James Wilson Codes

I was looking forward to this game. Despite the overwhelming majority of my Malifaux games being played at Powder Monkey, I had never actually played against it's lovely proprietor, Ed! I know I've gushed about this store before, but I do love it - it's about 12 minutes walk from my house, it's family run, and it's very community, hobby and gamer oriented - there's a lovely friendly atmosphere. Please do pop in and support them.

Malifaux wise, they host very well attended events - including the Malifaux Yorkshire Rumble, which this year is on the 26th and 27th April and was a spectacular event last time.

It was also my first game since before Christmas, and it was on a Saturday morning, so I wasn't tired from work!

When we arranging this game, Ed told me he'd never played against Reva before, so I picked her. He asked me which of his crews I'd like to play against, from a choice of Lady Justice, Cornelius Basse, Parker Barrows and Perdita Ortega (he loves cowboys). I've played against Lady Justice twice before, and he warned me that Basse's Order In The Badlands with the in built Tumbleweed could make for a less than fun game against Reva, as it can remove a lot of markers (Reva loves Pyre and Corpse Markers) and end a condition on multiple models. (Reva likes her crew to be gently on fire)

I went with Parker, even though I've actually been interested in Perdita since I watched a video on how to play Malifaux, back when I only had the Kastore Core Box. Ed did warn me that he thought Parker was underpowered.

I decided against the Dead Rider after my last game, reasoning that I would be going up against a strong gunline and he would probably be gunned down. I also decided to not take Vincent St Clair - he can be good, but he's 9 soulstones, and he uses a lot of resources to really do his thing. This meant I could have Ezekiel, Two Lampads, and Old Hob - I thought Armour +2 would be useful against shooters - as well as a Shieldbearer and the Restless Spirit.

Ed then explained that Mad Dog could ignore Armour... so I decided to keep Old Hob away from him - indeed, I went so far as to make him deploy the group with Mad Dog in as the attacker first, so Old Hob could go on the other side.

I still have problems with my Reva unpack. I go with the Shieldbearer between the two Corpse Candles, so she can do Blasphemous Ritual on one to give everyone Focus, and make two Pyre Markers. That one can activate first to push the other Corpse Candle forward, and two Mindless Zombies that Ezekiel Summoned with Light the Way. The Lampads can then pull the Pyre Markers forwards. I just... always seem to place someone somewhere so they can't see something, or get through somewhere!
I need to do what I did for Kastore, lay them out on the kitchen table and solo the first turn a few times.

In this case, I had the Shieldbearer up near the centre of the board, but without Shielded as they hadn't walked through a Pyre. There was a Corpse Candle next to her. And... Ed's crew just shot her, Turn 1. Doubly frustrating because she was my Sweating Bullets candidate! My other Scheme was Deliver a Message - on the grounds that a Lampad Can Walk (or even Charge) in, Interact and then use Hovering Flame to get out of Dodge. Even if they do get killed, if you save a card, they can be revived. I also wanted to avoid Marker based Schemes as I was worried I might be playing into Parker's hands.

As the game progressed, Ed tried to keep his distance and shoot me, which was effective - Reva doesn't have any defensive tech, other than Positives to duels. She can heal well, however, and Ezekiel can heal her too, which helped out here because I could bring her quite close to full health after Ed had got her down quite low. Ezekiel having Intuition meant I could stack a Severe for his Healing Energy to guarantee healing 3. I also took the Debt of Gratitude trigger to remove one of my own Scheme Markers - normally I would reserve this for enemies, but at this point, I had realised that my own Scheme Markers were a bit of a liability when facing Parker.

Reva healed basically up to full, and I eventually managed to drop Mad Dog. Then, quite a bit of killing ensued, on both sides. However, because we'd both taken Deliver A Message, neither of us really wanted to kill the enemy master, and after Reva spammed The Unquiet Dead with Perdition's Flame (I did warn Ed about this, and to stay away from the Pyres!) he basically kept her Stunned for the rest of the game.

This was a relaxed, casual game. It also took Four Hours! However, this was partly because Ed had to keep stopping to serve customers, so I was more than happy for my FLGS to be getting more business - and it was nice to see teenagers coming in to spend their Christmas Money. Because it was a relaxed, casual game, we both helped each other, we both let each other roll back mistakes or rule errors (we made a few each!) and it was generally a lovely time.

The endgame was very tense. It's what I think of as a 'classic' Malifaux ending - as in your brain is hurting trying to calculate the optimal order to do things in. It was tricky but it hinged on us:

• both wanting to have a scheme near the enemy master, and no scheme near ours for the final point of Deliver A Message
• both wanting to not have the enemy master or henchman (had to be Reva for me, as I didn't take a henchman) unengaged near the centre of the board for the final point of Sweating Bullets

The trouble is, Parker can hoover up any Scheme Markers on his activation. But luckily, due to the initiative flip, Reva could go last. I'd hoped to rider her round (Mv 7 FTW) to a ballot box to deny Ed a point, but he remembered that Parker's Draw Their Attention meant he could vote through Pearl Musgrove, so Reva would not have had enough activations. He also sneakily engaged her with Ella-Mae Chesterfield, stopping her from Dropping a Scheme Marker. Considering she achieved nothing in Turn 4, the final Turn was a bit of a blinder for her!

1. Summon a Corpse Candle to engage Parker for Sweating Bullets
2. Use Ethereal Reaping through a nearby Corpse to kill my own Lampad. This wouldn't normally achieve much, but because of The Whisper upgrade giving Reva Intuition, I could use a very low Mask (it may have been a 2 of Masks!) to take the Pulled Here and There trigger, allowing Reva to push very slightly out of engagement, and drop a Scheme Marker to score Deliver A Message
3. Then, she straight up rode off into the sunset, or at least in the direction of the sunset, but within 6 inches of the centre, so she was unengaged, and denied Ed the final point of Sweating Bullets. In the film adaptation she will ride off into the sunset, while Parker is stuck in town(maybe the Scheme Marker is a bear trap...) waiting for the Sheriff and Deputies (probably Basse) to come and get him.

Quite the activation!

Sadly, I had not scored enough Strategy points - and I didn't get to score the first point of Sweating Bullets, but using Reva to get a 3 point swing towards a 6-6 draw felt like quite an achievement!

This was a lovely game, and a very pleasant Saturday!

Ed and I discussed Parker a bit after, and I agree with him that he's under-powered but that a good way to fix him would be to change Drop It so that the Parker player chooses where the Scheme Marker goes (still in LOS and base contact) - this would allow much more control - and it is a bit strange to have the enemy control your core mechanic.