On my first day back at the club I had a game against Wills and his Dreamer crew. I was happy to see a new master in game but I was also a bit uneasy as they have got quite a reputation on the forums. I very soon realized why.
We flipped an outside location and Hag's territory; for special event the Ancient Monument came out that we placed at the centre of the table.
Wills strategy was Treasure Hunt and I got Claim Jump that I put in the high weedy marsh area on my left.
We decided not to take any schemes as it was only Wills' second game of Malifaux. (Although he played like a pro already so I don't think we will need such restrictions next time)
Crews
Wills - Dreamer / LCB
Coppelius
2 Stitched together
3 daydreams
5SS cache
Ish – Seamus
Copycat Killer
2 Belles
2 Crooked men
Convict gunslinger
3SS cache
Deployment
We got standard deployment and I had to deploy first. I split my crew in 3 parts hoping that each of them is strong enough to stand the nightmares first rush on their own, giving a chance to the rest to catch up and help out. So I had a belle and the gunslinger on the left, Seamus and a crooked man not far away in the middle and the remaining belle, crooked man and the copycat on the right.
Wills only deployed the dreamer and one daydream on his left behind a giant tree stump, keeping the rest of the nightmares in the Dreamer's head.
Decks re-shuffled and hands drawn, we got the game going!
Turn 1
Dreamer won initiative, moved up behind the tree stump with the daydream and popped one stitched right next to the treasure counter.
I moved up keeping my formation but Seamus drifting to the right a bit, hoping to stop the stitched somehow.
That of course didn’t happen and the stitched activated, picking up the counter, moving back a bit and popping fog. From this point I had no LoS to him so the only way of stopping him was to get up close enough. Obviously the Dreamer was not going to sit and watch me doing that.
Turn 2
Dreamer won initiative, moved across from behind the tree stump into the high grass, getting soft cover, and popping all the nightmares right in front of my advancing crew, blocking my claim marker. Two well placed shafted markers scared them off, however so I got to keep them at bay for now. I managed to kill one daydream that was annoyingly close to the Dreamer, then Seamus run up and took aim at him with his flintlock. Won the duel 17-16 and the Dreamer couldn’t cheat or soulstone it any further so I was sure I would take him down. All I needed was a moderate damage on a (-) flip, but even a weak would have caused him trouble. First card: 10 of Rams, second card: Black Joker. So much about my high hopes.The stitched carrying the treasure ran even further and popped fog again. A daydream turned the Dreamer into Chompy and attacked Seamus, not causing any wounds thanks to a Black Joker on the damage flip, then turned back to the Dreamer, failing to do anything notable. At least I was not the only one with bad luck. I tried to run up the Copycat killer and swap places with Seamus but unfortunately the little bugger was too deep in the high grass and could not see anything.
Turn 3
This was the most crucial initiative flip in the game and the Dreamer won it. While Seamus was desperately trying to fix his jammed flintlock the Dreamer cast some de-buff on him, giving (-) on defence flips against nightmares. Then he turned into Lord Chompy Bits and started chewing through Seamus’s legendary arsenal of survivability taking him down to 1 wound in 3 attacks, triggering an extra attack and finally killing him. On my left Coppelius charged the belle-gunslinger duo, knocking the Belle down to 1wd, miraculously not killing anything. The gunslinger shot back thanks to ‘Gunfighter’ causing 4 wounds. With Seamus dead I had no chance of winning but a draw was still possible so that’s what I had to aim for. LCB turned back into the Dreamer and run back into the safety of the marsh. I started slowly advancing, dropping shafted markers and luring stuff into them. I managed to kill another daydream and wound a stitched.
Turn 4
Dreamer won initiative.
Not entirely sure what happened in this turn but Coppelius killed a belle, further wounded the gunslinger but failed to make him flee. The gunslinger in return killed him and stayed alone out in the open. More stuff got lured into shafts and then the nightmares rearranged around my claim.
Turn 5
Dreamer won initiative, popped LCB and killed the gunslinger. For some reason he didn’t turn back into the dreamer so I got to drop a blast on the whole bunch standing on my objective. It went off of the stitched, giving it 2 wounds, killing a daydream and wounding LCB too. Now with the daydreams all dead and Chompy already activated the Dreamer couldn’t come out anymore. I managed to paralyze, then kill the stitched too (that still got reactivate and wounded the belle) so I was getting close to that draw.
Turn 6
I won initiative (finally)! Instead of rushing things I activated the crooked man on the left, dropping 2 markers. One right in front of Chompy, and one a bit closer between my belle and the other miner. This way he couldn’t move in my direction without risking getting wounded, paralyzed or even killed. Wills decided to keep LCB for after my activation and just passed with the remaining stitched (carrying the treasure, now in his deployment zone). I saw my chance and lured the big freak with the belle. First lure successful, shafted goes off on him, causing paralyzed; second lure successful, second shafted goes off, paralyzed again. Free attack causing 1 wd. The remaining crooked man moved twice up to the claim, stopping just 2,5” away from it. It was quarter to midnight at this point but we flipped for a seventh round anyway; it did not happen. 4VP each we shook hands and packed the table, both of us with a stupid grin on the face.
It was a great game indeed, with amazingly bad and good flips alike. We both made mistakes, as usual, but got to the end of the game achieving our strategies. For my part at least it was great fun – despite losing Seamus in the beginning of turn #3.
Some things to remember in future games: we did not take the extra soulstones for not playing schemes; I don't remember halving damage when hitting the daydreams (I think they are spirit), worth looking out for in the future; I have to take more photos or write notes so that I can remember what happened in every turn.
Great report, really interesting read. One thing I did not see what you using undead psychosis. I would have thought this would have been great against the dreamer with the lack of ranged units. You could target a daydream, and then include the dreamer with the suit you automatically have. This means he cannot get near you to drop LCB in, and if you move up to him he is going to have to move away, and with his love Df he will have a difficult time.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, that would have worked well. To be honest I re-read Seamus's card about 15 times before the game and thought none of his tricks would work as nightmares aren't living models. I did double check now and Undead Psychosis does not say target 'living' model, so would have worked... Ah well, next time we'll try that.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest the game went a bit downhill for me when flipping the black joker on resisting his de-buff. This way I couldn't cheat any of Seamus's defence flips from that on. Still managed a draw which I am happy with. :)