Friday, March 11, 2016

Malifaux Bat Rep: Gremlins (Ulix) vs. Arcanists (Rasputina)

A couple weeks ago I hosted the guys for a gaming weekend. On Friday night, Chris and I got in a game of Malifaux. He brought Rasputina using her box and a couple other minis. I picked through my Gremlins collection to come up with a list based on the Strategy and Schemes.

 vs. 


For this game, we got Flank Deployment, with Headhunter as the Strategy. Our scheme pool was Convict Labor, Exhaust Their Forces, Leave Your Mark, Covert Breakthrough, and Inspection.
Chris stuck with his only master, Rasputina, and his list looked like this:

  • Rasputina: Cold Nights, Child of December
  • Snow Storm: Sub Zero
  • Ice Golem
  • Wendigo
  • 2x Ice Golem
  • 2x Blessed of December
He chose Convict Labor and Inspection as his Schemes (a note, we both misread Inspection as needing a model within 4" of either end of the centerline, not both. I didn't catch this until writing this up). I opted to run Ulix as my master, with a summon/scheme heavy build:
  • Ulix: Husbandry, Huntin' Bow, Clobberin' Stick
  • Gracie: Saddle
  • Old Major: Corn Husks
  • Merris LaCroix
  • Old Cranky
  • Slop Hauler
  • Piglet
For my schemes, I opted for Covert Breakthrough and Inspection. Chris won the flip for deployment and chose to deploy/pick first, picking the top left corner. The two Blessed of December went in the bottom left, while Raspy and her two Ice Gamin went in the middle. The two big bases went to the right of his zone, with Wendigo between the two beaters and Raspy. I countered by deploying in a central blob, using the two big pigs to block line of sight to my Gremlins, with Merris shutting down blasts. I also deployed a lone piglet off on my right flank. 



Turn 1 was predictably mostly moving up and summoning. Ulix brought out two more piglets and a War Wabbit. The piglets made for the interior of the building. Wendigo jumped over to my right to cut off the piglets heading for the corner. Chris also threw down some Ice Pillars board middle to clog up my forces. Gracie made her way over to the right to help the piglets deal with Wendigo.


In turn 2, Gracie's advance was cut off by some pillars, while the Wendigo and Snow Storm combined to kill a piglet and pick up a head. The War Wabbit positioned himself for a charge on one of the Blessed of December holding the corner. The remainder of the forces continued to inch their way forward, while two piglets involuntarily charged the Wendigo. At the end of the turn, Chris scored 2 points between head hunter and Inspection (again, misinterpreted by both parties). Gracie had run back around the building to contest one of the Convict Labor scheme markers.

In turn 3, Chris won initiative (for a third time in a row, despite me stoning to reflip) and promptly Red Jokered the War Wabbit with a Blessed of December. In return, Gracie gored the Ice Golem into slush and the heads started flying. Old Cranky took a shot at an Ice Gamin and promptly got pasted. Snow Storm pulled the Wendigo out of the way of the Piglets and then tied them up himself. Ulix's activation turned out to be the longest I've ever experienced, where he shot Old Major into charging an Ice Gamin, which he killed. He then Sooey'd and failed, getting charged by Old Major, Gracie, and a piglet, managed to survive, then shot Old Major into the other Ice Gamin. Merris moved off to drop some markers and head for the corner while the piglets were tied up. With the blast protection gone, Raspy unloaded and completely wiffed, dealing just a point or two of damage. The turn ended with Chris getting another scheme point, while I got a strategy point from the heads piling up in the center.


Turn 4 continued to show how dangerous angered pigs can be. A piglet charged in and killed off the Ice Gamin engaged with Old Major, who Ulix then shot into the Wendigo, which he killed. Old Major and Gracie then closed in on Rasputina. Merris jumped over into the corner. At the end of the turn, we both got a point from Headhunter, while Chris maxed out Inspection and I got a point from it as well. I continued managing to deny his convict labor by standing near or having pigs eat his scheme markers.

In turn 5, Snow Storm pulled Raspy temporarily out of harm's way, but between movement shenanigans from Old Major and Ulix and Reactivate, Gracie finally took her down. The pigs also made sure to drop some scheme markers while Merris just continued to hang out in the corner. Turn 5 ended with Chris scoring a point from Convict Labor and Headhunter, while I got a Headhunter and Inspection point.


The game ended with an 8-7 Victory for the pigs; 3-2 on Strategy, and 5-5 on Schemes. In the end, I was really impressed with the big pigs. Old Major is a massive force multiplier, with several abilities granted to other pigs while he is simply on the board, and others so long as he is in LoS with HT3. Gracie's reactivate, along with Slop Hauler and weaker targets to Eat Your Fill becomes extremely dangerous. Her multiple activations, along with Shot in the Rear from Ulix's Hunting Bow create a large threat range, where the pigs hit like a truck.

While Chris won initiative in all but one turn, his hands were generally middling to bad while mine were generally pretty strong. A particularly glaring string of bad luck was when Rasputina, who was fast from Wendigo eating a piglet, managed only a few wounds from four AP. It was a pretty close game, though the pigs started dealing out some heavy damage and getting me strong activation control toward the end of the game.

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