Canterfaux aka De Cantiacorum Ludi Magna

My very first tournament report

In a change of pace from the usual articles on this blog I thought I would write up a report on how Canterfaux went for me.

Canterfaux was a big deal for me, I have been part of the Malifaux community for a while now but never managed to get myself out to a tournament.

However the stars had aligned and it was time for me to pack my toys, grab some mates and head down to Kent.

Preparation 

Prior to this tournament I had to consider which leader I was going to be taking as it was fixed master. Now although this event had no full painting requirement (undercoated minimum) I wanted to have already decided so that I could turn up with a fully painted crew and hopefully some practice games under my belt.

Now there was really only one master I could take, or at least should take, it was surely expected of me and although I feel if my plan was to do everything I could to win I would've chosen differently I simply had to take my favourite master in all of Malifaux. Mei Feng.

As a side, knowing that the event was using the gaining grounds strategies I imagine that would have pushed me into considering to take Ramos from my collection, being I knew we would be playing Reconnoitre twice and Ramos can be quite strong in it, flooding the table with spiders and in theory would not too bad at Stake a Claim either.

Still the kung fu master, champion of the people and all around bad ass Mei Feng was my weapon of choice, but the issue was that all though I have played her forever I haven't got her or her rail crew painted.

First thing I did was decide the list of things that I owned that I was likely to field.

• Rail Crew set
• Rail Golem
• Willie
• Arcane Effigy
• Mechanical Rider
• Metal Gamin
• Spiders
• Howard Langston
• Joss
• other #mechriderpoo

On top of this I still made sure I had all the Arcanist beasts I had done for Marcus plus I had a painted Gunsmith if desired in my collection.

I also considered grabbing myself a Soul stone miner, but with enough to paint I left that out.

Now the Rail Crew was a priority and bar Mei Feng herself I successfully got them finished, but "why not Mei?" you may ask. Well somehow I had lost one her bloody feet! How? I do not know.

My Rail Golem was in the process of being painted when I had been painting the Metal Gamin for #ToMB but unfortunately I had dropped him, broke him into multiple pieces and have since misplaced a pipe.

This wasn't going well really.

Howard Langston and Joss both however got themselves a nice new lick of paint as well as some nice snowy bases and although I somehow totally missed a mold line on Joss (damn it) I feel they came out alright, especially Langston, but that is in part due to fantastically dynamic sculpt.

The spiders also got a bit of a dry brush, but that was really as far as I got with them, in the future they will match Langston.

I am disappointed that I didn't get to show off a fully painted crew, but avoiding the exact reasons, life got in my way, which unfortunately held up some of my opportunities to get stuff done.

Not only did I not get all I wanted painted but I didn't get any practice in with Mei Feng, however she might be the master which I know best I still would've liked to play Stake a Claim prior to the event. 

Luckily the other models bar Willie were undercoated so were fit for the tournament and the good old Aaron with his huge collection of painted models allowed me to borrow what he had that I needed.

With some trash talk thrown out to my group and the @malifools it was time to get on the road.

Friday

Accompanying me from Poole to Canterbury was my usual opponents Aaron (@forestreveries) and Jan (@clankers86), the original plan being was that we would just get up at what I like to call "far too early" and head down the Saturday morning.

However on the Thursday I had realised how this may not be best for Jan being the driver or even in fact me and my insomniac ways, so I looked online for some cheap hotels and found one about a 15 minute drive away which luckily wouldn't cost us very much splitting the bill.

Once both Jan and Aaron had finished work and we were all packed and refreshed it was in to the Janmobile and on to the road.

I quite like road trips, although I had never been to a wargaming tournament outside of Poole I had been to a fair few Magic: The Gathering tournaments in the past and getting on the road was one of many fun parts and this was no different, almost nostalgic. During the trip there was a lot of chatting in the car about all sorts of things, obviously including quite a bit of Malifaux talk and there was also one thing that came up quite often which was simply "how will we all do?".

For me, where I stand level of play wise was quite unknown. Jan and Aaron had both been to tournaments last year; Aaron doing pretty well at "Gunsmiths for Hire" and Jan earning a trophy for third at Aaron and Joe's "Under the Influence" event.

Now out of the three of us I'm not particularly sure who is the best.

I generally don't lose to Jan whereas Aaron never seems to be able to beat him but has won over me more than vice versa.

Coming into the tournament, as I said on @malifools, I was a little nervous and though I didn't have any expectations of winning I was worried I would just turn out to be rubbish.

Also however stupid and quite possibly wrong it is, I felt that with so many people turning to me for advice on Mei Feng I felt I would be a let down if I did poorly with her, it's not like I have a huge reputation but I have one of sorts.

For plenty of other reasons too I am also fairly pessimistic and have a low opinion of myself, I couldn't see myself doing well and was also a little worried that maybe, people may just not like me, the social importance of this event as, if not more, important than the gaming side of things.

The guys helped me get over this somewhat, Aaron especially filled with me with a bit of confidence as he looked at the facts and reflected them off of me. Jan had come third in a tournament and was kicking ass in the Vassal league, Aaron himself had done well at Gunsmiths and this was last edition when he was playing a lot less and me, well I'm not exactly losing all my games to them.

Aaron was fairly confident that as a group we would do well and I started to believe this too.

This wasn't just my introduction to the tournament scene, but was the tournament scene's introduction to me.

The Hotel

With a stop for food on the way (McDonald's... woo) we still got the hotel in decent time.

The room was decent and being that no one had given me any cash yet and I am massive I claimed the big bed.

I bought along a board game for us to play and Jan fixed some basing on a few of his miniatures.

After failing to save the world from a Pandemic, it was time to use what we had paid for and get sleep.

Jan typically fell asleep first while Aaron and I chatted for a bit, trying to hear each other other Mr Proudley's lovely snoring.

My bed was nice, though Aaron's wasn't, but between a bit of nausea, a hot room and all the bloody noise Jan was making I did not get any real sleep.

Still at least Jan did which meant our chances of surviving the road trip to the event were much higher.

Every cloud right?

Saturday

Groggy as all hell we woke up, got refreshed, made sure we didn't leave our stuff behind and hit the short road to the event hall.

After managing to drive past the street twice we got parked and got in.

For me this was a nerve racking moment, where people may think I'm quite confident, doing this blog, chatting a lot on twitter and having my voice heard on podcasts, in reality I'm what seems to be not that rare amongst gamer kind and that's initially shy and full of social anxieties.

Who was here? What about the people I have spoke to for months but have no clue what they look like? What do people expect of me? Will they think I'm a prick? What if I sound like a prick?

There had to be easily at least a dozen people that I speak to on twitter, some of which I have spoken to for months.

A few I had spoken vocally too, some I had heard but never physically chatted with, some I just had no clue what they were like IRL but were a screen name and profile picture to me.

It was exciting, but it was daunting and this was quite easily the biggest deal for me.

Walking in, trying to think back it was a blur.

We were a little late and everyone was about, smiles on their faces chatting away, laughing and all already having a good time.

I remember signing up with Mr @joewood85 the fantastic organiser of the event, shaking hands and walking about.

It's such a blur now that I am actually struggling to think who I spoke to first.

I believe it was @oldmanmyke a very surreal moment for me to actually be chatting to him, but not via Skype and being in his physical presence.

The "Tractor Massive" in their team colours actually helped a bit, yellow polo shirts dotted around with faces I had seen on the internet or names blazoned across their chests which instantly clicked.

Henchman Lee, Scott Porter and Pete Wright all fantastic friendly blokes and all instantly welcoming.

@jondoe297b Ben Crowe, was also one of the first to shake my hand, a man I instantly recognised thanks to photos from Smogcon and his distinct look, not meant as an insult, Ben is truly "the Hardcore legend" that Chris Tomlin said he was, a proper lad with tattooed arms, really I thought it could've been a mistake that I'd given him stick on twitter in the past.

But just like the man mountain @leebattrick these guys are absolutely lovely blokes that wouldn't harm a fly but most definitely could.

There were plenty more people I got introduced to throughout, but it was on with the pairings.

Pairings

After registering one of the first things we were given was a pack containing the tournament schedule and record sheet, some swag which included a nice club die, wooden counter with the event logo, a measuring tool also with the event logo engraved both from counter attack and a couple of resin base samples with a discount code for tiny worlds.

Also in the pack was a card, mine was the thirteen of rams, I was hoping this was a good sign.

Joe used these cards we were all randomly given to assign pairings.

This event did allow for grudge matches, games where opponents had challenged (and accepted) to play the first round.

Aaron had a grudge match against Lee Battrick, something he matchup (master vs master) wise regretted as Lee would be playing Ramos and round 1 was reconnoitre.

Prior to the event on @malifools, Joel Henry asked if there were grudges at this event as Mike and I had been giving each other a bit of stick about our respected kung fu lady masters.
Mike however said that he didn't do grudges, something which I was kind of glad about as I was hoping for an easier opponent in the first round of my first tournament, nothing against actually playing Mike but starting with a win would be nice or at least help ease off the pressure I was feeling.

So, card by card people were chosen, given a table number and sent off to play the first round.
Card by card the room becomes more open as the number of bodies shrink.
Jan gets called fairly early and a little later Aaron and Lee are given their table number.
Eventually there are only two people left in the room yet to be called.

Mike Marshall.

And me.

My immediate reaction is laughing and wondering whether or not this was a fix, it had only been two or three days before this that Mike had said he didn't do grudges and that Joel was excited about it.
It all felt a little too convenient.

Turns out Mike thought he had a card with a different suit to what he did, he had been called but didn't know.
With all the other 26 players paired off, it was fine, Mike and I were obviously destined to get this game in and we headed to table 14 to get our game on.

Round 1

We were following the Gaining Grounds schemes so round one saw us playing the first game of Reconnoitre of the day.
Scheme pools were also pre-determined for the day and we had the choice of:

• Protect Territory
• Breakthrough
• Frame for Murder
• Outflank
• A Line in the Sand

As previously stated Mike had picked Misaki as his master for the event, I briefly gave a thought to what Mike want to choose to fight me and what he also may take scheme wise.

I expected Tengu as quick corner grabbers and scheme placers as the pool did include 3 schemes that could use them.

I also suspected to see one or two hard hitting things, quite likely Kang for the anti-construct, maybe the Lone Swordsman as I know that is one of Mike's preferred models.

Outflank is a scheme I know Mike (like myself) is not so keen on and Line would've been difficult keeping out of the no-mans land and due to the terrain.

Thinking that Mike may take Kang did make me consider taking less constructs, but Mei would really want to be rail walking and either way I would have some, so I just had to forget about it.

Crew wise I decided to take (roughly):

• Arcane Reservoir, Seismic Claws, Imbued Protection
• Mechanical Rider with Imbued Energies
• Emberling
• Arcane Effigy
• 2 Metal Gamin
• 2 Rail Workers

The thinking was that I would push hard for Recon, Ten Thunders tend to be fairly elite and even with a few 4 stone models thanks to wave 2, they still have a lot around the 6-7 mark and against my 8 models plus #mechriderpoo I should be out activating and outnumbering the Thunders.

Metal Gamin, Rail Workers and the Effigy all are Hard to Kill, along with armour and decent defenses these little guys help Mei get where she needs as well as being fairly difficult to shift.

Workers also can quite easily stand up to minions with only 2 attacks and can also tear things down, they also like holding hands with Metal Gamin as if I really need to stand my ground gaining Protection of Metal can be very useful.

Mechanical Rider is an all star, as long as it doesn't get thrown in too early it is extremely hard to take down, super slippery thanks to the push it gets from "pooping" and the access to drawing a couple of extra cards per hit can really help load up Mei for walking.

The other trigger from his weapon places markers, this means I could even potentially shoot my breakthrough counters into position.

Mike ended up with (again roughly, from memory):

• Misaki probably had Misdirection and I believe Servant of 5 Dragons
• Mr Graves
• 2 Torakage
• 2 Tengu
• The Lone Swordsman

I assume that Mike would be going for Breakthrough and with his preference along with fighting a "combat" master I guessed he would take Frame for Murder, I assumed on something quick to kill like a Tengu.

For myself, I ruled out Line in the sand for the reasons I assumed Mike wouldn't bother with it, Outflank was also out of the picture.

Picking both Protect Territory and Breakthrough together can be a little counter-productive, especially with 45 soul stones of models and not the typical 50.

I expected the game to be fairly bloody with two kung fu masters in play, with Protect Territory needing models to stick around and the fact I felt I would pushing forwards, Breakthrough was my choice.

Second scheme for me would be Frame for Murder picking one of my Rail Workers as then like to get involved in combat and are also easier models to kill than Metal Gamin in general.

On with the game itself then. Whilst I will not be able to remember a play by play of each of my games, I will hope to give a rough run down, highlighting anything I remember of note.

To start both of us declared Breakthrough and both of us had a scheme which was hidden. Snap.

My flank deployment saw me pair my metal gamin and rail workers up to head into opposite quarters, mechanical rider and the effigy heading centrally to be Mei's stepping stones and the Emberling behind terrain as it was just going to use it's incorporeal to get where it felt it was needed.

Mike's Tengu were paired so they could use their shooting star ability for pushes and some extra movement to claim a quarter, Torakage ready to sneak about, Misaki heading off the opposite way to the Tengu and Graves and the loner heading up the centre.

The first turn for Mike saw him send things off into the directions as expected but slightly surprising was Misaki actually sneaking towards his edge of the board behind a large building out of site.
This bothered me on a couple of levels, the less serious level was knowing that Mei would probably not end up fighting Misaki which would've been pretty epic, but probably bad for the Arcanist.
The other level was I knew to get the full 3 victory points for Frame for Murder the Rail Worker would need to be killed by Misaki and it could end up proving difficult.

Torakage darted into some wide open buildings which while they didn't completely scare me, put me in a position where I knew I would want to bait them into charging gamin to be counter-charged by workers.

The Emberling dropped some scrap and Mei Feng used her signature manoeuvre to head straight into the middle, I paused for a bit, made some measurements.
I could charge the Lone Swordsman in the first turn. I wasn't sure how wise this would be, I knew that he was fairly hard and dedicating my master to combat so early could be a mistake, especially considering that no real duels had happened so Mike still had his full grip of cards.

However, I knew I wanted to push, I had faith in Mei and tying up the Swordsman and then hopefully Graves could be a big game.
I threw caution to the wind and got stuck in.

Doing flips, it was not instantly apparent but quickly became so.
Mike had thrown the Swordsman straight up the centre to be bait, it was obviously his "sucker" and I had fallen for it.

With the swordsman battered and bruised I win Initiative on the second turn and continue the attack.
Mike now not even remotely thinking about cheating showed me the writing on the wall.
A Tiger claw to the face put the swordsman on one wound left and with the burning +1 condition, which at this point made me pause.
If he was the "sucker" I could let the burning finish him off and Mike would not get the victory points.
For a second this seemed like genius, but there were a few issues with this thinking, I could be wrong, also someone could pat the burning off being this was the first activation of the turn and lastly, the thing which made me decide to pull the trigger was that the Swordsman would not only be able to attack back with Graves potentially helping out, but he could also use his (0) action to reactivate and do it again if he was going to die to burning anyhow.
This left me with handing Mike an easy and early 3 victory points, the game already now being an uphill struggle but allowing me to concentrate a little easier on denying his others and also not having to worry the swordsman would start cutting up my crew.

Turn 2 saw Tengu get into a corner and also have the assist of a Torakage to fight a worker and gamin, which thanks to Hard to Kill were not going away that easily.

With a lack of Tomes the rider was unable to summon but ran through the centre with Graves in his sight, passing a building which had a Torakage skulking about and me sneaking a few small minions past and towards the corner which Misaki had gone to claim.

Thanks to my model count and the speed of the rider I was able to score my first victory point for recon while denying Mike his.

The turns continued on, with Mei now fighting Graves and kicking him about and Leaping aside to head off to Mike's deployment quarter and with sights on the Tengu corner.

Torakage killed workers on both sides of the board and forced the Effigy to have to walk around in an engagement range to stay out of the center.

Misaki bounded into combat with a Metal Gamin and Emberling, thanks to a combination of poor flips from Mike and the Gamin using stand ground to go to defensive +2 the Thunder master was finding it quite hard to slay the tough little construct but did manage to take out the totem while getting a little bit torched on the way.

Later into the game the Mechanical Rider got into Mike's corner but aided his master in finishing off the Honey Pot's bouncer.
Mei had been using her leaping skills to then give herself a charge to go avenge the mess that the two flying Oni and ninja had made.
With a barrage of Jackhammer Kicks and a flurry of Tiger Claw strikes, she cleared away the little demons to further deny any points for Reconnoitre and make Mike's life a little more difficult.

Hard to Kill and Armour continued to do what Hard to Kill and Armour does and the end parts of the game not only saw Misaki and the second Torakage fight for what must've felt like an age against these small automatons but saw the Torakage eventually fall while Misaki finally bested her opponents.

In the end Mike had succeeded in his Breakthrough as in Flank he had plenty of space to place his markers and while I held him up I never got rid of them.
The rider trotted about doing his with absolutely no interference and although I had only got 2VP for a Torakage murdering a Worker to Mike's 3 for the Swordsman death to my Master, I had secured the full 4VP for Recon and denied him any.

Win 9-6

I couldn't asked for a better game or a better result to start my tournament with.
Playing against Mike was great and the game was a nice close one, so close to a degree I wondered if he had gone easy on me.
Mei Feng had bested Misaki, which Mike then pointed out how beaten up Mei had got.
This was true, but she had also claimed five scalps to Misaki's two as she found it a struggle to kill one of Mei's small creation and all though I don't honestly feel that the one game proved one master was better than the other it did at least allow me to show that Mei Feng was definitely not rubbish.

One of the other highlights I forgot to mention was that each turn after we shuffled I always made sure to offer Mike the cut.
He never once took it, but I still cut his.
I knew each time I asked he wouldn't, but I still asked, each and every time.
It made me laugh and although I wasn't trying to be irritating sometimes you have to hope these mind games could give you an edge.

After a bit of a chat with Mike and Ben Crowe amongst others who had come to see how the "grudge match but not a grudge match" went, I headed over to see Aaron who I found staring at a table with approximately half a million Steam Arachnids on it.
I wasn't certain, but I was pretty sure Lee had beaten him.

Jan emerged with a cheesy grin on his face, with gave eachother a high five as we had both secured wins.

I used the last few minutes to check out some of the other tables while getting to chat to a few more people.
At this point I noticed another Ramos crew and it instantly clicked that @zacgoldenhall was the one controlling it.
Looking to be quite in the thick of it at this point though I saved introductions for later but before I knew it, it was on to the second game of the day.

Round 2

The second round saw me against another Tractor Massive.

Scott Porter, @barnaberible.

Scott was a lovely bloke, another person who throughout the day I had made sure to chat with a little between games.

He was fielding Tara as a Resurrectionist and as he started picking his crew I could already see I was on the back foot.

Although Jan and Aaron are my common opponents and Aaron had selected Tara as his weapon of choice for the day I had actually not played against her once.

There were some tricks I was aware of, that I soon forgot and this combined with playing a strategy (this time Stake a Claim) I wasn't used to either had me a little worried.

Scheme pool wise we had this:

• Breakthrough
• Assassinate
• Plant Evidence
• Spring the Trap
• A Line in the Sand

I knew that for this strategy again I couldn't go too model light as not only was the pool fairly scheme marker centric the strategy itself needed people to place Claim markers.

Scott's crew was something like this:

• 2 Crooligans
• 2 Necro punks
• 2 Belles
• a Nurse
• Chiaki the Niece

Ressers access to lovely low point utility pieces seemed very good for the strategy and scheme pool, simply trying to catch the punks and kids was going to prove difficult and those Belles would surely be a nuisance too.

I ended up with

• Kang
• Mechanical Rider
• Metal Gamin
• Rail Worker
• Arcane Effigy

Less models, but Kang has his anti-resser aura and was another model to hold an Imbued Energies as Fast, even just as Nimble would be useful for the strategy.

Now if you would like to read a much better report you can check Scott's own blog about the day here as he probably has a better recollection of it than I.

Scheme wise I had already made a mistake and though I will say this now (and probably again later) do not think I am taking anything away from Scott as he is a brilliant player, me making mistakes was a theme for this.

The mistake, well it wasn't taking Plant Evidence, though that could have easily been Breakthrough when you realise that you need to get into the opponent's half of the board, but it was taking Spring the Trap.

In my head I had a plan to use Mechanical Rider's shooting to easily place markers, I thought "if I pop fast 3 shots can give me potentially 6 markers".

The issue here is that Tara has a trigger to stop shooting damage, "Through the hole".

I hadn't played her before, but I should have know this, I'm also pretty sure Aaron had mentioned it on the journey up the day before.

What I should've taken was Assassinate.

Tara is actually Undead, this means Kang and anyone helping out would get positive attack and damage flips fighting Tara and really that would tear her apart.

Scott declared Plant Evidence and Breakthrough as I somewhat suspected and it was off to the races.

The game actually started off fairly well as although it used the upgrade early, Kang gained fast and managed to charge a Crooligan who had deployed from the shadows, this didn't feel like a waste as it gained me a lot of movement and I knew that Crooligans were meant to be fairly nippy, so catching one when I could seemed worth it.

Mechanical Rider headed off the opposite way with the worker trailing behind and I send the metal gamin up the flank which Kang was heading.

This was all very much an early mistake too, I won the flip for deployment and picked sides, not only was it not really the best to choose (I was persuaded by a sofa) but it meant that the metal gamin who could magnetise itself to Necro Punks was deployed in the opposite corner to the pair of them.

Anyway, getting past one of many more mistakes to come, the Arcane Effigy put itself in position for Rail Walking and let Mei do her thing.

Mei Feng darted straight up the board just like in the first round, again I was uncertain this was correct but it got me across the table quickest which I thought would be useful for her to place Claim Markers.

This added to the fact that charging the fellow Ten Thunder Chiaki meant if I got the kill I'd actually flip the activation control on it's head.

However, thanks to her spirit (a)ways Chiaki kept just enough wounds to be alive and allowed Tara to get involved with my Master.

Tara was equipped with the upgrade that allowed her to use Pull the void on me, this was bad as I was hoping to use some Leap Aside shenanigans but that is only on Df and not Wp.

Here is where I made the first of the biggest blunders in the game.

The attack puts out Fast or Slow, against an enemy Scott obviously picks Slow.

Mei Feng has Unstoppable Industry, this means she is immune to Slow.

Did I remember this, a huge ability which the master I have played with the longest as always had?

Did I fuck.

I found myself stone preventing the damage a few times so as not to get buried, but after making two charges and not having the best hand, this was not enough to stop it eventually happening. Balls.

On Mech Rider's side the Necropunks used their Leap to bound about while a Crooligan, which was a little better hidden, made markers and fog and generally got on with schemes.

The following turn Kang finished off Chiaki allowing Mei to become free from the void.

This was then followed by the biggest blunder for sure.

The Nurse got Mei Feng to take her meds, Scott picking the paralysis poison and what is the blunder?

That Unstoppable Industry, you know what else it makes Mei immune to?

Yep, being paralysed...

Now I could use this as an excuse of why I lost, yes spoilers, I don't manage to win this game.

I lost because Scott picked a better crew, schemes, played better and I played like an idiot.

Scott didn't know about Mei's ability, why would he and I don't believe for a second that if he did he wouldn't remind me.

It's my master, I should have remembered and it was my fault.

Mei Feng skipping activations and AP did not help me close the door though being she is speedy and has that third AP she was one of the best models for me to place Claim markers.

A Strategy which I only ever stopped Scott scoring once and never scored myself.

Mechanical Rider summoned a spider and kept moving, I believe maybe even taking a shot at a Crooligan or something along the way.

While this was going on Tara unveiled a trick I had no clue she had. Lost Instants.

The 6" bubble she created meant I couldn't place Claim Markers with Kang, Mei or the Metal Gamin as they were all too close and the Arcane Effigy who had also headed that way hoping to remove Slow (I'm slapping my face) also didn't have the position to be able to place markers where he needed thanks to a rather large building on Scott's side of the table. Which remember I let him have.

As the game moved on the spider tied up a belle and went off to plant evidence.

The Hard to Kill, self healing Necro punk held up my Worker for a bit as the Rider pooped again and used Fast to head off and shoot Tara.

Some shots going through some holes later meant the game was coming to a close.

Mei pummelled a Nurse for good measure and the Rider attempted to charge Tara, my last chance at getting those triggers to drop markers.

Tara however stopped my sneaky Metal Gamin while this whole time Scott had been wondering, why has Kang not killed my Master, because to put things into perspective, turn 2 when he finished Chiaki, her was right on her doorstep.

Yes, I am slapping myself again.

In the end while I was struggling with Tara the 2 necro punks had placed so many markers that Scott not only got 3VP for the Strategy but easily got his full 6 for schemes.

Me, well the two pieces of #mechriderpoo had planted some evidence and the game had ended.

Loss 3-9

Hopefully some day I will get a rematch with Mr Porter and I will play like less of an idiot.

He's a top bloke and when it came to light about Unstoppable Industry he was quite apologetic, even though he needn't be.

Still he was on 2 big wins now and had some extra fuel to mock Mike with. Every cloud...

Checking up on Jan and Aaron was pretty much the same as the first round, Jan now very excited had just won 8-0 and was wondering whether or not he would be the best Gremlin.

Aaron wasn't having the best day and had taken another loss.

Lunch

I was boiling and had a headache, something which might seem like another excuse but I genuinely was dehydrated when playing Scott and although it was the biggest of the 3 rooms the event was in, it was by far the hottest.

From playing Magic tournaments in the past, playing 9 rounds of that in a single day I already knew how important it was to have a drink, but in the morning I had forgot, not bothered and I had suffered for it.

Time for lunch now though and off to the local newsagent we went.

Lunch was good, a nice amount of time to get some fresh air, stock up on drinks and grab a bite to eat.

I think it was at lunch I finally got to speak to Zac Evans.

Much like speaking with Mike earlier in the day, it was a strange but nice experience.

Zac and I had spoken via Skype in the past and is one of the genuinely nicest people I have met through Malifaux. A heart of gold, a talent for painting and in the end it also seemed, pretty good on the tabletop too.

Also I got to buy myself a fantastic tray from Mr Lee Battrick of Bendy Boards which you will see me do more with in the future.

With lunch over the next rounds were announced.

This time I would be in the room Aaron was in all day which I was pleased about as although it was a lower table it was by far the coolest room.

Jan was still in the big boys play area and he would getting his Wong out on the table along with Ben Crowe's. Filth.

My third opponent was James, who had just been beaten by Jan 8-0.

It was time for some Reckoning.

Round 3

Chatting with James I had instantly found out that this was not only his first Malifaux tournament, but something like his fifth game of Malifaux.

James was a local player who got roped in by Joe the organiser and was being lent Rasputina.

Scheme pool wise I felt there was some easy choices from:

• Breakthrough
• Assassinate
• Vendetta
• Take Prisoner
• A Line in the Sand

Like a lot of people in Reckoning I tend to take a small elite crew to negate my  opponents ability to score strategy points without killing all of my models.

Due to this Line in the Sand was going to be a little difficult and on the extremely busy table with corner deployment I couldn't see going for Breakthrough.

Lastly Take Prisoner just seems too cute and not particularly viable when the strategy wants you to kill things.

So even without crews selected Vendetta and Assassinate were most definitely my choices.

I ended up taking:

• Howard Langston
• Mechanical Rider
• Kang
• Arcane Effigy

Howard Langston is one of the best things at the game at straight up murdering stuff, Kang would be a house in this match up as not only is he tough and also Ml7 but he is great against constructs and I assumed there would be a Golem and maybe some gamin about.

Mechanical Rider should maybe have been the Rail Golem, but I felt not only is the Rider more reliably fast thanks to it's high Wk and Unimpeded but it also is a little more survivable.

On top of this summoning a single model on specific turns could help me, especially if there were enemy constructs for metal gamin to magnetise to.

Lastly the effigy was just an early step for Mei and allowed me to remove paralyze from models which weren't immune.

James took a crew roughly like:

• Ice Golem
• Snow Storm
• 2 Ice Gamin
• Wendigo
• December Acolyte

The game started off with me taking advantage of a small mistake by James, proving his newness to the game.
His Acolyte which had deployed ahead took a shot at Kang and thanks to a lot of cover never hit.
It immediately became apparent that he probably had Vendetta on Kang, something I took a mental note of as the game went on.
The idea was sound, but without a clear shot so early James plan did not work and also meant that Howard simply used nimble to then charge the acolyte and rip it to pieces.

Using some advice I believe Jan had given him, James used the Golem to toss a gamin and the Wendigo.
Initially James actually had the gamin deployed behind the Golem, but as I could see his intention and wanted us both to have a nice game I allowed him to swap them around.

With Howard a lot further up and James wanting some revenge, the fastball special allowed the Wendigo to charge Langston, but to no avail.

Snow Storm stomped forwards dragging the Ice Golem along.
Before Rasputina could use the Wendigo any further, Mei sprang off the Effigy, bounced off the Steamborg executioner and straight into the Wendigo foot first.

2 models killed, but Reckoning doesn't score in the first turn.
I could see this possibly turning around to bite me, but with only 5 models left to kill, 2 of which were Gamin I still felt fine.

As the game moved on, Mei Feng charged the Ice Golem and took him quite far down in wounds.
Snow Storm used his imbued energies to come crashing into Mei Feng, who didn't want any of that and chose to leap aside after taking one hit which was more than enough.
Following this like a crazy man I threw caution to the wind and chucked Howard Langston in who decided to start a fight with the huge monster Snow Storm.
This exchange didn't go too well as not only did this not kill Snow Storm it allowed a nice highlight for James.
Using the Ice Golem to Smash Langston killing him in one strike, turning him into a pile of scrap.

Kang who was creeping about had to sneak back into the fight as I needed him to finish the Golem to earn me three points.
This caused him to suffer some icy blasts from Rasputina, but nothing he couldn't take.

The Mechanical one rode on.
As the game continued into the later turns, not only did he bring some friends in the form of Metal Gamin to help push along but Rasputina who had popped out of cover took a few shots too many as I Red Jokered a damage flip to kill her.

In the same turn Kang eliminated the Ice Golem with ease and decided that was enough, knowing that James probably had a Vendetta against him.

Mei Feng battered and bruised used the effigy to rail walk away and in a following turn walked 3 times to get out of sight of Snow Storm and her plan originally, was to go on the hunt for Rasputina, however as we know the Mechanical Rider had done that job for her.

Mechanical Rider making a second Metal Gamin which were aiming to prove that metal was stronger than Ice, or maybe that somehow Ice is magnetic, decided that killing James' master was not enough for one game and also shot down the huge beast Snow Storm too.

Now into the final turns, it was all but over for James. Nothing could get to Kang in time as after succeeding his Vendetta he knew it was time to move on.
Mei had kept out of the monstrous icy claws James' had on offer and the two metal gamin not only had magnetism at hand but a few headbutts later could clear the table.

After the game we spoke about some things that happened and I gave James my two pence on Rasputina and Arcanists in general. James was a really nice guy who later in the day was good to see at dinner and I hope to see him at future events.
Taking a loss is never nice, but James was thrown into the deep end going into a tournament only 2 or 3 games into a system, something which I'm not sure I could do myself and I hope it just helped him learn a lot.

Win 10-0

Maybe I was a good luck charm as not only did I get a win, but Aaron who as I said was playing in the same room as me also picked up a victory and wouldn't you know it.
Jan did it, he won the "Wong off" against Ben Crowe by I believe a single victory point.
Proving that, although I give him a lot of shit, he isn't half bad at Malifaux and he wasn't just being a lucky git.

Round 4

In the final round I was back in "the big boy's room", this time up against Patrick who was fielding Yan Lo in his green flavour.

Due to Gaining Grounds this was the second Reconnoitre game of the dead but the scheme pool was a little different this time:

• Assassinate
• Protect Territory
• Entourage
• Take Prisoner
• A Line in the Sand

Yan Lo I have never managed to play in M2E so I knew that there would be a few surprises, Pat's crew consisted of (I may have numbers wrong):

• Izamu
• Datsue Ba
• Chiaki
• Onryo
• 2 Ashigaru
• Soul Porter

I roughly knew what these things could do as I had played against Kirai before and had played Yan Lo last edition.

Still surprises were about to come.

Seeing spirits and wanting quarters I took the same crew as game 2 but also took Vapourmancy for Ca attacks against Incorporeal.

Scheme wise both of us declared the same 2 schemes, Entourage (picking our respected masters) and Protect Territory.

I wasn't sure what Patrick would take before picking, Take Prisoner is usually something people like to leave and Line is difficult in Recon, though if you are taking a lot of models, possibly not.

I suspected Assassinate from Patrick but Protect Territory seemed like the only "obvious" choice really just as a default.

Izamu started heading straight up the center, initially pushed by Yan Lo I believe and then the Soul Porter, I was already surprised by the amount of extra movement this crew could give the Armour.

Early on I simply advanced with the Emberling placing a marker, which I immediately realised was within 12" of my table edge. Doh.

The only thing really of not on my side was that Kang was very tempted to tag team Izamu with the Rider, but heading towards the center meant I would miss out on Recon and I knew I needed to take out Yan to deny Patrick those 3VP.

Instead I went that general direction with the two of them, the Rider preparing to be a Railwalker target and Kang heading a little bit more in the Resser master's direction.

Oh I guess there was something else to note.

Another turn 1 charge by Mei Feng.

The way that the Onryo was positioned Mei Feng was able to Railwalker to her steed friend and charge with a Jackhammer kick straight across the board.

This in itself wasn't enough reason for me to fire her there, but Chiaki and Datsu Bae were so close I knew that a few Scalding Breath attacks later I could flip the numbers game on it's head.

Early doors saw this happen, Mei Feng managed to kill an Onryo, blast Datsue and as what would turn out to be the wrong choice Chiaki who she then continued to assault and finish of in the second turn.

Initially I had thought Chiaki would be worth attacking over Datsue as she can remove burning and also use her attack "The Calling" to turn something insignificant.

The latter bit itself was insignificant. It doesn't matter, Chiaki doesn't make things Peons and I wouldn't need all my models to take interacts, just a couple for Protect Territory.

This choice would turn around to bite me, quite hard.

Izamu decided to wade into Mei Feng which I did expect, his melee expertise would mean that he was probably Patrick's best chance of denying me the 3VP for my announced Entourage.

I had a high Mask in hand so I knew it was just a matter of time to use it, Leap aside and use the metal gamin and worker who advanced to take the quarter to get the hell out of dodge.

At first this worked, my master got scraped but got out of there and I thought she was home free.

However, this is where I learnt a lot about Datsue Ba.

Not only could Datsue put a bit more hurt on Mei but she could also push the Armour around with Guide Spirits.

Three things could push Izamu around, which I soon discovered was very strong as he caught Mei set Datsue to finish her off and also summon a new Gaki.

Mei's attack along with the placement of my crew meant that for one turn I denied Patrick a victory point, but without getting away in time, me being clearly a little too eager to fight meant that I could only now score 7VP max.

As the game continued Datsue managed to also kill a metal gamin summoning a new Onryo and undoing all the work that my dead master may have done.

Izamu continued to push on, not only then killing more models but also discarding any scheme markers I had placed his side of the table.

Across "the land", Kang and the Rider continued the hunt for Yan Lo, I knew once he hit a certain number of Chi he would be able to easily teleport about with Hunpo Assault and it would be unlikely for me to stop Patrick's Entourage as he did mine.

An Ashigaru aided Yan, lunging towards the Rider who pooped out a Gamin for him to deal with as he snubbed him and rode on.

Kang eventually got into combat with Yan Lo, and the Ml7 champion of the people managed to smack him about, but thanks to some soulstones was unable to kill him.

Around turn four I really needed to win the Initiative flip, Yan Lo had survived one onslaught but even with a fresh hand of cards I was doubting he could survive the other.

No luck, the Initiative was Patrick's which meant that Yan gained Hunpo Assault to teleport and continue his escape into my deployment zone.

I continued the chase, Kang and the Mechanical Rider determined to stop Entourage and leaving a second "pooped out" Metal Gamin to make drop some scheme markers.

In the last turns I was no longer getting Strategy points while Patrick was comfortably, whilst easily scoring his Protect Territory.

He had 6 victory points essentially locked in and I had what in the end was no chance of getting anything but a draw.

The Effigy had needed to place a scheme marker earlier and didn't, the first summoned Gamin had been bested by the Ashigaru and the second could not score 3VP alone.

The final initiative going Patrick's way not only meant that Yan Lo got so far away that only shooting could kill him, but he had lead both my big guys so close to my edge that they had to run off and score the Protect Territory together.

Ifs and buts going my way could have seen Kang kill Yan turn 4 leaving the double team killing the skeleton and the rider's scheme marker trigger helping a lot.

Either way at best this would've got me a draw and it was not meant to be.

Loss 5-9

So I finished the tournament on 2 wins and 2 losses.
I admit I was slightly disappointed with my result, I really was hoping to win more than I lost and both games I lost I know I could've at very the very least closed the gaps.
I'm not sure I would have much chance at all to beat Scott, maybe if I had selected completely different schemes but the final round I did feel I could've got the W.

Still, 2-2 is not a bad overall result.

Aaron didn't manage to join me on that score and lost his final round also.
This surprised me as Aaron is more than competent and tends to be a pretty smart player, I would love for him to write about his games in some detail (but fat chance I bet).

Jan with 3 wins going into the last round played on table one and to much surprise managed to bag a win and go 4-0.
Very proud of him, we start thinking that he has a decent chance of taking the title, but none of us know the VP difference the other people who managed 4 wins got.

The Awards

The prize support wasn't just an awesome swag bag but there was a huge amount of prizes to be given at the end.
As well as this there were some called statues which were Gladiator themed and the first, a defeated gladiator which was the equivalent to the wooden spoon was handed to John Brindley.

Next Joe did the best hobbyist, each round we were given a ticket to fill out which was a tick sheet not only about painting but sportsmanship.
I believe this was taken by Dave Brown or Clouseau as he is better known with a Puppet Justice crew.

After this Joe did the top three.
Now there were awards for Best in Faction, but to spread the prizes out a little Joe awarded the prizes down to people who hadn't podiumed.
In theory I totally agree with this, my only issue was that people getting an actual token that said "Best X" seems odd as they were not the Best in that Faction. Also spoilers, but it was also not needed to award down as Joe had accumulated so many prizes I'm pretty sure everyone attending got something extra.

Still. In third place we saw Dave Hill pick up a trophy he was running Neverborn Lynch I believe, but I will admit I didn't see this about.

Next to be called, was my second round opponent, Scott Porter.

Jan and I looked at each other, there may have been another but Scott was the only other player we knew had gotten 4 wins.

Which meant the final name called for the podium, winning the first place trophy and a brand new case...

Was Jan Proudley with his filthy Wong.

It was amazing to see Jan go up and be presented his prize, get a photo taken and be as happy as I think I have ever seen him.
Obviously it goes without saying I would love to have been there myself, but having one of the two guys I came up with take the trophy back to Poole was easily the next best thing.

Further trophies were given out for best in faction and I admit I cannot remember each of them.
For me of note Patrick got best Resser as Scott was on the podium and Ben Crowe got best Gremlin as Jan was first.
Oh also Mike Hutchinson @crikeymiles won best Outcast. He was the only one.

If you would like to see all the placings please check out the fantastic malifauxrankings.com

After these awards were given a small game was played with an awesome Gladiatorial arena board with the best in faction players controlling a Henchman each.
I admit however the board looked ace and this may've been fun for those involved it was awkward to watch and in the end I just went to the other room chilled out drank a cup of tea which Zac had made me.

During the mini game, cards were drawn and if they matched what had in our packs handed to us at the beginning we added a model into the game and won a prize.
Luckily the thirteen of rams got flipped and I won myself a nice little set of brushes, this combined with the swag bag the £10 entry had been easily covered.

The rest of the prizes were handed out an awarded, basing sets, paints, just a very nice selection of prizes from a multitude of sponsors including Element who donated stuff and vouchers to all the best in faction winners.

The tournament was over, fellow Malibro Jan had claimed the top prize and we all walked away with a nice amount of swag.
However this was the end of the day, not only had Joe organised and ran the tournament successfully he had also arranged for us to go for a meal at an all you can eat Chinese restaurant (not a crappy buffet).

A few people left, Panzer and Blutack, the Tractor Massive and some others all deciding to take their long trips home.

Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning

There isn't much to really round up from the meal, we drove together to a nearby car park, I got called a racist, a fruit racist, by Oz and we all wandered over as a group, gaggle, murder of wargamers.

There was a good amount of upstairs in the restaurant all to ourselves, so many in fact that our little social gathering had to be spread across two tables, which in a way was a little bit of a shame as there were plenty of people I didn't get to chat to or I would've like to chat with more.

This in no way anything against who I was sat with, it was great catching up with a couple of opponents from the day, talking to Mike Hutchinson some more who was quite complimentary about the podcasts, something which took me a little back and made me feel a little of self value that I usually don't.

Joe recommended some Lassi's and I stayed off the alcohol (recent medication I wasn't sure I could mix) as did Aaron and Jan (who was driving anyway).

The restaurant was great and I always love all you can eats that have proper menus and those awesome spinning tables, novelty is a wonderful thing.

Afterwards when leaving, the-what I assume was owner, took a couple of photographs of our group.

I can't seem to find these on their Facebook page where they were meant to be going so I can only assume that he had really saved it for the wank-bank.

Straight afterwards what I'm guessing was a foreign student was laughing and excited for us, asking Oz for a high five, which in return Austin just gave a blank stare and a "no" back. It was hilarious and although it was probably a "you had to be there moment", I feel worth noting as it highlights the end of that night and the genuinely high spirited feeling that was still going about.

A little bit more chatting on the way back to the car but it was now getting late, was completely dark and Jan, Aaron and I had to make our trip back to Poole.

On the way back tiredness started to kick in, Aaron literally fell asleep a few times but as I was sat in the front I was keen to stay awake and make sure Jan was doing the same.

One stop on the way back for food and much needed caffeine and then on we went, through the night back home in the early hours of Sunday.

There we have it

I hope you enjoyed this fairly extensive tournament report.

I'd like to thank everyone who spoke to me over the day for what was a thoroughly enjoyable time and a great inspiration for me in this hobby.
Thanks to Joe again for running a cracking event and also for a lot of the photos used throughout this tournament report.

In a way the tournament was not only a good four games of Malifaux, or just a social gathering, but for me it was almost like a therapy session.

Everyone was so welcoming and nice, the atmosphere was fantastic and a lot of the anxiety I had going into the event was alleviated.

It might sound like a bit much, but the day helped me as a person and I cannot thank everyone enough for that.

I look forward to more events. 

MCC is booked and I'm super excited about that as it will be a much better chance for hanging out and also meeting some of the other people I still haven't seen in person.

Hopefully I will be able to get to other events Somerfaux being one of the events that is in my site as well as maybe Deliverance 4 and Joelfaux 2 and really, who knows what else.

Oh and finally, Aaron and I will be hosting our own event down here in the Bournemouth area, "September's Curse" (which is actually August 31st) so check out the Wyrd forums here.

If you got this far I commend you and thank you for reading.

-Ben (@Psientologist)