State of the 'faux

Only played in one game of Malifaux this weekend. It was against Troy and it was Leveticus versus Lillith. I ran Leveticus, Ashes and Dust, Rusty Alyce, Hooded Rider, and a canine remains. He ran Lillith, an Insidious Madness, and two pairs of twins, basically the list that trounced my Viks last week. We had individual strategies, with mine being Turf War, and his being A Line In the Sand. Schemes for me were Breakthrough and Soulless Life, his were Grudge on the Hooded Rider and Kidnap on everything save the Ashes and Dust. This was my testing game for Ashes and Dust. While, I think I definitely could run him better, I can see his effectiveness. Is he worth 13 stones, we will have to see.
Turn one he of course rushes Insidious Madness up to a TNT marker on the side. I then proceeded to move up Ashes and Dust to try and get where I could smack him, but was just out of range, and had to use all my actions to move. Here is where reactivate from Alyce could be useful. Instead, I split them and use the extra move from putting Ashen Core in base towards the madness, and the Dust Storm on the table edge, close enough to hit and still in range of the core. I then tried to whack the Madness, but due to its special abilities, didn't do anything. However, turn two saw me get initiative, recombine Ashes and Dust, and use it to kill the Madness. On an objective strategy like A Line In the Sand, that is huge. Ashes and Dust then moved into his stuff to try and reek more havoc, but mostly was just a nuasance, who just died. The Ashen Core was left in the open, and unable to warp to a SPA before Lillith finished it off. The Dust Storm popped back by the objective that the Madness went after, and then headed for the far table edge, hoping to get there for Turf War. Everything else just delayed Troy's force and then eventually died. The game basically came down to Troy needing to light all the Dynamite with just Lelu and Lillith on turn 6. He was able to light 2, but needs 3 for 2 victory points. Turn 7 would have seen him get 4 markers, and send Lillith after my Dust and Breakthrough. Luckily it ended on 6. With both Lelu and Lillith on the center line, neither counted as being completely on my sides, giving me full points. We both snagged all our schemes, leaving the game 8-4 me.