While hanging out at NOVA, I had been talking up Malifaux, so to begin the evening we wanted to get a quick game in. Having only played once I was not the most effective teacher, but we threw together two 25SS Crews and dove in.
Will wanted to run Teddy, because he thought it was hilarious, so we put together a Neverborn crew for him led by Barbaros, and added Teddy, a Young Nephilim, and a Beckoner. I meanwhile went with my Gremlins, led by Francois LaCroix, who brought Rami, Pere Ravage, Raphael, and a Bayou Gremlin. Francois also took Dirty Cheater, though I never used it.
Our Deployment was Flank deployment, which is an "L" deployment in each corner. Our Strategy was Squatter's Rights, which has 5 objectives on the center line and scores 1 point for having 2 or more claimed at the end of each turn starting with turn 2.
Our Schemes, which are kind of like secondary objectives for the 40k crowd, were Breakthrough (place markers near opposing deployment zone), Protect Territory (place markers away from own deployment zone), A Line in the Sand (have multiple markers on the centerline), Take Prisonser (end the game in combat with a marked enemy model), Frame for Murder (chose own model and score points if it is killed).
I deployed first and put Rami and a Bayou Gremlin on my left flank, with Rami backed up to the board edge. Raphael, Pere Ravage, and Francois were on my right flank. Will countered with the Beckoner and Teddy on my right, and then Barbaros and the Young Nephilim toward my left.
Will won Initiative in the first turn and activated his Beckoner, who lured Pere Ravage once. I then activated Rami and focused and then fired on the Beckoner, used dumb luck, and took her out. Teddy went next and pulled himself into combat with Pere Ravage and hugged him, taking him down to a couple wounds remaining. In response, Pere Ravage hit Teddy with his Burnining Stick, got a Red Joker for his damage flip, and took Teddy down to a couple wounds. Not wanting to offer a chance to save Teddy, Francois chain activated and ran up and smacked Teddy with his sword, going reckless to get an extra attack and cheated to make sure to take Teddy down.
On the other flank, Barbaros activated and double walked into the Bayou Gremlin, promptly slaughtering him. Raphael and the Young Nephilim both double walked to end the turn.
On turn two I won the initiative flip and started with Rami, who was staring down Barbaros. He went reckless (taking himself to one wound) and drank from his flask, healing 3 wounds, then focused and fired on Barbaros, doing a wound or two. In response, Barbaros ran over to Raphael and took him down to two wounds. Pere Ravage walked up and claimed one of the Squatters Rights markers, while Francois did the same. The turn ended with Raphael dancing out of combat and taking ineffectual shots at Barbaros.
In turn 3, I won initiative again and Rami again drank from his flask, focused, and fired on Barbaros, doing some damage. Pere Ravage did damage to the Young Nephilim, who then ate him, healing himself before taking 4 damage from Pere Ravage and pig exploding, netting 1-2 wounds and scoring Framed for Murder for the Gremlins. Barbaros swung ineffectually at Raphael who managed some damage back when he danced away again and fired away. Finally, Francois used Gremlin Menace to pull himself toward the Young Nephilim, and then killed him with his sword.
In turn 4, Will won initiative and killed off Raphael with Barbaros, who was then gunned down by Rami and Francois.
I already see half a dozen rules we misplayed, but it was lots of fun and pretty quick once we got comfortable with the flow of duels and the actions.
After we wrapped up, we quickly changed gears into 40k and played a 2,765 point game (determined by wanting to try a bunch of things and seeing where those points came out. We played the escalating Tactical Objective Maelstrom mission on Hammer & Anvil deployment.
I deployed first and had a left leaning deployment, with all my combat elements hanging out around the Malanthrope in a ruin. Will's Dark Angles deployed in a large parking lot formation, with the Deathwing Knights in Deepstrike Reserve with Belial.
In my first turn, I drew hold one of the objectives on my side, which was easy, and then rushed the Crone up my right flank. The Flyrants moved to my left along with the blob surrounding the Malanthrope. In shooting, the Hive Guard rolled three 1s to pen the rhino at the front of the Dark Angel Lines. In return, Will shot down the Crone and wounded a Zoanthrope, and scored his Maelstom point for holding one of his objectives. During his turn, the Assault Marines jumped forward and the Knights deep struck behind the Exocrine.
In my second turn, I drew kill characters and hold one of my objectives. The combat units split up to go after the Assault Squad and Knights. The Hive Guard continued to fail hurting the Rhino in shooting. The exocrine managed to gun down the Knight Sergeant. Then in Combat the Swarmlord and Stone Crusher Carnifex charged Belial and Knights while my combat flyrant and warriors charged the assault marines and Chaplain. Belial was cut down by the Swarmlord and all but one Knight was cut down by the Stone Crusher and his AP2 Hammer of Wrath. Meanwhile the Flyrant killed the Assault Sergeant and a few other assault marines. I scored 3 points for killing 3+ characters in the turn, plus my objective.
In the bottom of the turn, Will drew two versions of holding the same objective he held last turn, so those were two more easy points. Will's shooting took out the Mawloc who had popped up in front of the Dark Angel lines, and caused a wound on a flyrant. In combat, the Swarmlord and Flyrant wiped out their opponents.
It was getting late, so we decided to play a third turn and then call the game. I drew one of the Dark Angel objectives, wipe out units in shooting, and one of my own objectives. In the psychic phase, a flyrant Warp Lanced the command squad's Razorback and blew it up. In shooting, the flyrants removed a predator and Mortis Dreadnought. The Haruspex managed to eat (from a distance) the last survivor of one Deathwing squad. The flyrant then charged the remaining terminators and killed all but the sergeant. Finally, one group of rippers made a suicide charge into some Tac Marines, with only one base surviving with one wound remaining.
In Will's turn, he moved forward a little, with the invincible Rhino taking one of the midfield objectives. Shooting saw the Trygon prime get gunned down while the Flyrants escaped harm.
The game ended with me scoring 8 points to Will's 6. It really came down to me rolling a 3 on the D3 Victory Points for killing 3+ characters. Out of curiosity I drew my objectives for turn 4, one of which would have given me D3 VPs for casting 3+ powers.
Despite only playing three turns, we had a good time and got to try out some units for the first time. In my limited use so far, I have to say my Combat Flyrant is one bad dude, and despite the huge points cost, he easily made up his points, with a final tally of 1 Chaplain, ~9 Assault Marines, 4 Deathwing Terminators, and a Combat Squad of Tactical Marines while only taking a wound in return.
Thanks again for the games, Will!
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