A (Relic) Knight's Tale - Ben's Tale (part 1)

Battle Box Battles

Apologies if you were expecting to read and see Aaron's beautiful Cerci Thursday, but due to unforeseen circumstances that has been pushed back.

Instead, please enjoy the first part of my (Ben's) tale which has been bought forwards.

Thank you.

Perfect Start

As discussed in the introduction article I described how the Battle boxes for Relic Knights are a perfect way of starting the game.

Not only do they give you everything you need to get gaming but they are all fairly close in total points cost which makes for a nice way to start learning.

To give an example the three factions that myself and my two most local Relic Knights playing friends are have;

Myself with Noh Empire consisting of:

• High Priestess Zineda (a Questing Knight)

• Spite (Zineda's Cypher)

• 1 Render (a minion)

• 2 Berzerkers (a minion squad)

Jan with Black Diamond:

• Leopold Magnus (a Questing Knight)

• Static (Leopold's Cypher)

• M8-Blitz Auto-Tank (a minion)

• 5 Diamond Corps (a minion squad)

and Aaron:

• Marie Claude (a Questing Knight)

• Esmee (Marie's Cypher)

• 1 Royal Wrecker (a minion)

• 2 Pit Crew (a minion squad)

Now where as these aren't all even points cost wise you can see that each box contains the same lay out of things to try.

Questing Knight

Questing Knight's may not be as flashy as their bigger brothers (and sisters) the Relic Knight's but they are still very powerful, your most complex model but also aren't too intimidating being typically 30mm or 40mm models.

Each of them still get you to see the concept of Initiates and Masters of the elements of the Esper wheel.

These abilities being shared among models means you and your opponent may not be in the same faction but either share powers or at least have things that are so similar that it cuts down the time of having to figure what they do by at least half.

The Cadre abilities each have are also powerful and as a side note the Battle Boxes themselves seem to contain Cadre's that bear them in mind and work fairly well to take some advantage of them.

However not only are they cool but they are a huge incentive to have a dig through the beautiful large rulebook and see how your cadre you already own can act differently just with a change of leader.

Last but not least, the models themselves are great.

Zineda for myself is a beautiful sculpt and although ironically the smallest model (bar her Cypher) in the set she has the most presence on the board.

That's before you start tearing people apart with her.

Cypher

As you still get a Questing Knight, you get a Cypher a very interesting piece in each cadre that at first look might seem kind of irrelevant.

It's a very different concept for a model that I haven't see much like it in other games.

Cyphers at first to me were going to be the equivalent to Totem's in Malifaux.

Now where there are similarities in the background side of things and the typical scale of the model in game they are fairly different.

Yes, like a Totem will typically do a Cypher aids your force and your leader but a Cypher does a few other things and it's bond to the Knight is far more clear.

The simple ability of handing over the held Esper to your Knight is not one to forget, your Knight and Cypher constantly wanting to keep an eye on each other to become very powerful.

At first my group and I didn't really take the time putting them in the ready queue though.

They don't hit things directly and they cannot be hit.

However this is usually more good than bad. Many have very powerful AOE effects which help your Cadre do what it's aiming to do and take it to the next level.

Also the Esper actions they have are incredibly powerful. Thief is always annoying for your opponent and being able to also hand out even more is not something to sniff at.

After a few game what I also started to respect about Cyphers was that Esper actions were not using cards, this meant I could craft a better hand for who was next in the Ready queue.

That however will deserve a blog of it's own.

Minion and Minion Squad

Minions are going to make up the majority of most typical cadres, each battle box, however does contain a single minion and squad which is a great way to see how the units work, including simple things such as coherency or how they take damage using only a single stat card.

The battle box minions also show really what the small cadre in a box is about.

Circe has two ladies who fix things and a huge Exo-suit that fixes things but can also smash face.

Black Diamond has a squad of soldiers with guns or a single tank.

My Noh, they actually show a couple of angles, a tag team of crazy warriors or a tough ranged expert.

Overall the battle boxes contain a nice mixture of units to get started.

Using Battle Boxes against each other

Now as a tool for learning these boxes do contain a fantastic array of things to try and get to grips with the game, but are they balanced to fight each other, are they really enough?

If I had to answer yes or no the answer would be. "No."

Now that might seem negative, but I don't have to answer with a single word and I am glad because really, it's more of a "Yes with a few caveats.

First of all, I have already said, but the boxes themselves don't contain the exact same amount of points.

Really though from my experiences with many other games two-player starter sets where the company has actually picked who fight who aren't really that even, so it isn't a surprise that two random picks of six would be either.

There are two ways to save this. One is to try out Boost Tokens early and allow the player with less to take some or both players can round their lists up, more on that in a bit.

The other way is, just don't bother. If you are only just getting your Relic Knights miniatures out on the table for the first time it really is  not an issue that one of you has a single point more than the other. That isn't going to be the difference between a win or a loss when you might just pick up the rules slower than the opposition and in fact, if it is your first game surely learning is what matters, not winning.

Bar people who are completely new to Wargaming, getting a win in their first game isn't or at least shouldn't be the exciting part. I myself would possibly be more turned off if I found that I easily crushed my teacher at a game I had never touched, where is the challenge?

The other part of the "No" comes with the balance.

Not to say that at such a small game Relic Knights is broken, but you can feel the difference once you start playing at 50 points, even a rounded 35 over 28 or such.

There are a couple of reasons here.

The major one is the missions, some of these at a super low point game become either pointless or irrelevant.

"Destroy three enemy units" for example, may as well read "just attempt to table your opponent" as in a battle box that is all they have.

Again two fixes of similar style for this, first is, just reflip or disallow some missions, the other again is just don't care as you are probably playing games at this size more of a learning tool about the mechanics of the game rather than a strategical affair about domination.

The other issue of balance is the Questing Knights themselves.

In 35 or less points having only ready queue slots means that sometimes it is worth just letting them go every other turn and some can be very dominant when they have little to fight.

With more access to units it is easier to overcome this, at higher point when the queue has more slots this becomes less of an issue.

Again, it is not impossible to beat a player who has their Knight go every other activation but it will dominate the game.

This however actually might be exciting and does do a good job of showing what a lot of the Knights are about.

Conclusion

In the end Battle boxes are the way to go and if you, like me are only really just starting to get into the game or are considering it, they are perfectly fine to use against each other but like every single other miniatures game, don't hang your entire judgement of the game on the one small experience and prepared to be sucked in and want much more.

Hope you enjoyed this, my start into painting the Noh Empire and the next few Tales that are on their way.

Cheers.

-Ben (@psientologist)

#MFXTOP November Voting

Movember.

This is a page of all the finals entries with the names of the entrant in one place.

Please have a good look over them all and then click the link to the poll at the bottom.

Apologies for no weekly updates or little comments by me. I am super thankful for everyone who still entered even with less support than I would usually aim to give.

You don't have to have entered or do anything special to vote, just click that link, you get one vote, so use it wisely!

So in alphabetical order (by twitter handle):

@ArchonMoonson

_________

@cactus_henry

_________

@elessarion30

_________

@forestreveries

_________

@proximocoal

_________

CLICK HERE TO PLACE YOUR VOTE!

A (Relic) Knight's Tale - An Introduction

Prologue 

A (Relic) Knight's Tale is the cheesy name of a recent idea of mine.

After waiting patiently Relic Knight's is out and not only am I glad it's here, I am also glad to tell you that the game itself is great and there are some fantastic miniatures for you to see and hopefully get yourself.

The simple idea is, combine:

• The old school stylings of "A Tale of X Gamers"
• Relic Knights
• A amalgamation of people's experiences getting into this brand new game.

For those unfamiliar, "A Tale of Gamers" has been a series that has been repeated in all different shapes and forms, the gist is that a group of gamers start a new force for a game, having a set budget each month and making sure to get these things painted by the end.

Usually this will include some gaming, records of the gamer's thoughts and ideas about what they're collected, why, what they need next and so on.

Previously I have done #ToMB (Tale of Malifaux Bloggers) so anyone who followed that should have a good idea.

The idea of the blog running alongside the collecting and painting is to show to others who haven't yet started themselves how easy it is, how cool the models are and how interesting the game is to learn.

Hopefully, expanding into some new players joining the Darkspace Calamity.

How's it going down?

Every month the team I have bought together will have the task of painting not to a money budget but a box set or sets.

As a "spoiler" the first month will have each player starting off with a Battle box.

These are the best start to collecting Relic Knights and as I may have covered in my introduction piece, if you and a friend grab one each, get them built and a table out, you're ready to go.

Not only do these have a nice selection of models and there's a set for each faction in the game, they all come with an Esper Deck, Dashboard, Tokens and even a rulebook.

With a Battlebox being the obvious start our group has had a little more time considering it's quite close to Christmas and this will be the biggest task in one go.

Following month's will see us add support in smaller boxes, uniques, squads and even the huge Relic Knights themselves.

Accompanying the photos of pretty models everyone will also have a post to make discussing whatever is on their mind, what they're finding interesting, what they are enjoying and much more.

A nice insight into Relic Knights from multiple different perspectives.

OK, so when is it going down?

It's Monday now and this will be the day for a blog each week.

Not just that, but there will also be another blog every Thursday also.

This means you (the readers) will hopefully get Eight interesting articles with pretty pictures from a whole bunch of different angles every month.

The length of the tale itself is yet to be decided, but at the least I can see us going three months and possibly four.

Tell me more!

Where as I am not going to reveal the full team of Knights contributing to the tale, I can tell you that other than including myself the first article with pretty painting (coming this Thursday) will be from Aaron Bailey.

Aaron has been working on Cerci Speed Circuit, the speed racing ladies of Relic Knights and his stuff looks fantastic.

For those that may be asking "what happens when the Tale ends?", do not worry, this is just the beginning as I intend to work on Relic Knights all through 2015 and beyond.

I hope that I can also run some other exciting things via the blog (a Relic Knights painting competition perhaps) and will probably have a lot of things I want to show the Internet and say.

Again, if you are completely confused at what Relic Knights even is check this link for my Introduction to Relic Knights

Finally, for usual readers of this blog, Relic Knights is not taking over and kicking Malifaux out.

These two fantastic skirmish games will be here hand in hand for the foreseeable future.

-Ben (@psientologist)

Coming up...

Public Apologies

Heart felt messages will contain swearing, so apologies ahead of time.

Well I haven't been able to finish the post I had for today, simply need to get photos ready and I hope to post the last hurrah to #ToMB the venture which I'm not sure anyone really continued to it's end.

Also as you hopefully know the Biggest Event in Malifaux Ever #M2GT the Malifaux UK GT 2014 has just been and gone and there are many things to talk about from this historical event for the game.

I just want to thank everyone here, as I am sure I will do in my #M2GT tournament report(s) and write ups.

Mike, Lee, Spooner, Chris Holloway and the York Garrison as a whole for putting on the event itself.

Great hall, decent food and a bar. Just a shame it's so far up North...

My team, #SMP, Aaron, Austin, Ben, Jan, Mike and the latest addition of Jake.

Aaron and Jan for being top travel buddies and congrats to Aaron on an impressive final placing.

Double thanks to Jan as the getting that far North would not be affordable for me without him driving us.

Oz, Mike, Ben and Jake for all being great company throughout.

Jake for impressing me with his results and just being a great kid.

Mike for being a laugh and still holding it together after two heavy nights.

Oz for being Oz, just one of my most favourite people on the planet and finally Benjamin.

Spoilers, but he won the whole thing bringing more "legitimacy" to the team and putting on a cracking fucking show.

Just please, don't let it get to your head you cunt.

My opponents.

Mark Elwood for putting up another great game against me and actually seemingly having confidence in my ability, it means a lot and also I have huge respect for him and his forming of another Southern team in the "Black Joker Society" I just hope to see some shirts soon.

Nathan Chenery for being as nice in real life as on Skype and Twitter and generally just being a really chilled fun yet competitive person to play.

Josh Fletcher, for not being dead after seemingly trying to do so with alcohol, still a monster, actually more a robot with Colette and one of my favourite Northerners.

Jakab, nice kid and opened my eyes to a very different take (that I've seen) to Ressers in Reckoning.

John Wharton for being an excellent laugh, giving me stick and having a good fun game, shame he rigged our decks (or at least it just felt that way)

and Maria, great to finally meet the real life Lady Hammerstrike and it was another great lesson on the table, also nice to chat Saturday night.

Fuck, I thought I could get through everyone, but with 66 attendees it's almost impossible.

Mark and Bob, super glad to finally meet some of the Irish contingent of Malifaux players and you two were even nicer than expected. Definitely makes me want to save for Paddyfaux, guess I'll see if I can get airfair for Christmas?

Joe Taylor, as nice as on twitter if not more so, so glad to finally meet you and it was great getting to chat over the weekend.

Josh Leak, Gary Burgess the two other members (along with Mark and Maria) of the Black Joker Society, or is there more, either way two top chaps, a proper laugh Saturday night and more power to the South!

Joel Henry, I obviously can't forget you and it was nice to catch up briefly, look forward to recording the next Malifools.

The Chosen One. Greg is such a gent, good laugh and also another Northerner I actually like, what is going on?

You're still all Northern cunts as I said though.

Dom Westerland, was great to finally meet you, still not sure if you are an adult, especially with your height and that nine year olds hair cut. Still you're a good kid if so. Good laugh.

Aidain Kirk, pretty happy you didn't stab for giving Dom shit and was also nice to meet you. Loved your 10Ts when I got to glance and keeps me looking back at mine.

Conner Barker, the true Lenny and a top bloke. Shame we didn't get the best chance to chat but even a handshake is appreciated and we will have to catch up in the future. Especially now we know we've crossed paths in the past.

Chris Hay, such a friendly smiley nice guy, didn't realise you'd be so fucking tall though!

The rest of the Squigs.

Ben Halford, finally we got to meet and you gave me so little shit in comparison to twitter. Hopefully we get a longer chat in the future.

Not sure I even spoke properly to Hutch and Brooks but glad to at least see you and find you are real.

Panzer Harris, huge respect for how you dealt with different situations over the weekend.

I'll be honest, still think you're a nobhead sometimes but I'm glad you are about. I feel we will have a strange relationship (not like that) during our time in Malifaux as I think you'll always be a nobhead to me, but I nobhead I like and a nobhead that respect.

Graham, Blutack, legend. I have such a high level of respect for you now, regardless if you are first of third.

You and Crowe both proved what I said, it wouldn't be previous masters or GT podium placers that would be clearing out all the prizes but the people who have started to prove themselves, the "new wave" as such.

Joel will hate me for saying, but I still have a big part of me which believes you're really the best Squig.

I guess time will tell.

Congratulations on the weekend and to think in the past I thought I could pip you for best Arcanist at an event.

I need to have a bit more self reflection.

The true gamers of the Tractor Massive,

Pete and Scott, if you weren't yellow shirt wearing wankers I would say you were two of my favourite people in the malifaux scene (well I'd actually say it anyway but that isn't as funny).

Pete, love you, you're still not as good as me though.

Scott impressed with the results you got considering I think you at least seemed the worst for wear on Saturday.

I am so sure I am missing so many people.

Ed Sheeran, it was nice to hang about with such singing talent...

Jokes, great to meet you Pete and it was nice (if brief) to hang about. Loved the Hogan look on Sunday!

Clouseau, always a pleasure.

Little Timmy Brown, a small highlight for me was you seeming happy that I said I like you now. Genuinely makes me smirk. Glad to see you about and Happy Birthday, you finally a teenager now?

The Wintons, Cathy, Andy and James. Always nice to see you three, some good costumes too. Cathy you are always a delight!

FUCK, James Reeves, how have I taken so long to mention the SMP's biggest fan and the absolute painting legend. Looked dapper all weekend (if hungover) and is always a good laugh, always glad to have you about.

Dave Hill, only got to chat briefly, but nice to see you smiling and I appreciate you always making the effort to catch up.

Matt Ledgerwood. Was good to see you Saturday, sad you weren't about Sunday, genuinely. Hope we just get to meet at Gunsmiths or something.

Martin, MARTIN. I don't know how it's taken so long to write your name but I suppose it's because you were so hungover Sunday I avoided using my "radio voice" so near you.

In all seriousness, glad to see you again mate.

James Doxey, don't think I forgot you. Glad we finally met, it's just a shame we didn't play in round 4 after your row of SMP. 5/6 Games against us if we now include Mr Barlow.

If I haven't mentioned you here, then apologies.

It's probably I just forgot but if not, maybe you should've come and spoke to me yeah? Maybe be a little bit more memorable alright?

Joking, but seriously thanks to everyone at the GT.

Plugs and that

If you want a tournament report to read now try here for Malifolk 3 or you can try this for Octoberfaux.

If you want to come to a tournament myself and Aaron are running the 2nd SMP ran event of next year then buy a ticket to MAY FENG now. Information via this link.

Keep buying toys from Element Games because they are excellent.

Get some new terrain from Bendy Boards because Lee deserves your money and they are genuinely the best product out there for their price. They don't even fucking sponsor me, it's just true.

Listen to Malifools as I'm sure I'll say something no one agrees with and you can all send hate mail and nasty tweets to me.

Yeah and basically, come back on Friday when I hope to have a new post up.
Get painting those Movember MFXTOP entries which I'll start showing next week.
And look out for my M2GT coverage.

See you later.

-Ben (@psientologist)

Octoberfaux

Octoberfaux: Civil War

Previously in Tournament Reports. The day before.

"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."

...

"What about #SMP member Benjamin Crowe himself?
Well he just went and Won the Tournament."

...

"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..."

Leaving Norfolk

Spooner and I were continuing the tournament gaming this weekend, originally meant to be with Pete and Lee unfortunately Pete had to drop out which was a shame, but life does have a few things in it more important than toy soldiers.

The trip up with the boys in Spoon's new car was a laugh and very enjoyable.

It was especially nice being able to get a longer chat with Lee as I hadn't had quite the chance during my time in Norfolk.

A nice drive and we didn't even have to get up too early as registration wasn't until about 10.

TTN or Wayland Games Centre

Not a big fan of Wayland Games as an Internet retailer myself and quite funny I said on Fools Daily "doesn't look like they stand by their own name" in reference to Tabletop Nation.

Well it is Wayland Games Centre now, it's still the same place in Essex that I know many of you may have gone to for an abundance of different events, I though had never before, so this was my first experience.

In the past I had heard very mixed things about the events there, especially for Malifaux.

To be fair Malifaux is quite different to Warhammer so running events with people not experienced in the game which is getting ever increasingly popular isn't going to always be simple.

The pack itself was interesting, 3 rounds, fixed faction, two hours each which felt infinity longer than Malifolk, the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Three isn't enough for a clear result, however after only just playing four the day before a more relaxed event was fine by me.

The event was nice and cheap £10 including a lunch is a top price and made it all the more easy for me to justify buying stuff while I was there.

So many temptations between hobby materials, Malifaux and board games. They even had Relic Knights stuff in stock.

TTN (sorry still calling it that) being closer to home meant that although I was coming from Norfolk I would going home from here.

How?

Well the full half dozen of us (only officially five at that point in time) were all in attendance.

Who?

The Southern Malipros.

The Team

• Name : Ben Sime
• Nickname(s) : SimeTime
• Age : 28 and a half years old
• Favourite Faction : Arcanists
• Faction for the event: Arcanists
• Previous Tournament Achievements: Bugger all, beat Mike Marshall and Joel?

• Name : Benjamin Crowe
• Nickname(s) : Jamin
• Age : 31
• Favourite Faction : Arcanists
• Faction for the event: Outcasts
• Previous Tournament Achievements: Hardcore Champion, winner of #Malifolk3

• Name : Jan Proudley
• Nickname : Jam
• Age : 28 and a half years old (little older than Ben)
• Favourite Faction : Gremlins
• Faction for the event: Gremlins
• Previous Tournament Achievement: Winner of Canterfaux

• Name : Austin Capewell
• Nickname : Oz
• Age : 27
• Favourite Faction : Gremlins
• Faction for the event: Gremlins
• Previous Tournament Achievement: Beat Martin Wodehouse not long after he became Master.

• Name : Aaron Bailey
• Nickname : nothing I would like to repeat on this blog
• Age : 23
• Favourite Faction : Outcasts
• Faction for the event: Outcasts
• Previous Tournament Achievement: 2nd Best Outcast at Somerfaux

• Name : Mike Hutchinson
• Nickname : CrikeyMiles
• Age : 32
• Favourite Faction : Neverborn
• Faction for the event: Neverborn
• Previous Tournament Achievement: Mid-table mediocrity

Round 1

After some minor delays pairings were made.

I must add before I move on that although usually TTN Malifaux events have usually got a lower turnout around the dozen mark, this event pulled in 30 players.

Amongst the #SMP members, Spooner and Lee, we had Joel and Panzer of the Squigs, Matt Ledgerwood, James Reeves, Martin Wodehouse, Stuart Snares, Elessarion's first event!

Many more names but I am not listing all thirty here.

My Game

Who was I against, a field of thirty, twenty-nine other players I could go against.

"Ben Sime versus Matt Spooner" was announced. I laughed and jumped into Spoons with an over enthusiastic hug, it was funny and although maybe it would be more exciting to play someone I hadn't it just felt poetic being the end of my Norfolk visit.

Strategy was Reckoning with Standard deployment and the schemes:

• A Line in the Sand
• Frame for Murder
• Assassinate
• Breakthrough

Not being fixed master by fixed faction I decided to get Mei Feng out for this, I'd already played with Marcus against Matt in the week and I'm know as the "Mei Feng guy" so it seemed appropriate.

Obviously I have been accused of picking Mei for anti-construct shenanigans, Kang is the only real addition there but it's not like I wouldn't bring the Ml7 beat-stick to a fight otherwise.

• Mei Feng - Arcane Reservoir, Seismic Claws and Imbued Protection
• Kang - Imbued Energies
• Howard Langston - Imbued Energies
• Joss - Imbued Energies
• Rail Worker
• Metal Gamin
• 5 SS cache

If I was aiming to be really anti-construct I would've taken more Metal Gamin for magnetism maybe, or keeping Workers taken Hard Worker somewhere to ignore armour.

This crew though is all about beating on people with the Metal Gamin being the best way to fill out 4ss in my opinion. I could take more upgrades and a bigger cache but even in Reckoning I like some activation advantage, especially with scheme markers still flying about.

Matt still rocking Hoffman took a crew roughly consisting of:

• Hoffman
• Ryle
• Peacekeeper
• Watcher
• Hunter
• Warden
• Soulstone Miner

Can't remember the upgrades bar obviously Hoffman took Arcanist Assets.

Peacekeeper and Ryle are pretty nasty. The Watcher was in for scheme running as I suspected the miner was too.

Hunter's are lethal for their points cost and the Warden I assumed rounded out the crew and was decent way of dragging the Guild Master about and keeping some watch over him.

I decided to take Breakthrough announced, intending to just drop markers after the fight.

Assassinate was my other choice, I have realised Hoffman isn't quite the hardest to beat up and Mei Feng herself could push him away from the fight.

Kang, well he could smash his Construct face in. Joss, Langston, these two could do it too. Heck even a Rail Worker has a reasonable chance.

Matt announced Breakthrough too, as suspected with the Watcher. He also had a hidden objective, possibly going for the "kill Mei and wind up Ben" plan. I could get that.

Frame for Murder was always a possibility, it is great in Reckoning as they want to kill things for Strategy points and although I could give him 2 or 3 points if he had taken it I still aimed to equal or beat that with Reckoning.

Almost a catch 22.

Matt deployed Hoff and the bots in a close circle with the Miner buried as it does.

I deployed in a opposite refused flank style position and proceeded to head towards the bundle of robots making multiple Railwalker routes as I went.

Matt headed forwards too, the Watcher slinking off to the side as Hoffman handed out some upgrades and kept about with Warden closer to the back.

The Hunter, the robotic feline was the closest to my crew and immediately started to get a bit of a kicking from Mei Feng.

Matt did not burrow up with the miner, I guessed to keep it out of harms way and place markers later than earlier.

Even then, maybe turn up to charge in later, all of these were decent options.

As turn 2 rolled in. Kang used his energies to charge on in and finish the Hunter off.

"Kang is a Henchman right?" asked Matt as I now knew it was Frame for Murder he had taken and a nice early points lead getting the full three.

I couldn't let this matter, I was still half way to a point for Strategy here and he was a model down.

Kang had charged up so his The Worker's Champion aura was in play and Mei Feng would take advantage of this diving right into combat knowing Assassinate was out of the question.

Langston made a line for Ryle, who aimed to cut through and get to the core of this mechanical apple and rip out the pip named Hoffman.

As the game moved on the Warden had been pulled apart by Mei.

Howard had been taken down by Ryle escaping and shooting but an extremely bad turn for Hoffman meant that Ryle had been made Slow for next to no reason.

The Miner stayed buried for a long while and emerged away from the fighting, the Watcher, he took advantage of his speed and the terrain, flying past the ruckus and on top of a tower to later drop a marker.

I had made a mistake, I had a point where there was no marker and Joss and Kang were not fighting. A lapse of memory meant I forgot they could both do a shooting attack.

Kang's being especially poor and Joss was interested in heading for the Miner who had just appeared.

Kang did eventually take down the Watcher but he had succeeded in his role in dropping a marker as did the Miner.

The Rail Worker was just too slow in this game, the Metal Gamin had used Magnestism to finish of the Warden and keep up but Mei took pushing Hoffman about to the extreme.

In the end she had pinned him into his table edge and finished him off.

This is why Joss and Kang were no longer fighting, not for a lack of want but Mei Feng is just too fast.

As game started to close I placed markers to secure my schemes as Matt had also done.

In turn 2 I had killed 3 models and unfortunately this meant due to hidden constructs I missed a point of Strategy. Damn that passive Soulstone Miner.

Joss tried with all his might, using his Imbued Energies to get to the Miner as fast as possible but he could not both kill the Miner and/or remove the two markers he had placed.

In the end, Matt had secured his schemes but no strategy point making the game a victory for Mei Feng.

Win 9-6 

For all the stick Spoons gets he played well against a crew that was favoured against his.

He did something that I would recommend for a few crews and that is, in Reckoning, push hard for the full six scheme points and get the Strategy points if and when they come.

It's not fool proof but if you don't have the killing potential playing the game as if there is only six VP up for grabs for either of you, you may stop them on a scheme and/or them ever getting Strategy points.

My crew kills his though and the fact he stopped me getting the full ten was pretty good.

The Team

Our tables were all within pretty close proximity, I was stood behind Aaron, Ben and Oz.

Aaron got to battle the ever dapper fellow Southerner "Sir" James Reeves who was running his new and beautiful Gremlins out.

I remember looking at this game after I finished mine. They were very much in the thick of it and looked quite even if not in favour of Aaron.

Turns out I was wrong as Aaron was bested by James.

Still Benjamin Crowe was against Stuart "Snezzley" Snares. 

Ben sporting his tournament winning master Leveticus against McMourning fighting in the green corner.

Ben carried on his good streak over the weekend getting a 7-3 win over Snezzley.

Also Austin rocking his Gremlins was up against...

Jan, also rocking his Gremlins. We had an SMP face off where Austin again showed Jan that although he may've won an event with Gremlins there were some new up starts who were just as good as him.
Prior to the game they had actually been discussing Strategy, the problem here, Jan had essentially told Austin his list and Jan's only idea about Oz's strategy was Frame for Murder on Pere.
Oz put Frame on Burt Jebsen instead.
Jan lost to Oz in the end by a single victory point.

Overall bar a little bit of in fighting and Aaron picking up a loss the team was doing pretty well.

Lunch time

Yeah, one round and lunch. Kind of crazy but I guess starting later with only 3 rounds meant this would be the case.

It was good to chat to everyone see how they were doing and speculate who we would be facing.

Turns out I had the same VP differential as Martin Wodehouse, we had been on tables near each other all weekend and I had been dodging him.

It's not that I wouldn't want to play Martin because I dislike him, in fact quite the opposite as he's a top bloke someone have I enjoyed chatting to at events, however Mr Wodehouse is a skilled player and although I enjoy the test I would prefer an earlier round 2 opponent.

The lunch ticket we got allowed us the choice of hotdog, burger or nachos, with a proper herby sausage available for Hotdog I went for that, but lunch also included a drink, chocolate bar and packet of crisps.

Pretty good.

Lunch was I think supposed to be about 45 minutes but it felt a lot longer being that Spoons and I had not use the full two hours, in fact I think we had around half an hour to go.

It was nice to get to look around though, the gaming hall at TTN itself is huge as it's essentially a repurposed Warehouse.

Each table had decent terrain and all had underneath space to put our stuff, very useful during the day.

I got have a little nose at some Warhammer but used most of my time to look at other Malifaux stuff and the store.

Also a highlight was to meet Elessarion, she is twitter regular who I have chatted too that almost has entered every #MFXTOP I have ran.

She was kicking back with the Gremlins and although she got a first round lost she seemed to be pretty chill and enjoying the company.

Not only was meeting and getting to speak to her voices and in real life sweet, but she also had cookies.

Winner!

They were lovely.

Back to the actual lunch I sat about with Oz, Ben and Jan, Aaron joined eventually as he was the last of us to finish.

During the end of lunch round 2 draws were announced.

Once again I had dodged Martin

Round 2

I would be sat on table 3 just one table above Martin for reference, one above me, in fact stood next to me was Mr Crowe.

This round was Corner Deployment Squatter's Rights with:

• A Line in the Sand
• Bodyguard
• Protect Territory
• Cursed Object
• Deliver a Message

My Game

My opponent this round was a really nice bloke named Vaughn running Guild.
With Protect Territory, Cursed Object and Deliver a Message in Squatter's Rights I knew it was time for Marcus to come back out as I wanted my Silurids.

My crew was practically the same as the day before against Joel with one upgrade change:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the gods and Feral Instincts
• Mechanical Rider, Imbued Energies
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• 2 Molemen
• 2 Silurids  
• 6 SS cache

Mechanical Rider is always a top Bodyguard, quick and can drop Metal Gamin to guard the Squatter's markers.

This and they could Protect Territory quite well too.

Marcus is fast but unlike Mei Feng can be a better support master from a distance due to Alpha if I was avoiding messages.

Myranda is good people and the Molemen and Silurid combination is still a favourite for this Strategy.

Vaugh's crew ended up being something along the lines of:

• Perdita, Trick Shooting, Badge of Office and Vengeance Bullet
• Enslaved Nephilm
• 2 Witchlings
• 2 Death Marshalls
• The Lone Marshall
• Francisco, Wade in

I was reasonably familiar with most of these models though Guild is something I don't have the most experience against. The Lone Marshall was something I had never played against.

I declared Breakthrough and kept Bodyguard hidden.

I could see Perdita staying away and I didn't want to throw things at her to Deliver the Message, which would be a fine choice with the pair of Silurids but I felt the other two were easier for me to secure.

The table was a multi-tiered craggy table which meant that my unimpeded Mechanical Rider would be easily be able to go hide on allowing it's "poop" to essentially let it secure both schemes while the Mole-urid combo got the Strategy.

Vaughn had both schemes hidden, I kept my eye on Francisco imagining he could be the Bodyguard.

I worried a little about Deliver a Message but wasn't sure if he would only want the two from it.

Also with the two Witchlings and their style of running at the enemy I expected to see Cursed Object.

As we got into the game we both started making our early dashes to grab markers.

Mechanical Rider and Marcus ran off down my left while the Mole-urid combos went centre and right.

Myranda used her speed to keep close to the Moleman and Silurid in the centre.

For Vaughn he had sent his Death Marshalls down his left to both of those markers.

Perdi being pushed about a bit headed down the centre with her fellow Ortega and the small cadre of Witchlings.

The Lone Marshall went down the same flank as my rider. I knew though my horse was better than his.

Into turn 2 and I was already scoring and securing strategy points, Silurids had used Leap to go where his Death Marshalls wanted to.

A Moleman had been shot down early by Perdita and Francsico had waded in to the other burrowing beast.

Myranda headed towards the centre to protect and possibly give them a giant cuddly cat shaped surprise.

Marcus used Alpha on Mechanical Rider before moving onto the marker the left of the centre.

Mechanical Rider reveled in creation and moved twice, however the robotic horse must've had a full stomach as with it's own activation moved and did it again, getting into range to fire upon Vaughn's own horsey model.

Conveniently for Vaughn The Lone Marshall may not be as good as Rider (hence it is cheaper) but with Hard to Wound and Bulletproof +2 it was quite likely that all I would do, and did, was pip off a single wound.

At least I got to draw a card.

The Lone Marshall's Trick Shooting took aim at Mechanical Rider and was a little more successful, the pushes towards Marcus though made me feel that I was quite possibly seeing Deliver a Message at some point.

A Death Marshall sealed a Silurid away only for his Blood Frenized partner leaping and charging in to tear the lawman apart to recover his fishy friend.

Into the centre part of the game Perdita had gunned down a Silurid while the other simply always activated last and just went Defensive +2.

This did leave the furthest marker for the second Death Marshall to get and start scoring Vaughn Strategy points thanks to Francisco tearing apart a Moleman and allowing the guild to get the centre.

The Mechanical Rider's first Metal Gamin was never moving always staying Defensive +2 and that end was always mine.

Eventually Vaughn's horse riding lawman gunned for Marcus so much I decided to move away and also help the centre. Why?

Well as well as avoiding the marshall trying to deliver a message Myranda had decided to unzip her human suit and show the three-headed monster inside.

The cat leapt into action and a couple of high Tomes saved from the previous turn were enough for a good Mauling. See you later Francisco.

Marcus using his power's to Alpha the cat meant it had a good smell for blood and also tore apart a Witchling.

Hear though I had made a small mistake.

Perdita didn't have a good line to fire on the Cerberus anymore but now a gap had emerged for the Witchling to run into.

As we got into the later turns Perdita had to also dive into the fight and a Witchling was finally able to deliver the message Vaughn was aiming for.

Our horses were avoiding combat as they were both our Bodyguards but with the Forged in Steel trigger at such high power now, the robotic horse turned and ran down the one of flesh but without enough AP left to flip back the Squatter's Marker.

In the end, I had never let go of more than three markers so I was on my full ten victory points.

Vaughn could no longer score his last two for Bodyguard and he had gotten his two for Deliver a message.

At this event, something I did not really think should be at tournaments was random game length.

Vaughn was prepared to wrap up the game as we shook hands and take the six VPs he had.

I did point out that I couldn't score more, but he could. With Marcus locked down Vaughn could still get a final Strategy point and...

Win 10-7

...an 11 was flipped. 

A second handshake was had and a little talk about the game. Vaughn was a good guy and the game was nice an up beat. Hopefully I will see him again at another event. 

The Team

Our champion Benjamin Crowe took on Joel Henry. Joel was not taking the Gremlin "handicap" today, he was running his old favourite and although he hadn't used him in M2E Joel is always a top opponent.

Joel however took his second loss to SMP of the weekend as Ben also got 6-4 victory (these VP differentials are worth noting).

SMP slayer Sir James Reeves had his eyes on another SMP scalp and another Gremlin one in the shape of Oz this time.

A hilarious game where Oz had taken a Pere/Killjoy combo with James summoning and summoning and refusing to kill anything.
However, Austin put up a tougher fight and they ended in a 7-7 draw.

Speaking of Jan he got to play against Outcasts this round in the form of...

Aaron?

Yeah, Jan was the SMP whipping boy, or at least we thought as Jan just grasped victory from Aaron much to my surprise personally.

Their game the night before must've given Jan enough experience to get the win unlike the previous night of "Hotelfaux".

Between Rounds

Normally I wouldn't add this bit, but those who noticed I got +3VP and +3VP will know I was on +6VP and Benjamin he was on +4VP and +2VP. Yes we were destined to play.

It turned out that round 2 produced a lot of draws.

Joe Wood was on +14VP so he was set for table one, so could we be coin flipping for him.

Well Matt Ledgerwood not entirely sure of his VP difference ended up being on +7 (or maybe 8)VP so they would be on table one, Benjamin would stay still and I would shift up.

As pairing were meant to be announced the system failed however with 30 players, there were a few TOs and enough of them jumped in to organise pairings.

Eventually it was called, what we knew was happening the final part of the SMP in fighting was going to happen as not only were it the Bens on table 2 but Austin was playing future addition Mike Hutchinson also.

Jan was facing off against Joel. Would SMP do the Joel Henry hat-trick, continuing to hand him his only losses of the weekend?

Aaron was against Stuart Snares. Aaron had beaten him at Canterfaux, could he repeat this and give Snezzley his second SMP loss of the day?

Could I beat yesterday's tournament winner?

Would either of us be taking the first place trophy?

Round 3

Walking to the table Ben and I both said "you should give me a 10-0", "nah you should give me a 10-0".

Clearly a joke but we knew that if table 1 ended in a draw or a close victory (around +2VP difference either way) the player in our game with the 10-0 would take home the gold.

Jamin though seemed a little off put about playing me, not sure if he was being serious but he seemed a little afraid.

Funny being the amount of insults we throw at each other and his previous records versus mine I was surprised I would even faze him.

I reminded Jamin that he had said the week prior that he wanted to play me, but now he proclaimed "yeah, but not in a tournament" and I laughed as I looked at my scheme sheet after flipping for table edge.

It was Standard Turf War with:

• A Line in the Sand
• Breakthrough
• Assassinate
• Murder Protege
• Plant Evidence

The round had started badly, as I think in retrospect that I had picked the wrong master.

Ben was continuing to take Leveticus as he had done for the other six games he had won this weekend.

I looked at the schemes, I saw Assassinate and knew that was a no go as I couldn't get the full 3VP due to the silly bury shenanigans that Leveticus has.

I felt that Mei Feng had to be in combat and I had heard that Leve could just "kill stuff dead" as it were, people saying "that's what he does". Like last round, I went for Marcus as he can if need be hang back and still be great.

I say "had heard" because I came in with a huge disadvantage, I had never faced Leveticus ever, it was much more likely that Ben would know what all the models, mine and his, did than me.

Breakthrough and Plant Evidence also opened the door wide open for my two favourite fish-men to Leap right through so the decision had been made.

Also, I suspected that Ben may play it safe taking some anti-armour stuff as I declared Arcanists and Beasts aren't usually armoured.

My list was as follows:

• Marcus, Arcane Reservoir, Trail of the Gods and Feral Instincts
• Myranda, Imbued Energies
• Cojo
• 2 Silurids
• Joss, Imbued Energies

Marcus could use Feral on Joss and this allowed Alpha any of my side and potentially Ben's.

Joss would wreck the sort of monstrosities Ben could bring, including Riders, also, being Hard to Kill he can hold the centre quite well.

Myranda could protect Cojo and become Cojo to save the centre and the Silurids were off to do some scheme marking.

Benjamin's crew was:

• Leveticus 
• Hollow Waifs
• Johanna
• Mechanical Rider
• Lazarus 
• Sue
• Upgrades
• Soulstones

This game was an interesting one and genuinely my favourite of the day.
I could go on to explain the game play by play but it wasn't quite a game like that.

With Ben revealing Murder Protege and Plant Evidence I was free to chuck Marcus in a little more offensively.
Marcus, Cojo and Myranda headed towards the Turf as did Joss but out of sight.
Silurids did their thing and hopped off to the flanks to go plant some evidence.

Sue and Johanna headed towards the turf with Lazarus as a gun platform in tow as Mechanical Rider dashed down the flank towards a Silurid.
Then, it was time to learn how Leveticus worked.

Having anchors and Hollow Waifs about meant Leve got to exactly where he wanted to be a had LoS to my left Silurid (Mech Rider on the right) that I didn't see.
A dead Silurid later with a summoned Abomination who next turn would undo his work meant I was already down.

Turn 1 I had actually Alpha'd Joss to turn him around and in turn 2 he used his upgrade to dive straight into combat with Mechanical Rider and killing it off fast, at the time saving the Silurid.

However Leve popped up here, with triggers ignoring the use of Soulstones Joss was slayed as easy by Leveticus as Joss had slayed Mech Rider.
The issue was, that was 3VP for Ben and nothing for me.

With my lone Silurid not particularly safe and having to put in double time and Ben being on as many models as he started with it was downhill from there.

I got myself a point for Turf War on turn 2 and turn three a hilarious yet horrible turn of events had happened.
First of all Myranda was wasting her potential healing Cojo out of Hard to Kill which was a waste on two levels, her investment for a 1/2/3 healing isn't worth while and one of the major reasons she was even about was to be Cojo 2 if needed.

Much like my game with  Mark Elwood the day before Cojo's big base and terrain had bottle necked Marcus.
However he got into position and went to pull of some tricks.
First of all he targeted Johanna due to her low Willpower to turn her into a beast.
Done.
Next (this was a mistake) Marcus used Darzee's Chaunt to give her positive attack and damage flips but double negative to defense.
Lastly. Alpha time.

Black Joker.

All Marcus had done was power up the female Johan, which he should have done after Alpha.
The Alpha would have however been a huge play and the Black Joker was he exclamation point of the sentence "you've lost!".
The plan was that Johanna could charge Lazarus, with her double positive flips to damage and her high damage profile she already has added to the additional positive to attack (and damage too) meant chaos and pain for the Guild hating robot.

Even without a dead Lazarus, this would weaken him and have her be very easy to slap about with her double negative defense.

Instead she charged in smashed face and started to kill my crew.

A desperate Myranda became a Cerberus to avail and yeah, it was pretty much over.
With the embarrassment of a Hollow Waif getting a Red Joker on damage to kill it, with a huge barrel of laughs that was a definitive end to the tournament.

Loss 2-10

Looking to my left at table 1 I may have been a little bothered by not putting up the fight I would've liked against Ben however I was happy to not be there.
It's not a very nice thing but neither player seemed to be enjoying themselves at all.
Whether or not it was the same both sides one player seemed to be a little more serious yet clumsy than the other.

One instance I witnessed leaning over to see how the game was going (at a stage I was "still in" mine) I could see what was an incredibly awkward conversation.
Somebody had drawn their hand before discarding cards, having three extra cards in their hand and was caught before discarding.

This could be an honest "brain fart" maybe they were so sure about discarding certain cards they thought they had and went too fast for themselves.
However, discarding afterwards is giving you essentially the power of an enhanced free soulstone.

A suggestion by them of "well you pick three cards at random" seemed like a fair way to do it but also could be advantageous if all three cards drawn were in fact worse, going back to the soulstone like feel.

Overall it looked a mess, it didn't look fun and mistakes like that really should not be happening on the top table late into a tournament.

I only bring this up because where I do think Malifaux Tournaments are one of the most fun ways to spend a weekend there is still some bad points hidden deep within.

I don't want to say this to put people off, I barely see anything like this, in fact barely even hear a whisper and hey I was on  table 2 almost crying with laughter as a Black Joker had just came up at literally the worst point against the previous day's tournament winner a man who could play with a "game face" but is always interacting and will give banter if you're up for it (I have watched plenty on games with Ben and know this to be true).

The Team

As I had my civil conflict with Benjamin, Austin was having another with now SMP member Mike Hutchinson.
Oz's little green men had some trouble versus the barrage of Willpower duels that Mike's Pandora was kicking out.
Oz went for placing lots of markers, Planting Evidence and Protecting Territory with them as Som'er could hopefully summon a dirty bayou wave to wash over the table.
Unfortunately for the little guys Mike's hardcore face smashing bunch of Juju, Teddy, Pandora and Candy kept the Turf clear for his points.
Mike using the Strategy to push a gap in VP meant that he was the winner. Rightfully earning his space.

Jan had got to play against Joel in what I hear was a close game with Jan unfortunately being a little too slow and making a huge game losing brain fart. Listen to @malifools to hear more from Joel's own perspective but unfortunately the no.1 finally took out an SMP member putting Jan on a 1-2 record for the day.

Aaron in his Canterfaux rematch against Stuart kept the score to him and finally picked up a big win for the day.
What sounded like an entertaining bout it seems Mr Bailey has Mr Snare's number.

Results

The Team

I finished on 2 wins and a Loss,

Benjamin finished on 3 wins,

Jan finished on 1 win and 2 losses as did Aaron,

Austin finished on a single win, loss and draw.

Mike for those keeping score at home, also finished on 2 wins and a Loss like I did.

Where did this put us.

The Awards

Starting from the bottom the spoon winner was Peter Shepherd with Resurrectionists.

None of SMP were quite that low.

Jan finished in 19th where as Aaron although he took a loss to Jan did better elsewhere getting 18th.

Austin with that draw got into 17th so half of our crew were in a nice little row.

The podium would could consist of someone on 2-1 but with all the draws it seemed unlikely.

I got 12th, again only just behind Joel Henry like at Malifolk who was 10th.

Mike must've had a far greater VP differential due to Benjamin smashing me pretty badly and he got 6th

Podium wise.

In third was Adam Markham with Guid

Second was taken by our man Ben Crowe, if he had 10-0'd me he would've taken his second gold in two days but a 1st and 2nd would have to do.

The overall winner, like Ben the day before finally smashing through that glass ceiling was a well deserved winner in the shape of Matt Ledgerwood.

Matt is a top bloke and it was great to get a chance to chat to him at this event, as I shamefully have to say I didn't even realise he was at Somerfaux with me, so evidently we did not chat.

Good laugh, very polite and again deserving winner of the first place prize.

This would mean for best in faction:

Nathan Burman took best Ten Thunders by default,

Attempted SMP slayer, James Reeves took best Gremlins,

Matt Ledgerwood took best Resurrectionist with his first place,

Adam Markham took best Guild with his third place,

Martin Wodehouse took best Arcanist for the second time that weekend,

Mike Hutchinson took best Neverborn,

Benjamin Crowe took best Outcasts!

Final Thoughts

Well that is it for now, I was pleased with myself carefully climbing up the tables at Octoberfaux.

I was greatly disappointed that I did so poorly versus Ben's Leveticus crew but it goes to show how useful knowledge can be.

I lost two major models in the first couple of turns very quickly due to how Leve works and that I didn't quite realise how far his threat range really did spread and that it could still cut through brick walls like Joss with as much ease as candyfloss (like the Silurid is), the game like I said was great but with even one game against Leve before I honestly believe Ben would not have trashed me quite as much. Not to say I would win.

Where the jokes came at me after the weekend that I only took Mei Feng once where I could have used her more, the irony really is that actually in the last round I may have been better off with her.

I am still not sure as Marcus and friends do have some good tools for that strategy, one day I will try and see who is better.

SMP took a mixed bag of placings, but arguably we knocked ourselves out of a chance for more titles.

Still, the shirts looked awesome and a good few people really wanted some which does give myself and SMP as tournament organisers some idea's for our future events.

It was great to chat to some people I hadn't spoke to properly Eless and Matt L are on top of that list, as well a catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while like Sir Reeves and Stuart Snares.

TTN was a great place to play at and I do hope to go to Clouseau's event later in the year.

Finally thanks to my bros the SMP and Matt Spooner again for that day and week prior.

Thanks again for reading if you got this far, well done to you.

-Ben (@psientologist)