Peace Was Never an Option

    Browsing the Wyrd forums for the first time in a while following the errata announcement, I noticed that there was an event coming up in my old stomping grounds this weekend! The Big Bayou Bash. Well, I’ve been playing Bayou, so it felt like fate. Time to participate in my first Malifaux tournament face to face! It was great to return to return to a place where I used to regularly compete in wargaming events. That was five years, three game systems, two cities and one whole gender ago, so a lot had changed. I’d finished up my final MWS game the previous evening (more on that soon) and excited to play more Ophelia. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to take many (or any) wins – Malifaux is a very complex game and even after a dozen or so games I’m still very much finding my feet – but I went in with the goal of having three fun games and at least making my opponents work for their points, which for the most part I think I managed. I was also the only Bayou player at the B...

  Round 4! We’re doing another GG All strategy with Corrupted Ley Lines. You have a Lodestone Token you are trying to end the round in contact with a strategy marker – one in the middle of each table quarter and one in the centre. Models with the Lodestone can’t be placed (but can be pushed). The schemes and my initial thoughts are as follows:   Catch and Release – You need a minion to get within 1” of the enemy Master and then run away to survive the game. I am very sceptical of the ability of most Bayou minions (at least in the keywords I have) to survive to the end of the game when the opponent knows that killing them will deny a point. Load ‘em Up – Again, this looks okay for marker crews. Both Mah and Angler can put out a silly amount of markers. Sabotage – Two scheme markers near a chosen terrain piece with no enemy models nearby during the game, then one near it with no enemy scheme markers at the end. There’s a lot of terrain that you can try and score this w...

  On to the second round! This is Symbols of Authority, a strategy I haven’t played before but seems deceptively simple on paper. Four strategy markers placed outside your deployment zone and 8 inches of each other, concealing and impassable but not blocking line of sight. A model in base-to-base contact can take the interact action to remove it and you score a point if you manage that each round. Discussion on the MWS discord was helpful in pointing out the areas you can stick the markers where a 2” reach model blocks off access completely. I also read the Danger Planet article https://www.goonhammer.com/how-to-gain-grounds-and-influence-people/   on the strategy (which also includes the other two non-GG4 strats in this event, Corrupted Leylines and Break the Line, so that was handy!) and had a think. The schemes (and my initial thoughts) are as follows: Secret Meetup – There is a ton of terrain on the board that could be picked, but predicting where my opponent’s...

  So here it is! My first tournament game of Malifaux. I was matched up against Cadmus Breakfast, a name I’ve seen around the discords for a little while, playing Arcanists. As mentioned, I’m playing Bayou. The strategy was Raid the Vaults (one I’ve played in person, hooray!) on flank deployment and the scheme pool was: Let them Bleed, Take Prisoner, Protected Territory, Ensnare, Information Overload. My pre-game thought process was as follows. I wanted to play Ophelia. She’s my favourite master and if there’s any strategy she can perform on it is Raid the Vaults. She’s probably the sturdiest crew in Bayou and this map is relatively open, lots of good sightlines for the guns. Playing around with Ophelia in advance I found I preferred the title version (Overloaded) to the standard. Ophelia1 is extremely good at putting out a lot of damage in a small area, but the totems become a bit of a liability threatening to give up activation control without much in return. In Ophelia2...