This week's encounter must include an Ancient Monument terrain piece. While placing terrain, randomly determine a player to place the Ancient Monument. The Ancient Monument is on a 50mm base and is Ht 5, blocking, impassable terrain. It may be placed anywhere on the table within 2" of the centreline. While within 2" of the Ancient Monument, models receive +2 Ca to all Ca actions.
Whenever a model within 2" of the Ancient Monument kills or sacrifices an enemy model, the Acting model's Crew gains 2 Scrip.
A lot to keep track of!
Scheme Pool: Distract, Cursed Object, Assassinate and Outflank
Gremlins:
Old Major with Corn Husks, Grotesque Trophy (Terror) and Expanded Palate (Eat Corpse Markers to heal up)
Gracie with Thick Hide (Regenerate +1)
The Sow
Wild Boar
Piglet
Piglet
Hog Whisperer (this week's new hire!)
3 Soulstones
Schemes: Distract and Cursed Object (must-takes for the Hogs, really, and Nix is not easy to Assassinate!)
Outcasts:
Nix
Sue
Killjoy with -1 Wp but +1 Ml
Obedient Wretch
Rat Catcher
Rat Catcher
Malifaux Rat
5 Soulstones
This Scenario used Blind Deployment - each player takes a number of Red or Black cards equal to the amount of models to be deployed, and shuffle them into a temporary deck. The players then take turns to place the cards face down all over the board, and then they are all flipped over. Finally, the players deploy their models one by one on top of the cards of their colour.
Deployment:
Despite the random Deployment, the Hogs managed to stay pretty close to each other. The lone Malifaux Rat staring down Old Major seemed like an odd choice, until I remembered Killjoy can Unbury whenever any model dies... erp!
Winning the Initiative, the Hogs went first, with a Piglet charging a Rat Catcher and Interacting as a (0) for Distract. The Rat Catcher hit him back, summoning the first Malifaux Rat of the game. The Hog Whisperer ran forwards with Reckless, casting Sooey with the +2 Ca bonus from the Arcane Monument to bring Old Major forwards a bit, but more importantly getting the second Piglet into his Pork Whisper'n bubble.
Nix charged the Wild Boar before it had a chance to activate, and began handing out Blight. The Wild Boar retaliated and gave him Distract, forgetting that Nix can choose not to receive Conditions. Oops! The Piglet interacted with the Trickster Marker, forgetting it only gave VP after the first turn. Old Major and the Sow advanced while Gracie chased the Obedient Wretch, only for the Wretch to Distract her. Meanwhile, Sue charged the Wild Boar, which cheated to stay around for another Turn.
At the end of the Turn, the Blight on all of the Hogs increased by 1.
Old Major began Turn 2 by stomping on the Malifaux Rat, having ensured there was no space for Killjoy to Unbury in base contact with it. Sneaky! He then used his Nudge to push The Sow forwards, into charge range of Sue. While Nix and the gang laid in on the Wild Boar, The Sow charged Sue with the crazy amount of Positive Flips from Old Major's Aura and her Three-Headed ability. Surviving, Sue used Ring of Fire to cause any enemy that ended an activation nearby to gain Burning +2. As the Wild Boar only had two wounds left, it tried to kill anything to heal up from Eat Your Fill, but to no avail.
The Hog Whisperer used his Sooey to pull the Piglet and The Sow out of combat, and tried to give Reactivate to The Sow, but failed. The Piglet charged back in after pushing the Trickster Marker back towards Old Major, who Interacted twice for a healthy 2 VP.
Gracie and the Piglet gave out Distract and Cursed Object, and gained Distract and Cursed in return. At the end of the Turn, the Wild Boar died from the Burning, and the Blight on all of the Hogs increased by 1. Both sides scored for Distract and Cursed Object.
Having failed to Reactivate, The Sow started Turn 3 with another Charge, but failed to kill Sue - flipping a Black Joker and leaving him on two Wounds.
Sensing his time was up, Sue unloaded into The Sow. Forgetting about Killjoy, the Hog Whisperer used his extra AP from Reckless to reposition and charge Sue, bringing forth the horrifying Killjoy, who immediately struck him down.
The Obedient Wretch denied any further VP for the Hogs by turning herself into a pair of rats (and I thought Gremlins were weird). Gracie, disinterested in the rats, wondered off.
One of the Piglets fell to mass Rat bites and Nix's ability to cause damage equal to the current level of Blight, which at that point was an awful lot.
At the end of the Turn, neither side scored for Distract, but both scored for Cursed Object.
The Blight on all of the Hogs increased again, and I had to resort to writing it on their cards instead as I ran out of dice!
Killjoy began the slaughter again on Turn 3, killing The Sow, who spawned two Piglets from her Farrowing ability. Surviving a charge from the Rat Catcher. these Piglets frantically fished for Crow triggers on their melee attacks to heal up, with only one of them succeeding.
Gracie decided to show Killjoy how it's done, charging in and leaving the monster with only a couple of Wounds remaining. She then gave herself Reactivate. Old Major pulled her out of engagement, after scoring another VP from the Trickster, ready for Gracie to charge again...
..which she did.
Meanwhile, the Malifaux Rats assembled themselves into a Rat King (again, I thought Gremlins were the strange ones...).
At the end of the Turn, the Hogs scored for Cursed Object and gained more Blight.
On Turns 4 and 5, the Piglets slowly fell to massed Rat bites, and Nix tried to kill Gracie using the massed Blight on her, but Regenerate, Hard to Kill and plenty of Rats (and Rat Catchers) to eat for Eat Your Fill kept her going.
Having kept the Trickster out of reach of the Rats and maintained Cursed Object and Distract, the Hogs ran away with the victory - scoring 12 VP and 6 Scrip in total!
The Hogs came out of this encounter very well, having cheated Aces and the Black Joker to avoid any Injuries. In the Aftermath stage, the Hogs acquired some new Skills and Equipment - Healing Salve for Gracie, which she can Annihilate to remove an Injury from a nearby model; a Tool Kit for the Hog Whisperer, allowing him to take (1) Interact Actions as a (0), just like the Piglets; a Long Lost Cousin for Old Major, from completing the Strange Times Bounty, allowing him to summon a Totem as a (0), and The Trickster's Favour, from winning the Scenario, a Skill that allows the user to choose Blind Deployment instead of the Deployment flipped for a game, but only once.
Being almost at the half-way point of the Campaign and with 10 Scrip remaining after buying a Bounty and their new Skills and Equipment, the Hogs can afford to hire a Master after their next game...! Which one, though? Hmmm...
