Vorzakk

I’ve got a tabletop RPG that I’ve been running for over 18 years. Not expensive at all, but very time-consuming.

Yea, getting a group together can be difficult; especially with a relatively new game. We’ve only got six people in our little circle; most of whom are unable to attend with any regularity.

Is sleeping an option?

My last Malifaux game was a week ago today; Jady J vs. Nicodem. Haven't played any video game in a long while because my girlfriend is on another Legend of Zelda kick and has been hoggin up the TV. : )

With the sole exception of Coraline, I've yet to see a 3D movie that I thought was worth the extra money of seeing it in 3D. I really, really hope this is a passing fad.

Hoffman: wussy and out-of-shape bald guy who likes machines. On a related note, my girlfriend reminds me a lot of Lilith: curvy gothic red-head who can be REALLY scary sometimes.

I’ve always really liked sniper-type models in wargaming, so when I got into Malifaux I was really excited to learn of Hans. Not having learned the ins and outs of the game yet, he seemed very cool and effective; and he was actually one of the first models I got. But now that I’ve been playing for awhile, I’m becoming steadily disillusioned with what was once one of my favorite models in the game; especially when I compare him side-by-side with Nino Ortega. Either the character is broken, or (more likely) I’m missing something; perhaps someone can tell me what. Let’s start by comparing him with fellow long-gunner Nino Ortega…. - Range: 16” for both. - Cb: Hans has 5 (ram); Nino has 7 (ram). Really? Seriously? The ‘heavily sought-after’ veteran mercenary gets totally out-shot by a kid wearing green socks? Plus Nino has the “In My Sights” spell which doesn’t have a suit requirement and which increases his Cb even further. - Damage: Nino’s weapon does a little more damage on Moderate. - Ignoring cover. Both models can; but Hans only can when he hasn’t moved and is targeting only a single model. Nino can do it all the time. - Shooting through obscuring terrain. Ok, so Hans can see through an unlimited amount and Nino can only see through 6” worth. Big deal. First of all, just as with ignoring cover, Nino can do this all the time but Hans is restricted to when he hasn’t moved and is only targeting a single model. Most spells that I’m aware of which create obscuring terrain (like the Stitched Together’s ‘Creeping Fog’) only have a radius of 3 or 4 inches, so the 6” that comes with Hunter is more than enough. The only time Hans would really have an advantage is if most or all of the board was covered with trees; and even then, I’d still rather have Nino because his Scout ability would allow him to more easily move through it. - On a related note, what’s the point of Hans’ Goggles. The only spells I can think of which affect LoS are ones which either create obscuring terrain or grant cover; both of which I’ve discussed above. - Hans can also ignore intervening models; but in all of the many games I’ve played, this has come in handy exactly once. * Now if this ability meant that he could pick out a target in close combat, THAT would be fantastic and would make the model completely worthwhile; especially since I tend to play him alongside a lot of melee specialists (Viktoria Sword Mistress, Taelor, Bishop, Misaki). Alas, I’ve seen other threads on this topic in these very forums and my understanding is that that is NOT the case. Maybe the powers that be will at least consider this for an errata. That would really make the character a true sniper and make him worthwhile. - Triggers. Both have the Headshot trigger. Yes, Hans has one that will automatically give him an extra point of damage on one shot; but Nino has one that might give him a while ‘nother attack. - Hans does have that nifty custom ammo spell, but he needs a 7 or better in a particular suite and you’ve got about a 15% chance of flipping one if you don’t have one in your hand to cheat with. Not the best of odds. And then to add insult to injury, along comes the Gunsmith who can do the exact same thing for FREE! So there you have it. And now I ask of you, Malifaux players with more experience than myself (which is probably most of you)… What am I missing with Hans? Why does he cost one more soulstone than Nino, who seems to be able to out-sniper him in every way?

Some days I feel like I have the hardest job in Malifaux. Some days I think I get paid too much. Today was definitely one of those latter days. I’d been sent out to “reconnoiter” some useless spot in the Badlands. Don’t ask me why; I don’t know either. I get paid to bring unsanctioned Arcanists to justice; not ask question. Anyway, I brought my usual crew along: good ol’ Samael and a trio of stalkers. So we get out to this middle of nowhere and lo and behold we run into Rasputina and a few of her ice toys. Apparently, the self-appointed “ice queen” had decided that it was time to take out big bad Sonnia Criid once and for all. Why are kids so dumb? In all fairness, we DID have terrain on our side. There was a big formation of rocks (forming a sort of canyon) right in the center of the area that would give us good cover and allow us to fulfill our mission requirements without spreading ourselves too thin. The canyon had three passes which allowed easy entry: one on the south-east corner, one on the north side, and one on the west. We approached the canyon and entered through the pass in the south-east corner. I left one stalker to guard the pass and sent another one to watch the south-west side. Once Samael, myself, and the remaining stalker were inside the canyon, I threw a wall of fire up over the west pass so that Rasputina could only come at us from the north pass; which Samael and the stalker moved to cover. From that point; I just sat back, lit up a smoke, and kept up the wall of fire. To give credit where credit it due, Rasputina did approach us with some tactical sense. She cast a spell which created a swirling cloud of snow around her and used it to obscure herself, her ice golem, and one of her ice gamin as they approached the north pass (the other gamin circled around canyon and was promptly shot and killed by the stalker I left at the pass we entered through). What the poor girl did not realize, however, was that Samael can spot a bat in an utterly dark sky; and a trio of shots from his trusty Colt .45 reduced the golem to a big pile of ice cubes. Bent on doing me in, Rasputina headed up the pass right behind her remaining gamin. That gamin, however, proceeded to step right into one of Samael’s bear traps. Ouch! I’ve never heard a construct scream like that before. In addition to being incredibly funny, the gamin was now blocking Rasputina’s approach. Our stalker in the canyon finally put the wretched thing out of its misery as Rasputina desperately attacked Samael with a barrage of spells. Who did she think she was dealing with? I snuffed them all out before they even formed. And then it was over. We’d “reconnoitered” the area and I was still alive and breathing. Unfortunately, the ice witch survived unharmed; and she strikes me as the kind of person who learns from her mistakes. Something tells me that if we meet again, it’s going to be one of those other kinds of days.

I miss Aunt Raspi The day she died; she’d taken me, and my two brothers, and Big Brother out to some abandoned place on the edge of the swamp. There was a little house in the middle of the property and a tower down in the south-west corner that looked kinda like a windmill with the spinning parts gone. There were two big ponds; one on the south-east corner and one on the north-west corner. Up on the north-east corner were some woods. Aunt Raspi wanted us to spread out all over the property at the same time. I’m not sure what good that was supposed to do; but when Aunt Raspi told us to do something, we did it. We were just heading onto the property from the south when we saw another bunch of people coming in from the north. There was a big girl with a box, a little girl, a baby, and these three weird ugly green guys. I don’t know what we did to make them so mad, but they wanted to kill us ALL! Aunt Raspi had one of my brothers go hide in the tower and the other one go hide behind some reeds on the south side of the nearest pond. Me and Big Brother followed Aunt Raspi towards the house. The older girl and the baby came right for us (keeping just west of the house), the little girl ran into the house, and the green guys circled around the house in the opposite direction towards the swamp that my brother was hiding by. The baby was stickin’ real close to the big girl. I can’t blame him; I wanted to stay close to Aunt Raspi too. Maybe the big girl was the baby’s big sister or something. Idunno. Anyway, the thing about that though was that it made it really easy for Aunt Raspi to use her favorite spell on them: bringing these really big globs of ice and freezing air down out of the sky. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! By the time the mist cleared, the baby was dead and the big girl as hurt really bad. Aunt Raspi was going to cover the house in freezing rain so the little girl would be stuck inside, but the little girl was too fast and she came out the front door. She tried to act all sweet and friendly and give Aunt Raspi a lollipop with poison in it, but Aunt Raspi was too smart to fall for that. But then the little girl was so upset that she started crying. And I don’t mean like a normal kid sounds when they cry; I’ve never heard such a horrible sound ever. I think it got on Big Brother’s nerves extra bad, because he walked up behind the little girl and chopped her up with his claws. While all this was going on, my brother that was hiding by the pond came out to fight two of the green guys that were coming towards him. I was really scared that he was going to get killed, but he was fine. The fist green guy kinda wrapped around him, but then my brother cut him up with his claws. Then the same thing happened with the second one, but I think he managed to hurt my brother just a little bit. The third green guy just lurked around the woods the rest of the time. Anyway; by this time, I thought everything was going great. But Aunt Raspi always said that in Malifaux; Fate can be your best friend one second and then kick you where it hurts the next. And she was right. Aunt Raspi told me to go around the house and stand between it and the woods; I figured she and big brother were going to finish off the big girl real quick; but then everything just went wrong. The big girl was standing RIGHT THERE; and Big Brother and Aunt Raspi looked like they WANTED to attack, but they just stood there. I don’t know what the big girl said next, but all the sudden Aunt Raspi just starts crying and crying and going on about how she’s just a fraud and December is the one with all the REAL power. And not only is she getting sad, but it looks like she’s getting sick. And then finally she just collapsed on the ground right as Big Brother went crazy and started hitting himself. Big brother says we won and we won big. Him and me and my brother were spread out on all four corners of the property, and the big girl hadn’t killed us all. But it doesn’t feel like we won to me. I miss Aunt Raspi.

Yea, I keep hearing good things about Game Theory; I think my girlfriend’s little sister plays Magic (or something) up there. Unfortunately, Thursday nights aren’t really good for me. But I'll certainly keep it in mind for the future.

All Fun and Games down on Hwy 64 in behind the Perkins. 6:00 PM every Tuesday.

You’re absolutely correct. However, it would also probably not be as cheap (cash, like time and artistic talent, is something I don’t have as much of as I’d like). It’s a long wait, yes; but proxies and borrowed crews will get me by in the mean time.

Viktoria(s), McMourning, and Perdita

A friend of mine that I’ve been playing Warhammer with for awhile recently introduced me to Malifaux and I was instantly hooked. I played my very first game last week and actually managed to win; defeating his Pandora crew with a borrowed Rasputina crew. Unfortunately, I think he’s finally getting his head wrapped around the do’s and don’t of playing Pandora so I might not do so well next time. Having zero time and less-than-zero artistic ability, I’m having some minis professionally painted in Sri Lanka (Viktoria and some mercs, some McMourning Resurrectionists, and the Ortega Family). Should have them back around Christmas and I just can’t wait!

I’d love to see the Ortega family portrayed by the following… - Perdita: Salma Hayek - Francisco: Antonio Banderas - Nino: Carlos Gallardo - Santiago: Danny Trejo - Papa Loco: Cheech Marin