Game report 29.07.16 50SS Leveticus vs Seamus

Game report - 29.07.2016

50SS Leveticus (daniello_s) vs Puppet Seamus (Owen)

Deployment: Standard Deployment
Strategy: Interference
Schemes: Convict Labour, Leave Your Mark, Take Prisoner, Set Up, A Quick Murder

Owen brought:
Seamus (7SS pool) - Red Chapel Killer, Bag O'Tools, Unnerving Aura
The Hanged
Rotten Belle
Punk Zombie
Nurse
Necropunk
3x Canine Remains

I took:
Levi (4SS pool) - Oathkeeper
(killing machine and Abomination summoner with the melee attack only)
Hodgepodge Emissary - Conflux of Aetheral
(model which allows to use four horsemen list)
Dead Rider
(heavy beat-stick; Waif anchor)
Pale Rider
(scheme runner; Waif anchor)
Mechanical Rider
(summoner and scheme runner)
2x Hollow Waif
(Levi's life insurance)

Owen picked Leave Your Mark and A Quick Murder
I took Set Up (Seamus) and Take Prisoner (Seamus)

My first game with Rider list and I used Pale and Dead Riders for the first time also.
I was expecting Seamus to either trying to hunt down Waifs or focus on Mech Rider as she is the summoning tool in my list. I had to be also careful about Hanged as his Whispers From Beyond could hurt my Riders severely. Thankfully Hanged was the most expensive model in Seamus' crew and Owen was expecting me to take A Quick Murder on this model, so he wasn't to eager to get closer with Hanged especially when Levi was lurking around.

Deployment (Levi was deploying first, his crew at the bottom of the photo):

I decided to summon Hooded Rider on turn 1 and play rather defensively on turn 1 and 2. Then starting with turn 3 I had a plan to play more aggressively as Riders would benefit from their damage reduction and had easier access to their (0) actions (would require to flip 6+ of any suit).

Turn 1
Initiative: Seamus

Key actions/moments:

- Hodgepodge Emissary gave Regeneration trinket to Dead Rider (I should give it to Mech Rider really), then pushed with (0) action and summoned Hooded Rider on the right flank. Seeing this huge, angry model two Canine Remains, Nurse and Punk Zombie felt a bit uneasy and didn't advance to far.
- I relocated Mech Rider from left flank to centre staying as far as possible from Seamus and Hanged. Pale Rider stayed on the right flank but closer to the centre (not as wide as Hooded one) and Dead Rider moved closer to Mech Rider. Levi couldn't have a shot to anything so he triple walked.
- Owen pushed on his right flank with Necropunk, Seamus, Canine Remains and Hanged who stayed slightly behind others. Belle moved towards centre.

Upkeep phase:
No VPs scored by either side.

Score after turn 1: Levi 0 - Seamus 0

Turn 2
Initiative: Levi

Key actions/moments:

- Levi tried to remove Necropunks but combination of really low flips, less than moderate hand and Owen's cheating flips resulted with Levi hitting only once for 3 damage. This allowed Necropunk to leap, walk and drop scheme marker for Leave Your Mark.
- The worse thing was that I had no 6+ Tome this turn (even after burning soulstone for more cards at the start of the turn so Mech Rider took a wild attempt to summon Steam Arachnid - of course it was unsuccessful.
- Nurse, Canine Remains and Punk Zombie really didn't want to face Hooded and Pale Riders and they backed off to secure their table quarter. Hooded Rider moved closer to the centre of the table but not to close to claim my right table quarter.
- Seamus used corpse marker who was dug out by nearby Canine Remains to jump close to Mech Rider and charged her. He bruised her heavily dropping her to 4 wounds remaining.
- After that I decided to put some pressure on Seamus and charged him with Dead Rider beating him and forcing Owen to burn stones for damage prevention. Also as we burnt our hands already he had to use stones also to get positive flip after I declared Horror Duels against Seamus after hits from Dead Rider. Also I moved Pale Rider close by to drop scheme markers near Seamus next turn.
- At the end of the turn Levi respawn near Seamus and Necropunk which alerted Owen that I might do bad things to Seamus on turn 3 ;)

Upkeep phase:
Levi: +1VP Interference
Seamus: +1VP Interference; +1VP Leave Your Mark

Score after turn 2: Levi 1 - Seamus 2

Turn 3
Initiative: Levi

Key actions/moments:

- I hit Seamus with Mech Rider with trigger to drop 2 scheme markers near him. Then I pushed Mech Rider away from Seamus and summon Arachnid and walked away even further.
- Seamus was tar pitted by Dead Rider so he couldn't shoot at Mech Rider. In this case Owen tried to 'lure' me to kill Necropunk who leaped and dropped scheme marker near Seamus (he needed corpse marker for Seamus to use Back Alley). Levi decided to charge Necropunk instead of shooting him and killed enemy with trigger to summon Abomination so no corpse marker was left after killing Necropunk.
- Seamus was a bit frustrated by this and walked once and attacked Dead Rider but at this stage at least 2 damage per hit was reduced thanks to Riders ability.
- Canine Remains tried to tarpit Pale Rider but he killed the beast with one attack, then pushed, dropped third scheme marker near Seamus and shot at Belle hurting her.
- Hanged and rest of Seamus' crew was really terrified seeing those Riders getting stronger an bolder every turn and decided not to interfere too much in the events on the table hiding whenever they could ;)
- Hooded Rider walked twice towards Dead Rider, then pushed and placed Dead Rider in base contact with him which allowed Dear Rider to charge and kill Belle.
- Situation looked bleak for the Ressers...

Upkeep phase:
Levi: +1VP Interference; +3VP Set Up
Seamus: +1VP Interference

Score after turn 3: Levi 5 - Seamus 3

Turn 4
Initiative: Levi

Key actions/moments:

- Hooded Rider charged Seamus but failed to hit him... I know, almost impossible... I wanted to use his trigger to remove nearby corpse marker so Seamus wouldn't be able to use it for Back Alley. Of course I could also charge and stand on the top of the marker but I decided this wouldn't be to nice to Owen so I couldn't do it to him :)
- Seamus used Back Alley and teleported across the wood to shoot Mech Rider but missed (I used Red Joker to deflect the hit).
- Pale Rider tar pitted Seamus hitting him and dropping him to last wound.
- Hooded Rider and Levi prepared for onslaught next turn ready to shoot/charge enemy models hiding along the far side of the table.
- Mech Rider summoned another Arachnid and run away again from Seamus.

Upkeep phase:
Levi: +1VP Interference; 
Seamus: +1VP Interference

Score after turn 4: Levi 6 - Seamus 4

Turn 5
Initiative: Seamus

Key actions/moments:

- Seamus hit Pale Rider and took defensive stance. Also many other of his crew did take Defensive Stance this turn. Owen told me his control hand was terrible and this was the most sensible thing to do at this moment.
- Levi burnt Oathkeeper, walked twice and charged Nurse killing her (and summoned second Abomination).
- Dead Rider charged Canine with push trigger to get close to second Canine, swung second time killing the model and then used (0) action to attack second dog paralyzing it (Wp15 Horror Duel).
- Mech Rider reactivated Hooded Rider who charged Punk Zombie tearing it to pieces.
- Game ended this turn so I declared Take Prisoner on Seamus who was guarded by Pale Rider and Arachnid.

Upkeep phase:
Levi: +1VP Interference; +3VP Take Prisoner

Final score: Levi 10 - Seamus 4

Few comments after the game:

We both agreed that Owen played too defensively. If he pressed a bit more with Hanged it could be different game.

As for Riders:

- Their basing mobility is great and backed by tricks like pushes and towing friendly model their mobility becomes awesome.

- Mech Rider - awesome support/summoning piece. Trick with dropping scheme markers near the target is really good.
- Pale Rider - really good scheme runner with nice punch. Push and drop scheme marker allows to drop two scheme markers a turn. Nice.
- Dead Rider - scary, scary beat stick. And his trigger to make Horror Duel on the target is beautiful.
- Hooded Rider - mobility of this guy is great and his damage output on turn 3 (min 4 damage) is almost insane.

Generally I really, really like this crew. Of course I wouldn't normally consider it a tournament crew but it brings so much fun to the table I will use it for my next tournament ;)

Till next time!