Malifaux: 70SS hiring pool

A couple of weeks ago I attended a tournament at York Garrison.  The hiring rules for the tournament were fixed faction using a 70SS hiring pool (they were 35SS games) as per the 2013 Gaining Grounds document.  I hadn't played in one of these type of events before as all the previous tournaments I'd played in were fixed faction so drawing up the pool was interesting.  I went with Outcasts as they're mostly my tournament faction of choice for 2013.  Outcasts suffer a little in this format, as there is almost no overlap between the crews.  For example, I went with Viktoria and Hamelin.  Viktoria can only hire Mercenaries, whereas Hamelin specifically can't hire Mercenaries at all.

If you've not read the selection rules from Gaining Grounds for hiring pools they're basically these:

• Masters don't cost anything to hire into the pool, but they must be listed
• You can spend 2SS from the pool for the option to manifest avatars for any master in the pool
• Models can only be included in the pool if they could be legally hired by at least one of the masters also in the pool
• Models hired into the pool cost their printed SS cost regardless of what they would cost when actually hired into a crew.

For the York tournament, the strategies were (all shared):  Land Grab, Line in the Sand and Beatdown.  The task was to come up with a pool which could cover all those eventualities.

I knew I wanted to take Hamelin to his first tournament so he was in.  However, Hamelin sucks at Beatdown so I need a second master; the Viks came into the pool just for Beatdown.  That was self contained, strategy specific, crew and looked like this:

Viktoria

Student of Conflict

Freikorps Librarian

Sue

Jack Daw

This was a slight gamble, as Jack Daw can really suck in some match ups (Collette's Mannequin Replacement and Levi's Entropic Transformation both ruin him), but I went with it.  That was the first 27SS.

Next was Hamelin's crew for Land Grab and Line in the Sand.  My plan for Land Grab is lots of models, move to the middle and have Hamelin stand there making the crew significant, and move between quarters as required.  So, into the pool went a basic Hamelin crew:

Hamelin the Plagued

Nix, the Bull Terrirer

Rat-Catcher

Obedient Wretch

The Stolen x1

Malifaux Rats x5

That's another 27SS into the pool and gives pretty much everything you need for Hamelin.  I didn't add any more rats or Stolen to the pool as summoned models don't have to be included in the pool, so this was just what I wanted to start the game with.  It gives me 10 significant models for Land Grab, provided they all stay together.

I then need to add what I would need for Line in the Sand.  Essentially for this I go for dominating one half of the board, which Hamelin is quite good at, so the list above gave me most of my options already.  I added into the pool 2 Night Terrors to give me some speed for grabbing dynamite.  I had 11 points left at this point so I stuck a second Rat-Catcher and Baby Kade, neither of which I ended up using in the end.

The final pool was 70SS on the nose.

I had mixed success at the tournament.  I'd played 9 games with Hamelin up to that point, but only 1 on the tabletop.  Managing alot of rats can be time consuming in a tournament setting so we went short on time in Land Grab and I lost it 4-1.  Another turn might have helped me here, perhaps not to win, but maybe pick up another VP or 2.

Game 2 went better with Line in the Sand, and I went onto win that one 5-3.  The Night Terrors made the difference as they went down the opposite side of the board to Hamelin, flipped a marker and then sat in my opponents deployment zone getting my Breakthrough and denying him Hold Out.

Game 3 was Beatdown with the Viks, against Marcus.  I made a big mistake which cost me the game in the end.  The Viks had killed a Ronin and Willie, but Gun Vik had been wounded by Willie in return.  What I should have done at this point was move back to the support group of the Student and the Librarian but I didn't.  I pushed on towards the Gunsmith (which Jack Daw was capable of killing and did so) and didn't realize I was now in Marcus' line of sight.  He then killed both Viks over two activations.  The game finished 6-4 with Jack Daw scoring 3 points for Stake a Claim and being alive at the end.

I finished 15th of 22 overall, and I'd won a game so it wasn't too bad.  My VP diff was only -2 which was also OK.  I'm definitely going to push on with getting more games in with Hamelin now after the tournament. I feel like I'm getting the hang of Nix, the rats and the Rat-Catcher, but it's Hamelin himself who still feels like I'm not using him to the best of his abilities.  I need more games in with him so I can work out which of his capabilities he needs to apply at which points in time.

Malifaux: (Almost) Finished Hamelin Crew

Hamelin the Plagued and his crew are pretty much done now.  I've still got a couple of Stolen and 3 rats left to do when I get chance.  I entered them in the best painted competition at the last tournament a week ago in York and they were pretty well received (didn't win, but came pretty close to the top):

Hamelin himself, on his fancy base.  This is my most successful attempt at OSL as well:

Nix, complete with drool (see one of my earlier posts on how I did this):

The Obedient Wretch and Rat-Catchers.  I wasn't fond of the sculpts for the Rat-Catchers when I bought them, but they've sort of grown on me as I've painted them up:

6 Malifaux Rats.  The rats are colour coded and have corresponding colour blobs on their stat cards so I can track which is which.  Honestly, it's not that easy to keep track of them, especially when alot are dying and coming back.  There will be three more in brown of these.

The picture I took of the little girl Stolen came out blurry, but you can see her in the group picture anyway.  I'm pretty happy with her, she adds alot of character and colour to the crew.

Overall, I'm very happy with how these came out.  I think they're better overall than any other crew I've painted.  These are also the first crew I've painted from start to finish using my new Games and Gears Pro-Studio brushes which I got on Kickstarter, and also much of the paint is now Vallejo as I begin to transition further and further away from the GW paint line.

Game-wise,. I've got in around a dozen games with this crew now against lots of different crews and masters  including some power house masters like The Dreamer and Colette.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it and the complex interactions between the models so I'll post up some thoughts on how the crew plays.

On a related note, I've spent a bit of time on updating and expanding Hamelin's Pull My Finger wiki page so any comments or feedback on that would be handy.

Malifaux: Finished Hamelin the Plagued

Hamelin the Plagued surveying his horde of plagued minions:

The base is from Model Display Products.  I've used their sewer bases on all my Hamelin models, but this one is part of their Diorama Display Bases.  The base gives Hamelin extra height, like he's looking down on his horde of rats and Stolen as they surge past him.

Malifaux: Stolen Sacrifice Sheet

As threatened in my last post, here's a quick reference as to what happens when a The Stolen is removed from the game:

The only thing I'm not 100% on the whether the rat arrives before or after the 6" pulse.

Malifaux: Rat Removal Result Reference

I've played 8 games with Hamelin now, and it can be hard to remember all the different interactions between Hamelin/Rat Catchers/Nix/Rats/Stolen, especially when one of the them is killed.  To help me remember what happens when a Malifaux rat is killed, I put together a quick flow chart:

I think this pretty much covers it.  Hopefully someone else might find it handy.

Malifaux: Jack Daw and Sue

These two guys form the basis of my new Viks Beatdown crew:  Sue and Jack Daw:

For Jack Daw, I've gone for an bit of an experimental monochrome paint scheme which has come out reasonably well.  I was kind of imaging him like a horrible black and white spirit from a Japanese horror movie like Ringu.

My current Viks Beatdown crew looks something like this:

The Viktorias
Student of Conflict
Freikorps Librarian
Sue
Jack Daw
8SS

The Viks and Jack Daw do the heavy lifting in this list.  Jack Daw is going to draw alot of attention, so he needs cards to keep him alive and that's where Sue comes in.  Sue has a (1) action called Hurt where he can take up to 3 Wds to draw the same number of cards.  Combined with Arcane Reservoir, you've got up to 10 cards in your hand giving you more chance of masks for Whirlwind and Heart Stopper, and chaff cards to discard to keep Jack Daw alive.

Malifaux: First Blood

I wanted to add an addendum to my Viktoria tactics article and talk a little about the Viks specific scheme First Blood.  Here's what it says:

Special:
This scheme must be announced.

Victory:
If the first two models killed during the encounter were models in enemy Crews, you score 2 VP.

The first thing to notice about this scheme is nowhere does it mention that you have to kill those first two models.  The second thing to notice is that it says killed, as opposed to sacrificed.  Third thing is that those 2VP are locked in and can't be taken away from you.  I always prefer schemes like that (such as Kill Protege) rather than one's that arrive at the end of the game (such as Stake a Claim).

This is a scheme I will always save to use against certain masters.  Here's some examples where you can use this scheme to pick up some easy and early VP:

-Ressurectionist masters.  Alot of times your Rezzer opponent is going to sit back and cut up dogs, desperate mercs etc in that first turn to get body parts, corpse counters etc.  Either they're going to carry on doing that and gift you the VP, or they're not going to do it in which case, they're now playing your game and not theirs.
-A popular trick with Kirai is the dog/desperate mercenary cut up in order to get Gaki/Onryo/Seishin between Kirai and Datsue-Ba.  That's two VP's for you, or they wasted the points buying those two models.
-Hamelin.  Those rats die easily, go for the rats for the two easy kills.
-Leviticus.  The classic Levi list is to take the Canine Remains, kill it first turn and turn it into a second Hollow Waif.  That's one half of your scheme done.  The second kill comes in when Levi inevitably kills himself, ideally at the end of the first turn.

Whoever you take this scheme against, always make sure you're looking for those easy kills early doors, but remember not to risk your key pieces like Swordmistress Viktoria to get them.  Von Schill is good for this as he can move about the board very quickly and pick off vulnerable models easily with his clockwork seeker.

As an example of this, have a listen to the Bayou Broadcast episode 20.  Craig talks about his last game at Vapnartak tournament where he used Von Schill to move around and pick off those easy kills from Joel's Dreamer crew (Daydreams in that case).  Craig was using Ten Thunders for that game, but it's a good example of using the speed and ranged punch of Von Schill to get early kills.  That can easily be extended into your Viks crew.

Malifaux: The Freikorps

I'm on a painting roll this week, so the Freikorps box is now all done:

The Strongarm suit has been built and primed so he's next on the list.  I've tried out the Strongarm suit in one game so far, and he was a bit underwhelming.  He's going to need a few more try out's I think.  In the game I played with him (against a Molly crew), his WP4 really hurt him.

Malifaux: Viktoria Tactica

I've been playing the Viktorias since last summer with reasonable success so I thought I'd share some thoughts on the Viks for those starting out with them.  I don't really want to repeat the info you can (and probably already have) read on the excellent Pull My Finger wiki.  If you haven't read that, then stop reading this and go over and read the PMF entry for the Viks, then come back here.

Still here? Good, let's get started!

Sisters in Spirit can lead to Sisters in Death:
The Viktorias are extremely mobile.  Most of the time, I tend to companion them together to launch them like a missile at the enemy.  The usual tactic is to move Gun Vik forward 5", Sisters in Spirit Sword Vik to within 3" (note that's within not completely within) and launch Sword Vik from there.  This gives Sword Vik a potential strike range of 20" (5" walk, within 3" push, 2 5" walk and a strike at 2").  It's easy to get overconfident with this, and this is very often the un-doing of Sword Vik for me.  Being half way across the board and alone will usually end up with either a dead Sword Vik or you having to burn stones to keep her alive.  I've burnt 7 SS in a single turn before to keep Sword Vik standing against Perdita, and in my last game at the GT I got over-confident with them and threw them into a Gremlin gunline (they both died).  Carefully consider what you're about to do and whether it's worth it in the grand scheme of the game.  It may be better to delay for a turn so that you can get the strike in with Sword Vik but retain enough AP to either Sisters in Spirit back out again, or move to a safer position.  Sisters in Spirit is a (1) action so you can use it once to swap Sword Vik and Gun Vik around and then again to bring Gun Vik back to Sword Vik.


Sisters in Battle and Whirlwind:
Sisters in Battle is pretty much the only spell I ever use with the Viks.  It needs a 6+ of Rams to cast, but the Viks can add a Ram to their Ca so it's just a 6+ in most cases.  My usual choice for the affect is the +2 Dg, there's very few reasons to take either of the other two.  The + on attack flips can be handy if you're facing something which has - on attack flips, like Lucius for example, but generally I want to have +2 Dg, especially since Sword Vik has paired swords anyway.

With the +2 Dg, you're now doing 5Dg on weak hits which is insanely good.  This is where Whirlwind comes in, since I'm now doing 5 Dg on weak, it doesn't matter to me whether I win the attack dual by 0 or 11, I'll happily take 5 Dg on a  - - - flip.  If you are able to Whirlwind multiple targets look to do this, and look to use any Masks in your hand to get the trigger off even if you have to cheat down to get the Mask in your total once you know your opponents total.  I've seen 5 attacks go off from a single AP.

Don't forget to draw a card when you kill a model either.  This is great against something which relies on trash models for protection (like Nicodem) as you can Whirlwind away all their protection, drawing cards as you do it, and building your hand ready for the final strike against the master.  Bear in mind it's when you kill a model so it won't work on Seishin who always count as sacrificed when killed unless Kirai uses her Seishin Beacon ability.


Support models:
The Viktorias crew isn't one built around combos or mutually supportive models, but there are a couple of models which I would take to help them out.  The first is the Student of Conflict.  His ability to give another model within 3" fast is massive, it's another 5" of threat, another strike or a cast of Sisters in Battle where you didn't expect it.  Since it's an all action, it more than likely won't happen every turn but it's something nasty for your opponent to deal with.  Don't forget to you can use the double Sisters in Spirit trick to flip Sword Vik and Gun Vik back again to be close to the Student for another pop at this the following turn.

The Freikorps Librarian is a hugely valuable support piece.  You may allow any spell which affects one Viktoria to affect all friendly Viktorias in play, so the Librarian can let you make 3 healing flips on each Vik per turn (with her furious casting)and only one of them needs be within an 8" range.  You can cast this on Gun Vik, who is usually further back, and let Sword Vik heal as well.  She also has Arcane Reservoir, giving you more cards in your hand, and so potentially more Masks for Whirlwind.  With the Librarian, try and keep a low Ram in your hand to use when she activates.  That way her Healing Energy goes off on a 4+ of any suit, as she can add the Ram to her Ca.

Von Schill is, well, Von Schill.  He's an awesome addition to most crews, and for the Viks he's in faction so only costs 9SS.  Von Schill gives you excellent mobility and nasty shooting amongst all his other cool stuff.

The Black Joker:
The Viks, more than other crews I've played, can be royally screwed by flipping the Black Joker.  If you can draw this into your hand, try and keep it there for as long as possible.  Flipping the Black Joker for defense is bad, flipping it for damage is worse since Whirlwind relies on you doing damage to go off ("After damaging defender with a Masamune Nihonto Strike...") and part of your defence is making models die.  So, draw the Black Joker, keep the Black Joker.

Soulstones:
The Viks are made of paper, they will die pretty easily.  I normally want at least 7 soulstones, preferably 8 to keep them standing, and your going to have to pay for every one of those stones.  Loosing a single Vik is losing alot more than 50% of their ability since they rely on each other for alot of their movement.

Vanessa:
I've got nothing that inciteful to say on Vanessa as yet, as I've only tried her out in one game.  From my initial impression, she looks good with her ability to be a target for Sisters in Spirit, plus her ability to give the Viks a defensive ability (Slow to Die, yes please).  She does mean you can't take the Student of Conflict so that will be one price to pay for her.

Malifaux: Pirate Gunslinger all done

Avast! Here be me Pirate Gunslinger:

It's been 10 years since Captain John Butler, known as One Eyed John, crossed into the Breach, on the run from the Naval authorities of four countries.  These days, bereft of a ship and a crew, he spends his time in the taverns around Driftwood Docks, selling his guns to the highest bidder.