Malifaux Tournament Report - Cancon Day 2 - Wins, Losses & Draws

The theme for day 2 was to play a 50ss brawl with two masters and then play two games, using each of the masters you'd taken into the brawl o head up one of the 35ss scraps. I choose Seamus and Kiari as I had little or no experience or confidence using Molly as a master.

So closing out day 2, my first ever brawl and two bigger point games, how did I do, well lets see.


Game 1 - Dave - Seamus & Kirai vs Nicodem & Kirai
Brawl
Shared Destroy the Evidence

Crews
Me - Seamus, Kirai, 5 Seishin, 2 crooked men, drowned, dead rider, graveyard spirit, lost love, Datsu Ba, Gaki, Avatar Seamus

Dave - Nicodem, Kirai, 4 canine remains, desperate merc, Sebastian, Dead Rider, Graveyard Spirit, Lost Love, 2 insidious madness, drowned

My strategies
Stake a Claim
Bodyguard (Kirai)

My opponents strategies
Stake a Claim
Assassinate (Seamus)

Game Summary & Outcome
After watching Dave slaughter four canines and a merc in two activations to get himself five corpses and five Seishin, I had to wonder what was coming next and wasn't surprised when two insidious madness ran up either flank to grab objectives. A perfectly thought out strategy that would allow Dave to capitalise in turn 2 unless I could get the drop on those outriders.

We both linked the graveyard spirit to our dead riders and then piled the rest of our minions on towards the centre evidence marker.

Turn 2 saw Dave win initiative and he immediate jumped on one evidence marker before leaping that madness forward for the evidence marker in my deployment zone. I skilled that with a couple of crooked men's eyeing little point in stopping the second, given how many minions were almost directly behind it.

I spent a lot of turn two trying to neautralise two threats, the dead rider and the drowned. Because of the way I had Kirai deployed if Dave had gotten off riptide, even once, it would have of devastated her Seishin and I wanted it dead to avoid that happening now or insusbsequent turns, where I might not have Seishin beacon raised. I was eventually forced to sent Datsu in and she did a good job of paralysing and in the next turn killing the drowned before she got totally mobbed by raised punk zombies and flesh constructs. I was desperate to get initiative and either pull her out, or when my cards failed me to get her two action two strike all combatants within 2" off, the damaged she might have done would have made up for me wasting her but sadly I lost that initiative as well.

Meanwhile both my dead rider and Seamus were taking the brunt of it with summoned Shikome needing to taken out to clear a path to my objectives. I was whittled down of turns two and three with Dave strengthening his position in the centre.

The final swan song came when Seamus bought it, Kirai was forced to flee and only the timely death of a Shikome allowed the dead rider to break through. We both had our objectives in the centre, Dave had broken though to get his objective in my deployment zone and his stake a claim, he was on ten VPs and I think he was a little gracious in letting my lost love get my claim and my dead rider trying to take out his lost love to get the evidence marker in his deployment zone. Unfortunately for me his lost love out up a valiant fight and denied me the APs I needed to get that last objective.

In the end it was a 10-7 loss to me, but still a fantastic game.

Learnings
Where to start, I certainly learnt a lot by playing a very experienced Resser player, thanks to Dave for the many lessons.

- Graveyard Spirit cannot link to Seamus, he's not undead and I really should learn to read my cards better!
- When it comes to remembering how many actions Kirai has taken there's nothing like the bingo dabber approach. Simply put a little mark on the back of the card next to the entries used and only wipe off when it's her next activation - it quickly reminded me if I'd put spirit and pitiful back on the her as part of her two zero and two one actions
- Nicodem and Kirai can effectively double dip if you start with a pool of canine remains, which you slaughter within range of both. Nicodem gets corpses and Kiri get Seishin
- A defensive stance flip doesn't have to accept the highest card, you can use defensive stance on a minion you intend to kill, flip three cards and take the lowest, thereby ensuring their fate
- Insidious madness's can be excellent objective grabbers in a large sized battle, they are very fast spirits



Game 2 - Peter - Collette vs Seamus
Shared Claim Jump

Crews
Seamus, Avatar Seamus, 3 drowned, 3 crooked men, rotten belle

Colette, Cassandra, performer and mannequin , 2 coryphee, 2 mechanical doves

My strategies
Kill Protégée (Cassandra)
Eye for an Eye

My opponents strategies
Perfect Performance (I think)

Game Summary & Outcome
I went into this game a little to trigger happy with the simple plan of shooting up those showgirls when they made their move on the claim jump. The drowned lead the way with the crooked men branching off slightly to act as a second wave, and Seamus and the belle following, ready to help out where they could.

The coryphee duet soon came bouncing into my lines forcing me to sacrifice two drowned over a couple of turns but every time I did damaged they old find a way to pass it on to another girl or spin just out of range.

Seamus came up a and made sure to get his avatar requirements off before shooting the performer. In return the drowned received a couple of mechanical dove hand grenades to the face, felling a second for very little advantage.

I think I must have taken the bate because my crooked men and Seamus became embroiled in a slug rest near the left side of the board whilst Cassandra and a mannequin were able to own what few models I'd been able to send peace meal towards the claim jump.

In the end I got eye for an eye off but lost out on the claim jump. Peter got off his scheme for a 6-2 loss for me.

Learnings
- Coryphee Duet is a tough model to combat. I'd tried to pin it in combat only to have it swapped out with another showgirl and I'd tried to one shot it with Seamus, neither had worked, if only I could have gone avatar on that bad girl
- Drowned aren't the solution against this crew, they're slow and because the crew doesn't need to bunch up, its better to invest in something different next time, probably into punk zombies
- Mechanical doves make excellent hand grenades, I need to look out for this tactic next time
- Next time I go up against Colette, remember she can take time to play, it's best to get on with your objective, as a activation can eat into your time limit



Game 3 - Todd - Nicodem vs Kirai
Shared Treasure Hunt

Crews
Kirai, 5 Seishin, canine remains, Lost Love, Datsu Ba, 2 drowned.

Nicodem, rotten belle, 2 punk samurai, 2 canine remains, dead rider, graveyard spirit

My strategies
Breakthrough
Exterminate (undead) - what was I thinking?...

My opponents strategies
Holdout

Game Summary & Outcome
With this being the Gencon variant I was expecting a blood bath and I wanted to try out some different tactics. With the drowned managing to scare me so much in game one and not really doing me any favours in game two, I decided to give them one more outing.

When Todd lunged at the treasure with canine remains and threatened to own anything that was set on them with his dead rider, I sent in the drowned and a shikome to see what could be done. The Shikome killed the dogs in no small order but it was soon set upon by the dead rider. My drowned were hit hard by Nicodems decay, with one falling and the other following in turn two for little or nothing in return.

I progressively traded up Seishin for another Shikome and Ikiryo (twice) but was getting to bogged down trying to hold the treasure. With Kirai exposed and no way to hold the treasure I lunged the Shikome for Todds deployment zone and pulled Kirai back.

In the end a couple of belle lures and a punk zombie just finished my Shikome, in Todds deployment zone, just as time was called, leaving Kirai with the lost love and very little else to show for it.

A 6-0 loss to me and my thanks to Todd for going over a lot of Nicodems tactics during the game.

Learnings
- The cb bonus that Nicodems bolster undead spell grants can turn any run of the mill minion into a one man killing machine
- I really like punk zombies, I need some!
- Nicodem's decay spell is lethal on drowned and against bunched up spirits in general. I need to find a way to combat or avoid long range magical blast damage.

Final Thoughts
Well Cancon was certainly an experience and a good one at that. It was a fantastic learning curve and a great opportunity to play against some of the best in Australia. I still have a long way to go before I'm of that caliber.

Would I do it again? Well in short, if tickets went on sale tomorrow, I'd be there front and centre, absolutely no doubt about it. Playing in an exhibition environment, rather than a dedicated tourney gave me an opportunity to catchup with friends, make some new ones, get some ideas for new boards and of course make some arbitrary purchases at the great many stands available.

It's also a slice of a life I think some gamers can take for granted. The great distances mean I'm rarely if ever going to be able to attend a GenCon, but Cancon at least gives me a flavour of what such an event must be like, and it feels good to be supporting something that will continue to grow and show off the best that Australia has to offer the gaming scene.

Malifaux Tournament Report - Cancon Day 1 - Wins, Losses & Draws

With the four games that made up the tournament under my belt, how did I do?, well lets see.

This post is being typed up a couple of days after the event (I was too busy having fun) so details may not be entirely accurate.


Game 1 - Jason - Misaki vs Seamus
Shared Reconnoiter

My schemes
Claim Jump
Frame for Murder (graveyard spirit)

My opponents schemes
Claim Jump
Grudge

Crews
Seamus, Graveyard Spirit, Belle, 2 Night Terrors, 2 Crooked Men, Canine Remains, Drowned

Misaki, Yamaziko, Ototo, Shang, 2 Torakage

Game Summary & Outcome
Misaki and Co are incredibly fast and downright lethal in close combat, but I think my strategy of avoiding combat worked to a degree. We spent a couple of turns dancing round each other with Toros burying before an ambush almost caught a raised dead doxy and two night terrors from getting near my stake a claim. I could see Misaki and Yamaziko would be in charge range next turn and I found the doxy was just out of melee range, so she took a walk backwards and fired her derringer into the combat. It hit the night terror but failed to wound, but it had the desired result because now my night terrors could use their action 'attracted to noise' to push out of combat and regroup before flock hopping their way over to my claim.

With the majority of the Misaki crew now activated I chose to activate Seamus, walk and shoot Yamaziko with his flintlock. I cheated up my total, got a straight flip and then cheated that with a red joker to inflict a severe and weak for 11 wounds. Not even her ability to use soulstones could save her and I used the resulting corpse to raise a rotten belle.

It didn't all go my way however, with a crooked man and drowned dying pointlessly to ninja combats and Shang making it very difficult for me to maintain my stake a claim.

I had no choice but to send Seamus scurrying after Misaki in the last couple of turns, but I was relatively confident she couldn't kill me. I think Jason had expended his cache at that point, and Seamus had 5 or so stones left. I regretted not having the belle pursue, as a lure on Misaki might have stopped her getting into contact with her stake a claim and I just couldn't do enough damage, or get close enough, with Seamus.

In the end it was a 6-3 loss to me, but the result i think belies how close the game was.

Learnings
- Misaki can cover a lot of ground, giving her something like a 15" charge range
- Shang is a nice little totem, he has respectable damage on both ranged and close combat attacks and is not to be underestimated
- The toro bury tactic gives them the ability to pop up in the start closing phase within 6 of another friendly. This is a fantastic ambush tactic and one to be avoided. I was very lucky that it was my night terrors that got ambushed!
- I think I missed out on a lot of what Misaki is capable of, as Jason put almost everything he had, after that initial contact, into movement to own the board.
- The graveyard spirit being insignificant cost me control of one table quarter on count back, although on reflection I'm sure Seamus got off Excessive Bleeding on one of Jason's crew and I forgot to action it



Game 2 - Andre - Seamus vs Perdita
Shared Destroy the Evidence

My schemes
Breakthrough (not announced)
Grudge (Exorcist)

My opponents schemes
Grudge (Copycat Killer)
Raid

Crews
Seamus, 2 Night terrors, 4 canine remains, Bette Noir, Copycat Killer.

Perdita, Peacekeeper, Exorcist, Santiago, Watcher, Judge

Game Summary & Outcome
This was the Gencon variant of DtE, so no destroying counters in turn 1.

The canine remains and Seamus ran up the centre, dodging a building and a forest to make a start on the closest objective. We had the majority of our objectives centred on the board and it was obviously going to be a blood bath. Andre advanced Perdita and the peacekeeper but the sudden movement of my night terrors on the right flank made him stop from committing his Exorcist and Santiago to the fight. In the centre I traded up one dog for a belle and sent the remaining three to keep the peacekeeper busy. Seamus and the belle got bogged down by Perdita and it was only when the dogs started dying the I got an opportunity to raise Bette and go at the peacekeeper with groin strikes. It took a couple of turns but I finally felled the behemoth, which is just as well, as Andrew had just wandered the peacekeeper into range of the copycat killer and was in danger of getting his grudge off.

Perdita broke away from combat and used her actions to walk clear into my deployment zone. I had no choice but to pursue with Seamus and a true Mexican standoff with the flintlock and a soulstone proved to fast for Perdita.

Meanwhile my night terrors, clearly outclassed by Santiago and the exorcist, settled for hunkering down in Andre's deployment zone and missing out on the last evidence marker.

In the end a 3-1 win to me.

Learnings
- A pack of canine remains is quite effective in close combat. Three managed to pick off something like 5 wounds from a peacekeeper and the debuff they do to defence when they pack together is quite effective
- Perdita can be very fast on her feet if she sacrifices her shooting she can move 15"
- Perdita's faster n you is triggered by charges or ranged shots, simply walking up to her and then using subsequent actions to melee strike bypasses her ability
- Bette Noir with a canine remains deployment system is quite effective, her groin strike did in a peacekeeper quite effectively and it can sometimes be safe to leave her in a combat but I still believe its safest to ensure you have the bury card in your hand before deciding if its time to summon her.
- I'm not sure I'd go with four dogs in one list again for this scenario. Sure they can destroy evidence (when there's two of them) but you must keep them huddled together, making them susceptible to a blast. Had they all died to a blast, Seamus isn't a good summoner and he would have struggled to recover the crew strength



Game 3 - Steve - Seamus vs Zoraida & Collodi
Shared Slaughter

My schemes
Assassinate (Collodi)

My opponents schemes
Assassinate (Seamus)

Crews
Seamus, Avatar Seamus, 3 Drowned, Graveyard Spirit, Bette Noir

Zoraida, Collodi, Lilitu, Lelu, 4 marionettes, 1 wicked doll

Game Summary & Outcome
Playing on a t-clips sewers board was a first and we had to work out what affect the sewage had in game terms on movement, opting to play it as severe we got down to it. I hunkered down waiting whilst Collodi and his dolls pushed and pulled their way over to me in two turns. I could see the twins were looking to outflank me, but I thought I could do enough damage to the dolls with my drowned and it almost worked. The drowned only got rip tide off once or twice before they were being swamped with dolls. The slaughter score just kept going up when I was forced to sacrifice the drowned to get bursting spray off on the killer dolls, but it was still fairly even.

Seamus went avatar after killing Lilitu and just managed to finish Lelu before being finished off by dolls. Again the laughter score was pretty even. Zoraida, who had been on doll production duties, chose that point to raven over although her presence wasn't necessary.

Bette appeared, through the death of Seamus, and finished off a couple of dolls but then got knifed in the back to give Steve the slaughter result and to completely table me.

Result 6-0 loss to me.

Learnings
- I got carried away with the runaway success I'd had with Bette in the last game and wasted 9ss here. She could only be raised by Seamus or Zoraida dying and whilst she did get vengeance for Seamus's death, a couple of crooked men, or better yet, some punk zombies, would have been a lot nicer.
- Drowned were quite effective at killing wicked dolls but the three wounds on a marionette saved them from instant death and then Collodi would just heal them up before sending them right back at me again.
- Pulses don't go through walls. It sounds obvious but when you're hoping to kill dolls and they are hunkered down in an adjacent room, that wall is going to get in the way!
- When you can't find an effective scheme, buy yourself five extra soulstones by dropping it. Another minion here might have helped bolster the defence and stop me from being tabled



Game 4 - Peter - Kirai vs Lady J
Shared Treasure Hunt

My schemes
Holdout
Bodyguard

My opponents strategies
Holdout (not announced)

Crews
Kirai, 5 Seishin, 2 Night Terrors, Gaki, Lost Love, Datsu-Ba

Lady J, Watcher, Austringer, Judge, 2 Witchlings, Desperate Merc

Game Summary & Outcome
When I saw the board and realised where the treasure was I immediately thought of Kirai. This board had one central street, which the treasure would be placed smack bang in the middle of. The buildings all ran down the street and I figured, if I went up the street in broad daylight I'd get cut to ribbons, so why not walk straight through those walls and stay in cover for as long as possible.

I flock hopped two night terrors, with the Gaki for support, up the right and took a more cautious summoning route on the left with Kirai, bringing up an Onryo and moving it and Datsu up on point to support the Terrors when they made their move.

Peter imarched most of his crew down the road and sent the Austringer and watcher up to higher ground.

We advanced and in turn 2 one of judges denied my terrors the treasure, so I swarmed it it with the terrors and brought up the Gaki. Lady J felled the Gaki and Peter started to reinforce his position around the treasure.

The Austringer fired off a couple of eagles, with those birds flying in doors and windows to get at my crew, but didn't do too much damage.

I summoned another Onryo and an Ikiryo and went out in the open to duke it out. We traded blows with Peter killing a Gaki and an Onryo and me killing a Witchling and hurting a judge.

Whilst this was going on, I could see the desperate merc advancing down a parallel street but I couldn't see it's purpose so I ignored it, figuring it would die at the end of turn 3. Peter proved me wrong when he burnt two soul stones to keep the merc alive and ran him clear into my deployment zone.

With Kirai near the back I launched her and her remaining Seishin at the merc but I was too far off to do anything. Meanwhile the centre of the board had become a bloodbath, denying us both the treasure.

In the end it was a 2-1 win to me.

Learnings
- Austringers ignore LOS and can be hitting you in turn two from 20 inches away if they want.
- If you're playing the Gencon version of treasure hunt, where you can't pick up the treasure in turn 1, then expect a pitched battle. I debate if using fast moving units like night terrors or canine remains is worth it. The ensuing brawl in the middle for the treasure needs some heavy hitters and your fast moving units are best left at home.
- Desperate Mercs can be more than a three turn wonder. In our game the merc was bolstered by two soulstones to keep him in the game and make him significant. This was used very effectively as I'd completely ignored the merc, believing it would die, instead it ran clear into my deployment zone to deny me holdout.

Tournament Roundup
So in the end two small wins and two quite large losses. Even so it was enough to place me 16th, so I accomplished my goal of not coming last.

It was a fantastic event and I'm really happy I attended. That said, day 2 was looming and with it my first brawl and two bigger games. How I did there will be the subject of my next post.

Cancon - Scoping out the opposition - Malifaux Tournament Report Part 2

There's still a few minutes before our burgeoning flight of gaming geeks hurtles into the air and whilst the misses cleans her camera lenses for probably the dozenth time, I sit slurping my coffee, finishing my Breakfast of Champions (Full English Fry up) and going over my sources of intelligence on the opposition at Cancon.

As someone, probably famous, and almost certainly a pessimist once put it, preparation and planning, prevents piss poor performance. The 6 P's. As I mop up the last of that breakfast with my slice of fried bread (anyone hungry yet) and equally glutton on the free wifi, I thought I'd share with you the sources of this intelligence. For you see nestled in the painting blogs and the inevitable tournament trash talk threads, certain truths can be glistened, like a prospector in the riverbed, panning the mud to find the pure gold.

Ok, enough of the breakfast talk and analogies.

So what do I know of the competition? Well I know at least eight of the crews out there, getting on for forty percent of the field of play, and I know a lot about the composition of those crews, despite this being a fixed faction, open master tournament.

From the painting threads I've been able to glisten that this rather beautifully painted Jacob crew will be in attendance and the painter was kind enough to even show his second master and say this was the total of his pool for the tourny. I have mixed feelings about going up against this crew. The painting is spectacular and it would be a joy to play against, but I wouldn't stand a chance against this one in a brawl and I'm still struggling against Jacob and Co in general.

in the pics below the painter has substituted Avatar Collette for Beckoners, making his second master Pandora, click on the images for a close up.








It turns out they'll likely be more than one in the team Jacob camp, with the painter behind this second variant dubbing him Colonel Sanders. You can see the resemblance and I wonder if he'll go as far as docking Huggy up to be a chicken or rooster.












Also on the painting threads was this Hoffman crew, which I have to say I love the blue scheme for. Again nothing there I want to face though, especially with Kirai, who lost 20ss of spirits in one activation to the Hoff in my last game.

I also know of at least one, probably two Mei Feng crews and a Misaki crew












Then comes the less tangible intelligence from the trash talk threads that tells me that I'm almost certainly facing.

There's a Collodi crew, which I'd love to play against, as I think I know exactly how to combat him. There's also a Marcus crew and possibly a Lucas crew.

Whether knowing any of this helps me remains to be seen, I suspect not, but it'll give me some areas to reread on the six hour flight and hopefully its given you some eye candy pics and maybe some inspiration for your crews.