yetischool

I've been looking forward to the Malifaux campaign system for quite some time, so I'm very pleased to have a chance to try some of it out. Our local group, Fort Wayne Area Malifaux, has begun a 5 week campaign. I thought I would use this post to share the narrative and give everyone a look at how the campaign proceeds, so you can get an idea of what it's like to and how to construct a truly narrative campaign. Any comments and critiques are welcome. So without further ado, here's our introduction: Augustine Gale was dead. According to the Marshal, who admitted having no skill in medicine, the body had lain for hours, a twisted smile breaking over its cold face. The corpse was covered in blood, some dried, some fresh and his pockets were filled with what must have been a dozen Soulstones, humming and gently glowing in the darkening evening. Normally unconcerned with something as routine as a suspicious death, the Marshal had been called in when the milky opalescent stones were discovered. As he collected them, he noted not a single wound on the old man’s body. Whether the blood covering the scene was Augustine’s, the Marshal was not sure. Nor was he sure what was meant by the words on the floor beside the dead man’s head. He pocketed the Soulstones and scribbled in his notebook the strange words painted in blood, ‘the flesh.’ West of the Black Swamp, the town of Confluence hides in the thick forest along Silent Creek. It is believed there were once three rivers flanking the small town, but today there remain little more than dry creek beds meandering through the woods. The town was originally established after the opening of the first Breach, carved from the woods not in search of Soulstone, but a large gold deposit along the remaining creek. When the Breach re-opened, Confluence, like most settlements, was rediscovered, emptied of its inhabitants and silently waiting. Among those to resettle was Augustine Gale, an enterprising mine operator from Earthside who had tried to make a name for himself in Soulstones, but had been squeezed out by the iron fist of the Guild’s regulation. In Confluence, Augustine believed he had found a way to make money, a lot of money, without the Guild’s constant oversight. Now he was dead, the ambition little more than a drying glint in his horrified, dead eyes. News of Augustine’s death has spread quickly over the frontier. Even more quickly have spread the stories of the Soulstones he possessed. Never before have Soulstones been mined out of Silent Creek, but Augustine’s death may be a sign that a new vein has been discovered. Whispers in the mining camps have grown as brave men and women gather supplies and sneak into the west, eager to set up their own claim where Augustine met his fate. Surely it won’t be long before the powers of Malifaux turn their eyes towards the quiet streets of Confluence as well...

Pm sent

If it were me, I would make the jokers into something that is not actually part of the faction, but clearly represents the faction. For example, for the Guild deck, I would have gone: Red Joker: The Breach Black Joker: The Hanging Tree Outcasts: Red Joker: Bag of Guild Scrip/ souls tones Black joker: Broken handcuffs or shackles Just my two cents....deck looks great! -yetischool yetischool.blogspot.com

As always Panda, your review is greatly appreciated. From the sound of it, I am right there on the fence with you.

I agree with most of what is said here...However.....I didn't mind the complexity of the original game. I will be keeping my old cards and rules...that's for sure. And there is just something SO perfect about the original metal models. There is a charm about them that just doesn't translate to plastic. I'll be keeping them as well. I'm really just worried that the game won't receive the attention it deserves. Here it is almost released and there is not a whisper about it on the facebook page, twitter or anything but the blurp in Chronicles. I'm worried that a lack of buzz around the re-release is going to have it dead on arrival.

I did some very cheap and easy wood planking bases for my Puppet Wars minis with great results. My blog, linked in my signature below, has a couple of articles about creating these bases very easily. You can see them all at the hyperlink or use this link to the article itself. These are great because you can stain them just about any color you want and, once varnished, they are extremely resilient. They turned out very well for the puppets and I will be using the same technique (with thinner planks) for Collette and her girls.

Hello All, I'll be spending the weekend with family in Terre Haute Indiana. Anyone know of any game stores in town?

I am quite looking forward to Lazarus with the Viks. My crews usually contain 3 Ronin and a _____. It's either a Freikorp of some kind, Hans or Taelor. I think he'll be a nice mid range addition to provide some cover fire (and a tempting target) as the ronin make their way across the board.

Hello All, I am finally closing in on a nice goal for my Puppet Wars collection, being only a handful of models away from having 1 of every puppet painted....and it only took a year. As it turns out, 50-60 hr work weeks combined with a 1 yr old daughter at home takes a bite of of a person's time at the painting table. For anyone who has not picked up this little puppets, they are an absolute joy to paint. Most of them can be completed in a single evening and, in some cases, you can complete two or three in an evening. Thanks for taking a look. Comments and criticism always welcome. Also, why not take a quick look at some more pictures and other things Malifaux/PuppetWars/other games at my blog at www.yetischool.blogspot.com. Anyway, here are the pictures! Thanks again all!

Mudgeblack has it. PM sent. Thanks all.

Only a few more hours on this auction, everyone. Red Teddy is pretty good (upgrade is powerful +1 and he can refresh after tearing puppets apart).

Hello All, I have a red teddy on auction over at the trading forum. Take a look and place a bid! http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?32815-Auction-Puppet-Wars-Teddy-%28Red%29 Thanks for looking!

Auction: Puppet Wars Teddy (Red) I have an extra PW Teddy that's looking for a new home ( i have too many puppets to paint already). Cadilon did such a great job with this before, so I'm just going to copy his post, picture and all. Item: Puppet Wars Teddy (Red) Auction Starts: Now Auction Ends: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2011, 9:00pm EST (+5hr GMT) Starting Bid: $5.00 Payment Method: Paypal Shipping: $3.00 USPS Priority Flat Rate Box to US address; Actual shipping cost to other country. ( I have no intention of making a profit on shipping, but I will not be able to quote you a shipping price prior to your bid) Eligible Bidders: United States Residents; or non-US residents with excellent reputation with either eBay or other trading site. Description: This is an auction for a Puppet Wars Teddy (Red), including card. This is a limited edition unpainted figure that is only available from Wyrd as a random insert into Puppet Wars boxes. It is in NEW condition with no defects in either the figure or card. This is an extremely rare item that has been available on these forums and eBay rarely, if ever. Auction Terms and Conditions: This auction will run during the time period indicated above. To bid, reply to this forum with your bid amount. Bids edited after initial posting are void. Bids or offers will not be accepted by Private Message and will be ignored. The winning bid will be the highest bid as posted on this forum thread with a time stamp prior to the time listed above. For example, if the auction ends at 9:00pm, the last possible acceptable bid can have a time stamp of no later than 8:59:59. In the event two or more bids have the same time stamp and same bid amount, the prevailing bid will be the one that appears first in the list of posts. This item will ship once payment has been made and has cleared the Seller's Paypal account. This item is sold AS IS with all defects and faults, and no warranties or guarantees of any kind will be given by the Seller including no warranty of fitness, merchantability or suitability. No Returns will be accepted for this item. The Seller intends and endeavors to honor the successful bid for this item. In the event circumstances outside the Seller's control arise, the Seller reserves the right to cancel this Auction or alter the terms or duration of this Auction at any time.

I always take Necropunks with my Seamus crew. They are nice and fast for taking objectives and they are vicious in groups. You can't count on their leap ability unless you are holding several :masks, However, the best thing about them is Hard to Kill and Slow to Die. In my last game, two Necropunks were able to hold the Viks up for two turns! In the game before that, they were able to hold up Lady J for 2 turns and take her down to a single wound.

Bump I've dropped the price for more than one puppet and have some teddies to get rid of as well.

Hello All, I can't get all these puppets painted, so I need to find good homes for some of my extras. $6 each. $4 each after the first. Paypal only. US only unless you are willing to pay for the shipping. Each will come with a card and a base (sorry, I only have grey bases left). I also have a couple extra teddies (gold), if you are interested, make me an offer. What I have: x1 Each: -Executioner -Death Marshal -Rotten Belle -Nurse -Punk Zombie -Cherub -Silurid -December Acolyte -Razorspine Rattler -Ronin -Gunslinger PM If interested. Thanks!

My Marcus Teddy picnic also always includes at LEAST one Piglet. He will let you get your Teddy animated quickly and could help get those upgrades on as fast as possible.

Here's a novel thing for a blog about painting: I actually managed to sit down and do some painting! It feels good, but a little strange. Anyway, here's the update. These models continue to be fun to paint and I the game is a blast. Despite my puppet count sitting somewhere in the 80s now (I'm gonna sell some of them) I still look at the project as something I can accomplish quickly. Delusion, you say? Well maybe. But I like how simple these puppets are to paint, while still being detailed enough that I can get some good practice on a variety of techniques. The Ronin is first up. As you can see, I've decided not to go through with Non-Metallic Metals on the puppets. There are some models that require more attention and will look better with NMM, but by and large, I am going to save this for my Malifaux stuff. The reality is that, between washes and all the new techniques I've been workig on, metallics are much easier to work with and will allow me to finish the models much faster. That said, here is the latest work I've done with NMM on the Witchling Stalker. I'm starting to get the hang of the technique and the large knife and chain on this model were great practice. This guy was just plain fun and I'm glad I have another one waiting for me. Next on the list is LadyJ. This was actually the first puppet I started painting, but I set her aside when one of her legs broke. After playing in the P-wars tournament at Gencon where I frantically glued models into their bases, some of the models were damaged when I went back to clean the models and mount them on their painting bases. I fixed this easily enough by removing her entire right leg up to the pant and replacing it with a brass rod. I did the same with Pokey Vik and they both seem to be holding together well. The Cherub was a nice break in thi group of mostly drap colors. His wings are simply undercoated white, with dark bits based in Charadon Granite. The quill of each feather is picked out in dark brown and the whole thing gets a Devlan Mud (Umber wash in Vallejo-speak). Just a small highlight picks out the detail and he's done. Finally, there's the Razorspine Rattler. I went with my tried and true technique for rusty metal here. In Vallejo colors, I start with a basecoat of dark flesh and washed it with Umber just to pick out the details. From there, I stippled Dark Flesh, then Parasite Brown, Fiery Orange and finally picked out some edges in Boltgun Metal. I'll be using the brassy color on is jaw for Malifaux and its pretty easy to achieve. I basecoated GW Tin Bitz (is that not around anymore?) washed black, highlighted Tin Bitz, then Tin Bitz mixed with Gold (the darker one). In the next couple of days, I'll be completing another three puppets, my first Piglet, Pandora and the Guild Hound. Once complete, I'll be over 10% complete with the puppets. Long way to go... That's it for now. I'd love any comments. Thanks for taking a look and make sure you check out my blow at www.yetischool.blogspot.com for more posts More to come.

Thanks for your comments everyone! I have updates. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with my Puppet War bases to finalize the technique I’m going to be using from here on out. The resulting look above is exactly what I wanted to achieve with their bases; a dramatic ‘game-piece’ look and a good looking finish that matches both the style in which I’m painting the puppets and the board on which they will play. I have some more details on my blog, but here are the broad strokes of where I am. The process has remained unchanged from my last post. Rather than actually painting the wood bases, I wanted to let the grain of the Balsa wood do all the hard work for me, which meant sticking to a scheme of staining the wood either with inks or washes. Right off the bat there are a couple things I noticed with this technique that are worth pointing out. Rather than actually painting the wood bases, I wanted to let the grain of the Balsa wood do all the hard work for me, which meant sticking to a scheme of staining the wood either with inks or washes. Right off the bat there are a couple things I noticed with this technique that are worth pointing out. Enough of that though. Here are the results: The first set of bases was finished simply with a Sepia Wash. I used 2 coats on these bases, but you can use more or less for richer or lighter tones on the wood. Next up I decided to try a darker tone, mixing Sepia Wash with a very thinned down Scorched Earth. As I said before, it is important to thin the paint almost to a wash as anything thicker will cover the natural grain in the wood. This made for a very rich dark wood tone. I don’t think I’ll use this on too many puppets, but it is a good color for brighter puppets or certain color schemes. On this base, I went with a much warmer light wash which I achieved by mixing Sepia Wash with Yellow Ink. Again, this is a good way to add some variety to the bases and matches the color scheme of the models and board very well. The last combination I tried was a mix of Sepia Wash with a touch of Red Wash. Again, this helped add some variety to what will eventually become a large number of Puppet bases. So there they are. All that is left now is to build about 60 more bases and get those puppets done. More to follow. As always, I'd love to hear your comments and criticism. And be sure to check out my full blog at www.yetischool.blogspot.com for more regular updates. -Nick

Agreed. I had a similar experience trying to contact BF myself. It's a shame that they really seemed to miss the mark on this bag. However, the Malifaux bag, too small for most players I know, is about perfect for Puppet Wars. Alas...no Lucius. Lame

I'll +1 this one as well. Especially for smaller joints like Gremlins, Belles and the like.

Thank you all for your comments and questions! @Captain: I'm trying to keep the color schemes here as simple as I can. The lighter tones on the Gunslinger and Bette were done with Vallejo's Heavy Warmgrey. This was washed with Devlan Mud and they highlighted back up. The Gunslinger's pinker skin is simply Dwarf Flesh with the same shading. The whites on the Gunslingers pants are just GW Kommando Khaki. @DBB: I've been working to get a good process down for the bases and I think I've found it. As I finish more puppets, I've decided on an easy scheme for their bases which works just as I'd like. You can find more details on my blog at www.yetischool.blogspot.com, but here are the broad strokes. Step 1: I decided to use a large Balsa strip for all these bases. This makes the process cheap and easy to complete several bases in one go. Once the glue has dried, I cut the bases out of the strip and sand them flush with the edge of the base. Step 2: To make the appearance of individual planks, I used a piece styrene stamped into a hardwood floor pattern. I picked pretty large planks, as I wanted the puppets to retain their small feeling. With my sculpting tool, I transferred the styrene pattern onto the balsa wood, taking care to make sure the planks stayed parallel with the grain on the balsa. This is the result. Step 3: After the pattern has been made, I go back over the base with my sculpting tool and hobby knife to really make the divisions between the planks stand out. This will also help to keep the planks looking separated after they’ve been painted. Step 4: Again with the sculpting tool, I carve the perpendicular lines into the balsa to give the effect of ends of boards. Because I’m going against the grain in this step, the grooves will be messier, but this works well as we’re trying to create the look of worn and weathered flooring. Step 5: I added some more detail to the base with my hobby knife. I added nail holes and chips and breaks in the board. Step 6: Rather than painting the wood, I’m letting the grain do what it wants by staining the base with inks and washes. In this case, I simply used several layers of Sepia wash, but I’m experimenting with other colors. Inks work as well, but will give a more vibrant, wet looking color. I've also like the look of GW Scorched Earth cut with water into a wash. Devlan mud, however, the usual go to wash, proved a bit washed out and boring for a floor. Like I said, I go into a bit more detail at my blog, so check there if you're interested. As usual comments are welcome. More to come!