Accused of WAAC

Participating in two leagues at once is pretty awesome. I managed to put in three games for the DzC league on Saturday and got in my first game for the Hardcore Malifaux league in Longmont on Sunday. I may have a chance at the DzC league, but I am unlikely to get much for the Malifaux league. I only got in one game versus everyone elses three. I just show up too late. I did, however, manage to do a "pretty dick" move in one of my games. See if you can spot it.

Game one was versus Shea's PHR. I must say his army is coming along nicely. He was running the standard starter. I was running the list I played last week in my last game. In a shocking turn of events we rolled Battle Royale. I have learned to play a lot more cautiously on the killer missions, picking my targets and largely staying out of range. Shea only has a couple of games under his belt, and right or wrong, he spread his PHR fairly well. I think he was looking for targets and not worrying as much about giving me targets. Which, in honesty, Shaltari versus PHR, I don't really strike the fear. Especially with only 600 points. But as it was, it meant I was fairly able to pick apart his force, taking out the things I didn't like first, then moving on to another target. In the end I won fairly handily, taking down most of his force.

My second game was versus Nabors, and, as I am not one to break with a theme, we rolled Battle Royale. On the flip side, as it is probably my worst mission, it is good to get in the practice. And I am getting better. Nabors took a starter, no commander, and an Erebus that walked on. Walked may not be the right word. Whats slower than walked? Anyway, this meant that the Erebus wasn't able to do much all game. Early in this game, I couldn't catch a break. He was just mowing down stuff, while I was waving my arms. However, around turn three things changed, and I started rolling more average. Not really hot, but average. This meant that I was able to claw my way back onto the table and squeak out a minor victory, but a victory all the same.

Game three was versus a new guy to the club, Jim. He has come to join the league, which now has 12 players. Super exciting. He even took Gwen home, another league player, then came back to specifically play my Shaltari. Not me, the Shaltari. Hey, I'll take it. Since I had been playing PHR at Battle Royale all night, we changed it up by rolling the objective mission versus PHR. He has a nice Orange, grey, and tan color scheme.

He does something a little different, he runs a Phobos and an Ares in each squad, instead of a squad of each. This meant that whatever I sent at the squads, they where a threat to what I was sending. And as DzC allows each gun to fire at a different target, it doesn't hurt him terribly to dilute his force. Beyond that his force was very similar to Nabors's. No commander and walked on a siege walker, though I can't remember which one, an Enyo maybe. Either way, while slightly more effective, it was just to slow and far back to add much.
This game went pretty standard for this scenario for me. He made for the left building, so my Tomahawks shot it. On turn two he banked and dropped into the center building. I dropped into the two outside buildings. Unfortunately, he was able to snag the objective in the center on turn three, while my left building had a little bit of a snag. I think I managed to get the right hand side either this turn or the next. Either way, I was able to tie it up, putting the weight on the left hand squad who was later joined by the other squad. On my third turn of searching, I finally grabbed it. By this time, he was already heading back with his troops, my Yaris were down to a man, my gates were few, and I was worried.

I spent all of my fire that could blasting his Phobos, hoping to stop him from doing the same to my Eden. As it was, I was able to get one, and go to the deck, hiding from the other. On the final turn, I won initiative and I bounced, making it 4-2 in my favor. Very close game, all the way down to the wire. He knew, as well as I did, that if he could make me drop the objective, he would smoke me on kill points. So, for him, stopping me was more important than getting the objective. I did have a Yari waiting to grab the objective, should the Eden fall, but it ended up not mattering. And since he had proven very adept at killing Yaris, it was a bit of a Hail Mary, anyway. I will say that I did make a good few of my passive saves this game, and that's what really kept me in it.
Well, that is likely DzC league for this week, as I don't plan on getting in my fourth game. So, on to Malifaux.

Because one league at a time is not enough, I am also in a Malifaux Hardcore league at Hobby Quest in Longmont on Sundays.  Hardcore means Henchman led, 20ss, exactly four models, you only get the Henchman's cache in game, and thirty minutes to play. When I should up, there was only Jule who didn't have all three of his league games in. The strategy was Turf War the scheme was Assassinate. Knowing this going in, and not having Ototo finished, I basically knew I had to play Taelor. The rest of the crew stumped me for a good while, then on Friday night, eureka hit. I would take Taelor and nothing. To be exact, Taelor, Nothing Beast with his free upgrade, and two Void Wretches. That left two points to spend, which I went back and forth on, but eventually ended up taking Scout the Field and Oathkeeper. Knowing that it was Close Deployment, moving Taelor up for free before the first activation was choice. And a one turn fast, who can argue. Jules took Joss, Arachnid Swarm, and two Rail Workers. I think his crew was meant to pin me out of the way, then lower my Df with the swarm, then use Joss to finish me off. My crew was built to be resilient, take the center and never leave, letting my opponent bring the fight to me. As such, after he first free move, I don't think Taelor moved all game. On turn one I was able to charge a Railworker with the Nothing Beast, but killed him before I got to use my casting expert. On turn two, I activated the Nothing Beast and charged over, attacking the other worker, and putting him in a position to be hit by Joss, but with Voided up, so I could hit back. Jules took the bait and basically fed me Joss, though I did have to use my upgrade earlier than I wanted to save the beast, who would later die. However, in the mean time I was able to take Joss low enough to finish him with a Wretch. The Wretches also did a good job of keeping the swarm slow so I didn't have to really worry about it. He did move the swarm up into combat with Taelor, I am guessing so that he could take a whack next turn, hopefully before getting slowed, or if slowed, still get one smack. As it was, I won initiative, popped my upgrade, beat the swarm around with Taelor's hammer, killing it on the second attack, then used my last attack to finish off the Railworker. With his crew dead, I passed through the rest of the game, and came out with a 7-1 win.


So, did you see it? Did you catch where I made my "dick move?"

Here is a hint, it was in the Malifaux game.

Go back, I'll wait.

It was when I finished the game. After I killed his last model, Jules expected me to call it there, holding myself to 5 points, giving him a -4 differential. I explained that I would get full points because Malifaux doesn't end when somebody is tabled, and I could just pass my activations(not strictly true, M2E just states you end your activation and the extra AP are lost) and blow through the turns easily in the time remaining(just under two minutes). In hindsight, I actually think the opposite is true, as I was playing by the rules, and he was placing a mechanic from other games onto Malifaux. I do, however, see where it was coming from. Jules doesn't play any competitive Malifaux games. When a game "finishes," i.e. the outcome is assured, the point totals don't matter, since it is a one off, and it is just win or lose. I, however, have played many competitive games, and have ran more than a couple competitive events, so I know that points matter, and play accordingly. I also feel that my way is more to the rules, and his way is about the same as scooping when its not going your way and expecting the score to stay as is. I do think that his way works perfectly well in casual play, where the difference between the two methods shows no difference in effect, it does show a great difference in play where how the game actually finishes affects anything else farther down the line, whether it is tournament standing, league points, or a campaign.

Rant over, now get off my lawn!