After a late sign up to a tournament organised by those
lovely folks at the Canterbury Crusaders saw me up at 4:30am on Saturday
morning to meet up with a couple of others from the Tractor Massive to head
down to Kent for Canterfaux (let’s just stick with calling it that shall we?)
Toting a bag stuffed full of Ressers I was still unsure whether
to use Tara or Molly but on the trip down I decided on the void queen mainly
because I haven’t actually played a game with Molly and I’m pretty familiar
with Tara, well that and I stood a better chance of not going home with ‘The
Rusty Tractor’ (A prize for the lowest placed player in our group) if I took
Tara, and with neither Spooner, Wrighty or Mark Sheppard being there the Tractor was
most certainly in play!
A friendly welcome greeted us at the venue and it was
great to meet / catch up with other players on the Malifaux scene. Seriously if
you are considering going to a Malifaux tournament and are a little worried about
all these weird wargamer types congregated in one place then don’t be, the
Malifaux tournament scene must surely be the most welcoming on the planet (some
of them are even normal people)
My welcome pack contained a 13 of Crows, which I decided
was a good omen, and a plethora of other cool stuff (I have to say I really
like the ‘claim markers’ which seem to be given away at most events now) and we
gathered for the draw for the first round. I was almost last to be drawn (as
was OldManMyke) but I avoided the Godfather of Malifaux and was drawn against a
chap whom I had previously established was playing Gremlins. In Reconnoitre.
Great.
Game 1 Tara vs
Sommer (Rufus) – Reconnoitre – Flank Deployment – LIS, Protect Territory,
Breakthrough, Frame for Murder, Outflank
Reconnoitre is probably my least favourite strategy and I
decided to try out the Spare Parts upgrade for the first time, I’m pretty sure
my list was
Tara (KOE, OS, SP)
Mortimer (CB)
2 x Belle
1 x Nurse
1 x Flesh Construct (to eat all those Gremlins)
1 x Necropunk
Rufus Has Sommer, a stupid amount of cheap green filth, some
flavour of LaCroix that I can’t remember and a Pigapult (+Stuffed Piglet). He
announced Breakthrough.
Here we Go, I thought, I’ve read the forums, I’ve (unfortunately)
listened to that Chasing Bacon podcast, I know for a fact that that Pigapult is
a load of crap and not worth the points. Turns out its quite good, who’d of
thunk it!
I declared Breakthrough and Protect Territory and Morty
started off by digging a load of corpses up then Tara did her thing summoning
some Guild Autopsies. I had deployed poorly and had to move my Belles around a
bit, the flesh construct started wandering up the table and the Necropunk did
some leaping.
Rufus summoned a shed load of gremlins, healed them with
a slop hauler and used the pigapult to launch the Lacroix and a load of
gremlins at me.
At this point I thought the he might have Frame for
Murder on Raphael so I set about him with a couple of Autopsies rather than
Mortimer.
I think it was turn 2/3 when I lost control of the
Strategy. The pigapult loaded up the stuffed piglet and launched it at the
Flesh Construct killing it and the Necropunk. Gremlins flooded this side of the
board and put down scheme markers, meanwhile Tara and some Autopsies had got control
of the other flank and started doing the same.
Strength in numbers showed and the Gremlins took more
points for reconnoitre but the game was decided when Raphael died from poison
placed on him by one of the Autopsies meaning Rufus didn’t get the points from
Frame for Murder.
Tara 7 (Recon
1, Protect Territory 3, Breakthrough 3) – Sommer
5 (Recon 2, Breakthrough 3)
A good fun game that I just managed to win on a ‘technicality
in the rules’ and very well played by Rufus.
The next game saw me play Ben Sime, one of the Malifools
and the conqueror of OldManMyke in the first round.
Game 2 Tara vs Mei
Feng – Stake a Claim – Std Deployment – LIS, Breakthrough, Assassinate, Plant
Evidence, Spring the Trap
Stake a Claim (or Stick a Clam) is a great strategy for
Tara, I went with
Tara (KOE, OS & Unnerving Aura)
2 x Crooligans
2 x Necropunks
Nurse
Chiaki
2 x Belles
Ben went with something along the lines of Kang, Mech
Rider, Metal Gamin, Shadow Effigy & something else (Rail Worker I think).
I deployed second and declared Breakthrough and Plant Evidence.
Ben declared Plant Evidence.
It started badly for me as I mis-deployed a crooligan
that was killed first activation by Kang. Ben then seemed determined to prove
how far Mei could move in one activation and sped her straight up the board
toward Tara. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to have many high cards left in his
hand and when I saw the bead of sweat appear on his brow as he cheated in a
high card to prevent her being buried I spammed it and got the bury on the
third attempt (Bye, Bye Ms Feng)
The Crooligan and Necropunks swarmed the right flank and
started deploying markers of all varieties and the Belles got in position to
undress things and make them slow.
The next turn Kang went to town on Chiaki killing her and
popping out Mei who was then paralysed by a Nurse (Ben didn’t remember until
the next turn that Mei couldn’t be paralysed and I didn’t know, if I’d have
known I’d have told him, honest)
Mech rider summoned a couple of things and generally
wandered around. I later found out that he was planning to use its drag trigger
to pull in Tara and ‘spring the trap’ but could because I had the masks for ‘Through
the Hole’
By this time Tara had positioned herself right in the
thick of Bens crew on the left flank and shut down their interacts while
handing out slow to everything. A spider managed to escape from a Belles
undressing and plant couple of evidences and the Metal Gamin just squirmed out
of Tara’s grasp to do the same in the meantime my Crooligan and Necropunks were
having a party and dropping markers left right and centre unopposed.
I think Mei killed the nurse before the game ended but it
was a comfortable win for me.
Tara 9 (Stake
Claim 3, Breakthrough 3, Plant Evidence 3) – Mei 3 (Plant Evidence 3)
Another fun game and I did feel a bit sorry for Ben as
Tara is a bitch in this strategy and it’s never good when you forget things on
your models cards (see game 4), at my first tournament I forgot loads but on
the other hand you hardly forget again if it turns out being crucial.
At the lunch break I grabbed a sandwich and caught up
with the guys, I think Henchman Lee (of BendyBoards fame) was sitting on 2
wins, Pete was a win and a draw and Mike was reserving a parking place for the
Tractor with 2 losses.
Game 3 was against a gent called Patrick and Yan Lo in
Reckoning.
Game 3 Tara vs Yan
Lo – Reckoning – Corner Deployment – LIS, Breaktrough, Assassinate, Vendetta,
Take Prisoner
I went with
Tara (KOE,OS)
Valedictorian
Student of Viscera (Or Sinew, whichever the ‘anti-undead’
one is)
Bette (Decaying Aura)
Bishop
Patrick went with Yan Lo, Izamu, Jaakuna Matata, Toshiro,
a spirit of some variety (Onryo maybe) & Detsu Ba
We deployed either side of an absolutely huge Buddah and
I declared Breakthrough.
The game was brutal, probably the most insane game of
Faux I have ever played. I set the tone by burying Bishop and throwing him in
Izamu T1 taking him down to 1 wound and declaring Vendetta. Turn 2 saw Bishop
finish off Izamu in short order and Patrick getting a point from Vendetta with
Izamu’s parting shot.
I think proceeded to plough across the board smashing
things to pieces left right and centre and trying to drop marker.
Partick re-summoned Izamu and killed Bishop and we had a
TO ruling that it was not the declared model for Vendetta as it was a new Izamu
not the original one.
During Turn 3 I realised Tara was the assassinate target
and I couldn’t keep her alive even with a bunch of soulstones and then the game
started to swing from what I thought was a comfortable victory to sweaty palms
time. In hindsight I should have put Eternal Journey on Tara to whip her back
to the deployment zone and out of harm’s way.
I didn’t quite realise how far away the deployment zone
was for Breakthough but I managed to get 3 markers down but in the last turn Patrick
pulled a smart move and swapped Yan Lo around with my Student allowing him to
remove 2 markers in the turn.
In the end it was a victory by the narrowest of margins
and a great game.
Tara 8
(Reckoning 4, Breakthrough 1, Vendetta 3) – Yan Lo 7 (Reckoning 2, Assassinate 3, Vendetta 2)
As I found my table for game 4 I was knackered and the
early start was taking its toll. I looked at the table and though, well I’ll be
OK as long as I don’t face guild.
My opponent was Paul and he was using Perdita.
Game 4 – Tara vs
Perdita - Recconniotre – Std Deployment – LIS, Assassinate, Protect Territory,
Entourage, Take Prisoner
My List Was
Tara (KOE,OS,SP)
Mortimer (CB)
2 x Belles
Nurse
Necropunk
Bette (Decaying Aura)
Paul took Perdita, Francesco, The other Ortega chappy,
Nino, a Pistelero and 4 guild hounds.
I declared Entourage (Tara) & Protect Territory. It
started badly and didn’t get much better. I deployed behind the cover on my
board edge and Mortimer dug up some bodies. I had one 10 in my hand which I
needed to save for Bette and so Tara failed to summon anything in the first
turn.
My hand was so bad that even the Belles were failing to lure
dogs and the only option I had with the Nurse & other Belle was to move
them up into the open where they promptly got shot.
At this point I was tired and just thinking ‘whats the
point’ so I must apologise to Paul if I was a little grumpy.
The Necropunk spent the entire game leaping backwards and
forwards trying to drop markers only to be stopped by Nino’s spotter ability
and just managed to hang on until the last turn thanks to hard to kill and
re-attach (love Necropunks)
The second turn was pretty much the same as my deck was
dishing out dross despite stoning for cards and Paul’s decks seemed to be made
up of 13’s.
It all changed end of turn 2 when Bette arrived in the
face of whichever Ortega buffs Perdita and tore him to pieces and then proceeded
to tear Perdita a new one and paralyse her.
Tara’s summoning began to come off a bit and the
Autopsies were slowly thinning out the dogs which had merrily been dropping
markers everywhere.
Bette once again tore into Perdita and I completely
forgot I had decaying aura as I’m pretty sure Paul used his stones to keep her
alive (See Ben, happens to the best of us)
There was some tricksy Ortega switching going on and the
Paul make a mistake by moving 2 models into the no score zone and I started
picking up points for recon.
In the meantime Tara had been nonchalantly walking up the
board completely indifferent to the fact that there was no cover and any Ortega
that shot at her saw the bullet go straight through the hole.
Last turn both masters made a break for the endzone, Dita
was just short and Tara had time to get there and drop a couple of markers too.
Mortimer’s contribution to the game was to dig up 2
corpse counters that I failed to summon anything from and hit a dog over the
head with his shovel. For 11 points I think he’ll be staying at home if I’m
playing things that drop corpse counters.
In the end it was the fact that Paul didn’t declare his
schemes that meant I had an 8-6 win.
Tara 8 (Recon
2, Protect Territory 3, Entourage 3) – Perdita
6 (Recon 2, Protect Territory 3, Entourage 1)
4 great games against 4 great opponents saw me knackered
as we waited for the scored to be totted up.
In the end I came in second as 3 people finished on 4
wins and Jan Proudly took the top spot with his dirty Wong (well done Jan) and
local boy Dave Hill finished off the podium placings.
I won a very nice trophy and a spiffing bag and to top
off a great day not only did I overtake OldManMyke in the rankings but he also
went home with The Rusty Tractor! (I expect I’ll be walking to my next tournament)
The best in factions then took part in some kind of gladiatorial
event which used the cards that had been given in the welcome pack. There was
much cheering but to be honest I was cream crackered and just crashed in the
other room.
So, thanks to all my opponents, everyone who turned up, the
organisers for a great day and the Tractor Massive for the lift and company on
the way down.
See you all in the future and if you haven’t been to a
Malifaux event yet then I suggest you do.
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