James Wilson Codes

The build-up to this match was one of the more interesting series of Discord messages.

I knew Boosey would be playing Lucas McCabe2, so I had the choice of the masters I knew. I picked Kastore because I had played Reva into him recently.

A Brief Round-Up of the Game:

• The game only lasted three turns (so I haven’t written it up in full).
• It was pretty one-sided because my entire strategy - spamming Corpse Markers and using a Mourner to treat them as Schemes - was effectively countered by three Hucksters dropping Schemes. I also forgot that McCabe can use Corpse Markers to his advantage.
• Having picked Information Overload, I had no chance of scoring it.
• I delivered a message, but as we decided to call it part way through Turn 3, I didn’t feel I could drop a Scheme near Lucas to score the second point, as he had already activated and probably would have done things differently.
• I scored 2 points. I didn’t have any way of scoring more, and James would have scored about 7 or 8 if we had played it out.
• Host Ducat must have had the highest number of Black/Red Joker shenanigans of any game. All at my expense...

So, I knew I was playing Kastore into McCabe 2. Looking at the pool, I decided to try Kastore 1. His stat 7 Willpower attack Dominate should work well against the majority of the Wastrel crew, which mainly features Wp 5 models. I think Stunning is always good, and getting them to Charge each other is always fun. With Information Overload in the pool, I could at least use Marathine’s Remove Their Claim and a Cavern Nephilim’s Forage to deny it if it looked like he was dropping a suspiciously large number of Scheme Markers. Also, with Wedge, it’s easy to get Marathine into the middle of the enemy crew, then use I’ll Have What They’re Having to turn any little Returned Heals into damage pings.

When we declared crews, I noticed he had taken only one Huckster. I also noticed TWO Jorogumo taken Out of Keyword! This was slightly Panicking. They did cost him ten soulstones each, but they are brutal beaters. While they don’t have any defensive tech when Asami summons them, if they are hired they have the equivalent of Hard to Wound from the Centuries Old ability. They also have Extended Reach, as does McCabe, which prevents making attacks generated by Charging within 2 Inches. I assumed this was a tech pick against Kastore 2. However, I elected to just do my best. There were still many low Willpower models - and in particular I wanted to Stagger/Stun Desper.

I picked Information Overload and Espionage. This is schemier than I would usually go, but a combination of the Scheme removal I mentioned earlier, Kastore using Broodmaster’s Domain to make Marathine drop schemes, and Oskar’s extra interact suggested that if I concentrated on this, I could do well.

I practiced my unpack on the kitchen table again. Unfortunately, during practice I convinced myself I had taken Barbaros (although I hadn’t!) and that he was key in using Broodfighter and Shove Aside to punt Marathine up the board. However, you can’t play a 50 soulstone game with 59 soulstones worth of models, so I had to leave him out.

I managed to get Marathine next to McCabe and a Jorogumo by activating Kastore second. This meant I could start pinging some damage, which was rather annoying for the Wastrels. I know Boosey doesn’t like the sword because you can’t do anything about it, but early on he was able to move the two models away. Other options included Staggering it so it couldn’t fly about as much, or moving it out of range. It’s a fun model, though; I think it’s more enjoyable with Kastore, Awakened, as the pings from Insatiable add up! My plan was to use Marathine to deal with Luna, but she was further back, and any distraction is good. This did mean that he used Host Ducat to heal those models, which eats into the Action Economy - kind of for free to me, especially if I’m not actively healing Kastore but relying on Faith in the Flesh and Pools of Blood.

The first turn continued according to plan, pinging out damage. However, eventually McCabe shot Oskar, whom I had foolishly extended too far (Armour +1 and Hard to Wound are not great against a crew that can ignore them). After I healed him with Gwyll and Essence Transfer, a fast Jorogumo with a Timeworn Blade charged down and slew him with 6 damage. I got a bit salty about this. It is clearly part of the game design because it specifies Wastrel or Minion in Treasure Hunter, but it seems odd to have a keyword ability that can buff Out of Keyword models with Keyword-specific stuff.

Turn two saw the Leech King die in the same way, which was sad, but I did at least activate him first. I found that trying Clew Of Leeches with a 12 of Crows in hand - usually a fairly good bet - didn’t help when your stat is reduced to 4 by Lucas’s Cursed Objects.

Despite that, I did have some fun. Marathine sliced Luna and pinged her down to 1 health before Boosey moved her away with Carry the Goods. I managed to Dominate and Enthrall a Jorogumo into charging the Corpse Curator, ignoring its armour because of the Timeworn Blade (ha!). I was going to hit McCabe, but we got confused by how Extended Reach worked - he would have been a valid target as the Jorogumo is actually a friendly model to McCabe. Pure heat-of-the-moment confusion. The other Jorogumo also got Enthralled into killing Luna.

Meanwhile, on the left flank, my Cavern Nephilim was setting up Stuff the Ballots and the centreline Scheme Marker for Espionage. Because of some of the other actions I had been taking, Boosey had to charge his single Huckster to engage the Neph, in order to score Hold Up Their Forces. The Huckster died next turn, and the Cavern Nephilim got a free Interact from Pick the Bones. I had to concentrate first to get past Manipulative, so that was really useful. However, it left me with not enough movement to get to any other Strategy markers to vote or drop Schemes.

In the end, it was 3-5 to Boosey. I’m happy with how I played. I think I prepared as well as I could have for the Jorogumos. I would not take Oskar if I played it again and would try to get my models further up the board. Apart from the Nephilim, we didn’t really get into the other half of the table, which pretty much prevents you from winning.

At least it taught me not to fear Information Overload so much!

On a side note, I don't really comment about the lore of Malifaux too much here, and I think the Lucas McCabe concept is cool, kind of like a less moral Indiana Jones. The passing Artifacts around is neat, I'm still not sure why it gives them Fast but whatever... but randomly finding them in Corpse Markers is a bit odd:

(A bandit hideout. Treasure, wine bottles and ammunition are lying around everywhere. Lucas and Desper are comparing a soulstone Desper has stolen from an unsuspecting Resurrectionist. Luna enters, carrying something in her mouth.)

Lucas: Go on! good girl Luna, you've brought me a.... Time Worn Blade!
Who's a good girl, who wants some tickles?

Desper: Lucas, it's a stick. A rather smelly stick.

Lucas: It's a Time. Worn. Blade. Honestly Desper, you complained about the Phantasmal Mask too.

Desper: It was a turd. You'd just poked holes in it for eyes.

Lucas (trying not to cry): Desper, you ALWAYS do this!

Desper (sotto voce): man, when I get one more soulstone, I'm forming my own Keyword.

(Desper Leaps away to ask Misaki if she is hiring.
Lucas sits there morosely, petting Luna and then stands up suddenly.
Lucas strides off, yelling at a nearby Huckster)