Grifonetto

Hey folks, so my regular opponent and I have been playing this custom scenario for a couple of weeks now and I thought I'd float it on the forums to see what people think. We play a pretty relaxed game so it hasn't been tested under the stresses of high-power tournament lists and rigorous play. Anyway, here's the layout, we always set up on a sort of maze or dungeon made of Terraclips: http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/gg386/grifonetto/malifauxscenario002.jpg The little diamonds are the sarcophagi from the Vaults of Ruin Terraclips set (actually, there are only 5, so I make a sort of little mausoleum for the 6th sarcophagus). I make walls and rooms in order to control accesibility between the sarcophagi. In addition to the layout, you need the following counters, which should have a blank face-down side and face-up sides as follows: Gold Lock, Gold Key, Silver Lock, Silver Key, Weird Mask, Amulet. Or something similar, you get the idea. Mix them up and put them face-down next to the play area. So the deal is that during the game, a significant model in contact with a sarcophagus can take a (1) Interact action to open it and draw a counter from the pile. You look at the counter and then place it with the model, face-down (at least we've been doing it that way, but face-up might be a more interesting option). It follows all the normal rules for counters in the game from then on. At the end of the game, you score 2 points for each Lock/Key pair held by models you own. (An alternate option could be to make the Gold Lock & Key 3 points, and the Silver Lock & Key 1 point.) The Weird Mask and Amulet are one-shot magic items that give you a power and are then discarded; we've tried things like immunity to disengaging strikes, a counterspell, an 8" teleport, etc. Frankly, there's room for improvement there. I'd be interested to hear how it goes if anyone else wants to give this a try. If you come up with improvements, post them here!

I think you can improve Rafkin just by making a softer gradation between the blue-lit area and the natural-color area. A wider band of blended color between the two.

I used airplane glue to glue the feet to the base, and a kneaded eraser (Silly Putty would probably work as well) to hold the model in place while it bonded. Seems pretty sturdy, if it falls off the desk I'd be more worried about the flimsy bow and arrows breaking than the foot-to-base join.

Taking a page from Magic the Gathering, one solution might be to create a category of support abilities that you can activate just by paying a card or soulstone cost. That's probably getting into Malifaux 2.0 territory though. Alternately or additionally, it would be nice for models like the Oiran (say) to be able to turn on their support auras and leave them running at a constant price unrelated to activation -- for example, maybe the aura stays up until that model Cheats Fate, then it goes away and you have to spend an action again if you want it back.

So I played in this event, and a good time was had by all. Eight players from Killeen, Austin and San Antonio assembled to play a series of story encounters about the quest to reanimate a freaky super-ghoul. The format was 25 points, fixed master but variable crew, and schemes could only be taken one time each during the whole 3-round tournament. That last bit was a really nice touch and definitely got me to think a little harder about schemes than I normally do. I played Mei Feng as an Arcanist -- I forgot to ask whether dual-faction masters could run as either faction during the tournament, but with the models I had brought it didn't matter much (although the Saving Face scheme would have been good to have access to). My first game was against Viks. I took Mei Feng, 2 Rail Workers, Rail Golem and Metal Gamin versus the Viktorias, 2 Ronin and Taelor. For schemes, I chose Kill Protege: Taelor and Stake a Claim: Big-Ass Hill, while she took Frame for Murder on one of her Ronin, and Hold Out. The Strategy revolved around grabbing some secret plans from the Hanging Tree and holding on to them in your deployment zone. I played my first turn kind of cautiously, sidling around to threaten my opponent on a flank and keep a forest between me and the Viks. I figured I would have time to gobble up a few models and then address the objective, but that was a tragic miscaculation. The Viks headed straight for the objective while the other mercenaries ran interference. The Ronin, with their armor-ignoring swords, took Rail Golem down hard, although he spread enough damage around before he went that Mei Feng could come in and mop them up (oops -- Framed for Murder). Mei Feng continued her murder spree by taking down Taelor and gun Vik, but sword Vik had casually strolled away with the plans while all this was happening. When last round was called, I had a Rail Worker tag up on my big-ass hill objective at the last minute, getting to a score of 4 points versus 8. Didn't exactly have my eyes on the prize in this one. Second game: Mirror match! This time I had Mei Feng, 2 Rail Workers, Kaeris and Willie, facing Mei Feng, 2 Rail Workers, Emberling, Gunsmith and Mechanical Rider. In this scenario, I had to dig up body parts from certain mid-board locations and he had to stop me. For Schemes I picked Hold Out and Sabotage: Big Ruined Building, and he had Eye for an Eye and (I think) Stake a Claim on a patch of forest. Turn one, his Mech Rider got in Willie's face pretty fast and the location turned into a killing ground as both Mei Fengs converged on the scene rapidly. I killed his Mech Rider, he killed my Mei Feng, Willie dropped some dynamite and ended up exploding and taking out a Rail Worker, who wounded Kaeris on a Slow to Die action. What a mess! Anyway, after all this shook out, last round got called and my one surviving Rail Worker was able to harvest two Enhanced Body Parts from under the Hanging Tree, then my opponent had his Gunsmith try to shoot his Emberling to score Eye for Eye (he was two models up on me) but failed. End score was 4 to 4 -- I scored on getting two body parts and Hold Out, he scored on me not getting *four* body parts and Stake a Claim (or whatever it was). Final game was versus Pandora. We had to try to keep our models alive with a reanimated ghoul (controlled by one or the other player) running around attacking us. This time I went with Mei Feng, 2 Rail Workers, Kaeris and Gunsmith, against Pandora, 2 Sorrows, Doppelganger and Coppelius. I chose Alternate Route (my all-time favorite scheme) and Bodyguard: Kaeris, he picked Spread the Madness and one secret scheme. (COULD IT BE KIDNAP??? Yes, it was Kidnap.) In this game I came out running with Kaeris and the Rail Workers throwing down railway tokens. Pandora sent out her battery of Woes and began her psychic assault on Kaeris, which I survived at the cost of at least 2, probably 3 Soulstones for both of us. Next turn, things went pretty quickly. Coppelius rushed forward to slap paralysis on the hapless Gunsmith and one of the Rail Workers. Kaeris went off against the Woes, obliterating both Sorrows and the Doppleganger with a phenomenal Ignite chain and a Soulstone-pumped Immolate. Pandora retaliated by making Kaeris run fleeing for the woods (albeit still alive) and then Incite-chaining the rest of my crew (except Mei Feng, lurking out of LOS in a building). Mei Feng Railwalked right into Coppelius' face and beat him down (after he was softened up by the non-paralyzed Rail Worker), Soulstoning away most of the damage from A Dying Dream. Finally, I got control of the scenario ghoul and just ran him as far away from my models as I could. By this time we were both down to one Soulstone. He flipped a 2 for initiative and I flipped a 1. After agonizing for a minute, I spent the Stone to win initiative but then realized just how hard it can be to seal the deal against Pandora without Stones, what with having to duel her phenomenal willpower just to hit her. Fortunately, the efforts of my entire crew (minus a rallying Kaeris) were able to bring her down, although she killed Mei Feng (or strictly speaking Mei Feng killed herself). At this point he was tabled, but still had a chance to control the ghoul, and the outcome was still not a sure thing. I finished my railroad and the ghoul pounced on my remaining Rail Worker, who fortunately survived, denying my opponent his Kidnap scheme. I ended up scoring both my schemes for 4 points, versus his 2 for Spread the Madness.

Great-looking minis and terrain!

This was great fun -- thanks again to morella for running it!

Put these together tonight. Nice models, my only real complaint is that Dismounted McCabe comes with an alternate arm holding the net gun, which I of course glued on before reading the cards and realizing he doesn't actually use the net gun when he's on foot. Harumph! (Also, while I'm being petty about this, the arm with the sword is holding some kind of falchion or something, not a sabre.) (Also also, Dismounted McCabe has a revolver on his hip and he can't shoot that either!)

I went through a period of painting with gouache; pretty much drew the same conclusions as Osoi describes. I do feel like I learned a lot about mixing that ultimately helped my acrylic painting though.

Glad to see I wasn't the only person who cares about this. I've covered plenty of slots in my day*, but with the new shallower bases, it's no longer even useful as a short cut for basing metal figs -- so I'd like to not have to bother with it any more. *that's what she said

Since you mention it, I'll repost my Mei Feng and Emberling -- just wish I had bought some Medium and Large clear bases so I could do the whole crew on them:

The Alternate Rasputina model has a fur-lined hooded cloak -- just in case you haven't seen it.

Wow, nice rust effects! I spent part of my childhood on a farm with a bunch of junk tractors lying around, and you really got the look just right. I'd like to see darker shadows in the recesses but that's just my personal thing.

Here she is again with her plucky but irresponsible little pal, the Emberling:

Finished this up tonight! Photo's a bit blurry but hopefully it gets the impression across.

It gives her arcane reservoir, can vent steam separately from its Magical Extension ability, and can sacrifice itself to put three Burning tokens on the Rail Golem. Oh, and it's a Spirit that Floats.

So, Miss Terious' 30mm base is on her sprue with the rest of her, and it doesn't have a slot. With the new plastic minis this makes a lot more sense -- they don't have foot tabs anymore, after all. If you want to just flock the base and not make a big production of it, a slotless base saves you the step of having to fill in a now-pointless gap. Is this going to become standard in future kits? Because I for one certainly hope it does. Frankly, I wish the 30mm translucent bases had been slotless -- I might have liked to just paint the models and glue them to the bases unembellished.

Simply put, the Dreamer doesn't activate and use Companion, you use Companion to nominate a number of qualified models to activate together.

They have shipped Justin Gibbs to your home to deliver a heartfelt personal message.

Yep, just checked Rules Manual p. 15 -- "Models can draw LoS up to 3" across an intervening base with the obscuring trait, but not entirely through the base". Wish I'd known that yesterday, it probably would have meant four points instead of zero in my game against Leveticus.

Vallejo has a Sunset Red that mixed with white makes a very intense flowery pink. Vallejo Flat Red and white is also good; adding yellow or orange will move any pink towards a more peach color. There's also Vallejo Old Rose which is a slightly faded-looking pink.

Here's how I'm doing mine: All colors are Vallejo; I basecoated it light green-blue but I probably could have just done white and it'd be easier, since I'm painting all the crevices white anyway. The ice plates are light turquoise blended to white, darker color at the top (I feel like this looks more "icy", for lack of a better explanation). Blending it to light green-blue and then to white would also be an option for a maybe subtler look.

Thanks for the overview! Sounds like a solid model with lots of flavorful abilities, in the best tradition of Malifaux.

I have a "Go Union!" design sketched but I didn't like how the first draft came out . . . it's on my list to try again. I thought about dirtying up some of the posters, but then I figured -- if they're brand new, they wouldn't be dirty, right? I dunno, maybe I'll revisit them and add some edge wear and splatters, then I can post them as the "grunge version".

Thanks! Yeah, I'm leaving the tubes blue. I love transparent plastic stuff on minis, just like the Necrons you mention.