Fresh to death. Tournament/Learning Experience with Nicodem

The sound of a lullaby was on the lips of the two "children" as they approached the well giggling and playing catch with the head of a villager. Pandora strode through her sorrows who spun around her and her cohorts like wisps of wind through fog. Their minds intent on finding more villagers to slaughter and to poison their water source and be rid of them once and for all.

Nicodem viewed the oncoming neverborn through the eyes of his trusty vulture who squawked their arrival before flying out to his master. The two villagers who accompanied Nicodem looked uneasily over their shoulders at their company. The night had obscured any details from his undead minions making the villagers suspicious about Nicodem's intentions but couldn't quite put their fingers on why. After all who was going to ask why this representative from the guild came to dig up the bodies of the dead to take them back to the morgue...

The mission was "poison the well" attacker has 4 crates they must use a 1 interact in order to "drop" poison into a well. Defender must make sure that happens scoring +1vp for every crate NOT in the well. Seeing as Nicodem is not quite the most mobile of masters I decided to defend the well.

Format of tournament: Accumulation
Limits: Fixed master, 13/25ss MUST come from the master's starter box.
Pandora 7ss
Candy
Babe Kade
Sorrow x3
Schemes: Hold Out and Kill Protege (Punk Zombie)

vs

Nicodem 3ss
Vulture
Desperate Mercenaries x2
Crooked Man
Punk Zombie x3
Schemes: Grudge (Baby Kade) and Frame For Murder (Crooked Man)

Whispers were carried through the air making both of the villagers nervous but to Nicodem they merely proved an annoyance as he scanned the horizon. As if on cue Pandora and her woes came strolling into view, their eyes showing a mixture of surprise and hate for the ressurectionist master. With a shriek the sorrows whirled around their wards working their foul magics on the minds of their enemies.

Both of the villagers angered by the sight of the neverborn charged recklessly towards them firing their pistols as they went. But soon that impetuous charge turned into a rout as one of the villagers ran away crying, blood pouring from her eyes and mouth. The second villager met a more grisly end at the hands of the child killer Baby Kade who even now was carving his initials in the dying villager to mark his kill.

With the simple orders of protect the well at all costs the punk zombies cordoned an avenue of attack for the neverborn. The Nippon born zombies began cutting into their flesh carving ancient rituals of power that sent the sorrows away in a gasp never to be seen again. Without their sorrows for once the malifaux natives looked unsure about the outcome of battle but they still had fight left in them.

Pandora and her woes redoubled their efforts, focusing her power in a single mental blast the last villager was filled with self loathing slitting her own throat and falling to the ground quite dead. Next the rotting miner was targeted by Pandora who dispelled the magics binding him to Nicodem's will, making him collapse in a ruined heap of rotten flesh and broken bones. Candy on the other hand was less successful, she was more focused on lugging around the crate full of poison rather than focusing on her foul magics.

With no witnesses around Nicodem casually waved his hand and the dead female villager rose to her feet like a marionette being pulled up by the strings. With a whisper from her master the freshly risen villager opened her mouth and a voice poured out "come here child it's mama... come here". For a moment candy fell for a spell and walked towards the female believing her to be a long lost mother she never knew. Dropping her crate to run faster candy went arms wide open towards the women not noticing an old mine shaft candy went head first into the ditch making a bloody mess of her porcelain face. If she regretted the decision it will never be known as a swift katana strike from a zombie sent what was left of her down the mine shaft in pieces.

Baby kade plotted his next move in a small copse of trees readying his butcher's knife he hid in his teddy bear. What he did not notice was the ground behind him belch forward an undead monstrosity made up of several human corpses. Soon the looming form of the flesh construct was over the kade's shoulder who slowly turned around. Putting his knife away quickly baby kade looked like a misplaced child "are you my daddy?" the killer said with practiced eased. For a moment the flesh construct stood still glancing down at this small misplaced child on the battlefield. With unnatural speed the behemoth swung his meat hook and caught kade right underneath the chin in one swift movement. A grin still on his face the flesh construct dragged the twitching corpse of the infamous baby kade along the ground looking for fresh prey.

With all her minions dead and their essence being used to fuel more of the ressurectionist's magics Pandora vowed revenge and vanished in into a green mist. Nicodem allowed himself a rare smile as he reached into his coat and retrieved his pocket clock.. "right on time..." he said to no one in particular as his minions gathered the dead and loaded them into the wagon.

Ressurs 8 vs Neverborn 0

I always worry when going against Pandora especially on how mobile she can be as she is sending my minions running for the hills. Winning the choice whether to be attacker or defender was a big deal as I could sit and camp around the well forcing 3 non insignificant models to come towards me. Pandora lacked her mobility because her pushes would of made her drop the crate she was carrying. Because she is such a "damage dealer" there were turns where she couldn't move far without lowering her offensive power.

On Nicodem Rigor Mortis is worth it's weight in gold, I cast it only once or twice in this game but it has proved useful in pinning a model and denying my opponent an activation. As the game grinds on I can usually out activate my opponent and see what they are doing way before I decide to commit my forces. Being a master of undead reanimator is a great spell since I can craft my crew pending on what I need at the moment. It will always give me the right tools for the job all I need is corpse counters and Nicodem is set.

Did I mention how much I love punk zombies? With bolster undead up paired katanas hit at cb 9! With a very good damage spread of 2/4/5 it is relatively easy to get the rot trigger off and do moderate damage. Though I have always used "Slice and Dice" to great effect my new favorite spell is "Self Mutilate". It gives the Punk Zombie a relatively far range and since it does wounds it bypasses armor the enemy may possess.