Wargaming with Beardy Blackwell

The last four days had two things in common: I was off work and I got to play some awesome miniature games.  I only play two minis games and I got to play them both. Winning.  I was playing against Beardy Blackwell, who is one of my favorite people.  Double Epic Winning.

Too bad I lost every game I played.  I had fun though so I'm Winning at Failing To Win But Still Having Fun.

Thursday night we met at Icons for "minis gaming night", which was awesome because I ended up talking to two different people about MERCS.  Hopefully they'll get MegaCons and increase the quickly growing number of players we have.  Beardy Blackwell and I played two games, both CCC (me) vs Waza.

First game was a simple "kill three to win".  Despite the fact that my models looked AWESOME, The Waz dropped a nuke on my face and hella killed me.

Yeah, the medic has no cover, but nobody had LOS on him so it was cool. Why is the leader all by himself?  Good fucking question.

Game two was from the unofficial scenario generator.  We both ended up with Facility Defense, which sounded really weird at first but actually worked out pretty well.  For plots I picked "Technological Superiority" to his "Act of War" (these are secret, of course).  Well by the end of turn six I had two models left, so that sucked...

The worst part?  He didn't even bring the nuke.  Ugh.  I was not on game that night.

Why is the heavy behind the medic?! You fool! You've messed up the positioning!! Idiot. 

By the time the medic was out of the way the heavy's armor was broken. I was forced to move the leader up to get LOS. Nothing but bad calls that night.

The Waz being awesome.

Oh yeah, my demo?  Once again killed by the Waza sniper's "nat 10 autokill".  Statistically I'm pissed at that.

* * *

Yesterday I was at the Beardy homestead for a game of Malifaux.  Neverborn Zoraida vs Outcast Gremlins.  Fucking gremlins and their pigs...

Basically the way it fell was that if I could kill his Leader (Som'er Teeth Jones) I'd get 6 VP.  If I didn't I was pretty much screwed.  I had his leader down to four wounds (I think) but then he made a healing flip and flipped out the damned Red Joker! Heal all wounds!! As my toddler says "Are you killing me?!"

Shortly after that I forfeited the game in the interests of getting my fussy son home, also I was going to lose embarrassingly anyway.

We were playing on the awesome Terraclips "Sewers of Malifaux" set, which is insanely cool.  I'm hoping to get the "Buildings of Malifaux" for xmas because it would be killer for MERCS as well.

Beardy Blackwell assembling his crew, essentially determining the way I'm going to lose. Also his right hand is traveling through time.

Pig vs big ass winged guy! Who will win?! (Spoiler: buy pork futures)

See the big winged guy from the last photo?  No you don't.

I see Som'er! I just can't get to him!

This terrain is just awesome.  I think Beardy said it took him seven years to assemble it.

Totally wasted Red Joker which meant my Silurid jumped like an Olympian.

That mosquito is up my Silurid's ass.

"Rawr."*

* Translation: I was useless this game.

The main reason I did poorly in this game was that I made a very bad tactical decision early on which I then had to run with.  Essentially I should have not attacked anyone early on and just got my guys into position to jump Som'er all at once and kill him. I would have had a guaranteed 6 VP no matter what else happened.  Would I have instantly won then?  Possibly not.  That is Malifaux.  You play to play, not to have a winner.  Fortunately it's fun to play. 

Douchey-Bathroom-Mirror-Picture Andy agrees:

You play to play, not to have a winner.

And if that douche says it, it must be true.