Malifaux - Battle Report 6/17/10

I have learned a lesson, make sure to write battle reports the same day you played the game otherwise you end up with bad memories and incomplete recollections about the whole thing.

Played a game against my friend Fletch. My Victorias versus his Ramos. I believe it was a 35pt game and we only played the mission objectives, no schemes. He had Slaughter and I had Reconnoiter.

His list was:
Ramos, Arachnid Swarm, Joss, Rusty Alyce, and an Brass Arachnid

I played:
Victorias (2), Bishop, Taelor, Johan, and Hamelin

The first turn went quick. Mainly I moved forward to engage him in melee combat. Fletch moved forward as well, but also created a new Arachnid. He also moved Ramos forward using Reactivate with that stupid brass spider.

2nd turn, I manage to slingshot my dual sword Victoria into melee with Joss. He was a priority, because I've seen the damage output he can do theoretically. Bishop charged Rusty Alyce to keep her from shooting her insane gun at people while Hamelin and Johan were just taking random potshots at people with spells and bullets.  Fletch mainly had Ramos blast my minions with electric death and had the spider swarm punch people in the face.

I end up killing Joss outright by the 3rd turn, but lose the dual sword Vic in return. Bishop keeps tying up Alyce, but never gets the suits I need to do anything fun, and Johan is moving up and still shooting the Swarm. Hamelin can't get a spell off to save his life and I leave Taelor behind for some strange insane reason.
Fletch does a lot of healing, reactivate shenanigans and shrugs off several blows with armor. I'm learning to hate Ramos. He's able to shrug off my range dmg while still dishing out electric death. I HATE HIS HEALING.

4th turn, I learn that Rusty Alyce hits like a F'ing truck in melee and range as she rips apart poor Bishop.  Hamelin starts causing people to dance and fails Obey and Johan finally makes it to melee.  Unfortunately he doesn't hit very well and desperately needs Taelor to back him up. Ramos heals, blasts people, and generally makes a nuisance of himself.
His electric shield thing ends up killing my other Vic.

Taelor FINALLY makes it into combat tying up Ramos and the stupid brass arachnid. Hamelin charges the arachnid because he can't get hurt from it, and generally the outcasts destroy the Arcanists. Unfortunately, because of Ramos's shield that killed Victoria and Johan dying to that stupid spider swarm, I only had 2 guys left. My mission being to capture 3-4 table quarters, with only 2 models means I get no points. Luckily, neither does he so we tie! Yay.

Malifaux - Taelor and Convict Gunslinger

Worked on some of my Outcast models. I am loving how each character is different from the other. Since they are outcasts, I don't even have to try and keep a unifying color scheme. While that might end up looking chaotic on the tabletop, it makes for a more enjoyable painting experience.

I apologize for the crappy pictures. My apartments have terrible lighting, in the form of cheap room lamps, so either the pictures came out too dark, or way too bright from the flash. I swear, the models aren't glossy, shiny, etc.

Taelor was the first outcast I decided to work on. I like her pose, the arm looks wicked, and she is a beast in close combat. Melee expert, 3" range, massive damage and she can cut through armor= sweet sweet loving.

Still not sure how much I like her hair. I'm used to painting Space Marines and Tyranids, ahir just doesn't show up in those pictures. I wanted an orange/red color, and I guess I got what I wanted.

I painted the Convict Gunslinger on Father's Day after work. I'm not sure why, as I really don't like his sculpt, NEEDED to paint him. I stayed up all night thinking of paint schemes for him and I'm still not sure why. I do know that it made for a miserable day at work.

Never having painted a lot of models with skin showing, I think I'm doing fairly good. Gamesworkshop washes are miracle workers. I wanted a very dark, tanned look to him, and I think I hit the nail on the head.

The stripes were easier than expected and his leather bits turned out better than expected.

The biggest complaint I have with the model is that it is too plain. Even with all the scars and the ammo belt across his chest, he just seems too blah. It's part of the reason I painted criminal stripes on his pants. Definitely the reason I painted the MOM tattoo on his arm. It isn't as eligible as I'd like, but it's HARD to paint words that small.

WH 40k - Trygon

Of all the new models the Tyranids got when their new codex got released, the Trygon was the one I was most looking forward too.  I love this model.  From it's serpentine pose, to the little spiky bits that just out all over the place, this model just screamed paint me.

I had actually put off painting this one till I had enough troops to make 2 minimum sized squads.  I detest painting gaunts. They are mindnumbingly dull to paint. Each one is like the other, very little details to pick out, and they all have the same boring pose. Bleh.
Painting the Trygon was a reward for managing to paint up 20.

I really didn't do much of any converting of my first one. I like the Trygon model so much, I really wanted it to leave it as is. I did magnetize all the arms to be switched out at need, and shorten the tongue of the Mawloc mouth.

Not much else to mention about it other than the fact that I need to finish my other one, and get 2 more to convert into Tervigons. That's a long time down the road though.

Malifaux

I had been wanting to start a new miniatures game recently. I wanted it to be cheap to start, not be related to Games Workshop, and have awesome models.
I had been leaning towards Warmachine/Hordes, but the price on some of the models sort of drove me off. Between bills and the new baby, I didn't have as much cash on hand as I wanted to be able to spend.


Then I heard about Malifaux and several things clicked with me. It had pretty much everything I wanted to have in a game with very few drawbacks to keep me from getting into it.

Pros: 

1. Amazing models.  I paint/model more than I play games, so fun models to paint was a very big reason for me to get into the game. Except for the Ressurectionists, I pretty much love every model I've seen.  The detail is great, the poses aren't dull, and each faction is markedly different from another. I'm actually excited about painting these models.
2. Cheap.  For a standard 25-30 soulstone game, you need about 4-7 models. That's it. If you get a starter set, you get all the models you might need for a game at a cheaper price than buying them separately.  I got 2 starter sets, a rulebook, 2 faction decks, and several extra misc models to add in for only about $100.  I've spent more on 1/6th of my 40k armies.
3. New Mechanic. No dice in this game. It uses basically a glorified standard deck of playing cards. Like poker cards.  While the mechanic is strange to use in the beginning, it's just different enough to make the whole thing fun for me.
4. It's not GamesWorkshop. I guess I'm just tired of GW having basically a monopoly on the wargaming around here. I never see anything else. (Of course I don't really go anywhere) Between all the same armies, the recent price hike, and their horrible customer service regarding rules questions etc, I just need to try something else.
5. Story/character. 95% of the models are an individual. They have their own stories and look completely different from each other. No more, Tyranid gaunt #152 or Space Marine #36, each with the exact same paint scheme. Every model I paint will be different and unique and...and...awesome! Glee!

Cons:

1. Metal Models.  I hate working with metal models. They are bitch to clean mold lines from, nearly impossible to convert, and I HATE PINNING/SUPERGLUE. If it wasn't for the amazing detail on these models, I'd skip the metal and just run plastic stand-ins.
2. Small Crews. While having a small crew is great on the pocket and painting wise, it just isn't very impressive on the table top. What I mean is, a fully painted 40k army is something to be proud of. Putting a small crew next to one of those just makes it seem so pitiful.
3. No generic heroes. While it's awesome to have each character actually be someone unique, it'd be nice to be able to field a master/minion that represents a hero that YOU had a story fleshed out for. Being able to create your own stories and characters would have been nice.

Beginning of the end?

Never expected that I'd be making a blog, but I've been listening to a bunch of 40k podcasts lately, namely The Gamer's Lounge, and they mentioned that it is a good place to keep track of your progress as a painter and a great resource in checking out other people's works and stealing borrowing ideas from them.
I'm all up for getting better as a painter and possibly as a gamer (need to play games 1st), so here we go.

Starting off with some dual bonesword Warriors I've been converting in between work. I love the vision of dual wielding, giant bugs of death, so I had to have a few modeled, despite not actually being the best way to run them.

I wanted very large swords to represent their ability to kill enemies instantly, but was told it's very FF7'ish. Sadly I have to agree. Still looks decent though.

I still need to finish them up. My idea of the Tyranid is to make them into a cyborg, metallic, bug race.  I'm hoping to add weathering/rust effects to make them seem more battle worn and ancient.  Lots of washes to make them more dark and grimy, etc.  Waiting for a good day to just spend a day to work on learning how to master those effects.  No worries as I have lots of sleepless nights ahead of me.