Malifaux May Continues

It's Sunday. That means gaming day again :)

Having read through the rules again during the week, there was some realisation that we'd made a few little errors last week. So, with a better grasp of the rules, we rocked out a few more Malifaux games today (as is the plan for this month). Focus was still "kill the leader" rather than worrying about strategies/schemes to get a firm handle on the rules. We'll give the strategies a go next week.

Not as many photos today. Had left the camera on the wrong exposure setting (centre weighted instead of evaluative metering) after popping in to Ardmore prior to gaming (see the end of this post). Also decided to try shooting on manual and use a higher ISO rather than flash. I think my photos with flash from last week were better. But... it wasn't helped by not paying much attention to what shutter speed I was shooting at... oh well.

Rob (Pandora) and Phil (Rasputina) were already playing when I arrived...

No idea who won. Mark was busy building a Ten Thunders force while he waited.

"A cheerful whistling tune wafted through to Misaki. She momentarily paused to listen closer. Who was it...? The whistling came closer and as the tunes master approached, Misaki grew cold. She knew who that was. That Mad Hatter... Seamus was approaching. This would not end well...."

So Mark and I would play against each other. Mark would field his Ten Thunders gang. It went something like this:

Misaki
Ototo
3 Ten Thunders Archers
Shang(?)

Sorry, not sure on the crews upgrades.

My force was exactly the same as last weekend (See here).

"Seamus wandered down the road. The day was just starting and a nice walk always helped clear his mind after a hard nights work terrorising the inhabitants of Malifaux. Something made him stop though. It felt as if someone was not just watching, but staring. Seamus' eyes wandered looking for the source.... then his eyes meet the cold hard stare of Misaki. As their eyes meet, Misaki let out her war cry and charged. Seamus smiled......"

So basically the game went like this. Misaki stalked Seamus and moved forward as quickly as she could. Seamus shifted slightly and brought the crew closer together. In very short time Misaki was in melee with one of the Belle's......

She then showed off her fancy ninja skills by diving over the Belle and into melee with Seamus....

The assassination attempt failed though. An annoyed Seamus just backhanded Misaki and pushed her back before drawing his flintlock and firing. Misaki was in trouble...

Next thing.. the Copycat Killer appears next to Seamus and fires his flintlock....

"Misaki fell to her knees. She could feel her life force quickly ebbing away... but perhaps... just perhaps there was still a chance.... if only she could.... But before Misaki could finish her train of thought, there was a blood curdling shriek followed by the crack of a whip. Then there was just pain and everything went black....

Madam Sybelle stood over Misaki's corpse and looked to Seamus. Seamus grinned... yes Sybelle, she will make a fine Belle....."

And with that, the game ended. Talking about it afterwards, we reckoned Mark would have been better off using the Archers abilities to put some hurt on and hold Misaki and Ototo back to strike a little later. The assassination attempt had a chance of working, but was probably always going to be unlikely with cards in my hand and soulstones still available.

For my second game... Pandora wanted revenge... so Rob and I played each other. Rob had a slightly different force this week -

I've only got one good photo of this game and it kinda shows how things went...

The entire, untouched Resurrectionists crew facing Pandora. Just Pandora. Things hadn't gone well for Rob. I'd managed to lure Lilitu and Lelu in turn isolating them and killing them. Blast damage from Sybelle's shriek got rid of the Insidious Madness and the Sorrow's didn't last long now that I knew Ca actions against them didn't halve damage. 

Finally just Pandora was left, but I made hard work of finishing her off. Having to pass Wp checks was annoying and left a few on Seamus' crew paralysed. But, numbers told and Pandora died. 

Pretty convincing win and, too be honest, I thought Rob had a good list. Not sure what he could have done differently. We'll see what difference strategies/schemes make next week.

Whilst Rob and I were playing, Mark and Phil had a game. Here's a couple of pics...

Not sure who won in the end.

With the next open day at Ardmore fast approaching, I figured I better get out and get a bit more practice with my big lens.

So, prior to gaming. I popped into Ardmore... since it is on the way :)

It was a pretty nice day out, but the low winter sun made shooting a little difficult. Still a good day with two Havard's and the P-51 Mustang taking off! Here's a couple of shots...

Most are at 1/200th, but I think I really need to stick at around 1/250th with the Sigma lens. Still one more weekend to practice.

May Madness

Sunday is here again. I'm sure the weeks and weekends are getting faster!

For now, we have decided to stick to one game for a month rather than change each weekend (the downside of having too many games!). We're hoping this will help us remember the rules for quicker and better games! :)

First up is Malifaux... I'll also be sticking with the exact same crew for the month to get the hang of them. This is the crew I'll run:

Resurrectionists Crew - 35 Soulstones

Seamus -- 3 SS Pool
 +Red Chapel Killer [1]
 +Sinister Reputation [1]
 +Unnerving Aura [1]

Copycat Killer [3]
Madame Sybelle [8]
 +Bleeding Tongue [1]
Nurse [5]
Rotten Belle [5]
Rotten Belle [5]
Rotten Belle [5]

"Seamus watched quietly from the shadows as the Ten Thunders crew moved across the open field. They looked confident about their ability to deal with Pandora... how dear she try and force them out of their own territory! Seamus knew better though.... especially as the Ten Thunders split their forces. A sly grin appeared on Seamus' face....  excellent he thought. There will be plenty of corpses today....."

Mark and Rob played first. Ten Thunders (not sure on crew make-up - Mark may post it later... hint hint) vs. Pandora.

If I recall correctly, Rob had:

Pandora

2 Beckoners (masquerading as Nurses)

3 Sorrows (pretending to be Terror Tots)

1 Poltergeist

We just focused on having a general beat 'em game to re-get the hang of the rules. Here's a few pics of the game....

Unfortunately Mark ended up having to send a couple of units in alone and they found themselves surrounded by Neverborn. I could feel his pain as the Sorrows slowly added on the damage every time he failed a WP duel..... eventually he conceded the game, although may have been a closer result game than I thought (I was distracted as the game ended....).

"Seamus looked on gleefully as the corspes piled up and the Ten Thunders ran. He could sense Pandora was worn from the battle. A glint appeared in his eye as he realised the oppourtunity. So, as Pandora moved away, Seamus commanded one of his Belle's to follow them. He had some corpses to check out first.... Pandora would be next."

Rob and I would play next. Just another beat 'em up and we got the deployment a little wrong. Should have been playing on a 3' by 3' table, but played on a 4' x 3' by mistake, so we started a little too far apart.

I kept my Belles, Sybelle and Seamus together, whilst the Nurse and Copycat Killer would head off down the opposite flank. I knew I would have break Rob's crew up to try and avoid the damage piling up from the Sorrows abilities..... things started well as the Belle's seductively lured a Beckoner towards them. She didn't last long.... a couple of well placed shots saw to that. Rob was suddenly nervous of Seamus and the Copycat.... their flintlocks hurt!

 

Pandora headed into the forest for cover and the next few turns were spent by both of us luring and isolating various crew members to try and knock them off. Once the Neverborn got close, I was left with no choice but to sacrifice a few models as they started to take damage. I didn't think Seamus would mind.... The Nurse ended up going toe to toe with a Sorrow, but after poisoning it, she just moved away to let it die.

My general tactic with this force is to use the Belle's lure to pull forward enemy crew members and then use Sybelle or Seamus as the heavy hitters to finish them off. It seemed to work well in this game.

Soon, just Pandora was left and she was bleeding. Bleeding bad. At Seamus' behest the Belle's moved in and Seamus himself moved up.... 

"Seamus looked Pandora in the eyes. Hatred burned in them, but as he raised his flintlock he saw the flash of fear that crossed them. He smiled and pulled the trigger. As the smoke cleared, Pandora lay dead. Today had been a good day."

 

Another Sunday Session

Another Sunday has passed with some relaxing dice rolling and talking crap (and there was quite a good story discussed this weekend, but I best not say any more!).

I arrived later than normal as I was having a particularly slow day after being at Wedding the night before. There was an open bar at the Wedding reception..... :)

When I got there, a big Wild West game was underway... loads of Mexicans, Indians, Cowgirls and Cowboys! Two new gentleman had also joined us. They were setting up for a game of 40k which lasted them all day!? I took a few pics of the games anyway (no idea of the end result for either):

At the end of the Wild West game, we decided on playing a few games of Malifaux since I had assembled my gangs. I would face Phil first and he had decided to run an Ortega gang. I went with Seamus and his Rotten Belle's.

My force consisted of:

Seamus w\ bag o' tools, red chapel killer and sinister reputation
Copycat Killer
Madam Sybelle w\ bleeding tongue
2 Rotten Belle's
Nurse

For the Ortega's, I think Phil had:

Perdita
Papa Loco
Santiago
Nino
Francisco

We also tried some strategies... the Ortega's would have to sabotage some key buildings, whilst Seamus just had to stop the Ortega's from getting close to the Resurrectionists deployment zone.

I think we started too far away, but that was okay. Worked for me...

My gang are the black models (hiding in the shadows...?? I really need to get back into a painting mood, but I'm having too much fun assembling my new 4Ground buildings). Both of us basically spread out along our deployment zones.

Nino used his special rule to deploy right next to the building to be sabotaged, so I had little chance to stop that.... but he didn't last long. Madam Sybelle let out a blood curdling scream at him as he placed the charge. Seeing him drop to knees with that... she summoned one of her Belles to finish him off....

Perdita and Santiago closed though and started to hurt the Belles.

Seamus headed over to help out after he and the Copycat Killer shot Papa Loco to pieces. There was no way I was letting that guy get close! By now Madam Sybelle has taken more pain than she can handle... but "arise my sweet".... Seamus summons more Belle's....

But the rest of the Ortega's are dead with Perdita somewhat hurt. At Seamus' command the Belle's start to close....

We forgot to set-up a turn counter, so ended the game at that point. Based on our strategies, I had 4VP ( for defending my deployment zone. Phil had 4VP for sabotaging the key building and one other. So a draw. Although... the Ortega's had left a few warm corpses for Seamus.... 

Onto game 2 and this was against Rob who wanted to try Lilith. Uh oh thought I.... I remember playing her a while back and using her dirty trick... (illusionary forest & sudden darkness). This wasn't going to be fun I thought.

Rob ran with..

Lilith
Mature Nephilim
3 Terror Tots

Anyway, we deployed. Both of us grouping our gangs together. And to make things easy... we just headed straight for each other. I don't even remember what my strategy for this game was... I think I had to get to the Neverborn deployment zone. The set-up:

The Nephilim was quickly into combat, but not before Madam Sybelle's scream put some hurt on him and Lilith. A good start (helped by the fact that I remembered to spend soul stones).

Lilith soon joined the fray, but scarpered not long after as she would have been left isolated at the end of her activation. That wouldn't be a good thing for her....

Unfortunately the dirty trick wasn't helping Rob.... I made sure I stayed together in a tight knit group. If she charged someone.... others would be able to charge her... As it was I had a fright when Seamus killed one of the Tots. The Nephilim wasn't so happy on seeing this and was able to be placed right into base contact with Seamus! Seamus just grinned though... a Nephilim was going to no worry for him. Apart from the splashes of black blood burning everyone though.

Soon it was just Lilith and a Tot left...

Lilith was surrounded and hurting. Seamus was still grinning... So we called it there. Next turn would have probably seen the end of Lilith, although if she activated right, she still could have made someone hurt.

As it was, I don't think either of us had got anywhere near our strategies so 0 VP's each... technically a draw then? :)

I'm enjoying this Malifaux game. Although it was frustrating drawing crap hands every turn. It can really hamstring you if you can't cheat fate. I was hoping to get off a couple of abilities, but just couldn't get the right cards.

As for Seamus and his Belle's... really glad I got them. Am enjoying running them (I know, I need to paint them). The Belle's combined with Madam Sybelle are working well for me and I'm starting to get the hang of using them to compliment each other. Seamus is just nasty :)

The only gang member I'm struggling with is the Nurse. Just can't figure out how to use her yet. Feels like I should be using her to buff my own gang members, but I'm not so sure.... more reading on forums required here I think.

I had also best go read the rules ready for next weekend. We were definitely rusty and I know I made a few rules mistakes with my gang by not reading the cards correctly. Like only being able to shoot once per activation and summoned Belle's are slow on the turn they activate.... whoops.

Until next time.