James Wilson Codes

Going into the game, based on last one against Yan, my aims were:

• don't leave Kastore over exposed and let him get killed
• use Visceral Rampage more
  

We shall see whether I managed them...

One thing I'm really enjoying about the meta I'm in at the moment, is that I'm getting to play against a lot of masters that are new to me. This is challenging at times, but I feel like it's really improving my game.

This game was against Esme, whom I've not played before, and she brought Mah Tucket, whom I've not played into. I did a bit of research beforehand, and then she brought Mah Tucket, Mecha Mee-Maw.

I was playing Kastore, Fervent as usual, but I did switch my crew up a bit. I'd heard from a Green Jokers Podcast episode, that Pit Traps could be painful (this was correct) so I took two Cavern Nephilims, as they ignore terrain, and the Enslaved Spirit, which is Incorporeal. I think it was a good move not to bring an Urnbearer, as Mah 2 has a twelve inch aura that lets her models choose not to be affected by Hazardous Terrain. I didn't know that when I hired my crew though, so it was more good fortune than good judgement.

Scheme Selection

The scheme pool was tricky - In Your Face is often great for Kastore, but Esme only had one eligible model - Sparks LeBlanc. However, I'd heard that it's best to kill him as soon as possible, so I decided to risk it.

I also picked Deliver a Message, partly because I've not picked it for quite some time, but also because I thought a Cavern Nephilim could get in close to Mah and then use Faith In The Flesh, Ambush and their Mv of 6 to get away, especially as they have Expert Getaway. This... turned out to be partially true.

The Game

The first turn was quite cagey. Esme set down a lot of Pit Traps, and I tried to get Kastore in position. I pushed Kastore into the middle with various Returned shenanigans (hitting him mainly, to proc Feast On The Faithful and Faith In The Flesh and get some sweet 2 inch moves.

Eventually, I set him loose on a group with Mah, Sparks and the Rock Hopper in. My aim was to damage Sparks, but I didn't want to kill him yet because it was still Turn 1. This turned out not to be something to worry about. With Esme's soulstone use - and bear in mind she had 3 models that could generate more stones - Sparks ended up taking only one point of damage. I did, however use Kastore's Visceral Rampage to kidnap him, which was one of my goals.

Kidnapping, however, was a bit strange in this game. Esme explained afterwards that her plan for dealing with Kastore was 'avoid him, or drop him down holes'. A sensible plan. It ended up with having this weird kind of ballet, where I was using Kastore's Blood Rush on the charge, placing, hitting models, then using Visceral Rampage to push then place them on the other side of me. Then she managed to place Kastore in a pit trap miles away using Over-Sized Drill with the Dropped Down a Hole trigger. Esme also managed to give models Staggered a lot, which turns off Faith In The Flesh. Also, Sparks (I can see why people recommend killing him) stops models targeting other models with Hostile Work Environment.

At this point, Cavern Nephilim 1 managed to Deliver A Message to Mah, but, when a Soulstone Miner unburied next to him, his escape route was suddenly cut off - I'd also not factored in Mah's 2 inch engagement - so I couldn't have Faith In The Fleshed out of engagement. He did not survive.

However, it got way harder to use Faith In The Flesh soon, because Esme killed Gwyll. Poor Gwyll. However, I should have known it was coming. Gwyll ignores Severe terrain, but not Hazardous, and the only way I could think of to score the first point of Stuff The Ballots in turn 2 was to move Gwyll into a Pit Trap. So, she was down to 6 health and Injured +2. Then, next turn, the Rock Hopper launched into her and no more Gwyll. I didn't even think to stone, and maybe if she'd survived the activation, I could have Essence Transfered some health back to me - or, even, Decay on the Rock Hopper, blasting back onto Gwyll to heal her. But, doing that would have made me take one damage and get injured for each action, so it would have been tough. Once Gwyll was gone, I had a lot less free movement.

But, I did manage to take out the Little Lass with Kastore and kidnap Sparks for the second (and fatal) time. Also, Barbaros used Bring It on a Bushwhacker to avoid going into a pit trap himself (sadly the Bushwhacker ignores Pit Traps, or it would have felt great to pull him through it) and then had a hopeful swing with Macuahuitl, which I Red Jokered, taking out the Bushwhacker. I ended up complaining (very very slightly) about it, because if I'd got a regular Severe, and used Shove Aside I could have got 4 inches of movement and then used Blood For Blood to end him.

We discussed the game afterwards and decided this was the turning point, losing 3 models made a difference to the actions Esme had available to get her schemes and strategies done.

At this point, I realized I'd written something potentially ambiguous in my notes. It referred to Mah attack Kastore and flipping the Black Joker. We stopped for a small discussion on 'whether Mah could make an honest man out of him?' and 'was this why she had Gwyll killed?' but then continued with the slaughtering and shenanigans.

While all this was going on, the other Cavern Nephilim - it felt like a treat having two - was trying to get on and score me some points when the Soulstone Miner popped up. The insane Regeneration +4 that they get when you slap Grave Spirit's Touch on them meant that he wasn't really in danger. After dispatching the miner, he ended up in a position where he needed to:

1. Kill a Bushwhacker
2. Vote
3. Leg it up to Esme's deployment zone to score the final point of In Your Face.

He managed 2. Cavern Nephilim (I'm probably going to do a profile on these as they're one of my favourite models) have a spiky 2/4/6 damage track on a Stat 6 attack, and if you have the cards, can be a great ambushing and murdering model. It just didn't happen on Turn 4. If I'd managed it, I could have used Pick The Bones for a free interact. This was one reason:

I find that in most games, the good and bad luck evens out over the course of the turns, and it was probably true here as well, but this, combined with Esme killing my Enslaved Spirit that I was going to use to Chain Gang the Nephilim up the board meant that he just had to stick around and vote twice, denying me a point. Staring at the Bushwhacker he could not kill.

Chain Gang was actually incredibly useful in scoring Stuff The Ballots in this game. The Enslaved Spirit used Marathine to give himself enough movement to vote at the marker that was in Esme's corner. I'd only ever thought about it from the point of view of moving other models, but of course, it's 3 inches of free movement (even when staggered, which I also needed to know this game) for the Spirit as well!

I think my last activation was Kastore, the Size 4, ancient vampire demon, swollen with Black Blood, throbbing with power... walking to 1.9 inches away from Mah Tucket and dropping a scheme marker to score the second point of Deliver a Message.

In the end, I won 7-5. But I think a lot of that was because I managed to kill some models in the mid game. Esme had a bit of bad luck with where my models were standing, meaning she couldn't score the first point of Protected Territory until turn 5, meaning she couldn't get the second point. Taking out Sparks meant she couldn't get the second point of In Your Face as well, whereas because I had 3 models of cost 9 (until she killed one!) I had a bit of a choice. The Pit Traps were pretty terrifying really - if all my crew were affected by Severe/Hazardous terrain, I think Mah Tucket would be very hard to play into - especially as she can make scrap markers count as pit traps, and all kinds of shenannigans!

Takeaways

• Using Visceral Rampage to let Kastore escape as well as Blood Rush to hurt stuff is a great move. It let me achieve both the goals I set at the start.
• Pit Traps are awful if you get caught in them. RIP Gwyll.
• Read your cards! Esme asked me if Kastore needed LOS to use Broodmaster's Blade - and I glanced at the card and saw 'Target a friendly Marathine' and replied, 'well, you need LOS to target so yeah, I can't summon it' - totally neglecting to read the very next words which said 'ignoring range and LOS'. Thanks to /u/headbangerxfacerip for pointing this out!
• Soulstone Miners can be a pain.
• Playing against new opponents fielding masters I've not encountered before is fun.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game - thank you Esme!