#ToMB Claw & Fang Vol.12

Filling Out the Numbers

Month 4 spending.

After the last couple of volumes of Claw & Fang, I did a breakdown of all the strategies and schemes to see where my crew was at it's weakest.

Even with the early addition of the Metal Gamin, the biggest issue that came up time and time again was the fact that the crew was severely lacking in the numbers department.
It meant that bigger more aggressive models in my crew were having to use their AP to just walk into specific areas of the field or objective marking which something cheaper could do just as easily.

Metal Gamin are great, I love the little guys and they definitely do a fine job of the defensive style of scheme grabbing and holding.
In a game of Squatter's Rights, Reconnoitre and especially Stake a claim however, they lacked the important aspect of speed.
With Squatter's this isn't always the issue, being able to come up after someone has gone ahead and done the job is fine. Recon means that they however can usually only hold the deployment quarters, sometimes this is fine but it would be much nicer to be able to fling them into wherever the numbers need to be.
Stake a Claim to me, is just hard work, I'm not too sure what cheap models can do this, but it definitely puts Silurids on the map.

The top units that came up were Molemen and Silurids.

This made me also consider Night Terrors and even Gupps.

Now with the news that Molemen will be in plastic very soon, they would've been the choice but will be held back for month 5.
Also in a sense I think they are so obvious a choice that I want to try something a little different.

Silurids are still a priority but right now I want a cheaper soulstone cost minion.

This meant that Night Terrors were my choice, now I admit they aren't the best as Insignificant  means they cannot place markers, but at 3ss and the added benefit of some possibly anti-shooting they seem like a solid choice.

Gupps are great but more costly and also really need masks and my crew suffers that already I feel.

Wk 6 and Incorporeal, Night Terrors can get to wherever they need to be, Malifaux Raptors might be quicker, but they are Peons and also not as hard to budge.
Night Terrors are only Df3 but Hard to Kill with the Incorporeal means they are actually a big nuisance.

A pair of them will easily be enough for now, this also means that I will have extra cash going into Month 5, some of which is reserved for the inevitable Molemen purchase but the rest can fill any new whacky ideas

Four months of spending looks like this then:

Claw and Fang - $50

Metal Gamin - $21

Dawn Serpent - $15
Rogue Necromancy - $15
Night Terrors - $15

Total Spent - $116

Money remaining - $19

Nice $44 next month will give me lots of room, Molemen should be $18 so I will have $26 left after which will be easily enough for any other box. More thinking soon then I think.

Buying these IRL saying $135 is £80, spending money at Element Games this will all add up to:

Claw and Fang - £28.89

Metal Gamin - £11.90

Dawn Serpent - £9
Rogue Necromancy - £8.49
Night Terrors - £9.35

Total Spent - £67.63

Money remaining - £12.37

So with the Night Terrors built, it was time to play a game.

Month 4's First Game

Again I was against regular opponents and the organiser of "September's Curse" @forestreveries.

Using the fantastic @malifauxschemes iPhone app we got the following pool:

• Reconnoiter
• Line in the Sand
• Bodyguard
• Breakthrough
• Plant Evidence
• Spring the Trap
• Corner Deployment

Seems as this would be the perfect test for the new addition of the Night Terrors.
Aaron had selected Guild and I knew he'd been having a lot of fun with Lucius lately.

I chose the following:

Marcus -- 6 Pool
 +Arcane Reservoir [2]
 +The Trail of the Gods [1]

Dawn Serpent [10]
Metal Gamin [4]
Myranda [8]
 +Imbued Energies [1]
Night Terror [3]
Night Terror [3]
Razorspine Rattler [7]
Sabertooth Cerberus [9]

The two Night Terrors would be my quarter claimers/equalisers.

The Metal Gamin would hold back in the deployment quarter, I expected undisturbed.

Myanda is just fantastic, fast and is essentially a second Cerberus, also combined with the Dawn Serpent, the two of them can potentially hold a lot of ground.

The Sabertooth is still one of the better models to put scheme markers down and is genuinely quite scary, threatening lots of different things such as Spring the Trap or just death.

Lastly the Razorspine Rattler, potentially was going to just be 2 metal gamin but I felt 8 activations was enough and fighting against a potential gunline I knew that Marcus may have to go full "beast mode" and try and tank the crew.

Upgrade wise, Arcane Reservoir comes out every game I play, Imbued Energies should just come with Myranda and Wk8 Marcus is the best.

I could've given more, but I couldn't see which upgrades would be better in this game over the stones and I left it at that.

Aaron's crew was something like:

Lucius -- 4 Pool
 +Secret Assets [2]
 +Vengeance Bullet [1]

Captain Dashel [9]
Guard Sergeant [6]
Guild Austringer [6]
Guild Austringer [6]
Guild Guard [4]
Guild Guard [4]
Guild Hound [3]
Guild Hound [3]
Guild Pathfinder [6]

All those guns. I was a little worried as unlike a lot of Arcanist crews Marcus and beasts are fairly susceptible to shooting, especially a crew that has a good chance of ignoring cover in one way or another.

The Pathfinder was a good shout in Recon, to be fair it seems to be good end of story, but with Recon in particular along with corner deployment, it allowed Aaron to make camp elsewhere before the game had even started.

Looking at schemes I could see Aaron taking any of the scheme marker based ones as to my knowledge the crew has a lot of manipulation on that side of things.
Bodyguard was always a possibility too, but I wasn't entirely sure he would want to risk it.

I sure as hell didn't want to risk bodyguard, especially with no good targets.
The way the terrain was Line in the Sand seemed like it could prove difficult and I was quickly realising that my best bet in the game was to rush Aaron's crew.

Alpha tricks were not going to be a priority especially with him out-activating me, I needed Marcus to get stuck in.
If my crew wasn't aiming to claim a quarter, it was going to try and hold Aaron's in place.
Knowing this were the plan, I chose and declared both Plant Evidence (which I could do some of on the way) and Breakthrough. Expectin Lucius to be too far back for Spring the trap I left that at home, also all in all I believe the other marker placement schemes are simply a lot easier.

Malifaux is not all about killing, but I knew if I aimed to survive without taking out a few of the Guild, I would be done for, their critical strikes and other nonsense would easily take my beasts down like a hunter firing on elephant.

Aaron kept a scheme secret and declared his own Plant Evidence.

Deployment was fairly simple, I had some leaping and flappy things standing on top of buildings, the metal gamin to the back and the mostly everything as far forwards as possible.
Aaron had guard together inside of auras for all the positive flip and focus shenanigans and his pathfinder in a separate quarter by his back edge of the table.

Early game

Straight in, we saw me do exactly as I planned, the Cerberus leapt towards the middle and double walked behind cover on my left flank. Myranda and the RSR started heading towards the Pathfinder sticking to any cover they could on the way.
At this point the little gamin slowly crept along my right side of the table and everything else ran pretty much, directly into the centre.
This included Marcus using his activation to move 24" forwards.
It felt very wrong to do this, I thought maybe I should hang back, maybe I should use a Night Terror for Defend Me, but really I felt time is of the essence and Marcus could afford to take a few hits from the end of Aaron's activation.

Aaron sent his troop of guardsmen towards the direction of the Cerberus with Dashel hanging back with Lucius and the two Austringers which I suspected would probably not bother moving.

The pair of dogs went towards the Pathfinder who made a trap and moved on.

Birds attacked the Cerberus early as it's position and Leap ability posed a threat to Lucius himself, a few shots here and there nicked at Marcus' body and it was on to the second turn.

Midgame

The Cerberus already basically dead from the Austringer's onslaught had the choice of trying to tear some guild guard flesh, but in such a prime position by the rock he was stood by laying down some early schemes felt relevant.
With an interact, leap, interact, he was done, later to be put down by Lucius Guild cronies.

During the turn the Dawn Serpent took a step out of Marcus' turn one playbook and sent itself straight into the pile of Guild guard, position wise they had barely any room to escape and the Serpent was not only plugging a hole in Lucius' line but also was close enough to Marcus to shield him be it come to that.

Myranda and her slithery friend carried on their route towards the pathfinder to stop Aaron from claiming a VP for Recon.
The metal gamin held the home quarter, this would later prove to not be as helpful as it first seemed and digging in with the double defensive was a waste of time, the little construct should've got into a position where it had more options later. 

Myranda transforming into a fresh Sabertooth got stuck into the Pathfinder, but without the Tomes, the mauling did not happen.

It was around this turn, or maybe even the first that a Hidden Sniper fired it's Vengeance Bullet into Marcus, now shielded by the Dawn Serpent the Hidden Sniper fired at a different target.
As expected, Lucius was not looking to get his hands dirty. He stood himself in a commanding position however as he was looking to teach his guardsman How to Slay a Dragon.

Marcus held on, a few soulstones keeping him on his feet as Dashel appeared from cover, thinking about a charge but deciding due to distance that he would attempt to put a bullet in the Beast master's head.

Marcus, smelt blood, he knew that he was able to jump in and tear the Captain apart but seeing his dragon needing aid he called upon his Alpha power to control it's mind and tear apart some guard.
However, the guard had been taught well, only suffering one blow from the Serpent. The guard was not dead, but due to Venomous fangs which bit him, he soon would be.

Leaving the Dawn Serpent's mind, Marcus decided if he couldn't charge the Captain, he would atleast engage his, using his Hare form, he jumped straight into the face of Dashel.

Taking Myranda (now a Cerberus) lead, the Razorspine used it's faster movement of Slither to attempt the killing blow on the Pathfinder. The Pathfinder though had obviously spent a lot of time in the wilds, again not being bested by the beasts and standing his ground.

At the end of the turn the Arcanists still had a Night Terror in the centre of the field which was able to decide where the points would be scored.
The other had already gone into the only unclaimed quarter, passing time to allow the Beast force to study the soldiers movements, one of which, out of the reach of the Dawn Serpent decided to join the bat like monster.

The pathfinder's quarter included himself and 2 hounds against Myranda and the Razorspine.
The Guild deployment quarter had far too many models to stop.
The Arcanist deployment had the Metal Gamin.
If the Metal Gamin had moved forward rather than hold the line or the other Terror had decided to aid Myranda, the game would've been different here.
Instead the last Night Terror had a choice, allow us both to score a VP or neither of us.

With the Pathfinder in such a bad position, the Night Terror decided it would go help the transformed Myranda and Dawn Serpent, making the game currently a no-score draw.

The Night Terror going to the Pathfinder did mean that there would be a greater chance that the big cat could take out the two dogs and pick of the Pathfinder who was already greatly wounded, but would this really work out?

Late game

With the influence of Lucius and the Sergeant's commands, the guild guard, with a maniacal laugh spewing poison from his lungs crippled the Dawn Serpent with a tearing crimson strike.

Marcus, now desperate but unable to fill himself with the power of more than one animal filled himself with the Strength of the Bear hugging and squeezing Dashel into a bloody pulp.
Now staring down the Guild Austringers, prized and ready, Marcus could see images of his life flashing before his eyes.
He knew however, that he was where he was for a reason. Without the power in his heart of more Beasts, he felt unable to fight more of Lucius' goons and instead used the opportunity to plant a scheme of his own.

Over across the field the dogs ran in to fight the cat like so many childrens books, however this was no little kitty and the big, red, three-headed feline tore into both the hounds as if they were simply chew toys.

The Pathfinder being on it's last legs then took a buffet of bat wings, but managed to dodge his way out of any harm and, feeling that his situation was quite dire, constructed another trap to hopefully ensnare the Razorspine.

However that was not it, with the assist of his clockwork trap, the Pathfinder unsheathed his knife and skinned the Cerberus.

The Razorspine, now desperate to rid this world of the Pathfinder and aid his master took two lashes at the guardsman. The pathfinder though with the supplies he had scavenged had easily enough tools to defend himself and remained a staying power.

The Metal Gamin also feeling the cries of death across the field decided to start to move, this would prove too little too late however.

With the Dawn Serpent dead, the minions of Lucius moved on, now aiming to start planting their evidence and deciding to take aim at the lonely Night Terror too.
A large burst of lead drastically wounded the bat-like form incorporeal creature, but it wasn't going down that easily as it proved a lot more Hard to Kill than the guardsman expected of a beast it's size.

In the twilight hours, Marcus was bested, still hurting from that vengeance bullet the Austringers took him down.
In the wake of Marcus defeat the Guild Sergeant revealed that he had been Lucius' Bodyguard all along, reveling in the fact that his men had overcome all odds.

Now fighting two guardsman, the lonely Night Terror's time had also come to an end.

Across the field, a small victory as the Pathfinder eventually was bested, but with the Cerberus' scalps claimed before his demise, the Razorspine did not have the time to press the crews schemes more and the Guild started to clear up from what the beasts had done earlier on.

In the end, it was a huge victory that Lucius would be proud of.

Round up

The game against Aaron all though ending in a huge defeat (might've been 9-1 to him) actually felt really close.

In an actually fairly frustrating way the game actually felt in my favour for the first half of the game, however the inability for a Cerberus and Razorspine to be able to kill a Pathfinder over multiple turns (the first of which was against no control hand) did not help.

A timely Red Joker from a guard against the Dawn Serpent who was also inept even with his Ml7 didn't help and one of the biggest irritations, even with using soulstones for cards and having a starting hand of 7, I never once started with Tomes to allow Marcus to fully "tank up".

Though however frustrating the loss may've been in terms of luck, I am not one that wants to concentrate too much on that.

What did I do wrong?

Well with trying to gain some advantages with activation order and make Aaron move first in the combat situations, I didn't always spend the correct time figuring where to put the smaller minions.

In a sense my decisions were fine, but the main mistake made was assumptions.

Assuming the double big beast combo and then the help of the Terror would be enough to stop the Pathfinder wasn't right, I should've had a plan B or even C.

The Metal Gamin especially holding the edge of the table was incorrect, even it had moved towards Aaron's lines it would still be out of a lot of things ranges, not be much of a threat and also doesn't die in a single shot anyway.

It also arguable that the original Cerberus and Myranda should've swapped the way they went.

Against the Pathfinder I would've most likely had an extra attack against him early and more importantly Myranda's healing ability and defensive aura would've proved useful in aiding both the Dawn Serpent and Marcus.

As previously mentioned in this series, healing plus Hard to Kill is a great annoyance, simply keeping the dragon at 2+ wounds takes so much AP away from the enemy.

The other thing was in the early turns I could've kept Marcus back with the Serpent for some Alpha and shooting shenanigans.

This however I am not entirely sure was correct.

Without photos of the table at hand it is not the best thing to describe but moving in meant that I had almost entirely plugged Aaron into a corner, this was how that even though I was totally outnumbered I had been in a position to go 1-0 up in Reconnoiter.

The other thing was that holding back kept me in the centre and meant that actually, Aaron could do to me what I had done to him and hold me in a non-scoring zone.

Also at the end of the day the blasts weren't going to get a huge amount of models and the Fangs deal more damage than Breathe Fire on average.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Molemen mate! Moles that are men innit!

Seriously though, this game, this scheme pool especially was a prime example of where Molemen would've been pretty brilliant.

The Razorspine and Slither is nice and all, but it did feel a little weak, some bias I admit because it couldn't finish the Pathfinder off when it "should have".

My crew though I did think about 2 more gamin over it, they're too slow, this though is where Molemen would've been the one's to go in.

Increase my activations, tag each other along for speed and actually, make Line in the Sand that much more viable.

On reflection I have also realised how much better a Blessed of December would actually be other the Cerberus, which when we think that I was in no way disappointed with the Sabertooth(s) performance all I am doing is making some upgrades.

For the same cost the Blessed is +1Df and Hard to Wound, it lacks the wound count the big cat has but avoiding hits and bigger damage, especially when only taking pot shots, the Blessed seems to be on paper a tougher thing to take down.

The melee attack is lower damage and against this Guild crew in particular it the Blessed wouldn't get the opportunity to Go for the Throat still however, it's Ml7 so it should hit and the Eat you Fill ability means that after a big fight this beast of December does a better job of getting into the late game.

Lastly, this wasn't a game where it was a problem for a change, but no Mask needed for Leap, yes please!

The other model that came to mind again was the Shikome. It's a little bit more costly than the Rattler but is more reliably quicker, Hard to Wound is maybe worth the Wd and Df drop and in combat is far more deadly as well as making the Night Terrors a little better (though it's not that relevant).

Comparing the Rattler and Shikome though isn't actually thinking about the Shikome at it's best, not forgetting that both the Razorspine Rattler and Dawn Serpent as well as Myranda can hand out Poison the Shikome will able to charge as a single action.

That's not bad at all and is a strange sub theme to unlock in the crew.

High Five

With the fifth month on the horizon these thoughts of extra models is quite exciting.

Also remember, Marcus does not have to only take Beasts as proven by the addition of Metal Gamin, but from here on out I will aim to keep it beastly, with models from all across Malifaux as this is definitely the most interesting and appealing angle that Marcus and the Claw & Fang bring to the game.

That's it for this volume, cut short due to #MCC but up early because of it too.

-Ben (@Psientologist)