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!

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 5 - Is the future here already?

It's going to be a quiet week on the blog front. I'm snowed at work and the misses has handed me a saturated dance card, so this update on the board will be relatively short and might be the only thing I get to write. The good news is this weekend coming I'm home alone for 48 hours, so there will be plenty of progress to report.

I only managed to get a couple of hours in this weekend and I used it to get use to my new collection of power tools. I focused exclusively on the side boards, first cutting out the handholds to allow the inner board to be replaced or flipped. I then went at the sideboards with pencil and rule, testing my schoolboy knowledge of pythagoras and trigonometry to draw out the locations for the soulstone, victory and turn counter tracks. The result was a lump of wood that looked like it had circuitry drawn on it!

I then pulled out my new 22mm hole borer drill bit and spent an hour terrorising my dogs and worrying my wife, who believes I'm something of a clutz when handed heavy machinery. I will never qualify as any sort of woodsman, but I'm relatively happy with how it turned out, and I have no cuts or bruises to show for it...




As I stood back and reflected on how satisfying it can be to Swiss cheese a perfectly good piece of wood, I was at the same time a little disappointed to see that my hole boring hadn't left me with the insets I wanted for the counter to sit on. You see I'd drilled through 6mm of MDF, to create the holes where the glass bead would sit to reflect the current turn/victory/soulstone score. The problem was, the glass bead is only about 4mm tall and getting it in and out of the hole was now quite fiddly.

I always figured this would be the case and I had in my mind I could just cut some 18mm circles in 3mm MDF using the same hole borer drill bits, but apparently not so. Whilst the borer did a good job of cutting out the circle, it did it at the expense of the inner circle and I was left googling alternatives. I've probably spent six hours googling drill bits, counters and discs and then I hit upon Phoenix Laser





Now as I said, I had in mind that I'd need a 3mm tall inset and I'd intended to print some transfers up with the current number. I'd imagined using the Malifaux fonts like Bleeding Cowboy and Blood Crow to follow the theme and give the whole board a sense of authenticity. And then during my searching I found someone had already done the work for me. Someone had created counters precisely to size and they'd embossed numbers on to the top.

And not for the first time in this project, I find myself using laser cut MDF solutions for this board. You'll remember that most of the terrain for this project is coming from a Kickstarter terrain project by Impudent Mortal, or Walt to his backers.






And so as I reflect back on the title of this post, which I now realise was some time ago, I have to wonder if the future of our hobby is here already, lurking on the fringes. If I'd tried this project three years ago, I would have either had to scratch build or accept the offerings of plastic kit manufacturers. I would in all likelihood have paid my coin to a rich corporate and probably not got the exact product I wanted. Nowadays if it isn't out there, I can ask anyone of the the number of startups with access to a laser printer to make it for me.


And so I wonder, where will our hobby be in ten years time? Will we all have laser or 3D printers at home and all we do is log on, select our product and click print. Will our game boards be giant interactive TV screens, like that currently being developed by xxx

One thing is for sure, technology is bridging the gap between our imagination and the practicalities of modern life, each and every day. What things look like in our gaming scene in ten years is anyone's guess.

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 4 - Sideways Thinking

As we head towards the weekend, I have a hankering to get some time in on my beginners board. Between tournaments and real life this project has felt a bit neglected recently, but the good news is that my ebay purchases have all turned up, and it's full steam ahead this weekend.

progress to date


closeups of the textured wallpapers I'm using


dry fitting the sideboards on my old urban 4x4



Last night I was playing with the lengths of wood I had put aside for the sideboards. One will show the soulstone and victory point counts and the second will show the schemes and strategies being played. As I laid this out and tried to make it all fit I made two discoveries that will tweak my design just a little.

Firstly I realised that the soulstone and victory tracks each need 11 positions, not 10. I realised as I played it through in my mind that each player starts with 0 VP's and can get down to 0 soul stones, so I need a position for this in the track areas. The 11 positions stem from the fact you can have upto 10 soulstones in a brawl and can earn upto 10 victory points. I also considered that one count goes up and whilst the other comes down and wondered for little while about how to do the tracks before realising I was getting a bit silly about the whole thing and I really need to press on...



This shows the positions on each track, per player. The intention is that each player will have two stones that they move between the positions. To stop inadvertent movement I'm intending to drill through this sideboard and create places where the stone will sit. (It'll make more sense when I post more WIP photos after the weekend.)

Then as I worked on the card management side I realised I wasn't going to get three schemes side by side so I came up with this alternative placement.


Finally came the realisation that if these sideboards fit perfectly up against the inner game board and they are all made of the same thickness MDF, then lifting the game board out to switch to the reverse side is going to be fiddly. I thought about reducing the thickness of the sideboard but ruled that out because I already have the wood cut. The answer in the end is to cut a handgrip sized hole in the sideboards, so I can get my hands in to lift out and flip the inner gaming board.

It may all be semantics, I haven't yet put it all down together, but I'm excited to get this project back underway and show some progress after the weekend.

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 3 - Basing, Textures and steampunk terrain

Another weekend down and some serious work on what will be my Arcanist themed board. I started by cutting up and laying out two complete sets of GW movement trays, to act a hard pavements. The intention with this board is to put down a number of surfaces that imply a hodgepodge of architectures. I imagine this to be an evolving rail or factory area for the Arcanists, something that has evolved over time and is their take on claiming old Malifaux. I want a mixture of new and old industrial apparatus, in a mixture of conditions, to imply this evolution. I'll throw in minimal natural resources, the odd broken tree stump, some ruined grass, maybe a polluted stream, to show these arcanists aren't one with Mother Nature.


I then went at the board using a selection of textured wallpaper I've hoarded over the years. I only had off cuts, so nothing's going to fill the entire board and besides that's not the theme I was going for. As I was doing this I was conscious of ensuring I still had adequate spaces for my Steampunk buildings that ill hopefully be receiving from Impudent Mortals Kickstarter within the month. (Below are a couple of examples)








I cut out template 4x6 and 6x8 shaped buildings on paper and checked that there was still spaces to place these in a modular form. Ultimately the board will have the textured paving area but it should still be possible to achieve different setups by keeping the buildings modular.


I've used three different wallpapers so far, one had a fantastic cobblestone pattern, which I cut up and will be using in conjunction with sand or snow to imply the oldest layer, probably some old Malifaux streets.

Then came an abstract pattern, which could easily be painted as a snow or sand texture, this will be the only natural area of the board.





There's also a black cloth material which has a more industrial cobble look to it, much tighter and uniformed. This was by far the hardest to fit and I'm not looking forward to fitting the rest of this, working with wallpaper is far more forgiving and easier, but is the one material I can source locally in abundance.



Lastly is this brownish wallpaper that I might use to represent an internal area, it looks a little more refined.


Then came a splurge on eBay, where I bought 30g of watch parts for converting buildings or making standalone machines and this old airfix kit for a bit of hard machinery and line of sight blocking.

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 2 - Foundations Laid

This weekend after all the chores were out of the way, I finally got to start my new Malifaux boards. All I'm really doing is repurposing two old 40k boards but at the same time I want to add all of the embellishments that will open up the game to beginners.

The plan hasn't changed much since I outlined it last time, the only changes came from my very practical wife. Her advice was simple but is probably better understood when you've seen a few pictures so I'll save that for near the end of this article.

So a quick trip to Bunnings (Aussie DIY chain) and I had the majority of the bits I'd need for less than $30! I sat in store as they adeptly sliced up a 6x4" 6mm thick MDF panel, until I had all of the pieces I needed. Along with my boards I also picked up some plastic edging strip I intend to use to protect the board edges and some furniture pads to set the 3x3 on when its placed in the centre of the 4x4. The seating will slightly elevate the game board from the outer perimeter status and player surfaces, and allows me to make the game boards double sided. Now I just have to work out what my four boards are going to be!

Pictured below are a couple of early WIP shots. My old 4x4 urban board will be repainted black and the furniture pads inset for the 3x3 to sit on. The bare wood on top is the 6" player and status surfaces. These need a little planing down to fit snugly to the outer edge, whilst comfortably housing the 3x3 game board. I'll only fit these once I've painted them up.


Then there's the game boards, which I'm edging to protect from splitting, using 4.5mm plastic protective strip. I've used some PVA glue to lock it into place, but may need to tack down if that doesn't prove sufficient.


And board 1 all edged and ready to go...


But then comes the sage advice of the misses, who, ever the voice of reason (and caution where power tools and I are concerned), has always got one eye on my DIY projects.

Her advice:
I'll need to cut hand holds into the status boards to allow easy placement and removal of the inner gaming board.

I should consider some sort of handles or detachable shoulder strap to make carrying the full board easier, as its heavy to start with and is only going to get heavier with the player and status surfaces attached.


She's absolutely right of course and now I'm going to have to work out how to accommodate these things!

Malifaux Board for Beginners - Part 1 - Design

After a busy couple of weeks building my crystal canyon boards and helping to run a Fantasy tournament for KRAGS, I should be taking it easy. I should be getting stuck into painting Izamu. I should definitely be earning some brownie points with the Misses, but instead I'm getting excited about my next Malifaux board, and specifically about how to pimp it out and make the game more accessible to beginners.

I'd seen this board a couple of times when searching the web for inspiration, but when I saw it again last night, I resolved that the two 4x4 urban boards I'd done for 40k, that had been sat doing nothing for almost a year, needed to be repurposed for Malifaux.


If you look beyond the actual game surface area in the above picture you see clearly defined deployment areas, a turn counter and a few other embellishments. It's true that Faux is played on a 3x3, but when you get down to it, between crew cards, soulstones, counters and the whole kit and caboodle, you probably need a 4x4.

I think particularly when training new players, having sectionalised areas for crews, decks and a highly visible soulstone and victory point tracks makes all the difference. Therefore I've resolved that my next two boards should be based on my 4x4's and should, at the very least, have the following features:

Extra foot of length divided into two deck and crew management zones, two deck areas for your deck and discards and control hands.

Extra foot of width divided:
Side 1:
- Into soulstone and victory point trackers
- upto 10ss and distinguish scrap from brawl
- upto 10vp's to cover brawls
- separate tracks per player
- track points should be the size of a glass bead to allow beads
to be used as counters
- Turn counter
Side 2
- Section for individual or shared strategy cards
- Section for scheme cards per player
- location for crew specific counters and reserve/dead crew
members

The centre point on the board should be subtly marked for a 30mm counter, making placement of centre counter quick and simple.

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here's my crude mockup.


I was tempted to mark out deployment zones but I think that might prohibit these boards being used in a normal game or tournament environment. On the whole, I think this will open up the accessibility to newer players, but there is nothing here that would give an experienced player an edge. Hopefully it'll be a enjoyable experience for anyone using them.

As to what the actual play area may look like, well that my dear readers is a subject for another blog entry. All I will say is it will be an Arcanist themed affair and that I can't wait for my scenery from the Impudent Mortal Kickstarter to arrive.

Malifaux Terrain Board - Crystal Canyons

Well as I hinted at in my January roundup the Crystal Canyons boards are now complete. Below are some shots taken as a preview and some taken of all the boards I've prepared, taken at various times during our Faux Pas night.

It's intesting that when I previewed these boards several people came back with the honest feedback that the terrain was a little sparse and would favour ranged crews. The simple solution was to add an extra mesa to each table. You can see in the last photo that adding a third LOS blocker has made all the difference and although it was getting tempting to add a fourth or fifth, two factors stopped me. Firstly it was cost prohibitive adding another $70-80 dollars to a table. Secondly I've always believed that terrain looks best when there's an odd number of each component on the board. You tend to get less symmetrical shapes and players tend to think a bit more about placement.



















The boards themselves are 3mm 3x3 sized topper boards. They can be that thin because they are laid on the clubs 4x4 boards. They were undercoated black and then heavily sprayed with brown before adding bursts of red, a desert yellow and a greyish colour. The bursts help to break up the flatness of the board, but still make it a simple job to repaint as they take wear and tear.

The crystals are from the gale force nine range and were black undercoated, liberally painted in imperial purple before highlights in layers of liche and warlock purples.

The mesas are also gale force nine terrain and only really had grass tufts applied, they come painted as you see them. I added the tufts to all pieces of terrain to give some synergy between the crystal formations and the badlands terrain.

The other pictures are of other boards I've delivered, the shady rest cemetery and settlement boards use a mixture of GW, Rendra and gales force nine terrain.

Malifaux Kickstarters - RPG's and Game Boards

Just when I thought it was safe to venture back on the Internet , I stumble upon a thread in one of my local forums that lists every Kickstarter type project currently on the go.

A willpower duel overtook me, but like a play thing for Zoraida, I was drawn in and before I knew it, more money was leaving my account.

Through the Breach


Wyrd have decided to crowd source funding for their latest offshoot, a Malifaux RPG called 'Through the Breach'

There's no denying that the Malifaux world offers plenty of opportunity for conspiracy and a good RPG. I think the important thing is that Wyrd have taken the important step of divorcing the RPG from the events and characters of the table top game. Therefore you're not going to see Lady J and Seamus bumming around in the same warband, but that's not to say your band of merry adventurers have to be from the same faction, in fact it would make for a spicier campaign if they did have different, hidden and often conflicting agendas.



Whilst I hovered on this for a long time, I ultimately decided not to commit to this one at this stage. I play in a long running Star Trek RPG and I would love to run another Dark Heresy campaign again next year. I'd also like to see how far this expands the Malifaux fluff and what options are available for play before I commit.

Games and Gears


Games and Gears looks to the brain child of a few London gamers trying create a cheaper and more versatile range of GW's battle board. Cast from ruggedised plastic, you are buying 12" square tiles that can be locked together using plastic fasteners. The effect is a modular board that can be bought or expanded from 3x3, 4x4, 4x6 or even 4x8'.

The initial tranch of boards includes cobblestone and desert settings that struck me as perfect for Malifaux. I'm already considering whether to update my crystal canyons board to be based on one of these puppies and I can see my Arcanist rail yard looking very nice on a blend of the cobblestone and field boards.

Three 3x3 boards set me back just over $320 Aussie. But when you consider that one GW board would have cost that much, it seems like a fair deal.

This Kickstarter also advertises itself to the RPG market via some felt lined equivalent boards. Perfect for that Through the Breech encounter, some will be planning with the release of the Malifaux RPG.

Malifaux terrain - A little barnyard of horrors

A funny thing happened to me today. I was generally being an arse because after working all day yesterday, my other half wanted to drag me out to a DIY store to buy flowers for our garden. If you combine shopping and flowers then my enthusiasm for any project is going to plummet to an all time low, and it was only because she promised me lunch that I went along. I tend to get cranky when I don't get any hobby time and whilst the extra money that working the weekend is good, I wasn't really listening as my wife tried to talk me into buying a 1500 litre rain tank.

As we went to walk away on the long drudge to the flower section (seriously who puts rains tanks and the gardening section at two different ends of a DIY store the size of Texas) I got called back by my misses. "These are good, would they be any good for Malifaux?"

Wait - what just happened? Is this some kind of trick... Be strong.

I turned around avoiding the eager gaze of some old boy who'd setup a second hand book and video stall in front of the store. Instead my eyes looked to my misses and then to the owner of a stall who I had completely missed, registering only the smell of trashy paperbacks and hideous colours the kids clothes someone else was trying to pedal on the stall the other side. Sandwiched between these two stalls sat Neil an elderly guy with a glue gun, an assortment of lolly sticks and coffee stirrers and clearly far, far too much time on his hands.

Neil might have said g'day, he might have told me his life's story, I wasn't listening for my eyes has settled on his wares and I knew in that instant two things. Firstly this man was some sort of lolly stick artisan and secondly my wallet was about to spontaneously leap into my hand and pay whatever this man wanted, for here right in front of me, was a selection of Wild West style buildings that were the perfect look, size and style for Malifaux.























Ok so maybe not completely to scale but they looked better than putting 35mm minis against 28mm buildings do most of the time, and Seamus and Miss Peaches look pretty happy on that porch.

I left with Neil's phone number, a lighter wallet and a million ideas what I could get him and his collection of wooden sticks to do next.

Now to make space on my pile of shame and come up with some twist to make that innocent farmyard a place where the masters of Malifaux might have reason to duke it out. A little barnyard of horrors if you will.