Another Two Tournament Weekend

Well here we are again. Sorry for the delay in posting this but I find the tournament write-ups quite exhausting. I think this may be the last one I do for a while... This write up is on my second two-tournament weekend of the year already (the first being League of Extraordinary henchmen). The Saturday (Feb 21) was at our own LGS Dark Sphere run by the estimable Dr Walnut. Sunday (Feb 22) was at Wayland Games in Essex. I went into the weekend with my hoping to continue my run of all my 2015 events in the top 7, and specifically hoping I could pull out one podium. I needed another top 4-5 finish to jump into the top 25, which I was hoping to do over the weekend. One of the top 3 players (according to Malifaux Rankings) in the UK would be at each event as well, Ben Crowe on Saturday and Mark Elwood on Sunday, so I was hoping if I could do well enough I would get a chance to play against some more of the top players in the country (having played Greg at Vappafaux).

Having a Blast

It was really nice to not have to wake up as early as normally necessitated by tournaments as I am only about a 25-30 minute walk from Dark Sphere. Arrived just after 9 to help setup the tables and was really excited to start playing. I'm sure Peter (Dr Walnut) will have his own post coming up on the logistics of running the tournament and such, but I just wanted to add that it went very smoothly and was a thoroughly enjoyable event. It was a 3-round 50ss event.

Game One vs Max
Turf War (Standard Deployment)
A Line In The Sand
Breakthrough
Assassinate
Entourage
Cursed Object


My List:
Dreamer with Aether Connection, Restless Dreams, Tantrum
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Silurid
Insidious Madness
2 Waldgeists
Stitched Together
7 Soulstones

His List:
McCabe (Guild) with Elixir of Life, Badge of Speed, Promises
Luna
Peacekeeper
Hunter
Stalker
Death Marshall
3 Guild Hounds

My Schemes: Entourage on Dreamer (revealed), Breakthrough (revealed)
His Schemes: Entourage on McCabe (undeclared), Breakthrough (undeclared)

Quick Note: I forgot to take any pictures of this game... My first game was against a player I didn't know and a Master I had never played. Luckily I felt quite confident with my ability to score max points for Turfwar and breakthrough. Not being that confident with the ability to score 3 from cursed object (never know if a game will go 5 turns in a tournament) and a general disdain for Assassinate led me to choose Entourage on Dreamer, which further led me to decide to go with Restless Dreams over Dreams of Pain as it meant I could both play Dreamer more aggressively and could get him out of combat much easier (by being able to turn into chompy bits and get pushed into his deployment zone by daydreams before walking chompy and sacrificing to bring dreamer back out) if I happened to get tied up. My opponent didn't declare although based on his list I assumed he was taking the same schemes as me, which would make it harder for him to win as he could only score 5 scheme points instead of 8. My plan was to try and deny a point from Turf War at some point and score max points myself. I didn't think I'd be able to stop him from getting entourage or breakthrough, so this would be a close game.

Things went fairly well to plan. I managed to have both the silurid and insidious madness break through his lines and place more than enough breakthrough markers to lock that down early (he couldn’t afford to send McCabe after them due to Entourage and everything else was either too slow or on the other side of the board). He managed to pine box Teddy turn 2, but Chompy came out and killed the death marshall. I managed to kill off both his dogs on my left flank with Teddy and Chompy. Though one of the dogs didn’t go down until Teddy had attacked him 3 times and a waldgeist had attacked him twice… Chompy was a monster in this game as he managed to take out the Death Marshall, a guild hound and be able to get wherever I needed him to threaten the opponent, even if Teddy may have done more damage throughout the game. The big turning point was when his hunter took my Stitched down to 1 wound and the stitched proceeded to activate and shoot the Witchling Stalker, severe damage – dead, and then the Hunter, Red Joker damage – dead. That happened on turn 3 I believe and denied him the ability to score turf war (combined with Teddy Charging and pushing the peacekeeper out of the circle. In the end I was okay with letting McCabe get Entourage and his dog on the left flank getting down 1 marker for breakthrough as I had to triple walk Dreamer on turn 4 to get him into the opponents deployment zone for entourage and everything else was out of the way and/or holding the turf war circle. I was very happy with the result, as everything went as I had planned and I started the day with a solid victory. MVP: Stitched Together, that one activation by the Stitched completely swung the game and he also scored Turf War every turn.

Ended 9-5. 3-1 turf war, 3-2 in both schemes. (4 turns) table 2

Game Two vs the King of the South (Ben Crowe)
Reckoning (Corner Deployment)
A Line In The Sand
Breakthrough
Bodyguard
Power Ritual
Distract

My List:
Dreamer with Aether Connection, Restless Dreams, Tantrum
Hooded Rider with Mimic's Blessing
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Teddy
Silurid
6 Soulstones

His List:
Leviticus with To the Earth Return and Oathkeeper
2 Waifs
Hannah
Taelor with Oathkeeper
Strong Arm Suit with Oathkeeper
2 Freikorp Trappers

My Schemes: Power Ritual (revealed), Breakthrough (revealed)
His Schemes: Power Ritual (revealed), Breakthrough (revealed)

Well here it was, another shot at one of the UK top dogs. Playing Leviticus (no surprise as that was about as obvious as me using Dreamer) who I had never yet faced. Was going to be very tough, especially as Reckoning is by far my worst strategy. Goal was to go for max schemes while playing defensively and trying to pull out a close win my denying some scheme points to him and/or scoring a single reckoning point to swing the game.

My Deployment

My view of his Deployment

Wow was this a close game… It came down to the last activation. The game started incredibly cagey with basically two turns of manoeuvring instead of the usual 1. We both got two power ritual markers down in our corners and I each got markers down in our right hand unoccupied corners as well. These markers were basically never threatened and it was clear part way through the game that we would both score 3 for that scheme as long as the game stayed close. We both managed to score a point for Reckoning (Hooded rider pushed out from behind a building and charged/killed a waif to score it for me in turn 3 where I’d killed the Strong Arm). Hooded Rider then charged Levi at the start of turn 4 and removed his 2nd waif by killing Levi (and also threatened his trapper forcing them to pull back). Meanwhile Dreamer and 2 Teddies fought near the middle against Strong Arm, Hannah, Taelor with Strong Arm and one Teddy going down (as I stupidly activated Dreamer rather than a 1-wound teddy with the plans to accomplice him before remembering I hadn’t taken Otherworldly… Doh!) Turn 5 it was still anyone’s game. I thought that as long as I could out-activate him I could just charge the trappers with Hooded Rider and remove any markers they put down, at least securing a tie. Dreamer managed to get out of the middle and get one marker down for breakthrough. Sadly I forgot that Levi still had oathkeeper so he managed to walk over and remove the marker.

Dreamer before Levi activated and broke his heart

Nothing I could have done differently there sadly but it still hurt. Went from looking like a potential 1-2 point win to a much closer game. Then he sacrificed levi to bring out a waif giving him one more activation than me…. Crap. This meant that Hooded Rider would have to go before his last trapper. Hooded Rider charged the trapper. If I could hit him twice I would kill him (black joker had turned up already) and win the game by scoring a Reckoning point. If I didn’t kill him he could push away, walk and place a marker for breakthrough giving him a 1 vp win. Ben pointed out to me after the game that I could have maneuverer Hooded Rider to make it impossible for him to get around me, but it would have meant playing for the tie rather than the win, which I am not a fan of in this kind of situation. Sadly I only had a 6 left in hand so I was depending heavily on the cards. First attack missed and the game was basically over unless I could severe damage flip on the 2nd attack. Hit the second attack but only scored a moderate… crap. He pushed, walked, got the marker down and won the game by one. Heart-breaking loss as it was such a close game but I was still quite happy with my performance against the King of the South (and now UK#1). MVP: Hooded Rider, took out a waif, Leveticus (basically making it so Levi couldn’t come back on my left flank and threaten breakthrough and almost kept the trappers from scoring breakthrough. Also placed my two power ritual markers in my corner turns 1/2 for good measure.

Ended 4-5. 1-1 Reckoning, 3-3 power ritual, 0-1 Breakthrough (5 turns) table 1

Game Three vs Relaxed Dave

Squatter's Rights (Standard Deployment)

A Line In The Sand

Protect Territory

Bodyguard

Make Them Suffer
Distract

My List:

Dreamer with Restless Dreams, Tantrum, Otherworldly
Hooded Rider
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Lilitu
2 Waldgeists
5 Soulstones

His List:

Lucius (Neverborn) with Secret Assets and Surprisingly Loyal
The Scribe
Silurid
Guard Sergeant
2 Guild Riflemen
Barbaros
2 Young Nephilim

My Schemes: Protect Territory (revealed), Make Them Suffer
His Schemes: Protect Territory (revealed), Distract

After the intensely close and heartbreaking ending of the previous game, I knew I had to focus on getting a medium-big win in my final game to jump to third (which was the best possible spot as the tournament would have to end with either two opponents at 3-0 or a bunch at 2-0-1). I drew clubmate and fellow blog host Dave. Dave was playing Neverborn, which meant Lilith or Lucius and with this strategy I was betting on seeing Lucius. As I had been playing Restless Dreams dreamer in the previous two games, and with Make them Suffer in the Pool, I decided to end the tournament without ever using summoning Dreamer. It was risky as it meant he would be out activating me fairly badly at the start of the game, but I thought I could kill off his models fairly easily and turn the tabled by turn 2 or 3. I went with protect territory (as it's one of the easiest schemes out there) and Make them Suffer as I thought Chompy could easily kill a minion a turn with all his cheap minions around. Normally I wouldn't take Make Them Suffer, but I despise Bodyguard (in tournaments) and am not a fan of distract as well (I wanted those AP for flipping markers or killing off his models to even up the activations).

This game went more or less as planned. I managed to deny some Squatters markers with the waldgeists (who are quickly becoming as close as I have to an auto-include model) and get Chompy out every turn to kill a minion for make them Suffer. I believe Chompy killed a silurid, 2 guild riflemen and helped take out the Sergeant (alongside Hooded Rider) and scored me my 3 Makes Them Suffer points. Dave forgot turn 2 that you needed 2 models distracted to score which cost him a point he should have been able to get. We both easily scored protect territory (his Nephilim on my right flank was never threatened all game as I had run a flanking deployment with all my forces on the left other than 1 waldgeist).

Here is the waldgeist on the right flank all alone (other than the enemy)

Lilitu was great as always with her Lure and huge engagement range, managing to bring in a silurid for Chompy to eat. By turn 4 it was clear I was going to win and we wouldn’t make turn 5. I did realize that I could deny him a 2nd point for distract by messing with my own models, which was hilarious. Dreamer activated, pushed one waldgeist out of combat (who later activated and removed distract), shot and killed my other waldgeist which was on 1 wound but had used its activation to flip a Squatters marker rather than remove distract (to deny him a strategy point) and shot and killed Teddy (who was on 2 wounds left after he had somewhat foolishly attacked him with Lucius that turn). This left just the Hooded Rider with distract. MVP: Lord Chompy Bits, scored me 3 MTS points and managed to tie up his sergeant and rifleman and slowly kill them off during turns 3 and 4.

Ended 9-5. 3-1 Squatters, 3-3 protect territory, 3 for make them suffer, 1 to dave for distract (4 turns) table 3

Ending 2-1 meant I could finish anywhere from 3rd to possibly as low as 9 or 10. Though I was comfortable that my VP differential meant I would crack the top 5. I ended up coming 3rd for my first podium of the year. Won a £10 or £15 certificate to Darksphere that had to be spent that day. I was super happy with the result, but as I am already drowning in a backlog of Malifaux models I had no idea what to do with the money. In the end I decided to purchase the last metal blisters of Collodi and Marionettes, as I had been thinking about it for a while and who knows when the plastics will come out. Plus Mike Marshall was going to be giving me a (beautifully painted) Brutal Effigy at Lost Love the next day. This took me up to 5 Neverborn masters (of which I've only played Dreamer more than 3 times) meaning I have a lot of painting and playing to do in the next few months. Thanks again Peter for hosting a great event. It was also nice to be home at a normal hour for dinner. Took it easy that night as the next day was an earlier start and a much longer day, being both further away and a 4-round event.

Lost Love 3

Lost love on Sunday at Wayland Games was a 45ss tournament with a tiny pool of 65ss. The difficulty of building a pool was compounded by both Reckoning and Reconnoitre being chosen, as they pull the pool in opposite directions. As I tend to struggle in Reckoning, I decided it would be best to focus my pool on that strategy and just rely on Dreamer's summoning ability to make up the numbers in the other strategies. I managed to squeeze in a waldgeist and some scheme runners as my core models outside of the big hitters, but unlike the previous day where I went the restless Dreams path, due to the small pool I would likely be playing Dreams of Pain in every game outside of Reckoning.

My Pool:
Dreamer
Daydream
Teddy
Teddy
Hooded Rider
Silurid
Insidious Madness
Waldgeist
Dreams of Pain
Restless Dreams
Otherworldly
Tantrum
Retribution's Eye

Game One vs Michael
Extraction (Standard Deployment)
A Line In The Sand
Breakthrough
Bodyguard
Make Them Suffer
Murder Protege

My List:
Dreamer with Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly
Daydream
Hooded Rider
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Waldgeist
Insidious Madness
4 Soulstones

His List:
Viktoria of Ashes with Survivalist
Viktoria of Blood with Sisters of Fury and Mark of Shez'whatever
Hannah with Ancient Tomes
Vanessa
Freikorps Librarian
2 Void Wretches

My Schemes: Make Them Suffer (undeclared), Breakthrough (revealed)
His Schemes: Bodyguard on Hannah(undeclared), Make Them Suffer(undeclared)

Game one I was matched up against a player I have seen at Dark Sphere, but never played against.  I knew he played the Viks, which was terrifying as this was a fantastic scheme pool for a Viktorias player. With Murder Protege in the pool I knew I would have to take Hooded Rider as Teddy would give up those points far too easily. Plus, he was fast enough that I could hunt down any of his scheme runners that attempted Breakthrough (if he went that way) or even do Breakthrough for me if it came down to that. I decided to take Breakthrough (as always) and really struggled with the second choice. Ended up going with Make Them Suffer as all I needed to do to score it was kill his two Void Wretches early. I assumed he was taking Breakthrough so I wouldn’t have to be too aggressive going for them. This turned out to be a bad call and in hindsight I should have taken Murder Protégé as Hannah was not as tough to kill as I expected. The major surprise for me going into this game was that he did not have the slingshot upgrades on Ashes, which made the Viks threat range MUCH smaller and allowed me to play far more aggressively than I otherwise could have.

Deployment

As usual turn 1, was mainly jockeying around for positioning. Turn 2 I managed to stay at the edge of the 6” bubble and got 1 more model in than him (though it did require moving Hooded Rider earlier than I felt comfortable with) and could start moving the marker back towards my deployment zone (forcing him to spend more ap moving). Sadly this did mean Hooded Rider got charge on turn 3 and taken down to a couple wounds left (he died the next turn). I did manage to kill Hannah with some Stitched and Teddy. Too bad I didn’t take Murder Protégé (I was also shocked to find out at the end of the game that he had Bodyguard on Hannah as he was very aggressive placing her right in the centre of the board). My Insidious Madness easily broke his lines on turn 2 and spent the rest of the game placing markers for breakthrough. Sadly it turned out he didn’t have breakthrough and one of his Void Wretches hung around at the back trying to catch my Insidious all game. I finally managed to get to him with Teddy on turn 5 and kill him allowing me to score 1 vp for MTS rather than none. By turn 4 I had killed off everything but the void wretch, librarian, and the Viks. I finished off blood that turn and pushed the librarian out of the circle with Teddy allowing me to deny Extraction, which I moved the marker further back so he couldn’t get to it turn 5. All in all it was a great game, summoning was a huge factor and Teddy was a beast as always. MVP: Dreamer. Summoning Stitched and pushing around Teddy was key to victory and allowed me to win the numbers game by adding more models while pushing his away.

Ended 8-2. 4-2 extraction, 3 for breakthrough, 1 for MTS. no points for his schemes(5 turns)

End of game shot kind of says it all

Game Two vs Relaxed Dave
Reckoning (Corner Deployment)
A Line In The Sand
Protect Territory
Assassinate
Cursed Object
Plant Explosives

My List:
Dreamer with Restless Dreams, Tantrum, Otherworldly
Daydream
Hooded Rider
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Teddy
6 Soulstones

His List:
Lady J with Badge of Office
Judge with Plant Evidence
Executioner with lead-lined coat
Guard Sergeant
2 Guild Riflemen
Witchling Stalker

My Schemes: Protect Territory (revealed), Plant Explosives
His Schemes: Protect Territory (revealed), Plant Explosives

Well it looks like it's a grudge match. Dave will get a chance to avenge his loss on the previous day. I've played Dave a few times and always come on top. However Reckoning is my worst strategy and Lady J is great at it. He also would be heavily outactivating me. I only had 4 models (outside of daydreams) so everyone would have to pull weight for me to come out on top. I built my pool around these three models to make sure I could have a good Reckoning crew as I currently have no painted models that can hit hard and stand tough other than these three (I really need to paint some illuminated or Graves...) The plan was to make sure to get 3 points for plant explosives as early in the game as possible and try to clean up enough of his crew to score protect territory and a couple points for Reckoning. If I could deny him Protect territory, all the better. Dreamer and daydreams would support the teddies so they could get the jump on him, either to charge in and attack or drop a marker for plant explosives. Hooded Rider would go off by himself and try to pick off the weaker elements of the crew (Stalker and Riflemen) but make sure to stay safe until turn 3.

Sigh. It is tough to write about this game. It was rough. Dave scored his first victory over me through a combination of great play and the Mother F***ing Red Joker. I made a big mistake turn 2 by bringing Hooded Rider out too early and not making sure that he was outside of Lady J’s threat range (which he easily could have been). I forgot she didn’t need LOS to charge and had such a huge threat range. Was a huge mistake that would cost me. Walked, then charged me, hit me for weak damage on first attack. Needed to do 7 damage on next attack to finish me off and flipped… the Red Joker.

Right before things start to go really bad...

Hooded Rider is gone and I’ve lost ¼ of my crew. Crap. This was on me for making a stupid mistake, but even though he would have died regardless, if he could have just taken another turn of Lady J (or even just one attack) it would have made a big difference. On the bright side I managed to score 3vp for plant explosives this turn, with him scoring two (due to killing Hooded Rider). Bad start, but if I could just clear out his other stuff (specifically Sergeant, Executioner and Judge) with my Teddies and hide scoring Protect Territory I could take it by one. I had done some damage to Executioner turn 2 and managed to finish him off on turn 3. I also flurried the judge (and had Chompy attack him 3 times). Sadly a black-jokered damage flip and a lack of high cards meant that he survived on 1 wound, denying me a much needed Reckoning point. This turn also saw Lady J charge the Teddy that had killed the Executioner and… Red Joker Damaged flipped him as well! Oh Come on! At least with Hooded Rider he would have been dead either way, but with a full wound teddy and all the healing he gets in a Dreamer crew, Teddy should have been able to survive until the next turn and take up another couple ap of Lady J to kill (if I could activate and heal him). Sigh.

At this point I realized I was likely screwed. The inability to kill the Judge and the death of Teddy/Hooded rider with him only losing an Executioner meant I was in huge trouble. During all this time his witchling stalker was setting up to score 3vp for protect territory way across the board where I could never get to him. His riflemen were sitting waiting with high focus to shoot anything that escaped combat (which never happened). My daydreams were hiding behind a building burning activations when necessary. Turn 4 I killed the Judge and got the Sergeant down to 1 wound with Teddy…. Chompy activated and just needed to do one damage. I had no decent cards in hand by this points (Teddy used them up) but with 3 ml5 attacks at + flips against df 5 I just needed to flip one decent card. Of the 6 cards flipped, none was higher than a 7… sigh. So once again I miss out on Reckoning by 1 wound. Lady J charges Dreamer (chompy used his 0 to bring him back out) and I managed to survive on 2 wounds due to soulstones and pushing damage on Teddy. I still had a small chance of pulling a draw/victory on turn 5 if I could win initiative since I was still up 3-2 as no reckoning points had been scored. Lose the initiative flip and I use my last stone for a reflip. 12. Thank God something finally goes my way. He decides to stone as well… Red Joker… of course it is. I mean there was a decent chance he would tie or win, but the fact that it was the Red Joker was just a final slap across the face. Lady J activated and killed Dreamer. I used a daydream to push teddy who activated, walked and placed a marker to score me one for Protect Territory (hid behind a building so he was safe). Sadly this meant that the sergeant could get to the daydream and take one strike at him. He managed to kill the daydream, which gave him a point for Reckoning. In the end I realized that if you only take a bunch of really expensive models that aren’t very hard to hit, you become really liable to have the Red Joker completely swing the game. Dave played a great game and built a much better crew for the strategy than I had. I think I need to go back to the drawing board again for Reckoning…. MVP: None? Seriously this was a game where every model underwhelmed and for the first time I can’t even pick an MVP.

Ended 4-6. 0-1 Reckoning, 3-2 plant explosives, 1-3 Protect Territory (5 turns)

Game Three vs Bruno

Head Hunter (Standard Deployment)

A Line In The Sand

Breakthrough

Bodyguard

Deliver a Message

Take Prisoner

My List:

Dreamer with Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly, Tantrum
Daydream
Teddy with Retribution's Eye
Silurid
Insidious Madness
Waldgeist
7 Soulstones

His List:

McCabe (Ten Thunder) with Strangemetal Shirt, Badge of Speed, Elixir of Life
Luna
Toshiro with Command the Graves
Dawn Serpent
Wastrel
Guild Hound
Katanaka Sniper

My Schemes: Deliver a Message (revealed), Breakthrough (revealed)

His Schemes: Deliver a Message (revealed), Breakthrough (revealed)

Well I would be starting this game down 0-3 as it is impossible to stop a fast, nimble, reactivating Guild Hound from delivering the message turn 1... But assuming he went for that strategy (he did), I would at least have a head to pick up turn 2 (if I could get the hound turn 1). I needed to win the strategy in this game as breakthrough was gonna be tough with the speed of his crew and the sniper. Also Deliver the message would be very difficult if he decided to keep McCabe back. I would be relying heavily on Lilitu to single-handedly get me this strategy (and the 11 I needed to summon her of course didn't arrive on turn 1 even with stoning for cards) with her Lure and 4" ml range. 

Taken part way into turn 1

This was a close game. He was up 3-0 after turn 1 due to deliver the message shenanigans. Luckily I managed to outactivate him so Teddy could charge and kill the hound with the last activation of turn 1 and place a headmarker. Annoyingly, despite stoning I didn’t draw higher than a 10 on turn one so couldn’t summon Lilitu. Turn 2 I managed to grab the headmarker with my waldgeist and send two insidious madnesses (one summoned turn 1) up his left flank behind a tree to start threatening breakthrough. I also got the 11 I needed for Lilitu this turn and got her summoned somewhere safe so I could get her healed as my victory hinged on her heavily. Turn 3, I managed to charge the Dawn Serpent with teddy and take him down to hard to kill and drag him back into the middle of my crew. I couldn’t quite finish him off with a stitched or a waldgeist who both missed. That meant that I missed scoring a headmarker turn 3. I also was threatening breakthrough on the right flank with a silurid but had to be cagey due to the katanaka sniper. Turn 4 I killed the damn dawn serpent and picked up its head. I also got two scheme markers down for breakthrough with the insidious madnesses. The Silurid doubled pack to pick up a breakthrough marker that Luna had dropped and (most importantly) Lilitu was given fast by dreamer and managed to Lure McCabe and deliver the message (his walk 7 and my 4” engagement made this far easier than he expected). After turn 4 I was up 5-3 and looking good for a win. Turn 5 he managed to kill Teddy and pick up his head and I killed off Luna with Chompy and grabbed her head with my waldgeist. The Silurid picked up the breakthrough marker Luna had placed that turn and denied him any points for breakthrough. MVP: tough call in this game, the silurid did a great job picking up markers, but in the end it has to go to Lilitu for single-handedly getting my 3 vp and keeping McCabe away from my Insidious Madnesses who were very close to being charged by him while placing Breakthrough markers.

Ended 9-4. 3-1 Head Hunter, 3-3 Deliver the Message, 3-0 for breakthrough, (5 turns)

Game Four vs James Reeves

Reconnoitre (Flank Deployment)

A Line In The Sand

Protect Territory

Spring the Trap

Power Ritual

Distract

My List:

Dreamer with Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly
Daydream
Hooded Rider
Teddy
Insidious Madness
Silurid

4 Soulstones

His List:

Leviticus with Pariah of Iron, Desolate Soul, Oathkeeper
2 Waifs
Taelor with Oathkeeper and Scramble
Johana
Freikorps Trapper
Soulstone Miner
Flesh Construct

My Schemes: Power Ritual (revealed), Protect Territory (revealed)

His Schemes: Power Ritual (revealed), Protect Territory (revealed)

Forgot to take pictures of this game as well. Final game of the day, was feeling pretty exhausted at this point, but new that I had a shot to come as high as 2nd if I could win this game. Was also playing for the 2nd time against James as he had beat me on the top table in the final game of my first tournament last year. Though he was playing Guild back then and was now playing Levi and I had improved a lot since then so I knew it was going to be a good game. I also know that Levi is great at Reconnoitre so it would be very tough. I couldn't go with my usual type of crew for this strategy due to the limitations of the pool, which left me with taking more heavy hitters than I usually would. Decided to go with Hooded Rider for his speed and Teddy as a Dreamer bodyguard. Also hired my two scheme runners from my pool and a daydream to start the summoning engine for Dreamer.

He perched his trapper up high with great firing lanes across the board. I would have to be careful while crossing the board, especially with my scheme markers. I got two markers down in my corner for power ritual (with Hooded Rider and Insidious) and he actually forgot to start any models within 6 inches of his corner so he had to double walk back with a flesh construct. I really liked the way that Ben (in previous day’s game) used Levi to place two markers in his corner before sacrificing himself. A very clever use of Levi turn 1 that probably would have allowed the flesh construct to be a bit more involved in the game later on (all it did was slowly walk across the board and turn 4 finally get down his 2nd marker for power ritual. Turn 1 I moved stuff around and summoned a stitched, Lilitu and a daydream. My silurid also got a marker down in the right corner for power ritual.

Turn 2 stuff started happening as he charged Taelor into my Dreamer, who was forced to kill off a stitched and a daydream so he wouldn’t take any damage. In retaliation both the Hooded Rider and Teddy charged Taelor and finished her off (with a push from Dreamer for an additional attack from Teddy. This did manage to shut down my summoning engine as without any high masks in hand I was unable to summon anything other than a couple daydreams. Also, due to the Flesh construct having to double back to place a marker on turn 1, I managed to deny him a strategy point in turn 2 which proved a major difference maker in the game.

All the action in this game took place in the corner to my right where I had placed two power ritual markers early and had 90% of my crew in. This is also where Leviticus spent the majority of the game. The one exception was my insidious madness running off the do power ritual in my left corner. However he was killed early in turn 3 by a Soulstone miner that had landed near him at the end of turn 2. Hooded Rider took out Johana on turn 3 and killed off an abomination on turn 4 to stop it from removing one of my power ritual markers (as well as allowing him to use one of them for protect territory. Turn 3 Dreamer was unable to summon anything (other than a daydream) due to a lack of cards but did manage to push Teddy around a bit and turn into Chompy bits (and kill a waif). Teddy didn’t have a ton to do this turn so mostly walked around to get into place for next turn and placed a marker to protect territory.

Turn 4 it was clear that we wouldn’t make turn 5 so this was a really important turn. Levi rebirthed far away from me to get a marker down for protect territory and the soulstone miner did the same. The flesh construct finally got down the necessary marker in my left corner (the one that the insidious never got to…) to score him full points for power ritual. Dreamer managed to summon 2 insidious madnesses close enough that they would be able to walk into his quarter and deny a strategy point. Unluckily his trapper managed to one shot both of them (I had to put them in his range or they couldn’t have made it into his quarter). Oh well… Teddy almost walked over to do it instead before I realized that would lost me the game since he would leaving his protect territory marker. When the game ended I was honestly not 100% sure I’d won (although I thought I had). In the end I was happy to have a third win of the day against a great opponent in an incredibly tight game. My second brutally tight game against Levi of the weekend. MVP: Hooded Rider/Teddy. Hard to differentiate between these two, but these two beaters took out Johana, Taelor, a couple aboms and in general just cleared out the area.

Ended 9-8. 3-2 Reconnoitre, 3-3 protect territory, 3-3 for power ritual, (4 turns)

In the end I managed to come in third for the 2nd day in a row. However due to the larger size of this event, this actually meant I would move up in the rankings and crack the top 25! Was really excited by that. I really enjoyed the event and was thankful they had salad as an option for lunch since normally I struggle with tournaments that provide food as I can't eat wheat. The only complaint I had about this event was it was SO DAMN COLD. I had chapped lips for about a week after this and spent the whole day in my sweater, winter coat, and my frog toque. I've been at other events at Wayland games but never before in the winter. Even though I generally love the venue, I'm not sure it is the best place to hold an event during the colder months.. Really enjoyed the process of building a pool (although the typical 100ss pool is probably a better balance for more normal events...) and had a great time to end a great weekend.

Having come third at both events (both of which had store credit prizes) I left the weekend having added Collodi, 4 marionettes, a metal Pandora, and the plastic Lilith box. Meaning I had just jumped form 3 Neverborn masters to 6. Not planning on opening or painting Lilith or Collodi any time soon however as I am focusing on Zoraida for #TOMB2 and Pandora for now with Lynch likely being next.

Sorry for the lateness of this post but life has been crazy busy lately. I hope that even though it is now nowhere near current news that people still enjoy the writeup. I will not be writing up my next tournament (Isle of Faux) as I find these tournament writeups are incredibly draining and I need to step away from them for a bit as real life is getting very busy. I will also be stepping away from tournament play after March for at least a month (and potentially more) as I have a lot of other stuff coming up and don't want to burn out. Should still be posting on the blog fairly regularly still as my #TOMB2 stuff is still ongoing.