This sucked. This is one dice roll on my crap phone camera....
Got a couple of games of 40k in last night with my Mech BA. Tried out the AssCan list just for kicks. This is what I get for my troubles. All night long I'm rolling this bad. 1's on everything.... Still won both games comfortably even with this horrendous, freakishly abnormal rolling but that's not the point!
Aghh! I guess I'd rather it happen in a pick up game than in a tournament!
Played first game vs a SM Biker list with command squad and loads of melta, typhoons plus random TH/SS termies deepstriking (WTF right?) , he rushed at me I killed what came at me...in the open, clear lanes of fire with some speedy BA manoeuvring...command squad first, melta bikers next then the random termies. Had to take it to T6 though as a lone attack biker troop was turboboosting back onto his objective (capture and control) ...killed it with Rifleman fire. Easy win.
Second vs hybrid eldar.. well I'm being gracious, it was FootDar....! NOOOOO! well, after I manned up a little a killed his army in 35 minutes, set up to death. Sweet. That'll teach at least ONE footdar moron! Really nice guy though... ;)
Even when the dice abandon you there is some light in the dark future of war...
"...Perhaps the coolest change to the way we run Throne of Skulls tournaments is that it will be the same rules system regardless of which country you're competing in..."
Straight from Jervis' mouth.
Rules. Scenarios. Scoring System.
All the same. Now as this will be my first tournament season for 40k I'm intrigued. I never got the opportunity to play in the UKGT prior to this year and am stoked that its rolling around quickly again...
BUT.
What will the above snippet actually mean? Are the points values finally going to get standardised across with across the pond? Do we go up in points or they come down? I actually don't care if we go up in points value - all I care about is a great game and good scoring system.
This brings be to my greatest fear - the scoring system. How will it work? Will it actually work? Will 'composition' rear its ugly head over here in the UK?
I'm excited. And scared! lol. Can't wait to get my hands on a pack.
Ha Ha. Oh dear...I just posted this army list, based off of an interest in trying out something like this...
I then wanted to catch up on hobby info so hit up BoLS...and got hit by this. Check the first paragraph after the list appears in the post.
Now, I know this is not aimed at me...but I have just been pidgeon holed. lol.
Hmm...just actually read the article. Not an Eldar expert but seems straightforward enough. Nothing genius though. Fairly basic thoughts. Sure it works though.
So I personally feel that I deserve a medal. Or at least a cookie. I have NOT started a new 40k army since the Blood Angels codex came out…I got stuck into IG for a week, following a brief moment of weakness/love for Forgeworld, but I’m fixed from that now – turns out I just needed to paint a couple of Death Korps and a Valkyrie.
My cure? Had been all the Malifaux that you will have seen around the site. Now, I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, judging by the number of comments on the Malifaux posts…I guess it is almost no one’s! But I really enjoy it. Its great. Oh, and I just bought another crew – the Ortega’s, a cool looking Wild West themed family….
But anyway… my Blood Angels. I’ve been reading around the blogs I follow and am seeing a mix of love and hate, success and fail, poor lists and novel concepts.
Some elements I am not convinced about though.
Razorbacks with Assault Cannons – I love AssCans. I want to say that first. I rate them very highly – but agree with most out there that they do not fit into standard marine or SW builds. They certainly do in BA. Their range and medium strength is overcome with speed and the ability to field more than a few…
But I do not see them fitting into my BA army. Why? Let start off with my current 1500 point list (the one that won the local tournament last week after a month or so of noob-crushin’ (joke!)):
Mephiston 3 x 5man RAZ w Meltagun; Razor w Las/Plas, HKM 3 x Baal Pred; 2xAssCan, Hvy B sponsons, 1x Baal-B-Q, 3xHKM Vindicator, HKM Rifleman Dread
See, this army generally splits in half, with the troops sitting back with the Rifleman, whilst the Baals, Vindie and Mephiston advance on the enemy position. You may be thinking why the marginally more aggressive las/plas on the RAZ rather than TLLC if they are going to sit back and plug away? The answer is DS’ing units. They can drop in my back field and then I can blast away with TL, Rapid fire plasma, las love and sometimes a HKM too…from one vehicle. Its worth it to watch ONE troop choice drop a TMC (2x Trygons dropped big time to just one troop choice – the marines disembark and hit a melta shot plus lucky bolter fire in separate games). Lucky? Yes, but I hedged the odds in my favour.
So, hold on. AssCannon Razors would fit in here wouldn’t they? Sort of. The army would have to change considerably. Why? The Rifleman would be left high and dry on his own. The troops would need to actually do stuff far more often…and a slightly different role too.. They would lose the Melta for Flamer… For units in cover against whom AssCan shots would be wasted. Mephiston becomes too expensive for this army I feel…
Why don’t we have a look and see if it works?
We go cheap as chips and roll with a Librarian with Shield and Sword of Sanguinius, 100 points spent. Protects against incoming fire, not that this army should struggle to give itself cover saves when run together efficiently.
Next up our troops, 3 x RAZ with Flamers, Power Weapon and the Ass Cannon and HKM on the Razor. Why 3? 2 is far too few.
On a side note, I ran only 2 troop choices in my 1500 points for the longest time, and only with ‘true’ 5th ed codexes have I moved onto using more troops.
Fast. 3 x Baals with AssCannon and dakka, oh and the important HKM.
Heavy; Stealing the Stelek; 3 x Rifleman Dread. I give 100% credit to Stelek for popularising this bad boy. I love it.
Umm…that it. 1500 blown.
Ha. No melta. Just realised. Oh well, c’est la vie. Or do I drop a Rifleman for a RAS squad with Meltagun and Infernus Pistol at 125points? Lets leave it as it is for now.
Librarian 3x RAZ w TLAC, HKM, flamer, PW 3x Baal w TLAC, HB, HKM 3x Rifleman Dread
Positives: - Synergy. Like a Deathwing army, we focus on a 24” bubble of support and death. - 6 x TLAC can rend the crap out of AV13+ - 6x TLAutoCan can pop transports easy. - 8x HKM will murder side armour whilst mounted on fast vehicles. Negatives: - No Mephiston. - No Combat threat. - No Mephiston. - No massive threat that will attract attention – Vindicator and Mephiston - Um, did I mention my ‘crutch’! Fuck off is it a crutch. - No melta…AV14 will have to be either glanced to death or rended.
Conclusion: My Mech BA as it is currently configured can’t enjoy TLAC the way BA can. By running a Stelek army am I just a pawn? This is not my list. This is my interpretation of a list devised by someone else. Is this a problem? See when I titled this post ‘Andy’ could refer to me or Stelek from YTTH. I don’t think this is going to be a replacement to my list, but I think that it certainly warrants a little look.
The inspiration… http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/05/blood-angels-razorback-spam-how-to.html http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/
Warning: Wall of Text BatRep! It's very good though...
Now, Lady J and the Death Marshalls just sounds so cool that any army named in this manner should auto-win.
This said my restless, competitive soul couldn’t take that! Maybe East17 …but that’s a play on words for another day…(or never again…I’m really sorry!)
So Steve rocks up without his normal Marcus Arcanist crew. I say normal, but its only our 3rd game…so its too early to really state any trends.
Deployment is the equivalent of Pitched Battle, for missions Steve draws ‘Slaughter’ (kill everything 4VP’s, 2Vp’s if only my master is left) and I draw ‘Assassinate’ (4VP’s to kill his master, 2VP’s if he gets mine too).
Turn 1:
First turn sees Steve winning initiative for the turn (this will be a recurring theme throughout the game, Steve won 5/6 initiative flips last night).
Very little occurs of note as Lady J et al castle up in a strong defensive building. A couple of Marshalls climb to the first floor to gain good sniper/vantage points for their Peacebringers, everyone else just gets as close as possible but still staying safe.
My guys try a new trick...I had previously thought Pandora and crew to be very slow. However, I wanted to try something new. In theory this worked, but would it in game? Baby Kade activates first in my crew and targets Pandora (?Yup) with ‘Incite’, I cheat down his score and make sure Pandora wins her Willpower Resist Duel with Baby K, meaning that Pandora gets a 4” push forward…Candy next activates and tries to hit Pandora with ‘Pacify’, once again cheating down Candy’s score...Pandora wins and gets a 4” push. When Pandora activates, she double walks into a great LOS blocking, hard cover piece of scenery mid-table. Great position now for end of first turn… Teddy advances on the left flank on his own, pushing up quite far, but keeping in that crucial 15” range of Baby Kade...
Turn 2:
Steve goes first after winning Initiative, and makes sure all his guys have great lines of sight for the lead-spitting to shortly follow…The executioner (imagine a really obese Wolverine in a executioners hood…minus the yellow striped suit) moves up to get a charge off on his next activation…
Whilst this is happening, Baby Kade and Teddy switch places, teleporting Teddy 15” across the table to the right flank in Kade’s activation, ready to pounce in his own activation. Candy pushes Pandora again with the same trick as Turn 1, Pandora is now in range of the Executioner…
Meanwhile a peacebringer strike from the right flank Death Marshall fails to hit Teddy who is behind a ruin.
Pandora’s activation – she casts ‘Dementia’ on the Executioner, burns a Soul Stone (1 of 7) and gets her ‘Mental Anguish’ Cast trigger. So Executioner will be falling back next turn, takes a wound from ‘Emotional Trauma’…and Pandora gets a 4” push…Hits a Death Marshall in the central buildings with ‘Self-Loathing’ doing a couple of wounds to him, making him fall back using ‘Mental Anguish’ trigger (burning another Soulstone, 2/7, to do so)…he takes a wound from ‘ET’ and Pandora pushes…and hits the Judge with the same combo as above and he falls back etc…
Pandora is a beast. Lady Justice’s entire right flank (left as you look at it in photo’s) has been demolished, all falling back, and making sure my crew are safe for a couple of turns.
Turn 3:
This was the turning point…yes, I was in control…but oh, did it ever get exciting here!
Steve goes first and mainly just spends this turn falling back for 3/5 of his crew. Candy wounds the Executioner with Self-Loathing, taking advantage of the negative flip due to Exe’s falling back status. Baby Kade pushes Pandora with the cheated down Incite/Fading Memory trick. He then attempts to ‘Lure’ the remaining Death Marshall ( I say remaining…the others are all alive, just running very fast towards the board edge.) However, he fails to bring him into Pandora’s play pen…
The Death Marshall turns away from Baby and tries to spit some lead into Teddy – and sinks a few slugs into Tedd’s thick fur. Teddy has underperformed so far, failing to get off ‘Thing of Nightmares’ 2 turns in a row and therefore cannot safely get into combat in his own activation…if he could have gotten off 1AP charges he’d have been in melee range last turn with the Baby Kade switch.
Pandora makes the Executioner fall back (having just spent this turns activation falling back) following Mental Anguish trigger from ‘Project Emotions’ spell…again, the spell is not that important, but having the executioner teetering precariously over the edge of the board…quite cool. Pandora then slaps Incite on the Death Marshall who has not yet had its activation and fallen back…so she gets her 4” push from winning (having just burnt 2 more Soulstones to get the last two spells off irresistibly), he takes a wound and then activates...inevitably falling back.
Pandora now has one final AP left…time for something epic. Following her push from her ‘Incite’ duel with the Marshall she is now, to my eye, 8” from Lady Justice. Clearly I can’t pre-measure.
Teddy still has the opportunity to activate and deal with the remaining Marshall on my right, Lady J’s left, flank.
Can Pandora hit Lady Justice with ‘self-loathing’? Smashing herself in the face with a positive flipped bit of damage from her Greatsword? AND get the Mental Anguish trigger and watch her very swiftly fall back to the board edge?
Is it 8”? S-L only has an 8” range, if I fail to be in range, I lose my spell, my final action point and leave myself unsupported in charge range of the combat beast that is Lady Justice?
‘Dementia’ has a 12” range and is definitely (again, to my eye) in range… How well can I judge range? Damn well IMHO. But I can’t risk being greedy – going for damage and fall back…I declare ‘Dementia’…measure Range- its bang on 8”.
Sweaty ballbags.
Could have done it. I cast and hit up…none other than the Black Joker. I soulstone…and draw a 2.
Lady J wins and stands resolute. Defiant. Angry.
Lady J activates and kills Pandora. Teddy swiftly retreats to cover the now very threatened left flank (left on the photos)
Turn 4:
Steve wins Initiave. Again.
Lady Justice charges and kills Teddy in ONE hit.
Yes.
Ted’s dead baby, Ted’s dead (anyone recognise the movie line? Only changed the name?)
Baby Kade tries to ‘lure’ Lady J into his melee range, attempting to get 3 melee attacks total against her…but he fails, moves into melee and hits once – and misses. Candy hits Lady J with 3 x ‘Self-Loathing’ but with Soulstones, Lady J only lets one cast get through…
The rest of Lady J’s crew rallies and get ready to fight back finally.
Turn 5:
I win the Initiative flip! Whoo!
Candy ‘Pacifies’ Lady Justice, making sure she activates after other members of her crew, hits her with 3 x ‘Self-Loathing’ again, and gets 5W from the 3rd attempt; this is pretty good, but Lady J has 12W…7 to go!
Baby is my next and final activation this turn and uses ‘Backstab’ to unleash a savage attack on the blind-Wonder Woman – he hits her for 6W! Awesome…she has just 1W left and Baby Kade has his ‘melee expert +1’ attack still to go (despite ‘Backstab’ costing 2AP (all of his action) he still gets a single melee strike)….
This is it, death time for Lady J…2 VP’s to me and I have ½ my crew alive and out of threat range for Steve’s crew….
Baby Kade misses. Of course he does. What else would he do!
Not only this, but Lady J hits her ‘Riposte’ Defence trigger - dealing damage to Baby Kade and killing him outright.
You had your shot Baby; she is that dangerous that she can kill you flat out in your own turn!
The rest of Steve’s crew basically do nothing.
Turn 6:
Steve wins Initiave (5/6) and Lady Justice moves into melee, taking all of her AP having been ‘slowed’ by Baby Kade’s Backstab attack previously. Her ‘melee expert +1’ however, lets her hit the poor darling and removes 7/8 wounds…Candy has a wound left…
Candy heals herself with ‘Sweets’ – goes up to 4W and uses 2 x ‘Self-Loathing’s to kill Lady Justice.
Yes! 2 Victory Points!
However, one Death Marshall is in Peacebringer range. Danger! One shot. Hits. Candy can’t cheat her defence higher…Damage..just need a ‘weak’ flip to survive…Steve flips moderate which is only 3! I survive!
Steve activates his Critical Strike trigger which is already ‘ghosted out’ and adds +1 Damage (DG) to his total.
Candy falls.
Final result:
Lady J: 4 VP
Pandora: 2 VP
What an awesome game. Some great tricks and moves. Some really nail-biting moments.
Perfect bit of tabletop action.
I’m not entirely sure how I could have had a better game here.
From a fun point of view – obviously it would have been nice to win.. And damn, how close did I come…
So the Blood Angels have not been forgotten! Between work and some posting about Malifaux not much has been said about my Mech BA - the whole reason for being of this blog...
They are not dead. Far from it. For the past 5 weeks I have been playing in a local tournament organised by a dude who wants to be a games designer. We have had 2 games per week, rotating around and playing as many of the other guys as possible.
The pairings were made on basically who was there at the time on Tuesday and who was not engaged in a game already...or just about to finish. This is not the way to do it, and of course, this meant that I did not get to play everyone - I did however, get to play a really good spread from across the league, the top guys, the middle guys and a couple of lower ranking guys.
There were 4 points available for a complete victory, calculated on VPs from 4th ed and for objectives - how many you held, contested.
Tonight, the winners were announced and I came first. Wicked. What did I win? a gold Mephiston on a tower of dice and £40 in GW vouchers, £30 went to second and £20 3rd, £10 4th...
Awesomesauce = bottled me.
I haven't posted reports cause well, a guy has to have some secret thoughts and ideas...
The little trophy is in the display cabinet in GW Cambridge with my name on, alongside the Silver Farseer trophy for the mechdar that came second and a Bronze Dante trophy for 3rd place...even though I don't think Josh used Dante at all...whatever.
I'll get photos of the trophy next Tuesday.
Our top 3 featured 2 BA armies. Other armies on display in the tournament were: - SW ( a few of these - 3 I think all crap frankly) - Lash ChaosSM (shut down by mech - kill the oblits and um what you gonna do?) - Mech tau (no kroot, no broadsides, very tooled up suits) - a couple of Imperial Guard (melta vets/valks etc - pretty competitive, not too much in the way of garden appliance style) - Sisters (beautiful army - now retired in favour of IG...what can I say?) Tyranids x 2 (1x TervFarm style, 1x mini-Nidzilla - Trygons, Hive Guard, Warriors, Alpha, Gaunts) Orks (Battleforce) Speesh MraineZ (Battleforce)
Overall thoughts were that I got to try out a few different ideas, some work - some don't. I am really happy with the list as it is in its final state.
I will post this seperately so it can be found easily - but I am getting what I wanted, namely building up skills and thoughts with the one army. It has been played extensively since the day the dex was available and looks great on the tabletop. I feel that by focussing on one army and its capabilities I am definately getting far more efficient in how I run them and how consistently the Mech BA come out on top...
My biggest surprise of the tournament was no FootDar? WTF?
At this point, most definitely NOT tactica lol! I’m a noob…
Had my first game with Pandora (Lilith model as the P one sucks) and the creepy kids on Monday vs Steve and his Arcanists.
As I was looking for, this was something very different - I have very little overt damage output.
It’s there, but not easy to use or straight forward to access.
We are going to look at my thoughts on the master, Pandora.
At first she appears crap. Can only ‘walk’ 3”, poor defence, casting ability not that high naturally, her only physical weapon is the ‘Withering Glare’ – which, unsurprisingly, does very little in the way of damage.
Moving to spells, abilities and talents then – nothing that just nukes people – no firepower, no poison, no livinglightning, no Jaws of the World Wolf certainly!
Hmm…ok so clearly more thought is required in her correct usage. Now, Steve and I are not expert players at Malifaux, so our game last night still took almost 3 hours to play a 25SS game (the equivalent of 1750/1500, whatever your ‘norm’ is in 40k) …of this time, it took me about 2 hours of playing with her to ‘crack it’. Not completely of course, but get a good idea of what it’s all about with Pandora and crew.
In turn 3, Pandora was threatened by a Sabertooth Cerberus (yes – it is a three headed sabertooth tiger…cool? I haven’t decided yet). It was close enough to pounce on her when the model activated and I had the next activation – I chose to activate Pandora and see if she could get out of harms way.
I had had some mild success preventing…scratch that – I had had NO success previous to this turn with trying to get her to do anything, primarily because she was out of range of stuff, but also because her spell books’ success is based on the Willpower (leadership 40k). The Arcanists that Steve uses have quite good willpower, especially when buffed by 3 points by their master Marcus – which Steve realised straight away he needed to do each turn, keeping a very nice 8” net (the Howl power has an 8” aura/pulse around the caster in all directions).
As a result of previous failure I was unsure if this would go off. So I tried to cast ‘Dementia’ on the Cerberus – this would make it need a WP>13 Duel before it did anything…except the Cerberus has WP5 +3(Howl)+2(Stubborn talent) = WP10…only needing to flip a 3 of any suit from his deck to make actions, yes this might burn some cards, but certainly not achieve its primary aim of near paralysis for a turn…so I tried it anyway…Pandora casts needing only a 6 AS (any suit) to pull it off. She gets it, but I cheat fate and replace the 7 C(Crow suit) with a 12C, and then burn a Soulstone (from my cache of 5) to add another card from the deck, giving me a huge total of 30-odd…including my natural Masque suit and my Crow suit from the drawn cards…Steve cannot beat this with his willpower and so the spell goes off.
Now we have already established that this spell will not do a great deal to the Cerberus, and statistically it will be acting more or less normally in its activation…However…. Pandora has a Casting trigger (an effect that goes off in addition to the spell/damage) that comes off with a Masque (which is naturally attached to her casting ability) and a Crow (from the drawn cards)…this is called ‘Mental Anguish’ – and it causes the defender (Cerberus) to ‘fall back’ after losing a WP Resist Duel – which it just has. So it falls back – no biggie?
Falling back is unlike 40k. The model does not fall back straight away, it waits until it activates (the models individual turn) then spends that turn moving double its Walk characteristic towards the closest table edge…Cerberus went straight to the edge and hit it… Now in 40K, we can’t touch the edge, we are over the side of our flat earth and dead.. but in Malifaux you stop on the edge and wait. In that models next activation it rallies, spending the whole turn rallying and doing nothing else.
2 turns wasted out of 6/7? Yes…yes…yes! Ok. Plus, if the model at edge of board falls back again whilst still touching the edge, it will finally, be pushed over it and die.
OK, so how did the rest of the turn come out? Well, as Pandora gets ‘pushed’ up to 4” after wining a WP duel, she slid around the board, bringing Marcus into range – and promptly did the same as above to him…Rinse and repeat…
By Turn 4 – every model in the opposing crew was falling back or rallying. During this period, my crew got into a safe position and my Teddy went from being on 1 wound and poisoned to being at full strength (9 wounds) Turn 5.
However, I made a tactical error, I consolidated rather than pushed on. I strengthened by position, where I should have carried on using my momentum. This being our second ever game, I did not realise that 2 turns would be wasted per model (fall back, rally) and as a result could have ‘pushed’ Pandora using her successful spells closer to the falling back models and re-cast the spell in relative safety – killing them by sending them off the board…
So, rookie errors in going for the killing blow aside, Pandora does have some power to her…as I am finding with Malifaux, this power is not hidden, but most certainly only viewable from the most oblique angles….this is why I am growing to truly like this game!
'Sup guys. Hope everyone is having a good Sunday. Me? I'm chillaxing after hard working week and busy day house hunting yesterday by painting all day. Thats right baby! A whole day of geek action... I'm so cool.
Anyway, after last weeks first game of Malifaux I decided not only did I really like this game, but that the crew I ran, the Viktorias were too similar to a Warhammer army - my guys moved, ran, charged, shot stuff had a few spells, but essentially were a bit 'samey'.
I needed something different and I'd had my eye on these creepy bastards since I was first shown the Wyrd catalogue.
So here are my Neverborn crew - well, Baby Kade, Candy and Teddy...I have a Master too to run run the crew - Lilith (sexy, leather loving vamp with a huge sword) but haven't painted her up yet. Can't decide colour scheme for her...
All three have a gloss varnish coat drying at the mo, but will be dulled down with a matt coat later tonight.
These guys were awesome fun to paint and I got to run wild on paint scheme (inspired by Pink Tyranids blog). I'd wanted to paint something pink for ages and just couldn't justify it in the grim dark, 41st millenium...however, in the twisted world of Malifaux...
Whilst fun, they also took an age because of their size. Teddy is of course cool as he is about 150% Space Marine size, but the kids...so small. They are just over KNEE height to a Space Marine. The pain!
But I do now have something wildly different from 40k in everyway... Sweet. Can't wait to try them out on Monday night.
Last night I got in my first game of Malifaux. It was sweet. Great fun. Great game.
We played on the board pictured, with some gorgeous looking forgeworld resin buildings and on the standard 3'x3' size.
This was Steve and I's first attempt at a full 'scrap' with 25 soulstones (points) limit.
The order of the game set up is slightly different, with terrain being set up first and classifying it. This is done in a far more interactive way than 40k. You can climb the buildings, end your move half way up a cliff face, smash elements of it, jump over rivers all sorts of crap. Additionally LOS works differently as all models are categorised with Height statistics, but essentially alot of terrain blocks LOS - so in the picture above, the trees block LOS either side of the 'forest'. You can shoot through if you are within an 1" of it, and the target is only 3" away...something like that anyway.
After terrain is sorted, deployment zones are created. We 'flipped' for a diagonal zone, with each of us placing our crews 8" from the corner we had selected. I started in the bottom left, Steve - the top right in the picture.
Only AFTER this do you pick your crew...
Thats right, know there will be alot of LOS blocking terrain? OK, don't take shooty guys..unless you can put them on a flying pig and get over it...yeah, seriously...ish.
So list tailoring to the terrain and deployment is essential, as well you will know what faction your opponent is picking from, so you have a rough idea of how they play.
No all-comers lists here...
So with my 25 soulstone limit I went for;
Masters: (0 SS)The Viktorias (blonde twins...you know thats what you'd go for in real life too) (8 SS)Taelor (Big hammer, big...hair) (10 SS)Bishop (cool ass cage fighter) (5 SS) Convict Gunslinger (punk-ish, ruthless bastard with paired pistols)
Leaving me with 2 Soulstones (SS/'points') left over. Unlike in 40k where these would have been a wasted resource having no impact on game play - the soulstones left over can be used in game to manipulate card flip results and reduce the statistical probablity of failure...of should I say - increase the likelihood of success... Cool.
Steve took Marcus Arcanists straight from the box set so he had his Master - Marcus, Myranda (his girlie minion), a three headed tiger beast and a massive snake thing...
This is a set that had not interested me in the slightest model wise (despite being great looking as all the Wyrd range are) but in game...some very cool abilities...
Now this is not a proper battle report as such, because the game took us almost 3 1/2 hours, I took no notes as I was too busy trying to play and becuase it was not really a competitive game. Just two dudes trying to learn whats what.
Essentially, I flipped for an Assassinate mission (I had to kill his Master and keep mine alive for max VP's) and Steve had to Reconnointre (get a model into all 4 quarters of the board for max VP's)...
I managed to kill his Master - Marcus and wipe him off the board, but not before I lost one of my masters (the viktorias are twins...so two for one on the master/'HQ' front) and Bishop - my cage fighter.
So I scored max VP's, but as I said, that was not really what this game was about.
I loved this new experience - its a cool game that is an awesome distraction from 40k and has revealed to me several things;
- There is something very positive to be said for having fewer models but with higher number of individual abilities. - It will take ages to learn how to play competitively - there are a huge number of combinations of spells, actions, abilities and attacks...all characters can boost, reduce, transform, summon, push etc all the others in your crew. - It seems really well balanced - Steve had 1 less model, but because of this had extra soulstones to use in-game...and boy, did he burn through these to get some cool magic etc off... - We'll be a lot quicker next time! Learning what ability does what takes some time... - The depth is deceptive. Strategically, there are alot of things to think about. With each player taking it in turns to 'activate' a single model it means that the opponent can react to your game plan in 'real time' rather than sit back and watch the turn unfold - with no influence bar rolling some saves. In Malifaux, the activation sequence means that there are constantly new opportunities or opportunities being taken away as you find your opponent has turned you into a 'Beast' and now controls that model...D'oh! Additional depth also comes from the characters abilities - you can look at the entry in the rulebook and not see it straight away, but there are some very cool stacking abilities and 'triggers' - for example the Viktorias can use their Mashimune Nihontos (samurai swords) to make a 'Strike' - a basic attack, if this does damage and you have a card of a certain suit in your combat total, then you can make another Strike against another target...but then of course, if you have the same trigger (card of certain suit) again...well strike time against some one else... This is a very simple example, and there are sooo many more of varying complexity that this game has legs....real legs...Great big, Ronnie Coleman wheels!
Rather than try and write a battle report on poorly remembered actions, I'm going to give initial thoughts on each character as I paint them up...
Whilst I did not get the chance to play this guy he is my first 75% complete model in Malifaux so I want to show him off...
The Desolation Engine (tactics coming soon ish...)
Anyway, I'm going to try and paint up the Convict Gunslinger over the weekend and get some tactics/ideas up for him too so stay tuned...
So, to fix my 40K army ADD, I'm NOT pursuing another new project.
Thats right, I'll be painting up my existing Death Korps models and pair of Valks and just calling my IG a day.
I promised myself at the start of this blog and BA project that I would be focussing this year (well, from Feb onwards when I began my BA).
Not just flitting from one thing to the next.
This has been stopping me from progressing properly in my 40k-fu. Without being able to specialise I am truly becoming a jack of all armies but master of none.
BA were to be my fix. My saviour. They still will be. The codex has a great variety of armies and I love painting red.
But I still can't stop my mind wandering onto new projects. Problem is my projects take massive energy and massive dollar (well, not actually dollar, clearly pounds sterling as I'm in the UK)
Now the future. SteamPunkVictorianWestHorror. Wait, no its PunkWestHorrorSteamVictorian...no that can't be right. Well, whatever.
My cure for 40k ADD is Malifaux.
At this point I legitamately know bugger all about this game except that I like the models, am very attracted to the theme, love the fact that a 'crew' like a Necromunda gang will only set me back 30-40 pounds...and there are plenty of factions.
Each crew can be played with as few as 4-5 members,each having special rules etc akin to Deathleaper in number for some of them.
This will allow me to focus solely on Mech BA for 40k and totally scratch my itch for new projects on a regular basis for a limited cost....
Now, who the chuff will I play this with?
A dude from the local GW, Steve, I play regularly actually got me into this, along with one of the other lads, AJ. I'm picking up my first crew, fate deck (no dice, all cards?) and the rule book tomorrow. All for about £50. Complete new gaming experience and I'm not having to jump in at the deep end! Awesome sauce .
Now...I hope this game is good...
Any of you guys on the interwebz had experience of it? I've seen a few bits out there on incunabulum's blog found here.
Ok, so thats not an entirely accurate title, I tried out colous on the HB Gunners from my first Valkyrie. ...there is alot of grey paint out there...had to get it right.
But this is the first FW Death Korps dude. I have to apologise firstly - I did not see the mould line on the left arm until after I had washed it, didn't even see it on base coat! Blind.
So this shows up massively, but still looks ok. Clearly this mistake will be rectified in the future.
So the image from Siege of Vraks book in the the top left is what we are going for..and this is how it came out...
I am happy with the grey and the browns. I used the 'recipe' from First Rank, Second Rank with a couple of exceptions. I used Vallejo French Mirage Blue for the grey and I used GW's Graveyard Earth instead of Calthan Brown for the braces and light browns...when washed I found this looked pretty good.
So thoughts anyone? Clearly I ballsed-up with the mould line miss but apart from that? Does the black eye need a touch of Dark Angels green just to give it some 'glare'/depth whatever? Or should it stay black and soulless?
Today I am spraying the rest of the boys (I ran out of black spray), building a second Valk (modelled as a Vendetta but gunless as I am awaiting the Vendetta FW conversion kit) and will try and spray and basecoat both Valks...
Plus some army list resources as part of the ongoing resource sharing objective...
