Journey to Malifaux UK Nationals 2024
Learning game 4
Here we are at game 4 and I am slowly learning to remember things. I played a different player this time however I faced off against my old nemesis the Viktorias. How did I do this time? Let’s dive into it shall we.
Here are our lists for the game we played full 50 soulstone crews, Mine was;
Hoffman
Mechanical assistant
Clipper
2 Riotbreaker
2 Hunters
2 Watchers
3 Soulstones
My opponents list was;
Viktoria chambers
Vanessa Chambers
Johan Creedy
Student of conflict
Taelor
2 x Ronin
10 Soul stones
Turn 1 as always was pretty much moving into place for turn 2 scoring. I remember to activate Hoffman and the mechanical attendant. I used Clipper to drag a Riotbreaker along with it and put me in a prime position to score in turn 2. Everyone moved up quickly and was around the centre thanks to movement shenanigans. Crucially I totally forgot to use the Hunters Deadly pursuit ability which would have made things a little different next turn.
Turn 1On to Turn 2, which was disastrous I lost Clipper 2 Riotbreakers and a watcher. The only mild success was I broke through to my opponents back line with my remaining Watcher. I did manage to get to a couple of models with my Hunters and cause some damage in the hopes of finishing them off in Turn 3. Also remembering to use my power tokens for Plus flips really helped me with dealing some damage however it was easily stoned away with my opponent’s large soulstone pool.
Turn 2Turn 3 was more of the same. I did manage to kill a single model and take out Johan. Only to be cut down by a Ronin moments later. I also lost my other Hunter to the Viks piling in on it after healing back up to full health shortly beforehand. I pushed Hoffman up to one of the Strat markers in the hopes of scoring it next turn.
Turn 3Turn 4, all hope is gone. My Mechanical Attendant got into a firefight with a Ronin and loses. Everyone piles into Hoffman and I spend all my Soulstone cache on trying to keep him alive but the sheer weight of attacks means he does not weather the storm and at that I am tabled.
The final score is 5-0, I am at a loss here. I think some key moves would have postponed my loss, but the Viktorias seem insurmountable to me at this point. Maybe Inventor Hoffman is the way to go against them and try for max damage rather than trying to out scheme them, but with armour piercing, high manoeuvrability and teleporting around they feel like they have Hoffman’s number every single time.
Good luck, but I am sure you will not need it! ?
I was going to write a whole long reply, but I’ll keep it brief so as not to pull focus from your project.
In short: you may not have the tools you need to beat those specific Masters. In my limited experience, Mali is more about learning what each Master does, and what you need to counter/ avoid it.
Yeah I think my approach is probably best focused on what can I do first then when I encounter something nasty I won’t forget it quickly and be able to think how best to counter it with what I have and just build my experience from there.
Viks have a reputation for being rough to go against, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Hoffman1 has the ability to make your models armor impossible to ignore, which is super important since his stuff relies so much on the armor. He is also very slow, which is one reason he isn’t my favorite to play. But now that you have a few games under your belt, I would check out some of the content that is out there about playing him well to pick up a few tips. Or ask folks who play him, Malifaux has a… Read more »
Yeah the community has been incredible so far and really welcoming. I have tried a different master to Hoffman and the game felt much less punishing. I did not face the Vicks this time so much less worrying but it was the parker crew so there was still a good amount of damage hand out but I felt I at least matched it this time and wasn’t out of my depth at any point.