Argentbadger

Thanks for the explanation everyone. Nix –with Adran’s suggestion about the power of Grudge in a Zoraida crew, would you stick with your interpretation of the rules? It seems to me that a ‘standard’ Zoraida crew of the hag plus Collodi and his puppets could easily rack up 6 vps in the first two activations of the game if playing (e.g.) Destroy the Evidence and Grudge.

Finally, here is the last of the Ortegas from the starter box, Papa Loco. I’ve never actually put him on the table (which is pretty odd I suppose) since the main thing he does is blow things up, and then blow up himself. If I need that then I just reach for Sonnia Criid, who does all that and more (and critically is not going to be Obeyed by Zoraida to blow up half of my own crew on turn 1). Much like Perdita, I was initially underwhelmed by the sculpt but it really came to life as I put paint on. The colours are selected simply to match the rest of my Guild crew. As Papa Loco is supposed to be dangerously insane I reverted to my early days of painting when it came to the eyes, hoping that the wild-eyed look I had achieved on every single one of my first forays would finally come into its own. Sadly it doesn’t work at photography scale (though it doesn’t look too dreadful at table top distance).

Thanks for the great report. It’s a good mix of text and pictures, and has enough detail to understand some of the reasons for the flow of the game. I have one question though. In turn two it states: I read that as Zoraida killing the Archer and getting the points for Grudge. Doesn’t Grudge require a minion to deliver the final blow?

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on the victory. I love this style of battle report as it gives a chance for the reader to understand the rationale behind certain actions. If I may be so bold, I’d suggest that a picture or two would break up the text very neatly. I am in the same boat as Underdog6750 – looking for a change I have picked up the Dark Debts box to get a change from my Guild. I’m going to get some more Ten Thunders miniatures as they are released.

I love the way the bases add to the overall miniatures, especially the dynamism of Papa Loco jumping off the gravestone. The painting is excellent too. I like the way you’ve managed to paint some life into Perdita’s face; I found that a rather drab sculpt.

That’s some very nice work on Lady Justice. The attention to detail with things like the painted nails takes it up a notch on top of the paint job itself. I really like the hair colour; combined with the (relatively) muted colour elsewhere it makes a good focal point for the miniature. Would it be possible to get a back shot to see more of the hair, and also another wider focussed picture of the front (since the top half is slightly out of focus). You can be very proud of your work here.

Nathan Caroland – thanks very much. So, Sholto, eh. Did I say fan? Did I say fanboy? It looks like I meant stalker (see post 10). Edit: Now that I think about, Marco Bonatti the tattooed Arcanist should probably have been a bit of a give-away.

I am reading my way through the fiction of Twisting Fates (yes, I'm way behind the times) and I wanted to express my thanks to whoever wrote the story with the Witchling Stalker. There are six writers listed in the credits so I have no way of telling whose work it is, but whoever you are I can tell you that you have a fan (or possibly a fanboy). My favourite part: Great work. If I hadn't already painted my Witchling Handler, I would have given her a skull's stark lines in black hunter's kohl on her face.

The proposed list looks reasonable to me, depending on the strategy and schemes of course. If you need to do a lot interacting with objectives then you could look to swap Sidir out for (e.g.) a pair of Guild Hounds and a Death Marshall or another Witchling Stalker. I don’t really feel like Perdita will need too much protection from Sidir at 25SS as she starts with a high defence and can use soulstones to keep out of trouble. It could be worth it if your opponent has Contain Power or you choose Bodyguard. If you’re mainly using Sidir for his gun then Santiago is an option who can take advantage of Companion (Family) and is cheaper to boot. As Abraxus4 points out, Austringers are good but you need to make sure that they’ll help you score victory points as they tend to be very static. Generally I find that they move to somewhere safe first turn then their outrageous range will let them plink away at things for the rest of the game. That can be good if you’re trying to kill everyone (e.g. Slaughter) or if getting a kill will stop something scoring against you (e.g. Stake a Claim), but they aren’t likely to spend much of their own time interacting with any objectives. I’d second Scuttlebut’s opinion on Francisco. He can be quite fragile but if you can get the drop on someone he really can cause damage. I especially like to companion him with Perdita, get her to Obey him to charge something and then Flurry whatever is left. With the Enslaved Nephilim you can even do it twice if you manage to take out your first victim in one shot.

I’ve found that one of the facets of Malifaux that keeps it different from other table top games I’ve played is that you can select your crew after you find out the strategy and your opponent’s faction. So there is no need to build a ‘take all comers’ list as is common in other games. For that reason alone I’d advocate initially staying within a faction, at least until you’ve built up a tool box of miniatures to use. It’s true that most of the Ten Thunders faction is not yet released but if you have the Storm of Shadows book then you could proxy anything that’s not out. Still, who am I to tell you how to enjoy your hobby? I’d say pick up the miniatures that appeal to you most and have whatever kind of fun you like.

Thanks for your thoughts. Sadly, in this case I was the one playing Ten Thunders so I was the one who should have been on the receiving end of this treatment. It is good to know how the rules are meant to interact. And soon I'll bust this move out on some unsuspecting victim. Mwahahahaha.

How does Terrifying interact with Obey (and Obey-like spells)? In a game last night an Illuminated was Obeyed to charge the Hungering Darkness. At the time we ruled that the Terrifying wouldn't apply since the miniatures are on the same side, but looking back I think that isn't the case due to the change of controller caused by Obey. Is it legal tactic to force minions to charge Terrifying creatures and then cheat down their morale flip, thereby effectively paralysing them while they rally?

To echo the thoughts of others, I think that Raid is a perfectly viable scheme for Guild. In general you can have a good number of cheap minions who are hard to get rid of and/or quite killy. In particular, if you take a few of the strong 4SS pieces like Witchling Stalkers and Death Marshalls you can start with a numerical advantage and work to keep it that way. Frequently I find that a good chunk of my time is spent killing other minions to prevent them from interacting with objectives so it’s a good opportunity to get some VPs for doing something I’d be attempting anyway. My experience is that it’s particularly good if the other side is forced to engage you, e.g. if you are the defender in A Line in the Sand. Of course, it’s not suitable for all situations and playing against Hamelin, Nicodem or other masters with a strong summoning element will make it trickier to achieve. Sonnia Criid can be a particularly good master for this scheme as she can also summon more Witchling Stalkers to bolster your own crew further.

My second Guild master is Perdita Ortega. Like all masters in Malifaux, she has a ridiculous list of abilities, most of which come in useful at various time, but the one I always fall back in is just shooting people in the face repeatedly. Presumably she has more depth to discover, but after only a few games with Perdita leading my crews I’m very happy with the way she plays. Initially I wasn’t very keen on the understated pose of the miniature but it’s really grown on me lately so I like the idea of just waiting to quick-draw someone and put them in the dust at high noon. The hair, which is something of a focal point of the miniature, is a failed experiment for me. I tried a highlight in purple to try and give it some ‘lustre’ (which is something people apparently look for in hair; I wouldn’t know – no-one advertises products to give a lustrous beard) but it turned out to be too light and it just looks like she has purple hair. I only finished painting it just before a tournament and didn’t have time to fix it, but since then I’ve grown to like it so I’m not going to change it now. I have, however, fixed the chips in the hat. These pictures also feature a guest appearance from my assistant, Argentbadger junior.

@Viruk: Thanks for your continued kind words in this thread. Nino is one of the few Malifaux miniatures that I really dislike. It’s a shame that he’s so good on the table, although everyone else (particularly my opponents) seems to rate him much more highly than I do. I’d like to see what you do to make his pose less ridiculous. @Bobzilla: Thank you for the compliment. As you can see, my attempt to fix his pose was less than successful. I think your Death Marshalls look really good. To be fair, they’re (not quite) undead cowboys carrying coffins around with them, so anything to make them less silly is going to be a long shot. Anyway, Nino’s ankle finally broke, so I’m going to pin him back together, Milliput the join for strength and then sort out the painting on his leg. I’d actually held off varnishing him because I knew that would happen and I didn’t want any issues with the tidy-up paint job.

Nice painting. I have to say I really enjoyed painting my own Guild Hounds as the miniatures give the impression of a lot of energy. You’ve done a good job for something you didn’t even like. Witchling Stalkers are just great all round – fun to paint and good value in the game.

The last of the younger Ortega boys, here is Nino Ortega. Popular opinion seems to be that he is amazing on the table, but my experience has generally been that it’s either feast or famine. In a recent game I did manage to get 5 shots out of two action points, both ‘ending’ shots being headshots to boot, but that’s an exception. Headshot in general is not likely to be a kill as most turns there will be a couple of low cards in hand to discard. On the other hand, milling cards away can be effective under some circumstances. By contrast to Francisco and Santiago, I really dislike the miniature itself. The pose is really wonky – I don’t know much about guns but I imagine that shooting a massive rifle like that while standing on one leg is not ideal if you want to hit anything. I tried to make it so he looked like he was resting the front foot on the kerb of his base, but it’s not really come out well. Nino’s face is very blandly sculpted, with almost no detail, and the whole thing is supported on one very spindly ankle. It’s only a matter of time before that comes off and I have to pin his leg back together, but I’m putting it off for now. Something weird has occurred with his face in the photo, as the ‘just finished eating chocolate’ look isn’t there is real-life.

Nice report, I like the 'over-excited sports commetator' style. It sounds like both players had a good time. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words and inspiration. It is certainly easier to paint a miniature that you like rather than grinding through those that are just 'ok' (though I am a bit of a fanboy in that regard and generally like much of Wyrd's stuff). It's funny you should say about the varnish as, although I do use varnish on metal miniatures for protective purposes, these photos are taken before varnishing. I guess it may be an effect of my poor photograph.

Amazing miniatures, though Molly is the stand-out for me. I look forward to seeing them destroying me on the table top at some stage.

Great painting, and a very nice miniature. It's good to see shots of miniatures, rather than shots of you taking shots of miniatures (and aspersions on your 'other hobby').

Here is Santiago Ortega, the shootier brother (or cousin, who knows?) of Francisco. He’s really nice in game, as his shooting is excellent and he even gets better if he’s injured. I’ve heard of people deliberately shooting him in the back on turn 1 to get this effect, but never tried it. My experience has generally been that he gets taken out in one turn so I never get the benefit, or he gets stuck in combat with something and never escapes. Partnering him with Francisco helps to mitigate that a little since the latter is actually competent in melee, but neither is exactly robust. As for the miniature, I love it. So much character and such a lovely pose. It was like it painted itself. Santiago is meant to be some sort of Mexican gunslinger (so presumably should have dark hair) but as soon as I took him out of the box I knew he was going to get ginger hair. I think it fits him quite nicely. And apparently at least one other person did, as I won ‘best painted miniature‘ for him at Skirmish Showdown, an achievement which makes me a happy geek.

@ttsgosadow, Sholto: thanks. @Grenoir: Sadly, I think that my cards have to take most of the credit for my win against Malcolm's Hoffman crew. At least in the central belt of Scotland (or on this forum), if you haven't seen Hoffman lose much it might be because Sholto plays him so well. @DavidKerrSmith: I agree on the timings of the rounds - relaxed gaming is better gaming for me. It's not like we're playing in the Malifaux Olympics where everything has to be Serious Business. I hope I don't sound like I was complaining about winning a painting prize as it was a very nice surprise.

I like the flames coming out of the coffin, but it looks as though there is a lot of unpainted sections too which detracts from the miniature at this range. Lady Justice looks a little flat in terms of the colour depth (that is probably just the light) but I'm a fan of the colour choices. My favourite is probably the Austringer's bird.

I really like the colours on your Lazarus, and the skin tone on the Necropunk.