Last round in the chamber

It was my Birthday the other day so, because I was sent some money, I thought I'd see if I could get myself to some extra Malifaux events. Luckily there was still some spaces left at 'Last round in the chamber' and local titan Greg Piscosz was already driving up. Plenty of banter on the way up, the last hoorah for 'Worlds at War' and playing some cool games against the Scottish 'Faux contingent? How could I say no?

 The Tournament pack was pretty standard. I won't lie that there was a sigh of relief when I saw Reckoning wasn't in the pool. 3 games, 50ss. turf war, standard. recon, corner. squatters flank.

 Going in I saw this wasn't a big event and, having recently acquired myself some new goodies, I decided there were a few things I wanted to try out.

 There were 12 people who came overall, which meant the pool was surprisingly strong. Paul Campbell, Greg Piscosz and Maria were all in attendance which meant 1/4 of the people I knew could probably smash me off the table!

 My first line up, however, was against Al. I'd fought against him in the last event, when I was using Ulix, and it was the only game I had won! The scheme pool lined up and it was:

Frame for Murder, Make them Suffer, Distract? Protect Territory?

 You can probably tell from the question marks which ones me and my opponent took. For me this felt like the hand from heaven because it meant I could try my guns blazing Mancha Rocha list out. It only had two minions or peons, one of which was a skeeter so could hide away. I figured I could just go hell for leather and give up the three points for frame for murder to kill everything!

My list was:

Somer Teeth Jones -- 6 Pool
 +Liquid Bravery [1]

Skeeter [2]
Burt Jebsen [7]
 +Dirty Cheater [1]
Gracie [10]
 +Saddle [1]
Mancha Roja [10]
 +Dirty Cheater [1]
 +Extra Gremlin [2]
Lucky Effigy [4]
Trixiebelle [8]
gun for a lady [1]

my opponents list was approximately

Rasputina -- 3 Pool
 +Arcane Reservoir [2]
 +Shattered Heart [3]

Wendigo [3]
December Acolyte [7]
December Acolyte [7]
Ice Golem [10]
Johan [7]
Rail Golem [11]

My crew advances

 Basically the game went as planned. Burt was blasted away at by the december acolyte, which on negative flips did severe, gave him slow and put him on his hard to kill. Unable to reckless to charge, he simply engaged the closest of the acolytes. Rasputina randomised into combat and blatted him off the map, scoring me 3 for frame for murder.  Mancha Rocha was positioned by Gracie to get the most of his 12" charge which he promptly did against the Ice Golem. I had a high tome and red joker in hand to try and get off the insta-gib triggers, luckily I didn't cheat in the red joker for the second because I'd forgotten the Ice Golem is immune to paralyse! It didn't matter though, with his low defence and Mancha's crazy damage spread he was pasted off the map. 

Project Golem was underway!

 Next turn I got initiative and charged the Wendigo with Mancha, also engaging Rasputina. Swiftly ending the Wendigo, he threw a shot at Rasputina which missed and threw up his challenge aura, to try and stop my opponent charging into the turf zone. Everything, however, turned on Mancha. It took the rail golem and rasputina to put the man down (I failed a disengaging strike and decided it wasn't worth the red joker to stop, particularly as he had to randomise). Elsewhere Gracie ate one of the december acolytes and Trixxie blatted the other, cheating the red joker to kill it in one hit and giving up 3 for Frame. Som'er took a chunk of wounds off Johan, but because of my lack of cards because of the acolytes couldn't 'do it like dis' to get rams and thus do decent damage. 

 In the subsequent turn, Johan, Rail Golem and Rasputina dragged down Gracie, but my black joker damage flip denied me slapping Johan to death with Trixxie. Giving up a point for Turf War. 

Cheating for initiative, Trixxie did manage to kill Johan and Gremlin lure the Golem away, which promptly locomoted in to try and cause some pain... but couldn't cheat to get the trigger! Som'er positioned to distract Rasputina and maybe just deal with her.

Last turn I got initiative and with no stones left on either side, used a strong hand and double focus to remove Rasputina. The golem black jokered the locomote leaving Trixxie still alive and meaning I still kept my final turf war point!

So end of the game the score was 10-4 to me. It was a really bloody game, but a good laugh. Luck wasn't always on my side but it didn't always go against me either. I felt there were some options my opponent hadn't explored and that he got easily distracted by Mancha down his throat meaning I could control the centre. admitedly I'd have been concerned with unengaging Raspy though! We chatted about various other upgrade options (the push one to disengage) and I hope he came away with some more plans for the future and a smile on his face, I know I did.

After a bit to eat, round two saw me on the top table against Paul Campbell. This was, once again, a draw from heaven. In order to do well in Scotland you have to beat Paul, who is a very strong player, better than me easily. The pool and strategy were all in my favour, however.

 Deliver a Message, Distract, Assassinate, Murder Protege

 this was mint because I wanted to try out Rami mixed with my recon list, so I took:

Somer Teeth Jones -- 6 Pool

 +Dirty Cheater [1]

 +Family Tree [2]

 +Liquid Bravery [1]

Skeeter [2]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Lenny [9]

 +I'll Love it and Pet it... [1]

Pigapult [8]

Rami LaCroix [7]

 +Dirty Cheater [1]

Slop Hauler [5]

Stuffed Piglet [2]

Paul took:

Jakob Lynch -- 3 Pool

 +Endless Hunger [2]

Hungering Darkness [0]

Rail Worker [5]

Rail Worker [5]

Beckoner [7]

The Illuminated [7]

The Illuminated [7]

Thunder Archer [7]

Yin the Penangalan [8]

This unfortunately played into my hand again. His list was hard, I wasn't going to be able to grind any of the minions down and they would wade through Gremlins with ease... but it was quite slow, which meant I could sit around in my corner simply placing Gremlins where I need them.

Paul's crew is easier to see before it deployed

I announced Deliver a Message and Murder Protege, Paul announced Line in the Sand. So in the first turn Paul moved forward, blocking line of sight to Yin with a Beckoner and some terrain. I tried to throw Rami with Lenny so he could get a decent shot, but to no avail, so he just took out the Beckoner. The Piggapult put 3 Bayou Gremlins in contact with Lynch. 

The Gremlin air postal service was a bit keen today

 I won initiative so delivered the message, the mess of Lynch, Illuminated and Yin killed one gremlin and distracted the other two, this however gave me a shot with Rami at Yin. I did not, however, have the ram in hand, so it was down to luck. Fortunately it's better to be lucky than good as I flipped the red joker to hit and this allowed me to cheat a severe for damage and take us both out, this gave me 6  points on the board before turn 2 was over. On the other side of the forested centre of not scoring, Paul laid down markers for line in the sand. A skeeter flew over and engaged the archer. I put models to block Paul scoring and make me score.

 Unfortunately for Paul, the game continued pretty much in the same vain. Eventually Huggy got into the mix with the Gremlins and started killing them all. Amazing a bayou Gremlin red jokered a melee attack and killed a rail worker and the piggapult continued to swamp the board with models. Unfortunately he had sort of backed himself into a corner and had made it so that if he didn't kill the Gremlins, he would be losing, but needed distract. Unfortunately, it meant he did neither and when he disengaged from the Gremlins who had delivered the message they removed distract from themselves.

He just wants a hug...

We had to call it at the end of turn 4 with a score of 9-4 to me. 

The final game was Squatters rights and I was paired up against Dave Hamilton? (I'm really sorry if I have got the wrong, spelling or the whole name!) Which I was a bit surprised at because I thought I'd need to face Marie. I groaned when I discovered, however, I was up against Collette. The last few tournaments I have been to have had me face Collette in the last game and I have not done so well, so I was a bit concerned. Also, Dave had just beaten Marie so must be a force to be reckoned with!

The scheme pool was: 

Spring the trap, plant evidence, protect territory, bodyguard

My list was my standard list for squatters, because this plays to it well:

Somer Teeth Jones -- 6 Pool (I had my maths wrong on this, btw, because I thought I had a pool of 7, so sorry for everyone involved)

 +Family Tree [2]

 +Liquid Bravery [1]

Skeeter X 2 [4]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Bayou Gremlin [3]

Burt Jebsen [7]

 +Dirty Cheater [1]

Gracie [10]

 +Saddle [1]

Slop Hauler [5]

Trixiebelle [8]

Dave took:

Colette Du Bois -- 7 Pool?

 +Practiced Production [1]

+A few more upgrades which I have forgotten :p

Angelica [6]

Cassandra [8]

 +Smoke and Mirrors [1]

Malifaux Raptor [3]

Mannequin [4]

Mannequin [4]

Moleman [4]

Moleman [4]

Performer [5]

Performer [5]

I was pretty surprised at this list, I wasn't expecting to so many mannequins. I think they're cool, but they are insignificant so couldn't mess with the markers, I'd expect one at most. 

as you'd expect when running low on time in the last game, I didn't get many pictures in sorry!

Dave began the game by setting up approximately one million scheme markers to prepare for the molemen to move onto markers and claim. In order to stop this I put skeeters on the markers. Cassandra nimbled about and claimed some markers. I killed time by summoning Gremlins and having them advance up the board. Collette prompted one of the molemen to claim a marker that a performer had opponed up with Siren Call, and Cassy to jump to another marker. Gracie reactivated to get within 4" of collette to place a marker for spring the trap and deliver Trixxie who went reckless and used her 0 to drop 2, scoring me 3 points. Burt had been lifted part way so that he could grab a squat marker. 

 I claimed the initiative and Gracie promptly devoured a performers. The second then paralysed Gracie. I moved early to claim a marker with a Bayou Gremlin, only to lose it from a teleporting moleman and our 1" melee ranges. A large portion of his crew, however, then redirected themselves to try and get rid of Gracie, which then left me free to claim the markers. It did force me to lure Som'er up with trixxie and use all of his ap to claim a marker. Burt at the end, because it turned out I hadn't needed the twelve of rams in my hand, moved focussed and hit Cassandra for 6 damage because all of the rams were in play, reduced to 4. 

Honestly the game had continued thus. Angelica had activated to push the performer out of engagment with Gracie, so Som'er shot it to high heaven and back. At this point I had a Gremlin on every marker and we were running out of time. Cassy killed Burt and the bird engaged Trixxie, forcing me disengage to escape the inevitable spring the trap by gremlin luring Som'er, however I failed both my disengaging attempts because of a red joker flip. 

So at the final tally I had won 8-6 leaving me the only player at the event on 3 wins! This earned me a rather shiny trophy, which was too big too fit on the shelf so I have had to move them.

I must say I had an absolutely cracking day. The Scottish lads are all really nice (I'm sorry for every time I have asked you to repeat yourself) and are all really friendly. I really hope everyone had as an enjoyable day as I did, it was boss! I even managed to pick up some Malifaux loot from their closing stock, though it was all for Jen and not me!