Monday 16 March 2015

ToMB2 - Lemonentry

Last week was pretty full on as I attempted to get all of my ToMB2 (Tale of Malifaux Bloggers 2) toys ready for a tournament running this Sunday. I basically had to get almost all of my pledge for this month painted by Sunday, all bar one nurse. Thankfully, almost at the last minute finishing Sunday, I managed to get them done and could rock up to the tournament with a fully painted crew. Of course, this meant I only used the same list every game, but to be honest I didn’t feel that handicapped by that. Rather than put all the pictures of my painted toys here I am going to use it up to break up the text, hope you don’t mind. So what happened in my games?



 Well round 1 I was matched up against Brookes. A sguig I have faced a few times in Sheffield, it turns out each time I have played him I have played a different faction! First time we fought I was thoroughly smashed, second time it swung the other way, so what would happen in the third. Well all my initial plans were put to waste when he declared Leviticus as his master. With not much chance of scoring for assassinate (and never 3 points) and absolutely none for spring the trap, which is what I wanted to use, I declared entourage on Seamus and protect territory. Brookes had announced entourage on Seamus and had hidden assassinate. Leviticus vs Seamus is an interesting game. On the one hand Seamus is one of the best masters to go hunting waifs that there is, demonstrated that in turn 2 I had eternally buried Leviticus. Abominations, however, are my crews bane. The highlight for me was when I realised I could comply Leviticus with Sybelle and make him take 2 wounds when he performs and action… even walking! However Brookes had taken a crew of very hefty beaters. Rusty Alice, Hannah and Johan all rocked minimum damage 3 and took more killing than I could dish out. Though I was losing on Turf war because of this, as long as Seamus stayed alive in his deployment zone and held onto my protect territory I’d still come out on top. This is where abominations came in. With Rusy Alice respawning them when they die, they prevented Seamus using his zero and disappearing out of harms way. Hannah also stopped Seamus being lured because of her anti-suit aura. In the end it all came down to the final flip, a TN 10 defence duel on Seamus which if he passed then I won. He failed and the one card in hand was not enough to keep him alive. Curses. Still, when the scores came out it was a 5 all draw. Killing Seamus hadn’t lost me protect territory because I still had a belle on the markers and he didn’t have more than me. Small mercies.

Thinking back on it now there were plenty of things I should have done. I could have used Seamus’ backhand to push away from the abomination so that I could 0 again. I should have gone defensive with Seamus in the last turn rather than pointlessly hitting Alice. I don’t feel too bad about this though. The game was fantastic, a nail biter through out. Brookes, as ever, was a gentleman and a great fun opponent.



 Second game I was drawn again Mike Taylor, fielding his beautifully painted Lynch crew. I was fairly confident in this game, I must admit. I have played using Lynch a fair amount so I was confident I knew the strengths and weaknesses of his crew. The game started out rather ominously as I black jokered a back alley with Seamus, preventing me from starting to unleash pain until a turn too late. This meant that Mike had scored breakthrough and there was very little I could do about it, however I still needed to cull some of Mike’s numbers otherwise it would make recon really difficult. This was another great game, more nip and tuck and models jumping around all over the place. In the end of the day, however, Seamus’ ability to hop into almost any quarter he wanted meant I could keep control of quarters. Final score 10-7 to me.



 So one win and a draw still me still in the race for a podium place, albeit it at the back of the pack. I even had a fair chance of not being matched up against the top players. Or you might have thought that… I actually got matched against another sguig, third place at the GT and masters qualifier Blutac Bursnell. Sigh. Don’t get me wrong though, blutac is a lovely guy but I had a feeling which way this was going to go. Announcing 10T McCabe in Headhunter I already knew it was going to be tough. The ability to push all of his models meant that he can get them out of combat ready to pick up head markers. Things got a lot more difficult when he killed Seamus first activation of turn 2! The reactivating Dawn Serpent, rather than running off to drop a scheme marker for plant explosives like I thought it would, dived on Seamus and in 4 attacks took him down to his hard to kill with millions of poison. Losing the initiative in turn 2 meant the mad hatter was no more. Although on the back foot from then on, I don’t think I did too badly. An unfortunate black joker to lure a model saw me unable to remove the last card from blutacs had and get reactivate on my flesh construct which is what I needed to score for headhunter turn 2. When the smoke cleared at the end of the game all, I had very few models left but managed to hold out for a 9-8 loss. Another fantastic close game and loads of fun.


 So counting it all up at the end of the day 1-1-1 of win, loss and draw puts me smack bang in the centre of the pack. Not to go home empty handed, however, I was voted best painted crew and got myself a shiny trophy. Awesome stuff! Thanks to everyone who voted for me! I must say there was some fantastic crews on display, special mention going out to Cy and his creepy shadows on the bases of his Neverborn and Mike’s beautifully smooth Lynch crew I mentioned before.



 Overall a fantastic day with really fun games. What more could you want?

It’s also given me plenty of food for thought with Seamus. I’ll probably put up another ramble tomorrow to discuss it. I’ve said it before, but I think tournaments really do give you the best chance to improve your game and reflect on what you have done. Maybe next time I can turn that draw into a win? I suppose it depends on how long I can resist the lure of the green menace I suppose…

1 comment:

  1. nice write up, you did pretty well for an unchanging crew selection, testimony to Seamus place as the Resser's best all-rounder.

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