TMI: A little rain

I managed to get in a Malifaux game this weekend. I also managed to scare my regulars with some version 2 rumors. I also had a rematch versus Shea.
My Malifaux game was versus Troy. I ran Leveticus, Canine, two Necropunks, Dead Rider, and Izamu. He ran Pandora, two Sorrows, Stitched, Arcane Effigy, and Coppelius. I shot Izamu forward with the dead rider, about half way into activations. I then left him kinda in the open hoping to bait Coppelius. I had a hand full of Masks, including a 13, and was hoping to riposte a bit before munching him. I also know I could shut down Coppelius's paralyse trigger with the lower masks if I couldn't get the riposte. He started to go for it, but decided he didn't have range and retreated back out of sight. This left me with Pandora and Friends or the Stitched as targets. As the last activation, I decided to move on the Stitched. I killed him fairly easily, and his reactivate did almost nothing to Izamu. On turn two I was able to get Izamu in to kill Coppelius, but my redraw was Maskless. As would be my hand for the rest of the game. I had sent a necropunk down either side to take quarters as we were playing Land Grab. He killed the one on the left fairly early, finishing him beginning of turn two. All I needed was a Leap into Pandora, then a flurry for some minor whoopage. However, that whole no Mask thing. So Izamu did his thing and the necro died. On turn three I was left with two wounds on Leveticus, but all I needed was a Mask to leap in and kill Leveticus. Nope, left with just the Black Joker in my hand. Which hurt, can he flipped a black joker with Pandora, and still beat me, cause I flipped a freaking 2. After taking out Izamu, all I had was Leve, Waifes, and a Necro, he had Pandora, Sorrows, and the Arcane Effigy. All I need is to leap in with my Necro and the significants will be in my favour and I can start getting points again. All I need is a Mask to leap in and pummel him... Starting to see a theme? So, the punk died instead. As it was, I only got one point for strategy, and all for schemes. He managed all four for strategy and only two for schemes. A very tight, very bloody game. A few more masks would have definitely help, but otherwise, I think it went very well.


After wetting my appetite for Malifaux, I played a game of 40K versus Shea. He ran a slightly different Blood Angels list. Normally I would say a wise crack about list tailoring, but as I need to face as many challenges as possible before Tacticon as I can, I'm cool with it. My list is set, barring a new book, but my playing needs practice and tweaked. He ran two assault units, two storm ravens, a librarian, a couple priests, a drop pod furioso dread, sanguinary guard, and some terminators. We were playing 1850, so I added a unit of reavers. We played diagonal deployment and Emperor's Will. He won first turn, and put his assault squads split in his corner. I covered my entire deployment zone, trying to spread and block his dreadnought. He dropped the dread opposite along my line from the seer council, which may have been a mistake, but since I didn't really take any wounds from it, it is kind of a mute point. On my turn, I of course scattered, leaving his Dread a headless chicken the rest of the game.
His turn two saw everything come in. Mine only saw the reavers. His terminators dropped midtable, while his guard dropped on the other side of the big building, going after some guardians. They were able to finish my guardians off on my turn. I targeted on of his assault squads, powering up a load of psychic powers, doom, prescience, and misfortune. I shot them down to only a few men, then assaulted them to finish the job, giving me first blood. Unfortunately, this left my seer council in prime position to get charged by his terminators the following turn.
His assault squad turned and charged my Reavers, wiping them out. His Termies charged my Council, locking both squads up for the rest of the game. My Hellions came in and charged into his Saguinary Guard, unfortunately slaughtering them to a man. This meant they were in the open for shooting the next turn. You may also notice that there aren't any pictures of my Razor Wing in this, as I was not fast enough to get a picture of it in the mere minutes it was on the table. You may also notice a large number of empty bases on my side of the table. I took heavy beatings across the board, but never enough to finish a squad(usually), resulting in my units still being scoring.
On turn four, my Hellions got mauled. Even with Feel No Pain, they just couldn't stand up to the shooting, and were killed down to just the Baron left. I also made the mistake of putting a regular wound on my last warlock, leaving a instant death wound for one of my farseers. This was a big mistake, and ended up costing me my warlord, as I couldn't give up fortune to let the termies run free. I knew this as soon as I removed the warlock. On my turn, I charged in the Baron, planning to challenge and lock up his Assault Marines for the rest of the game, basically denying his troops. However, I managed to fail my 2+ armour save on the overwatch attacks, which meant I walked in with a 5+ armour 5+ feel no pain, and as you can guess, I didn't lock up anything.
On turn five, he moved his assault marines back towards his objective, storm ravens did some shooting, and the dreadnought wandered aimlessly. On my turn, I gambled and sent my guardians to contest his objective and move so he had to assault me out of cover. The other guardian squad moved to my objective, as far back as they could, leaving the dreadnought out of range for turn 6. My fortune Farseer continued to hold the remnants of his terminator squad. It was a gamble, but if it ends on turn 5, I have a win, turn 6 doesn't look as good. I have Linebreaker and First Blood, he has Slay the Warlord, and can't get Linebreaker, as his units are just too far. So, even if we go to turn 6, I can still hold one, he holds one, and I still win, turn 7... But, it doesn't matter, for once it ended when I needed it to, and I won. A great game, I lost a lot of models, but managed to bring some pain as well. Shea runs a very elite army, which my army seems to excel at. I also have plenty of reroll potential, somewhat negating my own elite army. Misfortune is just awesome. It even makes Terminators killable, and with my no AP close combat weapons, I am still able to bring the hurt. I do need to be a little less knee jerk on wound allocation, but that is what I am doing from now till Tacticon, improving my game. Unless a new book drops, then I will have to relist. I also need to better judge jump troops. I try to give them a 18" berth, but that is way to small, as they only need a 6" charge. I need to be 21" to 24", which is a good chunk of board.

In a side note, I am planning to take Eldar, not Tau, to the Hobby Town Westminster tournament at the end of the month. It is a 2k event, so I am working on what to add to my list. It will likely be my final warlock, bulk out my hellion squad, and upgrade the razorwing to a voidraven. For the rest, I am thinking of filling in my Reaver squad, but I'm not sure.