I hope you guys like battle reports, because there will be a lot of those over the next few days. 2 games of Malifaux, 1 game of Secrets of the Third Reich and "Merchants & Marauders" boardgame review and reports from those sessions and a game of Flames of War to top it off. Should be something for everyone and a welcome break from the painting related content here on the blog.This is the first one, a Malifaux game played this weekend, my Freikorps kicking Guild butt again.
As you see the terrain has been expanded with my wooden fences and my friend had added some cobblestone roads to his board. Things start to take shape.
The game was 35 Soul stones per side.
My Freikorps crew was identical to last time
Von Schill
1 Specialist
2 Trappers
3 Freikorps
1 Librarian
The Guild were made up of
Pertida
Santiago
Francesco
1 Guild Guard
2 Witchling Stalkers
1 Watcher
1 Judge
Terrain was Malifaux outskirts, special effect was "torrential rains" which means no charges can be made if the effect is in play during a turn.
The strategy for the Guild was to "Escape and survive", one of the new ones from Rising Powers expansion book. It meant that they had to have 75% models alive at the end of the turn and at least 8" from their deployment zone to score 4VP. Or 50% models left alive to score 2VP.
Schemes were body guard Pertida (announced) and hold out (hidden).
The strategy for the Freikorps was "Deliver a message", which meant spending 2 action points to drop a message into the pocket of the enemy master. 4VP if completed within turn 4. Or 2VP if done before the end of the game. My Schemes were "Gather soulstones" (end the game with more SS than the enemy in my hand) and "Thwart" which meant I had to make sure the enemy failed to achieve his announced schemes. Both my schemes were announced.
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Summary of the game.
I had learned a LOT about my units from last time, so I felt a bit more confident in how to use them. For instance I did not send away von Schill on a moronic suicide mission, neither did I expose my flamethrower specialist.
The terrain was very interesting, it was the first time we had a game with this much LoS obstructions. So lots of movement and limited line of sight. My sniper models made good use of their "reposition" special rule so I could walk out of cover, shoot and wound an enemy (ignoring their cover bonuses) and jump back behind cover. The game itself was less bloody than the last, mostly thanks to the terrain, both sides gathered behind the walls and fences opposite of each other which created a great sence of alley shootouts with people running around from cover to cover and taking potshots at the enemy.
My main objective was a hard one, since Pertida is fast as hell and could easily outrun me. Luckily my opponent placed here fairly close to my lines, and I decided to sacrifice 2 Freikorpsmen which ran up to her and locked her in place. Santiago jumped over a fence and joined in the fight and a silly little Witchling Stalker wandered aimlessly into the backyard where the fighting was taking place and blocked the escape route for Pertida as she was trying to break free so I would not be able to deliver the message.
I managed to hit her in the back as she wanted to run, her escape options were limited as both my Freikorps and the enemy Guild models were blockign most of her route, and she ended up receiving my message at turn 2, scoring me 4 solid Victory Points very early on.
Of course those poor sods doing my bidding were soon killed effortlessly by the Guild members and I also lost one of my sniper units, so while I was ahead I became a bit worried as I became outnumbered. The terrain however allowed enough cover for my troops to move around and inflict potshots at the enemy units forcing them to move close and in the end charge me, this made the Guild lose their Judge, one Guild guard and a Witchling stalker who exploded and damaged his own friends. My own units, god bless their Freikorps armor, ignored all such effects. My Librarian was busy casting protective magic and hiding behind Von Schill or other Freikorpsmen when the fighting got closer. The Specialist which was pretty much held in reserve moved up and started firing his flamethrower doing little, but I realized as he was losing wounds how I would be able to max out on his detonate tanks ability and the damage pulse he inflicts when becoming killed.
So I sent him on a suicide run against the enemy moving in amongst them, staying within range of Von Schill so I could still use 1 "Slow to die" action. This cause some stir over at the Guild side, and Pertida had to use her magic to take over the Specialist and move him away. In the end Santiago Ortega sacrificed himself for the greater good charging the Specialist so I would not run back on my suicide run and kill more Guild troops. Santiago killed the specialist, I detonated my tanks, which brough Santiago down to 1 wound and then killed him with the following death pulse of flames.
When the fighting was over and the dust had settled, I had managed to bring the Guild down below 50% which meant they did not score any victory points for their strategy. They did however score 3 VP for their two schemes. But I still managed to win 4-3. It was a great game, and I'm starting to learn the dirty tricks and combos of the Freikorpsmen.
If anyone thinks you can't play these guys as a standalone force with no outside troops, they are clearly wrong. It will be interesting to see how they fare against the Arcanists tomorrow.
A small anecdote, we had two very funny flips during our game. During one turn initiative I flipped a 1 and my opponent a Black Joker. And during a duel my opponent flipped a Red Joker to attack while I flipped a Black Joker to defense. Fun things, as long as it does not happen every turn. Like that time when I played Resurrectionists and Seamus flipped the goddamn Black Joker 3 turns in a row losing his .50 Cal flintlock pistol attack....
Oh, and if my Freikorps look a bit different it is because they have been matt varnished since last time! Makes some things, like the stripes, pop much better.
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