Adepticon Malifaux 35ss Scrap - Round 3

Game 3 I found myself facing off against my final WHFB opponent from Friday, Matt Birdoff. For those who are not familiar, Matt is part of the Warmongers club out of NY, and a top WHFB player. He is a fantastic opponent, and one of the top sportsmen I have played against. I was glad to face off against him, as I was making my way back to the top tables and was happy to see he was sitting up there as well.

The round was Shared Contain Power. Our lists and schemes were as follows:
Me: Dreamer/LCB, Lelu, Lilitu, 2x Stitched Together, Coppelius, Day Dream, 5 stones.
His: Pandora, Primordial Magic, Doppelganger, Stitched, Candy, Teddy, 8 stones.
My Schemes:Hold Out (Announced), Eye for an Eye (Announced)
His Schemes: Eye for an Eye (Announced), I do not remember his second scheme

Turn 1

During the Friday WHFB games, Matt made mention that he was not worried about beating me in WHFB, as I would have a chance to pay him back during the Malifaux tournament. I hope I kept him thinking this as looking at Pandora across the table is a bit intimidating to me. Pandora is simply a tough match-up for the Dreamer. Playing Neverborn, I beleive Dreamer is one of the best matches for Pandora, as Lilith and the Nephilim just do not have the WP necessary. With the dreamer, I am fairly confident I can pick apart Pandora's crew and Dreamer has at least some oppurtunity with WP 8 vs Pandora's WP 7.

I will also make note in the beginning that Matt chose his scheme well. It was amusing to have him listen to my schemes and then declare the same "Eye for an Eye", as that left him with 2 points for schemes based on me completing my own schemes. Typically opponents are supposed to pick their schemes prior to hearing what the opponent is choosing, but in this case we were joking around and I was not too worried about it.

Jumping into the game I deployed Lilitu and Lelu on the 6 inch deployment line, with the Stitched next to the Dreamer. As usual, I kept Coppelius buried for use later. Normal turn 1 tactics, defensive stance and terrifying. Matt pushed his doppelganger a bit too far up and I was able to jump forward with Lility and lure the doppelganger into my own lines. A quick snack alter and Lelu had cleaned up the doppelganger, taking her off the board. Not a bad start to the game. Matt shifted his models forward with caution after that, and popped the puking snake (Primordial Magic) into a building with nice line of sight to the center of the board. After burying the nightmares, Dreamer scooted a short way forward and prepared to start playing.

Turn 2-3

Its been a while since the games, so turns 2 and 3 ran together a bit for me. Essentially there was a fair amount of scooting around the center of the board. Pandora bounced around dropping damage and making things flee. Lelu, Lilitu, and Coppelius fought a grand melee vs Teddy, Stitched, and Candy in the center of the board. The key in this round was Pandora killing the day dream, popping out Chompy. Cards in hand kept me from putting chompy away again, chompy's wp kept him from actually attacking Pandora successfully (2 attacks, 1 made it though, did not kill her).

Turn 4

Going into turn 4 the board was cluttered in the center. Chompy is standing alone to the right of the center of the board. Pandora is 4 inches away after pacifying him, Teddy and Candy are engaged with Lilitu and Coppelius, My remaining stitched is mid-way between the center of the board and my deployment zone, Puking Snake is sitting in the building just out of Chompy's reach. Pandora activates on initiative and throws out a Self Loathing on Chompy. Chompy stones to meet her cast and fails to resist, and kills himself. Dreamer pops out, waiting for Pandora to complete her activation. Pandora pacifies Coppelius and scoots back toward her deployment zone. Dreamer activates and I realize I cannot get to Pandora. Dreamer flys into the building (no cover here... big mistake) and shoots at the puking snake. I fail to hit it, snake activates and fails to cast. Lilitu activates and lures Candy forward, then takes 2 shots at Teddy. Teddy is floating low on wounds, but stays there until the end of the game. Teddy activates and rips Coppelius apart, taking damage but living with 1 wound due to his regenerate. Stitched activates and tried to duel with Pandora. He fails, takes some pings, but Matt cheats to keep my damage low enough to keep me from reactivating. I will admit that at this point of the game Matt appeared to have unlimited soul-stones, although that had more to do with his flipping well than anything else.

Turn 5

Turn 5, initiative again goes to Matt and Teddy activates. Duelling flips between Lilitu and Teddy result in no damage on Lilitu. Dreamer activates, decides to fly, shifts around a bit, and takes another shot on the puking snake. Pandora activates, she moves for LOS and tosses out Self Loathing on Dreamer. Dreamer burns off the last soulstone but fails to resist, getting hit for 2 damage (reducing to 1 due to spirit). The tough part here was Pandora's flee trigger went off, and Dreamer runs to the edge of the board. On the plus side, Pandora has no line of sight to Dreamer, so cannot force him off the board for the points. Instead Pandora shifts around to get line of sight on Dreamer for the start of turn 6. Stitched activates and gambles with Pandora, failing, dieing, and gaining reactivate. Candy does something but does not really affect the game. Stitched reactivates, Gambles with Candy to kill her, then gambles with Pandora and brings her to 1 or 2 life remaining.

Turn 6

I am worried here, going into the end of the game with Dreamer falling back and on the edge of the board. I win the initiative flip, rally dreamer, and take a gamble. I cannot move, but it looks like Pandora is within 12 inches. I take the shot with Twist Reality, pass the WP duel, hit Pandora, and flip for damage. Red Joker on the damage guarantees death, and Pandora leaves the board with her puking snake. Teddy proceeds to clean up Lilitu, leaving the board with Dreamer on the board edge and Teddy in the center. Game ends.

Scores are added up with Dreamer and Teddy are alive (2 points for Eye for an Eye), Teddy is in the middle of the board (2 points for Hold Out), and Dreamer got the kill-blow on Pandora, giving me 4 for Contain Power. Another 8 point round and a very challenging game. I look forward to playing Birdoff again, as he is a fantastic player. For someone new to Malifaux, he seems to be getting the grasp fairly quickly! If the rest of the Warmongers play similarly, they will be a club to watch out for on the upcoming Malifaux Tournament Scene!

Battle report for my final game will be posted tomorrow.