The Dead Tau Project

Win a Dead Justice box set - pro-painted?

2012-05-21T13:01:00.002-04:00

So, I have not been using Facebook lately. At all. I found that about 6 months ago I just grew tired of all the changes and what-nots with Facebook so stopped logging in. My wife checks it regularly (semi-regularly) for me, but thats about all it amounts to.

Well, that and I still get the odd email for direct messages or to alert me about updates to pages I subscribed to (or liked....). One of those pages are my friends at the Eternal Warriors podcast. These are a great group of guys who release on a fairly regular weekly/bi-weekly schedule. The podcast is a lot of fun to listen to, and thankfully they have begun to migrate from GW games to better games like Malifaux.

With that said, recently there was a post to thier Facebook page that caught my attention. Here is the post:

Hey kids!

I want to hear your gamer stories. Happy or sad, tragic or hilarious, send them our way. You can post them on the forum, throw them on the facebooks, or email them to thebaron@theeternalwarriors.com . Though I have to say I'd prefer the forum or the email, just because they'll be easier to keep track of. Why should you go through the trouble?

Because it can win you a full Dead Justice box set painted by Chris West of 2 Ton Studios! These models were lovingly and painstakingly painted, then placed on Secret Weapon's new "corpse field" bases for that added boost. If you are interested in starting malifaux or just want a new crew, this is your chance to get one for free!

I'll have some pictures in the next day or so, otherwise you can check Chris's blog at http://2tonstudios.blogspot.com/2012/05/malifaux-dead-justice.html to see some of the pictures he took. They seriously don't do the models justice. Dead Justice.

Well, good luck!

So, there is a contest for a pro-painted Dead Justice box set. That's the set that is featured in the picture at the start of this post. So for all you cool kids who are on Facebook, post them up, heres the link to the Eternal Warriors facebook site. For those who are not cool facebook kids (like me), email the Baron at the address he provides.

King of NOVA - Round 4

2012-05-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

So I have stretched out the reports of my games to 4 days now, I hope your not bored yet. As previously mentioned, I was on the top table for round 4, facing 1st Generation Awesome Mike with the master he possibly knows best in the game. At the same time, I had only gotten 2 games in before this point with Zoraida, and used Collodi a total of 4 times before this game. I did not take much time to look at his side of the table, although I had seen him carrying around aZoraida during the day. I knew he was running with Collodi, and thought that meant Collodi and Zoraida through the day. Mike is another member of my local group who regularly beats me in games. He is a really good player and one of the best Neverborn players I know.With that said, I have won a couple games against Mike, so I was a bit more confident than I was facing Dan. On top of that, maybe this was my day, I had just beaten Dan pretty badly so I was feeling good. Then I remembered I did not know how to play the crew I had chosen to bring to the table.

Mike and I drew a dungeon board with some bridges and columns. We understood that the open spaces between tiles were solid walls that blocked LOS and were impassable.

I had the closer side (to the left) while Mike had the far side of the board. Mike flipped Line in the Sand and I flipped Slaughter. I contemplated dropping a stone to reflip, but decided against it. (Mistake number 1). Mike set out his crew and I was surprised to see Collodi leading the crew. It ended up being Collodi, 4 Marionettes, 3 Stitched Together, Carrion Effigy, and Brutal Effigy. I looked through my remaining schemes (schemes were unique for the tournament) and did not have much left. Eye for and Eye was out as my plan was to kill off Collodi and remove a bulk of Marionettes to reduce his crew size. Frame was not a good strategy, and Steal Relic was not something I felt I could reliably pull off. I ended up grabbing Bodyguard on Zoraida and Exterminate Dolls. It was a long shot as I was aiming to wipe him off the board, but I figured what the hell. (mistake #2?).

Turn 1 was very little shuffling around as Mike did a great job of staying out of LOS from Zoraida. I summoned up a Voodoo doll and put it on Collodi, killing it off for the scrap shortly afterwards. I made the mistake of giving all my dolls fast on turn 1 instead of creating the new marionette and giving them fast at the start of round 2. Bleh. Mike ended with his Stitched moved forward under clouds of smoke, and one of the dynamites flipped on turn 1. I had not moved from my initial deployment in a ball, waiting and priming my crew for round 2.

On round 2 Mike did some more moving around but I got aggressive. (Mistake #3). I gave my dolls fast, told a wicked doll to go after me, gave the wicked doll and 2 marionettes melee expert, and launched up the board to the bridge to start killing off his dolls. I got some positioning out there and took out one of his marionettes before learning my big mistake. Gamble your Life is not a strike or spell so cannot be shifted by Collodi onto his marionettes. Crap. By the end of the second turn Collodi had died to an onslaught of GYL, and I was severely down on the game. Over the next several turns I tried to recover with my stitched and Zoraida, but was unsuccessful. Overall I was just too damn aggressive and should have held back. The game ended in an 8/0 loss.

I was amused later when Mike said he went into the game thinking he was at a disadvantage vs my crew. Once I threw Collodi forward he felt that he had a strong chance because he realized I had no idea what I was doing. When I followed up by throwing the Stitched into the meat grinder and leaving Zoraida unprotected he was confident the game was his and there was no way he could lose. All of this was true.

So, at the end of the tournament I ended with a record of 9tp/+7diff/22VP to come in 3rd place. I did not get a chance to face Weakland, so that game will need to wait until I get back to NYC. And, at the end of the day I ended up beating a local player who regularly beats me, and lost to a player I regularly lose to, with the master he may be best with. Not a bad showing overall.

King of NOVA - Round 3

2012-05-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

So going into round 3, I found myself at the bottom of the list for the 3 undefeated players in the tournament. This had me facing the top of the 2/1 players, 2nd Generation Awesome Dan.

Ouch.

Here's the thing, Dan is good. We have faced each other a handful of times on Tuesday game nights, along with a handful of times at tournaments. He regularly kicks my ass. Probably the only person I play more games who regularly kicks my ass is Mike, who is also really good. With that said, I was expecting my run at the tournament to end with this game. So, I stepped up to the table ready to give my all to make it a fun and challenging loss, and looked at where we would be playing. For three rounds now, Dan had been camping out on the same table.

I took a quick look over the table and flipped strategy. After both Dan and I flipped our strategies (he was playing Resers), we ended up with shared Distract. So, kill the opposing leader or keep them off your half of the board. Basically kill the opposing leader while keeping your alive. I knew Zoraida was survivable, but I also knew Dan plays against Mike's Zoraida a fair amount (or did). I also knew I was not overly familiar with Zoraida, and that Pandora is really good at this strategy. I suspected Dan would be taking Kirai, and I know how to handle Kirai fairly well with Pandora. With that said, I went with my Pandora crew. In a slight surprise (but not overly much if I thought about it) Dan took Nicodem and attached the Avatar. He has been on a roll lately with aNico, and I should have suspected that was up his sleeve.

Which was another knock for me. I have widely claimed that not only do I think Nicodem is a good master, but that in Dan's hands he is simply scary. I was now truly expecting a beat down, but trusted I was good enough with Pandora that I could make it a challenge.

Dan set out Nicodem, 2 dogs, 2 crooked men, Dead Rider, and a grave spirit. Looking over his crew, I went with Kidnap on 2 dogs and the grave spirit, and Assassinate on Nicodem. I knew I would have to deal with the rider, but did not want to bank a scheme on him.

The game got underway and we headed for the middle of the board. It was clear from our early movement that this was where the fight would take place and there was really no reason to try and avoid it. Nicodem needed to be taken down early or he would manifest and be nearly impossible to kill before getting across the board. Dan was helpful in killing off his dogs for me early on, leaving me to focus on Nicodem and the Dead Rider. The game went by very quickly and it was a fairly long day, so only key moments really stick out in my memory.

I was able to get Pandora and Lilitu into range to use some lures to damage and kill off a number of models. Pandora and Nico both burned thier last stones somewhere around the end of turn 3 or start of turn 4 in a battle to force a Rigormortis through onto Pandora. With both of us burning our last SS, the spell was forced through the opposed WP check, then Dan flipped a 4 to cast it and did not have the cheat in hand. This was a rough hit for him. I followed up by activating Pandora and chipping away the last couple points Nico had on him (dropping project emotions on a nearby mindless zombie to overlap onto Nico, then burning off a pacify, a self loathing, and a dementia once he was on negative flips) and killed him. Dan knew the game was over at that point, but eliminated Lelu with the Dead Rider before I could take him out of the game as well. With Dan tabled going into turn 5 and 2 turns left to lure and walk Pandora into the opposing deployment zone, I was able to lock up 8 points to Dan's 2. I was lucky the focus was kept on Lelu and Pandora so Lilitu had enough wounds remaining that she could last through 2 remaining turns.

At the end of the game, my record was now 6tp/+15diff/22vp and I had a surprising win vs Dan. Dan and I talked a bit after the game, both of us suspecting I would be facing Mike in the final round. Throughout the entire tournament I had heard Mike was bringing Collodi, but assumed it was Collodi plus Zoraida. Dan's recomendation was to switch back to Zoraida due to the high WP in the Collodi crew, and I agreed, as Pandora would struggle with the high WP and be vulnerable to her own crew with Zoraida's obeys.

King of NOVA - Round 2

2012-05-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I outlined what I could recall of my round 1 game during the King of NOVA tournament last weekend. I had a great game against Nayte, a fantastic player from Victory Comics. While it was not on my mind at the start of the day, I realize after the tournament that my win vs Nayte was one contributing game to the Best store in VA prize, as it was a game not within the same store. Several of the Huzzah Players ended up getting matched against each other through the day due to general placings, which had a number of our games not count toward the overall Best Store rankings. By the same token, Victory also had a lot of thier players playing each other, so it likely balanced out.

So, I was jumping into round 2 of the tournament on a win but feeling a little off due to the end of round discussion. I was happy to see I would be facing Marshall from the Neverland Games store in PA. Marshall is another henchman and I have been up to one of his events, although he and I had not had a chance to play each other. I knew he was a savvy Neverborn player and remember him playing Pandora with Jack Daw. On Flipping Turf War, I knew it was time to switch up lists and brought out Pandora. I do not remember what his first flip was, but he burned a stone to reflip and got Stake a Claim. He declared Dreamer and we were onto the game.

Game 2 - Dreamer (Marshall from PA) vs. Pandora

Marshall was running Dreamer/LCB, 2 Day Dreams, 2 Stitched, an Insidious Madness, and Bad Juju (Sludge Beast). I have not faced Bad Juju much, and only know a little about him. I found the choices interesting, and was ready to go. I had flipped Turf War, so needed more models completely on his half of the table than he had on mine (and one model in his deployment zone). I grabbed Reclaim Malifaux as one scheme, and breakthrough for the second. I knew where I was going and had a plan to get there. Marshal placed his Stake a Claim in the middle of the sewer canal, second panel in from my right. I do not remember the schemes he chose. With that we started the game.

Turn 1 and 2 was a surprising amount of very little actually happening. One of my Tots killed a desp merc and grew to a young, the other Tot tagged the right corner and began to move up the board. Pandora walked in both rounds, heading up the stairs. The twins headed up the left side of the board, starting by tagging the middle center and left center quadrants. My Young moved across (during turn 2) and tagged the back center quadrant. Marshal moved up the board, hiding on the botton level of the center of the building, and keeping most of his crew buried.

The excitement really came out during turn 3 and 4. One of Marshall's Daydreams moved up and sacrificed itself to bring out LCB, who then tried to attack Pandora only to fail twice from her WP duels. LCB summoned up a replacement day dream, who then put Chompy to sleep and brought out dreamer at the left base of the stairs in my deployment zone. Dreamer used his action to bring out his friends, placing both Stitched in protective formation around him and bringing out his insidious. Sludge Monster also came out during the turn and started oozing toward Marshal's stake a claim. Lilitu continued to move up the left side of the board, tagging quadrants and heading for Marshal's deployment zone. My Young did what he could to move across the board just outside my deployment zone and on the other side of the wall, hiding from the stitched. Pandora did what she could to drop some templates onto the Stitched and Insidious, causing a daydream and the stitched to run for the rear of the board and chipping away at what he had. She had to burn a walk to get into the smoke and near the top of the stairs.

On turn 5 (I believe), Pandora got initiative and was able to force the nightmares far enough away from Dreamer to target him, then tagged him with a spell and killed him, following up with breaking the One Master Immediate activation of LCB by pacifying him and pushing off the edge of the top level platform to drop down to the bottom level, protected from the Stitched and the Sludge monster. Marshal worked on recovering with his stitched, rallying and moving toward his objective. Lelu charged in and finished off Chompy with some well placed attacks, turning the game heavily in my favor. The rest of turn 5 was a tot grabbing the last quadrant and leaving my tot and Lilitu in Marshal's deployment zone. Pandora walked some more and got LOS onto the Sludge Monster, using Pacify to push around and get a line on the Stitched. Lelu scooted up to take out the Sludge Monster, and then turn 6 saw Pandora forcing the Stitched away from the claim jump and sitting on top of it. All in all, Pandora did more walking in this game that I have ever seen her do in the past. The game ended with an 8/0 win to me, bringing my 2 game record to 6tp/+9 differential/14vp.

King of NOVA Tournament - Round 1

2012-05-14T10:47:00.002-04:00

Charlie Sheen picture aside, I did not actually win the King of NOVA tournament this weekend but instead came in third. Overall it was a fantastic day and I got in 4 really fun and challenging games. I ended up at the top table in round 4, playing against Mike for top placing on the day.

There were 3 big prizes available on the day, along with prize money for the top three placing players based on TP. The top player would end up going home with a King of NOVA Trophy, the top store in VA would go home with a Best Store Trophy, then the best placing store along the east coast would take home a plaque. At the end of the day, Mike grabbed 1st place and the King of NOVA trophy, Andrew Weakland grabbed 2nd place and the Best East Coast plaque, and I grabbed 3rd place. Huzzah Hobbies, my local store, grabbed the Best Store in VA trophy. It was an impressive showing overall, with players from the Warmongers in NY, Neverland Games in PA, Huzzah Hobbies and Victory Comics from VA.

So, with all that background, lets dive into the games.

Games 1 - Marcus (Nayte from Victory) vs Zoraida

Nayte has become known as a new but very good Resurrectionist player recently, and I also know he has Sonnia Criid sitting in his case. He and I have discussed strategies for playing Sonnia and her Avatar, and we have played a couple games where he took Kirai against me. Going into the game, I was expecting him to grab one of those two, likely siding toward Kirai as that was a game we had played within the past two weeks. Nayte surprised me by pulling out Arcanists and putting Marcus and Kaeris down on the table. We had a spectator who was trying to learn a little about the game, so I let him pick between Zoraida and Pandora, and he promptly chose Zoraida. Nayte and I laughed, as this would be an interesting game with both of us having essentially no experience with our masters.

Nayte rolled out with Marcus, Kaeris, 2x Night Terrors, Malifaux Raptor, Student of Conflict (Kaeris), Jackalope (Marcus), and a Gunsmith

I flipped Contain Power for my strategy, and chose Grudge on Nayte's Student of Conflict and Stake a Claim on the boxes between the two buildings in the picture. Nayte had flipped Deliver a Message, then grabbed Stake a Claim on the building near my deployment zone and Power Ritual.

On turn 1 Nayte grabbed several both corners on his side of the board for his Power Ritual and then started up the board, hiding behind buildings and the back forest to keep Zoraida from tagging a Voodoo doll on them. Regardless, I was able to grab LOS to the Gunsmith, made a voodoo doll and obeyed him, but the attack missed. I passed the rest of my turn, only killing the Voodoo doll and having Collodi summon a 4th marionette from the scrap. I was aiming my set-up for an attack on round 2.

The next several rounds started the fun, with Collodi giving all his dolls fast and launching an attack across the board. Two marrionettes pulled his crew to the back building where Kaeris, the Gunsmith, and the Student were all hiding behind. A marionette used his fast to kill off the Student of Conflict. A second Marrionette charged, Fast attacked, and Melee Experted Kaeris. The Wicked Doll snapped up and charged, Fast attacked, and Melee expert Kaeris. I was able to put damage on Kaeris, kill off my grudge target, and tie up a chunk of Naytes crew in the back of the board. Nayte, on either turn 2 or 3 was able to jump Marcus all the way to Zoraida (who had not moved) and deliver the message to her with no problem. In return, the Stitched together in the back of the board gambled Marcus's life enough times that Marcus died. By the time we got to the end of turn 3, Nayte had grabbed Power Ritual on 3 corners (his deployment corners and my right hand corner), Marcus was dead (to a stitched), the message was delivered, I had my grudge, and we were studying how to get our claim jumps.

Neither of us were fast players, especially not knowing our crews well, and as we started round 4 the TO called 20 minutes remaining in the round. I asked Nayte if he figured round 4 would be our last round, to which he agreed. I studied the board and came up with my strategy, knowing this was the final round. Nayte was sitting on 5 points, with a Night terror close enough to get to the house for Claim Jump. I was sitting on 4 points, with Collodi and the puppets set to jump around and grab my claim jump. We started the turn and I had initiative. Collodi moved back to put a marrionette onto the Night terror, trying to kill it off. The attacks hurt it but did not kill it, and I then followed up with the other Marrionette pulling Collodi back toward my claim jump and moving over to touch the crates. With only 1 model on my claim jump, I knew I needed something else because Kaeris and the gunsmith would be able to take out the marrionette with no problem. Nayte moved his Night Terror slightly around the building and sat touching the far corner, out of LOS from Zoraida. I moved my stitched up to touch the crates and put up Creepy Fog to provide cover. Kaeris jumped into the cloud of smoke and took some attacks on Collodi, but nothing effective. I moved through the building with my Puking Snake and attacked the Night Terror, missing. Things looked bad for me, but I had one trick left up my sleeve I was confident of. Nayte move forward with his Gunsmith but could not get anywhere to do damage to my dolls. With the last effective activation (Nayte had a Raptor left but it was insignificant), Zoraida moved up onto the scrap pile to the left of the building (Naytes Claim Jump) and used Repulsive to push the Night Terror off the building. We finished out turn 4 a little after the TO called 10 minutes remaining in the round.

Nayte quickly shuffled as if he was going to play out another turn, and at this point I asked him what was up. He said the round was still going, so he wanted to keep playing. I discussed it with him and the two conflicting points were:

Me - If we cannot finish another turn, I do not want to start another turn. If Nayte was willing to play into Lunch the TO was ok with that so we could finish a turn 5, I was up for playing turn 5. If not, then I was not willing to start a new turn.
Nayte - He felt he could win if we started the turn and he got initiative to move back onto the claim jump. He was not willing to play past time into lunch to finish the turn, but wanted to keep playing.

With those two stances, we did not start a new turn and the game ended with a 6/5 win to me. I got a couple looks and comments after the game about playing through to the end of the time, and apparently I was a dick to not do so. I guess I am conflicted over this, as we had agreed going into turn 4 that it was going to be the last turn. In addition, I agree with Nayte that whoever got initiative on turn 5 would likely win the game. If I grabbed initiative I could easily remove Naytes ability to win through a simple move to the front of the house, cast Repulsive (pushing Collodi and my dolls into my own claim jump via positioning, while pushing Naytes models further away from his), then obeying his Night Terror to charge the Gunsmith of Kaeris, moving it too far away from being able to get to his claim jump. Likewise, if Nayte had gotten initiative and moved his Night Terror back onto the house and time was called, he would have grabbed a win without my models being able to take the actions to push them off again.

At the end of the day, I feel bad that my actions were considered a dick move, but I would not change the way I played. I ended up going into round 2 on 3TP/+1 Diff/6VP.

More rounds will be posted through this week.

Tournament Day!

2012-05-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

Its here, and I am excited. The "IT" I am talking about is the King of NOVA tournament being held in Falls Church at Victory Comics today. I am excited as this will be the second 1v1 tournament I am playing in this year (after sleeping through my Adepticon qualifier). In fact, when this post goes live we should just be starting round 1.

So, what am I bringing? I have felt the hankering to get some Neverborn back on the table since just prior to Adepticon, and with my "Guild through Adepticon" commitment met, I am diving back in. For those who watch my gaming log (over there on the left) you will see I have not abandoned my guild crews, but have merely loosened the restrictions on what I am playing.

With that said, the tournament is single faction, flipped expanded strategies, unique schemes. This means I have to pick a faction going in, but can hire my crews tailored for whichever of the 13 Strategies I flip. The spanner henchman Lucidicide threw in the works here is that each player declares their master after flipping for strategies but before hiring the rest of their crew. This will make things interesting.

So, whats on the slate for today? With Neverborn being my declared faction I am going with something new and something reliable. While I still might bring out Max (Dreamer) at some point, I think I am going to go with Pandora for my reliable crew. I know she can be a bit filthy, but I got a game in last week with her and enjoyed the game. I have only really had her on the table once in the past several months, so it should be fun to get her playing for a bit. Here is my idea of the list.

Neverborn Crew - 30 - Scrap
Pandora -- 7 Pool
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Desperate Mercenary [2ss]
Insidious Madness [4ss]
Lelu [7ss]
Lilitu [7ss]
Terror Tot Nephilim [3ss]
Terror Tot Nephilim [3ss]

The list looks a bit "Filth Light", but its a fairly reliable list regardless of the strategy. Overall, I think it will serve me well as a go-to list. The twins work well together and the Tots can either sprint around for objectives or grab some blood and grow as necessary.

So that brings up the question, what is the new I am planning to trot out and try. Well, its really new to me and not really new for others. Here is my thought:

Neverborn Crew - 30 - Scrap
Zoraida, the Hag -- 6 Pool
Collodi [8ss]
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Marionette [2ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Wicked Doll [3ss]

I have not taken Zoraida out for a true spin yet, having only actually gotten her into exactly 1 game so far and that one being a loss. I also have not gotten Collodi onto the table more than a couple times. With that said, I actually like the new Zoraida model and figured it would not hurt to try her out. And Collodi is so good at specific missions such as plant evidence, destroy evidence, and treasure hunt that I figured it would be a good list to bring out.

I figure there will be a fair number of players ready to face down some Neverborn filth at the tournament, especially my local group. Dan is probably going to show up with Viktoria if he sticks to what I remember, and she always gives me fits. I am not sure what Mike will be playing, but he knows Neverborn inside out, so is always a challenge. Overall, I am really hoping that today is a fun day and I get in 3 solid games!

So, wish me luck and I will try and stay focused through my games. No better time to learn a new master than during a tournament, right?

I will try and grab some pictures and remember the battle reports to post some during the week.

There's Somthin' about that boy.......

2012-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

There's something about that boy that just ain't right I tell ya!

Not the best picture, but a quick picture of my painted Tuco. Easy to do up, just takes a little detail and some wash on the horns and his skin (hands/face/hair).

Sonnia Criid - an Overview

2012-04-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

Sonnia Criid
Sonnia is one of the Masters that Guild has in thier repetoir to take. There is a lot of information already out there on playing with Sonnia, on blogs such as Wasted Warrior and also on sites such as the Pull My Finger Malifaux Wiki. That would leave you wondering why I would be writing this blog post, especially if I do not intend to recover what has already been covered?

I recently took Sonnia and her Avatar form as one of my primary crew choices at Adepticon 2012. I wanted to put together some of my thoughts on what I saw in her and why I feel she is one of the more competitive Guild masters currently. I thought that this would be a good way to present the information.

Master Description
Sonnia is one of the few guild masters that requires a bit of finesse to use. I see many players pick her up and stay completely focused on her "Throw big balls of fire" ability. While this is a very good ability, I think it is the least of what makes Sonnia a good master. Many people overlook the fact that Sonnia is the only "summoning" master guild players have access to. She can actually increase the number of models on the table through the game. In addition, Sonnia has an incredible control ability in being able to negate spells within a 3 inch bubble effect. Here are my views on Sonnia Criid in her Master form.

Strengths
Violation of Magic - Sonnia can, via a cast spell, summon an additional model to augment her crew. See Witchling Stalkers below. Violation is not a Ranged Strike spell, so can be cast into combat and is not impacted by cover. While it is only 1 point of reliable damage, the damage does scale for some models in the game based on the targets cast.
Advanced Counterspell - with this ability and a tome (or 2 cards) in hand, Sonnia can shut down the casting of a spell prior to it being attempted. In addition, she can do this for anything within 3 inches of her that has been targeted. This ability is great, and a very good reason to hold onto low tomes in your hand. As many models accomplish their cool tricks with spells in Malifaux, this ability is very strong.
Absorb Magic trigger plus her Sword - This automatically triggers on a melee strike, and has some great effects. At a minimum, Sonnia will heal 1 wd and draw a card while the target will be forced to discard at least 1 card.
Flame Burst - Its the spell most people look at for Sonnia, but I put it at the bottom of her list of strengths. You will tend to use it a lot. On a successful cast she will automatically trigger explosive burst, which lets her place her blasts up to 2 inches away from the target. This is a great way to spread the damage out across an enemy crew. At the end of the day, its a damage spell with 2 or 3 blast markers on the moderate and severe damage.
Neutral
Df 4, Wd 10 - she has a fairly average master defensive stat line.
Flame Wall - she has a spell to put some flaming pillars on the board, which is nice but situationally useful.
Inferno - this ability is ok, but you will often be using her Confiscated Lore spell to cast her spells
Magic Seeker - I see you asking why I put this in the neutral column and not in the Strengths. Honestly, while the ability is amazing, I rarely have seen it get a lot of use. My balance of how often it is used vs how good it is leaves this as a neutral ability.
Weaknesses
Card and SS dependance - Sonnia is very dependent on both cards and SS for her to work well. She does not come with the required suit to cast her spell, but has an ability (Confiscated Lore) that lets her discard a SS to get the tome. In addition, she needs cards in hand to counter spell incoming spells. This can leave you with few stones or cards for other actions during the game.
Walk 4 - I do consider this a weakness. In Malifaux, movement is important. Sonnia only having an average walk is a weakness she shares with most of the guild.

Using a Totem with Sonnia
I tend to find myself not using totems with Sonnia. She has some available to her, but I think her avatar is a much better choice for 2 spare SS. Her personal totem (Purifying Flame) looks very nice but has not real value in picking it up. Sonnia's spells require tomes, so the Gov. Proxy is only partially useful. The Student of Conflict may be good by handing out Fast, but if I am spending 4 points in a Sonnia crew, I think a Witchling Stalker or Death Marshal better fills my needs.

Using her Avatar
Cherufe, Sonnia Avatar. I find that I rarely put Sonnia on the table anymore without attaching her Avatar. Sonnia's avatar is one of the few avatars I can see manifesting early in a game. Real skill in using it, however, comes up with gauging the best time to manifest. Due to some of the things you lose with the Avatar, you may benefit from manifesting later versus earlier.

What do I gain?
When you manifest you gain the following:
+1 Cast and two suits to choose from - that's right, Sonnia becomes better at casting and gets to choose between Rams and Tomes. This makes her spells much easier to cast along with making them tougher to resist.
Pyres - Pyres are amazing. Pyrse and her ability to push them around the board provide a combination of area control, LOS control, and reliable damage. These are all very strong.
Pulse Damage - aSonnia gains a pulse spell for a (0) action that gives out damage in a fairly wide area. This spell is not a game finisher, but is a nice way to hand out some damage
A tough melee attack with a Morale duel - through a combination of her melee attack and a new trigger (Horrific Burns), aSonnia can throw around targets she hits in melee and force Morale Duels. This can be useful in specific situations.
What do I lose?
aSonnia does lose some abilities over her basic master form:
Ranged damage spells. Sonnia now has her pulse to hand out damage, but does not have any explosive ranged spells like her Fire Burst.
Healing in Melee - Sonnia loses the ability to heal with her sword, along with the ability to make models discard cards. Her new weapon can hit very hard, but does not have the same versatility as hr original sword.

Crew's to Hire

General Guild Crew
Sonnia and Justice fill a specific place in the guild when it comes to hiring crews. To that end, I wanted to take a little bit to talk about it. While Hoffman really wants to take a fair amount of constructs, and Perdita really likes her family, Sonnia and Justice can really work somewhat interchangeably with a fairly standard guild crew build. This can be better stated as both Sonnia and Justice can operate as "super solo's" separate from their crew.

While it is worth mentioning, I find that there is an incredible amount of synergy when I build some specific models around Sonnia in the crew. As such, here are some of my thoughts.

Sam Hopkins
Sam comes with Sonnia's box set and appears at a high level to synergise well with her. Unfortunately this does not often turn out to be the case. He does not really add much to her crew. Even his Mage killing abilities (Arcane Hunter) don't actually help Sonnia out. Sonnia can already handle the high cast opponents models, so I recommend (and often do) leave Sam at home.

Fire Gamin
I thought while I was talking about models I do not take, I would mention Fire Gamin. Do I like Fire Gamin? yes. Do I take them? not in a competitive list. I do not see Fire Gamin making it into my competitive lists because they do not add anything to a crew that I really need. They can help out with burning tokens for when aSonnia manifests, but they are not really necessary. I do take them for fun games, but very rarely in my tournament lists.

Witchling Stalkers
Possibly the best 4 point minion in the game. Witchling Stalkers are amazing in melee combat with a CB 6 sword that automatically triggers critical strike. Add to that thier ability to slow down casting with their sword. What am I talking about?
Weapon, Shattered Runed Blade: Magical. Models
wounded by this weapon must discard a Control Card
when declaring the target of a spell until the end of
their next activation or the Action immediately ends.
This is a really good ability and comes automatically on thier sword, although it is often forgotten. Add to that thier aura of "I hate Magic" and they are an excellent model.

It is important to mention the other ability that Stalkers bring to the table, an ability that makes them invaluable to any guild crew. That is the spell "Dispel Magic". With this spell they can remove effects from both friendly and enemy models. This is a very handy utilitarian spell to have on the board to remove such things as Paralyzed, slow, poison tokens, etc.

Witchling Handler
The Handler is a book 3 model that augments the Witchling Stalkers. I find that she works very well in my Sonnia lists, specifically because I tend to get at least 2 stalkers on the board during the game. The Handler has a nice aura to block triggers and hamper casting spells. She also has a great sword to swing that negatively impacts spell casting. The largest boon I see to adding a Handler is two-fold. First, with her ability Word Written she can push a witchling stalker 4 inches toward the closest enemy. This is very cool since it does not require LOS to the Stalker and has no range (basically covers the whole board). Her second ability comes in having Stalkers close by her. When she and a Stalker both engage the same model, she gets bonus's to her attack. When a stalker is near her it gets bonuses to its Wp and Df. This is a reason to keep at least 1 stalker near her at all times.

Santiago
Santiago beings some very reliable shooting to a Sonnia crew. In addition, when paired with a Guardian he becomes a great model to leave within 3 inches of Sonnia's 3 inch pulse from Inferno. Sitting in this pulse will bring him most of the way down to triggering his "Is that All you Got" ability, raising his CB on his pistols along with giving him a free walk. Santiago's trigger happy trigger is very good for a mid-range gunfight and a great addition to Sonnia's crew.

Exorcist
When facing undead or spirits, the Exorcist finds its way into my list every time. While most of Sonnia's crew does not need the magical weapons the Exorcist can hand out, his Magical Crossbow and his "Head-shot-like" trigger on his spell are very helpful. He also has a great spell in "Turn Undead" which can push an undead or spirit crew out of position and open then up for charges or ranged attacks from the rest of Sonnia's crew.

Guardian
Utility in a robot, the guardian fits well with Sonnia's crews. I do not find myself often protecting Sonnia with the Guardian, instead tieing him to either Santiago or the Exorcist. With the Exorcist the guardian allows for the "Driven by Purpose" by soaking up the 1 wd. When tied to Santiago, the guardian does a great job of catching wounds once Santiago drops to his Hard to Wound level. In both cases, if the guardian does not need to heal up, he can also put up a "I hate magic" bubble similar to the Stalkers, which can be a great help.

Desperate Mercenaries
These are in all of my aSonnia lists, and most of my Master Sonnia lists. There are not many mercenaries Sonnia would prefer to take and the Desperate Mercenaries are fantastic for half-priced stalkers. Its a basic recipe, where Sonnia will pop up inferno and the Mercenaries will stand nearby to soak up the flame for 3 damage at the end of the turn. This brings them to 1 wound which not only improves their CB, but also primed them for the 1 dg from Violation of Magic.

Guild Hounds
Guild is a fairly slow faction overall, and thus needs its hounds. Guild Hounds are critical in any game where you strategy requires movement. Strategies that fit this are those like Destroy the Evidence, Line in the Sand, and Treasure Hunt. Guild Hounds are a basic requirement for crews performing these strategies. I recommend taking 3 of them, as it is very easy to kill off 1 hound (turning them insignificant if there are only 2). Hounds can also be useful to bury scrap and corpse counters when facing crews that use these.

I hope that helps out those of you interested in playing Sonnia. I will add the following for those just starting her out. A question was asked on the Wyrd Board: "I have Sonnia Criid, now how do I play her?" This was my reply:

A couple suggestions I have for starting with Sonnia and her box set.
Put Sam Hopkins on the table and play 2-3 games with him. He may work out for you and you will probably get the high damage off a couple times. Do not get frustrated when/if he starts getting killed quickly, thats just time to take him off and move to something more resilient. Get him out of your system quickly then come back to him later if he worked well for you.
Blow things up. Start throwing around big big explosions of fire. This is another good thing to get out of your system in early games. Sonnia's flame blast spell is fantastic and a great spell, but is only one facet of her capabilities. Blowing up lots of stuff early on will help you focus on the other things that make her strong.
After your 2-3 game when blowing stuff up starts to lose a little shine, throw Sonnia straight into a melee! Go ahead, just throw her up the board and get into a fight. This is a great way to learn about her sword and how resiliant she can be.
After you do all of the above, you should be somewhere between 6 and 10 games. At that point, start getting down to really learning the rest of how intricate Sonnia can be.Start checking out her other abilities and working on some strategies and schemes that are not typical.
Overall, Sonnia is a fairly complex master and a whole lot of fun. I think she is probably more complex than most masters, so takes a bit to get used to. On top of that, her Flashy stuff is really a draaw, so its tough to look past it until you have used it a lot.

Oh, and take her with at least 7 soul stones in your pool. Any less and you will be crying at the start!

If this was helpful, I will work on getting similar write-ups for other Malifaux masters posted. Hell, even if this was not helpful I still might knock out a couple more.

Adepticon Bound 2012

2012-04-16T11:52:00.000-04:00

The time is quickly catching up to the point when I will be loading up the rental and jumping onto the long drive to Chicago for this years Adepticon. Wednesday morning eChris and I will be packed up and on the road to a full weekend of gaming! I have to admit, there is still an awful lot to do.

I had originally offered to bring 10 tables with me to Adepticon to support the Malifaux tournament. Due to some last minute issues, I am down to only 8 making it out. I am hoping to squeeze in a 9th table, but it is not looking like it will happen. On the bright side, the M&SU bar will be making an appearance, with some bar tables painted up as well. Playing on an indoor board will be a different scenario for most players (I believe) and should be very fun!

For those who have been keeping a close eye on the painting total to the left, you will notice I have been adding a couple points here and there through April. I painted up my Miss Demeanor and repainted a Student of Conflict for my crews. I also finally based my Jack Daw and both Hanged onto actual bases, which only took a year since last Adepticon to get done. I did not get a chance to snap any pictures (good or bad) so will need to post some shots after the con.

Podcasting has also taken a hit in the past couple weeks. Between work, family, and preparing for the trip I have missed releasing the last episode. Listeners of Gamers Lounge will be treated to a fair amount of content post Adepticon if everything goes as planned.

So, that brings us to whats planned for Adepticon this year? This is my third year attending the con and the first year I am only taking part in 1 type of gaming event, and then the after con-mixer as usual. That right, this year consists entirely of Malifaux for my "Official" events. I will be acting as judge for the Cake tournament on Thursday evening, and then returning as the primary judge for Friday evening's Malifaux Masters Qualifier #1.

Friday morning, eChris and I will be showing up (in matching t-shirts) for the Malifaux Team tournament with out Neverborn crews. eChris is in the team tournament as his competitive tournament this year, while I am aiming to support him and have some fun. Our first round will be a challenge match vs Cheated Fates Radio. I am certainly looking forward to it. I even tossed out a teaser that if the CFR guys can beat us, I will toss in a Hooded Rider puppet as an extra prize to them! I expect he will be coming home with me.

That brings us to Saturday Morning where I will be jumping into playing in the Masters Qualifier #2 while Nilus takes over as head judge. I am bringing Guild with me this year, a switch up from the All Neverborn I brought to tournaments last year. I will admit that I am a little nervous about how my games will go this year. I have only gotten in one tournament so far, and while I went 2/1 with my only loss being to Hamelin, I am still not overly confident that the guild will perform well. I do not believe that Hoffman has what it takes to deliver a win in a tournament, and I do not really click with Perdita. That leaves me Sonnia Criid, Justice, both their avatars, and Lucius to play around with. I am comfortable with each of these, but just not as confident as I am with Dreamer, Pandora, and Colette. The playstyle is not a good fit with how I tend to play Malifaux. Add to that my recent string of losses and bad luck and I am looking at a tournament where I do not feel very confident. Then again, I have had some very good performances with my guild models, and it will certainly help cement Guild as a playable and tournament worthy faction if I can do well.

If I do well on Saturday I will find myself up on Sunday and in the 8 person Adepticon Master of Malifaux competition. I aim to be in the top 8, and even if I am not I will be judging the tournament. Following that, its the now traditional end of Adepticon Mixer and Poker tournament. I have enjoyed this two years in a row and expect this year to be no different. Its a great way to end the overall trip before crashing Sunday night and driving home on Monday.

So, when do I plan to hang out, get in some Gamers Lounge recording, and get in some pick-up games? Pretty much all weekend! I will be bringing along a very small selection (35 points) of Hordes for some small games. I also have my entire Malifaux selection with me. I expect it will be hard to pry myself out of more Malifaux games, as it is my primary game currently, but there is a small chance. I will also be bringing along my puppet wars set, as its a very fun game to play while drinking. Aside from that, I am planning to run down to Lou Mitchel's on Thursday morning for some breakfast. I have mentioned in the past, and will point it out again. This is my favorite breakfast place in Chicago, and one of the places I like to stop while in town. If any readers are in the area and interested in meeting up, Thursday @ 10am on West Jackson Blvd is the place to be!

Easter Painting

2012-04-09T09:44:00.000-04:00

So I grabbed a little time over the Easter holiday to do some quick painting on a couple models camping out on my paint tray. I also did a bunch of priming to refill said paint tray for the next round of models. Needless to say, it was nice to slow down a bit from my recently hectic schedule and get a couple models completed.

In addition to that, Easter is here and Wyrd has released a couple new easter models. These are Gremlins, which is a crew I do not yet have painted, but still a lot of fun. My wife say the little guy to the left and fell in love with the model, so I picked up a second one and made sure to add it to the rotation yesterday. Now my wife is the proud owner of a little Gremlin Egg Hauler. Here is the picture.

I will probably go with the same for when I get my own painted up with the rest of the Gremlin crew, sans the basing. He was a fun guy to paint up and with a quick red wash then highlights of pink he came out pretty good.

I also knocked out Angelica for my show girl crew. She was a bit tougher to work through, and I had clipped her cane a bit too short when I was cleaning up her model. I am not unhappy with how she turned out, as the shorter cane worked with the base, making her look like she is at the edge of the stage. I am not overly happy with the stool, but she is pretty much done so I am unlikely to go back and change anything.

Lastly I knocked out the fat boy who has been sitting on my tray for a fair while now. The Executioner model is not one of my favorite models in the Malifaux range. To be honest, I really do not like it overall. Looking at him, I should like him with the big claws and the humor built into the model (his human hands are hanging from his belt). The model is great, it just does not work well for me. I will say that once I got him painted up I was happier with the model, but still not at the top of my list. Regardless, he is now painted and jumping into my bag.

All of these will make another appearance with better lighting and photography when I do my next batch of light-tent pictures for the reference links.

Tournament Season

2012-03-22T07:05:00.000-04:00

Malifaux Tournament season is underway on the East Coast of the US. We are starting to see Adepticon prep tournaments spring up along with the scheduling for Adpeticon in just a month or so from now. After that comes the regular tournaments over the summer until we hit Gencon in August. I have it on good authority that the Malifaux Tournament planning for Gencon is already heavily underway!

With that said, I am going to be not only running my own tournaments but will be jumping on the road to attend some local and other not-so-local tournaments. I have also been starting to weave some tournament preparation games into my line-up of weekly games. Things were going real well until the Tuesday Main Event at Huzzah last week. I was tagged for the TME vs eChris and we decided to play a tournament prep game looking toward the Adepticon Masters tournament. I knew he was rolling up with Arcanists and our strategy was Shared Line in the Sand, and I had the misfortune to flip the defender. honestly, this was good for me as I typically play as the attacker. The game turned against me when eChris threw aRamos into aSonnia and ended up pulling out a Red Joker to kill her after prevention. Bleh. On the bright side, he took his "foot off the gas" after that, which almost let me recover the game. He pulled it out though, to a 8/0 loss. Ouch, that was not only my first Tournament Prep game I lost this year, but also a game I went into confident of the win.

So then Tuesday of this week rolled around and I was able to squeeze 2 additional tournament prep games into the line-up of other games going on. The first game vs Brian, with Shared Distract as the mission. I rolled out a Lady Justice list I have been thinking about for specifically this mission while Brian fielded Perdita and the Ortega family. The game went very heavily in his favor, ending in another 8/0 loss. Brian mentioned at the end of the game that he felt I kept him heavily involved and thinking through the whole game, feeling like he could lose it with even one wrong move. That is comforting, but not as much as winning the game would have been. I need to do some thinking about how to deal with Distract before the tournament this Saturday.

My second game on Tuesday was vs Pierre, a recent addition at our store but a regular at another local store nearby. We have begun building some back-and-forth with the other store and it was great to have Peirre out to begin building a rivalry with. This was our second game and Pierre is a good foil for me to play again, as he is a no-hold-barred, victory focused player. I let him know I was planning to use the game as preparation for the upcoming Adepticon prep tournament and let him pick the Strategy. He chose Shared Deliver the Message, taking Arcanists, and let me know he had something to try out. I put together a Lucius list and set-up ready to go. His crew was Colette, Mechanical Rider, Kaeris, and Cassandra. I was intrigued, and grabbed Bodyguard on Lucius then flipped through my schemes to figure out what I had not tried in a while. I figured it would not be bad to try Steal Relic, as its not a common scheme for me. Pierre announced Colettes Master specific scheme and Sabotage as his schemes.

The game started with Cassandra moving up to a tree on the board and sabotaging the tree. I proceeded to let loose with 2 Austringers and Lucius, killing Cassandra. This is important for tournament players to keep in mind. While Sabotage is an incredibly solid scheme to pick for Arcanists, its not a certain victory. If your opponent can kill the model that sabotaged the terrain before the end of the turn, you do not get points for sabotage. Pierre then moved Kaeris forward, putting up Flame Pillars. He followed some of my activation burning by using the Mechanical Rider to kill Colette off after she made a couple Soul Stones. At this point it was impossible for me to accomplish my strategy and impossible for me to accomplish one of my schemes. Pierre had successfully tied the game (as long as he did not burn any Soul Stones) and now could play to deliver the message to me and keep trying to sabotage the tree.

Turn 2 and 3 the Rider and Kaeris kept trying to sabotage the tree and I kept trying to kill them. I was able to take out the Rider (after she sabotaged the tree) on turn 2, then fight down Kaeris on turn 3. I brought Kaeris to 4 wounds but was unable to take her all the way down, giving him a 4 point win. I grabbed first activation turn 4 and finished her off, locking the game as a 4/2 win to Pierre.

I learned a valuable lesson in my last game. When the strategy is locked to the opponents master, it is a bad idea to tie your scheme to them as well. Its a situation of putting too many eggs into the same basket. This gives your opponent the choice to possibly tie the game just by killing off thier own master before you can do anything. Going into tournament season, this will certainly influence my scheme decisions.

Now to break this 3 game losing streak. I am now 3/3 win/loss on my tournament preparation games this year. With a tournament coming up this weekend, I have some work to do.

Paint Week Continues!!!

2012-02-20T12:29:00.000-05:00

Apparently I forgot to post the Drill Sergeant last week with the rest of the totems. Ok, lets be honest, I thought leaving him off last week would give me a great opening picture for this post! Hah, the little guy is mad and he gets a slightly better spot than the other totems. And the poor little nephilim is still without a picture.

Anyway, lets move onto the new pictures. I grabbed a picture of Master Sonnia, the original sculpt while I was taking pictures. I am not a fan of her model, mostly due to the cigarette in her hand. Overall I did not find her to be an exciting model either. I originally painted her up just because I new the Avatar was coming. Now she holds a place in my mini-case on display.

Lucius was another model that I did not realize I had not taken an individual picture of previously. I have to say, I believe he may be one of my more favored models from the pose and sculpting.

Lastly we have a model I have not had a chance to use yet. I am looking forward to getting this guy on the table, but his rules give him a fairly narrow focus of use. Here is the newly released Exorcist.

Sadly that brings paint week to a close. So lets see, paint week consisted of 3 days in reality, and I think we got close to a dozen pictures. Ok, I need to bulk up next time I run this series!

Hope you enjoyed. Constructive Comments always welcome!

Picture Week Continues

2012-02-17T07:05:00.000-05:00

I know I already put up pictures of aSonnia, that's why she is the leading picture. This picture is a different shot, but still. So I also realize Friday is the end of the week, so picture week seems a bit strange. I will continue next week with a couple posts with more pictures. I did promise a good number, right?

In going through my pictures and links for the Malifaux Crews page I realized I was missing several pics of models. Specifically totems. Here is a nice round up of a couple totems I have painted up for the guild. Sadly the Enslaved Nephilim did not make the photo-spread. Funny enough, neither did Perdita.

Here is the Ever Popular and rarely used Scales of Justice

The fairly often used Governors Proxy

and Hoffmans Mechanical Assistant.

On Monday we get a look at Hoffman, Sonnia, and the Exorcist!

Picture Time

2012-02-16T12:19:00.000-05:00

Look up. No, up there. Yeah, on the title bar. No, to the right. Yeah, thats it. See that link up there called "Malifaux Crews"? That's the one. You guessed it, that link has a big long list of all the painted Malifaux models I have at my disposal (minus 1). I know, you probably do not check it out much because, well honestly, because a long list is boring. BUT, I added pictures. A bunch of the models are linked to their picture so you can see my painting and how my models look. Cool? Yeah, I thought so.

So what does that mean for the larger context of the blog? It means I spent some time taking some more pictures to go along with my hobby progress to the left. You bet, up to a whole 11 hobby points this year. I recently "finished" painting my Avatar of Balance, locally known as aJustice. Why didn't I lead off the post with her? Well, because she is the big finish for the blog post silly. But, in taking some pictures of her I did include pictures of other models I had not grabbed snaps of previously. To be fair, my camera settings were off during this photo-session, so the pictures are what I would call "Just ok". With that said, I plan to release a good dozen in a series of posts this week.

So, with this thread we start with Sonnia and her Alternate model above. Original on the left, Alternate on the right. I really like the alternate version of her.

We move onto Justice and her Alternate. First, a picture of Alt Justice looking all Sexy over her shoulder.

I have to admit I like the art for this model better than the execution. Her pose looking over her shoulder is fantastic, until you put her on the table. I am using the alt for the time being, but may switch back to my old-standby original sculpt at some point. Let me illustrate my point:

Notice that in both pictures the models are "Facing" the same way if you look at the feet. Its a little disconcerting on the table to have a tough time seeing how your model looks. I know facing doesn't matter, but its a preference thing.

Lastly I will put up the picture of my aJustice. I have not gotten her out on the table to play with yet. My earlier games with aJustice used a proxy. I am really looking forward to getting some games in with her.

Constructive Comments are welcome!

How does that Ranged Stike Sequence work again?

2012-02-02T07:05:00.000-05:00

Ranged Strikes and Shooting into Melee

So, we have some new players starting to pick up Malifaux in our local group. This is an exciting time as I get to watch a whole new group of people get excited about the game and start to grow in their understanding of the rules. Its also a really helpful time as both an Experienced player and a Henchman. New Players come to the game with fresh eyes and specifically without the baggage that those of us who have played for more than 18 months have. They question things and get confused about parts of the fairly complicated rules in Malifaux. Now, I want to remind everyone that Malifaux can be a complex game as you play more. It falls very solidly into the "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master" style of game, even when compared to other Miniature War Games. The basics are very straight forward and you can play a good dozen or so games with just understanding the basics. Then you start to add the not-so-basic rules in and look at the complexities that come with creating combo's. Inevitably, a Malifaux player eventually builds up a strong set of combos, complexities, and tricks which add to the basics, then they run into a question that stumps them. I have found that some of these questions tend to be around mechanics in the game which seem to be very simple, but can have added complexity when fully explored. To be fair, my experience is this almost always comes after hearing a newer player say something along the lines of:

"That seems a bit unfair, is there some way I can use the rules to make that combo stop working that way?"

I often want to remind those players that Malifaux is a game of complex combo's. Sometimes those combo's seem unfair but as you spend time analyzing them they become more of a challenge or puzzle. I firmly believe there is nothing in the game of Malifaux that cannot be mitigated or overcome by something else in the game.

With that said, a lengthy discussion erupted recently about how the Ranged Strike Sequence works when shooting into a melee. Specifically, our local player could not wrap his head around the fact that the randomization of the shot onto a model in melee but outside LOS did not invalidate the shot. With that said, I did my homework and pulled out the whole sequence from the rules manual. I figured it might be helpful to share this with other players who read the blog, especially those who are newer player.

With that said, its off to the Rules Manual!!!

Strike Sequence (pg 42 in book)
1. Declare Target, then Check Range
2. Strike Duel
    a. Flip starting attack and defense totals
    b. Change Starting Totals or Pass
    c. Determine Final Duel Totals
    d. Declare Triggers
    e. Determine Success
    f. Apply Duel Results

RM Description: (pg 42)

A model must be within the attacker's LOS to be declared the target of a Strike. If there are no Targets within the attacker's LOS, the Strike fails. A model cannot target itself with a strike.

Once the target in LOS has been declared the target of the Strike, ensure that the target is in range by measuring the distance between the two models. All range measurements in Malifaux are made from the attacking model's base edge to the closest point on the target mode's base edge. If the distance is shorter than or equal to the attack's Rg, the target is in range; proceed to 2. Strike Duel below. Otherwise, the target is out of range, is not a legal target, and the Strike fails.

So, if we break that down and take it step by step, it goes as follows:

Step 1 - Declare Target, Then check Range.

For this step we can go to page 14, under the heading Declaring a Target. When I get there is says:

When an effect requires a target, the following should be determined in order:
1. First, check that the item in question is in the targeting model's LOS.
2. Then, check for any special situations that may allow or precent the item to be targeted.
3. Finally, check for talents/Spells that may allow/prevent targeting.

Lastly, we have a special situation for targeting called Firing into Melee on page 44. Its says:

Models may make ranged Strikes and CAst ranged attack spells into melee combat. Because the combatants in a melee are not standing still during the first, blah blah blah

The attacker declares the target of the ranged attack, and then flips one Fate card for the target and each model in the target's melee range as well as any enemy models engaged with the target, regardless of LOS to those models. Flip two fate card for models with a ht of 3 or more. The model with the lowest value card becomes the new target of the attack. In the case of models tied for the lowest card, the attacking model may choose its target from those tied models.

So the "Firing into Melee" sequence would be:

1. Identify the original target is in Melee combat
2. flip a fate card for each model in the melee range and any enemy models engaged with the target
3. Target changes to model identified by the lowest fate card
4. continue on

So, now we have a larger sequence that goes as such:

1. Declare Target, then Check Range
    1a. Declare Target
        1a1. First, check that the item in question is in the targeting model's LOS.
        1a2. Then, check for any special situations that may allow or prevent the item to be targeted.
            1a2a. Identify the original target is in Melee combat
            1a2b. flip a fate card for each model in the melee range and any enemy models engaged with the target
            1a2c. Target changes to model identified by the lowest fate card
            1a2d. continue on
        1a3. Finally, check for talents/Spells that may allow/prevent targeting.
    1b. Check Range
2. Strike Duel
    a. Flip starting attack and defense totals
    b. Change Starting Totals or Pass
    c. Determine Final Duel Totals
    d. Declare Triggers
    e. Determine Success
    f. Apply Duel Results

Ok, lets see if we can put this whole deal into practice, and toss in a couple special rules. Everyone seems to like picking on Hamelin the Plagued since the UK Masters, so lets keep with that. Hamelin has the following special rule:

Hamelin's Rule:
Bully: This model cannot be targeted by Ht 1 or Insignificant models.

So, a Fire Gamin (ht 1) shooting a tot in melee with Hamelin would go like this:

1. I want to shoot the Tot
    1a. I still wanna shoot the Tot
        1a1. I have LOS to the Tot
        1a2. Damn, the Tots in Melee
            1a2a. Yup, he's in melee with Hamelin
            1a2b. Flip Flip damn, I flipped lowest for Hamelin
            1a2c. Now I'm shooting Hamelin
            1a2d. Ok, lets shoot Hamelin
        1a3. Damn, Hamlin's a bully and I can't shoot him
    1b. Screw this, it doesn't matter any more... I just blew an AP

And that it. I know its a lot to digest but this really ends up happening very quickly.

2012 New Year Kick-off

2012-01-04T07:05:00.000-05:00

Call of the Webway by MajesticChicken

2011 has come to an end and 2012 is here. Apparently this year will see the end of the world, although I am not scheduling around that. Its a great time of year to take a look back over the past 12 months and make some plans for the year to come. Looking back at my January 2011 post, we can start to compare how much I accomplished. Starting Mid-January last year I also began using the Google Spreasheet shared by Rich of Warpstone Pile to track my gaming and hobby progress as a whole. While he claims to have no idea how many people are using his sheet, I am very happy with it! To that end, I am making some minor adjustments for tracking in 2012, specifically geared toward my focus on Malifaux.

I spent some time earlier this week looking over the various 2011 charts and stats I had pulled together. One of the things I had not done through the year was pull together the hobby (paint/assembly) tracking from 2010. I had a link at the top of the blog to what I had done in 2010, but had never pulled it into a spreadsheet. Well, this week I was inspired to do just that. It is neat to look at the comparisons between 2010 and 2011.

Hobby Points for the year
Here is a high level overview of the 2010 modeling and painting:

Not too bad for a year overall. going back and adding up the total hobby points utilizing the current method (including assembly), my 2010 hobby total was sitting at a comfortable 187 points. Thats a bit over what I was tracking on the left hand side of the board, but more accurate when comparing 2010 to 2011. Looking at the similar track for 2011 we see the following:

Less hobby points overall, and the months when my progress drops to 0 are not consistent. 2010 I did nothing painting or assembly wise in April and September, while this past year it was June, August, and December. I did have peaks of activity in July and November, but nothing overly crazy. Whats interesting for me to note really comes in on the next graphs, which certainly explains the larger totals in 2010 over 2011.

Hobby Points per Army
Here is a look at 2010 for hobby on a per-army basis.

You can pretty clearly see the decrease in Eldar models (40K in fact) being painted overall, and the swap to my fascination with Malifaux. Eldar starts dropping off in May of 2010, while my growth in Malifaux really ramps up around June. This will push a fairly large change, as Malifaux does not have tanks or vehicles which are worth significantly more painting points than infantry. In addition, even the large Malifaux models are not on the same scale as monstrous creatures in 40K. Add to that the lack of conversions and it brings you to look at the total points per month charts above in a new light.

So what was my hobby activity per army in 2011?

We still see Eldar on the list, but the numbers are really low. It was basically my side painting project for the year opposed to my primary painting. Malifaux guild was a heavy contender all year, although 2011 started with a fairly monumental effort to paint up Neverborn.

There is another graph available on the spreadsheet, but it is not as much use for me as others. It basically tracks army assembly vs painting. As I only really assemble models as I am going to paint them, the graphs are not as much use. I am keeping the calculations because it may be come helpful if I change my hobby habits.

2011 Expectations?
At the start of 2011 I had set out a couple expectations for myself for the year. The full post is here, but to sum it up neatly:

Hobby Queue 40K - I pretty much failed on the things I listed in my queue. On the DTP 40K side, nearly my entire list from last January is still outstanding.
Hobby Queue Dreamer - This was a smashing success and completed early in the year. I have not added anything to my dreamer list since I completed this though.
Hobby Queue Kirai - This was a failure. My Kirai crew is still in their boxes and not even begun.
Hobby Queue Lucius - This was a success. I have an entire Lucius crew painted up and have added to it over the year!
Play More Games - I am going to count this as a success. While I do not have stats for games played in previous years, I think I played more games in 2011 that ever before. By the end of the year I had wracked up 147 total games tracked (I did not track playtest games). The split for the year was:

40K - 3 games
WHFB - 6 games
Hordes - 11 games
Malifaux - 127 games

So how did I do overall in the year? What was the breakdown per army played? I have graphs for that!

I have to admit that these stats were actually fairly surprising to me. I played a lot more Guild than I had thought. I was expecting a fairly even split between Guild and Neverborn, but that was not the case.

This chart I find fascinating. There are a number of things you can pull out of this, and I expect some will use this to justify arguments I just do not agree with. When I look at win-ratio between my guild and Neverborn, I am far more successful with the Neverborn. I expect to hear (at some point this year) this being the justification that Neverborn are overpowered. I do not agree with that. Through playing a whole lot of games, I am really starting to understand the types of armies/strategies that my mind "clicks" with. These tend to be a health combination of the following:

Movement - I prefer to play with models that have more than an average level of movement within the game.
"Tricks" - I do very well with models/armies that require some "out of the box" thinking or "tricks" to make them work well.
Direct Board Control - Armies/Models that provide some level of board control in a direct method resonate with me. Covering fire lanes does not click well. Reacting to my opponent, creating new terrain, manipulating activation (including out-activation) are all things that "click" in my brain.

I think these factors of my play-style contribute more to the higher win-ration with the Neverborn over the Guild for me. It was only at the end of the year that I added Colette and Kaeris to my Arcanist crews, and my win percentage with Arcanists started to climb dramatically once I did. Colette, specifically, includes all of the factors above in how her crew functions.

2012?
So whats in store for 2012? What do I have in mind for my plans?

Gaming - I would like to keep this at similar levels this year as last. I plan to continue heading out for normal game night on Tuesdays at the local store at least 3 times per month. I will also be participating in tournaments this year, traveling to play as well.
Game Systems - I have picked up Hordes and added it to my repertoire of games I am playing. I expect that through 2012 my games of WHFB will drop to 0, although I am not ditching my dwarf army (or my not-yet-started High Elf army). I forsee 40K/Malifaux/Hordes ranking in the following order:

Malifaux - this is my primary game and I love it. I do not see that changing this year.
Hordes - this is a fun backup game and I can see playing it for fun. After my first tournament, I do not see playing tournaments.
40K - This will be relegated to a back-up game this year. I may pull it out to play off and on, but it has moved to a solid last choice for me.

Painting/Assembly - This falls into the so-much-to-do-so-little-time category. I have a lot of Malifaux models (different factions). I have a lot of Hordes Legion of Everblight models. I have a fair number of Eldar models left to paint (plus some new stuff from FW). If I should ever run short of models, I have a whole box of High Elves to paint up. Goal: with that said, my goal for 2012 is to become more consistent with my painting. I am going to strive to work on and complete at least 2 models every month. I expect there will still be surges of painting here and there, but consistency is my goal.
Tournaments - I will be attending Adepticon and Gencon this year for major tournaments. More on my overall tournament plans and commitments below, but briefly here are my goals.

Win 2 small/local tournaments in the first half of the year with Guild
Be on the top 2 final tables at Adepticon, with Guild
Play on the top 2 final tables at Gencon (faction undecided yet)

Competitive Malifaux Play in 2012?
I have some plans for competitive Malifaux play during 2012. I am playing Malifaux a lot, not just because its my primary games but also actually playing a lot of games. That is leading to my enjoyment playing competitively at the top tables. I aim to not sacrifice sportsmanship in any way (those who listen to Gamers Lounge know my stance there) and still land at the top tables regularly. Over 2011 I was successfully able to accomplish that. Despite where my final placement landed due to scoring systems, I have consistently played at the top 2 final tables in every tournament I participated in during 2011. At Gencon I was playing for 2nd place on the 2nd table, and at Adepticon I was playing for 1st place on the top table.

Year of the Guild? One of the Malifaux Henchmen (and one I consider a friend), Nilus, is a huge Guild advocate and player. He has declared 2012 as the year of the guild, and this idea has certainly taken off strongly. With 2012 just arriving, I am interested to see how many players nationally stick with Guild through the year. I plan to play guild and aim to do well. I am not sure I am committing for the full year, but certain for the beginning of the year through Adepticon I will play Guild as my primary Tournament faction.

Onto the new year!
So that's my initial 2012 thoughts in a nutshell. The new spreadsheet for game and hobby tracking is linked here. I am tweaking it a bit to add some additional statistic tracking in the sheet, I hope I can pull together everything I want to track. I will also be doing some minor restructuring of the blog over the next couple weeks to line up all the new 2012 information.

Pied Piper 25ss Malifaux tournament - 1/28/2012

2011-12-21T14:01:00.000-05:00

Battle Report - Kaeris v Kirai

2011-12-02T11:30:00.001-05:00

As part of our Winter Achievement league, I grabbed a game against Dan the other night. Dan and I do not end up playing each other too much in casual play, which is a shame. Dan is not only a great player, but also fun to play against. Well, fun until he decides something is broken and starts swimming for the deep end of the pool. For this game, I pulled out Kaeris vs his Kirai.

Set-up

Below is a picture of the board we were playing on. I had flipped Supply Wagon for my strategy, Dan flipped Escape and Survive. I was considering throwing down Colette, but was not sure she had what it took for Supply Wagon. Looking back, she may have been a better choice. This was my 3rd or 4th game with Kaeris, so I am still learning how she and her crew work.

I had a couple schemes left to get for achievments in the league, so I grabbed a couple of those. I decided on Stake a claim (placing my claim on the far side statue), and bodyguard. We flipped for deployment, with Dan setting up first, and deployed our crews. I announced both schemes, and Dan announced Betrayed by Spirits (Kill Kaeris with Ikiryo) and another scheme (I forget which). Away we went. We had corners deployment.

Our crews were:

30SS Scrap
Bill - Kaeris, 2x Gunsmith, SS Miner, 3x Fire Gamin, 5 stones
- Supply Wagon, Bodyguard, Stake Claim
Dan - Kirai, Lost Love, 2x Seishin, Datsu-ba, Shikome, Desperate Merc, Canine Remains, Insidious madness, 5 stones
- Escape and Survive, Betrayed by Spirits, ???

Dan's Crew & Deployment

Turn 1

Shikome started with prey on the female gunsmith. I started with the SS Miner digging up a SS. I wanted to play somewhat conservatively and burn some activations, even knowing he would be able to out-activate me. I know Kirai can move fairly quickly, so I was worried about moving too far forward and giving him a first turn strike.Dan began shifting forward slowly, with the Shikome swinging to my left and a bit forward, lining up for a run on the female gunsmith. I activated and moved my crew forward, taking positions where they could support each other in later turn or against a charge. Dan shifted forward as well, staying out of range of my guns and staying safe. He did kill off the merc and dog to grab some additional Seishin, a Gaki, and an Onroyo.

Turn 2

Things heated up quick on turn 2. This is where my unfamiliarity with Kaeris really started to show, as it was taking me excessively long to make decisions on my next activations and what to do. The Shikome moved forward to attack the female gunsmith, leaving her with poison and at 1 wound remaining. My male gunsmith moved forward and I looked to choose ammo. At that point I realized the gunsmiths have ammo to use against living, neverborn, and armored, and undead models. Unfortunately, none of those are spirits. With that in mind, I realized my gunsmiths would become marginalized through the game. I snapped off some shots, but didn't do anything significant. Datsu-ba and Kirai tossed out some spells that resulted (by the end of the turn) in turning both gunsmiths into Gaki. A fire gamin on the left charged the shikome, hurting it, and then Kirai swapped it with a Gaki to keep it safe. Ikiryo and the madness both moved up to engage Kaeris. I did learn some tricks with Kaeris to use vs Kirai. I was able to toss out a fair amount of burning counters, including a counter on one of the Seshin. I then used Immolate to kill of that Seshin and drop the resulting pillar of flame on Kirai. We ruled at the time that the resulting marker was not magical, although after revisiting the question on the rules forum, it appears that is a nastier attack than thought (the pillar is magical). Lots of models mobbed Kaeris, I lost both Gunsmiths and one fire gamin, and my miner grabbed melee master and buried. On Dan's side a whole host of spirits died, but Kirai and Datsu were able to keep him supplied with replacements.

Turn 3

The game was certainly turning against me, but judicious use of smoldering heart was keeping me in the game. During turn 3 Dan moved into full attack mode on Kaeris, bring a load of spirits forward to engage her. She in turn opened up with several stringed together ignites (turn it up!) and shared a bunch of burning counters with the spirits around her. Kaeris then finished with immolating the insidious madness and dropping the resulting pillar on Ikiryo and a Gaki. A new Onroyo moved forward, my fire Gamin ran up to kill the remaining Gaki, Kirai did some shifting around. The turn ended with Kaeris once again surrounded with 2 Shikome (1 with prey on her and 1 without) and an onroyo in range. Datsu was hanging out in the wings to clean up. I moved the Miner marker forward, positioned for popping him out next turn to engage the shikome with Kaeris as prey.

Turn 4

This turn became a bit of a blur. The Miner popped up and killed off a shikome. The other Shikome did some marginal damage to Kaeris. Kaeris once again tossed around burning counters and then burned down a fair number of spirits around her. Datsu moved forward and turned one of my gamin into a Gaki, the other gamin attacked the shikome but failed to kill it. The turn ended with Kirai positioned close enough to pull out Ikriryo for his attack to accomplish the scheme, Kaeris with 1 wound remaining, and a load of spirits still surrounding her. I had done an amazing job of pushing out damage and killing off spirits, but I was not getting Datsu or Kirai, so there were always more to come back.

Turn 5

Turn 5 saw initiative go to Dan, Ikiryo come out and kill off Kaeris. The rest of turn 5 and 6 was an assault on the wagon until it was smashed apart. The picture below is the end of turn 6, just after the last damage was put on the wagon (I only placed 2 markers, the third destroyed it).

The game ended as a loss, Dan 8 to my 0. I found myself at a real disadvantage with Kaeris being the only model in my crew who could fully engage Kirai's crew. To be fair, I only knew Dan was bringing Resser's prior to the start of the game, so it could have been very different. I really need to work on learning Kaeris with a fair number more games with her. I think she will be a load of fun to play, although I am wondering if she makes a good Henchman as Master. I am tempted to modify a list for this strategy to be as follows:

30ss Scrap
Rasputina & 8 stone pool, Kaeris, Essence of Power, Silent One, Gunsmith, Fire Gamin

I will have to try it out.

Alt Justice, Abuela, and an Eldar Model?

2011-12-02T07:05:00.000-05:00

Wait, what? Did the title really say an Eldar model? Quick, go back and check, I'll wait.

Damn, I guess it did. So, while painting up all the Malifaux I have been, I still have a full set of Eldar Harliquins sitting on my paint table. The Malifaux tends to push the 40K tree-huggers to the back of the tray, but occasionally one slips to the front. Its been a while since I painted up a 40K model, but I grabbed the Shadowseer from the tray last Sunday and laid down some pigment.

First though, the Malifaux:

Abuela - Perdita's Grandma

Alternate Lady Justice

Holy Crap, its a Shadowseer!

And that brings picture week to a close. I am not sure how much Eldar I now have, since my Army Builder has expired. I still have a boat load of Warmachine/hordes models to paint up, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. I also have some more Malifaux (Always) to get to. Justice's Avatar, a tourney legal Executioner, Johan, another Performer and Mannequin, and an entire Kiria Crew. Lots and Lots more to do, and with December here new models are being released. I am looking forward to grabbing the Executioners and Angelica this month and next, to flesh out my Guild and Colette crews.

Fire!!! Sonnia Alternative Sculpt and Avatar

2011-12-01T07:05:00.000-05:00

Paint and picture week continues with Sonnia Criid. A ways back I posted some quick pictures of my avatar model, along with some quick pictures of the alternate sculpt. I figured I would pop them in the light tent for some better lighting and pictures overall.

Alternate Criid Sculpt

Avatar Criid - aka Cherufe

The pair of Fiery Ladies

Lucius and Crew - Pictures!

2011-11-30T07:05:00.000-05:00

Lucius, the leader of the Guild Special Forces. I have had him built for a while but never got around to a full set of pictures. I did complete painting my third Guild Hound this last Sunday, so that helped a bit with the picture taking. This whole crew was painted to a Table Top Standard, so nothing exceptional! Here are some pictures

Lucius - the Pimp himself

Woof Woof - Guild Hounds

Ryle

Lawyer

Guild Guard Captains - notice the Wyrd W on the left captain!

Drill Sergeant

Guild Guards

Lucius and Crew (missing 2 Austringers)

I realized as I was posting these that I forgot a couple models. My Austringers never jumped out of the case into the picture. Sad day, I will have to remember to rectify that at a later date. I will admit, I am really looking forward to the Wardens from Twisting Fates being released. I think they add an incredible amount to both Lucius's crew and the Guild in general.

Pictures Pictures Pictures

2011-11-29T07:05:00.000-05:00

As mentioned yesterday, I was blessed with time over the Thanksgiving holiday. I used some of that time on Sunday to not only get caught up on my painting but to also start chipping away at the horrible backlog of pictures I need to take. With that said, I plan to parcel out the photo's all week this week.

So, lets dive right in. Sunday one of the models I completed was my Male Gunsmith for my Arcanists. More importantly, he completed my Kaeris box set. Its a shame I was impatient and painted up the fire gamin prior to the league starting. If I had waited a week I would have been able to get the "Paint a new box" achievement. Ah well.

Here they are:


Kaeris

Fire Gamin (Denis, Precious, and Sparky)

Male Gunsmith

Female gunsmith

Soulstone Miners

Kaeris and Crew

That's all of them. I still have a Large Steampunk Arachnid to put together, but I am not in love with the model. For the time being, I think Kaeris will do just fine with the crew as is! Ahh, I must not forget the Johan who just showed up in the mail. He will be joining Kaeris soon!

Colette Commision Recieved

2011-11-28T07:05:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I received a completed commission from my friend James over at 4-Ones blog. He had painted up my Colette crew for me, and they look fantastic. As I am sure you, faithful reader, are aware, I have been lax lately in getting pictures taken, never mind posted.

Thanksgiving weekend was a blessing on the time and picture front. I was able to knock out a bunch of models this weekend in addition to grabbing some long over-due pictures. I felt it was only proper to show off Jame's incredible work. Here they are, my new showgirls!


Colette, the girl herself

Cassandra

Performer and Mannequin

Doves

Coryphee and Coryphee Duet

Battle Report - Rasputina v Lilith

2011-11-25T07:05:00.003-05:00

I realized while cropping these pictures and uploading them that the majority of the battle reports I have posted have been vs eChris. From reading these reports the readers would think he is my only opponent. This is not the case. I think eChris likes seeing battle reports posted, so he consistently reminds me to take pictures during our games. As such, our games are the ones that get posted. With that said, here is another Battle Report to be posted. I really expected this to be a slaughter when I saw eChris put out his Lilith crew, but I jumped in with a smile.

Set-up

This was a game we played as part of our ongoing Achievement League. I am playing Arcanists in the League while eChris is playing Neverborn. We agreed to a 30 point game, flipped standard deployment, and flipped who would deploy first, resulting in my having first deployment. We were playing on a small village board set-up prior to the game.

We started flipping for strategies, with eChris flipping Line in the Sand and me flipping Distract. eChris contemplated burning a stone to re-flip but decided to stick with his choice. I proceeded to my case and contemplated what to take. My Arcanist choices were Kaeris, Colette, and Rasputina. I had had some luck with Raspy previously on Distract, plus I only had 1 gunsmith painted. I did not think Colette would be very good at Distract, so stuck with Raspy for the mission. At 30 points I figured I would take a fairly direct crew, grabbing 2 SS miners (MVP in previous games) and 2 Silent Ones to heal them up. I grabbed the essence and decided to sit on an 8 SS pool.

Upon selecting my crew, I glanced across to see what eChris was bringing so I could pick my strategies. He brought Lilith, 2 Lilitu, Lelu, a Tot, and the puking snake. With that in mind, the choice on schemes really fell to what I had left to accomplish for the league. My choices were Bodyguard, Breakthrough, Extermination, Eye for an Eye, Frame for Murder, Stake a Claim, Steal Relic, and Reflections of December. Looking over that list here were my thoughts:

Breakthrough - Not likely since I would need the miners for hitting power
Extermination - Very unlikely to near impossible
Eye for an Eye - tough but possible
Frame for Murder - Impossible unless I hide it, and this game was not worth hiding a Scheme
Stake a Claim - Not likely, but possible
Steal Relic - I did not want to be close to Lilith without attacking
Reflections of December - Possible, and I am not sure how many more games I will have with Raspy
Bodyguard - Possible, only because I will have a fair number of SS to prevent damage.

So, I ended up taking Bodyguard and Reflections.

30SS Scrap
Bill - Rasputina, 2x Silent Ones, 2x Soulstone Miners, Essence of power, 8 stones
- Distract, Bodyguard, Reflections
eChris - Lilith, 2x Lilitu, Lelu, Tot, Primordial Magic, 8 stones
- Line in the Sand, Holdout, Breakthrough

eChris's Crew & Deployment

My crew and deployment

Turn 1

My turn started in a fairly mundane fashion. The essence linked with Raspy, moved forward and cast pillars to cover up the middle dynomite marker. Following that the miners dug up soulstones for Raspy to use, and the Silent Ones healed the miners back to full. Each silent one, on thier activation, cast other spells to try and surge and stack my hand for later in the game. eChris used his turn more productively, sprinting and transposing models around the board and grabbing the first objective on the left of the board (from my perspective). He pulled forward and sent Lelu to work breaking down one of the pillars and activated a second objective as well. Not bad, 2 objectives on turn 1 is a strong start for eChris, and puts me a bit on the back foot.

From eChris's side of the board.

Turn 2

Turn 2 turned up the pressure with lots of action. I do not remember the exact steps of the turn (unfortunately), but to sum up it went something like this. eChris activated Lelu, smashed apart the second ice pillar, then moved over and activated a third objective. In conjunction, Lilitu drifted around the house and started luring one of my silent ones forward. I was pulled up, but resisted a couple times. My silent one activated and put up north wind, just covering Raspy where she was sitting. eChris moved his second Lilitu forward and pulled the Silent one the rest of the way into the scrum, but was not able to get any attacks through. To get some range, the second Silent one moved forward to get Raspy in range of North Wind, then popped the spell up. Lilith made a run across the street to position for the other two objectives. Raspy activated and blasted into the scrum, killing lelu with blasts and leaving the Lilitu's with some damage. Raspy finished her turn by putting up ice pillars to block Lilith from getting inside the building and grabbing her objective there. eChris ran his Tot to the back of the board, then followed up with the totem transposing one of the Lilitu's to get her to safety. I activated my miners, ate a soulstone for Overdrive, then moved forward and tunneled. At the end of the turn I shifted one tunnel marker forward (the corpse counter) and the second one to the left between the small and large houses. My goal was to threaten eChris's crew with 1 miner while the other went to deactivate dynamite.

From his side of the board

Turn 3

Turn 3 let me finish what I had started on the previous turn. eChris started by moving to threaten Raspy with his Tot. I responded by moving my silent one away from the objective and damaging the tot with her healing spell. eChris moved his rear lilitu forward to position near the center of the board and lured my silent one forward. My silent one moved closer to the tot, pulsed and killed it off. eChris moved the second Lilitu to the center of the board, getting Raspy, totem, and a silent one in melee range. Raspy activated, defensive stance, then walked out of combat. I forgot at that point to pull my totem to me with link, leaving it engaged. I tried to use my (0) spell to knock one of the Lilitu's down but failed the cast. I then followed up shooting my blast spell into combat. Flipping for the targeting in melee ended up with my targeting a Lilitu. I then flipped the red joker for my irresistible flip, realizing that had I remembered to snap my totem, I would have had that joker on my cast. I followed up with a cast and stone to drop severe damage on one Lilitu, and blast onto the second. This left one of them at 1 wound remaining, and the second at 2. Lilith then moved out from around the house, but I do not remember what she did. My totem dropped two more ice pillars to block Lilith from moving directly to Raspy next turn, then it came time for moving the Miners. Miner #1 moved to be next to Lilith, and #2 moved onto the far left objective. At the end of the turn the two Lilitu's healed one of them up to 6 wounds, and the other one died.

Turn 4

At the start of the turn, I brought both miners up from Tunneling. I won initiative (13 to a 12) and started with the Miner next to Lilith. He attacked 3 times, missing 2 attacks, and dived back below ground. Lilitu started by luring and killing a Silent One then moving forward to engage Raspy. The second silent one moved forward and pulsed near the Lilitu, putting 2 damage on her. Lilith activated, broke through the ice pillar and charged the silent one to kill her. Shatter had Lilitu down to 1 wound, and had Lilith had prevented most everything. Raspy activated and threw everything she had at Lilith, killing Lilitu in the blasting. The soulstone miner dug up another stone for Raspy, then the tunneled one moved over next to Lilith.

Turn 5 & 6

Turn 5 started with the miner popping out and then I again won initiative. The miner attacked and got a luck shot off on Lilith, killing her. Raspy then moved forward stand next to one of the activate markers. The non-insignificant miner shut off the far left objective. On turn 6 Raspy and the other miner shut off the remaining objectives.

The game ended with a win to me (very unlikely game). I think there were mistakes made on both sides, but the bulk came down to eChris focusing on his line in the sand early in the game and not picking apart Raspy's crew, allowing me to build up my stones and start picking apart his crew. Final score, Raspy 8 -> Lilith 2 (holdout).

BatRep: Rasputina vs Pandora

2011-11-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

Intro

The Winter Achievement League started up on Tuesday and I rolled out with Arcanists for this 6 week period. I have my Collette crew currently at the end of a commission, due to return soon for play. I also just picked up Kaeris who I am very excited to play. These two combined with Rasputina give me 2 masters and a Henchman to play around with for the league. With that said I rolled out with the only Arcanist models I had available, Rasputina and her old crew. I decided before getting to the store I would aim at getting at least 1 25 point game in, and make it a fun lark of a game overall. I had pre-picked my crew as there is an achievement in our league for picking a crew before flipping for strtegy and another for playing with nothing from the starter box in your list. eChris was willing to oblige, which worried me a bit as he is playing Neverborn for the league. At the end of the day, its all for fun so we rolled into the game.

Set-Up

We played a 25 point scrap. I took:

Rasputina - 8 SS pool
Essence of Power
Jack Daw
Hanged

eChris took:

Pandora - 6 SS pool
+ Avatar
2 Sorrows
Doppelganger
Candy

I had Contain Power, then Kill Protege (Candy) and Sabatage (on the statue furthest from me in the picture below).
eChris had Deliver a Message, and I forget his schemes.

Ok, so this was going to be a fun game, but still a bit tough. We used our ruins board and flipped corners deployment:

Turn 1

Turn one kicked off with me losing initiative to the damn negative flip from the Doppelganger. No worries, eChris started with linking his sorrows, clearly working to out-activate me. I linked up the Essence of power for my first activation, then moved forward to the fence. I followed this up with using Magical Extension to put two pillars touching my objective and just to the right side, blocking some LOS to my crew.

Following that there was a fair amount of movement, Candy moved up to hide in the small doorway of eChris's ruins, Jack moved up to touch my sabotage objective and put up Severed Ties (can't cheat or stone within 6 inches), Doppelganger copied Dementia and cast it on Pandora before moving forward on my left, hanged moved forward on my left. Raspy moved forward to position for next turn. As the last activation, Pandora activated, used her dementia to push forward into the large door of the ruins with a pacify on the Hanged. Once there she use her new LOS to try and cast a spell at Jack, but being unable to cheat she failed her Demetia flip and was stuck. She followed up with a Walk outside of Jack's Severed Ties bubble, then cast her spell at Jack (Project Emotions), failing to cause any damage but forcing Jack to run with her trigger. Unfortuantely, Jack ran to the closest board edge which put him standing right next to Pandora and her Sorrows at the end of the turn. Pandora tried to pacify Jack and push away, but was again unable to cheat or stone and failed to overcome Jack's WP.

Turn 2

eChris realized his only way to truly deal with Jack was to run him off the board with Pandora. I won initiative with a Red Joker flip in the negative initiative flip and started out. I knew I would have trouble while rallying with Jack so started by moving the Hanged over to face off with the Doppelganger. I wanted to force eChris to make a choice between killing Jack and losing his Doppelganger, or taking down the Hanged and keeping Jack around. eChris activated Pandora, forced Jack to run to the board edge, then pushed over to try and take down the Hanged. The Hanged took a couple wounds but lived through the attacks. Raspy then activated in companion, moving forward and dropping a couple blasts which resulted in the Sorrows both being killed, Candy taking some wounds, Pandora taking some wounds, and the Doppelganger getting hurt. It also resulted in the Hanged being taken out, but that was worth the sacrifice. The Doppelganger copied sweets from Candy, healing herself and walking forward a bit. Jack rallied on the board edge, and then Candy activated, used sweets on Pandora, and started to retreat toward the back of the board.

Turn 3

Turn 3 started with a loss of initiative again, I really needed to take out the Doppelganger. eChris started with Pandora killing off the Essense, putting a wound on Rapy, and pushing around the corner of the building to my left. Raspy was able to burn stones and cheat high cards to resist Pandora's assault. Thank God for eChris drawing a crap hand. Jack (rallied and not pacified) double moved toward Candy and put up his Severed Ties bubble. Candy moved to hide behind the building, Using Sweets to heal herself and position near Pandora. Raspy moved forward to Sabotage the terrain and then nuked the Doppelganger, splashing the blast damage onto Pandora who burned stones to resist.

Turn 4

Turn 4, with the Doppelganger dead, I pulled initiative. I did not want to go head-to-head with Pandora's WP while she could still cheat so I started by moving Jack behind the wall (next to Pandora and Candy) and putting up his bubble. Raspy walked twice to get outside Jacks bubble, then tried to hit Raspy with a spell (I think it was Self Loathing). A timely black joker let Raspy resist, and opened up Rasputina moving forward and nuking Pandora dead. Candy followed with a quick heal on herself, a run for the back of the board, and made herself harmless.

Turn 5

Turn 5 started with eChris winning initiative. He decided to go all or nothing, and moved Candy forward to face off with Rasputina. This was not a bad move, as it kept Raspy from casting her nasty spell. Raspy then followed up with biting Chill to take Candy down to 1, and tried to hit her with her stick which didn't work. I then brought Jack forward and hit Candy for 1 damage to kill her off. eChris unhappily reached into the muddle and pulled Candy of the board.

Game End

Our game ended 8-0, with a win to Rasputina. It was an interesting game overall.