Monday, February 20, 2012

Paint Week Continues!!!

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!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Picture Week Continues

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!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Picture Time

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!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

How does that Ranged Stike Sequence work again?

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.