Projects

I thought it might be a good idea to list all of the modeling projects I have going on right now. Maybe not a good idea for you, the reader, but for me. The thought is if I see it all listed out it might help motivate me to really get on the ball with some of this stuff and get it done! If it works, I might have to do the same thing with the books I am reading...

Anyway, the projects:

Warhammer Fantasy:

• Finish painting the elves (this was my first army ever, and yes they are not even half way painted)
• Elves needing paint include
• Spearelves (about 80)
• Dragon Princes (10)
• White Lions (20)
• Phoenix Guard (20)
• Dragon (1 plus two riders)
• Mages (3)
• White Lion Chariot (1)
• Prices (2)
• Battle Standard Bearer (1)
• Caradryan (1)

Warhammer 40k:

• Finish painting the Salamanders (I had high ambitions for these guys. I wasn't going to allow myself to build more than I would paint. That lasted for about a week until I actually wanted to play.)
• Salamanders needing paint:
• Tactical Marines (10ish) I have a lot of weapon options
• Terminators (5)
• Scouts (5)
• Sternguard (12)
• Rhinos (2)
• Predators (2)
• Land Speeders (2)
• Drop Pods (2)
• Dreadnoughts (2)
• Vulkan (1)
• Captain (1)

Warmachine:

• This army I actually had completely painted until my last order, but for some reason I have hard a hard time just finishing off these last models
• Servants of Menoth that need paint:
• Temple Flameguard (5 need to be finished about 3/4 done)
• Exemplar Errants (10 + UA)
• pSevvy

Malifaux:

• My latest addiction:
• Colette's Crew
• Performer (1 and finish 1)
• Mannequin (2)
• Mechanical Doves (3)
• Coryphee (2)
• Ramos' Crew
• Ramos (1)
• Steamborg Executioner (1)
• Steam Punk Arachnid (9)
• Joss (1)
• Brass Arachnid (1)
• Electrical Creation (1)
• Seamus' Crew
• Seamus (1)
• Rotten Belle (6)
• Crooked Men (3)
• Madam Sybelle (1)
• Bette Noir (1)
• Copy Cat Killer (1)

Then there is all the terrain I would like to make...

Well it looks like I have my work cut out for me.

Gaming Night

So Monday's around here is our club gaming night. Last night a friend and I decided to break out the cards and throw down a game a Malifaux. It was his first game, and he was playing with Pandora. A tricky master I hear for the new player, but this friend of mine, has a knack for tricky strategies. Then I got some new Malifaux stuff in the mail today so I broke open one of my new boxes, Seamus.

I was excited, I've read a lot of stuff about Seamus and his Belles. Read about him different options, and their durability. Eight wounds with Hard to Wound 1, not to shabby. Little did I know that Pandora bypasses like EVERYTHING! My friend was doing eight wounds to my Belles in a round. It was ugly. She (being Pandora) packed way more of a punch than I thought she could. I ended up squeaking a win out, but it was pretty ugly, Belle's were getting slaughtered.

Pandora is definitely going to be a master I am going to have to spend some time playing to really figure out the best way to beat her. Right now I'm thinking the best option is to kill her. A decent Wp model that can hit hard, charge in (or shoot) and just take her off the board. Anyway I'll try that in my next game and let you know how it works out for me.

Colette: An Update

With some of the advice I was give from some of the great people over at wyrd forums I have been working on Colette. The pictures don't really do her justice because I don't have any proper light on her. I thinned my paints out quite a bit which I think helped me blend some of the colors. I also stayed away from glazing the entire model, and just added some wash in certain areas.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Combat Patrol: Salamanders vs. Daemonhunters (yes Daemonhunters)

A friend of mine is picking up the new Grey Knights. He placed his pre-order, and a long story short, he still doesn't have his codex. In his excitement though to get the new boys in grey down on the table, he broke out his old codex and we threw some dice. 500 point, combat patrol unit limitations, missions from the book. We rolled capture and control for the mission, and spearhead for deployment.

The lists were something like this:

Salamanders
10 Tactical Marines - Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Flamer, Rocket Launcher
Rhino
5 Scout Marines - 4 x Sniper Rifles 1 x Heavy Bolter with Hellfire Rounds
5 Sternguard - 5 x Combi-Meltas

Daemonhunters (I'm not sure of the name of all of his units)
10 x Troop Marines - 2 x Psycannons
1 x Sniper - Had Hellfire Rounds (2+ to hit, 2+ to wound -1 to cover)
1 x Brother Captain - Psycannon

I rolled first turn and deployed my snipers in a building on an objective, put the rhino with the tac marines just to the left of the building, and my sternguard behind them. He put the sniper and Brother-Captain in a building close to center on his side of the field, and the marines in a building on an objective adjacent to my scouts.

Turn 1:
Pretty uneventful. I moved my sternguard behind the building, shot the missile launcher at the knights in the building, scattered and missed. Shot some sniper rounds at his sniper, did a wounds that was saved. He shot and killed my bolter sniper. Shot at my rhino with his knights, got one pen, and rolled a 5... Rhino was down, and marines came crawling out.

Turn 2:
My marines started booking it for a building that was close to the bottom left side of my table The sternguard move out of the building towards his deployment zone and took a couple of shots at the Brother-Captain in the building, no wounds. Then the snipers take shots at the Brother-Captain, no wounds. His sniper picked off my rocket launcher marine. His Brother-Captain shot at my sternguard, did a couple of wounds, but Vulkan protected and I made my saves. His knights came running out of their fortification to try and cut me off before my marines could make it to safety.

Turn 3:
My marines continued to head for the building, and roll a 1 for their run... Sternguard decide they don't want to take on the fortified building by themselves and turned around and headed back to take cover beside the dead rhino. My snipers took more shots and the fortified building and get nothing. His knights moved up, and were just out of range of my marines. His sniper and Brother-Captain took some shots at my sniper killing two of them. My scouts held leaving two sitting on my objective.

Turn 4:
 My marines moved into the build so the knights would have to assault through cover if they were to assault head on from where they were (the reason I didn't move out the other way and charge is because I wanted him to have to swing around, bringing his knights closer to my sternguard), and took some shots. A few knights die to the bolter fire. The sternguard move a bit to get a little closer but kept in cover. Snipers shot at the building, nothing. He swung his troops around and opened fire at my marines killing 2. Not quite enough to allow me to fall back which is what I was hoping for. Then charged in for the assault. His Brother-Captain and sniper took some shots at my snipers killing another one. This brave scout held! Leaving him alone holding my objective. My marines whiff in the assault, he killed 4, then the good ole power fist took out 2. I lost the combat by 2 and failed my roll. However I rolled a 6 to his 2 and got away.

Turn 5:
My marines rallied and moved up and towards the building. The sternguard came out of hiding and got in range of the knights. Sternguard opened up with the meltas caused 4 wounds and 4 knights died finishing off the unit. So my marines made a break for the building that was housing an objective. His sniper finished off my last scout, and his Brother-Captain took a shot at my marines and missed.

Now he is really hoping for a 1 or a 2. The best he can hope for at this point is a draw with his only troop choice being dead, and his other two units all the way across the table. Rolled a 4, and we continued.

Turn 6:
My marines climbed to the top of the building and claimed the objective. The sternguard headed straight down the board with their eyes locked on the fortified building shooting the entire way, caused some wounds on the sniper, he made his saves. His sniper picked off one of my marines, and the Brother-Captain took out another. I made my morale leaving a lone marine holding the objective.

Now I am hoping for the game to end here. With his sniper that hits and wounds on a 2+ my poor solo marine is as good as dead. We rolled, got a 5. We played on.

Turn 7:
My sternguard continued towards the fortified building, rapid fired hellfire rounds at the sniper, caused some wounds and he saved them all with a 4+ invuln. His sniper took aim at my marine, and rolled a 1! Then his Brother-Captain took his shots and missed! The Salamanders won holding 1 objective to the Daemonhunters 0.

Salamanders: the Painted

Going to take a break from the Malifaux stuff today to show the progress of my Salamander army. The bases aren't quite finished yet, and I still need to do the emblems on the shoulder pads and such, but you get the idea.

I have just finished putting together a bunch of new models (tanks, dreadnoughts, assault marines, drop pods, etc.) that have yet to even be primed, so I will be posting more photos as I get those painted up.

Colette: A Work in Progress

I have just started painting my showgirls and wanted to post a few pictures of my progress so far. So here is Colette, she still needs some work, especially in the face and some fine tuning with the shading / highlighting, but here's what I have so far.

That's all for now. I'll post more pictures as I get more painted.

Also, Colette did have her rematch against Lady Justice. I am working on the narrative and will get it up as soon as I finish.

Malifaux: Soulstones

I want to touch on the basics of the soulstone. In my last post explaining the basic mechanic of the game (duels, and using card to determine success or failure) I didn't talk much on where they come from and all of their uses. A soulstone is the currency of Malifaux, it is also a powerful gem that allows the wielder to use/enhance their power (read magic). It is also how you determine your encounter size, in this neck of the woods with Malifaux being a new addition to our clubs games we have been running 25ss games. Each model (except Masters) have a soulstone cost associated to them. You add models to your crew adding their soulstone values until you reach your agreed upon max for the encounter.

What if you can't get to exactly 25ss? Any soulstones you don't use when hiring your crew will go into your soulstone pool. Masters do not cost soulstones, instead they have a soulstone cashe. This number will be added to your soulstone pool after hiring your crew. There is a limit to your soulstone pool when starting a game for a scrap it is 8 and for a brawl it is 10.

What can you use soulstones for anyway? You can use soulstone for many things in the game. Some models actions or spells may call for you to discard a soulstone as part of the cost. Models that have the "Use Soulstone" ability will have a general list of things they can do with a soulstone even though it is not printed on the card. These include:

• Discarding a soulstone to add a fate card to your duel total
• Make a healing flip
• Make a damage prevention flip

Soulstones (much like your control hand) add a new dimension to the game, it adds resource management. You have the ability to 'change fate' and hedge your odds but it can only be done so many times. It gives you a bit more control than leaving fate to the roll of the dice.

Of course there are abilities in the game that can allow you to create soulstones, and alter your control hand but these tactics are beyond the intent of this post.

So there you have it, soulstone basics 101. 

Colette vs. Lady Justice 25ss

This is my first attempt at a battle report, and a narrative one at that. They will get better in time, I have no doubt. I am doing this one just from memory so my facts and sequencing might be a little out of order, but this is the basic idea of how the game went.

The strategies were:
Colette: Claim Jump
Scheme: Power Ritual
Scheme: Breakthrough
Lady Justice: Destroy the Evidence.
Scheme: Breakthrough
Scheme: Can't remember the name but he needed to kill Colette

This was pretty much a battle against boxes

Colette
Cassandra
Performer
Performer
Mannequin
Mannequin

Lady Justice
The Judge
Death Marshal
Death Marshal
Death Marshal

As I walked through the abandoned industrial plant I thought to myself, "curious the places we do business. During the night I live a life glamor performing in the Star, the amazing Colette DuBois, and during the day I play in rotten industrial wastelands." It was suppose to be simply errand; take a few of the girls and head to the industrial park and inspect the area for recent Guild activity. The idea was to establish another safe spot for future transactions, and it is a good thing we were checking it out. Not moments after we arrived Lady Justice and her crew of Death Marshal's decided to pay us a visit. Whether they were there waiting for the us, or just stumbled across us by happen-chance it may never be known. But really, it doesn't matter it is safe to say this is not the place.


When the we first arrived at the park I sent Cassandra to my left and a performer of mine and her mannequin to the right, while myself and another performer and her animated prop were going to scout the middle. I wanted to do this job quick, so we were splitting up. We didn't make it halfway through the ruins before guild officers made their presence known. Lady Justice and a marshal began making their move towards Cassandra, who being the speedy worker that she is had already made it through most of the park. The performer that was with me noticed movement ahead and out of concern for her stage sister made a move to warn her. I kept my distance to evaluate the situation, and in the meantime produced a couple of additional soulstones, and pull a little trick out of my hat.


Cassandra, noticed some movement in the distance, and quickly moved to gain some cover from some ruins close by, while Lady Justice and the marshal made their slow, calculated approach to her location. Things weren't looking too good for poor Cassandra. As for my other performers they had made their randevu.


Mannequins doing what they could to help prepare the showgirls, they braced themselves for the coming assault of the Judge and a marshal. The Judge lead the way taking aim, and nearly killing one of the performers. The other marshal moved into position.


Cassandra, my poor, stupid Cassandra; that girls bravado will get the best of her one of these days. She did some fancy sword work and charged Lady Justice. She was far outmatched in sword play, and barely managed to scratch Justice. The marshal that was moving with Lady Justice rushed to Justice's aid. Poor Cassandra was now not only outclassed, but out numbered. To my pleasant surprise, by some miracle she managed to survive. The loyal mannequin did its duty and mended the performers wounds, making her appear as good as new. Using her powers of persuasion the performer convinced the Judge to come a little bit closer, in doing so he became mesmerized by her beauty, unable to move. While he was distracted the other performer moved in, poisoning the good judge. I could not wait any longer, I did my little disappearing act to switch places with the mannequin. Pulling yet another trick from my hat I summoned another dove next to the marshal, and had a little magician's duel. He was resilient however avoiding my magic. He was not so fortunate with the dove though, who managed to injure the good marshal. My second dove made its move on the marshal as well and was also successful in dishing out a little pain.


For the sake of poor Cassandra I called for a swift retreat. We managed to get away and back to the Star to lick our wounds. The good Judge was badly poisoned and still unable to move. I sure hope they were slow getting home.


We had to finish the game early, and it ended 1 VP to Lady Justice and 0 VP for Colette. We do have a rematch tonight at the club, hopefully we can finish. I will try and make notes on the turns so I can make another report and have my facts straight.

Malifaux

Malifaux.

 I have just recently decided to step into the world of Malifaux, and so far I have been nothing but impressed. The fluff is entertaining, the models are beautiful, and the mechanics are original, exciting and refreshing.

Over the next several posts I am going to try and bring you updates as I assemble and paint my first crew (Colette and her showgirls), play my first games, and learn more about the rules, mechanics and tactics of the game.

First I would like to give a small overview of the main mechanic that Malifaux employs. This is using cards to determine success or failure. Those of you who are familiar with most wargames, or even most board games for that matter are use to seeing and using dice to determine random aspects of the game. Not in Malifaux. In Malifaux we use cards, a normal 52 card deck plus two jokers. Although Wyrd (the company responsible for Malifaux) has their own Fate Decks these are just 52 card decks with original art work and the proper suits for the game (there is a conversion for the suits so you can still use a standard deck if you like).

Malifaux also has a mechanic that allows you to "Cheat Fate" which adds a dimension of resource management to the game. Each player has a hand of cards (6-7 depending on the size of the game) this is called your control hand, and are what allow you to "Cheat Fate".

I am going to give a basic example of how the mechanic works and in the hopes of keeping it simple there are several things that I will not discuss in detail (i.e. soulstones, triggers, suits, jokers, etc.). Anytime in Malifaux when you make a melee attack, cast a spell, force a model (or are forced) to take a willpower check, or otherwise use cards to determine success or failure it is called a duel. In the example below we are having a basic combat duel.

Each weapon on a model will have a Cb stat (Combat) and each model will have a Df  (Defense) stat. When a model is making an attack s/he will flip the top card of their deck (known as your Fate Deck). They will add the number on that card (Jacks = 10, Queen = 11 King = 12) to their Cb. The defender will then flip the top card of their fate deck and add their Df and the value of the card. If the attacking models total number is equal to or greater than the defending models total the attacker is winning the duel. Starting with the player who is losing the duel they may now decide if they want to "Cheat Fate". To "Cheat Fate" you may play a card from your control hand to replace the fate card you flipped. If your model has the Use Soulstone ability you may also choose to discard a soulstone to make an additional flip from your fate deck and add that to your total (this decision must be made after you decided to cheat fate or not, and before your opponent has the opportunity to cheat fate). After the player losing the duel has adjusted their total by cheating fate and/or discarding a soulstone then the other player is allowed to do the same. After each player has had a chance to cheat fate, triggers are declared, totals are calculated, compared, and results applied.

Well that is a basic overview of how the cards work in the game. In future post I will try to elaborate and build upon this basic mechanic to help show the depth and control it offers.