Asami: managing the cards

So, I've been having another of my enforced breaks from Malifaux. But a brief ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and I got to have a game against Insidiously Mad.

This year I'm going back to Ten Thunders for a bit to try out some models I've picked up, but not used yet. Top of the list is Asami. The TT summoning master. I'm not going into much detail about the game, except to illustrate my thoughts on Asami and her she can be run. This post is about her and her crew mechanics. Is she a summoning daemon, or should she being a buffing tool box?

Welcome (back) to Malifaux

Well after too long an absence, I've finally had a game of Malifaux. I thought I might jot down some reflections on how it felt after a 6 month break. Luckily my good friend Francois stepped in to give me a game. He ran:

Shenlong

Sensai Yu

The Shadow Emissary

The Lone Swordsman

Wandering River Monk

A peasant

A TT Brother.

The strategy was extraction.

The first thing that struck me was how rusty I was at crew selection. I went with Pandora as my go to Master. She is just so good and super fun to play. Plus people get nervous when you activate her because he actually has an impact on the game. Just the threat of know she can activate is worrying for an opponent. 

I took 

Pandora (The Box Opens, Wings of Darkness, and Fears Given Form). I like my girl to be up and hurting people.

Widow Weaver

Waldgeist

Doppleganger

Primordial Magic

Nekima

Terror Tot.

Who's in the box?

It feels like forever since I've written a blog post or played Malifaux. Now I'm back to blogging or at least trying to be. This isn't a "I burned out of Malifaux and I'm trying to recapture the love" post. I stopped playing Malifaux because I decided to put my house on the market and move out of London to Basingstoke. Various disasters have happened along the way and most of my collection remains in boxes in storage. I do have a crew packed in a KR multicase so hopefully I can actually get some games at a new club once I'm settled. This article is actually about why I chose  the only master I did to keep out of storage to play with. A "if you could only choose one master, who would it be and why?"

Pandora Bites Back; Tournament report of Bitefaux April 2016

Wow, another tournament. I can hardly believe I've had two tournaments so close together. I got lucky as my wife decided to go to Spain. Sadly she hates Malifaux, Wargaming, Comic books, Sci Fi, and tournaments so play time can be seriously restricted. 

I went to Bitefaux in Chessington, London (UK. It was held in a stunningly nice church hall. Not an old shed but a genuinely big, modern and spacious Church activity centre. We were in two lovely big rooms with big windows on a gloriously sunny spring day. It helped make the atmosphere light and pleasant. I was really pleased about that as I'd had an anxiety attack the night before the tournament, so I was feeling rough on the way to the venue. Luckily I'd bumped into Insidious Madness as we got out of the same train carriage and a walk in the sunshine cheered me up no end. 

I took Pandora. The strategies/schemes were prepublished and they were great for the Mistress of Mental Hate. If only she had a decent player controlling her. 

Loudest thunder: my top 10 Ten Thunders

Well it’s a rainy day so I’ve been thinking about Malifaux and decided I’d do a run down of some of my best and worst in faction models. I’m going to start out with Ten Thunders

To make the list, the model in question must have either a great card, or a great model, or just great character. So a model that embodies the faction can make the list even if it isn’t too good!

10 Railworker.

I just love these guys. For 5ss, you get a tough little bugger that doesn’t drop corpse markers. He counts as a scrap markers. Nice and tough with armour and a neat df trigger on tomes. Plus the models look great and they hit quite hard in melee for a 5ss model . As a bonus, Mei Feng can Railwalk using them. Pair with Kang against Ressers and spread around some pain.

9 Mr Graves

Yes he looks like Mr Potato Head, but he is a really great model and has nice fluff. His “Show ya the door” is sweet and gets him round a bit faster. He works well in nearly any TT crew so gives you plenty of options and he pairs well with Mr Tannen. He is actually quite tough and hits well too. A great package.

8 Yan Lo

Yes he sucks on the table (see my previous blog posts, and most of the internet), he’s a tank that no one cares about because he is useless at everything (or there are other cheap models that could do the job instead). But his mechanic is so much fun and his model is one of the most characterful that Wyrd have done. Boy does he suck though. Worst master in the game? Not quite but he is in contention!

Battle Report Molly v Shenlong (Both players views)

It should be clear by now that the Abnormalifaux lot like a good club game as well as plenty of tournaments. We all thought that we do plenty of tournaments write ups, but not so many of our club games have been written up on the blog. To change that, here is a battle report from both players perspective.

Pre-game

We pre-flipped our strategy and schemes

Strat: Turf War

Schemes: Breakthrough, Distract, Spring the Trap, Take Prisoner, Line in the Sand. 

Molly view

Turf War, fantastic! This is a strategy that Molly loves. You know that your opponent is going to need to bunch up near the centre. This increases the effectiveness of her summoned models and creates a larger zone of black blood death. There is nothing additional that I will need to pack for this.

The schemes though are a much more difficult prospect. Breakthrough is an obvious choice and I have no shortage of scheme runners if needed, but I was unsure where else I could pick up 3 VPs. Distract can be a good choice in some games, but I play Molly very aggressively and with all the black blood splashing I may end up killing distracted models, so that’s probably out. A line in the sand, hell no. So that really leaves spring the trap or take prisoner. I have never had much success with either of those schemes. 

I was 90% certain that I would be facing off against Shenlong, I don’t know much about him, but I do know that he can be an absolute tank to take down, so I figured that going in I would probably be aiming for spring the trap.

So who to take? My Molly build has been leaned down quite a bit over my last few games and I am almost happy with where I am with her. The new addition today was Philip and the Nanny. I have avoided her recently as I am building her a scenic base and didn’t want her out without it. I have been struggling with card draw though, Molly really hogs cards and I always find myself short. So Phil was shoved in. This left me with:

Molly: Forgotten path and take back the night

Madame Sybelle: Bleeding tongue

Philip and Nanny

Datsue Ba: Spirit Whispers

Izamu: Unnerving Aura

Graveyard Spirit

Rotten Belle

6 soulstones

The Dragon goes to Septembers Curse

Wow what a cracker of a tournament. This weekend (27/09/2015 - for all you future readers, or time travellers), I went to Septembers Curse in Bournemouth, Dorset. It has to be hands down one of the best tournaments I’ve been too. 

So this might be a long article - I guess I might split it down into a section on the tournament at the beginning, then a section on my games.

The venue was a spacious social club in Tuckton. I actually went to school round the corner (the long gone Homefield). It was a bit strange travelling from London to my home city and being an out of towner! Still the club venue was perfect. Lots of space for tables, plenty of light, modern and no strange smells (often tournaments are in some dank and funky places). The TO’s did a great job of prizes, raffles, mugs, sweetie bags, and even free water and a new fate deck for all players.