Suvalas

Not bad on the guesses there Shadowfane Swiglitz did indeed take Seamus, however I erred away from Mah on this occasion and decided to try out Wong. I agree that Mah would have been good for the strats and schemes but I fancied a change. Once I realised what Wongs' new upgrade 'Sparkly Lights' gave the crew, I was sold. As it turns out, the game did not pan out the way I expected. (When does it ever!?) I took: Wong with Sparkly Lights and Liquid Bravery. Sammy with Ooo Glowy Merris / Burt / 2x Swine Cursed / 2x Bayou Gremlins / Slop Hauler The vague plan was to use the multitude of abilities garnered by the upgrades on the Swine cursed and Burt, to allow me to get stuck in, interact away the Symbols and then run off relatively easily, what with 'Don't mind me' and 'Agile'. The Gremlins and Merris would work on Breakthrough and leave Wong to deal with Punish the weak (in hindsight not the best scheme to pick) As it unfolded, Swig did little to physically defend his Symbols, aside from Belle lures which worked infuriatingly well. That and blowing Merris up very quickly meant I was slow getting across the board. Missing out on the opportunity for scoring all 3 Symbols. As it turned out, I removed two in turn 5 to deny Swig that extra VP. What did go well (admittedly some great flips, and a great control hand, and Swig's lack thereof) was a Wong and Burt duet middle of Turn 2. Yin, a Belle and a Doxy were moving up one side of the board. With some Crackerjack timing, Burt managed to pull the Belle in towards Yin. Wong then subsequently attacked the Belle (circumventing Yin's nasty defence mechanisms) and blasted some heroic magic. Severe damage a couple of times severely damaged Yin and the Doxy, and wiped the Belle from the table. I believe that Yin and the Doxy were dealt with shortly after, leaving a gap in Swig's offence. Hats off to Swig at this point. I always seem to leave a large hole in his crew when he takes Seamus... He continued with aplomb and focus and got himself the win 8 - 6. Scoring once more for Punish than me, and getting that 3rd symbol at an appropriate time. We both scored 3 for Breakthrough. The game was close, bloody, and above all else great fun. Wong seems to be quite the wizard, and I look forward to playing him again when the strats and achemese line up Suvalas

Well, the list is finally written and I'm happy! We'll see how long that lasts when I see what Swiglitz sets down on Wednesday! Roll on deja vu from last week when I saw Zoraida across the table... As Swiglitz alluded to above, I didn't really have answer to the doll and it's shenanigans. At least not one that fit in with my game-plan, and I sorely needed to stick to my plan. One, for my own focus, and two, I was drained from illness and needed to keep it simple. It was the first time I'd faced off against a rider and I was determined to deal with it early. Which invariably would have netted me that table quarter and the subsequent entourage points. In tandem I thought that dealing with the Emissary would then in total, have diminished Shadowfane's Soulstones on the table, making it easier to win quarters. As it turned out, Shadowfane's crew was especially adept at killing my more delicate Gremlins. Even the Criers were killed in single activation thanks to Iggy's burning, and me with no healing or condition removal. I was happy with the Burt and Gracie combo, experiencing it for the first time, although their flank manoeuvre took a while to get there. Then to have Gracie's 'Reactivate' condition removed made me sad Perhaps I should have shoved those two into the mix and used the fragile Gremlins to skirt the flanks. The list was: Mah (Manifest Destiny / Liquid Bravery) Burt (Dirty Cheater) Gracie 2x Gremlin Criers 3x Bayou Gremlins 1x Gremlin Bushwhacker (Love these guys) I managed to get 2 points from an entourage on Mah, and no other points. My mistake with Take a prisoner on one of the Waldgeists. More so because only Mah was close and was needed elsewhere. Either ways I enjoyed the game, it was distinctly tactical and gave plenty of opportunity for learning. I'm still loving Mah's playstyle and am generally happy with the Gremlins at the moment. I feel like I need to get a handle on the finer points of their shenanigans, and learn how to keep key models safer for longer... I mean, how are they supposed to blow themselves up in style if the enemy gets there first! Suvalas

I can confirm that I too have cemented my crew for next week. Whether it's any good or not, only time will tell! This Ours strategy has me wondering as to the best approach, perhaps different approaches are all now decent??? As to what I have available, my options are a lot fewer than Shadowfanes' having picked Gremlins after a couple of years playing Outcasts. (As such I have most of the Outcasts models shy of waves 4 and 5) I own Somer, Ophelia, Wong and Mah as Masters including their boxes. Bayou Gremlins Piglets Criers Wrastlers Swine-Cursed Banjonistas Slop Haulers Burt Gracie Merris Sammy Lucky Emissary I think that's it... I'd be intrigued to hear others' views on what they think I might take too. I agree Shadowfane, this could be a fun thing to do Suvalas

Aloha all. As with Swiglitz above, I too was nervous about putting models to table again after such a long hiatus. Not least with the fact I had chosen a new faction! Gremlins have always had an appeal thanks to their crazy and random nature. I'm often a little slow on the tactical uptake, and often react rather than be proactive. I'm hoping that the Gremlins playstyle will suit my tactical prowess, (or lack thereof) and I can happily throw things into the mix to see what happens rather than agonise over the finer details only to realise I've been out played two turns ago. As to the list - My model selection is still a little lacking, I have access to 4 crew boxes and a couple of extras. I'm intending to flesh out the faction with some extra pieces over the coming weeks. I took: Somer with Encourage and Family Tree 1 Skeeter Gracie Merris Lenny 2 Slop Haulers 3 Bayou Gremlins My very rough plan was to attempt the summoning machine, flood the board with Bayou Gremlins and hopefully overwhelm for the Strategy. Average positioning at best taught me how better to set the summoning going. Learning for later for sure. I took Deliver a message and Bodyguard as my schemes, the latter on Gracie. She sounded a lot more tanky so figured she'd be safe. Now seeing how far back Lenny can play he might have been a better choice. Deliver a Message was also a bad choice. I had no idea how slippery Kirai was. I figured tossing a couple of Gremlins at her would sort the scheme with Merris as backup. As it turned out, Izamu caught up with Gracie and Merris before my Skeeter could keep him busy. That pretty much rendered Merris useless as she struggled to escape his engagement. Gracie held her own well. A summoned Shikome later on would have helped end her had we played more turns. At least Gracie managed to move far enough away from Merris before becoming fried bacon with her untimely demise. Overall I enjoyed the evening and game. It was a fun foray back into the world of Malifaux. The Gremlins seem care-free and poised to create a laugh or two. Despite my inexperience with the crew and faction, I can already see what I need to do to get more from them next time. There mechanics seems a little simpler than they read originally so hopefully I can play faster with them and we can get more turns in. I particularly enjoyed the Bayou Gremlin who, after a turn drinking in the saloon, downed his moonshine, kicked open the back door, fired onto Kirai but blew himself up instead! Comedy Suvalas

Another update, a day of painting allowed me to finish a piece of scatter terrain and the Mechanical Rider. The pic with the completed base came out a little blurry so have uploaded the pre-varnish/leaves step. Suvalas

Update time. The third waif, Rusty herself, and some bonus Punk Zombies that will hopefully get summoned at some point Have painted our gaming table too, some scenery is next on the cards, will save pics of that for another time. Suvalas

Great tutorial, thanks! I like how Yu is grinning at us throughout

Shenlong looks amazing. Such smooth work on the skintones, and the trousers too!

More great work here, really diggin the bloodwretches!

Excellent work on Ama no there! Beautiful colours and free hand flowers. Must have taken a lot of patience

Swifter update than usual, the infamous Leveticus is done, along with two of his entourage. The third and the Rusty are up next! A picture of our table, with some newly acquired mining scenery. Looking to get the table painted soon, and then maybe some of the scenery too! Suvalas

Another month and another update. The remaining Freikorps are done! Did not enjoy painting them as much as I would have liked. They were the cause of me stopping painting last year. Glad that they're finished now :). A Hodgepodge Effigy and 4 steampunk abominations are also complete Suvalas

Loving your summers work. Lord Chompy is excellent, and Coppelius' eye looks very demonic. The muted Necropunks look ace too

Thanks for the nice comments everyone, I'm glad you all approve Another week goes by, and some more progress! First, Johanna. Started her awhile a go and finished her this week, not my best. Similar with Bishop but slightly happier with him. Then onto Hannah, even happier with her, was a lovely model to paint. All three still need sealing and then the obligatory leaves adding to their bases but there as good as done otherwise. See you all soon! Suvalas

Update time! Nothing beast is complete, with a Karina thrown in there too. Took ages deciding on how to do Karina but I'm very pleased with the final result. Still needs a few additions to the base. Wish Tara had turned out as well... Might try and finish Bishop and or Johanna next Suvalas