Argentbadger

Woo, the full sixteen. Good work Malifools! Now, shall I use Yan Lo for all my games, or try for one each with the three masters I've actually used in M2E, or just decide based on the match up, strategy and scheme pool [like the way it is supposed to be]? It won't be the last one that's for sure.

Great blog. I will certainly be reading more of this as I love Lynch. Your painted Lynch looks lovely. If I may be so bold, I'll point out a few things that I've noticed in my games with Lynch: He's great to take if Deliver a Message is on the table as he has no business being in the thick of it anyway. That's not to say that he can't hold his own (within reason) up close and personal, but he isn't like Lady Justice who wants to be wading through her victims. The price point on Endless Hunger and Rising Sun is perfect - it really does come down to your preference as to which to take rather than having one be clearly better. Expert cheater is hilarious. I don't usually take it (I'd rather just have more pieces on the table) but it really changes how the game is played. As you state, Ace in the Hole is a great ability to take with any model that has a 'discard a card to do X' ability. You'll also sometimes find that by the time you want to activate Lynch you'll have hoovered up a few aces that you can then Mulligan away into something more useful. Despite his low starting cache, I've rarely felt that I need more. Neither Lynch nor Hungering Darkness particularly need to use their soulstones to get suits for triggers or casting so you can save them for crucial damage prevention flips. Thanks for the shout out! I agree with you on the Beckoners - one is usually enough to do the jobs that are needed; taking another one diminishes the wall of threats that you need to keep enemies off Lynch and your other support pieces. I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with the crew on Saturday.

Come on Scotland-based Malifools (and nearby others!) - sign up and don't make Joe play in his own event.

Welcome to Malifaux. You've got quite a lot of choice, but I recommend getting a master in their box set and nothing else until you've played a few games and seen what you like. The five masters who currently have boxes are Misaki (The Thunder box), Mei Feng (Rail Crew box), Jakob Lynch (Dark Debts box), Lucas McCabe (Relic Hunters box) and Yan Lo (Masters of the Path). You could easily find people who would advocate getting each of them as a starter so your best option is to pick the one that looks nicest to paint and go with that one. If you're really really new to Malifaux you'll also want a rulebook and a fate deck (you can use normal playing cards but having the Malifaux suits does make it easier to play). Good luck, but remember that Bad Things Happen.

Thanks, and welcome to the Wyrd forums. There are too many good games out there to limit yourself to just one. If I had the time and money I'm sure I could easily find a dozen that had the depth and fun to suit me. What is taking your fancy in Malifaux? Naturally I favour Ten Thunders but the balance in the game currently appears to be tight enough that you could play any faction and not miss anything.

Thanks for commenting; it's always nice to know that someone is reading! Although I seem to be in a minority, I've found that one Beckoner is enough to do the jobs I need. Most enemies don't need Brilliance on them to make them a possible victim for my crew, and although Lure is great there have rarely been times when I felt that I needed four attempts per turn at it to get the job done. It is certainly true that Beckoners are great pieces and that Lure and the Brilliance mechanic in general are excellent, but two Beckoners is near to a 1/3 of a crew. My experience has been that I get more value by spending the seven SS of the second Beckoner on something with a bit more punch (e.g. another Illuminated, a Thunder Archer) or putting it toward something that will bring something different to my crew like Kang. These games were before the release of Wave 2 and my crews are also limited by the miniatures I actually own so I don't see myself rushing to spend those SS on a second Beckoner now that more options are available. Still, perhaps I'll be convinced of the error of my ways and go back to using two at a time!

Sounds good, I'm interested. You always run such great events. I would say get smaller prizes this year. The ones last year were awesome but they must have cost a fortune!

It's once per Ancestor, so in theory you can get out all four for a second run in the mid to late game. That's not a trivial portion of your force returning, considering the effort required to drop them in the first place. Having said that my too-few games so far suggest that all four Ancestors don't really go too well together; or at least that Toshiro doesn't really want Yin and Izamu for company.

I am also interested. Let me check wife points, but put me down as a 'maybe' for now. edit: thanks for the heads up Greg.

Welcome from another Edinburgh based player! The local henchman* is Joe [Euclid on the forums] - I'll get him to contact you. The scene is very friendly and you'll have plenty of opportunity to meet other Malifaux players in the area at one of the many events. *actually I'm not sure if he's a henchman or not yet. But he should be.

Ooh, wave 2 shiny and tournament goodness wrapped up in one. How will I cope in an event where I have more masters to play than rounds in which to use them?

Why not both? Lynch and Mei Feng are both available in Ten Thunders and it would give you the opportunity to mix and match to some extent. Still, I assume since you're asking the question then I suppose it must be one or the other. If it's a strictly monetary concern then I suspect that the Lynch crew is worth more money since you said you could get them for the same price. Power balance across masters is very close in the M2E games that I've seen both in my local scene and slightly wider afield, with good players able to get results pretty much regardless of their chosen master. I personally find that Lynch is rather easier to play with than Mei Feng but I suspect that is partly because I've played more games using him. Mei Feng is still hilarious, and I can still remember the first time I ever saw her on the table - she Rail Walked halfway across the board in turn 1 and kicked one of my minions in the face. Needless to say I was sold. Both have lots of tricks and depth that will keep you coming back for more and able to improve as a player for a long time. Either way, best of luck (but remember that Bad Things Happen) and welcome to the forums.

Fantastic miniatures, and they look even better in real life.

I think that they're pretty straightforward in application. Basically they're good at two things: hurting things and not dying. So, unless they are needed to do something specific, my default plan is to ram them into something that won't be able to kill them without a large commitment of additional resources. In the ideal scenario, the Illuminated will live long enough to get round to its own activation again and heal 1 to 4 wounds back between Regenerate and Brillshaper. If something big is commited to take the Illuminated down, then you've controlled the moves your friend has made, and can then send in something nasty (Kang, Ototo, Hungering Darkness, your master, whatever) to clean up. In this case, any wounds that the Illuminated can put out are a bonus but with Ml6 and a decent damage spread they can harm a lot of pieces in their price range. The other obvious big play is Lure in an activated model with a Beckoner, make it Brilliant with Despicable Promises and send in the Illuminated until there's nothing left. Weak damage of 4 will stack up very quickly if you need to kill something to win. Occasionally an unwary foe will Black Joker a horror duel or be unable to cheat it at the end of a round but this is not something to be relied upon. I must admit that I rarely use the ranged attack, though there are certainly times where it's handy to have.

Indeed, Joe has stolen my thunder. I used Mei Feng in the first game (vs Ten Thunders; Misaki), Jakob Lynch in the second game (vs Outcasts; Viktorias) and Mei Feng again in the third game (vs Neverborn; Lilith). I might well have used Lynch in the final round but I'd actually been talking to my opponent before, not knowing that we'd get paired up, about the many uses of the master so we made a gentleman's agreement not to have a 'Lynch-off'. I only own two wave 1 Ten Thunders masters so one of them was always going to get a second run out. It is all written up in tedious fantastic detail here if you want to know more.

One advantage of such a brief game was that there was a lot of time to watch other games and chat to other like-minded geeks. It’s always interesting to see the difference in perceived value of certain pieces or options held by people who play in other groups. Looking around the event there seemed to be a lot of Jakob Lynch and Ramos being used, so I suppose that they’re considered the most powerful options. Of note this time I had a very nice time talking with another Jakob Lynch player, Graham, who appears to play a very different style to me. So it was quite funny when we got paired together for the last round. We made a gentleman’s agreement not to have a ‘Lynch-off’ as Brilliance on Brilliance gets very silly, very fast. Game 3: Ten Thunders (me) vs Neverborn (Graham) Strategy: Stake a Claim Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Protect Territory, Plant Evidence, Entourage, Assassinate Ten Thunders: Protect Territory (announced), Line in the Sand (announced) Neverborn: Protect Territory (announced), Plant Evidence Crews Ten Thunders: Mei Feng (Seismic Claws), Emberling, 3 Rail Workers, 2 Illuminated, Thunder Archer, 3SS Neverborn: Lilith (Beckon Malifaux, Wicked Mistress, Fears Given Form), Cherub, Barbaros (Fears Given Form), Illuminated, 2 Waldgeist, Terror Tot I’m not very good at playing Stake a Claim with the models I own as they tend toward the slow while Stake a Claim heavily favours those with movement tricks or raw speed. Protect Territory was a simple pick as it isn’t hard to find the opportunity to drop a couple of scheme markers right at the end when your opponent has (hopefully) run out of models of their own to stop you with. I didn’t really fancy any of the others too much so I went for a Line in the Sand because I expected the line of engagement to be on or near the centreline. Funnily enough after having spoken to Graham before the game he seemed very surprised when I turned out to be playing Ten Thunders; apparently he’d expected another Neverborn master to be facing him. Turn 1: The normal story of everyone running forward. With a slow crew like mine there is even more need to advance up the board at top speed on turn 1. The centre Waldgeist Germinates to extend the forest in the middle, Barbaros Challenges and Lilith does exactly what Graham said she would before the game: casting Roots on an Illuminated then dragging him forward to her, close to death. Turn 2: Lilith polishes off the first Illuminated then makes a start on the other. Since Graham said he wasn’t sure what Mei Feng could do, I showed him as she charged across the board, beat the Illuminated to death over the course of a few triggered attacks and knocked a good chunk out of the Cherub and Barbaros, forcing a solid part of his crew to take disengaging strikes if they want to do anything for good measure. Barbaros takes some pains to get out of Mei’s melee range with an interposing obstacle then kills a Rail Worker. There are a few more attacks going on but nothing of great significance as no one can seem to land a good hit anywhere; the Nephilim escape from Mei Feng. Barbaros gets slowed by the Archer. The Waldgeist does me a favour by failing a horror duel against the surviving Illuminated, which of course heals itself back up to full. The Emberling gets free of the scrum and moves into the other side of board; if I can keep it alive I’ll actually be able to drop a strategy marker. At the end of the turn Graham reveals his Plant Explosives, scoring him a tasty 3 VPs. 5 minutes later while we’re shuffling decks, we both realise that Plant Explosives wasn’t actually in the scheme pool; we amend it to an unannounced Plant Evidence instead. Turn 3: Mei Feng charges into the pack of Nephilim but doesn’t achieve a thing. The Waldgeist and Barbaros join together to kill another Rail Worker with a cunning combination of Roots and the push from Barbaros’s melee attack; in return my Illuminated finally ends the right hand Waldgeist. There is yet more ineffectual poking going on in the midfield. Lilith has to spend a soulstone to get a positive flip just to get past the terrifying of the Illuminated (and needed it) and still fails to kill it. The Emberling drops a strategy marker so I score on the strategy. Turn 4: Barbaros disengages from Mei Feng but it takes two attempts so he doesn’t have the AP to drop a strategy marker. The last Rail Worker, who has been chewing away at the Waldgeist since turn 2, finally kills off the beast. The Illuminated and Lilith both fail to kill each other, but I know that I’m happier with that situation than Graham. Last turn is called, so Mei Feng kills the Tot engaging her and drops a scheme marker; the Emberling and Archer both advance up the board and do the same. Graham knows he needs something clever here, and comes up with a plan. Barbaros has one wound left but does have a single soulstone for prevention. The Cherub shoots him to allow him to push (ideally back to where his unused markers intended for Plant Explosives are, back on his own side of the board); with no cards in hand Barbaros flips a 13 for defense and is missed. I ask why he didn’t just relent, and allow the take back, so Barbaros takes the hit, pushes toward the markers, and flips the Black Joker for prevention. So he dies in the middle of the board. Looking back I don’t think he was going to be able to make it anyway as he needed to take two hits but only had one soulstone to keep him alive, but the cards just said ‘no’ in the first place. I score again for the strategy. Ten Thunders win 5 – 2 (2 for Stake a Claim, 3 for Protect Territory for me; 2 for Plant Evidence for Graham). It was a tight, fun game, but I don’t think that either of us were really playing our best. Graham seemed to be thrown off his stride after the Plant Explosives thing and didn’t really get his focus back until it was too late. The pushing Barbaros trick thing was rather clever, and it was a shame that it didn’t come off. Still, flipping the Black Joker on the critical damage prevention flip is quite fitting for Malifaux, where Bad Things Happen. The scores are counted up and I am in first, ahead of James (MythicFOX) and Greg (Sir#67) on VP difference as we’re all on 3 wins. Of course, I’m delighted with the result, but the real great thing was getting three games of Malifaux against three new, fun opponents. I think I was favoured somewhat by the pairings in the second round as the field was hellishly strong, full of highly ranked tournament veterans who mostly seemed to end up playing each other in tight games while I scored a fluky blow-out against Ben. On the other hand, there wasn’t time for a full Swiss arrangement and I’m not going to complain about a system that gives me a nice shiny trophy to bring back home with me. Thank you very much to Chris and anyone else who was involved in organising the event and thanks to Matt, Ben and Graham for three highly entertaining games. Finally thanks to David for driving and to him and Joe for putting up with my delirious witterings all the way home. [editted: since when was there a picture-limit on this forum?]

This weekend saw another gaming first for me as David (Sholto), Joe (Euclid) and I set off on a Malifaux road trip to York. We were travelling the 200 miles or so to take part in the Vapnartak 2014 Malifaux tournament, popularly known as VappaFaux. We drove down the previous afternoon and enjoyed a fine evening of beer and big dinners followed by copious and hilarious use of card games in our ‘luxury’ hotel room at a services on the A64. We rocked up to the venue on Sunday morning and received a very warm welcome from the locals and other traveling tournament goers. Game 1: Ten Thunders (me) vs Ten Thunders (Matt) Strategy: Reconnoitre Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Spring the Trap, Bodyguard, Make Them Suffer My Ten Thunders: Spring the Trap, Breakthrough (announced) His Ten Thunders: Spring the Trap, Make Them Suffer Crews My Ten Thunders: Mei Feng (Seismic Claws), Emberling, 3 Rail Workers, 2 Illuminated, Thunder Archer, 3SS His Ten Thunders: Misaki (Recalled Training, Misdirection, Stalking Bisento), Yamaziko (Recalled Training, Smoke and Shadows), Thunder Archer, 2 Torakage, Johan There don’t seem to be many active Ten Thunders players in the Scotland scene so it’s not often I actually get to play against my own chosen faction. I deliberately went for Mei Feng as I thought that the temptation to play Lynch in all my games might be overwhelming. I only own a limited pool of models to choose from here so the real choices were whether to include an Oiran over a Rail Worker, and whether to take Kang rather than two others. In the end I stuck with all three Rail Workers as the Oiran is just too annoying to rely on for Lure, despite how useful it would be in the strategy, and I didn’t think that I would need increased willpower especially at the expense of bunching up. Similarly, Kang didn’t make the cut as I wasn’t expecting terrifying to be an issue, nor for there to be many constructs or undead. He’s a great beater but his speed and cost means that he wants to be in the middle of bunch of foes which isn’t likely at this game size or strategy. The Emberling is a great little runner for its cost so there was no question of it staying in my case. Matt, for his part, asked at the start if I was any good at the game. I replied that I was OK (looking at the strength of the field here I was expecting a good hiding in a couple of games) and he pointed to the Tractor of Shame around his neck; a ‘prize’ in his group for doing worst at the last tournament. Apologies for this photo and a few more later on; I don’t really have Parkinson’s. Turn 1: As usual almost everyone runs forward. My Archer, lacking a decent target and unwilling to advance too much, drops a scheme marker in case Misaki should come calling. The big Illuminated is Stalked by Misaki but it’s after his activation so she doesn’t get a free move this turn. Right at the end, Mei Feng launches herself forward with Rail Walker and smites the other Archer who hadn’t been so circumspect in his advance; burning takes his last wound. Incidentally, I love the Rail Walker spell and I use it in the first turn of almost every game with Mei Feng regardless of whether it is actually helpful; I think I’m stuck with the memory of my first ever encounter with Mei Feng back here in Malifaux v1.5). Turn 2: Mei Feng charges Johan and pummels him lightly. The Torakage on my left drops smoke bombs and vanishes, then Misaki charges the stalked Illuminated but fails to kill it. My Emberling zooms into the inviting open area in the middle of board with its mind on Breakthrough points and Yamaziko slogs back toward Mei Feng but doesn’t manage to cast Master Tactician when she gets there. My Archer focuses and shoots the other Torakage which has advanced into cover nearby for slow and a few wounds. Johan flurries Mei Feng for surprisingly little effect, then both Illuminated punch Misaki for about half her wounds. The Rail Workers both sidle up and drop scheme markers near the Mistress of the Ten Thunders which I reveal to score two from Spring the Trap, then the Torakage somewhat unwisely unburies himself in the middle of the scrum. Neither of us score for the strategy. Turn 3: My Archer focuses again and ends the Torakage on the right. Johan flurries Mei Feng and I drop a soulstone and a 13 for Leap Aside, but Matt is having none of that and puts in the Red Joker to hit her anyway. Fortunately, I have a hand like a hero at this point and do the same thing again. Tragically out of Red Jokers, Matt is forced to watch as Mei Feng pushes over to Yamaziko and beats the old lady to death. Rarely has writing those words felt so right. Misaki, understandably upset at the loss of her sensei, nails her chosen Illuminated (scoring for Make Them Suffer) and the rest of my crew ineptly dog pile the surviving Torakage and kill him on the sixth attack. The Emberling scurries into the empty rear left table quarter and begins dropping scheme markers. I score for the strategy. Turn 4: Misaki has had enough of my nonsense, casually polishing off the nearest Rail Worker (scoring another for Make Them Suffer) then pushing over to the Archer and one-shotting him too. Mei Feng returns the favour by dropping Johan and my crew implements Operation: Run Away From The Scary Ninja. Turn 5: We didn’t bother to play out the final turn as I could easily keep running from Misaki while scoring for the strategy. My Ten Thunders win 8 – 2 (3 for Reconnoitre, 3 for Breakthrough and 2 for Spring the Trap for me; 2 for Make Them Suffer for Matt). It was a really enjoyable game to start the day with, and finishing early meant that we had plenty of time to watch other players before taking advantage of the long lunch break to browse the rest of the convention. I believe that Matt did indeed end up with the Tractor of Shame for the drive back again. His reposing of Misaki is fantastic and I might well steal his idea if I get Misaki at some stage. Game 2: Ten Thunders (me) vs Outcasts (Ben) Strategy: Turf War Schemes Pool: Line in the Sand, Frame for Murder, Vendetta, Breakthrough, Assassinate Ten Thunders: Frame for Murder (female Illuminated), Assassinate Outcasts: Line in the Sand(announced), Assassinate Crews Ten Thunders: Jakob Lynch (Endless Hunger), Hungering Darkness, 2 Rail Workers, Beckoner, 2 Illuminated, Thunder Archer, 1SS Outcasts: Viktoria of Ashes (Oathkeeper, Sisters in Fury), Viktoria of Blood (Outkeeper, Mark of Shezull), Malifaux Child, Desperate Mercenary, 2 Freikorpsmen, 2 Ronin I decided pretty arbitrarily to play Jakob Lynch in this game. He’s pretty hard to Assassinate which is a mark in his favour, but to be honest I picked him on the highly tactical basis that I’d played Mei Feng in my previous game. Otherwise, it’s the usual fare of Hungering Darkness (I like Endless Hunger to make him even nastier but increasingly feel like I’m in the minority on this), a Beckoner for Lure, Illuminated to take and deal damage and Rail Workers and an Archer to make use of the discarding ace trick. I like Assassinate on Viktoria because there is almost always one good opportunity to kill her as she’s so aggressive and Frame for Murder on the Illuminated was pretty much chosen on the same basis. I believe that a lot of people used the same schemes in this round. Ben has a blog (which is excellent) in which among other interesting articles, he shows photos of his beautiful painting. I have to say that the photos do not do justice to how lovely his Hired Swords looked. Turn 1: We all run forward. He’s got his Ronin and Freikorpsmen away out on both wings (clearly for a Line in the Sand) which should give me an edge in the centre, where I want to be anyway for the strategy. The Beckoner fails to Lure in one of the Ronin, but she has moved up far enough for Hungering Darkness to move twice and hit her. This gives her Brilliance which I duly Consume to paralyse her after a low flip on the horror duel. I find it really hard to use Consume Brilliance since my Hungering Darkness is normally surrounded by my own Brilliant models so it was quite good to get a chance to do it without paralysing half of my own crew. Turn 2: My Illuminated with Frame for Murder on it charges Viktoria of Ashes but misses twice; this does take out a couple of decent cards though. The Malifaux Child casts Sisters in Fury so my other Illuminated charges Viktoria of Blood. It also misses twice, but again draws out more cards from Ben’s hand. Viktoria of Ashes then moves into a lovely Whirlwind spot between the Illuminated and Hungering Darkness but obligingly fails the horror duel and ends her activation. I can’t resist an opportunity like that so a Rail Worker uses Implacable Assault and blends the poor doppelganger. I normally prefer to attack unactivated models but in this case the board position didn’t really allow me to get to any of them. The left Freikorpsman charges Hungering Darkness and helpfully fails his horror duel too. My Archer focuses and takes the Desperate Mercenary down to a single wound, then it’s time for the main show. Viktoria of Ashes uses Oathkeeper to get fast then slaughters the poor Illuminated (scoring me 3 for Frame for Murder) then charges over to get the other one; she can’t quite take that one down. Weak damage of 5 really hurts! The other Rail Worker finishes the Desperate Mercenary. The Beckoner uses Despicable Promises on the left Ronin to get her down to Hard to Kill but fails to hit Viktoria with the same; I was hoping to give her Brilliance with it. No matter; Lynch advances, Plays for Blood to end the Ronin then Plays for Blood to make Viktoria Brilliant anyway. Hungering Darkness charges over and eats her alive, then takes out the Malifaux Child for good measure after I repeatedly flipped Rams to trigger Envelop with its tasty weak damage of 4. This gives me Assassinate too. Meanwhile on the right hand side both the Ronin and the Freikorpsman advance to the centreline and drop scheme markers for a Line in the Sand. I also score on the strategy but was apparently too stunned by the events to take a photo. Turn 3: The left Freikorpsman drops a scheme marker on the centreline, and the Rail Worker uses Implacable Assault to kill the one on the right. The Ronin charges in but can’t quite kill my Rail Worker, and then the rest of the turn is mine. The Archer focuses and shoots a few wounds off the Ronin, the Beckoner Lures her into the middle of the table and the other Rail Worker kills her. Lynch and the Hungering Darkness combine to kill the last Freikorpsman. I score on the strategy. We were going to end it there (and indeed, we didn’t actually play any more) but Ben insisted that I should count as though I’d removed enough of his scheme markers to prevent him scoring a Line in the Sand so we scored it accordingly. Ten Thunders win 10 – 0. Ben was a total gent throughout the game, despite having terrible flips when it mattered (notably on horror duels). I felt bad for pummeling him so decisively but he took it all in good sport and never once bemoaned his luck; that’s a lesson I could afford to learn. It was a shame to remove such lovely miniatures from the game so quickly. Not enough of a shame to stop me doing it, of course.

Thanks to Chris for running a great event, and thanks to Matt, Ben and Graham for playing three great games with me. The round timing felt good and the long lunch break gave us the opportunity to browse the rest of the convention. This was my first Malifaux road trip and I'd definitely do it again (wife points pending, of course). York makes it a reasonable driving range from Central Belt Scotland so we might try to get more attendees from our groups making these events in the North of England.

The flip side to having models specialised to work with their thematic masters and no others is that all the masters play very differently. As a consequence, it is very hard to counter pick once Ten Thunders is announced. Also, it makes for a highly enjoyable range of play styles. Apologies for the selective quoting, but I believe that this isn't taken out of context. I don't agree that you have to collect so many models at all, whichever faction you choose. My experience locally has been that players who have a small pool of pieces they know really well are not at a disadvantage compared to those who have the full range of options. I think that Ten Thunders are fine as a primary faction, at least as much so as any other faction in Malifaux. This hypothetical new player in your final sentence will suffer the same problem in Ten Thunders as in any other faction, i.e. that they end up with a pool of models that synergise well with their first master and then will have to 'take the jump' to spread into further master options. The situation is nowhere near as bad as v1.5 Outcasts who had 6 leaders with largely exclusive hiring pools. M2E has greatly improved the options available to Ten Thunders by adding dual faction some models that were previously only available by the equivalent of infiltration (notably Illuminated in my collection).

If you're looking for stuff with a direct synergy with Mei Feng (i.e. constructs or things that do Burning) then you're pretty much limited to the options you mentioned plus the Dawn Serpent. Ten Thunders have plenty of helpful options in wave 1 though. I wouldn't get too hung up on Rail Walker needing constructs though as there are plenty of other things Mei Feng can do to mess with the other crew. Monks of the Low River are useful in theory for removing nasty conditions from your own guys and are as cheap as Metal Gamin if you're looking to pad your activations. Illuminated are great control pieces who hit hard. Thunder Archers are nice spot removal if you can keep them safe (though they do have an irritating anti-synergy with Vent Steam). Oiran have that ever useful Lure if you ever draw a high-ish crow or two and are cheap, non-threatening objective runners otherwise and Torakage are pleasingly independent and also great for interacting. Yamaziko can be amusing if you place her next to Mei Feng and Brace Yari while Vent Steam is up as almost any action taken against them is penalised, plus can take Smoke and Shadows if you're keen on the whole disappearing ninjas thing with Oiran and Torakage. It sounds like your problem was having too many upgrades though if you had only 7 models on the table at 50SS.

I can't help you on the state of Malifaux in Italy (though I think I've seen other users with Italy as their location, such as Gabbi). You don't need anything else to start playing. In fact the faction decks are also unnecessary at this stage. You'll need some terrain to play across but with all the other games you play that shouldn't be a problem. Finally all you need is a friend to play with. Good luck!

I can't help you on the state of Malifaux in Italy (though I think I've seen other users with Italy as their location, such as Gabbi). You don't need anything else to start playing. In fact the faction decks are also unnecessary at this stage. You'll need some terrain to play across but with all the other games you play that shouldn't be a problem. Finally all you need is a friend to play with. Good luck!

Thanks to all who came along to the First Footing Through The Breach event today at Worlds at War. 1. David Hamilton - Neverborn - 9 / 23 / +19 2. Paul Andrew - Gremlins - 7 / 15 / +10 3. Andrew Aitken - Outcasts - 6 / 15 / +7 4=. Rory Gemmell - Outcasts - 6 / 12 / +6 4=. Jonny West - Gremlins - 6 / 12 / +6 6. Liam 'Goaty' Green - Ten Thunders - 6 / 6 / -9 7. Andrew Smith - Neverborn - 5 / 12 / +3 8. Jamie Gemmell - Resurrectionists - 5 / 11 / 2 9. Gareth Henry - Guild - 4 / 12 / 1 10. Joe Taylor - Outcasts - 4 / 13 / -2 11. Barry Deans - Neverborn - 3 / 14 / -5 12. Barry Kelly - Neverborn - 3 / 7 / -7 13. Mark Watson - Guild - 3 /7 / -13 14. Justin Matters - Ten Thunders - 1 / 5 / -9 15. Steve Wallace - Resurrectionists - 0 / 3 / -9 Some of the records end up a bit wonky as three unlucky chaps got a bye and had to play against the TO (for the record, they were awarded a 3 / 0 / 0 record for the bye game). Best painted mini: Paul Andrew Best turf war marker: Paul Andrew Most achievements: Jonny West

Thanks to all who came along to the First Footing Through The Breach event today at Worlds at War. 1. David Hamilton - Neverborn - 9 / 23 / +19 2. Paul Andrew - Gremlins - 7 / 15 / +10 3. Andrew Aitken - Outcasts - 6 / 15 / +7 4=. Rory Gemmell - Outcasts - 6 / 12 / +6 4=. Jonny West - Gremlins - 6 / 12 / +6 6. Liam 'Goaty' Green - Ten Thunders - 6 / 6 / -9 7. Andrew Smith - Neverborn - 5 / 12 / +3 8. Jamie Gemmell - Resurrectionists - 5 / 11 / 2 9. Gareth Henry - Guild - 4 / 12 / 1 10. Joe Taylor - Outcasts - 4 / 13 / -2 11. Barry Deans - Neverborn - 3 / 14 / -5 12. Barry Kelly - Neverborn - 3 / 7 / -7 13. Mark Watson - Guild - 3 /7 / -13 14. Justin Matters - Ten Thunders - 1 / 5 / -9 15. Steve Wallace - Resurrectionists - 0 / 3 / -9 Some of the records end up a bit wonky as three unlucky chaps got a bye and had to play against the TO (for the record, they were awarded a 3 / 0 / 0 record for the bye game). Best painted mini: Paul Andrew Best turf war marker: Paul Andrew Most achievements: Jonny West

During DKS's brief poorliness, it falls to me to update the sign up list: 1. Mark Watson 2. Joe Taylor - PAID 3. Jonny West - PAID 4. Andrew Smith -PAID 5. Barry Deans - PAID 6. Paul Andrew - PAID 7. Liam 'Goaty' Green - PAID 8. Jamie Gemmell - PAID 9. Rory Gemmell - PAID 10. Andrew Aitken - PAID 11. Steve Wallace - PAID 12. David Hamilton - PAID 13. Gareth Henry - PAID 14. Justin Matters - PAID 15. Geoff Hume 16. Barry Kelly The full 16 players signed up. I can't wait.