ToMB - Late February - Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hi All,
Just thought I'd update with some spending and building.  Last month I had spent according to the rules $42 on miniatures, $32 for the Sonnia metal crew and $10 for Secret Weapons Miniature Trench Work bases. Since then I picked up a Witchling Handler ($10) and yet more of the same type of bases (to maintain the theme, again $10). So expense wise I'm up to $62 spent, leaving me with $23 in credit.

I picked up the Witchling Handler because this force currently has 5 Witchling Stalkers and having something to improve them is worth considering.  She's not ready for play yet, but I have her assembled and primed thanks to an unnaturally warm break in the weather Sunday (stuff it Mr. Gopher!).   I also spent a little bit of time touching up some spots I missed on Sonnia.

Our first tournament and my first play since the beginning of this blog fest will be tomorrow. Ms. Handler won't see play this tournament, but soon.  The tournament is a 35 stone tournament, 3 rounds at Myriad Games - Manchester.  I'll be going with my initial force, Sonnia Criid, Samuel Hopkins,  3 Witchling Stalkers, and 2 Guild Hounds.  I'm trying to stay with the same list for a bit longer as I learn the nuances of the game to pick up speed by familiarity.  These 3 games will be numbers 4, 5, & 6 for me, so yes I'm a newbie. Game 1, I learned the basic rules, like dice aren't needed, but little token markers are needed.  Game 2, I learned Sonnia Criid is really good at ranged attacks.  Game 3, I learned that despite a really cool sword on the model, Sonnia is poor at melee attacks.  Anyway, wish me luck, and thanks for reading.

ToMB: The Guild's Judgement

I've been a fan of Malifaux for a long time.  I've told anyone that has ever asked, "if Malifaux had the same following locally to me that Warmachine does, it would be my 'go-to' game."  Now, I can comfortably say that my requirement has been filled!  This blog series has given me the opportunity to dive into my local Malifaux "meta" with both feet.

My wife and I are both players, and you may see her comment in my posts from time to time.  We decided that the ToMB series would be a good reason to break out the plastic sets we bought at Gen Con.  She is painting up the Shadows of Redchapel and I'm completing The Guild's Judgement.

In truth, I assembled both of the starter sets.  I can say that I found the entirety of assembling Redchapel to be significantly easier than assembling Lady J alone.  I need to state a qualifier here, I'm an experienced modeler and can easily assemble a 12 piece metal Infinity 25mm trooper.  I HATED assembling Lady J.  For anyone considering the crew, my advice is to use both super glue and plastic cement (where appropriate) and purchase some precision tweezers.

Well, here's some photos of the prep:

The contents of the box

Superglue on the bases

Yep, it's cat litter

I knocked of the extra, and gave each a squirt of Insta-Set.  Bases were done and ready to prime in about 5 min.

I made the classic mistake of not documenting my individual model progress, but here is where I stand today:

You may notice that her sword blade is not congruent with her sword hilt.  It drives me INSANE.

I hope this has inspired the rest of my ToMB'ers like their posts have inspired me!  Great work everyone :)

ToMB - Come my mechanical minions!

Hey guys, short introduction :)  I'm Will, owner of UrbanLasercraft.com, avid gamer, hobby guy and more.  I've been into miniatures since the early 90s and when Malifaux first came out I jumped right in.  I love skirmish games and this one had some really cool fluff and lore and the minis were just amazing.  Plus with my luck at dice ... well it was a win on all sides :)  My very first master was Ramos and over the years and versions I have played all kinds of factions and masters but with the release of Malifaux 2.0 and the new plastics, I had to go back to my old favorite.  I haven't even really read much of his rules but in the old game you had exploding mechanical spiders and the ability to create more spiders out of scrap to then blow up!  You can't beat that :)

Ok so let's try to format my rambling into something that might make a little sense to read :)

Who did I pick?
I picked Ramos, but not just any Ramos, but the new plastic box set.  Wyrd has made some great improvements to their plastics and the new models are just fabulous!

Ok so the box comes with Ramos who is the maser, Howard Langston who is the Steamborg Executioner, basically a mechanical Drider of doom.  The Brass Arachnid who is a support model, Joss who is an elecric axe wielding crazy man and 6 spiders that you can base as either a swarm of 3 or individually.

The other good thing about the new box is it comes with all the cards you need to play them so you don't need to worry about arsenal boxes.

That comes to 42 Soul Stones without any upgrades, throw in a few upgrades and extra soul stones since Ramos only has 3 and you have a 50 point game you can play with a single box set.

Bases

Now for the rules of the ToMB we have $60 to purchase stuff for our first month.  Technically bases do not count but I want to highlight that I think some of the amazing custom bases out there by companies can really make the model stand out.  Normally you are only playing with 5-10 models, so splurging a little for custom bases for these guys really makes each one a mini diorama.

For my Ramos crew I am using Groundwerks Base Inserts - Dungeon Floor.  I think it gives them a really cool look and you can imagine him in his underground lab making these mechanical monstrosities!

Assembly Time!

So the other good thing about the new plastics is that they glue very well together with Testors plastic model glue.  They can be a little fiddly because of how tiny some of the parts are but once they meld together they are pretty much not going to fall apart after that.

Now I'm sort of cheating because at GenCon, if you spent over $100 on Malifaux stuff you got an exclusive Miss Step, who replaces Howard Langston.  So of course I had to use the crazy female version of a mechanical Drider so in the pictures that is who you will see instead of the one that comes in the box.  Too bad they are Rare 1 or I would glue and paint them both.

So here we have my models glued and primed black.  I assembled 3 of the spiders on a single big base and the other 3 on single bases since throughout the game you will need them both.

Painting and Gaming!

This thursday I'll be actually bringing these guys to the table and testing them out.  

I don't really have a plan as I still need to read how they interact with each other but the Brass Arachnid can cause Miss Step to reactivate giving this monster beast of a model 2 turns in a single turn.  I hope to use that to good effect, combining that with Ramos's send in the spiders and blow them up!  He is by no means a front line fighter but can do some range shooting especially against models his other minions have tied up and then can also push other models into the embrace of loving Miss Step.  Now I just need to remember to use all these cool abilities!  Joss is my beat stick front line troop, in addition anybody he kills drops scrap tokens for Ramos to turn into more spiders.  I think it's a pretty easy combo to keep track of and I think it will do pretty good overall.  But I'll report back and we'll see!

In addition I plan on starting to add some paint to the models.  The lucky thing is since there is a lot of metal and brass, I can use some pretty easy painting techniques with metallic paints to get them done pretty quickly.  The rest of them I will drybrush a grey and then a white and then start painting in their colors.  I admit that I only have a few rudimentary painting techniques but I will try to spend more time on these models.  I get impatient and just want them done and ready to play with, in addition to all the other projects I have going on, but hey it's a good excuse to work on them!

Budget Tracker:

Ok so we went over who I picked and why and even showed off the assembled models that are primed.  How am I doing for budget?

The M&SU Box Set - $50

So yup leaves me $10 carrying over to next month!  

Now what I'm not counting is the following, mainly because you may either already have them or are learning from a friend or just doesn't count in the ToMB budget :)

Mini Rules Manual - $12.99 - The main rule book is amazing, great fluff and stories and also all the cards in there for looking at future purchases.  However it's big and bulky to take when actually gaming so the mini rule book is perfect for taking with you.  (Still get the big rule book too!  $32.99)

Bases - $21 for 2 40mm bases and 6 30mm bases.  Again, these can really make a model stand out.

Fate Deck - $7.25.  You really want to have one of these to play the game and not have to deal with other decks of cards and the suits.

So if you were starting from scratch, you could be ready to go all in for less than $100 which you really can't beat for such a fantastic miniatures game.

Next month I plan on adding more spiders to the crew and maybe looking at some other models to help augment the crew.

So until next time guys when hopefully I have a battle report, some thoughts on how they did, and even some paint on the models!

-Will

ToMB - Perdita: Welcome to the Family

Hello, my name is Corbin, Hagisman on the forums. I’m a mali-newb and joined Tale of Malifaux Bloggers to help other mali-newbs learn about Malifaux from my successes and mistakes. I started wargaming two years ago when Warhammer 40k switched from 5th to 6th edition. Last September I realized that I wanted to play more skirmish based games and discovered Malifaux, which coincidentally was going through an edition change.

Most of the time I play in tournaments since I have a pretty busy schedule on weekdays. Mainly due to tournament games ending around turn three or four, my play style is slowly becoming tailored to scoring Victory Points early.
I started off as a Guild player and have kept to it for the most part. So far the masters that I haven't played from Guild are Lucius, Hoffman, Sonnia, and Perdita... what's that?...Lucas McCabe? Never heard of him.

With introductions out of the way lets begin this Tale of a Malifaux Blogger.

Who did I pick?

From left to right: Papa Loco, Santiago Ortega, Perdita Ortega, Nino Ortega, Francisco Ortega, and Enslaved Nephilim(out of frame, no relation)

The Latigo Posse. Which includes Perdita Ortega(Master), Francisco Ortega(Henchman), and Enslaved Nephilim(Totem), Nino Ortega(Enforcer), Papa Loco(Enforcer), and Santiago Ortega(Enforcer). A very elite crew at 32 soul stones(ss) base with a Cache of 2 and doesn't include a single minion. For reference Lady Justice’s box is 30SS and Sonnia Criid’s is 27SS.

And adding two Guild Guard(Minion) at 4SS each, just in case my opponent takes Make Them Suffer as a scheme, which considering the Ortegas have only one Peon model it is a guaranteed 3 VP if I run the base crew.

In total I have 40 soulstones worth of models without upgrades.

Why did I pick them?

The Ortegas were a crew that slipped past my radar, Lady Justice's and Sonnia's stood out more for me, but after reading the Ortega fluff and seeing their abilities I changed my opinion. 
They are known for being the best Neverborn hunters in Malifaux, those that join up have a dangerously short life expectancy. The Ortegas have been in the Neverborn hunting game longest and are known for being eerily good at it. Crunch wise a lot of their abilities revolve around chain activation and movement shenanigans. I’ll go into more detail when I showcase some individual models in later blog posts.

The main reason I chose them has to be range though. Everyone of the Ortegas, except Papa Loco, has at least a 12" range. Considering that I've been playing Lady Justice and McMourning, arguably both very melee focused, Perdita is a nice change of pace with her 14" attack action that can double as a melee attack. She also brings some nice special abilities that allow her to re-draw your hand or shoot out of turn.

When do I get them?

Sadly the Latigo Posse box has yet to be released so right now I have to wait patiently... Or get Vassal setup on my PC... Or rely on the kindness of my fellow gamers to lend me their metal models for a game or two. The release date is only Febuary 2014, so they could be coming out either next week or the week after. Expect a new ToMB post from me each week. Until the new box comes out I'll be focusing on the models I have as well as some theory-faux.

Alternate Perdita, I want!

What advice can you give to new players?

In general, I highly recommend the following to get started:

• Buy a Fate Deck - A playing card deck made by Wyrd for Malifaux that has the the symbols the game uses to declare triggers. There are rules for using a standard Bicycle deck, but its a lot easier to recognize the symbols you need with an official Fate Deck. Also the tournament rules now require Fate Decks if you are interested in tournament play.
• Buy a Rulebook - For a good layout and low cost I recommend the mini-rulebook. However, the big rulebook has every stat card for Wave 1 models, which makes it easier to study your opponents. Supposedly there is a reprint due out the end of February that fixes the layout issues with the big rulebook.
• Know your Models - Very important. Make sure to remember what abilities your models have. Abilities like Hard to Wound and Armor keep your models alive, whereas abilities like Accomplice and Companion allow you to activate out of order. Other abilities, such as Perdita’s Relocate can help move your models around the table. Forget an ability and you are playing at a disadvantage. If you can know your opponent’s models as well you'll be playing with an advantage.
• Know your Schemes and Strategy - This is what decides the result of a game. If you are just starting, figure out how to complete your Schemes and Strategy. Don’t let yourself forget them, if you do you are losing Victory Points(VP). Eventually as you play you’ll learn how to deny your opponents their schemes and strategies.
• Learn from Mistakes - Should be a given, but if you don’t play that much you might forget what worked and what didn't. For example, Guild Guard are very fragile, especially when Reckoning and Make Them Suffer are flipped.
• Have Fun - Malifaux is one of the few games I've played where at the end of the day both players can say they had a good game. It doesn't happen all the time, but it can and has happened for me. Be a good sport, play fair, and don’t take it too seriously. Leave the "win at all costs" attitude at the door and relax.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers Budget Tracker:

• The Latigo Posse - $45.00
• Perdita
• Francisco
• Enslaved Nephlim
• Nino
• Papa Loco
• Santiago
• Guild Guard - $14.50
• Guild Guard x 2

Total Cost = $59.50

Carry Over into March = $0.50

ToMB February - Compelled by the Masamune

Adam had asked me if I wanted to participate in this blog adventure after asking him if he could run a demo of the Version 2 rules for my fiance and I at Templecon.

I've played Malifaux v1.5 once. I picked up the game because my fiance was really into the game. Someone ran me through a game which I enjoyed, but ultimately my Sonnia Criid crew ended up in a battlefoam bag, not seeing a table again.

What is the ultimate goal for my posts?

I definitely going to show painting progress and theorycraft, but what I want to do is talk about a lesson I have learned in all aspects of the game. Hopefully someone will learn from the mistakes I've made.

Who did I pick for my tale?

Despite already owning the Sonnia Criid crew, I decided I wanted to start completely fresh with a crew that was already tuned for version 2. So, I decided I wanted to pick up the Hired Swords box.

When I first looked at the game, I really liked the concept of the Viktorias as well as their models. However, after some research I found that they had a higher difficulty curve than most crews. I didn't really understand the game all that well, so the thought of having to learn the rules of the game at the same time as learning a crew that was known to be tough didn't make sense to me at the time. But you know what, fortune favors the bold.

The sheer attitude and look of these models are definitely translated into the rules for this box. They're aggressive and powerful. Due to this fact, they also glass cannons. Both Viktorias clock in at 7 wounds a piece, which means that learning to protect them properly while still allowing them to slaughter the enemy. I'm very curious about their Avatar, however I want to see if they are going to redo them in plastic. The rest of this box brings along a bunch of additional murder pieces as well as some decent support pieces. 

The Ronin act has great combatants who also have a wonderful ability to refund the crew 2 soulstones when they have "outlived" their usefulness. 

The Student of Conflict is by far my favorite little piece. She can give someone the Fast status for 2 action points which makes for some fun first turn rushing. With her having the Sister keyword, there are some nice tools that the Viktorias can give her to make her a wonderful combatant. 

Then there is Taelor, who is the lady with the robot arm and giant hammer in the picture above. Taelor fits with the "lets murder everything in our way" theme that the Viks bring to the table, however her position seems to be a bit difficult if there is impeding terrain which makes me think that Scramble is a good upgrade to give her.

Lesson learned: Brush control

While I have been enjoying the hobby aspect, I'm finding that I still have a lot to learn in that world. Behold my painting progress:

Both are very much still a WIP but decent for being on the table. The detailed lines on Taelor's jump suit and the Student of Conflict's sandals were frustrating to try to paint without getting paint in places I don't want it. But the more I do the better my control will be.

Total Cost:

Here's the running tally of what I have spent so far:

Hired Swords Malifaux Second Edition box Set: $45.00

This leaves me with $15.00 left to carry over into March.

Gameplay:

I played a few games recently at Templecon, but I think I'm going to save that for another post, since I've been pretty wordy in this post already; so we'll talk about those later.

I'd definitely like to hear feedback on everything from the writing to my game play. Every little bit helps!

Thanks!

ToMB Month 1 - A lot to keep track of!

Introduction

So to officially kick-off my ToMB, this month's post is going to be focused on how you as a new player can dip your toes into playing my master of choice for this little series of blogs, Molly.

The title of this post reflects the complexity of choosing Molly for ToMB due to the fact that her new plastic boxset is not released yet. However, I will surmise what is included in the box. I will calculate her costs for both the old metals and the new plastic set (assuming the price is similar to other sets available). That's why below I list two 'configurations' for her.

Choices

So let's get right into what I'm choosing, then I'll discuss why I chose these models and what stats I find important. If you're new to Malifaux (or M2E) in general, I hope to shed some light on my thought process and things that I see working. Now please keep in mind, this is Post 1 of Month 1 so there is quite a bit of 'Theory-faux' going on here.

One other general and important thing to keep in mind, is that Molly is a summoner (well can be), so while she can summon much more than I am playing with. I am really trying to play her with only the models that are within budget for each month. So even though I can summon a guild autopsy with the "Spare Parts" Wave 2 upgrade (Cost 2ss), they are not in budget for this month and I'll try and stay away from them.

Models (based on M2E box being unreleased yet):

• Molly Horrors Boxset (Metals) - $36
• 1 Molly
• 3 Crooligans
• 1 Rogue Necromancy
• Yin the Panangalen - $8.99 (Could not find on Wyrd site so linked Warstore price)
• Canine Remains - $14
• 2 Canine Remain models

So total for this month is: $58.99 leaving $1.01 for next month. This is also 8 models for me to use.

Models (based on assumed M2E boxset, estimated cost):

• Molly plastic M2E boxset - ~$40
• 1 Molly
• 2 Crooligans
• 1 Rogue Necromancy
• 1 Philip and the Nanny
• 1 Necrotic Machine
• Yin the Panangalen - $8.99

So total for this month (plastics) is: $48.99 leaving $11.01 for next month. This is 7 models.

Reasoning

Ok now as to why I chose these models. As you can see in both lists I've included Yin the Panangalen, and I think he is going to serve an important role in Molly's crew. Sure he is a horror, so hiring him makes sense. However, that's not the key reason for including him.

The main reason to include him stems from a core concept in winning duels in the game of Malifaux. Forcing a (-) negative flip on the duel. If you look at Yin's action (0) Gnawing Fear you see it forces, upon success, the recipient of the condition to suffer a (-) on all Ca and Wp duels. Molly and the rest of her crew use a lot of casting (Ca) and (Wp) duels both from their attack actions and their forcing of Terrifying. Therefore, timed correctly this can be devastating to a model which has the condition applied to it. I will report on the success of this and see if it pans out.

Besides Yin, I'm really excited about figuring out how to do summoning right in M2E. It is a mechanic which I expect to be resource intensive. Now as I mentioned before, I am limited in what I'm able to summon since I only really have 1 rogue necromancy. So until the new boxset is out I will have to use spare 50mm bases or some acrylic tokens. With that said I'm going to stick to summoning what I am allowed to for this month. In Molly's case her upgrades allow for her to extend her summoning capabilities (enhanced versions of "The Ones Left Behind") or summon via "Spare Parts" to get a rogue necromancy. Plus the fact I can summon the Crooligans with Molly, I really love her versatility, Their -1WP to enemy models is nice, especially when summoning and forcing the obligatory TN15 Wp duel when summoned. I really am excited to see how this plays out, especially coupled with Yin.

So, yeah the Rogue Necromancy (RN) is going to be my beatstick. I really see a healthy, but obvious, synergy with the crooligans and the RN via their "(0) Blistering Fog" because they help increase his damage output. I'll be starting to play with her "Forgotten Life" (Cost 1ss) in order to hand out Black Blood to my Horrors (i.e. Crooligans, etc.). This means I'll have to be cautious with strats/schemes like Reckoning and Make them Suffer.

With all that said I see Molly being a heavy soulstone user mostly for giving me any suits I am lacking for summoning.

So before my first painting status update here are some models I'm considering for the rest of #ToMB with her, this isn't all she can summon, but its what I've gravitated towards, we will see:

Dead Doxies

Canine Remains

University of Transmoirtis (4x models, Valedictorian, Students of Sinew, Student of Steel, Student of Viscera)

Rotten Belles

Carrion Effigy

Crooked Man

Mindless Zombies

Guild Autopsies

Drowned

Painting Status

I cheated (just a little). Seeing as though I already had Molly painted, and the new boxset isn't available, I am using her painted model. Everyone else I have I am just starting. 

Molly

3 Crooligans

Rogue Necromancy

Yin

2 Canines

Pssst, the reason for the Canine's is:

1. Their -1Df (you know the stat used to oppose the RN attacks)
2. They're also great objective runners for their cost
3. Can help dig-up corpse counters

ToMB - February - Sonnia Criid (Dave's)

Hello, my name is Dave.  I have been a miniature gamer for over 10 years, and a gamer for over 30.  I decided recently to pick up Malifaux 2.0, since my friends were playing the game.  I had some requirements that are a little unusual from the norm to choose a crew.  I have 2 little kids at home so I felt I had a need to keep a game that was more G rated or at most PG rated, if these minis were a movie.  I for instance don’t want to be in a situation of having to explain undead hookers to my daughter or some nightmarish figure to my son that already has me checking the closet for monsters every night.  The second requirement is I’m cheap.  I don’t want to invest heavily in this game, I just want to play games with my friends.  Third, the force has to be fun to play against.  I don’t care about winning; I just want to have fun with friends.  I want a list that leads to close games, not an uber list that wipes out an opponent.  So, my list has to be on par with other local lists and probably a few pegs below a tournament level crew.

I took care of the first requirement by choosing Guild, they mostly look like normal humans, so I figured I could work with them, certainly not nightmarish nor overtly sexual.  I found Sonnia Criid’s crew in metal for $32, and proxied in some old Mage Knight miniatures to represent 2 Guild Hounds and a Burning Effigy.  I also acquired from a Game Trade Magazine promotion 3 extra Witchling Stalkers (I have 5 total).  I bought some Secret Weapon Miniature 30mm Trench bases for $10 to bring all the pieces to some cohesion.  For low model count armies or crews, I like to have special bases to help make them look a team. I also picked up a set of Malifaux playing cards (Fate deck) for $10, the Guild Arsenal Wave 1 cards for $8, and the small rulebook (without PG-13 pictures) for $15.

I modeled the Guild Hounds with Mage Knight Zombie Hounds and the Burning Effigy with a Magma Guardian. The Burning Effigy proxy is more to do with my being uncomfortable with a miniature of a man burning to death praying and possibly having to explain that to my kids.  That is on the threshold of too PG-13 for my tastes, as an example.

I have assembled the miniatures, primed them and on a challenge painted them (although they could use some more details) in a week.  Technically it took 9 days, but they are done for now.  My crew consists of Sonnia Criid, Samuel Hopkins, 5 Witchling Stalkers, a Burning Effigy, and 2 Guild Hounds.   

I am leaning toward the purchase of more Trench bases and a Witchling Handler for next month. Then the following month the avatar model for Sonnia Criid and the Guild Arsenal Wave 2…

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

New Hampshire is "Playing at Home" with the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers (ToMB)

If you haven't heard. ToMB was unveiled this week, to understand my blog entry please read the links below. No need for me to re-type the rules, idea, inspiration, etc.

• ToMB Official Blog
• Inspiration for ToMB

Ok, so 'we' are playing from home. That's right. I said 'we', a bunch of Malifaux players from my local area have decided to hop in on this. Also, if you are reading this and are from the Southern NH area and want to get involved feel free to reach out to me.

All of our #ToMB entries will be posted here on my blog (they don't have to be, but just makes it easier to see the Southern NH groups progress all in one place!)

So far I have the following people committed to this. So please look for entries from them when this officially kicks off sometime after Feb. 17th.

• Will - Founder of Urban Lasercraft
• Jerico - Painting phenom
• Steve - Brand new to M2E, but played in 1st ed
• Corbin - New to Malifaux, starting 3rd master
• Dave - New to Malifaux
• Myself... 

Personally, I was torn between two different masters. However, I think I have settled on someone who I really have always had such a love for, and that's Molly. For those who were around in 1/1.5 edition she was an often loved model, but underplayed due to her Henchman status and the fact that she really wasn't terribly powerful. With that said, she is intriguing to me in M2E.

So you want to know who she displaced, right?! Well its Jack Daw. If I chose Jack Daw I was going to proxy "The Carver" model and put him on a 30mm base (with an insert into a 50mm in case I wanted to use him for the Halloween encounter). Then I was going to use the NE hanging tree in his crew since they are legal per the new Gaining Grounds proxy rules. With that said, I have a lot of Molly's crew not painted, and figured it would be a good compromise to paint AND play with a crew I've always wanted to field more. Also, she has some really cool new artwork.

Oh and this doesn't count as my first post. I'm going to do an official ToMB post on or shortly after Feb. 17th.

Finally, some logistics. I will let them introduce themselves in their first post. Who their master is, what their goals are and their general story. If you want to follow one in particular, we will be using the ToMB labels and the master of choice. So for example, I am using the Molly label. I have attached both to this entry.

So are you partaking in this "Play at Home" ToMB thing? If so let us know and we will link to you.

Cheers and happy ToMB-ing!

P.S. Special thanks to Chris and Dave for lighting the fire for us all on this