Some Malifaux Progress

Not a great deal to show you all as I spent most of my hobby night playing Malifaux rather than painting Malifaux, lol.

I had a good game against Tom's Colette crew during which I learnt quite a lot and also (and more importantly) had a load of fun. It came down to a final attack that my opponent kindly allowed me to do even though we'd technically finished. I'd forgotten to use a 3rd attack I was entitled to and only remembered at the last minute.....well technically just after the last minute. I'll have to remember that I now owe him a 'do-over' during our next game, lol.

They still need at few more layers of wash and dry-brushing and the nurses need loads more work but I'm reasonably happy with how they're progressing.

McMourning and pals...

Fortunately (or not depending on your point of view) washes take a long time to dry so I had some time to assemble 'Dead Justice'. I've based them the same as my Seamus crew as they'll occasionally join him as other things. 

Nightmare Justice...

Hopefully the next post will contain a finished McMourning crew and a started Dead Justice one and perhaps some zombie hooker conversions ;-)

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Dead Justice

I made an acquisition recently...very recently in fact...

It was an impulse buy and initially I only wanted it for the 'Nightmare' Lady Justice model. However it occurred to me that it was a good way of staying true to my Resurrectionist tendency's while simultaneously allowing me access to a different faction should I so desire ;-)

Fortunately the nice people at Malifaux were way ahead of me and had already taken that concept into account by virtue of the fact that they have provided cards for both the Guild version and alternate cards to allow the models to be used as a Resurrectionist equivalent.

Like so...

Dead Doxy/Lady Justice

Punk Zombie/Judge

Crooked Man/Death Marshal

Guild Autopsy/Death Marshal

The Drowned/Death Marshal

 

That lot will be my next 'crew' after I complete my McMourning one. I should have some pictures of McMourning and pals fully painted by the end of the week and I'll be working on some 'Belle' conversions based around the Colette starter set mixed and matched with some Rotten Belle models in between crew painting. I've heard some people say that they don't like the Dead Justice models but I'm quite pleased with them as a purchase.

I'm considering applying as a 'Henchman' so I'd like to be able to use more than one faction for the purposes of showing people how to play the game...as long as they don't mind being taught with zombie versions of other factions most beloved masters that is.....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

The 'Zombie Hookers Everywhere' Project

As followers to the blog may have noticed I'm on a bit of a Malifaux kick at the moment and have been using Seamus of the 'Resurrectionist' faction as my Master and his associated crew. As an extension to this I've also been using models that are in some way connected to him through the background material.

Effectively this gives me the following list to choose from If I'm staying true to the 'Fluff' so far...

Seamus (obviously) and his Totem,

Belles (Sybelle, Rotten Belles, Dead Doxies),

Molly (Also a Belle but by extension this means I can use 'Horrors' as well) and her Totem,

McMourning (He and Seamus have some kind of arrangement it seems) and Totem,

McMournings 'Crew' (Nurses, Sebastion, Flesh Constructs, Canine Remains etc.),

Crooked Men (Seamus uses them to attack the guild) and by extension I can probably justify any even vaguely guild looking undead such as Guild Autopsies,

and Killjoy (Seamus is hunting him in one of the Wyrd magazine stories).

Obviously there are some female mercenary models which could work as well. If I've missed any possibilities then I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.

Additionally I've decided to stretch the 'Belles' concept slightly by converting other female models into more suitable forms ;-)

I have therefore compiled a list of models that should make the transition to zombie strumpet quite easily with the addition of a few touches such as umbrellas and fans. I'm going to start simply by utilising the 'Showgirls' Colette box set to create some 'Dead Doxies' while simultaneously keeping them close enough to the original models so I can use them in their intended form should I desire to branch out into other factions at a later date.

That's the plan at least...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Mollys Crew

As I'm using Seamus as my 'primary' master and I've decided to stay themed and fluffy with my crew and crews, my options are limited.....though not as limited as I thought before reading the background material more thoroughly...

Obviously, Molly is a given as she's a 'Belle' and is in nearly all of Seamus's stories and appears as a major character in her own right in several tales....however....

The crew that comes with her in her starter box isn't particularly well themed around her. The Crooligans are in the one Molly story but are working for some-one else and the Rogue Necromancy isn't mentioned at all. The whole 'weird stuff is attracted to her' justification is a bit weak in my opinion but perhaps it will be elaborated upon in later Material. That said I've gone with it as who am I to argue with the Malifaux design team, lol.

Molly and her 'Horrors'

Rogue Necromancy

I have also acquired Mollys Totem but it's a bugger to assemble and is now in a pile on my painting tray awaiting me to give a shit about it enough to pin the fucker....

My next crew will be the McMourning' one as he and Seamus appear to have some arrangement with one another as indicated in their story in the 1.5 Malifaux rulebook. I've ordered some of the Morgue bases so won't be assembling and painting the models till they arrive as doing them separately would probably be somewhat of a chore. I should hopefully be picking them up tomorrow along with some more Belles I'm going to use as the basis for a conversion project I'm contemplating.

I've also took some better pictures of my girlfriends Rasputina crew and she's put together a rough guide to the bases on them for the person who asked how she did it. I'll put them together into article form in the next few days. Tomorrow is game night so I'll be doing bugger all blog related till Wednesday at the earliest.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

To 40K or not to 40K that is the question...

Several people have e-mailed me asking if this is no longer a 40K blog and to be fair it's a question I should probably answer....The answer is both simple...

The Simple Answer.
This blog is what it has always been, which is a log of my progress in my hobby and a forum for me to put out my viewpoint on issues that interest me. In short it's my blog and what I'm currently doing is playing Malifaux ;-)

and less simple...

The More Complicated Answer.
I don't really enjoy 6th Edition 40K anywhere near as much as I enjoyed 5th Edition for a number of clearly definable reasons.

Reason 1 - Balance.
6th Edition isn't balanced to anywhere near the level 5th was. It is in my opinion no longer possible to create a balanced 'all comers' list using the rule-set as it stands. The 'rock, paper, scissors' match-up is now a strong possibility in any competitive environment and I shouldn't have to be ten times better than my opponent to win a game of 40K just because GW designers cant play-test for shit or don't care or are so confident in their marketplace position that they don't feel they have to listen to the people who actually buy their product.

Reason 2 - The Same But Not Really...
I'll be playing a game using the new rule-set and be fine...and then some stupid situation will occur that reminds me that I'm dealing with something different...and not different in the 'evolved into something better' way but in the 'what the fuck were they thinking' way...like the feeling I had when I was watching Highlander 2 and discovering that some script writer has decided that the immortals were aliens all along and completely ignored very specific bits of the characters background from the first movie...for no apparent reason...

So I've decided to have a break from the system for a while. I've been playing Malifaux and enjoying it and this has had the knock-on effect of making me put more effort into my painting as I'm only having to worry about a handful of models rather than a bucket full. I'm also going to give Warmachine a go in a few weeks time and may give Infinity a go as well some time after. All these systems are being supported by my new FLGS so finding opponents is no problem...in fact it's easier than finding a 40K opponent some nights...which in itself tells you something about how 6th Edition is being received locally, lol.

So I'm not giving up on 40K, but I am exploring other possibilities. If GW want my money then they're going to have to start earning it rather than getting it by default...

GW product development meetings were dangerously vague....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

New Additions to the Gang

I bought Molly's starter box for Malifaux as I was too impatient to wait for the model alone to arrive. I'm not sure whether I'll ever use the Crooligans but the Rogue Necromancy looks like it has potential...

Anyway, my girlfriend decided she liked the Molly model which apparently translates as 'I'm going to paint that for you'.

Luckily I had obtained the first of the two limited edition 'Miss Demeanour' models I've been trying to get my hands on (One via a kind American on the Wyrd games forums and another courtesy of e-bay) so I painted the first one to arrive...the other will apparently take a week or so as it wings it way to me across the ocean via the US postal service, lol.

The Copycat Killer Totem also now has a paint-job as well.

The 'theme' is still intact but now I've read the background stories I find that Seamus has interactions with far more than just zombie hookers so I can expand my collection via Molly's horrors and a few other models that have caught my eye without compromising my original concept. Where I can however I will be using female models as 'The Mad Hatter' is apparently still a pervert of epic proportions.....

The audition didn't go at all as she planned...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

No Dead Hookers This Time...

I've infected my girlfriend...with a desire to play Malifaux...

Unfortunately she's a much better painter than me so I'll have to give her a blog post of her own so my own efforts don't look shoddy in comparison.

She doesn't like cowboys or ninjas and I'm doing zombies so that just left the magic users. After some consideration she picked the Rasputina starter set...Rasputina isn't finished yet so I'm not allowed to take pictures of her, but here's the rest of the set.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Smearing Paint Over Dead Hookers - Part 4

So I'm now playing Malifaux with the same enthusiasm that I once reserved for 40K.....

I've now had six (and two half ones) games using Seamus 'The Mad Hatter' and I'm really enjoying the way the system works. Pretty much every 'Master' has at least one ability that would be considered 'broken' in any other system but when everything's broken then nothing is broken I suppose. Balance is pretty much non existent due to the fact that many of the characters rules are background driven so 'girl who kills undead' is going to wipe the floor with 'army of the undead' and the card system is even more random than using dice would be (Though your control hand mitigates that somewhat).....so the fact that I'm enjoying it may be a surprise to any-one who's followed my blog for any length of time, lol. 

The fact is...well...it's fun...lots of fun, in fact...

I've been nearly wiped out twice and actually wiped out once just because I drew a black joker at the most inconvenient of times and been saved several times because my opponent did exactly the same thing. It doesn't seem to matter though as the system itself lends itself to narrative campaigns rather than actual tournaments as you can most probably break the game in a few minutes if you felt so inclined....which I'm not by the way...

This new obsession has been facilitated by the good fellows at Titan Games* via a loosely ruled 'Campaign' organised by a gentleman (I use the term in it's most loosest of senses, lol) named Tom. It's quite open at the moment and is more a training exercise for the basic rules (we're mostly amateurs, with a few exceptions...) than a serious competitive endeavour but it is quite spectacularly succeeding in it's aim of getting people to play Malifaux.

*who as yet don't have a website but their Facebook page can be found here.

It's also motivated me to actually paint things and more amazingly to actually enjoy it. On that note here's some pictures...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Smearing Paint Over Dead Hookers - Part 3

There's a 'campaign' being held at Titan Games on Tuesday that's meant to be a starting point for those people new to Malifaux as a system so I'll be attending as long as nothing daft happens with work shift patterns. As far as I can tell I'm the only person attending who's never played a game, have a high chance of playing against some-one using Lady Justice (who's specifically designed to kill Resurrectionists) as there are two people using her and we're using the 'Slaughter' mission which is the one Seamus is worst at...suffice to say I'm not expecting great things from game one, lol.

I think I'll call these done for the time being and move on to something else. They'll get a bit more work done on them later but for now they're more than adequate for the table-top.

I've made a start on Seamus's Avatar but am yet to do anything with his Totem..

Still a great deal to do, though.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Forge World Newsletter #311

For the Necron players amongst you...

...They also somewhat justify my rant about Forge World not being able to write rules worth a damn as this unit is significantly overpowered for the points cost.

Forge World Newsletter #311

10/08/12

	Hi there,             In this week’s newsletter we’re excited to announce an addition to our Necron range: the sinister Canoptek Acanthrites are available to pre-order now. We’ve also got an events update for you, as we are now accepting reservation orders for both Games Day UK and Games Day Australia. Necron Canoptek Acanthrites Resembling monstrous, artificial insects enfolded in shadowed wings of tenebrous force that propel them through the skies, Canoptek Acanthrites are murderous Necron constructs created for a single purpose: the destruction of those who have dared to claim the worlds of the ancient Necron empire as their own. Acanthrites' agile, coiling tails are tipped with hyper-phased voidblades and they are armed with high-powered thermal cutting beams, and this potent armament allows them to carve and dissemble solid matter with horrifying speed. Unsurprisingly, when these devastating weapons are turned upon frail flesh the results are terrible to behold. Canoptek Acanthrites are often encountered in the vanguard of Necron assault spearheads and extermination campaigns, and their numbers vary from a mere handful to vast hosts of these abhorrent machine-locusts, capable of stripping a city down to rubble and slaughtering its inhabitants in a merciless tide of destruction. The Necron Canoptek Acanthrites set, designed by Will Hayes, comprises three finely detailed multi-part resin models. Experimental rules for these rapacious constructs are available to download from our website, and this set is available to pre-order now for despatch from Friday 31st August. Forge World Events News Sunday 12th August is Games Day Germany at the Gürzenich Köln. Forge World designers Will Hayes and Edgar Skomorowski will be in attendance, providing you with the perfect opportunity to ask them how they go about creating our great models. Games Day Germany tickets will be sold on the door, priced at €25 and we look forward to seeing you there! Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th August is GenCon Indy 2012 at the Indiana Convention Centre in Indianapolis, USA, where we will be joining Games Workshop and Black Library for the first time. We’ll have a wide selection of our range of resin kits, books and modelling supplies available to buy there, alongside our Imperial Enforcer and Skin Wolf Event Only models. Please note that because of these two events, our Customer Service team’s availability will be slightly amended. We will be closed on Saturday 11th August and operating a reduced service on Monday 13th August. Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th August is the Imperial Armour Warmarch event at Warhammer World here in Nottingham, UK, and we will have a small stand in the gaming hall on Sunday with our Event Only models on sale. The Warhammer World store carries a wide selection of our range as well. Friday 31st August to Sunday 2nd September is PAX Prime, at the Washington State Convention Centre in Seattle, USA. This is the first time that we’ve been to this incredible event, and again we will be joining Games Workshop and Black Library with our range of resin kits, books and modelling supplies, and this year’s Event Only models as well. We’re looking forward to seeing you there. Games Day Australia and Games Day UK Reservations Now Being Taken Sunday 9th September is Games Day Australia, at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, and we will be journeying down under with Mark Bedford from our studio design team. Additionally Sunday 23rd September is Games Day UK at the NEC in Birmingham, our biggest event of the year. We’ll be bringing you more information about our presence at this amazing event in the next few weeks. Our entire studio team will be in attendance along with lavish displays of both new and work-in-progress artwork and models, as well as with several of our immense display tables. We’ll also have a vast sales stand containing a massive selection of our range of resin kits, books and modelling supplies, including our Event Only models and maybe even a few cheeky pre-release kits in limited numbers. We’re now taking reservation orders for both Games Day UK and Australia, and a reservation order is the best way to ensure that we will have the exact products that you want, packed and waiting for you to collect. Games Day UK and Games Day Australia reservation orders are pre-paid to make the collection process quicker and easier, leaving you with more time to enjoy the rest of the event. To place a reservation order for Games Day UK, just call the Forge World customer service team on 0115 900 4995 between 9am - 6pm Monday to Friday, or 9am - 5pm on Saturday. We’ll need your name, a contact e-mail address and a full list of the items you wish to order, and you’ll need the card you wish to use for payment to hand as well. To place a reservation order for Games Day Australia, please contact GW Australia customer service on +61 (0)2 9829 6111, or visit your local Hobby Centre, or e-mail AU.Hobbyservice@gwplc.com with any queries, and please note that we need to receive your reservation orders by Monday 20th August. GW Australia will take your name and a contact e-mail address along with the details of the kits you wish to order, as well as processing your payment there and then. For both Games Days we will send you a confirmation e-mail listing your order number in the week before the event. This is your proof of payment, and youmust bring this with you to the event to collect your reservation.