In today’s Malifaux Musings, we’ll
take a look at a tournament Jon and I attended in Kingspoint, TN at one of the
most impressive game stores I’ve ever been to and, spoiler alert, one of your faithful
bloggers took home the big prize! Before that, let’s take a look at some
mini-musings.
***
-On February 14th Aaron announced a new contest,
the Storied Soundtracks contest. It involves writing a short story based within
the world of Malifaux inspired in some way by a specific song. This round’s
topic is “Rose Tattoo” by Dropkick Murphys. Anyone who submits a 5,000 word
story by March 15th will receive a $15 store credit from Wyrd, and
the winner will have their story published in Wyrd chronicles and receive a
special payment of $.03 per word, up to 10,000 words.
-The Stitch in Time event is still running, and sign-ups are
still being accepted. Go join in! It includes quick-play rules for the upcoming
2nd edition of Through the Breach, so there’s no reason not to get
into the action! Information on the next Act was released March 6th.
And, if you’re participating, I’d love to hear how your groups are doing. My
group actually lost a character in this chapter, the first we’ve had die in a
TTB game since we started!
-An artist who’s done work for Wyrd previously, Tommy
Castillo, is working to raise money for a kidney transplant. If you have a few
bucks to spare, kick them in and support our Wyrd family.
-Wyrd Wants You!...to playtest its next book. Follow the
link, and sign up if you think you want to contribute.
-Lastly, those who participated in The Other Side’s
kickstarter campaign can now manage their pledges through the backerkit page.
Additionally, if you wanted to get in but maybe didn’t have the funds, late
pledges can be still be added in for certain options. Check it out!
***
I woke
up on Saturday morning, February 18th, and piled out into the car to
drive to Bristol, TN and play some Malifaux. In my ears rang the sounds of the
hundreds of people who poured out of the woodwork to tell me that my last blog
post was wrong and, in fact, the Guild was doing just fine in GG2017, thank you
very much. I prepared for the sounds of facebook and google alerts from more comments
that came rolling in over the course of the day to continue
vehemently making this point. I was well prepared to drown these out with some
discussions of the Wave 4 Neverborn models by the fellows at Arcane Reservoir who, disappointingly, don’t seem to think much of Titannia and her crew.
Sadness. Then I got there and realized I’d left my reading glasses behind. This
isn’t a crippling problem, mind you, but I knew I’d have wrecked vision and a
splitting headache by the end of a tournament if I didn’t do something about
this. Google maps came to the rescue and I staggered across Kingsport to
the nearest drug store, picking up a grey and black leopard spotted pair of old
lady glasses that were 1 magnification too strong. On the way back an older
looking woman stopped me to assure me that she was, in fact, not a prostitute
despite what her mother was saying about her (mom was nowhere to be seen.) This
was all happening before 10AM, so I had a feeling it was going to be a weird
day.
Thankfully,
the apprehension was replaced with awe when I came inside Dewayne’s World Comics and Games and saw the impressive interior. The retail space inside was a
massive warehouse-like space filled with games, comics, and collectible statues
(sadly no Malifaux, but the owner tells me that may change soon if interest is
high enough.) They had recently purchased the space next to them and converted
it all to be available for gaming, including tables for miniature and
roleplaying games. One clever addition was simply having available a large
number of pads of paper and measuring tapes for public use. The space was
clean, well stocked, and honestly very impressive. Once they get some Wyrd
product in there, they’ll get the full Malifaux Musings stamp of approval ;).
The
format for the tournament was going to be standard Gaining Grounds but with a
different set of generated Strats and schemes for each round than the standard
rotation, as the TO had just attended some other Gaining Grounds tourneys
recently and wanted to shake things up. Using my standard ultra-scientific
method (flipping a card from my fate deck) I’d determined I was playing
Neverborn for this one. I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t
flipped another ram since, as we all know, Guild can’t win in GG2017. I’ve
become more of a fan of the Hooded Rider of late for various reasons (he’s an
Enforcer and kills things later in the game, so he’s less a liability in Frame
for Murder. Also, one of the fellows on Arcane Reservoir rates him highly) so I
decided he would probably find his way into several of my crews this weekend.
Also, it meant I got to play Lynch, which I am always happy to do. However, I
had heard in a podcast somewhere (I wish I could remember where so I could
attribute it properly. If you’re the podcast in question, let me know and I’ll
mention it) a new (to me) way of playing Lillith where you use her not as an
offensive piece but, rather, as a disrupter for the enemy crew using Wicked
Vines, Tangled Shadows, and Beckon Malifaux to hinder the enemy strategies. Ideally, she wouldn't need to take her sword off her shoulder if things go the way you want them to go. I wanted
to give this a try as well, so I kept that crew in the back of my mind for
Interference/Recon type games that would involve running around the board
and/or dropping markers.
In
round one I played Lee, an Outcasts player, in Corner deployment Collect the
Bounty. The pool was Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Show of Force,
and Search the Ruins. I brought Neverborn Lynch, Huggy, The Hooded Rider, Dopp,
2x Illuminated, and Graves. Lee used Von Schill, Hannah, Trunk, Sue, Big Jake,
a Librarian, Johan and a Convict Gunslinger, I think. I had planned to lure models
to me and pick them off, but of course I got over aggressive early and walked
into a big ole’ pile of people who ignored my Terrifying, removed suits from my
casting, and generally crapped in my Kool Aid. Somewhere in the mid-game I
managed to kill Big Jake with Huggy and score a point for Bounty. He scored one
back later when Schill chopped up some Illuminated. Lynch did a whole pile of
nothing in this game, due again to Hannah and Sue being a potent combination of
“Your crew’s stuff doesn’t work” and we played the Hooded Rider as getting his
suits removed by Hannah also (I’m not entirely sure that’s right, but it seemed
right at the time. Feel free to post and let me know if I’m wrong.) However, on
the last turn I completed my trademark “Steal victory from the Jaws of Defeat”
maneuver, dashing around to toss out some Search the Ruins markers and win the
game 3-2 (Lee got one for Dig Their Graves at some point, also.)
![]() |
"Seriously?" - Mr. Graves |
We stopped to get some lunch, then
moved on to round 2. This time I was playing against Noah, a younger player who
I was told beforehand was vicious and who I should definitely not take it easy
on. We were going to have a Neverborn-off on a table that featured some
laser-cut terrain in the form of a derailed train. Since we were doing
Extraction, we got a dayglow Sorrow from someone else to use as the marker and,
ostensibly (in my head anyways) we were trying to rescue it from the train and
recruit it to our side. This was my first opportunity to try out the Lillith
Defense list, with Mama Monster, the Rider, Graves, 2x Depleted, Doppleganger
(obv), P. Magic, and maybe some other stuff (I can’t remember.) Noah had shooty
Dreamer, Widow Weaver, Teddy, a couple of Stitched Together, Coppelius, and
maybe some Daydreams. Pool was Claim, Frame, Dig, Recover Evidence, and Tail
‘Em. I had planned on doing Frame and Tail ‘Em, and then realized I didn’t
actually have any legal minions I could use for Tail ‘Em, and switched quickly
to Recover Evidence.
The
game began with my crew fanning out to the left and right around the extraction
zone, letting the enemy filter into the middle so we could pounce. Graves threw
the Chump Depleted (who I refer to as “Dr. Tentacles”) into melee with Dreamer,
Widow Weaver, and a Stitched. Tentacles managed to do some damage to Dreamer
crew people, get beat up in turn by the stitched to near death, but then Graves
charged Dreamer and things got weird. I smacked Dreamer with a fence post,
which Dreamer then redirected to the Stitched, dealing him severe damage and
putting him on hard to kill. Widow Weaver then hit and killed the Depleted,
scoring me Frame for Murder and, when the Depleted exploded, killing the
Stitched. Rotten contents went off, causing Graves’ Black Blood to splatter on
Dreamer. So, yeah, very confused trigger of auras there.
Meanwhile,
Lillith was Tangled Shadowsing Teddy away from support and proceeded to play
Wicked Vines ping-pong with him until we got far enough in the game for Hooded
Rider to come in and beat him to death. The game became a bit of a tangle in
the mid-table of summoned Alps, Coppelius, the Hooded Rider, Lillith, and the
Doppleganger. We managed to run out the end of the game before Coppelius could
start doing too much damage to me, and I won this one 10-4. Noah made the one
big mistake with killing the Depleted and triggering the death of his Stitched,
so no reactivation shenanigans, but Dreamer crews are complicated and I think
he did a pretty impressive job.
Round
3, on 2 wins, saw me go up to the top table to play this “Jon Goulbourne”
fellow, who I had vaguely heard of previously. Earlier in the tournament I had
told him about the Lillith defense list, to which he responded “Well I hope we
don’t play each other, since I know what you’re doing now.” So, of course, this
was happening. He brought in Jacob Lynch, who is Jon’s typical tournament
master. He was using Rising Sun Huggy, Terracotta Warrior, Sensei Yu, some 10
thunders brothers, Sidir Archibal with Promises and Recalled Training, and an
Oiran. We were playing Squatter’s Rights on Flank deployment, with my taking
Leave Your Mark and Undercover Entourage (Lillith) for schemes. I brought in
Lillith with Beckon and Wings, Hooded Rider, Doppelganger, 2x SIllurids, and 2x
Insidious Madnesses. Because we play each other all the time and have similar
thought processes, Jon was on the same schemes, this time with Sensei Yu doing
the Entourage. My plan was to use Sillurids and Madnesses to try and go grab
the outer squat markers while the sillurids hopped to the back to go drop Leave
Your Mark tokens. They were opposed by Ten Thunders Bros who were going to try
and move the Insidious Madnesses. I screwed up placement on the bottom squatter
marker, allowing the Ten Thunders Bro to ignore the Madness entirely and just
hop over him with dance of the heavens, flipping the marker and blocking me
from taking it. The other sillurid and madness fell victim to Sidir’s Recalled
Training machine gun fire, which is horrific if you’ve never faced it before.
On top of that, I poked the Hooded Rider’s nose out too early and nearly got
him killed from Lynch and Huggy, who were hindered by Wicked Vines and Trees
but not completely blocked since Yu could remove the Rooted condition from
them. Things were getting a little rough, is what I’m saying, and I may have
lost my temper and broken the frames of my newly purchased leopard spot glasses
dropping them on the table in frustration at the end of turn 2.
![]() |
Pictured: How not to defend a Squat Marker from your opponent's 10T Brother. |
And
then it started to turn. Some lucky flips on Turn 3 and key tree placement
managed to flip squat markers so I could at least score off the strat and keep
Lillith from drying in retaliation from the enemy. The Doppleganger in the
meantime was causing trouble for the enemy, making Huggy come kill him while
flipping squats and generally being a nuisance. The surviving Sillurid was
frantically dropping scheme markers for Leave your Mark, and the Hooded Rider
redirected to one of the enemy’s Ten Thunders Bros, parking on his Leave Your
Mark Marker turn 3 and eating it Turn 4 to heal himself using Malifaux
Provides. This gave him enough wounds to slide up to the now undefended right
squat marker, flipping it for our team and letting us resume scoring for the
strat before he was punched to death by the Terracotta Warrior (btw, they do a
surprising amount of damage). Lillith, meanwhile, spent the end of the game
allowing herself to be lured towards the enemy deployment zone by an Oiran.
Huggy chased her down and managed to get her engaged Turn 4, but on Turn 5 I
rooted him, used Tangled Shadows to jump into base to base with the Oiran
(leaving Huggy’s melee range) and then maul the Oiran to keep myself safely at
full wounds. I knew Sensei Yu couldn’t come back to unroot Huggy, as he was
going to need to sprint for MY deployment zone for Jon’s Entourage. And, in the
end, the Sillurid managed to get enough scheme markers dropped and picked up
over the last set of turns without getting shot to death by Sidir, allowing the
game to finish in a 9-9 tie.
With my
greater differential, I managed to take down 1st place in the
tournament and, fittingly, won myself an alternate Barbaros model (I have a
metal Lillith boxed set, so I did not own a Barbaros. I was thoroughly pleased
with this.) Additionally, my Mr. Graves won the painting competition! I’ve
never won a painting competition before! So, yeah, it was a damned good day of
Malifaux in a very cool store. What more could you ask for?
***
Finally, don't forget the NRVFaux tournament, coming up in a little under 2 months time. It's a 50ss Gaining Grounds tourney with door prizes, con credit as bonus prize support with retailers at the show, and the standard Wyrd prize support. Come on down and check it out and, if you're coming, feel free to sign up through our tournament's Bag o' Tools page!