Neverborn:
Pandora with Voices, Fugue State and Aether Connection
Primordial Magic (proxied by an old metal Sorrow)
Iggy with Depression
Doppleganger with Mimic's Blessing
Johanna
Guild Lawyer
Sorrow
Sorrow
Gupps
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration
Arcanists:
Ironsides with Arcane Reservoir, Iron Determination and Warding Runes
Arcane Emissary with Ironsides' Conflux
Angelica
Amina Naidu with Warding Runes (proxied by a suitable model from the female multipart kit)
Oxfordian Mage with Blood Ward
Oxfordian Mage with Doom Ward
Performer
Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Hunting Party
Deployment:
Turn 1 began with the Lawyer handing out Fees to Angelica and advancing to get into position for Public Demonstration.
Ironsides then activated and revealed her gameplan... "You Lookin' at Me?"! This (1) Action pushes a model it's Cg towards her and forces them to make an attack. Uhoh. The Lawyer was incensed by her taunts, making a move towards her, but managed to cheat high enough to avoid getting close enough to start a fight. At this point, though, it was pretty clear to whom that 3 VP was going to!
While the Neverborn stalled for time by moving the Primordial Magic away behind a building and a Gupps around the other side, Angelica activated and used her Encore to push one of the Mages into range of the Lawyer.
Iggy ran forwards to allow the Sorrow to piggyback along with Misery Loves Company, but not before being pulled a little further by Amina's Summons. Burning wouldn't give the 3 VP away, so he set one of the Mages on fire.
The white-haired Oxfordian Mage discarded a card to take three Ca actions - fees, fees and more fees! The poor Lawyer ended up with Fees +3, meaning he'd be taking 3 damage at the end of the turn.
Pandora tried to make the most of the two Sorrow's Misery auras, but played it safe for now, not causing many Wp duels. The Doppleganger and Johanna both tried to Rebel Yell the Lawyer's Fees away, but just couldn't find the Rams they needed. The second Mage activated and lowered the Burning condition on their friend by 1.
Not seeing any way to escape the inevitable, the Doppleganger didn't cheat the initiative on Turn 2, allowing the Arcanists to go first. Ironsides chose a Sorrow to incite with her "You Lookin' at Me?" and, despite cheating low as much as possible (even with a Black Joker to hit!), the Sorrow gave up the 3 VP, and only for a single damage, too.
Ironsides repositioned to contest the Judge, allowing Pandora to walk forwards and punish her by making her hit herself repeatedly, even flipping a Red Joker for damage. After soulstones, Ironsides was left on 3 wounds - a single failed Wp duel would end her, thanks to the three Misery auras, but the two Sorrows and the Lawyer would score 3 VP at the end of the Turn from her being within 4" of them. Of course, the Lawyer would have to survive a second round of Fees first...!
Iggy survived a barrage from one of the Mages, but came out of it with Slow, meaning all he could do was walk up to Amina and the Mages and use his (0) to give them a Wp debuff. Moving up also meant he could protect the Sorrows with Martyr, which could lead to some VP being saved!
The lefthand Sorrow activated and used his (2) to Paralyse the Arcane Emissary - an action I had underestimated as the Sorrows are so slow and fragile! Angelica used her Encore to reposition the Emissary.
Amina activated and dropped a mountain of paperwork on Iggy, dealing with him and his Martyr aura so that one of the Oxfordian Mages could guarantee a kill on one of the Sorrows - with 1 wound left and a minimum damage of 2, Pandora's Martyr couldn't help the poor Sorrow.
The Doppleganger and Johanna tried again to help the Lawyer out, but with no cards left in hand and miserable luck neither could fish out the Rams they needed. This left the last Sorrow to sway the Judge, luckily not missing the 5 of anything he needed to escape Ironsides.
Meanwhile, away from all this chaos, the Performer tried to take on the Gupps, who left her on 1 wound in return. On the other side of the board, the Primordial Magic made its way forwards some more for Leave Your Mark.
At the end of the Turn, the Lawyer succumbed to his Fees before he could score for Public Demonstration, meaning the Neverborn could only score a single VP from it alongside the 1 VP from having the Judge swayed to their side. The Arcanists had managed to score for Hunting Party, meaning the score was now 4-2 to the Arcanists.
Due to the Neverborn flipping a Black Joker for initiative, Ironsides got to start Turn 3, using her Adrenaline to heal up and hitting Pandora, only for her to slip away with Fading Memories, positioning her where she could engage Ironsides, the Mage, the Emissary and Amina.
Pandora activated after Ironsides, cranking up the Misery, using her (0) Incite to deal damage to Ironsides twice, her Voices upgrade preventing the damage from being reduced. Three uses of (1) Incite was enough to grind Ironsides down, as well as one of the Mages, thanks to the two Misery auras increasing the damage of a failed Incite test to 3!
The Gupps foolishly activated before the Performer, forgetting about Manipulative and failing to do the last bit of damage needed and letting it run off into the Neverborn half of the table.
Angelica activated and used her Encore to move Amina up to the Judge, ready to try and sway him. She then used her Showgirl trickery to teleport a Scheme Marker to the Performer, ready to score Leave Your Mark. The Doppleganger borrowed Johanna's Relic Hammer and wailed on Amina with her (0) Mimic, then engaged her to try and prevent her from swaying the Judge. Unfortunately, her feeble Fists couldn't keep Amina engaged, and she managed to get away and sway the Judge to the Arcanist's side - as well as killing a Sorrow with her (0) thanks to the Sorrow having no cards to discard!
The Emissary tried to blast Pandora, but she Soulstoned the damage away and pushed closer with Fading Memory, engaging Angelica.
The last Mage flurried away at Johanna, leaving her Slow. She moved forwards so that in case of death she could Finish the Job and drop a Scheme Marker for Leave Your Mark.
At the end of the Turn, the Arcanists had scored another VP from Hunting Party as well as one from the Judge and another from Leave Your Mark, while the Neverborn scored 1 VP from Leave Your Mark - the Primordial Magic finally finishing its sneaky run along the back of the large building. The score was 7-3 to the Arcanists.
At the start of Turn 4, Pandora discovered that she could use the 4/4/5 damage track on the Arcane Emissary's Relentless Charge, usually only usable once per turn during a charge, to do some serious damage to it, with Misery finishing it off. She used her (0) Incite to damage the Mage, but not enough. The Mage made the most out of not being dead by flurrying at Johanna, leaving her Burning, Slow and on 1 wound. Johanna activated and performed a drop and roll to stay alive.
The Doppleganger and Amina swapped places again, the Doppleganger having failed to Relic Hammer her to a pulp by a small margin.
The Performer continued scoring for Leave Your Mark and the Doppleganger managed to sway the Judge back, but even with the Gupps running back from the flanks to help the Neverborn couldn't make up the huge gulf in VP, leaving the Arcanists to run away with the victory. At least either way we had contributed to the Self-Righteous Man becoming a Lawyer of some description...!
I really enjoyed this game. Even though it was only my second game with Pandora, and the first went terribly, I felt as if her playstyle clicked. I'll have to try her some more - when I'm not trying to get wins for the Gremlins, that is!
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