Real Life Kicks In....

Well as all good things come to an end, this here blog will be taking a break for a little bit.


Due to being a Royal Naval Submariner, I get the unenvious job of having to go to sea.


I will be making the move from Helensburgh, Scotland to Devonport, Plymouth in a short while, that and having a baby due in April. My personal life is having to take priority. To top it all off as this is my last year in the Navy I will be moving back home this year too. Gosh two house moves and a baby in one year...


That and I will also have to find another job to fund this great hobby of mine.


So I guess this is me signing off for now, I will hopefully be back before the end of March but please don't hold your breath waiting for it.


I will be around the hobby still and will try my damnedest to keep everyone up to date.


All I can say is to all you Scottish guys keep a space free for me at the tournaments and all you in England be prepared to see me at more and more tournaments.


So for now this is Richard a.k.a Malandres signing off.


It has been a pleasure. Remember to keep me on your blog rolls as I will be back with many more blogs and reviews soon.



As always remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul


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2012 Crews

So for 2012 I have decided that following the trend this year will be the year of using crews different to my usual style of play (and yes this includes a Ressurectionist crew)!


I have chose to initially field these at 35ss with the intention to build them up to 50ss over the year and the excellent releases that Wyrd seem to be spoiling us with recently. Check out the March and April releases.


So onto the crews I shall be using this year;


The first Crew will be Viktorias, here's the list;


Viktorias, 6ss pool
Von Schill
Freikorps Librarian
Hans
Convict Gunslinger


I know it is a small crew, and I have no experience working with any of the models so it could be a fun learning curve. 


The second Crew will be Dr. Douglas McMourning, and here is that list;


McMourning, 8ss pool with Zombie Chihuahua
Bete Noir
Datsu-Ba
Desperate Mercenary
Canine Remains
Canine Remains
Canine Remains
Canine Remains
Necro Punk
Necro Punk
Rogue Necromancy (summon)
Flesh Construct (summon)
Flesh Construct (summon)


I have never played Ressurectionists so this will be an experience, but new year new crews and this will also give me my one crew in every faction.


So it is a short post but be prepared for some tournament feelings and reports on these crews.



As always remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul


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How I learnt to play Malifaux

As a follow up on last weeks post "Why Malifaux?" and reading another fantastic Malifaux blog post Loxley's New Fairbank News on "Malifaux: How did you learn to play?" It got me to thinking, I should really follow up on my post as to how I learnt to play this great game (and also how I learnt to play all miniature games I have played).


As I had said before I picked up Hamelin, Seamus and Som'er crews first and all the things I thought I needed (a rules manual and that was it). After a quick perusal through the rules I discovered no dice were required and I needed a Fate Deck (I didn't have one of these to hand so I picked up my poker cards).


As with all games I have played against myself to initially learn the basic game mechanics before trying to tempt my wife into a quick game prior to venturing out of the house with the models and conquest in mind.


So I set up the kitchen table with some terrain and placed  Som'er and Seamus on the table with two gremlins and two belles respectively. This way I play with a pretty common minion for each crew and have a chance to figure how the masters work in this game. The first thing I noticed was that masters are more in your face in this game than other skirmish games where the masters are used to buff and bombard with spells...of course there are masters in this game that play that way.


After my my first activation with each crew I found that the way the game works there are so many rules to take into account before even considering moving your model.


Onto how I teach myself to play;


I know it is a strange way to learn a game, against yourself, but I find it easier than spending hours with a player that wants to get on with a game in some instances and me apologising for my countless readings and searching through the rules manual for the basics. I know some people will say that this is to be expected but I like to provide enjoyment for my opponents from the very start of my ventures into games.


So that is how I learn to play games, feel free to add your own ways and methods onto the comments of this and we shall see the varied ways people learnt to play this fantastic game.


After a few games against myself, I went for the jump and decided to go to Glasgow Gaming Group (G3) for my first game against a real opponent, this game as expected I got well and truly beat. It turned out to be Shared Treasure Hunt against Von Schill vs my new crew Ramos.


As always remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul


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Battle Foam Case

Ok time for the weekly update on Malifaux and I.


Yesterday I bought myself the Malifaux Battlefoam carry case (as a birthday present 2 months early).


My first impressions was "wow this is a big case to carry my Malifaux around in!"


Upon opening the case I was greeted with space for everything I will take to a game with me, it has room for two fate decks, my glass soulstone beads, a tape measure, some pencils/pens and all of my rules manuals if I saw fit to take them all...not to mention all them templates for my neverborn :)


Well that was just one side I had opened. So I swiftly spun the bag round to check out the other side to see where my models will be spending their travelling time. Low and behold on checking out the other side there is another pocket where I can store even more material, this got me to thinking all this bag needs is a place for me to store my laptop and I would be set. After unzipping the model side I was pleased to see the great quality foam that comes with the Battlefoam name and lots of it! The only thing so far I think the bag is missing is tray toppers.


So onto the bag itself;
The material used to make the bag seems very good and the embroidery is a nice touch (if a little gimmicky but then again lets be fair we all love little gimmicks).

 Model cover

Storage cover

The case is sturdy and seems very strong (I haven't tested it for sturdiness...yet). There is more space than I expected in a bag this size, considering the amount of foam you have to play with. 


The Foam;
The two trays for the standard models are deep enough that you have no worries about pointed swords or any appendages that point out and the pluck foam tray is deep enough for the 50mm based models to fit comfortably in. As I said before though although the bottoms of the foam trays are stiff the case trays could benefit from toppers. The two standard sized trays will hold combined 88 models and then however you manage to pluck the other tray to accomodate your other larger models.

Two trays for standard sized 30mm based models

The depth of the trays (40mm) will house

any standard sized model

Pluck tray

Depth of Pluck tray (60mm) will house

most of your 40mm and 50mm based models

Storage;

The amount of storage you have to carry all your gaming aids is really good. You have ample room for everything you will want to take to your gaming night/event/weekend. You can easily carry your larger rules manuals, pocket rules manual, Soulstone beads, tokens, pencils and all your templates.

Storage side of the case

Well that is all the good points covered so now onto the negatives.

Price;

It is without a doubt an expensive case, of course you get what you pay for and that saying is very much proven with this (and any battlefoam bag). But that being said this case will be more expensive than the competitors. 

Toppers;

As the base foam of each tray is pretty stiff a tray topper could have been nice for each tray (although with that you would lose 5mm each tray topper) to protect each trays contents. These would be nice as standard with the cases although it is a minor thing in my eyes.

They really are the only two bad points I can find with the bag and overall I would be willing to pay more for a bag of this quality and I will happily recommend the bags to anyone looking for a gaming case.

It comes in three colours (black, red, and brown) and has the various loadouts you come to expect with battlefoam. Go and check out www.battlefoam.com for more information on all of their products.

Stay tuned later in the week for more posts on the modelling and gaming front of the hobby.

As always remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul

Feel free to add me on Twitter  or on Facebook

Why Malifaux!

As the title suggests, this post will be my reasoning behind why I chose Malifaux as my renewed interest into miniature war gaming.


I started playing miniature war games when I was about 10 and it was Warhammer fantasy Battles very swiftly followed up by 40k. 


I played for about 8 years and then grew weary of it and had a break for a few years...well 4 to be exact.


After the break I went back and picked up my 40k again but just didn't 'feel' the "I must play using as big an army as possible" ethos, and after 2 years of playing big battles I started looking around for a skirmish game. 


This brings us up to last year when after searching the Internet and using various forums I got introduced to Malifaux, and oh my I haven't looked back since.


My intro post on here gave my initial impressions but this post will elaborate on them and explain why I am so passionate about this game.


The first crew I picked up was Hamelin the Plagued and that was a big mistake, due to it being a game with many rules for each model in the game Hamelin was a very steep and quick learning curve which led me to putting him on the back burner and picking another crew.


That led me to buying the Ramos starter set and since then I have only added to the crew, it has become my main character and although people say he is rubbish I have actually had pretty decent success and of course some absolute disasters. 


I still remember my introductory game it was my Ramos starter set vs a club members Von Schill crew and we flipper shared treasure hunt. Needless to say it was over very quickly and the fact that Ramos as a starter crew is not very mobile was quickly revealed. This however didn't put me off and I then proceeded to add all and sundry to the crew, bringing it to the 60ss it is today. 


All through this I still didn't even own any of the larger rules manual and was pretty ignorant to the excellent fluff that was contained within. After hunting furiously for the first rules manual a good friend of mine told me he had a spare one in a pretty sorry state so I could have it for free.


After opening the rules manual and after finishing the stories I went to looking at all them other masters and factions. That is when the addiction began! As soon as the book was shut, I had ordered Perdita, Lady J, Sonnia and Som'er crews, and of course the other rules manuals. 


After they all arrived I rather energetically glued them together and got to painting, before I read the other books as I knew there would be so much more models I would order and then watch the model pile grow and grow.


After playing plenty of games with Ramos and Perdita again with much mixed success. I proceeded to read through the other two rules manuals and again spotted so many models I felt I just had to have! 


All those Avatar models and the art work just evoked so much interest to me as to how the game was going, naturally I went and bought the Ramos Avatar. Having only played one game with Avatar Ramos which was a loss to Avatar Seamus. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and that is one thing that has kept me hooked on Malifaux. Even a loss is more than enjoyable.


That note brings me back to this post (after much digression) as to why I chose Malifaux and why I love this game so much.


For me it has to be the unique setting and story based games (with cards no less, none of this dice rolling here kind sirs). 


For the setting I think Eric Johns describes his game the best "Based on an alternate Earth, Malifaux blends Gothic, steam punk, horror, and wild-west themes into a fast paced and brutal 32mm tabletop miniature skirmish game". 


I mean what other game can you play where you have zombies fighting cowboys and mechanical spiders roaming the battlefield all in one world. 


It's fantastic other than the debacle that is book 1 rules I can hardly fault the game, yes there is some streamlining that could be done but they would literally just be tweaks on an already great game mechanic. The only things I would personally like is triggers and abilities that do the same thing just call them the same thing, it will make it easier to learn rules and save regular checking in rules manuals (although the reference that got added into the pocket edition is great for this) as people will only have to learn one name and then just place in [] the specific weapon/card suit/requirement for said ability or trigger. As I said only minor tweaks are required.


The thing that drew me to this game (other than truly beautiful sculpts and characters) was the fact you use a Fate Deck (deck of playing cards) instead of the standard D6 for resolving actions, this I found a revelation and a far better idea...it's easy flipping a card from a single deck, I remember trying to roll all them dice in an apocalypse battle, 60+ dice are not fun! 


After subsequent releases from Wyrd miniatures my enthusiasm for the amazing sculpts and very rarely do they release a model I don't enjoy the look of.


So I think in a summary I have became addicted to this game through a combined effort of amazing sculpts and a truly beautiful setting for a game (if beautiful is a word you could use for a world that even the trees could kill you). I think the game will be here for the long haul and I look forward to seeing every monthly releases knowing that I will willingly part with my money to a great game and in exchange I get beautiful looking models and great stories contained in the package.


I think I have rambled on long enough on why I love this game, so if you haven't played it why not give it a go! You never know this could be the game you've been waiting for and it could fill the gaming void for you like it did me. Until next time....


As always remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul

Feel free to add me on Twitter  or on Facebook

Terraclips...

OK so as I promised my Twitter and Facebook followers that there would be a post today all about as the title might suggest Terraclips.


So for all those who don't know what Terraclips are here is a little description on what the system is;


Terraclips is a modular board system made by WorldWorks Games in corroboration with Wyrd Miniatures. Terraclips uses sturdy card with very high detailing on either side. It comes in pieces not disimilar with a puzzle. These are clipped together using a clip in one of three style I, T or L depending on the build. 


The system is designed to build a 3D board with levels that can be removed on the fly to enable a game to utilise all areas of the board be they in a house or even in an atic, just move the roof or level you need to have out of the way and continue playing.


The clips and tiles are supplied separately and it is clearly stated on the box. 


There are three different boxes currently available Streets, Sewers and Buildings of Malifaux. All the boxes come with plenty of pieces and enough to comfortably build a 1.5ft square board with a second level (that is one box of Terraclips and one box of Clips). Three sets of any box and 3 sets of clips will build a 3x3 board (the size needed for Malifaux) with a few levels and still have parts to spare.

I will start with the faults I have found with them;


Clips - Now love them or hate them they are necessary, but, they are an absolute eyesore. Even worse if you plan on taking pictures of your board (once you eventually build it). Now don't get me wrong they are better than the original clips but still need some work...maybe a clear plastic would be better?


Time - If you want to play a quick game this is not the board system for you! I have built a few now and have reduced my time to about one hour for a 2x2 multi-level board. Sadly there is no way to remedy this other than practice.


Inch Markers - As a miniature wargamer this are a bane in my games as there is no need to pre-measure and take that judgement out of a game for me. I can see there use in a Role Playing Game but not in a game of Malifaux.


Well they are my two main gripes with the Terraclips system.


Now for what I like with these sets;


Aesthetics - These are very, very nicely printed and are really nice looking. They suit the world of Malifaux perfectly and as an all in one modular system look the part in every sense of the word,


Sturdiness - The card is very sturdy and deceptively strong (I had a Steamborg Executioner on the very edge of an unsupported tile and it held with very little drop). Once clipped to a few more tiles and with the right amount of lower supports this only increases.


Quantity - The amount you get in each box frankly astounds me. Even after building a 3x3 board i had plenty left and if I had more clips I could have probably added either a few more levels or a couple more feet to the base level.


Attention to detail - There is plenty of detail on each and every tile even down to removable doors and markers for in game use. The sizes of them could even be used on bases (if you really wanted to save time and just glue one as an insert).


Cost - For what you get and the amount of it, you really cant go wrong with purchasing this. 


Time for some pictures of my current build, a 2x2 board which took approximately one hour to build.

They are all the levels that make up my 2x2 board that is build ready for a demo coming up. 

That is the table in its glory. As you can see the clips show up terribly under a camera flash but in reality you do grow used to them.

This is all the extra parts I had left after building the board. They are all elastic banded together in their sizes and shapes to ease finding them for building further boards.


To summarise on this system, I think for a gamer they are a fantastic investment for the price and use of them. Okay you wont use them every game but if you have an hour beforehand to build a table it will give you a great backdrop to your games and can really help set the scene. There are some flaws in the system granted (mainly the clips) and over time I'm sure these will be ironed out. With careful planning you wont use as much clips for games and your build time will reduce dramatically.


Once again thanks for your time and if you wish to see more about this system why not check out their official website www.terraclips3d.com.


Remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul


Feel free to add me on Twitter  or on Facebook 

Introduction

Well hello there stranger!


Welcome to Malifaux.


This here is my blog all about my adventures into The Breach, it will contain battle reports and my overall experiences into the world of Malifaux.


Malifaux and myself:


I am a Malifaux Henchman and have a crew in nearly every faction (never any Ressers). I play at a club in Glasgow (G3). The crews I use are Ramos, Som'er and Perdita.
I have a few WIP crews Sonnia (unpainted), Lady J (unpainted) and Dreamer (unpainted). 


Now more on myself as a gamer; 
I started as many gamers did in Warhammer Fantasy (about 15years ago now) with a very much on/off relationship with the company that is Games Workshop. Moving across to 40k and that kept me for about 8years. As money grew a bit tighter and I had to act like an adult (well almost) I moved to skirmish games primarily Lord of the Rings and Necromunda.
After a few years out of the miniature wargaming hobby I came back and was introduced to Malifaux and that is where we are now.


My first impressions of the game:


I shall start with what I believe could do with some work or changing in the game;


Triggers - Some Triggers that do the same thing but are named differently. This could be made so much easier with just a single name and then specify suit or weapon it is on, on the relevant stat card. I think this will just make the game more strealined.


Book 1 Models - A lot of them are now way overpriced for what they are capable of against something similar to themselves in the newer books. V2 and some V3 cards have addressed some issues but there are still plenty to be made.


Book 1 Masters - Although fun to play fluff wise against Book 2 masters they are sorely mismatched. This could be actioned one of two ways...either nerf the Book 2 Masters (which they have started to do) or give some buffs to Book 1 Masters.


That's the downsides covered now to cover the good points of the game;


Cards - I love how they use cards (a Fate Deck) instead of dice. It's so unique and a very fun way to play a game. Perfectly in-keeping with the fluff of the story. Zoraida with her cards is always in my mind when I'm flipping a card over.


Crew Building - I really like the way you pick your crew after you know what you are playing. It really takes into account of how a boss would run a mission.


The Models - The sculpts that are used are fantastic and a real painters dream. I particularly like the fact for non-unique minions there is a selection of sculpts for each, there's nothing worse than 6 of the same model on the tabletop and they all look identical. 


Cost - The quality of the sculpts and the variety, is more than worth what you pay for these models and a starter box really can be played straight out of the box. As games can be played with as few models as you can muster there really is no pressure to buy all the biggest models just to play a game. 


Playability - It's a delight to demo and play this game and it attracts attention from hobbyists if only for the models and the beautiful sculpts. It's a smooth and very much a story based game. Perfect if you only have an hour or so to play with other commitments taking precedence.


Although the game is still relatively young it has its flaws but I believe the Pro's far outweigh the Con's and I recommend this game whenever anyone wants to play a new skirmish game (and I did that before I was a Henchman).




Well I guess that shall be the end of my first post. More to come soon.

Remember Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul


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