#MCC Sunday
Wake Up
Sunday morning, was a lovely bright one, the tent had leaked a little but with the preparations we made nothing that mattered got wet.
In waking I had mixed emotions, on one hand I was totally hyped for the day, Saturday was amazing and great fun, it would be awesome doing a doubles game and finally seeing how the campaign pans out, added to that I knew my team had a chance to win. I hoped maybe I would win the poker and my boys would take this thing down.
I wasn't confident about this by any means, but having it within reach made it quite exciting.
On the other hand, I was a little sad, I knew the day would be shorter and there would be no chill out evening as many people, Jan and I included, would have long journeys home.
"All good things must come to an end" they say, which unfortunately is a horrible saddening reality in most cases.
Mostly though I was hyped than sad, so it was up getting some bacon in my belly and down to hall.
Morning all
Everyone was down the hall, slightly tired but ready to play.
Due to news that the storms may be hitting in the afternoon and the fact that the Captain's still needed to play Soulstone Poker, Mike with everyone's agreement changed the day’s rota a little.
We would be kicking off with the doubles game, and then while the captains played poker the rest of the people would be playing best two out of three "Hardcore" versus an opponent for maximum change to get those achievements in.
This would mean we would all be leaving a little earlier than originally planned, nothing dramatic.
Knowing Soulstone Poker would be using our team cache as my starting stack meant I should be inclined to make people save stones, but with fewer rounds now I did not mind what the teams used and so it was on to round five.
One of the many fine tables at MCC
Round 5
Doubles wise we decided that it would be best to team Mike and Ben together due to some crew interactions they had.
They would face off against Pete Wright (@Temeraire1798) and the Team Cupcake Captain Chris Rose (@chrisrose1).
Myself and Bruno still trying to get those McMourning achievements would be up against John Wharton (@jwharton82) and Mr Stephen Fey (@malifauxstation) in a game of Squatter’s Rights.
I would be using Marcus again, due to my other Master's being jailed alongside Myranda's Uncle Douglas (McMourning).
Stephen would be on Neverborn still but with a Swampfiend, heavy Zoraida list and John would be busting out his favourites the Viktorias.
The game was great and I love the doubles aspect, the only issue it causes is time, something I will definitely make note of if running a doubles event in the future.
Early doors saw the "northern filth" a Freikorps Trapper gun down a Nurse before we even got a turn, the Nurse unable to hide behind the midget Sebastian.
The Zombie Chihuahua luckily kept out of sight, an achievement that Bruno was aiming for.
For double protection I kept Myranda near by for the positive defence flips until her and her brigade of Marcus, Cojo and the Dawn Serpent headed forwards.
McMourning unable to do the tricksy stuff he had planned went "old school" and headed up into combat with the Waldgeists who had deployed on the squat markers.
While this was happening, the Henchman Viktoria was diving in and tearing apart my crew who had just been fighting off Bad Juju.
John actually inspired me to play the Viktorias’ myself, he was very confident with them and proved what a massive pair of nukes the sisters can be.
Not much really to explain about the game, I used the Marcus defend me tricks with the tar pit that is the Dawn Serpent to hold the line, both the teams had taken Entourage and unfortunately for me even Wk8 was not enough to get Marcus into the enemies deployment for maximum VP.
We had been outplayed and although we did not get all the turns in, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for #SimeTime even if we had.
I didn't get a single Achievement, failing my team and losing us a territory.
Bruno had accrued a few more and it was to lunch.
More MCC table goodness
Early lunch
Lunch was earlier than usual with the storms getting close people would want to pack their tents away.
Packing things away was a simple task up until the tent itself, again like when he put it up there was one simple thing Jan and I were getting wrong and much worse than Saturday the early afternoon heat was frying our brains like a couple of tasty eggs.
Between having a little munch, a few drinks of Pepsi and water to keep hydrated and putting the tent away we headed back to the hall a tiny bit late.
Jan and I arrive into the middle of a raffle.
I failed to mention in part 3 but via lots of spare stuff, donations from companies and people there was a huge raffle that ended up with three separate sessions.
Initially we had raffle tickets in our white envelopes but Mike stopped with that, as there was more than enough for everyone to get two items at least.
What I later found we missed was a charity auction for #WAAC.
A couple of painted crews and some limited edition models raised a total of £350 (you can donate here), which was awesome.
This also meant that with some extra cash Mike announced all the masters were freed from jail.
Wong was still dead.
Back to the raffle. As we walk in we were greeted by Ben Crowe who was quick to say to Jan that his name was called but he wasn't there so didn't get his prize.
"Thanks Ben" Jan said frustrated with me that he missed out on free stuff.
"Sorry mate, I'm not the only one who used the tent though" I replied fairly annoyed at him snapping.
Another name was called, then straight afterwards "Captain... Ben Sime"
Getting myself a big pack of 40mm resin bases (along with some card sleeves the day before).
"Well now I'm not sorry Jan, looks like I timed it well" I said smugly to Jan as Crowe and I laughed.
As names were all called Ben then shouted that Jan did not get anything. Rather than getting just a prize at random, Mike drew two things out and got the room to vote on what he should get.
In the end, it was the (worst prize of the two) CMON pin badge Jan was awarded.
Hardcore in full flow
Mike would briefly go over the "Hardcore" rules for today, to inform those who were unaware and to change it up a little:
- Today's Hardcore would be Master rather Henchman lead
- Still would be 20ss
- The Strategy would be Turf War
- One Scheme would be Spring the Trap
Soulstone Poker
The Captain's at Poker
All ten Captains were gathered into the TO's room with the tables moved about for us to start playing.
Soulstone Poker would be the typical Texas hold'em variant with a couple of Malifaux like changes:
- The Black Joker would be in play and would be essentially a blank card
- The Red Joker would also be in play being any card you wanted it to be.
I was not quite the one with the highest stack in the room but I was extremely close.
Sat either side of me were Dave Hill to my left and Cathy Winton to my right.
The lowest starting stack was either Dave Bartley or Mark Pemberton.
I wasn't fully confident I would win the poker, but I expected I would be in for a chance.
As the first lot of cards were dealt I used my rough hand (I believe it was Ace high) to gauge how the table would play, who was going to throw chips in with all the confidence, who would sit back and fold until they had a chance.
Ole and Liz, either ends of the table seemed quite courageous, Rob of the Bananas not quite so crazy but forward, whereas both the Roses; Stephen and Chris were quite timid, which honestly is usually a style I prefer.
Dave seemed to take calculated risks as did Cathy whereas across the table, I was getting a sneaky suspicion that Mr Bartley and Mr Pemberton knew exactly what they were doing.
Mark especially holding back, playing innocent and having killer hands.
As the game went on, my hands got no better and pot would start to diminish.
I feel into a defensive mode as I watched Captain's fall one by one.
Each Captain exiting the table being announced to the entire hall by Mr Spooner.
I was on the ropes.
As players had stolen pots with Red Jokers and I had seen only the Black of two twice I had started to make out to Mike I thought it was a fix.
I somehow kept myself into the final four with an all in I was forced to make due to the increase in blind size we were running.
One mediocre hand was enough to win me that pot but still not enough to just it all on the next hand and fall out of poker in third.
The two finalists, the two men with the smallest stacks.
As I went to check on my team, the winner was announced.
Mark Pemberton, the champion of Soulstone Poker, his prize?
The chip total in VP for his team.
While this was cool as it was exciting it then flipped the entire campaign on it's head.
With hundreds of points gained, my team had been bumped down to third and now the gap between Mark's Red Dino's and Dave Hill's Purple Dino's was very close.
Could the hardcore rounds change the tide and take Dave and his dominant team from the top spot?
Admittedly I was a little disappointed getting knocked out in the poker, I didn't have the luck I needed and I felt I had let down my team who at that point had been racking up lots more achievements than I had contributed.
It was a shame to miss out on the hardcore rounds, especially as I would finally get a chance to play with Ramos.
It was no worry though and the poker was an epic fun way to finish the campaign for the captains.
The Results
The hardcore rounds were finished.
Everyone started to pack up their things, cars and put tables and terrain away while points were being totalled.
I was pretty certain we were now only third, this however, I felt was a strong placing and was excited to see how the others did.
Everyone stood around in a crowd near the stage area.
Mike thanked everyone for being there and we gave him and the team all a big "hip-hip hooray" for running what was one the greatest gaming weekends to ever happen.
Thanks again to Mike, Conrad, Lee and Matt for running a damn crazy yet smooth event.
The weekend was more than good for me, a full three days away from the terrible parts of "the real world" where I not only had fun and was accommodated but also felt cared for and looked after.
The event was a huge inspiration in how I went about doing some things for September's Curse (there are still tickets for 31/8 here) and if that tournament can be anywhere near half as good as MCC I will be very happy.
Announcements started.
First up was not the Wooden Spoon but the "Well Done" award for scoring the least achievement points.
Taking home this prize was James.
Well Done
Up next was the "Highest Achiever" the person outside the winning team who got the most achievement points.
The winner here was Scott Porter. Ben Crowe again being a bridesmaid being a mere few points behind.
Well done Scott.
Highest Achiever
We then were followed by "The Artist" award for best-painted crew and this came to team #SimeTime in the form of the amazing painting of Bruno Santos.
The Artist
It was a pleasure to see his stuff but also kind of funny in our doubles game when I get out some of my nicer models I had recently finished, feeling quite proud and then seeing...
...just what I can only describe as beautiful art.
Congratulations to Bruno.
The big one, the winning team.
In third place was #SimeTime with our Bumblebee hats, so close yet so far.
We knew it was now between the dinosaurs.
Note to self, Dinosaurs are obviously OP, if a Dinosaur is released in Malifaux buy it.
Would it be the Red Dinos of Mark and his Poker winnings or the Purple Dinos of the highest ranked captain Dave?
With the announcement that Joe Wood of the Purple Dinos was the actual single person with the most achievement points, we were then not surprised that.
- James Winton
- Joe Wood
- Jake Barlow
- And Captain Dave Hill
The Winning Team
Congratulations to them, seeing James excited reaction was more than worth the Purple Dinosaurs taking it down and was a lovely end to a great event.
That's it for #MCC
I could go on to go about the drive home, the highlight of which was eating some KFC and low light being a knackered Jan taking a wrong turning (or two).
We got home safely if quite late, but it was great to chat about the event relax and my bed was very welcoming when I got home.
I've thanked the TO's again already, I would like to thank Jan for simply being "my bro" and an amazing mate, it was a shame it was only the two of us from the Poole area but I'm glad that if anyone could come he was one that could.
Thanks again to everyone who spoke to me, introduced themselves to me, played against me, with me, gave me a present, gave me a handshake.
Conrad for some of his lush Chinese rice during the last round of the Saturday.
My team, Ben, Mike (who got a promotion, whatever that would be in my team) and Bruno (the "employee of the month), I couldn't really have asked for a better group of lads to represent the #SimeTime name and I'm glad that although MCC was not really about winning or losing we got results that represented the strong bond we had.
MCC was an incredible experience, as dramatic as it sounds for me it was life changing, if you read this and groan then fine, but it was important on a lot of levels and I would never give up that weekend, it's memories or the impact it has had on me personally for anything.
Love this community and I cannot wait to hopefully get a ticket to "Mystery of the Tyrant's Heart" aka #MoTH next year.
Thank you to anyone who got through all four parts of this huge adventure and I hope you continue reading all these rambles I write.
Fin.
-Ben (@Psientologist)
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