Who takes 7th of 9 in a tournament? This Tactical Genius, right here.
Another battle report so soon? Well, I’m actually being social for once and attended my first ever tournament (I’m that social) using my Neverborn in a four-round malifaux tournament. I came seventh overall but now one has a much more solid grasp of the rules of this Victorian-Steampunk-Lovecraftian setting. One has never seen a more deflowered meta 
Eye of Terror closed due to Tactical Genius.
The format of this tournament was a 20ss Henchmen Hardcore, followed by three 50ss full games. Among the opposition were: Gremlins, Arcanists, The Guild, Neverborn, Ten Thunders and some more Guild.
Round one: the Henchmen Hardcore.
This gameplay mode for those who don’t play Malifaux is a 20ss (re: 20 points) game where the leader is a Henchman (the cards will state this). The strategy was Squatter’s Rights- you need 2+ guys within 6″ of a central objective to score 1 VP and the scheme was assassinate for 3 VP.
All lists for the 50ss games were fixed and had to include the models used in the hardcore.
My Neverborn:
Henchman- Angel Eyes (0), strange alliances (1)
-Scion of Black Blood (8), obsidian talons (1)-2x Bloodwretches (5ea)
The opposition was Guild:
Ryle (henchman), a peacekeeper, a witchling stalker and a flying thingy (a peon or something, I need the guild arsenal deck okay?)
Turn 1:
I won initiative and double walked a bloodwretch towards the objective, only to be shot at by the guild’s flying critter. Luckily the attack did 0 damage and nothing overly bad happened.
Bloodwretch #2 double walked towards Ryle and the Peacekeeper- a murderizing murderbot if you will. The plan in theory was to tie up both the henchman and the peacekeeper for one turn, preventing them from moving towards the objective. In theory this should have worked. Out here in the harsh brutality of the real world, the hapless bloodwretch was reduced to a fine, proteinaceous paste (mmm, soylent purple) by the peacekeeper. The flurry ability of this murderbot was able to one-shot the bloodwretch but thankfully it used all of it’s AP, being unable to move towards the objective.
The Scion of black blood double walked towards the objective, fulfilling the requirement for Turf war, if everyone survived until the end of turn that is. Ryle moved forward and used his raking fire ability to attack the Scion, then the remaining bloodwretch. Luckily they survived this assault, but now the guild had two people within 6″ of the object as well.
Angel eyes took two pot shots at Ryle, we’re going for assassinate here. A 14″ range shooting attack is why she’s a nice support henchwoman. For the last activation, the witchling stalker double walked forwards towards the objective, ending the turn with 1 VP each.
Turn two…lead to an open slaughter with Ryle and the Peacekeeper murderizing the remaning blood wretch and the scion of black blood. Angel eyes, as the last member on the board, managed to kill Ryle for assassinate. With time having run out, it was 4 to 2 in my favour. If we’d more time the game would’ve been like a game of tag.
Game two: Sweet dreams are made of RARRRRR!! LORD CHOMPY BITS!!
The list:
Master- Lilith, cache 4, living blade (2), wicked mistress (1)
Henchmen- Barbaros (10), Nephilim gladiatus (1)
-Angel eyes (9), strange alliances (1)
Enforcer- Scion of Black Blood (8), obsidian talons (1)
Cherub (3)
Bloodwretch x2 (5ea)
Terror tot (4)
For 50ss neat and a cache of 4 soul stone.
The opposition was The Dreamer, with a Teddy, a dress wearing spider thing, a couple of stitched togethers and Coppelius. Turf War was the strategy and the schemes I chose were assassinate (you’re going to want to kill the Dreamer anyway so why not) and Spring the trap.
Oh boy is the dreamer hard to assassinate. :O Also the stitched together nightmares are BS.
I can’t really remember the activation sequence for this match as shit got real fast. The teddy went for an objective as did one bloodwretch. The dreamer ended up in combat with Lilith and Barbaros as the latter two desperately tried to assassinate him whilst Alps and Stitched togethers caused chaos. The spider thingy (widow weavers if I recall correctly) kept spewing out webs to reduce willpower by 1. Considering Lilith has a Wp of 5, by end game she was at -3 and well, died to a series of willpower duels.
3″ engagement range is sexy. Though the 1″ pulse black blood ability doesn’t reach that far either :/
One of the the stitched together nightmares tried to destroy my scion of black blood with it’s gamble yo’ life ability. Eventually it was killed, then the scion was eaten by the teddy. It’s a Neverborn eat Neverborn world out here, son.
My crew was 60% unpainted having arrived the evening before the tournament. Thanks postal services -_- interfere in my diabollocks plans whydontcha?
The dreamer took heavy damage early on but kept fobbing off the damage to nearby nightmares. Eventually he was weakened enough to swap out for Melee Lord Chompy Bits who was dispatched after an arduous and hard-fought battle. Barbaros was my MVP with his Nephilim Gladiatus upgrade, smiting Lord Chompy Bits and drawing back out the dreamer. Lilith fell to the dreamer who was then taken out in turn by Barbaros. Time ran out, thankfully as I only had two models left on board at game end and if a sixth turn occurred I’d have lost through objectives.
A 3 VP draw isn’t bad though and I’ve managed to kill the dreamer (despite very, very heavy losses) so that’s a feather in the cap for sure.
Game three: Vs Gremlins.
Out of all the crews I’ve faced, I’ve faced this one twice. The strategy was Reckoning, corner deployment. My two chosen schemes were Protect Territory and Distract, which was probably a poor choice in hindsight. However, this was by far and away the most fun game of the match and damn it I enjoyed being thoroughly demolished.
The gremlin crew contained Wong, La Mancha, a slop hauler, an angry looking gremlin, a bunch of pigs and some lightning bugs. Not overly sure on names for units if you haven’t noticed, but seeming I’ve been playing Malifaux for two damn weeks I’ll be damned if I can remember everything. O_0
That little gremlin can move!
Wong…is my Khan it seems. This was a loss of 4 to 9, as on the first turn Barbaros was MINCED by Mancha Roja, who has a huge charge range, slamming Barbs into paste and scoring a massive 6 VP for Vendetta and Murder Protégé. At 0-6, it was time to drop scheme markers to gain end-game VP.
Replace: KHAAAAAAN! with WOOONNG!
With the benefit of hindsight, I should’ve chosen Murder Protégé as well- Lilith can charge through terrain and she turned Mancha into gremlin goo.
In addition to Barbs, the scion of black blood was taken out (reckoning gives 1 VP for 2+ models killed per turn) to make the score 0-7. O-O This turned to 1-7 as a lightning bug was shot. Wong got in close with some pigs and the terror tot held them up for a turn until the pigs asploded, shooting bacon and miscellaneous purple goo in all directions.
More pigs asploded, which slew Lilith before she could move back towards the scheme marker she’d placed the turn before. Wong removed a couple of markers which were perfectly placed 4″ away from each other with one of my bloodwretches 2″ between both.
My MVP in this game was this bloodwretch shown above- he managed to chase off a lightning bug and camp between two scheme markers to bring me up to 4 VP total.
From this, the take home message is that one needs a bigger beatstick or faster scheme runners. Twas a lot of fun and I’ve a better understanding of why it’s good to observe the enemy crew before picking schemes.
Game four: Knuckle Sandwich
I don’t have any photos for this match as it was getting late, my throat was sore and I just plain forgot. Strategy was Reconnoiter, my schemes were Breakthrough and power ritual. Deployment was kinda weird- corners but squared off or something, will have to look that one up.
Toni Ironsides is one helluva beatstick. And a tank. And she hits back when damaged. Mmmm…knuckle sandwich…
Barbaros was turned into paste, as was lilith. The Captain did sweet f**k all against my cherub as that was accompanying the terror tot to claim some corners. Long story short, it was a massacre. Only Angel eyes and a bloodwretch remained and that’s only because both were kept back to gain VP.
I lost 5 to 10 as my models are surprisingly squishy plus Toni wants to be in combat and I sorta gave her that…oops.
Overall it was immense fun, I saw some sweet-as crews and now have a relatively solid grasp on the rules. I learned a lot about how my Neverborn crew works and that knowing where to deploy helps in addition to using cover to keep things alive while one plays for objectives. Might need some mature nephilim or something high in df or wk to help with scheme running.
Witty Closing Remark,
The Warlock
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