paradoxstorm

Do you have hills? Some scraps of styrofoam or the foam used for building insulation can be used to produce everything from simple hills to providing the foundation for complex landscapes. The terrain tutor on youtube has a "Back to basics" series that shows hill making from simple to moderate. Other videos The various foams don't like the propellant in spray paints--makes them melt--so you'll either need some brush on house paint or you'll want to give the pieces a couple of coats of watered down PVA/home made paper mache before spray painting. If you want a lot of hills with minimum work seal your foam with glue and use one of the stone texture spray paints. The house insulation foam is the easiest to work with and comes in 4'x8' sheets at home builder stores, but large enough bits of packing Styrofoam can be used--cut them to a basic shape then use a candle to create some more rock-like contours. If you are willing to put in more time then there are many options for doing more--tree bark and plaster molds for making rock faces, flock for grass, sand for more texture.

I use home made stuff. Lots of instructional videos on youtube if you like to make your own.

@Justin--Thanks for the extended explanation.

I wouldn't put plastic models in an oven. I can't think why the putty wouldn't have cured by now. But I suspect if it hasn't cured by now it isn't going to.

I'm on the other side. Strictly a casual player and my primary opponent knows my models better than I do. He's really good about alerting me to any unusual special abilities before the game begins and frequently refuses to let me make an incredibly stupid move. It is appreciated.

I haven't got the rule book in front of me, but isn't there something about distances being measured from directly above--if so "up" would be a push of 0". (If not, the discussion continues.)

Probably too late for extra suggestions, but why should that stop me? Silent ones are great to have. Ice dancer is fabulous for the right schemes, but you'll need to proxy her. I also love my Blessed of December.

It is profoundly important how our sub-culture compares to the culture at large. If we are objectively worse than society at large, then we should be horrified and make cleaning our house the only subject of discussion. If we are objectively better than society at large we should both celebrate our status and use that knowledge to bring more women into gaming. At a minimum knowing that respectful behavior is the norm will shape the behavior of those who are outside the norm--it will further reduce problem sexism and we can go back to rules arguments. If more women do become part of the community low levels of problem sexism lose much of their power. See the comments from the woman earlier in this thread saying the worst part is being all alone--she is spot on. With a sufficiently large group of women for mutual social support a great deal of mild problem sexism is effectively neutralized. Mild sexist behavior such as referring to women gamers as "girls" while threatening when the woman is the one and only woman in the environment becomes much less so when 40% of the folks in the environment are women. I use "problem sexism" deliberately. The discussion in this thread is far to absolutist in that it treats all forms of sexism as equal and evil. Yet everyone who has suggested stepping in to defend women against sexist behavior are engaging sexism--coming to the aid of the helpless princess--and viewing such as positive. Training our sons to hold doors for women and expecting a higher level of behavior when they are with their girlfriend than when they are with their boy friends is sexist---but I expect most of us would endorse this form of sexism. And there seems to be a deliberate avoidance of degrees of problem sexism. I notice that "girl" has been used as a synonym for "woman" in this thread and yet no one objected to this sexist usage. Why? Such usage in the mid-1970's would have earned you a multi-page telling off, yet today nobody blinks. It didn't stop being sexist, it just reached the point where very few people care. At least no one in this discussion cares.

Blessed was hard to find in metal and only recently got released in plastic, so a lot of folks haven't had the chance to play her. Blessed leaps and has 2 AP to deliver a message. Charge, hit twice, leap away--preferably to cover. Blessed can easily leap/walk to the opponent's side of the board for break through or plant evidence. Also useful for chasing down isolated scheme runners. She is a mirror for Raspy if needed. So much goodness.

There is also lore in the old rule books. Somewhere someone even put together a story arc timeline for the various source stories so that you could read them in order. [and I hope someone has the link handy and posts it in this thread as I neglected to print it out the first time I saw it ] That said, there are quite a few of us who have occasionally lobbied for Wyrd to gather up the various stories into a single bound volume (or two, depending on length). Like you, and I think many of us, I have a strong preference for a single book--even a book that is a bound volume of already published short stories. [Dear Wyrd, I would be willing to help] A volume of new material is also something I, and I expect many others, would welcome and willingly pay for.

I am struggling to find any ambiguity in the wording of sub zero. "...immediately end the attacker's activation" does not, for me, provide any wiggle room for interpretation. "immediately" is redundant, however the redundancy provides emphasis on the interpretation of the timing: immediately--right away--without delay--instantaneously. Whichever synonym you choose, once MI damage is inflicted the attacker stops and can do nothing more. It ends its activation. Defining the attacker does would create an issue if one assumes that a prompted or obeyed model is the attacker, but I don't think they are. If Zoraida prompts my ice gamin to kill my Wendigo, does Zoraida get to count the kill towards Reckoning? Of course she does--she is the active model and she controls the attack. Consistency demands that she is also considered the attacker for sub zero and so would end her activation immediately if sub zero is triggered, which would simultaneously free the obeyed model from the obey action.

Got to admit I am curious about this one as well.

I picked my first box based on the looks of the models. Then I got my hands on a copy of the big rule book and read the 2-3pp fluff intro for each of the masters. Two spoke to me, only one was easily available. Perfect choice for me. Later started listening to "Before we Begin" podcast. What was originally my second-to-last faction choice has become tied for second.

Yep. I don't mind playing against ressers, but I like to have a faction to bitch about and those dirty, filthy ressers are a perfect faction for such bitching because.... Couldn't have said it better.

I'd like to see how things turn out as well. A second option to try for sparkles is fingernail polish with glitter.

Simply stunning. Stunning!

I have pokemon syndrome and I buy them. My friends, who are healthy, don't. Whatever works for you is what works for you.

I'm still happy with my initial faction choice. What I would do is I would be more focused with my building/painting. I still cannot field a crew of models without including some that are only primed or are mostly primed with a splash of paint. This despite the fact that I have over a dozen models fully painted and another 20ish or so in process spread across two factions and fluff-wise tied to 5 or 6 masters. If I lost all my models today and were starting over I pick two masters, their crew boxes, and associated thematic models to make sure I have enough for ~70ss crews for each. Those get built and painted while the rest of the models stay under lock-and-key. (I don't have to stop buying them, just need to build a few at a time.)

OOOOOO! I wish this had occurred to me before I ordered a box of plastic "metal" gamin!!!!

Chess has only 6 distinct pieces and a mere 64 distinct board locations yet people manage to engage it deeply for a very, very long time. If that's how you wish to play Malifaux then so be it. Clearly it is working for you and if you are happy with your current approach to the game then sell off/give away your unused models so that they are not torturing you with sad puppy looks as you ignore them yet again. But if you are not happy the only way to move beyond your current comfortable choices is to get uncomfortable for a while and play different models until you figure out how they work. What's the advice? "Ten games with a master to get a reasonable understanding of how the master works." Or something like that. Whatever, the same advice applies to individual models. You didn't learn how to use Mech Rider or Cassandra effectively in a single game or two or even three. You played them, made mistakes, learned, and eventually started using them effectively. Toss a new model in the game and your hard-won expertise is gone. You have no knowledge base for that particular model. In addition it is the "new guy" on the team and since you don't understand it individually you certainly won't use it effectively as part of the team. You will use the new model badly, make mistakes, and probably lose. That's uncomfortable! You will never figure out some models--but you will find places for some that you've been ignoring till now. But you'll have to get uncomfortable first.

I'm guessing that if the scale were much larger the models wouldn't work as well as game pieces. I have a love/hate thing going with the plastics. They look nice, but they are a pain to assemble. So many fiddly bits that are too small for even my smaller than average hands. Parts that take two hands to hold in place while a third hand reaches for the glue--except I never grew a third hand. Parts that despite dry fitting repeatedly refuse to go where they belong once the cement is brushed on. And it is probably just me, but I have more gaps to fill than I did with metals. And, I just like working with metal. On the plus side, there is more and better detail. IF you can get them assembled and are a good enough painter to manage the details the plastic models look pretty sweet.

Since I didn't see an actual answer I'll make a guess. Based on past history an online gencon order arrives anywhere from 1 - 3 weeks following gencon. The listed release date is August 28th, about 4 weeks post-gencon. Online ordering gets it into your hands 1 - 3 weeks sooner than if you wait for the LGS to get it in. Unless you really, really, cannot wait to show it to your friends, I'd wait and support the LGS.

There are several wave 1 masters just coming out and a few wave 1 models are still not on the schedule--2. 5 years, yes. One year--not even close. I expect the same, and it makes me sad. If Malifaux becomes another Magic where I am forced to buy new models to essentially replace old models that do they same thing but are no longer "Type II" expect all my Malifaux stuff to hit ebay. Malifaux is strategically rich enough that it can be played in a completed form for years while still providing interesting challenges. But to maintain a revenue stream either new players or new models are a must. As delightful as Malifaux is, I suspect the pool of potential players is limited and I am uncertain how much revenue can be realized from the release of special edition models.

I abandoned my somewhat lengthy rant making roughly this same point. No need for a rant when it is quite succinctly stated here. And then I ranted in reply to Adran. Sigh.

Wow! The small rule book is out of stock and the ebay sellers are price gouging like crazy. What is up with that Wyrd folks??? In another thread Wyrd announced that they were no longer going to be printing the arsenal decks so you can get the cards you need. The wave 2 decks look to be around, but the wave 1 look to be gone at the places I shop. Obvious answer--if you have a local retailer check and see if they have either in stock. Less obvious--there is a trading sub-forum on this site where you can offer cash and the "A Wyrd Place" facebook group has lots of folks who will answer a plea for help in locating the stuff you need. I like having the physical card while I play, but they are all reprinted in the large rule book (which does appear to be available) if you cannot find the cards in a shop somewhere. Not nearly as nice, but you could buy the large rule book, photocopy pages, and cut/paste onto old magic cards.