004 - Battle Report - Pandora vs Collette

The stage was set last week for my first ever complete game of Malifaux. Two previous attempts to get a game in at the local gaming club had fallen through - on both occasions we'd only managed to get 2 turns done before having to pack up due to Real Life interruptions. My opponent was Alan, another newcomer to the game who'd brought along his Colette crew so we could feel our way through the rules together. We set up a table at the Thursday Club's brand new venue and got down to it.

This battle report is just a short summary of the key moments of the game as i remember it, and apologies for the lack of pictures, I aim to take some next time!

Me: Pandora, Candy, Baby Kade, 3 Sorrows
Alan: Colette, Cassandra, 2 Performers and 2 Mannequins

Turn 1
Pandora deploys on the left with 2 Sorrows for support, staring down Colette and one Performer/Mannequin duo. Candy, Kade and the other Sorrow hide behind the trees on my right, facing towards Cassandra and another duo. Not a lot happens this turn except some link-ups, advancing, and Colette creating a Mechanical Dove.

Turn 2
Cassandra runs up and hits Candy hard in the face, causing some damage, and Candy retaliates with Sours (it still doesn't make much sense to me that Cassandra would accept poison sweets from the little girl she'd just cleaved a chunk out of, but them's the rules!). Alan attempts to pull off a tricky combo with the Mannequin and Performer on my right, to try and Paralyse and then Poison Candy, but the triggers didnt work out and it fails. Kade hits the Mannequin but its armour is way too strong to penetrate. Pandora uses Pacify on several of the Showgirls, causing slight damage on 3 models, and uses the momentum to travel across the table behind their lines. Colette releases another Mechanical Dove from her.... hat?

Turn 3
Now that our models are engaged, the initiative flip to decide who goes first is crucial, and Alan wins it by flipping a difficult to contest 13. Cassandra paralyses Candy by borrowing the nearby Performer's spell. Pandora pushes up to Collette, killing a Performer on the way by causing such self-loathing that she jabs herself with her own Poisoned Ring! One of the Doves also succumbs to its negative emotions. With actions still to take, Pandora inflicts 3wds on Colette but then falls foul of bad luck when her Fading Memory ability fails and she's left stranded and looking vulnerable, easily in range of Colette's revenge. Colette uses Magician's Duel twice, uses a Soulstone to reactivate, then does it twice more! This sends Pandora reeling and forces her to burn through all but 1 of her own Soulstones just to stay alive! The surviving Performer rapid fires her Clockwork Pistol at the paralysed Candy, putting her out of her misery. Kade finally inflicts a Wd on the Mannequin, but it takes every trigger he has, and once again it's still merely a scratch! Damn that blasted armour!

Turn 4
The Mannequin near Cassandra (that Kade has been beating on all game to no avail) sacrifices itself to give Cassandra a healing flip to help her through the poison damage she continues to receive. Pandora attempts to finish off Colette and does so easily, projecting Pity and then then Dementia. Colette, though, has "Slow to Die" which grants her a free action when she is killed and Alan used this to cast one final Magicians Duel for which he flips severe damage and kills Pandora in a blaze of glory. With both masters dead, we decide that this is a fitting end and call it a game there.

Lessons Learned

• Alan was a fun opponent I'd gladly play again.
• Armour +3 is immense! Physical attacks don't stand a chance against Mannequins, so try inflicting WP duels with Pandora instead.
• Having said that, Mamnequins are WP8!!
• Kade really needs his trigger to do respectable damage, preferably with a severe damage cheat.
• Don't forget Expose Fears or Harmless! Both of us forgot this ability repeatedly throughout the fight, meaning a lot of damage could have been prevented on both sides, and Pandora may have survived!
• I need to plan out Pandora's activation before she moves, and have a destination in mind. Too often she just milled about with no real direction. Make sure she has somewhere to hide after doing damage.
• Keep people closer together (except perhaps Kade). I needlessly split my force up and that left the children without Pandora's support.
• Using Reactivate, Colette can throw a lot of actions at you in one activation. Also, she doesn't have a melée weapon so it's difficult for Pandora to damage her directly. I think I was lucky in that Alan didn't make much use of the crew's swapping about abilities or else I may have been outmanoevered.
• Remember that casting totals are generated up front, with Cheat & Soulstone if wanted, before the target makes a resist flip. We got this wrong a few times.
• Having a crap hand in Turn 3 really limited my tactics and forced me to burn a lot of Soulstones. Maybe I should try and hold some high cards back for this crucial turn

Anyway, hope you found this summary interesting! I'll be back with more in the future!