Journey to Malifaux UK Nationals 2024

Here we are at game 4 and I am slowly learning to remember things. I played a different player this time however I faced off against my old nemesis the Viktorias. How did I do this time? Let’s dive into it shall we.

Here are our lists for the game we played full 50 soulstone crews, Mine was;

Hoffman

Mechanical assistant

Clipper

2 Riotbreaker

2 Hunters

2 Watchers

3 Soulstones

My opponents list was;

Viktoria chambers

Vanessa Chambers

Johan Creedy

Student of conflict

Taelor

2 x Ronin

10 Soul stones

Turn 1 as always was pretty much moving into place for turn 2 scoring. I remember to activate Hoffman and the mechanical attendant. I used Clipper to drag a Riotbreaker along with it and put me in a prime position to score in turn 2. Everyone moved up quickly and was around the centre thanks to movement shenanigans. Crucially I totally forgot to use the Hunters Deadly pursuit ability which would have made things a little different next turn.

On to Turn 2, which was disastrous I lost Clipper 2 Riotbreakers and a watcher. The only mild success was I broke through to my opponents back line with my remaining Watcher. I did manage to get to a couple of models with my Hunters and cause some damage in the hopes of finishing them off in Turn 3. Also remembering to use my power tokens for Plus flips really helped me with dealing some damage however it was easily stoned away with my opponent’s large soulstone pool.

Turn 3 was more of the same. I did manage to kill a single model and take out Johan. Only to be cut down by a Ronin moments later. I also lost my other Hunter to the Viks piling in on it after healing back up to full health shortly beforehand. I pushed Hoffman up to one of the Strat markers in the hopes of scoring it next turn.

Turn 4, all hope is gone. My Mechanical Attendant got into a firefight with a Ronin and loses. Everyone piles into Hoffman and I spend all my Soulstone cache on trying to keep him alive but the sheer weight of attacks means he does not weather the storm and at that I am tabled.

The final score is 5-0, I am at a loss here. I think some key moves would have postponed my loss, but the Viktorias seem insurmountable to me at this point. Maybe Inventor Hoffman is the way to go against them and try for max damage rather than trying to out scheme them, but with armour piercing, high manoeuvrability and teleporting around they feel like they have Hoffman’s number every single time.