eudaimon

I recently won the Australian GT pretty much with Mannequin Replacement. I cast 6 times in 4 games, and got the triggers 5 times. I scored Nekima, 2 x mature neph, Collodi and the Dead Rider. Happy Times. The 6th time I dropped a Necromancy down a hole.

I only played the second day, which was domination gaining grounds, and won that event with Collette. I played the exact same crew for all the strategies, no matter what I got. It was exactly what you would expect at 30ss, Collette, Cassie, Coryphee, Mannequin. Oh, and a performer too ( ) Strategies I flipped were: Supply Wagon Escape and Survive Reconnoiteur Plant the Evidence So some were easier, some were harder. Reconnoiteur was especially tough, for obvious reasons, and I was up against a Lilith grow list with Contain Power throwing tough buggers at me. Star of the day without a shadow of a doubt was Collette. I cast Disappearing Act 7 times, and got a mannequin 6 times (including taking out Nekima, 2 x Mature Neph and Collodi!!). Fate was with me. Overall was a really fun day, it was good to play some Malifaux and see lots of new faces, especially all the interstate people that drove / flew for so long to be there. Kudos to you for making the event what it was, and kudos to Dave and Steve for running it so smoothly.

The biggest thing for me is the 2 ss cost to attach the avatar. As has been said by many people, at best the avatars are a side grade for most masters, and in other situations they are incredibly situational. For many masters, you directly sacrifice their core competancies, and that means you lose lots of the synergies you have with your crew. In my local gaming group, no one ever plays with an avatar, despite us all having avatar models for our masters. We all tried them, but really can't justify the 2 ss cost to attach something which may well be detrimental to your play, will mostly be something that doesn't have that much of an impact, and only rarely will be a benefit (yes yes yes, I know that some avatars, most noticably aRamos are awesome, I am talking about avatars as a WHOLE). If an errata was released that removed the 2ss cost, I think you would see many more manifestations, the game would be much more colourful and fluffy, and Wyrd would sell more models!

Absolutely stunning. Comfortably the best thread on the Wyrd painting forums IMO. I doff my hat to you sir, and will join the list of people who want to buy your sculpts. You should start a Kickstarter campaign to scuplt an alternative crew!

A nice story, invokes the classic Teddy story from book 3. There are a few bits with a little bit of inconsistency which break my immersion. First is the some of the language and observations used by your narrator, the Teddy. The most obvious one is this: "Your undead whores are nothing more than a disgrace to humanity" In the context of the story, these words don't really fit, but if you want to keep them in, maybe you could have a little joke about it with something like "Teddy didn't understand the big words. Silly Guildsmen." The second bit was there was a lot of telling and not showing. With the style chosen, you can sometimes get away with telling and not showing because of the simplicity. Sometimes it works well, like this: "Above him stood the chihuahua from the roof, wagging it's tail emphatically. What a nice dog, thought Teddy." This works because we have a shown reason why Teddy lists the dog - its tail wags emphatically, and we can see the scene in our heads. But there are times when we are just old what Teddy is thinking or feeling without context, for example: "The two guild members advanced into the alleyway, the one with the hat seemingly oblivious that he was still holding onto the teddy. Teddy was nervous." You have told us that Teddy was nervous, but we don't really know why. Maybe something like: "The two guild members advanced into the alleyway, the one with the hat seemingly oblivious that he was still holding onto the teddy. The alley was dark and narrow, and the other guardsman fumbled for the gun at his belt. Teddy was nervous." Lastly, there are some oddly quick decisions for Teddy. Particularly the sudden nature that he decides he likes Seamus, even though Seamus has just caused the gun to be aimed at him, which scares Teddy, and the blood splashes that he doesn't like. Good fun and nice style!

Ok, here we go, my first post in this forum, be nice! ----------------------------------------------- The square is already starting to fill as I take my customary seat at the pavement cafe. The people are here, as they are every week, for the show; for the words; for the promise. Like a fine wine, many of those now in the square will drink deeply of these words, will be seduced by the depth and the flavour, and then, drunk on hope, will rush headlong to their fate. I remember the feeling. My tea arrives (I do not need to order it), delivered with a flourish by the smartly dressed waitor. Shortly after, a thrum of noise sweeps the crowd. At the far end of the square the carriage is rolling into view. The crowd gives a collective gasp as it makes its stately progress, because this carriage is pulled by no horses. "Magic." The word ripples around the mob in hushed tones, and to the common man, magic it would appear to be. But those with a trained eye, there is no magic. Just the faint blue glow of soulstone power clinging to the wagon's wheels. The carriage comes to a halt. The handle of the door lowers, but there is a pause before the door opens - just long enough for the crowd to gasp - and then it swings open. A smartly dressed man in a garish orange suit and bowler steps out. He is about 45, a shade under six feet tall and has thick black whiskers from his nose to his ears. A monocle rests on his left eye, and he carries a cane. He walks slowly, but purposefully towards the top of the square. Behind him, and no less part of the attraction, step his partners in this event. The first is an officer, an elegant man in a long grey overcoat, a soldier's button down vest and kepi hat. He is tall and walks with an assured swagger. The younger women in the crowd swoon and even my heart gives a small flutter. The second is a more mysterious creature. He is swathed in a long black duster jacket with upturned collar. A stetson keeps most of his face in shadow, while lank strands of white hair protrude at the rear. His mouth and nose are covered by a red kerchief and this time it is the young men who whoop and cheer. Behind this trio, a gaggle of suited men scurry like worker ants. Between them they carry a portable trestle table, two large ledger books and a closed box. I am just over halfway through my tea when the orange suited man arrives at his chosen spot to the east of the plaza. He turns neatly on the spot and his two comrades fall in neatly behind him. A hush descends over the crowd, anticipation mounts. I find that even I can't help but lean forward intently. "Good people of Philadelphia," the orange suited man begins, "I thank you most humbly for coming out in force once more to support the Guild, our Guild.... your Guild." His voice is deep and rasping, like singer who has lived a thousand smokey saloons. "I live in awe of the welcome you fine always citizens give us, of the love you show your Guild. For is it not said breachside that Philadelphia is truly the heartbeat of Malifaux?" He pauses and the crowd lap it up, whooping with delight. It is nonsense of course, I never heard anyone in Malifaux speak of Philadelphia. "Truly, the spirit of this city is a marvel to behold, but my friends, do you want to die here?" Again the pause. "Don't misunderstand me my friends, a fine life you would live in this home of the human spirit, in this great city of Philadelphia. But would that be enough for you I wonder, would it be enough now that you know the wonders of Malifaux await you. That you too could not only be part of creating the Malifaux nation, but perhaps lead it?" "The Guild has room for you all my friends. Join us in our crusade to unlock the secrets of Malifaux, to create a new life for mankind and to master the wonder of soulstones. Will you join as a Guard, like Captain Henry here?" The elegant man smiles and winks to crowd, and taps his hat. "The good Captain is almost local, from a good New Jersey family, and he stood where you are only three years hence. Now, my friends, see how his stock has risen, a Captain of the Guard!" Again the crowd cheer. The orange suited man's voice descends to hushed tone, "or will you be like Marshall Gilling. A true hero of Malifaux, a champion of the clandestine Death Marshalls, sworn to protect the good folk from the evils of Necromancy!" Unlike the Captain, the Marshall stands immobile, eyes hidden by his hat. The crowd appear to love this even more. "Yes my friends. Be it administrator, manager, law maker or champion of justice, the Guild has a home for you all! Simply visit my good friends by my carriage and sign your mark in their ledgers, and you could be on the way to a better life by morning!" The crowd roar their approval and surge to waiting recruiting tables, a scramble of hopefuls eager for the chance at a better life. It's a trick of course. Maybe five percent of the people here will end up employed by the Guild. I know from bitter experience what will happen to the rest. The lucky will get a job in the mines and slave twelve hours a day to earn just enough scrip to enjoy a monthly visit to the Star. Most will end up on the streets, selling their bodies and scratching a living by any means they can. The unfortunate, well, let's just say they will be unfortunate. I finish my tea and stand to leave, a large tip left as usual tucked beneath my cup. Maybe, just maybe, there will be one amongst the flock that is like me. Someone that rises up to take what they can from Malifaux and lives to tell the tale. Maybe, but it's unlikely.

Or probably for Alyce, more suited might be TinkerBelle in the same range.

I haven't read the links, but the way I make mine with is Araldite. just squeeze some in strips onto a piece of blister, then cut to suit. You can see the effect in my Raspy blog in my sig.

That is exactly right, yes.

For units, like when I am doing a warhammer unit, I spray white with a devlan mud wash. For single minis, I use Black, then a white overspray. The key is using depth of colour and THIN paints. Most GW tutorials will say to start with your dark and move up. Personally, I like to start with a light colour and work down through my mid to the recesses, then go back and do extra highlights (almost to white) on the raised areas. As an example, here is my Dorothy: There are lots of step by steps, from primer to finish, in my painting blogs linked through my sig. ---------- Post added at 10:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 PM ---------- Hmm, or in this sig here even.

Hi again, its been a while, but here I am with an update. First up, one of my most favouritest models, Steampunk Dorothy from the Guild of Harmony. This is such an alive model, so much detail. In fact, that makes it hard to paint, there is just so much going on with the model. I am thinking of using her as Hans, or a Convict Gunslinger, or Gunsmith or any excuse to get her on the table!! The Coryphee I finished last year, using my patented pinning system. It is easy to move the models from the split base, to the joined base. Practically though, I just use the 40mm bases without the models on for the first turn.

A gunsmith or convict gunslinger are not a bad options (when is a convict gunslinger EVER a bad option?!?) to give you additionally ranged pow-wow. You can still Ice Mirror through them if they are close enough to Raspy to get Frozen Heart, or you can use the Silent One to give them Frozen Heart if you want to push the distance on Ice Mirror to its limit.

Borzag speaks true.

I was the aforementioned player, and faced with a dreamer crew about to pop up in the middle of my crew, I purposely setup so that I would have casting nodes out of combat. I always thought that as long as the node was out of combat, you would be fine, and based on two of the quotes provided: "The friendly model counts as the caster..." although that quote does continue to focus on the target model's defensive triggers, it does not specifially state that Raspy counts as the caster, only that Raspy may draw LOS and range from the model. This does however raise the question that Tiny brought up at the tournament - can Raspy cast at Hamelin through a Ht 1 Gamin? On balance, if we are counting the Gamin as the caster, it is an arguable point. Secondly, there is the limitation that Slimnoid quotes, that you can't cast a ranged spell through a model in combat, even if Raspy is out of combat. The corollary to that, by implication if not actually stated, is that it is not Raspy's combat status that matters, but the combat status of the model being cast through. Anyway, generally interested in the outcome, being able to do it probably won me the tournament, so would feel bad for my opponent if I jipped him. Plus it means I am back to the drawingboard for dealing with the Dreamer.

+1 to the praise. Your site tought me a lot. Thank you.

My showgirls are on marble effect bases (quite cartoony mind you). Check my sig for the link.

Neat, well blended, good colours. All in all, pretty damn fine looking!

They have been mat varnished, just not with dullcoat (it interfere's with the colours too much). They aren't that shiny when not under camera flash!

Erm, interesting question. Of course I would say Raspy is the most fun to play, as I love her to bits. But not always the most fun to play against. I reckon an allrounder is Leveticus, different, difficult and unique.

Here we go, the finished Mistress of the big top, Collette.

True, but I very rarely use my Silent One for my Ice Mirror. Far more important from the Silent One is the aura of +3" range. That has (from memory) a 4" range, and as an aura is not extended. Ice Mirror has a default range of 6". I keep my Silent One, and one Gamin close (for Bite of Winter) and have a Gamin out 6" in front of Raspy to get maximum range. Remember that Raspy has an aura that gives all friendly models close to her Frozen Heart. That means that models like the Gunsmith can also benefit from the Silent One's range buff. Or, if you need to use the Gunsmith as your Ice Mirror, during the Silent One's activation you can give the Gunsmith Frozen Heart using her ability. You can then advance the Gunsmith to 3" infront of the Silent One, getting the advantage of the +3", and still giving Raspy an Ice Mirror. Nice.

There are a lot of threads on this. Acolyte is not worth it, Golem is rarely worth it. Depending on your scheme, Snow Storm is usually a good option, a soul stone miner if you need to assassinate a model, a Blessed of December (or cerberus if you are not allowed proxies) are solid additions.

Erm, has everyone forgotten Book 3 fluff? Zoraida and Leveticus being bessie mates? Marcus being the mentor to McMourning and shacking up with his niece? Seamus working with Sonnia (albeit with a marvellous subtlety I didn't know he had)? The Hoff and Ramos double teaming some rubble. In fact, the only overt fight between factions in Book 3 is Kaeris and Misaki isn't it? It seems that there is a lot more interfaction relationships than you imagine.

The 80s made some great theme songs. As well as MASK, my favourites were Prince Valient, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and King Arthur and Knights of Justice. Thundercats, D&D, Transformers, Dogtagnion, Cities of Gold, Ulysses all deserve applause for great themes of course.

Right, so here is Collette herself. I've done this as a step by step, focusing on getting the red. So this is just the start, with a base coat of skin. This was made up of Dheneb Stone, a touch of Dwarf Flesh and some Plague Brown. Next I put in the shadows and highlights, the shadows with snakebite leather and smoke ink, the highlights with bleached bone. Not sure if I like the smoke, and I smoothed it out a bit after these pics. It looks better in the finished model, but I probably won't try it again on a showgirl model. OK, so now the red. I start with a base of blazing orange. Next comes the only red I use, some Baal Red GW wash. Probably at this stage, you can leave it and have a pretty vibrant red. But I like to tone it both up and down, so Ogre Flesh goes in the recess, and fiery orange, and then a fiery orange/white mix on the edges. Also in this pic I did the stockings whilst the wash was drying. I got a new technique this time, which I love. A mix of Vallejo Black ink and violet ink, with two drops of glaze medium and a drop of water. Almost perfect results first time! The hatch design was painted using pure black ink And here she is, almost finished.