Tournament Report - English GT, 1st & 2nd July 2017

This isn’t going to be a long blow-by-blow account of games played, more a general write-up of how things went for me at the English GT. This is partly because my notes are atrocious and partly due to me trying to mentally suppress what happened…

 

Anyway. These were the games. I took Box Opens Pandora for all 5 rounds but changed the crew up on a pretty regular basis depending on what I thought I needed to get the schemes done.

Round 1: Alex Hill, Neverborn Lynch. 3-6 loss

Round 2: Nick Featherstone, Guild Lucius. 8-8 draw

Round 3: Lee Battrick, Guild Lucius. 9-2 win

Round 4: Ross Hill, Voices Pandora. 4-7 loss

Round 5: Ben Leslie, Zipp. 1-6 loss

There was a pretty common thread running through these games. Apart from round 3 (sorry Lee!) my scheme selection was awful. I always seemed to find myself wishing I’d taken something else at some point, or I’d picked a crew with a particular scheme in mind and then not taken the right scheme or misplaced the key model.

 

Prime example would be round 5, Stake a Claim. I had Pandora with Fugue State, Doppleganger and Primordial Magic. For those who don’t know, that means potentially 7 casts of Nullify to make enemy models Insignificant until they kill whoever cast it on them. Good luck Staking a Claim to anything at that point.

Only, I got obsessed with melting Zipp with Pandora. I did it, but by that point in turn 2 the Gremlins had 4 Claim markers down and my Silurids were dead. So there’s 4 strategy points I’m not getting. And I had Frame for Murder on the Primordial Magic thinking it would be target number 1 if it was stopping models interacting. Funnily enough it wasn’t because I hadn’t nullified anything until it was too late (edit: it's been pointed out this was an even worse cock-up as you can't take Frame on a Peon). And when you plan to take Inspection with 2 Hexed Amongst You Waldgeists and then only take 1 Waldgeist, don’t then take Inspection.

 

So yeah. Moral of the story is to think scheme choice through a lot more than I have been. Inspection is a poor choice with Neverborn due to their lack of solidity, but it’s been fine with Guild and Arcanists either due to massed ranks of models or Armour. Leave Your Mark was such a gimme with Arcanists thanks to Practiced Production, but Neverborn like most factions will need to take an actual scheme runner to get it done. And I don’t know Neverborn well enough yet to identify which models straddle that key model / disposable model line well enough to warrant being a Frame target. More homework needed.

Pandora herself is coming together, and I’m starting to work out what she can do and what she can’t. A key part of what she does is her 0 action Incite which she uses WP for, so she can push through Fading Memory if she casts successfully. There’s a trigger on a tome to let her do it again, so if you hit the trigger and cast successfully twice then you have control over when your opponent activates 2 of their models and Pandora has pushed 4” twice. Canny opponents will try to stop that first Incite to slow her right down.

 

The bane of Pandora is attacks with a stat of 7. I’m happy to rush up and engage enemy hitters with Ml6 because if I keep a 13 in hand, I know she can get away thanks to Fading Memory (which by the way isn’t a trigger, so tough luck Joss). If the enemy model has a stat of 7 then they can force through the hit meaning Pandora can’t push away. And that in turn causes her huge problems because she’s now taking damage from a heavy hitter and only has 10 Wounds.

What Pandora loves are enemy models with healthy damage tracks. In the 2 games against Guild Lucius I faced 3 Witchling Thralls in total. None of the 3 made it to turn 3. She tore Zipp apart because Up We Go is a melee attack and he’s WP6, meaning she had a stat advantage and his 10 Wounds didn’t last long when he was repeatedly beating his head against the ground and taking Misery damage in the process.

 

A big problem I had initially was what to do when there weren’t any big beatstick targets for Pandora to deal with. But after playing a few games that’s getting easier – just stand in the middle of a clump of lesser models. When they activate they have to take a Fears Given Form DF14 duel or take 3 damage. If they try to hit Pandora or walk around her, TN13 Horror duel which will result in Misery damage. Should they want to disengage she’s stopping them with a 7 stat. And Inflict, an attack which forces WP duels for all enemy models in a 4” pulse or take 2 separate lots of 1 damage, will shred an opposing hand trying to keep things alive. All that combined is usually more than enough to see off several 4 or 5 Wound models at once, which takes the pressure right off your own crew.

 

 

Funnily enough that’s the other bit I need to work on. I have a few tricks that I’m happy with – Rougarou pinball, catapulting multiple Teddies, laying out a string of Paranormal markers – but it’s the bread and butter of the crew that I can’t seem to stick on. I think I need to start fixing elements for a few games instead of swapping so many models so often. What are the advantages of Sorrows over Insidious Madnesses. At what point do Changelings factor in. Who do I want to support Pandora in the ‘horribly murdering the enemy’ role. And so on.

 

So that’s where I am at the moment. English GT was a great event, and although I got kicked in the head for most of it I’m hoping the lessons learned will stick with me long enough to make it worthwhile.

Opening the Box of Worms

So the great Pandora experiment has reached half a dozen games played, and at this point I thought I’d jot some thoughts down to reflect on it.

I went into this knowing full well that it would require some serious play style adaptations. For most of this year I’ve been playing Arcanists who are one of the more forgiving factions. They have ways to score schemes coming out of their proverbial. Practiced Production makes most of them so easy I’ve actually started a thread on the Wyrd forums asking the games developers to look at it. The Arcanists have at least 3 tools for pretty much every occasion and as long as you bring the right tool and don’t play like a complete dickhead (there’s my problem right there…), any of those 3 will probably do the job.

 

That’s not been my experience with Neverborn so far. I’ve made some real clangers. Using a buried Bandersnatch to try and score Accusation for example – the model is buried, so it doesn’t engage anyone. They just remove the condition and carry on, whilst I thump my head against the table. And between Fears Given Form and Misery it is far too easy to accidentally kill a model, either yours or the opponent’s, and cost yourself Frame for Murder or Set Up.

 

There have been some amusing moments courtesy of ‘Panzer tech’, weird ideas I like to use to throw people. Rougarou Pinball was an experiment in Arcanists courtesy of Cojo, but actually works pretty well in Neverborn with Barbaros and Tooth. Using Wisps and Poltergeist to drop 3 Paranormal markers a turn (they project a 3” bubble that requires a TN15 WP duel or gain slow – why would that be bad around Pandora…) was funny, and may actually have a place in certain circumstances.

 

But things are starting to mesh. Pandora has won 2 games, drawn 1 (it was 4-4 after I cost myself both schemes – I’m counting this as a moral win) and lost 3, and I understand now what she does and what she needs. Of herself, on her card, she doesn’t do an awful lot. She needs enemy models to mess with. Use their damage tracks against them. Make them take duels with nasty consequences if they fail. Get those infamous auras in the right place. Joel Henry was spot on right when he said that she’s plutonium – being near her is very bad for your health.

 

Pandora excels at blocking your opponent and clearing out their weaker models. What’s new for me is that I need my crew to deal with opposing heavy hitters as well as having point scoring capability, as opposed to sending Lady Justice, Marcus, Ironsides, Sonnia or Rasputina to remove the threats like I’ve always done. It’s a completely different way of building a crew.

My game last night was a crushing defeat at the hands of Joel but the chat after the game and some emails flying around has given me some new ideas, and I’m looking forward to trying them out at the English GT this weekend down in Essex. I expect to be lower to mid table at best, and my tiny brain will probably implode day 2 with overwork, but I’m gonna give it a go!

 

 

Hot Topic - Chucking Principles in a Box

Good morning, Malifaux world.

A lot has happened since this blog went to sleep. Wave 5 has been confirmed and much of it appeared on an open playtest. There have been many, many events. It turned out that Americans really can play Malifaux and us Europeans were being sniffy. I know, right?

 

Anyway. I’m making resolutions here and now to try and get the blog active again, so without further ado, here we go.

This post was inspired by a tweet from Tobias Dracup about how he felt that his game had hit a glass ceiling lately. There was a lot of advice given, and most of it was very useful. A tip that stuck out for me included getting practice games against better players, something I’ve long been a big believer in. It’s why I make the hour’s drive north to Leicester every Monday for Squigs night. Well, correction. It’s why I started making that drive. Now I do because they’re my best mates and Monday evenings are the highlight of my week. But you also have the UK number 1 and 2 in regular attendance, along with 4 other event winners and our newer members, nearly all of whom are hitting podiums lately as well (sorry Scott, your quest for relevance continues… have you tried playing Gremlins?).

 

Some of the advice Tobias received was from me – look back at your defeats and see if there are any common themes. Any particular strategies. Any particular factions. Are you getting your scheme choices wrong. And so on. Identify problems and work to fix them.

Primarily I am one of those players that plays the game for fun. I do it for relief. I do it because I enjoy it. I do it because I thrive on the social interactions. But, and I think everyone who plays competitive anything will admit this, I do like to win too. And lately I have started to realise there are games I’m losing regularly, so I took my own advice.

It’ll come as no shock when I admit to being an aggressive player. I love the alpha strike. Applied brutality is a beautiful thing when it works, and a top-ranked player has to do a double-take because the erratic loon across the table has just pulled off a Master assassination run top of turn 2. There are other aggressive players on the scene now – Baby Squig Chris Donaldson, the shop-keeping walking rage machine Karl McConnell of Warzone’s Own and the Gonads’ (I know it’s Faux-mads but Snezzley renamed them and I can’t stop myself…) Tim Britton , to name but 3.

That means that players are adapting to deal with aggression and what I’m seeing a lot of is chess-style piece / model exchange. My opponents accept that at some point, something big and powerful that they don’t want to lose is going to disappear, and potentially a couple of its friends as well. So they set up to make extra sure that the counterattack takes my hitters down too, leaving the shells of both crews to score the remaining points in the game.

 

This is where I tend to lose. That tight, technical last couple of turns where things like activation order and finesse are paramount. Your top tier players are ultimately happy to end up in this situation because they back themselves to win these exchanges.

One game still sticks in my mind against the nicest guy in Malifaux, Rich Bream. My Sonnia crew tore into his Pandora crew with such gusto that I was 7-0 up by the end of turn 2. I was then completely outplayed, didn’t score another point and lost 9-7.

So my areas of improvement are painfully obvious. I need to teach myself some measure of finesse and learn the finer points of the game so that I’m not completely outclassed once I’m done smashing things off the table. That means playing a faction and Master that isn’t particularly forgiving of mistakes, rewards good technical play and proper activation order, and will let me get to grips with these things.

This is where it gets slightly murky. After thinking about it I realised there is a Master that meets those criteria. It’s Pandora.

 

Yes, I know. THAT Pandora. The one that induces epic keyboard-smashing rage. I can hear the indignant squeak from Castle Marshall even as I type this. That same Pandora that I published an article for here on this very blog telling people thinking about playing her to go and buy a WhoreMachine rulebook. The Master that I once bought, painted and sold 6 months later having never played.

But think about it for a second.

She is all about auras, and getting her areas of effect to overlap with those of her crew to catch enemy models between them. That means she needs to be in the right place, and the right place for her is up front. Her wounds count is a pathetic 10 and if you get it wrong, her only defence is a stat of 7. Cock it up, and I’ve seen plenty of Pandora players do so, you’ll lose her and you’ll lose her early.

The activation order has to be right in order to get that placement for her. Fears Given Form, the Neverborn upgrade that forces difficult Defence duels on activation with pain if you fail, is a double-edged sword for that reason because it affects both friend and foe. Get your bubble wrong and you could potentially have to take all those tests with your own crew, and Neverborn aren’t renowned for their staying power.

 

That lack of staying power is why, in my view, Neverborn aren’t a very forgiving faction. If you screw up then you can lose models to a single activation from your opponent. But get it right, and have those cogs turning properly, and they are very, very strong.

So I’ve decided to risk the nerd rage and play some Pandora. She ticks the boxes I need to be ticked in order to learn, and her way of coming at your opponent sideways appeals to me.

 

I’m aware of the Negative Play Experience potential and will be doing my best to mitigate it. Paralyse builds don’t appeal to me in the slightest for that very reason. I’ll be more than happy to talk things through with my opponent after the game, assuming they didn’t kick her head in. And I’ll make sure before we get going that they know what to look out for.

Ultimately though I think this experiment will be worth it. I need to learn, and Pandora will teach me. And along the way, through my own thundering incompetence or post-game chats, I hope a lot of the myths about her can be deconstructed and she won’t be so scary for people in the future. And if they prove true, at least I’ll have facts and evidence on my side rather than Internet dogma!

Shopping List - Collodi, Neverborn

So, it's been a bit quiet here, but it's time to break the silence with the first guest writer. 

This man knows his Collodi and he was a requested Master, so without further ado...

Hello there folks! Not-Panzer here, let me start with a quick introduction… no wait.

There, that pretty much had to be first right? Anyways, I’m Graeme (Tayne on the forums when I bother to post) and one of Panzer’s teammates. I played Collodi pretty heavily earlier in the year to some success and much swearing by our friendly, resident tank-impersonator. Someone on twitter requested a shopping list for our Puppet Master so, for my faults (and they are legion), I volunteered my duties.

Naturally enough, I’m going to break Panzer’s established three sets rule a little. Collodi has two limited upgrades granting him two different playstyles, ergo I’m going to give you two sets of three. I honestly thought I would prefer one heavily and ended up loving the other, but all that tells us is that, when you get down to it, I’m a bit of a muppet at times (I agree with this sentiment - Panzer).

Fated Collodi 

Fated Collodi is primarily a support master, giving his AP to his crew to get the work done they need, passing on focus or defensive and passing one effigy buff out to his crew each turn. Which leads to our first pick.

1. Brutal Effigy

Collodi can hire any puppets, which gives him access to the seven faction effigies. Now they are of varying use depending on the situation, but the Brutal Effigy is the only one I would put as required. On top of decent stats (for a 4SS minion), it’s his zero we’re looking at here. Fear Not The Sword gives the ability to heal 1 damage after doing damage and draw 1 card after killing an opponent. Pretty good right? It gets better.

Collodi will carry Strum the Threads every time he’s played. He just will. This allows any puppet activating within aura 6 to take 2 damage and go Fast (yes, that includes Collodi himself). 2 damage to self for 3 chances to heal through this buff. The card draw is icing on the cake here, you will not regret taking him.

As a side note, you can use his poor shooting attack to hit Collodi and give the Puppet Lord a free 3” push each time. You may have to cheat to make sure the attack misses though.

2. Stitched Together

These fiendish little treasures will have your opponents cursing you up and down every street of whatever town you’re playing in. Gamble Your Life is a shockingly powerful attack, dealing an uncheatable 3/4/7 to the loser of the duel with no + or – applied.

Now this does mean they can end up dealing a hefty damage to themselves. This is mitigated this by a) picking targets you can bully (Ca6 vs Df, pick the targets with the lower Df stat as a priority) b) them having Hard to Kill and c) getting reactivate when they drop to 1 wound remaining. Yeah, they only have one wound left, but another activation is very, very strong.

3. Widow Weaver





It’s a non-puppet! Yet she is thematically involved with Collodi as she can create Wicked Dolls with her upgrade (it’s an expensive upgrade though - I personally don’t take it) and giving friendly Constructs that activate within 6” of her +1 Wk. Remember those Stitched? Their downside is having a slow Wk4, good old Widow mitigates this for use.

But wait, there’s more. She drops Web markers at the rate of one a turn, lowering the Wp of enemies by 1 per marker within 3”. Collodi’s sole attack is against Wp. Nice. It also boosts her own Terrifying (All) to a potentially higher level. Be wary though, she only has a Df4 and will drop quickly if your opponent focuses fire on her.

I’ll give a quick nod here to Luke Cocksedge, a seasoned Collodi player who runs this Fated list regularly and schooled me with it at Bending Fate. Well played that man, your Collodi is terrifying.

Bag of Props Collodi

With this upgrade, Collodi becomes greedy and steals Focus or Defensive off nearby models to use for himself. He comes with plenty of Marionette totems that can become Focus-fodder in the box, no extra purchases needed there (I generally take 2-3). So, what do I put in his three?

1. Brutal Effigy

Yes. He’s that good he makes both lists.









2. Doppleganger (cue Rooney tinnitus...Eeeeeee-Doppleganger-in-a-dodgy-Canadian-accent-eeeeeee)

You can’t be surprised she made the list somewhere, right? This model is amazing. She has Don’t Mind Me for Interact shenanigans, Ill Omens for Initiative shenanigans and the ability to copy actions on top of a high manipulative value for her defence. She is amazing and almost always causes a pain for your opponent. She is also valued by every Neverborn Master if you’re thinking about later expansion. Buy her, you won’t regret it.









3. McTavish

It’s a tough choice here, you definitely want something big and scary and Nekima or a Teddy could easily be hired if you want to stay in faction or Lazarus as an alternate mercenary, but allow me to explain my reasoning.

Collodi is scary. His attack doesn’t randomise and ignores cover, it has a built in slow trigger and other triggers to make your opponent make an immediate 1 action or steal their first AP when they activate. He is mean and deserves far more hate than he has right now, in my opinion. He is, however, just one model.

Now look at McTavish. A 14” gun that ignores cover, doesn’t randomise and has an excellent damage track. Oh, and that the Doppleganger can mimic for you. On top of this, he has a healthy melee attack to boot. With him, Collodi and the Doppleganger you have a huge control area that your opponent should fear to enter. Nice, eh?

Honourable mention – Mannequin

Now I know I said I’d only do two sets of three, but the Mannequin has a certain place for me that I think needs highlighting. This is due to its 1 action, Magician’s Assistant, which allows models within 2” to place scheme markers anywhere with 6” rather than in base contact with themselves.

That’s right, scheme markers are like Frisbees now.

Now you do still need to keep them 4” from other markers as usual, and you cannot interact if you are engaged (usually, oh hello there Doppleganger!) but this makes schemes like Set Up fairly trivial to complete with Collodi. If I’m taking one of these, I normally have at least two Marionnettes in the list as well to use alongside.

Anyways, that’s all for me. I really need to stop procrastinating and paint models ready for the Nationals…

Apologies to Graeme for taking so long to post this. Yes, he did send it to me before Nationals. But I'm also a muppet. 

Hope you enjoyed the article!

Shopping List - Pandora, Neverborn

So I've been asked to do a shopping list article for the Neverborn Master Pandora. Pretty sure the guy who asked me, the living legend that is Joel Henry, was joking, but I'm gonna call his bluff!

 

Pandora is a Master who many players have a negative opinion of. They believe that games involving her are non-games, and she takes the fun out of Malifaux. 

1. Warmachine Rulebook

 

I am one of those people. I hate playing against Pandora. If you haven't got the right crew to play against her or you're playing against her for the first time, she's just an absolute nightmare. The technical term is NPE or negative play experience. For that reason I don't condone using her and have never contemplated playing her, because there is always that inherent risk of your opponent having an awful game. That's just not a risk I'm prepared to take. 

So. If you're considering playing Pandora. Don't. Put the box back on the shelf. Or buy it for Baby Kade, then melt down the Pandora figure and burn the cards. 

If any of what I've said above actually appeals to you, and you just want to stomp noobs, then please f*ck off and play Warmawhores and leave the rest of us alone. 😛