rythos42

My tags labelled "ice golem" have all my work on it so far. http://geeksong.com/pigment.apply/tag/ice-golem/ I've got about 2 more posts to write up over the next 1-2 weeks, but I finished all the LED work and have got a light inside my ice golem: Here's a photo of where I paused, because Kaeris got me excited instead of finishing this. (this big, is why I'm not putting it directly here) http://geeksong.com/pigment.apply/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/wpid-imag1101.jpg

The baseball analogy falls apart, I think. The pitch that is being thrown is a tactical decision being made, it's more akin to choosing which Scheme you're playing. (I don't baseball at all...) It's more like the batter not knowing if it's 3 strikes or 2 before he's out. (And obviously it's stupid if he didn't know...) Whereas the Metal Gamin thing is a problem because there's a ton of information in Malifaux and I think it's silly to expect (as SC says) encyclopedic knowledge of every card.

What you don't know is that your opponent is borrowing my Tara crew as Ressers... (or is he?!!) I'm just here to read and taunt, I'm not going to help you because I want your opponent to win. (but don't let that stop anyone else!)

My girlfriend got home tonight to my package and sent me photos of the outside of it >.> ...I had to wait until late tonight to come home and open it up to see what's inside. How surprised was I, when I opened it to find... A cat popped out!! Well...just kidding...the cat is mine, but she loved the box. Poor maligned Gypsy...made to suffer for my entertainment... Thanks so much Andrew Weakland for the Relic Hunters box, it's exactly what I wanted this holiday season!

I really like Field Generator and Under Pressure and Arcane Reservoir the few times I've played him. Buff buff buff! Seize is 1ss to give (+) to initiative. Killswitch is a 1ss upgrade that doesn't take an upgrade slot and is played facedown, when the model is killed it does 1 Wd to models in (P)2. Decoy is paired with Killswitch, is a 0ss upgrade that doesn't take an upgrade slot and is played facedown. The idea is that your opponent doesn't know which model has the killswitch.

Very sorry Brdp, but if we came up with it independently, I wrote it down first -- check the third post. I don't think it needs to be able to be avoided. In most cases, it's a 1AP loss compared to normal games, from a model that you didn't have a moment ago.

There may be other problems that appear if we find and like a summoning houserule that we like, but that doesn't discredit the idea of the thread. That the game won't ever be perfectly balanced isn't a reason to not think about it, and have fun talking about it! I really like the Upgrade idea. It's simple, it's small, it can be adjusted and it helps to off-set the benefit of summoning. If you have to take an Upgrade that costs 4ss to make summoning work like normal, your summoning starts off at a disadvantage compared to 50ss games. At that point I'd support discarding Soulstones to summon - non-Upgrade summoning should be painful. Maybe just 1 stone per action. It also means that the summoning player can decide at the start of the game whether they want to focus on summoning or not. A Dreamer player may be "forced" to take it, or may take Fighty Chompy. A Sonnia player may just ignore summoning.

Godlyness, that was a massive post that could have been summarized by your last sentence. You don't think the original goal is possible. I think, as Hateful said, that anything would be an improvement and could be start rough and be refined into being a generally useful houserule. I like Brd's idea, although I think it's a much harsher version of what I proposed with cards. SS's are the ultimate in non-renewable resources! I'd definitely go with 3- instead of 4-, as 4- is brutal even at turn 3! This is, effectively "no summoning until turn 3" except that a player has a choice, and I like choices.

<threadcromancy> Is there any word of a digital copy we can buy?

Simple is good. It's a decent rule, would be nice to see how it plays out on the table.

If we imagine a 50ss game where your opponent summoned 75ss of stuff, you lose that game because you didn't play the game properly, not because it's unbalanced. In a 35ss game if your opponent summoned 75ss of stuff, it's because she has the same number of resources (hand size, AP, soulstones) as in the 50ss but is unbalanced because the outcome a much higher ratio than the starting number. I don't like a hard cap on summoning limits, because I think that any hard cap we think of won't account for that "bad play". There's no hard cap at 50, I don't think there should be at 35. I just want a system whereby if I screw up and my opponent summons everything, they can only summon 53ss of models, instead of 75ss! I'm interested more in methods of reducing the available resources for summoning down to 70% (35/50) of normal (so a 30% reduction). The card discard means you have 1 fewer card to play with - this reduces card resources by 16%. Needing +1AP to summon reduces AP resources by 50%. Making the summoned model Paralyzed also reduces resources by 50%. What if you had to discard cards equal to 4-{current turn number} to use a summon action? You could summon first turn, but it would be expensive. Turn 2 you could get 2 things out and turn 3 you're paying a minor price. Turns 4 and 5 and beyond, there's no penalty, but the summoned models also have fewer AP to be used over the game. It would affect all summoners and would limit the amount of models coming into the table by a good amount, without creating a hard limit. You can also get around it in game if you have a card draw ability (and I like rules that can be modified by good crew selection). Another idea I kind of like (similar to the "limit by Crew boxes", which I also liked, but which has some troubles) is limiting the highest soulstone cost of a model you can summon. Summoning Hanged is high-cost/high-reward, but summoning a few Guild Autopsy isn't going to break anything. I think you could set the limit at 7-8ss per model and it could have a similar effect as CrewBoxes, but without overly hurting Nico/Dreamer. It doesn't slow Ramos at all still though.

I'm interested in this because I think that 35ss is still a very interesting game. You have barely enough to perform your schemes/strategies, you have to be very careful about what models you pick and how you use them. The game may be balanced at 50, but that doesn't mean I don't want to play other levels (and have them be a little more balanced).

A few more brainstorming ideas summons cost an additional AP. Increase TN by 5-{turn number}. Add a new suit to summoning abilities. Summoned models come in Paralyzed instead of Slow. Summoned models lose additional wounds. Have to discard a card before summoning. I think that any solution will probably be a combination of ideas. I have thoughts on Scarlett Fever's ideas, but am keeping them to myself for now in the interest in brainstorming a bunch of things we can discuss as a whole. Or discuss those combination. Or...yeah.

My absolute favourite thing about this game (hi Justin!!) is how stellar the rules are. I find WHFB (my other miniature game) incredibly difficult to fit into my head, such that I've read the rulebook 5-8 times, have played the latest edition since it came out, and I still consistently get rules wrong. The rules for this game are concise, and (for the most part) they make sense. The rules all fit together, allowing a player to more often get the correct answer for a rules question because it makes sense in the context of all the other rules. More rules love, I love that the game is (mostly) balanced by Scheme and Crew selection. At the outset, I don't necessarily have to worry about what my opponent is taking, I just have to worry about my Schemes, my Strategy, my Crew and how I'm going to make it all work. (and sure, my opponent is going to try to stop me...but I can worry about that later ) My favourite models are the Rail Crew...I love the downtrodden workers, fighting for their freedom!! ...but I had the most fun painting Killjoy. It's awful, but I spent hours loving painting the bruises and fat and folds in his skin... Best game is still against Mach_5, when, in the last turn, I stole 3VPs from him by Magnetizing and attacking my own Metal Gamin to stop him from getting Take Prisoner. Second best against Haunter, when he Whispersed Tara, an in response I had the Malifaux Child Bury Tara and a Void Wretch heal and remove the condition. I really <3 finding fun interactions.

I can't speak to the TT side... I've enjoyed: Firestarter. Mobile, shooty henchman that Mei misses from the rest of her theme crew. December Acolyte. I've stopped taking this guy recently because I tend to get him killed, but he's damn good. Joss is awesome for obvious reasons. Sue is another ranged model that is good times. I've taken the Arcane Effigy, since there is obvious interactions there, but I usually end up wishing I had Johan instead. Your mileage may vary.

You're welcome! Last year Mike posted me some awesome Malifools swag, so I wanted to send some fun stuff back across the ocean in return! (and if my gifter is reading -- I haven't received anything in the mail, but maybe this week the post office will open and bring me fun stuff!)

I'm hoping my stuff arrives today! Leaving tomorrow for a week away from home for the holidays and would love to have something to assemble while I'm wishing I wasn't at the inlaws. P

Really like something Pyrflamme said -- "board state". I would like to play Malifaux as though, at all times, everyone knows everything that is public knowledge. Because this isn't actually possible in all cases, I do my best to ensure that public knowledge is known when it is relevant. At the same time...I will occasionally mention something important at the beginning of the game, and ...uhh...not mention it again. So maybe I'm not as awesome a person as I think I am.

The reason is because I feel like my opponent is actually not asking "How many wounds does the Metal Gamin have?". Their actual question is "How hard is it to kill that Metal Gamin?", but they've phrased it wrong. I feel like it's also a question of expectations -- if I say "2 wounds", my opponent expects to do 2 wounds and kill it. If he does 2 wounds and I say "oh yeah, that's only 1 and it has HtK", he's going to feel lied to and that sucks. But on the good side of the article - everything to do with dropping Scheme markers to lie about Schemes, dealing with your hand in a certain way, considering it, not considering it, is all great tactics. (although personally I'd not say "I can't beat that" if I could -- I'm not ok with explicitly lying. I will never say that I can't beat it, because I'd rather leave that to their imagination).

Definitely parts of the deception article were excellent. The bits that I don't like, and unfortunately I've heard it all before from a good friend of mine whom I disagree with, are "giving your opponent advice to try to make them do what you want" and "providing only the information they ask for, and nothing else". My problem with the first is that it sounds so genuine, it sounds so much like they are actually trying to help, so when it turns out it was a ploy I feel betrayed. I assume that my friends (and whether I know you yet or not, we're friends by default because we love Malifaux!) don't lie to me, so please don't do that. The second is just as annoying. There is a ton of information to know in this game, and sure not telling all of this stuff marks the difference between "skilled" and "super skilled", but I don't want someone to win because they didn't know Montresor had Terrifying, or that my Metal Gamin has Hard to Kill, I want to win because I played a better game. Someone does this to me consistently, I stop playing them. Someone asks me how many wounds that Metal Gamin has left, I tell them 2, with Hard to Kill and Armor +2, and I appreciate when they do the same. Actually, the same thing with Triggers. "I'm on 18 with an execute trigger". If I want more information, I'll ask, but if you just say "18" and I pass on cheating and you say "oh yeah, I'm executing", we're going to have words! And this isn't a case of regular/tournament play, again -- I'm with the "competitive all the time" crowd. I just think there are some lines that aren't meant to be crossed, if you want to be invited back to the club again.

Has anyone got any experience with this? All of the examples seem to be for vehicles, but after seeing SpiralingCadaver's Woes with the back light, I started wondering about adding an internal light maybe.

Wow, Seregon knows how to do the taunting right! I don't even know what his poem means!!

Whadija get?!?

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?! (deliberately not linking to Seven here...cause that's not whats in the box...)

I feel like there's not enough taunting going on. Does anyone else feel like there isn't enough taunting? Posted today...