Hi folks,
Here’s the post for my second tournament of the other weekend, following Pigfaux: “The day of the wyrd” at the Outpost in Sheffield. As always, Dan (@Vorpalhit on twitter) ran a great tournament, which was well attended by a bunch of lovely folks. I took nearly the same crew as last time, except gave Kaeris Purifying Fire and Sieze the Day, rather than Grab and Drop and Imbued Protection, and I dropped the Malifaux Child and a Gunsmith for the Arcane Emissary (with the Kaeris upgrade). Let’s see how it went.
Round 1
Standard Deployment
Collect the Bounty
Convict Labour
Leave your Mark
Set Up
Take Prisoner
Mark for Death
Game 1 was against Peter Sidaway, someone I’ve met at virtually all of the tournaments I’ve been to this year, but never actually played. I was a little surprised to be playing Collect the Bounty against Outcasts, and not be facing the Viks, but Peter brought along Hamelin instead. For most of this game Johan, Willie, a gunsmith, and a Union Miner were trying to kill Ashes and Dust, and failing spectacularly, meanwhile Kaeris, the Arcane Emissary, and Firestarter were holding their own (just about) against the rest of Peter’s crew. Unfortunately I lost Firestarter to a sustained Rat King assault in a pivotal turn (possibly only a pivot between a big loss and a small loss), allowing Peter to score for the strategy and Convict Labour, and then it all slipped away rather quickly after that. I grabbed 3 points by Kaeris taking Hamelin prisoner in the dying activations of the game, and bagged 1 point for marking an abomination for death and then shooting it in the face, but Peter was too far ahead by then, and the game ended 8-4.
With most of her crew having snuffed it, Kaeris bundles Hamelin into a sack and decides it’s time for a tactical withdrawl.
Round 2
Corner Deployment
Interference
Convict Labour
Show of Force
Take Prisoner
Catch and Release
A Quick Murder
Game 2 was against my regular sparring partner, Adrian Mills, and his Tara crew. After Johan and his posse failed miserably against Ashes and Dust last game, I was sure they’d be looking to make up for it this game. However, as mentioned last time, what comes around goes around, and my deck here didn’t want me to do anything… at all. Adrian buried Dead Rider, and chucked Tara into the middle of the field to unbury him. I then chucked the Arcane Emissary, Kaeris, and Johan (and to an extent, Firestarter) into her to kill her off. She survived a long while, long enough to unbury Dead Rider, who proceeded to survive the full AP from all 4 models for 3 turns (whilst also killing Kaeris), and surviving a shot from a gunsmith on double positives to hit when he only had 1 wound left, and then escaped (being buried by the Carrion Emissary) and stopped me getting a Quick Murder. This also kept most of my crew stuck engaged and not scoring the strategy for most of the time, and in the end, Adrian won 9-2, with me only managing to partially take the Emissary prisoner. I’m not convinced that my approach was wrong here, it was just that killing Tara and the Rider early proved too much for the crew. Clearly Johan was tired from massacring things the day before. I entirely forgot to take a photo of this game, just imagine a big ball of my killy stuff with marshmallows for fists, and you’ll get the idea.
Round 3
Flank Deployment
Headhunter
Convict Labour
Take Prisoner
Leave your Mark
Catch and Release
Public Demonstration
The final game was against Bennett Morley, and his Nicodem crew. Oddly enough, despite Nicodem being from book 1, this was my first game against him, and what a game. It was one of those truly hilarious games with lots of ridiculousness (a shikome and a Union Miner bashing the lights out of each other while a Gunsmith blindly fired into the melee), and general fun had all the way through. I think I killed Bete Noir about 6 times through the game. Kaeris, Johan, and the Emissary just acted as a blender for all of the summoned critters, gaining me 3 heads, while Firestarter singlehandedly got me Leave Your Mark and 2 points for Take Prisoner. Turns out Firestarter is really rather good. Unfortunately Bennett only got to leave your mark in turn 5, and only got 2 for Catch and Release as he brutalised Johan in the final turn, removing one of his tagged models. In the end I squeaked a win by 1 point. I think this was the most fun I’ve had in a game for a good long time… and I’ve been having a hell of a lot of fun recently!
Kaeris grabs a head from under the nose of the rogue necromancy (and accidentally gets in the way to stop it doing leave your mark) while Johan, the Emissary, and Willie wait for the next wave of zombies (and the inevitable Bete Noir) to come from Nicodem. Meanwhile Firestarter casually drops scheme markers in the top centre before grabbing Philip and legging it
Expect another post looking at my fixed crew composition and tweaks I’ve made in light of these 6 games, in the near future.
Until next time
Dave/sssk
Play It Like Beatdown 
Great battle reporting as usual, thanks for taking the time to do it.
In game one, it’s not that common to see the Viks for Collect The Bounty as they give up seven bounty points really easily. From the Outcast point of view, you basically have to win the game on the first assault or start bleeding strategy points each turn.
You’re too kind. I just write stuff down in the hope of learning from it.
You raise an interesting point, I hadn’t considered that. The loss of Firestarter in turn 3 was quite a swing, so I can see where the masters/henches can be quite a liability. Definitely a strategy for strong Minions (he says in a small break from painting BANASUVA).