My first Clousseau ran event
For the second time this year myself, Jan and Aaron (Janron) were able
to travel to and from an event in the same day.
This event would be Cow Wars 2 held in Milton Keynes and ran by the
excellent David "Clousseau" Brown, the TO veteran which Cow Wars 2
would be the twenty fifth malifaux event he has run.
The event would be four games fixed faction, with different soul stones
amounts each game.
Before I get into the day, let me do the typical "build up"
segment.
Before the War
Between this event and Isle of Faux 2 back in March I had not been
playing much Malifaux.
Real life, other distractions and a whole host of things had put gaming
on a back burner, not really a conscious decision but one that had happened
nevertheless.
As with most tournament though, the realisation that it was dawning on
us re lit the fire in me and Aaron and a little in Jan.
The week leading up to Cow Wars 2 I played more games than I had for a
long time and it was great, however my results were not.
I never consider myself a top player, I have had several people come up
to me at events saying they thought I had been doing well and to me I feel no
better than mediocre.
The one thing is I always thought I was close to on top (it goes in
cycles) of the trio of Janron and myself.
However I kept losing, I lost to Jan which was a rarity and I lost two
games to Aaron where I actually conceded, something I tend not to do (listen to SMPRadio about fighting back
from 0-6 on turn 1).
I was enjoying the games, but to a level, the losses were frustrating
and it was something I needed to get over.
It dawned on me that I hadn't won a game since I beat Maria at Isle of
Faux 2; perhaps I had used all my gaming luck for that victory, as Maria is
much stronger player, and that was it.
This was OK, I tried to convince myself the losing streak would end at
Cow Wars 2 and that then I would not be able to lose, continuing to talk about
luck in the most ridiculously superstitious fashions.
One last game on the Saturday night against Aaron. I win.
Oh no!
Now even my silly superstitious idea was ruined. Things were not looking
hopeful for me.
Aaron
Aaron has been doing progressively better in my eyes, his results may
not be a direct upwards line but I feel he is meshing with Guild (and his
bloody Pathfinders) a lot better than the Outcasts.
I had high hopes for Mr Bailey and honestly always have believed he is
just that little bit better than me even if he and I occasionally completely
disagree on some gaming things (specific tactical choices etc.)
Jan
Jan and I have hardly played much recently. He has moved on to Ressers
with one event under his belt.
I believe Jan piqued too quickly with his Canterfaux win and every loss
and poor result since then must've stung that little bit more knowing he has a
first place trophy at home.
Overall I think the switch in faction has aided Jan, he is strangely
obsessed with taking (or not taking) certain things which I hope he gets over
but all-in-all he is currently a lot less predictable than he was with the
Brown team.
Dawn of War
The drive up was fine, we all had to get up reasonably early but even
after sleeping on a sofa at Janron's I felt well rested and excluding the
Browns (David and Tim) and Panzer Harris we were amongst the first people to
arrive, with time to spare I grabbed a very slowly served Subway breakfast and
back to the venue we went.
Cow Wars 2 was being held at the Jury’s Inn in central Milton Keynes
which is a rather nice hotel, we shared the hall with a fairly large X-Wing
tournament which was already running when we arrived (David opted for a later
start, bank holiday weekend and all).
The hall was nice, spacious, and clean and had a water tank (which did
run out though).
I don't have much to say on the venue except that it was very nice.
It's awkward to not be able to take food into a place you are playing
but Clousseau allowed a large enough lunch break that it really was not an
issue.
The place did also get rather warm, but that was probably down to a
combination of bodies and fickle weather.
What I can comment on were the tables. Overall this had the nicest
tables I've seen at an event, at least tied with Malifolk3.
Every table had a decent amount of terrain, each table was painted
(something I cannot claim for my events yet) and they were mostly all playable.
"Mostly" as a couple of very cool looking tables were quickly
apparent to have issues but nothing the players could not sort themselves from
what I saw.
We all signed up, got our sheets with the Strategies and Schemes, along
with a sweet MDF crate with Cow Wars 2 labelled on it (there might be another
event in May with something similar).
Along with that after round 1 we all got a raffle prize thanks to Wyrd's
tremendous support.
We all got paired via cards, for the most part this worked out, except
for a couple of hitches.
First of all Jan and Aaron were paired against each other, not great but
Dave did quickly sort that, the second issue was myself and a few other guys
did not have matching numbers and it eventually left me to play Jan, going back
to the initial issue.
Luckily, two wrongs made a right. A couple of guys arrived late, one of
which would be my first round opponent.
Round 1
- Graeme Nicholls
- Arcanists
- Interference
- Flank Deployment
- 50ss
- A Line in the Sand
- Assassinate
- Protect Territory
- Plant Evidence
- Power Ritual
Graeme was running Kaeris, using the lovely alternate plastic model.
I had little to no experience with Kaeris (I think I've watched some
games) so this would be interesting.
Usually in an Arcanist off (sorry I forgot to say, not that it wasn't
obvious) I feel quite confident but against a Master who was a bit unknown and
in a strategy I was not so keen on my confidence was a little lower.
Still my crew was as follows:
- Marcus - Arcane Reservoir,
Feral Instincts, Trail of the Gods
- Jackalope
- Myranda - Imbued Energies
- Mechanical Rider - Imbued
Energies
- Arcane Effigy
- Johana
- 2 Canine Remains
- Night Terror
Nine models to start with would help, usually this kind of Recon crew I
would have more but I opted to try out Johana (the first time on the table for
me) trading two models for one but which had advantage against any possibly
constructs and the very attractive 3" melee range.
Graeme would take something roughly like:
- Kaeris
- Malifaux Child
- Johan
- Joss
- Arcane Effigy
- Gunsmith
- Performer
- Metal Gamin
Graeme had a max cache were I had my minimum of 4.
He also opted for Arcane Reservoir, along with Grab and Drop and the
burning makes people fly and drop markers upgrade (don't remember the name).
Joss had fast and maybe something else.
Overall I felt advantaged when it came to crew due to the numbers of
models and that the speedy smaller minions would be easy picking for any Super
Marcus and/or Killer Kitty shenanigans.
Joss was a big sign post, one that said "Stay Clear" for the
Mechanical Rider.
With crews selected Graeme opted for Plant Evidence and A Line in the
Sand, obviously leaning on the fiery flight play.
I opted for Power Ritual and Protect Territory. Protect is fairly simple
as long as you are not getting tabled and with nine models and a summoner I
believed I would be fine.
Power Ritual is also quite easy, Flank deployment makes this scheme very
quick to set up and as my intention was for about two thirds of my models to
not fight this would fit their plan.
Deployment was fairly typical for the strategy and scheme.
Marcus, Myranda and the bunny started close and central with the Arcane
Effigy hanging out by them.
Two zombie dogs started 18" across one side with the Metal horsey
and bat thing on the other.
Johana was the only undecided, she started far forwards too as to be
able to remove burning if needed and get in quicker being her Wk of 4 is not
too fast.
Graeme pretty much started in a bubble to use the Burning Halo tricks,
except the Performer and Metal gamin who were ready to head off to the quarter
my Rider and Night Terror were going.
The game played out much as expected at first, my dogs darted off into
one quarter ready to lay markers and hide as the Rider did with the Night
Terror, though the bat could not lay markers the "pooped" Gamin could
do later on.
The Effigy placed a Power Ritual marker and held the home quarter and my
three big hitters headed cautiously forwards.
With the child burning a lot of it's friend in order to set up A Line in
the Sand Graeme's crew headed towards the dead zone of the centre a little too
fast and this would catch him out.
The central scrap did not entirely go my way; strategically I had my
engagements hold more of his models than his did of mine a later stage having
Johana hold up four models.
However an early pouncing cat proved too easy to kill as a freshly
transformed Myranda died to a flurrying Johan. Going back I think I may've been
able to control activations a little better as to not have the cat out just at
that point which would be safer due to Myranda's much better defence (and
soulstones).
The sacrifice was not completely in vain as it kept the opposing crew
together for longer and me scoring VPs while Graeme did not.
As the game went on, Kaeris' cheaper minions would either be picked off
or scared into their own starting quarter.
Eventually the master would hunt down my Canine remains but it was too little
too late.
Mechanical Rider had used the enemy Gamin to bounce scheme markers off
of which allowed for Power Ritual and the "poop" to gain Protect
Territory, even with this the dead doggies had done their job and Marcus had
done a decent job of holding Joss in place.
If the game were to get more turns, maybe Kaeris combination of speed
and attack would see Graeme score a few more VP, but I had "the ten"
on lock down.
With only three turns played (a late start and a newer player being the
prime combination to this) the game ended in victory for me at
Win 8-1
Graeme ended with only 2 markers down, only one of which was viable for
Plant Evidence.
Graeme was a lovely guy to play though and I hope to see him at more
events.
I would say this though, I did get the
win and after the game I did get the "have I heard you on a podcast" checks
which is always flattering.
Still another round 1 win for me, outside of the GT (damn you Elwood!) I
have at least kept a positive record somewhere.
Luncheon
I have to say, although the time of day was right for lunch I much
prefer lunch being the half way break. Still I imagine dietary requirements
could be an issue if lunch was held back so I am happy to suck it up.
Where a few of the Black Joker Society guys myself and Janron were
mostly hanging around with opted for Subway, myself, Janron, Maria and little
Timmy Brown headed off to Sainsbury's.
Cheap sandwich deals with time to spend.
The weather at this point was nice, unlike the dreary morning and
speaking to people about their results I had a feeling I would be against a
tough opponent.
Mark Elwood was on a big win, as was Tim and we believed they would face
off.
This meant I was getting worried as I was assuming I would have to play
against the surprise (to me) entrant from the North "the Chosen One"
Greg Piskosz.
Round 2
- Greg Piskosz
- Neverborn
- Collect the Bounty
- Standard Deployment
- 48ss
- A Line in the Sand
- Breakthrough
- Protect Territory
- Outflank
- Distract
Sometimes being right is horrible.
I would be against Greg, the player (along with Mark Elwood) I would put
money on winning the event.
Still, I avoided intimidation. Greg is a top player, but he is a laugh
and also a very clean one (no dodgy measurements, slow play or anything of the
sorts), my worry was more in what the game was versus what I knew he was
fielding.
Bounty and Lilith with Nekima.
Anyway, with 2 stones less my crew wasn't too different to the last
tournament outing in this strategy:
- Marcus - Arcane Reservoir,
Feral Instincts, Trail of the Gods
- Dawn Serpent
- Myranda - Imbued Energies
- Mechanical Rider
- Howard Langston - Imbued
Energies
I knew scheme wise the game wouldn't be so complicated and it was much
more about strategy, especially with the Joker style scoring. Having tough
models that don't give too many points away seems to have worked in the past so
I hoped it would again.
The only thing I feel I maybe should've taken was The Hunger Cry to help with willpower duels, but overall I didn't expect to stick
too close and two fifths of my starting models were not even Beasts.
Greg took something roughly like:
- Lilith
- Nekima
- Doppelganger
- Mysterious Effigy
- Primordial Magic
- Mr Graves
- Johana
A big bunch of upgrades I mostly don't remember bar Retribution's Eye on
Johana who was seemingly tooled up to destroy Mechanical Rider.
I deployed with the Rider far away from most of the business in Greg's
crew, the three beasts starting a little bubbled to gain help from each other
and Howard distant but between the void of the beasts and the Rider.
The tension in this game was when to "push it forwards".
Both my crew and Greg's had a strong fast combat element and whoever got
caught with their pants down would be the one who lost.
Unfortunately crew creation was a lot better on Greg's side; initiative
control via the Doppelganger along with activation control with Greg starting
with almost twice the pieces meant the Chess like part of the game was strongly
in his favour.
I put my beasty bubble far enough forwards to make Greg take the choice.
Although I know Greg is one of the finest Malifaux players there are
giving him the choice would allow me more windows to take advantage of than if
it were the other way.
Greg however played almost flawlessly, in my eyes I didn't see any
opportunities for advantage and slowly but surely any equal footing we had slid
away.
Mechanical Rider did it's best impression of a coward but the rest of
the crew did a good job of just getting tangled, keeping a poor hand in the
first turn of the game allowed the ever tricky Lilith to catch three of my
models in vines and with activation control in Greg's hands Nekima claimed an
early victim in the shape of my Dawn Serpent.
This wouldn't count for strategy but it was a fifth of my crew and the
worst thing
was that if having most my models in vines wasn't bad Myranda got shook
up and paralysed at the site of the Dragon being slain.
This was an incredibly bad start, all of my models were stationary,
Marcus did the best he could, manipulating Johana with a combination of Primal and Alpha had her use her fantastic upgrade
against the suited Mr Graves, with Howard also dying in the same turn however I
was simply preventing Greg getting further ahead rather than winning.
The game eventually got to a stage where Mechanical Rider would be along
Mr Piskosz table edge, pushing, pooping, making scheme markers and avoiding
combat where she needed to.
I was locking in my schemes but with Marcus and his beasts defeated Greg
had free reign to do the same and he would also gain more Strategy points.
In the end, Lilith would remove a couple of my markers to stop me
locking in six scheme points and ending our game.
Loss 4-9
The game was very educational, it was nice to see Nekima used well, too
many times have I seen her been used far too aggressively and seem poor and
over-costed.
I was happy to escape the game with some VP especially considering how
bad the start of the game was, 5VP difference is big loss though, but I'm not
sure if I should expect closer against Greg.
Next to us was the top table, Mark Elwood also with Nekima would
demolish Tim Brown and his Gremlins, which would prove interesting for the
following game.
Interestingly Aaron and Jan ended up paired against each other after
they had also both won their first round, it must have been destiny.
After my game I was met by a very frustrated Mr Bailey, it seemed to
have been "one of those games" where nothing goes right and your
opponent is super lucky.
Aaron lost 7-0 to Jan which I think our entire contingent was shocked
by.
Round 3
- Tim Brown
- Gremlins
- Guard the Stash
- Close Deployment
- 46ss
- A Line in the Sand
- Bodyguard
- Assassinate
- Plant Explosives
- Vendetta
It looks like Tim and I followed each other.
I was happy to be paired with him; he's a good kid and someone I know
who is very much on my level with "bants".
Tim was running Gremlins, and I knew he was also favouring the Pigapult,
being I have faced against the little green men a lot I had a rough idea of
what to expect and how to win.
It was time for Mei Feng!
- Mei Feng - Arcane Reservoir,
Seismic Claws, Vapourmancy
- Emberling
- Kang - Imbued Energies
- Mechanical Rider - Imbued
Energies
- Willie
- Arcane Effigy
- Metal Gamin
I knew taking Mei Feng could be a mistake, not because I like to be
aggressive with her against the gremlins and Assassinate was in the pool, but
if Tim beat me using my favourite master I'd not hear the end of it on Twitter.
Still, usually I would take Imbued Protection with Assassinate in the
pool, but I opted for Vapourmancy and the extra soulstone which I hoped Kang
would not need to use.
Vent Steam would prove good at protecting my Stash guarding minions from
shooting and blasts versus gremlins, especially on a very dense table like the
one we played on, could prove useful.
Willie was around for that blasty reason, also he can shoot without LoS
if at a penalty and, oh, he ignores armour if and opposing ordnance weapon was
deployed.
Mechanical Rider would be the obvious Bodyguard which was a little
dangerous with Vendetta in the pool but could also threaten (or bluff) Plant
Explosives, also, making more tough models to Guard the Stash would help.
Lastly Kang is a "gatekeeper" and the other small minions were
cheap and tough.
Tim would bring the following to the table:
- Wong
- Sammy LaCroix
- Burt Jebsen
- Lenny
- Bayou Gator
- Pigapult
- 2 Stuffed Piglets
It seems not only I had concluded that blasts could be good.
Tim had Explosive Solutions, Glowy and all the toys you'd want upgrade
wise, his Pigapult could cover both Stash markers and with Stuffed pigs cause a
lot of damage.
Tim deploys his forces and from before even the first initiative flip I
see an opening.
The Gremlins were crowded, Stuffed pigs behind the Pigapult, Lenny to
it's right, to it's left a jumble of other models within the crew with Burt out
on the end.
My blasts would do me proud here, but also Mei's Jackhammer kick
engagement range could cause for some early headaches on Tim's side.
I had deployed in flanks, Kang accompanied Willie and a Metal Gamin to
head for the Pigapult where Mei, her totem and Effigy prepared to be a quick
road into the heart of Tim's crew.
Mechanical Rider as always just trotted about between terrain on the
edge of the table nearest Mei Feng (getaway horse?).
It became instantly apparent that I could charge into combat turn one
with Mei Feng. This at first seemed like a double edged sword. I had taken
Assassinate and had a bead on Wong, but on the other side, what if Tim had the
same, could Mei survive an entire crew?
With a stone used early to improve my hand I believed I had the tools to
do the job and as I stated earlier, my stones were made for Mei.
The Arcane Effigy gave Mei "Radiance" something that would
potentially help with the card advantage, stepped into position and Accomplice
gave me a turn one charge.
Mei flew into combat, thanks to the close deployment she was able to get
her full combat effectiveness with her claws straight away, kick, punch, chop,
Feng battered Wong but with his armour and stones it was not enough for the
instant kill.
Still after the dust had settled Mei Feng stood amongst Tim's gremlins,
all bar Lenny were engaged and this made the charge all the worthwhile.
As the game moved on the first turn assault had proven to be a game
changer.
With Tim's crew held in place I could position my models for Strategy
points while holding down his.
Willie took an early shot, out of range of the Pigapult he opted for
Lenny, who not engaged was also now much more of a target.
Willie's explosives did some nice early damage threatening a chain
reaction with some explosive pork.
The game continued and eventually Mei Feng had to opt to railwalk to
safety with only two wounds left and Tim with undeclared schemes.
Wong was alive but surrounded and practically dead, before he was
finished he was able to toss a scheme marker right into position by the Stash
guarding Effigy, Emberling and fresh Gamin. 3VP in the bag for Tim but I was
still moving ahead.
The game moved on and Willie was now in a preferred position, not only
did he have a keen line of sight to his target, the opposing ordnance of the
Pigapult, but with Kang nearby and the higher stats it was the easiest shot of
his life.
One big armour ignoring explosion later, the stuffed piglets chained too
with the resulting damage being a sight to see.
Kang challenged and finished off Lenny and with the dust settled Tim was
left with only Burt and a Gator.
With my assassination made and solely securing the stash I was far ahead
and looking for a big win.
Mechanical Rider had taken out Sammy, no scheme was revealed and I
wondered if Tim had Bodyguard on Burt.
Brain fart engaged.
Tim could have bodyguard on Burt, something I aimed to deprive him of,
but it meant that I was also deprived off my own. Turns out I should've
remembered an early thought.
Vendetta.
Burt slaps the Rider and scores a point, I attempt the escape aiming for
the rider to not die but the Gator and Burt with nothing else to lose chased
the Rider down with the final lucky strike from Burt securing Tim his full six
scheme points.
Forgetting to declare turn 4 bodyguard (turns out I was unable anyway)
meant that I only squeaked 1VP ahead thanks to Guarding the Stash.
Win 7-6
No disrespect to Tim, but this game did not feel as close as the end
result.
For the most part I had Tim's crew stuck and dead, being able to deny
Guard the Stash all game is insane and not something I would expect before
getting to the table, especially with Close deployment.
The scheme pool was my biggest enemy, so many potential hidden schemes
and so many likely choices meant that I thought about Vendetta one second and
had forgot it the next.
Burt was lucky to be one of the last two models alive and Wong on his
last legs was a little lucky to get the full points for Plant Explosives.
Still Tim proved something I had spoken about a lot recently. Don't give
up.
I could see he was a little frustrated by the position he was in, but
the game was not lost and in the end was almost a draw.
It was great to finally play little Timmy Brown, and obviously, I'm
happy Mei kicked his Gremlin's heads in. :-P
Aaron was in a better mood by the end of this round, he had taken down
his opponent, Jan however had lost and we all now looked towards the Yellow
shirt of shame.
Jan came in sporting it, but with his 7-0 win over Aaron he was ahead of
us going into the final round.
This meant that although I wanted us all to win, part of me hoped Jan
would lose or draw and I could secure a victory.
My only other out was Aaron doing worse than me or somehow closing the
VP differential gap, but it seemed unlikely.
Round 4
- Matt Ledgerwood
- Resurrectionists
- Squatter's Rights
- Corner Deployment
- 45ss
- A Line in the Sand
- Breakthrough
- Distract
- Frame for Murder
- Deliver a Message
I was very happy to see this pairing appear on David's laptop screen,
Matt is one of my favourite guys on the Malifaux scene but has been a busy man
and I've not seen him about too much.
Matt claimed he was rusty, but I know that Mr Ledgerwood is one hell of
a player and my final round would not be the easy pair I hoped for.
Yellow shirt was still not a guarantee though, Jan was paired against
the undefeated Panzer Harris and Aaron was against "Kogan Style" Adam
Perry who had drew with Mr Bailey at Gertfaux.
My crew:
- Marcus - Arcane Reservoir,
Trail of the Gods, Feral Instincts
- Myranda - Imbued Energies
- Mechanical Rider - Imbued
Energies
- Moleman
- 2 Silurids
I couldn't have the double tag-team special of Moley-swampfiend but the
single Moleman would probably be a target and therefore a top contender for
"sucker".
The Rider shows up again, squatting onto markers leaving Gamin behind
always helps and the speed of Myranda and Marcus could secure the rest.
Going in I did consider Mei Feng, her henchman Kang is a great tool
versus the undead but there was no guarantee Matt would field a lot of them
(though I did suspect Nicodem) and Kang is just too slow for the spread out
Squatter's Rights.
Matt revealed something roughly like:
- McMourning
- Zombie Chihuahua
- Sebastian
- Dead Doxey
- Chiaki the Niece
- 2 Rotten Belles
- 2 Canine Remains
Eurghhh...
McMourning is a pain and on top of that Matt had so many more
activations than me.
He had pieces I could eliminate fast but Sebastian was able to summon
more dogs and McMourning, he was tooled up to make Flesh Constructs which would
be a huge pain in the strategy.
I hoped that Frame for Murder would prove decent as I suspected that
Douglas would like to take his scalpels to my beasts. Assuming I was right
about McM I also opted for Deliver a Message.
Matt revealed his schemes, A Line in the Sand and Breakthrough.
Hopefully I could two-for-one by denying strategy and ALitS but it was
all in and not a bad choice by Matt.
The speed in Matt's crew was the canines, I had to get rid of those
puppies first to help stifle Breakthrough, I just hoped those two were the only
I'd have to fight.
The game started as well as I could have wanted, my models moved into
position, Marcus powered up to head 24" across the table a kill a dog and
Matt was Luring and aiming for the Moleman.
For a second I was worried, the Moleman had poison counters that would
kill him meaning he wasn't the "sucker" I wanted him to be.
Luckily, the temptation for extra models was obviously too much for Matt
and Dr McMourning finished the little beast off and secured me 3VP.
Already though, Douglas made a b-line for the centre of the table and
Myranda.
Turn two VP wise proved more profitable than the first, Matt and I both
scored for Strategy but a message was quickly delivered to the blood thirsty
Doctor.
Locking 7VP in turn 2 I was feeling great, it would be time to turtle up
and deny Matt as many points as I could, unfortunately that was easier said
than done.
Marcus was dead. He went out like a rock star, drugs and hookers. Lure
on Wk8 Marcus was mean, I didn't have the cards to defend against it, nor did I
have the ability to stop the lethal injection that paralysed him.
McMourning essentially copied Marcus on the same turn, missing all his
attack against Myranda but the third onwards was not as good for the Arcanists.
Marcus would be ripped to shreds, poison would course through the veins
of most of my crew killing them and spawning several Flesh Constructs.
Myranda was caught out by the inability to soulstone prevent against the
Decaying Aura of McMourning and my whole line was being depleted.
The Rider tried some evasive manoeuvres, but without me taking out key
pieces of the poison puzzle like the Chihuahua and Seb meant that it didn't
matter how good my cards were or how many tomes I could trigger.
Eventually I was left with two freshly spawned Metal Gamin, they could
hold a single squat marker but that would do nothing.
Chiaki and some new dogs would clean up, gaining Matt his VP for
strategy and eventually getting to my corner for his schemes.
Loss 7-10
The game fell to pieces by the end; I was mildly frustrated, not at Matt
or really much at myself but the inability to stop the slow poison death which
turned the game.
I do understand there are pieces to take out, I could also bring
condition removal (although that is timing based) but overall I was just gutted
to go from 7-1 to 7-10 in what at the end felt like a blink of an eye.
Still Matt was a great opponent; it was nice to get to chat with him in
real life, continuing some twitter conversations which at first caught me off
guard.
Hopefully I will see Matt across the table again sometime.
Jan was not looking happy, as at Isle of Faux 2 Jan's Ressers could not
beat Panzer's Guild.
The previously grumpy Aaron had his frown turn upside down though as he
finally got the victory over Adam thanks to the ever annoying Nino.
Aaron was 3-1, myself and Jan were now 2-2 and what I had feared was
about to happen.
Results
Let's start with the good news.
Two wins and two losses was another irritatingly mediocre score, so much
so that I finished 11/22 and with 0VP differential.
I had tough opponents and still feel OK about my result, but overall
it's another event where I really feel I could've got the 3-1.
2-2 wasn't great but it did mean that, somehow, I was the top Arcanist
player!
Unfortunately for me, Jan's 2-2 with +3VP diff meant that the Yellow
shirt was now mine, Jan being happier than I had seen him all weekend.
Still his result only got him to ninth and with people such as Matt
Ledgerwood around Jan did not score any trophies.
As results were being called for best in faction a surprise happened.
David had opted for the podium players, who would be getting not only
trophies but KR cases to not be eligible for Best in Faction.
Tim won Gremlins by default as did Aron Britchford with his Ten
Thunders.
I was announced for Arcanists.
Greg Piskosz, who had lost the last game to Mark Elwood got Neverborn.
Matt's victory over me secured him Resurrectionists.
Tristan Jones (top bloke) got Outcasts pipping Maria by VP differential.
Guild went to Rick Paltridge.
Rick?
We all knew that Panzer's win over Jan had put him in contention for
first being the only perfect record along Mark's, but what about Aaron?
Turns out Aaron did better than even he had expected.
With a VP differential of +10 Aaron secured himself his second third
place of the year.
Super proud of Aaron, I knew he could do well and although the rankings
are just a laugh it is gratifying to see him rise up into the top 20.
I'm just a little sad I haven't been able to follow.
The Fallout from the War
Another great thing about the venue was that right behind it was
multiple restaurants, luckily with Jan being the nice guy driver and slightly
pressured into it due to my Birthday being the following day he decided we
could stick around. After all he had the following week off and we were not too
far from home. So a group of us; Jan, Aaron, Mark Elwood, Maria, Tristan, Tim
(with his better half) and myself all went for a meal, Turtle Bay couldn't let
us have a table at a time we needed so we opted for GBK. I say we, I ended up
having to pick, and I thought Maria was in charge.
It's always nice to be able to chill out with people from the Malifaux
scene away from the gaming table, it's why I have pushed so hard for the social
activities pre-May Feng.
It was great to hang around with the Black Joker Society and GBK served
very nice food and drink.
I would discuss the meal in more depth, but this is meant to be a
tournament report and not one of a meal.
Thanks again to all the BJS crew.
Thanks to all my opponents who were all wonderful and gaming wise may've
given me the best tournament experience (it definitely is up there).
Thanks to the people who said they enjoyed my podcasting, it makes it
all worthwhile.
Thanks again to Janron for being the best tournament buddies I could ask
for.
And thanks again to David "Clousseau" Brown for running a
stellar event, having a good chat with me and oh, lending me a pen.
Look forward to seeing all you beautiful people at the end of the month
for May Feng.
- Ben (@psientologist)
