So I have been testing a new Resser master finally. And it is the fearsome Seamus. And I figured what better way to test him out than to take him to an event. Prior to this event I had managed three games with him, so figured this would be a good chance to see how he held up.
Connor and the Too Much Infaux guys were running April Faux and that was perfect. Grant turned up to collect me nice and early. We arrived at the venue way before kick off and had breakfast next door with Connor.
Then off to the venue, the Croydon Conference centre. This is a great venue with plenty of space, a load of good quality terrain (many of it supplied by the TMI gang) and a bar.
We were due to discover the S&S as the games were to kick off so not too much I could prepare for...
Round 1 - Richard W (Outcasts - Tara)
This is the crew I ran. Seamus had sinister reputation and red chapel killer. Sybelle had her bleeder lash. Datsue had spirit whispers (the one that summons seishin) and my little helper.
So Richard is another one of the Dark Sphere players, but I had not met him before (think he plays during the day and I really don't get enough games in there). This was a great game, as we both play Tara we discussed how she was performing after the errata.
In my head I bounced between taking eliminate the leadership or tail em as my second scheme (after claim jump). In retrospect I chose the wrong one. I was worried that he would be burying the Nothing Beast and Scion to get them away (and he may have done so) to deny me VP. So I went for eliminate the leadership. He denied this by keeping Tara back and making good use of her eternal journey upgrade.
This was a great game and quite tense. Rich had spread out his void wretches to grab the corner markers with his void wretches. The rest of his crew was hiding behind some buildings in the centre ready to go which ever way they were needed.
I placed a crooligan on my right corner and datsue ba to head to contest the left. Sybelle and the belles were just left of centre. I had Seamus and the copycat on the right. Yin was roughly in the centre. Rich madde good use of the left flank to grab the marker. He also managed to consistently hold off Datsue and get Tail em on her twice. She did manage to consistently spew out seishin though, which were useful harrassers on the board. She popped my little helper turn 1 to produce 2 seishin.
Seamus murdered Big Jake turn 1 and the copycat failed to kill the right void wretch, but he went down on turn 2 to sieshin and the crooligan. The void beast went to harass Seamus, but ended up getting Yin's nasty negative Ca/WP condition.
The crooligan and seishin managed to control the right corner and Tara buried the Nothing Beast to get him away from Yin. The left corner went to Richard who kept managing to slow down Yin and mark her for tail em. Johan, the Scion and Nothing Beast managed to get through Sybelle just left of centre.
We made it to turn 4. Although, I managed to prevent Rich scoring the strategy on one of the turns and blocked claim jump on another Rich managed to do a good job to score the full 3 for tail em. And blocked me getting any on eliminate the leadership. So it went 6-7 to him. We discussed that if it went to 5 it might have gone my way as I had burned through all of Tara's SS. But I rather take it as me being a fool and playing the wrong schemes. It is also a part of the learning curve for GG 17.
Round 2 - Rich K (Outcasts - Parker)
This S&S pool cried out for Molly so I brought out my trusty spirit Molly crew. Gave her the 0 onryo upgrade and take back the night. Sybelle still had her lash, Phil had his free upgrade and my little helper. Datsue had my little helper. Izamu had decaying aura.
Another DS local that I had not yet gamed with. I was also quite interested to see how Parker played. Decided that quick murder (Ashes and Dust) and show of force would fit into my style and also avoid dropping any schemes for all of Parker's bullshit.
I did my usual pic to push Izamu forward and drop a few markers. Datsue dropped my little helper to get 2 walks out of Izamu that first turn. Doxy black jokered her push, but Izamu was already pretty central.
Parker's friends had started to clump not too far from the centre, which Molly was eyeing out. Parker warked a bunch forward and tried to drop some condition on Molly to prevent her doing her summons (and other stuff) without discarding cards. I had 2 13s and a 10 of crows in hand and didn't want to pass on this summoning opportunity. So I used a 13 and that was sufficient to prevent it. Izamu walked forward and engaged Parker and an undead bandit fellow. He took a swing but didn't do too much.
When Molly got her chance she walked forward once, dropped the 10 of crows to bring in an Onryo, and the 13 with a SS to bring in a hanged. Each came in on 4 wounds. I think they then managed to kill Johanna - with the Onryo flipping a severe on damage.
I won the initative on Turn 2 and activated Izamu who proceeded to knock Parker down to a single wound. Parker panicked and got the hell out of there. My Onryo failed to kill the good doctor. Who pushed away and healed Parker a little. The hanged then managed to finish off the doctor.
Ashes and Dust then swung into the centre to try help out. Turn 3 Datsue and Ashes duked it out with both managing to get black jokers on damage. Molly finished off Ashes to score me full points for a quick murder.
Due to a slow start, someone knocking all of Rich's tokens and the floor and general things we only managed to make turn 3 (although I think we were about to start turn 4 as time was called so we left it there). It ended 7-2 in my favour. I had prevented Rich's claim jump twice but never discovered his final scheme (perhaps it was show of force as he had some shenanigans with upgrades).
Lunch
Grant told me that there was a good burger place basically below the venue at the side of the building. What a great discovery, that place was fantastic. Peter and I headed there for a good relaxed beer and burger. The food was really good,so we had a good chance to escape the venue before the next round.
Round 3 - Matt M (Guild - McCabe)
I decided to go for a wide crew with this one. Seamus still had his sinister rep and the red chapel killer upgrades. Datsue had spirit whispers and my little helper again.
I made some very poor plays in this game. I am not the biggest fan of interference - I think I should just bite the bullet and assemble Nico for this strategy. I don't like it with Molly and it didn't seem to suit Seamus either.
On top of that I could have murdered the Executioner in the first turn but cheated the wrong card in. I took an unnecessary gamble and it didn't pay off. Matt was a great guy and a great opponent. He played his McCabe crew really well. I am not a big fan of McCabe, Lunar just makes the dogs so insanely efficient that it was always going to be hard to stop him scoring even if I had played well. Plus that damned saber just rips through poor Datsue every time.
Matt stomped all over me taking it 2-10.
Round 4 - Jay C (Ten Thunders - Lynch)
Jay is a DS regular that I have played before. He is a super nice guy and he was rocking his TT Lynch crew. I am not a fan of Reckoning with Molly so thought I would give Seamus a whirl. The S&S pool was always going to make this a cagey combat game so I decided to try out Seamus with Red Chapel Killer (this just seems to be a given), Decaying Aura (more on this later) and Bag o' Tools. Now up to this point I had only ran Sinister Reputation and there had been times I got locked into combat and it sucked. I suspected that was a risk for this game. So the bag was packed instead.
Lynch had brought 2 stitched (Yuck!), 2 illuminated (yuck), Mr Graves, the Terrifying (all) version of Huggy, shadow effigy and a depleted. I have had a few games where Seamus' crew was just not killy enough. So I dropped Datsue (there was a huge wall in front of a good portion of my deployment zone so I was also going to find somewhere to hide) and I packed Izamu.
Turn 1 I moved Sybelle and the belles through the gate and dropped a scheme marker on the way through for dig their graves. Izamu then followed behind. The effigy had been doing something to make his friends drop scheme markers as they finished their activations. So I knew what Jay was up to too. But I had decided how far I was going and was content to let him come to me. Huggy moved right forward and obeyed Izamu to smack a belle. Seamus teleported forward and blasted a mssive hole through huggy. The copycat jumped up beside him and did the same to one of the illuminated leaving it on a single wound.
At the end of the turn Lynch came forward and severely damaged Yin.
I won the initiative on Turn 2, so Seamus activated, dropped a scheme and murdered Huggy. I then companioned one of the belles (I chose the wrong belle) and it lured the illuminated in and they both got pounce off. Both missed. So the illuminated went, regenerated a wound and murdered the damaged belle (the one that had not activated - see I was silly).
I was stupid and had missed the opportunity to my little helper with Yin. Meaning that she was looking vulnerable. So she needed to go next, I used one of her AP to finish off the illuminated and the other to try and hide.
Graves and all the other heavies were moving forward so I moved Izamu in to close them off. Unfortunately Lynch was able to do an insane amount of damage and finish him off.
This put us on 2-1. I had kept Izamu just far enough away to not give away a grave VP.
Turn 3 I activated Yin's MLH to put negatives on both stitched and then buggered off away from anything. There was a bit of a tussle in the middle with Sybelle, an illuminated and Mr Graves. Seamus then used one of the corpses to back alley away and charge Lynch. Bag o Tools meant I had plenty of options here. I probably should have triggered the one to drop a scheme (perhaps I was low on SS) but Lynch was finished off in two swipes. The copycat then appeared and almost dropped off one of the stitched. Which then killed itself with a failed gamble.
We heard time being called so finished off the round. Afterwards we realised that it was the time for the AoS tournament running next to us. Oh well. I suspect that would probably have gone my way anyway as both huggy and Lynch were gone and the last stitched wasn't looking healthy.
End of the day
So two wins and two losses. Not too bad. I learned quite a bit about Seamus. I think I might prefer the Bag with him. Sinister reputation is great but I have had too many sly opponents tie Seamus up in combat and remove his shooting opportunities. I do think that the bag is the best way to go for my playstyle.
Molly is still fantastic and I am always glad to have her in the bag.
After helping tidy up a bunch of us went off for a few drinks at one of the pubs nearby. grabbed a cheap burger and a pint. Some great shit talking was had.
I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home, but excited to get some more games in...hopefully in the near future.
Connor and the Too Much Infaux guys were running April Faux and that was perfect. Grant turned up to collect me nice and early. We arrived at the venue way before kick off and had breakfast next door with Connor.
Then off to the venue, the Croydon Conference centre. This is a great venue with plenty of space, a load of good quality terrain (many of it supplied by the TMI gang) and a bar.
We were due to discover the S&S as the games were to kick off so not too much I could prepare for...
Round 1 - Richard W (Outcasts - Tara)
This is the crew I ran. Seamus had sinister reputation and red chapel killer. Sybelle had her bleeder lash. Datsue had spirit whispers (the one that summons seishin) and my little helper.
So Richard is another one of the Dark Sphere players, but I had not met him before (think he plays during the day and I really don't get enough games in there). This was a great game, as we both play Tara we discussed how she was performing after the errata.
In my head I bounced between taking eliminate the leadership or tail em as my second scheme (after claim jump). In retrospect I chose the wrong one. I was worried that he would be burying the Nothing Beast and Scion to get them away (and he may have done so) to deny me VP. So I went for eliminate the leadership. He denied this by keeping Tara back and making good use of her eternal journey upgrade.
This was a great game and quite tense. Rich had spread out his void wretches to grab the corner markers with his void wretches. The rest of his crew was hiding behind some buildings in the centre ready to go which ever way they were needed.
I placed a crooligan on my right corner and datsue ba to head to contest the left. Sybelle and the belles were just left of centre. I had Seamus and the copycat on the right. Yin was roughly in the centre. Rich madde good use of the left flank to grab the marker. He also managed to consistently hold off Datsue and get Tail em on her twice. She did manage to consistently spew out seishin though, which were useful harrassers on the board. She popped my little helper turn 1 to produce 2 seishin.
Seamus murdered Big Jake turn 1 and the copycat failed to kill the right void wretch, but he went down on turn 2 to sieshin and the crooligan. The void beast went to harass Seamus, but ended up getting Yin's nasty negative Ca/WP condition.
The crooligan and seishin managed to control the right corner and Tara buried the Nothing Beast to get him away from Yin. The left corner went to Richard who kept managing to slow down Yin and mark her for tail em. Johan, the Scion and Nothing Beast managed to get through Sybelle just left of centre.
We made it to turn 4. Although, I managed to prevent Rich scoring the strategy on one of the turns and blocked claim jump on another Rich managed to do a good job to score the full 3 for tail em. And blocked me getting any on eliminate the leadership. So it went 6-7 to him. We discussed that if it went to 5 it might have gone my way as I had burned through all of Tara's SS. But I rather take it as me being a fool and playing the wrong schemes. It is also a part of the learning curve for GG 17.
Round 2 - Rich K (Outcasts - Parker)
This S&S pool cried out for Molly so I brought out my trusty spirit Molly crew. Gave her the 0 onryo upgrade and take back the night. Sybelle still had her lash, Phil had his free upgrade and my little helper. Datsue had my little helper. Izamu had decaying aura.
Another DS local that I had not yet gamed with. I was also quite interested to see how Parker played. Decided that quick murder (Ashes and Dust) and show of force would fit into my style and also avoid dropping any schemes for all of Parker's bullshit.
I did my usual pic to push Izamu forward and drop a few markers. Datsue dropped my little helper to get 2 walks out of Izamu that first turn. Doxy black jokered her push, but Izamu was already pretty central.
Parker's friends had started to clump not too far from the centre, which Molly was eyeing out. Parker warked a bunch forward and tried to drop some condition on Molly to prevent her doing her summons (and other stuff) without discarding cards. I had 2 13s and a 10 of crows in hand and didn't want to pass on this summoning opportunity. So I used a 13 and that was sufficient to prevent it. Izamu walked forward and engaged Parker and an undead bandit fellow. He took a swing but didn't do too much.
When Molly got her chance she walked forward once, dropped the 10 of crows to bring in an Onryo, and the 13 with a SS to bring in a hanged. Each came in on 4 wounds. I think they then managed to kill Johanna - with the Onryo flipping a severe on damage.
I won the initative on Turn 2 and activated Izamu who proceeded to knock Parker down to a single wound. Parker panicked and got the hell out of there. My Onryo failed to kill the good doctor. Who pushed away and healed Parker a little. The hanged then managed to finish off the doctor.
Ashes and Dust then swung into the centre to try help out. Turn 3 Datsue and Ashes duked it out with both managing to get black jokers on damage. Molly finished off Ashes to score me full points for a quick murder.
Due to a slow start, someone knocking all of Rich's tokens and the floor and general things we only managed to make turn 3 (although I think we were about to start turn 4 as time was called so we left it there). It ended 7-2 in my favour. I had prevented Rich's claim jump twice but never discovered his final scheme (perhaps it was show of force as he had some shenanigans with upgrades).
Lunch
Grant told me that there was a good burger place basically below the venue at the side of the building. What a great discovery, that place was fantastic. Peter and I headed there for a good relaxed beer and burger. The food was really good,so we had a good chance to escape the venue before the next round.
Round 3 - Matt M (Guild - McCabe)
I decided to go for a wide crew with this one. Seamus still had his sinister rep and the red chapel killer upgrades. Datsue had spirit whispers and my little helper again.
I made some very poor plays in this game. I am not the biggest fan of interference - I think I should just bite the bullet and assemble Nico for this strategy. I don't like it with Molly and it didn't seem to suit Seamus either.
On top of that I could have murdered the Executioner in the first turn but cheated the wrong card in. I took an unnecessary gamble and it didn't pay off. Matt was a great guy and a great opponent. He played his McCabe crew really well. I am not a big fan of McCabe, Lunar just makes the dogs so insanely efficient that it was always going to be hard to stop him scoring even if I had played well. Plus that damned saber just rips through poor Datsue every time.
Matt stomped all over me taking it 2-10.
Round 4 - Jay C (Ten Thunders - Lynch)
Jay is a DS regular that I have played before. He is a super nice guy and he was rocking his TT Lynch crew. I am not a fan of Reckoning with Molly so thought I would give Seamus a whirl. The S&S pool was always going to make this a cagey combat game so I decided to try out Seamus with Red Chapel Killer (this just seems to be a given), Decaying Aura (more on this later) and Bag o' Tools. Now up to this point I had only ran Sinister Reputation and there had been times I got locked into combat and it sucked. I suspected that was a risk for this game. So the bag was packed instead.
Lynch had brought 2 stitched (Yuck!), 2 illuminated (yuck), Mr Graves, the Terrifying (all) version of Huggy, shadow effigy and a depleted. I have had a few games where Seamus' crew was just not killy enough. So I dropped Datsue (there was a huge wall in front of a good portion of my deployment zone so I was also going to find somewhere to hide) and I packed Izamu.
Turn 1 I moved Sybelle and the belles through the gate and dropped a scheme marker on the way through for dig their graves. Izamu then followed behind. The effigy had been doing something to make his friends drop scheme markers as they finished their activations. So I knew what Jay was up to too. But I had decided how far I was going and was content to let him come to me. Huggy moved right forward and obeyed Izamu to smack a belle. Seamus teleported forward and blasted a mssive hole through huggy. The copycat jumped up beside him and did the same to one of the illuminated leaving it on a single wound.
At the end of the turn Lynch came forward and severely damaged Yin.
I won the initiative on Turn 2, so Seamus activated, dropped a scheme and murdered Huggy. I then companioned one of the belles (I chose the wrong belle) and it lured the illuminated in and they both got pounce off. Both missed. So the illuminated went, regenerated a wound and murdered the damaged belle (the one that had not activated - see I was silly).
I was stupid and had missed the opportunity to my little helper with Yin. Meaning that she was looking vulnerable. So she needed to go next, I used one of her AP to finish off the illuminated and the other to try and hide.
Graves and all the other heavies were moving forward so I moved Izamu in to close them off. Unfortunately Lynch was able to do an insane amount of damage and finish him off.
This put us on 2-1. I had kept Izamu just far enough away to not give away a grave VP.
Turn 3 I activated Yin's MLH to put negatives on both stitched and then buggered off away from anything. There was a bit of a tussle in the middle with Sybelle, an illuminated and Mr Graves. Seamus then used one of the corpses to back alley away and charge Lynch. Bag o Tools meant I had plenty of options here. I probably should have triggered the one to drop a scheme (perhaps I was low on SS) but Lynch was finished off in two swipes. The copycat then appeared and almost dropped off one of the stitched. Which then killed itself with a failed gamble.
We heard time being called so finished off the round. Afterwards we realised that it was the time for the AoS tournament running next to us. Oh well. I suspect that would probably have gone my way anyway as both huggy and Lynch were gone and the last stitched wasn't looking healthy.
End of the day
So two wins and two losses. Not too bad. I learned quite a bit about Seamus. I think I might prefer the Bag with him. Sinister reputation is great but I have had too many sly opponents tie Seamus up in combat and remove his shooting opportunities. I do think that the bag is the best way to go for my playstyle.
Molly is still fantastic and I am always glad to have her in the bag.
After helping tidy up a bunch of us went off for a few drinks at one of the pubs nearby. grabbed a cheap burger and a pint. Some great shit talking was had.
I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home, but excited to get some more games in...hopefully in the near future.
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