BatRep - Marcus v Jakob

A question was posed on an episode of the Gamers Lounge at some points over the past year:

"What is Marcus good for other than holding Kaeris's Purse?"

Well, it was something like that. Regardless of the actual question, a very loyal Gamers Lounge listener (Lord Shaper)  assembled, sculpted, and painted up just such a Marcus. This Marcus was sent on to me as a gift and although I do not play Marcus regularly, I wanted to get some photo's of a game with him. This is that battle report.

Now, true to form, I wanted to assemble a viable Marcus crew to properly reflect the state of the pictured Marcus. Regular Malifaux opponent Bo and I had flipped Master of the Hill from the new Gaining Grounds format, and I dug through my cards to grab out a fitting crew to face Bo's neverborn. I came up with the following:

Marcus, Kaeris, Johan, Kang, Willie, 6ss Pool

Arrayed against such a august assembly of nastiness was Jakob Lynch and his Brilliance Addicts:

Jakob, Huggy, Graves, Beckoner, Depleted, Illuminated, Stitched

With a quick look at the board we deployed and got the game started. We markes the "Center of the Hill" with the Supply Wagon marker. I ended up taking Bodyguard on Marcus and Sabotage on the statue furthest from my deployment zone.

Turn 1 
Turn 1 was all about the positioning, mostly. Kaeris deployed onto the board and promptly gave her purse to Marcus so it would not get into the way of the dirty work she needed to do. Over the initial activations Bo moved his illuminated up behind the house to the left of the statues, and his stitched up slightly behind the illuminated (but did not use his smoke). Kang, Johan, and Willie all moved up the table to surround the fences, with Willie tossing out some dynamite at the end of his turn and placing it near the "center of the hill". After burning out several activations on both sides it was time for Kaeris and Marcus to activate. Marcus was determined to prove he was more than a purse carrier in this game, so he quickly took on the aspects of the hare and quickly leapt forward to hide behind the house on the left. He had the sabotage target in his sights and was ready to do his part for the Arcanist cause.There was no way that Kaeris was going to outshine him in on turn 1.

Kaeris was the last on my side to activate. She casually took wing and flew forward to get some line of sight on the battle field. Sitting on one side of the fence she did some quick calculations and determined that yes, she was in range of the illuminated hiding behind the house. Conjuring up just a small ball of fire, she tossed it at the Illuminated. After the negative flip Bo decided not to cheat, so the illuminated was hit for 1dg and a burning counter. A wide grin split Kaeris face as she casually told Marcus to "Watch this, and keep my purse safe!". She then summoned up her inborn Majia to turn that small spark of fire clinging to the Illuminated into a towering inferno, reducing the illuminated to ashes. A red joker/severe on the double negative flip locked down the drug addicts demise, spilling over onto the Stitched Together.

Marcus was not amused.

 

At the end of the turn the board looked as such:

Turn 2
Bo was a bit cautious overall about turn 2. He started out with Huggy using Heed my voice on Willie, forcing him to throw some dynamite in melee with Kang, forcing the blasts over onto Johan. I cheated a bit to stop Willie from constantly doing that, but it still left Kang and Johan a little singed. Willie woke up from his delusions of darkness and decided that some of Bo's crew needed to understand the BOOM as well. He tossed two sets of dynamite over onto the Depleted, hitting hard enough to take the tentacle wonder to its hard to wound and spilling the blasts over onto the Beckoner. The Beckoner used her honeyed words on Kang, doing a little more damage but not getting him to his hard to kill, and leaving him brilliant for the turn. Kang proceeded to wander forward, staying just outside base contact with the top of the hill, and threw some hot coals onto the Depleted, killing it. Graves wandered forward to guard the sabotage target. Kaeris jumped forward and let loose with some fire onto the Beckoner, killing her. With nothing left on the board with burning tokens, Kaeris put up a fire wall near the flame pillar to block LOS for the stitched. The stitched decided to walk forward and attempt to gamble with Kang. This was a bad idea overall as Kang's willpower just dominated the stitched, killing it with its own ability. The Stitched grabbed Reactivate and Does Not Die. Johan took a couple pot-shots at Huggy, not really doing much damage at all. The stitched tried again with Kang, failing again and using up his activation. Marcus was determined to prove himself more useful than a purse tree, and took on the aspects of a rabbit and a snake, jumping over the small house to get a nice line on Graves (without going through the Flame Walls or Pyre), and then discarded a card to charge Graves. Charge attack hit, Marcus took a little black blood, and then used his last AP to sabotage the statue. In return Jakob charged forward with his pistols, putting a hurt on Marcus but not killing him.

At the end of the turn the board looked as such:

Turn 3

Marcus was feeling awfully pleased with himself, staying alive after sabotaging the statue. As he was bragging about his accomplishments across the green to Kaeris, she casually pointed over his shoulder. Damn Graves was big, but while Marcus was worried about the beat down Graves was prepared to deliver, Jakob and Huggy companion activated and Jakob unleashed two pistol blasts into Marcus's face. The actual quote after the series of red jokers was laid out was "Shot Marcus in the back of his face".

Kaeris could not believe the utter lack of respect Marcus had for her purse. Now he was down on the ground bleeding out and had spilled the all important soulstones all over the lawn. While she was fuming over this Huggy did his best to whisper in Kangs ear. Kang, heeding Huggy's voice, charged across the green and introduced Kaeris to his shovel. A Red Joker on damage and Marcus dropping a purse of soulstones assured that Kaeris needed to slink off with a broken nose and was not happy at all.

Marcus was not amused.

 

 Now that both thier leaders had slunk off the field, the remaining boys decided it was time to clean up. Kang activated and charged Graves, leading with his shovel and landing two big hits that dropped the oversized brute to the ground, removing him from the fight. Willie double walked over to Jakob, triggering some dynamite (for damage) and then dropping a couple more off his hastily moved wheelbarrow of doom, leaving both Jakob and Huggy in pain. Johan moved forward and help his shots, not wanting to unleash and hit Willie with the blow-back.

At the end of turn 3, the board looked like so:

Turn 4
Initiative on turn 4 really locked the game in my favor. Bo was out of soulstones and I had an amazing hand (3 severe cards). Kang took the first activation and charged Jakob, landing a severe hit on him and introducing Jakob to shovel and ground simultaneously. This ended the game as Huggy faded away when his link to the field was knocked out of the game.

At the end of the turn the boys were left alone on the field:

The final score was 6/0 in favor of Bill.

In review of the action later at the M&SU Bar, Willie, Kang, and Johan tried to console Kaeris and Marcus on thier questionable performance. Kaeris promptly pointed to the amazing pyre of flame she produced on turn 1. Marcus attempted to show how placing dynamite on the statue was incredibly useful. At the end of the discussion, well....

Marcus was not amused.