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Students of Conflict - Season 2 - #2B - NAFT Championship 2024: Grant (Prof. Von Schtook vs Nekima, Broodmother)
408 Plays7 months ago
In this episode we talk to Grant about a close game in his journey to a 1st place finish in the North American Faux Tour Master’s Invitational Championship. We discuss the importance of sticking to your game plan even when you start feeling some bloodlust in the heat of battle and also Grant's unconventional pick of the Backup Assistant.
Hosts: Clay and Doug
Guests: Grant and Jim
Tournament: North American Faux Tour (NAFT) Master’s Invitational Championship, 8-9 Jun 2024 (GG4)
Tournament on Longshanks: https://www.longshanks.org/event/16165/
Encounter:
Round 2
Deployment and Strategy: Flank, Raid the Vaults
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Deliver a Message, Espionage, Information Overload, Ensnare
Grant’s Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Espionage
Scott’s Schemes: Deliver a Message, Ensnare
Final Score: 5-5
Crews:
Grant’s Dr Frank N Steen
Size: 50 - Pool: 5
Leader:
Dr Frank N Steen (alt Prof. Von Schtook)
The Whisper
Totem(s):
Eyegor (alt Research Assistant)
Hires:
The Valedictorian
Student of Viscera
Grave Spirit's Touch
Student of Viscera 2
Gwisin
Necropunk
Backup Assistant
Scott’s Nekima, Broodmother
Size: 50 - Pool: 6
Leader:
Nekima, Broodmother
Totem(s):
Blood Hunter
Hires:
Angel Eyes
Young Nephilim
Young Nephilim 2
Young Nephilim 3
Black Blood Shaman
Corrupted Hound
Corrupted Hound 2
Corrupted Hound 3
Plugs from Guest: Breachburnt Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42IGniGXAa3ksJpIdvdo1L
Danger Planet GT (19-21 Jul, Embassy Suites Boston at Logan Airport) … Announcement video, with links to event packet, registration, hotel, and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yLLTEmiMOY
Recipes discussed (recipes can be found in the Students of Conflict discord channel): Brie Cups
Thank-Yous:
HUGE thanks to Top Doug Design for all the terrain we play on here in Texas and for sponsoring this podcast, to Wyrd Miniatures for allowing us to use their artwork from the 2nd Edition Student of Conflict, and to Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Houston for providing such an amazing space for the community. Also, thanks to the North American Faux Tour TO Council for choosing to hold the NAFT Championship Tournament here in Texas!
Top Doug Design: https://www.topdougdesign.com/
Wyrd Miniatures: https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux
Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Houston: https://www.facebook.com/dlairhouston
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Transcript
Introduction to Students of Conflict
00:00:10
Speaker
Straight out of the heart of Texas, here come the students of conflict, helping you become a better Malifaux player and reach the top of the podium, one game at a time.
Hosts' Greeting and Championship Experience
00:00:33
Speaker
All right, welcome to Students of Conflict. We are Clay and Doug. Hello! And hello! And we actually survived the North American FOTUR Championship weekend. We are now back in this recording booth trying to become better Malifaux players, leveling up ourselves, and hopefully helping level others up as well.
Focus on Game Analysis and Guest Introduction
00:00:50
Speaker
It's gonna be one of those kind of evenings we can tell. um We do that by taking an in-depth look at just one game from our guests. We ask them about the key decisions that they made before the game, during the game, and now that they're looking back at the game, what were the things that they learned and that they can pass on to others? We interview our guests together so we can get some good cross-flow and different perspectives, and then we release them as one individual podcast per guest, helping people level up one game at a time.
Guests' Championship Background
00:01:15
Speaker
Today, we are speaking with Grant and Jim.
00:01:18
Speaker
Hello, I am half of that. I am the other half. These guys came in first and second at the North American Pro Tour Masters Invitational Championship. It was held on 8th and 9th June 2024 here in Houston, Texas. We will be releasing our discussions with them as Season 2 Episodes 2A and 2B All right, welcome back, everybody. We got Grant here, and I'm very much looking forward to this episode. Hello. Before we get really going, um we always start off with an icebreaker question.
Icebreaker: Malifaux Model Dish
00:01:49
Speaker
And so we are leaning a little bit into this whole ah ah trying to be the world's only Malifaux Fruity podcast, because its kind of why not? And so ah our question for this episode is, if you had to prepare a dish for your absolute favorite model in the entire game, Grant, what would you prepare and why? All right. so I'm not exactly a great chef or anything, but, um, to shorten a very long story short, I went with English Ivan rather than bounce before and back between like five favorite models. And I think he would just like, you know, I have a recipe for brie cups, which are just like phyllo cups filled with cheese, almonds, and a bit jam.
00:02:30
Speaker
because they're small appetizers, they're easy to make, they're quick, and they're concealable. So he doesn't have to like spend a budget. He's a busy thing ah secret agent. He needs snacks that he can just take on the go while he's shadow jumping and ruining dreams. I love it. So oh that is fantastic. we will We will work to find a ah recipe for brie cups. That sounds totally English, Ivan. um and Send you the recipe. easy I just don't have a link to it because it's like a written recipe. Oh, it's perfect. Yeah. that We are more than happy. If you just want to take a ah photo of it and send it our way or whatever, that would be perfect.
Grant's Tournament Strategy and Game Analysis
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah. We will drop that into the ah drop that into the Discord ah for anyone who's interested. And I'm looking forward to that. That's super fantastic. So thank you. All right.
00:03:23
Speaker
and And obviously, yeah ah we didn't end up playing English Ivan in this game. So but which round are you talking about here tonight? and And why? This would be round two. It would have been difficult for me to play English Ivan, giving that I declared resurrectionist. Exactly. That's kind of what I'm thinking, but that's all right. ah It is ah flank raid the vaults. I believe it was flank. I never remember. like Once I've finished the game, the deployment is all just gone. i'm like i no longer worrying about what happened
00:03:54
Speaker
yeah but he was it was flank grade yeah flink rate had let them bleed deliver a message espionage info overload and ensmere and and why this round out of the five rounds that you played what was and highlights on this one and and maybe even some of the the big lessons or or themes that we should watch for as we're as we're talking with you here this evening. I mean this round was one of the one where I had to the most drastically change my plan for what I was originally going to do based on kind of knowing what tools are available to my opponent and it's not just about me it's ah my opponent played it very well after a pretty brutal start he had
00:04:31
Speaker
and So I'm going to also be talking about how there's ways to try to focus on where you're getting points, even if you're losing a lot of models fast. And that's a really important thing in Malifaux, because you don't need to kill to win. And sometimes you get killed and there's still ways to win or in this case, tie. ti case th yeah Yeah. So a very, very tough tie ended up, uh, just as ah a spoiler alert for our listeners, I guess that it ended up a, uh, a five, five tie, uh, going through this as, uh, you were fighting, uh, uh, professor Von Stuker, or actually it was the, uh, the, the yeah nightmare version, the Dr. Martin Wilder.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. um Versus Scott running Nekoma Broom Mother. And we caught Nekoma a lot on this pod because of certain Texans. But it's kind of cool to see some Nekoma coming roaring down from from the Breachburg podcast. Great Lakes kind of area. yeah So anyways, that's that's the game that we're going to talk about. And I'm super looking forward to this. See what we got. And so, and some great lessons that we will watch for. So why rezors? Obviously you've got other ah masters available to you. English Ivan being one of them and probably others. But but yeah, what what what drew you to rezors for this particular tournament? So I mean, I play like three or four factions total. um Resurrections were the one I've been playing ah post-ashes the most because a lot of rezors toys had already come out. So I naturally was playing rezors to try out all the new toys.
00:06:07
Speaker
ah So it like came up of the tournament coming up and I was like, oh, I qualified. And and if I brought like explorers, I'd be basically just one tricking Ivan and maybe some Anya.
Grant's Preparation and Model Choices
00:06:17
Speaker
And I don't think they are enough to, like Rezzer's had the most options for me that have actually been practicing lately is basically all it came down to. No, which is a fantastic reason. No, that definitely works. so No, that's excellent. And then as you were looking at at the pool and you're looking at this round and you you before the tournament has even started, were you kind of thinking about who for this one? um Scorpius wasn't a factor in this particular tournament. But still, yeah, what was your what was your thoughts as you're looking at this before you even knew who your opponent was going to be?
00:06:49
Speaker
I was, I Scorpius almost every single fucking tournament. And it's not even like I try to Scorpius. It just happens. I'm just, worked yeah my ADHD ass head keeps jumping back and forth between all the different toys I want to do. And, uh, but this pool, I, Originally had a plan to run a Molly squid pitch to chaotic conductor Okay, and I had a like a whole list planned out for that and then I got paired against Scott and Scott was running Neverborn and not just Neverborn but I know Scott has a really good neck of I've seen him played against other people and The thing about Molly too is if she goes into neck of my she just kind of loses a lot of models really really really fast and then she had Yep, so I'm like, okay
00:07:34
Speaker
Like there's a chance he doesn't run Nekama here, but I do not want to gamble on he doesn't run Nekama and then suddenly lose on master declaration. Exactly. Yeah. You're like, that's not how we want to run this. And so, so, and then he did draw, uh, he did declare Nekama. And so that ended up making, being a good call, obviously. That's cool. And then before the tournament started, um, yeah, what were your expectations for the new Ashes of Malifaux models, both within, on the table in ressars and across the table? And you play any in general, what was your kind of overall impression of Ashes for this tournament? I, Ashes was not like a hute, cause I don't proxy stuff. So I ended up like a lot of the toys I want. Like I would have loved to run leftovers in the McMorning game, but alas.
00:08:27
Speaker
Uh, I ran, uh, Kari's Otiko in the karai list, but, uh, not even, I didn't even run her boat with her. I just ran Kari. But, and I don't think I really fought any ashes models except for tunnel rats. Okay. but like ashes there's some very scary stuff and I think part of the reason I didn't see a lot of it isn't like oh it's not worth hiring as much as like a lot of people don't want a proxy or like they're right now running stuff they know yeah yeah they don't necessarily know the new ones yet yeah there's a lot of ashes stuff in that book that's really scary I am particularly
00:09:06
Speaker
I don't know if concerned is the right word, but ah hesitant and cautious towards the stuff that Purple and Red got in that book because Hot Rod has already discussed, looks horrifying. Nightcrawler Network is a monster. So yeah, there's going to be some, some shakeup. It's, it's, it seems like it's the, yeah, and but it's also good that, yeah, there wasn't anything that was so busted that everyone's like, okay, we've got to bring this and you know, you're facing nothing, but. model acts you know at this tournament it it it was in the background obviously but not in the foreground and that's maybe a good place for a new book to be so that's cool thank you so ah kind of shifting
00:09:48
Speaker
ah Do you have any other thoughts on on the before the tournament?
Strategic Flexibility vs. Focused Playstyle
00:09:51
Speaker
You'd mentioned in the previous episode that you had actually brought your entire Faction like I don't know if it was every single model you had including that the three minion packs when you've never only fielded more than one under No, it's it's all of them. Yeah, it's all of them. maybe Okay Yeah, and uh, so so tell me about that because because yours was a pretty hefty travel and thank you for coming down uh visiting us in houston But uh, but yeah, what's the what what what goes into your decision making on that? I really like having options like I as I discussed like I end up iron scorpion seeing more events than I don't I Enjoy having options and I frankly get a little bored playing the same thing over and over and over and over again
00:10:35
Speaker
ah For better or worse my ADHD ass head yeah Cannot stick to one thing for a whole tournament Like I talked with people about one trick in Castor one because I think he would not have been terrible at it But I'm like I'd be like I wouldn't have fun I would start getting sick of Castor and I want to be sick of Castor I like Castor ah Which is which is just which is cool and a good approach and it obviously works very well That I do want to reach out and ask Jim though about his perspective on that You are relatively notorious for playing dang near every master if not every master
00:11:15
Speaker
in existence, Jim. And so, like kind of what's your take on that? And that you soloed um just Dreamer 2. It was just Dreamer 2, right? You didn't play any Dreamer 1, did you? Yep, I did not. I soloed Dreamer 2. Yeah, so I would love your perspective on that. And like did you feel bored, or or it was so nice to be bored because you could actually focus on other stuff? or like It's a very different perspective, and obviously both of you guys ended up at the very top or almost at the very top of the podium with two totally different approaches to this same challenge. I have a background similar to Grant's. Like back in second edition, I would bring an entire faction's worth of models to every tournament. I would put all of them out on a tray to carry them around. I just got to the point where that's a lot of work to pull out all nine Bayou Gremlins into field three at a given point.
00:12:10
Speaker
Um, and also for me, I don't like traveling with everything anymore just because of how big and bulky the boxes are. So I absolutely think it's amazing that Grant can play a different master every round and play as well as he does with every master because it speaks to a faction expertise that he has. Um, I'm at the point in mike my hobby where I need to focus. So I, that's why I restrict. I did not give myself the opportunity to bounce during the event. I only brought yeah one. yeah I'm going to force this issue because otherwise I know I'm going to be jumping around or or there's a risk that I might. Yeah. I mean, there is a benefit to both. Like one side, like yes, focusing helps you hard focus on master and there's nothing wrong with that. Like there's.
00:13:01
Speaker
absolutely what's the saying from Bruce Lee fear a man who's practiced one punch a thousand times right but there's also a thing of like if you're taking a different master every single damn thing and you were playing against people who haven't played against you before they don't know what the hell you're gonna put down on the table from the next Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's yeah, whereas yeah Jim's here with the called shot, you know, like Babe Ruth doing the called shot thing. It's going there, you know, everybody knows what you know, we spill all of your secrets on the podcast. who who so But no, but it is really great. And so and I guess my point for asking the questions kind of for me as I have jumped around, and then I've also tried kind of focusing
00:13:41
Speaker
um But then also just for our listeners that yeah, you can be super successful, you know, absolute top of the North American Fotour Championship um with either approach. and And so which is just cool. So anyways, thank you guys. Thanks for talking to me about that. Okay, so I want to shift into the game itself. Great philosophy. That's awesome. Here we are. we We're actually here to talk about a game. and so um And you kind of talked already about your choice of masters and how you were like, Molly too would be really good here. But ah no, but please talk to me about your crew and and why you brought what you
Backup Assistant's Role and Impact
00:14:14
Speaker
did. And if you don't talk about the backup assistant, I am going to like
00:14:17
Speaker
like okay I'm just I'm just gonna go even before you start I gotta act because I'm back of us it has a reputation for being one of, if not the very worst model in the game. And so when I first saw this, I thought it was a typo, man. Yeah. If I didn't bring the backup assistant and Scott can confirm this, I would have a hundred percent lost that game, which is amazing. He absolutely saved that game for me. And like, I knew what his job was from the get-go and he abs. So I knew into Nekoma, uh, first of all, it was never going to be stuck to basically ever.
00:14:55
Speaker
Kostuktu, the only way he directly damages besides a shockwave is with a melee. You don't want to play in melee with your master against Nakama. Yep, that's a bad idea. So like the only time he's really effective is if Valley Girl or or whoever he's pumping up is still alive, and I'm expecting Valley Girl to probably be suicide-bombed in turn two. She's not living. Yeah. So what then? Well, Stook1, he has a summon. I didn't summon once that game. I would have liked to and there was a slight mistake where I could have summoned if I was a little better, but I didn't summon once. What I did do and why I brought him is A, if he's not like, if he brings some candy in to do the neck of a thing of flying candy, my deployment zone, Stook1's immune to stunned, which is very helpful for going small child, please leave my board.
00:15:46
Speaker
For sure. Absolutely. B, he has a range attack from like 10 inches that does okay damage and targets willpower. And a lot of Nephilim don't like either of those two things happening. Right. Yeah, for sure. Now a bunch, and the bunch strip thing, um, or, or Funkenstein, um, yeah certainly, certainly made sense, you know, that that's one where I'm like, I love administrative review. Um, I love gruesome lecture. I love, I really do like. the the Frankenstein. And yeah, so um and yeah
00:16:22
Speaker
ability of someone will talk about that at the end of the game, because i was I was interested in your summons, and and and and obviously if it didn't happen, then that takes care of that line of questioning. But we'll talk about that as we get more into
Crew List Decisions and Strategy
00:16:34
Speaker
the game. So bring in, and the list is in the show notes for any listeners, but yeah, it's Vesser van Stoeck or Frankenstein with the Whisper, ah because of course, Brought Igor, uh also known as the research assistant um Val of course students of viscera one with grave spirits touch and one with without um gwiss and necropunk and the backup assistant and so and and honestly though yeah please please do talk to me about the backup assistant because it's like okay five soul stones left you could bring
00:17:04
Speaker
you know i another upgrade and and some stones, you could have brought another Necropunk, you could have brought another, gri you know, there's all these options and you chose to do backup assistant. You're a great player, duh. But like, why? Heck. Or was it just a flex on Scott? No, it was not a flex. Scott can tell you right now, the backup assistant completely shut down his ability to actually win. That was what security might tie. which is amazing. So yes, so do we need to save that for the game or do or do do you want to just talk now the whole but whole backup assistant story?
00:17:38
Speaker
I mean, it happened mid game, but it was something I was kind of expecting to happen of back. First of all, has evasive, a lot of neck of his way to damage me is not even hit me. Just go, and you hit me. So get bled on nerd. Yeah. I mean, she can't just nuke the back of a assistant for free. Like she could do kind of a lot of my models, like a lot of fun strokes, durability of armor, hardwood and goes away. If I'm just keep taking one damage, bloody pings. point click Yeah. Like by that same token of I'm taking a bunch of damaged blood pinks to hit them over and over and I'm going to have to hit them over and over and we'll get into that with the game. One of my students of visitor are going to die almost guaranteed. I have a lot of card draw because I'm stuck.
00:18:19
Speaker
And I actually can't lose those students of Ysera. I need both of them to get points by to the end of the game. So what if I just assume the student of Ysera will die, let it happen, and go, here's student of Ysera to Electric Boogaloo with a single 13. Which is cool. Okay, so now the trade-off on that of, because you could have done student of Ysera with Grave Spirit's Touch, the Grave Spirit's Touch on both of them. but yeah that doesn't give you the the benefit against all the black blood that backup assistant does is that kind of the idea well not not just that but also a second grave spirits touch i start going to three soul stones and that's not a lot of soul stones like if i sack the black backup assistant then yeah i can get there but like i'd rather have the backup assistant yeah not just like help card filter but like be this thing where he can kind of stay back and soon visitors are fast enough that like
00:19:11
Speaker
my soon viscera when it dies, I essentially get to redeploy it by remaking with the backwards system and take it wherever it now needs to go. Cause it's not a summoned model. So it actually gets the count for raid the vaults now.
00:19:23
Speaker
which makes sense, which is cool. So okay, that's just super cool. So is it kind of unique to the vaults that you would bring, or is it unique to Necama, or, you know, I'm sitting here going, okay, I wanna get into, i I honestly do, I've been playing Reserves and I've been on the Molly Train and it's been great, and I wanna get into Bonjtok. Should I even like make this backup assistant, or I only do that if I expect to face Necama too in Raid, you know what I mean? I must keep backup assistants. a good model at what he does. He's not expensive. He's, it can draw you extra cards, which can be helpful. It's not really good for like your front lines, but you actually have some pretty solid range between Stook 1 and a Lovelace, and even the resource system can actually draw cards in the back line with his ah bonus action battle reclamation.
00:20:12
Speaker
So, like, is back-up assistance at auto-include? No, absolutely not. Is it even gonna show up in, like, above 50% of your lists? Probably not, but there's plenty of matchups where you go in going, hey, I have students of ISRA, they're pretty important to me, and they're going to die. What if I were like, I have a student of steel because I'm fighting Hoffman or some other heavy armor list. It's going to die. Now what? Yeah, that's, that's really cool. Okay. No, thank you very, very, very much for, uh, for talking me through that. And I do appreciate that because yeah, I'm, I built him, but I was honestly like, do I even want to build this model? And I'm like, yeah, duh. If I talked it, it wouldn't have been a question in my mind if I, if we'd had this conversation before I was building it. So, uh, so no that's great. Thank you.
00:21:00
Speaker
I've got a question about your list. yeah We're going into this, a card that I generally see as a mainstay in Von Strucklist. And honestly, I see your brought at a keyword a lot of time in Rezzers. is Anna Lovelace.
Strategic Exclusions and Execution
00:21:18
Speaker
And with all of the flying that is inside Nephilim, her gravity well is a huge counter to that. Also with all knowing that you've got ah the potential for summons, you know, that prevents them from getting placed inside her bubble. Why did you not bring um Anna here?
00:21:41
Speaker
So there's two for like it's Anna's expensive and she kind of lost a lot of stocks in the gg shift because Anna really doesn't move very fast or very far she kind of affects a centralized area around herself and so in a norse widespread gg and a lot of these schemes kind of wanted to be further widespread she's not doing as much and like very frankly I knew going into this that I had to try to keep him in his deployment zone. I could not let him beat Aggress onto me, or I would lose all my models very quickly. So if Gravity Well is coming up like that, I've already lost my main game plan. And I don't like playing to lose. Yeah, and that that makes great sense. And I was wondering the same question that I'd spent all my time talking about, about back of the system. But I was wondering, and so it's,
00:22:34
Speaker
That makes sense that you're if you have to worry about flyers close to Anna, then then yeah, you're you're you're already on the back foot and you don't want to be. She's 10 stones. She's not scoring me a lot of points directly. So it's just a thing of I'm just bringing her as gravity well defensive tech against the thing that I'm hopefully going to be stimming before it ever happens. Yeah, no, and that makes good sense. So how about leftovers in, you know, you talked, you already mentioned about how, you know, you wish that you'd been able to have them, uh, in, uh, the experimental in your, in your morning list you and you didn't have the models. And so obviously you weren't considering that, but is that something that you would consider in this list in this matchup?
00:23:16
Speaker
um so leftovers are good i know a lot of people say they're like stupid strong because they're like eight stones for like what 20 30 health but not all of that health is created equal because once you're not gonna pass the initial leftovers it's bisections and bisections are fine they're not nearly as impressive and then you hit them again so like yes it's a lot of health but not all that health matters And very frankly, I'd rather have Valet Valley girl and students of Israel and knickerpunks who can go out and get points aggressive like lectovers is moderately fast, but there's faster models in the, in the keyword. And I was trying to focus on a very, very aggressive build to win this game. That makes good sense. So cool. Thank you. Yeah. That so how about how about on the as you were looking at? Schemes and just kind of your overall um Your overall game plan here. What schemes did you end up choosing and and let me refresh for our listeners It was let them bleed deliver a message espionage information overload and ensnare and so what did you chosen in my
00:24:27
Speaker
ah So I took espionage, and espionage was kind of a gimme because Von Stuck can drop a lot of ski markers, somewhat incidentally, and i as I said, I had a very fast crew. I was playing and playing very aggressive. Espionage was ah kind of a slam dunk if I knew this was gonna happen. Now I took Let Them Bleed as well for the similar things of aggression, and I actually should have, if I think, if I switched that out with information overload, I would have won instead of tied, because Let Them Bleed kind of banked on me ah specifically, uh, knocking Angelize down to half. And I didn't really count on how actually annoying it is to aggress for specifically a Stuk list on a disguised model to get them to half health early in a game. Cause I was able to kill her by the end of the game, but it was actually like from like two health missing to dead turn five. I wasn't actually able to put that much heavy damage into her prior cause disguised kept all my big beat sticks from hitting her effectively.
00:25:26
Speaker
Now that makes great sense and and is a good is a good lesson, so cool. yeah um Any other thoughts? kind of as your' How about on ah the the list that you saw from Scott? as Was it kind of what you were expecting? Was there any surprises there? Did that change your game plan once once he declared his and started deploying it out? I mean, once hed I knew he was hiring Angelize, almost guaranteed, because Angelize is- Because why would you not? Yeah. Well, she's got armor piercing. and Von Stuck has quite a bit of armor. Yeah, for sure. And that's kind of why I hired a Gwishin is I don't want Angel Eyes to snipe something super important. And also Gwishin have trailer gourd. Trailer gourd is good. Yeah.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah, that actually makes great sense on the Gwissons as well. And that that's kind of what I assumed, but I didn't know if you, you do you tend to play your Gwissons like, um you know, kind of in a reactive mode or a proactive mode? You're like, okay, I'm moving this up. So I need that. It needs some protection. So here comes the Gwissons side by side. Or is it like, I'm going to wait and see what my opponent does? Or does it, it depends? I mean, it really does de depend. Like this Angel Eyes didn't do very much because uh once he started spreading out and he was playing and he like very quickly was i was like okay he's playing very cagey it's very clear like he might want to throw some nephilim at me but he doesn't want to go on a full-on confrontation which makes sense i don't think either of us were any under any misconception that nekama wins a full-on confrontation with trans mortis yeah that makes more it like dump trucks but he ran out and he was very effective at scoring like
00:27:03
Speaker
Uh, up to turn four, he scored all five of his points. It was turn five, he scored nothing because he didn't have a fucking crew left. Okay. It is hard to score points without a crew. Yeah. Yeah. The attrition ended up mattering by that point. And so, uh, and the fact that you're able to out attrition, Necama is, uh, kind of a tribute to your game plan actually working. And so, uh, and And that's maybe a good a good transition point for us to go. We are going to rock on into this game then. so And I just want to hear like what are the most interesting lines of play, some of the key decision points, and whether the decision point was on the table or like in your hand. Do I play this card or cheat this card or hold it for another another bid or what? um Yeah, please talk to me about this game. I mean, early on in turn three, I think for cheating it well, the only thing was early on in turn three, it drew a red joker.
00:27:58
Speaker
And like, I could have used the red joker to kill something and it very likely would have gotten that thing dead. And I didn't, uh, because I was like, Oh, my student Vistra two health left. And you know, who hasn't activated yet back of assistant. And that's exactly where that red joker went. and And it's exactly what it did. That is so cool. That's like, it's so nice when you have, yeah, the 13 or like a red joker in hand for that. That is amazing. Transmornis, turns out, are very good at drawing cards. um Yes, they are. Scott played it very well, like he sent his models to the sides, he kept models unactivated near Angelize. One of the big reasons I wasn't able to put heavier damage on her, despite how hard I was pressing her, was like every time I got a Stuna Vistra up near her, was like, got the, ah got the stupid yeah melee range on her, he would
00:28:52
Speaker
um immediately send like two dogs and a young nephilim to go claw at that student of viscera and occupy their god dang time. He also kept not falling into the trap of like, you know, you see a reposition on her melee, you see like all these ways to, you know, flip a card and do a thing. And he kept just saying no, I take disengage. And a lot of people don't like taking disengage. Disengage isn't exciting. It's not fun. But if you just need to be not engaged, it's way more reliable most of the time. Which is great. And yeah, great advice for everybody who's playing against, you know, yeah we talked in our last episode about kind of that, who's the beat down. And though Nekama might go to this game expecting to be the best beat down, you know, you're like, no, I need to out beat down. um I need to do better on the beat down game. And it sounds like, you're and so, yeah, just disengage them. Like, don't take it. Run away. It's okay.
00:29:51
Speaker
Uh, yeah, one of the things I learned from, uh, a game in Nova against Pope DARPA, which I know he had a question about, was, um, if Nekoma gets to fight you on her terms, you have a very bad day. Very quickly. So, turn one, I was like, okay, he has a... ah Mature Nephilim who hasn't activated and that's it and I have a valley girl and a research assistant whatever and I'm like, okay I'm just diving valedictorian directly at his neck of my his mature will get to hit me back and We'll live with that neck Valley girls never meant to live this game
00:30:25
Speaker
right yeah we hired her to beat face you know like it's it's a it's an an injustice to her to not allow her to beat face yeah totally yeah but like the fight needs to take place on his table half where i want it to take place or i lose he will bleed all over me because i like ronchdook has to make a bunch of melee attacks at least his keyword and they ah have to like hit real good and they have a lot of regen- there's no way I can let him dictate where this fight happens. So Valley Girl needs to dive in hard, and student visceras need to dive in hard on the flanks. I need to ensure I am picking where this fight happens. No matter what. Okay. and And it sounds like you did. I just very much did. Yeah.
00:31:12
Speaker
And despite that, I'm going to give you some props for and just circling back on the, the, you know, not a red joker in hand. And you're like, I am in beat down mode and it is super easy to get the bloodlust going. And when in fact your game plan since the beginning is beat down, you know, and then you're like, no, I'm going to hold this because I think I'm going to need it here. I'm almost certainly going to need it, you know, yeah for a, for breakfast or a back. And that's how I'm going to. win or, you know, in this case, by the game, but still, yeah like that's amazing. So good idea. Well, and if you don't end up, you know, needing, like if you have top text a card for it, it's like, well, student of visitor has got a red in hand to go kill something with. Yep. Oh yeah. Totally. Yeah. I was sweating a little bit because, um, like right before I turned up his student of Israel, he finally got a dog free to charge my backup assistant.
00:32:05
Speaker
and he hit like with critical strike i'm like oh god is he just gonna one shot is he gonna fuck up everything and i think he needed severe on a straight flip because i didn't cheat the red joker because i'm like if i cheat this in there's no point in even hiring the thing i have to just believe in the heart of yugi moto and accept that and he will save my model because I was pretty sure his hand was relatively trash at that point. And the dog failed to kill the Bacchus and left him at two health. Bacchus was an immediately activated and said, hey, I'm an eight stone bee stick now. The dog no longer wins this fight.
00:32:40
Speaker
yeah But still, and yeah, you're yeah the cheating the red to save a backup assistant does in fact sound like a really bad idea in that case. oh just joking angry Yeah. I mean, that kind of comes into a thing of like, people will spend cards defensively and then not have cards on those models. And sometimes you have to think, I have to take the risk and accept this model might die. If my opponent, if I don't think my opponent has resources to guarantee it. Because if they don't, and I spent the resources, they're not doing what I need them to do anyway, so they might as well have. Might as well have. Yeah, truly. Which is, that's a, that's a really powerful lesson, actually. just Yeah, let's yeah it's it's not just one of those
00:33:27
Speaker
Trust in the heart of the cards. I mean, it kind of is, but it's yeah it's really about a resource management decision of yeah why would I save it if it then can't do the thing I hired it to do. Right. and so I could I've got other uses for that red joker for sure in this game because now I'm on the back foot because I don't have a backup a assistant or a misser out and so I I will I will use the red joker it sounds like really managing your expectations and being willing to accept less than ideal outcomes because it sticks to your game plan right like if the back person dies
00:34:07
Speaker
and I spend the red joker then I'm really fucked but if the back assistant lives and I don't have the red joker then I'm great. If the back assistant doesn't live but I have the red joker then I'm like okay that sucks but now I can maybe do something with this red. And again I just gotta to give you props for not letting the bloodlust overtake you because because it's kind of easy to do when you're like in like my whole job this game is to kill and kill fast it's easy to lose track of weight But not right now, you know, or I'm on the defensive thing. i should yeah So, uh, so good on you. Um, so, so what was the MVP model? Are you, is was it the backup assistant or not? Even like he, he, he was worth his first stones, but he was not the MVP backup system is high up there. Um, I mean, the MVP was the, uh, was the red joker, which is in the model. Cause turn one Valley girl red joker damaged in the neck of my.
00:34:58
Speaker
Then like turn two at the, towards the bottom of the turn, Nakaba's like at literally one health, no stones left. I'm like, ah shit, how the fuck do I guarantee a kill on her? Von Schuch activates. And with the Whisper, I see a red joker in the second car. I'm like, oh, I killed her. There's really nothing she can do about that then. Uh, and then like turn three or turn, I drew the red joker from a study of anatomy on, I don't even remember what duel, one of the billion. Yeah. but But number one is like the Grey Spirits touch student of Isra, which I kind of played a little more defensively because I hired Grey Spirits touch on him to kind of pick apart the flanks before he went in. Like both the students of Isra because ah the one that didn't have Grey Spirits touch his he went off and gauge Angelice and spent a lot of resources lecture notes in her with the blank stare trigger to ensure she was stunned and slow every fucking turn and couldn't just shoot me to death. Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
i mean which is a great it it is amazing how good stunned and slow are like it's yeah really they are i don't think they're underrated by any means because everybody realizes how but still surprises me how good they are So a quick question on that. Now, Blackster also makes you discard a card, you said, right? Yeah. So you mentioned that. You also mentioned there was a time or two that you saw that Scott didn't have great cards in hand, like he didn't cheat severe on a straight flip with the dog into the backup assistant.
00:36:24
Speaker
And you said that your keyword has a lot of card draw. Did you feel like the card draw that you had versus the card cycling Nikima has access to was a deciding factor in this game? I mean, absolutely, I leveraged my advantage. because like Von Stuck gets to cheat fate defensively where normally I'm a little hesitant to because the same thing of I don't like spending resources on models that then won't get. But if I get to see like he has hey he just flipped a ram and I get to cheat a ram in like I know he if doesn't have card draw isn't gonna want to cheat just to deny me mine because that's ludicrous amount of resources spent for
00:37:05
Speaker
something he doesn't afford to. So I absolutely leverage the thing of I get to cheat a little more defensively than I normally can with some keywords. Now, and that is, that is sweet. The so other interesting moments during the game, is it, um and and maybe this more properly belongs in the kind of the wrap-up section as we're talking about ah lessons learned or whatever, but but yeah, it was a five-five tie. Was it a moment where you're like, oh crap, this is going to be a five-five tie? Is there a moment where you're like, I've got this, and then it the ties are always super interesting to me?
00:37:39
Speaker
I've never assumed I had it because like i like but prior to turn five, I only scored two points. Three of my points were, he doesn't have a team left, let me wrap up. And that's kind of how my point scoring was always going to be. What was frustrating and like got me sweating a little bit was when he scored in snare and deliver a message pretty early and sure. i He kept just running models past me going, I'm not even trying to fight this. Let me go get my vault's points now, which is very smart. Scott's a very good player. He immediately saw, I can't win this fight. Let me go get points now before I lose models to do so. And he kept defending Angelize so effectively and I needed my let them because I could get any young or a fucking mature to low health. No problem. Angelize was the problem because of fucking disguise and I could not get her down.
00:38:30
Speaker
And that was kind of what solidified the top. And that's on me. Like I could have picked information overload and did a little better, but that was probably where I was sweating the most going into turn five. I'm like, shit, I did not get a point. I really was hoping to get. Yeah. And, and so the trade-off though, on, you know, you've built this crew and you've taken a crew that is designed for murder, you know, and it's like, that does seem a little counterintuitive. Like that's hard to think. You know, before the game, you know, after the game, you're like, Oh, I should have taken information overload. But like before the game, you're like, no, then I should have built a scheme year crew. You know, and and okay, students or are are, are fantastic is like the, yeah, Dixon from Rage Quit Wire calls it the beater schema. And it's like, it's a, they are fantastic at that. But like, that's a tough call. So is that.
00:39:20
Speaker
Yeah, would you have built a different crew if you wanted to do information overload? or So what I didn't really ah account for, and what I should have, is like, especially in Necama, where he she has so many models, Von Stuck, as stuff, as long as he's looking at it, gets to drop a ski marker whenever it gets a kill. And that kind of, could like, so that is kind of leaning into the kill thing. Of information overload doesn't care where ski markers are, which is normally the problem with that ability is I don't dictate where I'm dropping those ski markers because it's on my opponent's model. The inventory overload just cares that they're kind of there. So I could have taken it, but A-Stop just, I'm going to kill all most of these stupid dogs. I'm going to kill a lot of young Nephilim. You know, I'm going to kill all these models.
00:40:06
Speaker
So then how do I, you know, turn that into points? Yeah. Now that's super interesting. Does that require line of sight? Does that become like, then you spend your whole game managing line of sight? It is a 10 inch aura. It used to just be board wide and they nerfed it. And I understand why they nerfed it. I'm still sad. Okay. But it is a 10 inch aura. 10 inch aura is still pretty big, especially from Astra who's like, for just a little professor, he's actually pretty durable in a fight. Oh yeah. Yes, he is. But but yeah, it is. Yeah, you do that. Does it become a deal where you spin your entire you know every spare cycle that you've got managing his lines of sight? Or is it that that's the board was the board was set up in such a way that where he was he could like I had enough ski markers easily.
00:40:57
Speaker
And that's kind of like, I was scared of that and I shouldn't have been. I should have recognized the board is open enough. Like there's a lot of concealing here, but that doesn't really stop me. I'm just charging, meleeing him. Yeah. It's still, concealing doesn't matter at all when it comes to drop ski marker yeah next to a dead guy. yeah so Yeah. Okay. No, that's super cool. Interesting. Oh my gosh. No, that's fantastic. I really appreciate that kind of. that kind of thought. any Any other points during the game that that are worth highlighting? I know Scott said that like he thought he had mostly won the game until the back of his sister turn in Visera and he was mentioning like oh god that was the moment where like all my hopes and dreams left my body.
00:41:43
Speaker
um There was also a moment, and like strategically not that interesting, because it's very much straightforward, but just was very amusing was, um, bottom of turn two, where I was like sweating, looking in Nekema, like, okay, maybe she'll get regen next that turn and like, think of that. And then I look at the whisper with Von Stuck, I'm like, and I just go, huh? Because I see a red joker in there. And I just hear somewhere in the background of my gears turning, I hear Scott going, I really don't like hearing you say, huh, when you're looking at those.
00:42:15
Speaker
us but so lose a poker face point for that one you're like yeah yeah well i mean sure but like there's not a lot he can do about it from that point that poker face is that's a little move yeah because it's because it is because it is launch tricks activation here so no that's it's launch tricks activation and i'm about to flip it so you don't even get to cheat or like spit like yeah here What are you going to do? Hope that I block Joker? I know the next two cards. Nerd, they're not the black. Yeah, exactly. No, that's great. but I just had a quick question. Who was attacker in this round? I believe I was attacker. You were talking a little bit about the concealing on the board. How much of the board setup played into your decision on which deployment zone to take?
00:43:06
Speaker
um im I played it mostly I wanted to make sure I had things to block line of sight so Angelize couldn't pop models turn one before they activate because there were like large pillars of blocking they were very so like key things but I took the point where I'm like I can see places to hide my necropunk hide my back resistant hide my read like because I don't need to hide some vissera Angelize she might hit it hard but she can't one round it so I just need to hide the models that she can Until I get a student of viscera in to go stop shooting me you stupid dumb nerd. Mm-hmm. Okay That makes good sense
00:43:47
Speaker
So all right, so shifting to the kind of the after game. So now it's been a little while and again, congratulations. But now you're looking back at the game and that we love asking about the advice that you would ask. And so picking it up and get to kind of like the bottom third player, somebody who's maybe never even faced neck of my two and they match against you first round and they're like, I don't know what I'm doing. You have any tips for them? ah Face neck of my face punch. Oh, I'm sorry. duh No, face punch. Thank you. re um ah So it's kind of the same thing, similar thing I was saying about Dreamer is if you don't have card draw, be okay with a lot of your actions failing. They're kind of gonna get more cards than you. And that's honestly fine as long as you make sure that what you need to have happen happens. Focus your attention on what actually gets you points.
00:44:38
Speaker
I'm like, I've, there's a lot of times when an NPE and Matt and a Malifaux is, Oh, I couldn't do anything. Cause you try to do too much. And it's actually okay. If you don't have card draw, well, except for like one or two key cards. And then you go, okay, these are one or two key things I know I can make happen. Everything outside of that doesn't matter. And so, yeah, that the deciding one of those one or two key things is maybe the tough part. and That's never an easy part. Like I'm not gonna pretend facing Stuck is easy, especially for a bottom. Um, if you- a lot of people go like, oh bring Ignor's hard moon, bring Ignor's armor, bring ping damage. You want to fight Von Stuck. No one he hates, he hates taking one damage at a time, 500 times. Because he actually doesn't have a lot of like, healing except for his living models. Uh, spoiler.
00:45:32
Speaker
All the dead ones charging at you are generally not the living ones. One shook two can kind of fix that, but like then he's not summoning new ones. Bring ping damage. Bring a lot of ping damage. Bring Cadmus. Bring black blood bastards. Bring hazardous terrain. He hates all of it. Okay. No, that's great. Yeah. Cause the armor doesn't care if it's yeah or does count. Doesn't do a whole lot of good yeah if you're doing it one damage at a time. Right. And so no, that's great advice. So cool. What's the biggest gotcha moment, uh, with your crew? I mean, I think one of the biggest is just, if someone hasn't seen, I mean, first of all, someone hasn't seen Valley girl and doesn't know what's coming. ah Dear, she's just a blender. She is a blender of blades and death.
00:46:25
Speaker
And I've seen people go, well, I don't want to spend all my resources. Spend them. You're not spending them. If you're dead, if you stop Valley girl from killing something, turn one and turn two, you're good. Yeah. Yeah. And she's going to be there until yeah. One or both of you are going to be dead at the end of that. yeah just like She's not enrolled a amazing. She's okay. Defensively. Cause Hey, armor, hard to wound still good, but she doesn't actually have like any ways to heal back up. Really? She doesn't have all that stuff. So like. if you can last she will peter out and kind of you know ah collapse in a puff of exhaustion zombie death just last yeah she at least looks like and maybe not if you're using the uh the the frankenstein you know the monster version but she at least looks like a deadly model um the i will say that having played sponge took one a few times where where and
00:47:25
Speaker
As we've already talked, Anna wasn't part of your list, but Anna can certainly be a gotcha against a generic, yeah a more generic bunched up crew. Um, cause she will just mess you up and she doesn't look like she's going to, but oh my gosh. Yeah. Anna does not look like a gun line and she is a very, she's a sniper essentially. Like she not doesn't have a sniper role, but she's The whole purpose of Anna is bes sought beyond how good her front of cart is, is that Valley Girl students, they all weaken people down, drop them to low wounds, and then Anna just cleans up. She just takes a low health model, and like normally, i will put if I'm hiring Anna, I will actually put Von Stuck's Summit upgrade on Anna, not Valley Girl, because I'm not expecting Valley Girl to get kills most likely. I'm expecting her to do damage.
00:48:10
Speaker
now I put it on Valley girl. Cause I'm like, I don't have Anna. And that's always my main instinct. If I was a little, if I thought for even like half a second more, I'd have put it on bond, stuck himself. Cause I'm recognizing, Oh, I took him to do that same job as Anna, but I didn't. And that was a mistake on my part. I, I could have totally recognized. Wait a minute. He's kind of doing what I normally have take Anna to do. I should have put the upgrade on him and I'll get summons off of him because Valley girl is probably not taking it.
00:48:41
Speaker
Oh, which is so, and and yeah, we, you, we mentioned that. So yeah, going back to the, during the game piece, we mentioned at the top of the episode that you hadn't gotten any summons off. And that was exactly what you were saying. You put the yeah upgrade on, uh, uh, on Valley instead of I didn't even realize that you could put it on bunch. It says friendly trans mortis. It does not have the funny word other in it. Yeah, no, that is super cool. That is great tech and also great advice. That is one important word yeah that goes and it gets overlooked a lot of times where you think it's like, Oh, well, I clearly can't put this on this particular model or where you think is like, Oh man, I got this amazing idea. And they go, Oh no. Other go. Oh, ah there goes my plan. Yeah. And like past turn one, I did not save a single card for to put the summit upgrade out. Like.
00:49:40
Speaker
Brave, like I spent a stone on a turn one to ensure I could get the threat. And if I put it on Stook, I would have gotten the model, but brain fart on my behalf. But past that, I'm like, summoning is not how I'm going to win this game. Summoning is just going to be a win more. Okay. Which is also great advice because it's, yeah, it's, it is easy to get caught into a, or kind of mode and and you don't need to. That's not the best use of the limited resources that we've got. so yeah okay so so closing parentheses off of that and then back to that any other advice for for kind of bottom third players um i mean really what i would say is pay attention to
00:50:21
Speaker
uh to your suits when you're attacking like a couple of shooks models not a lot but a couple of them like have ways to build in suits on you or like build it like they have built-in defensive triggers or etcetera pay attention to those because like if you're attacking shook one he has a crow built into his defense and willpower if you're attacking with a built-in crow or you need a crow for the thing you want pick ah It's okay to pick a different target if you don't want to give him cards. Otherwise you are literally giving him a guaranteed card draw. Right. And yeah really pay attention, and this is so important, to the once per activation on studied Studied Anatomy. If they've already drawn that activation, keep hitting the same model. They can't keep doing it to you.
00:51:08
Speaker
which is also just fantastic advice. because Yeah. Once yeah activation is is really nice, it can be really, really nice. You don't have to worry about it after the first one. So yeah now that's super. So how about for ah middle third players, somebody who's experienced in, you know, yeah at that middle third level? Yeah. um A lot of Stuk is very fast, but they're deceptively easy to slow down if you bring control effects. Like, he has some condition removal, that is one reason baccalaureate can be fun, is he does have a way of condition removal. And um and like, you can bring bone piles and stuff, but like, if you
00:51:49
Speaker
slow and stagger onto a key nerds like turn two a lot of them are suddenly real sad and like if you stunned a lot of them a lot of them their damage valedictorian without puncture you'd be surprised how little damage you're taking compared to normal that puncture does a lot of work on a two four five Bring away, don't expect to just kill them, but you can probably disrupt them. Things like, hey, discard a bunch of your cards. Now it's a lot harder e for you to force the Study of Anatomy out. Like, Study of Anatomy is at its best of card draw when your hand's already full, which is where Von Stuck kind of likes it, because that means he can cheat defensively and refresh, but if you're making him discard a bunch of extra cards, it's a lot harder for him to, like, suit search, basically. Yeah, that makes great sense.
00:52:37
Speaker
So cool. How about shifting on to, uh, to top third players. So somebody ah or yeah. What do you wish you'd done differently? Either, you know, either advice for somebody at your level or for just looking back at this. Yeah. We've already talked about the scheme, but yeah, that the broader sense. What do you think? I definitely wish I would have, um, I do wish that like with that different scheme, but like. with him defending Angelize so well. I wish I could have focused to just getting a couple of my raid the vault's points early. Like because I got like, I think one of them and I got ah espionage early. but If I focused a little more on raid the getting raid the vault's points a little sooner, then maybe I could have
00:53:20
Speaker
Cause I was really, but as he was spreading out intelligently, doing the right thing, cause Scott's a very good player, I could have gone, okay, he's not falling for my attrition trap. I can start spreading out and getting points before I worry about killing the rest of his team. And I think if I had done that a little, like there was a bit of bloodlust in my eyes, even with some of my. So yeah. And that that is tough though. and But it is also refreshing to hear that, yeah, you had a little bit of bloodlust. I'm like, no. And again, your game plan is kill everybody and then score points later. And so yeah.
00:53:51
Speaker
yeah How do you find that balance? That's a tough, tough, tough balance on from killing to scoring. Normally, that's the neba game plan, which I think is kind of a fun little flip of the results here because normally the key was like, all right, we'll kill them, then we'll score. This time was the other way around. Oh, yeah, it was very bloody. I think we started with like, he summoned one terror tot early turn one. And after that, we had 20 malls on the board. We ended with six.
00:54:24
Speaker
A lot of models died. There's black blood all over the board. that And backup assistant took none of it, baby.
00:54:36
Speaker
But yeah, but how do you how do you figure out when to make that shift? You know, and and I'm saying that yeah, you wish that you maybe gone a little earlier on that shift. But yeah like how do you know or what do you look for to know? I mean, it's always a tricky thing. So an important ah thing at least to look at is what like look at a model like killing a model is really important if it gets you a point or stops your point for getting points. Those are the big two things, right? Yeah. So look at a model as like go, you can go turn by turn a little bit and look at a model and go, okay, if I kill this model, how easy that for me to do, but also what does that stop my opponent from doing? So if that model is already activated or if it's like not really scoring any points or not killing me, I can move away from it. I can go, okay, that's a future me problem.
00:55:27
Speaker
on the other hand like if it's a model that like say would escape like i know um against jim's damn dreamer too i knew if i didn't kill it right the fuck now he was just leaving and i was never catching the little brat again in my defense in my sense if you hadn't flipped us a 13 when i flipped my red joker on resist uh-huh there's a chance i lived oh there was almost a hundred percent chance you lived i just believed in the heart of yugimoto better than you i can't help you
00:56:02
Speaker
look out but no that's that's awesome though so any other advice for kind of that the top third player uh i mean really it's uh like Von Stuck's keyword is very fast they're very killy and historically very good for they're vast killy and durable those are all good traits Don't get too caught up in like, one of the whole reasons that's good is for its adaptability. Don't get too caught up in how murdery you can be to go, Oh, wait, it's turned. Don't do what I do and go, Oh, wait, it's turned five. I have two points. I can only tie this. Nope. That is fantastic advice. So, all right.
00:56:48
Speaker
So we always like taking questions from Discord, and we've covered a ton of stuff here, and it's been great. So I think that we've answered most of them, except for a question from from Nathan. Nathan, he's added a new last name on his Discord panel, so Festerd.
00:57:05
Speaker
but Which I'm sure is an inside joke and it's fantastic and good on Nathan for that. but good Which Nathan is this? There's a lot of Nathan. There are. Alright, so anyways, and this is a question for both of you guys, but Grant, you're going, Stu Dangit, this is your episode. And what is it about the Capital City Conference that pushed the two to the edge of the competitive world? And I have to say that, yeah, Capital City Conference went from last year, if I remember, it was like you guys were scrambling at the last minute to put together some tournaments to get any slots period. to like a ton of slots and the top two slots on the podium. So congrats to, I mean, everybody in the conference for steel sharpened steel is maybe the answer. But yeah, what's your thoughts on that? ah I mean, I can, ah to a certain degree, I moved here your like within the last year or two. So like, I would like to believe I've been fairly sharp for a lot of time, but I was in Georgia previously who had like no tournament thing at all. But
00:58:03
Speaker
As I told Nathan, we all strive to get as good as we possibly can to make sure he never can win. Because we just don't think he has enough sodium in his diet at any point of the day. He needs more sodium. And the only way he gets sodium is when we get to have fun.
00:58:21
Speaker
That's awesome. We have a similar thing with Doug. I mean, that's all right. There's a level of Doug. And if you can if you can actually get something over on Doug, it's an amazing feeling. but But no, that's great. So yeah, any thoughts from you on that question, Jim? So I think that after last year, Capital City decided that, you know what, we really want to do a good showing. no You know, the Capital City crew podcast, which doesn't really put out content anymore, they kind of were having holding the reins of the NFT.
00:58:58
Speaker
for a bit and you know when you're holding the reins of something and you're scrambling to show up for your own event it's not a good look so we decided to fix that and so I know ah a couple of us have been making a point to go travel to events or host events and just have regular game nights and do our best to grow the community and just be present and ambassadors for the game. And I think as part of that process, we actually start figuring out what we're doing on the table. Heck yeah.
00:59:33
Speaker
No, it showed it was it was really impressive for sure and and a shout out to to Owen Owen was You know another member with Doug from the NEFT Council of TOs and made it out which was fantastic So thanks for coming out Owen if you're actually listening to this podcast, we appreciate it but but certainly thank you and And yeah, they taken what was the NAFT championship thing at Nova and for Owen to be able to pass that over to Doug and and and all of us here in Texas. And then for you guys to be able to come down here and just really kick butt is, I mean, didn't feel necessarily good for the Texans to get their faces kicked in, but but congratulations to you guys for sure. It was awesome, so you know thank you. I would like to say it was a great showing from almost everyone.
01:00:30
Speaker
i ah I got first place, but I was only three two like three wins, two ties. Jim was three wins, two ties. That was not like a, oh, we swept. Everyone there played fantastically. And if anyone had any shame about not placing in high ranks at that event, call it immediately. That was like a tremendous showing throughout the whole event. Right. It really lived up to the hype of being the best players in the different regions showing up to play. The the quality was phenomenal. And I mean, the the plan is for next year to ah
01:01:02
Speaker
make it bigger and better. We've got to kind of, you know, do our postmortem meeting with, you know, the NAFT Council Teos, figure out, okay, what is going to be the best timing for it? You know, obviously, ah we wanted it to be larger, but just things happen and we want to figure out, all right, what do we need to do to get as many of the people who qualified to come to the event? And so we're going to chat about that. And I think doing this event as the two kind two tournaments running concurrently side by side was a really cool idea.
01:01:41
Speaker
And um and um I think for that to really come to the biggest fruition, yeah, we need to do be more on top of promotion for it. Nah, that's a good point. So cool. But anyways, no, thanks for answering that question. Y'all made it to the top and as a conference. And so congratulations to to to you guys, obviously, but then also to everyone who helped get you there ah by sharpening you through the year. And so so any plugs or parting thoughts, Grant? ah Well, I would feel a little
01:02:20
Speaker
a little disingenuous if I didn't blog if i didn't plug Breachburnt. The opponent I fought, Scott, he hosts Breachburnt, and if I'm gonna talk about how much I killed all of his shit and left him with like a dog and half of a young Nephilim, he better get some plug time on about his goddamn podcast. He's a great host. Oh, and he absolutely is. that We were talking about it last episode. I will absolutely put it drop a link in the show notes to Breachberg. They do do a really good job from up in the frozen north, and ah we appreciate that very much. So now that's fantastic. No, good call out. Thank you. Not that frozen. there They're in the Midwest. I mean, that's where I grew up. It's not that frozen. We saw out during the summer up there.
01:03:05
Speaker
I mean, that really depends on where in the Midwest. Yeah. Heck yeah. So all right. Well, again, congratulations. And thank you so much, Grant, for spending some time with us here, getting the the No Kidding North American Folk Tour champion to be able to yeah to talk to us about about a game is is super cool. So thank you. ah Any other comments, any questions from anybody? i a I do have a couple of quick plugs and parting thoughts there that as we were just talking about you know wrapping up with the NEFT, I did want to make sure that I you know plugged and thanked Dragon's Lair and the staff of Dragon's Lair where we ran um the NEFT championship weekend.
01:03:54
Speaker
Dragon's Lair Houston always super duper awesome and wonderful that when they host events for us there they um I mean, Ian and Kelly for sticking around late and running Bonanza Brawl Karaoke for us and just having a blast. Rob, the owner, for, you know, hooking us up with an amazing space that where he's really strived to build a community has been really awesome.
01:04:26
Speaker
So I'll always want to make sure I give them the shout out. And yeah. um Also, the other thing I wanted to make sure I mentioned was, hey, Clay, congratulations on you taking a podium in the Black Joker Open. yeah okay yeah You're finally a top third player! please I was going to mention this. And I'm mentioning it. Because you know what? in the eve Because we we had the invitational running. We also had the black joker open, which was the tournament running concurrently side by side that was for the players who did not you know rank highly enough to get an invitation to the invitational. And it was still a very competitive event.
01:05:20
Speaker
And our very own Clay got a third place finish in this. So congratulations, Clay. Okay, well thank you. When are you getting interviewed for Students of Conflict? I think I'm not and and and I am super good with that. So the key to making top third from my perspective is is ah just wait for a tournament where the best players in North America are playing at the tables over yonder and yeah and you can actually do okay.
01:05:53
Speaker
No, I love Molly. Molly got me there. So, so as a, as a, I'm going to say fellow Rezzer player, even though I'm honestly looking at you from the bottom third up to the top third, their grand, uh, uh, love, love, love Molly, but Molly wanted to, uh, Oh my goodness. And then sticking with her, instead of jumping around, I started out jumping around. Sticking with her has been, uh, made an unbelievable difference. And so it was all good. I'm all sad because I had two games where I'm like, oh, Molly too could do a lot in this. And for both of them, for different reasons, I couldn't really run her.
01:06:29
Speaker
yeah The first was that Bekeba thing, and the second was ah round five, and I was paired against someone who had like been playing Riva like a couple times, but had been like three rounds of Molly. I'm like, oh God, he's a better, I'm not that experienced. I'm like pretty good at Molly. I'm not like that experienced. If I had the Molly mirror match, he's gonna just choke me down with knowing the crew better. I can't do this, and I had to do it there. I absolutely cannot. Yeah. And so if it's ah for whatever it's worth. Yeah. No, I ran, I ran Molly to, um, when I call cackles, uh, uh, in this pool and, uh, and she worked pretty well. So it was, it was good. Uh, it was cackles, double hangless. And, uh, and yeah, it was, I really, that, that list sings to me. I have to say. So anyways, good stuff. But no, thanks Doug. Uh, I'll pay you later, I guess for the little boy. no, you know what? I just wanted to say, I wanted to congratulate you. And you know what? I wanted to thank all of the players who came out to the event. um heck yeah I think everyone had a really great time.
01:07:35
Speaker
and I am always blown away by how awesome the Malifaux community in general is. That anytime I'm like, Oh man, I'm, you know, getting a little bit tired, you know, exhausted with running these events. Y'all, you know, give me the energy to keep going because seeing, uh, how everyone reacts to these events. you know, yes, with the visual medium that is podcasting and you know, Clay giving me the big heart there. Ultimately, i it's awesome every time I get to see you all. And I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at the Boston event coming up. And those of you who aren't going to be at the Boston event, I'm looking forward to seeing you all at GenCon.
01:08:26
Speaker
Awesome. So, all right. Well, with that, thank you again, very much everybody. And let's wrap this sucker up. Thanks for coming, Grant. Thanks for coming, Jim. And thank you guys for having me on. You know, I always love hearing myself talk.
01:08:44
Speaker
to you by topug design check out topdogdesign dot com for all of your malfo terrain need top do design three d printable designs to enhance your tableop Students of Conflict is brought you by Top Dog Design. any group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything. Whoo!
01:09:39
Speaker
Well, there goes my plan. Oops. I'm an expert in child murder.