Monday, May 21, 2012

Win a Dead Justice box set - pro-painted?

So, I have not been using Facebook lately. At all. I found that about 6 months ago I just grew tired of all the changes and what-nots with Facebook so stopped logging in. My wife checks it regularly (semi-regularly) for me, but thats about all it amounts to.

Well, that and I still get the odd email for direct messages or to alert me about updates to pages I subscribed to (or liked....). One of those pages are my friends at the Eternal Warriors podcast. These are a great group of guys who release on a fairly regular weekly/bi-weekly schedule. The podcast is a lot of fun to listen to, and thankfully they have begun to migrate from GW games to better games like Malifaux.

With that said, recently there was a post to thier Facebook page that caught my attention. Here is the post:

Hey kids!

I want to hear your gamer stories. Happy or sad, tragic or hilarious, send them our way. You can post them on the forum, throw them on the facebooks, or email them to thebaron@theeternalwarriors.com . Though I have to say I'd prefer the forum or the email, just because they'll be easier to keep track of. Why should you go through the trouble?

Because it can win you a full Dead Justice box set painted by Chris West of 2 Ton Studios! These models were lovingly and painstakingly painted, then placed on Secret Weapon's new "corpse field" bases for that added boost. If you are interested in starting malifaux or just want a new crew, this is your chance to get one for free!

I'll have some pictures in the next day or so, otherwise you can check Chris's blog at http://2tonstudios.blogspot.com/2012/05/malifaux-dead-justice.html to see some of the pictures he took. They seriously don't do the models justice. Dead Justice.

Well, good luck!
So, there is a contest for a pro-painted Dead Justice box set. That's the set that is featured in the picture at the start of this post.  So for all you cool kids who are on Facebook, post them up, heres the link to the Eternal Warriors facebook site. For those who are not cool facebook kids (like me), email the Baron at the address he provides.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

King of NOVA - Round 4

So I have stretched out the reports of my games to 4 days now, I hope your not bored yet. As previously mentioned, I was on the top table for round 4, facing 1st Generation Awesome Mike with the master he possibly knows best in the game. At the same time, I had only gotten 2 games in before this point with Zoraida, and used Collodi a total of 4 times before this game. I did not take much time to look at his side of the table, although I had seen him carrying around aZoraida during the day. I knew he was running with Collodi, and thought that meant Collodi and Zoraida through the day. Mike is another member of my local group who regularly beats me in games. He is a really good player and one of the best Neverborn players I know.With that said, I have won a couple games against Mike, so I was a bit more confident than I was facing Dan. On top of that, maybe this was my day, I had just beaten Dan pretty badly so I was feeling good. Then I remembered I did not know how to play the crew I had chosen to bring to the table.

Mike and I drew a dungeon board with some bridges and columns. We understood that the open spaces between tiles were solid walls that blocked LOS and were impassable.



I had the closer side (to the left) while Mike had the far side of the board. Mike flipped Line in the Sand and I flipped Slaughter. I contemplated dropping a stone to reflip, but decided against it. (Mistake number 1). Mike set out his crew and I was surprised to see Collodi leading the crew. It ended up being Collodi, 4 Marionettes, 3 Stitched Together, Carrion Effigy, and Brutal Effigy. I looked through my remaining schemes (schemes were unique for the tournament) and did not have much left. Eye for and Eye was out as my plan was to kill off Collodi and remove a bulk of Marionettes to reduce his crew size. Frame was not a good strategy, and Steal Relic was not something I felt I could reliably pull off. I ended up grabbing Bodyguard on Zoraida and Exterminate Dolls. It was a long shot as I was aiming to wipe him off the board, but I figured what the hell. (mistake #2?).

Turn 1 was very little shuffling around as Mike did a great job of staying out of LOS from Zoraida. I summoned up a Voodoo doll and put it on Collodi, killing it off for the scrap shortly afterwards. I made the mistake of giving all my dolls fast on turn 1 instead of creating the new marionette and giving them fast at the start of round 2. Bleh. Mike ended with his Stitched moved forward under clouds of smoke, and one of the dynamites flipped on turn 1. I had not moved from my initial deployment in a ball, waiting and priming my crew for round 2.

On round 2 Mike did some more moving around but I got aggressive. (Mistake #3). I gave my dolls fast, told a wicked doll to go after me, gave the wicked doll and 2 marionettes melee expert, and launched up the board to the bridge to start killing off his dolls. I got some positioning out there and took out one of his marionettes before learning my big mistake. Gamble your Life is not a strike or spell so cannot be shifted by Collodi onto his marionettes. Crap. By the end of the second turn Collodi had died to an onslaught of GYL, and I was severely down on the game. Over the next several turns I tried to recover with my stitched and Zoraida, but was unsuccessful. Overall I was just too damn aggressive and should have held back. The game ended in an 8/0 loss.

I was amused later when Mike said he went into the game thinking he was at a disadvantage vs my crew. Once I threw Collodi forward he felt that he had a strong chance because he realized I had no idea what I was doing. When I followed up by throwing the Stitched into the meat grinder and leaving Zoraida unprotected he was confident the game was his and there was no way he could lose. All of this was true.

So, at the end of the tournament I ended with a record of 9tp/+7diff/22VP to come in 3rd place. I did not get a chance to face Weakland, so that game will need to wait until I get back to NYC. And, at the end of the day I ended up beating a local player who regularly beats me, and lost to a player I regularly lose to, with the master he may be best with. Not a bad showing overall.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

King of NOVA - Round 3


So going into round 3, I found myself at the bottom of the list for the 3 undefeated players in the tournament. This had me facing the top of the 2/1 players, 2nd Generation Awesome Dan.

Ouch.

Here's the thing, Dan is good. We have faced each other a handful of times on Tuesday game nights, along with a handful of times at tournaments. He regularly kicks my ass. Probably the only person I play more games who regularly kicks my ass is Mike, who is also really good. With that said, I was expecting my run at the tournament to end with this game. So, I stepped up to the table ready to give my all to make it a fun and challenging loss, and looked at where we would be playing. For three rounds now, Dan had been camping out on the same table.






I took a quick look over the table and flipped strategy. After both Dan and I flipped our strategies (he was playing Resers), we ended up with shared Distract. So, kill the opposing leader or keep them off your half of the board. Basically kill the opposing leader while keeping your alive. I knew Zoraida was survivable, but I also knew Dan plays against Mike's Zoraida a fair amount (or did). I also knew I was not overly familiar with Zoraida, and that Pandora is really good at this strategy. I suspected Dan would be taking Kirai, and I know how to handle Kirai fairly well with Pandora. With that said, I went with my Pandora crew. In a slight surprise (but not overly much if I thought about it) Dan took Nicodem and attached the Avatar. He has been on a roll lately with aNico, and I should have suspected that was up his sleeve.

Which was another knock for me. I have widely claimed that not only do I think Nicodem is a good master, but that in Dan's hands he is simply scary. I was now truly expecting a beat down, but trusted I was good enough with Pandora that I could make it a challenge.

Dan set out Nicodem, 2 dogs, 2 crooked men, Dead Rider, and a grave spirit. Looking over his crew, I went with Kidnap on 2 dogs and the grave spirit, and Assassinate on Nicodem. I knew I would have to deal with the rider, but did not want to bank a scheme on him.

The game got underway and we headed for the middle of the board. It was clear from our early movement that this was where the fight would take place and there was really no reason to try and avoid it. Nicodem needed to be taken down early or he would manifest and be nearly impossible to kill before getting across the board. Dan was helpful in killing off his dogs for me early on, leaving me to focus on Nicodem and the Dead Rider. The game went by very quickly and it was a fairly long day, so only key moments really stick out in my memory.

I was able to get Pandora and Lilitu into range to use some lures to damage and kill off a number of models. Pandora and Nico both burned thier last stones somewhere around the end of turn 3 or start of turn 4 in a battle to force a Rigormortis through onto Pandora. With both of us burning our last SS, the spell was forced through the opposed WP check, then Dan flipped a 4 to cast it and did not have the cheat in hand. This was a rough hit for him. I followed up by activating Pandora and chipping away the last couple points Nico had on him (dropping project emotions on a nearby mindless zombie to overlap onto Nico, then burning off a pacify, a self loathing, and a dementia once he was on negative flips) and killed him. Dan knew the game was over at that point, but eliminated Lelu with the Dead Rider before I could take him out of the game as well. With Dan tabled going into turn 5 and 2 turns left to lure and walk Pandora into the opposing deployment zone, I was able to lock up 8 points to Dan's 2. I was lucky the focus was kept on Lelu and Pandora so Lilitu had enough wounds remaining that she could last through 2 remaining turns.

At the end of the game, my record was now 6tp/+15diff/22vp and I had a surprising win vs Dan. Dan and I talked a bit after the game, both of us suspecting I would be facing Mike in the final round. Throughout the entire tournament I had heard Mike was bringing Collodi, but assumed it was Collodi plus Zoraida. Dan's recomendation was to switch back to Zoraida due to the high WP in the Collodi crew, and I agreed, as Pandora would struggle with the high WP and be vulnerable to her own crew with Zoraida's obeys.


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

King of NOVA - Round 2

Yesterday I outlined what I could recall of my round 1 game during the King of NOVA tournament last weekend. I had a great game against Nayte, a fantastic player from Victory Comics. While it was not on my mind at the start of the day, I realize after the tournament that my win vs Nayte was one contributing game to the Best store in VA prize, as it was a game not within the same store. Several of the Huzzah Players ended up getting matched against each other through the day due to general placings, which had a number of our games not count toward the overall Best Store rankings. By the same token, Victory also had a lot of thier players playing each other, so it likely balanced out.

So, I was jumping into round 2 of the tournament on a win but feeling a little off due to the end of round discussion. I was happy to see I would be facing Marshall from the Neverland Games store in PA. Marshall is another henchman and I have been up to one of his events, although he and I had not had a chance to play each other. I knew he was a savvy Neverborn player and remember him playing Pandora with Jack Daw. On Flipping Turf War, I knew it was time to switch up lists and brought out Pandora. I do not remember what his first flip was, but he burned a stone to reflip and got Stake a Claim. He declared Dreamer and we were onto the game.

Game 2 - Dreamer (Marshall from PA) vs. Pandora


Marshall was running Dreamer/LCB, 2 Day Dreams, 2 Stitched, an Insidious Madness, and Bad Juju (Sludge Beast). I have not faced Bad Juju much, and only know a little about him. I found the choices interesting, and was ready to go. I had flipped Turf War, so needed more models completely on his half of the table than he had on mine (and one model in his deployment zone). I grabbed Reclaim Malifaux as one scheme, and breakthrough for the second. I knew where I was going and had a plan to get there. Marshal placed his Stake a Claim in the middle of the sewer canal, second panel in from my right. I do not remember the schemes he chose. With that we started the game.

Turn 1 and 2 was a surprising amount of very little actually happening. One of my Tots killed a desp merc and grew to a young, the other Tot tagged the right corner and began to move up the board. Pandora walked in both rounds, heading up the stairs. The twins headed up the left side of the board, starting by tagging the middle center and left center quadrants. My Young moved across (during turn 2) and tagged the back center quadrant. Marshal moved up the board, hiding on the botton level of the center of the building, and keeping most of his crew buried.

The excitement really came out during turn 3 and 4. One of Marshall's Daydreams moved up and sacrificed itself to bring out LCB, who then tried to attack Pandora only to fail twice from her WP duels. LCB summoned up a replacement day dream, who then put Chompy to sleep and brought out dreamer at the left base of the stairs in my deployment zone. Dreamer used his action to bring out his friends, placing both Stitched in protective formation around him and bringing out his insidious. Sludge Monster also came out during the turn and started oozing toward Marshal's stake a claim. Lilitu continued to move up the left side of the board, tagging quadrants and heading for Marshal's deployment zone. My Young did what he could to move across the board just outside my deployment zone and on the other side of the wall, hiding from the stitched. Pandora did what she could to drop some templates onto the Stitched and Insidious, causing a daydream and the stitched to run for the rear of the board and chipping away at what he had. She had to burn a walk to get into the smoke and near the top of the stairs.

On turn 5 (I believe), Pandora got initiative and was able to force the nightmares far enough away from Dreamer to target him, then tagged him with a spell and killed him, following up with breaking the One Master Immediate activation of LCB by pacifying him and pushing off the edge of the top level platform to drop down to the bottom level, protected from the Stitched and the Sludge monster. Marshal worked on recovering with his stitched, rallying and moving toward his objective. Lelu charged in and finished off Chompy with some well placed attacks, turning the game heavily in my favor. The rest of turn 5 was a tot grabbing the last quadrant and leaving my tot and Lilitu in Marshal's deployment zone. Pandora walked some more and got LOS onto the Sludge Monster, using Pacify to push around and get a line on the Stitched. Lelu scooted up to take out the Sludge Monster, and then turn 6 saw Pandora forcing the Stitched away from the claim jump and sitting on top of it. All in all, Pandora did more walking in this game that I have ever seen her do in the past. The game ended with an 8/0 win to me, bringing my 2 game record to 6tp/+9 differential/14vp.

Monday, May 14, 2012

King of NOVA Tournament - Round 1

Charlie Sheen picture aside, I did not actually win the King of NOVA tournament this weekend but instead came in third. Overall it was a fantastic day and I got in 4 really fun and challenging games. I ended up at the top table in round 4, playing against Mike for top placing on the day.

There were 3 big prizes available on the day, along with prize money for the top three placing players based on TP. The top player would end up going home with a King of NOVA Trophy, the top store in VA would go home with a Best Store Trophy, then the best placing store along the east coast would take home a plaque. At the end of the day, Mike grabbed 1st place and the King of NOVA trophy, Andrew Weakland grabbed 2nd place and the Best East Coast plaque, and I grabbed 3rd place. Huzzah Hobbies, my local store, grabbed the Best Store in VA trophy.  It was an impressive showing overall, with players from the Warmongers in NY, Neverland Games in PA, Huzzah Hobbies and Victory Comics from VA.

So, with all that background, lets dive into the games.

Games 1 - Marcus (Nayte from Victory) vs Zoraida


Nayte has become known as a new but very good Resurrectionist player recently, and I also know he has Sonnia Criid sitting in his case. He and I have discussed strategies for playing Sonnia and her Avatar, and we have played a couple games where he took Kirai against me. Going into the game, I was expecting him to grab one of those two, likely siding toward Kirai as that was a game we had played within the past two weeks. Nayte surprised me by pulling out Arcanists and putting Marcus and Kaeris down on the table. We had a spectator who was trying to learn a little about the game, so I let him pick between Zoraida and Pandora, and he promptly chose Zoraida. Nayte and I laughed, as this would be an interesting game with both of us having essentially no experience with our masters.

Nayte rolled out with Marcus, Kaeris, 2x Night Terrors, Malifaux Raptor, Student of Conflict (Kaeris), Jackalope (Marcus), and a Gunsmith

I flipped Contain Power for my strategy, and chose Grudge on Nayte's Student of Conflict and Stake a Claim on the boxes between the two buildings in the picture. Nayte had flipped Deliver a Message, then grabbed Stake a Claim on the building near my deployment zone and Power Ritual.

On turn 1 Nayte grabbed several both corners on his side of the board for his Power Ritual and then started up the board, hiding behind buildings and the back forest to keep Zoraida from tagging a Voodoo doll on them. Regardless, I was able to grab LOS to the Gunsmith, made a voodoo doll and obeyed him, but the attack missed. I passed the rest of my turn, only killing the Voodoo doll and having Collodi summon a 4th marionette from the scrap. I was aiming my set-up for an attack on round 2.

The next several rounds started the fun, with Collodi giving all his dolls fast and launching an attack across the board. Two marrionettes pulled his crew to the back building where Kaeris, the Gunsmith, and the Student were all hiding behind. A marionette used his fast to kill off the Student of Conflict. A second Marrionette charged, Fast attacked, and Melee Experted Kaeris. The Wicked Doll snapped up and charged, Fast attacked, and Melee expert Kaeris. I was able to put damage on Kaeris, kill off my grudge target, and tie up a chunk of Naytes crew in the back of the board. Nayte, on either turn 2 or 3 was able to jump Marcus all the way to Zoraida (who had not moved) and deliver the message to her with no problem. In return, the Stitched together in the back of the board gambled Marcus's life enough times that Marcus died. By the time we got to the end of turn 3, Nayte had grabbed Power Ritual on 3 corners (his deployment corners and my right hand corner), Marcus was dead (to a stitched), the message was delivered, I had my grudge, and we were studying how to get our claim jumps. 

Neither of us were fast players, especially not knowing our crews well, and as we started round 4 the TO called 20 minutes remaining in the round. I asked Nayte if he figured round 4 would be our last round, to which he agreed. I studied the board and came up with my strategy, knowing this was the final round. Nayte was sitting on 5 points, with a Night terror close enough to get to the house for Claim Jump. I was sitting on 4 points, with Collodi and the puppets set to jump around and grab my claim jump. We started the turn and I had initiative. Collodi moved back to put a marrionette onto the Night terror, trying to kill it off. The attacks hurt it but did not kill it, and I then followed up with the other Marrionette pulling Collodi back toward my claim jump and moving over to touch the crates. With only 1 model on my claim jump, I knew I needed something else because Kaeris and the gunsmith would be able to take out the marrionette with no problem. Nayte moved his Night Terror slightly around the building and sat touching the far corner, out of LOS from Zoraida. I moved my stitched up to touch the crates and put up Creepy Fog to provide cover. Kaeris jumped into the cloud of smoke and took some attacks on Collodi, but nothing effective. I moved through the building with my Puking Snake and attacked the Night Terror, missing. Things looked bad for me, but I had one trick left up my sleeve I was confident of. Nayte move forward with his Gunsmith but could not get anywhere to do damage to my dolls. With the last effective activation (Nayte had a Raptor left but it was insignificant), Zoraida moved up onto the scrap pile to the left of the building (Naytes Claim Jump) and used Repulsive to push the Night Terror off the building. We finished out turn 4 a little after the TO called 10 minutes remaining in the round.

Nayte quickly shuffled as if he was going to play out another turn, and at this point I asked him what was up. He said the round was still going, so he wanted to keep playing. I discussed it with him and the two conflicting points were:
Me - If we cannot finish another turn, I do not want to start another turn. If Nayte was willing to play into Lunch the TO was ok with that so we could finish a turn 5, I was up for playing turn 5. If not, then I was not willing to start a new turn.
Nayte - He felt he could win if we started the turn and he got initiative to move back onto the claim jump. He was not willing to play past time into lunch to finish the turn, but wanted to keep playing.
With those two stances, we did not start a new turn and the game ended with a 6/5 win to me. I got a couple looks and comments after the game about playing through to the end of the time, and apparently I was a dick to not do so. I guess I am conflicted over this, as we had agreed going into turn 4 that it was going to be the last turn. In addition, I agree with Nayte that whoever got initiative on turn 5 would likely win the game. If I grabbed initiative I could easily remove Naytes ability to win through a simple move to the front of the house, cast Repulsive (pushing Collodi and my dolls into my own claim jump via positioning, while pushing Naytes models further away from his), then obeying his Night Terror to charge the Gunsmith of Kaeris, moving it too far away from being able to get to his claim jump. Likewise, if Nayte had gotten initiative and moved his Night Terror back onto the house and time was called, he would have grabbed a win without my models being able to take the actions to push them off again.

At the end of the day, I feel bad that my actions were considered a dick move, but I would not change the way I played. I ended up going into round 2 on 3TP/+1 Diff/6VP.

More rounds will be posted through this week.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Tournament Day!

Its here, and I am excited. The "IT" I am talking about is the King of NOVA tournament being held in Falls Church at Victory Comics today. I am excited as this will be the second 1v1 tournament I am playing in this year (after sleeping through my Adepticon qualifier). In fact, when this post goes live we should just be starting round 1.

So, what am I bringing? I have felt the hankering to get some Neverborn back on the table since just prior to Adepticon, and with my "Guild through Adepticon" commitment met, I am diving back in. For those who watch my gaming log (over there on the left) you will see I have not abandoned my guild crews, but have merely loosened the restrictions on what I am playing.

With that said, the tournament is single faction, flipped expanded strategies, unique schemes. This means I have to pick a faction going in, but can hire my crews tailored for whichever of the 13 Strategies I flip. The spanner henchman Lucidicide threw in the works here is that each player declares their master after flipping for strategies but before hiring the rest of their crew. This will make things interesting.

So, whats on the slate for today? With Neverborn being my declared faction I am going with something new and something reliable. While I still might bring out Max (Dreamer) at some point, I think I am going to go with Pandora for my reliable crew. I know she can be a bit filthy, but I got a game in last week with her and enjoyed the game. I have only really had her on the table once in the past several months, so it should be fun to get her playing for a bit. Here is my idea of the list.

Neverborn Crew - 30 - Scrap
Pandora -- 7 Pool
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Desperate Mercenary [2ss]
Insidious Madness [4ss]
Lelu [7ss]
Lilitu [7ss]
Terror Tot Nephilim [3ss]
Terror Tot Nephilim [3ss]
The list looks a bit "Filth Light", but its a fairly reliable list regardless of the strategy. Overall, I think it will serve me well as a go-to list. The twins work well together and the Tots can either sprint around for objectives or grab some blood and grow as necessary.

So that brings up the question, what is the new I am planning to trot out and try. Well, its really new to me and not really new for others. Here is my thought:

Neverborn Crew - 30 - Scrap
Zoraida, the Hag -- 6 Pool
Collodi [8ss]
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Wicked Doll [3ss]
I have not taken Zoraida out for a true spin yet, having only actually gotten her into exactly 1 game so far and that one being a loss. I also have not gotten Collodi onto the table more than a couple times. With that said, I actually like the new Zoraida model and figured it would not hurt to try her out. And Collodi is so good at specific missions such as plant evidence, destroy evidence, and treasure hunt that I figured it would be a good list to bring out.

I figure there will be a fair number of players ready to face down some Neverborn filth at the tournament, especially my local group. Dan is probably going to show up with Viktoria if he sticks to what I remember, and she always gives me fits. I am not sure what Mike will be playing, but he knows Neverborn inside out, so is always a challenge. Overall, I am really hoping that today is a fun day and I get in 3 solid games!

So, wish me luck and I will try and stay focused through my games. No better time to learn a new master than during a tournament, right?

I will try and grab some pictures and remember the battle reports to post some during the week.


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

There's Somthin' about that boy.......

There's something about that boy that just ain't right I tell ya!


Not the best picture, but a quick picture of my painted Tuco. Easy to do up, just takes a little detail and some wash on the horns and his skin (hands/face/hair).