Sunday, February 5, 2012

State of the 'faux: Tournament Edition


I was able to play the the Griffin Malifaux league final tournament on Saturday. I had a blast, met some new people, including a new Henchman, and got in some good games. In the end I finished fourth in the tournament, missing third by a point. Which, I would properly play the tournament system, I could have easily gotten, but I keep playing the game as a stand alone. More on that in game three.

Game one was versus Collette. Strategies were random flipped each round. First round had me with Escape and Survive and he had Line in the Sand. He ran Collette, Cassandra, Performer/Mannequin, and a pair of Coryphee. Being the dirty bastard I am I took four SPAs, three Spiders, a Belle, and a Canine Remains. My plan in this game is basically my new standard for playing Escape and Survive in tournaments. With the SPAs and Spiders, I can combine seven insignificant models into two more significant ones, and because they get sacrificed, I am now running four models when I started with two, giving me 200% starting models. We later found out we should have been doing only core strategies and general schemes. My schemes were Thwart and Extermination, his were Power Ritual and hidden Hold Out. We only managed to play four turns. I just couldn't catch anything. I managed to kill the performer with my Desolation Engine, and turn her into a SPA. The the Engine and SPA sat in that corner and just waited for game end. My Spider Swarm moved up into a graveyard piece and just hid in the corner. The remains got killed and the counter became a Waife. I managed to take Collette to a single wound, but then she bounced out of range. I tried to hurt a mannequin, but Object saved that. In the end I just couldn't catch anything. I did however manage to keep pressure on the dynamite markers, so that he couldn't get more than two lit. The end was a 4-1 win for me. Had my Engine been a couple of inches forward, I would have broken Hold Out and my opponent and I would have swapped third and fourth place. Ah, well. I should try harder to remember hidden Hold Out.

Game two was Viks versus Guild. This is the only game I took a picture of, and is the one at the title. I must say I was fan of this board. All the table had a ton of terrain. Heavy even for Malifaux. This was a sewer board, which allowed me to move about in near total safety. An awesome thing for the Viktorias. The mission ended up being shared Claim Jump. I ran Viks, Miss Demeanor, two Ronin and Taelor. He ran Lucius, two Guild Guard, a Guild Guard Captain, a Lawyer, and Rile. I took Grudge on the Captain and hold out. He had Grudge Miss Demeanor and Hold Out. This game came down to one turn. It was one heck of a turn. I used all my cards. I was even short one for the special event and just had him flip for it. In a combat between the Viks versus Lucius and the Lawyer, we burned ten Soul Stones between us. The killer for him was that he had a terrible hand, and I made him pay for it. He also shot Miss Demeanor, not realising he had to kill her in melee. This game went 8-0 to me. He was gone at end. While Rile did kill her, Miss Demeanor put some serious hurt on him with Faster 'n You. Easily setting him up for Taelor to finish with a mighty swing.

Game three was versus Vince. I played in the 40K tournament at Tacticon round four. It was not a good game for me. Though we did have one rules discussion on the finer details of push, this game was much better. Play wise anyway. I came into this WAY to cocky. I saw Viks and I was like, I know what is going to happen, I can stop it, game over. I had also played next to him.round two and some idea as to his strategy. He however saw my Viks, not Leviticus. My crew was Leviticus, four SPAs, a Belle, Hooded Rider, and a Canine Remains. I drew Reconoitre and burned a stone to get Claim Jump. He flipped Destroy the Evidence. His crew was Viks, Von Schill, a Trapper, a Librarians, and the Student of Conflict. He placed his all markers on one side. I, foolishly, placed mine right on the same side. My plan was to have all my stuff and his stuff come together. They did, but not to my benefit. This was also the game I found out only generic schemes. I originally chose Soulless Life and Gather Soul Stones. Both of which I would have gotten. Instead I ended up taking Assassinate and Kill Protege. This likely helped lead to my poor strategy deployment. He chose Kill Protege and Soul Stone. This game also seemed almost Karmic as my cards failed me a bit, though I'm not sure that hurt as much as didn't help. I spent a lot of time hurting his models, but being unable to finish them off, then the Librarian just brought them back, while he slowly picked me apart one model at a time. My Desolation Engine did manage to line up a Caustic Aura on four of his six models, wounding two. My final mistake was to make a desperate play for some points with my Hooded Rider, instead of just hiding him in a corner to get two extra points for tie breaker by denying him Kill Protege, but of course, I never seem to be able to see the tournament for the game. In the end I was wiped, giving him plenty of time to dance Von Schill around to get his evidence markers. 0-6 lose.

Once again I took fourth, by only a point. And again, I could have gotten third, just by playing it safer on a losing game and not gambling on an unlikely chance to get some points. Ah, well. I met some great people, and some of the may be joining my upcoming grow league. If I'm lucky a couple might join my Genghiscon tournament.

On a side note, as of writing, I am up to six players for the tournament, and the demo sold out.

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