Math Mathonwy

You could also try finding old Rackham Alahan Falconers on ebay (Fauconniers in French - should probably search with both English and French version).

My best game this year was a 35SS game of almost starter boxes. I do agree that the game is more balanced at 50SS - the starkest contrast isn't actually Summoning but rather in Schemes and Strategies - some Schemes are extremely difficult to pull off in small games. So yeah, people should be encouraged to move up to 45 or 50SS as soon as possible. But they will still want to play starter games. That's just how it is. There is a report of a recent tournament that was at 35SS in the battle reports forum. People know that the game isn't balanced at that level but yet they play, for various reasons. And for those situations, coming up with a suitable house rule for Summoning would be nice. It could be seen as an alt format like Hardcore. Sure, it won't ever be as balanced as "proper" games but it this particular problem (Summoning) probably can be helped somewhat. Ah, yeah, I forgot Hamelin. OK, then, no Summoning from the death of enemy models (Malifaux Rats are an exception to this). I believe this was actually our plan for our slow grow league if someone came with summoners.

I really like the community, both the local scene here in Finland and the more global one. I really do appreciate the presence of the developers here on the forums and their willingness to listen to the concerns of the fanbase and to fix things. I love the rules - I feel that Malifaux 2e is the most solid rules system for slightly more competitive gaming out of all the minis games that I have played. Which is actually no mean feat since I have played (and play!) a lot of different systems. I do like the models. I feel that Wyrd is constantly improving on that front and though there are still some hickups the trend is solidly rising and I'm really looking forward to what you will be offering next year.

OTOH Soulstone Miners are utterly amazing and every Arcanist player should have one. They are utterly ridiculously good in some Schemes/Strategies and can win you games. But, the OP noted that he already has one, so that's that sorted out. Mechanical Rider is another important utility model that can win games. Cassandra is also something worth considering. She is very mobile and versatile and all in all solid. And, if you take a Mannequin, she can drag along a Railwalk point of her own. As for the Rail Golem, though fluffy, it isn't really needed since you have Howard. They fill somewhat similar roles of a relatively durable, high-cost beatstick, but Howard is often thought to be the better one of the two.

You already suggested two house rules neither of which I agree with. Enforcing Henchmen into small games would make Starter boxes unplayable. Enforcing both to use Summoners if one wants to suggests that the different Summoners are equal in small games. Finally, I think that declaring it mission impossible is silly (even if you hadn't suggested two house rule solutions already) - the world is our oyster - of course it is possible to design rules that make Summoning balanced. It might be too convoluted and result, in effect, a new game, but just deciding arbitrarily that it is so without trying is silly, IMO. So, my suggestions: No summoning for the first two turns in under 40SS games. Summons are way more powerful early in the game since then you get the full AP amount from the summoned models, the no-Interact prohibition is less important and you likely have more resources to put into Summoning (as opposed to using the High Cards for killing enemy models or saving your own). Also, no Summoning from the death of enemy models. This is there to limit Levy, Sonnia and McMourning mostly. The switch of an enemy model into a friendly model is super powerful in low SS games and all of those Masters can work just fine without that ability (and, in the case of McM and Levy, are really, really competitive in small games, actually).

Well done, they look very smart! I especially love the highlights on Von Schill - they work splendidly well. The ones on the dress and the parasol - super slick! Maybe a bit more depth to the shadows but I think that the pic washes them out a bit so it might be just that. One thing that you could consider still, would be to add some tufts of dead grass onto the bases - would liven them up very nicely. Something like the Army Painter Wasteland tufts or Highland tufts: http://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=3

Plastic? As in Wyrd plastic? I suppose multipose male, then? Or a Guild Guard with a Vulture on him? If metal is no problem, howabout Han Solo: http://www.eden-the-game.com/frantz-art305.html#prettyPhoto

Werner Klocke and Paul Muller are famous sculptors who did some of the Wyrd metals. Werner Klocke is most famous for his work done for Reaper and Freebooter's Fate. He has a very distinctive style of making female minis ("Klockenbooty") and especially their faces. Paul Muller has done work for GW, Otherworld and Heresy, for example. He also has a very distinctive style and probably most well-known for his work on monstrous humanoids who have this certain look to them with lots of skin folds. A bit hard to explain, but once you know his style, you can recognize his work rather easily. He sculpted, among other things, the old metal Sybelle. But his style is most evident in, e.g., the metal Silurids.

Obviously the poor miner died when the mine flooded and could come back in either shape. (He was also an orphaned bat-winged monstrosity hanged for his crimes done while he was a samurai trasnvestite hooker attending a certain university...)

And my ax!

Wait, what?

I think that that 100 percent claim is kinda pushing it. Lady Justice, Sebastian, Zombie Chihuahua, Guild Guard, Slop Haulers, all the mis-scaled stuff... I mean, sure, you might think that way and just honestly and quite strangely like all the plastic releases more, but that is extremely unlikely since some of the plastics have been... not very stellar. So are you sure that you're really considering all the releases?

Thank you for posting - a very nice report! Some pretty unorthodox things all around. You taking Nekima for Leader in the first game, your opponents' taking LITS in such small games and finally you taking the combo of Make Them Suffer and Distract for the final game. Though obviously at least the first and last of those worked out nicely Congrats on the win! And for sticking to your self-imposed restriction

Also the fact that the power of Summoning is really simple to calculate ("I summoned 60SS worth of models in a 50SS game!") - even though they often hit the table late in the game, are Slow, can't Interact on the turn they come in and might be almost dead already so that calculation isn't at all accurate. Compared to a support Master, their impact is a lot harder to gauge. I fought hard during the beta to get a passing mechanism into the game (I know several good systems from other skirmish games) to lessen the out-activation advantage but it wasn't seen as needed.

Sadly, Lucius box has quite a few questionable models in there. Two Lawyers is a bit much and the Guild Guard really aren't all that good. A box of Riflemen and a Doppelganger make for some really nice additions, though.

Very happy to hear that! I've been telling about this quite a bit (since I found it both surprising and useful) but I feel that no one good enough has bothered trying it writing it off as some random hack having delusions so hopefully it will get wider recognition now if the spokesperson ends up being someone of your caliber and talent.

This is a weirdly circular argument. "Wyrd always admit when they make mistakes so therefore they did only the mistakes they admitted to." There is zero chance that the Young LaCroix were intended to be bigger than any other Gremlins (except Lenny). Zero chance. Why zero? Because the alternative (that they were intended to be that big) is too horrible to contemplate.

Yeah, I was really surprised by the effect as well. I discovered it when I accidentally mixed up the pots ( ) but have been using it since when I need something to be really matte. But don't just take my word for it - try it out. And tell us if it worked or if I have a freak bottle.

For a really matte finish, try varnishing the mini first using whatever and then putting a thin layer of Vallejo Glaze Medium on top. Just make sure to use a thin layer (way thinner than what you'd varnish with) and the result is extremely matte. Naturally won't protect the mini any, though, so be sure to put varnish underneath.

I agree with the previous posters. Nurses for tricks and Bishop for a fast and dependable swiss army knife of killyness who combos very nicely with Seamus. Though getting the McMourning box would be a nice way of expanding as well. The Flesh Construct, Nurses and Canine Remains in the box are all excellent with Seamus. And of course then you would have a second Master to try out as well.

DISCLAIMER: This isn't aimed at anyone in particular, just general musings. The flip side, I think, is that often criticism fails. The most obvious ways are naturally that it is given too bluntly, concerns a matter of opinion or is flat out wrong. Those are all common enough, but then there are more subtle ways in which criticism can fail. 1) It can concern some essentially one-off thing that, unless you strip the model in question, can't be helped. Criticism is only useful if it is something that you can actually learn from, but if someone, for example, painted some detail obviously wrong by mistake and this is then pointed out to him - what is he to do with that information? He likely won't strip the model so all you've managed is to point out a flaw that will probably annoy him for a long time to come and he might take out his frustration (wrongly) on the critic. 2) The painter might know fully well that a particular thing isn't as it should be but either isn't skilled enough to do anything about, tried, failed and got frustrated, or, perhaps most commonly, can't be arsed. Now, this is often something that the critic really cannot know and therefore the blame lies on the painter if he lashes out but it can be a natural impulse in all those cases. Take me, for example. My painting isn't very stellar. It is a nice, high table top standard but really, I won't be winning show-case contests any time soon. But that doesn't mean that I don't know about high-end painting. I know how euro-style painting differs from Eavy metal style painting, I know about focal points, I know about colour theory, I know about the cold and warm and saturated shadows and all that jazz. Now, this doesn't mean that critique can't tell me new things. Far from it - the breadth and depth of painting is vaster than one mind can fathom but still, I paint far worse than I know. So many times the criticism I receive is something that I knew already. The critique failed, in a way, but through no fault of the critic. 3) Somewhat tied to the previous point, but still different - the critique might be entirely inconsequential. If I'm painting "faces and bases" style, then pointing out that a certain detail isn't smooth isn't useful. The focus of the piece is elsewhere and I'm not interested in other things. Or maybe I'm taking a shortcut and applying some sort of method that makes certain parts uninteresting to me. This is slightly different from the previous point in that here the critic has a fair chance to notice what the painter is doing and might realize that they shouldn't criticize inconsequential bits. Or they might not and often through no fault of their own, again. So yeah, to summarize, when offering advice try to think slightly outside the box, give a different angle and something that can be done in the future to other minis. Saying "blend smoother" is boring and useless, say "try putting purple to the shadows of the skin to make it more lively". --- Also, a word on compliments. Don't say "Great painting! However, X, Y, and Z should be done differently." Say why you think that the painting is great! This is super important. General "platitudes" fall flat if you then go to criticize the work in fine detail. So yeah, not disagreeing with Ikvar so much as trying to point out how to critique more valuably. Positive stuff is easy to do, constructive criticism is really, really hard!

I know one person who will appreciate this! But yeah, those look great, very nice!

Well, this seems to sort of counter Fetid Strumpet's argument that it can't be a scaling issue since the base insert is clearly for a 50mm base - which it doesn't look like it is from these pics.

They have proven to be quite capable of producing really big plastic models. I don't think that Nekima's concept is somehow such that it is impossible to produce as a model that is big and imposing yet relatively easy to assemble and transport (or at least not any more than Whiskey Golem or LCB or what have you). She is supposed to be a super-imposing Ht 3 arch demon. Instead she is the size of Barbaros and about as imposing. Now, you aren't wrong to have no problem with that, but surely you can see how others would be disappointed? Eh, in that vein you can never complain about anything nor work to change anything other than than that. For example, were I to lose all of my savings, that would still be a lot better than be dying of hunger and thirst. But it would still be a horrible thing to happen. Or if someone stole all of my daughter's Christmas presents. Or my car died. Or Wyrd went bankrupt. Or whatever. It's not a very meaningful comparison.

This has been happening to me quite regularly with Paralyzed Pouncing models, btw, so it isn't like it is a complete edge case.