So it seems Malifaux is the new hotness in the gaming world. At Game Kastle, they literally can't keep the starter boxes on the shelves.
Anyway Here's a batrep to the game I played last night. The summary: my faction was a crew of Mercs, where each model is really good at what it does but is specialized. Her faction was all about dirty tricks (think Cryx).
Also, if you want an in-depth review of the game, it's Here. Scroll down to the post by Fallen Heretic if it doesn't take you there directly.
So I have to say, despite being very Warmachine-ish (a game I simply couldn't get into), I like it. The alternating activations does make it harder to set up the combos. The skill of the game isn't the tactical skill, its about keeping your head. You have six cards in your hand that let you "cheat" results (imagine in a dice game that you had some pre-rolled results that you could use once per turn, but only a finite number of pre-rolls and some of them suck).
Anyway, those six cards generally come to 2-3 actions. That's because you have to wound after you hit and so on. So you can guarantee pulling off 1 action every turn how you want. You can probably pull of 2 actions. In a perfect world you could do 3, but remember he's got a deck of cards too so you end up using some of your cheats defensively (not being hit, saving throws vs magic, etc)
So the trick is to keep your head through the alternating activations and the bad stuff he throws at you. You sometimes have to let the little demon in the form of a toddler stab your guy in the back because if you burn your cards you won't have them for the nasty trick you have up your sleeve. It's essentially a mental discipline game, trying to not obsess over things with an alternating activation game, which is hard to do. It's basically the same idea behind Wargods where you sometimes have to take your lumps and try to win the fight you can win instead of getting caught up in playing tit-for-tat.
One downside: the models piss me off. Wyrd minis are purrty, but I HATE how the models are assembled. More than one model has these fiddly little bits. Big giant weapons that attach to the main model at the wrist. Come on! Give the weapon the whole forearm or the whole frakking arm so at least there's a lot of surface area to pin. But no, it joins at the wrist, leaving you to try and pin a surface area not much wider than a paperclip or else the lever principle works against you the first time that katana catches on something when you pick up.
But other than that, the minis are nice. The fluff on the game is over the top, one of those things were it goes so far over the line its funny:
Mad hatter serial killer? Lame.
Fat, bald undead dominatrix? A Fail at shock value.
Undead whores who can distract models by gettin' nekkid? Okay, now that's just hilarious!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Guard and some Malifaux
Progress has been slow on the new IG. I did like 10 cadians (5 voxcaster dudes and 5 regular guys) awhile back, just to get myself familiar with the sprue. Last week I poured out the Kasrkin and started work on them. The first ten took awhile with all the flash, and I'm having a hard time getting large enough blocks of time to assemble stuff.
So I've had to start working like Trent: little bits at a time. I've been assembling a guy or two while Jocelyn eats or plays before she comes and asks me to read her a book or something. Anyway, here's the progress wth 4 more kasrkin to assemble (and 10 backpacks to add).
And here's the starter kit for the Malifaux game. I buckled down and bought the steampunk guys with some Mercs on order at the game store. Still interested in trying the mad hatter & his undead harem, just for the black humor of it, but that'll come later.
The models are:
Ramos
Steamborg
Clockwork Arachnids
So I've had to start working like Trent: little bits at a time. I've been assembling a guy or two while Jocelyn eats or plays before she comes and asks me to read her a book or something. Anyway, here's the progress wth 4 more kasrkin to assemble (and 10 backpacks to add).
And here's the starter kit for the Malifaux game. I buckled down and bought the steampunk guys with some Mercs on order at the game store. Still interested in trying the mad hatter & his undead harem, just for the black humor of it, but that'll come later.
The models are:
Ramos
Steamborg
Clockwork Arachnids
Monday, August 17, 2009
Old West & a new game
Actually got in a game of Legends of the Old West last Friday. We're supposed to be working on a translation of AE WWII (a game I have given up on) to a free game called No Limits, which is basically an attempt to use the Vor rules for a generaic design your own army type game.
Anyway, Jeff (who has most of the WWII minis) couldn't make it so Gavin and I busted out our Old West minis so I could try out my Mexican Banditos list that I'd had for a couple weeks. For those who don't know, Legends of the Old West is basically the Lord of the Rings rules with the Mordheim warband & experience rules. And its actually better than the sum of its parts.
The Mexican banditos are an outlaws variant from the Alamo supplement, which is a $45 book with mostly army stuff (think the return of the king rulebook) and like 3 pages of skirmish rules.
Anyway, my banditos tried robbing the bank of a town where the only law is a posse of cowgirls. (Gavin has this thing for collecting female minis; if they came out with female Tau he'd be all over it). The banditos had a good showing early but took some heavy casualties from the trail boss, and we were both making Head for the Hills tests. But the trail boss, a mini pattern after Sharon Stone from the Quick and the Dead, realized she was all alone and decided she'd had enough. So a good showing and I've decided I like these guys. I'd very much like to do an Old West campaign, buuuut. . .
A new game has come out, called Malifaux. Thematically its a magical steampunk & Victorian horror minis game. From what I can tell, a group of guys said "hey, let's make Warmachine better."
So each Crew is led by a "Master" who is a character and can cast certain spells. Technically all models can cast spells but these guys are master sorcerers. Then there's minions and henchmen you hire for your crew. There's 4 factions and mercenaries (which can be fielded by itself).
There's no focus to be handed out. There are "soulstones" but only certain guys can 'boost' their spells & actions. There's alternating activations so the combo-ing won't be as bad as Warmahordes, or so I'm told. There are some 'companion' models which activate at the same time as other models so we'll see.
The big difference is the use of a deck instead of dice. Tests are handled with a 52 card deck w/two jokers (red joker is critical success, black joker is crit fail). To pass a test, you have to add your stat plus the number value of the card you flip from the top of the deck to equal/beat the target number. (for things like combat, it's an opposed test).
If you don't like the card you flip, you can replace it with one from your hand (you draw a certain number of cards from your deck at the start of your turn). Or, if your guy is a wizard, you can spend a finite amount of your 'soulstone' to flip a second card which is cumulative with the first (i.e. boost the roll).
Some abilities & spell require you to have a certain suit to pull off the effect in addition to beating the target number. So a spell may have a 13 target number and also require one of the cards to be a club. Then to top it off, some casters always count as playing certain suits. So a caster may always count as playing clubs, and a really powerful spell requires a TN 17 with a club & a heart. Since the caster "comes with" a club you only need to add a heart card to the total.
So I'm thinking I'll proxy some stuff and give it a try this coming Friday. There four factions are: Guild (the law enforcers, with a number of old west style gunslingers), the Resurrectionists (necromancers), the Neverborn (demons), and the Arcanists (techno-magic & beast masters).
I'm currently leaning towards the technomancers (but not the beast master guys in the faction) or the ressurectionists. There's a mad hatter master, who's a serial killer dandy running around with an entourage of dead hookers (who have as spells: lure, distract, and undress). Plus there's a dominatrix undead hooker. The black humor of it is what's appealing to me. The other faction is playing the outcasts. They're essentially like the Ronin from rez, where they basically are their own bevy of special rules, but some of them look fun.
I'll post more after I've given the game a try.
Anyway, Jeff (who has most of the WWII minis) couldn't make it so Gavin and I busted out our Old West minis so I could try out my Mexican Banditos list that I'd had for a couple weeks. For those who don't know, Legends of the Old West is basically the Lord of the Rings rules with the Mordheim warband & experience rules. And its actually better than the sum of its parts.
The Mexican banditos are an outlaws variant from the Alamo supplement, which is a $45 book with mostly army stuff (think the return of the king rulebook) and like 3 pages of skirmish rules.
Anyway, my banditos tried robbing the bank of a town where the only law is a posse of cowgirls. (Gavin has this thing for collecting female minis; if they came out with female Tau he'd be all over it). The banditos had a good showing early but took some heavy casualties from the trail boss, and we were both making Head for the Hills tests. But the trail boss, a mini pattern after Sharon Stone from the Quick and the Dead, realized she was all alone and decided she'd had enough. So a good showing and I've decided I like these guys. I'd very much like to do an Old West campaign, buuuut. . .
A new game has come out, called Malifaux. Thematically its a magical steampunk & Victorian horror minis game. From what I can tell, a group of guys said "hey, let's make Warmachine better."
So each Crew is led by a "Master" who is a character and can cast certain spells. Technically all models can cast spells but these guys are master sorcerers. Then there's minions and henchmen you hire for your crew. There's 4 factions and mercenaries (which can be fielded by itself).
There's no focus to be handed out. There are "soulstones" but only certain guys can 'boost' their spells & actions. There's alternating activations so the combo-ing won't be as bad as Warmahordes, or so I'm told. There are some 'companion' models which activate at the same time as other models so we'll see.
The big difference is the use of a deck instead of dice. Tests are handled with a 52 card deck w/two jokers (red joker is critical success, black joker is crit fail). To pass a test, you have to add your stat plus the number value of the card you flip from the top of the deck to equal/beat the target number. (for things like combat, it's an opposed test).
If you don't like the card you flip, you can replace it with one from your hand (you draw a certain number of cards from your deck at the start of your turn). Or, if your guy is a wizard, you can spend a finite amount of your 'soulstone' to flip a second card which is cumulative with the first (i.e. boost the roll).
Some abilities & spell require you to have a certain suit to pull off the effect in addition to beating the target number. So a spell may have a 13 target number and also require one of the cards to be a club. Then to top it off, some casters always count as playing certain suits. So a caster may always count as playing clubs, and a really powerful spell requires a TN 17 with a club & a heart. Since the caster "comes with" a club you only need to add a heart card to the total.
So I'm thinking I'll proxy some stuff and give it a try this coming Friday. There four factions are: Guild (the law enforcers, with a number of old west style gunslingers), the Resurrectionists (necromancers), the Neverborn (demons), and the Arcanists (techno-magic & beast masters).
I'm currently leaning towards the technomancers (but not the beast master guys in the faction) or the ressurectionists. There's a mad hatter master, who's a serial killer dandy running around with an entourage of dead hookers (who have as spells: lure, distract, and undress). Plus there's a dominatrix undead hooker. The black humor of it is what's appealing to me. The other faction is playing the outcasts. They're essentially like the Ronin from rez, where they basically are their own bevy of special rules, but some of them look fun.
I'll post more after I've given the game a try.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Mordians Vs Tau
Right took my Vet IG army vs my friend's Mech tau. He had 2 HQ crisis suits (one with a bodyguard), a hammerhead, a skyray, 3 devilfish (each with 6 man squads), 4 stealth suits, and 2 piranhas.
We played Annihilation with the Dawn of War set up. I managed to steal the first turn, and proceeded to do some decent damage on rounds 1 & 2. After that, my luck kinda went downhill until turns 6 & 7. I'd penetrate his vehicles, but fail to do anything. I blew up 1 vehicle all game. I even had a squad with a grenade launcher and 2 rapid firing plasma guns against an AV10 open topped piranha. Nothing.
In the end I managed to sneak a win with kill points: 6-8. Mainly I got lucky in killing his Shas'o in melee and through a judicious use orders. All in all, I really like the vets. It's kind fun playing a BS 4 army after years of regular IG. Other wrap-up thoughts in no particular order:
We played Annihilation with the Dawn of War set up. I managed to steal the first turn, and proceeded to do some decent damage on rounds 1 & 2. After that, my luck kinda went downhill until turns 6 & 7. I'd penetrate his vehicles, but fail to do anything. I blew up 1 vehicle all game. I even had a squad with a grenade launcher and 2 rapid firing plasma guns against an AV10 open topped piranha. Nothing.
In the end I managed to sneak a win with kill points: 6-8. Mainly I got lucky in killing his Shas'o in melee and through a judicious use orders. All in all, I really like the vets. It's kind fun playing a BS 4 army after years of regular IG. Other wrap-up thoughts in no particular order:
- Carapace is nice. Being Tau, there was a lot of AP5 shot being hurled around, and being able to still take armor rolls was nice.
- Have I mentioned I hate the 5th ed wound allocation system?
- Orders are interesting, with some upside & some downside. I made good use of Bring it Down (reroll hits vs vehicles) and Fire on My Target (enemy rerolls succesful cover saves). The latter especially let me win the game because I could put a hurt on his guys hiding behind his skimmer. The downside is the fact you have to do the orders first. More than once I'd have a unit in range for an order that I'd actually like to fire after something else because depending on how that other unit did would depend on what the order-receiving unit would shoot at. But since I'd have to allocate the orders first I essentially had to decide my shooting for the whole turn at once.
- Those Tau Disruption Fields (or whatever makes them always count as obscured) are insane. 5 pts to carry around your own cover is just nuts.
- The Officer of the Fleet is a good 30 pts. My friend forgot to roll for his stealth suits on turn 2 (not that he needed them), but the Officer of the Fleet penalty to his reserves kept him out of it the next turn.
- The camo netting is coming off the basilisk and russ. There's just not enough cover out there to be worth the 50 pts.
- The powerfists, at least 45 pts worth, are coming back in. I ended up being close that if I'd wanted to, I could've charged a couple of times. And there was certain his Shas'O that gave me troubles with his pop up attacks.
- 3 special weapons and a heavy weapon in a BS 4 squad with a 4+ save is really a nice change of pace. (I know I said that already, but I occasionally repeat myself for emphasis) Really like playing a whole new army.
- And my Chimeras live down to their cursed reputation. One chimera fired at a crisis suit unit for 3 turns, with both a heavy bolter and multilaser, without inflicting a single wound. It wasn't until turn 7 that I finally got the sumbitch.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Orks & Mordians
So I've settled on a couple army designs for my IG, and I've decided to shelve the Orks. This edition of 40K just isn't that favorable to footslogging armies that can't fleet. I've had my Orks torn apart a couple of times and I beat down Trent's Nurgle marines enough to know that with the scenarios out of the book, the way transports, blast templates, and terrain work, that footsloggers just get hosed in this edition.
I supposed I could change up the Ork army a bit, but frankly, I don't want to. Anyone who's seen my Orks knows I put a lot of work into conversions. So for the moment, they go on the shelf to await the pendulum swing of a new edition.
But the IG are the big winners so far. My Mordians feel quite nasty at the moment. I've devised two lists:
The first is the usual Mordian 442nd that you know and love:
Command Squad:
Commander: power weapon, plasma pistol
4 Veterans: standard, plasma gun, lascannon
Officer of the Fleet
5 Ogryns
6 Ratlings
Blue Platoon
Command Squad: autocannon, 2 grenade launchers
Squad: autocannon, grenade launcher
Squad: autocannon, plasma gun
Squad: missile launcher, plasma gun
Green Platoon
Command Squad: autocannon, 2 meltaguns
Squad: autocannon, plasma gun
Squad: lascannon, plasma gun
Squad: missile launcher, plasma gun
Veterans: lascannon, plasma gun
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Veterans: lascannon, plasma gun
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Banewolf: heavy flamer
7 Rough Riders
Leman Russ: hull & sponson heavy bolters, extra armor
Basilisk
Pretty straight forward, added the banewolf and the officer of the fleet, which is actually pretty in fluff for this army: a 40K version of a British Empire, with a high degree of coordination between fleet and the MEF (Mordian Expeditionary Force).
Okay, the second list is me going "hey, I can take all veterans if I wanted!"
Command Squad:
Commander: power weapon, plasma pistol
4 Veterans: carapace armor, standard, meltagun, lascannon
Officer of the Fleet
5 Ogryns
8 Ratlings
Veterans: carapace, lascannon, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher
Veterans: carapace, lascannon, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher
Veterans: carapace, missile launcher, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher, powerfist sgt.
Veterans: carapace, missile launcher, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher, powerfist sgt.
Veterans: carapace, autocannon, 2 meltaguns, flamer, powerfist sgt.
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Veterans: carapace, autocannon, 2 meltaguns, flamer, powerfist sgt.
8 Rough Riders
Leman Russ: hull & sponson heavy bolters, extra armor
Basilisk
I had to drop the bane wolf and a chimera to get carapace on everybody, so we'll see how that works. I use the chimeras mainly to shoot anyway, but I'll keep the one so that I can use that squad as my active response team. Or I can give it to the Ogryns.
The last two Vet squads have been coined my 'Come Get Some' squad. I found that against Trent, charging in would deprive me of some needed rapid firing with plasma guns and heavy weapon. So I gave the CGS squads assault weapons and autocannons, which wouldn't pop 3+ armor anyway.
The carapace on everybody is a bit of a stretch, but I find as I play more and more that I simply don't give a fuck. Especially when most the people who'd whine about it a) don't have painted armies themselves and b) are just whining little pissants.
Anyway, got a game set up for Thursday against a buddy's Tau. I'll be paring the Vets down to 1500 pts, which is basically dropping the Ogryns, ratlings, and rough riders. I also skimmed a few items here and there to put camo netting on the Russ and Basilisk. I just want to see if they're worth it.
I supposed I could change up the Ork army a bit, but frankly, I don't want to. Anyone who's seen my Orks knows I put a lot of work into conversions. So for the moment, they go on the shelf to await the pendulum swing of a new edition.
But the IG are the big winners so far. My Mordians feel quite nasty at the moment. I've devised two lists:
The first is the usual Mordian 442nd that you know and love:
Command Squad:
Commander: power weapon, plasma pistol
4 Veterans: standard, plasma gun, lascannon
Officer of the Fleet
5 Ogryns
6 Ratlings
Blue Platoon
Command Squad: autocannon, 2 grenade launchers
Squad: autocannon, grenade launcher
Squad: autocannon, plasma gun
Squad: missile launcher, plasma gun
Green Platoon
Command Squad: autocannon, 2 meltaguns
Squad: autocannon, plasma gun
Squad: lascannon, plasma gun
Squad: missile launcher, plasma gun
Veterans: lascannon, plasma gun
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Veterans: lascannon, plasma gun
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Banewolf: heavy flamer
7 Rough Riders
Leman Russ: hull & sponson heavy bolters, extra armor
Basilisk
Pretty straight forward, added the banewolf and the officer of the fleet, which is actually pretty in fluff for this army: a 40K version of a British Empire, with a high degree of coordination between fleet and the MEF (Mordian Expeditionary Force).
Okay, the second list is me going "hey, I can take all veterans if I wanted!"
Command Squad:
Commander: power weapon, plasma pistol
4 Veterans: carapace armor, standard, meltagun, lascannon
Officer of the Fleet
5 Ogryns
8 Ratlings
Veterans: carapace, lascannon, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher
Veterans: carapace, lascannon, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher
Veterans: carapace, missile launcher, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher, powerfist sgt.
Veterans: carapace, missile launcher, 2 plasma guns, grenade launcher, powerfist sgt.
Veterans: carapace, autocannon, 2 meltaguns, flamer, powerfist sgt.
chimera: multilaser, heavy bolter, extra armor
Veterans: carapace, autocannon, 2 meltaguns, flamer, powerfist sgt.
8 Rough Riders
Leman Russ: hull & sponson heavy bolters, extra armor
Basilisk
I had to drop the bane wolf and a chimera to get carapace on everybody, so we'll see how that works. I use the chimeras mainly to shoot anyway, but I'll keep the one so that I can use that squad as my active response team. Or I can give it to the Ogryns.
The last two Vet squads have been coined my 'Come Get Some' squad. I found that against Trent, charging in would deprive me of some needed rapid firing with plasma guns and heavy weapon. So I gave the CGS squads assault weapons and autocannons, which wouldn't pop 3+ armor anyway.
The carapace on everybody is a bit of a stretch, but I find as I play more and more that I simply don't give a fuck. Especially when most the people who'd whine about it a) don't have painted armies themselves and b) are just whining little pissants.
Anyway, got a game set up for Thursday against a buddy's Tau. I'll be paring the Vets down to 1500 pts, which is basically dropping the Ogryns, ratlings, and rough riders. I also skimmed a few items here and there to put camo netting on the Russ and Basilisk. I just want to see if they're worth it.
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