Von Schill vs. Shenlong: A Malifaux Battle Report! ...also Arena Rex...

Getting ready for a fight

Hey you crazy people!

On Wednesday I headed up to the illustrious Montag's for our regular Malifaux meet up. Our Grumpy Gremlin Mike Guy was generous enough to get items at GenCon for our group, so I picked up my limited edition Wild Ones crew box as well as the Parker Barrows box. I am super pumped to try out Parker, it's like I get to play as Shenlong in a faction I actually have a decent collection for. Not only does he play around with upgrades like Shenlong, but he has twice the number of them compared to him. This means four times the confusion during my first game, both for my opponent and myself!

I decided to try something different this week's game, in more ways than one.

Firstly I decided to give Von Schill another try. Although he's not top tier he seems capable enough to handle his own in a fight, and I wanted to see if maybe I jumped to the wrong conclusion with him. 

I also decided to take as many pictures as I could while playing. This helps with descriptions and recall, but also would be a quick way to take note of any mistakes of placement I made. So, fair warning, this will be pic heavy!

I ended up getting matched up against Travis, Mutha-Fauxer extraordinaire, and his Shenlong crew.

Deployment

So it was Corner Deployment with the strategy being Guard the Stash - two 50mm objectives are placed 10" away from each other on the center line, with points scored by being within 2" of both of them with a member of your crew.

The pool had Convict Labor, A Quick Murder, Hunting Party, and two others I can't recall - of course, I don't have my notes with me because why would I.

This seemed like a good pool to test out Von Schill, as it was a guarantee that there would be models bunched up in or near the middle. I chose A Quick Murder, meaning I have to kill the most expensive model he owned within 3 turns for full points (target: Dawn Serpent), as well as Hunting Party - one that scores when a Henchman/Enforcer kills a minion/peon and scores when there aren't any left. I chose Hunting Party because it sort of coincided with AQM, as the Dawn Serpent is a Minion and he only had one other minion in his crew with one peon. He ended up choosing AQM and CL.

We both had our crews made prior to the flips for the Scheme Pool, so take note of that folks! You can make all around lists and succeed...

Here are the lists:

• Von Schill
• Engage at Will (a must have for me, it gives models within 6" the ability to use two different (0) actions!)
• Survivalist (Gives Hard to Kill, great for models who heal like VS, as well as positive flips to healing!)
• The Shirt Comes Off (gives VS a heal as a (0) once per game and forces nearby opponents to take Horror Duels, works well with Survivalist as he's getting positives and HtK)
• Hannah
• I Pay Better (Mercenaries get Focus for a discarded card, everyone in the list benefits short of VS)
• Sue
• Big Jake
• Friekorpsmann x2
• Friekorps Trapper
• Steam Trunk

• Shenlong
• Misdirection (super annoying, defensive trigger that passes the attack to someone else including enemy models)
• Wandering River Style
• Yamaziko
• Lone Swordsman
• Recalled Training (Positives to all flips for a turn - brutal)
• Dawn Serpent
• Mr Graves
• Malifaux Child
• Shadow Effigy

The first moves...

So I had the Trapper deployed close to one Stash marker but able to draw a LOS to a large amount of the field. I decided to hold him off to see where he decides to move everyone and draw a priority target based on the decision, but I should have done what I originally thought and immediately target the Malifaux Child. I didn't remember that peons count for Hunting Party and would have gotten a head start on the scheme, but I didn't have good cards in my hand and didn't feel confident in passing the Manipulative test with a severe card left in in my hand. In hindsight this would have been a much better action. Instead I chose to advance the Steam Trunk into position before anything else committed anywhere. He immediately responded by running his Malifaux Child behind the middle pillar. This meant that since the Child is out of LOS from the Trapper for pretty much the rest of the game.

He moved Yamaziko toward the top left corner, once I saw that I knew he had Convict Labor. She excels at placing markers since she has Nimble, and can easily do Convict Labor on her own. I don't do a lot of spreading out with Von Schill as he has a lot of Auras, so the markers she places will be left pretty much uncontested.

I start moving Hannah, Sue, and the Friekorpsmann toward the left Stash Marker and use Big Jake to go to the right one. I saw that he was keeping his models grouped together and inched toward the left marker so I didn't think I'd need much on the other one. Using Big Jake to defend it can be helpful, as he can push with his attacks and if he dies he comes back on turn 5. The Trapper was there as backup, but can still affect the other side of the board. He responded by moving his Shadow Effigy closer to the right side.

After that he moved Shenlong to prepare for the massacre that was about to happen. He pushed the Dawn Serpent right to the Center Line, so my Trapper decided to start working on that target for next turn. I managed to cheat in Severe damage on it taking him down to 4 wounds. I'd have to make sure to take care of him soon as he is able to heal relatively quickly.

Shenlong decides to join the party

Start of turn two, where blood will definitely be drawn

Turn Two was a doozy.

He started with the Dawn Serpent charging Hannah. She managed to get down to 4 wounds after using 3 stones for damage prevention, along with gaining 4 poison counters. She then activated and healed from the Steam Trunk back up to 7 wounds and got rid of the poison (Steam Trunk, don't leave home without it). In hindsight I should have used The Shirt Comes Off to get back up to full wounds, but I didn't think of it until just now. Hannah got rid of the Dawn Serpent and got a VP from Hunting Party and full points for A Quick Murder.

I can't quite remember who he activates, but maybe it was Yamaziko to place scheme markers down. I may be getting the order incorrect.

The Dawn Serpent gone...

Sue activates and uses Ring of Fire to burn models that end their activation within 3" and shoots the Lone Swordsman. I know he has Bulletproof +3 but I needed to start chipping away at him regardless of how much. The Lone Swordsman then swoops in, discarding his Recalled Training for positive flips, and declares that Hannah will Not See Another Sunrise, which gives him reactivate but he dies if he doesn't kill his target by the end of the turn. He gets her down to 3 wounds.

Things aren't looking good for Hannah...

I attempt to do some damage with the Freikorpsmann that's trapped with the Lone Swordsman but with only one attack and lackluster cards I didn't affect much. He then Reactivates his Lone Swordsman and misses the first attack. He connects with the second but flips the Black Joker for Damage! It was quite a lucky break for me, as since he didn't kill his intended target he now must be sacrificed at the end of the turn. I no longer had to worry about that model, who can really hit like a truck when needed.

After that I was overly confident and moved Von Shill close enough to score the strategy by being right next to the left marker. I didn't realize that Shenlong hadn't yet activated, which I should have probably played him a little differently because of that. He then moves Shenlong right in the middle of my crew and finishes off Hannah, scoring A Quick Murder. If I had used Von Schill to block the charge she could have recovered and healed quite a bit of damage, up to 6, and be right back in the game.

Mistakes were made...

I moved my other Friekorpsmann in response to try to do some damage on Shenlong. He managed to hit, but because he had Misdirection I had to discard two cards to prevent the attack from moving to one of my other models within 2" of him. After damage prevention I managed to not do anything that stuck and realized I was in a pickle, as he now has 3 different models he can use Misdirection on.

The Steam Trunk moved into position to assist the big mess on the left next turn while making sure to stay away from Shenlong. He moves Mr Graves to help score the Strategy by being next to the left marker. I tried shooting with the trapper onto the Shadow Effigy and managed to do enough damage to get him down to Hard to Kill. He then moves the Effigy within scoring distance of the right Stash marker. I responded by moving with Big Jake and attacked but missed. He managed to get in range to score the Strategy.

Help... only with Shenlong do I see one person outnumbered 3 to 1 and think I may just lose

The turn ended with me scoring 5, 3 for AQM 1 for HP and 1 for the Strategy. He ended with 4, 3 for AQM and 1 for the Strategy. I don't think I've ever seen the score that high on turn two, I've finished whole games, and often, with a score lower than this.

That was pretty eventful...

See that Red Joker!

Turn three saw Von Schill do some damage onto Shenlong, getting him down to 8 Wounds and permanently lowered his defense by one. Shenlong answered back by switching his upgrades to Fermented River Monk and force everyone nearby to perform a Wk 16 duel. VS, Sue and a Friekorpsmann all failed and received negative flips for everything for the remainder of the turn! He then did a ton of damage to Von Schill, getting him down to only four wounds left.

I disengaged with a Friekorpsmann to start working on Mr Graves and get out of Shenlong's Misdirection range, and managed to succeed. Mr Graves pounded him to death. I disengaged the other Friekorpsmann for the same thing. Yamaziko started getting closer to help out the crew now that she's done laying down markers.

Von Schill isn't liking his chances...

Von Schill is feeling the burn right now

I had saved a high Mask card just for this, as one of his triggers is making the target push 3" and he ends in base contact with him. I succeeded and pushed the Effigy out of range from scoring, while the Trapper and Big Jake both were in range to still score. I managed to kill him with the second attack, but it was good to have the Mask just in case I missed.

He got a point for Convict Labor and I got a point for Guard the Stash and Hunting Party, as Big Jake is an Enforcer. So far it was 7-5 in my favor.

Both Stash markers secured for now, while a Freikorpsmann goes Child Hunting... umm... not what it sounds like...

Turn 4/5 details get kind of fuzzy, as it was a fast one and I didn't take as many pictures. I got the initiative and the Friekorpsmann killed the Malifaux Child, securing points for Hunting Party as he no longer had minions or peons. I believe we decided to call it as there wasn't a way to catch up. I secured 8VP, and even if he scored Convict Labor and Guard the Stash I'd still be ahead now that Hunting Party would be maxed out no matter what.

It was a fun game, and it's probably the first time I've legitimately beaten him at 50ss. I've only beaten him twice before, once was a story encounter that I don't rightly count, and the other was at the Henchman Hardcore, but it's not a standard game.

I learned a few things about Von Schill that I liked. Engage at Will is priceless. There's so much utility with that upgrade, individual abilities and the Steam Trunk adding more. Having Sue in the crew with that upgrade makes it where he actually gains use out of all his abilities. He doesn't have to worry about Hurt damaging him since he can heal it that same turn. He can use both his Auras if he ever needs to. Hannah can heal every turn or twice with the Shirt if needed. Hannah is a beast, but she's even beastlier with the Schill dog. Not to mention everyone in this crew has Hard to Kill or a version of it with Von Schill leading the crew. I'd say Engage at Will is his best ability, tied with his ability to give Freikorps models a version of Hard to Kill.

There were a few things I found that weren't that great. Big Jake's ability to take two damage to arrange the top two cards is still pretty useless, even with the Steam Trunk's heal, as he ends up using the cards for the heal anyway. This was a pretty hilarious moment in the game when Travis pointed it out and I was trying to avoid using it but completely forgot about it two seconds later like a goldfish. 

Another issue is placement. There's a lot of movement you have to anticipate with his crew, namely with the Steam Trunk and Von Schill himself. Von Schill's auras are relatively short, and he may have a tendency to jump around the board if needed leaving some models out of his beneficial range. The Trunk's aura is even lower, and since he hands out the (0)s during other models' activation he needs to be where he's needed before others get ther (if that makes sense). This leads to you having to commit to your direction, and a savvy player should be able to anticipate this, which can lead to bad positioning in Strats/Schemes that don't have you fighting at the center.

One more issue is Von Schill, in this game he didn't do much at all himself. I get that it was the timing of activations, as he got damaged after his activation then lost initiative and died before he could heal himself up. But the one time he did attack he couldn't afford to spend stones as I used them all up saving Hannah. This led to him attacking based on his card alone and praying something good flips if you don't have a good control hand. I got one good trigger in to lower Shenlong's defense permanently once and that was it. He's still a pretty Stone-Starved model and needs all 7 of his cache just for him.

He's still mid tier in my book, as well as the groups', but knowing how he operates makes him more viable if I'm ever looking for variety.

Look at that amazing mat. I said look at it!!!

After our game I managed to play two small games of Arena Rex with my brand spanking new mat from GenCon! We stuck to using my starter models so that everyone gets used to how their Ludus plays. 

I represented Ludus Magnus while Mike Guy used Legio XIII. The game was a breeze with only a few minor mistakes, due to the fact that we played once before. He started using his Benefits much better in this game, and managed to make me hate Ban-Luca almost instantly. Her Stall ability is amazing and annoying.

This game I remembered to get rid of Gaius first and did so easily, but as this game is designed to do it only fueled his Favor and got the win when it was down to my Infelix against Aquila.

I played another game with Clay, who bought Zephyri and wanted to try them out. They're a more difficult faction to grasp for a new player as their strength lies in movement and reactions, concepts that take a bit more experience to fully capitalize on, but he was getting the hang of it fast (this game tends to make it easy to learn). I ended up winning since I had more games under my belt as well as practice with the starter, but we both had a ton of fun. The Houston area is starting to get more and more Arena Rex players, as I know a few more in the North Side of town that got into it as well.

Anyway, that's long enough for now, hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next time!

Updates! Infinity! Rum and Bones! Etc.!

Hello fellow plastic crack addicts!

This weekend proved to be very eventful in the gaming department, as well as a few other distractions.

On Saturday I managed to play a pick up game of Infinity with my buddy Reuben. Although we had planned on playing Malifaux, he didn't have a deck of Fate Cards and I completely forgot to bring spares of useful things like that. What is the point of having 5 Fate Decks if I don't bring them along for new players?!

Luckily I did bring my Infinity models as a back up, and Reuben already has a sweet set up at Toxic City Comics - the store we met up at - so we decided to play a small 185 point game using my Yu Jing against his Nomads. The scenario revolved around capturing the center building over 3 turns. Usually I brush up on my rules before playing a game I'm not as experienced with, but this one caught me off guard so I was extremely rusty on my rules and abilities.

My Shinobu's hidden deployment and Superior Infiltration

I spread my force out to cover a few crucial lanes while he concentrated most of his troops in the center. I had a Guilang sniper on a central roof and my Hsien leader on another roof nearby, while he had a sniper in a corner building. In hindsight it was a terrible place to put my leader with no cover, but I overestimated his staying power.

The first turn he killed my Hsien in one shot using Double Action ammunition, which is brutal stuff to a heavy infantry. I spent the rest of the turn using my Shaolin Monks to throw smoke and advance while creeping up my remaining forces. Our snipers shot back and forth, and I eventually lost him as well.

Both hidden deployments revealed!

When I managed to get close to the building he revealed his Spektr, and I countered by revealing my Shinobu! I felt bad though, since I forgot to roll my Superior Infiltration during deployment so he didn't know I put her in his half of the table. Even though I rolled it when the mistake was brought up and passed, it's still crucial info that your opponent should have at the beginning. 

I managed to miss my surprise attack with the Combi Rifle. Instead of keeping Shinobu on the Spektr I had my Monks and Celestial Guard dispatch the Spektr, and Shinobu went after the Mobile Brigada.

Time to Slice and Dice!

She is just a beast in melee. She killed the MB in one fell swoop, but he reacted with a flame template that killed her back. Due to rustiness, I had completely forgot about having a high critical chance along with sending him straight to the Dead state, but it wasn't a big difference. I had managed to capture the building with my remaining forces and snatch the victory. It was a fun game, I'll definitely play more of it.

Infinity's rules are quite dense, however. A lot of rules will not pertain to your particular game but is necessary to know in case that it does come up. It also results in a lot of important abilities not being used correctly or at all. The game's learning curve is extremely harsh, even for gamers with experience like myself. The most helpful thing I've come across is bringing your laptop with the rules on it, that way you can search for rules much faster than using your phone like I had to for this game. It's also much faster than searching the book itself, and you can have access to the Wiki as well.

Yarrrrrrgh!

Yesterday I had a chance to play a new game I have called Rum and Bones. It's a pirate themed board game based on Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs) like League of Legends. I'm a fan of MOBAs, and play Smite almost every day on my computer. I was extremely intrigued by a board game version of the popular computer game genre, especially since the models are pretty nice.

Overall I really loved the game. It's a Cool Mini Or Not game, so you're getting tons of card and plastic for the price and is pretty complete out of the box. The rules are extremely easy to grasp, after a few turns you're swimming along at a fast pace and can understand the overall goal well enough. Strategies formed very quickly and the game would swing back and forth leaving no impression of being steamrolled. This is a very important point for me, as I thought that it may snowball once you start racking up Objectives.

We got a few rules wrong, namely how you respawn heroes and the Sea Dragon. We were initially not counting the Dead Man's Coins toward respawning limits and had heroes coming back onto the field way too fast, this was making a pretty big stalemate as there weren't any consequences to throwing heroes out to die. Once we corrected this it proved to ensure caution and consequence when throwing your heroes out there. It's a really fun game that you should go out and try, even if you're not a computer gamer used to the genre!

In other news there was a recent reveal at Fantasy Flight games about RuneWars Miniatures. This really piqued my interest as I absolutely love Fantasy Flight games (what can I say, I'm a sucker for cardboard tokens and tiny cards). This game taps into my old love of Rank and Flank Warhammer Fantasy games.

Not only is it a callback to blocks of infantry and monsters, but it modernizes the game by utilizing their Maneuver Dials from X Wing miniatures. This may be a divisive point for some, as I know a few puritans who don't like fidgety tools for game enhancement. Their opinion carries weight of course, as I know that it's a turn off for a certain type of gamer really, just like how tons of rules instantly turn me off a game but works for others.

One of the main reasons I'm a fan of FFG is that they integrate gaming devices to ease game play. With X Wing they used bases that had notches to hold their movement templates. In WHFRPG they used small cards to showcase talents and abilities, which almost eliminates looking at the rule book entirely. Granted this does create a cluttered table with all their extra bits, but I honestly prefer it.

In this game they have notched/interlocking block bases. While not the prettiest solution, this does create a great amount of potential in game aids. One, units can lock onto each other. This isn't a necessary thing, as more often than not it's probably easier to just slide them into each other rather than locking them. But if you look at their turning aid it shows that it locks into the side of the base and precisely guides the wheeling of the unit. In the old WHFB games it was pretty much an inaccurate affair to wheel units unless you got a third party widget for wheel maneuvers. I've encountered plenty of people who purposely got additional movement from shady wheel practices, but this extra aid helps eliminate it as much as possible. I've yet to see movement disputes in X Wing due to foresight in mechanics like this.

The addition of the dials creates an interesting mechanic, as you'll have to plan and anticipate moves. This creates a lot of interesting turns in X Wing, but it's doubly so in this game as one dial decides your unit's action while the other modify's it, creating a lot of possibilities in your choice. I find this pretty invigorating but can see it generating frowns from the old school gamers who don't like frivolous additions like this. We'll have to see if it's successful, but I'm pretty motivated to try it out one day.

Another point of division may be its proprietary dice. For some reason special dice in a game is a huge turn off for a lot of gamers. I don't agree, as it's only proven to be a problem to me when dice are out of print, but surely solutions can be made with a printer and label sheets.

It doesn't hurt to have sweet models that bring back style nostalgia!

We'll have to wait to see if it's a good game, as in my experience FFG can be hit or miss. Lately they've had very impressive games, as I love Descent and X Wing is pretty smooth. Their rules can be pretty clunky in writing and implementation at times, but they tend to hit it out the park with their simpler rules sets.

That's it for now, I unfortunately do not have any painting updates. I recently got an electronic drum set for myself as a birthday gift (lol) and haven't spent much free time painting. The wife is extremely thankful that I can use headphones with this!

Malifaux Coppelius WIP and Arena Rex!

Something something something Cthulu...

Hello one and all!

Just a few updates, including this work in progress here for the Dreamer crew! He's part of a commission I've had in my hands for far too long, and I've recently decided that nothing else of mine will be painted until this is finally complete.

I was pleasantly surprised at how he started off, considering all the colors I've used so far are entirely experimental. I had the idea of how to start him in my head but wasn't sure if it would work, it looks like it should do just fine!

Over a black base coat I sprayed Vallejo Game Air Scorpion Green fairly heavily, leaving black in the shaded areas. I then sprayed 3:1 White/Scorpion Green and highlighted, then lightly shaded areas with GW Caliban Green. I fixed up spots with a touch of Scorpion Green to reclaim the main color. I really like it, it gives a radiation-like glow. Very otherworldly.

I then repainted any black that got overspray. I used VGA Scarlet Red over the black for his coat to give a sort of maroon color. I didn't know quite how this would work over black but it seems to do the trick.

Once I spray the pants he'll be ready for the detail work, just thought I'd share my progress so far.

On Friday I finally got to play a game of Arena Rex with my buddy Mike. We used my still incomplete arena and some simple obstacles for the game. It was a 3v3 fight, with Legio XIII and Ludus Magnus.

The opening moves

Although it was a new game for both of us, the rules are simple and intuitive enough to get a grasp on immediately. Within a few activations we just steamed right through the game. My initial strategy with Ludus Magnus was simple: use Otho Mentulus as a big tarpit, only moving him through reactions, while Hermes did the grunt work and Septimus picked off stragglers to hopefully get pushed into pits.

Hermes stares down Urien

The combination of Otho's ability - which prevents Favor use and gain - with Hermes' ability to force Favor use to attack him seemed tremendous. I wanted to use Septimus as my third as he's my favorite sculpt out of the range.

Mike was getting the hang of Legio and wasn't able to capitalize on their strengths as much in this game. Their displacement ability is tricky but powerful in the right instances. He also decided to swap out Ban-Luca for Urien from the starter, which may have worked better had he kept her. Urien was quickly dispatched from Hermes as the champion's damage track is amazing for power attacks.

Septimus eventually fell followed by Aquila, but Gaius was able to defeat Otho. This left a basically unhurt Gaius against Hermes.

Last Men Standing

At first I thought I had the advantage as my damage tree is pretty spectacular, but I realized that Hermes definitely relies on his ability (which has no effect when he's the Last Man Standing) and teamwork to divert attacks from him. He has fewer damage boxes than average, and Gaius was built for attrition. With his Regrowth and the fact that you have to kill him twice he was able to withstand Hermes' attacks just enough to deliver the killing blow and win.

Arena Rex is amazing, there's a ton of depth in decisions to be had considering the brief page count for the rules. Every choice had meaning, and there wasn't more than a breath's pause between decisions for each player. Down time is not something that occurs often in this game, as there's an elegant solution for players who are getting steamrolled in the game. You may be at an advantage early on and outnumber your opponent at times, but with the resources not being used up by additional models and how Last Man Standing makes your remaining man fight ferociously to the death quickly evens out the odds.

I've read about several other peoples' experience with this game, and it's almost never a one sided affair and almost always ends with a close game - that seems to me like a good sign of balance that forces player engagement for the end game. There have been many instances in other games where you can tell who's going to win from the second turn or earlier, but in this game it means nothing until the blood is on the sand.

I'll leave you with a few pics of a play test game, using proxies for both sides.

Finding excuses to use this building in a game...

Finding excuses to use this model in a game...

Henchman Hardcore Success!

It was in my pocket...lol

Hello internet!

So the tournament on 7/23/16 was a success with a first place win!

Granted, it was a small tourney with only 5 participants, but I'll take what I can get. The list I used seemed very successful in tackling the problems I anticipated.

As stated before, I took Hannah with Survivalist as my leader, with Sue, Big Jake and Johana in tow.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures, it was a small tournament and since the rounds are supposed to only be 30 minutes I didn't feel like I had the time to take photos.

The first game was against Paul, a brand spanking new player and first time player at Montag's. He declared Neverborn, using Hungering Darkness as his leader and a Bloodwretch, Convict Gunslinger and Illuminated with no upgrades. Overall it was a fun game, and it went a tad slower since I made sure to let him know exactly what my models were doing and what was going on, but this had no impact on enjoyment whatsoever.

I started by moving in Sue slightly to use his Man in Black ability, this way it neuters Huggy as all his attacks are Ca actions. Paul then moved his Convict in and blasted Sue down to 3 wounds remaining! Hannah came in immediately to block LOS to him as well as provide protection from Huggy's Ca attacks. It proved to be a very good deterrent, as Huggy was hesitant to get locked in with Hannah with no suits in his attacks at a negative flip from Sue. Huggy ends up moving on the outside perimeter of the Turf circle. Johana then runs to engage both the Illuminated and Convict but with her 3" melee she made it where each one would have to spend an AP to get in their ranges. He swings and misses with an Illuminated, then Big Jake walks the inside perimeter of the Turf circle as an anchor model for scoring. He sends his Blood Wretch in to attack and gets him down to 3 wounds.

Through Johana and Hannah the rest of the game lead to no enemies alive, coupled with Sue this attrition was very successful. Incorporeal and a high soulstone cache for Huggy made it hard to get Assassinate on him, leading to only get 2 VP since I was unable to kill him early on. I ended up winning with a high differential that, once again, I don't have my notes to say exactly how much.

My second game pitted me against Travis, Malifaux player extraordinaire, using his Ten Thunders. He brought Kang as his leader, with a Dawn Serpent, Kamaitachi and Fermented River Monk. It was an intense and crazy game, as he eliminated Hannah early in the second turn, with hardly any damage on his crew - most of which healed up due to the Dawn Serpent being in range of so many models with Ca actions.

I never gave up though, as I've seen plenty of games swing the other way due to determination - a lot of those examples were in games I've lost. I steadily chipped away using Johana and Sue, with both of them using minimum damage 3 to pile on damage and Sue's Ring of Fire finishing off any stragglers. Big Jake was used as a last resort for damage and possible movement shenanigans, but as long as he was around I would be getting Turf VP. I ended up squeaking by a win by 1 VP!

My last game was agains Mike, our resident grumpy Gremlin player. He used McTavish as a leader, with Trixie, a Stuffed Piglet and the Sow as his crew. Much like Travis he was able to eliminate Hannah early in the second turn - McTavish just melts models sometimes, and the Sow follow up wasn't something she could handle anymore. Luckily, I kept a cool head and systematically chipped the models down once more. Johan and Sue took down the Sow, with Big Jake continuously getting pushed 12" back from Trixie. With a smart use of cards I was able to withstand the brunt of McTavish's shots. Mike used his piglet to blow up for one damage on Sue and Johana and Sue succumbed to all the damage. Johana attacked McTavish to get him low on wounds and used her push trigger to move him out of LOS for shooting and range of the Turf marker. Eventually Big Jake was able to catch Trixie when she used her push on Johana instead and killed her. Since he counts as two models for the Strategy Johan was free to pursue a running McTavish and got the assassination. I ended up winning that one by 1 VP as well!

So I consider this a great success! I got $15 in store credit and used it to purchase another Phantom for my Imperials in X Wing. I also got an alternate card for Hamelin, nothing fancy but I love exclusives I can use. One day I should put together my Hamelin box and see how it works on the table. Mike got an alternate sculpt for the Katanaka Sniper and gave it to me, as last time I gave him my alternate Bayou Gator, which is extremely appreciated as it's something I know I'll need for my Ten Thunders - those snipers are a staple in Ten Thunders crews.

When we came back I played a 50ss game against Karl, a Ten Thunders player. We pointed out that we have yet to ever be matched against each other, despite being at 5 tournaments in a row together. We hadn't played each other in over a year even though we regularly see each other.

From memory, the strategy was Extraction, one that I love. Convict Labor, Show of Force, Exhaust their Forces, A Quick Murder and something else were the schemes. I decided to use Leve for the first time since his recent Nerf (MAKE CHANNEL GREAT AGAIN) now that my sodium levels have subsided and I've had enough time to consider how my game will change. Due to him losing a stone in his cache I also had to downgrade Ashes and Dust to having no upgrades.

I used Leve with his usual 3 upgrades, two free Waifs, Ashes and Dust, Mechanical Rider, two Flesh Constructs and a Necropunk. Karl used Lynch with a returning Hungering Darkness, Katanaka Sniper, two Illuminated, two Depleted and Sue from what I remember.

It was a good practice game, especially for what I have to adjust to with the new Leve. I just had to keep in mind that he's not the same model melter he was before, but potentially could be against lower level minions. I'd have to finish heavier models using something else, so I actively engaged Ashes and Dust more than I usually do.

Throughout the game I would have Leve either kill or severely wound a minion like Depleted or Illuminated. I also concentrated on eliminating Sue as fast as possible whenever the chance would come, which gave me A Quick Murder on turn two since I got attacks in before he could use his (0) ability. He got A Quick Murder within the first turn as Ashes and Dust practically give it away - this is something I have to keep in mind for the future, as it could be a way to deny VP should a player think it's easy. The last couple games I've done a different opening move than usual, using Ashes to move up twice and lay a marker down ensuring he's around 10" away from the edge. Leve then sacrifices him to move extremely far forward in base contact, getting more activations from Ashen Core and Dust Storm and being in range for shooting. This leaves him vulnerable though, so he has to do this last when there isn't much retaliation available, and he'll be down in wounds at the start of the next turn. The payoff is that you can kill a model on turn one easily, and set up your initiative for turn two by already being in position. You'll need to anticipate losing him though and potentially losing your offensive pressure for a round, but usually you can withstand one activation with damage prevention and smart use of cards. Once you get through it you melt another model before slipping away. If you're gone for the turn, well you've still got Ashes to add some damage, not to mention your other models being able to get a swing in.

In the end I won by 1 VP. Leve feels a bit different, but you can mitigate the change by focusing on melting smaller models rather than opening up big ones. I essentially ignored Huggy throughout the game, and fed him models that could get a damage here and there for someone to kill at the best moment when needed. With every turn resulting in one or two dead models on his side I was able to attrition away the victory. Every AP spent on Ashes would end up wasted, as I brought him back a few times, and the Mechanical Rider proved to be enough of an anchor for the Waifs that the Flesh Constructs didn't need to be held back. Losing the Necropunk early proved to be hurtful, though, as since I shifted focus for Ashes to damage instead of schemes he was my only reliable marker maker. After that I was hard pressed to get my Convict Labor going.

Leve still is able to put the hurt on big models, but the payoff is a bit later. Going after a fresh henchman with 12 wounds can still be beneficial for Leve, as he can still do 6-10 wounds before damage prevention reliably. Just don't expect him to melt them in one go without good cards, and plan on only doing 2 damage per shot without triggers. Essentially his "flowchart" tends to be this now:

1. Buy a suit
• Rams for heavy targets
2. Channel
3. Attack for 4 damage or higher
4. Attack for 2 damage
• Buy a tome if it's a henchman/master
5. Attack for 2 damage.
• Save severe cards for last attack to ensure hit
• Buy a crow if target is a minion with 2 damage left
• Buy a tome if it's a henchman/master

There are a few alterations depending on every situation, but he's still a reliable source of damage, and you can anticipate around 8 damage on average and 6 in worst case scenarios. You just have to save a severe card for the damage you get when you channel, but if you're using the ram to open up a model then you don't need to use it. It's going to be hard to use a severe card for damage now outside of your only Channel attack. 

Another use that's come up with his new nerf is his ability to give Slow to models. This doesn't usually come up since he almost always kills what he shoots, but it will definitely become useful now that he's not guaranteed anything on heavy targets. Getting rid of that 1 AP may be what it takes to lessen the retaliation and ensure a kill next turn, especially if they can't walk to get in range.

I also tried using Ice Gamin summons for the Mechanical Rider instead of Metal Gamin. I figured with her ability being able to summon different models depending on the situation I should use Ice/Fire ones when there aren't constructs on the board. Their ability to explode for damage when they die can be very useful as a road block, and I can detonate them myself if I need pseudo-blast damage or an attack against high defense. It will be a great trick to pull on say, Lilith with 2 damage left for some reason. I did learn that I shouldn't use them against models with Obey abilities, as Huggy was sending them back to the Rider and blowing them up - her damage reduction does not work against this and she took a lot of damage from it. It's still useful, I just have to be more discerning as to which one I use.

Anyway, I'll leave you with my WIP on Sue. The pictures were hastily taken, so it's not the best ones of him. He also hasn't been matte varnished yet, so it's reflecting a lot of light that I won't have when I'm done. I essentially got him to tabletop standard before the tourney.

See ya!