Sholto

If it's just card games, then my kids also love Match of the Penguins and Dobble.

I would have said you could use him in a 10T crew, since by declaring him a 10T Master he is a 10T Master (and thus by definition not a Guild Master, or an Arcanist or Neverborn Master, for that matter).

My 9 year-old daughter really enjoyed the simple maths and easy card gameplay of Lords of War by Black Box Games (http://lords-of-war.com/). It is not a kid's game, but it is entirely suitable for kids, and you will really enjoy it as well. One of my favourite games, and it is a good introduction to fantasy-based gaming in general, with more than a little of a miniatures game about the way the cards interact on the table.

This was my first time at the Scottish GT, which was a two day event held at Common Grounds in Stirling. I had only been intending to attend the Story Encounter on the Sunday (which I had written for the event) but my wife told me I had accrued enough Gamer Dad Points to earn another day away, so I signed up for the GT event on the Saturday as well With four games to play I decided to play my four Arcanist Masters once each. Strategies and Schemes were all determined randomly on the day. There was a really good turn out, with players coming from England as well as one from the US. I don't think he came over specifically for this, though Game 1 Strategy: Reckoning 40ss Opponent: Andrew Smith, playing Lynch Schemes: ALITS, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Spring The Trap & Murder Protégé Initial thoughts: For Reckoning, I decided Mei Feng would be best. She can kill more than one Minion herself per Turn, and Vent Steam is great against Ca-heavy crews and would really annoy Huggy. To beef her up I wanted hardy models that could take a kicking. I chose:- Mei Feng with Vapourmancy (for the free Vent Steam and to try her Ca attack), Seismic Claws (for the triggers) and Imbued Protection; Joss with Imbued Protection; Kang with People's Challenge; Metal Gamin (tough enough); and Soulstone Miner (for Breakthrough). Andrew picked:- Lynch; Huggy; 2 Beckoners; 2 Illuminated; and 10T Archer For Schemes I picked and announced Breakthrough and Protect Territory. There was no way I could do ALITS as I did not have enough models. Spring the Trap was no good as Lynch would never get into the thick of things and I had no way of spamming Scheme Markers. I could have done Murder Protégé. It would have had to have been on an Illuminated, and with no ranged attacks Andy would have probably kept that one back and forced me to overextend myself to reach it. Hey, no-one needs to force me to overextend – I do that all by myself. A few notes on the game itself:- As is usual in tournaments, for the first game I basically forgot how to play. I ignored Protect Territory entirely, and also forgot about the Soulstone Miner until the end of Turn 2; I flung Mei Feng right into the heart of Lynch's crew on Turn 2. It was glorious. Stupid, but glorious. Even stupider when Spring the Trap is in the Scheme Pool, right? She didn't do much, and a Red Joker stopped her using her trigger to get out of there straight away. Stupid Red Joker. Vent Steam kept her safe from Huggy and the Beckoners, though, and when the 10T Archer rapid fired on her, her trigger got her safely away and out of LOS. Kang and Joss were too slow and did not get to contribute much. They both charged an Illuminated but my hand was gone and they ended up leaving it alive; Huggy was badly wounded by Mei Feng's Ca attacks off the Vapourmancy upgrade and with Burning would have been dead at the end of Turn 2. Instead he used Consume Brilliance in the middle of his own crew. It left three of his own models paralysed(!) but it kept Huggy in the fight; Mei Feng had an amazing Turn 3 in which she killed off the wounded Illuminated before taking Lynch on and Red Jokering him back to the casino pits of hell. Result: I scored nothing for Schemes and I got 1VP for the Strategy. Andy had Murder Protégé on Joss and Spring The Trap. He got 1VP for that on Turn 2, for a 1:1 draw. Game 2 Strategy: Reconnoitre 40ss Opponent: Martin Cairns, playing Rasputina Schemes: ALITS, Vendetta, Outflank, Assassinate and Distract Initial Thoughts: For Reconnoitre it has to be Ramos, right? I thought so. I would summon Spiders and try to swarm the table every way I could. That meant Metal Gamin and a Mechanical Rider. I chose:- Ramos, with Field Generator (I wanted my swarm to be hard to put down) and Arcane Reservoir; Electrical Creation (for the Turn 1 scrap and free move); 3 Metal Gamin (and with Ice Gamin and a Golem on the table, this was a good move!); Mechanical Rider. Martin took:- Rasputina; Ice Golem; 2 Ice Gamin; Wendigo; Silent One; and Blessed of December. For Schemes I picked ALITS and Vendetta. With a swarm on the table ALITS is easy enough, and with Magnetism on the Metal Gamin I decided one of them could do for an Ice Gamin easily enough. Outflank is just too easy to stop most of the time, and Assassinate against Raspy is not easy, and certainly not without a fast, killy crew. Distract is one I do not have much experience of, but since I would be wanting to kill enemy models for Strategy VP, leaving them alive for Schemes did not seem like the best balance. The game itself: Ramos never managed to summon more than 2 Spiders a Turn, but reliably summoned 2 Spiders every Turn for 3 Turns; The Mechanical Rider stayed out the game for Turns 1 & 2 (literally avoiding Raspy at the back of the table) before springing to life on Turns 3 & 4, charging the Blessed, making two more Metal Gamin and dropping two Scheme Markers on the centre line; The Metal Gamin got me Turn 1 points for Vendetta and another Metal Gamin finished off the unlucky Ice Gamin on Turn 3; Magnetism severely wounded the Ice Golem, which was an early target for this ability; The Soulstone Miner popped up on Turn 2 in charge range of Raspy, making it a serious threat. The weakened Ice Golem charged it and flailed before the Soulstone Miner killed it and headed off to drop Scheme Markers on the centre line and claim a table quarter all by itself; Ramos found himself melee'd by the Blessed. Pesky Leap. Two Spiders, a Metal Gamin and a charging Mechanical Rider could not kill it (even on Df5), and it took Ramos himself to magnetise away and kill it off with Electrical Fire; Martin, being a scrupulously fair player, had warned me beforehand of the Ml8 on his Wendigo. I promptly forgot. Raspy moved to within 6" of Ramos and Paralysed him with an irresistible attack total. The Wendigo then companion activated and Devoured him in one bite! Nice move, Martin I ended the game with 5 Spiders and 3 Metal Gamin, as well as the Rider and the Soulstone Miner. Summon the swarm, indeed. Result: Thanks mainly to the Rider I got ALITS, and the Metal Gamin had got me 2 points for Vendetta. Thanks to the swarm, although also in large part to the Soulstone Miner popping up in a quiet quarter, I got 3 points for the Strategy. Martin got no Strategy points, but did get the full 3VP for Assassinate. I do not recall his other scheme. I won the game 8:3. Game 3 Strategy: Turf War 50ss Deployment: Corner Opponent: Barry Kelly, playing Pandora Schemes: ALITS, Plant Evidence, Murder Protégé and Assassinate. I don't remember the fifth one. Initial Thoughts: Given that I was playing "4 Masters in 4 Games" it was either Kaeris or Colette. I did not want to risk Colette against horrible Pandora, who might do nasty things to her and who might match her for mobility so went with Kaeris. I figured the Burning would be good, but I also wanted to do a gunline with Kaeris and try and reproduce some Perdita action in the Arcanists. The table had a gallows in the middle with open space around it. Lots of cover, but also no LOS-blocking terrain except around the edges. I was hoping to shoot the enemy to bits before they reached me and to take models that could ignore cover. I chose:- Kaeris, with Blinding Flame for the triggers, Purifying Flame for the healing (because Turf War) and Arcane Reservoir; Lazarus, for that big gun of his, plus he is hard to kill and can heal; 2 Gunsmiths, because if I could get burning on something they would have the positive flips to ignore cover, and because it can be easy to give them Fast; Sue. Not only does he do the Burning thing, help out with Scheme Markers and have positive flips on his gun, but his neg Ca aura is huge against Neverborn and other Arcanists. The Merc Tax is worth it when you need that ability; Performer, to Lure friendly and enemy models and to get rid of Scheme Markers; Soulstone Miner (Plant Evidence is so easy with this guy); and Eternal Flame, for the healing. Barry took:- Pandora; Teddy; Baby Kade; Candy; Three Sorrows; and The Poltergeist. For Schemes I picked Murder Protégé on Teddy, who I reckoned was heading my way post haste anyway, and Plant Evidence. I had enough models to do ALITS so that would have been an option, but it does not sit well with a gunline-style crew. Assassinate against Pandora? I had never played against her so this would have been a total gamble. How went the game?:- Brutal. Never having played against Pandora I had no idea what to expect. I did know what to do when Teddy came charging into melee with my gunline, though. Burn it. Burn it with fire! Despite Kaeris getting ready to drop major amounts of Burning on him she Black Jokered the Horror Duel and got hurt for her stupidity when Teddy clawed her. Barry started to Lure Teddy away and tried to hide him with the Poltergeist, but it was no use. I had too many shots and Teddy died alongside the totem; The Soulstone Miner popped up miles away and started laying down the Scheme Markers. Candy cleverly popped back to her deployment zone to take him on, but I sent a Gunsmith to help out and Candy pulled back; I held my gunline mostly within 6" of the middle, ensuring Sue was first to activate each Turn for that awesome aura of his; The Performer started popping enemy Scheme Markers. I was fairly sure she would become an instant target, so I left this until Turn 3 and onwards to start doing; Pandora had enough of Kaeris by this point and came in for the Assassinate. A Red Joker on the damage flip was still not enough to kill off Kaeris, and Pandora did not last long on her own once Kaeris set her on fire; Shooting attacks that work in melee (Sue, Gunsmiths and Kaeris) and a model that just has excellent melee attacks all by itself (Lazarus) make for a gunline that doesn't mind mixing it up hand to hand at all. An excellent crew; Card draw was excellent. When Kaeris had nothing so shoot at, she would shoot her own models and get Burning on them, and then draw it off with her (0) Action to draw up to three cards. Sue has card draw as well. Result: An over-eager Teddy gave me full Kill Protégé points and the Soulstone Miner got the rest of the Scheme points. I also got 3 Strategy points for holding mid-table. Pandora picked up 1VP for Plant Evidence, for a 9:1 win to me. Game 4 Strategy: Squatter's Rights 50ss Deployment: Flank Opponent: Greg Piskocz, playing Jack Daw Schemes: ALITS, Breakthrough, Bodyguard, Outflank & Vendetta. Initial Thoughts: Jack Daw?! Eek. I had to play Colette, so the choice was elite Collette or full Showgirls. I went full Showgirls, because I had an idea that Jack Daw was all about taking down elite models (I don't know if that's true, but it felt true). As I assembled my own crew I could hear Greg wondering aloud what he would take if he was me. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what separates a real Table 1 player from me. I rarely have solid reasons for my own choices let alone thinking about other people's. On the other hand, maybe it was a bluff. Maybe he wanted me to take Mech Rider for Bodyguard, because he knew a way to ignore its Df trigger. Or maybe it was an elaborate double-bluff and he didn't want me to take Mech Rider for Bodyguard so if I thought he wanted me to take it then I wouldn't take it. It had been a long day. This was Game 4. I knew my own name. Colette would fill me in on the rest as we went. I chose:- Colette, with Practiced Production (for the Scheme Marker spamming), Cabaret Choreography (for the summoning of the Doves from Above) and Arcane Reservoir; Cassandra with Smoke and Mirrors (for the Scheme Markers and the push); 2 Coryphee; 2 Performers; 1 Mannequin; and (you guessed it) a Soulstone Miner (to either help with Breakthrough or claim a distant Squat Marker). Greg took:- Jack Daw; 2 Guilty; Johan; Taelor; Bishop; and Hodgepodge Effigy (I like that list. Elite lists appeal to me, as do Relic Hammers) Since I would be on the centre line anyway for the Strategy, and since I could spam Scheme Markers, ALITS seemed like a good Scheme. I had Cassandra and a Duet, so Breakthrough would be hard to deny. I went with those two. For Outflank it would be easy to get my models in the table corners, but it is still an easy Scheme to deny and I had no idea what movement tricks Jack Daw came with. Bodyguard would have been fine on Cassandra, and was an option. Vendetta was not a good choice – I did not want to go toe to toe with this list. At. All. About the game:- I spammed Scheme Markers in and about my own deployment zone as usual. These would be discarded later to let me keep the ones placed remotely by Practiced Production; Jack Daw and his Hammer Horrors took the middle three squat markers. He sent a Guilty after the one in the left hand corner, who managed to hold up Cassandra for a Turn or two (pesky Df 6), and he sent the Effigy after the other. The Soulstone Miner popped up and killed the Effigy before flipping that marker over to my side. I was left with 2 to his 3 but he had a 1VP edge on me, having claimed his sooner than I could claim mine. I might have been more ambitious with a Prompted Duet to get the middle markers flipped, but I did not want to risk exposing it to the unknown powers of Jack Daw; Bishop, a summoned Dove and a Performer died early on, and after that I played keep away; Jack Daw did something horrible and mean and Colette ended up unable to take Tactical Actions. No Prompt for you, missy! She was upset and pouted for 2 whole AP to remove it; Cassandra ended up with the sort of activation that makes you want to keep playing her in every crew. She lobbed a Scheme Marker 6" using a (0) Action, Nimbled along, lobbed another 6" into JD's deployment zone using a (1) Action and used the Understudy action to borrow Seduction from the Performer and cast it to remove an enemy Scheme Marker; Colette was all set for a final activation. She would Prompt the Performer three times to push round the hill and remove all the enemy Scheme Markers with Seduction, denying Greg his Breakthrough. It would be glorious. Instead, he popped out for a toilet break and when he came back he had a brain-wave and made Colette Tormented. When Colette activated Jack Daw made her push 3", taking her out of line of sight of the Performer. Noooo!!! Genius move by Greg to end the game on, and we were done. Result: I got full points for ALITS and Breakthrough but only 1VP for the Strategy. Greg scored 2VP for the Strategy and full points for his own Schemes (Bodyguard on Taelor and Breakthrough), for an 8:7 win to Greg. To be honest, I was expecting 10:0, so was well chuffed with this result. If there's one common theme here, it's the Soulstone Miner. Forget the Mechanical Rider, because this wriggly wee guy is fast becoming my Scheme Crutch. There just always seem to be a job he can do well. Playing 4 Masters in one day was very entertaining and nowhere near as brain-melting as I thought it would be. Obviously not everyone has access to that many Masters in their chosen Faction, but if you get the chance it is a fun challenge. And it lets me get loads more models on the table, which is what this is all about Brilliant event, very well organised and a joy to play in, and I came sixth overall and won loads of goodies in the raffle. Later, there was beer. The perfect end And on the Sunday, there was this:-

Or Paralyse and then Devour him

I got 6th place, which I was very pleased with indeed. I didn't use Kaeris in all my games, though. It was a four game GT, so I decided in advance I would use all four of my Arcanist Masters, one per game. Ended up against eventual winner Greg P on the top table for game 4, which was pretty awesome, and it ended up being a very close game as well (he won!) Never tried the Specialist, but I also haven't felt the need for more Burning in the crew. It's useful, sure, but not necessary. Not like Sonnia, who really wants someone to be Burning before she can go to town on them. You done a batrep for Deliverance?

Played one game with Kaeris at the Scottish GT at the weekend. I haven't played her since the Beta, but I think I got a great match-up for her on a table that played to her strengths. Turf War against Pandora on a Wild West, building-heavy table with a gallows in the middle and lots of empty space around it. Opponent was Pandora and I took Murder Protege on Teddy and Plant Evidence. I went with a gunline crew, taking two Gunsmiths, Sue and Lazarus for the shooting, but also for Sue's :-flip on Ca. Combined with his Burning synergy, Sue is a great model for Kaeris and especially against Neverborn, other Arcanists or Sonnia. I also took the Totem (for the Burning damage & healing), a Performer to Lure models into place or out of cover and remove enemy Scheme Markers and a Soulstone Miner for Plant Evidence. For me, the Soulstone Miner is becoming a must-have (I took it in 4 out of 4 games, and that was with 4 different Masters!) It was my first time against Pandora, but I just demolished her crew piece by piece and then her, leaving Baby Kade and Candy hiding away. That included Kaeris Black Jokering the Terrifying test to target Teddy on Turn 2 (lots of 'T's there!), losing her an entire Activation. Not sure I learned a great deal about her crew as the game was very one-sided, but it was a lot of fun Because the Strategy was Turf War, I choose Purifying Fire for the healing. I never used the Pyre Markers. I also choose Blinding Flame, as the two triggers are fantastic. Shoot Lazarus on Turn 1 to move him up 6", or use it to push enemy models out of range of the Turf Marker. I found that when Kaeris didn't need to move into position, the best thing was to shoot her own crew with Flaming Halo, hoping for the trigger to get at least three of them Burning, and then use Truth In Flame to draw cards. If I was lucky, I would also get two Fast Gunsmiths out of it as well.

I really liked that segment (as Terry once said to an orange), and agree that while much of it was very specific as to the crews, schemes and strat, the whole point is to deconstruct the choices made and review the reasons for those, and it is that underlying methodology that is going to be of most assistance to the mid-level players.

I like it

Dance Partner is "target friendly Showgirl" only

Does Vent Steam negatively affect Mei's own Vapormancy attack? It would appear to.

Ta! I was going to say that this story has a good sense of background to it - there is clearly a larger narrative at play here. I just wasn't sure if it was something you were going to reveal later, or had already done so

That was cool Is this a continuation of another story?

A whole lot. Might be best to play with blank bases or similar for your first couple of games so you get an idea of how many you might need.

Thanks for the comments

That was a good one. Creepy and atmospheric

I know it is OT, but with Colette's Prompt, Showgirls can get some silly scheme marker removal going in the final Turn Kill the Performer!!!

Molly might have had a 1st Ed reputation as being an unforgiving Master, but there is no reason a beginner could not pick up her M2E incarnation and play. And I would agree with pretty much everything Drix says about how to start out playing her.

Okay - I see what you mean. Thanks

So it would eg. gain the benefits of Hoffman's Empower (which boosts his Ca)?

I always thought she looked like Maggie Gyllenhaal.

No problem - I try to keep all comments constructive, and since it's just my opinion you don't have to agree with it

I really liked this. It had interesting characters, good tension and a fun resolution, with a cool little twist at the end. In short stories I like to start with the main character, so that the reader knows straight away whose story this is. In this case I would tweak your opening so it is clear we are in the POV of Dimitri, that this is his tale unfolding. You can be a little wordy in places, for example: "’Onest!?!” The voice questioned from the darkness on the far side of the abandoned warehouse. A regular hard tap accompanied by the moaning of floorboards told them that the origin of the exclamation was approaching". How about re-writing this:- "A voice" rather than "the voice". "The voice" suggests you have referred to it before, and that the reader should know what it is. They don't, not yet. "asked" rather than "questioned". Simpler, and more common usage. "tapping" instead of "tap." A tap is singular, so the reader might be confused and think it only happens once. Also a tap can be a noun, and the reader might be really confused! "told Dmitri" instead of "told them". Very short stories are best told from a single POV, so I often like to put my readers in the POV character's head and make sure they never leave it. "the speaker" instead of " the origin of the exclamation". Less wordy and more common usage, so avoids confusing the reader and avoids sentences being longer than they need to be. That gives us "“’Onest!?!” A voice asked out of the darkness. A regular, hard tapping accompanied by the moaning of floorboards told Dmitri the speaker was approaching." Another example is your opening sentence, "Krahkov paced impatiently across the well-worn floor, seemingly unaware of the groaning worm-eaten floorboard’s fragility". Putting aside the fact that I would suggest starting in Dmitri's POV, this sentence is trying to do a lot of work. It is introducing the story, a character (Krahkov), telling us what he is doing, telling us about where he is and warning us about the floor. Opening sentences, I think, are like a hook that snags your reader. They should be smooth, sharp and to the point, and preferably intriguing as well! "Krakhov had paused. Dimitri had never started" Not sure what this meant. Paused doing what? "This was Shanks, head of the Gremlin Mafia" Love it! "“Now dat’s not ‘da way you should start neg-osh-ee-ate-shuns.” Krakhov's blustering…" Suggest a new line between one person's dialogue and another person's actions, unless there's a good reason not to. "“You killed my man?”" I got a bit lost here. What man, and how did Krahkov know that Shanks had killed him? "Drool dripped down his beard as he attempted to locate the origin of this strange phenomenon that seemed to coincide with a sharp pain in his stomach" This is where things get confusing again, and there are POV issues that don't help. If you stay in Dmitri's POV it is easier to show the reader what is going on, and you also don't need to worry about the reader having to work out whose POV we are in from line to line. "“’Waste not, want not’ as me Moma used ta’ say” Dimitri took one step forward" Based on what he says and does, I have no idea what Dmitri thinks about what just happened, nor what he is planning to do about it. This takes a lot of tension out of a crucial part of the story. "Dimitri relaxed. You do not try your luck in Malifaux" Very nice indeed! My one criticism of the story as a whole is that Dmitri doesn't do much, he really just watches other people do stuff. It is a pretty weak criticism, since this might be just intended as a character introduction, but proactive POV characters are a strong preference of mine.

Rafkin's Flask of Formaldehyde could really spread the Poison around friendly models in a Molly crew, making the end of the Turn pretty nasty for the enemy! Shame Rakfin really has no other synergy with Molly.

Heh, no I don't think I'll be doing that :-)