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.

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.

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!

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!!

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!!