There are honestly a whole number of things I could and should be writing about in this blog post. I could be finally putting together my thoughts on how Malifaux gamers graduate through different "Phases" of understanding the game balance. I could be waxing poetic about my love for Twisting Fates. I could even be writing a deeply intellectual comparison on 40K vs WHFB vs Malifaux vs Wm/H. Am I going to do that, hell no.
Simply put, I figured I would write up a quick little blurb about the Austringer. As my friend Zee would put it, Caw Caw Mother Fucker. Yeah, that's an expletive. I will not even blame it on the after-gaming beer I had. Nope, dinner kept that well in check. Simply put, I had 2 great games during my weekly game night tonight and one of them returned the Austringer to the table (after a fair long absence) to a truely triumphant return.
After some minor harassment on the Malifaux IRC room today, I caved to some pressure and decided to try out Lucius as a Henchman vs Henchman as master. I do not prefer to play him this way, I honestly think he does better as a Henchman as Master. Regardless, I teamed him up with Sonnia Criid and her fiery avatar and went to town.
Local player Dan dropped down some Marcus love and we had a fun game. What???? did you think this was a battle report. Go back to the top, this is about the Austringer! Check out the sweet Alternate Sonnia Criid over to the right though. Thats who Lucius was running around with all game. So, at the end of the game, Lucius, Sonnia, the Gov Proxy, and a Witchling were still alive and won me the game. Overall a pretty fun game and Dan is always a great opponent. Hell, check out his blog as he may actually put up a battle report.
Did I mention playing my second game with Lucius and the Austringers though? No? I thought I had. So my second game was against another local player, Brian. Brian is fairly new and picked up a bunch of Guild. He has been working through his new guild collection and really seems to be enjoying the game. He has been trying to catch me for a game for a while now, and we just got the chance to play each other tonight. I wanted to take something different, and had not played Lucius in a while. Since I had played him as a Henchman in my last game, I decided to bring him back to the table running a crew of his own. Brian and I decided to play a 35 point game and I spun up the Guild Guard/Special Forces crew. Guardsmen, Guild Hounds, Guild Guard Captain, and 2 amazing Austringers. Now, let me be fair here and point out that only 1 time in the past 6+ months have I brought an austringer back to the table. They just have not fit with my crews lately. Add to that the fact they have not really done much for me in the games I have played them. Well, they came back with a bang tonight.
I had taken my second Austringer out of my Malifaux bag to make room for Sonnia's Alt, so had to borrow one from Brian for the game. I got the two dudes on the table and both Brian and I were joking about Anemic under-performing birds. Well..... let me tell you. Caw Caw Mother Fucker indeed! In the first 3 turns of the game my two Austringers flipped severe damage at least 7 times. Even on negative flips these boys were whipping out the Severe/Moderate flips and tossing in the odd critical strike to boot! Granted, they could not deliver orders to save their lives, but they sure dished out the damage. Between the two austringers, the Drill Sergeants' Shooting Range, and Lucius buffing and giving orders.... DAMN! The Austringers took down Sam Hopkins, Ryle, an Executioner (nearly twice), and dropped damage on both Perdita and Nino. It was a fairly glorious game for them.
So, here is a little love for my friend Zee, who constantly espouses the value of the humble Austringer. It looks like I finally fed the birds the right bird seed.
So whats coming up on a serious note for the DTP? More Puppets (the set is nearly complete), and I owe a lot of pictures (Malifaux and 40K) to the blog. I need to get my light tent set back up here at home, pull out the SLR, and get some pictures taken. I have a rough plan for doing so, along with getting back to painting. Now that I am at the end of the year I am starting to get back to the hobby side of the hobby.
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