Malifaux tournament report: Malfunctional (50SS); 10Jun2017

I took the train all alone over to Common Ground Games in Stirling for the Malfunctional Malifaux event. The regular tournaments run by 2G1P attract folks from across Scotland and go from strength to strength thanks to organiser Kai and the others from the club. After some discussion within the FB group this event was increased to four rounds as the number of players meant that it would be unlikely to generate a clear winner after three. This is good news from me; the more Malifaux the better as far as I’m concerned.

Game 1: Neverborn (me) vs Arcanists (David Kerr Smith)

Strategy: Reckoning, corner deployment

Schemes
Pool: Claim Jump, Eliminate The Leadership, Leave Your Mark, Recover Evidence, Mark For Death
Neverborn: Claim Jump, Eliminate The Leadership
Arcanists: Leave Your Mark, Mark For Death

Crews
Neverborn: Pandora (The Box Opens, Fears Given Form), Barbaros, Nekima (One Thousand Faces), 2 Illuminated, Beckoner, Primordial Magic
Arcanists: Ramos (Under Pressure, Arcane Reservoir, Field Generator), Joss (Warding Runes, Bleeding Edge Tech), Soulstone Miner, Brass Arachnid, Firestarter (Imbued Energies, Imbued Protection), Arcane Effigy, Steam Arachnid

David was the first person I ever played in a Malifaux tournament game, all the way back the Blood, Steel and Stones event. Lately, after a long lay-off from Malifaux, he’s been getting back into the game and has joined our regular gaming night to get his hand back in. I took a small and somewhat tough crew to try to avoid giving up Reckoning points too easily; Pandora was picked quite arbitrarily and I could just as easily have favoured Lilith here. I was rather surprised to see that David picked Ramos for this strategy and had been expecting him to take Kaeris (another favourite) instead as I feel that Ramos’s biggest strength is his summoning; which of course is less useful in Reckoning. None of the schemes really appealed so I took Claim Jump on the basis that at least it would be in my control and eventually settled on Eliminate The Leadership thinking that, as tough as Ramos is to kill, I might somehow get to him as I waded through his crew.

Turn 1: The Steam Arachnid scuttles forward, followed by Joss who carves it neatly into two scrap counters. Ramos duly turns this into a trio of Steam Arachnids which themselves eventually form a Steam Arachnid Swarm. Pandora triple walks across the table (the indignity!) and Incites both the Arcane Effigy and Joss to begin Operation: Get In The Way. The Soulstone Miner appears behind a tree on the left side of the board.

Turn 2: Joss is forced to go first while he has the Swarm blocking his charge on Pandora so he misses a Focused shot at her. The Beckoner Lures the Firestarter in and makes him Brilliant, then the Illuminated smites him while the Arcane Effigy is obliged to activate and achieve nothing. Finally free to actually activate according to David’s wishes, Ramos summons another three Steam Arachnids. Pandora scoots into the middle of the neat cluster of Arcanists that has formed and I introduce David to the pleasure of three Inflict actions. This eventually kills the Brass Arachnid and one of the newly summoned Steam Arachnids, but more importantly mills most of the good cards out of David’s hand. Nekima kills the Fiestarter, Barbaros and the other Illuminated drop scheme markers and the rest of David’s crew flail uselessly at Pandora. I score for Reckoning and Claim Jump.

Turn 3: Barbaros puts up Challenge and charges into the Swarm for minimal effect. The Incited Effigy mucks about a bit then the Beckoner Lures the Miner toward her. Joss misses a couple of attacks on Barbaros and Pandora uses Inflict to eventually finish off the Effigy and put a few wounds on most of the crew. Ramos summons another three Arachnids and Black Jokers a shot at Barbaros. Nekima carves up the Soulstone Miner and the right Illuminated kills one Steam Arachnid while the rest of them completely fail to land a hit on Barbaros. I score again for Reckoning and Claim Jump.

Turn 4: Barbaros pushes Joss back to keep him away, then kills another of the endless Steam Arachnids. Ramos summons two more of them and puts up Arcing Screen. Pandora Inflicts a few more times as the damage starts to mount up. Steam Arachnids continue to bounce ineffectually off Barbaros, who is living a charmed life; the Swarm helpfully Black Jokers damage on him at some point too. This is the last turn, so Nekima and one Illuminated head off to deny points for Leave Your Mark. I score for the strategy and Claim Jump one more time. Neverborn win 6 – 0 (3 for Reckoning and 3 for Claim Jump for me; nothing for David).

David is a very fun person to play with, and he’s getting better with each game. I think that here he had fundamentally the wrong approach though, as summoning piles of cheap minions just let me kill them off a couple at a time for Reckoning. I don’t know Ramos well, but presumably there is a way to play him that doesn’t focus so much on the summoning; if not, another master was probably indicated. From my side, of course it was indeed a mistake to consider Eliminate The Leadership on Ramos; I probably had the tools to deal with him in Nekima, but in the end I pinned Ramos right on one board edge and all my fighting stuff was far away and busy. I’m not really sure what I would have taken as another option though.

[Edit: David has posted his thoughts about the event in general and our game in particular on his own excellent blog here].

Game 2: Neverborn (me) vs Resurrectionists (Stewart Herbert)

Strategy: Turf War, standard deployment

Schemes
Pool: Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Leave Your Mark, Undercover Entourage, A Quick Murder
Neverborn: Frame For Murder (Hungering Darkness), Leave Your Mark
Resurrectionists: Frame For Murder (Shikome), A Quick Murder

Crews
Neverborn: Jakob Lynch (Endless Hunger), Hungering Darkness, 2 Waldgeists, Spawn Mother (Hexed Among You), Bad Juju (Eternal Fiend), McTavish, Will O’ The Wisp
Resurrectionists: Dr Douglas McMourning (Moonlighting), Zombie Chihuahua, Sebastian (Transfusion, These Are Not Ours), Anna Lovelace (My Little Helper), Shikome, Flesh Construct, Nurse, 2 Canine Remains

Stewart is really stepping up his tournament appearances lately, having traveled down both for this event and Cry Havoc last week where we met in round one. Turf War felt like a a great option to use this highly entertaining Lynch crew. Having Hexed Among You means that my Waldgeists can start right where I need them, and if they (or almost anything else) gets dislodged then they get Bad Juju to deal with. The Spawn Mother would combine with the Wisp to generate Gupps to score Leave Your Mark, and McTavish is intended to play a sort of sweeper role and take out anything that gets stuck into my front line. Frame For Murder on Hungering Darkness feels like a good option in this crew since it is almost the only thing that can be killed without releasing Bad Juju. Big thanks to Michael for lending me his Lynch and Hungering Darkness as it turned out that mine are still in Gareth’s case while he’s been playing Ten Thunders.

Turn 1: The Spawn Mother lays an egg and the Wisp hatches it. Meanwhile, the Flesh Construct walks up and gets charged by the Nurse, ending on something like Poison +1000. Both Canine Remains shoot up the table, obligingly ending up with 4″ of the left Waldgeist which Germinates next to itself then kills one of them. Lynch guns down the Chihuahua and puts down a scheme marker for McTavish to eat later. Sebastian summons another Canine Remains from what was left of the first one. Hungering Darkness uses Heed My Voice to move the Flesh Construct away, then McMourning pushes it back into my face and charges Hungering Darkness.

Turn 2: Hungering Darkness smites McMourning and heals a little damage, then the doctor kills it off, giving up 3VP for Frame For Murder. The Spawn Mother charges the Shikome for depressingly little impact while the Flesh Construct and Waldgeist poke each other ineffectually over on the right. Anna and the Shikome somehow fail to kill the Gupps, then McTavish puts a couple of bullets into the Shikome. The left Waldgeist kills the other Canine Remains and Lynch puts a bit of damage into McMourning. We both score for Turf War.

Turn 3: Jakob Lynch guns down McMourning and pumps some bullets into the massive damage sponge that is the Flesh Construct. The Nurse pumps up the Flesh Construct with better melee attacks. The Spawn Mother hits the Shikome, but something in the way Stewart is Cheating Fate makes me suspect Frame For Murder so her second attack is on Sebastian. The morgue assistant hits her back and the Waldgeist luckily polishes off the Flesh Construct with a Red Joker on damage. Anna somehow again fails to kill the Gupps which run off to drop a scheme marker. McTavish kills another Canine Remains but misses attacks on the Nurse while the other Waldgeist pokes at Sebastian. We both score for the strategy and I score Leave Your Mark.

Turn 4: The Waldgeist kills the Shikome, handing 1VP for Frame For Murder to Stewart. Anna misses shots at the Waldgeist and the Spawn Mother kills Sebastian. The Nurse Paralyses Lynch with Take Your Meds. The Waldgeist kills the Nurse; the Rooted trigger turned out to be very useful here. McTavish shoots Anna and the Gupps put another scheme marker down. I score for the strategy and Leave Your Mark again.

Turn 5: McTavish focuses and kills Anna Lovelace. Neverborn win 10 – 3 (full score for me; 2 for Turf War and 1 for Frame For Murder for Stewart).

Stewart is getting much more experience as a player as he attends more events outside his local area. He played his strategy to keep Bad Juju off the table really well (indeed, I didn’t get the Mire Golem out at all) but the end result of this was that while I was able to whittle down Stewart’s crew, he never killed any of mine apart from Hungering Darkness. I was quite surprised that the Gupps at least didn’t get killed off by Lovelace, but most of Stewart’s good cards were dedicated to keeping his own crew alive, and as the momentum snowballed in my favour I simply had too many AP to spend on attacks against him. Perhaps a better approach would have been to allow Bad Juju to Unbury, then keep it Paralysed with the Nurse for as long as possible.

Game 3: Neverborn (me) vs Arcanists (Joe Taylor)

Strategy: Collect The Bounty, flank deployment

Schemes
Pool: Claim Jump, Eliminate The Leadership, Dig Their Graves, Covert Breakthrough, Tail ‘Em
Neverborn: Dig Their Graves, Covert Breakthrough
Arcanists: Claim Jump, Covert Breakthrough

Crews
Neverborn: Lilith (Beckon Malifaux), Nekima (One Thousand Faces), Doppelganger, 3 Waldgeists, Lilitu, Cherub
Arcanists: Colette Du Bois (Arcane Reservoir, Cabaret Choreography, Practiced Production), Howard Langston (Imbued Energies), Mechanical Rider (Imbued Energies), Hoarcat Pride, Large Arachnid, 3 Mechanical Doves

For this round, I got to have another crack at the Nicest Man In Malifaux after his sound thrashing of me last week. Funnily enough, Joe and I played this exact strategy and scheme combination earlier in the week (though with completely different crews) and came to the conclusion that it was quite horrible to pick a crew that could do well at both schemes and strategies. I considered all the masters I had access to and finally settled on Lilith as her board control could help me to isolate enemies and concentrate them down to kill them on my terms without exposing myself to too much of a reprisal. The Waldgeists were taken on the basis that nobody counter-picks Neverborn with anti-armour technology and so they would hopefully be a big problem to deal with efficiently. I borrowed Lilitu from Steve as her Lure is better than a Beckoner, and I didn’t need the other options that Beckoners bring. Covert Breakthrough feels like it should be quite achievable in flank deployment as you don’t have to cover much ground to put markers near the other zone. I considered both Claim Jump and Dig Their Graves (or both) and settled on the latter as it combined better with what I’d be trying to do anyway, i.e. kill everything in Joe’s crew.

Turn 1: To my great surprise, Howard activates early and just moves across the board. I suspect a trap and check in case Frame For Murder is in the scheme pool, but decide that I can’t pass up on an opportunity to deal with him so early. Lilitu Lures the big guy in and a Waldgeist charges for a couple of points of damage but mainly to position for a Tangle Shadows point for Nekima. Lilith swaps Nekima in and kills a nearby Dove, then puts an Illusory Forest in the most annoying place I can see. Another Dove gives Howard positive defensive flips, but it doesn’t help against Nekima who carves the Steamborg Executioner down. Colette places the Large Arachnid forward with Disappearing Act and summons another Dove. She then Prompts the Mechanical Rider to kill my Cherub. The Large Arachnid eats one of my scheme markers and attacks the nearest Waldgeist.

Turn 2: A Dove turbo-charges the Large Arachnid which Chain Activates to hurt the Waldgeist and knock its armour off. The other Waldgeist puts some damage into the Mechanical Rider. It burns Imbued Energies, summons a Mannequin to push away from Lilith and shoots her three times. The unarmoured Waldgeist pokes at the Large Arachnid and the furthest forward Dove runs as far to my table corner as possible. Lilith Tangle Shadows Nekima and the Doppelganger and puts some damage into the Mechanical Rider, though this is foiled once by the Black Joker. Lilitu Lures the Dove back toward me so I don’t have to deal with a scheme marker so far up, and pulls the back Waldgeist toward the action. Colette fires the Hoarcat Pride at me with Disappearing Act and Prompt. The Waldgeist at the back kills the Dove that Lilitu Lured; this was a mistake as I should have dealt with the Hoarcat Pride which eats my injured Waldgeist. The Doppelganger copies Nekima’s sword and makes short work of the Hoarcats, the Nekima herself kills the Mechanical Rider. I score Collect The Bounty and Joe scores Claim Jump.

Turn 3: The Waldgeist puts a scheme marker near the Large Arachnid, so Colette does various shenanigans to get it away from my crew. Lilitu Lures it in, then it walks away. Finally Lilith Tangles Shadows to bring it to me, then kills it for Dig Their Graves. Nekima kills the last Dove and stands next to Colette, who is admittedly surrounded by scheme markers. I score for the strategy.

Turn 4: Colette proves to be remarkably killy, and nearly finishes off Nekima from a standing start. Lilith Tangles Shadows to get Colette away from her scheme markers, then kills her for Dig Their Graves. Neverborn win 9 – 1 (4 for Collect The Bounty, 2 for Dig Their Graves and 3 for Covert Breakthrough for me; 1 for Claim Jump for Joe).

I love to play Malifaux with Joe, and he’s really improving his skill levels lately. The game really turned on Joe’s early mistake with Howard Langston; it is probable that he forgot about Lilitu (who admittedly was slightly tucked slightly under a balcony) though I did point it out before we started. My gamble with the Waldgeists was reasonably effective, though the presence of the Large Arachnid made short work of one of them. Being able to Lure and Tangle Shadows meant that I was able to engage on my own terms for the most part, and the concentration of force was enough to make sure I killed the right number of Arcanists each turn to score.

Game 4: Neverborn (me) vs Outcasts (Ali Ferguson)

Strategy: Headhunter, close deployment

Schemes
Pool: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Recover Evidence, Last Stand
Neverborn: Claim Jump, Recover Evidence
Outcasts: Claim Jump, Last Stand

Crews
Neverborn: Collodi (Strum The Threads, Fated), Brutal Effigy, Barbaros (One Thousand Faces), Nekima (One Thousand Faces), 3 Terror Tots, Black Blood Shaman
Outcasts: Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury, Synchronised Slaying), Viktoria of Blood (Mark of Shezuul, Oathkeeper), Nothing Beast (Void Shield, The Bigger They Come), Ashes & Dust, Vanessa (Oathkeeper), Malifaux Child

Since I had already played the other three Neverborn masters I have access to, it felt fitting to use Collodi for this final round. The Nephilim list is really quite effective, and for Headhunter it has a nice mix of heavy hitting power to kill the enemy crew and cheap minions to pick up their heads. Collodi also can pass out AP to the crew as needed for collecting Heads. The Brutal Effigy goes wherever Collodi goes of course, as the doll combines so nicely with the puppet master. Seeing the Viktorias across the table in close deployment is quite scary, though I heartily approved of Ali’s choice of upgrades on the sisters as they’re exactly what I prefer. Again I swithered between Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves or both and eventually selected the first option as it gave me an option to send a Tot round to the far side of the outermost buildings if Ali’s small crew clustered in the centre. Recover Evidence seemed quite a good option as with such a small crew Ali would be hard pressed to keep the markers away from where I could get to them. I was quite interested in the match-up to see if my experience playing with the Viktorias would translate into success playing against them.

Turn 1: The Malifaux Child casts Sisters In Fury while I waste activations with the Brutal Effigy and Terror Tots. Vanessa Commands Construct to move Ashes & Dust to my left and zaps Barbaros, so Barbaros takes Rapid Growth and charges her right back. The Nothing Beast commits to the right side and Ashes & Dust to the left, presumably to counter the Tots I have there, while Nekima picks up Fears Given Form and smacks Vanessa now that the only counter charge is from Viktoria (and there is no staying out of her threat range). Ali elects to hold the Viks back to threaten me for next turn and I see my chance to control them before my whole crew gets blended. The Shaman gives Collodi Black Blood and pushes it forward before becoming the Personal Puppet. Collodi Pulls The Strings on Viktoria of Blood a couple of times, critically getting the My Bidding Trigger to attack her sister. Ali flips the Black Joker for the master’s defense, and I have the Red Joker in hand, so that is the end of Viktoria of Ashes. At the end of the turn Ali reveals Last Stand.

Turn 2: I reveal Recover Evidence since Ali has only 5 pieces left on the board. Barbaros kills Vanessa and there is a Tot in range to Grow, but I decide that the Tot will be more useful to me than a Young Nephilim at this point and elect not to Grow. The Nothing Beast Focuses to attack Barbaros but flips the Black Joker for damage, then Ashes & Dust kills the Tot on the left and picks up its Head. Collodi finishes Viktoria of Blood and picks up a nearby head. One Tot and the Brutal Effigy drop scheme markers while the other picks up an Evidence token. Nekima hurts the Nothing Beast and gets hit back for her troubles. I score for Claim Jump and we both score for Headhunter.

Turn 3: Nekima Kills the Nothing Beast while Ali has a hand full of cards. Ashes & Dust collects another Head. The Effigy and a Tot put down scheme markers and Collodi drops Ashes & Dust to 2 wounds remaining (I deliberately left it alive so I could have a chance to deal with it properly next turn) then picks up some Evidence. Barbaros collects more Evidence and the other Tot gets a Head marker. We both score Headhunter again and I get Claim Jump.

Turn 4: Collodi breaks up Ashes & Dust then kills the Dust Storm. The rest of my crew throw attacks at the Ashen Core, as long as they’re not busy with Heads or scheme markers. I score for Claim Jump and Headhunter. There are no Heads left, Ashen Core won’t drop one and can’t move to pick any up, so we call it there. Neverborn win 9 – 2 (3 for Headhunter, 3 for Recover Evidence and 3 for Claim Jump for me; 2 for Headhunter for Ali).

All games with Ali are fun and this was certainly no exception; he just has such a nice attitude to gaming that one can’t help but smile along as we play. In general I think that his approach of using the Viktorias as an area denial threat is quite good, but in this case the large threat range on Collodi plus the low number of AP generated by the Outcast crew combined perhaps make the immediate alpha strike a better option. Once Viktoria of Ashes went down for essentially no impact on the game, this was really over as a contest and it was just a matter of letting my bigger number of activations carry the day. This was doubly the case in Headhunter where Ali had to choose between using his expensive pieces to kill my crew or score points.

Once the scores were calculated I came in first place as the only player on four wins. I was particularly pleased to see three of my opponents, Joe, Stewart and Ali, come in third, fourth and fifth having only lost one game each (i.e. to me). As always I had a terrific time and would thank David, Stewart, Joe and Ali for four fun games of Malifaux and Kai and Callum for doing the work to run the tournament in the first place.

Malifaux tournament report: Last Round in the Chamber (50SS); 27Sep2014

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to attend two tournaments this month. This time was the final tournament to be run at the soon-to-be-closed Worlds at War in Livingston – Last Round in the Chamber. Joe, Jonny and I drove over, and as luck would have it my first round was against Jonny West.

Game 1: Ten Thunders (me) vs Gremlins (Jonny)

Strategy: Turf War

Schemes
Pool: Line in the Sand, Frame for Murder, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Make Them Suffer
Ten Thunders: Protect Territory (announced), Make Them Suffer
Gremlins: Breakthrough (announced), Make Them Suffer

Crews
Ten Thunders: Yan Lo (Reliquaries), Soul Porter, Toshiro the Daimyo (Command the Graves), Yin the Penangalan, Izamu the Armour (Recalled Training), Rail Worker, Illuminated, Mr Tannen
Gremlins: Wong (Explosive Solutions, Three Demon Bag, Gremlin’s Luck), Lovely Assistant, Burt Jebson (Dirty Cheater, Glowy), Francois LaCroix (Stilts), Raphael LaCroix, Slop Hauler, Lightning Bug

Turf War looked like a job for Yan Lo, and I feel that Mr Tannen should be a good option in Turf War where it is hard to escape his aura of ‘hard to cheat’. I gave Toshiro Command the Graves as the threat of bringing in an extra body on Turf War ought to be strong, though in practice I never seem to have the cards available to actually use the upgrade. Anyway, I like Toshiro to make my minions fight better and generally put a bit of damage out himself so it is more about having the summoning option. I figured that Yin could make life awkward for some low WP Gremlins, in case I ended up facing a horde of Bayou Gremlins. Looking at the scheme pool I figured on planting my big pieces in the centre and dropping scheme markers for Protect Territory. Jonny didn’t have too many minions so it seemed achievable to either kill one here or there with Yan Lo or Toshiro, or just wipe them out to score at the end of each turn.

Turn 1: The Soul Porter pushes Izamu and Yin forward. Francois and Raphael both go Reckless, race up and shoot him (down to one wound after a massive hit from Raphael). Fearing to lose the big chap before he’s even activated once, I throw Izamu forward where he smites Raphael down to his hard to kill wound. The Lovely Assistant stacks the deck and accomplices over to Burt, who goes Reckless and shoots into the melee hitting Izamu (of course with the stacked deck) and killing him. Yan Lo shoots some wounds off Francois and takes Ash Ascendant, and Wong zaps the Rail Worker a little for surprisingly little effect after some luck flips from me.

Turn 2: The Slop Hauler heals himself, Raphael and Francois. The Rail Worker charges the right hand Lightning Bug; they trade hits and the Bug buries a card with Tinkerin’ With The Unknown. The Illuminated charges Wong, mainly to engage Burt; the master Squeals away. Toshiro is pushed up by the Soul Porter. The Lovely Assistant uses Crackerjack Timing to clump up the Rail Worker, Illuminated and Toshiro, them companions to Wong who zaps them hard (down to a single wound for both minions; Jonny was unlucky not to score on Make Them Suffer here). Toshiro charges Burt but misses both swings before the Lightning Bug goes Reckless and moves round to finish him off. Oh well, at least there are plenty of corpse tokens lying about. Yin hurts Raphael and gives him Gnawing Fear; this proves effective as Raphael is paralysed trying to move into fight her. Francois masters his fears but misses a focussed swing on Yin. Mr Tannen moves to the centre and fails to Bore to Tears the last-but-one wound off Raphael (so that poison from Yin would kill him). Yan Lo move forward, kills the unengaged Lightning Bug (with a lucky Red Joker on the damage flip) for Make Them Suffer and resurrects Izamu in the centre (healing him in the process). The big warriors polishes off Raphael. Finally, the Lightning Bug’s hidden card turns out to be a Crow, killing off both the Rail Worker and Illuminated. We both score on the strategy.

Turn 3: Izamu hits Francois (who Squeals away) and charges the Slop Hauler but can’t quite finish the job. Francois goes Reckless, charges Izamu and kills him (again); Izamu knocks the Gremlin off his Stilts in return. Yin kills the Slop Hauler before any more healing shenanigans can occur. Burt uses Reckless but fails his Horror duel against Yin. The Soul Porter pushes Yan Lo again and then moves to be as far as possible from any attacks since killing him will allow Jonny to start racking up points for Make Them Suffer. The surviving Lightning Bug runs to start Breakthrough. Yan Lo summons and heals Toshiro and kills off Francois. The Lovely Assistant uses Crackerjack Timing to put Yin and Yan Lo together, and Wong zaps them both for some fairly good damage. Mr Tannen Bores the last wound off the Lightning Bug and drops a scheme marker. I score on Turf War.

Turn 4: Toshiro hurts the Lovely Assistant. She stacks the deck then accomplices Wong who hits Toshiro, finally escaping melee with Poof! after I thwart a couple of attacks with the ridiculous cards in my hand. He then uses BOOM!, getting rid of my scheme marker in the middle and putting some damage about. Yin eats poor Burt. Yan Lo finishes the Lovely Assistant to score again on Make Them Suffer and drops a scheme marker. Mr Tannen follows suit and the Soul Porter keeps fleeing Wong. I score again for the Strategy.

Turn 5: Wong focusses, hits Yin and Poof! gets away to scheme. I score again for Make Them Suffer and Turf War. Ten Thunders win 10 – 2 (all points for me; one each on Turf War and Breakthrough for Jonny).

I always love to play Jonny, who takes each game revelling in the Gremlin mayhem and seems to have fun whether he wins or loses as long as some shenanigans occur. After a break for lunch, I am paired with Connor Barker for another Gremlins match up.

Game 2: Ten Thunders (me) vs Gremlins (Connor)

Strategy: Reconnoitre

Schemes
Pool: Line in the Sand, Assassinate, Deliver a Message, Murder Protege, Distract
Ten Thunders: A Line in the Sand (announced), Distract
Gremlins: Deliver a Message (announced), Murder Protege (Yin, announced)

Crews
Ten Thunders: Jakob Lynch (Eternal Hunger), Hungering Darkness, Yin the Penangalan, 2 Rail Workers, 2 Illuminated, Beckoner, Thunder Archer
Gremlins: Som’er Teeth Jones (Liquid Bravery, Dirty Cheater, Family Tree), Pigapult, Lenny (Love It and Pet It), Skeeter, 3 Bayou Gremlins, Slop Hauler, Stuffed Piglet, Rami LaCroix (Dirty Cheater)

As soon as I saw this match up, I knew I was going to see Som’er with a pile of Bayou Gremlins and the Pigapult, and that Connor would announce Deliver a Message. I took Yin in the hope of forcing a few critical horror duels, and the rest was just a crew I was familiar with in the hope of Connor making a mistake that I could exploit. None of the schemes looked very enticing, so I selected A Line in the Sand as the corner deployment makes it a bit more forgiving to score on, and Distract on the theory that I could at least make use of the inevitable rain of Gremlins.

Turn 1: Som’er summons three more Bayou Gremlins which the Slop Hauler heals to full behind the house. Lenny throw Rami forward but I’ve managed to block his shot to Yin, so Rami one-shots the Beckoner instead. Once I’m out-activated the Pigapult drops three Bayou Gremlins in base contact with Lynch.

Turn 2: Connor wins the initiative, so a Bayou Gremlins hands Lynch a letter and takes the three VPs. The Illuminated kills one of them. Som’er summons forth another three Gremlins. Lynch Distracts a pair of Gremlins, then moves to get further away from the centre (so he can at least contribute for Reconnoitre). Sadly, in doing so (and coupled with poor placement of Yin) I’ve opened up a sliver of a shot for Rami. He duly focusses twice, Red Jokers the attack flip (so he can get the Ram and stopping me cheating up to bring things back to a negative flip) and vapourises the Penangalan, and himself thanks to Dumb Luck. This scores another three VPs for the Gremlins. The Pigapult drops Bayou Gremlins to ensure that I won’t score for Reconnoitre, and that Connor does. I do at least score a point for Distract.

Turn 3: Hungering Darkness charges Lenny (he was the only one I had a line to) and places itself to tie up a good chunk of the Gremlin horde. Lenny is hurt a little but heals himself back up. Lynch kills a Gremlin and much of my crew moves to drop markers for A Line in the Sand, but foolishly one of them is the Illuminated at the bottom. This frees up a Distracted Gremlin to remove the condition from himself. The Stuffed Piglet explodes for disappointingly little effect. Som’er summons yet another three Bayou Gremlins, and the Pigapult places them appropriately for Reconnoitre. Gremlins score on the strategy.

Turn 4: Hungering Darkness chews his way through three Bayou Gremlins, giving Connor a frankly ludicrous hand of cards. One Bayou Gremlin removes a scheme marker, but my crew are able to put enough down to score the full points for A Line in the Sand. Lynch polishes off Lenny, the Illuminated kills a Skeeter and the mob of Gremlins behind the house (including Som’er himself, who finally gives up on Git Yer Bro) unload onto Hungering Darkness, which survives on one wound after judicious use of Soulstones. But all that was just us amusing ourselves with our models’ abilities as the game has long since been over. The end is called for time and Gremlins win 9 – 4 (three points for each scheme and the strategy for Gremlins; three for A Line in the Sand and one for Distract for me).

I enjoyed that game, and I have hopefully learned some things I need to be more careful about; my positioning wasn’t strong in this game, and I gave away a few points too cheaply (in particular strolling the Illuminated away from the Distracted Gremlins, allowing them to remove the condition). But overall, the game went pretty much as I expected. The Pigapult makes it easy for the Gremlins to score Deliver a Message and I’m not really sure how to avoid it short of keeping my master sitting in the corner of my deployment zone for the whole game. It did occur to me later that Mei Feng with Seismic Claws could be an option, but that still relies on winning the initiative at the right time (which I didn’t in this game anyway, not that it mattered). The Pigapult also makes scoring Reconnoitre quite easy, and again I’m not really sure how to deal with it apart from taking a suitably killy crew and just wiping out the Gremlins as quickly as possible when they land; this is my general plan against Ramos (who is another master I feel excels at this strategy). I did try to get Hungering Darkness into the mob hiding behind the building as quickly as possible but with the range on the Pigapult it is a really long slog across the board. Connor pointed out that in theory I could have taken Mr Graves to push it forward still further. As ever, I welcome any advice. Anyway, my final game I was paired up against David McGuire.

Edit: here’s how this one looked from Connor’s side: link.

Game 3: Ten Thunders (me) vs Resurrectionists (David)

Strategy: Squatter’s Rights

Schemes
Pool: Line in the Sand, Bodyguard, Protect Territory, Plant Evidence, Spring The Trap
Ten Thunders: Plant Evidence (announced), Bodyguard (Kang)
Resurrectionists : Plant Evidence (announced), Protect Territory (announced)

Crews
Ten Thunders: Jakob Lynch (Eternal Hunger), Hungering Darkness, 2 Rail Workers, 2 Illuminated, Beckoner, Thunder Archer, Kang (Blot The Sky)
Resurrectionists : Molly Squidpiddge (Forgotten Life, Spare Parts), Madame Sybelle (Corpse Bloat, Bleeding Tongue), Necrotic Machine, 3 Crooligans, Rotten Belle, Necropunk, Bete Noire

As soon as David announced Resurrectionists, I decided to use this crew which I’d been considering since Joe acquired the wave 2 Ten Thunders deck for me at the start of the week. The basic premise is to have postive flips everywhere. The nature of Squatter’s Rights means that there is often a brawl round the middle three markers where Kang can sit and make everyone punch zombies harder, and the range for Blot The Sky is conveniently the same as the range for Kang’s aura. So the Archer can follow Kang and (depending on how the game goes) the rest of my force except the Rail Workers can go up the middle smiting all in their path while the Rail Workers can take the edge markers and use Implacable Assault as needed (hopefully for free thanks to Lynch’s Ace in the Hole ability). Flank deployment means we’re starting right on top of each other, which I’m fine with.

Turn 1: The Archer Rapid Fires Slow onto Sybelle, who uses two Soulstones on damage prevention to boot. Not bad for the first activation of turn 1. The Belle Lures him forward once (missing the first try after I flipped high). Kang smites a Crooligan who foolishly deployed From the Shadows into spade range. The Necrotic Machine advances and pulls Molly after it with Brethren. She summons a pair of Punk Zombies next to Kang and the Archer, uses Whispers of Future Flesh to get one of them to hit the Archer and accomplices over to it. I spend a high card to make that attack miss the Archer, who is already feeling a bit poorly. The Illuminated charges and kills the Punk which hasn’t activated. Lynch kills another Crooligan, the Beckoner Lures the Archer away from the Punk (doing enough damage to kill it would also kill the Archer with Black Blood) and the Hungering Darkness charges in to drop the Punk Zombie. It then makes Bete Heed My Voice to attack Molly, Slowing the latter and putting a wound from Black Blood on the former. The Archer takes his free shot to put some more wounds on the Sybelle.

Turn 2: Sybelle casts Unforgiving Stench twice on the corpse markers from the deceased Punk Zombies, catching Kang, the Illuminated and Hungering Darkness. Lucky flips and some cheating fate sees me avoid the rather nasty attacks. Hungering Darkness charges Molly, hitting her three times. Each time she uses Masterful Dead to avoid the worst damage but it uses up David’s entire control hand (and splashing more Black Blood onto Bete Noir). It then uses Consume Brilliance, and without a hand to cheat fate with, Molly fails her horror duel and is paralysed. The last Crooligan flips the Squat marker and moves past the Rail Worker. In the opposite corner, my other Rail Worker takes that Squat marker. Bete moves into range to attack Hungering Darkness but fails the horror duel. The Archer Rapid Fires more wounds onto Molly, killing Bete Noire with Black Blood in the process (she fails to cast One With The Night). The Necrotic Machine charges Hungering Darkness before being smashed to pieces by Kang. The male Illluminated and the Necropunk trade blows before the Necropunk leaps toward the Squat Marker, where Lynch is waiting to blow it away and claim the marker for the Ten Thunders. The female Illuminated kills Molly, and the end of turn shot from the Archer polishes off Sybelle. Seeing that he’s down to a single wounded Belle against my entire crew, David concedes. Ten Thunders win 10 – 0.

Of course, that was highly satisfying (but hard to learn more from) as everything I did went perfectly to plan. Hopefully it wasn’t too much of grind for David as it seemed quite brutal; Kang is hellish against Resurrectionists if they’re forced to engage. Anyway, he seemed to take it all in his usual cheerful way, and I can only hope that I can be so gentlemanly in defeat.

When the scores come in it turns out I’m in second place, so I’m back to my usual tournament case of winning a couple of games and losing to the eventual overall winner. I really enjoyed all three games, so thanks to Joe for running the show, and to Jonny, Connor and David for playing with me.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Dwarves (750 points); 03Dec13

It’s taken me ages to get round to writing up this, the latest of our very slow escalation league games.  This one is against Jonny’s Dwarves though it looks now as though he’s decided that WFB isn’t for him.  Anyway, I report it in the interests of completeness and entertainment.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, ironfists, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Jonny seems to have opted for all that is good in Dwarf life, i.e. artillery, short armoured chaps with massive beards and ways to stop people casting spells.

Runesmith, Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Spell Breaking, shield (R)

15 Long Beards, rangers, throwing axes, great weapons, full command, Rune of Slowness (LB)

10 Warriors, shields, full command

Cannon, Rune of Fortune, Rune of Burning (C1)

Cannon, Rune of Fortune (C2)

The scenario is Battle Line and we have a terrible river right across the middle, and Anvil of Vaul in the West and an Altar of Khaine in the East.  The Firebelly rolls up Flaming Sword of Rhuin (which I love) but with a heavy heart I swap it for Fireball anyway on the basis that small units even of heavily armoured things won’t like a magic missile.  Of course, I hadn’t really appreciated the scope of anti-magic on the other side of the table so it didn’t make much difference what I chose.  The Dwarfs win the roll off and choose to go first.

The Warriors move up to wait on their side of the river and the Long Beards just sharpen their many weapons.  Jonny has the first of many rounds of terrible fortune with his Cannons as they only kill a single Irongut between them.

The Sabretusk charges the Warriors in the hope of eating the Runesmith – I should note that I didn’t realise that he also wore Gromril armour as Jonny had only mentioned the shield he’d bought extra.  On the other hand, I would have done it anyway I suppose as it was clear that the Dwarves had no intention of making the first move so redirectors would be of limited value.  The Cows are forced to try and charge the Long Beards due to the Altar of Khaine but fail because of the Rune of Slowness.  I roll up 3,2 magic dice, which ends up with four dice for me and five for the Dwarves because of the kit the Runesmith is packing; needless to say the medium Fireball at the Warriors is not successful.  The Sabretusk does remarkably put a wound on the Runesmith before even more remarkably surviving and holding with Insane Courage.

The Long Beards charge the Cows, who hold.  More spectacularly ineffective Cannon fire sees me get off with no damage as one rolls a 1 to wound and the other overshoots entirely.  The Long Beards blend the Cows mercilessly but the Cows do at least get away.  Sadly this is all to scary for the Ironguts who panic and flee into the river.  Surprisingly the Sabretusk lives long enough to flee from the Warriors, but is overtaken by the sprinting Dwarves who roll 6,6 for pursuit.

My poor Cows continue to flee but at least the Ironguts pull themselves together.  The Firebelly moves to breathe fire on the Warriors while his Leadbelchers line up shots on the Long Beards.  There is some magic of no consequence, then the Firebelly uses her breath weapon on the Warriors, lining up the perfect shot for all 11 in the unit.  Apparently they’re all wet from the run through the river and only one burns to death.  A hail of shrapnel from the Leadbelchers kills a couple of Long Beards, who are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves now.

The Long Beards chase the Cows off the table and the Warrior wheel to set up a rear charge on the Leadbelchers.  The gunners of the Cannons continue to show why they’re the pride of the Old World as neither can lend a hit on the Firebelly; one uses up its Rune of Fortune to avoid blowing up.

The Ironguts charge the nearest cannon and the Firebelly finds herself in the unenviable position of having to redirect the Warriors while I concentrate on the Long Beards with the Leadbelchers.  This time the Rune of Spellbreaking is used to stop another Fireball.  A great round of shooting from the Leadbelchers drops 5 more Long Beards and the cannon crew predictably do not survive the Irongut charge.

The Warriors gleefully charge the Firebelly and the remnants of the Long Beards reform to move past the Leadbelchers, unwisely presenting their flank in the process (I’m not sure what Jonny was trying to do here).  The one surviving Cannon again fails to achieve anything despite having a perfect shot lined up on the Leadbelchers.  Finally, in the combat the toughness 5 of the Firebelly is too much for the Dwarves to get through and she holds after killing a couple of them.

Even though Leadbelchers are primarily a shooting unit, they are still Ogres and so I’m happy to charge them into the flank of the depleted Long Beards; the Ironguts charge over to end the miserable existence of the other cannon.  Only two Long Beards survive to flee off the table and the Cannon crew are killed by impact hits alone.  Sadly the Firebelly fails her break check and flees this time.

The Warriors charge and catch my beautiful fleeing Firebelly, and the Long Beards leave the table having spotted a pub in the distance which isn’t filled with horrible cannon-bearing Ogresses.

There’s not much point even moving the Ironguts at this late stage so the Leadbelchers make this a short turn by shooting a single Warrior.

The Warriors fail to swift reform so simply turn to face the Leadbelchers.  I probably didn’t really need to do these maps.

I pretty much have to charge the Leadbelchers into the Warriors as I won’t be able to kill enough of them to get victory points by shooting alone.  So, in they go.  There’s a bloody battle, but with almost the last roll of the game, one heroic Ogress tramples the last wound off the Runesmith (the first having been taken by the Sabretusk in turn 1) to give me a clear cut win.  A few surviving warriors hold but we’re out of time anyway.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

That was mainly notable for the silly dice.  The cannons that couldn’t hit, the Long Beards going ninja on the Cows, and best of all the courageous Sabretusk.  Lots of fun and laughs had while we pushed around the surprisingly mobile Dwarves.  I was quite glad to have come close to losing after two blowout victories in the previous two games at this points level.  Funnily enough the Dwarves have been doing poorly in the other games they’ve played with this force because they’re outnumbered so badly.  That wasn’t a problem against my equally tiny force and so they were able to really punish me in close combat.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Lizardmen (750 points); 26Nov13

The second game of our ongoing escalation campaign at the 750 point level is against Joe’s Lizardmen force.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, ironfists, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Joe has evidently decided that non-Skirmisher Skinks are just no good and duly dropped them.  So I’m facing a couple of different flavours of Skink, some flying Skinks and increasingly scary looking unit of Saurus Warriors.  The Skink Chief has apparently grown up into a Saurus Scar Veteran too.

Saurus Scar Veteran, Egg of Quango, Enchanted Shield, light armour (SV)

Skink Priest, Lore of Heavens (P)

13 and 12 Skink Skirmishers (S1 and S2 respectively)

17 Saurus Warriors, full command (SW)

3 Terradon Riders (T)

5 Chameleon Skinks (C)

We’re still defaulting to Battle Line and the random terrain gives us a forest in the North East, a Wyrding Well in the North West and a river in the South West.  The Firebelly rolls something useless again and takes Fireball; I don’t actually think there’s anything I’d have kept against this force.  Maybe Fulminating Flame Cage, maybe not even that.  The Skink Priest rolls Curse of the Midnight Wind and keeps it.  The Lizardmen win the roll off and opt to go first.

The Terradons roll right up to the Sabretusk, and the Chameleons evidently trust their mounted brethren to kill it off as they present their flank.  For reasons which are not clear to me, the Skinks swap sides with each other.  The Priest summons 3,1 magic dice and puts Curse on the Leadbelcher.  The Chameleons manage to outright kill one Leadbelcher but luck smiles on me as they don’t panic.  The Terradon riders are much less effective and fail to even wound the Sabretusk.

The Sabretusk charges the Chameleons in the flank; they’re too busy glaring at the Terradon riders to flee.  The Firebelly leaves the Leadbelchers, at least in part because they’re apparently magnets for ranged attacks, and faces the Terradons.  The winds of magic give us 3,1 magic dice again and they all go into a medium fireball at the Terradon riders.  One of them actually survives the barrage but only for long enough to remember he’d left the gas on back at the temple and flee off the board.  With Curse of the Midnight wind on them, the Leadbelchers predictably fail to do anything to the Saurus Warriors.  Just as predictably, the Sabretusk eats a couple of Chameleon Skinks and runs the rest down.

The Saurus Warriors fail a long charge into the Cows and the Skink Priest bails out of his unit to join the other one.  I suppose that this was to get in a better position for range on his spells, but it looked to me like getting in a better position to be eaten by Ogresses.  He uses his 3,1 magic dice to put Curse on the Ironguts then a hail of poison from the Skinks kills off the Sabretusk and wounds a Leadbelcher.

With the two ‘new’ units both gone and the rest of his force in range of mine, I’m feeling pretty good about this game now.  The Cows charge the Skinks, expecting them to flee and to hopefully redirect into the Saurus but instead they have to suck up a stand and shoot reaction which drops one of them.  Then I declare that the Ironguts will charge the Saurus, foolishly uttering the immortal words ‘Only snake-eyes will fail this charge’.  Naturally, they roll 1,1 and all of a sudden my great plans are for nothing.  Oh well, it would be a pretty dull game if I could predict everything flawlessly.  The Winds of Magic come up with 3,2 power dice and I go for a big Fireball on the unengaged Skinks but fail to make the cast.  The Leadbelchers do shoot 4 of them down though.  The Cows trample the Skink Priest and most of his unit; 3 of them live long enough to flee and the Cows reform to face the Saurus to make them choose between the fronts of two fairly competent fighting units.

The Saurus choose the Ironguts (it’s what I’d have done too) and make it of course.  Sadly, the forest turns out to be a Venom Thicket and a few of them don’t make it to the other side.  The fleeing Skinks rally, and the other ones move across the river and throw poisonous sticks at the Firebelly for a couple of wounds.  In the combat I’m expecting a tough time.  The Scar Veteran uses his Egg of Quango for a couple of wounds but then the Saurus put out a terrible round of rolls and only drop a single Irongut even with the hero and his magic item.  To really rub it in, my dice are on fire and the 15 attacks and 3 stomps back kill an outrageous 14 of the Saurus Warriors.  Needless to say, the Scar Veteran and his few remaining friends flee.  I think that Joe’s luck has continued when he rolls only a 4″ flee but the Ironguts only ponder after them 3″.

That’s pretty much it for the game, but Joe is keen to play on.  Just for a laugh, I decide to try to get the Ironguts into the Skinks so the Cows declare a charge on the Saurus (who flee off the board) to get them out of the way before rolling too low for the distance to reach the Skinks anyway.  Still, it can be a neat trick sometimes since the receiving unit must flee as the charge reaction whereas the charges themselves can be resolved in the order I choose.  With 2,1 magic dice, the Firebelly cooks a few Skink with a Fireball then breathes fire killing all but one.  The Leadbelchers finish off the other unit.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!  Actually, we did play a bit of a further turn in which the lone Skink charged the Firebelly (we allowed him to turn then charge).  All it resulted in was one more squashed Skink.

Another satisfying game with a fun player across the ‘table’ (i.e. floor) from me.  I think I had things in hand anyway even without the Ironguts (which I expected to lose the Saurus Warriors) but the dice stopped any chance that Joe had of pulling this back.  Looking at the other side of the board, Joe needs to learn when to flee rather than holding all the time (in fairness, I also could do with learning this, but it matters less with brutish Ogresses than with squishy Skinks) and perhaps also to stop offering me perfect charges with the Sabretusk.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Empire (750 points); 24Nov13

It only took us about 4 months get through the first round of our escalation campaign!  Not a bad effort for us to play only 6 games each.  Anyway, it’s not like we’ve been playing only this one game system, or indeed that we’re in any hurry.  As with the 500 point level the opening game is me vs Furycat; a match up that saw my only defeat in the opening round.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Furycat had added a Witch Hunter and retinue of Free Company militia as well as bulking out his other units.  It is probably worth noting that Furycat has long been a proponent of how bad Free Company are, but put them in for story reasons.

Warrior Priest, Opal Amulet, Great Weapon, heavy armour (WP)

Witch Hunter, Potion of Foolhardiness, brace of pistols

25 Spearmen, champion, standard bearer (S)

2 x 5 Archers (A1 and A2)

24 Halberdiers, full command (H)

20 Free Company (FC)

5 Pistoliers, musician (P)

We’re still using Battle Line until the next escalation.  Our reduced strategy gives us a Scree Slope in the South West, a building in the North West, a forest (which turned out to be a Venom Thicket) in the North East and finally a river (a Raging Torrent when we actually entered it).  I still fail to roll any of the Lore of Fire spells I like and hence end up with Fireball as usual.  Luckily Fireball is pretty good when all units are tiny.  Furycat wins the roll off and opts to go first.

The Pistoliers saunter round the hill to be in maximum irritation position for the Ironguts.  The Archers find out that the forest is a Venom Thicket and the Halberdiers decide that they don’t fancy spending a couple of turns trudging through it being bitten by nasty little things so reform to head around it.  Both sets of Archers fire at the Leadbelchers, and, despite needing 6s to hit and 5s to wound, manage to put 4 wounds on them out of 10 shots.  Luckily for me the Leadbelchers don’t panic.  After that, the paltry single wound that the Pistoliers manage to put on the Ironguts seems a bit weak.

It may have become clear to anyone who has read this blog for a long time that I find Pistoliers very annoying so the Firebelly leaves the Leadbelchers and starts incanting at the riders.  We roll 2,2 magic dice and mid-sized fireball is sent to wipe out the Pistoliers which makes me happy indeed.  The Leadbelchers plink off a single militia man.

The Free Company and Spearmen both charge the Cows, making it but losing a handful of guys to the Venom Thicket.  For some reason, the left hand Archers charge the Leadbelchers.  Sadly, they roll terribly in the Raging Torrent, panic and flee again; presumably leaving the Leadbelchers looking rather bemused.  The Warrior Priest summons up 3,2 magic dice; Shield of Faith is dispelled but Hammer of Sigmar does go off.  The Archers who aren’t running like children fail to match their amazing volley of last turn, then we’re onto combat.  Bizarrely, everyone in the massive central scrum roll hopelessly but the end result is a narrow Ogress win which sees the Spearmen sent packing.  To rub it in, the other Archers also panic at this point; the Cows reform to maximise contact with the Free Company.

The Ironguts chase the Spearmen and Archers away making scary faces as they do so.  I roll a mighty 3,2 magic dice and put them all into the biggest Fireball at the Halberdiers which kills off a good chunk of them; the Leadbelchers kill off a couple more.  Those fleeing Archers are right in the way of the Warrior Priest’s unit and I’m quite happy for them to stay there.  The combat between Cows and Free Company continues to grind away at both units though the Free Company are taking most of the punishment.

The Spearmen and right hand Archers rally, meaning that the Halberdiers are spending another turn just looking at the stupid peasants dithering in front of them.  Furycat rolls up 3,1 magic dice and gets Shield of Faith through (failed dispel) but I am able to stop Hammer of Sigmar.  The Free Company have finally had enough and break; irritatingly for Furycat a single militiaman also survives the run through the Venom Thicket, meaning that the Witch Hunter won’t be likely to rally.  The Cows restrain themselves and face the Halberdiers.

It’s probably worth noting that there’s no good reason to throw the Cows at the Halberdiers here.  I’ve got ranged attacks and would be better to stand off and soften them up a bit more.  On the other hand, that’s pretty boring for both of us, so in they go.  The Firebelly rolls up 1,1 magic dice and kills off a few of the fleeing Archers on the left with a small Fireball.  The main event is the combat though; the contact is quite small due to the presence of the Archers, and if there’s something that Ogres are good at it’s concentrating force into a narrow area.  The Cows win by the closest of margins but Furycat rolls high on his break check and the humans flee and are run down.  With only the Spears left against practically my entire army, Furycat has seen enough.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

It was quite a strange game with the dice going hot and cold all over the place.  The Archers blocking off the Halberdiers meant that I could have focused all my attention on the rest of his force even if the Spearmen hadn’t rolled terribly and fled in the first combat round.  I didn’t do anything too clever and still got a heavy victory, though in fairness Furycat has knowingly selected some fairly weak units.  It’s always fun to play against Furycat whatever the game system.

Ogre Kingdoms force for slow grow campaign (750 points)

Miss Madras patted her increasing gut and wiped away the last bit of Dwarf vindaloo from her lips.  Perhaps mercenary work wasn’t so bad after all, and while the Little Death tribe certainly wasn’t in a position to be raiding any major food sources any time soon, there seemed to be a never ending stream of other warbands in the area in the aftermath of the battle.  Providing you weren’t too fussy about what you ate (never a problem among Ogresses, especially with curry sauce in the mix) you could easily keep a full belly here.  After a humiliation at the hands of the Humans with their fancy mustaches that had scattered the tribe almost for good, every day had led to an encounter with another race looking to take their turn in the cooking pot.  The constant wandering had allowed some more stragglers to be picked up, including Helena and her lasses who had found themselves a very suitable bit of work guarding a brewery.  They had be quite reticent on what form the payment had taken.

The only troubles were the continued absence of the other tribal leaders and the frustrating lack of progress toward finding ‘El Habañero’.  Still, there were surely clues out there and there was evidence of reinforcements arriving from all corners of the Old World to join the growing armies.  Well, almost all.  The Vampire Barry Von Carstein had been raising his new recruits from the plentiful supply of corpses littering the battlefields, and the Goblins appeared to be learning how to fight rather than increasing in number.  That was probably just as well considering how many of the blighters there already were, mused Miss Madras as she flossed her teeth with a beard-hair.

The first games of our escalation campaign at 500 points have gone better than I could possibly have imagined.  After the stern beating I received at Furycat’s hands in game 1 I was expecting to be on the wrong end of a lot of crushing defeats.  But my dice have been very good to me, and panic checks don’t seem to have caused as big a problem as I expected; all leadership checks are a bit worrying when your general is only Leadership 7.

After arguing strongly before we started this to allow monstrous cavalry at 750 points (which would allow me to field Mournfang Cavalry) I eventually decided that they would just be too awkward for most forces to take down at this level and I would probably win big most of the time and occasionally lose big when someone had a good answer for them.  Instead I bumped up the Ironguts to the full 6 I own and made one a standard bearer (because the standard bearer is the 6th Irongut in my collection) and added 6 Ogre Bulls Cows.  The Cows also got a standard bearer since I have one but I don’t have the points to make one a musician (which I also have as a miniature) so the musician has to stand shamefacedly at the back pretending not to have a trumpet.  It’s a shame my photography isn’t up to the performance of my dice rolling.

My force, the Little Death tribe at 750 points:

Miss Madras, Firebelly

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Cows, ironfists, standard bearer

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk

Ogre Kingdoms vs Dwarves (500 points); 22Oct13

I thought that I’d completed all my games for the 500 point level of our ongoing escalation campaign, but then another new gamer joined our little group.  Well, not new, as Jonny (NinjaBreadMan) is another established member of the local Malifaux community and hence well-known to us as a gamer, but he hadn’t previously joined our little group.  Anyway, Jonny is using Dwarves and modifying / painting them as Chaos Dwarves based on the fluff from years ago (possibly it was retconned away at some point) that Chaos Dwarves turn into metal as they get older.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Jonny, who is new to Warhammer, used this bunch of short-legged beardy chaps:

Thane, Grudge Rune (T)

24 Warriors, standard, musician, great weapons

5 Ironbreakers (I)

2 Bolt Throwers (BT1 and BT2)

We roll up two hills (the one in the South East is a scree slope) and two normal buildings.  Boring, but we somehow end up putting them in places where they couldn’t possibly affect the game anyway.  The Firebelly rolls up something useless and swaps it for the reliable Fireball.  I win the roll off and choose to move first (in fact I had a bit of a stupid moment and nearly made Jonny go first, which would have simply given him an extra turn of turning my Ogresses into kebabs with the Bolt Throwers before I realised).

Everyone moves forward.  We roll up 2,2 magic dice which all go into a mid-sized fireball at the Warriors; great rolling takes out 5 of them.  The Leadbelchers make up for it by rolling like fools and only bring down one more.

The Warriors fail an outrageous charge on the Ironguts; they held because it’s a fight I want to happen anyway, though of course I really want to charge in for the impact hits.  For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Ironbreakers back up a little, then both Bolt Throwers miss their shots at the Leadbelchers.

Not being hampered by short legs, the Ironguts charge into the Warriors and the Sabretusk charges the Bolt Thrower.  The Leadbelchers advance, making sure to stay more than 6″ from the Ironguts in case that goes poorly.  A medium Fireball at the Ironbreakers is Irresistably Dispelled but the Leadbelchers do manage to drop one of the heavily armoured Dwarves.  After an epic blood bath at the Always Strikes Last step, the battle between the Ironguts and Warrior turns out to be a draw.  This is going to favour the Dwarves next round though as they’ll still get all their attacks thanks to the deep ranks whereas every Ogress killed in my unit is one who can’t fight back.  The Sabretusk kills two of the Bolt Thrower crew but the last one is stubborn and going nowhere.

Whatever the Ironbreakers were doing in the first turn, they evidently changed their minds as this time they march purposefully forward.  The Bolt Thrower misses its shot at the Leadbelchers (the only available target), perhaps because almost the entirety of both our forces was in the way. The Sabretusk finishes its meal of crew members and reforms to face the flank of the Ironbreakers, and the Warriors predictably do horrible things to the Ironguts, though they take a fair toll themselves. The final Irongut, on 2 wounds remaining, flees a mighty 4″ but the Dwarves roll even lower.

Apparently not full after dealing with the Bolt Thrower crew, the Sabretusk charges the flank of the Ironbreakers which has been inexplicably presented. The Leadbelchers shake their heads at the fleeing Irongut and move up to shower the Warriors in shrapnel. There are 2,1 magic dice but the Firebelly channels and then casts a medium Fireball scorching one of the Warriors. The Leadbelchers are not in such a forgiving mood though, rolling like the champions I know they are and cutting down the Warriors to just the standard bearer and the Thane. To my amazement, they flee. Well, they’re not coming back. Meanwhile the Sabretusk and Ironbreakers are unable to do anything at all to each other, but it turns out that Ironbreakers aren’t stubborn and don’t like flank charges. The Sabretusk, already outstripping my expectations by actually being alive, runs them down.

This’ll be a short turn. The Warrior isn’t able to muster 1,1 to rally and keeps fleeing with the unlucky Thane for company. The Bolt Thrower takes a shot at the wounded Irongut hoping to kill her and trigger a panic test in the Leadbelchers. It hits, it wounds, and I breathe a sigh of relief as it leaves my last Irongut on a single wound remaining.

Ignoring the fleeing Thane, everyone converges on the Bolt Thrower and all but one crew member is killed by the combination of magic and shooting.

The Thane and his drinking buddy continue the long trudge off the table and into a pub, and the Bolt Thrower can’t make a hit count at point blank range.

We didn’t really bother rolling the dice here, but the curtain closes on the final Bolt Thrower crew member preparing to sell his life dearly as the Ogresses run in licking their lips. Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

There’s not really much to say in conclusion here. We had a good time playing, but the game itself was quite pedestrian – we ran at each other, and fat ladies triumphed over short bearded chaps.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Vampire Counts (500 points); 22Aug13

The last regular game in our still-unnamed escalation campaign at 500 points is against Aramoro‘s Vampire Counts.  Test games with this match-up have been even more swingy than usual at this points level, but have mainly come down whether I can take on the undead units piecemeal and destroy them outright before they can get themselves back up to strength with Invocation of Nehek.  Grinds generally favour the Vampire Counts.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Aramoro has some fluff for his army which he will presumably post in his own blog eventually.  The Vampire in charge, one Barry Von Carstein, has had doubts cast about whether he really is a Vampire at all as test games have regularly seen him miscast in turn 1 and forget his spells, or be poked to death by angry villagers.  Vampire Counts seem have a bit of a problem at this point level because they need the expensive Vampire but can’t afford to do much with him.  Also the units that they can put on the table are generally aren’t big enough to soak up the incoming damage and start grinding right back at their foes.

Barry Von Carstein, Vampire, Summon Creatures of the Night (V)

3 Crypt Horrors (CH)

20 Skeletons, champion, standard (S)

10 Crypt Ghouls (CG)

5 Dire Wolves (DW)

We’re still on Battle Line, and random terrain gives us two mundane buildings, a set of Blessed Bulwarks and a river that we all know is going to turn out to be a River of Light.  Miss Madras rolls up something useless again (probably Piercing Bolts of Burning) and swaps it for Fireball; Barry Von Carstein doesn’t even bother to roll and defaults to Invocation of Nehek (which is apparently critical to playing Vampire Counts).  Note that the Firebelly is deployed with the Ironguts this time to (hopefully) mess with Crypt Horror regeneration.  I win the roll and force the Vampire Counts to take the first turn.

With no ranged attacks available the forces of the Undead have no choice but to head forward as quickly as possible.  The Ghouls move into a building for no apparent reason and the Crypt Horrors threaten a flank charge if I dare to charge the Dire Wolves or Skeletons.  3,1 magic dice allow the Vampire to cast Invocation of Nehek which adds a few Dire Wolves to the unit.

Standing around and pinging a few wounds off in each shooting phase is dull (though effective) so I go for a long charge from the Ironguts into the Dire Wolves.  The plan is to blast right through them and over run to (relative) safety.  We roll for the river, and of course, it is Light.  Net of Amyntok goes on the Ironguts but I breathe a huge sigh of relief as they pass the strength test and also complete the charge.  The Sabretusk crosses the river and also gets Net of Amyntok for his troubles; luckily again it passes the strength test which otherwise would probably have been fatal.  Rolling a feeble number of shots, the Leadbelchers manage to scratch a Crypt Horror, then the Ironguts annihilate the Dire Wolves.  The penalty to hit from the Blessed Bulwark makes it a bit sticky though but the Firebelly personally stomps the last one and the unit overruns out of the charge arc for both the Crypt Horrors and Skeletons, again passing the Net of Amyntok test.  Getting stuck there would probably have been the end of the game as I doubt I could have afforded to take both units in the side.

Everyone reforms to make it inevitable that the Ironguts will end up in a sandwich and the Ghouls leave the building to get involved in the game.  Barry Von Carstein passes the magic phase as the risk of miscasting makes it not worth casting a spell that’ll only heal a single wound on the Crypt Horrors.

I try to swift reform the Ironguts so that they can move backwards and possibly take both undead units in the front, but they fail and choose to face the Crypt Horrors as I perceive them both as more killy and more important  to kill off in a single round of combat.  We roll up 2,2 magic dice and the Firebelly kills of the wounded Horror with a medium Fireball then another hapless volley from the Leadbelchers wounds a second.

Needless to say, the Skeletons and Crypt Horrors charge into the Ironguts while the Ghouls continue to slog their way into the action since they don’t have a grown-up around to tell them to march.  It’s another 2,2 magic phase and Invocation of Nehek heals the Crypt Horrors.  After two rounds of terrible rolling with the Leadbelchers my dice go red hot and the Firebelly immolates the Crypt Horrors with her breath weapon alone.  The Skeletons can’t do much damage to the Ironguts and Barry Von Carstein doesn’t make enough of a difference to stop the Ogresses winning due to their musician; they reform to face.

The Leadbelchers move up into the river and get Net of Amyntok again; they shoot a single Ghoul in a third round of stellar output.  Barry Von Carstein steps to the fore and criticises the curry-making prowess of Miss Madras.  This insult cannot go unpunished and both are locked in mortal / immortal combat.  Sadly, Barry may indeed just be pretending to be a Vampire and he fails to make any impression on the Firebelly and is kicked in the ghoulies stomped for his troubles.  The Skeletons pull down one Ogress but are smashed to bone dust by the mighty great weapons of the Ironguts.

We only roll up 1,1 magic dice this round but a well timed Invocation of Nehek heals Barry Von Carstein and resurrects a few skeletons.  The challenge gives us no wounds on either side but enough Skeletons fall that the Vampire crumbles to dust.  With only a few Ghouls left, Aramoro has had enough and calls it a day.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

Another fun game, but the real lesson here is that it’s better to be lucky than good.  If I’d roll less spectacularly with the Ironguts and Firebelly in the crucial first round of combat against the Skeletons and Crypt Horrors I could have found myself on the wrong end of an attrition battle; similarly if any of a number of things had gone wrong against the Dire Wolves I probably would have lost the unit.  So next is probably 750 point games, although there has been some talk of a multi-player game, possibly even Storm of Magic.  We’ll see what happens.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Lizardmen (500 points); 15Aug13

We have a new contender in our campaign; Joe (@Laundry_King if you do the Twitter thing) joins us by way of the Malifaux gaming group and has picked Lizardmen.  Actually, I think that he was brought back to Warhammer Fantasy Battle by the new Lizardmen book, remembered that we played it, and found a happy coincidence that we were just about to start an escalation campaign.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Joe seems to have based his army on the theme of ‘miniatures he owns’ which leaves me facing down a cloud of Skinks with a very chewy centre of Saurus Warriors.

Skink Chief, Enchanted Shield, javelin, light armour (C)

Skink Priest, Lore of Beasts (P)

2 x 10 Skink Cohort (SC1 and SC2)

13 Skink Skirmishers (SS)

15 Saurus Warriors, full command (SW)

Terrain rolls give us two normal buildings, a Grail Chapel in the centre and some Blazing Barricades in the South East.  The Firebelly takes one look at all the small, annoying, toughness 2 units around and chooses to take Fireball; the Priest swaps Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt for Wyssan’s Wildform.  A good choice, as strength and toughness 5 on Saurus will make them rather brutal.  The Lizardmen win first turn and take it.

Everyone rushes forward, though the Chief bravely orders his cohort of Skinks to ‘support’ the other one from behind.  The Priest pulls 3,2 magic dice and I’m unable to stop him putting a boosted Wildform on the Saurus Warriors.

My Sabretusk gets the scent of a toughness 2 character dead ahead and I am unable to resist charging at the Skink Priest.  Fortuitously, the Blazing Barricades provide cover at exactly the right point which stops the possibility of a poisonous stand-and-shoot reaction and indeed Blackcat Bone gets there unharmed.  The other units move forward, not in a rush to have anything to do with those Saurus.  We get another 3,2 magic phase and the Firebelly puts a mid-sized Fireball into the nearest Skink Cohort killing 4 of them; the Leadbelchers take another.  Combat goes better than my wildest dreams; the Priest is eaten by the Sabretusk and the rest of the Skinks are unable to deal with it before fleeing and being run down.  This is probably the perfect situation for using Sabretusks to do something other than redirect and die – toughness 2 means I wound the Priest on 2s, the Skinks are skirmishers so they aren’t steadfast or bringing a rank bonus.  All the Sabretusk has to do is live through the barrage on the way in.

To my concern, the Saurus Warriors declare a charge on the Ironguts.  I hadn’t even considered the possibility that they could get in from so far away and I’m pretty worried about how powerful they are after looking at all the rules.  The Saurus need an 11… and the dice come up a 10.  We all let out a sigh of disappointment, perhaps with a side order of relief in my case.  The small unit of Skinks moves into the Grail Chapel and the Chief’s Cohort moves up behind.  The Skinks then unleash a veritable hail of poison javelins at the Leadbelchers killing two outright from the 16 shots they have available!  Fortunately for me, the survivor and Firebelly hold.

I can see I’m outmatched in shooting here, so the Leadbelcher and Firebelly charge the Chapel and the Ironguts charge the Chief and his buddies; both units take a wound from stand and shoot reactions.  The Skinks in the building are killed easily, and the Ironguts make short work of the Chief, smiting him and most of his Cohort.  The remaining Skinks flee and I try to restrain to face the incoming Saurus but the Ironguts are having none of that, lumbering a ponderous 3″ after them.  Still, at least it takes them out of the Saurus Warriors’ charge arc.

I’m expecting the Saurus to charge into the Grail Chapel, but apparently Joe isn’t keen to try his luck on another long charge.  Instead the Saurus move up to make sure of landing the charge on the Ironguts next turn; the Skinks fail to rally of course.

The Ironguts and Sabretusk line up on the Saurus Warriors and the Firebelly leaves the Chapel.  I need a decent Fireball and breath weapon to get the Saurus down to a manageable level.  It’s a big phase with 3,3 magic dice so I go for it with the big Fireball.  Disappointingly, it only kills off 4 Saurus Warriors, but that’s enough to force a panic check, which they fail despite being Cold Blooded.  The Leadbelcher chips in another couple but that’s pretty much it now for the Lizardmen.

The Saurus rally, the Skinks don’t.

The Ironguts charge into the Saurus, take a few wounds then kill a satisfying number of the Lizardmen.  The survivors flee but not far enough; we’re eating lizards tonight ladies.  Victory for the Ogre Kingdoms!

It was a good game, and I was happy to get a shot against the new Lizardmen.  However, I think that Joe’s inexperience showed a few times: putting the Skink Priest too far forward and out of range of the Chief was a mistake as even without the lucky Sabretusk guided missile attack a single good Fireball could have panicked the unit out of the game.  I would have gone for it with the Saurus Warriors against the Firebelly and Leadbelcher too as even a failed charge would have achieved the goal of getting the right facing.

Ogre Kingdoms vs High Elves (500 points); 08Aug13

After a game against Justinmatters‘ Goblin force, next on the menu for the evening was a contingent of High Elves piloted by Forkbanger.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Forkbanger has noted the impracticalities of putting a force of High Elves together at 500 points as everything is expensive and it’s hard to take anything that can absorb a hit long enough to do real damage .

Mage, level 2, Lore of High Magic (M)

15 Sea Guard (SG)

6 Sword Master of Hoeth (SM)

Sky Cutter, bolt thrower (SC)

Sticking with Battle Line, we roll up a hill, a forest, an Earthblood Mere, some Ghost Fences (on the hill) and some wall (not on the hill).  For the third time in a row, the Firebelly rolls Cascading Fire Cloak and swaps it in favour of Fireball.  To be honest, I’d have swapped anything for Fireball in this match up, even Flaming Sword of Rhuin and Fulminating Flame Cage (both of which I love), as small units of Elves really hate strength 4 magic missiles.  The Mage takes Soul Quench and Walk Between Worlds.  I force Forkbanger to take the first turn hoping that the High Elves will advance into my Leadbelchers and get shredded.

Luckily for the gaming, Forkbanger isn’t so silly.  The only movement is the Sky Cutter, which moves to the centre then one-shots the Sabretusk with its bolt thrower.  For this exact reason, I always try and keep the Sabretusk 6″ away from any other units; panic is a very real threat when no-one is packing Lords or BSBs.  We get 3,2 magic dice, then find out that Soul Quench is out of range of any targets.

I run the Ironguts into the swamp (taking a wound from dangerous terrain) and the Leadbelchers walk forward to get range to shoot the Sky Cutter.  Funnily enough, this is just what I hoping to get Forkbanger to do (i.e. walk into my short range shooting) but the difference between Ogre resilience and High Elf resilience is significant.  I roll up 1,1 magic dice then roll low on a small Fireball at the Sword Masters; the Mage dispels it with his single die.  The Leadbelchers manage to put a wound on the Sky Cutter.

The Sky Cutter moves out of the Ironguts’ charge arc and lines up a beautiful shot on the flank of the Leadbelchers; everyone else moves up behind the Ghost Fence.  There are another 1,1 magic dice which turns out not to be enough to even cast Soul Quench, and another impressive turn is completed as the entire army rains arrows and bolts onto the Leadbelchers to no effect whatsoever.

Not surprisingly, the Ironguts charge the Sword Masters (losing one outright to dangerous terrain).  Surprisingly, the Sword Masters elect to hold.  The Leadbelchers, now looking somewhat like hedgehogs after the barrage of arrows last turn, continue their advance toward the Sea Guard.  We finally get a big magic phase (3,1) but I get greedy and fail to cast the big version of Fireball by a single pip.  No matter, as the Firebelly uses her breath weapon [it looks like the Sea Guard are too far away in the maps but there was a corner of the unit in range when we played] and the Leadbelchers unleash hell to shred the Sea Guard.  Impact hits take out a few Sword Masters before they get to swing, and the survivors aren’t even able to finish off a single Ogress before they are chopped to bits.  The Ironguts reform to face the Sea Guard while stuffing tasty white meat into their mouths.

In an act of apparent desperation, the Sky Cutter charges the Firebelly on the flank of the Leadbelchers.  The Sea Guard stay still; I thought that this was to avoid the moving and shooting penalty, but Forkbanger cleverly uses his 3,1 magic dice to cast Walk Between Worlds to get them out of trouble.  Sadly, the dice say no and the Mage fails to cast it, leaving him surrounded by the disappointed glares of his compatriots and (slightly further away) a hungry force of Ogresses.  Still, at least they won’t suffer the same fate as their brethren in the Border Princes did at the hands of the Beastmen.  The Sky Cutter makes up for it, killing off one of the Leadbelchers with impact hits and taking no wounds back.  The Leadbelchers hold, but fail to reform to face.

The Ironguts charge the Sea Guard who flee but are run down.  The Sky Cutter continues its good run by putting two wounds on the Firebelly for none in return.  The Ogresses once again hold but fail to reform.

The Firebelly is killed by the Sky Cutter and the Leadbelchers flee and are run down.  We realise that the game is pretty much over now, as the Ironguts will never be able to charge the Sky Cutter (which can move out their charge arc each turn) and the Sky Cutter is unlikely to kill off all the Ironguts in the remaining turns.  Rather than moving the miniatures, we just roll the dice to see if the Sky Cutter gets a lucky hit to take out the Ironguts or make them panic off the table, but it’s not to be.  Victory for the Ogre Kingdoms!

The game was fun, but it was a bit of a mismatch.  Ogres are good at brawling even at low points but High Elves seem to struggle to even fit in the required three units at this level.  At the start we both assumed that magic would dominate as Fireball is highly effective against small units of Elves and Forkbanger had taken a level 2 Mage, but as it turns out neither of us got a single spell off all game.  In some ways it is a bit disappointing that Forkbanger’s clever play (especially trying to use Walk Between Worlds) were stymied by the dice, whereas my own simplistic ‘run forward and smash’ game was rewarded.