Kirai vs McMourning

After a quick visit to the Cavalier 2012 show in nearby Tonbridge, myself and Bull negotiated the 'Annual Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon' disruption of the traffic to get back to his place and get a game going. Needless to say I took the scenic route and sat in traffic for an hour!

It's been quite a while since Bull last played Malifaux – against my Perdita crew – and I am still learning the finepoints of Kirai, so this was not going to be a quick game. He took the same crew as he did back in September, I took a fairly standard and by now familiar lineup.

We flipped for Strategies, Bull got Destroy the Evidence and I got Contain Power. There was no realistic way that Kirai was going to kill McMourning making it unlikely to get 4VP for that, so I had to choose Schemes that were achievable. I chose Bodyguard and Breakthrough – Bull had to come to me to destroy the Evidence token so was unlikely to have anyone remain behind; he was also unlikely to be able to kill my master without a concerted effort given his lack of experience fighting Kirai. Bull chose Grudge (or could have been Kill Protegee) on Datsu-Ba and Stake a Claim.

Bull's crew consisted of McMourning, Zombie Chihuahua, 2x Canine Remains, 2x Rotten Belles, Nurse, Sebastian and a Convict Gunslinger.

I had Kirai, Lost Love, Datsu-Ba, 2x Insidious Madness, 3x Seishin, Canine Remains and Desperate Merc.

The First turn started as expected with McMourning and his dogs killing each other to create enough bits to summon a Rogue Necromancy. On my side of the board the dog and merc hit each other to set up Datsu-Ba's summoning tricks. Unfortunately the Merc decided he didn't want to die today and took three turns to go down.

The Gunslinger headed straight for the Evidence token in the middle of the board; an Onryo summoned by Dasu shot him and he was finished off by a lurking Shikome who then moved off to the side to intercept Sebastian and the two Belles. The Necromancy mugged the Onryo and the fighting had begun in earnest.

Next turn the Shikome battered Sebastian, including a couple of poison tokens, before taking quite a few hits back. However, luck was to be on my side with the cards today and I flipped sufficient cards to prevent death. She was swirled back to Kirai and healed before being sent back in to face the Necromancy. I also summoned Ikiryo to the centre to take down the three headed beast, but McMourning saw the danger and came steaming in.

This set the tone for the game and the ruined church became a killing ground and as fast as I could hurt McMourning the Nurse just healed him, and as fast as Bull killed my Spirits I summoned more. It was a war of attrition he was unlikely to win without cutting off the source, and after a couple more turns of mayhem and death the Necromancy dropped, followed by the Nurse – Datsu-Ba had been swirled into the mix and managed to use Harvest Sinners on the grouped enemy, including a trigger hit against McMourning, and this broke the back of Bull's resistance.

Having already killed 2 Shikome, Ikiryo twice and having lost the Nurse, McMourning was on a downward spiral. The Insidious Madness lurking above made sure all his defending WP flips were negative and he still faced 2 (new) Shikome despite the Belles coming to his defence. Eventually he dropped to the Red Joker I had been holding for a couple of turns (as I said the cards were on my side this time). There was not much left to do so we called it at the end of Turn 4. The final score was a misleading 6-0 to Kirai.

A very enjoyable game, which was a lot closer that it seemed. The fact that my models did not drop Corpse Counters made a big difference to proceedings – McMourning would have been summoning monsters as quickly as I was! Lots to think about in the aftermath and Bull eager for a rematch I'm sure.

Malcontent on hiatus

Yes, I've made the decision to take a break from the bases for a couple of months.

The reaction to the bases – Bamboo series especially – has been great in the main. I've come under some criticism for not having a pressure casting arrangement (seriously…in my kitchen?!) as well as not expanding the range quickly. This has been tempered by some great feedback from people who bought the bases and have used them.

The plan was always to expand the range – and still is – but the project has got to the point where I'm spending what little hobby time I have making bases for other people and not actually spending time on my own hobby. That was never the deal. In addition, after long hours at work and juggling domestic duties, etc. I spend my evenings packing and posting orders. Basically it has become a second job at a time when I don't have the time.

I'd like to say a big thank to you folks for buying the bases and all the interest shown in the Malcontent project generally. The response since New Year has been phenomenal and the bases I had in stock sold out in 3 weeks.

I will be taking the next couple of months – or so – away from the base selling. I will be expanding the range a little and casting up some new stock, then around Salute 2012 time – at the end of April-ish – I will post some more sales up on Ebay. Ideally I need to find a third party to cast up the bases in bulk and take that responsibility away from me so that I can concentrate on designing new stuff, but that is more of a long term goal.

Over the coming weeks you should see more general hobby posts, painting, etc on the blog. I will post any new base designs I've done and keep everyone up to speed on progress so stay tuned.

Kirai vs Rasputina

After a week's break from gaming – I had taken some time off work – it was game time again. Fugs threw a curve ball into the mix by fielding Rasputina instead of his current mistress Lilith.

I had had plenty of thinking time (and time to buy more stuff) and decided to try a mix of new and old.

Strategies were flipped: I got Slaughter and took Bodyguard and Kill Protegee as Schemes; Fugs also flipped Slaughter and took Bodyguard and the Raspy mirror specific Scheme.

My crew consisted of Kirai, Lost Love, Canine Remains, Deperate Merc, Datsu-Ba, 2x Insidious Madness, 2x Seishin and 1x The Drowned.

Fugs took Rasputina, Essence of Power, 2x Silent Ones, 1x Gamin …and Taelor.

The game itself was intense and quite a blur to me now. It ebbed and flowed and it was impossible to predict who would win. I started with my usual shenanigans – taking the Merc and Dog down to one wound so Datsu could create Gaki, although I was hoping for Onryo with the trigger. Alas my starting hand was devoid of any crows which would hamper my opening activations.

By the end of turn one I had two Shikome on the board hunting the Gamin. They tried to cast Guaranteed Fate on him with no luck and tucked back into cover to avoid any reprisals. In turn two Datsu managed to create a Gaki and an Onryo and Kirai summoned a second Onryo. By the end of the turn I had 12 models on the board to Fugs' 6. It was still very cagey though – I was nervous about Taelor and all the magic spells facing me, Fugs wary of the sheer numbers facing him.

I threw out a couple of bait models and Taelor went for it, killing an Insidious Madness and leaving the Gamin and a Silent One unsupported. I moved The Drowned into a clearing in melee range of Taelor and the other Silent One and cast Drag Under successfully, moving Taelor 3" nearer to my awaiting troops. The Drowned was then killed, dealing 2 Damage to these nearby enemies.

A series of mistakes undermined my strike at this point. I swirled Dasu into melee with Taelor, having already activated her (doh!). There was a tiny slither of a Seishin base visible from behind cover which exposed Kirai, Lost Love, a Gaki and 2 Seishin to a December's Curse blast. Kirai and the Gaki managed to survive but this threw a spanner in the works. On the plus side the Onryo in base with Taelor manage to land 5 wounds in one hit which was something of a silver lining.

The following turn saw Taelor engage with Datsu, the old dear managing to frustrate her opponent by  taking all three melee hits to die. I summoned Ikiryo who managed to NOT kill Taelor, the heavyweight Onryo finishing off the job he'd started earlier. Alongside all this Rasputina (and the EoP) was having a field day blasting the rest of my crew to pieces – even killing her own Silent One in order to polish off an Insidious Madness and Onryo out of LoS.

The game went to turn 6 and by the end I had wiped Rasputina and her crew off the board, but Fugs had killed over 50ss worth of my models!!… not bad for a 30ss game.

The final score was 6-4 to Raspy.

Post game thoughts were positive. I made some shocking mistakes – I blame the week's break – and I was far too cautious for the opening half of the game; when I was bold (especially with the Shikome) things started to die. Considering my Terrifying was negated by the opposing crew and I was facing all Magic attacks I was pleased with how things went overall. It was a good alternative to facing the Lilith melee crew, and even Fugs saw Raspy in a different light after being Sonnia's punchbag for such a long time.