Doc Brown
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I've been messing around with Malifaux lately and I like the game. The Strategies and Schemes add an interesting element that other games lack and the method of hiring crews by using soulstones so you can play a few down to give your master some extras adds a nice twist to army selection. I played a few games around the time of Rising Powers, but the model that got me interested in the game's aesthetic, Nekima, hadn't been released, so I stopped playing. Nekima was recently released and there's been a increase in local Malifaux play, so I got to playing again. All told I've had about 20 games, 25 at most, and there was a small local event, so I decided to give it a go despite only having one crew just to give the tournament scene a shot. The Desperate Mercenary won't be out until next month, so I'm making do with a slightly less efficient version. The list was:
Lilith
Nekima
Black Blood Shaman
Young Nephilim
Terror Tot
Terror Tot
Cherub
The overall plan with the list is pretty simple, hit things until they die. I briefly looked at simply paying the extra SS for the Mature Nephilim instead of trying to make them first turn out of tots, but you lose the Black Blood Shaman or Nekima and aside from being good for making the Mature Nephilim, they also add a lot to what the list can do. Ultimately though I still haven't seen many of the models in the game, so my strategy is more rolling with the punches than anything especially against the masters and models I haven't seen. Fortunately ATL is the home of Wyrd and a regular opponent works for the company so I've had a lot of help with rules. Many opponents also have multiple masters and have been kind enough to take requests for the ones I haven't played against, so I'm not really going into this blind, just a little deaf and dumb. In that respect I guess this Batrep is more for me to look back at the games and list, but if anyone has some insight then go nuts.
Game 1:
Strategy- Shared Distract
Opponent-
Seamus
-Grave Spirit
Rotten Belle
Rotten Belle
Crooked Man
Crooked Man
The Hanged
Hans
Assessment Going In: Seamus definitely seems like he'll be a challenge. He got a lot of wounds, multiple buffs keeping you from doing a lot of damage in a hit and built in ways to heal on top of Terrifying and auras that make it worse. Crooked men and Belles can also be rough on a crew with so few models. Hans is an interesting choice, but I can't really blame him given that there are a few decent sized forests scattered around that he can see through. Since Lilith ultimately has to get into his DZ to deny points, I chose the Stake a Claim Strategy on a piece of terrain in his DZ. Also, since Hans is going to be one of the few models that can hit me through forests and since he has the Headshot trigger, I end up picking Grudge on Hans. It's kind of a gamble since he can kill Hans early to deny it, but if he does he's down a good number of points.
-Turn One is largely spent having the Nephilim grow for me with one Terror Tot eating the Cherub and Lilith bashing it's face in as the Blood Shaman who was in base contact with both picks up a pile of counters. Lilith gets Lured by a Belle and shot by Hans twice and mostly because my opening hand was pretty trash and her WP and DF flips were only marginally better, she got lured forward and took 3 wounds. At little annoying, but she still had most of her SS intact and the Lure is going to save her a WK action next turn.
-Turn Two is where the fun starts. The Shaman kicks the turn off with Blood Frenzy and Blood Magic giving most of the crew Flurry and Nekima Fast. My opponent activates Hans First and Takes two more shots at Lilith with the Anti-Neverborn ammo, but her flips are much better and she dodges both. Lilith then activates, she checks to see if she's within 6" of Nekima to get Regeneration and she is, so she heals, but it also means she's close enough to use Brood Mother. She Brood Mothers Nekima, walks forward and casts Transposition targeting Hans and Nekima, using a SS to make sure it goes off and neither model resists. This places Nekima next to Seamus who is standing pretty close to a tree and Hans next to a Mature Nephilim. Nekima starts mining for silver in Seamus' face using her 3 attacks from Flurry, then two more from Fast and Melee Expert with a healthy number of Throw Aside triggers to get Seamus within 1" and down to 3 wounds with no SS left, then uses Spill Black Blood doing 6 WD to herslef and 3 WD to Seamus killing him and locking up the Strategy for me. My opponent doesn't bother activating Hans and he dies next activation to a Mature Nephilim. With only 6 wounds remaining, Nekima doesn't live through the turn.
-Turns Three through Six are largely uneventful, Lilith wanders around largely invincible thanks to her remaining SS and ends up staking the claim with the two maturs rampaging their way through the remaining models with the Shaman casting buffs. The game is ultimately a tabling with me getting 8 VP to my opponents 3.
Game 2:
Strategy: Shared Turf War
Opponent-
Leveticus
Rusty Alice
Jack Daw
Crooked Man
Rotten Belle
Rotten Belle
Watcher
Assessment Going In: So I've never seen Leveticus before, but I've read his card. It should be interesting to see how he works in game especially since my opponent is pretty proficient both with the caster and the game in general. I'll try for the Strategy and my plan there is to simply avoid combat and farm a few non-insignificant models to get his count down, but I'm anti-confident, so my Schemes will be a plan B in case it looks like it isn't happening. Basically I take Bodyguard and A Mother's Love with the thoughts that if things go south Lilith can beat the blood counters out of the Shaman and take advantage of Master of Malifaux, Fast, her high WK stat, Illusionary Forest and her SS to basically avoid dying for the rest of the game. I'll try for the 8 pts, but I'm more confident in my plan for the 4pts.
-Turn One is pretty amusing to a casual observer since there's a large number of attack rolls and all of them are on friendly models.
-Turn Two I end up losing a Mature Nephilim to Jack Daw after a number of "Discard or Die" attacks, but ultimately kill Rusty Alice using a series of Knock Aside triggers to get to her with a Mature Nephilim.
-Turn Three it doesn't look like it's happening when the Mature Nephilim that Killed Alice Drops and Nekima gets a kill or two, but also goes down.
-Turn Four my opponent and I are both clear on what we're doing as the Black Blood Shaman meets up with Lilith and she kills him, drains his blood, steals his counters and bolts for the table corner with 5 SS.
-Turns Five and Six are largely just Lilith getting to a safe place and using Illusionary Forest to keep away potential attackers as Leveticus secures his Schemes and the overall Strategy. The games ends with me getting 4 VP to my opponents 8.
Game 3:
Strategy: Shared Reconnoiter
Opponent-
Lilith
Mature Nephilim
Doppelganger
Lilitu
Lelu
Terror Tot
Assessment Going In: So he's got more tricks, but my crew has more hitting power. Should be amusing to see what happens. I end up taking Kill Protege and Steal Relic as Schemes. Theres probably something better than Steal Relic, but I haven't tried it enough and if I go to bigger events I want to be able to do it before I get into later rounds and am forced to instead of other less palatable ones. Kill Protege is a lot like Grudge in that your opponent can deny it by killing the model, but again I think I have a good shot of him not wanting to kill the bulk of his face beating in the form of the Mature Nephilim.
-Turn One I start of the Sequence with the Cherub and Terror Tot I intend to Sacrifice going first to brun activations. Then My opponent does something far too tempting for me to avoid. He double WKs his Mature Nephilim up the field (his last activation due to Brood Mother and Lilitu and Lelu's all acting back to back) while I still have most of my models left. I change gears and have Lilith Transpostion the Terror Tot I was going to Sacrifice and the Mature Nephilim putting it in the middle of everything. Nekima ultimately kills it, but with the sequence interrupted the best I can manage is making a Mature and Young Nephilim.
-Turn Two I managed to win initiative even with the Negative Flip from the Doppelganger. I have the Terror Tot cast Sprint twice cheating masks on one to get him back to the rest of the crew. The little guy immediately gets Transpositioned with the Doppelganger by the enemy Lilith and the Doppelganger swings on Nekima (my opponent had Grudge targeting Nekima as a Scheme) doing some high damage. At this point I decide to go for Steal Relic and use Lilith to Transposition the enemy Lilith and Doppelganger, Chearting and SSing to get the flip high, then cast Alluring to lower her DF, followed by using Brood Mother on Nekima. Nekima then goes and thanks to Terrible Beauty manages to take the Relic then starts swinging, but because my hand largely had 5's or lower she was able to survive without burning many SS. Lilitu and Lelu doulble WK and Lilitu tries to Lure, but thanks to a Red Joker resist flip fails and his terror tot guts mine, Drains it's Blood and Steals its Blood Counter. My Mature Nephilim also swings, but even with paried claws and lower DF I can't flip anything meaningful and only land a single blow, but the enemy Lilith is out of SS.
-Turn Three I get initiative again through the negative flips, but apparently this is where all my high cards are at because my hand continues to be pretty crap. Lilith kills her evil twin and Brood Mothers the Shaman who immediately activates and Injects Blood Twice on Nekima and combined with her Regeneration puts her back up at 10 WDs, then casts Blood Frenzy and Blood Magic Making the Mature Nephilim Fast. Next activation Nekima is going to leave with the Relic. Then the Doppelganger activates again, steals the Mature Nephilim's claws and charges and beats Nekima to death...so much for that idea. Lilitu and Lelu also join the fray killing the young Nephilim, but little else as the enemy Terror Tot tries to Grow, but lacking the right cards to cheat can't.
-Turn Four is practically Christmas for the Shaman since he's already got a pile of Blood and Corpses and Lilith and the Mature Beat Lilitu to one WD and kill Lelu and the Doppelgagner. The enemy Terror Tot tries to Grow again, but again can't get the 9 of Masks he needs. Lilitu dies at the end of the turn because Lelu isn't on the table.
-Turn Five the Black Blood Shaman uses Blood Magic to give the Mature Nephilim Fast, then walks into the left table quarter nearest me. The enemy Terror Tot finally becomes a real boy. My Mature Nephilim uses his Melee Expert attack against Lilith and triggers Knock Aside, pushing her into the table quarter on the right nearest me and getting a charge on the Young Nephilim obliterating him and landing in the talbe quarter on the left opposite me.
-Turn Six is irrelavent, my opponent has all the VP he can get and I have all the VP I can for a total of 6 VP for me to 2 VP for him.
Final Result: 18 VP which ends up being good enough for a second place finish. The last game I needed Nekima to survive to get the full 8 VP, but it ultimately didn't matter since my second round opponent got 24 VP for first place.
Final Thoughts: The list is fun to play. I thought it would have issues basically losing first turn for the blood ritual to get the Mature Nephilim, but with the various movement shenanigans in the crew combined with fast WK speeds and a general lack of caring about terrain it's still fast enough to cross the table and get where it needs to. The Black Blood Shaman is the real all star for much of this, giving models Fast and Flurry on demand combined with some healing ability is pretty good, but when everything has solid hitting power and lots of wounds it's practically worth its weight in gold. I ended up getting 11 out of 12 VP for schemes and would have gotten full if Nekima hadn't dropped, so it seems I have at least a vague idea what I'm doing in that regard. Overall good times.
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