Malifaux at Cancon 2013

Cancon is Australia’s largest tabletop gaming convention. It is run in Canberra every year over the Australia Day long weekend, which this year was January 26-28. I’ve just got back from spending two of those days playing my favourite miniature game: Malifaux.

First off: it was nice to have such great opponents over the weekend. They made all the games lots of fun even when I was losing (which was often). It was also fantastic to see everyone playing with well painted models. Not a single bare metal army to be seen.

Secondly: I really need to play more often. It was obvious that the players doing well really knew their stuff. I have no idea if this was due to freaky gaming talent or just lots of experience, but I do know which of the two I can work on for myself. So, more games of Malifaux this year!

Right – the games …

Saturday was four 30ss games with a fixed faction. I was running Guild (Hoffman and Perdita) for the whole weekend.

The first game was Reconnoiter, where you have to have more of your models in each table quarter than your opponent. I took a Perdita led crew against a Collodi led Neverborn group. I was always going to have trouble with my smaller crew against the numbers and speed of Collodi and his puppets. I had a good try, but just couldn’t kill enough of the little guys to make a difference and ended up a 7VP vs 2VP loss.

Game two was closer. Perdita again leading the charge to Destroy the Evidence against Seamus and his undead. The game was fairly even until Seamus and Bête Noire stomped Perdita and I got a 2VP vs 1VP loss.

Game three was a Slaughter mission against a Dr McMourning crew. I decided to try Hoffman, figuring I could bunch him up with his constructs and make a fairly safe group. It worked fairly well until the Dead Rider managed to keep dragging my constructs off one at a time to face dismemberment by the evil doctor.  It didn’t help that I forgot all about Hoffman’s Dampening ability which would have avoided Sebastian’s Bloody Harvest pulse that weakened my crew significantly. The result was a significant loss – 8VP to 0VP.

The final game for Saturday turned out to be a Perdita vs Perdita match up, so neither of us could really complain about our opponent’s overpowered Master or crew. It was basically going to come down to who got the better cards. I started well with Perdita and my Guild Hounds racing up to the treasure marker. The Hounds picked it up on turn two and took off back toward my deployment zone. With Perdita and Santiago running interference the dogs stayed out of danger and gave me my first win for the day – 8VP to 0VP.

Day two kicked off with a 50ss brawl followed by two 35ss games, each using one of the two masters from the brawl.

I’d never played a brawl before but thought Perdita and Hoffman should work well together. The game was another Destroy the Evidence on a tight and twisty sewer board. I figured Hoffman should be able to cover the shared evidence marker while Perdita had the speed to get to the others. I was facing a Dreamer and Lilith crew, full of nightmares like Teddy, Nekima and two sets of Lelu/Lilitu. My plan worked fairly well at the start; Hoffman got to the shared marker and fortified his constructs. The Dreamer met him there and up popped all the nightmares. Lord Chompy made his appearance and the battle for the shared evidence marker was on! Hoffman made a good go of it, using the enemy Teddy against its own crew and letting fly with Open Circuit to wear down Chompy. By the end of turn two neither of us had any cards in hand or any soulstones left. Chompy was hurting but Hoffman couldn’t quite finish him off. I risked some shots from Perdita into the melee and ended up hitting Hoffman … and killed him! Heartbreaking and funny at the same time. There will be some awkward explanations at the Guild HQ after that. The rest of the game went sharply downhill and ended with an 8VP to 1VP loss.

The next game was a Claim Jump. I was facing a different McMourning crew with no Dead Rider. I was fairly confident that Hoffman would work well without the Rider dragging his crew apart. It turned into the closest game of the weekend. Everything happened around the claim marker and the fighting was fierce. I managed to kill Dr McMourning and Von Schill and things were looking good for a win … until Bête Noire made Hoffman insignificant in almost the final activation of the game. A 2VP to 1VP loss where both my opponent and I worked hard for those few points.

The final game was another Guild vs Guild Treasure Hunt – déjà vu from the day before. This time it was Perdita vs Lady Justice. I set my Peacekeeper in front of the treasure counter to block the way on the table’s narrow street. This worked better than expected when the enemy Judge and Witchling Stalker both failed their Terrifying checks leaving Lady Justice alone with the Peacekeeper. She did manage to destroy the big construct but not before Perdita and Santiago had shot her fleeing allies leaving her alone with two of the nastiest gunslingers in Malifaux. A fun game and an 8VP to 0VP win for me to finish off the weekend.

There are a bunch more photos over on my Flickr page for anyone who is interested.

No Responses to “Malifaux at Cancon 2013”