Good Bad Fated Report

 After my previous lack of keen, I am full of enthusiasm this morning as I return from 'The Good, The Bad and The Fated'. I had an absolutely fantastic time and it seems many other people did aswell. A big thank you for @bigned or Nate Zettle for running the event, I don't think I could make a single criticism. Worhamma also proved excellent hosts. The Hall was large enough, we even had a dining space, so much so that there are plans for a larger event in September. Tea and Coffee on tap. Bacon in the morning. Fine quality stodge for lunch. A very big thank you to Andy and Victor for hosting it. 

 So how did my games go? Well my first game was against Paul Campbell, so I knew from that point it was going to be hard. Ranked top ten thunders and for good reason, it was a tough first game to play. Having said that Paul is a lovely guy and despite pasting me I still had a smile on my face... just about :p. The game was reckoning, I fielded Som'er against Yan Lo. I found the scheme pool a tough one. Plant explosives for me is now an auto take, but also in the pool were Assassinate and Murder Protege. I had never faced Yan Lo, but I had a vague idea and looking at his card I quickly decided that was a no-go. I had to hope I could drag down Izamu before he could get healed. The last scheme was breakthrough, but I couldn't afford to take bayou gremlins in reckoning and with corner deployment that was hard. Paul Campbell played well and took a solid list, I don't want to detract from that, but I just want to say that I feel I let myself down. I had the option of shooting Yin the Pangalan (sp?) or Izamu and I decided to shoot Yin because I was hoping that Francois could tackle the armour single handed. Big mistake. Ultimately I gambled for reckoning points with my murder protege and lost. I lost big. After Gracie and Fran bounced off the armoured behemoth I had lost the game, best chance I had was scraping some points. Delivering Trixxie with some scheme markers I thought would grab me some points for plant explosive, but she died and he simply walked over and removed the scheme markers. In hindsight I realized I should have gone reckless to drop extra markers, I am not sure if I would have got it still but I am kicking myself for not trying. So at the end I lost my first game 8-0.

Just before my fatal mistake...

   It was a big loss and one I felt brought me back to earth, which is admittedly what I needed. After winning Heartfaux, despite my protest, peoples compliments and congratulations had gone to my head. I was over confident and I paid for it. I just hope that Paul wasn't dissapointed I didn't put up more of a fight and enjoyed the game as much as I did.

Some of Paul's models

Falling down to the heady heights of bottom table for my second game, I faced against the loveable Vince 'rummed-up' Usher from my local gaming group. Vince, though new to gaming group, has taken to Malifaux, particularly the rotting variety, with a passion and fields a giggle that matches perfectly my image of his chosen Master, McMorning. The game was Turf War and I took Vendetta and Spring the Trap, while Vince took protect territory and line in the sand. It was looking bad for me when I delivered Francois into the face of Sebastian for my Vendetta, only to fail to kill him after 6ap. Francois was promptly devoured by the flesh construct for his efforts. Part of my success in this game was from knowing my opponent. Vince hates Gracie, with a Passion, and I could tell by his chosen upgrades that McMorning was after himself a side of pork. Meals on wheels thus made her way directly infront of the mad scientist and grabbed himself a slice of bacon. This gave me the confidence to use Trixxie to grab spring the trap, who is absolutely excellent at it with her ability to pile up scheme markers. It was still looking dire for me because Sebastian staying alive meant and some cover meant I was struggling to get some clean shots at the undead massive. A Jammy shot from one of the Bayou Gremlins, my favourite banjo bill in fact, killed Sebastian, a nurse and a guild guard (and himself of course) with a severe with dumb luck. After that the tables had turned and Vince found it very difficult to score anything with his schemes. Final score 9-6 to me.

James Doxey's crew looking as beautiful as ever.

 After lunch, some good banter we did the best painted competition. There were some excellent crews, I must say, I am continually impressed by the high quality of miniatures that Malifaux players bring to the table, but my best painted vote went to Chris Holloway and his beautiful Marcus crew. Second I gave to Scott Parkin, who despite being another local for me, I had never seen any of his nicely painted miniatures. Third I gave to the ever excellent, James Doxey.

Chris Holloway's crew, a well deserved best painted

 The third game rolled round and I found myself against Brian, though unfortunately I didn't catch his last name, fielding Kirai. Fortunately, I had some experience with Kirai because my fellow 'Tea-Maker and Wound-Taker' Anne-Marie uses her. The game was reconnoiter and I took Breakthrough and Make them Suffer. I was fairly confident with Make Them Suffer because I new he needed to summon Seishin in order to summon with Kirai so I just waited with Somer until the snake things showed their head. I was tempted by cursed object, but thought better of it because I didn't want my Gremlins engaged in combat, so took the lovely Trixxie with hidden breakthrough to deliver a nice pile of scheme markers. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Kirai combined with my opponents lack of familiarity with Gremlins took the day in this one. He didn't summon Ikiryo once in the entire game, I made sure of it. Gracie pinned down Izamu on the one flank which made sure I was able to Gremlin rush one of his own quarters and deny him recon. He had taken bodyguard on Izamu, who survived the entire game so the final score 6-1.

The gorgeous commission painted crew of Brian

  Earlier in the day I had chatted to Chris Holloway, who I have dubbed my Mali-nemesis, that my Heartfaux win meant that he had to win this event, so the scores were even. He had said that when I'd meet him later in the event when he fell down the table and I went up. This actually happened. My last game of the day was on the Dreamer board, against the Dreamer, against my Mali-nemesis. Despite the antagonistic name, I must say Chris makes an excellent opponent and is a lovely guy, I always enjoy my games with him and it was a great way to finish a really fantastic event for me. The game was Squatter's rights, but again the schemes were tough. We both announced Power Ritual, because it's such an easy scheme when announced, but the rest were hard. Outflank is a big gamble, I think. I don't like protect territory with Gremlins because they are too squishy and generally don't want to move forward too far. My only option was Assassinate and dropping Francois on the Dreamer. On my right flank a freikorps trapper repeatedly tried to kill my slop hauler, but I gamble he had spent all of his high cards to summon with the Dreamer and cheated big to keep him alive. This let me obliterate him with Som'er and take that flank, bagging me strat points and power ritual. On my left Fracois took a detour on his way to the Dreamer to jump the doppleganger, who I new would be a massive thorn in my side unless I dropped her while she wasn't manipulative. Next turn the widdow weaver tried to take him down, but careful positioning meant she could only use willpower based attacks which he is actually pretty robust against. My drop on the Dreamer, however, bounced. After charging and leaving myself on a mere 4 wounds there was not a scratch on the small boy. It did, however, cause him to pull copelius back to deal with the Gremlin Missile and the Pig tank, which due to timely red joker, he did in short order. This, however, meant his crew was far away from the squat markers and my side of the board. Keeping the mission in mind, Chris did manage to summon a teddy and stampede him into my now unprotected flank and grab his own power ritual and grab a single point from protect territory. Final score 6-4 to me.

The Dreamer is unleashed on his mind-melting playground

 So when things were counted up, first place went to Ant Holt, Second to Paul Campbell and Third to John Wharton. Best painted was claimed by Chris Holloway. Wooden spoon (war hammer) went to Liam Dodsworth. I managed to grab 7th place, which I am really chuffed about considering my dismal start. This puts me at 23rd on the Malifaux rankings and gives me 167 points with the Gremlins. Unfortunately, I can't be on the top 3 Gremlin list at the moment because I have only attended two events but considering number 3 has 138.5 I am secretly calling that a win. You can see more of the ranking details here, along with pics of the tables we played on. This might be tooting my own horn, but I am really chuffed with how the terrain turned out. Nate Zettle even gave me the base board for the swamp that he made to go with the terrain I made. Thank you so much.

 Finally, to finish off a fantastic day, we had a raffle. Part of the the raffle were 6 cakes, one for each faction, and a Gremlin cup cake. The last raffle ticket, leaving only the gremlin cup cake, had my name on it. I couldn't have been more happy with claiming that raffle prize.

A real cake for a real faction

 Sorry for the very long post but, as I said before, I am full of enthusiasm once more. Tomorrow I will resume posting, thought whether it will be daily really depends on what I have to say. Until then.