Halflingspy

Welcome to Malifaux, and more importantly (not really), welcome to the Arcanists! Rasputina is the last master I don't own for this faction. She's a real monster for spell damage, and once you can figure out how to position her on a map well, you'll be turning people into Popsicles before you know it. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any!

Turn Five: Boom Goes the Dynamite Winning the flip for initiative, Willie really showcased yet again how great he is: using an action called Short Fuse, he was able to use a demo charge in melee combat against a canine remains. After hitting though, the real beauty of it this ability is shown: with a mask in the attack total, a demo charge triggers "Fire in the Hole!", which makes all of your friendly models in melee with the defender push up to their walk away from it, probably as they scream in terror about the incoming explosive. Targeting the canine opposite from Kirai, Willie ran from his own explosive throw... right into the mine that had been set up. Now, when a set charge is tripped, you flip a card. If its a Tome, it sets of a 3 inch pulse of 3 damage. Only Willie can cheat this flip. I had a tome in my hand ready to cheat when... ...Red joker. Which states that its now a 5 inch pulse with 5 damage behind it. The 'after' picture shows the pain: Kaeris and Johan were brought to half wounds, and ironically, the "Blast Resistant" trait that Willie has means he usually survives his own explosive charges, since he has armor +3 against them. With this leaving Sebastian on the table for Ressers, Johan turned and broke the supply wagon with a severe hit, after failing to do so the previous turn. The game was called by this point. Aftermath and Takeaways -Willie is insane. Just absolutely, wonderfully insane. He KOed 8 models in one game. What's great about him is that he has so many different ways of delivering destruction, whether its from behind rocks, through obscuring terrain, running at someone full-tilt, or dropping explosives. The set charges are more useful than what you think on paper: Dropping them next to enemy models brings up a lot of fear and trepidation, especially melee models who need to move closer to attack. The worry of causing explosions made my opponent unwilling to move up until it was too late. -Willie and Johan are a great combination for Supply Wagon. Johan is great because of his high damage profile, but Willie would have been if the Resser player didn't spend so much time making sure he didn't get close. Why? Because within 1 inch of something with hardness, he can use his demo charges with +2 damage. That's an instant kill on a Wagon. -Sebastian and a canine remains actually isn't a bad way to create a seishin factory for a Resser player. I was impressed that with such a rough crew selection brought on by me, the Resser player was able to get enough seishin out to start summons and building up a force by turn 2. If Willie hadn't had as much luck just for one turn, there might have been some painful damage on my limited forces. Its a bit unorthodox, but as Kirai has just started being played around my LGS, thought it might be worth mentioning. I hope this was fun to read, and informative as well. Again, I cannot stress this enough: if you are an Arcanist player, taking the crazy guy with a wheelbarrow is way, way too much fun.

As a quick heads up, this is my first battle report ever, so I hope this is acceptable. Hoping that for future games having a more legit board and a better camera, but with my house under construction, my Terraclips and other pieces are boxed away somewhere. Set Up As part of an Achievement League going on at my LGS, my friend and I played a 25 soulstone game, Ressers vs. Arcanists. We flipped to get standard deployment, and chose to avoid really doing special terrain. For schemes, the Arcanists got Turf War while the Ressers got Supply Wagon. This is where things got interesting. For crew selection, in order to get an achievement, I showed the Resser player who I was taking before he chose his crew: Kaeris as my Master, two gunsmiths, Johan and my newest toy that I was excited to try out, Willie the Demolitionist: There weren't any fire gamin taken as I was doing a crew-build achievement for having nothing for less than 6 soulstones in my hiring pool. This gave me a full 5 soulstones for a henchman cache. In response, to get a very tough achievement, my opponent allowed me to design his crew. He chose his Master, Kirai, to which I promptly decided how she would do without her spirits: A Flesh Construct, the Carrion Effigy, A Punk Zombie, Canine Remains and Sebastian followed her into battle, giving her a SS cache of 4. I decided to leave in another summoning model just to give back some options after being given such a way to hamstring the opposing team. Schemes were chosen: Arcanists went with staking a claim on a large rock to the right side of the enemy's boardside, and also kill protegee on the Flesh Construct. Ressers chose Assasinate and Hold Out for theirs. It was time to fight! The Fight Turn One The first turn actually became a bit of a standoff. With the Arcanists having few models, and the Ressers having an odd crew selection, no one wanted to run up too quickly. The gunsmiths moved up behind walls, but out of range to fire, while Johan and Willie ran up the right side to find cover and hopefully find a way to pinch in to the middle in later turns. Kaeris flew up and dropped a flame wall near the stone to make sure no snap shots or summoned models could push up too quickly. Meanwhile, the Resser player figured out a way to fix his spirit problem: While his Effigy took purchase in a tower and other minions pushed up, Sebastian spent a turn butchering his own dog and then re-summoning it. This gave the nearby Kirai a seishin... for the remainder of the game, this became a routine to give him some extra juice and generate power for his crew. The first turn ended with both sides positioning for a way to start the fight, but unsure how to do so. Turn Two Winning the initiative, Willie quickly proved his worth by using the Bombardier trait on the Flesh Construct hiding around the side of the rock. At 4 combat, it was still enough to beat the low defense of the flesh construct...at which point, the red joker appeared, causing 7 damage on the monster and blowing up the nearby Seishin. Willie through another stick to chase the first one just to make sure... promptly killing the construct entirely. To add insult to injury, Willie's "Set Charge" ability was used to lay down a mine near the stone, hopefully to prevent other attempts to get to him and to lock down that side of the board. For the Ressers, they moved up closer to the middle without stepping out from their cover. The gunsmiths fired at the Carrion Effigy and missed, or fired into the woods after the punk zombie but didn't have LOS. Meanwhile, the wagon moved forward, now guarded by a new Onryo crafted from Sebastian's dog-part factory. Things were primed for a show down. Turn Three Winning initiative again after burning a soulstone on the flip, Johan made use of his magical hammer and his high melee range to charge the Onryo at the edge of the woods. Burning all my high cards, the spirit was smashed in one severe swing. Unfortunately, it was still close enough for Kirai to get a new seishin out of the deal. The fight on the left escalated. The punk zombie threw out a self-mutilate from his safety in the woods at a gunsmith, hitting it while the carrion effigy wounded it also. Retaliation came in a stream of armor-piercing bullets, bringing down the effigy and the punk zombie was nicked by Kaeris as she flew in, her Immolate resisted. Kirai healed up using one of the generated Seishin, and then brought out Ikiryo behind the wagon in the hopes of defending it and taking out threats. This is when Willie made his move to dash forward: something had to be done about Kirai's spirit factory before wounds started piling up on the gunsmiths and Kaeris: Willie has a fun trick called wheelbarrow of doom: during the second move, two blast markers fall off the wagon in a direction of your choice. Anything hit must make a defense 12 flip or take damage. The seishin that had been hiding nearby was blown away by this dash forward, and Willie then got very aggressive, placing a mine close to the seishin next to Kirai. This caused worry: if the seishin moved, or anything moved within 2 inches, the mine could possibly blow up... dealing enough damage to kill Kirai and deal damage to Sebastian as well. ​Turn Four This turn turned into maneuvering for both sides. Kirai, safely out of range of the charge going off, fled to mid-table behind the wagon and the Ikiryo. This led to Willie's Bombardier ability being used, throwing dynamite at Kirai with all my high cards to deplete what was left of her soulstone cache as well as nicking her down to 3 wounds left. A mine was placed... right at the feet of Ikiyro. This led to a long debate about risking a move or not with the model, as the blast would take out the weakened Kirai right next to her. She passed rather than charge. The gunsmiths had no luck, as the injured one was killed off via self-mutilate and the other one spent its turn moving closer to close in on the wounded Master. Kirai resisted attacks by Kaeris as she flew in. Sebastian by this point had released the canine remains that he had made, each charging to try and take out Willie before he could unleash more havoc. It brought him down to 4 wounds left, but not enough to kill him. (Continued Next Post)

This is a fantastic battle report! The pictures are great, and lots of description. As someone starting battle reports, its something to look at as a good model. The picture with the cards in it definitely is a nice touch. I'm going to echo what someone else has said here: Great terrain! Where did you buy it from? I might be interested in getting some for my sets (as sometimes I still use coasters)

So, with the brand new previews that are going up, the arcanists get a very explosive surprise in Willy the demolitionist. His little fluff story is great, and his moves are so fantastically bizarre and left field that he's perfect for the arcanists. He's Papa Loco, but nowhere near a clone of the guild explosives expert (or the gremlin counterpart). Lets look at the positives - +He is an MSU member, meaning that there are a lot of options opened. Kaeris can hire him while leading a crew. Union Miners and Johan get benefit with him on the board. Colette can take a break from Showgirls to get a little destructive boom at a cheap price. +Directable death. Something that stood out to me is how much control arcanists have over Willy's blasts. His two blast dropping abilities are something that allows him to choose where blast damage goes, rather than just throwing out pulse damage in all directions. "Wheelbarrow of Doom" gives a hilarious image of a very bizarre driveby, and it allows Willy to move 10 inches and still threaten with two 50mm blast markers. Because the damage is preventable with a 12 def check, I see this as having the best effect against bigger or slower low def models, or waiting until the end of a round to capitalize on a small hand size by the opponent. Meanwhile, "Dropped Load" has the capability of letting you lay out a stream of 3,4,5 blast markers in a line to reach people still far away... or even more if you are lucky. No resist on this swan song of Willy's! +Consistant Boom. Willy doesn't have to hurt himself at all to be effective. With a combat of 6, he can very well used his ranged attack to lay down possible blast markers. What makes the damage spread more amazing is that it ignores Armor AND Object, meaning the legendary Freikorp armor has met a match. It doesn't just stop there, the weapon gets a +4 to take out breakable objects, and he can attack without LOS with a penalty to his combat. The final deal sealer is that with tomes he can lay out burning tokens for Kaeris, and his action 'short fuse' lets him throw explosives into melee while simultaneously helping remove himself and others from combat. The one deficiency, especially when comparing to the other 'boom' models is that his damage is a bit lower in profile. However, this sort of should have been expected, as Guild prizes itself as the king of Rae damage output. An odd note is that he is a 50 mm. base, meaning 3 corpse counters when he bites the dust... As he surely will be a priority target. In the end, a more Consistant explosives model with some really fun tricks up his sleeve, and not too pricy to include into any crew. I am excited.

I've been running 30 point games to try her out using a friends crew while I figure out what exactly I want. This list seems to work awesomely, but I also am new with her - - Essence of power 2ss -Snowstorm 11ss -Blessed of December 8 ss -2 ice Gamin 8 ss I'm used to smaller crews, (colette was my first crew), so this worked out for me. Move the Gamin, Snow storm, and Rasputina in a 4-5 inch block, using all of snowstorms abilities to maneuver 1st turn so he's in front (great if fighting no magic crews or minions), the Gamin ready to dash in to slow and smack around the opponent while now Raspy is poised in the middle with some protection. I've found that second or third turn she can drop a pile of ice on someone who thought she was behind a wall until you frozen-heart pull her with snowstorm. Meanwhile, your blessed sort of ventures out on it's own to grab an objective, pick off a sniper style unit your opponent has, or their objective grabber. If it comes to shove, save a 5 of masks for that turn when the blessed can leap into whatever fray you need it at... Or out. If you want to run a slightly slower crew and have more models, you take out snow storm and replace it with a 3rd Gamin and a silent one. Hope this helps!

I've been nervous, and iffy about iggy being viable. The damage he can cause with stacked burning tokens is really awesome in concept, and the idea of him dropping blazing tokens himself is wonderful... But his ranked attack Not giving out tokens, the low cb, and then having ranged expert? I'm just unsure how to approach in his entirety because of that odd match up. In e end, I avoid getting him when I think about Thais ss cost going up to 7 for cross faction

I've been running her proxied this month and I have to say I love her. She's fast, can kind of works as others have said - running off on her own to go get objectives or kill that one hiding model. I had her leap and stalk and entire board in two turns to leap on an unsuspecting Niño. I was happy. I will say this - her cb means you want to pick and choose targets well. If you do go for something with a solid df stat, make sure you have the cards you need to get her triggers running. I threw her at a master when both of us out of cards, and she can be frustratingly weak on damage for a 8 ss model if you don't get lucky on triggers. If you have a good crow card, save it for her ambush moment.

For those of you in the Hudson Valley, or the Eastern Side of New York, Dragon's Den in Poughkeepsie is doing their first Achievement league, after their first league ever went so well! Want to play Malifaux? Want to work towards weird achievements to get some store credit? This league is for you! When: August 2nd to 23rd, four weeks long, both thursdays (Thursday is Malifaux night at Dragon's Den). Entry Fee: $5. That's it! How it works: Play 8 games with other league members in those four weeks. Staggering it 2 games a week is a general guideline, but not strictly enforced. Games are 25-40 ss each. Each player gets a log of Achievements that they might be able to complete throughout their games and preparations of crew choice. Most points wins! Trust me, there are a few doozies in there. Prizes: 50% of the pot goes to the winner, while 30% goes to second place. Finally, 20% is given to a random player, to add a little randomness to the mix. Sound like fun? Stop on by Dragon's Den and sign up, or talk to me for details. We love new (and more!) players. We have a Facebook group, Hudson Valley Malifaux​, where you can get this information directly.

The Ride to Victory: 30ss tournament in Accumulation format, with a painting contest on the side. What's not to love? How it works: -Choose one Faction for the tournament. -Play three rounds of 30 SS games. -Total up VP from each game for each player. -Highest VP total at end of three rounds wins! -Gaining Ground rules for Tournament: Accumulation Format -There must be paint on all your models! Where: Dragon's Den in Poughkeepsie, New York When: July 21st. Store opens at 10, Tournament starts at 12:30. Entry Fee: $10 (Price includes the painting contest!) Prizes: 1st place: Rider of your choice (including Avatar Leveticus!) 2nd place: Effigy of your choice Painting Contest: Effigy of your choice Painting Contest: When you register that day, submit one 30mm base Wyrd miniature to be judged. By the end PS - all league games can count towards the summer Dead Heat Campaign! Don't forget to report! Questions? Contact or Message me, or look at our Facebook group, Hudson Valley Malifaux! Link below: https://www.facebook.com/groups/115384418604618/ We hope to see new faces there!

One thing that I think 'balances' Malifaux is the number of options that can be taken during a game. It is not simply a rush-and-kill (although yes, every game I've played has had at least one round of that), but a game of objectives and out manuvering. There have been many times where I have been cremating my opponent in a slugfest, and have ended up tying or losing the game thanks to not being able to stop them from lighting dynamite, and the other way around. I have to admit, for the first near-year I've played this game, I found it easy to complain about Neverborn lists, or the sheer brutality of the Guild in comparison to the fragility of Arcanists due to high point costs. But, since school let out and I've had a lot of time to look over the game and get in back-to-back matches, I am seeing that groups like Marcus can't win in an out-and-out fight, but they can win regardless. This isn't because of his hit-and-run so to speak, but just because of the different amount of options available on the board. Yes, it isn't a perfect 'balanced' game, but after using Marcus and a well placed Waldgeist to brutally melee down Lady J, or Ramos using explosions against a Perdita team, its certainly much, much better off than any other miniatures game that I have played. (Side note: Go is an amazing game, right next to Chess)

Hello everyone - just like last month, informing the community about our open Thursday gaming if you living or are driving by the mid-Hudson area of New York. The community is starting to pick up around here, but more oponnents means more interesting match ups. Hope to see you out here sometime! Dragon's Den, in Poughkeepsie (www.gamersgambit.com is their website, check it out!), has open gaming on Thursday nights from 5-9 PM. For the last year, the Malifaux community has been slowly growing to be a regular thing at the gaming store, where on Thursdays, two or three games of Malifaux are almost always running. The store has plenty of terrain and a friendly staff, so come on down and join us, as the first Malifaux league and tournaments in the area will be announced soon as well! New Player? I will be there to demo the game to brand new players, help give advice to others still getting their basics down, or work out the kinks in a crew you might be learning. Brand new is our Facebook page for Malifaux players that live in the Hudson Valley. If you want to find games in our area and meet other players, join up. The more the merrier! https://www.facebook.com/groups/115384418604618/

Hello everyone - Us in the Hudson Valley are finally organizing to play, with our first league AND our first tournament this July! Below is the information about the League - the tournament details will be up shortly. Malifaux Summer Starter League: New to Malifaux, or want to try out a brand new boxset in New York? This league might be a good way to jump into playing and learn the ropes. From 7/5-7/19. (Three weeks) Where: Dragon's Den in Poughkeepsie, New York Entry Fee: None, it's our first league in the area! How it works: Sign up at Dragon's Den or with Wyatt by or on 7/5. Choose a faction you will play for the whole league. Each week, play one game against another league member (Thursday night is Malifaux night at the Den!). Record who you are playing against, what strategy and schemes, and how many victory points were earned. You can only use a scheme once for the whole league. The player with the most VP points recorded on the 19th wins! The top two scores win a totem of their choice. Weekly Soulstone totals First week: 20 Second week: 25 Third week: 30 Extra Rules and Bonuses: If you are playing with a fully painted crew, add 1ss to your cache in that game. If your game runs under 2 hours, add one to your VP total. Have fun, and sign up! PS - all league games can count towards the summer Dead Heat Campaign! Don't forget to report!

Kaeris is my most recent box, and honestly, one of my favorites just because her playstyle is a lot of fun for me. I won't like, it is a little difficult, as they don't have as much immediate killing power of some other groups, and they don't have as many wounds to lose as others. However, setting up a good range of control with Gunsmiths and stacking burning tokens is an effort with payoff that's just fun. One issue is that she is, for the moment, a bit limited in her crew alone. I'm pretty sure that book 4 is expanding special forces lists a bit (I hope!), but inside the faction she can only take Large Steampunk Arachnids, Union Miners, and Soulstone Miners as additions to her crew. Don't let this hamper you, because as other people have said already, she is a henchman, and thus can be taken as a model by other crews herself. Right now, I am building a Ramos crew centered around her as a sort of mobile shock trooper. I haven't had much luck putting her into a Colette crew (she sort of stands with her showgirls alone for the most part), but I'm not going to stop trying. I hope you enjoy Kaeris - if you like a more precision approach to your playstyle, she's certainly a good start. Pick her up, and then look at the Arcanist Masters individually to see which way you want to branch out next.

Hello everyone - my name is Wyatt, a new henchman here, just established to help out growing community of Malifaux players in the Hudson Valley. Dragon's Den, in Poughkeepsie (www.gamersgambit.com is their website, check it out!), has open gaming on Thursday nights from 5-9 PM. For the last year, the Malifaux community has been slowly growing to be a regular thing at the gaming store, where on Thursdays, two or three games of Malifaux are almost always running. The store has plenty of terrain and a friendly staff, so come on down and join us, as the first Malifaux league and tournaments in the area will be announced soon as well! New Player? I will be there to demo the game to brand new players, help give advice to others still getting their basics down, or work out the kinks in a crew you might be learning. Brand new is our Facebook page for Malifaux players that live in the Hudson Valley. If you want to find games in our area and meet other players, join up. The more the merrier! https://www.facebook.com/groups/115384418604618/

I've been looking for good Terrain tutorials, I'll definitely check out those two websites! Thanks a lot.

I love 'Harmless'... I need to make a few of these...

I would be in for listening in - while the LGS I go to and the mini-horde of friends I play with is now up to six or seven others, rules are still argued about a bit on some basic standards, and I would love to hear more perspective from the greater community via voice would be excellent.

I'm really curious on the rules clarification on this as well - if she can shoot into melee, she'll be an immediate pick-up from my perspective.

Wow, thanks muchly for that.... really nifty trick, there...

Wait, Myranda as a Shikome doesn't need to use Prey? I wasn't aware of that.

For me, the flying bomb trick is the only way I've used them (only 4-5 Colette games under my belt), and I find it a godsend trick, especially versus ranged-heavy crews. Sacrificing a 2 soulstone model in order to slow down a perdita crew and get Nino trapped in melee for a while is priceless.

Its a nice write up, although you misquote the CB, as its at 6 for melee. Witchlings are quickly becoming my favorite of the favorite. It might be partly because the only avatar I have is Sonnia, but still, Witchlings are in any guild crew I take at the moment, for their melee prowess and the host of special abilities. Scout is the one that comes into play the fastest, and every so often reflect magic surprises a person I play against.

I'm hoping that book 4 doesn't actually include a whole lot of new models, as I have enough trouble affording my growing addiction to working on the crews I already have. Instead, I would rather have fine tuning of the game itself. Its already great, but I'm sure there are various balance issues or specific ends that haven't been met yet by the good folks at Wyrd. More specifically, the idea of having new henchmen makes me grin like an idiot. I've been hoping to start (only have notes) to put together a homebrew 'campaign' sort of game, where you have warbands that lose or gain models, and the Masters are sort of your big-bad that you can move about... but sometimes you get stuck with the lowbies instead. More variance in that field would be amazing. In adition, rules for multiplayer, and various tournamentish game set ups would rock as well. To be sure though, I'll wait... I do have a dozen models that still need paintjobs...

Seconded, to be sure. I'm slightly frothing for the Kaeris box set and to see the models in there...