Season Review - Winter

Since the start of the year I've kept a record of all 50ss games I've played noting the Win/Loss, the strategy and whom I played with and against.
I would keep track of schemes chosen, Vp total, crew member selection frequency and how useful each model was to the game in question but keeping it simple seems to work better for me than updating an excel spreadsheet on the fly. Maybe someday I'll gain the ability to gather data like a BOSS and detail every Ap spent and Vp gained by every model I use but for now, I'll settle for a straightforward Win/Draw/Loss with X master.

Without further ado:

Most played Strategies:
- 1st Place - Reconnoiter - 5 Times
- 2nd Place - Squatter's Rights - 4 Times
- 3rd Place - Guard the Stash - 4 Times

Despite randomly flipping the strategy each game, my favorite strat came up 5 times in the course of 3 months, even Squatter's and Stash I find enjoyable. It's almost like telling the universe what I like playing pays off. Strange.

Most played Masters:  
- 1st Place - Rasputina - 12 Times
- 2nd Place - Mei Feng - 6 Times
- 3rd Place - Misaki - 3 Times

- Participation Award - Ironsides - Once

- Newcomer Award - Kaeris

Lady 'Tina is no surprise whatsoever this season, every game I play it's a case of really wanting to play another master but then Rasputina shows up and pushes everyone around with her Frozen Hearts getting up in everyone's faces. Ms Mei getting half of Raspy's total games is a given at this point but the Rail walker has shown me that she can rock the house just as well as Rasputina; favorites are favorites though so it'll be tough to gain the discipline of not auto-taking the Rasmus for every encounter; or going the other extreme and not taking Rasputina when I really should.
Misaki sneaked in for bronze due completely to the Growfaux leaving Ironsides with little more than a little flag saying "Everyone's A Winner!".
The last game of the month saw Kaeris wining her inaugural match and she shows a lot of promise. Not as killy as the Ice Queen, not as brutal as the Oybun Metal Worker but rather a master with a lot of ways to deal with any given situation. Watch this space.

Most games won:      
- 1st Place - Mei Feng - 4 games
- 2nd Place - Rasputina - 3 games
- 3rd Place - Misaki - 2 games

Mei Feng got in a trio of close game wins on the last day of the month hence her resurgence to the top of the leader board, facing Nicodem's mass summoning in non-recon/interference games will do that though (Hunting Party, hallowed be thy scheme, Coryphee Duet's will be done, on table, as it is in Malifaux). What this also means is so long as I don't play Feng simply to play her and choose my games carefully, she is a very good choice in good match-ups, dare I say, better than Rasputina. I'll be very interested to see how next the season plays out.Rassy only winning a quarter of her games is a little sad but when my local meta is full of champions of malifaux as mine is, you roll with the punches besides, if I had decided to use Rasputina for my final three games, I'm confident her score would have been better. Playing many games with experimental lists such as "Team Mega Buff" and the abysmal "Casting Gunline" and I should expect nothing less than a bad on-paper score.
Misaki fares better percentually (Is that a word? It is? Really? Nice) winning two-thirds of her games much like Mei but considering that Growfaux was all about trying out new masters and models, the results are a little skewed.

Masters played against by faction:
- Outcasts - 8 games
- Viktorias - 5 times; Jack Daw - Twice; Levi - Once
- Resurrectionists - 4 games       
- Nicodem - Twice; Yan Lo - Once; Seamus - Once
- Neverborn - 3 games
- Pandora - Once; Collodi - Once; Dreamer - Once
- Guild - 3 games
- Sonnia - Once; Lady Justice - Once; Perdita - Once
- Arcanists - 2 games      
- Rasputina - Twice
- Ten Thunders: - 2 games
- McCabe - Once; Mei Feng - Once
- Gremlins - 1 game
- Ulix - Once

Viktorias appear to be everyone's favorite right now in my experience, with many people either slaying with them or attempting the subtle chess game of early turn blitzkriegs. Viktorias might be top but the impression I get from many players is that they are one-trick-ponies, they either get the job done and get killed with ease; or fail to do anything and get killed with ease, which I sense frustrates more players than it intrigues. Otherwise a pretty even spread throughout. Some late games against Resurrectionists supercharged their faction to silver granting my wish to play more against them. Talking of which, I played against Yan Lo! Which got me very excited to play the old man once again. Maybe I'll pull him out of hibernation for a certain casual event starting in April.... 

Season total:- 23 games
- 9 Wins
- 1 Draw
- 13 Losses

So draws a close to this seasons games, with half of my games being lost I have to really buckle down and start taking my own advice. I'm slowly but surely getting to grips with what every master in the game does as well my own models strengths and weaknesses. Here's to closer games next season!

Continue to kick arse in a sportsmanlike fashion and have fun out there.