Malifolk 3

Malifolk 3: The Rise of #SMP

Malifolk 3 was an event held Norwich (Norfolk) the stomping ground of Mr Lee Battrick and Malifool's own Mr Mike Marshall, the owners of Bendy Boards

Malifolk 3 was four rounds of 50ss Fixed master Malifaux action.
Strategies and Scheme pools were not revealed until all 30 players who had signed up submitted who they would be taking.

For me Mei Feng would chill out and I would be taking my finished* Tale of Malifaux Bloggers project Marcus.

Geek Manor

Prior to Malifolk I had already headed up to the very flat county of Norfolk.

Mr Matt Spooner had always said that I was welcome and with his new place to show off the offer was still wide open (why do I feel the need to make a dirty joke now).

Sometimes in life it is just good to get away, Norfolk may not be the Caribbean but it's far from home for me and with good company and people I don't get to see that often.

I will not talk too much about the half week prior (I came up on the Wednesday by trains, gross) but I would like to take another opportunity to thank Spoons for being a fucking fantastic host and a great friend.

I may write a blog about the Geek Manor week, but basically it involved lots of films, a bit of gaming, bumming , having some more of the Tractor Massive (Mike and Pete) over, meeting the lovely Claire properly (she's not imaginary and is very nice), more films, more bumming and some tasty food.

Normally at this stage in a tournament report I briefly chat about what Aaron and Jan were bringing to the event, this time I was without my Poole cadre though they would join me later**.

Spoons is the one who I rode with, he was taking C.Hoffman and the "Hoffbots" which he hadn't quite got finished to the standard we know he can do but still had a sweet looking crew with the base colours showing through. Police style blues and whites.

Matt and I even had a tournament practice game the revealed scheme pool and although, honestly it was a bit of a trashing from my Beasts to those bots I think we both learned a lot, in fact my crew I had taken was what I ended up quickly selecting for that Strategy on the day.

To be fair to Matt he did put up a decent fight and was still learning the crew (it may've been his first game with Hoff) where as I have played Marcus a decent amount.

Our personal goals were set for the next day. Matt wanted an honest 2-2 record, without the most fantastic tournament record I think it was fair and honest, maybe I had too much faith but I was sure he could do it.

Myself, I have done terrible at the tournaments I played in. Canterfaux my first was a 2-2 record and Somerfaux in my head is a muddle, I went 1-3 but the last two rounds I had beaten myself up about for so long knowing that I definitely easily could have won and were both games I felt I was ahead and in control of.

SMP?

I said that my "homeboys" Jan and Aaron weren't about, while this is true, technically I never stood alone.

Prior to this event a small group of myself, Aaron and Jan had joined up with the "Isle of Faux" boys, Benjamin Crowe and Austin Capewell to start getting the south coast a little bit more organised when it comes to having events***.

However, we're all mates, all play too, and through a simple name in a "Whatsapp" chat we became a team.

Southern MaliPros.

As a side note I originally was going to title the chat as Southern Malifaux Alliance or something of that ilk, I couldn't fit all the characters and just put in pro for a laugh. Honestly. I don't even think I'm that good.

After the weekend, we added a sixth member to the group, former Team SimeTime member and fellow southerner Mike Hutchinson.

Malifolk wise Ben had come up with some of the Thanet lot, Jake Barlow, Paul Flory and Zak Foote.

They were delayed thanks to road works so the SMP shirts weren't on display this day, but the weekend would be the start of SMP being a team on the scene.

Ben was running Leveticus, more on him later.

Round 1

28 players made it to the event, the magic number which means the winner would earn the maximum 100 rankings points.

First of all I was paired up against newcomer Kelvin Last, he and some of his club mates came up to play in Malifolk as their first event. I hoped I would give him a nice enjoyable game and a pleasant welcome into the scene. 

As well as get a win obviously... come on.

Cutting decks? Say what?

Kelvin was running Ten Thunders Misaki, to the regular reader; don't worry I didn't start telling him how bad I thought Misaki was, or explain that Mei Feng was the "correct choice".

We would be playing Reckoning with a quite opposite scheme pool:

• A Line in the Sand
• Distract (D)
• Protect Territory (T)
• Spring the trap (10)
• Power ritual (13)

I already knew what I would take before I saw Kelvin's crew.

Getting points in Reckoning is sometimes hard but I know I have the killing power.

Protect Territory (revealed) would be an easy choice, hoping to outnumber the opponent and simply drop markers late.

Distract and Spring the Trap were too against the Strategy for me and although I would say just pushing hard for the 6 is not a bad tactic I wanted to score well.

Line in the Sand is simply a lot more involving than Power Ritual so that was my last choice.

It was also revealed.

The crew for me was roughly:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the gods and Feral Instincts
• Howard Langston, Imbued Energies
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• Dawn Serpent
• Sabertooth Cerberus 
• Hoarcat Pride
• Cache of 4 Stones

Howard and Sabertooth are killers, simple, they brutalise the enemy.

Myranda is essentially a Cerberus with a Ml6 attack of her own if she doesn't want to transform outright.

The Dawn Serpent is something I'm growing to love in Reckoning.

Ml7 with min2 damage and 2 poison adds up. Wk6 Flight means it gets about fast and using Alpha on it is occasionally just unfair.

The Hoarcat is pretty brutal at 5ss. If Kelvin was Arcanists this may be a Metal Gamin for Magnetism or if he had said Resurrectionists I may've gone with the Arcane Effigy for the condition removal.

The kitten though is hard to shoot at and is generally thankful for not being activated early, this works well in the crew and good against Kelvin who may have some range.

Kelvin took:

• Misaki, upgrades and minimum cache
• Fuhatsu and the new Blot the Sky upgrade
• 2 Thunder Archers
• 2 Torakage
• Dawn Serpent

I had seen this new Archer upgrade work well before, I knew that Fuhatsu would be a prime target.

Torakage were fine but I knew I could outmatch them and Misaki well... I'm not even going to say.

It was cool to see Kelvin with the Dawny S too, but mine was better (kind of).

The Game

I revealed my schemes, I believe Kelvin had both his hidden.

He was either going for Distract and Spring or maybe just wanted the power to bluff. It was a brave play but instantly I wasn't sure if he was making a great decision.

I will not go with a play by play but a quick overview.

My Dawn Serpent, however tempted I was to fight Kelvin's, actually just placed my corner's Power Ritual and flew up the edge of the board with an eye on the possible fights.

As suspected Kelvin had a firebase of Fuhatsu and the Archers. Moving forward to get the range meant I just went full aggressive. "Use Nimble to walk three times" I say shoving Langston down Fuhatsu's throat first turn.

Cat leaping forward with Myranda keeping by for the positive defense.

Marcus kept close, Alpha'd Langston, engaged Fuhatsu and an Archer, battered the big guy.

Misaki and her ninjas headed forwards with Dawn Serpent who would be meeting the big cat, the cat lady and the kitten who was last to follow.

The second turn saw the big cat and Kelvin's Dawn Serpent exchanging blows. The Thunders beast bested the Cerberus thanks to initiative and the power of chi.
Myranda changed into a large kitty herself finishing the Serpent and off to slay some ninjas aided by the kitten which the Torakage could simply not beat.

Howard not only killed Fuhatsu but along with the Master Marcus started to take out Archers.

My Dawn Serpent seeing no need to join in the fighting just flew down the side further to get the schemes.

As the game rolled on, I continued to score Reckoning points.
At one stage a Torakage placed a scheme marker, as did Misaki early on, this made me believe that Kelvin must be going for Line in the Sand or Protect Territory.
I assumed Spring the Trap was out of the books simply because of placement.

Moving into the last turns had not failed to get any Strategy points and although I lost my second big cat (Myranda) that was it for losses on my side.
Howard had easily killed the archers with single attacks and Misaki who had tried to take out Marcus got executed by the rampaging steamborg and a Shillelagh to the face.

With the ninjas eaten by cats, the Dawn Serpent placing the Power Ritual and setting up for the Protect Territory markers too, the last turn simply involved me cleaning up Kelvin's markers and placing my own.

It was a clean sweep.

Win 10-0

Admittedly luck of the draw would have me face a fairly new person to the game round 1, I find Reckoning to be one the strategies I am actually good at, which is odd because scoring can prove difficult.
Kelvin did have the combat master but Misaki just isn't good enough. Sorry, there I said it.

Howard essentially eliminated half of Kelvin's crew turn 1 and it was only down hill for him from there.

A top bloke who I hope to see at more events, hopefully Kelvin now realises that hidden schemes aren't always the best idea in tournaments.

One of many brilliant tables at Malifolk 3.

Round 2

Well after being the only person to 10-0 round 1 I was not in a great position to submarine.

I was actually (randomly) on bottom table round 1 so I went all the way up the hall to table 1.

My opponent, none other than my round 1 opponent for #M2GT Mark Elwood with Dreamer.

This time it was Corner deployment Turf War. The schemes were as follows:

• A Line in the Sand
• Protect Territory (T)
• Bodyguard (R)
• Cursed Object (1)
• Vendetta (5)

I like Cursed Object (or Distract) in Turf War, you tend to have people in the middle in Turf War, shocker I know, so you know models will be about to interact with, that and a lot of people will try to take extra models to easily get two in the centre.
Bodyguard made me think that as Mechanical Rider would be coming out to play I could be taking that.
Vendetta is always dependent on the opponents crew and finally Protect tends to be easier than Line and is always a possibility.

My Crew was:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the gods and The Hunger Cry
• Mechanical Rider, Imbued Energies
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• Cojo, Imbued Protection
• 2 Silurids  
• Cache of 4 Stones

Still not sure this was the greatest crew and Marcus in Turf War is something I need to look at again.
For one I avoided my blasting options of the Dawn Serpent and Rogue Necromancy, this may have helped.

Mechanical Rider could be a Bodyguard and would be an extra source of tough models, pooping metal gamin on the turf.

Cojo currently is my go to as his best ability in my opinion is Rude Sign Language as the unconditional push timed right can deny the strategy quite easily.
Myranda would also be able to become Cojo if I lost him, but he was protected to hopefully stop that.

The issue with my crew here is that although the Silurids were in for scheme markers or Cursed object it meant my crew was too small and therefor Cojo's "power" was weakened and I've gone on record before to say I don't think he's that great.
3 Molemen or even Metal Gamin and a Jackalope would probably have been better, not sure, but it needs some thought.

Mark's crew is hard for me to remember, especially due to summoning, highlights were:

• Dreamer with Summoning
• Teddy with the new Ignore Armour (discard to ignore Df triggers) upgrade
• Widow Weaver
• Insidious Madness
• Silurid of his own.

My problem in this match was two fold (well three including poor crew selection on my half), Matt is very good, although I would not let that phase me I could not expect too many mistakes from the gentlemen who won September's Curse.

Secondly my inexperience against Dreamer. Jan has played him but is very much in the learning stage.

Although I had a good idea of what most things did, this game would almost feel like playing against a totally different master.

The Game

Again no play by play but I will go over some big points.

First of all, Mark seemed to solely summon Stitched and Insidious Madness, no twins, no Alps.

Stitched here are great as doing their kamikaze style attacks are fine when they are "free" also it just gives them two chances with their reactivate.

Madness are easy to kill if you have taken the right tools, their movement though is crazy good.

Mr Elwood's initial Madness and Silurid ran up to a far corner placing markers for his announced Protect Territory.

He had a hidden scheme, I assumed Cursed Object (as did I) but his models outnumbering mine meant that it was never really safe for me to go for as at best we would both get 3 VP and that didn't really help.

Although the summoner will usually out-activate their opponent my lack of models didn't help, Cursed Object was cagey to go for and I had no real spare pieces to try and stop Mark's Protect Territory.

Cojo sat in the center taking a lot of heat, Myranda healing him on occasion and Marcus using Alpha to allow Cojo the extra movement and timing he needed.

A big problem for me was that Mark had chosen a Corner that left me in one which would have two huge structures that funneled me into the Turf.

With all the big bases I had bottle necked myself. My Bodyguard Mechanical Rider loomed on the outside, making Gamin and avoiding conflict thanks to the Teddy, never ever really getting a good shot at anyone or an awesome charge lane.

The game carried on with Marcus at the back having to play support and really being under utilised, Cojo being a tarpit but eventually dying and me getting so desperate that Myranda didn't even become the King of Kong and opted to tear things up as a Cerberus (this is where I would prefer having a Blessed of December).

Silurids didn't get to curse much and somethings they did were just killed by Mark himself.

The game was going to be a loss, I just needed to leave with as many VP as I could.

Mechanical Rider scored a point for Bodyguard and I had been racking up the Turf VP along with Mark.

I knew Teddy was gunning for the Rider and in our last turn as I lost initiative I could see how Teddy could be pushed to get the attack but I thought I would have the gap for Mech Rider to just flee as fast as possible.

Accomplice.

Not even taking the chance to steal initiative was the rotten cherry on my disgusting cake of mistakes this game.

Day Dreams have Accomplice and I'd forgot, Teddy was pushed, removed his upgrade actually pulled off the (0) on negatives and tore the rider into pieces, stopping me getting the final 2 Bodyguard points.

With the game clear where it would finish, we shook hands and called it.

Loss 9-4

I was still on +5VP diff which was fine for 1-1. I had severely been put back in my place. The top table was not somewhere I belong just yet.

Although I was quite smashed by Mark it did give me some confidence and I'm hopeful that our GT rematch will be closer.

Hey, hopefully the result will flip.

Mr Zac Evans smiles for the camera.

Lunch

During lunch other than eating a few other things went down.

Best Crew (painting/hobby award) would be judged on what was fielded the round prior.

I put my crew out, although Marcus is unexciting and needs work and my Mechanical Rider is horrid I am happy with the rest and simply thought, "why not?".

Pairing were also announced. I would be down to table 4 (still top 8) against none other than.

At the time UK no.1 and the only fellow 'fool I haven't faced.

Joel Henry

More on that after lunch.

Food wise there was a local fish and chip shop, it was definitely better than the one during MCC but then again I just got some classic Battered Sausage and chips.

I took the chance to chat with Conrad and his Taelorn clubmates.

He was congratulating me on doing well, but I was honest, I had 1-1 record a win against a new player and loss to someone who was very clued up.

Joel was next so it was time to prove whether or not I was a player who belonged closer the top or bottom.

Chatting with Ben Crowe he was on two wins and would be facing Martin Wodehouse next round on the top table. Martin is an awesome bloke who I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting to at events and a top player, obviously though I wanted #SMP for the win.

It's him... Conrad.

Round 3

Now I must start that I wasn't playing against the "full might" of Mr Henry you see Joel has been raising money for charity specifically for #WAAC and Macmillan Cancer Support.
If you check this link you can see about "Gremlins for Joel".
Where he is being forced to play Gremlins once certain stretch goals are hit.
It get's worse though, he's wore a Pig Onesie, has to play Gremlins at #M2GT and much more.

At this event his lists were being picked for him.
Joel had:

• Som'er Teeth Jones, Guardian Stone, Family Tree, Quality Mash Liquor
• Whiskey Golem, Drinking Problem
• Lenny, Stilits
• 2 Skeeters
• 2 Warpigs

Basically Som'er has a decent healing upgrade but the stone that does... and Family Tree with no one to summon from.

Whiskey Golem with an upgrade other Tri Chi can use. There isn't any.

Ht4 Lenny which to be fair using Stilts is actually good.

Skeeters which I actually rate and War Pigs which are decent but underused.

Knowing Joel's crew I did think about taking a Shikome to attack the Wp1 Lenny but I ignored that, took a crew good for the Strategy and Schemes which were:

• Squatters Rights (T) (Flank Deployment)
• A Line in the Sand
• Protect Territory (T)
• Breakthrough (M)
• Plant Evidence (3)
• Frame for Murder (12)

I decided to field:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the gods and The Hunger Cry
• Mechanical Rider, Imbued Energies
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• 2 Molemen
• 2 Silurids  
• Cache of 6 Stones

I like the tag team of Silurids dragging Molemen, they can get to the centre fast and the Silurids would be putting the work in Planting Evidence and getting Breakthrough.

Mechanical Rider is not only quick too, but dropping Metal Gamin to hold the markers is great.

Myranda is pretty much a Cerberus, however early turns she's additional protection from shooting and speed that isn't relying on a mask for leap.

Hunger Cry hear is mostly for Domesticate where trying to Alpha Joel's pigs would be funny, sticking them on negative flips felt good to me.

Pete Wright and Clouseau play on the Dreamer board.

The Game

Joel may be handicapped without choosing his own list, but had yet to lose (he'd won and drew) and had started to learn his list.

His Warpigs used Truffles to drag Lenny and Som'er about. The Whiskey Golem headed up one edge of the table while the irritating Skeeter buzzed about ready to tie me up.

We both took Breakthrough and Plant Evidence all revealed.

I'd used leaping silurids placing scheme markers to jet Molemen up the table while skirting up the side with Mech Rider and heading straight into the thick of it Marcus.

Myranda kept near some beasts but also went towards the Squat markers early.

Having flipped some markers in the first turn I was ready to gain strategy points and attempt to deny Joel. For the most part by just killing his relevant models.

His Whiskey Golem was currently too far for me, flipping a Squat marker near a board corner and keeping away from the fight.

However much I was tempted to go take the Golem down I believed concentrating on dealing with the Pigs and big gremlins would serve me better.

After all, if I was unable to stop the big bundle of barrels getting some schemes Joel definitely was up against it stopping my bouncy beast alliance.

Early doors a Skeeter tied up the opposite Squat marker (to the Whiskey) that a Moleman had taken position to obtain.

Realising the futility of having a Moleman try to kill or even walk away from a Skeeter I decided to teleport back and head off somewhere else.

Having a Moleman taken out of action by a Skeeter all game would not be good for me, but I knew with the other Mole and Swampbeast dropping markers I'd get an escape route in the end.

I had still flipped two markers. One Marcus stood upon fighting a Warpig and Som'er the other in a Myranda & Silurid vs Lenny and Pig fight.

Marcus went full "beast mode" making the Warpig next to useless and smashing his porky face in.

My main mistake here though was not using Accomplice, leaving Joel the chance to heal the Warpig back up where the Mechanical Rider could've finished the job.

The second Warpig was harder for me to control, Joel almost having it ruin my scheme laying plans.

A now Sabertooth shaped Myranda helped me out a lot here grinding away the enemies.

As the game moved on Som'er who had been shooting up the show and using Bigger Hat than you to scarper my plans (an early one making me discard 2 Twelves and 2 Thirteens) and carry on cheating with Bayou Two Card.

However his big gun was not enough to take down Marcus who finished off Lenny and had a friendly Metal Gamin steal one of Joel's markers.

I had attempted to Magnetise and irritate Joel's Golem to no avail.
Towards the end Joel surveyed the field and had deduced that the game would end in a draw.
I didn't take it as I could see otherwise.
With a final turn sprint full of Imbued Energies from the Mechanical Rider I got to the marker the Golem originally flipped and stole it.

This left me with 3 points for Strategy and only 2 for Joel.
We only got to turn 4 (which to note was the same as last game) so combined with the scheme points, the final result was.

Win 9-8

The silruid, moleman engine meant that I had locked up scheme points and the Metal Gamin actually failed to magnetise the Golem so often I didn't actually get the chance to destroy any of Joel's markers.

I was pleased to have beaten Joel, in fact this made Conrad the only Malifool I couldn't beat.
In a way I feel I could've still done better denying Strategy, maybe played faster (still not sure if it's me or was the event times) and I could've maybe taken advantage of knowing Joel's crew.
Joss for example wrecks the Whiskey Golem****.

Still was a good tight game and in fact I was Joel's only loss of the day. So, so much for a handicap.

A high view of the hall.

Round 4

I would still be sat on table 4.

A note I did not say from the round before was that it was a "Dreamer Table" which was toys, wooden soldiers and the like.

I'll cover the terrain a bit more later but the table was confusing, I hoped being stuck on it though could maybe be an advantage being used to the way it played.

My opponent for this round was friend of Mark Elwood and all around top guy Josh Leak.

Schemes and Strategy this time were:

• Stake A Claim (J) (Standard Deployment)
• A Line in the Sand
• Bodyguard (R)
• Assassinate (C)
• Out Flank (2)
• Murder Protege (11)

Josh Leak smiles as he prepares to face me.

This was the game I had played against Spooner in the week, even against Nicodem over Hoffman I thought my crew would be good.

It was:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the gods and Feral Instincts
• Mechanical Rider, Imbued Energies
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• Molemen
• Soulstone Miner
• 2 Silurids  
• Cache of 4 Stones

The crew is aiming to maximise Strategy points while still keeping the schemes in mind.

Mechanical Rider could be Bodyguard again and is also Wk6 with a push from Turn 2 onwards, meaning easy Stake a Claim marking and extra models to do the same later on.

Myranda is Wk6 too plus can change into a model with leap which is amazing in this Strategy.

Speaking of leap, the kings of it Silurids come in, tagging one Moleman for the last few points as bar arguably a Steam Arachnid there isn't really a better 4ss model to have in the Strategy.

Lastly the Soulstone Miner can place one Turn 2 and Marcus, well he can be Wk8.

Josh took something roughly like:

• Nicodem ,Maniacal Laugh, Necrotic King and something else
• Canine Remains
• Madame Sybelle, with an upgrade
• Mortimer with an upgrade
• 2 Necropunks
• 2 Rotten Belles

I took Murder Protege on Mortimer as I believed he'd be easier to take down than Nicodem and Bodyguard (unrevealed obviously).

Josh had neither of his schemes revealed.

With his lack of Crooligans and only 2 Necropunks I was pretty positive I could tip the Strategy towards me.

I knew Josh would put up a good fight but I knew I could win this one.

Early doors saw me wipe the canine remains out with one strike from Marcus as Myranda, quickly turning into a Cerberus and fueling my hand delve deep into tearing all Josh's Rotten Belles apart.

Josh had deployed in a refused flank before me, in response my offensive pieces mirrored him but the Mechanical rider was "miles" away, literal feet.

Both our leaping units headed off towards the middle avoiding each other with my moleman tagging along.

Marcus would Alpha the cat in turn 1 or 2 also to continue it's rampage towards Mortimer who hid at the back with his master.

Eventually Nicodem would do his summoning tricks, getting some more Belles back from Zombies after his maniacal laugh along with a Punk Zombie who with Fast quickly tore apart the Cerberus.

My biggest mistake here was thinking the coast was clear. If Josh had been playing anyone without the summoning capabilities of Nicodem I would hasten to say that I had the game won in the very first turn.

Marcus dived in to clear up and help the big cat fight on.

However with a smaller cache and no beasts to defend him, Marcus was eventually torn down by the undead ladies of the night and a katana wielding punk.

Three scheme points were earned very early for Josh as Assassinate was revealed to be one of his two hidden schemes.

I was still unsure of his second. A hidden Murder Protege was what I hoped for as he hadn't even tried to bluff A Line in the Sand.

Outflank may have been the choice, but again I would be surprised if had hidden it.

At this point I guessed Bodyguard.

I surveyed the field as the game went on, his Necropunks could simply not keep up with the newly arrived Miner, Silurids, Mole friend and robot horse. In fact by the end of the game I had 8-9 markers down "just in case" where as he had 1-2.

The Mechanical Rider was never in danger of dying and I suspected I could predict the game. Even if he could surprise me with his scheme I would win 7-6.

Getting to Mortimer was impossible now, he was wounded from some self harm and I had my Miner beat on Sybelle, if he had Bodyguard I was aiming to only let him get 2VP.

Turn 4 came.

We discussed the game but Josh looked over the field and decided he thought he could still win.

In a last ditch effort Nicodem just got the right cards to summon a Necropunk who made a line for what was evidently Outflank.

I wasn't going to be able to stop it this turn as it was the last activation, but with Bodyguard and Stake a Claim in the bank it wouldn't matter to me...

"15 minutes left. Do not start another turn!" announced Mike as Josh finished his after Leap walk.

That call out, was my defeat.

Without the firth turn I had only got 3VP for Stake a Claim, 2VP for Bodyguard and without being able to engage the Necropunk Josh had gotten the full 6VP for his schemes.

Loss 5-6

Inside I was devastated, the game was mine, I had played quick as from even turn 2 onwards it was all just moving and marker placing for me.

I was in control of the game. I'd slipped up with Assassinate, maybe I could have left more Gamin by the flank, even then it would only be a draw.

Time, time was my enemy.

Sometimes people lose and say "Well I would have won if you didn't flip this" or "if I had taken this".

I would've won, with no card flips. In fact no movement would five me the 7-6.

I had failed in my personal goal. Malifolk was another average 2-2 and I was so gutted.

Inside I was fuming but Josh being such a top guy I couldn't get angry.

We chatted briefly and I got some fresh air. It is only a game but I was invested and irritated that I lost, not by some victory points but by two minutes.

Catching up with Uberspoons

This photo must be after the 2 wins.

Well I failed my personal goal, how did Matt do?

Well he won round one as did I so spirits were high, however as I was being smashed by Mark Elwood, Matt had won.

He already had those two wins he wanted and still had two games to go, doing this well Matt also got to a lofty height, table 2 against Martin Wodehouse.

That was it for winning, Matt lost against Martin and his final opponent but 2-2 with a brand new master was great and he got his goal.

Results

Full results can be found here at Malifaux Rankings.

I sat at 2-2 at the end of the day, with +1 then -1 VP differential in the last two rounds I was still at the +5 I was dropped to by Mark.

The Tractor Massive, the yellow shirt wearing Norfolk lot that Matt Spooner is a part of all ended on 2-2 also.

Two things were interesting here, who would earn The Rusty Tractor the "prize" given to the lowest placing member and would I be higher than them.

Bragging rights were up for grabs especially as during my week at Geek Manor Pete Wright of the Tractor Massive claimed "what could he teach me about Marcus?" as we were both taking the Beast Master to this event.

Well then, where did they end up?

The Rusty Tractor was awarded to Matt Spooner in 16th place (of 28).

Chris King of Chasing Bacon narrowly missed taking the tractor in 14th.

Pete Wright was one above at 13th and

Scott Porter who had smashed me in my first event got 12th.

Where was I?

Well I got 11th Place putting me above that entire team. Which honestly surprised me, I knew I could finish above Pete and that it would be close but Scott, I was happy to take that.

Thanks to another draw Joel Henry got a single place higher than me with his team mate Graham "Bluetac" Burnsell not losing a game (2 win 2 draw) getting 9th.

Their 3rd man got 6th which was nice and impressive. A last round victory shot him right above me.

Mark who smashed me the hardest got 8th where Josh with that tight victory against me last round got to 5th. A bugger to think that I could have maybe been that high.

The Thanet guys who came up with Ben Crowe?

They cleared up, Paul Flory in 7th, Zak Foote in 4th and Jake Barlow in 2nd.

What about #SMP member Benjamin Crowe himself?

Well he just went and Won the Tournament.

Ben earned his second tournament win and first 100 rankings pointer by winning all of his games.

Shame we didn't have the shirts but a good shout of S M P came from me as he raised his trophy and got his photo taken.

Best in Faction for those who are interested was as follows:

• Best Outcast - Ben Crowe
• Best Ten Thunder - Jake Barlow
• Best Arcanist - Martin Wodehouse
• Best Resurrectionist - Josh Leak
• Best Gremlin - Joel Henry
• Best Neverborn - Zak Foote
• Best Guild - Paul Flory

All four of the guys from the South East Thanet area took home Best in Factions. Ridiculous.

I couldn't be too much more happy with that without me being the one doing the honours. Next time maybe.

The fantastic prize pool.

Round up and Final thoughts

Malifolk 3 was an excellent event.

To elaborate Lee and Mike were always on top of things, giving clear times and everything (from what I could see) ran smoothly.

My only issue with the running is felt each round could have done with at least an extra ten minutes.

It would come across bias as I'd have been 3-1 rather than 2-2 if that were the case but all my games only got to turn 4 and although I am not the fastest I'm pretty sure I play at a quick enough pace.

Malifaux has some things that will slow the game without helping, Summoners are a big one, the person playing them isn't going to skip an activation to save time, but it does mean that their turns will be longer than usual.

The tables were all great bar the Dreamer table I played on had either too much terrain or it was too spread about. If either of them read this, I would suggest basing some bits as you would trees in some game as all the terrain was blocking pretty much, no dense.

It still looked awesome though and with the scene coming together as usual there were enough tables filled with fantastic terrain so quickly that there wasn't need for everything that had been bought along.

It was excellent to see a Demo table which doubled as a beautiful display of the latest Bendy Board terrain.

Makes me want the stuff even more now, just have to save the pennies.

Lastly swag and prizes.

Everyone got a very handy bendy board counter set which had five squatter's rights markers and a turf token, perfect for the day and always handy.

Spot prizes for funny things were handed out during the day which I am notably a fan of (we did the same at September's Curse).

Also literally everyone who played got a prize and people got to come up and pick from bottom to top.

In theory this idea is amazing. It does what the spoon does and evens out how happy people will be leaving.

The only issue was the time, waiting for twenty eight people one by one grab their prize became a bit of a slog, so much so that when I went to get mine I wasn't even sure where I had actually placed.

Trophies were great, I especially loved the Best in Faction laser cut wooden shields with the faction logos.

It's a shame I was not good enough to get one for myself but it is definitely something I'll be reaching for in the future as they were so pretty.

Prize wise, I got myself a laser line marker. A very handy bit of kit.

Malifolk 3 was overall fantastic with the only things I can say were "wrong" were simply tiny and easily changed.

I will definitely try and travel up again for Malifolk 4 and I would like to thank Lee and Mike again for such a cracking fun and welcoming event.

Another awesome Malifolk 3 table.

My experience wasn't quite over...

The added awesome for me was I was staying at Geek Manor for one last night and being in the home county of a fair few people a decent half dozen came out for a meal.

Cheers to Mike again for organising and Pete, Joel, Clouseau, Spooner and Becks for a fun meal. 

Spooner and I went home, both very tired and in one of those moods where pretty much anything is funny we spent too much time shooting lazers around the room and being far too easily amused.

It was time for bed as tomorrow, there was more tournament gaming to be done...

*Crews are never finished, not really.

**Octoberfaux was the next day, blog coming soon.

***Isle of Faux 2 and May Feng are both on the forums to sign up to.
****Consistent damage ignoring most of his defenses.

Thanks again for reading
-Ben (@psientologist)