Quick painting update!

Really quick!  Lawyer done!

I am the law!  Says so right here.

That's all for now.

Almost the end of December...ALMOST!

The end of the year is upon us, and with it, the end of month 3 of TOMB3.

So far this month, I've put more paint on Lucius and his Lawyer friend, started the Puke Snake  Primordial Magic and an Illuminated (who will be subtracted from my remaining total in an upcoming post), and finished the Scion of Black Blood.  I've also done some assembly for models to be painted in January for the TOMB3.

I've also played a few games with Lucius, and haven't figured him out yet.  I'm not losing by a lot, but I definitely need more practice.  In general, I need to play more.  Which leads to....

I've signed up to play in a Shifting Loyalties league, a format that doesn't seem like it'll suit my Lucius crew well.  I'm considering playing a Brilliance-heavy crew (The Honey Pot Expansion Expedition), led by the Hungering Darkness itself.  Math to be done, and I'm contemplating attempting to paint the crew as I go.  A second painting project that will likely have some crossover with the TOMB!  Woot!

Most importantly, I'm done with work for the year,  I plan to paint a bit tonight, and likely more tomorrow and the next day.  That's why this is an almost-end-of-the-month-post;  because the month ain't over yet!

I'll post an end-of-month TOMB3 update in the next day or two, after I'm done painting for the year.  Not just the TOMB3 stuff, but a full update.  With pictures probably.  I'm kinda proud at the amount of painting I've gotten done this year.  Waaay more than previous years.  Will I keep it up, and carry it forward?  You bet!

#TOMB3 Painting continues - Scion of Black Blood

He's here to remove all of your horrible conditions, and has a shotgun to boot!

He's the Scion of Black Blood!

Super body building action!

Closer up!

He'll cost me $8.25, like all the models from the 2 Player Starter, which leaves me with $35.25.  I'll subtract $11 from that, and start working on my Primordial Magic.  He's been good with Lucius, and is pretty much awesome as a generic totem.  Puke Snake!

Remaining funds:  $24.25

Status as of December 15:
Finished:
Bloodwretch 1:  Painted!
Bloodwretch 2:  Painted!
Scion of Black Blood:  Painted!
Not Finished:
Lucius:  Partially painted.
Scribe:  Unsure if I intent to use him or not.
Guild Guard 1:  Partially painted.
Guild Guard 2:  Partially painted.
Lawyer 1: Partially painted.
Lawyer 2:  Not planning to use, no intention to paint unless all other minis for the TOMB3 are done.
Dashel:  Reconsidering use after good times at tournament.  More games to decide.

#TOMB3 - Tournament Report - Lucius vs the world!

I played in a tournament at Paladin Games in Avalon Park, FL on Saturday.  It was a small turnout (3 players), as many holiday season tournaments are, but we played anyways, and everyone got to play each other.  I forgot to take pictures or notes, so here are the outcomes, including my take-aways.

Round 1 vs Guild:  I tried a list containing a large number of minions (4 Corrupted Hounds, 2 Changelings, 2 Terror Tots) along with the Doppelganger, Widow Weaver, Primordial Magic and Lucius.  Opponent played Sonnia, Francisco, Sam Hopkins, 2 Austringers, Friekorps Specialists, Eternal Flame.  I ended up losing 5-8.  It felt close, but it really wasn't as I basically had no shot at getting Take Prisoner.

Lessons from the game:  1. Do not try to Take Prisoner on an Austringer.  I wasn't aware of their push action, and it cost me 3 points and the, well, draw.  2. You need a beater.  I spent 2 turns with 3 models attacking Sonnia (2 Changelings and a Tot) and got her to 11 wounds before she sworded her way back to 7 wounds.  If I had something a bit harder hitting, she'd have been out of there and I'd have had a bit of breathing room.  I also had 3 turns of hounds surrounding Francisco, unable to finish him off.  Same problem.  Needed a harder hitter.  3.  Holy crap does Lucius really need a Lawyer.  I had 3 failed Horror duels in one turn (yes, I should have stopped using the ability...I see that now), which resulted in 2 turns of Francisco whacking dogs unanswered.  Bad player, could have saved it with a some Law.

Round 2 vs Arcanists.  I played Lucius, Dashel, 2 Guard Riflemen, Lawyer, Beckoner, Tuco and 3 Corrupted Hounds against Ramos, Howard, Joss, Brass Arachnid and some spiders.  I got swarmed hard.  I killed Howard but lost Dashel shortly thereafter, and just could keep my shooters clear long enough.  The game ended with probably 6 more spiders having been made throughout the game.  Lucius managed to survive the game, and cost my opponent an unrevealed ALitS by stealing one of his four scheme markers on the center line.  This kept the game as a 6-5 loss for me.  Had I been able to keep a Squat marker one more turn, it would have been a tie.

Lessons from this game:  1.  Don't use 3 crap guys to hold a flank.  Joss tore through my Corrupted Hounds without any trouble, and held down an entire side of the board.  2.  Don't pick a 7 point model for Frame for Murder and get it killed early.  Pick a crappy model and throw it at a henchman.  I got Tuco killed on turn 2 after being obnoxious with the shotgun while standing near Howard.  Also, Howard is not a henchman.  I should have gone after Joss :)  3.  Don't set up a firebase on a flank.  It should be more central, and able to reach out and touch most of the objective points.

That said, I really enjoyed this game.  I got some good synergy rolling, had some killing power, and got to shout "Objection!" far more than any game should allow.  It was fun and light-hearted, as we were both out of the running for first, but holy crap spider summoning!  I couldn't keep them off the table!

The day, as a whole, was good. Played a pair of good games against factions I don't usually see at the home shop, and played them both with Lucius.  This brings my games played with him up to...3.  I need to play more.

As for the TOMB3, I'll post again soon.  I've got some painting to do, to catch up, but I'm feeling the painting bug getting ready to bite over the holidays!

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers 3 - Month 3 begins!

December, the bone-chillingly frigid month of snows and...yeah, I live in Florida, it's still 80 degrees out most days.  Christmas lights on palm trees, building a sand-man, etc.

More importantly, this is now month 3 of TOMB3.  I'm behind, as is often the case, but not out yet.  I've got paint on models, and I'm ready to add more paint to those who are not yet finished.  I'm planning to get some assembly and/or painting done in the next few days, I'll post before-and-after pictures if I make any serious progress.  Of course, I've got another $25 to spend on models for this month, which when added to last month's remainder, gives a total of $43.50 to spend.

I'm thinking of picking up a pair of Guild Riflemen, as well as maybe some swampfiends (Spawn Mother and Gupps).  Still considering what to purchase, and trying to get some paint on the models I have for the Tale already.

I've also got a Gaining Grounds tournament upcoming on December 12th, at Paladin Games in Orlando.  Don't tell them, but I'm planning to play Lucius in every game, for the TOMB3.  I won't be playing with only models for the Tale, but I'll be using the tournament to get some good experience with Lucius and see what other models I like with him.  I'm hoping to build up some proxies this week (Changelings and Corrupted Hounds, maybe the Mysterious Emmisary) specifically for the tournament, so I'll post those here too.  Maybe I'll even do a full tournament report, who knows (it'll likely depend on how interesting the games are and how successful I am).

Progress!

November update, part 2:

Started and finished both Bloodwretches tonight!  Booyah!

Bloodwretch #1

Bloodwretch #2

The pair!

I haven't sealed them yet, but soon!

Posting from the future! Kinda!

So technically we get the latest update for our crews on the first Monday of each month, which means that this is totally still a November post.  Right?  Right.  I'll take it.

Anyways,  I recently adopted a cat that has taken up waaaay lots of my painting time with playing and neatening up and other non-painting activities.  However, I have recently allowed him to start being in my office when I'm in there, which means I'm back to painting!  Have I done any yet?  Not Malifaux stuff!  But I plan to, and I've done a whole lot of assembly recently.

For November, I've got $35 to spend or keep.  What am I going to add to my crew?  More Minions.   Part of the Malifaux Starter Box, which is an awesome buy.  Assuming that all mini's are equal, each of the 8 from that box set is $8.25.  I'll buy 2 Bloodwretches for $16.50.  That leaves me with 18.50 to spend.  For the time being, I'll leave it unspent and keep it for next month, December.

I'm strongly considering a heavy hitter for next month, maybe a Teddy or the Hooded Rider.  I've also got a Tuco proxy ready for paint, so maybe some shooting action; to that end, I've got Angel-Eyes and the Scion of Black Blood available and ready too.  So many choices!

My intention is to do some painting tonight, and get some progress made on these minis.  If so, I'll update with some pictures.

{Updated Pictures go here someday}

Status as of end of November:
Lucius:  Partially painted.
Scribe:  Unsure if I intent to use him or not.
Guild Guard 1:  Partially painted.
Guild Guard 2:  Partially painted.
Lawyer 1: Partially painted.
Lawyer 2:  Not planning to use, no intention to paint unless all other minis for the TOMB3 are done.
Dashel:  Not planning to use, no intention to paint unless all other minis for the TOMB3 are done.
Bloodwretch 1:  Primed and ready for paint.
Bloodwretch 2:  Primed and ready for paint.

Arthur!

Also note, the curse of too many games:  I'm also trying to determine a pair of Cygnar lists for a War Machine tournament in March, where I have sworn to be fully painted.  I am not fully painted.  So I'll be juggling that with the TOMB3, and hopefully succeeding all around!  Stay tuned!

WIP Wednesday results

Painting accomplished!

Did I finish anything?  NOPE!

But here's some WIP shots:

Guild Lawyer and Lucius

Guild Guards

More to come!

WIP Wednesday

Did some painting last night!  Well, mainly priming, which doesn't make for exciting pictures, but I did finish my Doppelganger.  Which does not count for TOMB3.  I've also got Baby Kade at the 70% finished state.  He also will not count for TOMB3.  I'm good at this ;)

Gonna do some painting tonight, too.  With all of Bound by Law primed, except for Captain Dashel (who was missing his club piece, which I'll be sculpting between painting tonight), I'll hopefully have something worth showing tomorrow!

4 men enter...one man wins!

Quick update, semi-TOMB3 related:

I played in a tournament at Paladin Games in Orlando, FL this weekend with my Neverborn, and fought my way to first place, nightmares blazing and bureaucracy shining!  Did I take pictures like I intended to?  NO!  I SUCK!

In rounds one and two (vs Neverborn/Pandora and Ten Thunders/McCabe), I played The Dreamer with his summoning upgrade and none of my TOMB3 models, so I won't really talk about them in depth.  I won round one by a large margin (8-1 or so), and won round two by a single point and some grace (8-7), which I'll talk about in the end.

In the final round, vs Arcanists (Mei Feng), I decided to play Lucius, whom I had not played yet.  The strategy was Squatter's Rights, and the scheme pool was ALitS, Protect Territory, Distract, Cursed Object, and Spring the Trap.  I chose Spring the Trap and ALitS, figuring that I'd be dropping Scheme markers on the center line, and his master would come up to meet in the middle.

The crew I brought was all minions, except for Lucius and the Primordial Magic.  This meant that I had a whole lot of targets for Lucius to issue commands to, and with a Guild Lawyer in the mix, I don't think I failed a single Horror duel from Lucius.  However, I was lacking in beaters, and by the end of the game, I had only Lucius and the totem left while he had only lost the Emberling and a rail worker.  I had scored a full points Spring the Trap on turn two, with a pair of scheme markers in the center of the board, before Mei Feng could super-kick them away.  I only scored for the strategy twice, but the Primordial Magic did its job to become my fourth LitS marker at the end of the game.  I ended up winning 8-7, as he got 3 from strategy, 3 from Protect Territory and 1 from LitS.  Overall an incredibly close and bloody game.

On Lucius:
I still need to figure out how to play him, but at the basic level (he walks and issues commands) I felt okay.  I forgot about his upgrades pretty regularly, forgot that hidden sniper needs a Ram, and threw away a lot of my crew for early points.  It worked out well this time, but was on the knife's edge from losing.  He needs some minions, but not all minions.  I get that now.  I'm excited to play him some more, and to try different crews out.

On sportsmanship:
I witnessed excellent sportsmanship this weekend, and I wanted to point it out.  First, some backstory:  In playing most mini-war-games, knowing your rules is important, but knowing your opponent's rules is more impactful on the game.  Its also tougher, as there are 7 factions, and they all have lots of models, and all of them have different rules, and lots of gotcha's.  I've gotten into the habit of keeping the "gotcha's" out of my games, typically with reminders and courtesy warnings. I tell my opponents about the Primordial Magic's "become a scheme marker" shenanigans, remind about Terrifying before its provoked, remind about Teddy's Smell Fear when someone is about to fail said Terrifying, and is trying to decide whether to Cheat Fate to pass or let it go, and so on and so on.  I'd rather lose a game with full knowledge out there than pull the rug out from under an opponent.

In my second round of this past weekend's tournament, I played against Josh's Ten Thunders led by Lucas McCabe, in Reckoning.  I have not played or played against McCabe before, and I told Josh about this at the start of the game, more or less to pre-apologize for questioning lots of things.  We both play the game, and like always, I am as forthcoming as possible on what's going on with the game.  I get a bit lazy towards the end of the last turn, as it looks like I've got the full points for Breakthrough and Murder Protege, and he's got full points for Protect Territory and LitS, and we're tied on Reconnoiter points but I have 2 table quarters firmly held, one contested and he's out of models to activate.  I attempt to pass with my remaining models (including the Dreamer), but he stops me, and informs me that at the end of the turn, he'll be able to move McCabe via an upgrade, which would move him into the contested quarter and flip it to his side, which will make the game a draw.  I thank him, and summon a model with the Dreamer and take the quarter, and the win.

I thanked him again afterwards for his honesty, and his response was "I may have lost, but I'd rather lose than win that way when we've been so honest about things the entire game."  Class act.  Would I have been upset about getting "gotcha'd" that way at the end of the game?  Nope, not really.  He'd made that end-of-turn move a few times already, and I had forgotten it.  My fault, and moreso my fault for not pushing to guarantee the win, even if it felt excessive.  But the point remains, Josh was a classy opponent, a kindred spirit in the belief of fairness and I would play him any day of the week

Wow, this quick update went long.

TL,DR:  Won a tournament, played Lucius.  I'm a basic Lucius player who needs to play more to get better with him and do more than just walk.  Josh is a class act, who showed me how to win when I was trying to earn a draw via a lack of model knowledge.

A return...for a Tale! #ToMB3

I'm back, with some excellently motivated painting and playing to come!

I've joined up with some other Malifaux enthusiasts to take part in the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers 3, to document and share the creation, paint, and play of a crew!

The rules are simple:

Start a new (bar maybe a couple of games) master. At the end of each month write a blog with an update to painting and gaming-hopefully giving helpful feedback on the master you've chosen.

In the first month you can use up to $60 to start you off. Each following month you get up to $25. This money you can use to buy models, or you can use it as "virtual money". Virtual money can be used to "buy" models you already own (lets face it, most of us could stock a store already) for use in that months TOMB, or in vassal if that's how you play your game. What you "buy" each month you need to paint up (please vassal players, don't follow this step), and include pictures in your blog post. If you spend under the amount of that month, the left over can be pushed over to join the next month (or you can buy a coffee).

In short, buy or psuedo-buy models, assemble and paint them, play games, and report on them with pretty pictures and funny stories.  This is the kind of thing that drives my creativity and motivates the hell out of me.

For a crew, I'll be expanding my Neverborn with the last master I didn't own:  Lucius, the Governor General's Secretary.  I've purchased the Bound by Law box, all of which can be used in Neverborn with some assistance from the Surprisingly Loyal upgrade and dual-factioning.  This uses up $50 of the $60 initial funding, leaving me $10 remaining for further purchases, or to carry on to next month, which is the more likely option.

So far, I've assembled some of the models, and made bases for most of them.  My Neverborn are based on cobblestone-style bases, so that always adds a bit of time to every model, but I love the result.

I don't know that I'll paint/assemble the entire box, as I didn't intend to use Captain Dashel or the 2nd Guild Lawyer, but if I must, I'll do it...for the Tale!

Stay tuned, more to come!  Including actual pictures, not just place holders!