Workbench: The Ortegas Ready For The Hunt

Back about a year ago I finally got around to starting work on my Ortega boxed set for Malifaux (here's the original post about it here...).  Unfortunately one thing lead to the other and the rest of this project was shelved as I still hadn't gotten around to getting a replacement for my original Nino which was missing some bits.  Well I finally got off my butt and got him taken care of so I could get the whole crew to the table.

I still haven't picked up the new 2nd edition rulebook so I'm not sure how the Ortegas will stack up from a soul stone point of view but I really like seeing the whole family together and ready for action. Wyrd Miniatures are loaded with as much character as detail making them a lot of fun to paint.

I still have a couple of more figures to finish up for my Guild faction but at the rate that I've been managing I should have all of them done before the end of the year, making this the second miniature faction that I will have completely painted for a system (my Cryx army for Warmachine being the first to earn this rare and esteemed honor...).  Of course I'm sure there is more that I'll be adding to the faction before too long but it's really exciting to see them complete.  Next up, Sonnia Criid and her Witch Hunters.  Until next time...

Malifaux Kickstarter: But Where Is The Game Exactly?

A week ago I wrote about the Kickstarter for Through the Breach, the role playing game from Wyrd Miniatures set in the Malifaux world.  With such a rich world to draw on I was really excited about this and was looking forward to seeing just what they had in mind.

 

Notice the "was" in there?

 

Now a week later I have decided to withdraw my backing from this project, but the question is why?

 

Most of the Kickstarter projects that I've seen or backed have had at least some of the development done on them before they hit Kickstarter, the general idea being "here is our product, please help us produce this on a large scale".  For example, some of the initial run for the new Reaper Bones was shown in the video for their KS because they had already started working on it, and Relic Knights by Soda Pop Minis had been in development and playtesting more than a year before their KS even started.

 

In stark contrast, it sounds like Through the Breach still has yet to reach the playtest level but is slated to be released in roughly nine months.  In fact the only thing that I've really been able to pick up from the info that I've seen is that the game will use a card mechanic like Malifaux which makes me a little leery.  How they can expect to create a solid and unique game system and work out the bugs in less then a year... well, I just don't see that really happening.

 

Don't get me wrong; I hope that they are able to create this incredible and lasting game like they were talking about in the initial video on the KS but personally I think I'll wait to see what the game is like before I start handing over my money.  Until next time...

Malifaux Kickstarter: Time To Start Playing With Your Own Fate

Yep, its time for another Kickstarter!

About a week ago Wyrd Miniatures launched their latest Kickstarter endeavor, giving all of us the opportunity to take a step further into the world of Malifaux.  Slated to come out in September next year, Through The Breach lets players become part of the story of Malifaux as they try to survive and control their fate in that nightmare realm.

Using a card mechanic that sounds similar to the core mechanic of their miniature game, Through The Breach will let players cheat fate as they try to rewrite their own story and shape their destiny.

Already over 500% funded with more than a month still to go, this game sounds like its going to be a lot of fun and I've already put in my pledge to back it.  In addition to the receiving a copies of the Players and Fate Masters Guides, there are a number of nice little perks to go along with this one including male and female multi-part plastic minis to let you customize your character for Through The Breach or the Malifaux skrimish game.

If you enjoy the Malifaux skirmish game or even just the dark world that Wyrd has created just beyond our own, then you should definitely check this game out.  Until next time...

Malifaux Weekends: Nicodem Dreamer Redux

Last week's half-game was definitely not enough Malifaux to keep Dreamer (not the model, my wife) and I sated. We've also been incredibly busy this week, what with holidays and crazy Black Friday work hours, so we didn't get a chance to paint either. When we discovered Saturday was free of obligation other than general baby raisin', we knew we'd have to make the most of it. But before we get to the game, I have to say that Dreamer is the greatest wife I could ever hope to have. Not only did she set me up with a Malifaux shopping spree for Christmas, she gave me early access to the Streets of Malifaux Terraclips set despite being part of my Christmas gift. Let's take a look at how it mixed with Buildings, eh?

No more ugly science fair board, and I didn't even have to flock anything!

 

That's 3'x2'9" completely covered by two sets of Terraclips. And yes, I still had leftovers, just ended up building myself out of that furthest corner, or all 9 square feet would be consumed by high-detailed awesomeness. Three buildings, each with two stories, a bridge connecting two of them, an open fountain area, elevated roads wrapping around the back... Totally sweet. 

 

A closer perspective on the aerial walkway connecting the central buildings.

 

I guess I should also mention that this also required two boxes of actual TerraCLIPS, in case you were curious. The only shape I ran out of was I-joints, but I totally overdid it with joining the roads together, and next time will definitely have spares of everything.

So, after spending about an hour and a half to two hours piecing this crazy map together, we wanted to see models on it, and not just a few. Going totally crazy, we opted to play a whopping 40ss game, still single masters (because we only have one combo of masters that's legal to play as a Brawl =P) and standard deployment.

The lists looked like this:

Spacer's Crew

 

Nicodem - 7ss Cache

Mortimer - 7ss

Punk  Zombie - 5ss

2x Canine Remains - 4ss

2x Crooked Men - 8ss

3x Rotten Belles - 12ss

I flipped the Black Joker for my strategy, and Dreamer gave me (Ugh!) Contain Power. For my schemes, I took and announced Kill Protege and Break Through.

Dreamer's Crew

 

Dreamer/LCB - 7ss Cache

Coppelius - 9ss

Lelu - 7ss

Lilitu - 7ss

3x Alps - 9ss

3x Daydreams - 6ss

She flipped Escape and Survive as her Strategy and took and announced Stake a Claim (on the bridge) and Kill Protege.

Round 1

 

Deployment set the dogs, Nicodem, Mortimer, a Crooked Man and a Belle at center, the dogs, Punk, and a Belle far left, and the spare Belle hovering generally just right of center, should she be needed for Luring purposes. As always, the Dreamer deployed with nothing but Daydreams, one center, on far left, and one with him on the right. As soon as I saw where the Dreamer ended up, I immediately regretted placing the dogs center, and had them use their impressive movement to run to the left end. Belles helped with early moves, and the nightmares just shimmied forward.

The kid's out there somewhere, and zombies are swarming the city.

Round 2

 

The second round started with initiative going to Dreamer. The Daydream on the far left used Magical Extension to cast Frightening Dreams and plopped the Alps inside of the central left building. From that moment on, the inside of that place would remain infested with the awful little beasts until the end of the game... My central Belle moved in and attempted to crack one with her parasol and failed miserably. Of course, it's retaliatory action was just as whifferific as hers, so it all worked out. The Crooked Man then attempted to sneak a Cave In into the crowd of Alps, but due to positioning and his 2" melee range (which, but the way, was the greatest thing ever in Warmachine/Hordes but I find myself cursing it often in Malifaux) ended up just having to hammer an Alp to death. More jockeying for position happened, but the real magic was the Dreamer dropping off Lelu and Lilitu right in Nicodem and Mortimer's faces. He also gave them both Terrifying 13, which yeah, my zombies ignore, but Nico and Morty still have to deal with it. I knew those models were rough, but again, until I saw them in action, I had no idea just how nasty they can be. 

 

The Nephilim/Nightmare/Woe Duo make their Sin City Dispatch debut with a bang. They also make a great addition to any Neverborn crew with all those types tagged onto them!

 

 

Lelu activated first, and went straight for those Kill Protege points. Luckily, he missed on the charge, but sunk a nasty 4 wound hit with Poison 2 on Mortimer. Lilitu's 4" melee range (?!?!) ended up entangling everyone, requiring Nicodem to disengage from BOTH of the demon siblings to get anything done this turn. He did great on the morale duels, but proceeded to flip miserably on the disengages, requiring me to eat some really nice cards from my hand to not lose his activation. I was ready to play risky, fired a Decay into the fray... and hit Mortimer. For Severe... The blast was great, and stung both demons, but it also meant killing my own Morty on turn 2. It sucked, but ultimately prevented Dreamer from scoring 2 way-easy VP, which worked out okay in the end. Nicodem then used his Casting Expert action to cast Reanimator on the now-fallen Morty, turning him into a bleach-blonde Punk Zombie.

Round 3

 

Initiative was flipped... and we both hit 13s! A second flip... And I win, on another 13! While I was disappointed about losing those juicy cards on going first, it turned out for the best. Nicodem activated immediately, Bolstering Undead with his (0), successfully paralyzing Lelu with Rigor Mortis, dropped a smooth Decay bomb on Lilitu, which snuck a couple wounds onto Lelu. With her melee beatstick wounded and paralyzed, Dreamer took the option of activating a Daydream to drop the Coppelius off with the Alps, turning the central building into a nightmarish kill-box. Reanimated Punk Mort went next. I discarded a 1 to activate Flurry, and even though Black Blood stung like a mother, he managed to slash Lelu down to size, leaving his sister wildly unprotected. Continuing the chain of very reactive activations, Dreamer activated the Dreamer, reburied Lilitu, and kept him safely up on the bridge, out of LoS from Crooked Men and Nicodem. My Belle and Crooked Man inside the central building proceeded to get slaughtered by the Alps and their new friend the Coppelius, so I sent the far left squad to wrap into the place for back-up. The dogs continued bolting for the enemy deployment zone to make sure I could at least score some Break Through points.

Round 4

 

Initiative went back to Dreamer this round, and the Coppelius ripped up my Punk Zombie back-up... so much for that plan! But, his death paved the way for a well-placed Cave In, killing two Alps. Of course, the first one that had been killed had just been put back into play by the Coppelius, so it really wasn't as huge as it could have been. I used the Crooked's second AP to send another Cave In on top of the central Daydream, killing it.

Yeah, those three corpse counters used to be walking corpses. Alps, man. I'm tellin' ya, auto-damage is irritating...

 

The far left Belle used both of her AP to lure Nicodem into a better position, from which he raised up two more Punk Zombies with the fallen remains of a Crooked Man and the recently butchered Punk. Despite having slow, they managed to slice up a couple Alps. But then Lord Chompy Bits decided to crash the party...

 

There's just something about that big beastie's appearance that always warrants a picture.

 

Chompy put a hurting on my Belle, but stopped short to rekill Punk Morty. After getting hit with Flurry, she wasn't about to let me get it off again. The puppies reached their destination and sat like good dogs in Dreamer's deployment zone. My Belle retaliated, hitting Chompy for a smooth 6 damage.

Round 5

 

It was coming down to the wire and all I had was the dogs holding a deployment zone Dreamer wasn't willing to repopulate due to Escape and Survive. Nicodem again activated first, and of course, I ended up with hand of, literally, 5 Tomes. Not a Crow in the mix and tons of Corpse Counters! The Coppelius had returned Alps to play each turn, and they had in turn continued to prevent my Punk Zombies from reaching the mind flaying monstrosity. I went for the random flip Reanimator, spending soulstones on both flips... and not hitting a single Crow in 4 cards. So after a majorly facepalming Nicodem activation, the Coppelius activated, laughed in my face, wounded the remaining Punk Zombie, made two healing flips instead of returning an Alp, and stayed cozily inside. My Crooked Man, the one on the center street, moseyed his way around the corner, non-chalantly cast Cave In, and Dreamer flipped the Black Joker on her defense for Chompy! It was like a Christmas miracle. I managed to flip Severe damage, and Chompy was vanquished, reverting to Dreamer form. If only any models were left to hit him!

Round 6

 

Dreamer won initiative again, blocked the door with her Alps, which, by the way, multiplied THEMSELVES by killing the wounded Punk Zombie with their Slow auto-damage, and held Nicodem off from getting a clear shot at the Coppelius. With all my other resources committed elsewhere, that was it. Dreamer flew back to the safety of the bridge, unburied Lilitu, and sat pretty with only 2 points for Staking a Claim. 

 

The final board, after all activations had resolved.

 

 

My dogs once again proved useful in holding locations in otherwise tricky-to-reach places for zombies, scoring me 2 for Break Through. And once again, Nicodem and Dreamer/LCB fight to a stalemate.

The game took an incredibly long time to play, and with a baby, had many little interruptions. We also took a dinner break around round 3, putting the start-to-finish time of the game somewhere around 5 hours. Of course, just counting dedicated playtime it wasn't THAT long of an encounter, but 40ss worth of models on both sides is a lot of activations, especially when we kept bringing stuff back. We'll more than likely go back to playing 30ss games, as it seems to be just enough to let you play around with the structure and playstyle of the crew without feeling quite as limited as a 20 or 25ss game.

So there ya have it. New terrain is fun, looks great, and apparently Rezzers and Neverborn will tie forever. When Christmas morning comes and I open my McMourning, we'll see how much things change... Not that I totally know what I'm getting or anything. =P

Malifaux Half-Battle Report: Cassandra vs. Dreamer

That's right, a half-battle to be reported on. And no, I didn't mistakenly type Cassandra where Colette's name should be. My wife, who's usual interwebs name is dreamwithme, had been waiting to get another game to the table after last time's tie. Not because she felt like we had a score to settle, but because she had a good time playing and was actually very satisfied with the outcome of a draw. I knew she was reluctant to play against my Colette crew, but after today, I'm not sure I'll be able to get her to play against them ever again. Let's dive in and see what happened!

Colette sat in her dressing room, removing make-up and glitter from her face after tonight's performance. As she did, she idly weighed the small sacks of soulstones her girls had been smuggling through the ticket booths. "Quite the haul tonight, wasn't it?" Her apprentice, Cassandra, was dumping the satchels and sorting the precious stones. "We haven't had a night quite like this in a while," her Southern drawl heavily saturating her words. "This new act's quite the showstopper."

Colette turned to the girl, a wry smile spreading across her face. "Well, a little danger does tend to make for a better trick."

As the magician and apprentice chuckled, Lucille, one of the lovely assistants, burst into the room. "Boss! You're never gonna believe this. The theatre's been rigged with dynamite! And I think a little kid's behind it." 

Springing into action, the three clamored out the door and peered out across the dimly lit stage and into the theatre. Three bungling little creatures cackled and guffawed at one another as a little boy meandered in through the doors. "Won't it be fun to see this place go kaboom? I can't wait!" The boy was wispy and ethereal, barely even visible from Colette's vantage point.

The magician turned to Lucille. "Gather the girls and their dolls. Nobody threatens a stage when I'm making a killing on it." The girl bolted down the hall as fast her dress would allow. "And Cassandra? This is why we always leave the ghost light on after a show..."

First off, the terrain. You'll again have to pardon my plain white science fair board and just look at the cool Terraclips.  I figured, if I'm playing the Showgirls, they need a proper place to perform. And this is what I concocted with a little ingenuity and experimentation.

 An aerial view of the theatre.

 

And a close-up of Colette on-stage for perspective.

I've never really used the balconies and railings from the Buildings of Malifaux kit, mostly because I don't often make multi-story structures to play in. In creating a stage, I found the perfect use for all those unused pieces, becoming fashionable supports for elevating and holding up the stage. So yeah, cool innovations with Terraclips. They're just waiting to be found.

Anyways, to the game! We decided to try out a shared strategy, as we've only ever each flipped our own and never actually ended up matching. We flipped A Line In The Sand, with myself as the defender and dreamwithme as the attacker. Going into it with a mobile crew, I was pretty confident at my ability to teleport and shuffle my Showgirls to minimize the impact of the 2AP Disarm action, but if any Nightmares decided to camp on markers, I'd be in trouble. We wanted a decent size game again, so decided to stick with our 30ss Scrap like last time.

Here's the lists so you can play it out with the home version.

Colette - Full 8 cache

Cassandra - 9ss

2x Performers & Mannequins - 12ss

2x Mechanical Doves

I chose and announced Bodyguard and Perfect Performance as my schemes.

Dreamer/LCB - 6ss cache
Coppelius - 9ss

Stitched Together - 5ss

3x  Daydreams - 6ss

3x Alps - 9

She chose and announced Bodyguard and Hold Out.

Standard deployment was flipped again, and I took the rear of the theatre, mostly for flavor purposes. Colette started in base contact with a Mannequin on stage, and one Performer and a dove where deployed opposite them. Cassandra and the remaining dove began outside on the left, and the performer and mannequin duo took the right exterior. The Dreamer and one Daydream started outside, across from Cassie, and the other two Daydreams were placed center field and far right.

Round 1

I won initiative for the first turn, and simply linked my stage-bound Mannequin to Colette. I keep forgetting to use Cassandra's Confident ability to move her 6" prior to the first turn, so I handily lost out on the free movement. The Daydreams moved straight up, Mannequins linked and birds flew to better positions. But the real meat of turn one was Cassandra killing the Dreamer's Daydream companion and almost killing the Dreamer himself. I actually forgot that he is immune to blast damage, so as handy as casting Breathe Fire on my Dove to extend the blasts to him was, it didn't go as I planned. But this would set the tone for the next two turns.

Round 2

In an unbelievable stroke of simultaneous luck and unluck, I won initiative on a Red Joker. I immediately activated Cassie, used her Nimble to move her into base contact with the Dreamer. I opted for Blonde Act as my 0 action for the turn, hoping to maximize the power of her fire breathing. The first casting of it soundly knocked the Dreamer out of the game, placing Lord Chompy Bits in, but just outside of Blonde Act. It also made all of the unboarded Nightmares appear way over on the far side, otherwise they'd have been stuck buried. Surrounded by Alps and facing down Chompy, Cassie succeeded at her Terrifying resist and cast Breathe Fire again, complete with a soulstone use. Yeah, she gains Use Soulstone when hired by Colette. Ridiculous, right? Unfortunately, I flipped a 1 on the soulstone boost, and ended up still being at a negative twist on damage, resulting in only a weak hit of 3 to Chompy. Dreamwithme then activated an Alp, hoping to give Cassie Slow and knock her down 5 wounds before letting LCB deal with her, but missed with both attacks. This gave Colette the option to sacrifice the Dove with her to teleport Cassie to safety. One of the Alps armed the exterior dynamite while a Stitched Together armed one in the emergency exit hall. The Performers moved into better positions and the Copellius presented his nasty face in the center of the theatre, going for the bomb.

This could have totally gone south fast if not for Colette and her Showgirl-wrangling magic.

One of the Alps armed the exterior dynamite while a Stitched Together armed one in the emergency exit hall. The Performers moved into better positions and the Copellius presented his nasty face in the center of the theatre, going for the bomb.

 

Round 3

 

Against all odds, I won initiative a third turn in a row, and once again let Cassandra get right to work. Now inside and staring the Copellius in the face, she blew fire from the orchestra pit, landing a Severe damage to handily drop the monster in a single shot. She suffered her 4 wounds for killing it, and my wife decided there was no way for her to win without the mobility of the Dreamer. She also decided that Colette does very little other than move stuff around, and that Cassandra should be the actual master for the Showgirls crew. Hence the title of this post.

So there ya have it. Did I feel bad? Yes, because my wife never quits any game, no matter how badly it's going. Would she have hated it if I held back? You bet she would have, because it would be patronizing to her skill as a gamer. All in all, she's not so frustrated as to never play again, but it'll probably be a while before she goes up against the Showgirls again.

I do hope y'all like these write ups, and I hope you like the little flavor narrative at the top. I thought it'd be fun to give the game some fluff, what with Malifaux being so character driven. 

Catch y'all later!

Malifaux Battle Report: Nicodem v. Dreamer

Hey y'all, Spacer here. No excuses for the long absence other than the one Snowman gave me a couple posts back. Babies make gaming a bit tricky. Regardless, me and the wife had a chance to get our newest Malifaux crews to the table for a test run, so let's get right into it!

When I first looked at Malifaux, I was completely opposed to playing Ressurectionists. I don't know if it was because they were so overplayed locally, the oversaturation of zombies in pop culture as of late, the green box as opposed to a blue box, or what. But, as with all things, if I totally grief it, I'll end up loving it, and here I am writing a battle report after piloting Nicodem and his gaggle of gangrenous grunts.

As for my wife, she loves Neverborn through and through, always has and always will. The flavor of the Dreamer/LCB is by far her favorite crew in the game. So despite many warnings about his severe learning curve and rules complexity, she chose him as her post-learning process first crew.

We decided on a 30ss Scrap to get our heads around these new models. I flipped Contain Power as my strategy (which is a total headache against such a mobile master with my slow crew) and she flipped Claim Jump. The game hadn't even started and already I was a bit worried about the match-up.

Here's the list for those who want to play along at home.


Nicodem - 3ss Cache
Mortimer - 7ss
2x Canine Remains - 4ss
2x Rotten Belles - 8ss
2x Crooked Men - 8ss

I chose Hold Out and Stake a Claim as my schemes, announcing both for maximum pointage potential.

Dreamer/LCB - 5ss Cache
3x Daydreams - 6ss
Coppelius - 9ss
Stitched Together - 5ss
2x Alps - 9ss

She took Bodyguard Dreamer/LCB and Eye for an Eye as her schemes, also both announced. I puffed up some false bravado in regards to her taking Bodyguard when I had flipped Contain Power, yammering about how it was a daring move and blah blah blah, but if anyone can call my bluffs, it's the lady-gamer of the house. She knew Dreamer's mobility and my zombies' pokiness was a concern for me from the get-go.

I had spent some time in the afternoon piecing together a fancy little board for us to play on out of my single box of Buildings of Malifaux Terraclips, (y'all watched the review, right?) but we didn't do anything fancy other than the manor floorplan. No events, weather conditions, or special interactive terrain.

The board may be totally plain Jane, but look at those interior details!

We flipped standard deployment, and the wife gave me the right side of the picture up there. With only one immediately accessible entrance to the manor at my disposal, I piled a Belle, Mortimer, Crooked Man, AND Nicodem into the doorway. I then deployed the Canine Remains and remaining Belle and Crooked Man on the far far right of everything. Their job would be simple. Run up the side of the house and sit on the Claim Jump marker.

Dreamer has funny deployment, in that most (and by most I mean ALL sans totems) of his crew begins the game Buried, or out of play, only to be dreamt up exactly where they're needed in a later turn. So she placed Dreamer and his three Daydreams directly opposite my door rushing gang, and that was it.

Round 1

I can't win initiative to save my life. Period. Ask Snowman. Even in our D&D game I am ALWAYS at the bottom of the list. So naturally, I was not taking the first activation.

Little happened on the first turn. My four zombies assigned to stay outside (no dogs in the house. All the drool... and you know, guts hanging out of them.) ran up the board as best zombies can run, Nicodem, the Belle, and Mortimer made their way into the grand hall, and the Crooked Man wandered off down the hall to prevent too many points of to my Deployment Zone. 

The Dreamer and the Daydreams moved into the library and dropped off a Stitched Together in the doorway, who turned on his fog effect to ensure no early-turn shots found their way to the kiddo.

Round 2

 In an unbelievable twist of fate, I won initiative for the turn. I opened with Mortimer, who magically cost me nothing to create a Corpse Counter with his Exhume spell. The Stitched Together shuffled out of the library and into the atrium, turning the fog back on. Let me tell you, a mobile 8" obscuring cloud is the devil when your master's best source of damage output is a ranged spell and your best bet for weakening/repositioning enemy models is also a ranged spell. Curse you line of sight drawing 3" through obscuring terrain!!!

Anyways... The Canine Remains made their way up to the Claim Jump marker and sat like good boys. What followed was my introduction to arguably the two most annoying models I have ever have the misfortune to fight against.

The Dreamer activated, moving into the fog-filled atrium and casting Frightening Dreams. Up came a Mask and the trigger was tripped. Out popped the Coppelius and the two Alps, ready to cause me more headache than I could have ever expected. Luckily, they were placed close enough to the edge of the fog I was able to target them when Nicodem activated. He fired a Decay into an Alp, flipping red joker on the attack flip. I soulstoned as well to pump the total into a positive twist on damage, resulting in a Severe. The ensuing blast dealt a handy 3 damage to the Coppelius' 10 wounds and killed both Alps before they could activate. I moved Nicodem out of the Coppelius' charge range and called it an activation. It's really too bad I didn't just bomb the Coppelius...

When that thing activated, it did not come after Nicodem as I had predicted it would, but rather went after my Crooked Man in the hall. FYI, I totally forgot that the Crooked Men could lay traps, which would have probably saved me some major headache. On the first attack, she opted to trigger the ability that automatically gives it Moderate damage and gains an Eye Counter, which can be used for all kinds of cool things. With that Eye Counter, it took a (0) action and created an Alp! Then, using a Melee Expert action, she swung into the Crooked Man one more time, and flipped the red joker on damage. This replaced her Alp-summoning Eye Counter and knocked the shambling zombie back into death.

*knock knock* The Coppelius pops in, and brings back a friend!

Round 3

Going back to my roots, my wife won the initiative flip. Playing cautiously, she activated a Daydream that did very little, giving herself the option to play more reactively. Nicodem activated early in the turn, and managed to Reanimate two Punk Zombies with the corpse left by the Crooked Man and the one dug up by Mortimer. Apparently this manor was the site of The Tell-Tale Heart, 'cause I can't quite figure out how else Morty popped a body out of the floor boards...

But, my well-flipped Reanimate victory was short-lived as the Coppelius tore into it, killing it swiftly and gaining yet another eye counter. The 9ss monstrosity then moved into the grand hall, attacked Mortimer for weak damage, and summoned yet another Alp. All my hard work Decaying the little devils and here they were, back in my face.

Little did I know, the real fun in Round 3 hadn't even begun.

I'd held up courageously against the Alps and their auto-damaging effects. I'd resisted the Coppelius' Terrifying, and thought I was sitting pretty. Then the Dreamer activated. He turned on Flight, got up in my Belle's and Nicodem's collective grills, and proceeded to turn into Lord Chompy Bits. Now, I'd read the card, looked over his triggers, yadda yadda yadda. But reading it and seeing it happen to your poor dead hooker are two completely separate things... He made 5, count 'em 5! Melee strikes, first slaughtering the Belle, then turning his monstrous strength towards Old Man Nico. The red joker once again reared it's face for my wife on a damage flip against the Belle, and thanks to some crafty soulstoning and lucky flips, Nico made it out only suffering 2 wounds. 

With my forces rapidly turning into corpse counters, it was time to redirect some back-up. The Belle and Crooked Man made their way inside through the servant entrance, luring Chompy out of melee and off of Nicodem, then proceeded to drop some sweet blast counters on the resummoned Alps and Coppelius. Did I have to hurt my one remaining Punk Zombie to do it? I sure did. Was it worth it? Oh yeah it was!

Round 4

Once again, I lose initiative. But this time, someone was playing for keeps. Chompy activated off rips, first decimating the Crooked Man for killing his Alp buddies (with a red joker AGAIN no less!), then turned again to deal with Nicodem. After getting knocked clear down to 5 wounds remaining, the old man was through with this tom-foolery. But he'd have to wait, as I had other things to attend to first. 

Mortimer, dealing with both Slow AND Poison thanks to the Coppelius and Alps, swung his shovel with all he could muster, knocking the squidy-faced monster's nightmarish block off. Of course, the damn thing couldn't just die. It has an ability that triggers when it dies, dealing 4(!!) wounds to whatever killed it. Morty died a hero that day, and his sacrifice would not be forgotten.

One Alp still lived, puffing his smug little cigar, but at 1 wound, I wasn't too worried. A Daydream fired off some shots from the Atrium, but to little avail. My Belle once again pulled Chompy out of melee, and it was time for Nicodem to activate.

Of course, on a key turn, I flip miserably to resist Slow from the last Alp! And with an abyssmal hand made up of nothing over 5, I'd just have to make do. The Alp had walked up to Nicodem to harass him, and the old man was done. He cracked that cigar-puffing devil right across the face, immediately turning it into a Mindless Zombie. Take that, "nightmares don't drop corpse counters!" With his Casting Expert action, he lobbed a Decay at the near-forgotten Stitched Together, but only weak damage snuck through. With a (0) action and a wave of his pale hand, all those rekilled zombies stood back up as Mindless Zombies, and suddenly all was at least a little more right with the world.

I'm WAY too cheap to buy a bunch of Mindless Zombies, so all those unpainted Showgirls are putting on quite the performance as proxies.

The other two Daydreams then activated, pulling Chompy out of the hall and safely into the Atrium, where he was soothed back into the Dreamer. It was time for everyone to buckle down on VP, and it was gonna be a close race.

Round 5

It was coming down to the wire, so naturally I activated second. The Dreamer reburied the Stitched Together, getting him away from the crotchety old man's zombie-makin' cane, and flew back to the library. I realized I had no models committed to my staking my claim, and ran the dogs through the garden, off the near-forgotten Claim Jump marker, and into the mud room for some much needed VP action. Chompy had been too aggressive for me to take out, so I had given up on Contain Power. Nicodem hobbled to the servant's entrance door to try and put a stop to any last minute dreamt-up Stitched Togethers that might appear on the Claim marker. The Daydreams, having fulfilled their Chompy-wrangling duties, launched an all-out "tie up the remaining zombies" plan. It worked, as they were just defensive enough to not die, and just enough in my way that I couldn't quite get where I needed to cut the Dreamer off. 

Round 6

The finish line was in sight. The Dreamer flew into the gardens, dreamt up the Stitched Together on the Claim marker as anticipated. Try as I might, there was no getting him AND the Stitched off of it, but I did manage to kill the Stitched Together with a couple Decay bombs. I shambled my zombies through the motions, killing a couple Daydreams for the heck of it, and called it a game.

The end of the game. Little but shambling zombies and a couple of kooky daydreams remain.

Result:

I scored 2VP for having no enemy models in my deployment and 2VP for having puppies in the mud room. My lady scored 2VP for sitting on the Claim marker and 2VP for keeping her master alive.

All in all, a riveting 4 - 4 draw! We were both pleased with our crews' respective performances, but definitely saw things we could improve upon, not to mention things to watch out for next time we face each other.

Here's hopin' y'all like the write-up, and we plan on playing again real soon. Next time I think I'll play my Colette list and see how super mobility does against super mobility. =P

Malifaux: Bounty Hunting Done Family Style!

I have finally gotten around to working on my Ortegas boxed set for Malifaux and I have to say that they are really looking sharp!  So far I've mostly finished painting Perdita, Francisco, and Santiago.  This actually gives me a respectable little crew I could run on their own but I definitely want to get Papa Loco, Nino, and Abuela to the table as well.  Of course also I have to get off my butt and contact Wyrd about getting replacement for Nino since half of him is missing but the blame for that falls more on me than them since I've heard great things about their customer service.  But enough about what is still to be done, let's take a look at what's already (mostly) finished.

Unlike my Witch Hunter minis which kept a similar palette throughout, I really wanted to mix things up a little with the Ortegas.  Since they are a family rather than an official branch of the Guild, I really felt like it gave me some room to play around with the colors and I like how they are turning out.  Rather than going with the more muted style of the Hunters, my Ortegas are much brighter which creates a nice visual contrast when they are on the board together.

 Of the family, Perdita was the one that I had the hardest time deciding on and it was actually my wife's suggestion that was the inspiration for her paint scheme.  After taking one look at the mini she was instantly struck with the image of a flamenco dancer; the flared trousers, the sevillano hat... which made the choice of colors easy.

Black overall with a bright red top.  I also plan on picking out the buttons along the pant legs with red just to add another bit of pop to the figure and then she will be complete!

I decided to paint up Francisco next since I was already thinking about using him to support my Witchhunters for larger games.

His paint scheme with the bright green ruffled shirt and jeans was largely inspired by the artwork in the book as I just liked the look of it though I did paint his sombrero black with red piping inside.

Finally (so far at least...) is Santiago, the brute of the family.

Unlike the others which had been cleaner looking overall, I really wanted to make him look rough around the edges.  To do this I went with a beige for his shirt to make it look like it been lived in along with his jeans.  Finally I did his bandana in a bright red to add in a real pop of color.  As with Perdita I still need to finish him off (the guns are going to be metal plus I need to finish the base...) but you get the idea.

For the remaining models I've got a pretty good idea how I want to handle them, I just need to get Papa started, Nino replaced, and Abuela based, not to mention all the other Guild goodness that I've picked up lately.  Then there's also Bete Noire but I have something special in mind of her.  Until next time...

Tab A Goes In Slot 2.76... What?

I recently picked up the Peacekeeper from Malifaux for my rapidly growing Guild force and I was really excited to get it.  Well, at least until I opened it.

Here are all the parts that go into this mechanical beastie, a whooping twelve assorted bits and bobs and no instructions.  Well crap.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still excited to get this one to the table... its just going to take a little bit longer than I'd originally excepted.  On the positive side, the other three minis are all much simpler assembly so getting the rest of them to the table will be a slightly more expedient proposition.

Just a short update today but beware... All Hallows Eve is coming.  Mwah ha ha ha!!! Until next time...

It's Time To Go Into The Breach!

Wow, guess it helps to actually hit the "Publish" button when you finish typing.  Whoopsy!  Combination of too much work and vacation have apparently warped my brain more than normal.  Ah well, here's yesterday's post today.  Enjoy!

Today Spacer and I were finally able to get Malifaux to the table!  It took months to get it there but I think it was well worth the wait as we both had a really good time.

For our intro game we went with a 20 soul stone limit to keep things simple. I fielded Sonnia Criid supported by Samael Hopkins, a witchling, and a convict gunslinger while Spacer had Lilith, a mature nephilim, and three terror tots.  There was definitely a lot of page turning as we worked our way through the mechanics but after a couple of turns it was really clicking for both of us.  Unfortunately there are no pictures but next time I definitely plan on doing the session justice with a full battle report.

Even though we literally fought our way to a stalemate (we each managed to score a whooping two victory points!) we both had a lot fun and are looking forward to getting it back to the table again.  In fact I'm already looking at expanding my collection to try out more of the options that are out there which seems to be something this game really lends itself to.  Unlike more massive games like 40k which require you to invest at least a couple hundred dollars just to get the core units of an army, it really seems like Malifaux can be played with just a starter and still give you some options to play with.  Add in another starter or two and you can just start mixing and matching to really explore the possibilities your faction has to offer.

Now I just need to pick up the new rulebooks so I can figure out how to beat Collette and her showgirls, plus get Perdita and her family ready to go.  More on that and my "new" recycled orc Song of Blades and Heroes warband later though.  Until next time...

It's Gotta Be Fate

If there's one thing that Vegas is famous for its just gotta be the incredible culinary diversity.  Just kidding, of course its the gambling!  From dice to tiles, there are a lot of different ways to risk your money but the most common tool used to determine whether you get to keep your money or not is with a simple deck of cards.  Ironically Malifaux handles things in a very similar way with their Fate deck but just how does their deck measure up?

I can't speak for the regular decks but I can say that the Puppet Wars deck measures up very well indeed.  Most online stores that I looked at before I bought these described them as being plastic but didn't elaborate any further.  Were literally sheets of sytrene that were made into cards or were they more like the casino quality cards that you find around town out here?  Oddly enough they actually seem to be a little bit of both.

The material has a slight texture to them that you commonly find in quality playing cards but they are sturdy enough to have a solid feel without being difficult to shuffle which of course is essential for playing cards.  The artwork is also top notch carrying on the Puppet Wars theme throughout.

Overall, I would definitely recommend picking up a deck if you are playing Malifaux but these are nice enough that you could just use them as a regular deck of cards as well.  Sure the suits are slightly non-traditional and the cards are numbered ace to thirteen but these are easy enough to work around if you wanted to break these out for something different on poker night.  Oh, and they also cost more than a traditional deck of cards but these are nice enough and look to be durable enough that I would recommend biting the bullet and picking some up anyway.  Until next time...

Rustle, Rustle, And Snickity Snack

Back in 2010 Wyrd Miniatures released a collection of Halloween story encounters consisting of three different scenarios.  The first two use miniatures that are available from Wyrd but the third features a gentle little fellow called the Carver.

Happy looking isn't he?

As is always the case, the scenario that doesn't have a figure interests me the most so the question becomes just where do you find a giant scarecrow-like figure that you can proxy for him?  Turns out I didn't have to look any further than the now defunct World Of Warcraft Miniatures Game.

The original set contains a common figure called the Harvest Golem.

Not quite the same as the picture of the Carver but he's close enough for my purposes.  The first problem with the figure is the base.  Unlike the one pictured here, the actual miniature comes with the standard WoW mini game base which is slightly smaller than a 50mm base and has a ring attached to the bottom.  I first tried to cut the figure off of the base but this was a serious pain so I decided to just cut off the ring instead.  This was a much easier solution and soon enough I had him ready to mount on a standard 50mm base.

A little bit of putty work to make the join between the new base and old look a little more subtle, a fresh coat of paint, and voila!

For the paint scheme I actually just copied over the existing colors with some darker shades and used a flesh wash to add a little bit of depth.  Following this up with a quick highlight and a generous application of gore to his loving little hands and the gentle giant is ready to take his place amongst the of nightmares of the Malifaux.  This is definitely a scenario that I want to give a try so you can expect a battle report on this once Spacer and I have a chance to Malifaux to the table and wrap our little brains around it.  Until next time...

Through The Breach Once Again

Waaaaay back in June 2010 I first posted pictures of my Witch Hunter minis for Malifaux but I was never able to get them to the table... well, not for Malifaux anyway.  The LGS that I had been going to was not at all interested in expanding beyond Warmachine and Hordes at that time so my stalwart Guild enforcers have had to find other employment in my Songs of Torments Reach games (aka Song of Blades with cowboys...) but it looks like that is going to change.

After much debate, SpacerGal finally decided to take the plunge and has ordered not one but two starter crews!  On top of all that, he even went out and bought a set of the elusive and often out of stock Terraclips and man am I glad he did.  Just what did we think about this mysterious mass of cardboard construction?  You'll just have to watch and learn my friends....

And there you have it!  We hope you enjoyed our further forays into video and if you have any comments we'd love to hear from you.  That's all for now but you can expect more soon.  Until next time...

Bring Out Yer Dead! Bring Out Yer Dead!

Hello everyone and welcome to a very grave installment of the Dispatch.

For this one, we are going to look at a graveyard and someone that might just call it home. So without further ado, let's get to it but make sure that you're quiet. After all, you don't want to wake the dead, right?

I Can Really Dig This Place
Another Malifaux Terrain Project

Another piece of special terrain that I wanted to make for Torments Reach is the graveyard. After all, you can't have a western town without a graveyard, right? In the Malifaux rulebook, they define a graveyard as a piece of terrain covering at least 3"x3". For mine, I decided to go a little larger as it is supposed to be a piece that models can interact with so there's no point in making it too small IMO. So first things first, we need a base. A few quick (and noisy) cuts with my handy Skil saw and voila! Instant MDF base!

Next comes adding a little bit of depth to the graves. It you think of most movies, they always show graves as these raised up section of ground by the marker. Makes sense if you think about it as they did stick something in the hole that would displace some of the dirt. To create a similar effect with my graveyard I grabbed some corrugated cardboard, cut it into roughly man-sized rectangles, and hot glued them onto my MDF base.

Just the bare bones but don't worry; there's still some space left if you decide to join them.

Next came the grave markers. There are a number of different ways to do this. There are companies out there that make resin or metal tombstones, not to mention the plaster casts that you can get from Hirst Arts. All of these are well and good but there's two problems that I have with them. Number 1: I don't own any of them already. Number 2: I'm cheap. Instead I decided to make my own markers out of some basswood that I had floating around.

Ah, yes. "Making Your Own Tombstone", part of the advanced industrial arts class in junior high.

In all honesty, I also prefer how this method looks compared to the other options. If you think about it, I am trying to make a frontier town. Why would they spend the time and expense to ship in stone grave markers? Save your money for the living, the dead won't mind.

Now that you have the markers, it's time to attach them. Liberal amounts of hot glue was the route that I choose so that I wouldn't have to worry about any of them popping off in the middle of a game.

"I certainly hope one of those doesn't have my name on it."

With those little details added, its time to start making it look like terrain. Dump on the glue, pour on the sand, and come back tomorrow!

It's like playing in a sand box when you were a kid except now there's glue... and no cat poop!

Once the glue is dry, paint it up with some brown paint, dry brush it with a lighter shade, and add some flock or static grass (whichever suits your fancy). And there you have it!

A creepy graveyard in the middle of a forest. Now that sounds like a nice place for a quiet little vacation!

Not bad for a first attempt at making a graveyard in my opinion, though I think I'll do things a little different for the second one (Remember the first pic? After all, you can't have enough graveyards!). With this one I think that the graves and the pile of dirt are too angular so I'll have to see what I can do to fix that but we'll look at that another time.

Honey, I Thought You Said We Were Having Goulash For Dinner!
Taking A Closer Look At Mantic Games Ghoul Miniatures

For those of you who might not have heard of them, Mantic Games is a fairly new miniature company from England that makes plastic fantasy figures. Basically, think along similar lines to that other mini company across the pond but a lot less expensive. Take one of the most versatile and popular minis you can find out there nowadays, the zombie. The other company charges $35 for twenty multi-part plastic models while Mantic give you thirty for the same price. This is all well and good but just what do these minis look like? For that much less it seems like they would probably take a hit in the quality department. I've always wanted to take a look at them "in the flesh" but never had the chance until I found a promo on the Mantic website.

"Sign up for the Mantic newsletter and an English online store newsletter and receive a sprue of two ghouls for free." That sounds like a heck of a good price to me so I signed up... and then never heard anything. Months went by but I never looked into what had happened. Personally, I figured that there must have been some loophole that I fell into for being international. No worries either way really.

Then I received this package in the mail in the beginning of November. The crazy thing is check out the date that it was shipped!

It took this long? Really? So much for shipping by air mail...

Six and a half months later and they actually arrive. Talk about crazy! Not that I'm complaining about getting free stuff, it just cracks me up that it took that long. So what do these things actually look like...

As you can see on the sprue, there are two different bodies that you can mix and match the torsos and legs, plus several heads and hand options. Some variety like that is always a plus in my book as it means that you can make a whole unit and not have them looking like gingerbread men straight out of the cookie cutter. The heads, bodies, and legs are all attached with recesses instead of a flat join which I like as well. It seems like this gives a slightly stronger connection over a flat seem. The hands are a different story though. To swap out for the knife or cleaver hand, you need to cut off the current hand and stick the new on onto the flat stump that is left behind. Personally this makes me wonder about durability especially because the proportions on these figures seem to be much closer to realistic instead of the usual heroic. Then again, if you get a even join there you shouldn't have too much trouble as long as you're not throwing the things around between games.

The only other concern for me was the size. At first glance, these minis seem to be a little on the small side as you can see here.

Sonnia Criid from Wyrd on the left, a Mantic ghoul in the center, and a Black Scorpion gunslinger on the right

The thing to remember is that these guys are seriously hunched over like they are running forward, which you can definitely see when you turn them to the side.

If he were actually standing up straight he'd probably be close to Sonnia in height which is saying something as Wyrd minis tend to be larger than the norm.

Overall, I have to say that I'm really impressed by Mantic. Not only is detail very crisp but there was almost nothing for me to clean up before I started gluing these guys together. It's worth keeping in mind that the proportions on these figures is more realistic than you normally find but that doesn't strike me as a bad thing, just something to be aware of. They are also continually expanding on their current lines and adding more as well. Currently Mantic produces undead, elves, and dwarves and there are more in the works even now so there's almost something for everyone out there. Combine all of this with their high quality and exceptionally affordable price point and you definitely have a winning combination. If you are looking to make a fantasy army, you should definitely check them out.

Parting Shot...

And there's another one in the books! Thanks for checking out the blog and as always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to either leave them right here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Plus you can now follow the Dispatch on Facebook by clicking on the like button to the right. Until next time...

Time Ta Round Up The Posse An' Do Us A Little Huntin'!

Hey everyone and welcome to a proxious edition of the Dispatch!

For this issue we are going to head to the Workbench to take a look at the Torments Reach Irregulars, members of the Guild that have been stationed at the frontier town to help any Guild officers that might be passing through. Then we are going to look at another piece of special Malifaux terrain that is definitely... unique. But enough chatter! Let's take a closer look at the law in these here parts.

The Workbench
The Torments Reach Irregulars

For the Irregulars I've gone with just a bunch of western style minis that I happened to have on hand. This gives them a more unique feel and it also means that I can expand my crew without duplicating the minis. Plus I already own them which is always a bonus in my book.

Jeremiah Smythe
Convict Gunslinger

Jeremiah appeared in Torments Reach a few months ago and quickly established a fearsome reputation for himself. No one knows anything about his background but the local Guild forces are always willing to accept his help without question. After all, it's better to have a man like Jeremiah standing next to you instead of across from you.

Jeremiah is the only mini of the three that I've done any conversion work on. I used a Warmachine pistol wraith mini that I owned, attempted to add a nose and some eyes to his head (had to make him look a little less skeletal...) and topped him off with a cowboy hat. Personally, I'm really happy with the hat though the face didn't turn out to well. Then again, he is wearing a hat so the brim goes a long way to covering his eyes.

Kyle Swift and Jacob Weaver
Guild guardsmen

Living on the frontier in the real world is dangerous enough. Doing it in Malifaux is like having a death wish. Even with all the dangers that they have to face, Jacob and Kyle wouldn't have it any other way. Fast friends for years, the two law men would march to the gates of Hell itself for a little adventure. Sure they'll slow down sometime but everyone has to die sometime, right?

Both of these miniatures are from the Black Scorpion Tombstone line of minis. These are some of the best looking historical western minis that I've seen so I'm glad I was able to work them into the Irregulars. As an added plus they are even the right scale, coming in at 32mm tall. The only thing that they are lacking is swords but this is a minor point in my book, especially since leaving them as is means no conversion work. Ya gotta love just being able to paint it and get it onto the board.

Since these miniatures are different from the regular Malifaux minis, I really wanted to do something to tie them visually in with the Witch Hunter crew. Kyle and Jacob are both wearing the familiar green jackets of the Guild. Seems like a minor thing but visually it's enough to make the connection. Then there is Jeremiah. Being a mercenary with a mysterious background I wanted to make him look the part so I knew it was time to break out the black paint! Once he was painted up as your stereotypical "man in black", I really didn't like how he looked. After thinking about it a little bit, I decided that it would be better to make the outside of his coat more of a traditional leather duster and I also picked out the collar, cuffs, and the little mini cape thingee with some Thornwood green. This looks a lot better and really gives him more of a connection the rest of the crew so it was a win-win all around in my book.

And there you have the Torments Reach Irregulars! This takes the crew up to a total of 30 soulstones, making it is a much more dynamic crew. This also means that its time to get them onto the table so expect a Malifaux battle report in the near future!

My, Isn't That Just... Mysterious
A Malifaux Terrain Project

That's right, more Malifaux terrain! For this project, we are going to look at some mysterious effigies to see what secrets they may hold. I was really at a loss for how to best portray these pieces. According to Websters, an effigy is described as a crude representation or image that is usually done as a sculpture, typically done to ridicule the subject. I must admit that I don't know how someone native to Malifaux would ridicule someone so I'm just going to focus on the crude sculpture aspect to keep things simple. And as luck would have it, I had the perfect pieces to use just sitting on a shelf!

These thingees were part of a blind pack that I bought from either a Target or a Wal-Mart. Why buy something that looks so completely godawful, you ask? I'm thinking that they must have had a couple pictures of some interesting looking ones on the bag though these were definitely not them. Up until now, I had just left them sitting on a shelf but this is a good chance to put them to use.

The first step is to stick them on bases, something that is easily done with some epoxy and a couple of spare 30mm bases. Then it's time to prime and paint and detail, oh my!

After a quick coat of dupli color sandable black primer (if you don't use this stuff, you should), it is time to start painting. Actually, strike that. First, I'm going to add a little bit of detailing. I know what you're thinking, why do this after I primed it? To be honest, I'm not sure how well it would stick to the slick plastic so I thought I'd try the primed surface instead. For this, I'm just adding some sand to a few spots on the figure. Once these are dry, then it's time to start painting!

I am just going to go for some kind of stone material, so grey it is. A quick base coat followed by some highlighting then then its time to go back over the sand. Odd as it might sound, this was not added to give it a stony texture. Instead, I am going to hit these with some shade of green to create the look of moss on the sculptures.

And there you have the mysterious effigies of Torments Reach! Quick and easy to make, cheap to buy and unique in their appearance. All good things in my book.

The Parting Shot

Well, that about does it for another issue of the Dispatch. As always, thanks for checking out the blog and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to either leave them right here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Until next time...