No joke its April Fauxs Day

Don your Croy, for April Fauxs Day

Last week I got my shots, invoked the various rituals of protection, and updated my will before heading of to Croydon for a days gaming.

Car, tube, tube, train, walk saw me arrive at the Croydon conference centre for April Fauxs Day. A four round, 50ss event. First things first the venue was a pleasant surprise. A bar, decent loos, and praise Almighty December air con. There were two events on, Faux in one half of the room and AOS in the other side. Worries I had that it would be hideously loud soon passed as no one seemed in the mood to shout.
Also it was cool to see a few people I used to play fantasy against in my brief pre-Faux era.

Usual pre tournament routine of registration, get tea, and talk shit I can't back up on the table went well and soon it was time to kick off.

Round one I was up against Dom and his gremlin horde. It was squatters and I took claim jump and inspection. It didn't take long to realise I was out matched so I decided to just throw everything towards Somer and hope I could do enough damage early on to give me an edge. It didn't quite work, Dom weathered the storm then ran off to score VP while I left my crew stranded in the middle of the table. It was a really fun game despite my lack of points. I lost game one but had high hopes for game two.

The game did have one interruption which was TO Conor coming around taking drinks orders. This went on all day and it's safe to say that anyone who brings me that much tea automatically gets add to my list of favourite people.

Game two was a bit of deja vu I faced off against Jay using Ophelia in extraction I once again run Raspi. Which was the exact set up in round two of my last event when I also faced Jay. It was a great game we both went on the offensive early despite frame being in the pool. Jay won the early smack down taking out a few of my key minions while I only put a few dents in his, but Ophelia did take a few shots a my acolyte killing her to score me frame.
After that it became a bit of a brawl around the extraction marker while a model from each crew tried to score claim jump.
The game ended in a slight win for me but mainly down to a few lucky flips on my side and it could have easily gone to the green skins had the luck turned.

Lunch! I popped my crew out for best painted which was judges choice today. As usual I didn't hope to win but I always enter to see how I stack up against better painters and there were a few great ones on show.
Down stairs from the venue was a slightly hipster burger place, which I highly recommend to any heading that way as the food was great and in truth I ate enough that I probably should have had a nap instead of heading back to the event.

Round three. Interference against Reva. I played Toby who I always bump into but never get to play. Turn one I tried to be clever and take a few pot shots at Reva with an over keen December acolyte, Reva shrugged it off and then squished the acolyte in return and that pretty much sums up the game. The left side of the table was a bundle with Lola and a mannequin not really doing much other than being swamped in models and fluffing hits, the right side of the table was my crew dying while Cooper ran and hid repeatedly. The MVP for me was a raptor dropping to deny claim jump the flying off again next turn... until it got squished too.
Game ended  with a well deserved win for Toby and the Pony rider, another fun game, another crushing defeat.

Game four. I was facing off against the second best member of High Fauxdelity at that table (for those that haven't heard it High Fauxdelity is a podcast which stars Ritch, puts up with me and let's a couple of other fellas on to do the heavy lifting) We were playing reckoning and it was Raspi vs the Viks. Carnage doesn't even begin to cover it. I pushed forward early looking to start throwing ice around, the Viks charged an insanely long way and started whirl winding everything in range. Snowstorm exploded with enough force to kill a vik and end of turn two I had two minions left neither of us had a master and I had run out of tea. It was a dark time. The game continued in this chaotic style until the end when Ritch scored all the points and I gave his snipers dirty looks. Solid win for Ritch and a great game to end the day on.

Cup of tea while things we finished up, people won things as always check the rankings page as I don't remember stuff like that but congratulations to those that left with shiny things.

I then took the long lonely train ride home while trying to work out how to lessen the many mistakes I made. (which, I got a chance to do the following Saturday and I'll write up next)

Big thanks to all my opponents, next time I'll try and give you more of a challenge. Thanks and well done to Conor for running a fun and smooth event.

Do you wanna build a snow witch...

To kick off Arc'17 I focused on one of the most iconic Masters in Malifaux and the true force behind the Arcanists Rasputina. So far I've played ten games with her, seven of them being in tournaments so I thought I share a few of the things I've learnt.

Firstly with 'tina herself. Positioning seems to be the key with her, she works like a turret dishing out angry snowballs. I try to find a place to set her up with good line of sight and within range of where the enemy needs to go.
 One focused attack with a stone dropped for a mask to hit again is better than two normal attacks. The plus to damage makes her scarier on that first attack and the free attack can clean up. The third ap is usually either a pot shot or more likely throwing up ice pillars. 
Ice pillars are great they mean you can protect your crew, or block off theirs. Plus throwing a low tome for the card draw is a great bonus.




I tend to run Raspi with cold nights , armour of December and seize the day. This is because Ice pillars are amazing , a push is better than a walk, and getting initiative negates (slightly) what ever stupid position I left myself in at the end of the last turn.

The rest of the crew hasn't seen too much experimentation yet but I'll go through the models I've used and try and explain why (or pretend I know why)

Firstly is the wendigo, cheap, tough, and can throw up a second lot of ice pillars. He's also a minion so counts for plenty of strats and schemes.

You know nothin' Jon Snowdown...

As I did last year this year I'm planning on attending all the showdown events. They're a really fun series of events that have four events spread out through the year. They're run by the mastermind behind the UK nationals and are hosted at Wayland games (you'll notices a lot of my tournament write ups are based at Wayland this is partly due to them hosting plenty of events and partly due to it being easy for me to get to).

The Showdowns follow a set template of a 50ss, three round, relaxed event with plenty of piss taking and swag to keep people happy.

I drove down with the charming beanpole that is Francois "the Guild" Langton who took the risk of being in the car with me driving (spoiler nothing exploded but the was a slight overheating issue again).

As always first up was meet and greet, which involved a bit of hand shaking, hugging, and swearing, followed by registration using the very flash Bag O' Tools tournament system but we still queued up because we're British and it's what we do best.

And so it begins...

   

Its finally time for my tournament season to kick off again, and also time to start the now legendary Arc'17 (legendary might be pushing it but its big trust me)

Once again I was heading down to Wayland games, this time it was Lost Love 5 run by the unstoppable Mr David Brown. This is my third lost love and it's always an event I look forward too. It was touch and go a few days before the event if I would make it at all as I had slight car issues but I was rescued when the heroic Mr Paul Butler offered to pick me up on his way down. (once again proving how amazing the Malifaux community is).

So when got down to Wayland in chilly Hockley and after giving a hand to set up the tables it was time to register. Lost Love is slightly different than a standard GG event in a few ways, firstly it's fixed Master, second it's 45ss games which changes things slightly, and third you have a 70ss pool to hire you're models from. All these aspects are there to make it a bit more beginner friendly while still keeping the veterans entertained. 

My Master and pool for the event was

Which was quite simple to choose as that's most of what I had painted in Arcanists. I've only had a few games with Rapsi before the event so I wasn't hugely confident (no change there) but I knew enough that I hopefully didn't completely embarrass myself.

Quick stop for tea and a run around saying hi to some of the 44 other players that had shown up despite knowing I would be there.

Game one was against Lucas (spoiler he also went on the finish very well this event), he was running Som'er with a fleet of gremlins and we were playing head hunter.

First few rounds were surprisingly close with me managing to kill a few waves of gremlins but Lucas kept up the pressure and steadily kept scoring VP while I took pot shots at his crew.

The game ended 9-3 to Lucas. It was a fun game and the fact that it wasn't a white wash boosted my confidence with 'tina.

Lunch time was a Wayland special and another tea. The tea was even more vital than normal as standing in a warehouse in mid February is a bit nippy.

Round two and I was up against one of my locals and also someone who I faced round two at Nationals Rich who was running Tara (shiny new fixed Tara). This time we had Stake a Claim, which with the notoriously slow December gang wasn't looking to easy.

For the first few turns this was a really cagey game with nothing dieing but both of us putting down a wave of scheme markers. Then one activation after the other we both killed our frame for murder targets and then we settled it to a game of him trying to bury me and me trying to kill him.

schemes were a draw so it all came down to claim markers and unfortunatly for me no matter how much I kill that doesn't get rid of markers. 

The game ended 7-5 to Rich which I have to say was a well deserved win. The margin of loss was getting lower and combos were stating to click with the crew so I was happy going into game three.

Game three was against Sean running Tatiana in Squatters rights.

I was expecting a barrage of neverborn tricks and speed, which I got with silurids grabing squat marker early and Tati and mature neph flying straight over my ice pillars. however I managed to have an incredibly lucky run of cards meaning the emissary grabbed my some hunting party points early while Raspi blasted away about half of Tati's crew. After that the weight of numbers on my side meant that I could keep the pressure on and keep blasting into the crew. 

The game ended up 8-5 to me and I was really happy with that result. Luck may have paid a large part but now I knew I could win a game with Arcanist.

Tea, Tea, and more Tea... I could almost feel my fingers again by this point.

Game four my final game was against Shaunie running Pandora (I'm not a huge fan of facing box girl so  this wasn't great news. And Shaunie didn't seem too keen on facing Raspi so we were even)

This round was interference and as it had been a long day and Pandora was looking terrifying I decided to go fairly agressive and just ignore the strat while I concentrated on killing everything.

A lot and nothing seemed to happen in this game and honestly I think if the game had been play early in the day not at the end it would have been a bit higher scoring both sides.

I managed to do enough damage to Pandi to get 1 vp for eliminate that may have been the high light of my game. Pandi kept fairly defensive while ticking up points for last stand.

The game ended in a 6-6 draw which wasn't a bad result. I'll also use this point to send people over to check out the events running over in Woking this year where Shaunie is henchman Under the hanging tree . Well worth checking out.

So thats it first event of Arc'17 and I didn't (overly) embarrass myself of the cult of December. I finished 32 out of 45 so no wooded spoon to add to the collection this time.

Big thanks to Dave for running it, it was a huge event that managed to keep the friendly community feel of past Lost Loves as well. Thanks to Wayland for the tea and table. Thanks to all my opponents for not throwing anything at me. And again a huge thanks to Paul for getting me there.

Next up will be Snowdown back at Wayland again for the first of the years showdown series. I should be adding a second master to the case for that one when I decide between Marcus or Cooper and is you wanted to come along and see my looking confused you can find a ticket here - Snowdown!    

  

Battle Report: Rasputina (Pippa) vs Lilith (InsidiouslyMad)

Introduction and Lists

Squatter's Rights (Close Deployment)

LITS
Assassinate

Protect Territory

Make Them Suffer

Plant Explosives

My List:

Rasputina
The Captain
Joss
2 Ice Gamin
Silent One
December's Acolyte
Arcane Effigy

Upgrades: Shattered Heart, Cold Nights, Seize the Day on Raspy
3 Soulstones

Insidiously Mad's List:
Lilith with Beckon Malifaux, Aether Connection and Wings of Darkness
Primordial Magic
McTavish with Hexed Among You
Bad Juju Fears Given Form and Eternal Fiend
Doppelganger
2 Waldgeists
7 Soulstones

I decided that I wanted to have more models than my opponent as it is so rare for me to have activation control. This seemed a bit silly with Make them Suffer in the scheme pool but I thought the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages of having lots of minions. My main plan was to keep Raspy back and shoot through the cheaper Frozen Heart models (when is that not the plan?). I would use Joss to hit him on the flank and then charge towards the centre, murdering and sweeping 3 squatters markers along the way.

Learning from League of Extraordinary Henchmen

I went to Coalville along with Insidiously Mad for my first big tournament, League of Extraordinary Henchmen. It was a challenge to pit myself and my Arcanist crew against Factions which provoke me to paralyse and blast everything in line of sight with Raspy. Not that I need much provocation.

Most games didn’t turn out the way I would have wanted them to as I am still learning my own crew. I learnt so much about other model's (Witchling stalker's condition removal abilities are so annoying!) and there were a few priceless moments (distracting the eponymous insidious madness with Wendigo being one of them :p).

All my adversaries were as gentlemanly as henchmen can be - thank you to everyone who I played against and who made me feel so welcome.

I didn't take any notes during the game but here are a few highlights and things that I have learnt through one game or more.

Winter's Touch

My first game with Tara was always going to be a tough one. I knew enough to do the Tara-Bomb and not really much else. I was also facing off against Pippa's Rasputina crew. I know enough about the ice witch to know that she can knock your face off, but is pretty slow.

This game was played some time back but I remember enough of it to be useful.

Scenario
Tara vs Rasputina 26SS
Strategy - Reckoning
Schemes - Tara (break through and make them suffer) Raspy (Assassinate and ?)
Standard deployment

Crews:
Tara + Knowledge of Eternity and Obliteration Symbiote
Izamu
2 x belles

Rasputina + improved ice mirror upgrade
Ice golem
December acolyte
Ice gamin (or 2?)
Wendigo

Terrain
We were playing on an outdoor themed table with a relatively large forest just off centre on my right flank. There was a pond on the left flank just outside Raspy's deployment zone. I had a building near mine and various other walls and small forests.

Rasputina was deployed on the left side of the board to navigate round the pond. She had wendigo near her. The gamin and golem were set up to run down the right side of the forest and the acolyte hid behind the building.

I decided to stay as far away from Raspy as possible. Figuring I could score break through and make them suffer on the golem side of the board.