February 2013 - My Malifaux Roundup

Another month done already - surely not! It's been another frantic month on the hobby front, despite promises to slow it down, when you get inspired, you just have to jump on it. So how well did I do in my goal setting this month, well lets see:

Achievement - Unlocked - The ultimate beginners board experiment
Inspiration, or a compulsive madness overtook me in the middle of the month, when a combination of a tournament board i'd seen and idle hands lead to me designing, at least on paper, the ultimate Malifaux beginners board. I promptly got stuck in, dusting off some of my hoardings and buying some truly nerdy airfix kits from Ebay, with the intention of building the ultimate beginners board. Although I have until July to finish these boards, I'm hoping for continued progress next month.




Achievement - Locked - Paint up Izamu
I set myself the goal of painting up my first Malifaux model this month, Izamu. As I start to head into the zombie and undead side of the faction, where skin tones and outfits are less filigree and more dirty and bloodstained, I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable that I could paint these minis.

So how did I do? Well Izamu sits undercoated on my paint station, so not very well would be the answer there...




Achievement - Unlocked - Gaining Grounds 2013 experience
I wanted to get some exposure to gaining grounds 2013, so I could consider if it was going to have any affect on the tournament I'm planning to run later in the year. I also wanted to know if there were any real changes for my ultimate beginners board.

I tried desperately to find a time to meet up with our local henchman, but our calendars and real life were destined to get in the way. In the end, Wyrd beat me to it, releasing the updated PDF toward the end of the month. I set about trying out different combos both at my local gaming club and using vassal. the result was an article I published recently, with the changes I'd found in how gaining grounds plays. All up I'm very happy with the changes, although some of my combos need a little revision I think the changes will make for much more balanced tournaments.



Achievement - Unlocked - More experiences with Kirai
My first game with Kirai in our summer league and just my luck I get put up against my regular opponent, Mr Neverborn and team Jacob.

I'm still learning what Kirai is capable of, and that game was no exception, teaching me a thing or two about how to use Kirai and Datsu Ba when trying to claim objectives. I seriously considered using Kirai's reactivate on Datsu to get the APs she needed, but when I got distracted it fell to Datsu and I needed to move 6" and have two APs to interact with an evidence counter. My usual tactic of "no escaping" her into contact with one of my crew, just wasn't going to do it, but then I saw guide spirits and it occurred to me to cast it on Datsu, effectively giving her a free walk action for the turn. She hightailed it over to the evidence and immediately destroyed it, not that it won me the game, but it taught me something. I had similar experiences with my night terrors and my Shikome in that, and subsequent games, and I'm starting to better understand what each is capable of.

I also had one of my best games against Mr Arcanist, who just to confuse things, decided to play Guild and Sonnia no less. I went into the game sure of defeat, having heard how hard a matchup against Sonnia can be for Kirai. I did really well and was very pleased at how close the game was until, rereading my cards the next day, I realised I'd been summoning Shikome incorrectly. Undoubtedly the game would have been a lot harder for me if I'd been sacrificing two spirits, instead of one, for each Shikome I'd been summoning. Nonetheless it was an incredibly tight game and will standout as one of my favourites of all time.



Achievement - Locked - Photoshopping Kirai and Crew
I wanted to get my Kirai cards photoshopped with the colours of my painted crew but sadly it wasn't to be. My beginners board won hands down in the priority stakes this month.



And what of the usual surprises that a month of Malifaux brings? Well my good friend Mr Fantasy gave me a gift voucher for my birthday last month that I finally got round to cashing in. I thought seriously about buying a McMorning, but I really despise the sculpt and I'm not as smitten with his play style as other Resser masters. In the end I took a look at ten thunders and looked for compatible models for my Yan Lo boxed set. I settled on some Oiran, but there was still $10 left so I bought the ten thunders boxed set, some archers and granny thunders (name escapes me), which even using the ridiculously high exchange rates we have at the moment, still comes to over $10...... Plus shipping.... But whilst you know that, and I know that, lets not tell the misses that please....

So as my pile of shame threatens to become my room of shame, And with pva, wall paper and use of power tools calling, what will March be like for this Malifaux addict?



Well I have a one day achievement league/tourney I'll be participating in, along with a lot of the other boys from KRAGS. I also have my beginners board, that'll keep me busy, and between all these Mercs and Ten Thunders I have a hell of a lot of painting and assembly to be getting on with.

So another quiet month apparently!

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 3 - Basing, Textures and steampunk terrain

Another weekend down and some serious work on what will be my Arcanist themed board. I started by cutting up and laying out two complete sets of GW movement trays, to act a hard pavements. The intention with this board is to put down a number of surfaces that imply a hodgepodge of architectures. I imagine this to be an evolving rail or factory area for the Arcanists, something that has evolved over time and is their take on claiming old Malifaux. I want a mixture of new and old industrial apparatus, in a mixture of conditions, to imply this evolution. I'll throw in minimal natural resources, the odd broken tree stump, some ruined grass, maybe a polluted stream, to show these arcanists aren't one with Mother Nature.


I then went at the board using a selection of textured wallpaper I've hoarded over the years. I only had off cuts, so nothing's going to fill the entire board and besides that's not the theme I was going for. As I was doing this I was conscious of ensuring I still had adequate spaces for my Steampunk buildings that ill hopefully be receiving from Impudent Mortals Kickstarter within the month. (Below are a couple of examples)








I cut out template 4x6 and 6x8 shaped buildings on paper and checked that there was still spaces to place these in a modular form. Ultimately the board will have the textured paving area but it should still be possible to achieve different setups by keeping the buildings modular.


I've used three different wallpapers so far, one had a fantastic cobblestone pattern, which I cut up and will be using in conjunction with sand or snow to imply the oldest layer, probably some old Malifaux streets.

Then came an abstract pattern, which could easily be painted as a snow or sand texture, this will be the only natural area of the board.





There's also a black cloth material which has a more industrial cobble look to it, much tighter and uniformed. This was by far the hardest to fit and I'm not looking forward to fitting the rest of this, working with wallpaper is far more forgiving and easier, but is the one material I can source locally in abundance.



Lastly is this brownish wallpaper that I might use to represent an internal area, it looks a little more refined.


Then came a splurge on eBay, where I bought 30g of watch parts for converting buildings or making standalone machines and this old airfix kit for a bit of hard machinery and line of sight blocking.

Gaining Grounds 2013 - Summary of Changes

After much noise on the subject, and more than one TO releasing details in their players pack, Wyrd finally announced a revision to the Gaining Grounds Tournament play guidelines last week.

This is my take on the changes and for the record I think these are all for the better, but I'll come to that later.

Wyrd run vs henchman run and other organised play events
At first glance it appears Wyrd have their own set of guidelines for running events, called the governors decree. It looks like this is the hard line version, with many of the changes in player requirements that are listed below, unchanged. Maybe Wyrd has done this to demand the ultimate from its tournaments, although I'm struggling to remember one they've 'officially' run, or it could be a sign that they want to introduce their own events? Anywho...

Player requirements - the letter of the law
There's been some subtle and not so subtle changes in the player requirements for a tourney:
- Fate Decks are listed as needing to be official Wyrd decks, perhaps to make it easier on TOs to check and your opponent to understand, perhaps to try and scupper the custom fate deck options that are popping up on the forums. Either way, I can see most TO's ignoring this
- The use of proxy models is now at the discretion of the TO. Here in Australia there is a big conversion and proxy following, with most TO's ignored the wording in the original gaining grounds guide
- The use of pre release models is also now at TO discretion, and seems like a good move given the long release dates on GenCon models
- Painted crews is now at TO discretion, which I think is a good and bad thing. By allowing unpainted or primed models you include a bigger selection of players, but at the same time, there's nothing like playing against a beautifully painted crew.

Rounds and Timings
The only notable change seems to be in round timing with Wyrd still recommending 10 minutes for encounter setup but then adding 10 minutes to the recommended timings for each round. At the end of the day, that suits me fine, and I look forward to having a little more play time per round, but then I haven't looked at this from a TO perspective yet, to see how that might impact a daily schedule.

Crew Construction
Crew construction has been better defined where a pool is available to players, with a clearer set of rules around selection. Examples include how masters and henchmen are allotted to a pool and the role of avatars and summoned models. There's even two nice examples to follow, with one showing special force, mercenary and compatible models from other factions.

Tournament Formats
Tournament formats has received some if the biggest updates with the introduction of a replacement alternative format and much tighter wording, so there is no ambiguities.

In the original gaining grounds you had the following scoring formats:
Domination
Disparity
Accumulation

In gaining grounds 2013 you have:
Standard - scored on TP, then diff, then VP
Disparity - unchanged, scored on diff, VP, TP
Victory - scored on VP, Diff, TP
Attrition - scored using standard format, but games decrease in size as the day goes on.

Attrition is a format I'd love to try out, but it won't be the format I choose for our clubs first Malifaux tournament. I can see its a format you use when you have a large enough player base, but as attrition is probably best started with a brawl, its likely to only appeal to those with big collections.

Strategies
Strategies have undergone the most significant of changes with a much heavier emphasis on scoring victory points as the game progresses, rather than totalling up at the end. TOs can still choose between individual and shared variants, but the strategies as a whole have undergone quite a revamp.

In the original gaining grounds, the selections were:
Jokers Contain Power
1-2. Treasure Hunt
3-5. Destroy the Evidence
6-8. Reconnoiter
9-11. Claim Jump
12-13. Slaughter

Whereas in gaining grounds 2013, the selections are:
Jokers Contain Power
1-2. Treasure Hunt
3-5. Land Grab
6-8. Slaughter
9-11. Line in the Sand
12-13. Master of the Hill

The common names belie the changes in the missions, you'll want to familiarise yourself with all missions. The stand out changes come in Land Grab, a reworked version of Reconnoiter and Master of the Hill, a reworked version of Claim Jump with a hill.

I won't go into any more detail in this entry, but suffice it to say there's enough change that experienced players will be revisiting their tactics and new players benefit from tighter rules and wording. If nothing else, these changes will shakeup the tourney scene a little and will give us all something to think about in the coming months.

Three causes for celebration for this Aspiring Resurrectionist

That's right this week, with little fanfare, this blog celebrate 3 milestones...

50 posts!
2000 hits!
4 month anniversary!

That's a pretty big week and its incentivised me even more, now I just have to start winning some games and I'll really have something to really celebrate!

Looking forward though, I'm setting myself some objectives for this blog, as I don't want the content to become stagnant and I need to keep incentivised to deliver two-three posts per week.

So what can you expect, well I've laid the foundations, but you can expect:
- More battle and tournament reports because I'm playing on average twice a week and planning on attending at least three more tournaments this year
- More terrain building features as I've been bitten bad by that bug!
- More in the Mighty Minion and Loathesome Lackeys series, as I get to grips with what my crews and the other factions are capable of
- More in the photoshopping series, which is born out of the need to deal with so many duplicate sculpts - thank you Kirai!
- More in the promoting the game category, as our local scene needs a serious pick me up
- More news and reviews from the fringe, I want to get the message out about the things I'm finding that I think players could do with knowing
- More assembly guides, because let's face it, no instructions with Wyrd's plastics has got us all guessing
- More monthly round ups, more for me, as it keeps me going and ensures I have some targets. I'm all about targets (usually painted on my head during tourneys)
- More ultra combos, because let's face it, Ressers need help and if it works why not use it?

And some additions you can expect:
- Vassal review, tips and battle reports, my take on this evolving platform and my performance in the new world league
- Alternate sculpts ideas, as I seem to be finding a lot more of these recently
- A local scene guide, as I've had a couple of enquiries from those migrating to Australia, or just moving interstate
- Something from my regulars. Counterpoint articles on what my opponents think when building out their lists and combos against me.
- And whatever else I can dream up, or is suggested, so don't be shy. L et me know if there's something I'm missing or you'd like my take on.

And hopefully all of this will result in this blog hitting some targets by the end of its first year (again with the targets). I'd like to hit 120 posts, 5000 hits and 10 followers. Lets see how that all pans out when October 15th, the birthdate of this infamous blog, rolls round!

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 2 - Foundations Laid

This weekend after all the chores were out of the way, I finally got to start my new Malifaux boards. All I'm really doing is repurposing two old 40k boards but at the same time I want to add all of the embellishments that will open up the game to beginners.

The plan hasn't changed much since I outlined it last time, the only changes came from my very practical wife. Her advice was simple but is probably better understood when you've seen a few pictures so I'll save that for near the end of this article.

So a quick trip to Bunnings (Aussie DIY chain) and I had the majority of the bits I'd need for less than $30! I sat in store as they adeptly sliced up a 6x4" 6mm thick MDF panel, until I had all of the pieces I needed. Along with my boards I also picked up some plastic edging strip I intend to use to protect the board edges and some furniture pads to set the 3x3 on when its placed in the centre of the 4x4. The seating will slightly elevate the game board from the outer perimeter status and player surfaces, and allows me to make the game boards double sided. Now I just have to work out what my four boards are going to be!

Pictured below are a couple of early WIP shots. My old 4x4 urban board will be repainted black and the furniture pads inset for the 3x3 to sit on. The bare wood on top is the 6" player and status surfaces. These need a little planing down to fit snugly to the outer edge, whilst comfortably housing the 3x3 game board. I'll only fit these once I've painted them up.


Then there's the game boards, which I'm edging to protect from splitting, using 4.5mm plastic protective strip. I've used some PVA glue to lock it into place, but may need to tack down if that doesn't prove sufficient.


And board 1 all edged and ready to go...


But then comes the sage advice of the misses, who, ever the voice of reason (and caution where power tools and I are concerned), has always got one eye on my DIY projects.

Her advice:
I'll need to cut hand holds into the status boards to allow easy placement and removal of the inner gaming board.

I should consider some sort of handles or detachable shoulder strap to make carrying the full board easier, as its heavy to start with and is only going to get heavier with the player and status surfaces attached.


She's absolutely right of course and now I'm going to have to work out how to accommodate these things!

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 1 - Design

After a busy couple of weeks building my crystal canyon boards and helping to run a Fantasy tournament for KRAGS, I should be taking it easy. I should be getting stuck into painting Izamu. I should definitely be earning some brownie points with the Misses, but instead I'm getting excited about my next Malifaux board, and specifically about how to pimp it out and make the game more accessible to beginners.

I'd seen this board a couple of times when searching the web for inspiration, but when I saw it again last night, I resolved that the two 4x4 urban boards I'd done for 40k, that had been sat doing nothing for almost a year, needed to be repurposed for Malifaux.


If you look beyond the actual game surface area in the above picture you see clearly defined deployment areas, a turn counter and a few other embellishments. It's true that Faux is played on a 3x3, but when you get down to it, between crew cards, soulstones, counters and the whole kit and caboodle, you probably need a 4x4.

I think particularly when training new players, having sectionalised areas for crews, decks and a highly visible soulstone and victory point tracks makes all the difference. Therefore I've resolved that my next two boards should be based on my 4x4's and should, at the very least, have the following features:

Extra foot of length divided into two deck and crew management zones, two deck areas for your deck and discards and control hands.

Extra foot of width divided:
Side 1:
- Into soulstone and victory point trackers
- upto 10ss and distinguish scrap from brawl
- upto 10vp's to cover brawls
- separate tracks per player
- track points should be the size of a glass bead to allow beads
to be used as counters
- Turn counter
Side 2
- Section for individual or shared strategy cards
- Section for scheme cards per player
- location for crew specific counters and reserve/dead crew
members

The centre point on the board should be subtly marked for a 30mm counter, making placement of centre counter quick and simple.

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here's my crude mockup.


I was tempted to mark out deployment zones but I think that might prohibit these boards being used in a normal game or tournament environment. On the whole, I think this will open up the accessibility to newer players, but there is nothing here that would give an experienced player an edge. Hopefully it'll be a enjoyable experience for anyone using them.

As to what the actual play area may look like, well that my dear readers is a subject for another blog entry. All I will say is it will be an Arcanist themed affair and that I can't wait for my scenery from the Impudent Mortal Kickstarter to arrive.

Kirai Crew Commission Painted By TSOM

Now that I'm all caught up on my Cancon and Faux Pas event posts, I can turn my attention to the delivery I received yesterday.

As some of you know, I've been leaning on commission painting services to get my collection painted. The work I do really doesn't leave me with a lot of time and as such, I need others to bring my collection to life.

Just before Xmas I contacted Luke from The Sound of the Machines, a commission painting company operating out of Sydney. I explained that I wanted a commission that captured the original artwork for Kirai and crew, but that I also wanted duplicates to have alternate colours, so that I could photoshop the models to produce distinct cards.

Yesterday I took possession and without further ado, here is the fruits of their labours:


































I'm very happy with how they all turned out. The duplicate sculpts in particular are just distinct enough and use the same colour palette to make it easy to distinguish who is who.

My hat is off to Luke and his team who provided a great service from start to finish. I can't wait to get these minis to a game or two!

Malifaux Terrain Board - Crystal Canyons

Well as I hinted at in my January roundup the Crystal Canyons boards are now complete. Below are some shots taken as a preview and some taken of all the boards I've prepared, taken at various times during our Faux Pas night.

It's intesting that when I previewed these boards several people came back with the honest feedback that the terrain was a little sparse and would favour ranged crews. The simple solution was to add an extra mesa to each table. You can see in the last photo that adding a third LOS blocker has made all the difference and although it was getting tempting to add a fourth or fifth, two factors stopped me. Firstly it was cost prohibitive adding another $70-80 dollars to a table. Secondly I've always believed that terrain looks best when there's an odd number of each component on the board. You tend to get less symmetrical shapes and players tend to think a bit more about placement.



















The boards themselves are 3mm 3x3 sized topper boards. They can be that thin because they are laid on the clubs 4x4 boards. They were undercoated black and then heavily sprayed with brown before adding bursts of red, a desert yellow and a greyish colour. The bursts help to break up the flatness of the board, but still make it a simple job to repaint as they take wear and tear.

The crystals are from the gale force nine range and were black undercoated, liberally painted in imperial purple before highlights in layers of liche and warlock purples.

The mesas are also gale force nine terrain and only really had grass tufts applied, they come painted as you see them. I added the tufts to all pieces of terrain to give some synergy between the crystal formations and the badlands terrain.

The other pictures are of other boards I've delivered, the shady rest cemetery and settlement boards use a mixture of GW, Rendra and gales force nine terrain.

January 2013 - My Malifaux Roundup

January 2013, my birthday month and also one of the hottest months of the Australian summer. It's usually hot and sultry all month, which can seriously hinder your painting time and does tend to drain you. No matter what's going on outside though, this Resurrectionist was busy inside preparing for the onslaught of games that awaited me this month.

So how did my goal setting go this month, well lets see:

Achievement - Unlocked - Lots of practice games
Lots of practice games came from the local Rolling Thunder league we had here in Perth. I decided at the last minute to swap out Seamus for Kirai and that had a massive effect on my league games. I had a lot to learn and I'm really liking her play style. I can't wait to get my commission painted crew back as the filler in crew is a bit limiting.

I also got games in care of Vassal and the worldwide league. Playing on vassal is an interesting experience but is a fantastic way to play if you don't have a regular group or you want to break out of your local meta. I've already gone up against a couple of crews I'd never normally play against and it's nice to get games in during those dead evenings during the week.

Lastly in the week proceeding Cancon I scored three practice games which resulted in three loses for me. Hardly surprising given the caliber of my opponents and that I'm still cutting my teeth with Kirai but it was still a bit of a dent to my ego.

Achievement - Unlocked - Don't come last at Cancon
Well as my last two posts will testify I didn't come last at Gencon. In the day 1 gaining grounds tourney I managed 14th out of 20 and on day 2 I managed a more disappointing 18th out 20. The caliber of players was very high and my hat is off to the winners who obviously play a lot of Malifaux! On the whole I'm happy with how I did but there's plenty of room for improvement.

Achievement - Unlocked - Finish Crystal Canyons game boards

Well as the pics will testify, the crystal canyons boards are now all but complete. There's a couple of little details I'll add to the campsite, I want to add a wagon, a campfire and maybe some crates. You'll be able to read more on how this came together in a post early in February.








And then there were the surprises that a month in Malifaux brings. Well the pile of shame didn't see a dent this month, instead Yan Lo and Lucas were added and I have my eye on some red translucent bases and some guild riflemen.

February promises to be a little different. I could be receiving my terrain from my first Kickstarter, so rather than go game crazy, next month I'll be throttling back a bit and getting another board started. This time it's an Arcanist focused board, that I'm super excited about, so keep tuned to this blog to see how that turns out.

I'll also be assembling Yan Lo and painting my first Malifaux mini - Izamu.

I'll also be receiving my painted Kirai crew, so lots to look forward to as more masters and minions become available.

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.