Spring Showdown III: Malifaux Battle Report: Collodi vs Asami Tanaka

Back at the start of May, I pottered down to Wayland Games for a Spring Showdown event run by the lovely Mike Marshall. I was even willing to brave the horror of Rail Replacement Bus Services for this, which is no small feat.

My first opponent was just starting to learn Asami Tanaka, although I believe he's not new to Ten Thunders. We were deploying on the Flanks, with the Strategy being Collect the Bounty (kill more important stuff each turn than your opponent), with a scheme choice of Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Leave Your Mark, Set Up, and Mark For Death.

I took Set Up on Asami and Dig Their Graves. The former required me to drop scheme markers close to Asami, while the latter required me to kill stuff near my scheme markers.

I started off the battle by swinging the Mysterious Emissary around to drop an awkward hazardous terrain marker on one side of the field to funnel all the nasty Oni down a narrow lane of approach on my right.

In return, I got a summoned giant spider demon in the face. This did not fill me with joy and cuddles, especially as Asami's summoned critters vanish quickly with an effect called Flicker, and I was really worried I'd nearly kill something only for it to vanish and me score no points.

I conveniently countered this by firing Teddy off into Asami, sort of forgetting about that entire "Set Up" business and focussing on trying to win the Bounties.

Collodi, meanwhile, tangled the annoying spider demon up in puppet strings and made it walk off in an awkward direction. I can't recall if I killed this one or it flickered out.

 Asami, meanwhile, wanted none of this Teddy nonsense, so used pushes to get out of the way while tiny puppets fought the horrible spider demon.

I got surprised by some nasty Oni getting summoned right in the centre of the board. Points were close, but I believe Asami was ahead.

Toshiro the Daimyo decided to interpose on Teddy to stop him getting to Asami, and a Red Joker on Teddy's damage flip resulted in the incredibly tough undead monstrosity getting torn into tiny, tiny pieces. In the dying moments of the turn, I'd managed to score a point in Collect the Bounty, bringing the score to a massive 2-2 draw.

With it having been a while since the game, I don't quite remember where all the points were scored, but this was a fun and challenging game that I was pretty happy with. I'm still making Malifaux mistakes, but fewer of them, and most of them are a "teaching moment" as well, which is making me a better player.