Montag's Grand Opening and Malifaux Terrain!

I've got a massive update lined up for you folks!

So it was a pretty big weekend for gaming in the Houston area! One of our local (and frankly, my favorite) gaming stores, Montag's, was having a grand opening event for their new location. The new location not only offered a much bigger space it also segregated the areas for gaming and retail, which is a great idea so that we aren't piling on top of one another.

The Malifaux group was designated to have a 4x6 table reserved for demos, meaning we'd have space for two tables running. Our resident Gremlin player (now turned Resser) volunteered to host demo games throughout the day, and I volunteered to provide the terrain which is why I'd been working hard to paint up the pieces I showcased earlier on the blog.

So first up is the Garden of Morr!

I absolutely love this kit from GW

I've had this set for a while now, and have always loved the way it looks. I made sure to get my hands on it before it went out of print, since they went the direction of Age of Sigmar I worried I wouldn't get another chance - I've already missed out on their previous awesome sets and didn't want to miss this. I even painted the statue a long time ago and featured it on the blog.

Getting down to crunch time I had only primed the unpainted pieces by Friday, with the next day being the opening. So I had to figure out a way to crank these guys out to a presentable standard for the demo. I got them all lined up and quickly zenithal sprayed them with VMA Light Grey over the black primer. I then haphazardly sprayed the roofs and fencing. I mean, really haphazardly. I sprayed VGA Fire Orange trying to lay down a base for rust color, but it turned out more yellow than I had anticipated. I added patches of VMA Burnt Umber to vary the colors, but because I was rushing to get them done it was spotty. Really, though, it's just a foundation for me to use pigments later to do the rust, so it works out fine enough for the deadline.

I had left the building footprint pieces alone as they didn't add anything to the playability of the pieces and would make them harder to transport when they're glued on. I think the stone work looks well enough as it is, the only other things I'd need to do is use black pigments in certain areas that lost its shading as well as drybrush grey and white for highlights.

You can really tell the difference between my usual painting and this quick work from how much brighter the statue is from the buildings. In the statue I also sprayed white for a final highlight, although I may not do that at all for the rest of the buildings as I don't think it's necessary.

Overall though I'm glad I got the motivation to at least start this terrain, now I can use it for games and demos and they're really a very versatile set for Malifaux.

On Friday night I got a text from Mike to confirm that I had the two tables ready to go. TWO?! It was a funny moment of miscommunication, but with what I have in the hobby department works out perfectly for terrain in a pinch.

I decided that I could fill up a table quickly enough using the Battle Systems kickstarter I recently received. I'd have to be careful not to go overboard with the modern and sci-fi elements. I purchased the Suburban house specifically for its usefulness in Malifaux, so once I got my Garden of Morr painted up I started working on this.

I already had started working on a two story house that could fit into Malifaux, I just added a yard to the mix.

In the back you can see an Art Deco building I quickly cobbled together, I imagined it to be a central station for the Guild or something with the Sheriff's house right next to it.

I had made the other large building with a run down apartment complex in mind. The walkway seemed like a cool idea to add on as well. The last tiny little building was made to be a shack, I just needed some more big elements to block line of sight. Add in some trees and crates for soft cover, and fencing and dumpsters for flavor, and you've got yourself a quick table! By the time I was done it was super late and I had to get some rest for the big day.

The calm before the storm

We arrived prior to the opening to get everything set up. I had set up the Battle Systems board pretty much the same as I had at home, and Mike added some needed extra soft cover to fill the board. The painted board needed more thought as I hadn't set it up for a game before, but I think it turned out rather well. Mike had taken out his Gremlins for potential players and I brought out my Von Schill, both at 35ss. I figured that crew is straightforward enough for players to grasp, as well as Hannah being an attention grabber for the game.

Travis and I went to get lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant and came back to the store, and our tables, being in full swing.

Mike during a demo

Clay joined in and was teaching the game as well

Hannah creeping up on the Gremlins

Everyone seemed to get how Ophelia worked well enough

Clay's demo on the other table

There were plenty of other games going on as well. Warhammer 40k had a table with some cool armies to use.

The Chimera brought back some nostalgia, nothing like the good ol' Chim Chim

I really like how the Tau army was painted, well done!

The classic Dark Angels, I still have my Ravenwing army

Of course the cool Grey Knights made an appearance

It wouldn't be 40k without some Chaos!

The 40k table

Right next to the Malifaux tables was a demo table for Bolt Action. I actually took part of a demo game for it as I've always been curious as to how it plays. He had a cheat sheet printed up and I took control of ze Germans while he operated the elite British Paratroopers. We had a simple goal in mind, which was to capture a model near the center right of the board. The demo ran pretty smoothly and I understood the mechanics at play. It made me seriously consider getting into this game, if only at a small entry point. I'd definitely play 'Murrica.

There were other demos going on for Warmachine, X Wing and Infinity too. Being that I've played all of them I didn't feel like trying to take up someone's time when a prospective new player could have had a spot. I did however catch this model on one of the Infinity tables and it is stunning!

Whoever painted this, I hate you...

It is a gorgeous representation of Infinity, and follows very closely to Angel Giraldez's technique and style. It's just so clean! I'm jealous.

Due to the crowd Travis and I were left to our own devices, so I busted out a new game called BattleCON: Fate of Indines for us to play. It's a small card game that is inspired by fighting games like Street Fighter and it's pretty good.

Once it died down a bit and the second table was available Travis and I played a pick up game. Lately I had been really into Viktorias, but since I was loaning out Hannah for demos I decided to play Leve again, this time including Mad Dog Brackett instead of the Mechanical Rider to see his viability. Travis brought his Asami crew.

Opening moves, with Ashes towing Leve around

So we're officially in Q4 of Gaining Grounds 2016 (this year has flown by!). The deployment was standard and the strategy was Collect the Bounty. The scheme pool: Convict Labor, Inspection, Show of Force, Exhaust their Forces and something else. I chose Inspection to see if it could work with Leve and Convict Labor, he ended up choosing Show of Force and Convict Labor.

The well painted Asami crew take a stroll

It was certainly a pretty battle! As simple as I kept the terrain it still looked excellent, and his crew is fully painted and looks pretty cool on the table. 

The Flesh Constructs help hold the side for Inspection, their bases protect Mad Dog from engagements

The game started out fine enough, although I had to deploy a little differently than usual. Because I chose Inspection I knew that I would have no poker face, I had Leve and Ashes deploy to one side and the rest of the crew to the other so it was pretty obvious as to what I chose. I figured that if there is a chance he chose Show of Force it could actually work in my favor, as I can shoot toward the middle and had a lot of models who could stick around so any attempt to deny my VP would require a lot of commitment.

Lately I've started to have Leveticus utilize his other (0) action to teleport to Ashes and Dust. Ever since the Leve Nerf (make channel great again) I've explored his other options as now his AP is even more precious than it was before. Although it can be very risky his ability to teleport is pretty powerful. Having Leve use his Teleport has the positives of saving his AP for shooting rather than movement, and it can help Leve get out of engagements. It also adds in activations as long as you use it after Ashes has already gone, since you'll be getting the Core and Storm in there as well. The risks are that Leve can be vulnerable for next turn, as anything that can kill him will prevent him from summoning another Waif and may stop him from doing anything that turn. The other risk is making Ashes vulnerable before he becomes resummoned. The trick is to make sure you mitigate these risks by taking out the big threats on the same side before they activate, or not using it if you don't believe you can properly take the risks out before they attack Leve. Activation advantage and initiative are a huge factor in using this ability. However the pair can take on a whole flank themselves and Leve can pop up on the other side if he needs to.

Asami hunts down my scheme runner

The game was going really well for me and terribly for Travis. My deck was hitting on all cylinders and his deck seemed like it added in 5 black jokers when he wasn't looking. We ended up calling it on turn 3 as it seemed like he wouldn't be able to deny any of my VP while I whittled away his crew model by model.

What was once Ama No Zako is now an Abomination taunting the Oni

It was still a fun game though and I've been discovering new ways to utilize Leve in a tournament environment. I'm still working on my replacement for the Mechanical Rider, and haven't decided if Mad Dog is useful enough for the crew or if I should go with my gut instinct and replace him with the Strongarm suit. It all will depend on the table coverage as Mad Dog's ability to ignore cover will be powerful, but if I continue the trend of following Ashes around it may not be utilized by Leve at all and the Strongarm would be a better model to dish out damage while the Constructs anchor the waifs safely.

That was my hobby weekend! I'll update more once I figure out my next project, I've gotta knock out some priority paintjobs soon!

Flesh Construct WIP and Malifaux Demo Game

Hiya Internet!

So here's a WIP I started yesterday, the almighty cheap Flesh Construct for Malifaux! A friend from the Montag's group graciously donated this model to me, as I really didn't want to buy the McMourning crew in order to have the differently-posed Construct. It was already painted, but seeing as how I like to paint my stuff I painted over it. I didn't strip it, as it didn't seem to be thick with paint, and made sure to lightly spray the primer on.

Over a black primer I sprayed Vallejo Air Grey in a zenithal pattern to create highlights quickly and provide a brighter undercoat for the next color. I then lightly sprayed Vallejo Game Color Dead Flesh in the same pattern. I debated if I should have gone with a dark olive for this step and highlight with Dead Flesh, but I wanted to keep it less green looking so I took the risk of skipping that step. To define the shallow details and create a different tint I washed it with GW Devlan Mud. I originally was going to wash it with green as I've done with my old GW Zombies, but upon testing this color it seemed to be too drastic of a change for what I wanted this model to look like - you can sort of see it on the base to the right of his foot. I then took Dead Flesh and glazed on highlights, then added white to it for the final highlights.

So far I'm very happy with how it turned out. Some parts on his shoulders and back are very shallow, so it proved difficult to highlight without making it turn out like obvious brush strokes. I'd say he's mostly done now, I've just got to pick out the metals, paint the braaaaains and base and I'd say he's complete enough to run on the tournament this Saturday.

I also got to run a demo game for Reuben. We played two 35ss games and he brought his beautifully painted Perdita crew. Check out those cacti!

I ran Von Schill, partly because I never get to use him but mostly because it's a good crew to run against a new player since he uses straightforward mechanics. Really though it gave me a good idea on how to use him, as I've only used him once and he got wiped off the table by Wong and his crew, which left me to believe that he will never be used again.

All in all we had a ton of fun, and he got the hang of it really fast. I've demoed this game to three other newbies before and it still proves to be an easy game to teach and understand, it's the strategy itself that proves difficult.

I also made sure to have plenty of terrain. I followed the rule of 1/3, where the terrain I got filled up 1/3 of the board and consisted of 3 parts different types of terrain. When I placed them it seemed really cluttered compared to what people usually place for terrain, but it's perfect for two shooting crews. I figure if he can find good ways to shoot in dense terrain then it only gets easier from there, plus you don't want to give a Perdita player the false security blanket of an empty field.

We used the Strats/Schemes from the rule book and the first pool turned out to be extremely killy. Reckoning, ALitS, Assassinate, Frame for Murder, Make them Suffer and Breakthrough popped up, which is a decent pool to try out his crew with as it doesn't force the interact schemes on him. I forgot the score for this one but he did a pretty good job, I think it was 5-3 in my favor.

The second game was similar in pool, with Reckoning, ALitS, Plant Evidence, Outflank, Assasinate, and Protect Territory came up. We both chose Plant Evidence and Protect Territory revealed. This game Reuben started to get the hang of his crew a bit more, and just piled on the damage from Perdita. He did suffer from Kill Syndrome, and seemed to forget the objectives and went after bodies so his score ran lower than the previous game and ended 5-1.

Overall he really liked the game and is excited to try out 50ss. With what he currently owns he can make some decent lists, but if he gets a purchase or two he can crank out a great list for most schemes. Perdita is just plain nasty on damage.

I also learned a bit more on Von Schill that gave me a bit more perspective on him than I've previously had in my analysis of Outcast Masters. Some observations still rang true, like how he's a toolbox model with dull tools, but some aspects of his character abilities were actually a blast to play.

First off, I accidentally left the Steam Trunk at home so I decided to use the Malifaux Child as his totem. I contemplated not using a totem at all to see how he works on his own, but decided that the option to "Finish the Cur" several times would be interesting. The potential is great and gave several options when faced against a Hard to Kill heavy crew like Perdita's. Coupled with Hannah you can have two extra attacks when needed, but then I realized that you can't use it since it's a (0) action so that went out the window. In the end he was used for healing, but then again you could use the Steam Trunk for that.

Hannah is a natural pairing for him, as she can copy his (0) abilities and gains his pseudo Hard to Kill from him. She can be tanky when needed and has a great melee attack that can stack Paralyze onto a model, with the occasional helpful blast which works against Perdita's high defense.

I also used a Freikorpsmann, Desperate Merc and Trapper but I didn't learn anything new that I hadn't seen before with other crews. I kept the Freikorps too far to benefit from his abilities as they were running schemes.

In regards to the Man himself he seems to have some good traits. I used The Shirt Comes Off and Survivalist on him to keep him around and used him as an attrition piece to get rid of non-masters. It works out fairly well, as his Augmented Jump allowed him to hop around the board pretty quickly and keep enemy models out of LOS. Against Perdita it's negated by her various pushes, but if she's forced to use them that's potentially less options for the opponent who has to react to your movements. I can't remember, but if Relocate is a (0) ability then you're choosing between ignoring cover/armor or using it which can help tremendously.

A nice situation I tried out was saving high cards or the Red Joker in hand for his attacks. If you have a 13 or RJ you can spend a stone for a crow (or a high crow) for your first melee attack to lower their defense permanently. Although not a new or even mind-blowing tactic it's still a good idea to have in your pocket. Against Perdita's DF7 I'd need a RJ to tie in attacks, so by throwing it out there you're almost guaranteed to lower their DF for future attacks. Throw out a 13 and you still have a good shot. When you hit 12s is where it can get iffy, but still worth risking. If their defense is any lower you have a fairly good chance at doing the damage anyway, depending on how you make your opponent spend their cards. He is able to risk going later in the turn if needed, as his armor, 12 wounds, damage prevention, and survivalist can mitigate instant kills. You need to calculate your damage intake well, so that you know you can survive long enough to use his Shirt when needed. Having several stones to prevent damage at 3 or higher helps out, usually he can take 2 or less easily enough depending on how many attacks you see coming his way before he activates. Having a 1" melee range blows though, and his 6 to hit is okay but easily avoided against valuable targets, which is why you need to treat him like Misaki and go after small targets.

When you need to pack on the damage his Critical Strike comes pretty handy. With a high ram and SS you can make what you target die fast enough.

His gun is handy enough, but I think I see his melee attacks as more formidable when you have the option of lowering their DF for the rest of the game. It makes it easier for him to chop them down, and if need be for other members to get their attacks through as well, which is important as his damage track won't be taking down most Henchmen or Masters in one go. Against Francisco he did well enough, but that isn't the norm as most Henchmen level defenses tend to match his melee stat.

While I still don't think he's competitive I now feel like I could field him and have fun, as opposed to Misaki. I'll continue to use him against Reuben to figure him out, but in a tournament I'm still locked into Leveticus who is much more versatile and consistent, with the Viks as a backup in case it looks like their Alpha Strike may come in handy. We'll see how the plan goes on Saturday!