Playing like a champion

A lot of posts on the blogs tend to look at tactics, essentially tips & tricks on how to win the game. Today I wanted to post about what I believed made a game enjoyable to play, as in player conduct at the table which is conducive to a good play experience for both players.

I posed this question to the Malifools a few weeks ago and a recent post on a Wyrd Place about “expectations on a Tournament Organiser (TO)”. The later was pretty self-entitled; luckily cooler heads (fingers?) prevailed and put forward some good points about attendance of events.

But having never been one to be quiet I thought that I would share some of my own thoughts, so being on the topic of etiquette put on your finest smoking jacket and grab a glass of brandy (or tea) as we discuss etiquette for tournament play.

At events

Set up – Arrive early if possible, we all can get stuck in traffic but try to be at the event but if you aim to get to the event at the start of registration I find this gives plenty of time in case of traffic. It’s the often great if you can offer to set up some tables for the TO. Even if they just then need to tweak the setup this is going to be a great help. If there is spare time is often a great opportunity to catch up with a few people on the scene

Respect the round timings – it can be tempting to play for that one more turn or to ask for an extension but this really isn’t fair on the TO or your opponent. The opponent has expected the game to go to a certain length and may have started to play an end game strategy when the last turn time warning was announced. The TO equally needs to get your result in so that they can get on with doing the draw for the next round.

Take down – offer to do some help in getting boards put away and cars loaded, ideally before the TO does the prize draw. It really helps the poor TO who has already given up a lot of their own time to put on the event and gives them a shorter day after they have dedicated a lot of time making your day awesome.

At the table

Stay positive – We’ve all had that game, your fate deck hates you, somehow your opponent has smuggled in some kind of master race of models with hard counters to your plans, you’re next to the window and the wind keeps blowing your stuff across the venue (all of this has happened to me). But remember to try and stay positive about the game, your opponent still wants to enjoy the game and getting into a sulk isn’t very fair to your opponent. Try to take it with good humour and if your struggling to understand where your losing then speak to your opponent at the end and ask where it went wrong. Most people will be happy to discuss it with you. If you’re having issues with the table/board you’re playing on (such as being on the same table twice or three times) just ask the TO move you and majority if now all will be accommodating.

Explain your crew – After you reveal your crew I believe it is polite to check if the opponent has played against the crew before. Malifaux is a big game and it is not reasonable to expect every opponent to know your crew as well as you know it. Even some of the most experiences tournament attenders I know have not had the chance to play against every master/crew. Make it clear which upgrades are on which models (I’ve had this go both ways once where I surprised my opponent by not making it clear and once where I’ve not used the upgrade as the opponent wasn’t clearly aware of the upgrade). I’m not suggesting you lay out your hand book of tricks but try to give them an idea of the key actions that the model might do (this one hits really hard, this one has a nasty ability, this one has leap etc…). It will cut of any feelings of “what the f*ck did I just see?” from occurring.

Discuss the terrain – I learned this one from Joel Henry, but it is in the rules as well. Make it clear what the mutually agreed the traits and height of the terrain on the table, it will head off any arguments and makes sure that you are playing on the same page. Once I started doing this I have never looked back and I even do it when not playing Malifaux now.

Be clear with what you are doing – I am terrible for this so allow this to be a public apology for the times when it gets to turn 3 and my brain is trying to keep on top of all of the things that are going on I can often fail to take the time to clearly explain what I am doing with my crew. There are a lot of interactions available in Malifaux so it can really benefit people to make it clear what is going on. For example I was once playing James Doxey and one of his Mechanical Spiders moved next to one of my models and in his words “did a little dance”. I thought that he meant pass, at the time it was confusing but I didn’t understand what he meant. Turns out he was interacting with my model for cursed object, which won him the game by 1 point. Equally it’s important to make it clear what actions your model is performing, especially if your opponent has never played against those models before.

Just a few suggestions of how to make your games more fun for yourself and the people that you attend tournaments with. If you’ve got more, drop them in comments or tweet me!

Things moved quickly!

A while since the last post and this one is likely to be a short one. Real life decided to stick its obnoxious nose in the way of my hobbying and an Xbox One has proved to be a little distracting when trying to get on with models (but should you get the chance I highly recommend Shadow of Mordor).

The GT was a rush to get finished and to give you an idea of what it meant for me I painted around 20 miniatures to be ready in time, painting chart below. I’ll try to speak about the GT at a later date, it was a little disastrous for me due to health reasons but it’s good to review why you are losing games to improve in the future.

While I’m not sure I would call the push to get everything painted fun, it was certainly awesome to see how much got done under some pressure, perhaps Old Man Mike’s theory was right (talking of which go check me out on Fools Daily with Joel!).

Also somehow this happened – that’s right best resser.

It won’t last for long, for one Ant is a very strong player and deserves to have this next to his name. But it feels like a momentary and great achievement, certainly something I never expected to achieve.

Also next year I am thinking of moving to another faction and completely dropping out of ranked events due to family commitments. As for faction I am thinking Guild of 10 Thunders but Molly, Kirai and Jack Daw are all calling to me. All bets are off when they get the plastic Hamlin box gets a realise date as well.

Final bit of ‘faux news is that it’s Black Friday so get your order in! I picked up a few old metals (old Hamlin to paint, 10T brothers and the Warpig). I avoided pre-orders as I will pick them up in time and have enough to paint right now and went for a few limited editions (Ms Demeanor, even though the new rules are rubbish and alt Perdita).

2 Kick-starters have delivered, Luchador! and Shadow of Brimstone. I've played the former and have read the rules on the later. I hope to provide a little more on each soon.

Yan Lo – what is he good for? (ToMB – Month 2)

Later than expected I finally got Yan Lo to the table last night for his first run out. My opponent wanted to play at 45SS so I put in a Rotten Belle and dropped an upgrade from my previous list.
The scheme was Reckoning with a very kill based scheme pool. It wasn’t an ideal crew that I had picked (with lots of cheap minions) but that gave me a good opportunity to look at what worked with Yan Lo and what did not.

My initial thoughts on Yan Lo are the following:

• A Yan Lo of two halves - The first thing that I noticed is that Yan Lo really comes into his own in a later game as a power house. Before that he can be quiet fragile and will certainly want to be hanging back to build up some Chi. Once he gets going all of his CA actions are 8 which makes him an offensive machine.
• All of the healing and none of the healing –in my experience all of the Wave 1 Resser masters where very difficult to kill. Even Nicodem could prove to be a challenge as long as he stayed at the back of the pack. Yan Lo does not have a selfheal like some of the other masters (though he has great healing spell for his minions) and with an initially low DF and WP he will quickly be losing wounds. However with the correct ascendant upgrades and a built up source of Chi he can have some of the best defence in the game.
• Dancing all night long – the Lightning Dance is one of the go to attack actions that Yan Lo has, it allow him to isolate an remove an enemy model and place it next to one of your models allowing you to take apart the opponents crew peace by peace.
• Ranged, in a Resser crew – while not an exceptional attack its not to be sniffed at in a Resserctionist crew. Less applicable in 10 Thunders but the Resserectionists do not have a lot of ranged attacks across the faction. Yan Lo brings some of this to the faction and once he gets up to CA 8 it will be easy for him to hit most minions. While you won’t be building your strategy around it I think that it is a good tool in the box to have.
• Me and all my friends – Yan Lo seems to come across as a support master, not in the same way as the traditional buffing master but rather one that allows you to make your key models very difficult to kill and make the most of their AP with tricks to bring enemy models to them or push them around with the Soul Porter.
• Initial thoughts on schemes – at the moment as a Resseructionists I would say that Yan Lo is the “go to” model for Reconing, he can take a small elite crew and move them around and keep them healthy. This is great for VP denial. I think with the right crew  he can also do Turf Way and also would be worth looking at Stake a Claim and Squatters rights.

As to hobby time, I’m sad to say its been sorely lacking. I’m about to move house hence the disruption and the Foldio has arrived so that should allow me to deliver some better pictures as well. I also arranged a game last month but forgot Yan Lo’s rules so ended up having to run Nicodem. This was fine for finally getting the hang of his upgrades and summoning (4 hanged in one game!) but a shame to not get Yan Lo to the table more often.

ToMB – Month 1 – First Steps on the Path - Collecting

I’ve taken my lead from @mike3838  I will be dividing my updates into three broad categories as outlined in his blog - http://malifauxnoob.blogspot.co.uk/. These are:

Collecting – what I have bought this month
Painting/modeling – exactly what it says on the tin
Gameplay – This will be a mix of theoryfaux, battle report and hopefully a tournament report or two

As discussed before I will be starting with Yan Lo. The first stop on the for purchase is the Masters of the Path box. This adds in a great support peace (Chiaki) as well as some sold minions in the Ashigaru.

Now if I was purchasing the crew completely new I would pick up Toshiro and then review what to add in next as I love the sculpt. Like a growing number of Wyrd model when I first looked at the art for him  I was less than impressed but seeing the sculpt won me round. However I don’t currently own him so I will use what I have ready to go in the form of Izamu. It’s a little cheeky as he is already painted but he is a great model that pumps up my crew to a 41 SS crew which is the minimum to play a scrap.

With those purchases made this is what I currently have for a list

Resurrectionists Crew - 41 - Scrap
Yan Lo -- 6 Pool
 +Decaying Aura [2]
 +Reliquary [1]
Soul Porter [3]
Ashigaru [5]
Ashigaru [5]
Ashigaru [5]
Chiaki the Niece [6]
 +Pull of the Grave [1]
Izamu the Armor [10]
 +Unnerving Aura [1]

Purchases - Masters of the Path Box($35) and Izamu - The Armor ($16) total spend $51. Budget carried over to next month: $9.

I’m off to Smog Con this weekend to which looks to be a top few days. I’m signed up with Nicodem for the story encounter (provided I can turn up on time) and the will be in the main Malifaux tournament. Then I hope to have a good mooch and drink some beer as well as get a few demos in a avoid spending to much on new toy soldiers. If I can I will try to meet up with some of the other ToMB for a first game or 2.

Tale of a Malifaux Blogger - Month 0

In an effort to fit in with the cool kids in Malifaux I’ve put my hat into the ring for the Tale of a Malifaux Blogger competition that will be running for the next 6 months. Rules can be found here for those that are interested http://taleofmalifauxbloggers.blogspot.co.uk/ or http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/98442-tale-of-malifaux-bloggers-tomb/.

It is in essence to write a blog as you do a slow grow of models for Malifaux as you purchase them (or in my case assemble models I have purchased and not painted yet.  Most bloggers have started with one master and in my case this will be Yan Lo. I’m not entirely certain of his play style as it underwent some revisions during the play test. The official rules for him come out this week and I’ll post up my thoughts then but a cursory glance of his last rules he was looking to be a solid tough to kill master (as you would expect from the Ressers) who could lead a thematic elite crew (I can see him  becoming the go to master for Reckoning).

The reason I’ve decided to start with him is due to his duel faction status. I have almost all of my Wave 1 Ressers painted but need to start work on my Wave 2 models as well as pick up a Kirai crew which will provide some good synergy for Yan Lo. I also have Lucas McCabe and Jackob “the new filth” Lynch assembled looking for a good home as well so I can put these into this project as I go for painting.

Being a moderate painter I like to pick a colour for my crews to tie them together as well as basing. It’s going to be blue for the 10 Thunders and the yellow for Ressers (my Ressers that is). Each other master will keep the signature primary colour from there factions plus the blue for 10T. Basing will be the original faction of the model.

The good news is that the local scene has got about 4-5 new players interested in Malifaux at the moment so I hope to stick to these rules when playing those guys and becoming Mr Suitcase or “that guy” and keep the games with the newbies fun.

I think that the only other blog covering Yan Lo can be found here - http://www.fauxshow.ca/cat/tomb/ should you want to compare (though it looks very similar to start with!)

Master Class

Last weekend the UK Masters came and went. Despite my initial trepidation about the event I have to say that the day was fantastic. Due to work commitments and a young family I was really only in a position to attend the first day and not able to join the side event “League of Extraordinary Henchmen”.

The event was run with a relaxed atmosphere and I thoroughly enjoyed every game that I played over the course of the day. They were some of the most challenging but also the friendliest games that I had played since begging to play Malifaux.

I managed to pull out a win and two losses – one going to James (@mythicFOX83) and the dark horse Greg (@gregpiskosz). What was nice about both games is that I lost by 1VP in both and they were very close. With James I didn’t understand some of the VP objectives he was going for and Greg I only have myself to blame with some slow play which denied myself the 4th turn that would have made a big difference.

Rather than try to write up each game I thought it might be better to speak about the crews that I faced and some tips from each of them

Neverbourn- Lilith (Greg)

Greg had a good mix of tarpit models to tie up my crew (Bad JuJu and Waldergiest) and then used the Nepehlim as an objective runners which really suited the scheme pool. These are backed up by Lilith’s movement tricks and the Illuminated as heavy hitters. This is a strong list used by other Neverborne players this weekend.I found it best to concentrate on the tots and young Neverbourn before they grow stronger and focus on the key VP grabbers for the crew.

Arcanists – Ramos (James)

You can see James painted crew on his awesome blog – http://blog.mythicfox.com/

James starts with a small crew of elite M&S (Miners & Steamfiters for those who don’t know). This then turns into an elite crew + lots of spiders that can again tie you in combat and restrict your actions. Still working out a good way to take this crew out but obviously area effect would be great as well and anything that removes scrap counters. Attacking Ramos which was my original play is very hard; he had a lot of defensive abilities to make it tough to take him out unless you have good shooting. All of which seem to be lacking in my current resser minions…

Resurrectionists – Nicodem (Jakab)

A couple of really neat tricks for Jakab’s crew – Mortimor just ‘sspew corpse counters with My Favourite Shovel and Corpse Bloat. He also uses dogs when the Protect Territory scheme is out and runs them forward to drop scheme markers on the 1st turn. As I’ve seen before both Nicodem and Mortimor are however very vulnerable if they become exposed and once they go down the crew goes with them.

Should you ever have the opportunity to attend the masters I would recommend it. Despite the strength of the last day of “Lynch” based crews I thought that all of the factions where still strong. Yes Ramos is great for the Arcanists, but so is McMorning for Ressers or Lynch for 10T, most of the factions feel like they have a strong play style and master that they have access to and its down to player ability to be successful (or lack of from me).

I hope to learn from these mistakes and plan for them at my next event – SmogCon!

Until then it’s back to the painting table – I have Nicodem to get finished before looking at what to start painting for 2014!

Looking to 2014 (1 of 2) – nefarious plans and schemes

While 2013 was a disrupted year of gaming for me my aim for 2014 is to get back into my gaming with some gusto. I have a few work related issues that may stand in my way, however with Malifaux M2E coming to the point where many of the models now have rules available for them and picking up popularity, pace and players in the UK scene I hope this will offer new opportunities to get more games in.

My plans for the 1st half of 2014 look like the following:

January 2014 – UK Masters - By some statistical anomaly I’ve ended up entering the UK Masters this year, more by default rather than skill but that never stopped me claiming credit for something. I thought I best rush in and confirm attendance before anyone notices the issue. So the good news for me is that as the bottom ranked players for the competition is that expectations are low, which is fortunate as it should go hand in hand with my results. I’ve been drawn in a pool with people that I’ve never played before which should make for some fun games. I don’t envy my buddy Timmy who seems to have ended up in the pool of death but equally I know I will have some tough games ahead of me. My take away(s) from the weekend would be to gain some more confidence playing tough opponents so that I don’t get so nervous when playing at top tables during tournaments and I will consider the event a “win” if I am able to get anything better than 3 losses.

February 2014 – SmogCon – my initial interest in attending this event was related to catching up with a few old gaming buddies in the south. However at the same time they got into Malifaux they have also got in Warmahordes, which they will be playing. However as I meet more people in the Malifaux tournament scene and through the Vassal leagues this now seems like a great opportunity to catch up with people. I wasn’t a huge fan of the painting requirements when announced (though it doesn’t affect me as most of my Wave 1 Ressers are painted) and the inclusion of Wave 2 was frustrating as I haven’t had much time to play them due to real life commitments and they will literally only be finished a few weeks before the event. However playing devil’s advocate does say that there will be some great looking games which showcase how great Malifaux looks and that some players only play one master many of which are in Wave 2 (The Dreamer and Collette come to mind). Either way it should be good event. I am hoping to have Nicodem ready to play at this event.

March 2014 – Haul of Eggs 2 – It’s nice to return to a local tournament after Clouseau has had a few issues with finding a venue that can accommodate us. No idea what I will be taking to the tournament on the day. It might depend on what I can get painted by the time the event comes around.

2nd Quarter 2014 – Warhammer World - I will probably be going up to Warhammer World for another day of gaming. It looks likely to be 1 day of 40k and 1 day of kill team. I will skip the kill team as I have another mistress called Malifaux who scratches my skirmish itch but I look forward to getting some more of the Necrons painted and back on the table.

Fist o’ Fate / Joel Faux / Fisting Joel Report

December 1st witnessed the tying together of the Fates. A monumental and historic event – the first tournament run by Mr 300, the lovely Joel Henery!

This was an exciting event as not only would it by my first M2e Event but it was also one of the biggest UK tournaments for Malifaux in 2013, a great indication for where the game is heading. I think that the high attendee of the tournament (38 players I believe) was due to a few things:

1) A great central location, Leicester turns out to be a good overlap for about five or so play groups which means that it becomes an easy drive for many players

2) Good advanced planning with plenty of notice to people about when the event would be occurring

3) Critical mass – when people witnessed that a large number of signups it lead to more people wanted to join due to the size of the tournament 

4) The continued excellent tournament scene that the UK Malifaux community provides. Often spoken about on podcasts/twitter, but when I attend a UK Malifaux tournament I truly do feel like I am playing in a relaxed atmosphere with friends, despite often never having met my opponent before

5) Perhaps it was just the opportunity to avoid being n00b stomped by Joel ;-) 

I arrived with my compadres from Rushden Phoenix Gaming club Rick and Aron and quickly meet up with henchman extraordinaire Clouseau and Timmy making up the local players coming from Northampton. 

The play room was clearly marked and with plenty of parking where certainly good points. The main room had great space and chairs available to sit at and even with 38 players it felt like there was good space to move around. The food provided for the day was good and it came with refreshments which was great. Free Tea and Coffee is always good though it’s nice to have a bar (not that I drink much at tournaments). A break out room to sit and chat or move around between rounds would have been great but I don’t think it would have been practical. I also liked that everyone was expected to help with take-down before the prize giving – it must suck as a T.O. to have to work all day and then do take down. Much better to have everyone help out.

Joel did a great job getting the day set up and run and you can tell that he’s a teacher by trade with no difficulty speaking loudly to a group of players and giving directions so everyone knows what is going on. HENCHMAN LEE was also on hand to help with rules questions and they were always available and on hand to help. Sportsmanship was used as the 3rd tie breaker (which with only 3 rounds was required), while I believe it’s vital to encourage good play as part of the day I think this should be a separate category next time maybe using VP difference as a 3rd tie breaker. Also it was many players (including myself) first use of this scoring system so some further guidance of how to apply the sportsmanship scores would have been good.

As to the games all 3 were excellent – here is a quick rundown: 

1st Round – Tash vs Genius! (Squatters Rights) 

Josh Fletcher @tenshu8

Joel had pulled a very kill based scheme set with his first game; Assassinate, Bodyguard, Make them suffer and Frame for Murder. 

I’ve not played a lot against Outcasts but when Josh declared this as his faction I had to give it some serious thoughts. Seams isn’t great at going on massive killing sprees and can really struggle against models that can use soul stones as he only gets one hand cannon shot a turn. I decided to turn to the good Dr McMourning for this outing. I chose Assassinate and Frame for Murder of Sebastian. 

The game was close with the Ressers almost completely dominating the squatters rights markers and McMourning pushing straight across the table to engage Hans. However some bad cards meant that he was quickly isolated and Von Schille and the Specialist joined in to wear him down. Turns out the Cracked Trigger + rubbish cards makes McMourning have a really low defence! McMourning couldn't seem to kill anything but he tied up VS, Specialist and Hans for the first 3 turns. Despite this it wasn’t until turn four that the good doctor finally went down and the Von Schille moved to the middle of the board to suffer death by Canine Remains as well. Both of us picked up 2 points for Assassinate. 

In the meantime Josh played his frame for murder well and I took out his Friekorps man early. I just wasn’t in the situation to get Sebastian in a vulnerable position and he was too much of a key model for me to throw away. Learning from this I wouldn’t put Frame for Murder on Sebastian in a rush again. 

The game ended turn 4 in a Draw

2nd Round – One for the road! (Turf War)

Robert Smith (I think!)

So continuing with the fun scheme pools we had Protect Territory, Entourage, Breakthrough and Murder Protégé. This would also be my first game against the Brewmaster. I took Seamus with Sinister Rep.

It was a great game, Robert was a really pleasure to play against and I think we both really enjoyed the game. Essentially we both forgot a lot about what we could do – we even forgot that had certain models on the table! One of the best moves he made was using the Hanged with Obey to target Seamus, reduce him to half wounds and stop him from healing. An excellent combo the made me have to change my entire plan.

The Brewmaster is a interesting master to be up against. His play style feels unique and looking back on it I could describe it as a NPE but instead I just found it really cool. Great bit of design that went into him and if I pick up 10 Thunders in the future I might well look at picking him up. He managed to tie up most of my crew with his drinking action – which was fine as they were still in scoring range of the centre. Had I been thinking more about it I could have lured and taken more of the crew out of his aura. 

In the end I managed to pull off a win in turn 4 (again we had time called on us). What made the big difference her was that I was able to get the points for Entourage while Murder Protégé on Mortimer seemed to elude Robert.

3rd Round – Night of the living dead (Steak Stake a Claim)

Ben Halford @Ben__halford (yes, that good dam great painter!)

Scheme pool for this was Frame for Murder, Plant Explosives, Distract and Protect Territory. Ben pulled out Nicodem and I brought the good Dr once more. 

I’ve played Ben before and its always a pleasure to play him also it’s great to see his models grace the table. 

The game opened with some initial cagy moves with Nicodem starting the death ball rolling by summoning up a Hanged and collecting in to a big group in the centre of the table. I pulled some great cards and was able to move my models into the right position with the Flesh Construct being ordered into the middle of the Nicodem ball and placing a scheme marker to score me Plant Explosives. McMourning followed up in person and managed to Red Joker the damage on Nicodem to leave him on 3 wounds and 2 poison at the end of turn 1. 

Nicodem soon found himself as a flesh construct after Ben flipped a 13 for imitative and I pulled the Red Joker again. The Hanged did its job and stopped McMourning from healing for the rest of the game and the rest of Ben’s crew brought him down. This lead to a really interesting game with no masters from turn 2. More shenanigans ensued but I was able to score both my schemes and the strategy points while Ben was only able to pull of Frame for Murder. 

It was a win for me and I can see why McMourning is so good at scheme based games. Distract also still feels like a very easy scheme to get points for. We also managed to finish all 5 turns. 

Overall I had a great day and was very pleased with my results coming in at 6th on the tournament. 

I also put up my crew for a painting competition. Now I am the first to admit that I'm not a great painter but it felt like something I should at least get into the habit of entering and working on my painting to improve my standard. Listening to the Malifools and speaking with Clouseau it is a really key part of enjoying the hobby and something I will keep working on to maybe try and get a bronze one day. It was a highlight of my day to see a few people stop and take the time to look at my crew.

The painting standard was very high with all the crews I faced and it was really nice to see a lot of painted crews on the table. As with a lot of players I really need to learn to play faster.

Thanks again to Joel and Lee for organising a great day – I can’t wait to get more games in next year. 

Seamus 102 – The Man Himself

Today I actually wanted to spend some time talking about tactics of Malifaux’s finest milliner. You can find some great introductions and unboxing of the Seamus crew around the internet – Bell of Lost Souls has a particularly good one here.

What I wanted to provide is some further tips after a few games with Seamus that I’ve found. It is not a master class but I found these tips helpful for improving my game:

1) The TERROR!!!! – Firstly REMEBEBER that his crew causes terrifying tests and make your opponent flips for them. The number of times that I forget to announce this to my opponent and they are halfway through the flips before we remember this and I end up hand waving the check. Don’t expect this to be a paralyzing a huge amount of the enemies crew but what it is great for is stripping the opponents hand. Combine this with the Belle’s crow trigger and the grave spirit and your opponent will be out of cards.

2) Why won’t he die! - Seamus has Impossible to Wound. This means it’s very hard to do a spread of damage against him. Combined this with his upgrade of Mad Habadashery to reduce damage to 0 on one lucky attack the only way to bring him down is a weight of fire.

3) Stole Stones – Due to the afore mentioned I don’t find that I need to be spending stones on Seamus defence. I accept that they are going to hit me but don’t worry too much about the defence flip unless they have some nasty triggers I need to avoid. Therefore I use his stones for getting suits on other actions – mostly to summon or to push out of combat. Finally using the stones to reduce the damage done.

4) What doesn’t kill him makes him stronger – so if your opponent does manage to get some damage onto Seamus you can still start to have him heal up. Every failed WP duel within Seamus’ aura allows him to heal 2 wounds. Failed Terror test? Healing. Lure? Healing. The Hanged attacks? Healing.

5) Stay on target - The focused action is really good when using Seamus’ gun as it gives you a much better chance of being able to cheat the damage flip and doing cheating in a card to do moderate or severe damage. Seamus won't be able to kill everything but he can pick off a model a turn.

6) Now you see me - The back alley only requires him to start out of line of sight of the enemy - he can pop up right next to them. So a common chain of actions for me in a turn is - Back Alley, Focus, Shoot then use my zero to turn the corpse into a Belle. If you can move somewhere without line of sight then you can move again, with the right cards in hand you can cover the board in 2 AP.

Seamus has two "builds" that can be used depending on how you would like him to play - Sinister Rep - this allows you to have a bubble which gives everyone around Seamus a - to WP this makes it harder for people to pass terrifying tests and Bag o'Tools which make him a stronger melee master. Play with both and see which one you like.

Also worth mentioning is that Cheated Fates Radio have an excellent episode which focuses on Seamus as well – though both hosts seem to have a completely different play style to myself. This is certainly one of the best things about M2E that you can now have radically different play styles on the same master.

Next month I hope to put up some details about the minions and enforcers that I like to use with the Seamus crew.

A league of their own – Vassal games of Malifaux and planning for the games

Ever wanted to play more Malifaux but due to some real life commitments have been unable to get out to play locally? Well my friend then the good people of Wyrd Miniatures and Vassal have been able to provide a great (and free) tool for you to use!

I won’t go into the detail of how the Vassal tool, mostly because I do not understand it, but essentially it’s a virtual table top that lets you load multiple modules. Each module provides the components required to play a game but you will still have to know the rules, think of it as being given a virtual board game without any instructions.

With the launch of M2E the very wise Jon decided it would be great to organise a series of leagues over on the Malifaux forums. The players have been organised into 10 leagues with 6 players per league supported by an external website to track wins/draws/loses. I decided that it would be great opportunity to get a few more games in and get to know more of the wider players in the Malifaux community.

It also served as a good way of getting some more regular games of Malifaux games played (I only know about 6 players in the local area spread across 2 clubs). This will hopefully improve my games at tournaments so that I wouldn't be spending the first game trying to remember the rules!

So with my hat firmly in the ring I plucked for the Ressers as my chosen faction. 2013 was my years of Ressers and I had been painting up my models all year (I've now nearly finished all of my wave 1 models). Seamus would be my chosen master and I was going to take him for every game during the league. I felt that this would be the best way of learning the rules of the game and the in’s and outs’s of the game without confusing myself with new masters every week.

Through the league I wanted to keep some notes about my planning for each game and crew selection and what I learn from each game.

Preparation is everything (part I of II)

So with Seamus’ maniacal laughter at the back of my mind I began preparation for my first games. My league is the Southgate Station for those of you keeping track.

Round 1 - Jimmy (Neverborn) - Turf War

Pre-match planning –having recently come back from the UK GT and having played the Neverborne for most of my games (yes they all took Collodi regardless of the master/scheme) I was dreading this match up. Also Pandora had been re-balanced and was considered “fair game” to use I was expecting this until Jimmy very kindly told me that he would be bringing the mother or monsters, Lilith to play with. As I had no idea what Lilith was capable with I picked a basic Seamus crew (3 Belles and Sybil) and then added in a canine remains, punk zombie and hanged. How badly could it go?

Post-match musings – some valuable lessons learned in this match. The Hanged – remember to use the Whispers from Beyond, this would have been game winning if I had read it before turn 5. Canine Remains – requires a crow to be able to put out a corpse counter, not such an auto take as I thought. I made a mistake with the punk zombie who attacked rather than delivering a message to Lilith and that body guard requires the opponents model to be at least 6inches from there deployment zone. I still felt I wasn’t getting the best from Sybil, who along with the punk zombie had tied up 2 Young Nephilim and Lilith for 3 turns (however it did require a red joker on a damage prevention flip). However a henchman as a tar pit model feels like a waste of stones.

The game was a draw.

Round 2 – Jan (Gremlin) - Reckoning

Pre-match planning – Another 1st – Gremlins! Reckoning is tricky to plan for as you need to find a good balance between models that have a lot of “staying power” and remaining in control of activations. Against gremlins I was pretty certain that this wasn’t going to happen. The scheme pool drew frame for murder which I presumed would be a good choice as I had not managed to keep Sybil alive for any game yet. I wanted to go for two tactics this game – horror duels for what I assumed would be low WP gremlins and flesh constructs to devour the little gremlins.

Post-match musings – well you know what assumptions make out of people? I completely forgot to run any Flesh Constructs and also barely got any horror duels out as the Gremlins focused on the Belles for VPs. Also Jan turned up with a really elite crew so had about 6 models in total many of which where HT 2 or greater – so much for my planning! I still managed to get a win, mostly due to a little bit of last minute luck. Best moment of the game was after throwing Sybil at the Whisky Golem to die realising that Jan had body guard on the machine and having Sybil chasing it round the board trying to get it to kill her. The Hanged really game into their own and where able to add where able to offer some very nice “board control”. The combo with Sinster Rep on Seamus is fantastic.

I managed to creep out a win for this round.

Round 3 – Ole (Arcanist) Squatter's Rights

Pre-match planning –  Ole wanted to test Collette from the wave 2 beta. Again I had no idea what to expect so concentrated on my tactics. The scheme pool was uninspiring so I needed to think about how I was going to get maximum points from that. I decided I would have 2 parts to my crew – Seamus and The Hanged who would be trying to disrupt the enemy as much as possible and Belles and Mortimer to be interacting with schemes and accomplishing Protect Territory and body guard.

Post-match musings – As it turns out this worked pretty well mostly due to finally getting the hang of Seamus and some mistakes on Ole’s part (which he realised shortly after making them). The Hanged ended up being pretty useless during the game but I always like to have him around as a threat. Mortimer was excellent due to the corpse generation and fresh meat and I didn’t miss Sybil at all.

Another win for the mad hatter.

I will write down some notes and thoughts about the reaming 2 games in a month or so as well as my impressions of the Vassal league. 

Battle Report - Yan Low (Ten Thunders) vs Seamus (Resurrectionists)

Welcome to the 1^st post! I thought that I would start with a battle report for Malifaux – this involves a play test of the Yan Low crew for Malifaux who are currently being play tested for balance and a “fun” play experience. 

Yan Low (Ten Thunders) vs Seamus (Resurrectionists) – 4/10. 22^nd October 2013

Turf War – Standard Deplyment

Scheme Pool - Line in the Sand, Bodyguard, Kill Protégé, Make Them Suffer and Defend Territory

Ten Thunders

Yan Low + Path of Bones + Path of Ash + Path of Spirit

Izamu + Spiritual Fortitude

Toshiro the Daimyo + Command the Graves

Yin + Eternal Terror

Ashigaru

Ashigaru

Schemes - Make Them Suffer and Defend Territory

Resurrectionists

Seamus + bag o’ tools + red chapel killer + Mad Haberdasher

Mortimer + my favourite shovel

Rotten Bell

Rotten Bell

Punk Zombie

Flesh Construct

Bete Noir

Scheme Pool - Bodyguard, (Mortimer) and Make Them Suffer

Game Report

Turn 1

Ten Thunders crew moved forward to the centre of the table but stayed in cover. Toshiro used “Teki o Juden!” To push the Ashigaru forward but was blocked by terrain. Mortimer placed a corpse counts and used “Fresh Meat” to push the crew forward. Seamus turned the corpse counter into a new bell and moved up under cover. The Bells then lured Toshiro into the middle of the Resseraction minion’s crew and the Flesh Construct and Punk Zombie reduced him to 3 wounds and kindly gave him the poison 2 condition – generous chaps that they are.

Turn 2

The Resurrectionists burnt a stone to win initiative, imidatlly activate the Punk Zombie to finish the job started last turn with Toshiro. Toshiro who was out of range of Yan Low so he couldn’t be recycled. The Ten Thunders moved forward and secured the centre of the table with Ashigaru using “brace” and Yin holding the middle. Seamus used a focused hand cannon shot to reduce an Ashigaru to 1 wound who was then lured away and killed by a Rotten Bell. Mortimer used Fresh Meat again to have the minions surround the final Ashigaru. Izamu decided that was the right time to involve himself and attacked Bete Noir who used “One with the Night” to avoid her death. Yan low remembered to use his 0 action to gain a point of Chi this turn and attached the second Rotten Bell but was unable to kill her (missing once and doing 2 damage). Finally the Flesh Construct reduced the wounds on the remaining Ashigaru is left with 2 wounds.

Both Ten Thunders and Resurrectionists score 1VP for Turf War

Turn 3

Resurrectionists win initiative and activate a Rotten Bell attacks and kills the Ashigaru. Bete Noir is placed near Izamu who activates, reduces her to 0 wounds and she “One with the Night” again. Yan Low uses “Ascendance” to attach Spirit Ascendant. He then attacks one of Rotten Bells with Spirit Barrage and kills her. Seamus, Punk Zombie, Flesh Construct and a Rotten Bell all attack Yin and kill her. Bete Noir is placed back into play after Yin’s death and Yin’s upgrade is attached to Yan Low. Mortimer walks twice to move out of the Resurrectionists deployment area to.

Both Ten Thunders and Resurrectionists score 1VP for Turf War.

Both Ten Thunders and Resurrectionists score 1VP for Make Them Suffer.

Turn 4

Izamu once again activated, killed Bete and she used “One with the Nigh” to avoid death yet again (one trick pony!). Seamus charges Yan Low and summons a Rotten Bell from the only corpse counter within 6” of Yan Low. Seamus hits Yan Low 3 times with Bag of Tools doing 3 wounds. Yan Low returns the favour and causes 3 wounds to Seamus after damage prevention. A Rotten Bell then “Lures” Izamu so that Seamus heals 2 wounds due to the failed WP duel. The rest of the Resurrectionists crew attack Izamu (3 Rotten Bells, Punk Zombie and Flesh Construct) leaving Izamu with 3 wounds and slow for the next turn. Izamu in kind hands out 4 repost strikes in the hope that the hoards of zombies will just leave him alone (can’t a magical suit of armour just get some alone time!).

Both Ten Thunders and Resurrectionists score 1VP for Turf War.

Resurrectionists score 2VP for Make Them Suffer and Bodyguard

Turn 5

The Punk Zombie finally kills Izamu, Bete Noir is placed again. Yan Low moves and re-summons Yin and then attacks Seamus with Brutal Khakkhara doing sever followed by red joker for damage. Seamus is left on 1 wound. The rest of the crew focus all attacks on Yin and kill her again.

Resurrectionists score 4VP for Turf War, Make Them Suffer and Bodyguard

Thoughts on the models

As an overview of the Yan Low crew it has some specialised models and a lot of staying power. If Toshiro has survived for longer and been adding positive flips to attacks for the crew they would have been formidable. Model to model comments I would say the following:

 Yan Low + Path of Bones + Path of Ash + Path of Spirit: Yan Low was a tough cookie once he gets his upgrades going. Like a lot of the Resurrectionists masters he is tought to put down and this is a nice addition to the Ten Thunders faction. The new mechanics for re-summoning ancestors is much better and prevents from an infinite supply of them. However he did fell as if that is all he did. Most of the other masters can do these things and then something else. I think if he had slightly better attack value he would be great as a ranged attach master – maybe a bump on his damage profile for spirit barrage. As a rules point of view one thing that I would like clarified is the “Ascend” upgrades – is the limit of the 3 upgrades on a master still in effect therefore meaning that if you start with all 3 upgrades that you cannot then Ascend and add another.

Izamu + Spiritual Fortitude – Strong “tar pit” model that can really hold his ground. Mostly worked really well – the only thing that I would perhapse add would be a 6MI but I think that he would need to cost 1 more SS for this (which I would happily pay). Would have been a great combination with Toshiro.

Toshiro the Daimyo + Command the Graves – didn’t see a lot of the model tbh but he looked fine – he actually survived quite a few attacks coming in on him. Should be used as a support model and kept to the back of fights. Both players agreed that they missed his limited summoning from 1.5.

Yin + Eternal Terror – frustratingly difficult to hit and damage, with a terror test, neg flips on both attack and damage as well as 8 wounds Yin was very challenging to put down – would be strong if used with the Grave Spirit. Might be worth changing to just negative flip on attacks.

Ashigaru – great model felt very well balanced for the points. No changes needed.