Instead I want to look at why I think the game went the way it did, any lessons either player could learn and whether things would have been any easier in different circumstances. These are my opinions – they may or may not be right, but I’ll give them anyway as hopefully there’s something useful in there amongst all the misguided vitriol.
Separately I’ll do tournament reviews. Those are my thoughts on the event, structure, venue etc, and the runners and riders that I can remember.
So. On with the show!
Autumn Showdown was a 3-round Gaining Grounds event, with fixed factions being declared at registration and strategies, scheme pools and deployments revealed on the day.
I’m in full practice-for-the-Nationals mode, so declared my beloved Guild faction. They and I both do a strong line in aggression and damage so we’re a pretty good fit. Since wave 4 and the Ripples of Fate book hit, we’ve got some new toys to play with too and I’m enjoying getting them on the table.
Round 1 – Tony Fenton, Outcasts
Extraction, Standard Deployment
Convict Labour, Take Prisoner, Hunting Party, Detonate the Charges, Search the Ruins
Guild: Nellie Cochrane, Printing Press, Phiona Gage, Ryle, Lone Marshal, 2 Field Reporters
Outcasts: Vik of Ashes, Vik of Blood, Malifaux Child, Hannah, Ashes and Dust, Bishop, Hodgepodge Effigy
I think this was a particularly rough draw for Tony for two reasons. Firstly, the moment he declared Outcasts, I knew exactly what his Master would be and could have probably guessed the entire crew. One of my good friends and the Northampton shopkeeper Karl McConnell plays Viks – he plays them well and he plays them often. He also uses a list very similar to Tony’s and I’m used to dealing with them.
Secondly, Tony had never played against Nellie and had no idea what she did or how she did it. She’s a good counter to the Viks as they rely on positioning and being able to get in amongst the enemy, and she can stop them on both scores. That’s even more apparent when the Viks player doesn’t know how she does it!
It was a rude awakening for Tony when Nellie waited til last activation of turn 1, pushed Vik of Ashes 10” across the board with Propaganda, and then triggered three swings from Phiona Gage’s pickaxe along with the damage flips from Propaganda itself. She didn’t drop immediately, but went down first activation of turn 2 which put Tony completely on the back foot.
From there I was able to stay in control. The journalists gained complete activation control when Ryle decked Bishop, which made Detonate the Charges fairly easy to achieve. The Field Reporters’ ability to turn enemy scheme markers into friendly managed to completely stymie Tony’s Search the Ruins, whilst we both managed to block each other’s Hunting Party until the final couple of turns.
It was a really tight game as Tony played Vik of Blood and Hannah really well to stay in touch, and I had to stay focussed to keep ahead.
Final score: Guild 8, Outcasts 6
There’s a maxim in Malifaux – the first game you play against a new Master, you’re almost certainly going to lose it (unless you’re Joel Henry). You need to understand what they do and how they work so that you can play accordingly. That first time out you’ll learn these things the hard way, like Tony did here.
Round 2 – [redacted], Arcanists
Headhunter, Corner Deployment
Convict Labour, Show of Force, Leave Your Mark, Frame for Murder, Public Demonstration
Guild: Sonnia Criid, Francisco Ortega, Dr Grimwell, Lone Marshal, 3 Watchers
Arcanists: Marcus, Myranda, Cassandra, Performer, Mannequin, 2 Night Terrors, Rougarou, Big Jake
I’ll be brutally honest, I feel that this was a game that my opponent lost at scheme selection.
When Public Demonstration is in the pool, and there are combinations of Minions that might actually be able to pull it off, then I’ll look to take those Minions down early. With a Master like Sonnia and two mobile killers like Francisco and Grimwell, that’s not something I struggle to accomplish.
My opponent here raced Cassandra and the Mannequin off to one flank and immediately started setting up Convict Labour. His Minions were all set up centre field, opposite Sonnia and the Henchmen. So Sonnia killed the Performer and both Night Terrors (along with Myranda) just in case, and end of turn 2 the Rougarou (having been blasted down to 1 or 2 Wounds by this point) raced up to Sonnia to take 1 point for Public Demonstration.
At that point, I knew all I had to do was close out and the win was mine. My Watchers had broken through for Leave Your Mark, and Francisco was already scoring for Show of Force with nothing left to oppose him. There were plenty of head markers from Sonnia’s many kills – enough for both crews to max out – so I basically took the 10-8 win rather than overstretch and complicate matters.
Knowing that early that Frame for Murder hadn’t been selected made it even easier – there was literally nothing to keep my crew in check.
Final score: Guild 10, Arcanists 8
The lesson here was that you need to make sure you have options in your scheme selection. I know a lot of people don’t like Public Demonstration, and mine was exactly the type of crew that you don’t take it against. The crew does an awful lot of damage and is quite capable of massacring its way through your named Minions at range. And it did.
There were much safer options available to my opponent. Frame for Murder is known as the Panzer Handicap, as my aggressive style of play normally makes me very vulnerable to it. And Leave Your Mark, with Cassandra, Practiced Production and Night Terrors, is fairly simple to score. He showed his hand too early and paid the price.
Round 3 – Dave Hill, Neverborn
Guard the Stash, Standard Deployment
Line in the Sand, Catch and Release, Exhaust Their Forces, Covert Breakthrough, Quick Murder
Guild: Rollins Black (Lucas McCabe), Iggy Pup (Luna), Taelor, Pale Rider, Field Reporter, 2 Guild Hounds
Neverborn, Dreamer, 3 Daydreams, 6 (count ‘em…) Stitched Together
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to do about Dave’s crew. So I gambled that mine had enough staying power, whether through Soulstone use, high stats or defences, to achieve my schemes and stick around for the Stash points.
Dave, meanwhile, was also gambling. A lot. Most of the game was him shouting ‘gamble your life!’ and me swearing at him for all the Gamble Your Life he was throwing my way! As fast as I was putting the Stitched down, he was summoning more with Dreamer.
I had the schemes sorted very quickly. My Quick Murder target was one of his Stitched, who took a relic hammer to the face turn 2. I went for Line in the Sand, and between the assembled dogs and the Pale Rider I had 7 markers down by the end of the game.
My problem was the crew just couldn’t stay upright to claim stash markers. Gamble Your Life is a horrible spell – the Stitched just has to match your duel total in order to do a 3/4/7 damage flip against your model. Taelor and both iterations of Rollins / McCabe were singled out for some particularly brutal treatment early on and were gone by turn 3. Much to my dismay and Dave’s amusement, a particularly well-timed severe on the Pale Rider took it off and that was pretty much that.
Final score: Guild 7, Neverborn 9
In hindsight… Well, I have to be honest, I don’t know what I’d do differently. I’ve seen variations of Dave’s crew – Collodi with a lot of Stitched – before, and Taelor is a good counter. With Dreamer, who I couldn’t target without him dumping it off to Stitched and then summoning more in, it was difficult to deal with.
Dave also played it very well indeed. He knew what could hurt him – Taelor and Rollins – and made things safe fairly quickly. Maybe I would have been better off with some tougher targets.
Final Thoughts
When the dust settled, I sat on 2 wins and 1 loss and a differential of +2, good enough for 12th place from 34.
That doesn’t entirely tell the story though – if I’d won the last game, then I had every chance of taking 3rd. I’m actually very happy with being in contention right up until the end of the event. I suffer from bipolar disorder and have been struggling with some issues lately, so staying focussed the entire length of the event is an achievement these days.
I’m still enjoying the Guild and will definitely be bringing them out at the Nationals. This event really reinforced that, as I played some very strong opponents and a faction everyone derides had answers for just about everything.
Except Dave the F*cktrumpet and his damn gambling…
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