Budget Carrier

Transporting your miniatures can get as expensive as buying and painting your miniatures. 
When you are first starting into miniatures or just starting a new game, you will be more interested in your money going towards building your army.  Here is an idea for an inexpensive, possibly free, way to transport your minis in relative safety.

There is a caveat:  your models are not secured in-place so they will rattle around a little while transporting and they will definitely bounce around if you do sharp turns or tilt the carrier.  You get what you pay for, but it is more than adequate with gentle care.  My painting is not to the level I want, so I am not too concerned about wear from bumps and scrapes from transporting; also, all of my minis are works-in-progress. 

Start with a sturdy cardboard box; it will possibly be what your minis were shipped in or if you bought your minis from your Local Game Store, ask your LGS if they have any lying around.  Next, get some empty egg crates -  make sure there is no yolk or any other stuff that can get on your models.  Cut the tops off of egg crates.  I gave my a good shake and dusting to get out any little bits that could chip or rub my minis.  You can add a little glue to the bottom of the crates to secure them to the box once you found a good configuration.I buy 18-packs of eggs so I was able to fit two crates in the box and it left just enough room for the container I have of tokens.  Notice in the picture that the crate accommodates all base sizes.  If you have the bubble pack that the box was shipped with, it can go over the top of your minis to make transport a little more secure.

In time, you will branch out to expensive carriers and foam or magnetic bases, but for the beginning it is more immersive to spend $20 -$50 on more minis rather than transportation for 6-10 models.

Happy gaming!

Miniatures Monday - July 27th

Miniatures Monday at Battleground Games in North Charlotte!

This was the second game for Andrew.  He just was initiated into the world of Malifaux and selected Mei Feng and her Crew Box for Arcanists as his intro. The miniatures look great and she is just amazing on the table.  I think she is the toughest Master I have had to deal with so far!  I will add my spin on the battle report in another post, but for now I wanted to share the table we played on, our deployments and a snapshot of the 6th turn when the final blow was dealt. 

Andrew and his crew of Arcanists did prevail against Seamus' band of Resurrectionists.  It was all about completing his Scenario and Scheme. Mei was a melee powerhouse the entire game so the Arcanists had 3 VP from Reckoning, while Seamus only was able to get 2 VP.  I was able to Assassinate Mei while keeping Seamus at 12 Wounds, but I failed to keep four scheme markers down on the center line for Line in the Sand - that Emberling was dropping Scheme Markers like it was getting overtime at the USPS. We shared Strategy and Schemes and had them declared since this was his second game and it is best to slowly acclimate to the rules and add the complexity in layers.  All in all, it was a great game!

Well played, Andrew, and welcome to the game!

Seamus and the beginnings of my Fox Hunt crew!

Mei and her Rail Crew!



Lots of corpses in the end.  I think Kang and the Emberling were all that remained of the Rail Crew.  Seamus and the Carrion Effigy were all that remained on my side.  I was able to summon only 3 Dead Doxies due to bad Fate hands.

New Resurrectionists

McMourning's box, Body of Evidence, was my most recent purchase in the world of Malifaux and my second encounter with Wyrd's new plastic miniatures.  I had purchased the Story Encounter box , University of Transmortis a while back when it was 50% off, but I never got around to assembling the Students.  I had originally purchased the box because it was supposed to have Solo Play as one of the potential encounters, but the hope was much better than the reality because on paper, it seemed very lackluster.  Charlotte is very sparse when it comes to miniatures outside of 40k and Warmachine and Malifaux was forgotten after the transition to 1.5.  Now that there is some hint of a revival with 2nd edition and a new game store is supporting interest with Malifaux. Battleground Games in North Charlotte has created Miniatures Monday which allows a place for lesser-played games like Malifaux, X-wing, Kings of War, Infinity, Mordheim, Dreadball, and whatever else you want to play a chance to shake the dust off - it seemed a good time to assemble all my Malifaux plastic.

I got it done, but it took me all weekend to do it.
There are so many tiny pieces!!!!
It is not like it is difficult; I think anyone can assemble them, but there are numerous small pieces that need time to set after joining.   You can't glue the limbs all at once and I am not really interested in using glue additives to make them join faster or use contact cement.  Also, if the pieces are large enough, I suggest pinning everything you can.  There were some hands and feet where it is impossible, but each piece probably has 3-5 pins in them.  After priming them, I am glad I did.  I brush on primer rather than use a spray can.  I get better results brushing and I can tint the white primer however I like.

Anyways, here is a Resser Family photo:

L to R: McMourning; Zombie Chihuahua, JoJo; Nurse Jenny, Nurse Jenni; Canine Remain, Daisy; Sebastian

L to R: Valedictorian; Student of Viscera; Student of Steel; Student of Sinew

All together!   29 SS in front, 32 SS in back.

Here is the Family after a necrotic-tinted primer painting:

 



More to come!

Perdita vs. Ramos - Part 2

Now, it is time to make a decision on my Crew and how they will be placed on the table.


6.  Hire & Reveal Crew:   I was certain I was bringing Guild Hounds because there was a majority of Interact schemes and that meant 6 Soulstones were already spoken for.  My initial reaction was to go with Sonnia since she specializes in fighting Arcanists, but I was not sure if she could handle Rasputina which was my guess for his declared Arcanist Master.  Sonnia is not a pushover, but  it was the terrain, deployment, Scenario, and Schemes that made me question Sonnia.  I considered Lady Justice but passed because she is melee heavy and I was still thinking Rasputina and exploding Gamin. I instead went with Perdita and her Family because they are amazing with sniping and I could slow forward movement with the Family covering lanes.   My mind was fixated of getting VP from dropping Scheme Markers, so I went with a Brutal Effigy for cheap Interacts and possible Healing for Perdita if things went wrong.  Two Guild Hounds and the Brutal effigy seemed plenty to deal with the Schemes and Scenario while the Family (Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, and Nino) were all about tying-up the enemy and preventing them from doing any Interacts. 
I took two Upgrades -
Perdita: Trick Shooting
Francisco: Wade In

Daniel's arcanists sent Ramos. Grrr..... I pictured swarms of metal spiders and exploding Octopi and wished I had chosen Sonnia or, at least, chosen Papa Loco over Santiago.
Ramos brought an Electrical Creation, Howard Langston, Brass Arachnid, and Joss.  I am guessing he went with the heavy models because he was planning of summoning an army of constructs to run
schemes.
Upgrades - I believe Ramos had Electric Summoning which seems really powerful for only 1 Soulstone.  Also, he had Under Pressure and Field Generator which were both really irritating to deal with. 

7.  Choose & Reveal Schemes: I chose and declared Line in the Sand since the Strategy had us fighting for the center of the table already and my thinking was that on turns when the Squatter markers were occupied, I could drop Scheme markers with models out of engagement.  In case I was overwhelmed or lost the center, I decided to go with the one melee-focused Scheme, Murder Protégé.  I was still wishing I had Roundup as an option.  I delclared Murder Protégé in hopes he over- or under-committed Langston; either option would be optimal for me: over-committed 12 SS model would aid me with winning the VP for killing it (still at the expense of a ton of AP to do it).  More ideal would be him under-committed which would mean I would not have to deal with the monster most of the game and Ramos would not get his Soulstones worth out of him.


8.  Deploy Crew:  We deployed incorrectly and we drew the center line incorrectly, too. 
OOPS!!!!
The image in rulebook shows players deploying from our respective right corners of the table, up to 18" from the corner and up to 9" inward from the edge.  We deployed  from our Left corner instead (see below).
I won the deployment flip, which allowed me to force Arcanists to deploy first. He hid his Brass Arachnid and Langston on the far side of the table by the woods which I was happy and sad about:  probably impossible to get Murder Protégé but did not have to deal with three powerhouses at once.  His other models were as close to the center as he could deploy.

I took advantage of Out of the Shadow and deployed Nino at the center of the table and peeking out from Hard Cover with LOS to Ramos and the Electrical Creation.  Nino moved only once this game and that was due to repositioning after being pushed by a Defensive Trigger after hitting Ramos.  I would say Nino was my MVP.
The two Guild Hounds deployed 9 inches up from the edge and as far right as I could because I had hoped to get to far right of the table to do some Squats on that side of the table. I was not thinking.  The hounds would have to deal with Langston and that would never happen.  I did not realize my error until the 2nd turn.  They were largely wasted this game.
The rest of my crew (Perdita, Family, and Brutal Effigy) were cramped together between a cactus, building, some rocks and a lot of Severe terrain underfoot.  It was a less-than-ideal deployment that required too much AP to reposition. 


I did not take a picture of deployment, so the dots with show where I deployed. 

- Table -

 

Purple:  Perdita

Orange:  Francisco

Grey:  Santiago

Yellow:  Nino

Blue:  Brutal Effigy

Red:  Guild Hounds

Guild managed to score 7 VP's and Arcanists scored 3 VP's so it all worked out in the end.  Arcanists did have terrible Fate hands and two terrible Black Joker flips which sealed their fate.  Ramos flipped a Black Joker on his Turn 2 Summon and Langston flipped a Black Joker Turn 3 for a damage against Francisco who was sitting on only 3 Wounds.  Francisco was then able to kill Ramos turn 4.

Some Thoughts

 

 Perdita is amazing with the ability to ignore armor.  I felt the first two turns were wasted with her spend AP moving herself and casting Obey to move Family.  Obey is so great on the enemy.  Obeying Joss to Walk out into the open  on turn 3 so he could be shot up by the Family was cinematic.  She would have been better away from Severe Terrain.  She would have done better deploying with the Guild Hounds and moving up to the stone walls by the large building.  This would have allowed her to threaten Langston and Ramos.  I should have taken the Upgrade Aura Ancestral.  Ignoring Terrifying and making it easier for Guild to pass Terrifying duels would have ensured Langston died. I didn't know who he would take, so the better way to think about it is that I should not have taken Murder Protégé knowing I would have to pass numerous Terrifying duels to kill Langston.
Nino is great in a spot where he can see 12 or more inches into the enemy's half of the table..  Francisco and Santiago are only good as a pair; I think I was most disappointed in their performance.  Not having a way to get around terrain really made those two suffer.  An Austringer, Death Marshal, and extra Soulstones for Perdita or Upgrades probably would have been better.
The Brutal Effigy did not stand out because he just dropped Scheme Markers and Interacted. Perdita was barely in combat so it was not worthwhile to spend an AP so she could draw 1 or 2 cards for the whole game.  Perdita was never attacked, so there was no need to heal.  The Brutal Effigy is still a solid choice for 4 SS.
I love dogs.  If dogs are in the game, I play them.  Guild Hounds are not even close to being good like Canine Remains.  It is just so expensive to take two so they can Interact and drop Scheme Markers.  It is also so precarious having to keep them both alive to be useful.  A Watcher or Death Marshal might have been better.  Part of their ineptness this game was my poor planning which led them to be on the same side of table as a 12 SS Terrifying model for two turns.  They should have switched places with Perdita and the Brutal Effigy.  It would have been more difficult for Francisco and Santiago to deal with Joss, but I think they could have still done it.  I am sure I have more thoughts, but I have written more than planned already and I have no bat rep for anyone else to really understand what I am going on about.  Enough journaling for now!

I will take more pictures next game and that might help me write a journal/bat rep hybrid that might make more sense to those who were not there.

Happy gaming, everyone!

Small Houses

The idea for these houses came from various period photos of houses that were built for the mining towns that cropped in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.  I also see the potential for these to be used on a bayou/swamp table.  I want to capture the inhabitant's poverty - not only in the monetary sense, but also of the time available to the inhabitants.  These were functional buildings that provided shelter, but little comfort.

Right now, I have the basic structure created.  I still need to add the frames for the window and doors which will be done with a thinner strip of bass wood.  I knew I was adding frames, so you will see the edges for the door and window are not even - I did not see the need to re-cut since the edges will be covered.  I will also be staining the wood once the trim is completed.

 

 

After the staining, the roof and flooring will be created for these.  I wanted the roof and flooring modular to allow me the flexibility to use these houses in desert and bayou settings which might require different looks for each location. I will attempt a short foundation, a slightly raised porch, and a raised-on-stilts foundation.  The interior flooring will be the same wood I am using for the trim.  I have even thought of creating a dirt floor.

More of that to come!

Perdita vs. Ramos - Part 1

I got the chance to play an actual game of Malifaux on Monday at Battleground Games.  
Rather than a play-by-play, I wanted to take a look at the effect decisions made during the Set-up had on the following 5 turns of the game.  Part 1 will have Steps 1-5; part 2 will have steps 6-8.

Standard Set-up

1.  Define & Place Terrain:  The table was a desert outpost. There were three small buildings, 1 medium building, one forest, Ht 1, Climbable stone walls that provide Hard Cover,  1 large Severe Terrain patch at the center of the table with 3 cacti that are Hazardous but also give Soft Cover.  From the Deployemnt area to the center of the table there are lots of Ht 2 Blocking, Impassable Rock Outcrops that also provide Hard Cover. Shooting can be really dangerous in Malifaux, so lots of cover and Blocking terrain is essential to keep the game fun for both sides.

2.  Determine Encounter size:  35 Soulstones.  Not really ready for 50 Soulstone games at this point.

3.  Announce Factions:  I declared Guild.  I had brought Seamus, Perdita, Lady Justice, and Sonnia, so I had the most choice with Masters under Guild.  Daniel declared Arcanists.  I am glad I did not pick Seamus who has limited influence on Rasputina and Ramos crews, one of which was certain to appear on the other side of the table.

4.  Determine Deployment: Daniel flipped for Deployment zone and he seems to always flip Flank.  This is definitely the hardest deployment for some reason.  Even with Nino having From The Shadows, I still felt like my Deployment was not going to be advantageous.  The L-shaped deployment always makes me feel like I am going to get crowded too fast.  I had initially thought I was going with Sonnia, but my fear of getting jammed moved her to 3rd place with Lady Justice moving to the top spot. 

5.  Determine Strategy & Scheme:  Squatter's Rights was the Strategy flipped.  Lady Justice still on top, but uncertain of the crew I would take with her that could hold the center well.
The Schemes flipped were Breakthrough, Distract, Murder Protégé, Power Ritual, and the ubiquitous Line in the Sand.  The Arcanists also had their Faction-specific Scheme, Gathering Power.  I would have like the Guild Scheme, Roundup, but I had left my card at home.  So, now we have only one combat-based scheme and the rest are all about getting to the Center or beyond and holding territory.  Guild Hounds?  Brutal Effigy?  Francisco and Santiago tag-team?  This looks like the heart of my team because those 5 models could handle any of those schemes. Even if I chose my Master poorly, this crew could still pull it off themselves.  I am starting to consider Perdita .......

To be continued......

Buildings

Slowly, but surely, I am getting to posting pictures of my numerous Works In Progress.  You will see that I jump around a lot! 

I am thinking of just editing some of my WIP posts instead of creating new ones each time I have completed a step just to keep things tidy and centralized.  I will play around with it and see what works.

 Malifaux is blends multiple landscapes as well as multiple genres.  Right now, I have gravitated towards creating desert environments for my demo games at Battleground Games.  So, I have decided to make some buildings that fit that environment.  I am thinking mining camp and early structures in a Boomtown.  These buildings can be later repurposed as bayou buildings with a branching out to a swamp environment.  Some may even work in a Victorian city setting if I make them storage sheds or even worker-class hovels.

Small Dwelling or Storage Shed.   I made two roofs for it: one moss-covered for swamp environments and a wood roof for my desert table.  The varnish is really shiny on the roof for some reason, so I am thinking of ways to dull it or refinish it.

Frontier Jail - I added a flat roof that could bear a second-story addition and it also allows characters to maneuver around on top.  I am planning on adding a floor and interior features, possibly modular features to switch between Bank and Jail - to think of a few.

More buildings to come!

Learning Malifaux - Game A

I wanted to spend some time exploring  how I introduce players to Malifaux. 
When I run demonstrations, I like to run three games of growing complexity which I will refer to as:  Game A, Game B, and Game C.  I have found this method is ideal for all skill levels and comfort with miniatures games. 

Ideally, I will have the opportunity to play all three games with the new player either in one day or over the course of several meet-ups.  Sometimes,  you get only one game to hook them (or lose them) and you choose the game that best fits where they are in skill and comfort with miniature games.  Game A is best for those that never played Malifaux;  Game B is for those who have played Malifaux, remember some of the rules, but it has been awhile or played prior to 2e ; Game C is for those who have played 1 or more Henchmen games in 2e and want to advance to larger, more complex games.  Game B may even be for some advance wargamers who do not mind the complexity and challenge of learning a lot of new rules at once, but I do not recommend higher than Game B for the first play-through.


In this entry I will talk a little more about what GAME A looks like and the purpose of the game.

Crew:

No Masters; Henchmen as Leaders.

Minions only; no Enforcers, Peons, or Totems.
15 Soulstone crew size
No Upgrades 

Terrain:         

I want enough terrain to cover 1/4 - 1/3 of the 3'x3' table.  Malifaux thrives on terrain but I do not want too much for the first game because I want lots of movement and interactions.  I want to place terrain features that will demonstrate Severe, Blocking (Ht 1 and Ht2), Dense Hard Cover, Soft Cover, Hazardous, and Climbable.  To meet these demands, my table usually consists of: 1-2 buildings, 1-2 forest, 1-2 rocky hills, 1-3 walls, water feature or rocky patch of earth, and 1-4 rock outcrops/statues/pillars/pile that are Ht1 and/or Ht2.  Eventually you will want terrain that looks somewhat natural, but proxy whatever you can if you do not have scale terrain built.  Soda cans can be wrapped in foil to create rock columns, felt or construction paper can simulate forests and water features, books can stand in for rocky hills that can be climbed. 

Who to Use:                       

I recommend Samael Hopkins and 3 Witchling Stalkers for one of the crews.  There are enough Conditions and Triggers in this crew as well as synergy present in this line-up without being overly complicated.  Also, Samael ignores Severe Terrain while the Witchlings do not - this will allow the new player to acclimate to the terrain rules in Malifaux and see the advantages that Abilities like Unimpeded bestow.  Other good Henchmen/Minion crews I currently consider:

The Judge w/ 2 Guild Marshals

Barbaros w/ 3 Terror Tots
Viktoria of Blood w/ 2 Ronin

For the second crew, I select a crew that has Terrifying in it so the new player can see how Horror duels work and how they affect the game.  This may be Bad Juju or Madame Sybelle as the Henchmen.  I do like Madame Sybelle for demos because she introduces the  Terrifying and Hard to Wound abilities, auras, Blasts, and (0) Actions.  This is match-up is great because the other crew will likely not have some of these Abilities and Actions so the new player gets a taste of many different Abilities and Actions without being responsible of keeping track of every one.
  Henchmen/Minion crews suggestions for the second crew:
Madame Sybelle w/ 3 Rotten Belles
Bad Juju w/ 2 Silurid
Valedictorian w/ 3 Crooked Men
Hungering Darkness w/ 2 Illuminated

These suggestion only consider currently available models.  I look forward to future releases that will make models like the Spawn Mother and Gupps available which will be a great way to introduce summoning in Game A without being over-powering.  The goal is to ideally create an even match with contrasting abilities.

Goals & Length:

By the end of Game A, the initiate should be comfortable with reading the stat cards and knowing what everything means or at least knowing where to look in the rulebook for it.  They will have plenty of practice moving their models, using AP, flipping duels, and keeping track of VP.  You will also review Conditions, Negative/Positive Flips, and using Soulstones.  To keep things simple, but still exciting, I go with this game set-up:

Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: None
Turns: 5 - Locked

The game will last only 5 turns, but I include an explanation of how additional turns could result with the card flip at the end of the 5th turn.  I will also discuss schemes at the end of the game and show examples of how the game would have played differently if schemes were involved.
The strategy Turf War is great because it is a simple Strategy to grasp that does not emphasize  just killing other models; also,  it forces the models to the center of the table.  Forcing the models to the center of the table will allow plenty of  terrain interaction. A Strategy not emphasizing killing will still allow plenty combat and engagement but will allow me to demonstrate the importance of using AP towards earning Victory Points over risking models to get a kill.  This also allows discussion of models' strengths,  for example: Bad Juju is great in combat, but the Silurid are too expensive for combat and serve better earning VP's. It is the job of the demonstrator to keep the game going for as long of the 5 turns as possible; bad decisions should be discussed but not exploited. 



In our next installment we will discuss Game B.  Let me know if you have any questions about Game A or if there is anything you wish included in my discussion of Game B.


Happy Days Gaming!

Desert Terrain Pieces

Here are some of the terrain pieces on their own.  Some are in various stages of completion, but all are functional and are being used in games and demonstrations.  You can refer to the earlier post to see examples of what they look like together on a table.  They look good with or without a gaming map.  I did create a desert sand & dirt gaming mat just for Malifaux (it is big enough so I also can use it for WarmaHorde games).  Below I will give a brief comment on how I use each piece on the table for games/demos.




Pond:  Severe only
Walls:  Ht 1 Blocking, Climbable (costs 2" of movement), Hard Cover

Trees: These trees have their own amorphous bases that sit on top of some sand/dirt/grass templates to determine the area of the forest  (3rd photo, below trees and cacti, are examples of such templates)
Forest are Ht 5 Blocking, Severe, Soft Cover,
Cacti:  These can sit on top of sand/dirt/grass templates to simulate a patch of cacti that be determined as Impassable or Hazardous.  They can be placed on top of 30 mm bases or just on their washer based to create a single Hazardous piece of terrain.
Sand patch:  Can be left bare to be just Severe Terrain; place trees or other flora to create various forest terrains.

 

 

Outcrops:  The first two outcrops are small, about 4" - 7" across.  They are Ht 2 Blocking, Hard Cover.  They are stable enough to be Climbable, but I usually treat them as Impassable to encourage flanking and making hard choices (bottleneck or spread out).  The third outcrop is much larger and is definitely Climbable. There are two levels on each.  The second level provides a Vantage point.

 

Desert Terrain Tables

Although I am moving towards a focus on the Resurrectionst, I decided on creating several pieces of modular terrain that will create a desert theme.  I imagine the possibility of outposts, mining camps, mines, and boomtowns.  Here are some pictures of  the table set-ups I have used for demonstrations .   The first two pictures also feature the gaming mat I made to simulate the dirt and sand of the American West.  The third picture has a piece of orange cloth as the mat that can purchased at any fabric store or even some Wal-Marts. 

I am really enjoying the desert theme; each of these tables has every type of terrain trait in Malifaux and it is a great training ground to learn the rules on.   Also, they bring back a lot of memories from my childhood growing up in California and visiting my Grandfather in Arizona.  I hated the heat of the Southwest deserts, but those deserts were beautiful beyond belief even in their stark simplicity.  I think they would have been even more awesome with giant lizardmen, evil puppets, ice constructs, and witchlings running around!

 

 

 

 

 My next post with have close-ups of terrain pieces.

Update: Corpse Markers

Some more progress with my first batch of Corpse Markers!  

I have pretty much finished with my initial six markers and I am very pleased with them.  I may go in later and add tiny details, but their look will not change from this:

For my next set I attempted a smaller batch of 4 markers.  I decided to experiment with spackle paste as a potentially faster, easier medium considering Milliput has to be mixed and then it will set in a short time, so what is mixed has to be used which leads to procrastination until I have side projects ready to accept the inevitable surplus of Milliput I mix.

Skeleton - again, balsa wood and wood glue attached to metal washers

Fleshing out - layers of spackle paste.  Each layer dries in less than an hour and really easy scrape and carve after it dries.

Glue/paint - this was different than the  others.  The spackle paste felt much more fragile than the Milliput so I am nervous about it breaking off.  I made a sludge of wood glue and paint and edged the sculpts with it to create a solid base that might strengthen the marker once set.

 

I wanted these models to look dug-up so I could use them with my Resurrectionists, especially the ever-loving Canine Remains, so I used some coffee grounds  and glue to cover the washer and partially the models.  They are drying right now, but they will just get a brown/green wash again and maybe a beige dry brush just to the two highest points on each marker.

Corpse Markers

I am currently working on a series of posts concerning running demonstrations, but it is taking me longer than I had originally planned. 

For now, to keep the blog-blood flowing, I am posting WIP pictures of some corpse markers I am working on.  I have gotten as far as the base coat and the first wash of six tokens.  I still need to work on the detail painting and filling in the bases to increase the contrast and conceal the metal.  If all goes well, I will be making 12 total.



Skeletons - made from balsa wood and wood-glued to metal washers :

Fleshing out the skeletons:  pictured are all Milliput sculpts, but you can use anything that air-hardens.

Base coat and wash:

 

 

More pictures to come of these as well as some Wild West/Mining Camp buildings I am working on.
Also coming in July are some discussions on how I like to run demonstrations and maybe a bat rep or two!