EVS at Haul of Eggs 9

Hello again! Graeme here, back after Simon’s brief dalliance with all things involving mud and bacon.

As I promised in my last blog, I did indeed attend Haul of Eggs 9 with Explorers. I managed to sneak in precisely two practise games and turned up with my standard goal for any event: don’t win the wooden spoon.

Now something I picked up while playing M2E is that my crews work far better in general when I have a core that rarely changes, and the last model or two are flexed around schemes.

My initial plan, therefore, was to start with the following:

Maxine/Orville

Beau Fishbocker - his heal and pushes are amazing, and under Maxine 1 he generally cheats 1 card and draws me 2

Harata - 2” melee, the Ngeri Haka and Distraction means he’s almost always in Intrepid Emissary - another 2” melee and adds a suite of defensive tech into the list 

Dr Beebe and Calypso - these two get work done, especially when you accidentally cheat with them (oops)

Leaving me with 14 stones. For my flex choices, I had:

Vernon and Welles - if I need to scheme more 

Harpooner (maybe with an upgrade) - I hadn’t tried this, but the Tidecaller had disappointed me in the practise games so I wanted to branch out

Machinists - if someone declared Pandora, for the protection of their Eye of the Hurricane

Kiya Manimi - likely taking Harata’s spot, if I needed her Ruthless ability

Two final notes. The first was me keeping an eye out for Lady Justice and Tara. If either of those appeared, I was immediately dropping Dr Beebe and Calypso from the list, or Dr Beebe just dies real fast.

Second, I started each game with an apology to my opponent and an explanation that I’m newly returned from M2E - if I get a rule wrong, call me out straight away.


Game 1
Covert Operation vs Troy Ashdown’s Asami 1
Fate is a funny thing. Troy is one of the few players I knew from five/six years ago when I played before, so naturally enough I get drawn against him. We had a good catch up about life (congrats again on the incoming arrival) and his beard (self-proclaimed as the best in Malifaux, I believe), then set about the game.

Schemes were Breakthrough, Assassinate, Hidden Martyrs, Public Demo and Secret Meetup. I picked Breakthough and Hidden Martyrs.

I ran my core list with a Harpooner with Treasure Map to work against any scheming he’d try to run into my backfield.

This game went my way pretty quickly, with Dr Beebe, Harata and Maxine making short work of his hired Jorogomo turn 1, then applying solid pressure to Asami from turn 2. I was really helped by Troy sending his Amo No Zako down a flank after Orville (a hidden Martyr), only for me lock her down with the Emissary/Harpooner while Dr Beebe, Maxine and Harata took control elsewhere.

Asami dropped turn 3 (I think), Amo in turn 4 and my Harpooner was able to harass his Yokai enough to prevent the end game breakthrough scoring. Biggest mistake I made was protecting my Hidden Martyrs (Orville and the Harpooner), as I lost neither so was left scoring 0 for that scheme. The game ended 6-3 me.

Goal won! No spoon for me!


Game 2
Carve a Path vs Gabriele Sosso’s Zoraida
Vendetta, Spread Them Out, Load ‘Em Up, Set the Trap, In your Face

Confession time here, I missed a nuance for one of my models throughout this game that would’ve been a complete game changer. It was only caught after the event, and would’ve completely changed how the game played out. That rule is that Calypso does NOT drop scrap markers when killed, so I should not have been able to then activate Dr Beebe and summon it back. I have apologised to my opponent, who responded with complete grace (as he did throughout our game).

For any prospective EVS players out that, I should’ve spent an action using Bleeps and Sweeps while Beebe was piloting Calypso, then any 9 of Tomes or better would drop a marker and pulse out injured 1 (Tomes is Dr Beebe’s reconfigure suit, so any tome will do when he’s on board, or a 10 or better on his own).

With that said, what a game this was! Mama Z obeying Hinamatsu to charge, me finding out just how many attacks Hinamatsu can take. All the interact shenanigans (I took Vernon and Welles as my flex), on a board filled with three large, severe swamps.

Gabriele played the strat brilliantly, netting a full 3 vp to my 1, but I was able to deny him his schemes completely. I was able to score both parts of Vendetta (Dr Beebe picked the Adze - see how the game would be different?), leaving us on a tough fought 3 all draw.

One win and one draw so far, far better than I’d hoped!

Now before I get on to game 3, I want to point out the one big downside to such a cracking round 2 game, that was compounded by my lack of familiarity with the crew. I now had a killer headache from trying to track so much, and knew I was not going to be able to put up a decent game, especially as I was fairly high up the score board now.


Game 3
Guard the Stash vs Matt Lewin’s Tull, the Artillerist.
Vendetta, Leave your Mark, Sabotage, Catch and Release, Load Em Up.

I’ve played one game before this that I’ve not spoken about. Oz from Rampage Games (look them up if you’re in the UK, excellent stock, great tokens and a charming man) loaned me his Jedza crew to try out and I told him to play anything he wanted, absolutely anything. I was after rules and a feel of the game again before buying in, not playing for the strat/schemes.

So Oz, after much hesitation and me assuring him it was fine, pulled out Tull.

My polite thoughts on the Cavalier keyword are that they are currently at the very peak of the curve (though I hear a Damian is up there too) and in need of some cuddling. That said, they are a legal crew that are out of playtest and we were at a tournament. I had no issue with Matt taking it, just knew that I would struggle into even if I was practiced and wasn’t exhausted.

Anyhoo, this game… yeah, it went badly. Especially as I figured I’d try out Maxine 2 for the very first time. Terrible choice, and Matt graciously took my crew apart for me. I scored 1 vp for Sabotage, after getting Maxine killed so she could use her demise ability to teleport. The game ended 8-1 in Matt’s favour, securing him third place for the event. I came 15th, back in mid-table mediocrity where I tend to loiter :)


Overall thoughts:

I had a blast in all three games.

Maxine 1 is amazingly consistent, drawing a card in almost every friendly activation and half the enemy ones too.

I struggle to see where I want Maxine 2. Best I can see is when an enemy is bunched, so I can through out loads of tentacles. Even then, it’s a tough choice against the consistency Maxine 1 brings

Harpooners are far better than I thought initially, and I used mine poorly

It was great that every opponent reacted with “Oh, Maxine, cool!” when she was announced, and that they’d either not played into her or rarely played into her.

Overall, I love the EVS crew and am glad I picked them up to restart Malifaux with. That must be why I’ve already bought another crew, in another faction but that’s a blog for another day.