Malifaux Journal: Rotten Dreams

I had thought my current allies amongst the most terrifying creatures this hell could conjure, but alas today I faced the stuff of my very Nightmares. I would fear for my soul at seeing such sights, were I not convinced it already beyond redemption. 

I had my second game on Sunday, and again used Seamus. I faced Ben's Dreamer list, but as it was Ben's first game, this was more about fumbling through an encounter than being a proper game. 

My crew consisted of:

Seamus 

- Bag o' Tools

- Mad Habadasher

- Red Chapel Killer

Madame Sybelle

- Bleeding Tongue

- Not too banged up

Nurse

Rotten Belle

Rotten Belle

Ben's crew consisted of:

The Dreamer

Daydreams x2

Teddy

Widow Weaver

Coppelius

I'm not sure what upgrades he took. 

For deployment we flipped standard deployment, for the strategy we got Reckoning and then for schemes we flipped the 5 of Tomes and the 2 of Masks meaning that the scheme pool was: 

• A line in the sand (as always)
• Breakthrough
• Protect Territory
• Outflank
• Vendetta

I opted for Outflank and Vendetta and with the latter I chose for Madame Sybelle to take on the Widow Weaver. I decided to reveal both my schemes even though I didn't have to with Vendetta. I did this more so that Ben could follow why I make the choices I did. He kept his hidden at this stage. But I would eventually learn that he had taken Breakthrough and Outflank. 

Because he was using the Dreamer, and didn't have his cards printed, the game was a bit of a struggle as he was trying to adapt to a new system, keep track of wounds on paper and reference his iPad and commuter for rules. I would suggest that if you don't print the cards out, if you do have a tablet, take a screen shot of each card and save them to a separate photo album so that it will minimise load time. 

Now, the first turn was essentially positioning as it often is in Wargaming. Ben used his Daydreams to push things about, including the Widow Weaver which was heading to my right flank, which was the side I had placed Sybelle and a Rotten Belle on. Meanwhile as he advanced Coppelius on my left and Teddy centrally I moved Seamus and The Copycat left of centre with the Nurse close by and I began moving the other Belle along my extreme left flank in order to try and prepare to achieve the outflank scheme. 

In turn two, Ben moved the widow weaver in to try and take on the Belle, which was a little further ahead of Sybelle. I don't think that Ben had appreciated how difficult the Belle's are to wound, and only got weak damage. Meanwhile this gave me chance to get Sybelle in to close attack range and she scored moderate damage, but the duel included a Tome triggering Death Mark meaning that even if Sybelle didn't kill her, the Widow Weaver would count as a Peon and couldn't take interact actions. Now, I have to admit to a mistake here: I hadn't realised that Ben could have discarded a card to avoid this, so it is something that I must remember for next time. I managed to finally kill the Widow Weaver with Sybelle, but not before the Weaver managed to poison the Belle enough so that with the wounds she had taken, she would die before the end of turn five. 

Meanwhile, in the centre over the course of turn two and three, Teddy took on Seamus and I believe scored a moderate damage with his first attack, which I decided to drop the hat marker to avoid which was immediately picked up by the Copycat. Teddy's second attack however I don't think hit, or caused weak damage. In return Seamus and the Copycat tore chunks out of Teddy and killed it in short order meaning that Ben only had Coppelius and The Dreamer to count for schemes and strategy. In either turn three or four, having added a few alps and daydreams to the table, The Dreamer managed Waking +4, and Lord Chompy turned up. Again, a mixture of Mad Habadasher on Copycat, hard to wound and close duels meant that Chompy didn't really manage much by way of damage to my crew, and in return took a pounding killing him fairly

swiftly. Ben decided to place Dreamer near to my deployment zone and he then dropped a scheme marker. Meanwhile on the left flank Coppelius was taking on a Belle to try and stop me from getting the other flank. 

In turn five, The Dreamer moved and dropped another marker, and I drew him further up the board with a Lure from a Belle in case we got another turn, though the Belle would die to the Poison Condition at the end of the turn. Meanwhile, An Alp managed to kill the Nurse, who had admittedly not done much this game meaning that alongside the Belle that would die, Ben would get a point for Reckoning. 

In the end, it ended 7-3 to me. I think Ben had learned a lot from the encounter, which was the point of it really. He had relied too heavily on heavy hitters meaning that he didn't have enough APs across the crew from none peons to manage his schemes. He rushed in too quickly with those heavy hitters, and bad luck in his flips meant that those hitters took a heavy toll from my crew. Talking to him since and I think he has had a few thoughts on improvements. 

For my part, I was a lot more comfortable with the crew. I struggled with the Nurse so should have taken another Belle, though since I've assembled a Canine Remains, so he shall help bring about some Belles. 

All in all, I enjoyed the encounter, though I think I need to think a bit more carefully about crew selection after I know what the strategy and schemes are. Next time, I think that I may take the good Doctor out for a spin.

Edit: it has been pointed out by @tigerstyle40k on Twitter that from my description, Dreamer may not have been placed correctly when Chompy died. I honestly cannot remember, but if not, it didn't particularly help/hinder either of us beyond the ultimate result.

However, since my group and I are still new to the game, if you notice anything that isn't right, please do point it out!