James Wilson Codes

This was an interesting game for a number of reasons. Firstly, a new opponent - and new to Powder Monkey as well, which is always exciting. Then, a new master to play into - I've not encountered Tull before. Finally - I decided to play Kastore, Awakened instead of Kastore, Fervent! From what I've seen on the internet, and chatting to players IRL, Kastore 2 seems to be much more popular than Kastore 1.

However, some a really useful Reddit comment from /u/headbangerxfacerip on my last game highlighted some times when it might be useful to take the non-title version. As this was Raid The Vaults, and a scheme heavy pool, it was a contender. Also, it looked like a lot of Rhys's crew would have some armor, pairing well with ping damage from Insatiable - and being Guild, they were likely to have Lead Lined Coat, which would make Visceral Rampage hard to pull off.

My aims going in were:

• Try out Kastore 1
• Do some ping damage from Marathine
• Don't overextend Kastore and get him killed
• Play more than two turns

I picked Power Ritual and Protected Territory. I was unsure whether I'd manage to get Power Ritual off.

This game started off with my traditional 'ugh, why did I deploy like that!?' - I feel like I need to have a bit more focus on how to get the most moves out of Faith In The Flesh, particularly when I'm taking an Urnbearer and can leverage Fill The Urns and Pools of Blood to get some extra moves and give her enough Shielded to Empty The Urns onto someone important.

A lot of Rhys's play was getting his models out to the flanks - the two Rockeers and Luisa - who used Soulstone Flare to make me burn some cards, and give Barbaros Distracted.
I was expecting the Assault markers - I'd done a little bit of research on Tull, but they are scary. With the layout of the table, Rhys cleverly positioned them where I kind of needed to go in the centre.

I'd forgotten how much less mobile Kastore 1 is than Kastore 2. My plan was to get the Marathine into the thick of it, do some overhealing of Kastore to pulse out some damage using Insatiable and then do some Dominate/ Devour shennanigans. I'm used to being able to AlphaStrike someone with Kastore 2, and it was harder to pull this off. I moved the Marathine up as far as I could early on, and it did pay off a little, as Rhys moved the Kings Wall next to it, so I could pulse out a little damage.

When Tull activated he started blasting with his The MFGL, and there is no reason other than luck that my Urnbearer survived as he missed her twice.
Kastore's activation started off exciting - managed to get into position and Dominate John Watson to charge one of the Walking Cannon and Black Jokered it. At least he was Staggered and Stunned...

Turn 2, Tull did a LOT of damage, (plus the damage sustained from Bombardment in between!) and at one point, poor Kastore was down to 1 health!

Luckily, Returned have a lot of healing, and while the Cavern Nephilim was hiding out next to a strategy marker, Gwyll Essence Transfered 4 of his health onto Kastore, and then used Decay to give him 2 more.

Then the stuff happened that I was most proud of - the Urnbearer used Lure (despite his 7 Wp!) to move Tull into her Pools of Blood aura - and also into base contact with some Gremlin Eating Plants - so two sets of Hazardous terrain. This meant that any action Tull took would lose him 2 health. It also meant he was being engaged by Barbaros - so due to Caught In The Ring, he would not be able to target anyone but Barbaros with Attack Actions. The Urnbearer then did Down To The Last Drop on Barbaros - I've used this before - it makes Barbaros take 1 damage, but enemies within a 1 inch pulse also take 1 - but this procs Black Blood which gives the Urnbearer Shielded and damages Tull again. Then she used Exsanguinate to do a bit more damage. Urnbearers are great!

Tull was not looking too Healthy!

I hoped to use Barbaros to hit him, declare Push Aside to move push him through the hazardous aura, and get a move from Barbaros to get some healing from Pools of Blood. Rhys was wise to this, however, and use the King's Wall's I've Got Your Back to extract Tull - although he did take two more damage for placing while in two lots of Hazardous.

I then managed to kill Tull - by using Kastore to Dominate John Watson to charge through the Marathine, and use his focus to attack Tull. The idea of a scarty Elder Vampire flicking a claw and getting a buff British Artillerist's field surgeon to charge towards him and shank him with his Medical Tools is an example of the narrative parts of this game that makes me smile.

I also managed to use the Leech King's Blood Magic to do 5 damage and 2 poison to the Gatling Gunner, taking him out. It's such a good ability, that I often forget about in my haste to summon Leeches. The 'ignore any negative flip if the target is at half health' can be huge. Another ability that I think people overlook on the Leech King is I'll Have What They're Having - passing on overheals - or just heals if Gwyll is in LOS due to Cling To Death can be really useful. It also cropped up that Evasive is a good ability to have against Tull with so many shockwaves and blasts. Rhys was trying to take out Gwyll, and unsure whether to target Gwyll herself with Df 6 and Hard to Wound, or hit the Leech King who wouldn't take any damage himself but was only Df 5 without Hard To Wound - knowing that Gwyll would take one less due to blasting onto her.

One of the things I love about the Malifaux community is players are often happy to debate what's best to do, even when it is going against their crew!

It was also interesting that because Tull died, his Assault markers stayed down - which meant the Wandering Cannons could still target even without LOS.

Sadly this game ended up being talked out again - it was taking me a lot of time to think what to do. I think I need to start playing casually with a chess clock again - I'm not sure I'm getting any benefit from the longer thinking time! It was hard to predict what would happen, but we settled on 7-6 to Rhys. Again, I'd not concentrated on the flanks and two Rocketeers and Luisa were too schemey to ignore. I did try and pull one away with Barbaros's Bring It which would have made a difference if I could have killed one, but with relying on my Cavern Nephilim to score the first two points of Raid The Vaults, I didn't have a lot of scheming mobility. I had vague hopes of Kastore killing Giant Leeches to proc Ritualistic Sacrifice but that didn't come about. I think choosing Power Ritual was a mistake. Let Them Bleed might have been a better choice - I could easily have damaged the King's Wall and John Watson to half, I think, with Dominate's Enthrall trigger. Sadly it wouldn't have procced Confident Stance to hurt John Watson though! I think the Marathine pulsing out damage would have made the final point of Let Them Bleed quite achievable. I've always avoided it in pools because I think it looks hard to pull off, but perhaps it's time to consider it again!

My goals for the game:

• Try out Kastore 1 - Achieved
• Do some ping damage from Marathine - Achieved - this is such fun
• Don't overextend Kastore and get him killed - Achieved - although it was close!
• Play more than two turns - only just achieved, this is still to work on!

A very fun game again, as always. My next game will be a 30ss introduction game in our Escalation League. I'm very excited, as I will be trying out Reva Cortinas for the first time!

One final thought. I know it's been discussed a lot online, and the Sz stat is an abstraction for gameplay purposes but: