Summer Showdown Tournament Report

Well after almost 3 months since my last event (name it) I finally was back in a tournament. This was also the first tournament I had done since finishing painting Zoraida and Pandora so for the first time I was going into the event with more than just one master (Dreamer) to choose from. Was really looking forward to the added tactical choices this entailed. Also since the strategies weren’t pre-announced I would have to be making quick choices. My goal for the day was to use at least two different masters and get four good games in. After not being in a proper event in a while I was too rusty to worried about placing (although obviously I was hoping to do well)

Game 1: Reckoning (Standard) vs Lee Walstow

LITS
Bodyguard

Breakthrough

Plant Evidence

Deliver the Message

Deployment

My List:

Pandora with On Wings of Darkness, Fugue State, Box Opens

Primordial Magic

Nekima with Fears Given Form

Coppelius with On Dreaming Wings

Doppelganger

Silurid

7 Stones

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)

Vapnartak Tournament Recap

Alright, second tournament weekend of 2015. Went down to York with Pippatick for the weekend, did some sightseeing on Saturday and then down to Vappa for a 3-game 40ss tournament on Sunday. First of all, it was really cool having a tournament in a convention, especially as we were given a 2 hour gap between game 1 and 2 so we could have lunch and look around. Pippatick and I both picked up some basing stuff (flowers for me and frosted grass tufts for her).

Thanks to Chris Holloway for running a great event, and especially for making sure I got a lunch I could eat as it's tricky sometimes with my dietary issues. Also there was a prize raffle after the tournament (raising money for WAAC and Help for Heroes) and I won a limited edition Red Translucent Bete Noire. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it as I don't play Resurrs, but still very happy with the extensive prize support. Alright, on to the games.

Game One vs Phil Sanderson
Extraction (Standard Deployment)
A Line In The Sand
Protect Territory
Assassinate
Spring the Trap
Take Prisoner

My List:
Dreamer with Aether Connection, Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly
2 Daydreams
Teddy
Waldgeist
Widow Weaver
6 Soulstones

His List:
Nicodem with Shadow Embrace
2 Canine Remains
2 Punk Zombies
Rotten Belle
Mortimer
7 Soulstones

League of Extraordinary Henchman Sunday Recap

Day two Philippa and I got up and grabbed a quick bite to eat before Joe picked us up again and drove us to the venue. We were both a bit low on energy and low and behold we get drawn for our first matchup and we are facing each other on table one! Who'd have thought?!

Game 1 vs Philippa

Stake a Claim (Flank)

LITS

Distract

Protect Territory

Plant Evidence

Frame for Murder

My List: 

Dreamer with Wings of Darkness, Dreams of Pain, Otherworldly

2 silurids

2 insidious Madness’

Coppelius with On Dreaming Wings

2 Day Dreams

Cache of 7

Her List:

Rasputina with Arcane Reservoir, Armour of December

3 Ice Gamin

Silent One

Wendigo

Snowstorm with Imbued Energies

2 December Acolytes

I won 8-2

My Plans: 

I was laughing to start this game as I got to play Philippa in a game that was heavily favoured in my advantage as my crew is very good at stake a claim (due to Silurids and dreamer giving walk 7 insidious madness’/Coppelius fast) compared to her much slower crew. I basically planned on ignoring her and focusing on just getting down as many Stake a Claim and scheme markers as possible. Just flood the board with markers so she couldn’t keep up. Unluckily I underestimated how Flank deployment would affect the game, which almost cost me. I managed to take it 8-2 scoring max points as the game ended after turn 3. But there were several times in this game where Philippa managed to tie me up on stake a claim markers, requiring me to adapt on the fly to score the strat. She got her two points for distract, which I had actually forgotten was in the pool. Unluckily she decided to take Frame for Murder on Snow Storm which was a bad call as I was taking a crew with basically no damage potential and I never even came close to killing him. Not sure I ever even attacked him all game.

League of Extraordinary Henchman Saturday Recap

First of all I would like to thank Mike Marshall, Lee Batrick and anyone else involved in running this event. I would also like to thank Joe Wood for driving Philippa and I up from London and picking us up from our hotel and taking us to the event each morning. The event was a ton of fun and it wouldn’t have been possible without you guys. 

Last year I played in two 10-person tournaments at Table Top Nation in Essex, but until this weekend hadn’t really tested my mettle on the larger UK tournament scene. It was a great first introduction as having the top 16 players in the country out of the pool due to the Masters gave me some more confidence that I could do ok this weekend. My main goal for the weekend was to come out with a winning record. I went 3-3 in my 6 tournament games in 2014 and wanted to improve upon that. I would need to likely go 3-1 on one of the days to achieve this goal. I was also looking forward to meeting some of the guys I had been chatting with on twitter in person. I also wanted to focus on having fun and not making any major mistakes. I could accept getting outplayed by better players, especially against players with crews I had never seen, but didn’t want to beat myself by forgetting things like Terrifying…

Sweet Dreams Part Two: Dreamer Base Card

Welcome to part two of the Sweet Dreams Tactica where we start delving deep into the rules and tactics of Dreamer. You can find Part 1 here. This article will cover everything on the Dreamer’s base card, so prepare for a long read. Let’s start with his stat line. Dreamer’s statline is all over the map. He’s got a fantastic Wp of 7 and an amazingly fast Wk 7. However he has no Cg value, a terrible Df of 4 and the lowest wound count of any Master in the game with 6. He is also height 1, which is both a blessing, in that he is easy to hide from enemies, and a curse, in that it is very easy to block his healing aura and defensive trigger targets with things that normally wouldn’t affect a height 2 model (such as low fences). I have since been informed by more knowledgeable players that I have interpreted the rules incorrectly. Apparently as long as the model in question has line of sight and is in range the aura still works. Thanks Joel Henry for the correction. Makes dreamer even better than I thought. Mwahahaha. What this leaves us with is a Master who is incredibly fast but very delicate (at least until we look at his abilities).

The Waking Condition and Pleasant Dreams

Before I go over Dreamer’s abilities and actions individually, it is important to cover the Waking Condition, the ways it can be increased/decreased, and what it means for Dreamer. The most important ability on Dreamer’s basecard is Release Nightmares which explains how the Dreamer/Chompy mechanic works. Note that Chompy and Dreamer can never be in play at the same time. Whenever Dreamer reaches Waking 4, Chompy is summoned anywhere within 6” and LOS; Dreamer is immediately buried and removes all conditions from the model (including Waking). The Waking condition may not be removed through the actions of other friendly models (Note that enemy models can remove Waking; watch out for Johan if you are trying to bring Chompy out). Dreamer increases his Waking by 1 every time he summons a model (either through Daydreaming on the base card or with Manifest Nightmares from the Dreams of Pain upgrade summoning). If he has the Restless Dreams upgrade Waking also increases any time Dreamer damages an enemy with a SH attack. The only way you can actively manipulate Dreamer’s Waking condition, outside of summoning Chompy when you hit Waking 4, is with is with the (0) tactical action: Tucked In, which reduces the Waking condition by one. Knowing when to lower this condition and when not to is important; Waking is a balance between summoning models, including Chompy, and having a stronger healing aura through Pleasant Dreams.

Sweet Dreams: Starting the Dreamer

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first proper blog post. Today I will be talking about the Dreamer. This will be the first in a series of articles covering the greatest master in game. First an introduction: The first time I heard of Malifaux was also the first time I saw the Dreamer box. When I learned the backstory of him, a child who controls monsters in his sleep and inadvertently murders people, I knew that Malifaux was a game I wanted to play. I bought the box shortly after and fell in love with the rules and look of the game. Sadly I never managed to get into version 1.5 as I was still committed to other games at the time. However, with the onset of M2E I threw myself into the game and got the box set painted and ready to go.

Whenever people ask for advice on what crew to start with they will often be met with responses of Lady J, Seamus, Rasputina, etc. This makes sense as they are more straightforward masters and easier to grasp while learning the game. However, I think that a person can start with any Master if they are willing to put the time and energy in to learning their crew. My advice would be: pick whichever master you think is coolest and then study their cards.

For this article I will be going over how I learned to play Dreamer and what I would suggest as keys to focus on when learning the Dreamer. This is specifically written for newcomers to the game, but could be useful for newcomers to Dreamer as well. I like lists, so expect to see them a fair bit in my writing. 

5 Tips for Starting Dreamer