I managed to sneak in a game of Malifaux against the infamous Michael Shaffer this last Saturday. As a shocker he was running Rasputina, but wanted off the snow board, so it was onto the lava. It is the natural progression of course. Read on to find out how it went.
With the wave 2 beta finally over, I could move away from testing this or that, and into playing Malifaux again. First on the list, bring out Tara again. With the mission being Turf War, it was a no brainer. I usually find that Tara excels at Turf War with my style keeping her and others towards the middle of the table. I also took A Line in the Sand and Deliver a Message, which meant Bishop was coming to the party. And the Malifaux Child of course, since he is just awesome with Tara. I took the Desolation engine as my beater for the crew, but I am not sure that was a great choice. Two Void Wretches, a Death Marshal, Scramble for Bishop, and Tara's upgrades(Dead of Winter, Obliteration Symbiote, and Knowledge of Eternity) and I was good to go. Shaffer brought Rasputina, Snowstorm, Ice Golem, two Gamin, and a Silent One. He took revealed A Line in the Sand and Bodyguard on the Ice Golem.
Turn one goes about as expected, I shoot the Desolation in, but fail to do much damage. Unfortunately, Shaffer counters by having Rasputina retaliate and kills the Desolation Engine, dropping two Aboms and Bishop. Bishop circles around incised Snowstorm's reach, getting into position to Deliver the Message on turn two. Troy reveals my Deliver a Message scheme, letting Shaffer know my overall plan.
Turn two, I activate Tara first, causing some minor mischief, but nothing major. He manages to give Bishop slow with the Ice Golem, stopping my Deliver a Message this turn. I maneuver a little, and mistakenly try and give the Ice Golem paralyze, to which he is immune, wasting Bishop's activation. I do manage to drop some scheme markers, and so does he, and we both get Turf War. At the end of the turn, I put Tara into Snowstorm, after mistakenly trying to Pull the Void. I manage to kill him, but he Shatters for four, hurting Tara and killing an Abomination.
Turn three, I once again do little with Tara's first activation, but Rasputina does more than a little, killing Tara. Bishop continues to take a beating, falling to a single wound. The Ice Golem is forced to move off, in hopes of getting points for Turf War and Bodyguard. Bishop, having finished off the Essence of Power then move up on Rasputina, tying her up and shutting down her hell cannon. We both get Turf War again.
Turn four, I flipped Red Joker for initiative, guarantying that I am able to get Deliver a Message. After delivering the message, Bishop continues to stay a pain in Rasputina's behind, using high cards to stop her 0 action Biting Chill, and then also stopping her from leaving combat. The Silent One moves over to take care of the nuisance, but succumbs Bishop's Cage Fighter. The Wretches move toward center, securing Turf War for just myself this turn. The Death Marshal moves to place markers for A Line in the Sand.
Turn five sees the Golem still after board center, Rasputina still can't escape Bishop's clutches, the Wretches and Death Marshal finish A Line in the Sand for me, though Shaffer manages to get in a second marker for his. The game ends, 9-3 in my favor.
In the aftermath, I have to give Bishop my MVP. On one wound, he basically held back the entire Rasputina line, scoring two VP in the process. The Desolation Engine I was less happy with. Versus a Rasputina crew he goes down super quick. She does just too much damage for him to get the chance to heal back up. The Abominations were a bit useful afterwards, but if I bury one with Tara, it will pop out when anything dies, not just my big beater. I think a Nothing Beast could be quite useful against Rasputina, since he can get to the higher defense, and the Engine's defenses are almost useless in this situation. I am contemplating different beaters I can bring versus Arcanists and, by extension, just in general. Montressor may be useful with his added -Wp versus Neverborn. Its a thought I plan to implement soon. As I run almost exclusively as an Outcast player, I am currently sticking to those models, but can see points for Ressers as well. I do think the wall that a Desolation Engine puts up is incredibly useful, though. First as a giant scarey monster, then as two Abominations just taking up real estate. With the end of the second wave of beta, I am looking forward to playing games of Malifaux and tweaking my own skill and plans, instead of testing and tweaking models. I do expect to play around with Avatars here in month, but that shouldn't take much time or force me to overly play specialized games.
Well, it has taken me three days to get this all typed and posted for just a single report, so I had better get it done. This weekend looks to be mostly, if not all, demos, so fairly light on tactical battle reports. Though, I am planning on pulling out Ramos for at least the first one, versus a new player that has picked up Seamus. Should be interesting. Check back to see how that all went. Or better yet, drop by the club this Saturday and witness first hand. Or match your wits against the awesomeness that lives in my own head.
I may even let some of that awesomeness hit the table... someday.
Hope to see ya there.
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