Monday, November 4, 2013

TMI: The Elite Take Down the Elite


Week two of the Malifaux league has come and gone, and it is still going strong. Read on to see what I did this last Saturday.

Game one was versus Nabors. We had Turf War, I took Outcast Tara, he took Ten Thunders Misaki. It was my first chance to put Steampunk Dorothy on the table as Hans. It soon occurred to me that Hans has to discard a lot to do what he wants, as does Tara's crew in the setup I had, and everyone wants high cards to do things... Guess whats hard to do. I used Tara to move Dorothy(Hans) up, then realized my only targets for destroying upgrades were Misaki and Ototo. Ototo was on the other side, and Misaki could just cards to stop me. I hesitated and went after an archer and a Torakage instead. I think this was a mistake, and I should have just targeted Misaki instead. He had the cards to stop me, but it would have completely drained his hand without me having to use a single card. The rest of the game went about the same, with my indecision being my greatest enemy. I managed to use Bishop successfully against Ototo and gave out plenty of Distract. I couldn't get any cursed objects off, since he moved up on my "Line in the Sand Markers" and destroyed them in a turn, before I could pop them. He was able to knock me off the Turf War early, getting me only two points. In the end he got all four Turf War, and a couple for his schemes, beating me 6 to 5.


Game two was versus Shaffer, who was using my Viktorias crew. This one was Reckoning and 30ss. I took a very tight crew, Tara, Nothing Beast, Lazarus, and the Hodgepodge. He took, basically, the new box. Viks, Taelor, 2 Ronin, and Student. I think the Viks' upgrades would have helped him, but he didn't take any. This game was a slaughter. Wait, never mind, I'm thinking of another game. I did manage to bury Viktoria of Ash on turn one. He then brought blood in to beat the crap out of the Nothing Beast, but left him at one wound. I won initiative, easy with Tara's upgrade, and the Nothing Beast reciprocated, killing Viktoria of Blood, but released Viktoria of Ash, who killed him. A Ronin circled around and killed the Hodgepodge, but a turn later. I killed Viktoria of Ash later, but again no points for Reckoning. In the end I managed to get one point from Reckoning and three from Assassinate and failed Make Them Suffer. He snagged zero from Reckoning, two from Make Them Suffer, and two from Frame for Murder(totally my fault). In the end it was a 4 to 4 draw. A good game. I think if Shaffer plays the Viks more and gets into their upgrades, it could be ugly. I say that, but he is already schooling people with Rasputina in the league, so maybe I should keep him from playing...


Game three was versus Troy with Collodi and was once again Reckoning. Reckoning is my bane it would seem, and I just can't seem to get it to work. However, I have been doing fairly well with denial. For this game, I looked at taking Leveticus, but he hasn't been doing Reckoning any better, both crews seem limited to killing one model per turn. I also thought the Viks, but I'm not real comfortable with them, and figured I wouldn't be able to put them to good use. So, I went with Tara again. This time I was determined to beat Reckoning, and so I tried a very elite crew. Tara, Taelor, Bishop, Sue(who is awesome), a Desolation Engine, and a Void Wretch. Troy took Collodi, Arcane Effigy, Widow Weaver, Teddy, and three Marionettes. I had looked at Vendetta as being on my list of never take schemes, but when I saw Taelor versus Teddy, I had to go for it. I also took Plant Evidence, both hidden. He took Plant Evidence and Breakthrough, both revealed. I will be using the Desolation Engine over the Nothing Beast in the future. It isn't locked in stone, but I had been wondering about the switch for a while, but wasn't sure. In this game, he payed spades. I am still looking for more testing, but its looking good. I dropped the DE way forward, then used Tara's upgrade to pull her back. With Fast and Melee Expert, he still has a charge, plus two attacks. He zipped in and killed the Effigy, then smacked Teddy solid, leaving him at one wound for Taelor. He continued to tie things up in the middle of Troy's stuff, which Troy claims was a ruse. Ruse or not, he did what I wanted, died, spawned two Abominations who locked down zeros and suits on cast. He and one of the Abominations did give Troy the only Reckoning point scored in the game, but I was good for the trade. By the time that mess was cleaned up, Sue was forward dropping his negative flip to cast aura, shutting down most of what Troy had. Taelor killed Teddy, did a little more, but the got surrounded. I then used Tara to bury her and reposition so she was back to useful, without having to fight her way out. Bishop took off down the right flank, dropped three evidence markers, then circled back around from behind. Tara played a more supportive/nuisance role. Locking key models away, while moving her crew around and giving fast. The Void Wretch took a damage and got a move and die effect early, meaning he was basically useless, though I should have been using his hit the buried ability. I was able to charge a marionette, bypassing the move-die thing, and kill it before it could drop a counter. I also used Tara to destroy a couple scheme markers. The end result is that he scored three for Plant Evidence(two place, plus one for revealed) and one for Reckoning. I manage to scored two for Vendetta and three for Plant Evidence. I tried to do it on the last turn, but still couldn't make it happen for Reckoning. A tough game, I was scared on the last turn, when all his lightning fast dolls were zipping my way, looking to drop counters, but one died due to unmaking(thank you abominations), and so sealed it. I may have been looking at Reckoning wrong this whole time, but doing it right. It seems my crews are all about denial, and work on schemes. I think I am also doing better on picking my schemes, getting 5 out of 6 right for the day.

Once again, a league is a great way to hone your game, and this one is turning out to be no different. People are trying different crews, different point sizes, and just different models. I am super excited, and if you have made it down yet, there are still three weeks left of play, and achievements are up for grabs, and you're not as far behind as a win league. It really only takes one achievement to take it all home.

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