I thought Carver Day was some holiday I didn’t know about. Google says that it’s actually in January, to celebrate George Washington Carver, and celebrates the death of the famous inventory. There’s also a Carver Day in July to honor his birth. November is… I dunno what’s in November. Only an hour and a half trip to this Worcester suburb and through some of Massachusetts famously terrible drivers and much more terrible roads to a small store absolutely filled to the brim with Malifaux players, some Magic players, and a wedding reception.
Somebody was lost.1
Kasul was playing Asylum, a new keyword for him. It’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” turned up to 1000. They have a lot of healing, but can be squishy. He won two games and lost one. One of those winning games was a forfeit where his opponent quit, first turn, after Kasul killed two of her crew. So, not a bad outing for his first time with that crew.
For this, I brought almost all of my painted models (one spider decided to crawl free from its base so I reglued it and forced it to stay home to dry). This includes my new Arcane Emissary, the big Minotaur toward the middle. More on him in a future post. There was going to be judging painting, and I figured, why not? My models aren’t well-painted — more on that later in this post — but at least (most of them) are painted and it took a long time…
My first match was against Von Schill.
Von Schill. Keyword: FREIKORPS
From the website: “The leader of the hardened Freikorps mercenary group has spent his time between editions restocking on weapons. In addition to being a fierce combatant, Von Schill is also capable of handing out Equipment Upgrades to his followers, granting them access to powerful rocket launchers, hidden mines, and other deadly weapons. The Freikorps, still provide some of the most versatile playstyles, easily adapting to any situation on the fly, while sticking to their hardened playstyle with incredibly durable models and characters.”
In short: Von Schill shoots. Mei Feng — my team — works through melee. All I can really do with this is try to stay alive while completing my objectives. Unfortunately, this hands-off approach means I really don’t do very well at stopping the other team from making their objectives.
Strategy: Raid the Vaults. This is a territory control strategy where having more models than the enemy near a “vault” lets you score it; those deeper in enemy territory being worth more.
Deployment: Standard deployment. Six inches of the tabletop on your end.
Schemes: I chose Death Beds (kill an enemy within 2″ of a friendly scheme marker and a chosen other sort of marker (I chose scrap marker)) and Protected Territory (having friendly scheme markers at least 10″ apart and not within 3″ of an enemy model entirely on the enemy half of the table).
My soulstone miners were sent to take care of Protected Territory while I set up Death Beds. I may have forgotten about this scheme because I never ended up scoring it. Maybe I didn’t spend time dropping friendly scheme markers.
My current strategy is to use my Metal Golem as a very buffed decoy. That usually draws the attention of the other team and it did this time. The Metal Golem met his end when Sparks buffed him with explosive shields that dealt damage whenever they took damage. That killed two enemy models — which then exploded in turn, taking down the golem and a rail worker and crippling Sparks.
Game lost in a rout: 6-3. We went out to lunch after that with a bunch of other players to the swanky establishment next door: Burger King. I told Kasul that shooty Lord Cooper (keyword: Apex) might not be my next leader after all. I’m feeling Rasputina (keyword: December). She fucks with shooters, and is Arcanist faction, so I can declare Arcanist and then choose between Mei Feng (keyword: Foundry) and Rasputina depending on whether they like sniping from the edge of the board or coming in close for a good fight.
Seamus. Keyword: Redchapel
As the keyword suggests, Seamus is a serial killer who can flit around the battlefield, striking and fleeing.
From the website: “As the city’s most infamous serial killer, Seamus has something of a reputation to keep up in Third Edition. When the notorious Red Chapel Killer Seamus slips into the shadowy streets of Malifaux, he seeks to pick off his targets one at a time, boasting some of the highest damage potentials in the game. His prowess on the battlefield is only heightened when he is targeting those already enamored with the scarlet temptresses of the Redchapel Crew.”
Strategy: Plant Explosives. Drop explosive markers in enemy territory, no closer than six inches to another one. They can be picked up. This is the starter strategy and is one of the easiest.
Schemes: I chose Information Overload (have more friendly scheme markers in the enemy half on the board than the enemy has in the entire board) and Outflank (models near where the center line meets a table edge or corner and within 3″ of a friendly scheme marker score a point). The soulstone miners got into position but, for outflank, were required to stay there and not do much of anything. One of them finally did managed to toss someone into a pit as it burrowed underground, though.
Seamus and a lot of his crew have the “Terrifying” aura, which requires any attacker to first get through the aura before an attack can be tried. I sent Metal Golem down to take him out and spent a lot of cards working through the aura and attacking only for him to swap places with his body double, who had the same aura. I sent Porkchop to finish dealing with him, but the pig had to withdraw and Mei Feng herself, who hardly ever has to wade into battles personally, finished him off. At great cost. Most of my good cards were gone. The scrap marker railroad had unbridgeable gaps. The seductresses on the enemy side were keeping my front line engaged, and worse. they were going after my soulstone miners. You’re supposed to IGNORE those!
I thought we weren’t going to have time for turn 4, but we did, so I’d set up for end of game scoring, different than end of turn scoring, and missed a possible point. We tied at 5-5.
Parker Barrows. Keyword: Bandit
I kept forgetting to take pictures of the game in play, after the first. During this third game, though, I was sitting next to someone who was also playing with Mei Feng as his leader, and he had a lot of the same models in his crew that I used. With his permission, after our games I took a picture of the crew we shared next to each other. He is a far better painter, it’s clear.
Anyway. Parker Barrows. From the website: “As one of Malifaux’s most dangerous bandits, Parker is well-known for his elaborate planning. With the Ability to steal cards, Soulstones, and other resources from enemy models, Parker epitomizes the bandit lifestyle by blending solid ranged damage and Scheme Marker manipulation. As members of the Barrows Gang, his Bandit allies possess the Run and Gun Ability, allowing them to make projectile attacks when they take the Charge Action, instead of melee attacks.”
So, his gang are shooters, but they can also get in real close without any issue, close enough to steal my stuff. My opponent was pretty new to this particular crew, so didn’t really steal much of anything, but man-oh-man, his duels went on and on and ON. We both tore through our entire decks
Strategy: Cloak and Dagger. Distribute info drops along the center line. Interacting with one gives you some information that you turn in for points, but each time you do, your opponent gets to move the info drop 4″ in any direction they like.
Deployment: Wedge, a triangle in the center of your side of the board.
Schemes: Protected Territory (having friendly scheme markers at least 10″ apart and not within 3″ of an enemy model entirely on the enemy half of the table) and Sweating Bullets (at the end of a turn, if a chosen model — the Metal Golem — was within 6″ of the centerline and engaging an enemy Master or Henchman, gain a point).
The fugger killed my Metal Golem on the second turn, before it had a chance to score Death Beds for me. NOBODY kills the golem that fast! But being able to have three to five attacks (depending on triggers) per activation, and those shots largely ignoring armor, tore it to shreds. I had it hiding at the end of the first turn, but they found it. Then they went after my other enforcer, the Mechanical Porkchop, and though it did well with Rampage keeping them on their toes, eventually succumbed to the hail of bullets. All I could really do at that point was try to keep the enemy models tied up and try to score points. I did win on points, 4-3, but I was pretty upset at losing Metal Golem so early in the game. It was an angry win.
Until next time. Tuesday being voting day here in the USA, not sure if we’re having a game. If we are, I’ll be trying out a slightly different team, for fun.
- There was some sort of very small hall the next storefront over, and weren’t there for the Webway costume contest after all… ↩︎
