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! :)

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?

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!

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!