James Wilson Codes

This was the same matchup as last time, but a different board, and the first league round!

My goals going in:

• play all 5 rounds with a chess clock - I've been concerned about playing slowly lately, and also my opponent had to leave at 2:30pm!
• use the Corpse Candles and pyre markers more effectively
• use a different crew so that Rasputina's people don't eat all my corpse markers

I wanted to think carefully about schemes this time. It was the same pool as before, but a straight up killing scheme selection had not worked for me. This time I picked Deliver a Message with a Lampad, on the grounds that Hovering Flame could help me get close to Rasputina, and hopefully Demise (Possessing Flame) would let me keep it, even if Raspy took it out after the delivery. I also picked Protected Territory - again hoping the Lampads could prove themselves as schemers.

I started my crew in a bubble. I knew that I could not resummon the Corpse Candle, but I wanted to be able to use Light The Way to push the other ones up. As it happened, James killed one of them early from range, before I could. This was a problem, but not the end of the world as it still dropped one Pyre marker instead of two.

Because I'd taken Lampads this time, I could use Dancing In The Flames to move the pyre marker up the board. I also got to use Hovering Flame to add some burning on to my own models, which prepared Reva nicely. The second lampad went over to the flank where a December Acolyte had deployed From The Shadows and was getting up to schemey tricks. Reva didn't get a lot done in the first turn which was a bit of a shame, and something I'd want to work on for future.

In Turn 2, Lampad 2 did solid work. A Red Joker against the December Acolyte, killing it before I could even stack up enough Burning to let the Flame Wall trigger on Flaming Fury make me a new Pyre marker. It feels churlish to complain in these situations, however. As it happens, this flank was now kind of sewn up - the Lampad took out the Ice Gamin, picked up a Scheme marker, and then concentrated on scoring points from dropping Scheme markers for Protected Territory and dropping bombs for strategy points.

All the interesting action was now happening near the middle. James was leaning in to placing Ice Pillars close to me, to blast on to them and do more damage - but I think that as the terrain had quite a few small gaps anyway, he hemmed himself in a little bit - which made it hard to score Plant Explosives as he was on his own half of the board - and also Protected Territory that I found out he'd picked at the end.

However I did make a miscalculation when I moved my Shieldbearer (who benefited greatly from Grave Spirit's Touch - the internet was right!) to a very careful position just close enough to the Ice Pillar, that the Ice Golem was on the other side of, then using Plant The Shield to gain Shielded at the expense of gaining Staggered. The plan was for Reva to use Ethereal Reaping drawing range and LOS from it due to the Shielded condition.

Then he just straight up walked the Ice Golem away. My jaw dropped. I never considered it.

We kind of ended up with a bit of a brawl around Reva in the coming turns. Despite being Mv 7 she only really moved around a bit in her Pyre marker from James's effects - mainly to put her in base contact with an ice pillar.

There was a point where I reminded him to flip his other card 'because you might black joker' - and he did, which probably saved her. This feels like I've used up all my luck for the year.

Reva really likes being in a Pyre marker. I felt like this game had a lot more chances for me to explore her as a master. Every time she takes an action in a pyre marker, she gets Burning from Hazardous - and the first time each activation (so also when the enemy moves her) she also gains Shielded +1. BUT, because of Channeled Flame, she can reduce the burning by 1 to receive a positive flip to a duel. I used this more for defensive duels - it made a huge difference in keeping her alive. Her bonus action is pretty great for healing too - it definitely saved her once by sucking up a bunch of burning and turning it into healing. There was bizarre passage of play where I healed her up to her full 12 health, and James knocked her down to 5 in the same turn by flipping a Red Joker with Rasputina's Winter's Strike. There was a lot of this in Returned with Kastore, so I'm glad this craziness continues in other Resurrectionist masters!

Eventually, I managed to proc The Unquiet Dead on both Snow Storm and the Ice Golem, and while I'd have loved a swing at the injured Ice Golem (Df 3!) it was better to Feed on Grief Snow Storm and heal 3 - which went up to 4 because of The Final Veil.

Because James managed to knock Reva down to half health at the end of a turn though, he scored the first point of Assassinate.

While this was going on, Lampad 1 was finding things a little tricky. He needed to get to Rasputina, but she was behind some ice pillars. He managed to use Hovering Flame and kill the Wendigo on the way, which was nice, but then managed to flip the Black Joker when trying to use Hovering flame on his next activation to get to Rasputina to Deliver his Message. That meant I didn't do it till turn 5, so I couldn't score the final point.

In the end, it was 6-2 to me. The other point I dropped was the first strategy point for Plant Explosives. James scored a bomb with Rasputina by sprinting towards the centre line on turn 5.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It felt good to be using the synergies, and I cannot WAIT for round 2, when I get to resummon the fallen Corpse Candles. Reva seems like a master with a lot of potential when you get used to her, and I'm excited to get the reps in.

Did I meet my goals?

• We played all 5 rounds, and used the chess clock. James had to leave after 2 and a half hours, so this worked well!
• Use Corpse Candles and Pyres more effectively - definitely did this, although I probably used Pyres to burn the enemy more than I would if I hadn't concentrated on that due to trying to avoid Grim Feast eating the corpses
• Use a different crew - already mentioned this

Takeaways

• Put Reva in a Pyre marker if possible
• Lampads are great - although I'm sure they have counters that I'll meet before long