Toy Soldiers Report

This weekend I attended yet another Malifaux event, I know I'm an addict, which was part of the multi-system event Toy Soldiers. I attended the same event last year for fantasy and found it absolute chaos. It plays Fantasy, 40k, flames of war, bolt action and Warhammer Historical Battles. This event was far more subdued however. Many in the Malifaux community will know that the date clashed with MCC, but it must have been more than that because other systems were much quieter than before also. This, however, meant that it was a really relaxed environment. Games were 2.5 hours, which is the longest I think I have ever done tournament games, but it meant we had time to think. Everyone was really friendly, there were a few familiar faces and it is always great to catch up with people, but the people I didn't know were great.

Matt's Reckoning Crew

 My first game was the game I was least looking forward to. Reckoning. Anyone who regularly reads my blog will probably be fed up with me moaning about it so I will just get on with my report. I took Som'er, not Ulix and Matt, who was a local playing his first Malifaux tournament was using Nicodem. We both took frame for murder and I took breakthrough compared to his protect territory. To begin with things were quite cagey because we didn't want to kill people pre-reckoning points. Turn 2 saw me take down Toshiro in the first activation, but then Burt was taken down by a punk zombie. Fran was then later killed who was my framed for murder. The game the revolved around Sammy stopping people walking and charging and then trixxie Gremlin luring them and finally Som'er pumping mass damage. It was a really good game, but that combo worked insanely well. Final score 8-4 to me and very well played by Matt, it must be said.

My Reckoning Crew

 My second game was then against Aidan using Shen Long. I have not previously played Aidan, but I new he was a strong player and only vaguely knew what his crew did. It was the match up I was least looking forward to and the one I though I was most likely to lose. The match up was recconnoiter though and Aidan was saying that he would have been happy with any other strat! We both took deliver a message and I took plant evidence and Aidan Breakthrough. This was my first chance to play a crew I have been wanting to for a while. The Piggapult. It was fantastic. Firing Gremlins into my opponents quarter to deny points or score. They were also fired into engagement range with Shenlong in order to deliver a message in the next turn. It took some very high cards to keep the gremlins alive, but eventually they managed it. The Piggapult then picked off models by being a super sniper. Eventually Toshiro and Sensei Yu waded through to my side of the board and killed everything, also managing to catch Som'er for deliver a message, but by that time it was too late for Aidan to catch up. Game finished 7-4.

End game me and Aidan only had 3 or 4 models each!

 Final game of the day was against a regular of the Northern Tournament Scene, Paul. He's a really nice guy and it was quite adorable having his daughters offering somewhat flippant support. I think was the first time that Paul had played Gremlins. We both took protect territory and plant explosives. Paul took Lucius, a master who I always felt when I played neverborn was very good at this strategy, however Paul played very differently to me. I summoned masses of Gremlins so I out activated Paul and dragged loads of models to his side of the board, apart from a skeeter which held up his pathfinder. Paul was on the backfoot from there. He killed Gracie before she could get involved, but it took all of his resources. I thus scored plant explosives and stripped him of his lawyer and austringer with Som'er. In the next turn he failed to kill Som'er, just, who then took down one of his riflemen and wounded Lucius. At that point he called it. He was running out of models fast and was fighting an uphill struggle. Without any models near my side of the board he couldn't stake or protect territory and I would simply walk away from his scheme markers. Also his daughters were getting a tad impatient. We called the game 10-0

My Gremlin crew turn one are already closing in on the Guild's deployment zone. Paul gets sound tactical advice from his daughter.

 That night me and a North East lad, Dave Golden, went out and had a few drinks in Manchester. Nothing too wild but we did end up staying up until 2 in the morning just chatting! Needless to say we were both shattered for the next day.

Unfortunately Paul had to drop out of the running because of family health issues which meant the event trimmed down in size on the next day. Best wishes to him and all of his family.

Part way through turn 1 in my game against Dave.

 My next game was against the man Golden himself! Unfortunately the tension for this game was building all through the evening and playing on my mind so I got really stressed in this game. It was squatters rights. I took Assasinate and, foolishly, murder protege. Dave took murder protege and distract. Mass gremlins meant I once again dominated activation control and led to a first turn combo charge on Hoffman. I sent trixxie up who jynxed him so that he could not declare triggers, so he no longer had armour, and reckless to attack. Unfortunately a flurry of jokers meant the attack did nothing. Even claiming the initiative and doing the same in the following turn because of companion meant I couldn't cause a decent scratch on Hoffman. With my main strategy for dragging down Hoffman down the pan things following this were tight. The rest of the game was basically all fought out in a 6" box on the right flank as Hoffman desperately clung to life as I threw everything at him. Joss killed Gracie for Murder Prot. On the final turn Trixxie was able to get luck and get rams on her gun for a lady to kill the man and score me 2 for assassinate. On the left flank the 4 Bayou Gremlins and Slop Hauler successfully controlled the squat markers against a Soulstone Miner and Large Steam Punk Arachnid. David managed to get distract off on turn 4, but on the last turn I killed all my own models with a severe dumb luck to kill all models on my left flank! Final score 6-3 to me.

The tiny 6" box where the real meat of the game was fought. Francois fails to drag down the Hoff.

Although I was the only player on 4 wins at this point, everything was still to play for. Aidan had a better differential than me, so if he won and I lost he would win the event. However I had already played Aidan not too long ago. Unfortunately, due to numbers, someone would play against someone again. In the end we flipped to see who would do the re-fight and it turns out it was bottom table, so my final game was against 4th place Neil. The game was turf war and I was tempted to try out Ulix in this game. However the flipped schemes were deliver a message, which is far too easy on the bearded wonder so I kept with Som'er. I, rather foolishly as it was flank deployment, announced protect territory rather than Breakthrough. My opponent, however, rather interestingly declared Line in the sand. We both picked deliver a message and declared. The game started off pretty normally. Neil was not overly cautious however and Gracie promtly delivered Burt who then delivered the message. The rest of the game saw Trixxie, once again, demonstrate how amazing she is, Gremlin luring Howard and Joss away for most of the game. There was a bit of a dance on the far flanks with my Bayou Gremlins against his scheme runners (and Langston because he kept getting pushed that way) but he was able to overcome them to secure his full points for Line in the Sand. I was not able to rid the centre of enough spiders ever because Ramos was giving out positive to defence flips and without his heavy hitters he didn't stand a chance of removing me. Deliver a message proved to be the decisive element because he simply couldn't get to Som'er. Final score 10-7 to me and really well fought game.

End of the tournament and there were still loads of spiders!

So at the end of the event I was the only player on 5 wins and took the gold! Aidan lost to David in their final game, but both were on 3 wins at that point and Aidan had the better differential so he took second to David's third. It was a great event and I really enjoyed it. All my opponents were superb and I had 5 fantastic games. Winning the event also got me a free ticket to next years so I should definitely be going again! Thanks for everyone for taking part and I hope to see you all soon.