Back from Templecon 2015

Stolen from Ian with zero regrets

So, I'm back from Templecon, held every year right outside Providence in Warwick, RI. At six hours away, it was quite the haul. Trish and I went together, and it worked out well. Having a SO to go back to at the end of the evening made it a far different experience, for sure.

A variety of henchmen ran the events, with people trading off so that everyone could play in their favorite events.

I arrived late Thursday, and barring a 5 am fire alarm at my hotel (pro-tip to the person smoking at the pool at that time of the morning: those fire alarms are no joke), it was a good night's sleep. The next day (Friday), I rolled in at 11 for the Story Encounter, were I was blasted off the table in most instances. I just couldn't gain any traction at the event, but I still had a good time. The stories were interesting and varied, and played to an attacker/defender role that I'd like to incorporate into the Nova's Malifaux narrative.

Friday's Henchman Hardcore was great. We abandoned the 4 minimum rule, and so I played Ten Thunders Filth: Kang leading Ama w/Recalled Training and Izamu for Great Justice!

We did three rounds with me tying in rounds one and two (though I should have won two, but I was stupid). Ama was a star player in all three rounds, and should have won me round two (I "Promising whisper"ed a model to move to be killed by Kang, rather than telling it to go off out of the turf war area). Ama definitely won me round three by doing that exact same thing to the other player's Teddy. It's not often you can win Hardcore with just Strat points, but I did it.

On Saturday, we had a single model shootout called the Quick and the Dead. You could take any model, as long as it had an SH projectile attack. I was a bastard, and took Tara. Little did I know exactly how awfully good Tara was at a single model vs single model competition. As she was a master with six AP and a bury attack trigger, as soon as she hit you, and you failed that WP flip, you were buried. She was like an assassin. I felt awful, but I also won, so... Yeah.

After that, there was some lull time between that and the Gaining Grounds tournament at four. Someone wanted to play a practice game, and I got to pull out my Kirai crew. It was fun spirit slinging again, and I'm glad to see that I hadn't lost the zen of playing her. I barely needed to look at her cards, which was comforting. Sadly, we had to call the game to start the tournament.

Who are two models I finished that got used this weekend?

The GG had 24 preregistered, 2 on the wait-list, and finally, 20 participants, so I'd be pretty pleased as a Tournament Organizer.

Round one was Extraction. I took Von Schill, as the player I was playing against was relatively new, and was using Guild. I assumed there would be a lot of shooting, but it seemed she was using models that her friends were letting her borrow, so it was somewhat of a hodgepodge list.

Ali was using Lady J, Sadir, a watcher, some death marshals, a stalker, and an austringer, I think.

I took VS w/ Shirt, Survivalist, and I Pay Better, Libby with Oathkeeper, Strongarm Suit with Oathkeeper, 2 Trappers, and Two Friekorpmen.

I took Assassinate and Frame for Murder on the Strongarm Suit. I placed my Trappers out on the flanks, where they had clear shots on everything (not much cover on the board), and formed up the Freibubble in the center to take the marker. Ali set her stuff up on the flanks, and kind of hesitated on coming in to the center. She got two models up there, so she starting gaining points, but I ended up picking people off pretty quickly. She moved Lady J up aggressively, but I was able to Strong Arm Suit her off the board, leaving me with just Sadir as an option to kill the Suit for full points. Sadly, it was not meant to be, and the Suit survived. 6-5, my favor.

Round Two took me up against Raul in Reckoning against Marcus. He also took a Cerberus, Joss, two Waldgeists, and a Soulstone Miner.

My list was Levi with Pariah of Iron, Unnatural Wasting, and two Waifs, a Deso Engine, Miss Step, Rusty with From Aether and Desolate Soul, and a Trapper. Assassinate was on Marcus and Frame for Murder was on Miss Step.

Raul moved his Cerberus right up on my right flank, threatening a next turn assault, or so I thought. The rest of his crew played cagily, and moved center with Miranda in the center, giving + flips to def to most of them.

I moved towards the lower center, and waited for him to blink, but to my surprise, Raul brought Marcus down to Alpha the Cerberus, and take on the Deso engine for a Murder Protege run. It was all going so well for Raul, until he forgot the Cerberus got + flips to damage as well. By the time he realized it, it was already into the next activation, and so the Deso engine lived on to slaughter the Cerberus and regain some lost health. I hit Miss Step and Rust with Levi's shooting cast to move them into position to take on Marcus after all his stuff  had activated, so I was able to hit Marcus with the flurry from Miss Step. Sadly, the effects alll passed along to Waldgeists, and I had to hit Miss Step with Rusty's reactivate and wiffed against Marcus for that due to his ++def flips from Defensive and Miranda. As I got initiative, I flurried against the other waldgeist and I took that down quickly, leaving only Henchmen and Masters on the board, and Miss Step at 1 wound. Raul activated Miranda, she did her thing and shape changed into a Cerberus. I took Rusty's turn and gave Miss Step Reactivate again. The Cerberus leapt and took her down, giving me two more points, not the full three I was hoping for. Marcus activated, punched Joss, made him a beast and Alpha'ed Joss. Joss took the Alpha Turn, and moved next to Rusty. He then took his normal turn, and punched her dead. I then charged Joss with the Deso Engine, and took him down to one wound. Then, Joss got reactivate (since Alpha isn't a reactivate), and punched and paralyzed the Deso engine. I had some activation screw ups the next turn, but it came down to Joss taking down the Deso engine for three VP, and me killing him for Frame for Murder, and all in all, netting Raul six to my five VP, even though I had Marcus right next to Levi, and all I needed was for it to go into one more turn to get assassinate. Oh, well.  5-6, Raul's favor.

I'll finish this up tomorrow.

WAFFLES