Adding Izamu to the hoard

Just a quick update, this time to show off my own paint work. I freely admit that everything else in my collection is the result of commission work, by the highly talented folks at both Blue Table Painting and The Sound of the Machines, but here is a first, my own work....











Gutted about the mould line in his hair, but too late now!


I wanted to get a couple of additions ready for the GT, then I intend to swing back and add some book 1 minions, to give me a little more flexibility in the m2e tourneys before the end of the year.

Have to admit inspiration for this one came from a web search, not sure of the website but here's my inspiration.




Watch this space, the updates will be more frequent in the weeks to come!

Getting back on the horse & M2E

It seems like I've started my last couple of entries with an apology for not posting more regularly. Hopefully that will change now, but I don't think I'm ever going to get back to the frequency of when I started this humble blog.

I can sit here and simply say real life has been getting in the way, that the demands of work, and my home life have kept me from the game I love, but its actually a little more than that. As I look back, I realise its been almost three weeks since my last post, a situation I'd never intended when I started to scribe. So what has been happening?

Well I think the issue for me, might have been felt by others so I'm curious if your local meta has suffered from the book 4 and M2E phenomena. A month ago I started to notice a change in my local meta, with some becoming burnt out by the book 4 release and others bemoaning what would be next. Rumour threads started to pop up everywhere with rumours of a book 5, dedicated faction books and of course a new edition. For the most part I watched these threads figuring what would be, would be. Wyrd releases a quality product, so what's the issue, surely any of these would be hit.

Then M2E was officially announced and the details started to follow on what the changes would be and how Wyrd intended to re-release such a extensive range. For the record, I neither sit in the camp that's happy or unhappy with the changes, as I said, what will be will be.



I listened and absorbed and for the most part I liked what I heard. I like the concept of simplification, I like the diversity of uses for soulstones, the upgrades concept, in fact there is very little I don't like. I think Wyrd is to be commended for trying the open beta route, I can't think of anyone else that's willing, or has tried such a public method of rules development, in this industry at least. The concept of crowd sourcing information or funding isn't new to other industries, indeed the computer games market has been doing it quite successfully for years.

There was however a personal affect on me and a larger more immediate effect on the local meta.

From a purely selfish standpoint, the changes have left my beginners board entirely up in the air, I know scheme selection and victory point changes will mean I need to revisit my sideboards and completely redo. I just need to press on with the Arcanist board itself and then revisit the outer board when things settle down. I know whole swathes of this blog will need to be rewritten or just won't be relevant, which is a shame, but is the nature of change I suppose.

It's more the overnight effect its had on the local meta that has disappointed me. With the relatively drawn out date for the open beta (one month after announcement), its created a period where no one is buying into the game and interest is waning. There are some in our local meta who are in the beta play test, they squirrel themselves away and in doing so probably halve our number, then the remainder are further divided into those with book 1 masters, who can look forward to an update relatively quickly and those without book one masters who are left with a decision, which really is quite simple - wait, buy or quit.

I know and appreciate that no change is easy, that any change needs careful management and that with any change there are winners and losers. I think the open play test is a fantastic way of balancing and driving adoption, I just need to appreciate its going to be a couple of bumpy months, as people transition and the game settles down.

Hopefully real life will also settle down for me as well, as I really miss my weekly games and I need to get back on the band wagon to get ready for the GT.

I have been busy assembling the plastics and now have a lot of experience in them, so expect some updates in the immediate future.

Playing the Elite and the Hail Mary plays

Today's post is something of a reflective moment. I want to talk about why I love the fate mechanic in Malifaux and what it must take to make it as one of the Elite in this game.




I'm reflecting on three games I've had against outstanding opponents, players who are undoubtedly up there as some of the best in Australia. You'll have to forgive me waxing lyrical about these three games first, there are some points to this blog entry, but I think its important to lay the foundations, before drawing my conclusions.

Dave aka Tiny @ Cancon 2013
The first game I'll talk about was actually a Resser on Resser brawl at Cancon this year. This was my first brawl sized game and only my third game with Kirai.

In my game against Dave, he went to great lengths to accommodate my lack of knowledge, truly helping me at every turn. We're in the final turn of the game. I've played a Hail Mary and somehow broken through to Dave's deployment zone. Now most of Dave's stuff had activated and in reality it was only his Lost Love that was anywhere near close enough. Most players at this point might have conceded the breakthrough but Dave asks me how many wounds my Drowned has left, looks at his card, decides if he needs Lost Love to keep Kirai safe, then charges my Drowned. A totem taking on a pretty strong spirit. It was an eye opener for me, and now in every game I no longer relegate the lost love to the backfield, I actually consider him a reasonable brawler.

Liam aka OSOI @ Faux Pas about a month ago
Now Liam is one of our local henchmen and recently he's done some good stuff with achievement events. As we sat down he pulls out the achievements pack and offers me the chance to pick his Hoffman crew. Now I'm not going to miss an opportunity like that, he's handing me a chance to pick his crew for him, surely I can level the playing field for my fledgling Kirai crew if I can pick some weaker minions to go up against.

Well what that game showed me is even with a disadvantage, a great players finds a way. Liam turned my choices against me using tactics he rarely gets to use. He had a plan from the start, heck he even told me the details, but he still managed to execute it and wipe out four spirits in the process.

Adrian aka Rathnard @ my place yesterday
Now here's Professor Pink himself, something of a celebrity in a Faux circles. We're smashing out a game between Zoraida and Seamus, I'm listening intently and trying to keep up, I know I'm facing Australia's number one and I'm a little intimidated by his wealth of knowledge. As the mid game starts I'm hit hard by a combo involving nightmare teddy, bad juju and a couple of silurids. Meanwhile Zoraida is having fun ravening around snatching objectives and obeying the crap out of everything.

I somehow manage to keep Seamus in the game until turn 4 when Zoraida charges him. Yep you read that right, Zoraida, the queen of casting sticks it to Seamus with nothing more than a set of knitting needles.

At this point I've played a Hail Mary and charged a crooked man into Zoraida, I know, not the brightest thing to do, but then fate hands me a second chance and I manage to paralyse the Hag and reinforce my control of the centre of the board. Even then Adrian looks completely calm and suddenly silurids are bouncing into my deployment zone to level the scores.


So what are my learnings from all this reflection? Is there a point to all of this? Well yes I think there is and I'll attempt to summarise it here:

My first point has to be that unlike some other wargames, Malifaux doesn't seem to breed nearly as many douches at the top. Maybe its the fact that in our top ten here, there's quite a few who are also Henchmen, maybe its the Aussie culture, but its been my experience that these are good guys, people you enjoy every moment of your game against. I find that interesting when we as a club, go to great efforts in other systems to enforce a fair and disciplined sportsmanship system, whilst with this game, it seems largely redundant.

My second point would be that playing this quality of player is always an eye opener, you can think you know your cards off by heart, and yet somehow, they will always remind you of something you've forgotten, or some tactic you've completely overlooked or never really understood. Generally I get told about these things as I go to do something silly and these guys correct me, which says another thing about their character.

My third point and real reason for mentioning the fate mechanic at the start of this long ramble is the balance it brings and how you see an experienced player deal with a sudden change in fate. In the games I mentioned these players all suffered a burst of bad luck playing me, a black joker at the most inopportune of times, a sudden streak of low cards, or a control hand that contains nothing but ones and twos. In each instance I saw the players really step it up a gear, none of them sat their and bemoaned their luck, as some of us are prone to doing, instead you could see them analysing the situation and working a way to cheat the hand they've been dealt.

There's several lessons for me in what I'm writing here:
- Don't be afraid to go up against the best, how else are you going to get better.
- These are good guys, the arrogance I sometimes see amongst the winning circle, just isn't that prevalent in this system
- Aspire to be like these guys, I need to work on my calm, and I really need to know my rules a lot better
- I need to try out other crews and not restrict myself to one or two masters, I need to understand the mechanics of crews I struggle against, so I can find and overcome vulnerabilities, or at the very least know what those vulnerabilities are
- I need to plan more, plan and re-plan as the game develops. Don't just shuffle forward and hope for the best, I need to know what every minion's objective is, and I need to take stock at the end of each and every activation
- I need to look at the Mercs and synergies with other crews, decide if their right for a given situation, scenario, opponent or crew matchup
- I need to look at all character abilities again, stop dismissing those things I don't think I'll need, or don't play to the perceived strengths. Instead I need to look at all abilities again and look at where they work and what they work against.

So in short, no small order! And as I've hinted some small changes for this Aspiring Resser and this blog, or should that be Gullible Guildsman, Timid Thunderer, Oppressed Outcast, Neverborn Newcomer or Assistant Arcanist.

Time will tell.

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 6 - Adding Insignificant to Progress

It feels like a while since I posted any progress on this project, real life seems to always be getting in the way. Here it is and its going to be a bit random as I've been doing bits in various areas, rather than a concentrate effort in one.

So first of all, in order to take this board to the next level, I finished off the laying of the paving style vinyl and then laid down a lot of basing sand in the gaps left by the older style brickwork.





I'm pretty happy with this has turned out, although the vinyl was a pain to cut, and I've had more than one comment about how it would have been a lot easier just to have laid the vinyl and then glued the GW movement trays on top of it. Yes it would have been easier, but I think it would have looked a lot cleaner. That for me would have been a bad thing, I wanted a real hodgepodge of materials laid down in a haphazard way.


Whilst that was drying, I knocked out my first bit of terrain for this board, a victorian beam engine that was one giant mould line. You really do appreciate how good modern kits are when you take on something that's a decade or more older. With something like 200 pieces, most of which are tiny rivets and bolts, it was a challenging afternoon but its left me with a big LOS blocking piece of terrain that i think is in character with the rest of this Arcanist den.

I've also spent some time on the outer board, where the colours of the two factions are now present. I must have had a dodgy can of spray because the little red area on one of the sidelines is mottled. Something I'll have to sand back and repaint.

I tried masking off the lines and painting those up on the Ten Thunders side with limited results, unfortunately the paint has bled under the masking tape and the lines aren't as crisp as I would have liked, more touch up work there!

I also received through the counters that will be inset into the soulstone and victory tracks, but they have languished on my pile of shame this week as I press on with the board.


And lastly the Arcanist board itself, which after receiving a heavy undercoat, is now painstakingly receiving its first coat. I'm giving each brick a 70/30 base drybrush in mecharite red and Chaos black. I'll the go at the bricks with two colours, probably adding some muted oranges to give some areas a more modern brick colour. This will then contrast with the concrete colour I'll give to the GW paving and the worn Victorian colours I'll do for the older style pavers. I'll then grime these up with oil affects and then tie it together with snow flock.


And because the nights are getting colder and I've been told to clean up my mess, I spent a good few hours this weekend taming my gaming room. It was an utter tip, but as you can see its a lot tidier....


That pile behind the WIP board is my Malifaux pile(s) of shame, there must be close to 100 models in various states of assembly.


And my paint station isn't any better. There's Lucas and crew, Izamu and some punk zombies all ready to go. If only I had more time!

Easter Equinox - Easter Faux Pas Story Encounter

Last week Krags hosted the bi-monthly co-op event we run in conjunction with Outpost South, which we have dubbed Faux Pas.

This month was our turn, and as it was Easter, our Henchman ran a special Easter story encounter, which I have to admit isn't an original encounter, more something he borrowed and used. Nonetheless it was great fun and so I thought I'd republish it here and show you what make it so entertaining:



You can read the full details of the encounter if you click on the image above.

The basic premise is that your soulstone cache and 10 choccy counters are up for grabs, the winner is the player with the most choccies and soulstones remaining at the end of the night. All you have to do is run your game strategy around collecting and minimising your use of soulstones.

A simple plan that isn't that easy to achieve. You see I think there are a few factors that are playing away in the background to make your choccy hoard simply melt away, namely:

But he's got more than me, that can't be fair can it?
It starts before even the first card is flipped, you've chosen your crew and then you realise your opponent has a larger soulstone cache. Playing Seamus I started with a humble two cache, playing Raspy my opponent started with five. Normally you know raspy is going to use some of those as the game unfolds, but as I explained earlier your natural tendency here should be to hoard. Therefore it can't possibly be fair that your opponent starts with double, or is it?

Carrying chocs is a significant task...
So picking up chocolate is a task for a significant model. I ran out canine remains and then had to wait for a second dog in the pack to get near it before I could pickup a counter. When one of my hunting pack got chocolate, I was loathe to send it running up the board with its mates, as it would have slowed the pack and risked that choccy, but at the same time, I needed the number to claim significant. In the end I played two different strategies, where it was safe, the encumbered dog followed on behind to give the scouting dog significant, and when it wasn't safe I simply traded it up for a belle using Seamus's hand canon and arise abilities.

Even so, picking up that counter takes an action so you have to work out the optimum way get into contact and get that choccy.

Don't just stand there...
As I eluded to in my last point, timing and movement are everything. Like any objective grabbing activity in Malifaux, you want to side up, grab that choc and then of course your activation is over. Next turn you've got a choice, either than choc laddened minion carries on and fights the good fight, or you run, or my case, shamble off for the hills.

If I push you, you might just drop that precious load...
There's nothing worse than getting your hands on an objective and someone pull s a push schinanigan on you. You've probably spent the entire last activation just getting your mits on that choccy, you done your stint in the open and your about to make for the hills when your opponent pushes you about, and in doing so that delicate morsel goes clattering into the gutter for any rogue to pickup. Keep an eye out for such trickery and remain vigilant.

It's chocolate and I'm hungry...
It calls to you on a subconscious level, promising sugary goodness and a brief moment of ecstasy. All you need to do is resist, but as some famous evil type once put it - resistance is futile.

And if it isn't calling to you, then its likely calling to your minions. Remember they're not immune and those low cards can and will come up at the most inopportune of times!s

Those are the chocolates your looking for
Lastly there's the mind games that your opponent might just try on you (because I'm guilty of trying....). You're in the middle of a duel, your crunching the math, you've come up one short of moderate damage and its such a shame because your on your last AP, and you only needed moderate damage to end this plucky minion. Your opponent reminds you you could always burn a stone, afterall only the joker is going to stop you ending my minion. And you're tempted....

This is when you should look into that smiling face and ask yourself, what's he up to? You see I worked out early on to keep an eye on my opponents pool:
- Your opponent wants you eating your pool because ultimately
those soulstones count to the victory conditions
- your opponent might be holding a choccy counter and that in
conjunction with a slow to die action gives that minion a healing flip
(see story encounter rules), which can't be good, sure they've
traded that choccy but they're still standing and who knows what
they have planned....

And there you have it, Malifaux with chocolate, what more could you possibly want.....


I should also put out a big shout out to Mr Fantasy who put together two stunning boards for the event...

Ten Thunders Hideout
The Ten Thunders have infiltrated all factions in Malifaux and the Bayou is no exception. With the infiltration and their work in the shadows complete, the Ten Thunders have turned their sights to a more permanent lair. Can this organisation tame the bayou or will the bayou be reclaimed by its denizens?




We discovered early on that the five structures on the bayou board were solar lights, which John and Justin ended up using as a form of turn counter. The light goes out, that's a turn down. It was quite cool to see the lights of this camp blink out one by one as the two Neverborn crews fought over the spoils.

Mr Magpies Circus
Mr Magpie has come to Malifaux bringing his troop of performers and misfits. To the common folk its is a wanted distraction from the drugery of their lives. To the unseen masters it is either an opportunity to hire the skills of some truly unique mercenarys or it is unwelcome competition.




Here's a link to Mr Fantasy's blog - Fire Water Portal, where you can find WIP and full pictures of these excellent tables.

Enjoy!

Auz Malifaux GT here I come!

Last night as I feverishly fought with Blogger pages to try and get my assembly instructions page working (which I kinda only partially succeeded in - stupid formatting), I was briefly interrupted by a forum notification reminding me about the Malifaux Australian GT.

No sooner had I finished my post, than I went to work on the Misses. Now she's known it was coming but permission slips are a fickle thing, so I always try to sweeten the deal. This time I knew she wouldn't want to come with me, so the tactic I'd used for Cancon wasn't going to work a second time.

I knew I needed to reduce the bill if if I was going to appeal the decision, so first things first, lets look at the details of the tourny. Ok the hotel has a room rate for the tourny, right there's $40 saving per night. The hotel Facebook page will chuck in a free continental brekky for a like on their page. I can do that for another $20 saving per night. So far I'd saved $180. Now the big one, the flight. A check of our frequent flyer miles shows there's enough to go to Sydney, right so if I explain this as I've save about $700, its only going to cost about $450 to go, will she go for it?

Well the title says it all really, and I shouldn't spin this out any longer. I have a great and understanding wife at the end of the day and yep I'm signed up, in fact I think I was the first to sign up.

So July is a big month, I want to lift my game. At Cancon the objective wasn't to come last. This time round I don't want to come last, I want nearer to the middle and I want at least 1 win per day. Lets see how I go!

Wyrd Plastics - Assembly Guide, Tips and complexity reviewed

I've seen a few articles recently with people's feedback on assembling the new Wyrd plastics. I'm not denying that some of these kits are fiddly and the lack of assembly instructions doesn't help, but I've been surprised by some of the criticisms I've seen.

I wanted to create a more impartial guide to those kits and so I'm dedicating a page to a Wyrd Plastics Guide, a mechanism that gives you a simple score on the complexity of assembly and things to look out for with each figure. You should see it appear on my blog in the next couple of days.

I'll be giving each mini a score and then the box set overall, so you get an idea what you might be letting yourself in.

Now because we are all at different skill and comfort levels, scoring works on the premise that you're a hobbyist who has undertaken a few conversions, maybe done a little green stuffing, you certainly know how to drill and pin. A typical example is maybe you've converted a marine to a new pose, drilled out the gun barrels and green stuffed a symbol or two on his armour.

So how will scoring work? Well its a simple 1-5 scale as follows:

One out of Five - A kit or mini so complex and delicate it will take a team of artisans many weeks to assemble the nerve to simply open the box. People have been known to loose their sanity simply by gazing at the contents. Not for the feint hearted and is likely to test your assembly mettle significantly. Be prepared and follow advice and recommendations very carefully.



Two out of Five - A kit or mini with many assembly challenges. It might contain really fiddly bits that leave you feeling you need a third hand, just to hold that bit just as you want it. It will challenge you and requires a fair bit of thought and preparation.

Three out of Five - A kit or mini with one or two assembly challenges. It might challenge you a little but with a bit of thought, it should go ok.

Four out of Five - It's a pretty easy mini or kit to assemble, there's nothing out of the ordinary here for someone of your skills. There might be one or two little things to look out for.

Five out of Five - Seriously you'd have to have a blood alcohol level approaching 100% to cock this one up. No instructions needed and a blindfold is provided for those wanting a challenge.


Lastly, to round out this article, I'm sharing my tips for assembling these minis, some are obvious, some not so. They are my personal take on how to ensure every mini you assemble not only looks great, but causes you the minimum of fuss during assembly.

So my 10 general assembly tips for Wyrd Plastics are as follows:

Keep the back of the box, the 3D renders of the minis can help you find out where those elusive bits should be fitted.



If you are going to wash, to remove mould release agents, do it whilst everything is on the sprue and check carefully for missing components afterwards.

Don't blindly cut things off of the sprue, this isn't a GW kit where you make a little pile of bits, then decide how they go together. Each piece probably has only one place and each mini has specific parts. You can only mix and match if you are prepared to convert, which will not be easy, and arm/leg swaps are non existent in the kits I've seen.

Only snip off the sprue the bits you need for the next assembly step.

Snip things off the sprue over a table, preferably covered in something with a high contrast colour to the grey of the kit and isn't cluttered with other things. Make sure your entire sprue is right over the table/matt and watch carefully for where pieces drop, if they are small.

Make sure you have tools up for the job, you want a needle sharp and pointed set of clippers, some needle files, a needle delivered plastic glue solution and a sharp hobby knife. You may also want a pair of tweezers and a magnifier for some of the kits.

Cleanup small and delicate pieces very carefully. I know this sounds obvious, but I've seen a few pieces broken because people didn't think through the cleanup strategy.

Build from the legs up on a mini unless otherwise suggested in my guides. Decide if legs need pinning to your bases before getting into full assembly.

Consider as you build if adding the next component will hinder your ability to paint. Some prefer to part assemble and paint, others don't mind the challenges that full assembly might bring.

Dry fit every component at least twice before gluing. In the first instance make sure you have the fit right. In the second instance look to your remaining parts to see if what you're doing might hinder the rest of the build.


Lastly and not really an assembly point, but one last piece of advice. Consider how you are going to transport the minis, custom foam is best.

Thunderstruck - Achievement Tournaments Reviewed

As I look back on the weekend that was Thunderstruck, I thought I’d share my conclusions on an achievement ranked Malifaux event.

As I mentioned in my last post, Thunderstruck had 55 achievements, with the winner of the tournament being the person who had racked up the most achievements after three games. As a secondary countback mechanism, our TO used Tournament Points to resolve any tie breaker situations.

If you click on the picture below, you can see the achievements we used. This sheet gives you an idea of whether an achievement can be completed once or several times within the three games we played.




So what is it like to play in an achievement orientated event? Well my experience was that it made for a much more relaxed and less competitive event. Our Henchman did a good job of relaxing the barriers, he allowed unpainted crews, increased round times and there was a broad enough spectrum of achievements to ensure everyone could score.

We played through three of the new gaining grounds missions, which in itself was an education for everyone, with some fierce fighting to capture the treasure or be king of the hill.

At the same time, I think we were all conscious that winning was only going to net us one achievement point per game, so you saw people playing their hands open or cheating blind, letting your opponent pick their crews, or trying plays they'd normally not risk to get their achievements.

It all creates a more light-hearted atmosphere, and I think it probably emulates some of the play testing that Wyrd went through in the development of the game. What do I mean by that? Well next time you play a game, try a round with your hand face up and you'll see a lot more decisive play, because you know exactly what your opponent has in their hand. Try a turn where your control hand is face down and you cheat blind, you'll have a lot more fun and at the same time your wins and losses in the turn become a lot more epic. That's what I mean.

So does the achievement concept work in a tournament environment? Well my own experience would have said yes but after speaking to a couple of attendees they had mixed feelings about the concept.
There was feedback that some of the achievements weren't possible with certain factions and you also need to look out for achievements that favour a faction. I had several people say I had one in the bag because I could easily end a game with more models than I started with. In reality I didn't, but that was down to me still learning Kirai.
Meanwhile Mr Fantasy, being the sneaky out-of-the-box thinker that he is, found a way to maximise his achievements whilst minimising the risk to his crew selection.

Picture the scene, you have a sixty soulstone pool to play with. You know you can earn six achievement points if you let your opponent choose your crew and it contains no duplicates. How do you ensure that happens, well you only take a 28ss crew, of all unique figures. Yeah sure you can pick my crew, oh and you don't really have a choice because even dropping the cheapest minion will exceed the master's cache.... Oh and they are all unique so that's 2 points per game. Like I said, cheeky, and my hat is off to Mr Fantasy for thinking of it. This from the man who had only played three games prior to the tourny! Achievement Tournys level the playing field.

So if you're careful with your achievements, are there any other gotchas? Well if you look back to the score sheet you might pick up on another, but if not, then my advice would be to design a score sheet where you can differentiate on the achievements earnt per game. It sounds trivial but when you want your opponent to sign off on your achievements, its a lot easier to distinguish if you can see what was achieved that game.

If you follow these points then I think you'll have a great time and put on a unique event that veterans and newbies will enjoy. I know I did, even though I only managed a humble middle of the pack position and 24 of the 28-31 achievement points I was predicting going into the event.

And here's the KRAGS crew at Thunderstruck: Back Row Mr Guild, Mr Neverborn and the grinning loon, on the right, is me, The Aspiring Ressurrectionist, meanwhile in front we have Mr Fantasy and Mr Arcanist.

Achievements Unlocked - Thunderstruck Tourny Part 1 - Prep

This weekend I'm taking part in a one day achievement orientated tournament called Thunderstruck.

Our local henchman has put together a sideline event, with a maximum of 12 players, where you win, not through winning games, but the deeds of your crew. It's a 60ss fixed faction pool, where a set list of achievements is provided and the winer will be the person with the most achievements at the end of the tourny. With only three games to play, getting the majority of these achievements is going to require combos to be taken and so looking at what's on the list, lets see what's possible.

I broadly categorised these into definites, requires some work and gonna be hard. I'm intending to take Seamus and Kirai as my masters and max out my pool with a mixture of minions that suit both. This will mean leaving some toys at home, but will give me a choice of masters and play styles.

So on to the achievements, which I reckon total to a maximum of 54 points.

Definite
Play a game against x faction (upto 3 points)
Well I know Neverborn, Arcanists and Guild will be representing and that I'm likely to be the only Resser, so I should see a minimum of two points from the three available

Play a game with a fully painted crew, painted master and minion (5 points)
That's five easy points, because even commission painted is going to count.

Accomplish breakthrough / end game with master in opponents deployment zone (2 points)
I know this is possible with Kirai and might be possible if I use the copycat killer or dead rider to swing Seamus over there but it will depend on the strategy

Take two unannounced schemes, win one unannounced scheme, randomly choose your schemes (3 points)
Should be possible but might sacrifice a win

Play a turn after the first without doing ranged damage (3 points)
Should be possible with Kirai, but definitely not going to happen if I have my usual Seamus list on the board.

Cheat red joker on damage (2 points)
Hey it should happen at least once, even with my cards.

Requires some work
Win a game (upto 3 points)
Well we all want to win games, but considering that wont net a tourny cup, I'd be happy to win one of the three games/points available here.

Accomplish a master or faction scheme (2 points)
Yeah I generally don't play these, so will require work

Allow your opponent to choose your crew (2 points)
Thinking about it, it shouldn't be to much of a disadvantage as ill be picking the 60ss pool of compatible models.

Play a turn, after turn 1, with you control hand face down/up (3 points)
Now that should be fun! Blind cheating I have to try this one but the open hands idea will also be interesting.



Gonna be hard
End the game with more models than you started with (1 point)
Gonna be hard (for Seamus or Kirai) unless I can convert an opponents crew

Kill an opponents leader with your leader (1 point)
Not my style and I only really see me doing this if I avatar.

Kill an opposing master with your totem (1 point)
Technically possible, providing I can keep it alive long enough and its a finisher on an already beaten up master

Select no schemes / win game without schemes (2 points)
This little combo is very tempting to take together but its going to require some really good plays. I can't see me taking this combo and I definitely don't see a win on the cards if I do.

Win a game with none of your models on the board (2 points)
I don't think I've ever done that but gaining grounds 2013 might change that.

Play a turn after the first without doing melee damage (3 points)
This will be hard with either of my crews, unless I hunker down for a turn.

End game with 4 cards of 2 or less, or 10 or more (2 points)
Well what can I say, that's all going to depend on the cards

Play a game with no duplicates in your crew (3)
Well for Kirai that's damn near impossible and I'm not sure how my Seamus crew will look under the 60ss cache.


So my prediction is I end up with 28-31 points but lets see.

Last night a couple our KRAGS regulars tried out some of the achievements in their game. They made me pick their crews and randomly select their schemes. They played a hand with it face down and were having so much fun blind cheating that they carried on that way all night! They even started adding sound effects and musical numbers for their crews!

I guess, at the end of the day, tourneys don't have to be competitive, this one is just going to be raw fun!

Faux Pas Club CoOp event 3 months in and Kirai realised

Last night our cooperative inter-club monthly event, dubbed Faux Pas, had its third outing. This event was created because there are pockets of Malifaux players dotted at the various clubs in Western Australia and the best way to mix up the local meta (and ensure you get games) is to get everyone in the same room. How do you do that when we are so dispersed? Well our answer has been to put on a schedule of events that moves between the clubs.

This schedule covers the many different and often overlooked aspects of Malifaux, last month being mysterious terrain and achievements.
This month was largely practice for the Thunderstruck Tourny being held here this weekend, which links achievements with the new gaining grounds 2013 strategies. Next month is Easter and as KRAGS (my local club) is hosting, we're planning a story encounter.

Three months in and its been good, we consistently get 8-10 people at these events and hopefully that number will rise. At the same time, I'm sat here puzzling over what more we can do to raise attendance. We continue to advertise in local outlets and on the local forums. We push hard in the run up to advertise and to ensure the regulars can attend and we try to have something different each time. All this is combined with the efforts of our henchmen, who is a very busy man. That said, I can't help feeling we've hit the glass ceiling. I know there are a lot more players out there, I just can't think how we can incentivise them to come to these events. Time will tell I suppose.


I think I can finally say I'm getting to grips with Kirai. I can now look at my hand and know what I'm going to need to focus on that turn.
- If I have crows then I'm evolving and summoning, or going for maul results in combat situations
- If I have masks then I'm moving minions around the board and I need to be looking to Datsu and Kirai to do this
- If I have rams then I'm healing things and again need to see what Datsu, Kirai and the Lost Love are up to.
- If I have tomes then I'm not doing a lot and I really need to card cycle with Kirai and bide my time, trying not to over extend myself.

All up, I'm happy that I've gone from the position in my first few games where I sat there saying 'I don't have the right suit' to 'ok I'm going to be focusing on this for the turn'.

I think the next objectives for me will be to try out avatar Kirai, to see how that changes my later game antics and to start looking at the time and place to use specific summoning strategies and when to use Jakume. Then it'll be on to looking at other spirits and seeing what they can add.

The other thing I need to do is work out is my summoning strategy dependant on who I'm facing. Last night I faced the Ortegas and I took a very risky strategy of sending off twin linked Shikome on one flank whilst Datsu and 3 Gaki went up the other. As someone who's just realised how important it is to keep Kirai near the fighting, this was not the strongest of strategies. It did work, but it could have gone horribly wrong at the same time.

(Two Shikome get the drop on a Death Marshall in last nights game)

Malifaux on Vassal, Pandora Schinanigans and a visit to Mr Magpies Circus

Long weekends are a rare and complicated beast. You look forward to them, but then in the final few days before they arrive, I often find my time gets booked up, and before you know it, the weekend is over and you're left wondering where it went.

Something odd happened this weekend, and for some reason the entire long weekend was free. This gave me the opportunity I was looking for, and through stealth and cunning, I managed to notch up some serious hours on Malifaux.

First up was one of my international league games using the vassal platform. Over the course of two days and about four hours of play we took Kirai and Yan Lo for a spin in a 25ss shared slaughter scrap. Four hours does sound like a lot for that sized game, but vassal isn't as fluid as playing in real life and we were plagued with comms issues throughout the entire game. Nonetheless there's something cool about playing someone in Japan from the comfort of your own study.

Vassal is a great addition for a number of reasons and I encourage everyone to give it a try, but for me the overriding reasons why I value the platform are:
- it means I get to play more
- it means I get to play different people
- it means I get to play crews outside my usual meta
- the disconnect from the gaming board means I have to focus that much more, and in doing so, I learn new things about my crew.

At the end of it I took home my first slaughter win, an 8-0 win but that result belies how difficult a game it was. Going up against Toshiro and Izamu was terrifying, they are a superb combination and very difficult to put down. I went into the start of turn four, loosing the initiative and watching four of my crew slaughtered. I summoned backup and finally managed to fell Izamu before killing Toshiro in turn 5. Whilst Kirai was nothing short of a spirit factory, in a slaughter game, you don't really want to be resurrecting that much of your crew, because you are going to find it difficult to win on VPs.



I may have won that game using conventional scoring, but when it came to achievements I lost out. Killing three of the same minion and then killing five of my crew netted Joel two achievements points to my one for tabling my opponent. Achievements are turning out to be the great counterpoint to VPs and has made me realise that next weekends achievement orientated tournament (Thunderstruck) is going to be a real challenge.

After playing on the Internet, came a real life game vs Mr Fantasy, playing against Pandora. Now I've played against Pandora quite a bit now and although she gives me trouble in every game, I thought I had her tactics nailed. Not so, it seems! In turn four I watched as a companioned poltergeist and pandora held back a tide of my spirits from the treasure counter and then beat them up time and again using willpower duels to strike wound after wound. This I think was my punishment for felling teddy in one round of combat with two Gaki triggering off each other...

(Teddy wants the treasure)


And whilst my recollections of that scrap are going to be anecdotal at best, I thought I'd share pictures of the board we played on. Inspired by the Aethervox readings of Mr Magpies Circus, Justin went about creating this beautiful board. You can read more about it on his blog firewaterportal.blogspot.com.au













Life under the big top



Both crews after the proceeds of Mr Magpies ticket sales


(Kade survives attacks from a Shikome and Ikiryo without taking a scratch)

And as to the rest of the week, well it promises to keep the heat coming. I have our monthly Faux Pas night with Outpost South tonight, my second worldwide league game during the week, a league game for our local achievement league on Friday night and on Sunday I'm playing in Thunderstruck, our one day achievements tournament. And with any luck ill get some time in on my beginners board as well!

Fun times.

February 2013 - My Malifaux Roundup

Another month done already - surely not! It's been another frantic month on the hobby front, despite promises to slow it down, when you get inspired, you just have to jump on it. So how well did I do in my goal setting this month, well lets see:

Achievement - Unlocked - The ultimate beginners board experiment
Inspiration, or a compulsive madness overtook me in the middle of the month, when a combination of a tournament board i'd seen and idle hands lead to me designing, at least on paper, the ultimate Malifaux beginners board. I promptly got stuck in, dusting off some of my hoardings and buying some truly nerdy airfix kits from Ebay, with the intention of building the ultimate beginners board. Although I have until July to finish these boards, I'm hoping for continued progress next month.




Achievement - Locked - Paint up Izamu
I set myself the goal of painting up my first Malifaux model this month, Izamu. As I start to head into the zombie and undead side of the faction, where skin tones and outfits are less filigree and more dirty and bloodstained, I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable that I could paint these minis.

So how did I do? Well Izamu sits undercoated on my paint station, so not very well would be the answer there...




Achievement - Unlocked - Gaining Grounds 2013 experience
I wanted to get some exposure to gaining grounds 2013, so I could consider if it was going to have any affect on the tournament I'm planning to run later in the year. I also wanted to know if there were any real changes for my ultimate beginners board.

I tried desperately to find a time to meet up with our local henchman, but our calendars and real life were destined to get in the way. In the end, Wyrd beat me to it, releasing the updated PDF toward the end of the month. I set about trying out different combos both at my local gaming club and using vassal. the result was an article I published recently, with the changes I'd found in how gaining grounds plays. All up I'm very happy with the changes, although some of my combos need a little revision I think the changes will make for much more balanced tournaments.



Achievement - Unlocked - More experiences with Kirai
My first game with Kirai in our summer league and just my luck I get put up against my regular opponent, Mr Neverborn and team Jacob.

I'm still learning what Kirai is capable of, and that game was no exception, teaching me a thing or two about how to use Kirai and Datsu Ba when trying to claim objectives. I seriously considered using Kirai's reactivate on Datsu to get the APs she needed, but when I got distracted it fell to Datsu and I needed to move 6" and have two APs to interact with an evidence counter. My usual tactic of "no escaping" her into contact with one of my crew, just wasn't going to do it, but then I saw guide spirits and it occurred to me to cast it on Datsu, effectively giving her a free walk action for the turn. She hightailed it over to the evidence and immediately destroyed it, not that it won me the game, but it taught me something. I had similar experiences with my night terrors and my Shikome in that, and subsequent games, and I'm starting to better understand what each is capable of.

I also had one of my best games against Mr Arcanist, who just to confuse things, decided to play Guild and Sonnia no less. I went into the game sure of defeat, having heard how hard a matchup against Sonnia can be for Kirai. I did really well and was very pleased at how close the game was until, rereading my cards the next day, I realised I'd been summoning Shikome incorrectly. Undoubtedly the game would have been a lot harder for me if I'd been sacrificing two spirits, instead of one, for each Shikome I'd been summoning. Nonetheless it was an incredibly tight game and will standout as one of my favourites of all time.



Achievement - Locked - Photoshopping Kirai and Crew
I wanted to get my Kirai cards photoshopped with the colours of my painted crew but sadly it wasn't to be. My beginners board won hands down in the priority stakes this month.



And what of the usual surprises that a month of Malifaux brings? Well my good friend Mr Fantasy gave me a gift voucher for my birthday last month that I finally got round to cashing in. I thought seriously about buying a McMorning, but I really despise the sculpt and I'm not as smitten with his play style as other Resser masters. In the end I took a look at ten thunders and looked for compatible models for my Yan Lo boxed set. I settled on some Oiran, but there was still $10 left so I bought the ten thunders boxed set, some archers and granny thunders (name escapes me), which even using the ridiculously high exchange rates we have at the moment, still comes to over $10...... Plus shipping.... But whilst you know that, and I know that, lets not tell the misses that please....

So as my pile of shame threatens to become my room of shame, And with pva, wall paper and use of power tools calling, what will March be like for this Malifaux addict?



Well I have a one day achievement league/tourney I'll be participating in, along with a lot of the other boys from KRAGS. I also have my beginners board, that'll keep me busy, and between all these Mercs and Ten Thunders I have a hell of a lot of painting and assembly to be getting on with.

So another quiet month apparently!