The first tournament of the year in our local store. I knew in advance that there would only be a limited number of participants this time, so I was happy that we reached a player count of 6.

The tourney was three rounds, with Schemes and Strats announced in advance:

Game 1:

• Deployment Standard
• Squatter’s Rights
  • Line in the Sand
  • Breakthrough
  • Distract
  • Make them Suffer
  • Take Prisoner

Game 2:

• Deployment: Flank
• Turf War
  • Line in the Sand
  • Protect Territory
  • Bodyguard
  • Plant Explosives
  • Deliver a Message

Game 3:

• Deployment: Corner
• Guard the Stash
  • Line in the Sand
  • Breakthrough
  • Assassinate
  • Entourage
  • Vendetta

 

=== Game 1 – Markus: Resurrectionists ===

His list:

• Kirai
  • Spirit Beacon
  • Swirling Aether
• Izamu
• Datsue Ba
  • Spirit Whispers
• Carrion Emissary + Upgrade
• Lost Love
• Chiaki, the Niece
  • Her upgrade, cannot remember the name right now
• Night Terror (proxied with something greenish)

Schemes: Breakthrough (announced), Line in the Sand (announced)

My list:

• Lilith
  • Beckon Malifaux
  • On Wings of Darkness
• Nekima
• Johanna
• Doppelganger
• Mr. Graves
• Mysterious Effigy
• Terror Tot
• Primordial Magic

Schemes: Breakthrough (announced), Make them suffer

Deployment

I’m not entirely sure, but I think I deployed first. Most of my forces start in the center, with some scheme runners on the flanks. Markus decides to deploy all of his forces on the right side (from my POV).

I was kind of curious about why he decided to do it this way, considering the strategy, but forgot to ask about it after our game.

 

Turn 1

I win the initiative flip and pass it to him. Markus activates Datsue Ba, who summons a Seishin,  Spirit Whipsers and walks up the board.

My Primordial Magic walks up the board before the newly summoned Seishin activates and does nothing.

The Mysterious Effigy 0-actions and walks up the board, just close enough to the Squatters marker to be able to tap it next turn.

The Carrion Emissary walks forward and casts Shards of Kythera (green) before going in Defensive Stance.

Mr Graves pushes Nekima, but I positioned him badly during deployment, causing him to not be able to push in base contact. So he simply walks up a bit, staying in a relatively secure position.

The Night Terror goes forward; so does Johanna and the Lost Love. The Terror Tot does it better by sprinting once. The Tot has been in a problematic position from the get go, as Markus’ forces all deployed on the same side of the board as it was. I figured I just try to rush towards the Squatters marker that was closest to his gang, while seeking cover from the forest. I was hoping I could distract him a little bit by making him having to deal with the Tot in order to prevent me from snagging up the marker.

Kirai is next. She summons another Seishin. The other one gets sacced to increase her cast by 2. A soulstone for a crow and a cheated cast makes a Hanged join the party. I’m not very happy about that, but I figure I better get used to it. Kirai ends her activation by walking forward a bit.

The Doppelganger copies Graves and pushes Nekima even further. Half an inch more, and Nekima could have been in base contact with the middle Squatters marker.

The freshly summoned Hanged moves closer to the Shards and the right outmost Squatters marker, where the Tot is making its approach.

Lilith follows next, flying close to the middle of the board and casting a defensive forest afterwards.

Chiaki moves forward and tries to make the Tot insignificant, but fails.

Nekima takes a walk to the Squatters marker and taps it. Izamu walks twice and that ends the turn. Before removing the Shards markers, Markus summons in his Mindless Zombie.

Turn 2

Markus wins initiative and passes it to me.

The Primordial Magic keeps walking towards his deployment zone. His Mindless Zombie walks to the Squatter marker on the right and stands on it, in order to prevent the Tot from taking it.

The Effigy I positioned before walks to the Squatters marker and taps it. His Hanged does the same.

I think it was at about this time that I decide to do everything to keep him from scoring strategy for as long as possible. I figured my best chance is to hold him off the markers and make sure to get full points for my schemes.

So I decide to make the Tot sprint to the other Squatters marker that was close to his crew and tap it (second to the right).

Datsue Ba Spirit Whispers, summons a Seishin and walks a bit.

At this point I’m fully committed to my plan. I fly Lilith right next to the recently claimed marker, place a forest right in front of it/her. I try to root Izamu and the Emissary, but only succeed on Izamu.

Seishin activates, doing nothing. Graves activates and pushes Johanna into a better position and then walks up a tiny bit further.

The Lost Love walks and tries to heal something. I cannot remember what, but it failed anyway.

Johanna walks towards the Squatters marker in the center, while the Night Terror flies towards Lilith’s forest.

I make the Doppelganger copy Graves push in order to get the Tot away from the Night Terror, as I expected it getting switched with Izamu, which would have gotten it in Melee Range despite its Rooted condition.

Chiaki is next. She makes Lilith insignificant and then dispells Izamu. I curse myself for not reading her card. I should know better.

With Izamu being live again I’m really wary of where to put Nekima. I need her to stay alive to score points for Make them suffer. So she just flies up the board a bit without over-exposing herself and goes Defensive.

I’m out of activations. Kirai summons another Seishin. Markus then takes some time to think about what to do next. He is nervous about throwing Izamu in the middle of my heavy hitters. Eventually, he decides against it and instead does a switcheroo on the Emissary and the newly cast Seishin, getting the Emissary in range of Nekima. Last but not least Kirai summons a Shikome with a sacced Seishin and heals her up a bit.

The Emissary focuses and casts on Nekima. Since he would have had the “do it again” trigger I decide to cheat. The attack misses. He casts his Shards.

The Shikome flies closer to the action; Izamu heals himself and walks into a better position.

The Shards get removed, spawning a Mindless Zombie close to Nekima.

1-0

Turn 3

I draw a terrible hand, despite Soulstoning. I then flip the Red Joker for initiative and decide to let him go first.

He activates Shikome and puts Advesary on Lilith, followed by charge. The first attack hits hard, the second one is reduced to 0 by Soulstone use.

My Effigy does its 0-action and walks towards Markus’ deployment zone. One of his Zombies walks closer to the action.

I need to put some pressure down and decide to charge Johanna into the Emissary, who receives a couple of wounds. Which the Lost Love heals right back up.

Graves then charges Shikome. He hits her once, making Ikyrio appear. I admit, I forgot about this due to my lack of experience with Kirai. I’m getting nervous.

Ikyrio smashes the Tot to pieces, takes a walk and pushes some of the Spirits closer to her.

The Primordial Magic does what it does best: Getting closer to where it needs to be – Markus’ deployment zone.

The Hanged charges Lilith. Black Joker and Soulstone prevention negate the damage completely.

No one is safe from the Black Joker in this game, so the Doppelganger, who copied Nekima, fails to hit Ikyrio even once.

The Mindless Zombie near Nekima attacks her and fails.

Lilith manages to get good hits on both Shikome (who already took some Black Blood damage) and Ikyrio and kills them both. She fails to root Izamu and leaves her forest as is. I score and reveal Make them suffer.

Chiaki slows Lilith and tries to 0-action her, but fails. She then walks towards my deployment zone, if I remember correctly.

I decide to not let Nekima kill the Mindless Zombie. It would make a guaranteed point next turn. She simply goes Defensive +2.

I’m once again out of activations.

Marcus flies the Night Terror into engagement with the Effigy. It is apparent that he wants to do everything to keep me from scoring Breakthrough.

Datsue Ba walks into better position and summons a Seishin. Kirai summons a Seishin as well. She then summons a Drowned on the centerline. She sacs the Seishin to summon another Drowned, killing the first one in the process. This grants him 2 scheme markers on the centerline – one for Finish the job, one due to Datsue Ba’s aura. Kirai then walks a bit closer.

The Emissary pushes Izamu into Lilith’s forest, getting him in Melee Range with most of my stuff that is near the center Squatters marker. The Emissary then focuses and tries to get some damage on Johanna, but Black Joker once again.

Izamu hits Johanna with all 3 attacks and kills her.

I am really glad that I managed to keep Markus from taking away the Squatters marker next to Lilith. I already managed to prevent him from scoring strategy twice.

3-0

Turn 4

I win initiative, with a Red Joker in hand.

I figure my slowed Lilith should be able to kill Izamu with the RJ. However, on the first attack I flip the Black Joker on Damage. The second attack, however, hits with a straight to the damage flip, which is bad news for Izamu’s health. Lilith then places her forest in a way so that Izamu cannot see her anymore. I was so focused to losing LOS to Izamu that I did not realize I could have placed it better.

Izamu then charges Nekima, which Markus desperately wants to see dead. However, he forgot about Defensive +2 and only manages to hit her once for 4 damage.

Nekima finally gets to show off her skills, and kills both Izamu and the Mindless Zombie, scoring me another point for the scheme. She then flies a little bit closer to the enemy deployment zone, engaging the Night Terror.

Datsue Ba summons a Seishin and walks further up the board. Graves pushes Ikyrio away from Lilith and – brilliant as I am – I actually manage to forget about his second AP.

Ikyrio punches Graves down to Hard to kill.

Doppelganger walks to the center Squatters marker to keep that one safe, just out of range of the Emissarys Cast attack.

A Seishin does nothing. The effigy hits the Night Terror. Chiaki places a Scheme marker and walks. The Primordial Magic walks into the very corner of the enemy deployment zone, which is also my last activation.

The Emissary then flies towards the Primordial Magic. Obviously Markus wants to see it dead before the end of the game. He also casts Shards of Kythera.

Kirai does her trickery with the Drowned again to get another 2 scheme markers on the centerline. A summoned Seishin helps with the casts. She then walks into Liliths forest and tries to hit Graves, but fails.

Another Seishin does nothing, the Night Terror attacks the Effigy. The Hanged puts more hurt on Lilith. She lives (barely), but a Seishin dies due to Black Blood.

The Lost Love heals the Hanged and the summoned Drowned walks around a bit.

I still keep him from scoring strategy. Good news, but I fear he might be able to keep me from scoring Breakthrough.

Turn 5

I really want initiative and cheat it with the Doppelganger.

I figure I can kill the Night Terror with Nekima with 2 hits and then place a scheme marker. But I totally forget about Hard to Kill and have to waste the Melee expert and 2 AP to kill it. At least it scores me my final point for Make them suffer.

Kirai walks towards the Effigy and summons both a Seishin and a Hanged, engaging the Effigy.

I need to figure out how to get 2 scheme markers down to win this. It takes me a moment. See, I am not one to use Tangle Shadows very often. Cast 5 wont let it go through against enemies very often. However, using it on your own troops is super effective. I need to remember this more often.

But first, I actually use Tangle Shadows on the Seishin next to Lilith. I place Lilith next to the Seishin and the Seishin next to her. This gets me out of melee range of The Hanged. I figure I should easily be able to move away from the Seishin. But he flips a RJ on the disengagement strike. I cannot believe it. I needed two walks to get the scheme marker close enough to the deployment zone. (EDIT: It just dawned to me, I think this would not have worked anyway, as Lilith was made insignificant by Chiaki until the end of the game) But then it dawns to me: I can teleport the Doppelganger next to the Effigy, as it can place scheme markers regardless of engagements. I do, and then place the Effigy pretty terribly within 1 inch of the Seishin. I was not thinking straight.

The Emissary does as expected and kills the Primordial Magic.

The Effigy has to successfully defend against the Seishins disengaging strike and luckily does so. She walks within 6 inch of the enemy deployment zone and drops a scheme marker.

Ikyrio tries to kill Graves but is very unlucky (First Black Joker on her side, then RJ on mine) – not that it would have made a difference.

Graves goes Defensive +2. The Hanged does not care and kills him, before  tapping the Squatters marker.

The Doppelganger drops another Scheme marker. The Drowned taps another Squatters marker.

Time was over at this point, so we knew there would be no flip for a 6th round. Markus scoops it up as he knew he couldnt prevent me from scoring full points for Breakthough.

As he tapped most of my Squatters marker the final result is

9-7 in favor of Neverborn.

[no picture. sorry]

Final words

What a game. Markus does not have a lot of experience with Kirai, and neither do I. But I know she can be devastating. I’m quite happy that I managed to take the win. I feel if he had been more aggressive with going for Squatters markers, this could have been a far closer result. Good game!

 

=== Game 2 – Marko: Ten Thunders ===

Marko is one of the newer faces around. He gave a friend of mine some trouble in the first round, though, so I was looking forward to playing against him.

His list:

• Jakob Lynch
  • Woke up with a hand
  • The Rising Sun
  • Misdirection
• The Hungering Darkness
  • Hidden Agenda
• Shadow Emissary + Upgrade
• Illuminated x2
• Beckoner
• Depleted
• Ten Thunders Brother

Schemes: Protect Territory (announced), Bodyguard (Huggy)

My list:

• Iggy instead of Terror Tot; everything else as game 1

Schemes: Protect Territory (announced), Plant Explosives

Deployment

Not much to say. We both deploy our forces evenly spread. I forget to deploy Iggy, but he lets me do it after he did. Thanks!

Turn 1

He wins initiative and passes it to me. Effigy 0-actions and walks, so does the Brother for card draw.

Graves pushes Nekima. One of the Illuminated walks forward, so does the Primordial Magic.

The Emissary pushes Huggy and gives it fast, before pushing it even further.

The Darkness kind of over-extended, so Lilith is able to fly forward, roots it and casts a forest to block LOS.

The Depleted walks towards the center. The Doppelganger then copies Graves push and pushes Johanna towards the exposed Illuminated on the left (from my POV).

The Beckoner lures Johanna twice, but only succeeds once – pushing herself in the process as well.

Johanna charges the Illuminated and, thanks to a Black Joker, does not do a whole ton of damage.

It is quite apparent that Marko is not very famililar with my crew. Even if you explain some stuff it can be really hard to get a feeling for everything. He moves the Illuminated up the board, under-estimating Nekimas melee potential. She annihilates the Illuminated.

Huggy can’t do anything. Iggy moves closer to Huggy and puts  Mood Swings on it.

Lynch draws 2 cards for activating last, mulligans, and walks forward.

Turn 2

I want the initiative and cheat in a 13.

Lilith roots Huggy, Lynch and the Depleted.

I force Marko to activate Huggy, which once again can’t do anything.

Unlike expected, Johanna fails to kill the second Illuminated, despite flurrying.

The Emissary pushes Huggy forward and then takes a walk.

Iggy puts Mood Swings on the Darkness once again.

The Illuminated walks closer to Johanna and hits her for quite some damage. He then heals some of the lost wounds back. I’m sick of that Illuminated and have Nekima charge him. He dies.

The Beckoner lures Nekima closer to the Emisary and Lynch. The Effigy 0-actions and walks behind Liliths forest.

Depleted attacks Nekima, I have to Soulsone once to prevent becoming brilliant. Graves then walks up the field a bit.

The Brother draws a card, walks and drops a scheme marker. I want to push the Primordial Magic up the board with the Doppelganger copying Graves, but I fail. I’m a bit bummed out by it, as I really need to get the Magic in the middle of his guys asap in order to score for Plant Explosives.

Lynch activates last on his crew, makes Nekima brilliant and Final Debts her for 6 damage, but I manage to prevent 3.

The Primordial Magic walks into a better position to set up for Plant Explosives next turn.

We both score strategy: 1-1

Turn 3

I get initiative and Lilith roots, as before, the Hungering Darkness. She then charges the Beckoner and Red Jokers her. She recasts the forest to block LOS to Huggy, but I’m not able to block LOS to every model of mine.

I force Marko to activate Huggy, which obeys Iggy and makes him walk into Huggys engagement range. He hits him twice but does not manage to kill him.

Nekima hits the Emissary twice, but fails to kill him thanks to a Black Joker on the third attack. Tough luck, as the Emissary manages to kill Nekima with a Straight Flip after Red Jokering the hit for the mask trigger. The Emissary then proceeds to cast on Lilith, but misses. He attempts to push Graves (I think, my notes are sketchy here), but fails.

I make Graves charge the Emissary, but like an idiot I once again forgot about Hard to Kill.

The Brother goes Mongoose Style and walks.

The Doppelganger walks to the Emissary, copies Graves and kills the Emissary easily, thanks to a Black Joker.

The Depleted misses Lilith and Johanna heals for 1. This was probably a major mistake, as Johanna was pretty terribly positioned. She had no influence on the board at all and I should have walked her up.

Lynch activates, makes Lilith brilliant and Final Debts her for a ton of damage. He uses Play for Blood on her again. I have no Soulsones left and Lilith dies.

Iggy burns Huggy for 3, the Effigy charges Huggy as well to bind it in combat.

Lastly, the Primordial Magic walks in range of Lynch and the Depleted and I sac it for 2 points for Plant Explosives.

We both score again for strategy: 4-2

I’m up in points, but I lost both Lilith and Nekima in one turn. I am not sure I can still take this.

[No picture. Sorry!]

Turn 4

I win the initiative and manage to have Graves reduce Huggys wounds to 0, only burying it in the process.

The Depleted charges the Doppelganger and manages to hit once, despite Manipulative.

Iggy puts Mood Swings on Lynch and puts down a marker.

I make him activate Lynch to prevent him from drawing more cards. Most of Lynches efforts are targeted at the Doppelganger. He deals some damage, but cannot kill it.

The Effigy moves up the board; the TT Brother goes Mongoose Style for a card again, walks and drops a marker.

Doppelganger fails to copy Graves’ push, moves up a bit and drops a Scheme marker. Johanna follows her. I would have liked to kill the Depleted, but that would have brought back Huggy which would have meant I’m screwed.

I score for strategy: 5-2

Turn 5

I win initiative. Iggy puts Mood Swings on Lynch and burns the Brother.

Lynch activates and uses Play for Blood three times. The first two kill the Doppelganger, bringing back the Hungering Darkness. He also hits Johanna with it, making her brilliant.

Johanna desperately flurries Huggy, but fails to kill it. In return, the Darkness consumes Brilliance. This does not cause a Horror Duel because Johanna already gained immunity, but it heals Huggy up 2 wounds (Depleted nearby as well), bringing it up to more than half its wounds.

The Effigy walks and drops a Scheme marker.

The Depleted misses Johanna. Graves charges the Depleted but fails to kill it due to a Black Joker.

The TT Brother walks in the middle of the 2 scheme markers.

No extra turns. He scores 3 for Protect Territory and 2 for bodyguard.

Final result: 9-7

[No picture. Sorry!]

Final words

Geez, that was close. Despite him being a new player and not really knowing what my crew does, Marko put up a good fight and did not make it as easy as I foolishy expected it to be at all! He is on the right track to becoming a great player. Good game again!

=== Game 3 – Bernd: Guild ===

The final game is against Bernd. He is one of the owners of the store and has been playing Malifaux since forever. Naturally, I’m quite nervous. I know he is playing a well thought-through Perdita list, with lots of pushes. I also know that I will have a hard time to put much pressure on him. The scheme pool seems problematic to me as well as the table, which is quite open in the center.

His list:

• Perdita
  • Trick Shooting
  • Vengeance Bullet
• Francisco
• Nino
• Papa Loco
• Abuela
• Santiago
• Watcher
• Enslaved Nephilim

Schemes: Entourage (announced, don’t remember on who), Assassinate

My list:

Same as in game 1, except the addition of Aether Connection on Lilith due to the Assassinate and my scheme choices.

Schemes: Entourage (announced, Lilith), Breakthrough

Deployment

I’m going to refer to the Stash markers as the left and the right marker from my POV. I deploy first. My goal is once again to try and make sure that I score strategy, otherwise I ll have a very hard time. So I set up my bunch as evenly across the deployment zone as possible.

Bernd on the other hand is focusing on the right side. What I fail to realize is how well positioned Nino is. I also fail to realize his reach, which shall proof fatal soon enough.

Turn 1

I go first and move the Primordial Magic along the left edge and it ends up in between  two houses.

Francisco buffs Perdita and walks behind a house. My Effigy then 0-actions and walks up the board.

Remember what I said about Nino and where I placed my Primordial Magic? Yep, it gets one-shot. Holding back tears etc.

Graves pushes Nekima and walks up the board some more.

The Watcher moves forward, so does the Tot, Santiago and Johanna.

Papa Loco buffs Perdita with the +flip to damage and walks up. Doppelganger walks up as well and goes Chameleon versus Shoot attacks.

The Enslaved Nephilim moves into a position that allows it to push towards Loco.

I decide to have Lilith move right next to the left Stash marker and place a defensive forest in front of her. Perdita pushes to Santiago, moves up the board once and shoots Graves down to Hard to Kill.

At this point I am pretty desperate and I figure “screw it” and fly Nekima right in the middle of the board.

Last but not least, Abuela lets the Nephilim push Santiago into a more defensive position.

This ends the turn. During the banter before turn 2 I suddenly realize that Perdita does not lose Francisco’s buff until he activates again. Once more I forgot about very important details of certain abilities. This needs to stop, as it can cost me the whole game easily.

Turn 2

I win initiative and go super defensive with Nekima, flying her behind Liliths forest/the left Stash marker.

Nino focuses and tries to kill Graves. An unlucky Black Joker on his end, however, saves Graves’ life. He immediately runs behind  Liliths forest and cowers behind it in fear.

The watcher moves to the right Stash marker. My effigy does its 0-action once again and then walks into cover behind a house.

Granny lets Loco walk to Perdita and then rolls to the right. I send my Terror Tot to the Stash marker. I really want that first point for the strategy, knowing that he will be pretty unable to get near the left Stash marker.

The Enslaved Nephilim pushes Perdita and Francisco closer together and I send Johanna to the right stash marker as well.

Loco activates in response, buffs Perdita and walks into engagement range of Johanna. I intend to use the Doppelganger pretty much only as a scheme runner and therefore make him sprint across half the board to the left behind a house.

Franciso buffs Perdita, moves and shoots at Johanna. Red Joker on the hit, as well as a max damage flip cause Johanna a lot of pain.

Lilith can’t do much. No targets to root and she needs to stay as save as possible. She ends up going Defensive +3.

Perdita moves to the right, kills the Tot and then walks a bit further. Santiago walks as well and goes Defensive.

Thanks to Johanna still standing I score for strategy.

1-0

[No picture. Sorry!]

Turn 3

I win the initiative. Johanna flurries Loco to death and ends up going down to Hard to Kill as a result of the explosion.

The Watcher tries to use Sky Eye on Nekima twice, but fails both times. The Effigy walks towards Lilith, 0-actions, and walks back in cover.

My notes on Franciscos activation are terrible. I think he tried to finish off Johanna but got very unlucky and was unable to.

Graves walks towards Nekima. I’m basically just trying to survive with as many models as possible.

Granny pseudo-obeys Francisco who finally manages to take Johanna off the board.

I’m undecisive about what to do with the Doppelganger. I have to admit that I was not entirely sure what to do during this turn. Since I did not know whether I had to move Lilith I moved the Doppelganger back, next to the left Stash marker.

Nino does not have LOS to anything and goes Defensive+2. Nekima is not using her activation for much else either. She simply flies further back, but still within range to the Stash marker.

Santiago moves up the board, towards the right Stash marker.

Once again I don’t know what to do with Lilith. I decide to ping Francsico, who has already activated, thee times with Vicked Wines. Because why not.

Perdita pushes towards Santiago and tries to kill the Doppelganger. I’m afraid I don’t remember if this was due to bad flips or to the Doppelganger having Chameleon active.

The Nephilim walks twice. No points for either of us.

Turn 4

Bernd wins initiative with a 13 and I am not able to cheat (and I don’t think I should have).

The Watcher flies closer to Nekima, attempts to eye her, but fails. Doppelganger walks towards Graves, behind the house, in order to get ready to drop a scheme marker in turn 5.

Nino puts some hurt on Nekima with the help of a Red Joker. Nekima has been rather useless in this game so far. I figure the best option would be to tie up as many of his models in combat as possible. I fly right into engagement range with Perdita, Francisco and the Watcher, which dies to Melee Expert. Bernds models win all the duels I caused by killing it.

In preparation to getting Perdita out of engagement with Nekima, the Nephilim pushes Granny in such a way that Perdita is able to push towards her later on. I send my Effigy to the left Stash marker and 0-action.

Abuela then activates, obeying Franc, who is able to jump to Nekima and pushing Perdita out of her engagement range. Great move! Granny then randomizes twice and the second shoot actually hits Nekima. The damage flip and trigger for extra damage cause Nekima to go quite low on health.

I kind of prefer Nekima over the Effigy, so I have Lilith make them switch places. She then flies to the very left of the board, behind a house. I feel that I am in a pretty good position to get Lilith into Bernd’s deployment zone on turn 5.

Santiago uses Rapid Fire against the effigy, despite cover. Still, he puts it down to Hard to Kill.

Graves attempts to push the Doppelganger into a better position and then moves towards the center, acting as bait.

Perdita pushes towards Francisco and hits Nekima like a train with Vengeance Bullet. One shoot action later and Graves dies as well.

End of the turn, no points for either of us.

Turn 5

I am really nervous at this point. I figure I have a chance at winning this, despite going against the odds. Lilith flies into Bernds deployment zone. He feels save, thinking that I am not able to drop a scheme marker thanks to Nino. But I place a forest right in front of Lilith, cutting LOS. My last AP is used to drop the desperately needed scheme marker.

Nino moves to regain LOS, shoots at Lilith, but flips a Black Joker.

The Doppelganger walks up the board and drops a marker, just within the 6 inch of his deployment zone.

Granny makes the Nephilim move a bit and then walks closer to the center as well.

At this point, Windows decides to do a Reboot for – what else – some updates.

But at this point nothing much else happens. Perdita manages to get a charge on Lilith, but fails to kill her, pretty much guaranteeing me the victory if there were no extra turns.

After some more models walk up closer to Lilith and the left Stash marker we flip for a 6th turn, but it was not supposed to be.

I score full points for Entourage and Breakthrough, Bernd only scores for strategy and 2 points for Entourage.

9-3 in favor Neverborn.

(Sorry about the picture, some of the models were already removed from the table)

Final words

Wow. What an exhausting match. I went into this without much hope and was close to throwing it when I got my Primordial Magic killed in the most stupid of ways. But I pulled through. I went for the strategy point, knowing that it would cost me models and I played Lilith as defensively as possible. In the end, I simply managed to score more points, despite only having like 2 or 3 models left.

Bernd later told me that he was sure he could kill Lilith. He did not expect me to not play her aggressively. I used to do this back in the days, but the control approach is so much more effective.

At this point I feel I have to thank Greg Piscosz for opening my eyes on how to use her.

And of course, I have to thank all my opponents from that day.

A long, but good day.

I do hate the prize lottery at the end, though… 😉

First battle report and I forget to bring a decent camera. The camera on my phone had to do. I promise I wont forget it on Saturday, when we have our first local tournament of this year.

Dominik and I spontaneously arranged a game in our local store. He was eager to test out his newly acquired Kaeris, while I relied on ‘my’ standard Lilith list.

Strategy: Squatter’s Rights
Schemes: Make them suffer, Take Prisoner, Breakthrough, Line in the Sand, Distract

Dominik: Arcanists

• Kaeris
  • Born of Fire
  • Purifying Flame
  • Blinding Flame
• Essence of Power
• Arcane Effigy
• Arcane Emissary + Upgrade
• Firestarter
  • Powered by Flame
  • Bleeding Edge Tech
• Willie
• Firegamin x3

Schemes: Breakthrough (revealed), Make them suffer

Me: Neverborn

• Lilith
  • Beckon Malifaux
  • On Wings of Darkness
• Nekima
• Mr. Graves
• Doppelganger
• Johanna
  • Retribution’s Eye
• Mysterious Effigy
• Terror Tot
• Primordial Magic

Schemes: Breakthrough (revealed), Make them suffer

Deployment

The board is set up pretty straight-forward. Those two slightly raised patches I like to call sandstorms. They follow the same rules as forests.

Dominik deploys first. Most of his forces start behind the little wall on the left, while the Emissary, Willie and a Fire Gamin start in the middle of the board. A lone Fire Gamin to the right as well. It is worth mentioning that the alternative Firestarter is the proxy for the Emissary and the Metal Gamin is the proxy for the Arcane Effigy (it’s not available here yet).

Most of my forces start in the middle-ish, with some models to the right.

Turn 1

I win initiative and pass it on to Dominik. He starts by activating the Emissary, who uses his 0-action on Kaeris and moves up the field a little bit. At the end of its activation the Fire Gamin nearby walks up as well, as a result of Flesh & Metal.

My Primorial Magic walks a couple of inches, without over-extending.

The Arcane Effigy puts it’s condition on Kaeris and moves up the board. My Effigy does the very same thing.

Willie moves forward and activates his 0-action, making it much harder for me to charge him.

The Terror Tot takes two walk actions, so does one of the Fire Gamins.

Mr Graves pushes Nekima up the board before partially hiding himself behind one of the sandstorms. I feel I never really know what to do with Graves after he does his pushes. I probably don’t play him aggressively enough.

More walks by a Fire Gamin, Johanna and the Essence.

I activate Lilith, spotting an opportunity to kill the Emissary at the beginning of the next turn. Two walks and I am able to Tangle Shadow Johanna into engagement range with the Emissary, switching place with a Fire Gamin. Dominik probably spotted his positioning mistake immediately. Lilith casts her signature forest as well, greatly improving her defensive capabilities.

The Gamin Lilith just teleported next to her attacked her, and puts a little damage and burning on her. My Doppelganger fails to copy Graves to push Nekima further up the board, due to a lack of cards I could spare. I needed to make sure I kill the Emissary first thing turn 2 and figured it should not matter too much if Nekima cannot get as up close and personal as I would have liked to see.

The Firestarter and Kaeris both move closer to Johanna and put pressure on her. By the end of the turn she has 2 wounds left.

Nekima flies towards Willie and puts some hurt on him.

I still have my Red and Black Joker in hand, which should allow me to set up a pretty sweet hand for turn 2.

Turn 2

I win initiative without having to cheat. Johanna flurries and has no troubles annihilating the Emissary. (I have to admit that a rather good draw helped a lot)

Kaeris tries to put some pressure on Nekima, also pushing her back in the process and setting up some Pyre Markers, in an attempt to keep her away from Willie. I send Nekima right into the fire, knowing that I can regenerate lost health easily if I managed to kill Willie. I do, causing both Horror and Willpower duels. One of the nearby Gamins gets pushed away, while the other, which is still in Nekimas range, gets paralyzed. It doesn’t stay paralyzed long, as Nekima cuts it in half quite easily, scoring me a point for Make them suffer.

The Firestarter goes reckless, burns Johanna and then hits a Gamin instead of her when randomizing the shot. His last action is used to fly up the little hill towards the Squatters marker.

Lilith activates next and has no trouble killing the Gamin, which already suffered damage from black blood twice. She flies up to the Firestarter and some lucky flips and a terrible damage prevention flip allow me to get rid of that annoying crazy guy as well.

It is starting to look rather bad for Dominik, but he is not one to give up.

The remaining fire gamin manages to put Johanna down to 1 life, pretty much insuring that she will die to her burning by the end of the round. Fine with me, she did her job.

The rest of the turn is pretty unspectacular. Lots of movement. Doppelganger taps Squatter marker, so does the Tot after cheating the Sprint with a Red Joker. ( I figured it’s worth it)

I score strategy.

2-0

Turn 3

Dominik is on his last stone. He thinks a while about reflipping initiative … and finally goes for it. I don’t mind.

He sends his Effigy to tie up Nekima and accomplices into Kaeris. She sets Graves on fire and kills the Tot, unfortunately creating a Fire Gamin in the process. He scores for Make them Suffer.

I activate Nekima and kill the Effigy by melee experting it and triggering Black Blood on myself, followed by a charge to the newly summoned Fire Gamin – which dies in a fire.

The remaining Fire Gamin charges Graves, but fails to impress. Graves shows the Gamin how it’s done and wipes it off the board. His last AP is used for strategy.

The rest of the crew primarily walks up the board. Lilith casts a forest in front of Kaeris and drops a scheme marker.

4 – 1

Turn 4

I cheat the initiative. Lilith roots Kaeris, who has no line of sight to anything other than the Essence.

Kaeris sets the ground on fire, but her lack of LOS makes it hard to place the Pyre Markers properly. The rest of her activation is spent on attacking the Essence. I am not entirely sure why. At this point it probably does not matter.

What Kaeris fails to do Nekima achieves. She also gets rid of the first couple of Kaeris’ wounds.

Eventually, Dominik decides to scoop it up.

10-1 in favor of Neverborn.

Final words

As I said in the beginning, this is the first time Dominik played Kaeris. His list was fairly experimental. That, combined with a couple of movement mistakes, allowed me to go through his models pretty easily. Granted, some good hands on my end obviously helped. But thats what this list is known for, isn’t it?

I really look forward to playing the next iteration of his list. I can say without a doubt that he is the best player in our community at the moment. His Shen Long list rips apart anything it comes across. And that list, from what I hear, took a couple of iterations as well to reach it’s full potential. I have no doubts that the next games against his Kaeris will get harder and harder.

Thanks for the game. 🙂