Things Get Played - Victory in Malifaux!

I want to take a few moments to talk about something that rarely happens to me, but happened all the same last Wednesday...

I won a game of Malifaux!

Seriously, I don't think that has happened all year. I forgot what it was like...

Well, technically it was a win by my opponent conceding, but he was basing that choice in maths, which I seem to be ok with.

(I mention this rarely happens, right?)

We elected to try the Evade the Patrol story encounter from Wyrd Chronicles. I ended up as the defender, having to keep my crew out of site of his Master and Henchmen. He was the attacker, having to stay away from the Guild patrol. As luck would have it, he had two unused Guild Guard, painted (as is the rest of the crew) by AdPaint. 

I was a bit annoyed that I was fielding bare plastic, so this will be motivation to get back and finish the crew. Anyway, I was using Lynch as a Ten Thunders master with Hungering Darkness, two Illuminated, two Low River Monks, Mr. Tannen, and two Ten Thunders Archers. I had frame for murder and assassinate as my schemes. He had a Lucas McCabe crew that he was testing with Lucius style models, so Dashiel, a Pathfinder, an Austringer, and three Riflemen, as well as Luna. He also had Frame for Murder, and Breakthrough.

The patrol was place around the centre of the board, in two of the main channels that would come straight across the board. This meant to avoid the patrol early on, he had to split his force, deploying heavily on my right, with the Austringer on the far left. This, I realised later, forced him into a tough decision for his crew, and one that would let me rush in quick. He used his traps to block another line of movement for me elsewhere on the board, but that appeared to slow him down later as well.

The models, for the most part, tended to work as several units. Tannen had the Blot the Sky upgrade, so stayed with the archers for most of the game. Even when one died, keeping him ear the other was useful to pump out some damage at the end of each turn, even if they did start in a bad position. It did mean though that while I lost one early on, the other was shielded by the Riflemen long enough for an Illuminated to engage Dashiel, and he eventually finished him off with his (2) action from the upgrade just before turn 4. The Illuminated rushed the centre of the board, and with one of them closer to the riflemen, he proved a tempting target, even in hard cover, so some shots and good cards were wasted on him, only for the Frame for Murder scheme to be revealed. It wasn't someone big he toppled him, but I was glad to get that as the first vp of the game.

The monks tended to hang around Lynch a bit, acting as tar pits for Hungering Darkness and Lynch to get in close to cause damage. That worked better than I thought it would, and because of this Lynch and the darkness were able to slam McCabe when he ran across the table, and destroy him as he ran away after being unhorsed. That netted me Assassinate just before turn 4, and with the henchman gone as well, it also meant I would avoid being seen for the game from that point, netting me points each turn. 

Part of the issue we realised as well was that I was able to walk a patrol right into the middle of his block of troops early on. With so much stuff close and visible, he was going to avoid scoring strategy points each turn. What was interesting was the realisation that the immobile traps from the pathfinder could score points, meaning several riflemen shot their own troops rather than me for a turn, which gave me another advantage. My opponent called the game when he did the maths and realised that I was up on points,would continue earning each turn, and he was not going to be able to close the gap. Having said that, it was a great game, and I enjoyed being able to run a story encounter, I gave it a pretty fun narrative, as the guards wandered into suspicious shootouts. 

Post game thoughts? I'm still getting to grips with Lynch, but I enjoy his theme. I really like him as ten thunders though, and have yet to field him as neverborn. A lot of people seem intimidated by the darkness, but Lynch is capable of vast amounts of damage with his hand based damage, high WP duel to make them a bigger target, and things like 52 pickup. He has to be dealt with long range, as within 6 inches or so he is quite dangerous. 

The monks I enjoy, but I need a better way to use them, and I'm finally getting my head round the illuminated's uses. The archers are brilliant, especially with the blot the sky upgrade, and keeping someone like Tannen with them seems to work, so I will try that in the future. 

Anyway, that was a quick report though. Figured it would be fun to put it up.