Argentbadger

They're very clean, I like them a lot. The stick on the floating Illuminated looks a trifle obtrusive, but I know how much of a pain it is to get that guy sitting nicely on a base.

Very pretty. Lady Justice's (alive) skin looks very pink, in a good way. Was that deliberate to contrast with the dead version's skin, or do you paint all your living models with that 'just got out of the bath' look?

I like the colour choice of the Stalkers; it's a good look for the dirty, functional and oppressed minions of the Guild. Nice OSL on the second one's eyes and cowl too.

I don't really feel like charging into combat with Sonnia is too profitable. She's not bad in the thick of things with her trigger to heal from strikes, but I always feel like I get more success keeping her back a bit to blast things with Flame Burst or Violation of Magic as needed. At least she can hold her own in melee, but I wouldn't want to put her up against a heavy hitter (like the Hungering Darkness in game 2). I generally use up many of her Soulstones on spells in turns 2 and 3 so she doesn't really even get the benefit of being a Soulstone User. Inferno is pretty funny, but I always worry that I'll do more damage to my own crew unless I'm losing anyway, in which case Sonnia getting mobbed in melee is pretty much the end already.

Thanks for taking the time to write up a very good tournament report. I really like that you took the time to analyse your crew performance over all too.

The hobby challenge for the last tournament I went to (the St Valentine’s Slaughter) was to bring along a treasure marker themed to the event and your chosen Master. In my case that was Sonnia. I decided to make my theme instead be ‘a marker I’ll actually use again’. The Henchman, DavidKerrSmith, did generously suggest that the locked box could be symbolising Sonnia’s quest / penchant for forbidden lore, but I think he was just being nice. Anyway, of a public vote I rightly came in fourth (of four entries) with zero votes; the other three were really good and can be seen here. The marker itself is a treasure chest from the Games Workshop Ogre Kingdoms Ironblaster kit.

I too had a great time at the tournament; I just need to see if I have enough Wife Points to attend the next one! I was actually hoping to play against you or Mark as I‘ve hardly ever played against Guild. I seem to get a lot of Ten Thunders at the moment; over the last two tournaments, I’ve had 4 (of 6) games against them, plus one against Jakob Lynch played as Neverborn but with a crew that would be legal as Ten Thunders (though he did use and score on Kidnap). It hadn’t really occurred to me before (perhaps since she was my first Master) just how versatile Sonnia can be. She has answers to a lot of things are tricky to get round, e.g. magic attacks to deal with spirits, Advanced Counterspell to reduce some shenanigans, Violation of Magic to replenish her crew etc. Now if I could just learn how to get mileage out of Flame Wall and Immolate I’d be dangerous…

Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed the report. The tournament was lots of fun, and hopefully I didn't whine too much about the black joker. I'm not sure about winning overall but for that event though - David is a strong player and might still have beaten me (though I don't think so) and I still would have faced Joe in game 3 who is no slouch either. I think that the Austringer is a very worthwhile piece for Guild as it means that you can plink wounds off things at a good range while staying hidden. Another player locally likes to use them as a pair and I find that restricts crew movement a bit too much, though I suppose I might consider it in a game where Nino wasn't in my crew. The rest of the Guild-playing world appears to like them a lot more than me, as posts in the Guild forum frequently recommend getting two for a new player.

I used Milliput on the huge gaps of my Hungering Darkness and it seemed to fill them well enough. There's not much you can do about the giant tadpole look though; that's just how the miniature was sculpted. If you look at Soundwave's thread in the painting forum he has changed his to look a bit like an angler fish which I think is a fairly good way to improve it.

I attended the St Valentine’s Slaughter Malifaux tournament, organised as usual by our local Henchman. The format was fixed master, 35SS with preset strategies and unique schemes across all games as is the norm for these events. The strategies (all shared) were Deliver a Message, Treasure Hunt and Beatdown. I slightly theorise that Perdita Ortega would be the better master for these strategies, but I really like Sonnia Criid, so that probably tells you all you need to know about the kind of high-level thinking I do about this sort of thing. There’s a bit of a faction bias in this tournament as over half the players had Guild or Ten Thunders, with Resurrectionists not represented at all. There are also a few side accomplishments for the ongoing Dead of Winter campaign. I mostly forgot about them, but some players did rack up a lots of achievements. Game 1: Guild (me) vs Ten Thunders (Dave R; Tattyted) Strategy: Deliver a Message Schemes: Guild: Hold Out, Kill Protegé (Kang) Ten Thunders: Assassinate, Breakthrough Crews: Guild: Sonnia Criid, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Witchling Handler, Austringer, Santiago Ortega, 2 Guild Hounds Ten Thunders: Misaki, Shang, Kang, Yamaziko, 2 Ten Thunders Brothers, Ten Thunders Archer The Guild Hounds are quick and can be useful for picking up points on interaction strategies; similarly the Handler’s ability to push Witchling Stalkers around can mean they occasionally have enough AP to actually accomplish an interaction strategy. I figure an unannounced Hold Out could be good if I can tie the Ten Thunders up in midfield for the majority of the game. As for Kill Protegé: Kang simply has to die since he’s very killy, so I might as well score some points on it. Helpfully he has Hard to Kill, making him perfect for Violation of Magic. Turn 1: Basically everyone runs forward. There are remarkably few shenanigans. Turn 2: One of the Ten Thunders Brothers charges a Hound and kills it. So much for interacting with anything; it bites the guy back a bit. Shang flies into the middle of the board and a Stalker moves up but misses a shot. I assume that Shang was bait since the Ten Thunders Archer then blows away the Stalker with a Red Joker damage flip. I decide to give the Archer a wide berth if possible since he’s in a nice nest but his maximum range only just extends on to the hill. Santiago strolls onto the hill and puts Shang down, and my Austringer sends his raptor to peck at the unengaged Ten Thunders Brother for minimal effect. The surviving Stalker then finishes him off after the Brother flips a Black Joker despite his super-defensive stance. Yamaziko and Misaki are moving around the side trying to avoid my guns. Kang walks up in a threatening way, so the Handler shoots him a few times, mainly to soften him up. I decide that it’s time to make sure he’s down for good. Sonnia throws out a Flame Burst, getting severe damage and even tagging the Ten Thunders Archer with a blast. Conveniently, Kang now has one wound left, so Sonnia turns him into a Witchling Stalker with Violation of Magic. The fresh Stalker moves up to Misaki in case I get initiative next turn. Turn 3: I do indeed get initiative, so the Stalker-that-used-to-be-Kang delivers a Valentine’s message to Misaki, wrapping up 4 VPs for me. The Ten Thunders Brother continues to flap at the pesky dog in front of him but ridiculously bad cards stop him from achieving much, and the Hound has more or less the same total lack of effect. Santiago, on the other hand, realises that he has a shot on Yamaziko and rapid fires her to almost death; she uses a Soulstone to keep a single wound. Then, thanks to Disrupt Magic from the Stalker she fails to heal with Invigorate, though she does sensibly move to hide from Santiago’s guns. Misaki casts Downburst to move the Stalker out of the way then charges Santiago and kills him (I forgot about Hard to Kill at the time). Seeing Misaki alone the rest of my crew try and put some wounds on her, but sadly despite ranged attempts from the Austringer and Sonnia followed by the Stalker and Handler getting into combat, we only manage a couple of wounds and force her to burn a few Soulstones. Turn 4: Yamaziko keeps moving to try and pick up Breakthrough (and deny me Hold Out, though Dave didn’t know that at the time) so I take advantage of Misaki’s surprise lack of activation to put a couple more wounds on her with the Stalker. Apparently this only angers her as she bludgeons both the Handler and the Stalker in a single activation – ouch! I get the Hound to finish off the Ten Thunders Brother before he activates, knowing that the main threats have already moved. The Ten Thunders Archer starts the slog forward toward the action, since he’s not achieving anything sitting in his own deployment area. The last Stalker finishes off Yamaziko, and Sonnia casts Flame Bursts at Misaki until I finally get a straight flip on damage where I can cheat in the Red Joker and kill her. Dave offers his hand at this point since he’s only got one wounded Archer left; I take the maximum points for a 7 – 0 victory and we chat a while until everyone else is finished. It turns out that Dave has only played a couple of games with Misaki and is still trying to get comfortable with her crew. Misaki seemed pretty amusing to me, and she can really kick arse in melee. My opponent for the next round is David H, who is probably the best player at these tournaments. Game 2: Guild (me) vs Ten Thunders (David H) Strategy: Treasure Hunt Schemes: Guild: Bodyguard, Stake a Claim Ten Thunders: Bodyguard, Save Face Crews: Guild: Sonnia Criid, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Witchling Handler, Austringer, Nino Ortega, 2 Guild Hounds Ten Thunders: Jakob Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Mr Graves, 2 Depleted, Illuminated, Beckoner, Stitched Together, Desperate Mercenary My own crew is largely similar to the previous round, in that they can do some movement tricks to get close to the treasure and hopefully do something with it. Nino gets the nod ahead of Santiago because of the large patch of open ground in the middle of the board. Both schemes are selected on the basis that I have a decent chance to collect the points regardless of the outcome of the treasure hunt, and I will need all the points I can get if I’m going to get any where in this match. I suspect that David will plan to sit the Hungering Darkness on the treasure and force me to deal with him. Turn 1: As usual, we all move up. The Hungering Darkness ends up in range to cast Heed My Voice on a Stalker, forcing it to charge Nino. It appears that David really doesn’t like Nino, and I can see why since he’s pretty good with that gun of his. Mr Graves pushes most of the crew forward with Bar’s Closed. The turn ends with a ridiculous clump of Ten Thunders models around the treasure: both Depleted, the Illuminated and the Stitched Together, with the Beckoner and Hungering Darkness nearby. Turn 2: I win initiative, and it turns out that Sonnia loves clumps of models. When she’s finished Flame Bursting the lot of them, the Illuminated and Hungering Darkness are gone, the Stitched Together will die at the end of the turn and both Depleted are on their Hard to Kill wounds. Mr Graves rushes up and beat Nino to death. My Austringer kills one of the Depleted (if the Hungering Darkness is going to come back, I want it to happen far away) and Delivers Orders to the Guild Hounds who run up and nearly take out the Desperate Mercenary. Jakob Lynch then has the best run of Dead Man’s hand I’ve ever seen, keeping five of the six cards drawn on the Hound and forcing me to discard on every one. So now I have no control hand, and David almost certainly has a pair in his hand to bring back the Hungering Darkness. Oh well. My Stalker kills the other Depleted, and, of course, the Hungering Darkness pops out. The Witchling Handlers flees, and one of the Hungering Darkness’s first acts (after picking up the treasure for some VPs) is to Heed My Voice the Austringer to kill her off with a Red Joker damage flip. I generally feel like I can only rely on the Austringer to manage one wound at a time, so it’s particularly galling to get 8 wounds in a single go against one of my own crew. Turn 3: The Austringer take out the Beckoner and then Delivers Orders to Sonnia. Sonnia stabs Mr Graves, thereby killing off the last Brilliant model on the table. She tries to Flame Burst the Hungering Darkness, cheating and Soulstoning it up to a straight flip. I have a card in my hand for severe damage. The Hungering Darkness has only five wounds remaining. I utter the famous last words of anyone playing Malifaux: ‘Anything but the Black Joker’. I flip the Black Joker. A single manly tear runs down my face. The Hungering Darkness charges Sonnia and put some good wounds on her, and Lynch kills off the Hound. Turn 4: If I can win initiative, I might still be in with a chance here (otherwise Hungering Darkness will shred the pitiful remains of my crew). I flip a 3. Amazingly, so does David. Sadly, on the reflip I get a 2. Hungering Darkness kills Sonnia. My Austringer starts to make a run for my Stake a Claim objective and Jakob nearly kills him with his little gun. At least my Stalker does manage to kill off the Hungering Darkness. Turns 5 and 6: Lynch kills off the Austringer, but the Stalker lives long enough to score my Stake a Claim. David wins 5 – 2; he’s got Save Face, Bodyguard and a point for the treasure; I only managed Stake a Claim. It was a really good tight game, and I felt like I was at least challenging David throughout which is enough for me. Indeed, a measure of how tight this game was is probably evidenced by the lack of photos after engagment. The third and final game of the day was against Jonny’s Hamelin crew. Game 3: Guild (me) vs Outcasts (Jonny; NinjaBreadMen) Strategy: Beatdown Schemes: Guild: Raid!, Subjugate Outcasts: Hold Out, Kill Protegé (Nino Ortega) Crews: Guild: Sonnia Criid, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Austringer, Nino Ortega, Santiago Ortega, Francisco Ortega Outcasts: Hamelin the Plagued, 2 Terror Tots, Arcane Effigy, 2 Canine Remains, 5 Malifaux Rats, Baby Kade The strategy is all about killing everything, and luckily that’s right up my street as Guild. I dropped the Guild Hounds (too fragile) and Witchling Handler (good, but more about support) from my previous crew and added in Santiago and Francisco Ortega as they’re good at laying down the pain. I choose Raid! because it synergises well with Beatdown in that if I’m going to kill everything in sight I will probably end up with more minions in play at the end. Subjugate, on the other hand was a bit of a random shot since I almost never remember to use it; some games I would have it accomplished 3 times over and other times Violation of Magic just never comes into play. In some ways it a bad scheme against Hamelin’s crew since the Voracious Rats could stop me achieving it depending on how the rest of the game is going. Jonny asked me to select a crew for him for an achievement in the Dead of Winter league. I tried to choose something that wasn’t totally stupid, and tried to theorise a reasonable crew for growing Nephilim. On discussion later, Jonny suggested that he would have swapped all the rats for Nix and some more Soulstones if he was choosing it. Still, it’s always going to put you at a disadvantage if someone else picks your crew for you (and I wussed out of doing it on my own crew). Turn 1: My crew move forward to get ready for some shooting. The Outcasts mostly muck about in their own deployment area. The upshot is that both Canine Remains are gone but one of the Terror Tots has grown to a Young Nephilim and there’s a Rat Catcher and a Stolen in play. Turn 2: Only Kade has moved forward, so the Austringer, Nino and Santiago attack him to minimal effect. Hamelin comes out and forces Santiago to charge Nino with Obedience. Not surprisingly, a fist fight between two shooting specialists turns out to be something of a damp squib (Sonnia had previously stopped this happening with the far more capable Francisco thanks to Advanced Counterspell). Sonnia, tired her of her minions’ inability to deal with Kade, takes matters into her own hands. A focussed Flame Burst vapourises Kade and the blast damage takes a chunk out of Hamelin, the Young Nephilim and the Rat Catcher and also kills a summoned Stolen. Turn 3: A Stalker charges Hamelin, makes a mess of his attack and is turned into paste by the mighty Black Staff. Hamelin then Pipes the other Stalker to charge Sonnia, who uses a Soulstone to avoid the attack. The Austringer plinks the Young Nephilim (mainly to waste activations as he was the only model who could do much without moving) which then tries and fails to charge him. Sonnia uses Violation of Magic twice on the Young Nephilim (as it had two wounds left) to get started on my Subjugate scheme while it is out of Hamelin’s Voracious Rats aura. Another beautiful Flame Burst on Hamelin puts a few more wounds on him and finishes the Rat Catcher and another Stolen. Nino shoots the Effigy down to one wound. [Note: for another Dead of Winter achievement, Jonny did this round playing his control hand blind. It certainly made his life harder, though I'm not sure it changed the effects very much.] Turn 4: Hamelin realises that he’s going to have to do this himself. He makes Sonnia Insignificant, then smites a mighty 9 damage on with a severe hit; Sonnia has to burn another Soulstone to dodge another big hit. My Stalker casts Dispel Magic to remove the effect from Sonnia and then stabs Hamelin who is forced to use his last Soulstone to avoid it. As the Terror Tot is slightly out of range of Hamelin’s aura, Sonnia turns it into another Witchling Stalker with Violation of Magic, getting me Subjugate. She kills off Hamelin up close and personal, but the Rat that comes out of him does come perilously close to returning the favour before a Stalker squashes it. Santiago takes out the Effigy, and Jonny calls it there. He’s got a single Rat lurking about somewhere in a forest, and I have a larger crew than I started with and no reason not to rack up all the remaining points. I win 8 – 0. That was a pretty funny game, but it was probably affected by the crew selection right from the start. We spoke about it for a bit and Jonny wasn’t sure that a crew he’d selected would have fared better, so we’ll have to try and duke it out again some time. Once the scores are counted up, I come in second behind David H which is a result I am very happy with. In terms of more useful results, I managed to get in three highly entertaining games of Malifaux against three very agreeable gentlemen. Thanks very much again to Dave R, David H and Jonny for the games, and to David KS for all his hard work making these tournaments run smoothly. There are a few photo galleries available here, here and here. Bring on the next tournament!

Rules as written, yes. It's been the fate of one of my Austringers too.

I love Sonnia Criid, so I’ll weigh in here with a few things I’ve picked up in my games. If you’re facing anyone with an Obey (or similar) spell then either keep Samael very close to Sonnia or very far away. If he’s close you can drop cards for Advanced Counterspell, and if he’s far away then he won’t be able to shoot you. Having Samael forced to shoot Sonnia is very bad news. As stated by Somer Victor, keep the Witchling Stalkers up front to stop anyone from getting into melee with Sonnia. She’s not terrible in melee, but I think she’s generally better served by fighting on her own terms rather than getting charged by some nasty beater. This also has the advantage that the Stalkers are in a good place to shoot with Flame Bursts to drop blasts on bunched up or high defence models. Try to keep them far enough apart that they don’t hurt each other by exploding. Don’t be afraid to cast Violation of Magic on your own models if they’re down to a single wound left, especially if they’ve already activated or are likely to die before you get more use out of them. Obviously it’s great to turn an enemy into a new Stalker but it is just as helpful to ‘recycle’ your own minions at times. Watch for models with Hard to Kill as that helpfully stops them on that last wound. I like the Witchling Handler but I think it really benefits from good positional play with the Stalkers so that you can push them where you want to go rather than just reacting to other movement. For other models to get, I’ve had a lot of success from the Ortega box set. Not only do you get another master to play with, but all the Ortegas are good to take here and there. They also don’t compete with the Witch Hunters for tomes or rams (much) since they mostly want masks for their own triggers.

Thanks very much. @Chucklemonkey: I had a great game against you; your Mei Feng crew was hilarious. My favourite part was Mei herself Rail Walking across half the board in turn 1 to deliver a kick to the face of my poor Witchling Handler. It's good to be able to put a forum name to a real name. @Grenoir: If you don't do so already (I don't think I know who you are in real life) I heartily recommend getting along to one of DavidKerrSmith's tournaments. They are a lot of fun. I've also been impressed with the models out of the Storm of Shadows book but I didn't expect to spend the entire day playing against them. @Bobzilla: It was a lovely day of grown-ups playing with toys. It sounds like there are plenty of other tournaments planned so we'll get a game at some point.

Good report, thanks for sharing that. I was impressed with Misaki taking out three models in a single activation right at the end; it makes for quite the cinematic image! I doubt that I would have had the presence of mind to keep the treasure out of my deployment zone to get Save Face, but (unless the achievement was to score on the scheme rather than just take it) it seems like there would have been no difference anyway. You missed out on 2 points of the strategy, only to gain 2 from the scheme. Am I misreading this?

The Hogmanay Hangover was the first of the 2013 Malifaux tournaments in my area and Forkbanger, Aramoro and I packed up our little toys and headed along for a few games and hilarity. It was a 30SS arrangement with fixed faction, preset strategies and unique schemes across all games as is the norm for these events. I don’t have anywhere near 30SS of Ten Thunders so it was an easy choice to declare Guild as my faction. I was hoping to avoid playing against Aramoro and Forkbanger since most of my games of Malifaux are with them, and otherwise my objectives were the same as usual: don’t lose all my games and have fun. Game 1: Guild (me) vs Ten Thunders (Andrew) Strategy: King of the Hill. This is a new strategy which effectively replaces Claim Jump. The scoring is certainly an improvement as it stops the last turn rush for the points of the previous version. Schemes: Guild: Hold Out, Assassinate Ten Thunders: Hold Out, Grudge (one of my Witchling Stalkers) Crews: Guild: Sonnia Criid, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Witchling Handler, Austringer, Nino Ortega Ten Thunders: Mei Feng, Emberling, Kang, 2 Rail Workers, Oiran, Willie the Demolitionist I like Sonnia for take and hold type strategies as she can replenish her forces by judiciously casting Violation of Magic (which can create fresh Witchling Stalkers) and has good tools for blowing up enemies who are clumped together. Witchlings and the Handler are always funny and the other two provide a nice bit of fire support which is made easier when everyone has to run onto the hill to get any points. I’ve never played against Mei Feng, but I know she’s a close combat monster. Turn 1: For the most part, everyone rushes forward. Willie targets Kang with his demo charges, triggering Fire in the Hole to push most of the Ten Thunders crew forward a little. I notice that Andrew is being surprisingly picky about where the Rail Workers end up and it turns out that Mei Feng can treat them as stepping stones. So at the end of the turn, Mei Feng casts Rail Walker and races across half the board to kick my Witchling Handler in the face. Ouch! Turn 2: I realise that I’m about to lose the Handler so I activate her to try and put some damage on Mei Feng. This turns out to be rather hard to do. Mei Feng retaliates by finishing off the Handler then charges and nearly kills the Austringer. Nino puts down the nearest Rail Worker and Willie starts booby trapping the ground close to my Witchling Stalkers. It’s time for Sonnia to remind me why she’s my favourite model in the game, as she moves onto the hill, hits the Emberling with a Flame Burst (mainly to splash some damage onto Mei Feng, but it also conveniently ends up on a single wound) then casts Violation of Magic to turn the poor totem into a fresh Witchling Stalker. In an attempt to stop me from scoring on the strategy the other Rail Worker moves to the hill but a fantastic hit from a charging Witchling puts him down fast. I get a victory point for having more models on the hill. Turn 3: Kang charges the nearest Witchling and beats him to death with a spade, thereby scoring the Grudge. The Oiran, who has finally moved onto the hill, is charged by a Witchling and killed quickly without having done very much of anything. Willie tries his amusing Wheelbarrow of Doom attack up into the middle of the hill but surprisingly fails to do very much of anything, though he is now in a prime position to blow up if I kill him. Similarly, the Austringer sends the bird at Mei Feng a couple of more fruitless times before being kicked into the middle of next week with some chop-socky action. Finally, the last Witchling and Sonnia combine to beat Willie down to a single wound and Violation him into yet another Witchling Stalker. He does blow up in a very entertaining fashion, putting a couple of wounds on all and sundry. I now have a firm hold on the hill and score again on the strategy. Turn 4: Kang kills off another Witchling with his spade before he is finally turned into a Witchling himself. Hard to Kill models (who always stop at 1 wound left) are perfect prey for Sonnia’s Violation of Magic spell. Mei Feng sees how this is going and runs off behind a building to deny me Assassinate, and Andrew offers his hand in defeat. I’m allowed to rack up the remaining victory points with the time I have left leaving me with 6 – 2 victory (2 for Hold Out and 4 for King of the Hill to me, two for Grudge for Andrew). That was quite a quick game so there’s plenty of time for chatting and watching other games before the draw for next round. This time I’m paired with Joe. Game 2: Guild (me) vs Ten Thunders (Joe) Strategy: Escape and Survive Schemes: Guild: Bodyguard, Stake a Claim Ten Thunders: Breakthrough, Grudge (Francisco Ortega) Crews: Guild: Perdita Ortega, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Francisco Ortega, Santiago Ortega, Austringer Ten Thunders: Lucas McCabe (Strangemetal Shirt, Invigorating Bridle), 2 Wastrels, Torakage, Ten Thunders Brother, Ten Thunders Archer Perdita is fast which is helpful for strategies like this where you have to get moving. I preferred Santiago over Nino as Nino almost never wants to move with his ludicrously long ranged gun. Arguably, the same is also true of the Austringer, but I figure that with the push to get out of combat I can always make a run for it on the last turn. Joe’s selection of Lucas McCabe is probably a good one as he’s very mobile. I’ve never played against any of these models so I decide that I’ll just have to freestyle it and hope for the best. My deployment is big bunch on the edge of my deployment zone. Joe’s Wastrels are concealed because they can move further when out of line of sight. Turn 1: A Wastrel uses his powers of hidden movement to move really far forward. This turns out to be a poor idea as Francisco walk up and shoots him. The Torakage uses Mistaken Identity to swap with the Wastrel but then realises that it’s a once-pre-activation ability (I think Joe was planning on moving the Archer up with this trick) and instead moves onto the hill, where Perdita guns him down. The Austringer puts a couple of wounds on the Ten Thunders Brother who thought he was safe hiding behind a wall, then McCabe gallops round the hill but misses a shot with his net gun. Turn 2: The Austringer puts another couple of wounds on the Ten Thunders Brother then Delivers Orders to Perdita. She fires a few shots at McCabe forcing him to burn a few cards and soulstones to avoid damage, and activates Quick Draw. McCabe retaliates by moving round the hill (taking another shot from Perdita thanks to Quick Draw), shoots a Witchling then uses Stunner to paralyse him. Santiago shoots McCabe a few times but nothing is really happening thanks to McCabe’s armour. The Archer, having had to spend the first turn laboriously walking into place instead of being placed in range by the Torakage, fires a rather nasty shot the un-paralysed Witchling Stalker before Francisco takes him down to a couple of wounds left. Finally, the Witchling charges McCabe and does nothing and the Ten Thunders Brother does the same to the paralysed Witchling for the same effect. Turn 3: The Austringer, noticing that there are a lot of models around with very few wounds left, shoots down first the wounded Wastrel then the Archer. He then Delivers Orders to Perdita again who companions with Santiago then finishes off the Ten Thunders Brother and takes out an unwounded Wastrel. Santiago fires wildly into the melee with McCabe for a couple of wounds. McCabe, who is now feeling rather lonely, gees up his horsey with the Invigorating Bridle then Rides Down Perdita and both Witchlings, slowing both of the latter and then shooting Francisco. The rest of my crew shoot McCabe for very little effect. Turn 4: McCabe heals his horse again, then charges the Austringer and tramples the poor falconer down to a single wound. Joe noted a few minutes after this that he should have used Ranged Expert to shoot before doing this, but we didn’t roll back. The Austringer pushes out of combat and Santiago manages to avoid a disengaging strike for the first time in ages to leave McCabe out of melee. Perdita shoots a few times then Obeys Francisco to charge. A Flurry from the duelist finishes the horse on the first attack, but Joe cleverly puts the dismounted version of McCabe out of reach. Presumably Francisco is so busy flurrying that he doesn’t notice that he is flogging a dead horse. Both Witchlings charge in too, but they can’t make anything stick. Turn 5: I win initiative and Perdita companions with Francisco and Obeys him to charge McCabe. Sadly he Black Jokers his charge attacks, so Perdita sighs and charges in herself, soulstoning the attack out of sight (McCabe had long since used up the last of his cache) and finishing him off in person. As I have the only remaining models on the board I am free to move everyone comfortably far from my deployment zone and pick up my Stake a Claim. I take the victory 8 – 0 in the end. Once again, that finished very quickly so we have a good chat and watch a bit of the other games going on. For the final round I am drawn against David and his Neverborn. Game 3: Guild (me) vs Neverborn (David) Strategy: Destroy the Evidence Schemes: Guild: Breakthrough, Raid! Neverborn: Stake a Claim, an unannounced scheme which (not surprisingly) turned out to be Kidnap Crews: Guild: Perdita Ortega, 2 Guild Hounds, 2 Witchling Stalkers, Santiago Ortega, Austringer Neverborn: Jakob Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Mr Graves, Illuminated, Beckoner, Stitched Together, 2 Desperate Mercenaries I take Perdita again as I think that I’ll need her speed and ranged threat for this strategy. Obey should allow me to move some minions onto or away from markers as needed. I take the Guild Hounds as they’re fast and pretty useful for destroying markers since they’re significant when they stay close together. I actually own Lynch and some of these models so I have a reasonable idea of what they can do, but Hungering Darkness is a real beast to get rid of, and the reputation of Stitched Together precedes them. I deploy in a group to my left as that is where the majority of markers have ended up. David’s crew split up with Lynch, Graves and the Beckoner in a group on my right and everyone else facing my models down a valley between two hills. Turn 1: Hungering Darkness puts Brilliance on one of the Desperate Mercenaries, and the Stitched Together puts up his Creepy Fog. Luckily, Austringers don’t need line of sight so it gets pecked for a few wounds. Everyone else moves up a bit and Santiago shoots at the Hungering Darkness but doesn’t do anything of note. Turn 2: The Austringer, continuing his amazing run from the previous game, gets the Stitched Together down to its Does Not Die wound and takes out the Desperate Mercenary. Hungering Darkness responds by charging a Witchling and killing him off then using Heed My Voice to force the other one to charge the Austringer, killing him too. Ouch! At this point David realises that he forgot to deploy the Illuminated so we put him on the table and move him up as he would ave done in turn 1. The Guild Hounds charge up and kill the other Desperate Mercenary and get started on the Illuminated. To be fair to them, the Illuminated is somewhat out of their league, but I wanted to tie him up while I tidied up the midfield. Perdita takes out the Hungering Darkness, but of course he can come back later. The Beckoner uses her wiles to give the Stalker Brilliance and lure him up on the hill, the Stitched Together kills off one of the Hounds before expiring and the Illuminated takes the other one down to a single wound remaining. To make it worse, the surviving Hound can’t interact with the Destroy the Evidence markers now as it’s only significant with its partner. Finally, Mr Graves actually scores a point by destroying the first evidence marker. I say that I feel like I’ve had a bit of a hiding that round, and David replies that he was about the state the same. Turn 3: Mr Graves charges in and kills off the last Witchling; then Perdita kills the Beckoner (causing the reappearance of Hungering Darkness on 3 wounds) and puts some damage into Mr Graves. Santiago tries to shoot the Illuminated but is narrowly out of range. The Hungering Darkness charges Perdita but she’s a tricky one to hit so he does nothing but trap her in melee. My Hound runs off to hide from the Illuminates as it only has one wound left but will still count for my Raid! scheme, and the Illuminated himself charges Santiago and beats him down the Hard to Kill wound. Finally, Jakob, delighted that no-one has attacked him, strolls around and picks up another marker. Turn 4: The Hungering Darkness attacks Perdita but it still can’t connect, and Mr Graves charges in and has the same problem. Sadly, Santiago is much easier to hit and despite three attempts to get out of melee with the Illuminated is kept in every time. Perdita is tired of toying with her prey and guns down both Mr Graves and the Hungering Darkness, then the Illuminated takes out Santiago. Turn 5: I need to kill of the Illuminated to get Raid! and get a significant model into David’s deployment zone for Breakthrough. Only Perdita can manage that, so she shoot the Illuminated, using soulstones and cheating to make sure he stays down (in fact, I got the rare but hilarious triple Critical Strike to do so) and then starts running forward. Jakob sits next to his Stake a Claim objective happy in the knowledge that he won’t be shot. Turn 6: Perdita runs into the deployment zone to complete Breakthrough. We count up victory points and I lose 5 – 4 (first evidence marker, Stake a Claim and Kidnap for David, and Breakthrough and Raid! for me). What a great game. It was brutal from start to finish, and with better play I feel like I might have had a chance to win. The scores are counted and I finish up in third place behind David (first) and Aramoro (second). I’ve had three very fun games against three very fun players. As for out little group, I think we did very well. Aramoro and I got little trophies for first and second while Forkbanger, taking part in his first Malifaux tournament, took home the much larger trophy for best painted crew (which can be seen here). Thanks very much to David for organising another brilliant tournament and to Andrew, Joe and David for three fantastic hilarious games. There are a few photo galleries from David here, here and here. I’m already looking forward to the next one. A final thought: of twelve players at the tournament, three of us have beards. Of the players who placed in the top three, three of us have beards. Coincidence?

The ‘XY Tactica’ mentioned already exist in the PullMyFinger wiki, so it might be appropriate to sticky a link to that in each faction forum. But the wiki tends toward making the best of every model [maybe except for the Malifaux Child, which has a less-than-glowing entry] so it is more useful for applying the miniatures you already own than assessing which models complement each other, especially as a new player. Getting a direct response to a direct question also allows tailoring such as ‘I prefer such-and-such a playstyle, can you help?’ which is hard to glean from the forums in general unless you can search through hundreds of threads. Also, this is not such a busy forum that having an extra ‘I am new, what do you recommend?’ thread every few weeks is causing a problem in the traffic.

I optimistically / naively suggest that it might be to do with game balance. Although it is a bit odd, there are plenty of other oddities in the game that also don't break the illusion. In particular, note the height of certain models compared to the Ht stat. The effigies (Ht 1) in particular are a lot bigger than some of the Ht 2 miniatures.

Thanks Jo. I fully appreciate that organising such an event must be a really tricky problem, and I hope that it all goes well. It's been mentioned in the Scottish Malifaux group that we would like to get down to this sort of event and if we had enough notice we could arrange some cheaper travel.

I am Paul Campbell; DavidKerrSmith pointed me over to this thread. Thanks for the invitation (though I cannot for the life of me imagine how I come to be eligible to compete as 'Malifaux Master') but I am sad to say that I won't be able to attend. The notice is too short and the distance (and hence travel cost) is too great this time. It's a shame as I would very much have liked to come and learn from / get hammered by some great players. I guess I'll just have to play lots of Malifaux over the next year and try to get an invite again. Would it be possible for the next year's event to get the invitations out further ahead of time? It would allow those of us from Scotland a bit more time to organise a car or something similar. Anyway, good luck to everyone taking part. I hope to read some detailed reports so I can vicariously enjoy the event.

That list of miniatures should give you plenty to get going with. It might be that as you play more games with the Guild you find that some crucial piece would open up a new avenue for you and you can re-budget for that. Having said that, here are some opinions based on my own experiences in Malifaux: 1. Get the Executioner over the Judge. Reason: the Judge comes in the Lady Justice box anyway so you might find you want that later (Death Marshalls, which also come in the box, are strong option). 2. Save the money and only get one Austringer. Reason: While you’re starting with these crews you will want to get some variety. Austringers are pretty good (and doubtless others will advise that taking two is the best thing regardless of strategies and schemes) but two represent a big chunk of your force. You might find yourself getting tracked into a particular style by doubling up as they favour static play. 3. Play a few games with Samael Hopkins. Reason: Samael is a hilarious piece due to his outrageous damage from shooting. You should put him on the table a few times just to see how much overkill he puts out. He certainly has limitations, and your friends will find ways to deal with him but I think he’s a decent option. Also, how can you say ‘no’ to a cross-dressing cowboy? Good luck with the Guild.

Here is the Hungering Darkness. He’s an evil demon thing who lives in the basement of the Honeypot, the casino owned by Mr Lynch, eating the souls of various gamblers. In game, he’s hilarious as he gives people the Brilliance effect, uses them to do his bidding, then pops back out of them when they finally die (if anyone has been able to kill him in the meantime). The miniature, while looking reasonably like the artwork, is difficult to paint well as it looks like a giant tadpole. I opted to paint the legs a different colour from his body simply to make the Hungering Darkness look a bit less like a big black blob. I’m still unsure on the eyes, which are plain white at the moment. The rest of the Brilliance-infected crew will have pupil-less eyes to show their inhumanity but it doesn’t look great at this size. On the other hand, my other thoughts (e.g. slit pupils) would be hard to pull off without looking even more silly, so I’m going to leave them for now in case I get inspiration.

I like those a lot. Is the shininess caused by varnish, by the photography or some other effect? My favourites are the first two Witchling Stalkers, though I’m slightly biased since they’re my preferred sculpts in any case.

That is some lovely painting. Is the running Guild Hound really that colour, or it just the photography? It looks almost yellow in the picture and considering the naturalistic colours of the standing one it seems like an odd choice.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, especially those who provided some reasoning for their choice rather than just listing the name of an ability. It seems to me that there is no consensus over what is a powerful action, but that the best abilities are considered to be either those that give more actions (e.g. Fast) or increase the efficacy of an action (e.g. Use Soulstones). I suppose that these give the most ‘bang for your buck’ by either letting a model do more in its activation or giving a better chance of succeeding at that action. In other words, taking (and succeeding) actions is considered to be more important than having a powerful but unreliable (or AP-intensive). Now that I come to write this down, it seems rather obvious actually.

What is everyone’s opinion on the most powerful single ability in the game? My vote would go to Obey. It can be cast on friendly models to get extra use out of them, for example to Charge then Flurry (in their own activation). It can be cast on enemy models to move them to awkward places, attack their friends, effectively paralyse them (if there is a terrifying model in play on either side). You can use it get schemes of your own if they only need a (1) Interact. Its main weakness is that it is avoided by Immune to Influence, though there aren’t many crews which are filled with only those models (mainly just Guild constructs that I can think of as a major group though the ability is present in a variety of others).