This was my first ever game of Malifaux, which I played against my friend Brennan's Neverborn. It was a lot of fun, and while there were some mistakes made, and it took us a little bit to get a grasp on how the game plays, I think it went fairly well.
The Crews
I was playing my Guild, led by Lady Justice and the Judge against Brennan's Pandora led crew. We decided to play a 45 point game, as we both wanted to use lots of our models that we'd been painting for the last month or so. The Strategy was an Escort Mission with Brennan's Crew being the attacker and me defending. I took the Distract (unrevealed) and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against Teddy) schemes, while he took the Assassinate and Murder Protege (Revealed to be against the Judge) schemes.
The Guild
- Lady Justice with the Thalarian Stone upgrade - 1 SS
- The Judge with the Vengeance Bullet upgrade - 10 SS
- 3 Death Marshals - 18 SS
- Guild Austringer - 6 SS
- 2 Guild Riflemen (Using the old cards. We didn't yet realize that there were playtest rules) - 8 SS
Total: 43 SS
I built a pretty shooty crew hoping to be able to put some damage on his Teddy before he could really get in and do much damage. I also had the benefit of being able to target him quite a while before he would get close enough to be hitting me with all his damaging pulse effects. I also had a couple points left over, which coupled with Justice's cache of 4 gave me 6 stones to keep her out of trouble with.
The Neverborn
- Pandora with the Cry for Me upgrade - 2 SS
- Candy with the Fear Given Form upgrade - 10 SS
- Teddy - 11SS
- Baby Kade - 7 SS
- 3 Sorrows - 15 SS
Total: 45 SS
I didn't know much about Pandora or her minions, but from what I gathered from Brennan I was going to be making a lot of Wp Duals. Good thing most of my guys have at least 6 Wp. The main thing I was worried about was the Teddy. Given the chance, I could see it ripping through my crew.
The Game
We deployed using the table corner deployment style. Unfourtunately I didn't really get a clear picture of the table, but from later pictures you can pretty much devine the set up. There was a large steampunk neighbourhood terrain piece a bit to the top (from my perspective) and center-left of the board, a forest to the right of it, some rocks farther up from the forest and a tower-type building in the bottom right. I deployed in the bottom right while he went to the top left.
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| My deployment, with the Austringer hidden behind the building |
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| Brennan's deployment minus Baby Kade, who is with the Escort behind the town |
We flipped for initiative and I lost, so he began by double moving Teddy directly towards my Crew. I responded by double moving my Austringer up into the tower of the building in order to get a good vantage point. He activated Pandora next and double moved her up behind Teddy, and I followed by double moving a Death Marshal up along the right hand side of the forest. He next activated Baby Kade and used him to Move the Escort into the town before moving Kade up behind him, and I countered by moving my next Marshal behind the first one, hoping to split his force between my marshals and the Escort.
He next double moved Candy behind the teddy, and as you may have guessed I moved my last Marshal up behind the other two. His first Sorrow moved toward his group sitting in the middle of the board, and I started to move my riflemen in front of the Austringer's building. His next Sorrow and my second Riflemen did likewise, and his last Sorrow went towards the Escort. I double moved Lady Justice up to the forest, but not into it, waiting to support the Marshals, as it appeared that Teddy would be coming for them first. Judge moved to the Far left past where the Riflemen were standing, hoping to intercept the Escort. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture at the end of the first turn, as I'm still not totally used to doing them.
Turn 2
We reshuffled, discarded and drew for initiative and once again he went first. This time he decided to activate Pandora first, and she again moved up. She cast Incite on Lady Justice, but I managed to resist it, and Self harm on one of my Death Marshals, which went through, causing him to shoot himself for 3 wounds. Checking my range, and figuring that Teddy would not be able to reach me this turn through the forest (which we had decided was severe and soft cover), and so I decided to shoot at him twice. My wounded Death Marshal took careful aim and fired his Peacebringer through the foliage, connecting solidly the first time, and getting a minor hit the second, causing a total of 5 wounds!
Candy moved up behind Teddy and used her Goody basket to heal the beast for 2, before attempting to cast Wail on one of my Death Marshals, but his Iron willpower prevented it. I activated my next Marshal and he fired on Teddy as well. This time cover saved the monster somewhat, and he only took another minor wound, to put it back to where it was before its little snack. His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. His Teddy still standing, and with apparently no way to get into combat this turn, my Austringer attempted to send his Raptor after the creature. Unfortunately, after seeing the terrifying beast, the bird refused to go, leaving the Austringer to look on in frustration.
His first sorrow attempted to use Misery loves company, and on his second attempt managed to teleport himself into contact with Candy. My Last Marshal took his two shots at the Teddy, but once again I only managed to do 2 wounds to it.
It was here that my opponent realized, much to my dismay that Baby Kade had some very helpful abilities. The young child, longing for his old pal warped himself to the teddy's side and pushed the bear towards my Death Marshals. In desperation, the last Marshal fired two shots at the towering creature barreling through the woods, but only managed to do a couple more wounds to it. Going with his momentum, Teddy Dove towards the Wounded Death Marshal and though the zombie hunter managed to dodge the creature's first claw, the second caught his jacket and with a motion the Teddy scooped up the helpless Marshal and tossed him into hist mouth, healing 3 more damage. His Rage not sated, the Teddy swung it's massive paw at one of the other Death Marshals, and though he didn't get a solid hit, the Marshal still took 3 wounds.
Well that went pretty badly. Luckily, in his eagerness to reach the Death Marshals, Brennan had moved his Teddy a little to close to Lady Justice. Enraged by the sight of one of her elite soldiers being devoured like a piece of jerked meat, the lady strode purposefully into the forest towards the nightmarish Teddy Bear. Swinging her Greatsword in a glittering arc, she slashed into the creature's gut, fluff and gore from the thoroughly chewed Death Marshal spilling into the air, her attack dealing a punishing 6 wounds! Her next swing easily decapitated the beast, spraying gory stuffing into the air before it toppled to the ground.
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| The Fall of Teddy |
Realizing that with Kade away from the Escort, he had no one to move it forward, Brennan attempted to teleport one of his sorrows into contact with the Escort and failed twice! Truly the fates had turned against the Neverborn. My first Rifleman moved up fired a shot at the Sorrow next to Candy, and did 1 wound to the spectre and even managed to ricochet the shot into Candy for a wound. Activating his last Sorrow, he again attempted to cast Misery Loves Company and this time succeeded on his second attempt.
With his crew spent for the turn, I attempted to fire my remaining rifleman into Pandora, but he was unable to hit the enemy master. Fearing retribution for the death of Teddy, I decided to move Judge back, to avoid the wrath of Brennan's crew.
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| End of Turn Two |
Once again we flip for initiative and Brennan wins. He begins by activating Pandora, who moves into the forest to attempt to cast some spells on Lady Justice. Incite goes off, but her other spells all fail. I activate Lady Justice and mover her towards Pandora. Lady Justice's Greatsword makes short work of the Neverborn master, and Pandora drops.
Desperate to kill Lady Justice and end her rampage, Candy moves forwards and tries to cast some spells at Justice, but again, fails to do any damage. I decide to activate my Austringer, and he sends his Raptor to pester Candy, but unfortunately he fails to do any damage. Brennan next activates one of his sorrows who moves over to attack Lady Justice. The fates were not with him though, and he misses, with Lady Justice getting her Riposte trigger, dropping him down to 3 wounds. I decide that now is a good time to activate the nearest Death Marshal who charges the Sorrow and manages to finish it off.
Brennan next activates his Sorrow over by the buildings and this time succeeds on moving it over to the Escort, and uses its other action to push it forward over the center line. My last Death Marshal shoots at the other Sorrow, but shooting through the forest yields no results. Baby Kade moves himself forwards in an effort to get close enough to fight Lady Justice but doesn't quite make it. The Judge moves forwards towards the Escort, and tries to wound it, but misses. Brennan's last Sorrow activates and moves towards my wounded Death Marshal and attacks, dealing a wound. With him out of Range, both my Riflemen attempt to shoot at the Escort and one manages to wound it a bit.
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| End of Turn 3 - LJ Brings the Pain |
Turn 4
We flip for initiative and this time I win! I start by activating my wounded Death Marshal who takes a wound from the sorrow. Luckily, he manages to kill the phantasm with his attacks. Brennan responds by charging Baby Kade at LJ, and he manages to do some damage. I decide to burn a few Soulstones, and so I only take 5 wounds total. I activate Lady Justice, who apparently has no problem with striking down an infant with her greatsword. She attacks and kills Baby Kade. Candy activates and attempts to cast some spells at Lady Justice, and she takes a couple more wounds.
I decide to fire my Rifleman into the escort and manage to do a few more wounds to it. Brennan activates his last sorrow who moves forwards and pushes the escort forwards. As the Sorrow was his last remaining model, I activate my remaining Rifleman who does a bit more damage to the Escort followed by the Judge, who kills it.
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| Killing the Escort |
At this point we decided to call the game, as the Escort was dead, and he had no real way of dealing with Lady Justice and Judge with his two remaining models. With the Escort dead, and Brennan failing to assassinate Lady Justice and murder Judge, the only points scored were from me killing Teddy.
Total Tally
Guild - 3
Neverborn - 0
Post-Game Thoughts
Well that was a really fun game, and a great first experience. A note, we realized in around turn three that we had been doing Self-Harm and Self Loathing wrong. This could have changed the game, as my crew may have taken significantly more damage.
I feel that my deployment worked out fairly well, though in retrospect I think I maybe should have moved the judge more aggressively towards the Escort, and maybe given up some shooting with the Riflemen, and instead moved them with Judge. This would have allowed me to possibly gain control of the main scheme, and maybe force him to divide his force, which benefits greatly by staying together.
I also think that Brennan should have clustered up around the Escort, so that I would have to deal with all of his guys at once, and I wouldn't have been able to stall him behind the forest so much.
Another note. Brennan's fate flips really were not in his favour. Almost every Sorrow that attempted to use Misery Loves Company had to either cheat, try again, or both, and most of his spells didn't go off, or I managed to resist them. This was partly a bad match-up, as most of my crew has decent Wp, but his fate really wasn't helping him out.
Overall I'm really enjoying the system so far, particularly activating a model at a time, and having a control hand to help you control when you get bad flips somewhat. I can see mastering when to cheat or use soulstones as being a very important element to your success in this game.
That about wraps it up. Hopefully for the next report I will remember to take more pictures, and I'll learn to right better notes so that it doesn't take me so long to write the report! Any comments are much appreciated, and bringing to my attention any rules mistakes beyond what I mentioned would be extremely helpful! Thanks for reading!
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