Saturday 18 October 2014

A Guest Blogger: Chris V Pete

So a good friend Chris Hay has been feeling like starting a blog and wants to 'try before he buys'. I thought this battle report was a good read and I hope you will to. Feedback always appreciated!

PS: He now knows he can't take retributions eye on Nekima, this is why we practice!

Over to Chris:

My first blog post so a little into I guess. I’m Chris Hay and one of the Elementals playing out of the NWGC in Stockport, Manchester, UK. Been playing Malifaux since March 14 so relatively new compared to these old 1.5 players :P Today I have for you a battle report from a recent game I’ve had!
I arrived at the Rees Residence (another one of the Elementals) early Sat morning and as Pete is historically a Gremlin player I brought the customary bacon so after a quick bacon butty we got down to business.
Outcast v Neverborn Battle Report
50ss Turf War
LITS, Make Them Suffer, Assassinate, Cursed Object, Bodyguard
Outcasts Crew – 50ss (Pete)
Von Schill -- 3 Pool
 +The Shirt Comes Off [1]
+I Pay Better [1]
Bishop [10]
Freikorps Librarian [7]
Freikorps Trapper [6]
Freikorpsmann [5]
Lazarus [10]
Vanessa [8]
Neverborn Crew – 50ss (Chris)
Lilith -- 4 Pool
 +Beckon Malifaux [1]
 +Living Blade [2]
 +Rapid Growth [1]
Primordial Magic [2]
Black Blood Shaman [7]
Doppleganger [7]
Nekima [13]
+Retribution’s Eye [1]
Terror Tot [4]
Young Nephilim [6]
Young Nephilim [6]



Playing on a great looking board (looks epic now and still a WIP so can’t wait to play on it when finished). My initial thoughts about the scheme pool, strat and Pete playing his outcasts was that it was going to be a very killy game which if I am honest I thought would be ok for me. So with that in mind and definitely deciding to take assassinate I knew I needed some highly offensive models (take a bow Nekima). I also took the new Neverborn upgrade that allows her to ignore armour making her weak damage always 4 (brutal) but that did cost me a whopping 14 points. With Assassination in the pool I tend to always take Nekima due to her built in birthright trigger on her attack meaning that she can kill Lilith during the game and turn into the leader herself for encounter purposes denying the opposition the Assassination points. I also thought that mobility was going to be important to try and shut down all his shooting otherwise a lot of my models would be dying very quickly hence why I opted for a terror tot and 2 young Nephilim with flight. I also made a mistake with crew selection taking a black blood shaman forgetting that Freikorp tend to ignore any auras so not effected by black blood. I blame this on Aidan Kirk who always raves about the black blood shaman so thought I would try one out as not really used one before.
After revealing crews we both decided on schemes and both of us kept them hidden making it a very cagey game. I opted for Assassinate and Make Them Suffer and it turns out Pete had done the same.
So onto the game, Pete won deployment so I had to set up first which wasn’t ideal as I couldn’t then position Nekima to get a clear run at Pete’s minions for MTS. I opted to deploy most things central and was also aware of Lazarus’s blast grenade launcher so didn’t bunch up too much. Pete deployed fairly central with a trapper and Lazarus out on one flank with good lines of site to the centre turf war area.
Setups




I didn’t take detailed notes due to time constraints so will bullet point the main points each turn.
Turn 1
·         I won initiative (think I did every turn in fact so didn’t need the doppleganger much in the end for this) and decided to go first as I had an extra model so activation control and also was a little worried at the tapper looking straight at Nekima so moved her out of harms way.
·         The rest of the round we just moved models up with the only two moments worth mentioning were Petes trapper focusing twice (once as a 0 action from Von Schill and 1 normal) and doing 5 damage to a young Nephilim.
·         Lilith tried to tangle shadows on Lazarus but failed due to Pete flipping a 13 and Laz having WP 7 due to being in Von Schills awesome bubble!
Bishop trying to sneak up on Lilith



Turn 2
·         I won initiative again so Lilith tangled shadows to bring Laz right into the heart of the Nephilim brood to prevent his blasty shooting and sending the damaged young the other way (basically sacrificing him). In hindsight was a bad idea as allowed an easy kill for von schill and a point for MTS. Lilith finished by rooting both Von Schill and Bishop.


·         Schill finished off the young for a point for MTS which Pete then revealed.
·         Dopple mimics Nekima and takes a lot of wounds off Laz.
·         Laz only manages to hits Lilith once.
·         Nekima finishes Laz off with 1 hit and closes in on the rooted Bishop.
·         The Librarian does a bit of healing up on nearby friendly models.
·         Both score for Turf War and Pete for MTS.
·         Current score Schill 2 v 1 Lilith


Turn 3
·         Nekima charges and kills Bishop.
·         Von Schill kills off the 2nd Young Neph (taken down to 2 wounds in an earlier round) for another MTS point for Pete.
·         Lilith charges Von Schill and they trade blows with the Librarian then healing Von Schill back up and Von Schill ripping his shirt off for more healing goodness.
·         Trapper shoots into the Lilith Von Schill scuffle and due to poor placing of Lilith on my part the trapper didn’t have to randomise as not within 2” of Schill. Fortunately for me the trapper black jokered doing no damage.
·         Both score Turf War again and Pete MTS. Current Score: Schill 4 v 2 Lilith.
Turn 4
·         I win initiative again and kill Von Schill (announcing assassinate for 3 points) but Lilith down to 3 wounds taking the score to Schill 4 v 5 Lilith!
·         Nekima disengages from Vanessa to lock up Pete’s un-activated models who could finish off Lilith but fails to kill either so still no score for me for MTS.
·         Vanessa charges Nekima killing her and freeing up the Freikorpsmann and Librarian.
·         Then concentrated pressure from the Librarian and Freikorpsmann on Lilith.  Lilith dies in the last activation of turn 4 giving Pete 3 for Assassinate (very close call!) with 1 focused shot doing severe damage!
·         Both score for Turf War and both Assassinate!
·         We wrapped it up there due to running out of time!
·         Final score: Von Schill 8 v 6. Win for the core but not many models left on either side. Vanessa will be washing the blood off her clothes for a very long time!
Most valuable player for me was Nekima and the dud of the day was the Black Blood Shaman who did absolutely nothing.
Lessons learnt for me: When assassinate is in the pool I need to be more cautious with Lilith. Make sure Nekima is close enough and remember to use birthright trigger on Lilith when she is nearly dead. Make them suffer is hard to do against Von Schill minions due to armour and hard to kill in Schills bubble. Should have taken cursed object instead! Also don’t take black blood shaman when the whole opposition crew ignore damage from pulses! STICK TO THE PLAN. Nekima was there to kill minions not kill juicy targets like Laz and Bishop who got me no points. Also don’t use tangle shadows with Lilith turn 1 or 2 just because I can. It uses all my high cards and a lot of resource so make sure I only do it when necessary and to score me points.
Petes thoughts: After the game I asked Pete for his thoughts going into the game and any post match. He went for an elite crew and his plan was lots of healing potential to minimise deaths, shoot lots and keep as many as possible in Schills bubble for the boosts to WP. He is always a bit nervous about facing Neverborn as always feels like he struggles so was a bit apprehensive. He tried to focus on killing my squishy models like the young and thought about trying to take out Nekima early if the opportunity arose. Bishop was to go straight for Lilith if possible. With crew set up and plans he opted for both killy schemes which proved a good option. With hindsight as Bishop did nothing he would perhaps go with Taelor next time and perhaps swap out Lazarus for Sue or a Strongarm.

Not sure if this blogging malarkey will continue but thanks for reading and if it does then see you next time!

No comments:

Post a Comment