Cow Wars 2

My first Clousseau ran event

For the second time this year myself, Jan and Aaron (Janron) were able to travel to and from an event in the same day. 

This event would be Cow Wars 2 held in Milton Keynes and ran by the excellent David "Clousseau" Brown, the TO veteran which Cow Wars 2 would be the twenty fifth malifaux event he has run.

The event would be four games fixed faction, with different soul stones amounts each game.

Before I get into the day, let me do the typical "build up" segment.

Before the War

Between this event and Isle of Faux 2 back in March I had not been playing much Malifaux.

Real life, other distractions and a whole host of things had put gaming on a back burner, not really a conscious decision but one that had happened nevertheless.

As with most tournament though, the realisation that it was dawning on us re lit the fire in me and Aaron and a little in Jan. 

The week leading up to Cow Wars 2 I played more games than I had for a long time and it was great, however my results were not.

I never consider myself a top player, I have had several people come up to me at events saying they thought I had been doing well and to me I feel no better than mediocre.

The one thing is I always thought I was close to on top (it goes in cycles) of the trio of Janron and myself.

However I kept losing, I lost to Jan which was a rarity and I lost two games to Aaron where I actually conceded, something I tend not to do (listen to SMPRadio about fighting back from 0-6 on turn 1).

I was enjoying the games, but to a level, the losses were frustrating and it was something I needed to get over.

It dawned on me that I hadn't won a game since I beat Maria at Isle of Faux 2; perhaps I had used all my gaming luck for that victory, as Maria is much stronger player, and that was it.

This was OK, I tried to convince myself the losing streak would end at Cow Wars 2 and that then I would not be able to lose, continuing to talk about luck in the most ridiculously superstitious fashions.

One last game on the Saturday night against Aaron. I win.

Oh no!

Now even my silly superstitious idea was ruined. Things were not looking hopeful for me.

Aaron

Aaron has been doing progressively better in my eyes, his results may not be a direct upwards line but I feel he is meshing with Guild (and his bloody Pathfinders) a lot better than the Outcasts.

I had high hopes for Mr Bailey and honestly always have believed he is just that little bit better than me even if he and I occasionally completely disagree on some gaming things (specific tactical choices etc.)

Jan

Jan and I have hardly played much recently. He has moved on to Ressers with one event under his belt.

I believe Jan piqued too quickly with his Canterfaux win and every loss and poor result since then must've stung that little bit more knowing he has a first place trophy at home.

Overall I think the switch in faction has aided Jan, he is strangely obsessed with taking (or not taking) certain things which I hope he gets over but all-in-all he is currently a lot less predictable than he was with the Brown team.

Dawn of War

The drive up was fine, we all had to get up reasonably early but even after sleeping on a sofa at Janron's I felt well rested and excluding the Browns (David and Tim) and Panzer Harris we were amongst the first people to arrive, with time to spare I grabbed a very slowly served Subway breakfast and back to the venue we went.

Cow Wars 2 was being held at the Jury’s Inn in central Milton Keynes which is a rather nice hotel, we shared the hall with a fairly large X-Wing tournament which was already running when we arrived (David opted for a later start, bank holiday weekend and all).

The hall was nice, spacious, and clean and had a water tank (which did run out though).

I don't have much to say on the venue except that it was very nice.

It's awkward to not be able to take food into a place you are playing but Clousseau allowed a large enough lunch break that it really was not an issue.

The place did also get rather warm, but that was probably down to a combination of bodies and fickle weather.

What I can comment on were the tables. Overall this had the nicest tables I've seen at an event, at least tied with Malifolk3.

Every table had a decent amount of terrain, each table was painted (something I cannot claim for my events yet) and they were mostly all playable.

"Mostly" as a couple of very cool looking tables were quickly apparent to have issues but nothing the players could not sort themselves from what I saw.

We all signed up, got our sheets with the Strategies and Schemes, along with a sweet MDF crate with Cow Wars 2 labelled on it (there might be another event in May with something similar).

Along with that after round 1 we all got a raffle prize thanks to Wyrd's tremendous support.

We all got paired via cards, for the most part this worked out, except for a couple of hitches.

First of all Jan and Aaron were paired against each other, not great but Dave did quickly sort that, the second issue was myself and a few other guys did not have matching numbers and it eventually left me to play Jan, going back to the initial issue.

Luckily, two wrongs made a right. A couple of guys arrived late, one of which would be my first round opponent.

Round 1

• Graeme Nicholls
• Arcanists
• Interference
• Flank Deployment
• 50ss
• A Line in the Sand
• Assassinate
• Protect Territory
• Plant Evidence
• Power Ritual

Graeme was running Kaeris, using the lovely alternate plastic model.

I had little to no experience with Kaeris (I think I've watched some games) so this would be interesting.

Usually in an Arcanist off (sorry I forgot to say, not that it wasn't obvious) I feel quite confident but against a Master who was a bit unknown and in a strategy I was not so keen on my confidence was a little lower.

Still my crew was as follows:

• Marcus - Arcane Reservoir, Feral Instincts, Trail of the Gods
• Jackalope
• Myranda - Imbued Energies
• Mechanical Rider - Imbued Energies
• Arcane Effigy
• Johana 
• 2 Canine Remains 
• Night Terror

Nine models to start with would help, usually this kind of Recon crew I would have more but I opted to try out Johana (the first time on the table for me) trading two models for one but which had advantage against any possibly constructs and the very attractive 3" melee range.

Graeme would take something roughly like:

• Kaeris
• Malifaux Child
• Johan
• Joss 
• Arcane Effigy
• Gunsmith
• Performer
• Metal Gamin

Graeme had a max cache were I had my minimum of 4.

He also opted for Arcane Reservoir, along with Grab and Drop and the burning makes people fly and drop markers upgrade (don't remember the name).

Joss had fast and maybe something else.

Overall I felt advantaged when it came to crew due to the numbers of models and that the speedy smaller minions would be easy picking for any Super Marcus and/or Killer Kitty shenanigans.

Joss was a big sign post, one that said "Stay Clear" for the Mechanical Rider.

With crews selected Graeme opted for Plant Evidence and A Line in the Sand, obviously leaning on the fiery flight play.

I opted for Power Ritual and Protect Territory. Protect is fairly simple as long as you are not getting tabled and with nine models and a summoner I believed I would be fine.

Power Ritual is also quite easy, Flank deployment makes this scheme very quick to set up and as my intention was for about two thirds of my models to not fight this would fit their plan.

Deployment was fairly typical for the strategy and scheme.

Marcus, Myranda and the bunny started close and central with the Arcane Effigy hanging out by them.

Two zombie dogs started 18" across one side with the Metal horsey and bat thing on the other.

Johana was the only undecided, she started far forwards too as to be able to remove burning if needed and get in quicker being her Wk of 4 is not too fast.

Graeme pretty much started in a bubble to use the Burning Halo tricks, except the Performer and Metal gamin who were ready to head off to the quarter my Rider and Night Terror were going.

The game played out much as expected at first, my dogs darted off into one quarter ready to lay markers and hide as the Rider did with the Night Terror, though the bat could not lay markers the "pooped" Gamin could do later on.

The Effigy placed a Power Ritual marker and held the home quarter and my three big hitters headed cautiously forwards.

With the child burning a lot of it's friend in order to set up A Line in the Sand Graeme's crew headed towards the dead zone of the centre a little too fast and this would catch him out.

The central scrap did not entirely go my way; strategically I had my engagements hold more of his models than his did of mine a later stage having Johana hold up four models.

However an early pouncing cat proved too easy to kill as a freshly transformed Myranda died to a flurrying Johan. Going back I think I may've been able to control activations a little better as to not have the cat out just at that point which would be safer due to Myranda's much better defence (and soulstones).

The sacrifice was not completely in vain as it kept the opposing crew together for longer and me scoring VPs while Graeme did not.

As the game went on, Kaeris' cheaper minions would either be picked off or scared into their own starting quarter.

Eventually the master would hunt down my Canine remains but it was too little too late.

Mechanical Rider had used the enemy Gamin to bounce scheme markers off of which allowed for Power Ritual and the "poop" to gain Protect Territory, even with this the dead doggies had done their job and Marcus had done a decent job of holding Joss in place.

If the game were to get more turns, maybe Kaeris combination of speed and attack would see Graeme score a few more VP, but I had "the ten" on lock down.

With only three turns played (a late start and a newer player being the prime combination to this) the game ended in victory for me at

Win 8-1

Graeme ended with only 2 markers down, only one of which was viable for Plant Evidence.

Graeme was a lovely guy to play though and I hope to see him at more events.

I would say this though, I did get the win and after the game I did get the "have I heard you on a podcast" checks which is always flattering.

Still another round 1 win for me, outside of the GT (damn you Elwood!) I have at least kept a positive record somewhere.

Luncheon

I have to say, although the time of day was right for lunch I much prefer lunch being the half way break. Still I imagine dietary requirements could be an issue if lunch was held back so I am happy to suck it up.

Where a few of the Black Joker Society guys myself and Janron were mostly hanging around with opted for Subway, myself, Janron, Maria and little Timmy Brown headed off to Sainsbury's.

Cheap sandwich deals with time to spend.

The weather at this point was nice, unlike the dreary morning and speaking to people about their results I had a feeling I would be against a tough opponent.

Mark Elwood was on a big win, as was Tim and we believed they would face off.

This meant I was getting worried as I was assuming I would have to play against the surprise (to me) entrant from the North "the Chosen One" Greg Piskosz.

Round 2

• Greg Piskosz
• Neverborn
• Collect the Bounty
• Standard Deployment
• 48ss
• A Line in the Sand
• Breakthrough
• Protect Territory
• Outflank
• Distract

Sometimes being right is horrible.

I would be against Greg, the player (along with Mark Elwood) I would put money on winning the event.

Still, I avoided intimidation. Greg is a top player, but he is a laugh and also a very clean one (no dodgy measurements, slow play or anything of the sorts), my worry was more in what the game was versus what I knew he was fielding.

Bounty and Lilith with Nekima.

Anyway, with 2 stones less my crew wasn't too different to the last tournament outing in this strategy:

• Marcus - Arcane Reservoir, Feral Instincts, Trail of the Gods
• Dawn Serpent
• Myranda - Imbued Energies
• Mechanical Rider
• Howard Langston - Imbued Energies

I knew scheme wise the game wouldn't be so complicated and it was much more about strategy, especially with the Joker style scoring. Having tough models that don't give too many points away seems to have worked in the past so I hoped it would again.

The only thing I feel I maybe should've taken was The Hunger Cry to help with willpower duels, but overall I didn't expect to stick too close and two fifths of my starting models were not even Beasts.

Greg took something roughly like:

• Lilith
• Nekima
• Doppelganger
• Mysterious Effigy
• Primordial Magic
• Mr Graves
• Johana

  

A big bunch of upgrades I mostly don't remember bar Retribution's Eye on Johana who was seemingly tooled up to destroy Mechanical Rider.

I deployed with the Rider far away from most of the business in Greg's crew, the three beasts starting a little bubbled to gain help from each other and Howard distant but between the void of the beasts and the Rider.

The tension in this game was when to "push it forwards".

Both my crew and Greg's had a strong fast combat element and whoever got caught with their pants down would be the one who lost.

Unfortunately crew creation was a lot better on Greg's side; initiative control via the Doppelganger along with activation control with Greg starting with almost twice the pieces meant the Chess like part of the game was strongly in his favour.

I put my beasty bubble far enough forwards to make Greg take the choice.

Although I know Greg is one of the finest Malifaux players there are giving him the choice would allow me more windows to take advantage of than if it were the other way.

Greg however played almost flawlessly, in my eyes I didn't see any opportunities for advantage and slowly but surely any equal footing we had slid away.

Mechanical Rider did it's best impression of a coward but the rest of the crew did a good job of just getting tangled, keeping a poor hand in the first turn of the game allowed the ever tricky Lilith to catch three of my models in vines and with activation control in Greg's hands Nekima claimed an early victim in the shape of my Dawn Serpent.

This wouldn't count for strategy but it was a fifth of my crew and the worst thing 

was that if having most my models in vines wasn't bad Myranda got shook up and paralysed at the site of the Dragon being slain.

This was an incredibly bad start, all of my models were stationary, Marcus did the best he could, manipulating Johana with a combination of Primal and Alpha had her use her fantastic upgrade against the suited Mr Graves, with Howard also dying in the same turn however I was simply preventing Greg getting further ahead rather than winning.

The game eventually got to a stage where Mechanical Rider would be along Mr Piskosz table edge, pushing, pooping, making scheme markers and avoiding combat where she needed to.

I was locking in my schemes but with Marcus and his beasts defeated Greg had free reign to do the same and he would also gain more Strategy points.

In the end, Lilith would remove a couple of my markers to stop me locking in six scheme points and ending our game.

Loss 4-9

The game was very educational, it was nice to see Nekima used well, too many times have I seen her been used far too aggressively and seem poor and over-costed.

I was happy to escape the game with some VP especially considering how bad the start of the game was, 5VP difference is big loss though, but I'm not sure if I should expect closer against Greg.

Next to us was the top table, Mark Elwood also with Nekima would demolish Tim Brown and his Gremlins, which would prove interesting for the following game.

Interestingly Aaron and Jan ended up paired against each other after they had also both won their first round, it must have been destiny.

After my game I was met by a very frustrated Mr Bailey, it seemed to have been "one of those games" where nothing goes right and your opponent is super lucky.

Aaron lost 7-0 to Jan which I think our entire contingent was shocked by.

Round 3

• Tim Brown
• Gremlins
• Guard the Stash
• Close Deployment
• 46ss
• A Line in the Sand
• Bodyguard
• Assassinate
• Plant Explosives
• Vendetta

It looks like Tim and I followed each other.

I was happy to be paired with him; he's a good kid and someone I know who is very much on my level with "bants".

Tim was running Gremlins, and I knew he was also favouring the Pigapult, being I have faced against the little green men a lot I had a rough idea of what to expect and how to win.

It was time for Mei Feng!

• Mei Feng - Arcane Reservoir, Seismic Claws, Vapourmancy
• Emberling
• Kang - Imbued Energies
• Mechanical Rider - Imbued Energies
• Willie
• Arcane Effigy
• Metal Gamin

I knew taking Mei Feng could be a mistake, not because I like to be aggressive with her against the gremlins and Assassinate was in the pool, but if Tim beat me using my favourite master I'd not hear the end of it on Twitter.

Still, usually I would take Imbued Protection with Assassinate in the pool, but I opted for Vapourmancy and the extra soulstone which I hoped Kang would not need to use.

Vent Steam would prove good at protecting my Stash guarding minions from shooting and blasts versus gremlins, especially on a very dense table like the one we played on, could prove useful.

Willie was around for that blasty reason, also he can shoot without LoS if at a penalty and, oh, he ignores armour if and opposing ordnance weapon was deployed.

Mechanical Rider would be the obvious Bodyguard which was a little dangerous with Vendetta in the pool but could also threaten (or bluff) Plant Explosives, also, making more tough models to Guard the Stash would help.

Lastly Kang is a "gatekeeper" and the other small minions were cheap and tough.

Tim would bring the following to the table:

• Wong
• Sammy LaCroix
• Burt Jebsen
• Lenny
• Bayou Gator
• Pigapult
• 2 Stuffed Piglets

It seems not only I had concluded that blasts could be good.

Tim had Explosive Solutions, Glowy and all the toys you'd want upgrade wise, his Pigapult could cover both Stash markers and with Stuffed pigs cause a lot of damage.

Tim deploys his forces and from before even the first initiative flip I see an opening.

The Gremlins were crowded, Stuffed pigs behind the Pigapult, Lenny to it's right, to it's left a jumble of other models within the crew with Burt out on the end.

My blasts would do me proud here, but also Mei's Jackhammer kick engagement range could cause for some early headaches on Tim's side.

I had deployed in flanks, Kang accompanied Willie and a Metal Gamin to head for the Pigapult where Mei, her totem and Effigy prepared to be a quick road into the heart of Tim's crew.

Mechanical Rider as always just trotted about between terrain on the edge of the table nearest Mei Feng (getaway horse?).

It became instantly apparent that I could charge into combat turn one with Mei Feng. This at first seemed like a double edged sword. I had taken Assassinate and had a bead on Wong, but on the other side, what if Tim had the same, could Mei survive an entire crew?

With a stone used early to improve my hand I believed I had the tools to do the job and as I stated earlier, my stones were made for Mei.

The Arcane Effigy gave Mei "Radiance" something that would potentially help with the card advantage, stepped into position and Accomplice gave me a turn one charge.

Mei flew into combat, thanks to the close deployment she was able to get her full combat effectiveness with her claws straight away, kick, punch, chop, Feng battered Wong but with his armour and stones it was not enough for the instant kill.

Still after the dust had settled Mei Feng stood amongst Tim's gremlins, all bar Lenny were engaged and this made the charge all the worthwhile.

As the game moved on the first turn assault had proven to be a game changer.

With Tim's crew held in place I could position my models for Strategy points while holding down his.

Willie took an early shot, out of range of the Pigapult he opted for Lenny, who not engaged was also now much more of a target.

Willie's explosives did some nice early damage threatening a chain reaction with some explosive pork.

The game continued and eventually Mei Feng had to opt to railwalk to safety with only two wounds left and Tim with undeclared schemes.

Wong was alive but surrounded and practically dead, before he was finished he was able to toss a scheme marker right into position by the Stash guarding Effigy, Emberling and fresh Gamin. 3VP in the bag for Tim but I was still moving ahead.

The game moved on and Willie was now in a preferred position, not only did he have a keen line of sight to his target, the opposing ordnance of the Pigapult, but with Kang nearby and the higher stats it was the easiest shot of his life.

One big armour ignoring explosion later, the stuffed piglets chained too with the resulting damage being a sight to see.

Kang challenged and finished off Lenny and with the dust settled Tim was left with only Burt and a Gator.

With my assassination made and solely securing the stash I was far ahead and looking for a big win.

Mechanical Rider had taken out Sammy, no scheme was revealed and I wondered if Tim had Bodyguard on Burt.

Brain fart engaged.

Tim could have bodyguard on Burt, something I aimed to deprive him of, but it meant that I was also deprived off my own. Turns out I should've remembered an early thought.

Vendetta.

Burt slaps the Rider and scores a point, I attempt the escape aiming for the rider to not die but the Gator and Burt with nothing else to lose chased the Rider down with the final lucky strike from Burt securing Tim his full six scheme points.

Forgetting to declare turn 4 bodyguard (turns out I was unable anyway) meant that I only squeaked 1VP ahead thanks to Guarding the Stash.

Win 7-6

No disrespect to Tim, but this game did not feel as close as the end result.

For the most part I had Tim's crew stuck and dead, being able to deny Guard the Stash all game is insane and not something I would expect before getting to the table, especially with Close deployment.

The scheme pool was my biggest enemy, so many potential hidden schemes and so many likely choices meant that I thought about Vendetta one second and had forgot it the next.

Burt was lucky to be one of the last two models alive and Wong on his last legs was a little lucky to get the full points for Plant Explosives.

Still Tim proved something I had spoken about a lot recently. Don't give up.

I could see he was a little frustrated by the position he was in, but the game was not lost and in the end was almost a draw.

It was great to finally play little Timmy Brown, and obviously, I'm happy Mei kicked his Gremlin's heads in. :-P

Aaron was in a better mood by the end of this round, he had taken down his opponent, Jan however had lost and we all now looked towards the Yellow shirt of shame.

Jan came in sporting it, but with his 7-0 win over Aaron he was ahead of us going into the final round.

This meant that although I wanted us all to win, part of me hoped Jan would lose or draw and I could secure a victory.

My only other out was Aaron doing worse than me or somehow closing the VP differential gap, but it seemed unlikely.

Round 4

• Matt Ledgerwood
• Resurrectionists 
• Squatter's Rights
• Corner Deployment
• 45ss
• A Line in the Sand
• Breakthrough
• Distract
• Frame for Murder
• Deliver a Message

I was very happy to see this pairing appear on David's laptop screen, Matt is one of my favourite guys on the Malifaux scene but has been a busy man and I've not seen him about too much.

Matt claimed he was rusty, but I know that Mr Ledgerwood is one hell of a player and my final round would not be the easy pair I hoped for.

Yellow shirt was still not a guarantee though, Jan was paired against the undefeated Panzer Harris and Aaron was against "Kogan Style" Adam Perry who had drew with Mr Bailey at Gertfaux.

My crew:

• Marcus - Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the Gods, Feral Instincts
• Myranda - Imbued Energies
• Mechanical Rider - Imbued Energies
• Moleman
• 2 Silurids

I couldn't have the double tag-team special of Moley-swampfiend but the single Moleman would probably be a target and therefore a top contender for "sucker".

The Rider shows up again, squatting onto markers leaving Gamin behind always helps and the speed of Myranda and Marcus could secure the rest.

Going in I did consider Mei Feng, her henchman Kang is a great tool versus the undead but there was no guarantee Matt would field a lot of them (though I did suspect Nicodem) and Kang is just too slow for the spread out Squatter's Rights.

Matt revealed something roughly like:

• McMourning
• Zombie Chihuahua
• Sebastian
• Dead Doxey
• Chiaki the Niece
• 2 Rotten Belles
• 2 Canine Remains

Eurghhh...

McMourning is a pain and on top of that Matt had so many more activations than me.

He had pieces I could eliminate fast but Sebastian was able to summon more dogs and McMourning, he was tooled up to make Flesh Constructs which would be a huge pain in the strategy.

I hoped that Frame for Murder would prove decent as I suspected that Douglas would like to take his scalpels to my beasts. Assuming I was right about McM I also opted for Deliver a Message.

Matt revealed his schemes, A Line in the Sand and Breakthrough.

Hopefully I could two-for-one by denying strategy and ALitS but it was all in and not a bad choice by Matt.

The speed in Matt's crew was the canines, I had to get rid of those puppies first to help stifle Breakthrough, I just hoped those two were the only I'd have to fight.

The game started as well as I could have wanted, my models moved into position, Marcus powered up to head 24" across the table a kill a dog and Matt was Luring and aiming for the Moleman.

For a second I was worried, the Moleman had poison counters that would kill him meaning he wasn't the "sucker" I wanted him to be.

Luckily, the temptation for extra models was obviously too much for Matt and Dr McMourning finished the little beast off and secured me 3VP.

Already though, Douglas made a b-line for the centre of the table and Myranda.

Turn two VP wise proved more profitable than the first, Matt and I both scored for Strategy but a message was quickly delivered to the blood thirsty Doctor.

Locking 7VP in turn 2 I was feeling great, it would be time to turtle up and deny Matt as many points as I could, unfortunately that was easier said than done.

Marcus was dead. He went out like a rock star, drugs and hookers. Lure on Wk8 Marcus was mean, I didn't have the cards to defend against it, nor did I have the ability to stop the lethal injection that paralysed him.

McMourning essentially copied Marcus on the same turn, missing all his attack against Myranda but the third onwards was not as good for the Arcanists.

Marcus would be ripped to shreds, poison would course through the veins of most of my crew killing them and spawning several Flesh Constructs.

Myranda was caught out by the inability to soulstone prevent against the Decaying Aura of McMourning and my whole line was being depleted.

The Rider tried some evasive manoeuvres, but without me taking out key pieces of the poison puzzle like the Chihuahua and Seb meant that it didn't matter how good my cards were or how many tomes I could trigger.

Eventually I was left with two freshly spawned Metal Gamin, they could hold a single squat marker but that would do nothing.

Chiaki and some new dogs would clean up, gaining Matt his VP for strategy and eventually getting to my corner for his schemes.

Loss 7-10

The game fell to pieces by the end; I was mildly frustrated, not at Matt or really much at myself but the inability to stop the slow poison death which turned the game.

I do understand there are pieces to take out, I could also bring condition removal (although that is timing based) but overall I was just gutted to go from 7-1 to 7-10 in what at the end felt like a blink of an eye.

Still Matt was a great opponent; it was nice to get to chat with him in real life, continuing some twitter conversations which at first caught me off guard.

Hopefully I will see Matt across the table again sometime.

Jan was not looking happy, as at Isle of Faux 2 Jan's Ressers could not beat Panzer's Guild.

The previously grumpy Aaron had his frown turn upside down though as he finally got the victory over Adam thanks to the ever annoying Nino.

Aaron was 3-1, myself and Jan were now 2-2 and what I had feared was about to happen.

Results

Let's start with the good news.

Two wins and two losses was another irritatingly mediocre score, so much so that I finished 11/22 and with 0VP differential.

I had tough opponents and still feel OK about my result, but overall it's another event where I really feel I could've got the 3-1.

2-2 wasn't great but it did mean that, somehow, I was the top Arcanist player!

Unfortunately for me, Jan's 2-2 with +3VP diff meant that the Yellow shirt was now mine, Jan being happier than I had seen him all weekend.

Still his result only got him to ninth and with people such as Matt Ledgerwood around Jan did not score any trophies.

As results were being called for best in faction a surprise happened.

David had opted for the podium players, who would be getting not only trophies but KR cases to not be eligible for Best in Faction.

Tim won Gremlins by default as did Aron Britchford with his Ten Thunders.

I was announced for Arcanists.

Greg Piskosz, who had lost the last game to Mark Elwood got Neverborn.

Matt's victory over me secured him Resurrectionists.

Tristan Jones (top bloke) got Outcasts pipping Maria by VP differential.

Guild went to Rick Paltridge.

Rick?

We all knew that Panzer's win over Jan had put him in contention for first being the only perfect record along Mark's, but what about Aaron?

Turns out Aaron did better than even he had expected.

With a VP differential of +10 Aaron secured himself his second third place of the year.

Super proud of Aaron, I knew he could do well and although the rankings are just a laugh it is gratifying to see him rise up into the top 20.

I'm just a little sad I haven't been able to follow.

The Fallout from the War

Another great thing about the venue was that right behind it was multiple restaurants, luckily with Jan being the nice guy driver and slightly pressured into it due to my Birthday being the following day he decided we could stick around. After all he had the following week off and we were not too far from home. So a group of us; Jan, Aaron, Mark Elwood, Maria, Tristan, Tim (with his better half) and myself all went for a meal, Turtle Bay couldn't let us have a table at a time we needed so we opted for GBK. I say we, I ended up having to pick, and I thought Maria was in charge.

It's always nice to be able to chill out with people from the Malifaux scene away from the gaming table, it's why I have pushed so hard for the social activities pre-May Feng.

It was great to hang around with the Black Joker Society and GBK served very nice food and drink.

I would discuss the meal in more depth, but this is meant to be a tournament report and not one of a meal.

Thanks again to all the BJS crew.

Thanks to all my opponents who were all wonderful and gaming wise may've given me the best tournament experience (it definitely is up there).

Thanks to the people who said they enjoyed my podcasting, it makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks again to Janron for being the best tournament buddies I could ask for.

And thanks again to David "Clousseau" Brown for running a stellar event, having a good chat with me and oh, lending me a pen.

Look forward to seeing all you beautiful people at the end of the month for May Feng.

- Ben (@psientologist)