ToMB - End-of-June, Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hi,
I've been working on the Sonnia Criid Avatar piece.  I'm really pleased with it.  The hair still needs doing, but it's getting close to finished.  Thought you'd enjoy.  I hope to finish it by the next posting.

Dave

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Molly and her Students

School is in session. For this months ToMB (May/June) I present one of the larger purchases for a Molly crew. In this month's purchase we take a look at the University of Transmortis box set. This box came out about 11-12 months ago, in 2013. It was a highly anticipated product at the time as it was our first chance to physically see what a Malifaux 2E stat card was made out of.  It also shipped with a number of M2E specific story missions.

There is a helpful review that decomposes the students (see what I did there) over at GMort_Chaotica's blog. If you're looking for great unboxing/reviews take a look at his stuff, its quite informative. One word of caution, when looking at the stat cards keep in mind that these cards are no longer legal stat cards. Even though they are M2E, they went through a re-work during the Wave2 open beta Wyrd ran at the beginning of 2014. This was done in order to bring their abilities/stats more in line with what M2E Wave 1 and Wave 2 models ended up being. This is understandable since this box went to print well before M2E was done. Make sure to grab them over at the Wyrd site before they go away when Wave 2 book/cards become available (that's when they'll be removed from the site; low-res, hi-res).

The models are all Iron Zombies and can be used in the story encounters (some of the rules are a little weird, but for a good 'ol fun game they're worth giving a try; there is also a 1-player mission). The rulebook for the story encounters comes with the box.

The box retails for $40, so we will be using the $14.51 + $25 from this month, so I'm short $0.49 which I'm just going to borrow from next month. I will have $24.51 for next month.  The following models/stat cards come in this box:

• The Valedictorian
• Student of Sinew
• Student of Steel
• Student of Viscera

Ok so on to the models, first off they're stunning. These are some of the most amazing and beautiful models Wyrd has produced. The Valedictorian is of course my favorite model, but all are in a league of their own, really showing what the transition to plastics has enabled from a modeling perspective.

I have had these fellas primed for about 9 months, and they are on the painting table, but other models are taking their slots in the queue for now. I'm hoping to get to them in the next month or so. Stay tuned for some painted Iron Zombies next month hopefully.

Before we jump into what each model does, let's review why they're good in a Molly crew and specifically why I use them in my crews. The simplest answer is that 3 of the 4 models can be summoned by Molly when taking the Forgotten Life upgrade card because they are Horror minions. The beauty of this is that each of the iron zombies / students are tailored to combat (exploit) specific model traits/characteristics.

All the iron zombies also have Flurry, which can be pre-loaded by using Molly's (0) Whispers of Future Flesh to have them move before activating and then when they activate they are in position to use their Flurry. All of the iron zombies also have Armor +1 as well as the Hard to Wound +1 and a (0) Lecture Notes to remove the ability for a model to take triggers. This is great against models with Squee or other triggers allowing them to move away.

So from a summoning standpoint you can summon the right model for the right job against the right enemy models. For a quick recap on what Molly can summon with this upgrade here are the card requirements to summon certain models (notice the students).

The student of Sinew and Steel require the same 11 crow that a Punk Zombie does but the Student of Viscera needs a 12 crow. The Sinew and Steel variants have the same stat lines but differ in that sinew is better suited against undead models, while steel is better suited against constructs. They have terrifying which targets undead/constructs, ignore hard to wound/armor and have triggers gaining ++ to damage flips against undead/constructs.

So lets take a quick look at the other models:

Valedictorian

• Key Remarks: 
• Henchman - Access to using soul stones to mitigate damage, valid Bodyguard and Entourage candidate (due to mobility from flight, armor, and hard to wound)
• 50mm base - This is often over looked but can really help. This coupled with the 3" Ml attack. Meaning getting and keeping models in engagement range is a little easier. Add in Unnerving Aura or Decaying Aura and she can put the hurt on. This also makes her a great model to help carry out Deliver a Message against an enemy master since she can get there and engage early to take the action next turn (or be moved by Molly/Necrotic Machine)
• Overall she is pretty resilient, and for 10ss a great Henchman to use in various situations. Give her a try and you'll be happy you did, just remember like any other model in Malifaux she has a specific purpose and should hired and used in specific roles

Student of Viscera

• Key Remarks:
• Slither - This ability alone makes this model worth the 12 crow needed to summon. Slither allows for a 9" movement (not a push) ignoring severe terrain. After moving the model can take a (1) Ml action. It is basically an alternative to a charge action. The charge of this model is 6" and because its a charge would suffer penalties due to terrain; so thats a 8" threat range. With (2) Slither the model gets 11" threat range. Now just remember if you summon this model you'll want to either remove the Slow condition (with someone like Chiaki or Johan) so it can use this ability the turn it is summoned
• 50mm base - As mentioned above this allows for a larger range of models it can hit. Just remember if summoned it can't take interact actions the turn it summons in. But a 50mm base model with 2" Ml attack doing 2/3/5 is pretty slick.

So that's it for this month. A quick overview of the models and why I think they're great for Horror Molly. Let me know how you fair with them.

ToMB - Mid-June, Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hi,

It’s mid-June now.  This month has been productive in the modeling side of things, but I haven't bought anything and I only got one game in.  I do however have pictures for you.  It’s a work in progress, but I’m very pleased with how the Sonnia Criid Avatar piece is working out. I’m layering paint on it to simulate the fire, first the white primer, then GW Sunburst Yellow, then GW Fire Dragon Bright (Orange), then a watered down Vallejo Orange Fire, and coming up will be GW Blood Red, Privateer Press Skorne Red (a darker red), and then a uniform dark grey from Vallejo (not sure which one yet).  Only the yellow touches the white, only the orange goes on the yellow, etc...I'm trying to build up the effect of the fire as a large glowing force.  Fire goes from white to black as it cools.  I even painted the backside of Sonnia a uniform gray before painting the browns and other colors to add contrast to the brightness portrayed in the model.  So, like I said it’s a work in progress, but at minimum I'm enjoying the project immensely.  

Also in the picture, the Witchling Handler is on the right side, she is not a finished product yet either.  Her hair and jewelry flair needs painting.  I haven't decided on colors and thus haven't painted them yet. The model on the left is Sonnia Criid from the basic metal set.  She’s finished, although not shown, I really like what I did with her sword flame pattern on the backside.  Maybe next time I'll show that.

In the next picture, I have the Executioner.  The Executioner I finished.  Given my unhappiness with the graphic nature of the severed hands I replaced them with green stuff.  The two hands are now a loaf of bread and a turtle shell (lunch) hanging from his belt instead.  Here’s the finished product.

Hope you enjoyed them.

Dave

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Molly Update Delays

This update is for April and should have been posted on May 17th.

Wow and Sorry, is all I can say at this point. Things have been hectic as of late and I missed all of May as far as an update to my Molly ToMB progress for the month of April.

The good news...I've been playing Molly still, so she continues to be my main master the past few months. Besides her, I've been playing a little Tara down in VA with +Aaron Darland, which was an amazingly fun game. Also, played some Molly against +matthew m against his Dreamer crew. Both really close games which I lost by 1 measly point. I've also been running events and prepping for events:

• Live Free or Die Cheating May 10th - Great turn out, 16 players and a lot of fun
• CaptainCon July 25 - 27 - Go sign-up and attend

As far as painting progress, I've made none! Yup after my Adepticon painting blitz I just couldn't get the energy. I did assemble a fair amount of terrain from my Renaissance Miniatures KS delivery of the East Asian terrain (which is stunning).

Ok so what did I buy for May? Well as I stated for April, it was going to be the Punk Zombies. Oh boy, yeah these are amazing. I have finally mastered what I simply call the "PZ Bomb", the amount of damage this thing can deal out is amazing. The other day in a two player game I coupled it with the Valedictorian + 2 Punk Zombies dropped in between a Guild line with stunning results. I'll go into more specifics in a moment on how/what it specifically is.

$-wise I have $4.51 left over from last months Beta + Necrotic Machine purchases giving me a total of $29.51 for this month. The new Punk Zombie plastics have been released in May, but I have the old metals. Here is a cost breakdown for those tracking costs (both come with 3 zombies):
 

• Metal Punk Zombies - $15
• Plastic Punk Zombies - $21

I ended up purchasing the Nicodem box for myself since it comes with 3 of the new Punk Zombies and he is the only Ressurectionist master I do not own. However, I'm using the cost of the old metals for cost tracking. So at the end of May that leaves me $14.51 left over, but wanted to make sure newer players see all the options for purchasing the Punk Zombies available (as a note there is one other valid Wyrd Punk Zombie model, it is the Judge from the rare, hard to find Undead Lady Justice Nightmare Edition box from Gencon 2011). I'll be saving the $14.51 for next month.

Ok, so let's go over why the Punk Zombies are so great in the Molly crew. First of all they are horror minions so benefit from her ability to reactivate them, and they can be summoned by her. Along with the necrotic machine's (0) Brethren they can be pushed 4" towards the necrotic machine. The punk zombies also gain Black Blood while within 6" of Molly which is stellar. Now punk zombies are fantastic models alone, but with all of Molly's abilities from taking her upgrade Forgotten Life they just go over the top. When summoned in they must be placed within 6", so gain Black Blood and loose all of their wounds minus how many enemy models they're standing near. The key to summoning a Punk Zombie in with Molly is that you really want it to be near 2+ models so it can take advantage of its Hard to Kill. If not than don't summon a Punk Zombie in, it is a waste to do so unless near 2+ enemy models for this reason.

When Molly summons anything in she forces every enemy model within 3" to suffer 1 wound if it fails a Wp 15 duel. This is nice and helps deplete your opponents hand, but isn't the main source of damage. Now ideally its nice to get two Punk Zombies down here, but really isn't necessary, it just increases the damage output. The reason is that the Punk Zombies, if placed in a position to get max benefit, can use their Slice & Dice. Now be careful with this as it does 3 dmg to ALL models within (Aura 3") who fail a Df 13 duel, meaning it can hit your own models. But come on, we're ressers, we can take advantage of this can't we? Oh you bet your decayed eye sockets we can, watch and learn.

Can anyone think of a model that is pretty resilient and can get some really great movement (who may also be a Horror)? How about oh, I dunno the Valedictorian? So you get the Valedictorian into the mix there; within 3" of the PZ. Also, have it within 6" of Molly so it gains Black Blood and then use the Slice & Dice from a Punk Zombie. Of course the Valedictorian will choose to fail and take the damage. It has Armor +1 so it only takes 2 dmg, and as a Henchman you can choose if you want to dmg prevent, but it really isn't necessary. You do want to take at least 1 dmg so you can trigger Black Blood! So let's count it up.

• 1 dmg from summon to all enemy within 3"
• 3 dmg to every model within 3" from Slide & Dice
• 1 dmg from Black Blood to every model without black blood within 1"

That's around 5+/- dmg to all models in the area. Now sure this is all contingent on some duels passing/failing, but you can see the potential I hope. Add in any other mix of more models that can take the slice and dice dmg that can have black blood and your dmg numbers can get pretty high. This also can quickly force your opponent to have to use a lot of cards.

The observant reader may be asking, "how does Slice & Dice action get taken during Molly's turn?". Well its from her (0) Whispers of Future Flesh on her Forgotten Life upgrade I mentioned earlier. This gives any friendly Belle or Horror (within LoS and 10") the chance to take a (1) Action; Slice & Dice is a 1 action. It's also great coupled with her Tear of the Gorgon upgrade to allow her to take two (0) actions. The second I take besides Whispers of Future Flesh before ending her turn is (0) Gorgon's Cry to give her Terrifying (All) 12 until her next Activation. 

We're not done! After Molly is done, she can accomplice, and choose the Punk Zombie she summoned to activate which he will than choose to do Slice & Dice again, potentially handing out 3 more dmg to everything within 3" (and potentially the extra 1" from Black blood on Valedictorian).

So that's the PZ bomb, I've come to really like it and there are obvious variations and I have perfected which are better for certain situations. For example, if you setup some other key things before you drop it you can also make it hard for specific enemy models to pass. Like activating a Dead Doxy and having it give -flip to duels the enemy model is the defender of (via Confusing Feelings trigger from (0) Take the Lead). Also, during Molly's activation, but before dropping a PZ in use her (1) Whispered Secret to give a model -flip on all duels. These combined make it very tough for enemy models to pass the duels required from the summon (Wp 15), and the Slice & Dice (Df 13). 

One quick note if you have the opportunity to put the PZ in a more tactically advantageous position he may just want to use his 2" Ml attack and do some dmg to one model. My main reason for enjoying the Slice & Dice approach is that it really can kill an opponents hand (and their models). 

So that's all for my incredibly late update which was due May 17th. I'll be ready for the next one coming up June 17th. Any guesses what I'll be buying? I already used it here in this update; I'm a dirty Cheater at ToMB!

ToMB - Mid-May, Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hi,

It’s mid-May and in the last month I have only made one purchase for Malifaux to add to Sonnia’s crew, a Guild Executioner.  I found that I would like to have a brute, a damage soaker, to control the center of the board.  My attempts to do that with Sam Hopkins, Witchling Stalkers, or the Witchling Handler resulted in unfavorable, but fun results.  I believe the Executioner will help with this.  To go with the Executioner I bought some 40 mm bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures, the Trench works ones.  They’ll match the theme I have for the rest of the minis, which also have the trench work bases.  In the near future, I will want to apply some green stuff to the model.  The mini has a pair of severed hands dangling from his belt, which kind of breaks my rule/desire to have miniatures I’m ok with showing to my kids.  I intend to make them into pouches, should be simple enough.

In other modeling news I made a little bit more progress with the Sonnia Crid avatar and the Witchling Handler, but they still need more paint.

In game playing, I missed a big tournament in New England for Malifaux, held at the Game Castle in Londonderry, NH.  I had other plans that conflicted, however I did get to play 3-4 times this past month.  Once was even a 4-player game that was great.  I got crushed, but the story was good and I’ll get to it in a minute. 

My friend Mike, an avid player/collector of Malifaux, keeps bringing different crews against me, some guy with a top hat and mechanical spider-things, someone Pandora with a bunch of ghosts, someone with a bunch of rats, and some ugly lady in a swamp.  Obviously I pay great attention to the details such as names and techniques so I can master it later, not.  Nah, we play fun games and enjoy the event.  I make slight variations to my list of Sonnia, but it remains similar for now as I learn more about the schemes and strategies.  Some work well and others are disasters. 

In the 4-player game we started in corners, with a hidden desire to get to a set campfire for extra victory points.  The game quickly became 2 games of 1 on 1 for the first few turns since we ended up wanting the opposing person’s campfire. I ended up clashing with some Resurrectionist who kept taking bone corpse counters to summon more opponents.  I used the 1 point skill to allow Sonnia to create Witchling Stalkers from dead opponents.  It was a crazy battle, I started with 7 figures and had 14 die and 1 survive the game! My main opponent of this game had 15 die, unfortunately there were more.  It was a great story and a great game.  I’ve never seen a Malifaux game turn into such a blood bath. Combined we had 9 die and 6 get created on Turn 3 alone. Anyway, I recommend trying the multi-player scenarios or making some up.  

Take care.
-Dave

ToMB - Mid-April - Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hello Folks,

I wanted to update you all on my activities in the past month in modeling and game playing in regards to Malifaux.  Now I haven’t been as productive this month with Malifaux for many reasons you probably don’t care about, but I have purchased or previously purchased the Sonnia Criid Avatar and the Witchling Handler.  Both are currently assembled.  I’ve been taking care with the Sonnia Criid centerpiece, removing mold lines and green stuffing the cracks. A picture is included of the model during my green stuffing.  Since then I’ve primed the model white and have begun to prime the backside of Sonnia as black to hint at a less illuminated backside.  In addition I’ve been trying out on some excess GW and Confrontation Orc Heads different attempts to make their eyes look like they are on fire.  I have a favorite, but I’m still experimenting so I’ll hold off saying what has won. 

            For the Witchling Handler, I have primed it black and have begun to paint it.  It’s not finished, but I’m content with the progress.  Sorry, no picture.

            For gaming, I think I’ve played one game of Malifaux versus my friend Mike.  I substituted in the Witchling Handler for the 2 Guild Hounds and Samuel Hopkins’s armor from the Guild Arsenal Deck.  It was my first play with her.  She did well, put a little fear into Mike, but in the end I believe she died on the field.  Technically I lost 5-3 on victory points, but I had changed my normal tactics and ignored/forgot the strategy card objective (quarters), costing me objectives and ultimately the game.  Instead I did a bum’s rush up the middle going after his caster for the assassinate objective.  I got him, but with Sonnia’s fireballs.  My charge up the middle failed to reach him, but resulted in much entertainment as it faltered in a bottled-up charge across a stone bridge.  Great game.  Talk to you some more later in on, family Easter dinner is at our house this year and I got some cleaning to do.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers (ToMB) March - Molly Purchases

The month of March has been an exciting month. Its the beginning of April and I just returned from Adepticon in Lombard, IL where I had a blast playing in the Cake match, Team Tournament, and Masters of Malifaux. This post is going to focus more on what I've learned the past 4 weeks playing with Molly. I've played a fair amount of games with her now, and have pretty much solidified how I am going to be playing her at the 50ss level. So what I'll introduce is my second months purchase, with some forethought on where I see her crew being by the end of ToMB.

Last month I had $1.01 left over, meaning I have $26.01, which puts me JUST shy of what I'd like to buy for this month, which is a necrotic machine and a punk zombie boxset. The old necrotic machine is $12 and the old 3 pack of punk zomibes is $15, so I'm $0.99 short. 

Since May we'll be seeing the release of the new plastic punk zombies ($21), I'll wait. For March I decided it's important for a Molly player to grab a necrotic machine and Bete Noire. Yup, that's right I said it, Bete Noire.

She is a viable entry in just about every crew and serves a fantastic role in so many situations being a staple in your Resurrectionists repertoire. Typically, I'd suggest saving the money for the punk zombies next month plus something else, but I think this is a good time to get another heavy beater.

She can help you accomplish some important schemes and strategies. She has 2 releases sculpts and a new plastic sculpt prepared to be released this summer, so you will have options with which model fits your tastes.

Original Bete Noire - $9.50

Bete Noire Alternate - $13.50

Bete Noire Plastic - $11.00

So I already have the original bete noire, which I will use for my cost putting me at $9.50 + $12.00 = $21.50. Leaving me $4.51 for next month. 

So let's first discuss the necrotic machine. This little guy may not appear to be anything useful, but it is a nice little totem who can be summoned. At 2ss, the only reason I could see hiring him with the crew is because you feel like you're going to get out activated early game. Otherwise, its best to summon him. Even so, I need to emphasis I have no plans to hire him. If you're looking for activation control I guess you could spend the 2ss, activate him to move up his double walk. Move your models with his (0) action. Then have Molly summon another one and have it activate and move your models up more. If anyone has another reason to hire him, enlighten me. He can be summoned 10" from Molly or her regular 6" and this is how I typically plan to use him.

I prefer the 6" summon, but when I need it the 10" summon is nice because it forces you're enemy to have to deal with him before dealing with Molly if you lose initiative and plan to summon a bunch of stuff. Now the necrotic machine is no slouch either, as it provides the ability to get a last push of belles, horrors, and spirits within range before a turn end. It's attack Ml is base 5Crow, but if you get lucky it does have a 1/1/6 dmg spread and some interesting triggers, most notably Infectious Fluid which has a way of potentially handing out paralyzed (especially if you opponent has no cards left). Again nothing fantastic, but just a little something to turn the tide if you get lucky and something to remember. 

With bete, you can use her in multiple ways. Having her pop out when one of your crooligans or other living/undead models die is great. You just need to ensure you unbury Bete Noire out near the model you want to kill because her movement isn't great. 

I enjoy unnerving or decaying aura on her. Usually its Decaying Aura, especially if Assassinate is on the list of schemes. Bete is pretty straight forward, with some solid Df of 7, and a paired attack (+ on attack flips). I enjoy her paralyze trigger as it is quite effective at shutting down just about any master. Now she has very low wounds so you'll want to keep a 10+ in your hand, because once she 'dies' she can take the "One with the Night" action for free and attempt to bury. If you can keep a 10+ in your hand the only thing that can cause her to fail this is a black joker. So as you can imagine a black joker and a 10+ is pretty powerful for you to hold if you're using Bete Noire. 

The other way to use her is have her unbury, kill something with 1 AP, and then choose to take the (1) One with the Night action to re-bury setting up for next turn. Again somewhat circumstantial but an option one should consider when fielding bete. With Molly she becomes incredibly mobile.

So I want to wrap this post up but I do expect to post a short writeup about using Molly at Adepticon before the end of this month. I used her for three games and find her to be incredibly powerful. Stay tuned for that. It won't be focused completely on ToMB as I threw in some other models, but it will be a glimpse of where I see her fleshing out to by the end of this ToMB journey! Until next time.