My Cup Runneth Over!

It occurs to be that I haven't done much with this blog for a while.  I always have the best intentions of writing in it, but time passes and then what I was going to write about no longer seems relevent.

Since my last post, my life has been absolutely filled to the brim with Malifaux.  Since Adepticon I have attended Gen Con, where I had the joy of working at the Wyrd exibit booth for three shifts.  I have to say that it was an absolute joy to be able to share my love for this game with people that were passing by.  Strangely, quite a few people recognized my voice from the Through the Breach podcast.  One person told me "I know you... you're internet famous!"  I don't know about that, but it certainly was a kick to hear!

Working at the gen con booth is an experience like no other.  There is something magical in the buzz of the crowd, and there is delight in being able to speak to hordes of MY PEOPLE and just share excitement with them.  And it wasn't just experienced Malifaux players that would stop by, but just miniatures enthusiasts who loved the look of what we had, or simply people that were curious about our giant whiskey golem statue.

I am extremely excited to attend gen con again this year and volunteer my time.  This time I hope to help promote the RPG (Through the Breach) because I now have quite a bit of experience playing it, and I find it absolutely phenomenal!  If you haven't tried it... check it out!

I will also be attending Adepticon again this year.  I loved the smaller venue and that it was more specifically focused on gaming.  I already have the time off from work!  The Malifaux events there were a blast, and I can't wait to participate again!  Last year my husband managed to win the masters tournament, and he is feeling quite a bit of need to attempt to place well again.

This year there will be an official national championship Malifaux tournament at the Nova open.  Unfortunately, this is falling over the same weekend that my brother in law is getting married so even if I (ha ha) or Nick (more likely) qualifies for the tournament, we will not be able to attend.  Ah, well!

I participated in The Wyrd Place's vassal league this year, and failed horribly but had a lot of fun, and got a lot of experience using Vassal to play the game.  For anyone who has difficulty finding opponents in their local area, I would highly reccomend it!  It has a steep learning curve, but once you figure out the commands the games flow quite well and are easy to follow.

I have been hosting an event in my gaming store called Pizzafaux once a month for at least half a year.  I give away free pizza, do demos, and anyone that plays Malifaux, buys it, or does a demo gets pizza.  I'm not certain that it has actually attracted very many people, but it is fun to have a pizza night once in a while.  I'm going to report this attempt to draw local players to the game as unsuccessful (and expensive) but fun!

Tuesdays and Saturdays are Malifaux playing days, and Saturday evenings are now dedicated to Through the Breach RPG run by my husband.  We have seven players, so things are quite hectic, but the games are magical.  I'll discuss them more later!

I have been reliably holding a Malifaux tournament every other month and inviting the Omaha players down for that.  The next tournament, "Fight Night" is the last Saturday of this month.  I've been ranking my tournaments over at www.malifauxrankings.com ... I invite everyone to do this as well!  Its fun to see your names up on the board, and the site is brilliant!

I'm doing a demo in Grand Island Nebraska for the Grand Island Gaming Guild on 2/7, and excited to be able to try and bring the game to the good people of GI.

And that pretty much catches you up on my Malifaux happenings.  My Malifaux cup runneth over!

I'll be back later to talk about my pretty plastics, and all about how I have fallen in love with the game over and over again.

Adepticon Day #2

Day #2 - Thursday, 4/3/2014

Today was the Malifaux Cake Match!  I had a bit of difficulty finding it, but once I found out where it was, I helped usher other lost sheep toward it.  I brought some terrain for one board, but it looked pitiful next to some of the other amazing boards that were there!  A lot of people did a really nice job with their boards.  I decided that I would like to play 20 games of Malifaux during adepticon.  Because I am "running the gauntlet" and entering all events, it shouldn't be too difficult.  During the cake match I got in my first four games.

My first game was against Antonio of TTB.  He took McMourning and I brought Misaki as ten thunders in an attempt to play a master from every different faction for the achievement league since I will mostly be playing outcasts and arcanists for the rest of the tournaments.  I ended up winning without scoring any schemes, but just on points from strategy.  2 to 1.

Everyone who was registered ended up getting an adepticon 2014 fate deck sponsored by Malifools.  I was one of the artists on the deck, doing the tome suit drawings and the red joker, as well as the tome itself... which I was sad to see looked not as good shrunk down.  My original tome had celtic knotwork all over it.  I have heard that there are complaints about my Myrandra drawing, that it is too sexualized.  But I also did hear someone exclaim "Woah, she is hot!" so I guess I have mixed reviews.  BOOBIEZ!!!

My second game was against Mike from the Malifools podcast.  He was using the TTB fate deck, so I decided to use the new Malifools fate deck.  He brought a very nice Collodi crew, and I continued my misfit masters games by playing guild and bringing Lady Justice.  I haven't seen 2E Collodi yet, or played a game against him, so it was a new experience... and a terrifying one!  Thankfully Mike is a fun opponent to play, because otherwise the game would have been miserable... I got my face beaten in soundly in what ended as a 10 vs 0 VP victory for Malifools.  During the middle of our game, the Malifools team won first prize for their awesome pig bomb cake!  There were many yummy cakes there, and my favorite was a Teddy cake, complete with gnarly looking clear sugar candy claws and teeth.

My third game was against someone that I played at gen con last year, the fellow who actually won the avatar tournament!  I decided to try out gremlins against his pandora crew (I haven't even looked at the gremlin cards before today, or played a game against them!) and again I got decimated, 10 to 0.  His crew consisted of Pandora, Candy, Kade and a Doppleganger... a very unique crew using no sorrows.  It was nicely effective against my poor, poor gremlins.  Ophelia spent most of the time being paralyzed.  At least Pere Ravage took both him and Pandora out in a blaze of green fiery glory.

My last game was a tiny 15 SS game against my husband.  I took Candy, Kade and a beckoner against Francois, Raphael and a piglet.  I did a bit better this time, but still lost, 5 to 2.  At least I got some achievement list goals checked off, including ending the game with four cards worth 2 or lower.

I ended up getting a lot of the weird achievements done today... discarding the red joker during the draw phase, playing a round after turn 1 with my hand visible, playing a round after turn 2 with my hand face down, going a whole game without using soulstones, going a round without cheating, and many more.

Tonight we finished up with some crazy stuffed pizza... the barbecue chicken was the best!  Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the vendor hall after it was set up, and I don't believe that we will tomorrow.  I fell asleep early, absolutely exhausted.

Adepticon Day #1

I wrote an account of my adventures at Adepticon, but I haven't gotten around to posting it until now.  Apologies for these belated entries!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Day #1 - Wednesday, 4/2/2014

Today we set out at 4a m for the long drive to Lombard, IL.  We arrived a bit before 1pm, and met with Mark and Josh of TTB before promptly heading to our hotel room for a nap.  Not much was happening this day, but registration was very busy!

Unfortunately we didn't get one of the big swag bags, but we still got a smaller one that included two different minis, a book by Graham McNeill, who signed it for us, and a bottle of brush on primer. 

There was one vendor open that was selling old Malifaux models at 50% off, so I picked up another Friekorp Trapper, Hamelin's Avatar, two packages of Gupps and a Hodgepodge effigy.

We went out to eat at some bar that had reduced price appetizers, and I had an Irish sour apple and some delicious jalapeno calamari.  Even though we got a nap in we still fell asleep quickly once we got back!

Catching Up!

I have put off posting in this poor blog for a while, though I have had every intention of doing so.  This is particularly in light of my last post, which shows pictures of my first game of M2E - in which I was dropping scheme markers too close together!  I was a bit blown away by how many people saw that post, and was a bit embarrassed to look back on the post and read my grumblings and view my mistake.  But the title of this blog IS "WORST Malifaux player EVER", so I guess you all can't fault me!

So much has happened since then!  And so, to catch myself back up, I'll just mention some of my major Malifaux happenings since June, when I posted last.

M2E

I played my last game of Malifaux 1.5 at Gen Con this year, and have since played nothing but M2E.  I have a much better grasp of the rules now, and I am looking forward to the rules for the wave 2 models.  I have not helped with the beta testing, for lack of printer ink, and because I didn't want to have to relearn stats that got altered.

I resisted M2E when it first came out, like many others.  But to be honest, I hadn't yet given it a real chance.  After a while it became apparent to me that I didn't want my beloved game to leave me behind, and so I caved in and moved with it.  Since then, I have realized that the new rules really are a lot easier for new people to grasp!  It can be difficult, however, for an old dog to learn new tricks, and I have seen a lot of frustration in players as they moved to the new edition.

I think that my biggest gripe was the new art.  I still have mixed feelings about it.

Gen Con

I attended Gen Con again this year, and got to participate in the last official Malifaux tournament for 1.5!  I was lucky enough to do well enough in the Governor's Mansion (Avatar Qualifier 2) tournament on Saturday to advance on to the Avatar of Malifaux tournament on Sunday!  I was out in the first round of the Avatar tournament, but it was such an honor just to make it there.  I've come a long way since I first started this game and I am now and then reminded that I am NOT the worst Malifaux player anymore!

The Malifaux Tournament Boards at Gen Con!

I went to Gen Con hating the art for the Viks, but once I saw them in person, I changed my mind.  I picked up the Viks box set, as well as Tara's nightmare edition.  I'm so happy that I got the Gen Con box with the oversized Ronin... I like having these huge amazon women to play with, and I am eager to paint them!  At the raffle on Sunday, I won an Evil Baby Orphanage tin!

Henchman?

Oh, wow!  I'm a henchman now!  How about that?  Around August we started to try to re-stir-up interest in the game in our LGS.  We started out with five players, and now regularly have 8 - 12 players showing up every Tuesday.  It is my hope to continue to help spread the love!

Some of our players, doing their thing!  They are getting used to me photographing everything.

I ran my first tournament as a henchman in November.  It was an inter-city event where I invited players from Omaha to come to Lincoln and participate in 3 round of story encounters!  I will have to say that I think it was a success - even my LGS seemed surprised by the turnout... Malifaux players were everywhere!  There were 18 of us.  I'm hoping it will help them realize that we could be a force!

My tournament packets!  And a bag of soulstones I gave out.

Some of my tournament boards!

    

More boards!

Mass chaos!!!

I am looking forward to more inter-city events along with one of the Omaha henchman, and we plan on arranging one every other month or so, alternating between Lincoln and Omaha.  That would be six events a year!

Painting

I'm getting better at it!  At least, I'm trying.  I hope to continue to improve throughout the next year!

10 Thunders Archer and Torakage... look!  Freehand!  Gradients!

Through the Breach Podcast

Well, it came out of nowhere but it looks like I am going to be helping out with co-hosting the Through the Breach Podcast.  I'm still a bit baffled as to why anyone is letting me do this, but feel free to check out the podcast and hopefully everyone else involved will make up for my general unworthiness!  My first episode is not up yet, but should be soon.

Click Here for a Link!

Well, I have rambled long enough.  I'll try to get back to posting more regularly in the future!  I hope the new year is going well for everyone, and that it is filled with tons of gaming!!

Malifaux 2.0

So... just when I thought that I was starting to get more comfortable with my ability to play Malifaux, it looks like things are getting shaken up a bit!  Now I have an entire different set of rules to learn, and boy does it feel a whole lot different to me.

I've heard a lot of people say that Malifaux 2.0 contains all the flavor of Malifaux, while streamlining the rules and making it much easier for new people to understand it.  I'm not entirely certain how true that is at this point, but I am trying to get a few games under my belt before I decide too much.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty is I do NOT like most of the new art.  In fact, when I got to the Outcast section of the stat cards, I actually started crying... one, because I am a girl - and two, because I felt like they were ripping out the personality of characters I had come to love, and replacing them with something generic.  It isn't to say that the art is bad... its not bad art.  Its just not Malifaux, in my opinion.

I didn't get a "western" feel.  I didn't get a "steampunk" feel.  I didn't get a "Victorian" feel.  All I felt was "grotesque".  Everything is very horror and punk, and neo-asian themed.  Its almost sort of dystopian futuristic.

Case in point?  The Ronin.

The Old Ronin:

The New Ronin:

One wonders exactly how they morphed from being samurai cowgirls to white girls dressed as neo-asian lingerie and bow-wearing punk sluts, but I'm sure there must be something in the fluff?

I've had people argue that this is more true to what a "ronin" should be, anyhow.  Really?

At any rate, artwork aside, I played my first game of Malifaux 2.0 yesterday.  My friend and I decided not to use upgrades on our crews, because we wanted to focus on the feel of the new rules before adding other things to worry about.  I am not a quick learner when it comes to rules, so this worked for me.  I'll try upgrades the next time I play it.

My friend Stephanie decided to play a 30ss game.  She took a Sonnia crew consisting of Sonnia, Samael, 3 witchling stalkers and a purifying flame.  I took an Ortega crew with Perdita, Francisco, Nino, Papa Loco, Santiago and an enslaved nephilim.

Initial thoughts on the cards:  We were both weirded out by the lack of abilities on the cards.  It was weird for Nino not to have trigger happy.  Weird for Santiago not to have the ability to get an extra move action.  Francisco as a henchman?  Wow!  He is no longer the 5 point model you take just to have another Ortega.  And Ortega striking is mostly a thing of the past!  I kind of like that.  Although it really does make the Ortegas quite different for me to play.

Initial thoughts on game setup:  The new deployment types are weird, but potentially fun/scary.  I really like the randomization of schemes and the option of five to pick from.  It really stirs things up quite a bit, and keeps people from picking the same thing over and over and over.  Scheme counters will take quite a bit for me to get used to.  This new poker-face-bluffing-element to schemes is a bit weird for me.

Initial thoughts on game play:  Soulstones are a lot less useful!  Not to say that they aren't useful at all, but... no more insane casts of 30 or more, etc.!  I'm not sure how I feel about having to declare if you are using soulstones before you start flipping stuff around, but I guess with the way things are it makes sense.  Its a bit of a gamble, a push in your favor.  It makes soulstones go very fast, say in round two.  I've watched three games of this now, and almost all soulstones are gone in round two.  May need to learn to work on conservation?  Are we all just too eager to use them?  Being able to pre-measure everything feels cheap.  I don't like it.  Not at all.  It takes all the risk out of what you are doing!

The game went quickly and smoothly - probably because we weren't worrying about upgrades.  We had reconnoiter, and she took bodyguard on Samael, and Power Ritual.  I had bodyguard on Nino, and my other scheme was Protect Territory.  The Ortegas insane damage profiles quickly beat down the opposing crew, and I spent most of my time shooting, then using my enslaved nephilim to influence my own crew to keep plopping down objective markers. 

Francisco protects his territory with five scheme markers at the end of the game.  Maybe a bit excessive?

Papa Loco and Perdita ended with two scheme markers each.  I think I nailed this scheme!

With most of her crew dead by turn three, it was easy to score points for Reconnoiter.  The game ended with her at 2VP, and me at 8VP (though it would have been way more if we weren't capped at 8!)

Thoughts on the game:  It feels to me like beating down the opposing crew is going to be the easiest way to VP.  Less strategy, more beat down?  We'll see after I get a few more games in.

My verdict so far:  I like Malifaux Classic better, but I did have fun, so I'm willing to give Malifaux 2.0 another go.

Molly vs. Lilith vs. Lady Justice

The new rules for multi-player games have provided a lot of fun in our local gaming store, as quite often we have an odd number of players and someone gets left out.  A few weeks ago, I decided that no matter what anyone else was taking, I would be playing a Molly crew that day.  So when I ended up in a three-player game with poor Molly Girl pitted off against Lady Justice and Lilith, I felt reasonably sorry for her - especially since I knew that I was going to be the primary target of the other two players (they were husband and wife, and rather known for trying to take out the opposition first!)

But then, something amazing happened.  My dear Molly decided that she was going to kick some ass.  And for some reason, the Rogue Necromancy (who I lovingly call "Ted") refused to die.  Joy-of-joys, he even took Judge out in round one.

In the end, it was Molly with 6 VP, Lady Justice with 4, and Lilith with 0.

I count this double win for Molly as one of my crowning achievements in the game!  I rewarded her performance by actually applauding the model.  Yay!

It has been a while since I have posted anything - but my months have been filled with Malifaux. Games have been coming once or twice a week, and I even got to visit the Wyrd booth at GenCon this year and participate in one of the tournaments! I'm happy to say that I came in 17/36 in my round, so I guess that means I am officially NOT the "WORST Malifaux player EVER" anymore, since I did better than half. That's good enough for me!

Sometime after April I got addicted to Kirai, and started playing her exclusively. Her playstyle just clicked for me, and to this day I have not found another master that I just instinctively get. In late August, however, I decided that I had far too many masters piling up and not being painted or played, so I began to devote myself to one master each month - playing them exclusively, and getting them at least tournament legal for painting. I actually have a schedule drawn up through the entire year and into 2014. September belonged to Perdita, October to Collodi, November to Sonnia and December to (who else?) Rasputina. I'll get some pics of the crews up eventually. Here is a pic of Sonnia who I decided to paint as Cruella DeVille (with dalmatians) and the top of Perdita's avatar.

January will be devoted to McCabe, because I want to get to playing him before he is released, as I purchased him during Wyrd's birthday sale, but was already busy with Raspy for the month. I really like the detail of the new plastics, but I am not as good at assembling the tiny pieces. I'd like to get into a bit more detail about what I learned about each master so far, but that will have to come later! :)