Fore note

At my local Gaming store, Wargame Supplies in Colne, Lancs, for the past 7 weeks we have been holding a Malifaux Ladder.
There are 8 players (so far) and each player can challenge upto 2 place up (or down). Challenges can not be refused, but once you have challenged or been challenged by someone else, you are immune from all other challenges for that Phase. You can ask to take a break from the Ladder for a Phase or two. And you are treated as non existent as far as challenges go. (For example, if 2nd seed is away, 4th seed can challenge 1st place)
Games must be played in Store, but can be arranged for times best suited for the players.

The store owners asked for us to place results on their forum in order to keep track of placings. At Phase 5 I progressed from results only to small Batreps. I have never written Battle Reports before, but each week Ive tried to add a little more. Note, these are just copy/pasted from their forum, so the names and tense will seem odd. I'm also the only one on their forum doing this.

I won my 30ss Phase 4 match moving me from 4th position to 1st position.

Phase 5 (31/07/13) Kyle who I won in Phase 4 challenged me. 35ss game.

Another great game Kyle! And a victory well deserved! I had Supply Wagon which Kyle managed to destroy in the extended 7th turn. And Kyle had Turf War, which he managed to get Shang into my deployment turn 6. My Misaki managed to his kill Shang in turn 7. But he stole it back with a very speedy Von Schill getting to my deployment turn 7. Add this to Kyle being able to finish off all of my other models.

Turn 3 saw a Ototo-Ototo show down! He got the first hit reducing my Ototo to 3/11 wounds. But the enraged my Ototo giving him Melee Master (+2) and +2 cb which was enough to kill his Ototo in one round!
Turn 4 or 5 saw My Misaki attacking Toshiro and with a red joker, killing him in a single round.

Kyle (Kyou) 4vp - 0vp Nathanael (Cain Tiberius)

I look forward to playing you again Bud

I lost and moved down to 3rd place (discrepancy due to 3nd place player asking to be placed at the bottom of the Ladder)

Phase 6 (07/08/13) I challenged Kyle again to try and regain my top spot. 35ss game.

It's a rare that the cards favour me. But tonight they truly hate me. Despite starting with 7 models to Kyle's 6, I was completely tabled by turn 5.

I had the strategy Distract. Kyle had Survive and Escape. So I had to stop his Misaki from entering my table for 4vp or my deployment for 2vp. He needed to have 75%+ survive for 4vp or 50%+ for 2vp.

My Ototo was wiped off the table by his Misaki turn 3 before he could strike. (I forgot Misaki's (2) diving attack ignored terrain and interviening models.. oops, my bad)
Also in turn 3, his Trapper killed my Shang in a single hit. (Nice shot)

Then in turn 4 my Misaki started in base contact with Kyle's. Having 2 strait attacks, +1 for Melee expert, +1 for Reckless giving me 4 attacks. Combining this with having a 10, 2 jacks, 1 queen and the red joker in my control hand, as well as using at least 3 soul stones... I wasn't able to defeat his Misaki. :O

His Misaki was just in his table half at this point. I sent in 2 Torakage in to slow him. But it was in vain as he killed both in turn 5 and waltzed over the line in turn 6 to take 2 victory points.

This left a 3rd Torakage and a single Oiran, both injured previously. The Trapper finished off the Oiran and Toshiro finished off the Torakage in turn 5.

Game extension roll made and the game stopped turn 6.

I had 2vp for preventing his Misaki from reaching my deployment.
He had 4vp for not loosing a single figure.

A good game Bud, but those cards really hated me, lol.

I lost the match but being the challenger, I didn't loose any places.

Phase 7 (09/08/13) I was challenged by 5th place on the ladder.

25ss game between Myself (Nathanael) and Syndymion (Simon)

I had 6 Ten Thunders models, including Misaki, Ototo, Shang, 1 Torokage and 2 Oiran. Simon had Rasputina, an Ice Golem and 2 canibalistic archers that name escapes me right now.

My strategy was 'Deliver Message' (I've had this 4 times now, and it is a pain!). Any one of my crew (excluding insignificant models) has to do a (2) action within 2" of enemy leader to get 2vp or by the end of turn 4 for 4vp.
Simon had the strategy 'Turf War'. He had to have more models in my half of the table than I did by game end for 2vp. In addition to this he had to have a model in my deployment for 4vp. A tall order for a very slow moving crew.

Turn 1 was as uneventful as always. But on turn 2 one of my Oiran successfully cast (1) Lure on Rasputina drawing her, her walk distance (3") towards my Oiran. Simon also managed to take Ototo down to 6 wounds.

On turn 3, I don't remember exactly which model did what, but Ototo had been wounded 4 more times taking him down to 1 wound left in return for 3 wounds on the Ice Golem. And Misaki had also been wounded 3 times. I used both my Oiran to Lure Rasputina again both drawing her 3" each. This left Ototo within the require 2" for the next turn.

At this point (still turn 3) I decided to using (2) Diving attack (charge ignoring terrain and models) on Rasputina to make it even harder to get away from me the next turn. I was relying on my famously bad card flips. Big mistake... +flip for the charge saw me flip a red joker for damage (sevier damage + another flip), 2nd card was a 10 scoring a moderate damage.. 6+4=10... Rasputina has 10 wounds... Misaki killed Radputina in one hit making it now impossible for me to complete my Strategy.. Clever eh?
For her Melee Expert, she added another 2 wounds to the Ice Golem.

At this point I learn that killing the Golen would cause every model in 3" to take 3 damage (Ototo and Misaki) As a result, in turn 4 I moved Ototo away from the Golem (In retrospect, I realise we forgot see if the Golem blocked the move, sorry Simon :/ ). I figured losing 2 big models for just the Golem wasnt worth it. Ototo attacked one of the Canable Archers bit only did weak damage. As Ototo only had one wound left, the Archer finished him off, then ate him I order to recover all wounds. Hence Canable Archers, lol
I attacked the Golem with Misaki (who had lost 2 more wounds due to Recklace). I killed the Golem and as a result Misaki died and Shang was also removed. (Probably a mistake)
I figured with his Canabilistic regeneration, I didnt think I could kill him outright with what i had left, so I then ran the Torokage and 2 Oiran towards Simon's deployment zone.

In turn 5 one of Simon Canable Archers shot at my Torokage and killed him in one go. His other Archer fired at one my Oiran and missed. I ran further into his deployment. With 2 figures each, Simon would need to kill one of mine and have both of his in my half in order to get any victory points. So at the end of turn 5, Simon decided to end the game on a draw. He could have attempted to kill one of the Oiran and then hope for a game extension.

Thoughts and things I learned.

After I killer Rasputina, I should have left Ototo to fight the Golem and ran everything else into his Deployment giving me 5 models to his 3.

I learned that both players can cheat up their flip regardless of wether the loosing player decides to stick or not. At one point I was loosing by 3 so decide to stick, thinking he couldn't cheat it up. I was wrong and Simon increased his making a huge difference. A mistake I won't make again.

I also now am aware that when Misaki dies, Shang is also removed. The same goes for any Totem creature with their attached masters. It was just something I had forgotten as the situation had never arisen in previous games.

For the record, the cards still hate me, lol. But on the plus, I am very impressed that Misaki killed Rasputina so easily. I also now know that my Oiran are definitely worth taking for Strategies like this one.

All in all a good game was had. Thank you Simon. I'm sure we'll meet on the table again at some point

This sees me retaining my 3rd place.

Interesting read Cain.

Now I'll have to find the rules for Malifaux somewhere so I can makes sense out of it all!

Also, seeing you develop your tactics and strategies is a good read. Good luck in the competition.

Lol. The game isn't hard, but the rule book is all over the place. Hard to find the relative info when you need it. If you go to Wyrd's website, they have a free PDF of the core rules.

Tried going there, all I get is 404.

(11/08/13 - 1:30pm)

Today's game was a friendly and not part of the Ladder.

I (Nathanael) was using my Ten Thunders; Misaki, Shang, Ototo, 2x Torokage & 2 Oiran.
Necris (Tony) was using a Ten Thunder/ Guild crew; McCab, Sidir, Alchibal, Ototo, Kang & a Ten Thunder Archer.

I flipped an 8 for strategy giving me Plant Evidence. (1) Actioning to plant evidence. Plant 2 piece in enemy table half for 2vp. Plant 4 in enemy table half including 2 in enemy deployment zone for 4vp.
Tony flipped a 3 for Contain Power. He had to kill my leader (Misaki) for 2vp. He needed to kill my leader using his leader (McCab) for 4vp.
A 10 or 11 was flipped for Deployment meaning we had to set up in 12"x12" boxes in opposite table corners.

The table we set up was 4'x4' with a western style street down the middle (end to end) with 4-5 buildings and various walls and ruins behind the buildings on both sides.

Turn 1 and 2 fairly uneventful, both sides moving up. I sent 1 Oiran and 1 Torokage down the left side, behind the buildings. Ototo moved down the Street. And the rest up the right end of the table. I was trying to keep Misaki away from him. Tony moved McCab, Ototo and Sidil towards Misaki's group and the rest towards my figures on the left side.

Turn 3 saw Tony's Archer killing my Ototo in a single activation. He triggered twice giving him 4 shots. My left side Torokage moved out of cover and failed an attempt to cast Mistaken Identity, then successfully cast Smoke Bombs. I also moved the Oiran on the same side and placed an Evidence marker right on the border line.
Shang cast Misaki's (1) Downburst spell pushing McCab back 4". McCab in turn cast Capture Net on the Torokage accompanying Misaki, making the Torokage Slow (-1 action point) for the next turn.
Kang being a member of the Rail Crew can see through the smoke bombs on the left side, walked right through it and wapped the Torokage around the head with his hammer killing the Torokage in a single activation, which also removed the smoke screen. This left Alchibal clear to shoot at Oiran ignoring her Harmless with his Ruthless. He did 3 wounds.

In turn 4 I expected the same Oiran to die so I quickly moved her up and placed another Evidence marker. (I asked Tony if him shooting her removed Harmless because he used Ruthless. An if it didn't could I move away from Kang? Tony agreed, but if we are wrong, please feel free to clarify) Afterwards, Alchibal finished her off.
McCab charged on his horse through my Misaki group causing both my Oiran and Misaki to take a Difence duel. Both lost and received slow.
Instead of running I decided to turn and fight. Using the 1 remain GP action, 1 from Melee Expert and 1 from Reckless, I attacked McCab killing his horse and wounding him. Tony used Sidil to take the damage of the last attack killing him in the process. I used Shang's Lucky Charm skill to help Misaki with one of the attacks.
Tony's Ototo charged into the back of Misaki, but wasnt able to hurt her.

(Reading this back I think I may have got some the ordering wrong, but I'll finish anywho.)

Turn 5. McCab now horseless charges Misaki hurting her but not killing her. In return she reduces him to 3 wounds. I decided to run with my remaining Oiran and Torokage in a vain attempt to reach Tony's deployment zone. Alchibal, Kang and the Archer seeing what intended, moved to intercept.

Turn 6 and McCab now on 3 wounds was now able to use a skill that I don't remember the name, but is basically an all or nothing last ditch effort. It gives him 3 extra GP actions which he used for attacks giving him 6 attacks. I figured as Shang would be removed when Misaki died, I had nothing to lose by using up all his wounds for the Lucky Charm ability. That combined with Misaki's high Defence, High wounds and Soul Stones (Tony had non left), Tony was unable to defeat Misaki although she only had 2 wounds left. Part of the all or nothing move ment that McCab had to be remove (and would have counted for victory conditions had I needed that).
But she wasn't able to save herself from Ototo though giving Tony 2vp.
Tony killed the remaining Torokage with his Archer (I think) and my Oiran wouldn't have reached his deployment. That and the shop was closing, we decided to end the game.

So in the end it was a draw with 2vp each.

Thank you for the very fun match again bud. Looking forward to our next game!