Heartfaux Report

Saturday May 10th I visited York for the second time ever. York Garrison was running a Malifaux tournament for charity, for British Heart Foundation, aptly named Heartfaux. It was a fantastic day. Big thanks to Sam and Chris who ran the event, it was great. The round times were absolutely fine, food was great, the venue was spacious even with 24 players, there was lots of terrain and I couldn't say a bad word about the whole day. Seriously congrats to the guys, showing everyone how tournaments should be run. Let's see if  we can get #goodbadfated at Worhamma to be as good! It's a challenge, but I'm sure we can do it.

The first board I played on

 The first two games were henchmen led and the second two Master led, so that there was enough time to get 4 games in. Thus my First game was Francois vs Sebastion 30ss Recconnoiter against a really nice guy called Steven Revis. It was flank deployment but unfortunately my opponent picked a corner with loads of forests and got himself bottle-necked. He then lured gracie into the mix and couldn't get to a position to kill her, despite repeatedly paralysing the big pig (she just kept flipping too high/ proving too big a mouthful for the flesh construct). This got him further stuck. Meanwhile my Bayou Gremlins lapped around the flanks and picked strategy points and deployed breakthrough markers (in a different quarter to his deployment zone!). I scored 2 for turf war, 3 for breakthrough and 3 for plant explosives. My opponent scored 1 for turf war, 3 for plant explosives and 0 for breakthrough. Final score of 8-4 to me.

my crew for the first game

 Game 2 saw me on table 3. I was not looking forward to this mission. Due to not having many models I had to take Bayou Gremlins in Reckoning. It was 35 stones and I took Francois again against Jimmy Balderstone with Sidr Archibal. He also took Lone Marshal and the Pale Rider. I took murder protege, but didn't announce it because I couldn't afford for Jimmy to be cautious with the pale rider. I reactivated Gracie to deliver Francois into charge range first turn. Next turn I won the initiative and triggered dumb luck and flipped the red joker. Both Francois and the Pale Rider died. Gracie and Burt took loads of damage but not enough to die that turn, so Jimmy pulled back. Gracie reactivated again to try and bring down the austringer, which I fluked out and did grabbing me the only reckoning point of the game. Next turn Gracie killed the guild guard and reactivated, and at that point Jimmy was forced to back off and try and score his bodyguard and protect territory. It forced me to abandon reckoning and go hell for leather for the lone marshall. Fortunately Gracie with Burt Jebson were really quick and really lucky. Burt Jebson, in two attacks which both were on double negative, flipped two moderates. I got 1 for reckoning, 2 for murder protege and 3 for bodyguard. Jimmy got 1 for bodyguard, because he gambled on getting another turn with Sidr and moved to put his second scheme marker down. Final score 6-1 to me.

My favourite crew of the day, I'm not afraid to admit I voted for them for best painted

 I now sat on top table, I was thoroughly shocked that I had done so well, and faced another member of the North East team that went: Darren. We moved up to Master level games this round and saw Somer face Tara in Stake a Claim. We both announced Deliver a message, which we both scored turn one. I delivered Burt with Gracie and Darren buried a necropunk to make it fast and threw it at Somer. Tara buried Gracie and Burt was killed, Somer got stuck in a fight with a rogue necromancy. It was looking bad. Fortunately Fancois was able to stab through a Necropunk and Drowned. Tara unburied Gracie and charge Somer with her, only for him loudest Squeel and shoot seven bells out of Tara. Rogue Necromancy killed Gracie. The flank was now clear for Francois and a Bayou Gremlin, I was able to gain advantage in Stake a Claim. Managed to take down Tara with a charging slop hauler to get Assassinate, but only in turn 4. I couldn't kill the Rogue Necromancy so he could guarantee himself protect territory. Final score: I got 3 stake a claim, 2 Assassinate, 3 deliver a message. Darren got: 1 Stake a Claim, 3 Deliver a Message and 3 Protect Territory. Final Score 8-7 to me.

Some of Darren's models, obviously not the crew he used against me

 So, at the finally, I sat on 3 wins and still on the top table. I couldn't believe it. Final Game was against Graham Bursnell who was using Marcus whilst I continued on with Somer. It was Turf War. We both announced Power Ritual. First turn Somer summoned a whole bunch of Bayou Gremlins and the Marcus crew advanced. Graham was completely thrown by the fact Gracie wasn't a beast and alpha'd Joss into Burt to try and take her down, damaging both models. To a large extent it came down to the next initiative step, which I won, despite Soulstones. This led to Francois taking down Joss. It became a very messy mix in the middle with Marcus, a rattler, Myranda and a Sabertooth homing in. One by one Gracie went down, Francois and Burt, but before they went they manage to take down Marcus, scoring me assassinate. My remaining Gremlins were able to overpower what was left, by that I really mean Somer squealed away and shot to pieces the things that mattered. A very brave move by Graham threw his rattler into a corner to try and get power ritual if there was a 6th turn, at the sacrifice of turf war points, paid off. I got 3 for Assassinate, 3 for Power Ritual and 4 for Turf War. Graham got 3 for Turf War and 3 for power ritual. I won 10-6.

My camera ran out of battery during the day, but James Doxey won second place in best painted with these models

So in the finale I was left the only player on 4 wins and the overall winner of the day. I got a cool looking trophy to boot! In addition, because of the kind sponsorship of many everyone walked home with a prize from the raffle and I picked up Wong for my new green brothers! You can find more information about the results here.

 So in conclusion, an absolutely fantastic day. I can thank everyone enough, players organizers and sponsor for making the day truly terrific. I just hope everyone else had as much fun as I did.