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I already had three from a previous 'spend x amount to get...' offer on a previous sale...and then not having them all started to bother me...

Well that was quick: ...now onto the stretch goals! Enjoy your painting! Caedrus

No, flips only happen for a duel, damage, healing or initiative. Cheating Fate specifically comes after the flip. Bayou Two-Card isn't a flip, it's specifically described as Cheating Fate. From the Core Rules: "Once a model has chosen the active card from the flip (and any Fate Modifiers) it may then Cheat Fate." "When a Joker appears in a flip it will stop certain players from being able to cheat. [...] If a player's opponent flips a Red Joker from her Fate Deck, the plater is not able to Cheat Fate."

I wonder if they'd consider doing both; a Blog to post whatever whenever, and every two months they compile the articles (or just the best ones) into a .pdf?

Victor Ramos is the one of the most efficient summoners in the game, has access to some excellent support auras in his upgrades, and he typically likes to surround himself with lots of Constructs. He’s hard to take down or out-activate, and all it takes for his summoning engine to get a-rolling is a single Scrap Marker. However he can be slow, he’s extremely card greedy (gotta have those 's), and every turn he doesn’t have access to Scrap Markers is one he’s massively going down in efficiency. If an enemy model has a way to remove Scrap Markers then he’s in for a real bad time. So we're all on the same page here, let's take a look at his card, as per Wyrd's website: CARD FRONT As the founder of the M&SU (the Miners and Steamfitters Union), it’s not surprising he has that Characteristic himself. He doesn’t do anything for other M&SU members specifically, but there’s so much synergy in that group that just being a member is a plus. Moving to his stats, one of the first things you’ll see is his unfortunate Df of 4, but I promise you it’s not as bad as it sounds since all of his Abilities are built around keeping him alive! His Df trigger Repulsion increases his Df for each in the duel and also pushes the enemy away (hopefully out of range if they charged you), he has Armor +2 which is just generally great to have, and his Opportunist Ability heals him 2 wounds each time a nearby Construct is killed (NOT Sacrificed) – and spoilers, that will happen a lot. His other stats are decent besides his hilarious Cg of 4, but if he needs to charge something you’re probably already in a bad spot. The front of his card is admittedly a bit boring, but with it all being defense oriented it’ll take some real effort for your opponent to kill him. CARD BACK The back of his card is where things get really interesting! One thing that might be a bit of a shock is Ramos does not have a single trigger on ANY of his actions, not even from his upgrades. This means he doesn’t personally care at all about suits outside his summoning and Df trigger. His attack Clockwork Fist is frankly not great, but it does have a Severe of 7 which can give you a sneaky knockout if luck’s on your side. The attack you’re far more likely to be using is his Electrical Fire. It only has a 2/3/4 spread and is Rg 8, but it ignores Armor, doesn’t randomize, and has a respectable Ca 7! His only core (0) is Magnetism, which can only target a Construct but has a Ca 8 and huge Rg 16! On a success it pushes Ramos towards the Construct and does 2 damage, ignoring Armor. He can use this on his own models to zip around without wasting AP on walking, but also gives him an easy way of taking out enemy Constructs. His real bread-and-butter Ability (and the reason he’s so infamous) is his appropriately named Summon the Swarm. This can only be used once per turn, but summons 1, 2, or 3 Steam Arachnids off of a single AP and a Scrap Marker! One Arachnid only costs a 5 and it comes in on 3 wounds, two Arachnids needs an 8 and they both come in on 3 wounds, and three Arachnids needs an 11 and they each come in on 2 wounds (yes, three Arachnids requires spending a Soulstone). You do need to declare how many Steam Arachnids you’re summoning before you make your flip unfortunately, but since this only costs 1 AP his efficiency in summoning is unparalleled in any faction. His final Action is a bit of a “screw you” move, Uncontrolled Detonation. It Sacrifices a friendly Construct and forces nearby models to win a Df duel or take an impressive 4 damage each! Since this is a Sacrifice, the Construct does not drop a Scrap Marker afterwards and it doesn’t count for Opportunist. One EXTREMELY important thing to note is that because of this ability, dropping Ramos into Arcanists is a huge risk – if your opponent takes Marcus, he can use Alpha on Ramos, forcing him to Sacrifice himself! PERSONAL UPGRADES Ramos has a strong mix of upgrades that really change up how he plays, but they can be a bit pricey as there are three that cost 1ss and three that cost 2ss. Most of his upgrades are pretty support focused, but they have some nice variety in the kinds of support he provides. Combat Mechanic is his healing upgrade. It gives him Accomplice, letting him Chain Activate into another model after he’s finished which has a few nice synergies, but what you’re mostly taking this for is the Combat Mechanic Ability. This gives Ramos a medium range heal for a Construct, but it spends a Scrap Marker to do so. Electric Summoning is his summoning upgrade. It gives a single Action but as it’s a (0) it doesn’t compete much with what else Ramos wants to be doing. Electrical Creation summons the explosive model of the same name at the cost of a mid , which comes in at full health. Not huge, but it's not bad if you think your opponent’s going to be clumping up! Just be careful about the cards you're using on it, as this Ability competes for those mid 's with summoning in two Steam Arachnids. Field Generator is his tanking aura upgrade. It gives the (1) Action Arcing Screen, which gives Ramos a medium ranged aura that gives all nearby friendly models ’s to Df duels. Unlike most of his other actions and abilities, this one is NOT restricted to Constructs so anyone can benefit from this! Leviathan Power Core is his stat boost upgrade. It has the Ability Powering Up, which gives him the Powering Up Condition every time any model spends a Soulstone (so whenever a stone is used except for cards or initiative), which increases his Electrical Fire’s range by 1” per stack of the Condition. The really exciting thing here though is the Bleeding Off Power Ability, which lets you spend some of your Powering Up stack for bonuses that last through his activation! This can be a to his first opposed duel, increase his Electric Fire’s damage by 1 (min 3 ignoring Armor, pretty nice), give him +1 Ca, or Fast. The value of this upgrade takes a while to get going and relies somewhat on your opponent spending Soulstones as well, but since gaining the Condition is passive it’s mostly just free buffs for him! Under Pressure is his melee aura upgrade. It gives Counterspell, a small but handy bit of anti-Ca which removes the enemy’s built-in suits whenever they target Ramos. More importantly though, this provides the Overdrive Ability which gives all friendly Constructs in a decent range aura ’s to Ml attacks! If you’re going to be fighting over a small area of the board, handing out a ton of ’s to your attacks with this can be huge value. Vox Populi is his control upgrade. He gains the short range (0) Shout Them Down, which makes a model count as a Peon until its next Activation (which can really mess with your opponent’s Strategy goals). He also gains the Strike! Action which places two 50mm Markers for the turn that can’t be touching each other or models. These Markers count as Hazardous Severe (but ONLY to your enemies), with a very nice Hazardous damage spread (they are removed if they do any damage though). Dropping two in an opponent’s charge lane gives them two bad choices – charge anyways and take 6+ damage, or waste AP going around them. Win-win for you! OTHER UPGRADES Arcane Reservoir should be considered essentially mandatory for Ramos. It only has one Ability of the same name, but it lets Ramos draw an extra card each turn. This significantly increases the chance of being able to summon 2 or 3 Steam Arachnids each turn, and is absolutely worth the 2ss cost if you compare it to stoning for cards. If you want to play Ramos as an aura bot, Bleeding Edge Tech or Powered by Flame both significantly strengthen his Steam Arachnids. However, they’re both probably better on other models, as Ramos’ upgrade slots are pretty competitive. The other upgrades he has access to are okay to poor: Seize the Day, Imbued Energies, Imbued Protection, and Recharge Soulstone can be used with him but realistically there are better options most of the time. Like the above, Recharge Soulstone is good for his crew but you don’t want Ramos himself taking them. Joss is a great candidate for this if you’re not filling him with aura upgrades. M&SU CONSTRUCT MODELS Ramos’ personal totem, the Brass Arachnid, is a contentious topic. It has the incredibly powerful Ability Stoke which gives non-Leader Constructs Reactivate at the cost of a high (can you say turn 1 Howard Langston alpha strike?), and the can become built-in for the rest of the turn with his Rewire Ability. One common trick if you have a really good hand is to use Rewire, then Stoke itself, then on its next activation use Stoke on two more Constructs for huge activation control! However, the combination of it being a 4ss Insignificant Peon, having a low Wk, and needing high cards to give out Reactivate keeps this from being an auto-take. Joss is an amazing Henchman for several big reasons: he has good, reliable damage, he’s extremely tanky, and his Creative Salvage Ability is one of Ramos’ major sources of Scrap Markers. Even if you’re not taking him as your Scrap Marker engine he’s a solid model to take, especially if you’re planning on giving him Bleeding Edge Tech and/or Powered By Flame since he wants to be in the action at all times and having those upgrades’ auras on such a tanky frontliner is very handy. Howard Langston is an absolute monster in general, and if you need to kill the enemy dead he’s usually the right choice. Especially since the Brass Arachnid lets you do the notorious turn 1 alpha strike or keep him in your reserves and buff the heck out of him with Ramos’ various auras so he can be a danger to your opponent at any point in the game The benefits of the Rail Golem are the same as Howard, but it needs a bit more setup (a Burning provider and a bunch of low 's). However, if you do then his Locomotion provides your crew with even more damage than Howard can put out (this is the only model in-faction with access to min 5 damage without outside support). He can also carry the Hard Worker upgrade which can buff any Rail Workers you might be taking as well. Large Arachnids are some of the tankiest Minions you can hire, and if what you want is something to hold down a point for cheap they’re the models for you. They have a trigger in melee that removes the enemy’s Armor which can be amazing in the Arcanist mirror or when you’re facing Hoffman. Like Joss they have Creative Salvage, so they also provide plenty of Scrap Markers for you no matter what they’re killing. Finally, they also eat Scrap Markers and Scheme Markers for ’s for their Activation, which can be great value if you can get them near an enemy Scheme Marker you want to get rid of. Another contentious choice is the Metal Gamin. These are decently tanky with 4 wounds and Armor +2, they have Ramos’ incredible anti-Construct Magnetism attack (and they share his Ca 8 at it too!), and they have a really fantastic buff called Protection of Metal which gives a friendly model Df 6 and makes it so their Df can’t be changed from that. The downside though is the buff only lasts while the Gamin is in a very short range from that model, so it’s only really valuable to something largely immobile with low Df. They have their purpose and they’re only 4ss, but they’re not for every list. On the flip side, the Mobile Toolkit is to be taken in nearly every list. They’re a common sacrifice for Ramos’ Scrap Engine and they have some of the best Construct buffs Arcanists have access to (an extra Armor, to Ml Actions, or to ALL damage flips). They also have their Time Bomb attack which frankly a lot of people forget about, and on turn 5 having this suddenly walk up to a bunch of enemies and say “everyone pass a TN 16 Df or take 5 damage” can really stun a lot of players (and blow up half their remaining crew or totally drain their hand) Soulstone Miners are another one of these models who have some niche value but are great at what they do. They can start Buried and pop out at the end of any Turn (not near an enemy or the enemy deployment zone though), giving them great access to your opponent’s back lines. They have a good Ml attack that ignores Armor too, with a trigger to mess with enemy positioning or get a Soulstone on a kill. What really makes them unique is their (2) Action which lets them hurt themselves to give you a Soulstone. If you’re running Leviathan Power Core, these models can keep you filled up on Soulstones – just make sure you give them a way to heal if you do this! The noble Steam Arachnid is the bread and butter in any Ramos crew – but usually not as a hire, since they’re so much more efficient to summon in. Their defenses are excellent with above average Df and Wp and Armor +1, but they also make great scheme runners with a great Wk and Unimpeded. Offensively they’re bad, but they can blow themselves up for extra damage, and any models they’re in base contact with get -1 Df and that does stack! Compared to the individuals, a Steam Arachnid Swarm loses a bit of Df and the ability to reduce the enemy’s Df in exchange for fantastic offense! If they’re half Wds or higher they get ’s to damage and they have a built-in trigger for more attacks at the cost of accuracy. They can also remove all Scheme Markers within 4 or eat a Scrap Marker or friendly Steam Arachnid to do a really good self-heal. You’ll see these less than just spamming single Arachnids, but these absolutely have value in your crew and are a legitimate option to hire. OTHER MODELS Ramos doesn’t give any particular synergy with M&SU models, and he also works fine with non-Constructs (just not as well). Some of the other models you’ll typically see in a Ramos crew will include the following: Amina Naidu is the queen of denial and control and she works great in a Ramos crew. Her Summons Ability can either bring friendly or enemy models closer, as needed, with a trigger to give out her incredible Liable which means the opponent can’t target anyone missing any Wds – like your new summons!. She can also hand out Slow in melee with a trigger to make it so enemies can only target her. She can also permanently make an enemy into a Peon and stop it from doing Interact Actions, which combined with Ramos’ Vox Populi can really stop your opponent from scoring VP. She’s a good model to give Bleeding Edge Tech to, since she likes to be surrounded by friendly models for her auras. The Captain is the Henchman to take if you think your crew is going to need extra movement (it's pretty easy to take a lot of Wk 4 models with Ramos after all). His Relic Hammer makes him solid in melee, and his Air Burst is excellent at repositioning your crew, especially since his personal upgrade Patron's Blessing (which should be considered a must take) gives him an extra Ca each activation. He can also bring Bleeding Edge Tech, but if you do then make sure you're not pushing any models that need those heals out of its range. Johan (or Johana) is the only non-Arcanist member of the M&SU so he does take a Mercenary slot to hire, but he is just SO worth it (even with the price nerf)! He’s pretty tanky, he has a (2) Action that heals ALL nearby M&SU models which is just amazing, and he has one thing that is extremely rare for Arcanists: condition removal. His Relic Hammer is really strong as well, especially with his Solidarity Ability that gives him ’s to Attacks when he is near another M&SU model. Just be careful not to leave him within 3” of a friendly if your opponent has an Obey or you’re in for a bad time. He’s an excellent model to have carry your Bleeding Edge Tech to make him a dedicated healer, or give him Well Rehearsed for that good ol’ double Hard to Kill. Lazarus is the man (or machine?) to hire if you want to drop some blasts on your opponent. He doesn’t bring a lot else to a Ramos crew, but with his Auto-Fire letting him take 3 shots against the same target he can sure blow the heck out of the enemy’s crew at range. Neil Henry adds a really strong Condition to a Ramos crew – Fragile, which is like a reverse Hard to Wound. He’s otherwise a tankier Rail Worker with a better Ml, the Ability Man Over Machine that lets you discard for more attacks against models a friendly Construct damages, and his own version of Ramos' Opportunist called Better Than A Machine, which is pretty nice overall. Like the Rail Golem, he can also carry Hard Worker if so desired. Sue is a personal favourite of mine, as he makes it into most of my Ramos crews for two reasons: he has min 3 shooting which is always nice, and also at the cost of a wound he can draw a card each turn! He also has some powerful anti-Ca with his Man In Black Action, which is very nice against caster-heavy crews. Electric Creations are typically only ever hired if you plan on killing it to start your Scrap Engine. They're not the cheapest, but they are the most fragile of the options to kill (as long as you don't mind them blowing up in your face). As summons they can be very handy, as all their methods of doing damage don't rely on opposed duels - Shocking Touch does damage just for ending their activation in base contact with something, Explosive Demise deals area damage when it's killed, or they can use their Burst Action (needing a high card) to sacrifice itself and do even more damage. Ferdinand Vogel and The Beast Within each give Ramos something he loves, but you do have to choose which you want each turn. Ferdinand can draw extra cards each turn by ending a Walk near a Scheme Marker, and his Censure Action can give a Vox Populi Ramos crew even more denial gameplay. On the other hand, The Beast Within gives min 3 melee and the ability to drop up to THREE Scrap markers on a trigger if he kills an Armored model, for the highest Scrap Marker generation available! Rail Workers only cost 1ss more than a Steam Arachnid, have less Df, Wp, and Wk, but gain Hard to Kill, can discard to gain ’s to all attack and damage flips for the turn(!), and get a much better damage spread. They absolutely love having Johan and/or Bleeding Edge Tech nearby to get even more value out of Hard to Kill, and if you can get past their low mobility they’re a great cheap melee option. Union Steamfitters are another fantastic option for Ramos for two reasons: they have card draw (sort of) in the form of drawing the top card of your discard pile when they activate, but you must discard a card immediately afterwards. If you're bringing the Combat Mechanic upgrade and Ramos ends his activation with an awesome card on top of your discard, using Accomplice to pick it right back up is very useful! They’re also the ONLY model available to Ramos that can create Scrap Markers without killing models. It does cost you 2 cards from your hand though, so it’s not something to do too much. They can also permanently give Armor +1 to your Armor-less models, such as Johan. Overall, a solid choice. TIPS & TRICKS Law of Conservation of Mass? Never Heard of It It’s important to remember that all it takes to start Ramos’ summoning engine is a single Scrap Marker. Honestly it’s kind of hilarious how many models he ends up making just from that one Marker! There are plenty of options to get that first Marker though, and frankly they’re all pretty good so it comes down to personal preference. Your options are: the Union Steamfitter at the cost of their (0) and two cards, Joss / Large Arachnids at the cost of any model killed (two Scrap if it was a Construct), and The Beast Within at the cost of any model with Armor killed if he gets a trigger for two Scrap (three Scrap if it was a Construct). If you choose one of the kill options, your best choices are: Mobile Toolkit for the cheapest option, Electrical Creation for the easiest kill, or a Steam Arachnid for a moderately easy kill that doesn’t blow up when you kill it. All of these have pros and cons, and no one option is inherently better than the rest. They Keep Coming... and Coming... and... One of the most important choices Ramos has to go through every turn is whether to summon any Steam Arachnids, and if so how many. Since you have to declare how many Arachnids to summon before you flip (and you NEED to spend a Soulstone on a Tome to get three), you really shouldn’t leave it to chance. If you’re not certain you can get three Steam Arachnids, declare two instead. It’s typically not worth it to only summon one, and that should only be done if you absolutely need the activation. Big Things Have Small Beginnings It can be a hard thing to decide whether you would rather have three Steam Arachnids or a single Steam Arachnid Swarm. Losing out on two activations, the Df debuffs, and (if you’re playing Aura Ramos) giving up a lot of force amplification is a hard pill to swallow. However, the Swarms being able to wipe out bunched up Scheme Markers, getting ’s to damage when above half health, having a much better damage track, and the ability to heal themselves all makes them legitimate choices. I Herd U Liek Auraz (best with Amina Naidu) One thing Ramos can do that’s not seen elsewhere in Arcanists is to just cover your crew in a ton of beneficial auras. Any crew can take Amina Naidu, Bleeding Edge Tech, and Powered By Flame, but only Ramos can add Field Generator and Under Pressure to that. All of that combined means that even a tiny Steam Arachnid becomes very tanky and can actually put out some decent damage, and in your full crew becomes a huge force amplifier if you choose to play it this way. Ride The Lightning (requires Leviathan Power Core and Soulstone Miners, best with Johan and/or Bleeding Edge Tech) One of the coolest things to come out of Wave 5 for Ramos is Leviathan Power Core, which actually gives him the ability to go a bit “super-solo” and be really awesome in one specific direction each turn – if enough Soulstones get used. To make sure that happens, you can bring one or more Soulstone Miners and have them use their Action Mine Soulstone to constantly feed you new Soulstones to spend. To keep them from dying turn 3, bringing Johan and/or Bleeding Edge Tech to heal them up will comfortably give you 10+ extra Soulstones. With that much spare, Ramos can really go to town with his Electric Fire and give it some pretty wild range! Since he only needs to spend Powering Up +2 to gain the +1 damage to Electric Fire, you’re not giving up much range for the turns you want him to start killing things too. Tyranny of the Masses (requires Vox Populi, Amina Naidu, and Ferdinand Vogel) Ramos’ other new playstyle in Wave 5 is all about shutting the enemy down. Amina can permanently make enemy models into Peons, stop enemies from targeting anyone but her, stop them from targeting anyone missing wounds (friendly or enemy, this shuts down healers very well!), and lets you trade cards for Soulstones when an enemy Interacts near her. Ferdinand’s “It was self-defense!” trigger giving to enemies when they target Minions makes it absurdly hard for the enemy to kill your Steam Arachnids, and his Censure being able to stop enemies from taking any Tactical Actions on its card or upgrades, or making them discard any time they want to attack can really screw with the enemy’s gameplan. Lastly, Vox Populi giving Ramos the (0) Shout Them Down is just amazing in several ways. You can make an enemy model into a Peon until the end of the turn, stopping it from scoring, or you can use it on a friendly model the enemy’s about to score on and deny them points that way! It retains its other level in addition to Peon, so it won’t stop something like Buried Treasure, but you’d be surprised how many Strats and Schemes specify “non-Peon.” One of these on its own can be annoying, but bringing all 3 makes the game hell on your opponent – especially since this can comfortably happen while Ramos gets his Arachnid engine going effortlessly! Let's Start A Riot (requires Vox Populi and models with pushes/places/Lures, best with The Captain, Lazarus, and Malifaux Child) Ramos' Strike Markers are really excellent damage, but a smart opponent's not just going to walk into them if there's an alternative. So to fix this, you can have your other models push or lure the enemy models into the Markers! The Captain is the best at this, since his The Eye of the Storm Ability does mass pushes with no resists, but anyone else who can move the enemies (Amina Naidu, Lust, Performers, etc.) can do this just fine. If you take the Combat Mechanic upgrade then you can Companion straight into these models as well. Making this even better, if you decide to take the Malifaux Child and Lazarus then they can each drop another set of two Strike Markers, for a total of 6 on the board at a time! This can really make it hard for the enemy to move without dealing with Severe and the really good Hazardous damage. As you can tell from all of this, while Ramos may seem like a fairly simple Master between multiple “once per Turn” abilities and a pretty dull card front, he actually has several interesting and legitimate playstyle options which all greatly benefit from him being the most efficient summoner in the game! If you know of any model synergies or tips & tricks I haven’t mentioned above, feel free to post them below

Let us know what you think about this weeks show. http://schemesandstones.podbean.com/e/episode-88-neverborn-zoraida-crew-spotlight-with-adam/

Happy Friday Wyrdos! Enjoy this Friday preview, as it's probably the only time you'll see the Sharpshooter before he sees you! This adjunct for the King's Empire has lots of cool stuff going on. Take a look. Many units in the King's Empire have begun bringing a specialist into battle: a Sharpshooter. Equipped with long rifles, these Sharpshooters can often aid their unit in myriad ways. Most commonly, these skilled shooters serve as inspiration for the rest of their unit to go above and beyond for King and country. On the tabletop, Sharpshooters improve their unit's accuracy and gain an extra Action, making them a solid addition to any King's Empire infantry unit.

An unboxing and review of 'Vintage' Somer Teeth Jones of the Gremlin faction...the usual assembly tips, extra pictures, comparisons and the rest can be found by clicking on the link... http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/unboxing-malifaux-vintage-somer-teeth.html

Today I bought Mei Feng's box. Clearly, this is @Lokibri's fault, not mine What stuff really shines with her? Do you really need the other Foundry minis to make her work? Or would I be ok with the M&SU stuff I have? I already own the metal gamins and Miss Fire (yet to assemble). Do you use Sparks/prokchop/Rail golem (which I dont have)? I am not completely convinced on them to be honest. I already own a big chunk of the faction: all master boxes (but Colette), all the M&SU stuff (except for gunsmiths and union miners), the mech rider and several other in faction models.

I did a bit of sculpting on mine, to bring it inline with Lilith's plant themes:

An unboxing and review of 'Vintage' Sonnia Criid of the Guild faction...more views, assembly tips, comparison shots and a rotational view that I'm not spectacularly happy with can be found by clicking on the link below... http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/unboxing-malifaux-vintage-sonnia.html

Ticket bought ! Charlie Collins

It gets even weirder when the Steam Trunk gets affected by Drinking Contest against Brewmaster...

Austringers. Think the one on the top has a whole lot of character, probably another model I should redo the face on. The bottom fellow looks a bit like he had a run-in with a magnifying glass on a hot day, although I do like the fact that you can see his Jeans for a bit of contrast. Decided to look up Austringers before painting these guys and yep, they were a real thing. Apparently it was super-important that they trained goshawks rather than falcons (otherwise they'd be falconers) so I tried to base the plumage on pictures of Northern Goshawks as I reckoned that's what they're meant to be. Or at least some fantastical equivalent.

I'm no expert on Gremlin shenanigans, but if I remember correctly, the wording is "cheat from the top of your deck". A cheated RJ allows your opponent to cheat like normal. Just because you don't know the card you're cheating, it's still cheating (if it said you may reflip your card instead of cheating, that would be different)

No, Finesse was to ensure that the Illuminated and Torakage weren't able to do much. I wasn’t too worried about Huggy going after Frank by himself as I had the cards to cheat at least once (twice if I had to) to protect him since Ryle wasn’t going to need to cheat to pound on Huggy’s DF 3.... I didn’t want Frank to get pounded on by all 3 though. He wasn’t going to be able to take that without exhausting all my resources. Finesse made sure the Illuminated wasn’t doing much and ended up getting the Torakage to just wander off.

A this point, the cost is not necessary. It's just for the actually painted minis to help me enter the number into the spreadsheet. By the way, my Rasputina for 15ss. The style of base is the one I have been using for the rest of my miniatures. I'll probably add some snow later on:

Hi all, Im aiming to finish my supplywagon token/scenery/display board piece, Ulix and a Swine Cursed that I started yesterday for this month And Penelope (can’t even begin to try getting photo correct way up)

After getting a couple games in with Ironsides, I had an idea for another "generic" M&SU member (a la the new models coming in Backdraft). M&SU Recruiter. Make him ~6ss and give him something like (1) Welcome to the Movement (Ca 5 / TN: 12 / Rg: 4): Target friendly model gains the M&SU characteristic until the end of the turn For the Greater Good: Target gains the M&SU characteristic for the rest of the game instead (1) Negotiated Wages: This model may discard a card to add a to its duels for the rest of the turn (0) Stick it to the Man: (Ca 5 / Rst: Wp / Rg: 6) Target model gains the following condition until the end of the turn: "Enemy of the Union: Enemy M&SU models gain to all duels against this model" Maybe a Ml 5 1/2/4 attack, and a Df trigger, "In the Public Eye: Damage flips against this model suffer ", that may be too much though. Thoughts?

So don't have the time to finish my basics, but now i can post my Slate Ridge Maller i made for the Creature Feature ^^ For only 7SS but it's 7SS ^^

Thanks to all who have wished me luck! Here's a quick WIP of my big month so far. I'm pretty happy after a week of focused work, in time for my friend to visit this weekend. His stuff's not done, but it's enough to be discernable on the table as he tests them out. Thoughts?

I'm not a blog reader either. Also, not meaning to be rude, but the 'same content but spread over 2 months' is the kind of promise heard so many times in this hobby, and rarely delivered. It's easy to accidentally miss a few blog entries, but a deadline keeps you honest. edit - i realize Chronicles is entirely free, and I greatly appreciate what's been done with it for that price tag. I'm just not a fan of blogs.

I do and they even are painted. I like them in some pools. I will certainly try Langston with one of the new upgrades (the one which allows you to take a model with Mei when she railworks). I was mainly asking about potential miniatures to buy and which foundry models were worth their purchase. The posts above convinced me about the mech pig so I got one. Thanks a lot for your help.

I'm glad that all of our masters are viable in some sort or another now, much depends on your own practice with them - although I'd still say that Nellie ist the best^^ I'll go for the Scorpius too, @jchrisobrien is not the only Guildie there

@Sweet Tooth: Ah, now I see it. I always read it as 'same friendly model only once', so different models yes, one model just once. I guess I have cheated a couple of times unintentionally :/. It could still work though. Graves pushes Pandora and is pushed in BtB. Then does whatever (move somewhere, lay a marker). Then Doppelganger moves up in a way she will be blocked by Graves but is within 2" of Pandora. Mimic and push Pandora. Lilitu will have to walk up there. Maybe you can move once and have someone in range of a Lure. If your opponent activated a model and moved it up, then Lilitu could lure it forward and Pandora would then be really clos eto the poor bugger. Generally I'D try to do the push combo either later in the turn if you think your opponent will move up or try to get initiative and do it quickly if there are a couple of models deployed opposite of pandora so that they can't all get away in 2 activations.

I bumped into the Mark Forum Read button while scrolling the Guild forum and have lost that marvelous ability to go to the next thread without going back to the Guild main page in-between. Hate that, and the server probably isn’t fond of it either. So is there a way to reset my marks so the forum is UNread? (If that ever happens in the Writing Room I may frizzle.)

An unboxing and review of 'Vintage' Rasputina...assembly tips, extra pics as well as comparison and rotational views can be found by clicking on the link... http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/unboxing-malifaux-vintage-rasputina.html

Agreed, especially coupled with the Emissary the LRM will pay dividends in a Shenlong crew. I actually started this faction with pretty much the same setup (Lynch, Shenlong, TTBs, Samurai, Emissary, Yasunori) so I can give you a bit of a rundown on what you're getting. Lynch n' crew : I assume you're already knowledgeable on these guys. Significant changes are largely upgrade based, as you gain access to Misdirection, which allows Lynch to become a bunch more survivable (if you have a model nearby that can soak damage). Shenlong: I haven't had many successes with Lynch, but this master did marvels for me once I wrapped my head around his upgrade mechanics. Noteworthy are his 6" focus/defensive as a (0) aura, his pushes to give out fast (that can move scheme markers (both friendly and enemy, *don't underestimate this*) and a bunch of nifty tricks such as stealing common conditions from enemy models. He's also quite decent in melee as well. Peasant: 2 SS for 2 activations, which also give your models focus and defensive. Only reason they're not always taken is that our Wonder Weasel, the Kamaitachi, is also very good (and works well with Shenlong's upgrade swap mechanic), but they give it serious competition and tend to win out overall for me. High River Monks : Recently received a cost reduction, still kinda subpar but hey, at least the models are dope. In a way that is somewhat emblematic of our faction, our cheap models don't do much damage - Rail Workers and/or Sabre models notwithstanding. Sensei Yu: Oh boy, pretty much my life's ethos. Yu can't charge, and while his melee is actually quite respectable, it's nothing to write home about for an 11 stone (you pretty much always take Wandering River Style, or Promising Student for Shenlong) model. However, Yu is our #1 facilitator when it comes to getting models and Scheme markers where you want them to be (and your opponent, by contrast, won't). Yu is magic, plain and simple, and while in kill-heavy pools the Emissary beats him (since he can also push up a beater and make him fast), in pools where scheme markers are abundant Yu quickly becomes the difference between shameful defeat and unquestionable victory. A prudent opponent will often not even consider taking marker dependent schemes against Yu. TTBs: I'm having a tough time deciding which of the above two models I like better, but while I can relate more to Yu, TTBs take the spot for my favourite models in the game. Surprisingly quick, decently durable (very much so, one might say, for their cost) and inordinately versatile, Brothers are your premiere scheme runners. The best 0 trigger is likely the place on the mask, but all of them can be situational useful. Further, people like to downplay their melee capabilities but I've used the mask trigger to great effect. If Yu is the butter, then they are the Swiss army knife that spreads said butter onto your helpless enemy (uh... I think that's how it works right?). Samurai: Aesthetically, I love these guys, and to be honest they're not half bad (you're likely already familiar with them to some degree). Well, in Shenlong, they take on another form due to being able to mitigate their slowness (aside from the Heavens Samurai, but nobody ever takes that guy :/) by means of pushing. I throughly enjoy "kicking" a Samurai forward, giving him fast and telling him to shoot at the enemies, three times at that. Free focus or defensive plays reasonably well with their abilities as well, and the heals that go abound in a Shenlong list can help you keep these warriors healthy. That being said, they are sadly somewhat outclassed by Snipers (free focus is just too good), but I think they're still pretty nice.

@Treehouse great vid, I’m unsure with the volume of foliage/grass in that vid but the principle is great. @Omenbringer thanks for the advice, still unsure how best to progress, love the idea of a folding table (bendyboard would have been ideal but not made anymore). here is my progress so far, display board and finished swamp ponds. I did stick to a darker murkier brown for the ponds but tried a lighter colour water for the board

Here's alink to how I set up the Graves-Doppelganger push combo when I want to push multiple models / don't want Doppelganger to be pushed into btb.

Done! Bad photos

the thing is that Nekima will stone to circumvent the negative twist to horror duel and happily kill you anyway.

This was great, thank you guys!

Making Nico summon on activation 2 before his card draw engines have kicked in sounds like a win to me. And anyway, Mature is hitting on first activation, so before any summons. Its will probably cost Nico 1-2 stones to still be alive at the end of the activation, so restricting his summoning potential over the game. Will it cripple Nico every game? No. Will it make the Nico player have to adapt to his opponents game? yes. which sometimes is enough.

I'll take some photos of his crew when I get home.

Chapter 6 - "Burn them. BURN THEM ALL!" I probably spent more time doing research than painting the miniature. I had to learn how to paint a face and actually a human skin as such as well (which is a reason why I painted Iggy before Zoraida), how to paint flames and how OSL is done. For a very long time I also wasn't sure what colours I want to use, becuase I wanted him to look like a poor boy from an orphanage he is, but was affraid that he would end up looking boring. That's why I decided to add something extra - magma hands I also tried to paint his eyes as if they were scorching - that is why they are orange and why the skin is brighter towards them. I learnt a lot by painting Iggy. The most valuable lesson of them all... Do not be so reckless with varnish Well, live and learn

Chapter 5 - The Gift Once upon a time there was this man who didn't keep up his end of a bargain. But this time he tried to trick the crone of the swamp and thus earned himself an unholy bond. A bond between himself and a talisman - bad juju - a doll resembling the man. "What did you ask for? Scrip? POWER?! A beautiful wife?" "Don't make me laugh. I asked for nothing less than an eternal life." Growing nervous he shouted: "I just ask for what is rightfully mine!" "You will get what you deserve," and under her breath: "...you treacherous swine." She couldn't help it and the corner of her mouth started to twitch. "There's your eternal life," pointed the witch. Roots, herbs, a crystal ball serving for divination... And then... a burlap doll - witch's grim remuneration. Sweating and stuttering: "Which gift is mine?" "THE ONE COVERED IN MUD, MOSS AND VINE!"

2 steps forward, 1.9 steps back The third (and last) Silurid is finished. As the title says, I had to repaint everything multiple times. I wanted this one to be brighter than the previous two. Originally, he was supposed to have off-white crest and membranes on its webed forepaws, but it did look kind of unfinished, so in the end I switched to green mixed with blue. As usually, eyes were the biggest struggle. At one point I was like: "He has this weird left foot and asymmetrical barbels, might as well be cross-eyed." But I know myself and if I would cut corners once, what would stop me do it next time? Second place goes to... the rock. I was considerably surprised how difficult it was, to paint a rock. After I "finished" the model, it was still looking bit boring, so I decided to add the pattern on its back, to make it look more interesting. And that makes all of my Silurids finished, so here is a group photo: Thank you for reading. I would also like to say, that constructive criticism is very much appreciated. I really do appreciate someone taking their time to write an advice or post a link to a tutorial. I would like to get better at painting (I realized that I like painting more than gaming actually), but it is difficult to see my mistakes. I remember when I finished my first model (after 13-year hiatus) - Young LaCroix miss, I thought that it was just spectacular. Long story short, it is not I am sure, that I will feel the same about these models, when I get better, and I am looking forward to that.

Ever since Wave 5 has come out, I have yet to actually find a weakness with the current Resser faction. My current rant is about 3 specific models released in Wave 5 which should have never been released in their current form. I will not talk about specific masters as that would only make it longer to type on why Ressers are currently by far the strongest they have ever been and why no other faction can even come close to the dominance of Ressers. Kentauroi Summonable models with a 13" threat range with ml6 3/4/6 damage track and built-in Poison+1 damage making it an effective min 4 damage model. To top it off, they can charge out of engagements and ferry models AND drop corpse markers after charging. This card alone is pretty much 3 models stuffed in a single card and then made summonable. I'm not sure what could be wrong with that ... Asura Rotten Yo dawg, I heard you like activation advantage so we gave you a free summon. The summon sucks, so we are allowing it to use your attack so it can still hit hard and should not be ignored. Oh yeah and your markers also force TN14!!!! wp duels in a 3" area or they take damage. Ofcourse you don't want this model to go in melee, so we're giving it a 10" range non-randomizing terrain-ignoring shot that can stack a condition that lowers df, wk and cg. It also has a built-in trigger to stack even more fore every one of your markers closeby. Wanna make sure your heavy hitter won't cover any resistance. Lampad Lampad has gone mostly under the radar due to the OPness of the previous 2 models, but the best way to describe this would be High River Monk on crack actually dealing damage AND having a built-in summoning mechanic. Ml6 with 1/2/3 is not impressive, but he has a built-in burning AND a built-in trigger for more burning (every grants +1 burning extra). Just hitting the opponent ONCE grants you 1 damage and 2 burning. Charging an enemy would grant you 2 damage and 4 burning guaranteed with a possible (0) action giving another burning. Then you can save up a tome and deal more burning. If the opponent ends an activation within 3", he gets another burning. Stacking burning is so easy on these guys, HRM wishes they could die to become these guys. As if the damage wasn't enough, they summon a friend just like them if an enemy model dies within 10" of them due to burning. Not thgat hard considering they can easily stack 5! burning on a single model. I'm rather amazed I haven't seen this guy on more lists. It might be because they have just been released and a lot of players don't like proxying. The pattern these 3 models have is that they have support and high damage all on a single card while making summoning trivial to do. Asura gives you a free model every turn, Kentauroi gives you the corpse markers and Lampad just duplicates because of his damage. Asura's damage isn't the greatest, but she can make Mindless Zombies into a very real threatwith Ml6 so they actually start doing damage. We're not even talking about masters, yet these models alone can outsummon entire factions without sacrificing anything in return. Asura has been on every single Ressers list so far and that's because she just brings too much advantage to the table. Outactivating your opponent is one of the strongest things you can have in thise game and Asura does this on her own for a (0). Kentauroi get summoned and just wreck whatever you're bringing which is what 3/4/6 with Poison +1 tends to do. Lampads are currently ignored because Asura is already a must-take and you can bring more master-specific models to the table. Even then Lampads are still a viable choice for activating late in a turn, stacking the burning and getting another free Lampad off of it. And you WILL get that off because nothing can even come close anymore in activations.

If I played Mei in Ten Thunders, I'd be taking a serious look at Obsidian Oni to generate scrap markers in the midst of your opponent's models.

@Franchute That is a seriously nice Rasputina

I like the fact that I can download everything at once to my tablet and read it without data connection. It is a good mix of topics. I am afraid that blogs don't keep things varied enough. Admittedly, I don't follow blogs. So not the most informed on the topic. But the few that I have visited seem pretty focused. I also like the magazine layout of the Chronicles. I keep wishing on every star I can find for a print version.

well I think i will, you got me Still, it was good to have the chronicles downloaded, to have something to read when there is no internet, in the train or whatever.

I don't check blogs