Salt City Gladiator Games Recap - Part 2

Read Part 1 for the first-day recap.

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Almost all the pictures in this post came from the Intermountain Malifaux Facebook Group -- my phone died on the first day, and I simply forgot to take pictures on the second.  If you're a Malifaux player, or someone simply interested in the game, and in the Intermountian area, please come join us.

Other pictures came from the A Wyrd Place Facebook Group -- if you're into Malifaux, Puppet Wars, Evil Baby Orphanage, or anything else Wyrd, join that group.
The picture of the Henchman Hardcore game came from the TO's Twitter account.  Follow him!

Rail Golem sets up to smash The Judge.

Day 2 - Saturday, and the Gaining Grounds Malifaux Tournament

After about 6 hours of sleep, Saturday started off quickly.  After picking Evan up and grabbing some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast (sorry, everyone, their coffee is only slightly better than gas station coffee), we arrived at the Games about an hour after the doors opened.  Nothing had started, yet, and we were 2 hours early for the Malifaux tournament.

So, like the day before, we set up another fun game.  We knew we weren't going to finish, but Evan wanted more practice with Lilith and I'm always up for a game.  (This was the game that TFG basically asked us why we were even bothering playing if it wasn't for competitive points.)  I don't believe we made it through Turn 3 before we got kicked off the table, 15 minutes before the Gaining Grounds tournament started, which gave us enough time to hit the restrooms and pull all of our minis out of our bags.

Gaining Grounds, Round 1

Round 1

For Round 1, I was paired up against my regular Henchman, Clayton Driggs.  Standard deployment, Stake a Claim, with Breakthrough, Plant Explosives, and... two others.

Clayton was running his regular Perdita crew ('Dita, Francisco, Nino, Abuela, and two Pistoleros -- not sure about the upgrades), which I'd lost to before.  I opted to run Colette w/ the upgrade to make Doves, Cassandra with Smoke and Mirrors, Howard Langston (played by Miss Step), two Performers, two Mannequins, and a Mechanical Dove.

The table we played on for Round 1.  Not our minis, though.

I don't remember a whole lot about this game other than I got absolutely destroyed.  10-2.  I remember that Hank took out Abuela, and that I misunderstood Plant Explosives, and couldn't get a footing.

My takeaway from this was to not play a master I don't really know (I've played Colette a few times, but I've never won with her), and that I naturally gravitate toward aggressive crews so I don't know how to play reserved.

1 loss, 2 VP, -8 Differential

Round 2

Round 2

At this point I was kind of depressed -- getting beaten badly will do that -- but I was doing my best to not let it ruin my time.  (I knew why I was upset, and that it was largely my fault.)  Clayton pointed out that I'm usually a much better player, which kind of made me feel worse for my next opponent; at -8 Differential, I was in absolute last place and I knew I'd be paired against someone who was less familiar with the game.

The table for Round 2

Which I was -- for Round 2, I was paired against a player named Jake.  Round 2 would be his 3rd game of Malifaux -- he had experience in other miniatures games, so he wasn't a total novice, but Malifaux is weird.  This game was Close Deployment, Turf War, with Vendetta, Deliver a Message, and something that relied on Scheme Markers.. and maybe Make Them Suffer.

Jake was running a Lady Justice crew with Lady J, her totem, the Judge, three Death Marshals, a Guild Austringer, and an Exorcist.  I don't remember the upgrades at all.  This time, after I was destroyed in the previous round, was feeling more aggressive -- I ran Mei Fang w/ Seismic Claws and Vapomancy, Joss with Open Current, a Rail Golem with Powered by Flame, Howard Langston (played by Miss Tep, again), a Gunsmith, and a Fire Gamin (maybe... I remember having two Minions, but my second one didn't really do anything).

Despite the difference in Malifaux experience, this was a tough-ish game.  I'd played against Lady J before -- she was also the crew I had my original demo game with -- but I'd never seen Death Marshals' Pinebox used effectively.  On the first turn, I knew I wanted to take the Exorcist out -- my Gunsmith had a Vendetta against him -- and I knew I wanted to get everything I had up in the middle, on the tree-covered hill for soft cover against his shooting attacks.

After that, everything is kind of a blur ... Everything moved up, Miss Step got a great hit off on the Exorcist which gave him Burning from Powered by Flame, Joss was Pineboxed, the Exorcist ran away from Miss Step and right out into the open for the Gunsmith to get full points for Vendetta (Exorcist was already damaged, and Burning for the Gunsmith's Hard Way, and I believe I cheated in Severe damage).  Mei Feng put herself right in the middle, chain-attacking the Judge, Lady J, and all three Death Marshals, but not getting anything.  I'm sure the Rail Golem hit something, too.

The Austringer moved to send his bird after my Gunsmith.. over and over and over again, until the Gunsmith was dead.  Miss Step Delivered the Message, the Judge delivered his, Mei killed the Death Marshal with Joss in his box and Joss worked his way over to kill the damn Austringer.  The Rail Golem and was promptly boxed by another Death Marshal.

That Marshal was killed by Mei, who then attacked Lady J, missed, and was killed by Repost. Lady J attacked, but didn't kill, Miss Step, who ran away to the far edge of the Turf War area. The final Death Marshal started running for my deployment, the Rail Golem killed Lady J, Joss chased down and killed the final Death Marshal, and either the Rail Golem or Miss Step finished off Lady J's totem at the end of Turn 4.

I won, 9 to 6 -- I didn't reveal Deliver a Message, which kept me from full points.  Jake didn't reveal it, either, got 3 points from Turf War, and a final point from the ridiculous amount of scheme markers he was able to drop from Finish the Job.

1 loss, 1 win, 11 VP, -5 Differential

Round 3

Round 3

I ended up paired against Jake for a second time -- that -8 Differential, up front, really hurt me, keeping me near the bottom.  I knew Jake would be running the same crew -- he was borrowing the models -- which gave me an unfair advantage for hiring.

This round was Flank Deployment, Reconnoiter, with Arcane Ritual (which we both took), and three others that were unimportant as we both took A Line In The Sand and revealed everything.

The table for Round 3. These aren't our minis, though.

Again, Jake was running Lady J, her totem, The Judge, three Death Marshals, the Exorcist, and an Austringer.  This time, I ran Kaeris with Grab and Drop, Cassandra with Smoke and Mirrors, The Firestarter, Miss Step, a December Acolyte, and three Fire Gamin.

Jake won Deployment, and had me choose sides and deploy second.  The terrain had two large bluffs in opposite corners (which I had built my crew around, with Kaeris and The Firestarter), so I chose to deploy right on top of one of them.  I put The Firstarter and the Gamin on one side of my flank, and Cass and Miss Step on the other, with the December Acolyte deploying up in the corner where Miss Step and Cass were going.

This game was less fair -- I kept everything out of range of the Austringer, utilized Miss Step and Cass' Nimble to start dropping Scheme Markers immediately, and sent a Fire Gamin and the Firestarter toward their quarter to hopefully drop more markers.  Jake ran his Exorcist and all three Marshals toward that same quarter -- they ended up killing The Firestarter first or second turn, before I could do anything with him.

Kaeris used Grab and Drop on The Judge, killing him with 6 damage (Jake didn't care to cheat up his flip -- falling damage is one of those things you don't really understand until you take it), and attempted it on Lady J.  Cass finished off Lady J -- it took both attacks from her Charge, plus the trigger that allowed her to Grab and Drop Lady J, since Kaeris was close enough.  Kaeris then moved to Grab and Drop the Austringer, and moved him right in line to be charged and killed by Miss Step.

I didn't want to move my December Acolyte, so he killed Lady J's totem, probably dropped a Scheme Marker, then stayed in his uncontested quarter.

Cass or Miss Step ended up finishing off the Exorcist, who had wandered away from the Death Marshals.  The Marshals turtled up in their quarter, realizing the game was lost, and I moved the two Fire Gamin out of their quarter to try and kill the Marshals.

Cass and one of the Gamin were killed by a Marshal.  The other Marshal Pineboxed Miss Step, and was promptly killed by the last Fire Gamin, dropping Miss Step right next to the final Marshal.  Kaeris moved up and removed the Scheme Marker in my opponent's deployment.

At this point, it was the end of turn 5 ... we flipped a 13, and kept going.

Kaeris dropped her own Scheme marker, then passed her two actions.  The Fire Gamin didn't want to shoot into Melee (I think Miss Step was injured enough that there was a potential to kill her), so he moved back into his starting quarter.  Miss Step Flurried, and the Death Marshal successfully dodged each attack.

End of turn 6... we flipped an 11, and moved into Turn 7.

The Death Marshal couldn't kill Miss Step, and Miss Step missed all 3 attacks of her Flurry again, and nothing else was in range to do anything.

The final flip was a 3, and the game was over.

That Death Marshal earned his stripes, surviving two full Flurries from Miss Step, and actually finishing the game!

I don't remember the Differential -- I had a full 10 VP (3 corners had my Arcane Ritual markers, Cass had single-handedly dropped 4 markers for A Line In The Sand, and I controlled all 4 quarters), but Jake had earned a few VP from... something.

At the end, I was 2 Wins, 1 Loss, with 21 VP and my Differential was either + or - 2.

How it all ended.

I ended up pulling 5th out of 10, much better than I'd expected after the crushing defeat in the first round, and snagged myself a Relic Hunters box set.

After all was said and done, Evan and I wandered off to play our usual Saturday Pathfinder game.  It was an absolutely awesome weekend.