Nellie vs Von Schill

Time to try a quick game with the Journalists against Barmution's Freikorps. I decided to stay completely in keyword, just to get a better feel of the crew, having only played with them twice before.

My Nellie list:

Nellie Cochrane

The Printing Press

Phiona Gage, Lead Lined Coat - 11

Allison Dade - 8

Undercover Reporter, Lead Lined Coat - 9

Field Reporter - 6

Field Reporter - 6

False Witness - 5

Cache - 5

Barmution's Von Schill list:

Von Schill

Steam Trunk

Hannah Lovelace - 10

Lazarus - 10

Arik - 9 (these two's cost were swapped after the game)

Freikorps Librarian - 7

Freikorpsmann - 5

Freikorpsmann - 5

Cache - 4

Strategy: Plant Explosives, Deployment: Corner

Schemes: Breakthrough, Harness The Ley Line (both), Power Ritual (Guild), Outflank, Assassinate (Outcasts)

I am pretty happy with deployment. My plan is to place scheme markers with the False Witness to move the Field Reporters up to the flanks and score Power Ritual early. I completely forgot that I needed a scheme marker in my own corner as well, and had to move Allison back to place one. Noob mistake. I decide that if the Freikorpsmen decide to move against one of the reporters, I will just place my Undercover Reporter on their head and be able to score easily. The False Witness moves up conservatively, but is unfortunately gunned down by a Freikorpsmann outside his activation by a combination of Von Schill's rocket launcher upgrade and a red joker on the damage flip.

Arik Schoemer uses a pair of Rocket Boots to jump in and kill the printing press, making sure to block LoS to Allison, so he can get off his no armour trigger. Lazarus moves up onto the gallow in the middle and starts lobbing grenades. I decide to put a press release on him, saving a 13 in case I need to cheat. I immediately pull the Black Joker. We also had a weird rules situation where Nellie couldn't force him to place a scheme marker with One More Question as she didn't have line of sight to anywhere he could theoretically place one. I score Power Ritual, and manage to also sneak in a bomb for 2-0.

This is where I realise that the Strategy I thought favoured me due to Nellies Don't Mind Me, isn't really all that favourable, as there is very few ways for me to actually stop Outcasts from scoring the strategy. Nellie and Allison don't have engagement ranges, and I can't tarpit Von Schill anyway, due to Diving Charge. I manage to stay alive by using Focus for defensive duels and score another point from the strategy, getting me to 3-1.

 I activate a Field Reporter to put a scheme marker on the centre line, planning to score a few points from Harness The Ley Line before the end of the game. Barmution activates a Freikorpsmann, references the Field Guide, Focuses and shoots at Nellie, who is currently sitting at 7 health. He has a 7 of rams, and my hand is horrible, with both a 1 and a 3 of rams, which doesn't help me much, even with Nellie's Scooped, so I cheat with an 11 of crows, he cheats in the Red Joker and flips a severe, doing 7dmg and killing Nellie, netting him two points for assassination.

It is too hard to get back into the game due to this, and Barmution manages to move another Freikorpsmann 15" and interact with one of my bombs to deny me an additional point. I score the last point for Power Ritual, while he score one for Harness The Ley Line (which I might have been able to stop with Field Reporters and the Undercover Reporter, but didn't think of at the time), and he also scores another for strategy.

So, I basically had the game in the bag, with an easy view for a 7-3 or thereabouts, but due to not activating Nellie first, I managed to lose the game 4-5.

Thoughts on the Journalist crew:

These guys know how to scheme, but precious little else. I don't really mind that and find them quite fun to play. Nellie is always a treat to bring to the table and I have some of my most eventful and intriguing games with her. I made a major mistake in choosing schemes, as I should obviously have picked Outflank instead of Harness The Ley Line, but I believed that The Field Reporters could move into the centre of the table after a while and do some shenanigans there. The Lead Lined Coat on the Undercover Reporter was quite fun to play with, but I don't think this was the game nor the scheme pool for it.

Thoughts on the Freikorps:

They know how to shoot and their upgrades are quite good. I am not a massive fan of the simple duel spam that Lazarus brings to the table and weren't really impressed by him. I think swapping the cost of him and Arik was the correct choice to make. I would like to play them again to get a better understanding of their strenghts and weaknesses.