Journey to Malifaux UK Nationals 2024

So here we are on the eve of nationals, 7 months and 15 games between now and then. I am going to summarise the last two games I had because I needed to focus on painting so wasn’t able to do a full post for game 14. I thankfully was able to get the entire keyword for Freikorps done and some versatile models as well.

Here are the crews for the games we played at a standard 50 soulstones game,

So here we are on the eve of nationals, 7 months and 15 games between now and then. I am going to summarise the last two games I had because I needed to focus on painting so wasn’t able to do a full post for game 14. I thankfully was able to get the entire keyword for Freikorps and some versatile models as well.

Here are the crews for the games we played at a standard 50 soulstones game, 

Game 14

We got standard deployment in plant explosives with Deliver a message and protected territories for my schemes;

Von Schill – Iron Heart

Steam Trunk

Freikorps Engineer

Freikorps librarian

Metallurgist

Hannah Lovelace 

Arik

Tunnel rats

Fumigator

0 soulstones

My opponents list was;

Youko Hamasaki

Chiyo Hamasaki

Fuhatsu

Hinamatsu

Charm Warder

Kunoichi

Bill Algren

5 Soulstones

This was another game where it was a bit of a brawl in the centre pretty quick and some of my plans just fell apart super quickly. I was able to deliver a message and plant an explosive, but otherwise I was unable to do much else because things just died in droves. I really felt the lack of focused ability in my crew this time. Having a second Engineer or even a librarian would have kept some of my heavy hitters in the fight a bit longer. It was a great throwdown between Bill and Arik constantly trading blows and just missing out on the final blow multiple times. The game ended at a 7-3 loss which had I known the other crew a little better I wouldn’t have selected what I did and maybe would have traded for a more ranged approach.

Game 15

We got wedge deployment in Raid the Vaults with power ritual and espionage for my schemes;

Von Schill

Steam Trunk

3 x Freikorpsmann

3 x Freikorps scout 

Midnight stalker 

Tunnel rats

Malifaux Child

0 soulstones

My opponents list was;

Lihn Ly – storyteller

Jade Rabbit

2 x Bookkeeper 

Story of Thanh Giong

Story of Sun Wukong

Story of Raijin

Desper LaRaux

4 Soulstones

I threw this list together last minute because I wanted to give the midnight stalker and Malifaux Child a run out before the nationals to see what was possible with them. This game was much more tense and I was much closer to getting a good score here. Again though it was not a great match up of crews and I hadn’t realised that the midnight stalker had lost his eternal ability. So whilst he seemed good initially, performed badly because I didn’t pay attention to the card. Another 7-3 loss, I was so close to potentially getting to 7-5 which whilst obviously still a loss would have been marginally better than last game. Also that Jade rabbit is a real pain for just being a totem but now I know. It’s all information and learning which is what these games are about.

In conclusion I have struggled to push past that 3 points level in my past couple of games. Why? I think my brain is kinda of stuck in a “kill all the things!” mode which scores me nothing. I also forget to set up my end game schemes or when I do they’re shut down pretty quickly. So what now, well my next seven games will be at the UK nationals, so my journey is coming to a close. What do I hope for at nationals? It’s simple really, I want to play some fun games and maybe get a game where I don’t lose. I’ve come so close a couple of times, so a draw or even a win would be great, but I don’t expect to walk away with anything but the wooden spoon at this point if I’m honest and that’s okay.