict Gunslinger. I completely forgot to buy a Crow for his last shot so I didn't get another Abomination, which would have been great for keeping the sniper in place for a bit. He summoned a waif behind the bridge to keep up with the Flesh Construct while another Waif got shot by the sniper. Ashes finished off the Lone Swordsman after taking another hit while he pushed away, then Ashes pushed back to his original spot where the scrap marker from the Abomination was. The Flesh Construct walked forward to position himself on their table quarter to deny VP and set up next turn where he'll place a marker.

The Tengu flew all the way to my Necropunk and discarded both of his scheme markers with his (0) ability, which put me in a bind. I couldn't score Convict Labor now, so I decided that he will Leap out and walk to place a marker for Leave Your Mark. He failed his Leap and I had spent his card on something else again. Ugh. Maybe I should be activating him a bit earlier. 

I ended up using my last activation with my Mech Rider terribly. I pushed her out of combat with Misaki after discarding Oathkeeper, then walked her up to shoot my own guy to get the Scheme Marker trigger, without realizing I couldn't do that on friendly models. If I had just double walked and placed a marker I would have won 4-3 regardless of my Necropunk failing his leap.

A bit earlier before the end of the turn and game

At the end of the turn I deployed Leve near Misaki to deny/gain Reconnoiter. He got Frame for Murder from the Lone Swordsman but nothing else. Being that time was up we ended the game 3-3 in a draw.

Had I remembered to save a card for Leap twice it would have definitely been in my favor, probably 5-3 as I would have had a better position for Convict Labor to score and started on Leave Your Mark unopposed. That's the lesson I took from this game for sure. I was just mostly in fear of the sniper getting off a shot on him that I didn't want to activate him early and ended up using his card for another duel, but it was most likely a duel that wouldn't have significantly altered my VP acquisition like the Necropunk would have. If I also didn't screw up the Rider's activation it would have ended between 4-3 or 6-3 with the Necropunk. Oh well... on to the next game.

Deployment for the second game

So after lunch I made sure to keep my mistakes in mind for my second attempt. I was paired up against Parker, who I've played a few times. He's a regular at Montag's and runs a solid few Arcanist crews. The table was perfect for Leve, although I did try to see if Viks would do well enough. I knew that he used two masters consistently, Colette and Rasputina. With the chance that he may take Raspy I decided against Viks, as she literally stops them cold. He also is familiar with RatJoy, and may be able to stop it even though he hasn't seen it on the table - he's a knowledgeable player overall so this trick isn't suited to use against him. Plus with this table he'd be forced to be exposed out in the open to be shot to bits and charged aggressively. 

The pool from what I can recall: Standard deployment, Extraction as the Strategy, Convict Labor, A Quick Murder, Set Up, and I can't recall the rest right now.

He took Rasputina, which I'm very glad I didn't use the Viks on. I don't know of the upgrades as I didn't ask, but they're usually standard fare. He took Snow Storm, an Ice Gamin, December Acolyte, Angelica with Imbued Energies (I think), 2 Silent Ones and a Wendigo.

I took Convict Labor and A Quick Murder. I was afraid of using AQM as in order to score full VP you have to kill their most expensive model by turn 3, which is not always easy depending on the opponent. I took it mostly because I could easily identify his most expensive model as Snow Storm without having to ask him, and the rest of the pool consisted of schemes I'm not comfortable with (read: don't like at all). The strategy seemed very easy, as it started in the middle on top of a LOS blocking terrain piece, once I got it moving it would be hard to deny, and with summoning I tend to outnumber the other crew.

So I made him deploy first, and he kept all his models in the center of the board. I deployed almost all my models in the center as well, short of Ashes to the far right and the Necropunk to the far left. Keeping AQM in mind I figured should he be attacked heavily he can bail out and run really far back again while the Necropunk finishes Convict Labor, and Ashes can lend any melee support toward getting Snow Storm killed if needed.

Early in turn one

A close up of his models from turn one

A close up of mine before most of the action begins, the sunlight made them dark

He moves most of his models slowly forward, being cautious of Leve's attacks. He does move his Wendigo to be exposed, however. After activating everything else Leveticus manages to kill the Wendigo and summon an Abomination, which was promptly killed before he activated - which is no problem, as it puts a scrap marker really close to them. Everything else cautiously advanced, with the Mechanical rider and two Waifs hiding behind trees and the Flesh Construct walking up the middle with everyone else. Ashes went far up the right and the Necropunk far up the left, armed with a card should he fail this time. Both models placed markers for Convict Labor.

The Turn 2-3 Scrum... notice Snow Storm is not there.

So turns two and three were a blood bath, really. I didn't take many pictures between the two as I was pretty absorbed in what was happening, but I will give you the highlights.

Leveticus lit up Snow Storm and left him with 2 wounds left due to the Black Joker. Here's a story for you: 

(Long sideboard thought about Leve's triggers and when to use them, should you want to skip this then go to the next section!)

On the drive there I was analyzing the optimal way to down a henchman with one activation using Leve. Assuming all three shots are available I pondered the use of To The Earth Return trigger - which lowers wounds by half rounding up, or Power Leech, which prevents Soulstone use. Henchmen generally have 10-12 wounds. So if you're attacking a 10 wound model using to Earth Return you're doing 5 wounds, 6 to a 11-12 wound model. They are naturally going to Damage Prevent, and I always assume the worst so they're preventing 3 of that damage. That's leaving them with 2 damage taken on a 10 wound model, or 10 left on a 12 wound model. That's a lot left, and if you used Power Leech with severe damage you would have done twice the damage guaranteed. If you continue that route then you'd want to use Earth Return once more on the 11-12 range model, getting about 5 damage again, but they get to Prevent once more, leaving it as only another 2 damage as well. This is the problem I kept running into when I first started Leveticus. Granted, the equal possibility is there that they only prevent one and you come out on top when compared to doing severe damage with Power Leech, but if you factor in them preventing 2 as well then there are more chances that you come out even or worse over Power Leech with Severe.

The problem with depending on Power Leech, however, lies in your control hand. In order to consistently achieve maximum damage you have to have 3 severe cards in hand. Against a 10 wound model you only need two and a moderate card, which is fairly easy enough and something to consider when you draw your opening hand - which may dictate stone usage for card draw. However, the damage becomes much more consistent against a Stone-using model. Should you have at least two severe cards in hand you can simply hit them as usual, generally not needing to tap in severe cards to hit since you only need to not tie in the attack duel, then you can cheat in the severe card for damage at least twice. There is a slight possibility you'll flip the severe for damage as well and not need to cheat. Against a 10 wound Henchman/Master that's two cheated severe cards with Power Leech for 8 damage, leaving only two left so that your final attack needs only weak damage to kill. Against an 11 wound model you'd only need moderate for your final attack. For a 12 wound model you need all of those to be severe to kill in one activation. It is also necessary to make sure those first two attacks are severe. If you should miss your final attack it isn't hard for any of your other models to finish the job, even with Hard to Kill on the model. This all hinges on your control hand, and usually if I plan on killing a high wound henchman I will stone for the cards to gather odds in my favor.

If you happen to be attacking a model who can use stones that has 13 damage or more then Earth Return for your first attack is always beneficial, as you'll be doing 7 damage. If he prevents max damage then you're still hitting your severe profile and he spent a stone. Should he prevent max he's down to 9, then it's debatable on which trigger to use.

The better part of Earth Return is that it's less resource intensive, as you only need a moderate card to do the large amount of damage. If you're hurt on cards then it becomes feasible as your opening attack, possibly your second attack. But most of the time you can obliterate large models using Power Leech alone.

(Long thought over! Thank goodness...)

So, long boring "story" aside, the story being that's what I thought of the entire 30 minute drive to the tournament, I utilized this thought process when I decided to attack Snow Storm. I had two severe cards in hand, all three attacks ready and waiting, and it was all working out perfectly. On the third attack I flipped the black joker, when all I needed was weak damage to finish him off. GAH!

Anyway, Ashes and Dust pushed to the scrap marker and finished the job with one swing getting AQM for 3VP, damaged the December Acolye, then proceeded to walk back to where he was. He still got shot to bits though and was separated as Ashen Core and Dust Storm, so the Dust Storm ran right back into base contact with the Core and reformed at the end of the turn. Parker didn't realize that the reform action was a (0) ability and thought it was a (1) action, so he thought I wouldn't be able to do so.

Mechanical Rider, who was hiding most of the game, took a shot at the Acolyte to finish him off while placing two scheme markers - an amazing ability! This ensured Convict Labor if needed, and she still acted as an anchor for two Waifs should the Flesh Construct fall.

Which he did, he fell to several concentrated shots from Silent Ones - those guys are just ridiculous. 

Sometime during the end of turn four he had placed Angelica on the left side of the center obstacle. Due to the action happening exclusively to the right of the obstacle he most likely didn't see an attack coming from the other side. I positioned Leve to shoot around the corner at her and killed her in one activation while popping out an Abomination. The summon quickly died, but it was definitely a good moment for me as every turn I was consistently taking out models.

Ashes reformed

Overall it was an awesome game for me. The Necropunk was left untouched to do what was needed. I was in control of the flow of the game the entire time and was never reactionary. Every attack he made I had anticipated and usually thought of a backup should his target die. This game definitely clicked for me and I won 10-1, the only point he scored was the second round from the strategy. After that I pulled the marker 3" to my side and he couldn't get models near enough to it.

He had made a few mistakes, one being not taking the right schemes. I assumed that he took AQM as well since Ashes and Dust is such an easy target to get VP from. When Ashes first went down I thought he was going to reveal his scheme, when I realized he didn't I asked him if he took it and he said he didn't. I believe he took Convict Labor and one of the ones I can't recall.

The Good, the Bad, and the Tiny

So my final game was against Doug on the Wild West table. The last time I played on this set up I ended up getting a draw against Jack Daw, mostly because I hadn't anticipated the firing lanes to screw me up. Since then I've had a lot of time to think about how I should have played it, with the possibility of finally using Viktoria as they would have been great in my last match up on the board. The problem was that Doug used Arcanists, and with them comes Rasputina which completely blocks the Viks from being effective. I thought long and hard and decided to use Leve again, mostly because of Close Deployment being in range for him and that it wouldn't be hard to stop the rat engine from that close. 

I think our last game might have affected his choice in master though, as the last time we faced off I used this (almost) exact same crew (switched out the Trapper for the Flesh Construct) and I got a solid win over Rasputina. He used Marcus, probably to be more aggressive against my crew as last time sitting back didn't work out - I'm only guessing this, though so I could be wrong.

With Marcus he brought Joss, Miranda, a Raptor, Dawn Serpent, and Rogue Necromancy. Six models in total, so it seemed a bit small to me. This is good news for me, as Leve only needs to take out one model and it can heavily affect their game.

I only faced Marcus once before, and it was against Doug, but he used him in a support role and my Viks beat that down fast. That was over a year or two ago, though, and now he's using him as a beat stick. Boy, it operates a lot differently!

The Deployment was Close, the Strategy was Collect the Bounty, and the schemes had Convict Labor, Inspection, Frame for Murder, and others I can't remember now. Obviously I remembered the two I took, though, and he took Inspection as well. Upon deployment we both knew the jig was up, it was obvious we both took Inspection. He also took Frame for Murder, and there's more to that story.

By the way, I really wish I didn't, because that scheme sucks hard. Super hard. I'm probably not going to take it ever again, unless the pool is that crappy. And only reluctantly will I take it.

Actually, it's probably not as bad as I make it to be, I just put myself in a bad spot to score from it.

Deploying first was probably a huge factor in this game being difficult for me, though. I placed Ashes and Dust on the left side fully up, so I was only 6" away from the center line. I put the Mech rider on the other side instead of the Necropunk, as being that Inspection was out I wanted to have some staying power there. I kept her further away, though, hoping to just chill for the first round then moving as a last activation in the second to score and stick around afterward. The rest of the models huddled the center, with Leve getting a bead of LOS to the center line on the right table edge, so that any model planning on sticking there was going to get shot off.

From here you can see Leve gets a perfect shot on anything that double walks to the center right, if they don't he can walk and get a shot off as well

So a few things came off the rails during the game. First off, he deployed Joss against Ashes and Dust, with Miranda and the Raptor in tow. Nothing was in the middle, which is fine by me as it completely separates his forces in half with no true support to one another. He then had his Rogue Necromancy, Marcus and Dawn Serpent for the left side, which was closer to Leve.

I knew that Ashes was going to have a tough time on his own. If it was just Joss, it might have been easier. But with Miranda as well things don't look so good, mostly because Joss can easily kill Ashes, then Miranda can possibly kill the Ashen Core afterward, leaving the Dust Storm on his own. In hindsight I shouldn't have feared this as much and just keep going at it with Ashes, perhaps leave him less than a base away from the edge so that the Dust Storm will always reunite, but that's hindsight. Man, I really should have done that and I only now just thought of that.

The other side I figured wouldn't be so bad. I was sure I was going to lose the Rider one way or another, as we'd both be fighting over the same semi-circle against a Marcus on steroids. I figured he'd get one good turn or two and then I'd come out on top if I played my cards right - the idea was that I can kill the necromancy one turn, then the serpent or Marcus the next, not uncommon.

So turn one happens as expected. He made the Raptor attack Joss to become a beast. Miranda healed him, then they both made their way to the edge of the center line. Ashes and Dust charged Joss to start the grind early, any markers for Convict Labor would have been futile since his models would deny it. My Necropunk leapt forward and placed a marker for Convict Labor. I held the Rider and her Waif back, figuring there was no good in coming out of hiding as she can dash to the center line anyway. During the last activations he sent his Rogue Necromancy to sit on the center line, and just launched Marcus to hit the Rider from where she deployed. I think in the end he gave himself +3 walk and melee expert. So he double walked his Master within reach of the Rider and hit her twice. She had 2 wounds remaining in the end, which I thought she was done for. I almost wish she did die honestly, because that would have made Marcus vulnerable to Leveticus' shooting. But being that she only had 2 wounds left I couldn't risk shooting into combat. If she had one more wound I would have, as she could live through one attack and get a free melee swing on him and possibly draw a card. But with 2 if I hit her she's dead, no matter what. If she was Undead I would have sacrificed her to leap Leve over and shoot the crap out of Marcus, but I couldn't. So I just left him alone. Instead I shot the open Necromancy, who landed right in the lane I planned on, and got him down to two wounds. I figured if I win initiative I could push the Rider out, discard Oathkeeper, and just ram toward the Necromancy and finish it anyway, if I lost initiative I could shoot Marcus in the face, so I just positioned the Waifs to do so. No one scored this turn.

He won initiative turn two, and the first thing he did was run the Rogue Necromancy back into his deployment zone in the woods. Being that he didn't finish off the Rider first was a good opportunity for me. I discarded Oathkeeper on her, pushed her out of combat and summoned a weak Metal Gamin to stand next to Marcus, then she walked and charged the almost dead Rogue. She killed it with the first attack and drew a card. Marcus activated after that, killed the Gamin, then chased after the Rider to finish her off. This, however, left Marcus right in range of Leve, who proceeded to severely damage Marcus down to a few wounds. My Necropunk started dropping off schemes for Convict Labor. The Flesh Construct was doing some overtime, though, as he was anchoring all three Waifs with some crazy LOS angles in order to get good positioning for Leve later. He also doubled as a scheme runner to finish off Convict Labor, but not until the next turn. The Dawn Serpent tried killing Waifs but couldn't quite do it. His Raptor buried to come up later on, placing him to engage my Waif. Both of us killed Enforcers so we tied for the Strategy. With Marcus on one side and Joss on the other he scored Inspection. So at the end of Turn 2 I was trailing by one. I brought back Leve so that he was not engaged by the Raptor anymore.

The next turn worked a lot better for me. I had won initiative, so I promptly killed Marcus with Leveticus and summoned an Abomination for Inspection. This gave me a huge advantage in getting the Strategy VP and denying his. Joss ended up killing Ashes, so I summoned the Core and the Dust Storm 10" back in my deployment zone, hopefully minimizing the damage or keeping Miranda away. Miranda ended up going after the Dust Storm anyway, but I managed to get out of the Disengaging Strike and walk to score for Inspection. I managed to get the last marker for Convict Labor out as well. Toward the end he moved his Raptor in the middle of all my guys, which I killed him with the Flesh Construct. He then revealed Frame for Murder on him, but I asked if he was a Peon. After a big yell and face palm later he realized he made a huge mistake and couldn't score from the scheme.

So he couldn't score Frame for Murder, didn't score from Inspection and didn't score from Collect the Bounty. I got Collect the Bounty, Inspection and Convict Labor, ending the game 4-2 in my favor as the time ran out.

I also reread the Strategy and discovered that neither of us score if we tie, so the score was really 3-1 but the differential is the same, I don't know if that would change the outcome but I'll remember it for next time.

He was beating himself up very badly for not picking the right model for Frame for Murder, as it would have tied us up. But then, if we're taking back schemes, I definitely wouldn't have taken Inspection on this table. No siree.

Here's a lesson kids: if Inspection is on the table, and you see your opponent splitting his force in two on the edges, and you're smart and didn't take Inspection, just put YOUR ENTIRE CREW against his weakest side. Then just obliterate his models and watch as he's denied 3VP for the entire game, as well as having only half his crew working right and the other half slogging back to meet up with you. And that's why I don't want to take Inspection.

In the end, though, it all worked out. Dreads, a great Neverborn player with a stupid awesome Lilith list, got 1st. I got 2nd and Brandon, who played Neverborn using Colodi, got 3rd. It was great, and with the prize money I got a copy of the Descent board game to play at home.

I learned a lot from the tournament as well as implemented a lot that I had already learned to a degree of success. Sorry the post was long, hopefully you enjoyed it - more likely skipped it all! This is only my 3rd tournament in Malifaux ever, and getting placed is pretty huge for me. Hopefully it isn't a fluke and I can keep it up, but if not I am always willing to learn more. Also of note, I used the exact same crew for 3 different match ups with success, so let that be a lesson in Malifaux for you.

Let me know any comments or questions, and have fun with Malifaux!