Malifaux tournament report: Sins of the North (50SS); 25Jun2016

Last year I had the pleasure to attend the Kings of the North festival held at the Moor House Adventure Centre (i.e. a Scout camp) near Durham for 2 days of Malifaux goodness. After some reorganisations, the equivalent event took place this weekend, this time under the banner of Fated Festival. This post is about the story encounter run by Connor Barker on the Saturday.

The event was structured with three sets of three tables and some match-making jiggery-pokery to ensure that each player got to play on each of the sets once. In addition to the schemes and custom strategy for each table, there were other things that could be done to earn clues to a mystery. Winning the game was worth one clue, as was playing a fully painted crew, taking a certain pre-specified scheme from the pool (and scoring at least two points from it). Each table also had a special condition that variously affected the game state and allowed one player to get another clue. Finally, each master had a list of things to do for clues; for example one of Leveticus’s was to keep his favourite waif alive for the whole game.

Game 1: Outcasts (me) vs Outcast (Maria)

Strategy: Shindig; Handbags and Gladrags (like Squatter’s Right, but instead of tagging the marker you could pick them up and wander off with them); random deployment

Schemes
Pool: Convict Labour, Hunting Party, Exhaust Their Forces, Catch And Release, Search The Ruins
My Outcasts: Hunting Party, Search The Ruins
Maria’s Outcasts: Catch And Release, Hunting Party
Story scheme: Interact with a remarkably tough neural Performer in the middle of the board to get her to your deployment zone.

Crews
My Outcasts: Leveticus (Tally Sheet, Desolate Soul), 2 Hollow Waifs, Rusty Alyce (Desolate Soul), Freikorps Trapper, Freikorps Librarian, Johan, 2 Ronin, Hodgepodge Effigy
Maria’s Outcasts: Hamelin (Infectious Melodies, Piper, Sewer King), Stolen, Ama No Zako (Oathkeeper), Nix (Oathkeeper), Hodgepodge Emissary (Conflux of Plague), Iggy (Oathkeeper), Crooligan

Maria and I had been out for a nice run before the event, but getting back a bit late resulted in our being paired together. Between the Shindig and random deployment I didn’t really have any idea what would be good, so I just figured to take a straightforward crew for Leveticus that I knew I could make work. The advantage of this crew is that there are so many anchors that it can be tough to get rid of Leveticus permanently. I chose Hunting Party thinking that I could easily drop the Stolen and Crooligan, and that would force Maria to keep summoning other options for me to kill off for points. Search The Ruins felt like a good fit since I’d have to be in the middle of the board anyway.

Turn 1: Hmm, random deployment is a mess! My Ronin pushes the Performer my way. Nix tags her for Catch And Release. The other Ronin picks up a Squat marker on the right; the Emissary Blights her, tags her for the scheme and casually steals the marker off her. Johan picks up another Squat marker and Iggy sets him ablaze. Hamelin Obeys my Trapper to break the Shindig by shooting the Crooligan (scoring 2 points in the process), then Obeys the Crooligan twice to pick up a Squat marker and tag Johan. He finishes up by summoning a Stolen. Now that the gloves are off, Alyce guns down Iggy; Leveticus is foiled by bad cards trying to hurt the Emissary. Maria scores for Catch and Release.

Turn 2: Johan smites the Crooligan to score Hunting Party and the Emissary kills a Waif to do the same. Nix disengages and collects another Squat marker. The Trapper kills both Stolen (this was a mistake; I should have left them be and hoped to pick them off later with Johan or Alyce). The Blighted Ronin bounces off the surprisingly resilient Emissary. Hamelin Obeys Ama No Zako twice to collect another Squat marker and the Librarian takes the last one. Alyce and Leveticus fail to finish Nix. We both score for the strategy, Maria scores again on Catch and Release.

Turn 3: The Emissary hurts the Ronin and gives the Memento trinket to Nix; sadly it can’t push to within chain activation range. Leveticus polishes off Nix and knocks the Emissary down to a single wound. Ama No Zako drops Oathkeeper and charges in to kill the Trapper (Hunting Party). The right Ronin guts the Emissary and both Ronin do Seppuku (to stop Catch and Release). Hamelin Obeys Ama to collect the Squat marker dropped by Nix and flee; Johan charges in to put some big damage on her. We both score for the strategy again.

Turn 4: Johan Flurries to kill Ama No Zako. Hamelin walks over to pick up both Squat markers. My entire crew throw what they have at him, but it isn’t enough. One surviving rat runs to escape my crew. We both score again for the strategy.

Turn 5: Leveticus kills Hamelin but none of my crew can reach that rat who is denying me the points for Hunting Party. I do score for the strategy though. My Outcasts lose 8 – 9 (4 for the strategy, 1 for Hunting Party and 3 for Search The Ruins for me; 3 for the strategy, 2 for the Shindig, 2 for Hunting Party and 2 for Catch and Release for Maria).

As with every game against Maria, I had an absolutely wonderful time. Every move Maria makes seems to make my own game plan harder to achieve and she is so focused and aware of how she’ll score or deny VPs at all times. The move from Hamelin to break the Shindig by using Obey on my Trapper was very clever and really set the tone. My biggest mistake was wasting shots from the Trapper to kill Stolen in turn 2; I should have put them into Hamelin to either eat resource or soften him up for later. That would have given me more targets of opportunity for scoring Hunting Party. Everything else worked reasonably well; there was no danger of losing Leveticus to a mis-placed anchor or Waif. I had hoped to use the Tally Sheet / Hodgepodge Effigy / Abomination summoning machine in this game but somehow I just couldn’t get it going at all.

Game 2: Outcasts (me) vs Guild (David)

Strategy: Headhunter, normal deployment

Schemes
Pool: Convict Labour, Mark For Death, Show Of Force, Hunting Party, Undercover Entourage
Outcasts: Hunting Party, Undercover Entourage (Leveticus)
Guild: Hunting Party, Undercover Entourage (Joss)
Story scheme: Pick a piece of terrain in the far half of the board, then end the game with two scheme markers next to it

Crews
Outcasts: Leveticus (Tally Sheet, Desolate Soul), 2 Hollow Waifs, Taelor (Scramble), Freikorps Trapper, Freikorps Librarian, Johan, 2 Ronin, Hodgepodge Effigy
Guild: Hoffman (Arcanist Assets, On Site Assimilation, Field Mechanic), Joss, Mechanical Attendant, Ryle, Guardian, Mobile Toolkit, Howard Langston

I took exactly the same crew as before, only swapping in Taelor for an extra Relic Hammer at the expense of Alyce. Partly the reason for keeping mostly the same crew was for story reasons, but a crew with a good number of minions has a chance to pick up heads while the elites make sure there are plenty of heads lying around. Undercover Entourage on Leveticus is not hard to score (though it is quite easy to see coming) and I chose Hunting Party as there were only three targets and I felt that I could take them all out.

Turn 1: Hoffman is pulled forward by the Attendant. He Slows it, Power Loops Langston and the Guardian, then give Joss Hydraulics and Ryle Targeting Systems. Finally, he Machine Puppets both Ryle and Langston forward. The Trapper picks off the Mechanical Attendant. Ryle walks forward, pushes away from Joss and finds himself in range of two Waifs; he nearly guns them both down but they survive on one wound. The Toolkit puts armour on Langston who moves up right into my face (I was trying to tempt him in with Joss so I could apply Taelor but David didn’t take the bait); he pulls Hoffman with him. The Librarian shouts at Ryle.

Turn 2: Langston moves in and Flurries Johan; I let him die to Decapitate on the first attack as it was probably not worth the needed resources to keep him alive. Leveticus fails to kill Ryle. Joss hurts a Ronin; the Librarian finishes Ryle off. The Guardian Protects Joss. Hoffman Loops Langston Machine Puppets Joss to kill the Ronin (scoring a point for Hunting Party) and picks up a nearby head. The Ronin on the left is too far away from Ryle’s head to get it. Taelor smashes the Guardian for my Hunting Party. David scores Headhunter.

Turn 3: Langston bounces off Taelor; I was sympathetic for the big guy considering the effect that Leveticus had been making on the games so far. The Trapper drops the Mobile Toolkit to lock in the rest of my Hunting Party points and pushes to engage Hoffman. Hoffman Power Loops Joss, Slows him, Machine Puppets Joss a couple of times to kill the Trapper (scoring for Hunting Party) and picks up a head. My Effigy picks up Ryle’s head. Leveticus zaps a few wounds out of Joss, who runs for it. The Librarian and Taelor gang up to kill Langston. I get my Hunting Party point and we both score on the strategy.

Turn 4: Taelor kills Hoffman. Joss picks up a head and engages Leveticus, who hurts him but is careful not to give him Reactivate. The Effigy picks up another head. Leveticus reappears in David’s deployment zone as this is the last turn. Outcasts win 8 – 7 (2 for Headhunter, 3 for Hunting Party, 3 for Undercover Entourage for me; 3 for Headhunter, 2 for Hunting Party, 2 for Undercover Entourage for David).

David a lovely chap to play against and it is great to see him out at events again. The score was close here, but I think that I could have made a bigger differential if we’d made it to turn 5 as Joss wasn’t going to get to the end of another turn on two wounds left without Soulstones and facing down Taelor and Leveticus. I was a bit too cautious with the Ronin on the left at the start (I was afraid of getting her gunned down by Ryle) but in retrospect I should have been more aggressive; if she got killed I could have picked up her head and if not she’d have been in a better position the pick up his head and score for Headhunter on turn 2.

Game 3: Outcasts (me) vs Resurrectionists (Andrew)

Strategy: Stake A Claim, normal deployment

Schemes
Pool: Convict Labour, Show Of Force, Catch And Release, Exhaust Their Forces, Mark For Death
Outcasts: Convict Labour, Show Of Force
Resurrectionists: Show Of Force, Mark For Death
Story scheme: Models with one of the scheme conditions push toward a marker in the centre at the end of each turn; at the end the player with the fewest models within 6″ of the marker gets a clue

Crews
Outcasts: Leveticus (Tally Sheet, Desolate Soul), 2 Hollow Waifs, Taelor (Scramble), Freikorps Trapper, Freikorps Librarian, Johan, 2 Ronin, Hodgepodge Effigy
Resurrectionists: Dr Douglas McMourning (Moonlighting, Evidence Tampering, Plastic Surgery), Nurse, Flesh Construct, Zombie Chihuahua, Guild Autopsy, Sebastian (Transfusion, These Are Not Ours), Mortimer (Corpse Bloat, My Favourite Shovel), Rafkin (Transfusion)

I find this board really tricky to play on as it is full of awkward places to move to, mixed with great places to hide if only you can get to them. Facing McMourning I thought that Taelor remained a good option (I kept Scramble as I needed it for Show Of Force; I’m not sure that the extra move was really that helpful and might have been better with something else). With so many places to hide I planned to use my numerous crew to spread out and drop markers for Convict Labour on the way to putting down Claim markers. I hoped to use the Trapper to drop a Claim marker at the start of turn 2 as I didn’t have anything else that was going to be able to make it across the halfway line in time.

Turn 1: The Autopsy gets us underway by shooting the Trapper and flipping the Red Joker for damage, leaving him clinging to life. Rafkin throws yet more poison on the Flesh Construct, Mortimer drops various corpse markers and Sebastian summons a Canine Remains. The Nurse joins in the poison party on the Flesh Construct. The Trapper drops the Autopsy and the Librarian shoots the Flesh Construct. McMourning curses how awkward this board is to negotiate with pushes, and eventually kills the Trapper with scalpel to the face. Leveticus kills the Flesh Construct and summons an Abomination which moves in to annoy Rafkin and Mortimer.

Turn 2: Rafkin kills the Abomination. Leveticus kills the Canine Remains to summon another Abomination and puts a good number of wounds on Mortimer. The latter throws some poison onto Taelor and McMourning, finding himself stuck in an awkward corner, fails to Rancid Transplant Taelor. The Librarian kills Sebastian as Andrew forgot about Soulstoning damage. Johan kills the Nurse, and Taelor nearly kills Mortimer and pushes him away from the centre to stop him from scoring Show Of Force. The Abomination dies to poison and turns into a Canine Remains which is immediately charged and killed by Taelor with Welcome to Malifaux. I score for Show of Force and Convict Labour.

Turn 3: McMourning and Rafkin try to kill Taelor. Leveticus kills the Chihuahua and Mortimer, summoning Abominations from both. The Effigy puts down a Claim marker. Taelor and Johan kill McMourning and the Librarian kills Mortimer. Taelor eventually dies to Poison. I score for Stake A Claim and Convict Labour.

Turn 4: Johan charges Rafkin who hits back before Leveticus finishes the last Resurrectionist off. Outcasts win 7 – 0 (3 for Stake A Claim, 3 for Convict Labour and 1 for Show Of Force; nothing for Andrew).

That game was a lot of fun as we both tried to negotiate the challenges of the board, but Andrew was got his crew tangled up with each other and let me pick them off without reprisal; notably I was able to kill the Flesh Construct and Nurse for no risk. On my side, it all went pretty much to plan although I think that perhaps I should have taken a one-point upgrade on each of Johan and Taelor instead of Scramble on the latter to make Show Of Force a bit more realistic.

So once all the scores were in, the clues were read and various baffled players took their guesses at the story mystery, I managed to get one of them and come in second in the story game. I was probably somewhere around 4th or 5th in gaming terms. Connor put on a great event and I had a lovely time; the sheer amount of preparation work he had put in really paid off. So thanks to Connor for his great organisation, and thanks to Maria, David and Andrew for three fun games of Malifaux.

Painted Brutal Effigy

Here is the Brutal Effigy, symbol of the Guild for Malifaux. It’s a wonderful piece in the game, and could reasonably claim to fit into any crew. Even if it had no actions it is cheap, somewhat fast and quite durable, therefore making it a pretty good scheme runner. It does have fairly rubbish gun (though that can be handy from time to time) but most importantly can turbo-charge the crew’s master to heal when they do damage and draw cards when they kill enemies. In particular with Sonnia, this ability is amazing as she tends to splash damage over a wide number of enemies and is also very easy to hurt. In short, I would consider taking one of these in most Guild crews as it offers something for almost every occasion and is disproportionately tricky to dispatch.

I chose to paint this Brutal Effigy very simply, as befitting its status as a doll. There is no particular adornment, just red coat, brown clothes and brown coffin. I absolutely love the pose of the little chap with one hand on his pistol and the other pulling down the brim of his hat, doubtless to keep the High Noon sun out of his eyes.

Next on the painting table: the Guilty.

Painted Austringers

This pair of gentlemen are Guild Austringers for Malifaux. They are really, really good in the game; indeed they are one of the few pieces that I think could afford to be a whole soulstone (i.e. point) more expensive and still be worth it. Not only do they have a decent ranged attack which ignores line of sight, cover and (often) randomising into combats, but they also have an ability to move a friendly piece and let it take an interact action. The latter ability is golden in Malifaux, as this effectively means ‘push your model around and score points’. Strangely, they also pack a gun, though why anyone would use it over the bird is a mystery to me except in a handful of rare situations. In my experience one of these chaps is enough in a crew; however on the internet it seems that they are frequently recommended in pairs.

The miniatures are rather annoying and fiddly to put together, with lots of hanging straps etc. Of course, attaching the birds with their tiny spindly legs is the most prone to breakage and I am sure that it is only a matter of time before I’m re-gluing them together. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the detailed strapping I found them quite uninspiring to paint. Their coats are the same red as the rest of my Guild. I briefly considered painting the Malifaux Raptors in the colours of hyacinth macaws just to make them brighter, but I couldn’t find a way to do it without it being rather garish.

Next on the painting table: Brutal Effigy.

Painted Tara, Herald of Obliteration

Here is Tara, Herald of Obliteration. She is the first master I’ve painted up for my Outcast crews in Malifaux (though like her totem, Karina, she is also dual-faction to Resurrectionists). Tara is a mistress of time and her rules are mainly around manipulation of how many AP friendly and enemy models have. She also has a strong theme to bury models; on paper this looks like it should be very strong, but it is quite tricky to get to work as there are numerous stipulations on when and how it can be done. In addition, the enemy has only to pass a (fairly low) simple duel against a flat number to avoid it. My best use of the burying so far has been to take Killjoy, start with him buried, the fling him at the enemy crew to keep them busy while the rest of my crew score points. Overall, Tara seems to be regarded as a weak master in Outcasts; this might be true (after all, unless the balance in perfect then something is the weakest) but if so it is not by a big margin and she is certainly strong enough to play in tournaments and do well.

I was a bit stumped on how to paint Tara and after a couple of tests I ended up keeping her clothes simple and ‘realistic’ (i.e. not bright colours). I’m not really sure on the fluff as to why she has a giant monster arm, but it seemed like a good place to use for the pink that I’m using for my Outcasts theme. The photography is worse than usual; I couldn’t get the highlighting on her green coat to show up at all. It is hardly impressive of course, being intended for tabletop quality, but there was some work done on it.

Next on the painting table: Austringers.

Painted Gorten Grundback

This is Gorten Grundback (Gorten1 for future-proofing purposes), Mercenary Warcaster for Warmachine. I usually try to write a bit about how my miniatures perform for me in games at this point, but there is a new version of Warmachine coming out shortly so it seems a bit pointless. Anyway, the little chap has been fun to play in Warmachine second edition.

I stuck with green Warcaster armour to tie Gorten in with the other Mercenaries I’ve painted. I felt that greying hair fitted the receding hairline and distinguished feature of the Rhul-man. Since there was quite a lot of bling on both weapons I tried to mix up the colours a bit; normally I assume that weapons are meant to be functional (only) and therefore paint them monochromatic.

Next on the painting table: Tara, Herald of Obliteration.

Painted Karina

This is Karina, the totem for Tara’s crews in Malifaux. I use the pair as Outcasts but both Karina and Tara are dual-faction in Resurrectionists too in case I ever start to dabble in them. Karina is quite unusual for a totem in that she is expensive and neither Insignificant nor a Peon. She has a tolerable gun and some silly corner-case jank abilities that I never found a chance to use well, mainly related to buried models. Evidently Wyrd considered her to be a bit lack-lustre so she has a 0 soulstone upgrade to allow her to do some quite unusual summoning. In a few test games this has been quite handy, albeit highly dependent on getting lucky with card draw as she needs high crows to get it off. I don’t actually own any of the pieces that she can summon so I’ve never had an opportunity to try this in a tournament game. Overall, I’ve found I prefer the far-cheaper Malifaux child if Tara needs a totem at all, or a Freikorpsmann if I’m just looking for cheap gun.

Painting Karina was lovely. I decided early on that she needed a white dress; somewhere I my head I conflate her with a young Miss Havisham, eternally linked to her unused wedding gown. Since she’s only wearing one other item of clothing (apart from boots and one Michael Jackson-esque glove), it was clear that the ribbons would need to be the pink for this Outcast.

Next on the painting table: Gorten Grundback.