Totengräber's Workpläce

Joel and I agreed to meet up at Gamerz and play a bit larger Malifaux game at 35 soulstones  rather than the “starter box” size of 25 or so soulstones. we also used Strategies and Schemes. Strategies are objectives both players are going fo as their main victory method. Joel flipped Reconnoiter (end game with a model in each of 4 quadrants) and I flipped Claim Jumper (have models touching a piece of terrain in the center of the board). Schemes are extra objectives that award a smaller victory point total. I decided on Bodyguard with Pandora as the target (make sure the model survives the encounter) and Eye for an Eye (end the game with one more model or equal models to the enemy). If you reveal a Scheme, it awards you extra victory points for completing it; I revealed Eye for an Eye. We flipped for deployment and got the one where we each deploy in opposite corners in an 8″ square.

According to the book, we are supposed to decide on our crews after all of this is decided, but both of us did it ahead of time to make it get started faster. In hindsight, with the small number of figures and the small soulstone costs, I think it would have been fine, though most of us don’t have enough models to make too many changes.

My Crew:

• Pandora
• Candy
• Baby Kade
• Sorrows x3
• Killjoy
• 7 Soulstones

Joel’s Crew:

• Rasputina
• Ice Golem
• Joss
• Ice Gamin
• Hoarcat Pride x2
• 7 Soulstones

My first 6-card hand had nothing lower than an 11 and had the Red Joker, so I kept all of them.

First turn was each of us moving closer for our objectives. I probably made the mistake of spreading out a bit far from Pandora, but it didn’t seem to matter much later. I had a Sorrow linked to Candy and one linked to Kade. Pandora moved through some woods to get into position and the third Sorrow went solo, the idea being that he’d be the one to get sacrificed to summon Killjoy.

Later on, a Hoarcat Pride charged Kade and did a bit of damage and then attempted Devour, which ‘ate’ Kade. Luckily, Joel realized he couldn’t do both a Charge and a Devour due to lack of action points (whew!). Kade then returned the favor and Backstabbed/Struck the Hoarcat Pride and finished them off. The second Hoarcat Pride saw the carnage and decided to hide behind a building. Joss moved around a building to threaten Candy, while holding three Power tokens. Rasputina did a couple of Biting Chills on Candy through the Ice Golem and the Ice Gamin made for the center of the table.

I sacrificed Candy’s Sorrow and summoned Killjoy on Turn 3 (I’d almost forgot!) to get between Joss and her. Joss proceeded to lay the beatdown on Killjoy and killed him. Before dying, Killjoy got off two attacks thanks to the Onslaught trigger to leave Joss with just one wound left. Turns out that the way Joel had done the power tokens was wrong and Killjoy likely would have survived, but we decided to stick with it the way it was. Candy then cast Self-Loathing on Joss and he failed the Wp resist. Pandora’s emotional Trauma finished him. Candy healed herself a bit and later received a charge from the Ice Golem. Some damage was done, but Candy survived. Pandora cast Self-Loathing on the Ice Golem and got off her trigger making him fall back. She then cast another spell on the Ice Gamin to make it do Wp duels on any of its actions. This caused one wound, leaving it with one or two. The Hoarcat Pride moved down the side of the board to try and help complete Reconnoiter.

Kade, with two wounds left wanted to really kill the Ice Gamin so that it couldn’t count for Reconnoiter, but the Ice Gamin has an ability called Shatter that deals 2 damage to anyone in 2″ when it dies. Kade decided to move to one side of the center of the board and cast Lure on it to displace it from its position. Kade’s Sorrow charged the Ice Gamin and finished it and took two damage from the blast. Being turn 6, I still needed to get at least one of my models on the terrain feature in the middle of the board to complete Claim Jumper. Pandora moved as fast as she could toward it, but fell short. Candy, who’d been charged by the Ice Golem earlier in the turn, successfully disengaged from the combat to make it to the objective. We then flipped to see if the game ends and it did.

Joel got 2VP from Reconnoiter and I’d gotten 4VP from Claim Jumper. Joel’s Schemes were Bodyguard (Rasputina) and one I don’t remember. I completed Bodyguard for 1VP and Eye for an Eye for 2VP. So I won 7VP to 3VP.

A very fun game. I like the bigger Scraps a bit better than the 25ss games. As always, Joel was a great opponent. Of course, we messed up a few things in the game, but all in all I think it went well.

Right before we set up for the game, I’d flipped my Army Transport and ended up breaking a few figures and scratching the hell out of a few others. Luckily, Pandora’s paintjob got fixed this morning and is no worse for wear. The Rotten Belles’ parasols will need to be reattached and a Punk Zombie lost an arm. These will be fixed probably over the Labor Day weekend.