Custom Strategies - Campaign Day Prep

With the release of Index of the Untold (which I have been so excited for, if you're unfamiliar you can check out my review of the book here), my local group is planning to spin up a couple of campaigns. We have plans to launch an ongoing monthly campaign in about a month's time, but to really get to grips with the system I wanted to try and run a full campaign-in-a-day experience. Think of it like a tournament, but the focus is far more on narrative than competition. The ambition is to run four games of Malifaux in a single day, banking on the lower point sizes of early campaign games to keep things fast-paced, and play out a full campaign from start to finish. I see a few advantages to this process, namely:

1. It'll let people get a feel for the campaign rules before committing to a more long-term project.

2. For those with multiple campaign crew concepts, this is an opportunity to play one to their satisfaction and then try a new one for the ongoing campaign.

3. It avoids the risk of an ongoing campaign potentially fizzling out, should folks get bored or have life problems crop up that get in the way.

So that's the concept. I want to centre storytelling with this day, so with the help of some friendly booklights I've been putting together some custom strategies to tell the story of the day. We shall be fighting over the fate of Bellson Burrough, the latest corner of the Quarantine Zone to be targeted for reclamation by Malifaux's authorities.

Turf Wars

My original plan for the day involved using the Gaining Grounds Zero strategies and building a narrative around them, but I ended up deciding I wanted to make the day a bit more memorable with some custom scenarios. The goal is to write some unique strategies that add a little bit more pizazz than the default strategies, while still being clear to play and hopefully not being overly broken.

To begin with, I imagine Bellson Burrough in the early morning, just before dawn on the day the conflict arrives. Different crews dash beneath the cover of a thinning fog to plant banners on the structures and landmarks of the neighbourhood, staking their claim to the territory.

With that in mind, I have crafted:

One Foggy Morning...

On the first Turn, models can only draw LOS to other models within 6".

Models may take an Interact action to place a strategy marker within 1". A strategy marker cannot be placed in base contact with a piece of terrain if another strategy marker is already in base contact with that terrain. At the end of the turn, the crew with the most strategy markers on the enemy table half in base contact with terrain scores 1 point.

Models may end their movement on top of strategy markers.

Once per game, a crew may score a bonus point by picking up an enemy strategy marker.

This is intended to be the initial strategy of the campaign, so the crews will be quite small and Masters will only have two actions. The LOS limitation is intended to be pure flavour, just a little narrative twist to represent the fog embankments that shroud Malifaux City and give it a bit of a creepy atmosphere. The rest of the rules will hopefully do a good job of representing the competing crews rushing around to mark their territory. I tried to leave open some interesting play and counterplay, with it being possible for models to drop markers to lock down pieces of terrain on their own table half even though they don't contribute to scoring, with the risk that those markers may end up just being fodder for opponents to score the bonus point, but it is entirely possible that the model count in this scenario will be too low for any of that to matter much. Either way the intent is that it be a relatively straightforward scenario with just a dash of flair, and hopefully this captures that sense.

A Fork in the Path

Everyone will play "One Foggy Morning..." to kick off the campaign, but I want to create a bit of a branching path from that point. Broadly speaking, I think I want to create a bit of a sense in Game 2 of the day that there are Haves and Have-Nots. Those who won their game of One Foggy Morning have claimed a patch of Bellson Burrough to call their own, and those who lost are eking out a living in the margins.

I'm also aware that, while this might not always be the case, there's a chance that the defeated crews from Game 1 may be wrestling with more injuries than the victors, so I want the victorious crews to face a more combat-heavy encounter than those who lost their opening match. The campaign mechanics have some degree of self-balancing and catch-up mechanics as-is, so I'm not going to lean into this super hard, but it was a consideration in how I chose to approach these strategies.

First off the rank is:

Rampant Populism

After deployment zones are chosen, place one neutral strategy marker on the centrepoint and a neutral strategy marker in the centre of each table quarter.

A model may take an Interact action targeting a neutral strategy marker. The marker is then considered a friendly strategy marker.

A model may take an Interact action targeting an enemy strategy marker. The marker is then considered a neutral strategy marker.

At the end of the turn, the player with the most friendly strategy markers scores 1 point. After scoring, the player who has scored the most victory points from this strategy considers all friendly strategy markers to be neutral.

Once per game, a player may gain a bonus victory point by removing a scheme marker within 1” of both the centrepoint and a friendly strategy marker.

With their territorial claims secured over a slice of the Burrough, the victors from Round One come face to face in a jockeying for support from the local populace. I wanted this strategy to encourage a bit of violence due to the positioning, but not be an outright "kill strategy" (that, or something like it, is coming later).

Meanwhile, those who were defeated on that foggy morning would go head to head with:

The Bog Witch’s Curse

After Deployment, beginning with the attacker, players take it in turns to place three friendly strategy markers on the enemy table half. These markers must be less than 6” apart and more than 6” from the centreline. Models may stand on these strategy markers.

At the start of each turn, each player names three models in the opposing crew. Those models gain a Cursed Fate Token.

Cursed Fate: This model suffers 1 damage each time it Cheats Fate. This token may not be removed except as outlined in this strategy.

A model may take an Interact action targeting a model with a Cursed Fate token to remove the Cursed Fate token, provided the model is within the triangle formed by their friendly strategy markers. At the end of the turn, the crew with the fewest Cursed Fate tokens scores 1 victory point. Then, the crew that has scored the fewest points on this strategy removes all Cursed Fate tokens from their models.

Once per game, a crew may score a bonus point if they have no Cursed tokens on their models at the end of turn.

How could we possibly have lost our first game? Why, because some witch cursed us! I'm honestly not sure how this will work in practice, it's likely going to prove to be a strategy that's fairly easy to game out and not one you'd necessarily want to play a lot of, but as a one-off in a cooky campaign day it should be a fun time. Importantly, it exists to provide a narrative explanation for any lack of success in the campaign up until this point. Blame Zoraida!

An Unexpected Twist

At this point in the day, it's probably time for things to get a little grim. The darkest night is right before the dawn, you know? And with that in mind, I have devised this:

Under Quarantine

After choosing deployment zones, create a strategy marker on the centrepoint and two strategy markers on the centreline 10” to the left and right of the first strategy marker.

Models may take an Interact action when within 1” of a strategy marker to gain a friendly Infested token.

Infested: This model, and all models within 3”, suffer 1 damage in the end phase. Then remove the Infested token.

The crew that deals the most damage to enemy models with friendly Infested tokens scores 1 point.

Once per game, score an additional point if a model suffers damage from a friendly Infested token in the enemy deployment zone.

I'm not yet 100% sure if I'll have everyone play this strategy, or if I'll concoct another Round 3 scenario and arbitrarily declare certain tables as Quarantined (actually, that sounds hilarious. Let's do that). It is what I would consider this event's "killy" strategy, even though killing itself isn't necessarily what is rewarded. I could see it leading to a pretty high casualty rate though if both players go a bit ham with Infested tokens and crowd into each other. Something bad is happening in Bellson Burrough though, and the Guild wants it shut down and the infected quarantined. This strategy is meant to encourage each player to both get their models to roll around in the filth, and to keep the infected enemy models at arm's length. And hopefully it'll help ensure each participating crew has some fun Injuries going into the final round.

More to Come

This event is about three weeks away at time of writing, so I still have a final strategy yet to write (and maybe another Round 3 strategy to alternate with "Under Quarantine"). I'm a bit tempted to keep that one under lock and key however, since it might contain spoilers as to the fate of this little neighbourhood our scrappy little crews are duelling over.

Keep an eye out on the blog though. I intend to write an After Action Report after the event, complete with profiles on the participating crews and custom Masters and I'll include the final few scenarios then. Fingers crossed it all goes well, and I'll have a fun little event to relay to you all!

Until then...