Back in Your Pine Box

Yesterday in Wellington we held a Malifaux tournament, 3 rounds and 14 players. Results are below.

Congratulations to all that attended!

Player	TP	Difference	Position	Faction
Robert Curry	9	9	1	Gremlins
Hayden	7	8	2	Ten Thunders
Greg	7	8	3	Ten Thunders
Matthew	6	5	4	Arcanists
Valery	6	5	5	Outcast
Liam	6	-1	6	Guild
Wil	6	-2	7	Gremlins
Stephen	3	-2	8	Arcanists
Ryan	3	-3	9	Guild
Leon	3	-4	10	Ressers
Jordan	3	-4	11	Neverborn
Rob Higgins	3	-6	12	Neverborn
Phill	0	-6	13	Gremlins
James	0	-7	14	Guild

For myself, I had three excellent games. First up versus Val with his gun-slinging/bandit Outcasts, secondly versus Greg with magic/trickster Ten Thunders, and finally James with reporter based Guild.

Malifaux Beauty Pageant

Earlier in the year our group decided to set a painting target of at least 50 ss Malifaux to be completed by the end of April. We each brought our armies together last night and had a mini photoshoot - enjoy some photos below.

This weekend we will all be playing in our first Malifaux tournament here in Wellington with 14 players total - exciting times :)

Greg's Ten Thunders:

Robb's Neverborn:

Ryan's Guild:

Wil's Gremlins:

The Fate of Decks and Another Battle

Many members of our group have been buying the various official fate decks made by wyrd recently. The results have mostly been disappointing. The "Classic Fate Deck" has different shades of colour on the back of the cards, which is a really bad thing when your cards in hand could potentially be inferred without seeing the front. The "Arcane Fate Deck" is really hard to figure out which suit the card you are holding is, which only slows things down.

I think I got lucky when I picked the "Seriously Twisted Fate Deck" - the number and suit is clear, and the backs are consistent, and the well made box with magnetic lid leaves room to bring cards for schemes/strategies/stat cards as you wish.

In other news, got another match in yesterday. This was my Guild versus Wil's Gremlins using GG 2017. Strategy was same as last time, secure the stash. We both took claim jump and I took inspection while Wil took leave your mark. Of course I didn't know this yet...

Deployment was spread out for the Guild, concentrated for the Gremlins

Guild were spread out, to aim at centre/flanks as necessary. 

Gremlins mostly bunched on my right

The Guild moved up the middle and right, the Gremlins re positioned to my right, but both pretty cautiously.

Justice in murder mode while death marshal jumping around

Justice went on a murder rampage against the smaller Gremlins, hoping to reduce the numbers disparity. I stayed away from Mancha as he has the magic armour thingy. Ironically I later found out Mancha was worried I had taken a quick murder scheme so was playing cautiously also.

Holding the left flank

 The Judge and a marshall held the left flank, not really bothering to push up to get rid of the lone Gremlin left. Just sat there dropping schemes and getting inspection points.

I should learn to hold my hands steady...

I put points on the board early for claim jump and the strategy, but maxed out the former and my numbers began to tell at the end for the latter. Mancha smashed me out of the centre, though I continued to hold the flanks for inspection, it meant the Judge and Lady Justice couldn't come out and kill more without losing those points.

The Gremlins used late game advantages in numbers to be more aggressive and get points for strategy and the master Wong nipped across the board to pick up further points for leave your mark.

Overall very tight game which ended in a 7-7 draw.

Token Post

Malifaux and Infinity require a lot of tokens, and I wanted to do this relatively cheaply, so I recently picked up a laminator (NZD40) and got to work.

Corvus Belli (Infinity) provide some fantastic official tokens on their website, I printed off the first few pages from the main rulebook and the silhouette markers. Using some scissors for the latter and a 25mm round hole punch (NZD 5) for the former and I now have an extensive set.

Wyrd (Malifaux) unfortunately doesn't have free official ones and decided to be 30mm based instead. So googling some images, resizing to 3cm by 3cm in word, then printing was the ticket here. I then used scissors and a spare 30mm base (well not spare, had to pop a Death Marshall off temporarily) to cut out a decent circle for each.

I made some faction based scheme counters, shield counters, some positive/negative flip counters and a void counter.

Now I have plenty of counters ready for battle.

What else can I laminate....?

Malifaux rising

Had my fourth game of Malifaux last night. I used Lady Justice based crew versus Greg with Misaki. 45ss as I am still waiting on some new models. We played five turns across about 2 hours using Gaining Grounds 2017 schemes and strategies. The strategy was protect the loot, so getting non-peons to the centre near 2 50mm markers.

It started with the Guild pushing up both flanks and the Ten Thunders moving up the middle.

Crews move up the middle

Justice moving up the flank while Misaki takes the centre right

Judge and Marshall face off against Torakage

The Judge moved out and took all the Torakage firepower with barely a scratch. Which was a shame, as I was hoping he would get me some points for framed for murder scheme.

Misaki controls one objective

Misaki was sitting in the middle early but then ran straight at Lady Justice. Feeling like this was a frame for murder, but thinking it would be good to get rid of Misaki early, Justice ripped her to pieces. Unfortunately my hunch was correct and I went down 3 points..

Archer support

Shots were exchanged in the middle...

Fight over the left flank

The Judge continued to not die, but then the Marshall I need alive for inspection scheme got hit with red joker on the damage flip and died.

Hannah takes command

Hannah moved up the middle with Misaki gone to be a bully.

Justice and Marshall

Justice and Marshall had this flank well covered, but lots of points just sitting around...

More shooting

I lost track of taking photos at this point. IIRC the end of the game played out as so...

• Me picking up 1 point each for inspection & strategy 
• Greg picked up 2 points for strategy 
• The Judge refusing to die, or take hardly any damage.
• Hannah and Justice murdering almost the entire Ten Thunders crew between them. She was finally taken down by Ten Thunder archer flurry and then swiftly avenged by Justice.

Failing to pick up framed for murder while Greg picking up max points for this scheme sealed the game. I did manage to table him but only by turn 5 - which the game ended. I could have picked up a few more points for strategy and inspection with better play - but also framed for murder was the wrong scheme for me to pick.

Getting familiar with the system now, fun times!

Delving into Malifaux - Neverborn starter set

Malifaux is a game I have been looking at since about 2010.  Back then I bought the rulebook, I loved the setting and themes but never played it.  Over the years I have watched games at tournaments between 40k rounds and even picked up a few miniatures if I saw a bargain.

Last year Wyrd Miniatures released the Malifaux 2 player starter set and about a month ago I finally bought it.  I have found the introduction rules and scenarios within the set a great way to learn the rules and it's one of the better starter sets in that regard.

In the set you get 8 miniatures, 4 Neverborn and 4 Guild.  All these have the mercenary trait so they can be hired by any crew which is a smart move.  You also get 2 Fate decks and 2 tape measures, so everything you need.  I have played it through a couple times with the other guys and we really like the mechanics.

The plastic miniatures are highly detailed and of realistic proportions unlike the normal heroic scale of war games.   Pictured here is the Neverborn starter crew consisting of Angel Eyes, 2 Bloodwretches and the Scion of Black Blood.  I painted them to match the artwork on their cards.

For basing I put grey stuff into the recess and fit tiny ceramic bricks into a rough pattern leaving an area on each base clear.  Once the brick work was painted I did a dull green base coat in the clear area then 2 coats of Nurgle's Rot and a layer of gloss varnish.  Tufts, dead leaves and a bit of blood finished them off.  

I will finish the Guild miniatures next before working on my main crew, the Torch and the Blade Guild Crew set.  A very nice set to start playing full games with.  This has also lead to others in my gaming group buying crews for Resurectionists, Outcasts and Neverborn with a couple of the others eyeing up Gremlins.  So more to come.