hakoMike

That's a fun style. Your vivid colors and precise darklining makes your minis look cel-shaded. It really works for cartoon gremlins!

It's a fun concept. I think it would be fun to see it crafted into a story with some characters a plot-line.

Guild Interrogation Archival File: 15440-12 Cross Reference Case: 15438, 14855 Subject: NAME REDACTED BEGIN INTERROGATION TRANSCRIPT: I already told the last guy who asked, and that’s all I know. We were neighbors but I barely knew the guy. Yeah, I’ll go over it all again but I don’t think I missed anything. I can leave after this, right? He was already living in the tenement when I was placed there by your hospitality agency. What was it now? About six months ago. I came to Malifaux for work. I wasn’t able to find a job that side of the breach after a little incident in the Westerland office. Yeah, that was for the mining company. I wasn't down in the actual mine you see but in the office at the top. You know how that all works. Someone's got to keep track of who’s coming and going and send out for supplies and such. See they thought I was skimming cash. They never could prove anything, but the boss told me to hit the road and everywhere else I went word of what happened seemed to beat me there. That’s when I heard how you folks got a lot of men who can swing a pick-axe but precious few who could help run the mine. It seemed a good idea since it was my last option. So I took the train and went through the breach. Can’t say I felt that funny feeling that some get. Just the flash and my ears kind of popped like when you know there’s a big storm coming. My case worker had this place already arranged for me when I arrived. It’s not much to look at but I don’t need a lot. I mostly keep to myself, especially since arriving here. It was nice to be on the third floor too. That’s the top floor, so nobody's stomping around on your ceiling. I first noticed Mr. Rayburn... that’s what you said his name was, right? I never did hear him say it himself. I first noticed Mr. Rayburn as I was coming home from work one evening about a week after I moved in. He was coming out of his flat with an armload of books. Big, thick ones. Must have been six or seven of them. “Evening,” I said. He just tipped his head politely and squeezed past me in the hall. Didn’t say a word. That’s okay. Some people are like that before they are properly introduced I suppose. I remember the smell of the books, like when water gets trapped under something. That old, wet smell. It seemed like a strange thing for someone living there to be hauling around arm-loads of books, but I was new to this place and I didn’t know what to expect. Maybe he was a student. I didn’t know of any school or university, but like I said I didn’t know what to find strange or commonplace yet. Having been here a while, I see how strange it is. I saw him a couple times after that, every few weeks, coming or going, always with at least two or three books, always looking like he was late for something and his mind a mile off. Each time I bid him good morning, or evening, or what have you. Each time he nodded or gave a quick word of greeting. We weren’t what I would call friends. We weren't even acquaintances at that point. I’ll admit I was getting curious about the books though. One night I heard him leaving, so I stepped into the hall to ask him about them. “Evening. So where are heading out to with those books...” “Tomes,” he corrected, looking self-conscious for having done so. “...those tomes at this late hour?” I asked, trying my best to look friendly and non-threatening. He seemed the skittish type and I didn’t want to upset him. He stared hard at my face. It was an uncomfortably long time before he spoke. “I’m meeting some associates.” He paused again, as if trying to determine whether to say the next words. “This place isn’t like back on Earth. There is knowledge hidden away here, and it’s just waiting to...” I could see the spark in his eyes until he trailed off. This was passion for him, and as much as he desperately wanted to share it with someone he clearly still did not trust me enough to do so. “Excuse me,” he muttered and ducked by me. Over the weeks from that point I saw him less frequently, even though I would listen for his comings and goings so I could try and find out more. He’s right about one thing. This place is different. It changes men. It beats some down into quiet wrecks and inspires others to be so much more than they would ever be Earth-side and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. Suffice to say that Mr. Rayburn was becoming more and more a recluse. If he managed to leave or return it was either when I was off at the mine or else he was so quiet that I never heard a thing. I suspect the latter, as the few times I saw him just before... well, before the incident, he was seemed like a shadow. No, I don’t really know what I mean by that. He was just quiet and, well you could sort of look past him and never notice him. He also stopped carrying the books, sorry tomes, around with him. Now he just looked at his hands, which he would form into strange shapes in front of him, and talk to himself. I managed to stop him once, about a week before it all happened. As soon as I spoke he swiftly put his hands behind his back and slowly looked up. He seemed shorter than before, but maybe it was just how he was standing. He had a long wool coat on that dragged the ground. He looked less fearful of me, but still looked like he was about to run at any second. “Imagine finding an oyster and opening it to reveal a pearl,” he slowly uttered. He voice was so distant that I wasn’t even sure he was talking to me. “Then opening the pearl and finding another oyster, then opening that oyster and finding the ocean.” He started giggling softly. “I can’t believe it was so obvious. All this time.” “Is that some sort of poetry?” I asked. I hadn’t been one for the arts, but I thought maybe this whole time he had been involved in those opium poet circles I’ve heard about back East. He looked at me with amusement. “Oh, yes. Verse and rhyme and meter!” And with that he straightened, and was again as tall as me, and strode off with purpose, fearless as I’ve seen any man. It left me puzzled, that’s for sure. I figured whatever this fellow, I mean Mr. Rayburn, was into wasn’t a healthy sort of pursuit. I’ve seen men waste themselves away on opium and I wasn’t hoping to die like that. I didn’t see or hear from him again until the night of... well, you know. I heard a little knock on my door just after supper. Like a child's knock. When I opened there he was, all hunched over and tiny again. Any confidence from last we met was shaken for sure. “I wanted to say goodbye. They’re coming for me tonight,” he explained in a distant voice. “You should stay in tonight and don’t poke around.” I figured he was having some sort of opium dream, but I couldn’t smell it on him. Ha! If I only knew! He gave me a sad smile and walked to his door. About an hour later the noises started. I can’t say whether the noises in his flat started first or the ones in the hall but there was crashing and stomping and some sort of animal noise. What kind of animal? I don’t know. Sort of like when a horse spooks, that sort of noise they make? But not really like that. Also like a cat. No, I don’t think I can make the noise for you. Anyway, this part you probably know, because someone was pounding on his door yelling “Guild! Open this door now!” and I will admit I peeked out of my door, curious to see what would happen. I wondered why he had stuck around if he knew someone was coming for him, but I didn’t know the half of it, did I? That’s when the crashing and those other sounds got really loud behind his closed door, and the two officers took a step back and looked at each other with uncertainty. One spotted me and sternly told me to go back inside. I ducked back in for a moment and then peeked back out. The officers were clearly deciding what to do, but when the noises stopped they gave each other a resolved look and then one kicked the door in. I expected them to rush in, but they stopped short. Their faces were frozen into masks of shock and revulsion. They stepped into the room slowly, guns drawn but arms hanging at their sides. Overcome by curiosity, I stepped into the hall to get a look. I got to hand it to your officers, because they have stronger stomach than I do. As soon as I saw the inside of that room I sicked up in the hallway. They didn’t even seem to notice me. There were piles of those books stacked against the walls and the smell was intense, but it was the writing that really got to me. The walls and floor had some sort of writing on them, if you could even call it that. I couldn’t even tell you what color it was. It confounded the eyes to even look at it, and … it didn’t exactly glow but it just sort of jumped out at you. It was no kind of writing that I've ever seen before, and I hope to never see it again. It didn't even look like letters. Even those oriental languages have their writing and at least you can say it looks like some kind of language, but this was so different. And it moved. Did the officers say it moved? I don’t know if I really saw that or not. It seemed to kind of creep around a little, like the symbols wanted to rearrange themselves and say something different. Does that make sense? I don’t think I’m making a lick of sense. It wasn’t until my eyes got off the writing that I was able to see the damage to the room. It looked like someone had taken an axe and cut an eight foot hole across the outside wall, that’s what it looked like. There was broken glass and plaster on the floor too. No, I don’t know what could have done that, thank you very much. On the third floor no less! If I thought it would help me sleep any better I’d ask you to tell me what it was, but I think knowing might be worse. Look, that’s everything I saw. I locked myself in my place and didn’t come out again until my shift in the morning. I heard all sorts of voices and crashing about by you all during the night. Next I saw you had boarded his doorway up and put Guild seals on it. Even the hole in the outside wall was all boarded over. So I just kept to my own business and did my shift and went home. That is, until your officers showed up to escort me, as they so kindly put it, to this office. I told them I would tell you absolutely everything and I have. Three times now. I don’t think I've left anything out, so I would appreciate being allowed to go home at this point. Yes, I know you just want to be thorough but it’s been a long time now and I’m getting tired. END OF INTERROGATION TRANSCRIPT Recommendation: Subject was not involved in incident, and should be relocated to different living quarters. His position in the mining operation makes simple disappearance inconvenient, so monitoring for a period of one year is recommended to prevent possible Arcanist contact.

Like Slinkdawg, my first thought was also that your paint wasn't completely dry. This is especially likely if you use thick coats of paint, since it can appear dry on the surface and be wet underneath.

That's a really nice looking model and I'm sure they are going to be thrilled. In terms of painting, the only thing I would suggest is to lighten the eye color a little for that sort of osl. If the eye itself is the source of the light you can make it much lighter (pure white really) and let the glow convey the color. Still, fantastic work!

Seamus looks decidedly spooky in that first pic. The crew looks pretty good so far from what I can see... keep it up!

He looks great! I am a fan of highlighting up by mixing white to the base color as well, although I sometimes use Reaper white linen or Reaper white leather if I want the highlights to have more warmth/coolness to them.

They look good! Mortimer is especially nice. The pink is disturbingly cheerful. Keep it up!

I've been painting, so I figure I'd post. First the completed models... it's about 2ss short of a 35ss crew. Next, the WIP models that I just haven't gotten to finish... And lastly the primed models... I've been focusing on McMourning, but maybe I'll pick up Nicodem. I can't really imagine using Seamus without owning any Belles.

Neat combination of narrative and traditional style for a battle report. Something about Perdita freezing and shattering left me cold though. It seems so sudden an end for someone larger than life.

I played my fourth game of Malifaux last night against NerdElemental. He played a Leveticus list for the first time, and I played my one and only crew, McMourning. The mission was shared contain power. I decided to pick some different schemes than I've picked before, so Frame for Murder (Sebastian) and Kill Protegee (Alyce) were my choices. I revealed neither. He revealed the Leveticus specific scheme, which is that he needs to die a certain number of times, and did not reveal his other, which I don't remember offhand. His list: Leveticus Rusty Alyce 8 Steampunk Abominations My list: McMourning (with Chihuahua) Sebastian 2 Crooken Men 2 Flesh Constructs 2 Canine Remains Let me start by explaining a little about Steampunk Abominations, in case you've never faced them. Individually they aren't a huge threat. In groups they have this movement thing where one moves and all the ones that were in base contact when it started get to push into base contact again. That means a group of four gets up to four moves in a turn if you arrange them correctly, since each abomination is limited to one move. The real fun comes when four of them combine to create a Desolation Engine. That sucker can smack you with paired 3/4/6 claws three times, then hit you with a 6" pulse for another 2 dmg. So, big blocks of Steampunk Abominations dragged each other down the field. I split my forces up to meet one of the SA mobs, but that mob reversed direction and left Sebastian and his two dogs by themselves. They pressed on, but were out of the match for a couple turns because of it. Over on the other side, McMourning, the constructs and crooked men advanced slowly. Everyone was skittish of the "shafted" marker that one of the crooked men put down, so we all ended a little shy of combat. Eventually the brawl was full-on. The little steampunk jerks combined to make the desolation jerk, who trashed one of my flesh constructs. I pulled my favorite little trick of summoning another construct a full 6" away, and tried to rough Alyce up a bit, but she wasn't going to have any of that. I think I might have tipped my hat a little with the kill protegee scheme since I targeted Alyce more than Leveticus with anyone but McMourning. McMourning stepped up, wracked Leveticus with pain for his final two wounds and killed him... the first time. At this point we had a rules discussion about what "shared contain power" actually means. You get 2 VP if your opponent's master is out of the game at the end... easy enough to understand. The +2 VP part that comes after was the puzzler. You get another +2 VP if your leaders kill/sacrifice all of the opponent's leaders. Okay, so Leveticus does that mean all times? If I kill Leveticus with McMourning once does that count for 2 VP even if Leveticus is alive and well at the end of the game? We decided that I would get the +2 VP for killing him with McMourning, the the other 2 VP would be awarded independently if I killed Leveticus for good. I managed to kill the Desolation Engine with crooked men and McMourning, but do you know what he makes when he dies? Two more Steampunk Abominations! Yay! Plus Leveticus can turn scrap counters in more Steampunk Abominations which can then (wait for it....) combine to make more Desolation Engines! It was wonderfully fun and challenging! Every time I thought I had cleared out some room to advance it was suddenly chock full o' monster again. Try as I might, I just could not bait Leveticus into killing Sebastian, and eventually just decided to finish Leveticus off once I saw that I wasn't going to get McMourning that far over easily. Sebastian managed to run up to Leveticus and slice him once with his bonesaw. Bowen ran a Desolation Engine up to kill the fat man (poor guy never gets a break) but not before Sebastian carved Leveticus into body parts. Fatal mistake: Bowen ran the Desolation Engine that had just killed Sebastian up and attacked a Crooked Man I had engaged with his other Desolation Engine. That left McMourning (also engaged by the first DE) enough room to walk around the first one, stay within 2" of it and the second one, use "scalpel slingin'" to hit the hollow waif and push into base contact with her. I finished up with more melee attacks and killed Leveticus' chance to come back to life on his third death. The end result: 5 VP for me (4 for scenaio, 1 for kill protegee) and 0 VP for Bowen.

Sarah made it through more or less unscathed. She's going into 7th grade next year, so I doubt there's much language she hasn't heard at school (at least if her middle experience is similar to what mine was.) She thought it was interesting, but a little boring. I'm going to try a game or two at home with her and her 10 year-old sister before bringing her back, and then I might co-pilot a game and let her run her Neverborn against someone.

Got out to RIW again last night for my absolute 3rd game of Malifaux vs. the unflappable Glenn. I also had my 12 year old daughter with me for the first time! As usual, the match was 35ss. The scenario was shared Deliver the Message. I took assassinate and bodyguard and he took bodyguard and sabotage. I took: McMourning (and his yappy zombie Chihuahua) Sebastian 2 Nurses 5 Canine Remains Convict Gunslinger He took: Ramos (and mobile toolkit) Kaeris 2 Gunsmiths Soulstone Miner The board was fairly dense with terrain, and had a soulstone vein in the middle, which neither of us used it even once. Okay, last game I made the huge mistake of picking on Taelor with my flesh construct. Taelor took him apart. This game I made a similar error... well, let's call it a learning experience. I rushed all 5 dogs up, companioned with Sebastian, and put them in a tight grouping looking forward to the nurses moving up and creating some dog bombs. Kaeris responded by turning them into permanent pillars of fire. Seriously, all 5 were killed in turn 1, leaving a couple 50mm obscuring flame pillars that were placed in the terrain to almost completely deny me the middle of the table. So, 10ss down the drain with the roasted dogs. Things were looking bad for the Resurrectionists. One nice thing about all my dogs dying is that they left me corpse counters! McMourning stepped up, grabbed a bunch and cast Monstrous Creation to summon a flesh construct past the wall of fire pillars, right next to where his crew was bunched up. With his one AP I moved him to within 2" of Ramos and took a swing in the closing phase (flesh constructs can do that.) With 10 wounds and Hard To Wound 2, I was really counting on that flesh construct to live to turn 3, and he did! I discarded to remove slow from him (another flesh construct thing... they have odd rules. He is slow unless you discard, and discarding a Joker makes him fast, and he also gets to either move or attack in the closing phase. That's potentially 4 pretty brutal attacks under the right circumstances) and used his 2 AP to Deliver the Message to Ramos. Wooo! Turn 3 objective complete! 4 VP for me! My victorious delivery was soon tempered by all the dying. Arcanists bring an interesting combination of scary spells and exploding beasties. I had hoped that the flesh construct plus the flanking convict gunslinger would be able to take Ramos down, or at least burn a bunch of stones, but he dished it out pretty good himself. No assassinate for me, and he successfully bodyguarded. Nurses. I can't figure out Nurses. I have taken 1-2 in every list I've played and they have yet to do anything. Seriously, they have neither damaged a single model or helped a friendly one. Healing? 2" range, 8+crow and an (all) action, so she can't go to help. The model in need of healing has to go to her. She has furious casting, but I can only really imagine using it for her other big ability, Massive Dose. But, again, that would require no movement from the Nurse. So, the Nurses did nothing and died. The dogs did nothing and died. The gunslinger got some shots off and died. Sebastian actually charged and did some hurt on Kaeris before the gunsmiths and Kaeris turned and made a corpse counter out of him. McMourning... well, McMourning was chased around by the soulstone miner, took a bunch of damage from it, eventually killed it (getting a bunch of wounds back) and then was chased by the entire Arcanist crew and killed. So I got tabled on turn 4. No bodyguard for me. He protected Ramos... 2 VP for him! He presumably sabotaged the terrain piece in my deployment voice... 2 VP for him! He did not deliver the message to McMourning (unless it was written on a bullet, which doesn't really count.) I did deliver the message in turn 3, so 4 VP for me! It's a tie! I got tabled and only destroyed one model in his original list and scored a tie. I love that about Malifaux.

That was fun to read in a dramatic sports announcer voice. I love games to read about games where the master dies but you win anyway.

Hey, guys. I won't be out tonight. :disappoin Things should be better next week, and hopefully I'll have my daughter with me. If so, I'll bring soap to wash out the mouths of the Warmachine players.

I was puzzled by that as well. Candy snuck back on the board when nobody was looking.

I'm looking forward to seeing more in this thread. I have used a lot of magnetic bases for transport, but seldom for magnetizing the model to the base. The weight of the model always seemed to be the biggest obstacle. The best solution I had was a ferrous pin (okay, just a paperclip) on the mini, and a hole in the base leading to a rare earth magnet. The magnet had enough pull to the pin to lift the base when the model was lifted. (It was a Yarrick model made to be interchangeable between a regular round base and the Fortress of Arrogance, or whatever his tank is called.) Btw, those bases are hot to death. Who makes those?

Yeah, I've won two games in a row now... a clear sign that you guys are throwing the games to get me to come back. :-) I won't be there tomorrow, but I should be able to be there on the 21st, and my 12 year old daughter has asked to come as well. She's very excited about war gaming in general and Malifaux in particular. LET THE NERD TRAINING BEGIN!

Food for thought... what about games set in Malifaux that don't use the skirmish personalities (necessarily.) Sort of a "specialist" type game, a one-off, stand along type thing? Like, oh I dunno... a guild vs arcanist smuggling in the sewers game.... guild agents trying to stop soulstone smugglers. Any thoughts?

Getting a little tangential, but the fiction alone in books 1 & 2 is worth the price of admission. Aside from that, having a reference for other people's models while you play is very valuable.

Sounds like a fun match! The idea of Malifaux's most and least refund masters facing each other apples to me.

I got my second official game in at RIW last night. Was it fun? Yes! I fielded McM, chihuahua, Sebastian, nurse, flesh construct, 4 canine remains, convict gunslinger. He ran VonSchill, 2x Freikorpmann, librarian, specialist, trapper and .... Taelor! It was another beat-face game... no VP. I'm kind of looking forward to someone wanting to play a VP game, but I'll accept my noob status and graciously accept what I can get... for now. Ok, first off, if you are going to choose a model to get into combat with Taelor, DO NOT choose an undead construct. Seriously. Unless you are really need two corpse counters. Taelor ONE-HIT my poor flesh construct. In turn 2. McM used her for body parts later in the game, so I suppose it was a good trade. While Taelor was aiming for the far fence with my flesh construct's head, I was plinking the trapper with "wracked with pain" a couple times and he figured, "I'd better shoot or I'm going to die without doing anything." He shot and wounded poor Sebastian, then the convict gunslinger stepped up and finished him off. VonSchill with a librarian to heal him is a feisty little freak. Jumping around, taking a shot, jumping off. He jumped into combat with an already activated Sebastian (poor fat guy never gets a break) and the convict gunslinger went all rapid fire on them, hitting Sebastian *every* time. Whoops. All the same, that jump put him within 10" of McM, who moved and got some scalpel slingin' in, then dissected him (cheated the combat result to be able to cheat the damage.... cheated the red joker and drew a moderate for the extra... woo hoo 15 damage!) He chose to finish Sebastian off with his slow to die action. Just cruel, I tell you. At the end, I had McM, his yappy totem and the convict gunslinger and he only had his librarian. Sweet, undead victory. I think I was able to distract him with dogs long enough for the others to move up and start carving him up. Big fun!

I'd be curious to know how Colette's crew tore you up. Were there some model/ability combos that were very effective?

I got my first game of Malifaux in last night, and was fortunate enough to get NerdElemental as my opponent. He ran his Marcus beast crew (Marcus, 2x Razorspine Rattlers, Sabre Toothed Cerebus, Shikome, Jackalope) against my kitchen sink McMourning list (McM, Chihuahua, Sebastian, Mortimer, Nurse, Convict Gunslinger, Canine Remains, Flesh Construct.) We decided to go kind of big (35ss) for the game in order to give me some experience with as many of my models as possible. Thanks to Bowen (and Glenn and Other Dave) for a wonderful introduction. Instead of a blow-by-blow account, I'll give some of my noob impressions about the game. I've been reading the rules for a while, and I've played various other miniature games, but Malifaux definitely has its own rhythm and flow. We skipped any victory point scenarios and just beat face to get me familiar with the mechanics of the game. We started in 6" deployment zones across from each other. From the pic you can see that the trees were pretty dense, but not so much that large models couldn't get between them. Activation order: the back and forth activation order had a huge effect on how I perceived each model, friendly or enemy. Some abilities/spells (wracked with pain, for example) ended up being very timing critical, as casting it on a model that has already activated nullifies its wonderful denial of (0) actions. I found myself agonizing over which model to use next, but in a good way. The tension was kept high. I typically experience what I call "turn 4 fatigue" in almost every other game... a sort of spastic yawning, wandering attention, semi-boredom that normally happens around the bottom of turn 4. Malifaux did not have one of those; I don't know whether I was just excited about getting a first game in or if getting to do something kept me more engaged. Hopefully the latter. The fate cards: I found myself using my fate hand to plan the turn out, especially if I had a high card suited to a spell I wanted to get off (monstrous creation in particular.) Knowing that I had the red or black joker in my hand or having already seen it played from my or my opponent's deck changed my plans for any given turn. This is one of my favorite game mechanics in Malifaux. Bowen seemed to get the worst draws, but we always knew that the good cards were in there somewhere and more likely to come up now. Counters: corpse counters and McM/Seb's body part tokens added a fun level of planning to the flow. If my convict gunslinger killed models at range it left the corpse counter too far away for my crew to pick it up easily. Once models started engaging, the counters were cheap and plentiful, but in the beginning they were harder to get for my crew. By the end of the game McM had accumulated 18 body part counters. Morale: Yikes! Failing a morale duel is almost as bad as losing the model (but without leaving the useful corpse counter!) I will cheat the crap out of these from now on! The nurse got pretty much sidelined for most of the game for screaming, hiking up her skirt and running from a snake. Terrifying is truly terrifying. In terms of McMourning, I can see why people fear him in combat. 12 wounds and hard to wound 1 makes him difficult to take down, and his organ donor skill meant he was back up to full wounds after every combat. I wish I had converted a soulstone into a body part token at the beginning of the game, as I had left over soulstones at the end of the game but sure could have used a body part to burn to get "fast" early on. The canine remains are really fragile, so I should have either taken more of them to start or planned on summoning more with Sebastian. The problem with that latter case is that Seb got cracked over the head with a snake (or was it by Marcus? can't remember) early on and never got a chance to make puppies. There just aren't enough turns to crank out lots of undead with this crew, certainly not compared to Nico's various summoning skills. In the end the beasts were able to take down Sebastian and my dogs and flesh construct, but McMourning wrecked everything he touched. I got a great feel for the game (thanks to the crew playing at RIW, who really stepped in to help me understand aspects of the game) and am looking forward to trying a "solo" game soon. Thanks guys!