Saturday 28 February 2015

Malifaux- The accidental crew...

I've been working somewhat regularly (not regularly enough) on my new Guild crew but with a day off on Friday I was able to play a bunch of Malifaux with a different crew, Rasputina!


As I've mentioned over a number of previous posts I had actually purchased the Rasputina models with the intent of using them for another game but when Friday rolled around and I was planning on actually playing some Malifaux 2E somehow it turned out that The Arcanists with Rasputina as their leader was actually the faction I had the most Soul Stones (Malifaux's points system) for.

What was really interesting was that never having planed on using these figures for Malifaux I hadn't actually looked at any of the model's stats until I was setting up for my first game.  I managed to play 3 games yesterday; 2 traditional games and then a 4-way Enforcer brawl.

Game 1 - Vs. Stan's Lucius Crew
My first game was against a Lucius crew run by my regular Chaos Marine (and space pony enthusiast) opponent Stan.  The Lucius crew is one of those forces that really scares me when people put it on the table because it has a lot of weird abilities that aren't readily apparent when you look at the models.  My two big learnings in this game were (remember I had never looked at the stats before) that Rasputina can cast her spells through a lot of her minions (similar to Arc Nodes in Warmahordes) and that the Wendigo can devour paralysed models whole!  The star of the game for me was the Wendigo who swallowed Mr Graves whole, followed by the Sabretooth Cerberus who ran around chewing on lesser models at will until Lucius took it out.  I ended up with a narrow 4-3 victory in a game that was both fun and challenging.

Game 2 - Vs. Kevin's Ten Thunders Crew
Big disclaimer here, this was Kevin's second game of Malifaux and he was playing with a starter box so he hadn\t really had a chance to work out or select his force to create optimum synergy.  My game against Kevin highlighted one of the great truths of Malifaux; bad things happen.  The game started off with both of us racing towards the objective in the centre of the table while using some other models to sneak around grabbing and establishing other objectives.  Unfortunately for Kevin at 40SS his crew only consisted of 6 models.  This created multiple challenges for Kevin; first up I was activating multiple models after he finished his half of the turn which gave me the opportunity to gang up on weakened models and finish them off before the end of the turn, the other big issue is that  a low model count made it very difficult for him to secure victory points.  In spite of this the 2 models I listed as my stars from game 1 were not only the first models Kevin took out but he got them out early.  In this game the Ice Golem really showed his strengths, I was able to lumber him up onto the shared objective which forced Kevin to come to me and let me use the Golem's devastating smash attack without having to run around chasing faster models.  I was able to win my second game by a score of (if I'm remembering correctly) 7-4.

Game 3 - Enforcer Brawl Vs. Kevin, Chris & Stan.
My third and final game was an enforcer brawl against 3 other players.  As strong as my crew was together and with their synergistic spell casting my Ice Golem was super-weak on it's own with no support.  Much like  the previous game highlighted my Ice Golem's strengths this game really called out it's weaknesses.  It's slow movement coupled with no ranged attacks meant it would close in on faster models and then get charged and slapped around by them.  It was a super fun game and a great way to play a multi player game of Malifaux.  I don't remember the final score but Stan won with Kevin a close second and I was all alone in last place by a huge margin.

One thing I definitely re-learned playing these games was that if you buy and paint models because you like the figures themselves the rules don't really matter and regardless you're going to have fun and enjoy your stuff.

-Jay

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Wendigo (slight conversion)

One of the things that can be odd about all miniature gamers (obviously myself included) is sometimes you get a miniature and there's nothing wrong with it but the way it looks just doesn't work for you.  Case in point the Wendigo for Malifaux.

When I originally purchased the Rasputina crew box my intention had been to paint the 4 ice creatures for my D&D game and to give Rasputina herself to Zoe to paint later.  Because I had no plans for the Wendigo I never even looked at it.  Now that I am planning on fielding Rasputina in Malifaux I decided I did want to paint her totem to go with her, one minor problem; as it comes in the box the Wendigo is ridiculous looking to me.


As you can see there's nothing actually wrong with the miniature.  It looks cool, it's well sculpted and it's a quantum leap forward from the original metal model.  But for me personally I've never liked miniatures where the basing or decorative elements completely overshadow the miniature itself.  In this case the fact that the cowboy that the Wendigo is devouring takes up more space than the Wendigo itself just didn't work for me.

The big challenge is that one of the Wendigo's feet and one of it's hands are molded onto/into the cowboy and weren't at all salvageable.  For the foot I did a somewhat passable putty job and then really just choose to go heavy on basing materials around it to hide the imperfections.  For the hand I snipped a hand off an old Heroclix model that was the right size and pinned it on.


The conversion is passable but one of the things I unfortunately didn't notice until I started painting it is the 'proper' Wendigo hand has three fingers and a thumb, my converted hand has four fingers and a thumb.  I don't think it's noticeable on the tabletop but I wish I had realized it earlier I could have done some more work on the hand.

At any rate, that's my Rasputina stuff done!

-Jay

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Sabertooth Cerberus

After painting the dogs the other day I got it in my head to start getting some of the other beasties done that I'm going to end up needing once I start playing Through The Breach.

I had originally bought the Sabertooth Cerberus with the intent of using it in my current D&D game as a winter themed mountain encounter, in the end I decided to go with an Owlbear instead.


The Sabertooth Cerberus will be joining my Rasputina crew and making their first tabletop appearance this Friday so I should get a chance to at least try it out in a game of Malifaux.

I have 1 more model for my Rasputina crew (a converted Wendigo) and once that's done it's back to the Guild!

-Jay

Saturday 21 February 2015

Dogs!

Today's post is a bit of a mish-mash.  I was painting one model because I can use it for some games I will be playing/prepping for this week, the other model I have had for a while and I will be using it in the weeks and months to come so I thought I would do them both  at once.

First up is Luna.  Luna is another model from the McCabe crew and because she is McCabe's totem I won't be able to use her as-is with McMourning but I may use her as a Guild Hound.  I'm also beginning prep for a Through The Breach game and a fairly generic looking dog seems like it would be useful for that.


Next up is a Forgeworld Cyber-Mastiff.  A while back my friend Jordan got me the Forgeworld Arbites Judge and he came with a cool (and very different looking) Cyber-Mastiff.  I'll be dusting off my Arbites for the Shield Of Baal campaign so this seemed like a good time to get off my butt and get these done.  One of the things that's really cool about this Cyber-Mastiff that unfortunately doesn't photography very well is that when you look at the back it actually looks like somebody peeled a dog and then re-wrapped the peeled dog around a robot-dog.


More Malifaux on the way in the next couple of days!

-Jay

Thursday 19 February 2015

Just singin' in the rain!

I've been asked to participate in a D&D game with a sort of steam-punky-goth feel to it and I needed a model for my character.  I decided to go outside my usual comfort zone of Cleric or Fighter and go with more of a finesse character.  I settled on a human warlock and am deciding between a charlatan or criminal background.


I used one of the excellent Wastrel models from the Relic Hunters box for Malifaux who is also a dual faction Guild model which means he'll also be joining Dr McMourning in my new Guild crew.

I picture this guy being a cross between Alex DeLarge and John Constantine so regardless of how the game mechanics work out I'm sure he'll be a popular well-adjusted person with lots of friends.

-Jay

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Finally I'm playing the "good guys" in Malifaux!

Now that I'm caught up on most of the games I'm actually playing I'm starting to circle around and paint new forces for the games I play the most.

I'm working on Malifaux right now and after playing Ressurectionists all through first edition I decided to jump to the other side of the table a play the forces of the Guild, law and order in Malifaux!

My first Master for my Guild forces will be loyal coroner and medical examiner Dr Douglas McMourning.


McMourning is a great figure that I think showcases one of the things that the sculptors for Malifaux do really well.  The basic figure itself is in fact very basic, no crazy details on the coat or piles and piles of extra bits, but the things that pop really pop as a result of a less-is-more approach.  So for example his specimen tray, his hair, the bag of tools.

It's great to finally be playing the good guys in this game and I think when you see McMourning's first three minions it will really drive home the fact that I've embraced the forces of law and order and left my evil Ressurectionist ways behind me!

-Jay

Sunday 15 February 2015

Rasputina doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day

I've talked before about different motivations for doing different projects and today's post is another reason to get a figure done all together.  

I will be painting up a new D&D character model for myself this weekend, and my figure choice has pushed me into starting another crew for Malifaux (The Guild), however I still had the master from my last crew box I bought to get the ice creatures for my D&D game sitting on my desk.

So last night I decided to crank out Rasputina so I wouldn't have another "almost finished" project cluttering up my work area.


On the plus side this also means I have a whole new crew to play games of Malifaux 2e with!

-Jay
 

Saturday 7 February 2015

Captain Karlaen

It looks like I'm all set to play the first Deathstorm scenario (only a week late).  I finished up Captain Karlaen tonight!


I'm fairly happy with how he turned out.  As with all of my Blood Angels so far I went with slightly drabber tones than the GW studio paint jobs.  I like that he has some finery on him but I choose to reinterpret some of the gold as stone to keep it muted.

Now that I'm set for the first scenario I'm going to pause on the Blood Angels for a couple of days while I get a new D&D character done and then it will be back to the Death Company!

-Jay

Friday 6 February 2015

Squad Alphaeus

I FINALLY finished my Deathstorm Terminators early this morning.  I've been struggling to sit and paint for a couple of weeks, between seven day work weeks and dealing with the flu I just haven't been able to focus on models.  In the last couple of days I've finally been feeling better and a bout of insomnia last night gave me the time I needed to finish my Terminators.


Next up I'm hoping to finish Captain Karlaen tonight or tomorrow.

We've also decided to play the full Shield Of Baal campaign with the only significant change being that I will be substituting Adeptus Arbites for Sisters Of Battle.  So expect to see some touch ups and a few new Arbitrators soon too.

-Jay