The finer points of Tara

I managed to squeak in a game of Malifaux on Saturday versus the infamous Shaffer. It was basically a test run of my thoughts last week on choice of beater. You will have to read on to discover how that went. I will say, however, that my new job is putting a crimp on my gaming. I have gone from several games a week, to begging for one.

Begging games aside, I managed to plead my way into a great one against Shaffer. This is great on many levels, the first of which is that HE is getting some practice before Genghiscon in two weeks. He ran basically the same crew as last time, changing out one of the upgrades on Raspy. I ran Tara, usual upgrades, Taelor with Scramble and Tally Sheet, Nothing Beast with Oathkeeper, three Void Wretches, and a Death Marshal. The strategy was Reckoning, with both of us revealing Vendetta, his Ice Golem versus the Nothing Beast and Taelor versus the Ice Golem. I also took hidden Breakthrough and he took hidden Take Prisoner on a Void Wretch.
On turn one, my original plan was to drop the Nothing Beast in and drop Taelor out when it killed something, but he put his Ice Golem out front and I decided to send in Taelor instead. She was just out of range of getting Rasputina into combat on the charge. I could have used her Fast action to move into range, but instead I used it to finish off the Ice Golem. The retaliation from Rasputina saw Taelor reduced to a pile of shattered ice. But I had secured three points while stopping him from gaining three.
Turn two I brought out the Nothing Beast and used him to wreak havoc in Shaffer's lines. As I quickly blew through my cards, he quickly raised in Df. As Rasputina's crew is heavy versus defense, this meant he was nigh unmovable. He also managed to get Rasputina within melee range, shutting her down. His Voided allowed me to punish his crew that tried to take him down. My Void Wretches were able to skirt the edges, looking to get Breakthrough. The Death Marshal came up later, while the Child stayed behind.
Turn three I was able to get Reckoning, killing Snowstorm and an Ice Gamin. This put me at four points. I also had managed to drop three markers for Breakthrough, using two Wretches and the Nothing Beast's Oathkeeper. However, I was out of beaters. I still had Tara, a Death Marshal, and a Void Wretch in position to put some pressure on his crew, and two other Wretches to come in or drop more markers as needed. I think I was plenty done with Reckoning, however.
Turn four starts. And ends. Shaffer decided to call it, not thinking he could get enough points. I was looking at likely finishing with six, though he could drop me to four. He had two guaranteed turns to get Reckoning for a max of two, unless it continued, and a possible three for Take Prisoner. While it was possible for him to get five, I don't think he was real confident of it. Had it continued I think it could have been a very close game, with me having to defend my markers while not losing models. Versus Rasputina, with little in the way of damage, it would have been tough.

With a win under my belt and the Nothing Beast being far stronger than the Desolation Engine was versus Rasputina, it got me to thinking about the way Tara's crew works centered around your beater choice. A change of beater(s) changed the crew considerably. I have also started looking at high Wp options for facing Troy's Neverborn. I am finiding what is available to me to be more than I thought. They don't do as much damage as the lower Wp models, but there are some solid options out there, including Taelor and Rusty Alyce. I expect to give this line of thought a test in a game soon, but with Iron Man Painting next week and Genghiscon the week after, and the Infinity league right after that, I am not sure when I will be doing the testing.

I may be going into withdrawal here pretty soon. Though, with the Con over, I can devote my hobby time to my own endeavors. Like... um... hmmmm....
Well, I will have something up in a day or two, and, hopefully, a long post after Iron Man.
See ya hen.