I wanted start by quickly offering my congratulations to Jo (neverata) and Ian (Calmdown), who are expecting their first child. All the very best to them and their little terror-tot.
A lot to cover from a fun weekend at the masters last weekend then. Firstly congratulations to Adam (magicpockets) on his well deserved win at the event, and to Jo for organising another great event. I came in 6th, something I’m very pleased with. I look at the players who finished above me and am not ashamed to have finshed behind any of them.
My weekend began on Friday evening when I arrived at the venue with Ant (Stryder) to meet up withsome of the others and make unhelpful comments while Mitch (Stern) setup the boards for the next day. I hung around and caught up with most of the other players who were down the night before and got in a few games of Mall of Horror and Forbidden Island. A disappointing burger from the Maelstrom bar later I headed back to the Travelodge to play the Ankh Morporkboard game with Ian (Serigala), Ant and Craig (ukrocky). I also made some mischief by kidnapping and hiding legs from the aRamos Craig was trying to assemble and ‘paint’ for the next day.
This weekend wasn’t just the Malifaux masters, it was the weekend for; Warhammer, 40k, Flames of War and Hordesmachine masters as well, so we arrived to a busy Maelstrom Games the next morning. What was clear from the first game onwards was that this wasn’t going to be a normal tournament. I got a hard fought 7-3 win against Mike (Mike3838) in a dreamer mirror match. In a normal event a +4vpd at the end of round one would put me in the middle table. In this event however winning by four points was enough to put me on table one to face CalmDown. This was a testament to the skills on display in the room, there weren’t the normal 8-0′s flying around.
The Masters was played in a three list format, players choosing three lists before the event and having to use each of those lists at least once during the first five games of the event. Bothme and Ian had a Dreamer list up our sleeve. We shook hands before the game to agree we wouldn’t use those lists in this game. Again this was typical of the weekend, players were out to enjoy themselves and took to the event with a great sense of comradery. I was just saved by the bell in round two, another few minutes and I would have lost the game, another ten and I’d have been savaged. As it was Zoraida squeaked a victory over Kirai by 1vp, phew.
Lunch followed, unfortunately our round finished after the other systems so the buffet had been reduced to egg mayo sandwiches and and mini-sausage-rolls. 
Round three was Aiden (CunningStunt) Kirk who looks a lot like Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island.
Aiden took Chompy with two pairs of twins against my Zoriada Collodi list. He took Collodi out early by dropping the four twins on him, I got my revenge by having my Convict Gunslinger and Desperate Mercenary take out three of the twins. The Desperate Mercbeing in range of Obey from both Zoraida and her Voodoo Doll netted her a good eight shots at the pesky Neph. Chompy swooped in an took Z down to two wounds, leaving her vulnerable. At this point I gambled, I ravened Zoraida into position to Melee The Dreamer to death.
Aidenflippeda13 for his initiative and Z got eaten. I could have pulled the game back with the initiative in either of the next two turns but another 13 followed by a Red Joker for Aiden’s initiatives put pay to that. I lost 1-5.
Fourth and final round of the day was against team mate Craig (ukrocky) Johnson. We were into stupid strategy territory now playing Shared Distract. Craig chose his schemes better than I did and we effectively circled each other. The game ended in a near bloodless 2-4 loss on schemes.
Day one over and almost everyone form the masters all went to dinner, drinks food and fun later there were more games in the hotel lobby before bed. The social aspect of Malifaux events is getting better and better and it was good to catch up with the other regulars and chat to the guys I didn’t know so well.
I woke up next morning from a dream about how much I hate the twins and walked over the car park for breakfast at Frankie and Benny’s with Serigala. I say breakfast in reality it was more an exercise in covering the plate, this was on refelction the worst cooked breakfast I’ve ever eaten, and that’s saying something.
My final game was against Jimmy, I’ve played Jimmy before but he’s not one of the guys I know well. This again turned out to be a mirror match, both of us taking Zoraida & Collodi. Once more our game was almost bloodless. The most interesting point in the game was in the final turns whit his Z chasing my Z around the board trying to steal relic. In the end he missed and by virtue of starting with more significant models than Jimmy I won my last game.
That was my event over, I hung about to play a few side games and watch the nail biting final between MagicPockets and CalmDown.
That was my masters weekend. I have to say it was one of the most fun events I’ve attended in some time, this was echoed by one of the less competitive players in the room. He told me how much more he’d enjoyed this event than the UKGT. I think one of the defining factors of the weekend was the atmosphere, now it helps that a lot of the player know each other but there was a general sense of fun around the event that to some would be at odds with its competitive nature.
That’s all for another week folks.
for turn two initiative and flipped the red joker. How lucky. My opening move was the predictable safety Cassandra 12″ further back behind the barn I was unsung as cover.
s and 
s in it.
