Okay, probably dead

I am coming out of retirement, or at least hoping to. As anyone can see it has been far to long since I last posted. I have not been idle, but hobby progress has been nill. The big game around campus is X-Wing. After owning it for almost two years, all of a sudden, everyone has it and everyone is playing. I have become a Scum and Villainy player as of late, forsaking the Empire and piss poor pilot skill for expensive tricky pilots, drugs, and money.

However, thats not what I plan to discuss today. Instead I am going to go into depth on a Malifaux tournament I rolled into a couple weeks ago. It was ran by Russ out of the Nerd Store in Greeley. I had been trying to get over there for a while, but with work stupidity, I never had enough lead time to get it off. But, I finally did. Read on to find out how I did.


We rolled in just before noon, and he had a fairly good turn out. Eight people. Impressive. I must say, I would be a little jeaulous, if I was still a henchman. Maybe more on that another day. I also was not the farthest traveled. My first round opponent, Andy, was from Lakewood(I believe).

Round one was Turf War. He was running Ramos,and I pulled out Leveticus. It was a toss up between Tara and Leve, but I figured Leve would work better versus Arcanists with armor. This was a super tight, super hard game. Of all the players I thought I might face, Andy was the most likely to give me a run for my money. In the beginning I pushed Taelor forward, planning to use her to draw out Joss and Howard, then smite them with Leve and Alyce. I didn't plan her to get rolled. As such, I had to pull Ashes and Dust into the center to bolster my line. He actually spent two end turns dead, before reviving him on every other, just due to needing to do other things. In the end, the game really came down to poor scheme selection. We both took Deliver a Message. A truly bad choice for him, but I had thought I could circle A&D around to sneak in the back door. But when Taelor died, well, that went out the window. A truly great game, and we went to grab lunch together.

Round two was Reckoning. Versus Outcasts. This tempted me to drop Leveticus again, as he is fairly strong against Outcasts. But I decided to stick to my plan and bring my true Reckoning masters, The Viks. My opponent also brought out the Viks, in an almost mirror match. This game was pretty close to coming out at a draw as well. We fought it back and forth, I got ahead on the strat, but he pulled out Assassinate(mostly because I am too dumb to remember Viktoria of Blood's stupid kill and heal.) So, it went, back and forth, until on turn five it was a draw and down to the end of game flip. Luckily it made it to six. I had seen it coming, and knew I couldn't win on five, so I set it up to win on six, and I did. I managed to plant my last two Breakthrough, break his A Line in the Sand, while keeping mine. This shifted the game very heavily in my favor, which meant I was headed to the top table, against the only undefeated player. I also knew that Andy had managed a slightly lower win, and he was in prime position to sneak from behind, if he won his last game by more.

Round three was Squatter's Rights, versus Ressers. Now, versus Ressers, Leveticus is a total bitch. Corpses disappear, Hard to Wound and Hard to Kill are ignored, and I can raise as much, or more, than they can. But my opponent kept going on about me playing Leveticus and tailoring against him. Curve ball time. I even went so far as to pull out my Desolation Engine and Abomination cards(which I did actually use), but not for a Leveticus list. That is right, it can only mean Tara. And not just Tara, the double bomb, DE and Killjoy, list. Time to bring the angry, ugly hurt. My opponent stated that he had played Tara before and wasn't terribly worried. We shall see, my friend, we shall see. He pulled out McMourning and a ton of poisoned goodies. He also ran Belles and some other stuff. All things that really like their Ca suits and 0 actions. Hmmm.... Wonder whats coming.
Of course, first turn, double bury. I wasn't able to move far enough forward for Squatter's on two, due to a bad cast, but I got my stuff up there anyway. He pushed a couple Crooligans up early, one to either side. This made me change tactics, and I decided to lay down some ugly, using the left Crooligan as a spring board, and to drop some early Abominations. And it worked, I was able to get the DE and Killjoy out and killing at the end of one. I was only at about center field, but plenty well stuck in. I was able to get Squatter's going on turn three, and I tied up his right side Crooligan for pretty much all game, mostly with Karina. I also summoned a Punk Zombie to do some fun stuffs. The Abominations really shut down McMourning.
There was one snag, however. On turn two or three, when I was deciding who to activate, I said Killjoy and before I took another breath he quickly points out Killjoy dies, due to poison raucus. He was so adamant, that I didn't bother measuring or asking how much it actually did. Fair enough, woah, but okay. However, that wasn't enough. After I picked him up, he continued by saying "Killjoy can f***ing suck it!", rather loudly, and I thought unwarrantedly. Killjoy had actually done very little. He may have had some previous experiences that left him very bitter versus Killjoy, but I felt the comment was unwarranted and unsportsmanlike. And I took the gloves off. I decided "fair enough" and proceded to lock him down for the rest of the game. He lured in my Death Marshal, I sauntered over and handed out a Cursed Object. I walked past his remaining Crooligan, removed his only Power Ritual marker and dropped my own. The center was a little Abomination factory that got all my good cards to keep them alive. Tara eventually went down, but her job was done. He feared a return of the DE, but I'm not that stupid. In the end, we ran out of time at the beginning of turn five. He started whining about ten extra minutes that I cost at the beginning of the game. It wouldn't have mattered. He had no points. I had two locked for Squatter's, one for Cursed Object, and my Power Ritual was so far distant from anything he had, it was guaranteed. He failed to get the distance on a Belle aiming for Outflank.
But in the interest of fairness, I wish to play out the perfect scenario for him. First, he manages to get one for Outflank, at no point was he getting anything across two thirds of the board for the other side. He obliterates me in an act of godhood, take my Squatter's and secures another for himself. He also finds a fountain of AP and is able to break my Cursed Object. I am wimpering in the corner, stuck at my poor, piddly six VP. He laughs maniacally, adding up his new found gains. One for Outflank, one for Squatter's, and, in a movement miracle, snags three for Power Ritual, all in one turn, because no matter how perfect, there was too many models for another turn. And then silence reins, as he adds it up to....
Yep, you got it, a deck full of miracles, and he would still have fell a point short. And all of that brought to you by me playing like I had never played before, and had not just locked him down for four turns, but whatever.

So, I won it. It was a sour victory, seeing how I had to win it by delaying the game, or whatever. Yeah sure. Anyway, I picked up some X-Wing stuff with my winnings.
What?
Don't judge me, they didn't have much I wanted for Malifaux, having largely not seen anything interesting in a while. They did have Transmortis, and I was tempted, but the three Malifaux models on my paint desk, plus the two Relic Knights models swayed me the other way. Sadly, as is often the case, their X-Wing selection was missing some of the key bits I am trying to get. I did, however, pick up Slave 1 and the HWK, mostly because I have been eyeing Most Wanted and figured, since I would have the cards, and since I really didn't want to have to drive back to spend my stuff, that would do.

All in all, a great event. I do think I was a bit rusty. And while it was fine in the first two games, I really noticed it in game three. There were untapped stores of hurt that I just couldn't reach. I should probably get in some games before Ghengiscon.

That is right! A Malifaux event at the Cons that I am NOT running.

So, step up, and face me!

Then get knocked down.

You WILL be found wanting.

(Doubtful, but it will be fun, either way)