Journey to Malifaux UK Nationals 2024

Here is a continuation of the game by game breakdown from the Nationals weekend.

Game 5

We got Corner deployment in Cloak and Dagger with in your face and take prisoner for my schemes;

Von Schill – Iron Heart

Steam Trunk

2 x Freikorps Engineer

Freikorps librarian

Metallurgist

Hannah Lovelace 

Arik

Tunnel rats

5 soulstones

My opponents list was;

Parker Barrows – Dead man walking

Doc Mitchell

Mad Dog

Hodgepodge Emissary

Ella Mae

Six armed Shooter

Sue

5 Soulstones

This was my highest scoring game all weekend and had things gone better in my duels this could have been higher, but that’s fate I guess. I Lost Hannah turn 2 to Mad dog after she was exposed and got the red joker flipped for his damage track ignoring armour she was dead in 2 shots. Later in the round my plan was to shred 2 very weak opponents and interact for another point in Cloak and Dagger, but even with 3 activations one remained on a single wound. Drastic action was needed as time was short and I desperately needed the points. So I pushed the steam trunk into severe terrain, took an action and then moved again to remove all wounds so that it would explode and remove the final points of damage needed to kill the model before the end of the turn. The game ended on a 7-4 loss.

Game 6

We got flank deployment in Raid the Vaults with information overload and ensnare for my schemes;

Von Schill

Steam Trunk

Lazarus

Fumigator

2 x Drachen Trooper 

Tunnel rats

Freikorps Engineer

Freikorps Librarian

1 soulstones

My opponents list was;

Captain Zipp

Earl Burns

2 x Iron Skeeters

The First Mate

Beau Fishbocker

Merris LaCroix

Mancha Roja

2 Soulstones

This was a game I was destined to lose from the beginning. Two of the schemes highly favoured my opponent and the models he could bring. There was also an issue where the QR code for the game had put the wrong strategy and 2 schemes in the game which ironically I had picked but we decided to play through nonetheless. I chose a list that was all about scheme removal to avoid all the Piano drops Zipp can do. This did help, but there was a bit of a blockade in the centre and we only got to turn 3. I think if we had gotten another turn in I could have maybe scored another point for the strategy. I also think My opponent would have scored another for the Strategy and another for his scheme as well. The game ended on a 5-2 loss.

Game 7

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

Von Schill – Ironheart

Steam Trunk

Arik

3 x Freikorps scout 

Hans 

Tunnel rats

Freikorps Librarian

1 soulstones

My opponents list was;

Nekima

Blood Hunter

Lelu

2 x Young Nephilim

2 x Mature Nephilim

5 Soulstones

So game 7 I played a young lad who was in the same position as me. He hadn’t won a game all weekend. So I decided I wouldn’t go too hard on him and give him the win but not make it too obvious. So I went easy on him, he did not go easy on me however. I lost 5-0 as we called the game because he basically ate my entire crew. However his dad approached me after and thanked me for not going too hard on him which was kind of him.

At the end of the tournament I came dead last, which is absolutely where I expected to finish. I won’t go into too much detail here, but I at least met my goal of not feeling like I hadn’t learned anything from where I started to this weekend. Most games were fairly close and a couple of dumb mistakes cost me a draw or maybe even a win in one or 2 cases. Like I said I will be doing another entry about the whole journey and what’s next.