King of Kings...well, ish...

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?

Venerable

Malifaux - Pandora first impressions...

Pandora Thoughts:

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 living lightning, 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!

More soon on the rest of the Neverborn crew…

Venerable

Creepy Kids and Carebears ....More Malifaux

'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.

Venerable

First Malifaux Game vs Arcanists

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...

Venerable

Cure Found? No more will A.D.D stall my progress!

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.

First Death Korps of Krieg Test Model

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...