Sunday, April 8, 2012

Results of Fixed Faction League!

Well, after five weeks of playing Kirai against several opponents, I am pleased to say that I ended up in second place out of 14 in my league having only missed 4 VP in my first game and scoring 8 VP in all my other games. First place achieved a perfect score. I did not think that I would do this well! I went into it hoping only to not finish last.

The faction started off with crews at 10ss, and then raised by 5ss every week, ending at 30SS crews.

I realized, however, that I have no idea how to really play Kirai in higher point games. Any ideas for a 30+ or higher crew?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Kirai's Winning Streak!

I haven't had a lot of time to write lately, due to work and school. In almost all of my spare time otherwise, I have been participating in a local Malifaux league, where I am happy to say that I seem to be doing well. The league has 14 players, and I believe that I and one other fellow are the only ones yet who haven't lost a game. The wins don't matter so much as the cumulative VPs, however, so I am not certain where I am ranking thus far. I had only planned on playing Kirai on week one, but I fell in love with her and haven't tried any of my other rezzers (the league is fixed faction.) Here is how it has gone for me so far:

Week 1 - Kirai vs. The Viks - Kirai wins! 4VP to 2VP
Week 2 - Kirai vs. Som'er Teeth - Kirai wins! 8VP to 0VP
Week 3 - Kirai vs. Pandora - Kirai wins! 8VP to 6VP
Week 4 - Kirai vs. Lady Justice - Kirai wins! 8VP to 0VP (opponent forfeit after 3 hours playing, but I do not believe the results would have been different, still it was terribly terribly disappointing to "win" this way.)

I believe I am playing Rasputina this week, which is the final week. I am hoping to take 2nd or 3rd place in the league, but we'll see!

I'm happy to say that I've learned a lot about Kirai, and pretty much fallen in love with playing her. I am considering running Nix in her crew this week. I'm not sure, though!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Gremlins are Crazy Fun!

I have been trying to get my playing up to a better standard before this Saturday when the games start, so I have mainly been focusing on my Resurrectionists, as the league is fixed faction for the next five weeks.

In between practicing my game with Kirai and picking up a few models for my Seamus crew, I managed to pick up the Ophelia box set, and tried her out for the first time last night. Chuck and Steph were at the store, so we all decided to play a team game. At first, the hubby suggested that he and I be on one team, but I felt as if it wouldn't be fair since he was playing Somer and we would have synced up so well. We all decided to randomize our opponents by drawing out one of two different colored soulstones out a hat and partnering up with whomever matched. It ended up that Steph (Perdita) and I (Ophelia) were together, and Nick (Somer Teeth) and Chuck (Kaeris) were on the other team.

Things were looking pretty dour for us ladies at first, with Nick's warpig coming along and destroying half of my models, while Steph just concentrated on keeping all of the Ortegas in cover. At least, that is, until I took Steph aside and talked a bit of strategy with her. She listened to my advice, and quickly the tables turned. I got her concentrating on objectives, and gave her a list of key models to kill, and in what order. I sort of made her burn a soulstone when she wanted to let her attack miss at a key point once. Well, I didn't make her, I suppose, but I did speak up and say "burn a soulstone", after she said she was letting it fail. I feel kind of bad for controlling her game like that, but I hope that it was a learning experience for her. It certainly was a learning experience for me! I had never watched the gremlins in action before. Ophelia can really hold her own! Pigs can be scary. And Somer Teeth kept me giggling.

I also learned that Perdita is an insanely strong master, even in the hands of someone who isn't playing her skillfully.

I'm happy to say that Steph and I triumphed over our husbands, with 4VP compared to their 2. A low scoring game, but a victory is a victory, and I'll take it! I was admittedly a bit surprised by the outcome, as Nick is better than me, and Chuck is better than Steph.

Steph is very nervous about the league games. I've been trying to coach her on what to do with Perdita, but I am not the best tactician myself. She was a bit bummed about starting out the league with a 10 point game, as the Ortegas tend to be expensive, so I bought a blister of young nephalim, and am taking one of my old chain necklaces and making her a proxy enslaved nephalim to take with her. (There isn't an enslaved nephalim at the store!) Hopefully having another model will make her feel better! I think she is planning on fielding Perdita and either Santiago or Nino.

I got Kirai based and primed last night! I think I'm going to be doing all of the spirits in grayscale. Kirai herself is going to be blonde, because the face of the model just doesn't look Japanese to me! Also, I got rid of that head at the bottom of her feet, because I didn't like it.

Its going to be an exciting week for me! Painting, painting, painting, and then a league game on Saturday!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Kirai

Our area's new henchman has started a fixed faction league that runs from February 25 to March 24. The league games start off at 10ss, and then every week 5ss are added.

... So for the last week and a half, I have been practicing my 10ss game. This is something that I had never thought to try before. Previously 20ss was the lowest I had ever played. There is much more to consider, I suppose... and at 10ss your options feel like they are limited. I have found, after consideration, that they aren't as limited as you immediately think, if you are creative.

I decided that I would go with Resurrectionists for my faction, as I had more ressers (Molly and Seamus) available to me to work with. My husband went with Arcanists, and my brother Tim went with Guild. Sharing our models between each other, I have access to every res master. I have been working on learning to play Nicodem, McMourning and Kirai in case I decide to use them later on.

I started playing my husband's Kirai crew over the past week as well, and I have to say that she is certainly unique. I got absolutely slaughtered my first game with her, making many mistakes in order of activation, and keeping Kirai to the back. After my husband gave me a few pointers, however, I am absolutely amazed at Kirai's effectiveness. In fact, the last game I played with her, I practically won the game in the first round, killing several of my opponents models including his master. "Establish your dominance in round one" was my husbands advice. "If you aren't winning on round one, you aren't going to win."

I'm not used to playing that aggressively, but it seems to be working for me so far. I guess time will tell!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Done?? Done!

The impossible has happened. I have finally declared that I am done working on a model. I've been working on my Viktorias forever, and I keep getting asked when I am going to be done with them. Well... I am not done with all of them, but I am done with ONE! I am finally happy with Sword Mistress Viktoria now that I have given her a slight costume change. I painted her up with all of the skin showing, like I am supposed to... but she just didn't look like a serious warrior to me. I'm not sure how adding a long-sleeved leotard beneath all that bikini armor makes her more badass to me, but it does. She is finally ready to go out and kick some butt.


The fact that I painted on a unitard is not so glaringly obvious in person.



I've decided that I don't like looking at models close up.


This is the first model that I have finished! It is a monumental day for me. Much of my crews are in various stages of painting, but this is the only one that is completely painted and based. The basing is simple, but I didn't think the Viks needed something complex. My ressers, however, are getting the hell based out of them. Here is a list of my collection!

Painting and Assembly Status of my Malifaux Figures:

Arcanist

Rasputina - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Alternate Rasputina - still in package
Ice Golem - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Ice Gamin - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Ice Gamin - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Ice Gamin - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
December's Acolyte - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Snow Storm - assembled, awaiting prime and paint
Silent One - painted poorly, awaiting stripping and repainting
Essence of Power - primed and half painted
Rasputina, Avatar of Famine - primed and half painted


Guild

Perdita Ortega - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Francisco Ortega - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Papa Loco - Primed and Half-Painted
Nino Ortega - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Santiago Ortega - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Abuela Ortega - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base

Outcast

Bounty Hunter Viktoria - Nearly done with Detail, Half-assedly Based
Sword Mistress Viktoria - DONE!
Taelor - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Bishop - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Johan - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Ronin - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Ronin - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Ronin - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Desperate Mercenary - Mostly Painted, Half-assedly Based
Miss Demeanor - Primed and Partial Paint
McTavish - Primed and Partial Paint


Ressurectionist

Molly - based and primed
Crooligan - based and primed
Crooligan - based and primed
Crooligan - based and primed
Rogue Necromancy - based and primed
Rotten Belle - assembled, awaiting basing
Rotten Belle - assembled, awaiting basing
Rotten Belle - assembled, awaiting basing
Alternate Seamus - based and primed
Sybelle - based and primed
Canine Remains - assembled, awaiting basing
Canine Remains - assembled, awaiting basing
Grave Spirit - assembled, awaiting basing

Neverborn

Zoraida, Avatar of Fate - still in package
Lilu - still in package
Lilitu - still in package
Collodi - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Marionette - primed
Marionette - primed
Marionette - primed
Marionette - primed
Wicked Doll - Mostly Painted, needs Detailing and Base
Wicked Doll - primed
Wicked Doll - primed
Stitched Together - primed
Stitched Together - primed

Friday, January 27, 2012

Collodi

A couple of weeks ago I had a really bad day at work, so my hubby and I went down to the gaming store to try and soothe me with the purchase of Malifaux figures and playing a game. Since we didn't have anything with us, we ended up picking up a couple more fate decks and a tape measure, too, which is fine since we would like to do demo games for people that stop by our tables and seem interested. He grabbed Kirai's box, and I decided on Collodi. He also got a blister of additional Seishins, and I picked up a blister of stitched togethers. It is funny to note that the seishins were packaged wrong, so he has three of them that look exactly alike.

I'm not sure why I picked up Collodi... it was completely on impulse, and I don't think that prior to that moment I had been interested in him. I've played against him twice before, and while he was occasionally very annoying in an opposing crew, it never occurred to me that I might like to add him to my collection. Until then.

So now I have crews from each faction. For Guild, I have Perdita. For Neverborn, Collodi. For Resurrectionists, Molly. For Arcanists, Rasputina. And for Outcasts, the Viktorias. I don't think this is how I'm supposed to do it! I'm supposed to be concentrating on one faction! It was not actually my intent to own a crew for each faction... it simply turned out that way.

At any rate, we did end up getting a quick game in, in which my husband severely trounced me. I rushed Collodi forward into melee and then spent the rest of the game trying to get my marionettes back. I ended up killing Collodi myself to keep the hubby from getting an objective, but as it was all said and done he had scored 6VP and I had scored 3.

I've played Collodi once more since then, against my husband's Kaeris crew, and I am proud to say that this henchie vs. henchie battle ended with my victory! I was very excited to beat the hubby as he is an excellent player, and I am not so much.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of Collodi's colors as they appear on the box. As well, I knew that I did not want to paint all of the puppets in the same colors that I would do Collodi in... I wanted everything to be unique. Still, I wasn't sure how Collodi would be painted until I actually sat down to do it. I am pretty pleased with the results! The hubby was not a fan of the pink eyes, but I disagree with him.


I tried to put wood grain on his hands.


I'm proud of the gradient!


I also got one of the wicked dolls painted up... the one that I have been calling Kermit. This was my first attempt at gore, so I was very nervous doing it!

It occurs to me that this looks much better when it isn't close up.

It really looks better in person, how disappointing!


I can't wait to get a few more of these guys painted! I don't think I've had so much fun painting anything else.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sonnia Loves Explosions!

Last evening, my husband, my brother Tim and I met at the gaming store to paint Malifaux figures and possibly play. I worked on the Ortegas, except Papa Loco, whose model confuses the bejeezus out of me... I can't tell what is what on him! I think I have some nice colors going on, though I got teased for making Nino's coat a shiny brown. Perdita has pony chaps.

After painting for a few hours, Tim and I decided to play a game. We settled on 25 points, and he tested out his Sonnia Criid box, adding my desperate mercenary (Farah Fawcett Ortega - hehe), and I fielded Perdita, Santiago, Francisco, Nino and a ronin. Our shared strategy was claim jump, and for schemes I chose announced Hold out, and announced Raid!. Tim chose announced Hold out, and unannounced eye for an eye.

The Ortegas did very well for the first two rounds, but on round three things started getting pretty insane. The gaming store was closing, so we had to end things quickly. I moved all my figures toward the objective marker, and he took his Sonnia and blew the crap out of them, along with his witchling stalkers, setting up a nice explody chain reaction finale.

And I'm not kidding... he cast the hell out of that spell! He ended up having a CA of 31, and even though I had a DF of 25 it was to no avail. In addition, he flipped serious damage.

After everything blew up, only Santiago and Sonnia were standing.

But... I was near the objective marker, and Sonnia was not, so I claimed victory. In addition, I had more minions than him, so that made my "Raid!" scheme successful. After VPs were added up, I had 8 and Tim had 3. YAY! It was both of our first time playing with these models.

I was so happy to see Tim have fun with Sonnia, which I bought him for Christmas. He seems to be getting quite addicted, as I planned.

I am definitely feeling more comfortable with gameplay, and don't need much help.

What I learned:
* Don't cast on Sonnia's crew.
* 2 inches between blast templates? OUCH!
* Objectives and Schemes first, screw around later.
* Perdita can matrix dodge anything. Except exploding models.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Ebay Spree!

So, yesterday I went on an Ebay spending spree. I ended up purchasing a Miss Demeanor (female convict gunslinger), some Rotten Belles to start to flesh out my Molly crew, and Zoraida's avatar. I think I got a good price on all of them, not astounding, but cheaper than I am going to get in a store without ripping off the seller at the same time. And the Miss Demeanor I can't get in a store! She'll be a fun addition to my Viks, which I have already been playing very shoot-y, and give me another option if I want to play around with what I'm taking.


I'll get a better picture of her when she ships!


Molly girl is severely lacking right now with just the crooligans. I am planning on adding Seamus' alternate to the mix, and assembling a Seamus crew without having to purchase the box set.

As to Zoraida's avatar... what can I say? I think it is lovely, and I couldn't resist. Especially for the price. Zoraida is probably going to be my neverborn project when I get around to it, because my hubby is extremely interested in Pandora, which was the other one I was looking at.

I have been guilted out of purchasing regular minis on ebay again by the husband. He says we should support our local store, and now I feel bad!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Nyan Loves McTavish

I'm not the only one who loves McTavish. One of my cats, Nyan, decided that he is wonderful, and I have proof!



Two seconds after this was snapped, he gave the mini a big bat, and bent the musket a bit. Remind me not to let Nyan near anything delicate!!

Unexpected New Years Eve!

The day before New Year's Eve, two members of my D&D group decided to get together and play Malifaux with my hubby and I, since the other group member was out of state for the holidays. It was Chuck's first time playing Malifaux. He was most drawn to Marcus, so he hijacked him from my hubby and seemed to pick things up reasonably quickly. We had a grand time of it, and the hours passed too quickly. None of us had any New Years Eve plans this year, so when we learned the gaming store was holding a new years party and potluck dinner, my husband and my friends Steph and Chuck and I decided that we would meet again the next day and ring in the new year with less alcohol and more imaginary bloodshed.

It was a wonderful day! I arrived to the gaming store around 1pm to start work on painting my new McTavish, and Steph and Chuck arrived at about 3. So all in all we got a good 9 and 1/2 hours of gaming in! Mostly Malifaux, with a short "Munchkin Break" to entertain their child Thomas who seems a bit too young for Malifaux yet -- although my Ice Golem, Johann, and my husband's Razorspine Rattler seem to be his personal heros. After we were done playing, he grabbed my Viktoria crew and acted out a funny battle of his own, as if they were action figures, with dialogue and everything.

The child entertains himself with a game of Werewolf while we play.


At any rate, we decided that in order to get the most playing in as possible we would just play with 25ss. I went with the Viks, Taelor, McTavish, a Ronin, and a Desperate Mercenary with 4ss remaining. Steph went with Perdita Ortega, Francisco Ortega, Abuela Ortega, and Nino Ortega with 6ss remaining with a cache of 2. Our shared strategy was deliver a message, and Steph and I forgot to choose schemes.

On the other side of the table our husbands were playing a game of Raspy vs. Marcus. We had recently picked up Raspy's avatar, and he actually got to use it! That thing is just mean!!

Back on our side of the table, we ended up playing in a "bog", and Steph and I had fun setting up the terrain. Here is the table... anywhere that was not elevated we considered to be water.



I have a blast playing with Steph. We invent little stories about the characters as we play, and why they react certain ways. We have decided that my Desperate Mercenary, who I have been calling Farah Fawcett because of her hairstyle, is Francisco Ortega's estranged wife... Farrah Fawcett-Ortega.


Farrah calls out desperately for "Franco" as she charges across the bridge!


Perdita enjoyed putting a bullet between Farrah's eyes, even though she was trying to make ammends. No one hurts her brother!!

Other highlights of the game was Steph mining about six soulstones and managing to use them all during play, McTavish plinking off Ortegas with his 14 inch range, and Nino Ortega showing us all that he was brain damaged as he faced off against both Viks, Taelor and a Ronin. It didn't last long.


Silly, stupid Nino!!


We paused the game midway, so I could go to the grocery store and get something for the potluck. I picked up some whipped cream, cherries, marshmallows and walnuts, and whipped up some cherry fluff. It is my old stand-by when I don't know what to bring to a potluck or picnic! Yummmm potluck... I've always enjoyed them. We took a short break to eat, and then continued to graze on finger foods as we played.

Malifaux + Potluck = AWESOME. But back to the game!

The final showdown!


Eventually, I killed all of the Ortegas. Sadly, I still didn't win. Steph delivered her message one round before I did, so after the VPs were calculated all of my slaughter mattered not at all! Terribly depressing!

After the first game and the Munchkin break, my hubby played a game against another player who had come in later than us, and Chuck, Steph and I had a 3-way brawl. We decided to go with strictly box sets for some reason. Steph took Colette (with the intention of letting me finally play Perdita), Chuck took Kaeris, and I took... the Viks. I think I am honestly just starting to love them. Its a good feeling!

It was tough for me to shelf McTavish and go with just the box set, though! I love the model, and he has been working well for me so far.

I'm not gonna go into detail about this game, suffice to say that it lasted quite a while, and we had shared strategy treasure hunt. My scheme was announced frame for murder with Taelor, Chuck's was to kill Cassandra, and Steph's was to kill 3 constructs. So I killed Cassandra first, then plinked the constructs down until there were only two left, grabbed the treasure with Taelor and ran back to my side of the board.

Taelor brings it home! Yay!


The game ended at 12:30 am. We took a couple minute break to ring in the new year, and kiss our spouses. Then the first thing I did in 2012 is... WIN MY FIRST GAME OF MALIFAUX BY MYSELF since that initial game. Huzzah!!

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Three Viktorias

As much as I loved the idea of Raspy, I realized that I needed a crew that involved much less thought. Playing games with Raspy was extremely slow, as I had to constantly read over the cards, and could never seem to remember spells and abilities. I am absolutely not a quick learner, and I have absolutely no talent for strategy and rules. I am certain that I frustrated my opponents with this! Besides, all I really wanted to do was just charge into the fray and smack things with my ice golem. It got to the point that I was ignoring spells entirely, in favor of not having the frustration of dealing with them.

Well, that's certainly not how Raspy should be played!

Fortunately for the world, there is a variety of Malifaux crews out there to choose from. So when my husband (who is still absolutely in love with Marcus) decided that he would like to pick up another crew, I decided that I would like to as well. When we went to the gaming store to look at the box sets in stock, this time Colette was there. I felt a little pang of jealousy as my husband picked it up, knowing that while she was beautiful, she was far too complicated for me. I eventually settled on the Viktorias, though I wasn't fond of any of the models whatsoever, because it seemed as if their playing style was more in line with what I needed. Besides, my name is Victoria, and the thought of playing my namesake elicited a little giggle.

I decided that I would paint the Viktorias as Latinos, because I had been thinking about West Side Story since I had heard a selection from it on NPR earlier that day. This was a good decision for me, as after everything was painted, I realized that the colors of the models were what I disliked more than their shape. Except Johan. I still hate Johan... he looks like a dumbass. Its that stupid cloak!! And his... chest piercings.

About a week later, I decided that I would pick up some Ronin. I was happy to have them because I could get rid of Bishop, who was the only one who was entirely too complicated for me. I had them all painted (sans details and shading) in time for my second tournament, which was a pairs tournament that I entered with my husband.

Playing alongside him was a good experience for me, because he has a calming effect on me, and I think more clearly. He brought his new Colette crew to fight with my Viktorias. Together, we became "Team Johan is a Pimp" -- since he was the only male in play.

Our first game was against a team consisting of another set of Viktorias, and Som'er Teeth Jones. This was my first run-in with Som'er, and I must admit that the pigs delighted me! The Viktorias managed to get into a four-way melee.

Our second game was against Zoraida and Collodi. I got to see Zoraida's beautiful avatar, although it was never brought into play.

Results:

Viktorias + Colette vs. Viktorias + Som'er Teeth Jones = Team Johan is a Pimp wins!
Viktorias + Colette vs. Zoraida + Collodi = Team Johan is a Pimp wins again!

After all VPs were added up, my hubby and I got 2nd place. Really, he won 2nd place, and I was just along for the ride, but it was still a lot of fun to try and help him out!

After I finally finish the details on my Viktorias, I will get some pictures of them up. They are very nearly done, after 3 months of playing them and putting it off!

I'll also post pictures of my husband's Colette crew, who he has been letting me re-paint, because I begged him.

I've picked up two more crews in addition - Perdita, and Molly. Molly's crew isn't even fully assembled yet, though I have played her. Perdita is assembled, but my friend Steph has been stealing her, and I haven't had the chance to try her out yet! I've played many games against her, at Steph's hands!

The hubby has picked up some more as well. So in our house, we currently have Marcus, Rasputina, The Viktorias, Colette, Perdita, Kaeris, Molly and Ramos. I think we're officially addicted!!