Playing like a champion

A lot of posts on the blogs tend to look at tactics, essentially tips & tricks on how to win the game. Today I wanted to post about what I believed made a game enjoyable to play, as in player conduct at the table which is conducive to a good play experience for both players.

I posed this question to the Malifools a few weeks ago and a recent post on a Wyrd Place about “expectations on a Tournament Organiser (TO)”. The later was pretty self-entitled; luckily cooler heads (fingers?) prevailed and put forward some good points about attendance of events.

But having never been one to be quiet I thought that I would share some of my own thoughts, so being on the topic of etiquette put on your finest smoking jacket and grab a glass of brandy (or tea) as we discuss etiquette for tournament play.

At events

Set up – Arrive early if possible, we all can get stuck in traffic but try to be at the event but if you aim to get to the event at the start of registration I find this gives plenty of time in case of traffic. It’s the often great if you can offer to set up some tables for the TO. Even if they just then need to tweak the setup this is going to be a great help. If there is spare time is often a great opportunity to catch up with a few people on the scene

Respect the round timings – it can be tempting to play for that one more turn or to ask for an extension but this really isn’t fair on the TO or your opponent. The opponent has expected the game to go to a certain length and may have started to play an end game strategy when the last turn time warning was announced. The TO equally needs to get your result in so that they can get on with doing the draw for the next round.

Take down – offer to do some help in getting boards put away and cars loaded, ideally before the TO does the prize draw. It really helps the poor TO who has already given up a lot of their own time to put on the event and gives them a shorter day after they have dedicated a lot of time making your day awesome.

At the table

Stay positive – We’ve all had that game, your fate deck hates you, somehow your opponent has smuggled in some kind of master race of models with hard counters to your plans, you’re next to the window and the wind keeps blowing your stuff across the venue (all of this has happened to me). But remember to try and stay positive about the game, your opponent still wants to enjoy the game and getting into a sulk isn’t very fair to your opponent. Try to take it with good humour and if your struggling to understand where your losing then speak to your opponent at the end and ask where it went wrong. Most people will be happy to discuss it with you. If you’re having issues with the table/board you’re playing on (such as being on the same table twice or three times) just ask the TO move you and majority if now all will be accommodating.

Explain your crew – After you reveal your crew I believe it is polite to check if the opponent has played against the crew before. Malifaux is a big game and it is not reasonable to expect every opponent to know your crew as well as you know it. Even some of the most experiences tournament attenders I know have not had the chance to play against every master/crew. Make it clear which upgrades are on which models (I’ve had this go both ways once where I surprised my opponent by not making it clear and once where I’ve not used the upgrade as the opponent wasn’t clearly aware of the upgrade). I’m not suggesting you lay out your hand book of tricks but try to give them an idea of the key actions that the model might do (this one hits really hard, this one has a nasty ability, this one has leap etc…). It will cut of any feelings of “what the f*ck did I just see?” from occurring.

Discuss the terrain – I learned this one from Joel Henry, but it is in the rules as well. Make it clear what the mutually agreed the traits and height of the terrain on the table, it will head off any arguments and makes sure that you are playing on the same page. Once I started doing this I have never looked back and I even do it when not playing Malifaux now.

Be clear with what you are doing – I am terrible for this so allow this to be a public apology for the times when it gets to turn 3 and my brain is trying to keep on top of all of the things that are going on I can often fail to take the time to clearly explain what I am doing with my crew. There are a lot of interactions available in Malifaux so it can really benefit people to make it clear what is going on. For example I was once playing James Doxey and one of his Mechanical Spiders moved next to one of my models and in his words “did a little dance”. I thought that he meant pass, at the time it was confusing but I didn’t understand what he meant. Turns out he was interacting with my model for cursed object, which won him the game by 1 point. Equally it’s important to make it clear what actions your model is performing, especially if your opponent has never played against those models before.

Just a few suggestions of how to make your games more fun for yourself and the people that you attend tournaments with. If you’ve got more, drop them in comments or tweet me!

Master Class

Last weekend the UK Masters came and went. Despite my initial trepidation about the event I have to say that the day was fantastic. Due to work commitments and a young family I was really only in a position to attend the first day and not able to join the side event “League of Extraordinary Henchmen”.

The event was run with a relaxed atmosphere and I thoroughly enjoyed every game that I played over the course of the day. They were some of the most challenging but also the friendliest games that I had played since begging to play Malifaux.

I managed to pull out a win and two losses – one going to James (@mythicFOX83) and the dark horse Greg (@gregpiskosz). What was nice about both games is that I lost by 1VP in both and they were very close. With James I didn’t understand some of the VP objectives he was going for and Greg I only have myself to blame with some slow play which denied myself the 4th turn that would have made a big difference.

Rather than try to write up each game I thought it might be better to speak about the crews that I faced and some tips from each of them

Neverbourn- Lilith (Greg)

Greg had a good mix of tarpit models to tie up my crew (Bad JuJu and Waldergiest) and then used the Nepehlim as an objective runners which really suited the scheme pool. These are backed up by Lilith’s movement tricks and the Illuminated as heavy hitters. This is a strong list used by other Neverborne players this weekend.I found it best to concentrate on the tots and young Neverbourn before they grow stronger and focus on the key VP grabbers for the crew.

Arcanists – Ramos (James)

You can see James painted crew on his awesome blog – http://blog.mythicfox.com/

James starts with a small crew of elite M&S (Miners & Steamfiters for those who don’t know). This then turns into an elite crew + lots of spiders that can again tie you in combat and restrict your actions. Still working out a good way to take this crew out but obviously area effect would be great as well and anything that removes scrap counters. Attacking Ramos which was my original play is very hard; he had a lot of defensive abilities to make it tough to take him out unless you have good shooting. All of which seem to be lacking in my current resser minions…

Resurrectionists – Nicodem (Jakab)

A couple of really neat tricks for Jakab’s crew – Mortimor just ‘sspew corpse counters with My Favourite Shovel and Corpse Bloat. He also uses dogs when the Protect Territory scheme is out and runs them forward to drop scheme markers on the 1st turn. As I’ve seen before both Nicodem and Mortimor are however very vulnerable if they become exposed and once they go down the crew goes with them.

Should you ever have the opportunity to attend the masters I would recommend it. Despite the strength of the last day of “Lynch” based crews I thought that all of the factions where still strong. Yes Ramos is great for the Arcanists, but so is McMorning for Ressers or Lynch for 10T, most of the factions feel like they have a strong play style and master that they have access to and its down to player ability to be successful (or lack of from me).

I hope to learn from these mistakes and plan for them at my next event – SmogCon!

Until then it’s back to the painting table – I have Nicodem to get finished before looking at what to start painting for 2014!

Looking to 2014 (1 of 2) – nefarious plans and schemes

While 2013 was a disrupted year of gaming for me my aim for 2014 is to get back into my gaming with some gusto. I have a few work related issues that may stand in my way, however with Malifaux M2E coming to the point where many of the models now have rules available for them and picking up popularity, pace and players in the UK scene I hope this will offer new opportunities to get more games in.

My plans for the 1st half of 2014 look like the following:

January 2014 – UK Masters - By some statistical anomaly I’ve ended up entering the UK Masters this year, more by default rather than skill but that never stopped me claiming credit for something. I thought I best rush in and confirm attendance before anyone notices the issue. So the good news for me is that as the bottom ranked players for the competition is that expectations are low, which is fortunate as it should go hand in hand with my results. I’ve been drawn in a pool with people that I’ve never played before which should make for some fun games. I don’t envy my buddy Timmy who seems to have ended up in the pool of death but equally I know I will have some tough games ahead of me. My take away(s) from the weekend would be to gain some more confidence playing tough opponents so that I don’t get so nervous when playing at top tables during tournaments and I will consider the event a “win” if I am able to get anything better than 3 losses.

February 2014 – SmogCon – my initial interest in attending this event was related to catching up with a few old gaming buddies in the south. However at the same time they got into Malifaux they have also got in Warmahordes, which they will be playing. However as I meet more people in the Malifaux tournament scene and through the Vassal leagues this now seems like a great opportunity to catch up with people. I wasn’t a huge fan of the painting requirements when announced (though it doesn’t affect me as most of my Wave 1 Ressers are painted) and the inclusion of Wave 2 was frustrating as I haven’t had much time to play them due to real life commitments and they will literally only be finished a few weeks before the event. However playing devil’s advocate does say that there will be some great looking games which showcase how great Malifaux looks and that some players only play one master many of which are in Wave 2 (The Dreamer and Collette come to mind). Either way it should be good event. I am hoping to have Nicodem ready to play at this event.

March 2014 – Haul of Eggs 2 – It’s nice to return to a local tournament after Clouseau has had a few issues with finding a venue that can accommodate us. No idea what I will be taking to the tournament on the day. It might depend on what I can get painted by the time the event comes around.

2nd Quarter 2014 – Warhammer World - I will probably be going up to Warhammer World for another day of gaming. It looks likely to be 1 day of 40k and 1 day of kill team. I will skip the kill team as I have another mistress called Malifaux who scratches my skirmish itch but I look forward to getting some more of the Necrons painted and back on the table.

Fist o’ Fate / Joel Faux / Fisting Joel Report

December 1st witnessed the tying together of the Fates. A monumental and historic event – the first tournament run by Mr 300, the lovely Joel Henery!

This was an exciting event as not only would it by my first M2e Event but it was also one of the biggest UK tournaments for Malifaux in 2013, a great indication for where the game is heading. I think that the high attendee of the tournament (38 players I believe) was due to a few things:

1) A great central location, Leicester turns out to be a good overlap for about five or so play groups which means that it becomes an easy drive for many players

2) Good advanced planning with plenty of notice to people about when the event would be occurring

3) Critical mass – when people witnessed that a large number of signups it lead to more people wanted to join due to the size of the tournament 

4) The continued excellent tournament scene that the UK Malifaux community provides. Often spoken about on podcasts/twitter, but when I attend a UK Malifaux tournament I truly do feel like I am playing in a relaxed atmosphere with friends, despite often never having met my opponent before

5) Perhaps it was just the opportunity to avoid being n00b stomped by Joel ;-) 

I arrived with my compadres from Rushden Phoenix Gaming club Rick and Aron and quickly meet up with henchman extraordinaire Clouseau and Timmy making up the local players coming from Northampton. 

The play room was clearly marked and with plenty of parking where certainly good points. The main room had great space and chairs available to sit at and even with 38 players it felt like there was good space to move around. The food provided for the day was good and it came with refreshments which was great. Free Tea and Coffee is always good though it’s nice to have a bar (not that I drink much at tournaments). A break out room to sit and chat or move around between rounds would have been great but I don’t think it would have been practical. I also liked that everyone was expected to help with take-down before the prize giving – it must suck as a T.O. to have to work all day and then do take down. Much better to have everyone help out.

Joel did a great job getting the day set up and run and you can tell that he’s a teacher by trade with no difficulty speaking loudly to a group of players and giving directions so everyone knows what is going on. HENCHMAN LEE was also on hand to help with rules questions and they were always available and on hand to help. Sportsmanship was used as the 3rd tie breaker (which with only 3 rounds was required), while I believe it’s vital to encourage good play as part of the day I think this should be a separate category next time maybe using VP difference as a 3rd tie breaker. Also it was many players (including myself) first use of this scoring system so some further guidance of how to apply the sportsmanship scores would have been good.

As to the games all 3 were excellent – here is a quick rundown: 

1st Round – Tash vs Genius! (Squatters Rights) 

Josh Fletcher @tenshu8

Joel had pulled a very kill based scheme set with his first game; Assassinate, Bodyguard, Make them suffer and Frame for Murder. 

I’ve not played a lot against Outcasts but when Josh declared this as his faction I had to give it some serious thoughts. Seams isn’t great at going on massive killing sprees and can really struggle against models that can use soul stones as he only gets one hand cannon shot a turn. I decided to turn to the good Dr McMourning for this outing. I chose Assassinate and Frame for Murder of Sebastian. 

The game was close with the Ressers almost completely dominating the squatters rights markers and McMourning pushing straight across the table to engage Hans. However some bad cards meant that he was quickly isolated and Von Schille and the Specialist joined in to wear him down. Turns out the Cracked Trigger + rubbish cards makes McMourning have a really low defence! McMourning couldn't seem to kill anything but he tied up VS, Specialist and Hans for the first 3 turns. Despite this it wasn’t until turn four that the good doctor finally went down and the Von Schille moved to the middle of the board to suffer death by Canine Remains as well. Both of us picked up 2 points for Assassinate. 

In the meantime Josh played his frame for murder well and I took out his Friekorps man early. I just wasn’t in the situation to get Sebastian in a vulnerable position and he was too much of a key model for me to throw away. Learning from this I wouldn’t put Frame for Murder on Sebastian in a rush again. 

The game ended turn 4 in a Draw

2nd Round – One for the road! (Turf War)

Robert Smith (I think!)

So continuing with the fun scheme pools we had Protect Territory, Entourage, Breakthrough and Murder Protégé. This would also be my first game against the Brewmaster. I took Seamus with Sinister Rep.

It was a great game, Robert was a really pleasure to play against and I think we both really enjoyed the game. Essentially we both forgot a lot about what we could do – we even forgot that had certain models on the table! One of the best moves he made was using the Hanged with Obey to target Seamus, reduce him to half wounds and stop him from healing. An excellent combo the made me have to change my entire plan.

The Brewmaster is a interesting master to be up against. His play style feels unique and looking back on it I could describe it as a NPE but instead I just found it really cool. Great bit of design that went into him and if I pick up 10 Thunders in the future I might well look at picking him up. He managed to tie up most of my crew with his drinking action – which was fine as they were still in scoring range of the centre. Had I been thinking more about it I could have lured and taken more of the crew out of his aura. 

In the end I managed to pull off a win in turn 4 (again we had time called on us). What made the big difference her was that I was able to get the points for Entourage while Murder Protégé on Mortimer seemed to elude Robert.

3rd Round – Night of the living dead (Steak Stake a Claim)

Ben Halford @Ben__halford (yes, that good dam great painter!)

Scheme pool for this was Frame for Murder, Plant Explosives, Distract and Protect Territory. Ben pulled out Nicodem and I brought the good Dr once more. 

I’ve played Ben before and its always a pleasure to play him also it’s great to see his models grace the table. 

The game opened with some initial cagy moves with Nicodem starting the death ball rolling by summoning up a Hanged and collecting in to a big group in the centre of the table. I pulled some great cards and was able to move my models into the right position with the Flesh Construct being ordered into the middle of the Nicodem ball and placing a scheme marker to score me Plant Explosives. McMourning followed up in person and managed to Red Joker the damage on Nicodem to leave him on 3 wounds and 2 poison at the end of turn 1. 

Nicodem soon found himself as a flesh construct after Ben flipped a 13 for imitative and I pulled the Red Joker again. The Hanged did its job and stopped McMourning from healing for the rest of the game and the rest of Ben’s crew brought him down. This lead to a really interesting game with no masters from turn 2. More shenanigans ensued but I was able to score both my schemes and the strategy points while Ben was only able to pull of Frame for Murder. 

It was a win for me and I can see why McMourning is so good at scheme based games. Distract also still feels like a very easy scheme to get points for. We also managed to finish all 5 turns. 

Overall I had a great day and was very pleased with my results coming in at 6th on the tournament. 

I also put up my crew for a painting competition. Now I am the first to admit that I'm not a great painter but it felt like something I should at least get into the habit of entering and working on my painting to improve my standard. Listening to the Malifools and speaking with Clouseau it is a really key part of enjoying the hobby and something I will keep working on to maybe try and get a bronze one day. It was a highlight of my day to see a few people stop and take the time to look at my crew.

The painting standard was very high with all the crews I faced and it was really nice to see a lot of painted crews on the table. As with a lot of players I really need to learn to play faster.

Thanks again to Joel and Lee for organising a great day – I can’t wait to get more games in next year.