6/05/2015

Return of the Old Guard

Hey all,

Hope everyone has been doing well in the time since my last post - a little under a month ago.  Today I just have a few updates, as classes are well underway, so I haven't had all that much time to play anything but a few fleeting games of Malifaux.

First up, I did get a pair of demo games in with a friend of mine from my 40k-ing days.  He has been interested in starting Malifaux since we ran a few sessions of Through the Breach with him last fall.  So, he supplied the terrain and I threw some models on the table and we had a couple of go-rounds between the two of us.

First mission was a slightly modified Henchman Hardcore, which was 4 models at 20 SS each, Turf War and assassinate.  No second scheme, as in regular HH, but I decided it would be better to use Standard deployment and still start scoring on turn 2, rather than use close and score on turn 1.  Below are the crews I brought for him to use:

Sinscaptain's Spider Lair:

Widow Weaver
(2) Wicked Dolls
Teddy

<AUsome Friend> House of Gremlins:

Francois LaCroix
- Dirty Cheater
- Team Work
Bayou Gremlin
Burt Jebsen
Raphael LaCroix
- Team Work

Game went swimmingly.  He really got to enjoy using all of the amigos to run rampant over me.  He managed to knock Teddy out with a bang top of the second turn with Raphael.  Generally, it was a pretty standard game.  My dolls ran up, got shot.  Francois got into combat with the WW, and hacked her to bits before turn 5.  Called it a 5-3 win for the Gremlins.

He was hooked at this point, but wanted to try an actual game with a master.  So, I made the following lists for a 35SS game:

Sinscaptain's Traveling Troupe:

Collodi
- Bag of Props
- Strum the Threads
(3) Marionettes
Brutal Effigy
Beckoner
Teddy

<AUsome Friend> and the Kin:

Ophelia LaCroix
- Dirty Cheater
- Jug Rocket
- My Threatenin' Gun
(3) Young LaCroix
Francois LaCroix
- Show Off
- Team Work
Rami LaCroix
- Dirty Cheater
Raphael LaCroix
- Team Work

Strategy: Squatters Rights
Scheme Pool:  LITS, Distract, Murder Protege, Breakthrough, and something else.
Selected:  Because this was his second game, we played Distract and Murder Protege revealed.
Deployment:  Standard

This game was much more intense.  Playing a small point game with Collodi is not something that I don't have much practice with, and so that made for a rather interesting game against a list I designed for this point level in the Gremlins.  Teddy and the beckoner were quick to run up the board towards an exposed Raphael, who was promptly reduced to 1 HP thanks to a couple tugs at his strings.  Collodi and his blob of marionettes slow rolled up the board, sticking to LOS blocking terrain, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.  Collodi managed to get a slow off on Raphael and steal his first AP, forcing him to walk towards my horde of minions - and getting distracted by them.

Francois was about tired of Teddy being scary, and blew him off the board with some dumb luck and a red joker.  The lovely beckoner was quick to follow.  This left the rest of my crew in the hands of Collodi - who can easily handle a few models - and a couple of puppets, who get knocked down to a light breeze in my experience.  I was hanging tough at this point however, keeping the game 2-2, until he managed to nuke off all of my hitting power.  He managed to keep me off of the Squat markers, and then rack up some points for Murder Protege against Teddy.  We ended the game after Collodi was beat down by Francois and a vengeful Raphael.  7-2 win for Ophelia and the Kin.

Overall, my friend who I was running the demos for was really excited to get into the game, and has since picked up a Pandora crew - with a likely expansion into Lilith not far behind.  Mission accomplished!

A few days later, we decided to host a Malifaux night at one of my friend's place.  He was actually the guy that got me into Malifaux in the first place, but he hadn't had a game in over 6 months, so he was out of practice and asked for a re-introduction game, as I have been able to get many games in since I last saw him.

Sinscaptain's faction/master:  Neverborn - Collodi
Cricketmaster faction/master:  Guild - Perdita
Size:  50SS
Strategy:  Interference - Gaining Grounds 2015
Scheme Pool:  LITS, Bodyguard, Protect Territory, Outflank, Frame for Murder
Sinscaptain's schemes:  Protect Territory (revealed), Frame for Murder (Widow Weaver)
Cricketmaster's schemes:  Outflank (hidden), Frame for Murder (Papa Loco)

Sinscaptain's Carnivale of Pain

Collodi [4 Stone Cache]
- Bag of Props
- Strum the Threads
Widow Weaver
Teddy
(3) Marionettes
Brutal Effigy
Beckoner
(2) Depleted

Cricketmaster's Perdita + Death Marshals

Perdita [3 Stone Cache]
- Trick Shooting
Francisco
Nino
Papa Loco
Judge
- Flames of the Pit
(2) Death Marshals
Enslaved Nephillim

This was a crazy reintroduction to the game for CM.  Right off the bat we were going at it, with Depleted making a run for the informant.  Collodi stayed back with Brutal and a pair of Marionettes - who started putting out markers for Protect territory next to some hard cover, so they could focus up and let Collodi leech it off of them.  Teddy slunk around one edge of the table looking for a vector to get to the center.  Another marionette ran off on his own into a building, hopefully to be forgotten by my opponent so that he could sit there on a marker for the whole game as a back up plan.  Widow Weaver leapt forward into the middle of the table to paralyze Papa Loco, and then get shot to pieces by Nino, Perdita, and Francisco on turn 3, bagging me 3 points.  Perdita and Nino had set up shop in a building with great firing lanes over the center of the table, making the center a meat grinder for my crew.  Fransisco and Judge walked up the center of the board to try and get points off of the informant.  The Death Marshals ran off to go plant outflank markers.  Collodi managed to snipe a Death Marshal running across open space and kill him in a single go.  As the game began to come to a close, my center began to fold, after Papa Loco detonated himself (my opponent didn't realize that would not give him the points for Frame for Murder) and took my depleted down to one health each.  Nino and Perdita cleaned them out.  After trading silly moves back and forth for half a turn, Teddy ended up getting nuked by Francisco in a single activation.

For the rest of the game, a Death Marshal managed to kill the hidden Marionette, I kept summoning a stream of marionettes to defend my last few markers, and then a marionette made a mad dash in the last activation to get away from a load of combat and plant a second protect territory marker.  Game ended with that activation - thank goodness.  8-6 win for Collodi, if only thanks to grabbing all of my points from both schemes.  I managed to drop one of his outflank markers before the game ended, which saved me a point.  If I hadn't have been careful around Papa Loco, CM would have won 9-8.

Looking forward to getting much more Malifaux in over the summer - or as much as the semester will let me have.  If I only get a few more games in this summer, there is always this coming semester where I will have the weekly Malifaux group in Atlanta.

I am, as usual, looking for the next crew to get onto the table.  I am torn between picking up Somer Teeth Jones, Brewmaster, Lynch, or just grabbing some blisters for my existing crews - namely Merris LaCroix, Slop haulers, Waldgeists, and the new Widow Weaver.  More than likely, I will wait until Brewmaster is common to get by the end of the month, and picking up the new Widow Weaver and either Merris or Waldgeists to go with my crews.

Also, more than likely I will be participating in a slow grow 40k league - probably just repainting some CSM and letting them ride.  No way will I be buying any new models to go with them.  I am waiting with much trepidation for the next edition of WHF to come out, as are many people.  My Skaven are too large to have to deal with much change in the new edition, and I don't know if I really want to deal with that much change.  I have a solid system in Malifaux, which manages to scratch all of my current wargaming itches very easily.  We will see.

Until next time, happy gaming!

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