James Wilson Codes

There's a running joke that there are a lot of Jameses and Jamies in the Huddersfield and UK Malifaux Communities. We've jokingly talked of a Best in James spot prize before. However, it now exists! Dan, whom I played in the Lord of the Flames match-up funded another awesome prize, and tonight was the night. Gloves off. Clocks Out. Kettle on.

This was an interesting match - Boosey and I wanted to play each other to prepare for the A Breach in the North X event, three days later. Since the rounds were shorter than we were used to and we only had five minutes of setup time, we wanted to practise under those conditions.

It was also interesting, because Ed, the proprietor of Powder Monkey Gaming had received feedback that there should be Malifaux tables with more Elevation in - and we were the guinea pigs! This threw us off our game a bit, and I certainly did not make use of it in any tactical way, but I'm keen to try it more, even though the terrain rules are... unclear to me in M3E.

I knew Boosey would be bringing Asami because he had suggested she was the model he felt most tournament-confident with. I assumed he would use Asami 1, since he has the most practice with her. I decided to try Reva 2. It would only be my fifth game with her, but I wanted to see if she was viable to play in a tournament with an hour and five minutes on the clock. Then he declared Asami 2!

I took Killer Instinct on Reva and Vincent, hoping to use it to punch through the Terrifying (12) on Ama No Zako - and he also brought Lady Yume, whom I've not faced before, so it would be useful there too. Vincent was definitely brought for his Exorcism trigger against Asami 1, the Summoner.button

I had devised a sneaky interaction between Old Hob and a Lampad - if Old Hob has Burning +2 (not hard with Reva’s crew!) and the Lampad hits with Flaming Fury, doing 2/3/5 damage (which should be reduced to 1 damage because of Armour +2), then Old Hob can push through the Lampad thanks to What a Lovely Day. After that, I can declare the built-in Flame Wall trigger to drop a Pyre Marker 1 inch away, and then Reva’s Visions of Fire will proc, allowing both to push 2 more inches. This was another unpack I’d practised on the kitchen table - in three activations, I could load everyone up with Focused and have most of the crew in the centre of the board.

That was the plan, anyway! Foolishly, I realised I’d only practised this on Standard deployment, with Flank, and on a board with more varied terrain than I was used to. I was blocked from moving my Corpse Candle exactly where I wanted. That wasn’t too bad - I still managed to load up the Focused from Blasphemous Ritual, but then I Black Jokered the flip for Hovering Flame, which I was going to use to ensure Old Hob had enough Burning. I did get some movement out of it (and a shiny new Pyre Marker), but it didn’t work as well as I wanted.

Meanwhile, Boosey was having problems - the new terrain meant he had boxed in Asami and had to deviate from his plan just to get her out onto the board. He was frustrated, but it heartened me to know that even experienced players encounter this issue - it’s been happening to me regularly (hopefully less now that I’ve started practising my unpacks at home).

Vincent had a great activation. He gained 4 Shielded from Spirits in the Flames and charged a Corpse Candle, stoned for a Mask, and killed it with Staggering Punch. He got a 2-inch push from Visions of Fire, which he used to position himself within Ama No Zako’s Miasma of Boils and Flies aura, yet out of Asami’s line of sight so he could avoid her and shoot Ama No Zako. With Rapid Fire as well, he got off 3 shots, including one that dealt Severe damage with Critical Strike. However, between Mother’s Love and Soulstone reduction, it didn’t come close to taking her down. Giving him Killer Instinct to achieve Ruthless was a good move to get around Amo No Zako’s Terrifying (12).

Then, Vincent’s day took a turn for the worse. Asami’s crew seems to have an almost limitless ability (along with a lot of other nasty tricks) to place my models and then ping me by putting them into Rift Markers. Vincent ended up on the other side of a Strategy Marker, within a Rift Marker, and took a lot of damage. There wasn’t much I could do, although cheating a high card kept him alive for another activation and hopefully drained some of my opponent’s resources. The story of Suzaku took all of his Burning away as a resource - which I pretended to be upset about - but since it was near Amo No Zako, I knew that Reva could remove it all with Lantern’s Light.

During Reva’s activation, I hit Old Hob to push him 4 inches through Reva, then converted all the Burning into 5 Burning on Amo No Zako and tried to Immolate - but again, Mother’s Love and Soulstones made it difficult for anything to stick. I think the solution must be separating Amo from Asami 2 (or otherwise limiting her - Slow would be nice, and I did try that with Old Hob), but every time I play Boosey, this model has been a nightmare. Please contact me with suggestions!

Old Hob then got the place-and-ping treatment and eventually died alone next to the furthest Strategy Marker from me. This put a bit of a crimp in things, especially since he was my chosen Sweating Bullets model and had scored Boosey In Your Face!

By this point, however, I was ready to drop Amo. With the Story of Suzaku tied up near Old Hob’s Scrap Marker remains, I was free to Immolate away - but the cards failed Reva. Boosey could tell how things were going and tried to Disengage her, but, surrounded by many models, I managed to flip Severes on both damage flips, meaning she couldn’t move. In the last turn we played, she became a shiny new Lampad, as well as scoring me In Your Face! It felt good, given all the trouble she’s given me in the past, but it almost certainly wasn’t worth it considering the resources expended and the effort to win the game.

I was almost certainly going to clock out, so my next few activations were rushed walks and interactions to remove a Scheme Marker from the enemy Deployment Zone for Espionage. Because I missed out on scoring Strategy in Turn 3, I only needed to hold the furthest Strategy Marker to score it in Turn 4. Boosey handed me the final point of Sweating Bullets by going back with Asami to replace the Scheme Marker my Lampad picked up (so it was a good call).

In the end, it was 6-4 in his favour - which is not as big a difference as it felt at the time. We were both unable to score the second point of In Your Face, after Old Hob and Ama No Zako died.

We decided not to award the Best in James mug, as we both ran out of clock time and didn’t feel we had given our best - surely such an august prize deserves a full 5-turn fight! So it’s back on the shelf behind the counter in Powder Monkey, available for the victor of any James-on-James match to claim!

Conclusions

• I don’t think I’m ready to play Reva 2 in a tournament yet. I’m struggling just with remembering to use Guiding Light in the Start Phase and similar details. That said, if on Saturday I feel like a laugh in Round 3, I might try it. So, on the incredibly slim chance that you read this, come to the event and play me - but don’t be surprised if I bring the Luminary and tie myself up in knots trying to work out the best order to push my models through fire.
• Asami is tough. I'm not sure how I could realistically crack her with the crews I own. I chatted with Boosey after and he suggested she struggles against ranged and Incorporeal (makes sense as it stops the pinging) - so as I'm hopefully going to pick up Kirai this year - maybe that's an opportunity!
• Even though I clocked out this time, I think I'm going to stick with my 'no extensions when playing on a clock, even it it's a friendly game' policy - I had a better evening because of it - and I don't think there was any one instance where being on the clock made me make a worse decision. My preference is now for all games clocked, and to follow the clock guidance of stopping activating models if I clock out. I almost don't mind what my opponent does regarding clocks (although it would be wise to check this beforehand!) - it's there for me, to improve my game.
• Boosey is lovely. He pointed out things I'd missed, even though we were in training for an event. He was frustrated with the new terrain and mistakes, but we got through it and got round to having some fun.