Intermountain Malifaux

Are you in Utah (or the rest of the Intermountain West, really)?  Do you play Malifaux, or are you interested in checking it out?

Well, we have a Facebook Group: Intermountain Malifaux.

Come join us!

Salt City Gladiator Games Recap - Part 2

Read Part 1 for the first-day recap.

Like the last post...
Almost all the pictures in this post came from the Intermountain Malifaux Facebook Group -- my phone died on the first day, and I simply forgot to take pictures on the second.  If you're a Malifaux player, or someone simply interested in the game, and in the Intermountian area, please come join us.

Other pictures came from the A Wyrd Place Facebook Group -- if you're into Malifaux, Puppet Wars, Evil Baby Orphanage, or anything else Wyrd, join that group.
The picture of the Henchman Hardcore game came from the TO's Twitter account.  Follow him!

Rail Golem sets up to smash The Judge.

Day 2 - Saturday, and the Gaining Grounds Malifaux Tournament

After about 6 hours of sleep, Saturday started off quickly.  After picking Evan up and grabbing some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast (sorry, everyone, their coffee is only slightly better than gas station coffee), we arrived at the Games about an hour after the doors opened.  Nothing had started, yet, and we were 2 hours early for the Malifaux tournament.

So, like the day before, we set up another fun game.  We knew we weren't going to finish, but Evan wanted more practice with Lilith and I'm always up for a game.  (This was the game that TFG basically asked us why we were even bothering playing if it wasn't for competitive points.)  I don't believe we made it through Turn 3 before we got kicked off the table, 15 minutes before the Gaining Grounds tournament started, which gave us enough time to hit the restrooms and pull all of our minis out of our bags.

Gaining Grounds, Round 1

Round 1

For Round 1, I was paired up against my regular Henchman, Clayton Driggs.  Standard deployment, Stake a Claim, with Breakthrough, Plant Explosives, and... two others.

Clayton was running his regular Perdita crew ('Dita, Francisco, Nino, Abuela, and two Pistoleros -- not sure about the upgrades), which I'd lost to before.  I opted to run Colette w/ the upgrade to make Doves, Cassandra with Smoke and Mirrors, Howard Langston (played by Miss Step), two Performers, two Mannequins, and a Mechanical Dove.

The table we played on for Round 1.  Not our minis, though.

I don't remember a whole lot about this game other than I got absolutely destroyed.  10-2.  I remember that Hank took out Abuela, and that I misunderstood Plant Explosives, and couldn't get a footing.

My takeaway from this was to not play a master I don't really know (I've played Colette a few times, but I've never won with her), and that I naturally gravitate toward aggressive crews so I don't know how to play reserved.

1 loss, 2 VP, -8 Differential

Round 2

Round 2

At this point I was kind of depressed -- getting beaten badly will do that -- but I was doing my best to not let it ruin my time.  (I knew why I was upset, and that it was largely my fault.)  Clayton pointed out that I'm usually a much better player, which kind of made me feel worse for my next opponent; at -8 Differential, I was in absolute last place and I knew I'd be paired against someone who was less familiar with the game.

The table for Round 2

Which I was -- for Round 2, I was paired against a player named Jake.  Round 2 would be his 3rd game of Malifaux -- he had experience in other miniatures games, so he wasn't a total novice, but Malifaux is weird.  This game was Close Deployment, Turf War, with Vendetta, Deliver a Message, and something that relied on Scheme Markers.. and maybe Make Them Suffer.

Jake was running a Lady Justice crew with Lady J, her totem, the Judge, three Death Marshals, a Guild Austringer, and an Exorcist.  I don't remember the upgrades at all.  This time, after I was destroyed in the previous round, was feeling more aggressive -- I ran Mei Fang w/ Seismic Claws and Vapomancy, Joss with Open Current, a Rail Golem with Powered by Flame, Howard Langston (played by Miss Tep, again), a Gunsmith, and a Fire Gamin (maybe... I remember having two Minions, but my second one didn't really do anything).

Despite the difference in Malifaux experience, this was a tough-ish game.  I'd played against Lady J before -- she was also the crew I had my original demo game with -- but I'd never seen Death Marshals' Pinebox used effectively.  On the first turn, I knew I wanted to take the Exorcist out -- my Gunsmith had a Vendetta against him -- and I knew I wanted to get everything I had up in the middle, on the tree-covered hill for soft cover against his shooting attacks.

After that, everything is kind of a blur ... Everything moved up, Miss Step got a great hit off on the Exorcist which gave him Burning from Powered by Flame, Joss was Pineboxed, the Exorcist ran away from Miss Step and right out into the open for the Gunsmith to get full points for Vendetta (Exorcist was already damaged, and Burning for the Gunsmith's Hard Way, and I believe I cheated in Severe damage).  Mei Feng put herself right in the middle, chain-attacking the Judge, Lady J, and all three Death Marshals, but not getting anything.  I'm sure the Rail Golem hit something, too.

The Austringer moved to send his bird after my Gunsmith.. over and over and over again, until the Gunsmith was dead.  Miss Step Delivered the Message, the Judge delivered his, Mei killed the Death Marshal with Joss in his box and Joss worked his way over to kill the damn Austringer.  The Rail Golem and was promptly boxed by another Death Marshal.

That Marshal was killed by Mei, who then attacked Lady J, missed, and was killed by Repost. Lady J attacked, but didn't kill, Miss Step, who ran away to the far edge of the Turf War area. The final Death Marshal started running for my deployment, the Rail Golem killed Lady J, Joss chased down and killed the final Death Marshal, and either the Rail Golem or Miss Step finished off Lady J's totem at the end of Turn 4.

I won, 9 to 6 -- I didn't reveal Deliver a Message, which kept me from full points.  Jake didn't reveal it, either, got 3 points from Turf War, and a final point from the ridiculous amount of scheme markers he was able to drop from Finish the Job.

1 loss, 1 win, 11 VP, -5 Differential

Round 3

Round 3

I ended up paired against Jake for a second time -- that -8 Differential, up front, really hurt me, keeping me near the bottom.  I knew Jake would be running the same crew -- he was borrowing the models -- which gave me an unfair advantage for hiring.

This round was Flank Deployment, Reconnoiter, with Arcane Ritual (which we both took), and three others that were unimportant as we both took A Line In The Sand and revealed everything.

The table for Round 3. These aren't our minis, though.

Again, Jake was running Lady J, her totem, The Judge, three Death Marshals, the Exorcist, and an Austringer.  This time, I ran Kaeris with Grab and Drop, Cassandra with Smoke and Mirrors, The Firestarter, Miss Step, a December Acolyte, and three Fire Gamin.

Jake won Deployment, and had me choose sides and deploy second.  The terrain had two large bluffs in opposite corners (which I had built my crew around, with Kaeris and The Firestarter), so I chose to deploy right on top of one of them.  I put The Firstarter and the Gamin on one side of my flank, and Cass and Miss Step on the other, with the December Acolyte deploying up in the corner where Miss Step and Cass were going.

This game was less fair -- I kept everything out of range of the Austringer, utilized Miss Step and Cass' Nimble to start dropping Scheme Markers immediately, and sent a Fire Gamin and the Firestarter toward their quarter to hopefully drop more markers.  Jake ran his Exorcist and all three Marshals toward that same quarter -- they ended up killing The Firestarter first or second turn, before I could do anything with him.

Kaeris used Grab and Drop on The Judge, killing him with 6 damage (Jake didn't care to cheat up his flip -- falling damage is one of those things you don't really understand until you take it), and attempted it on Lady J.  Cass finished off Lady J -- it took both attacks from her Charge, plus the trigger that allowed her to Grab and Drop Lady J, since Kaeris was close enough.  Kaeris then moved to Grab and Drop the Austringer, and moved him right in line to be charged and killed by Miss Step.

I didn't want to move my December Acolyte, so he killed Lady J's totem, probably dropped a Scheme Marker, then stayed in his uncontested quarter.

Cass or Miss Step ended up finishing off the Exorcist, who had wandered away from the Death Marshals.  The Marshals turtled up in their quarter, realizing the game was lost, and I moved the two Fire Gamin out of their quarter to try and kill the Marshals.

Cass and one of the Gamin were killed by a Marshal.  The other Marshal Pineboxed Miss Step, and was promptly killed by the last Fire Gamin, dropping Miss Step right next to the final Marshal.  Kaeris moved up and removed the Scheme Marker in my opponent's deployment.

At this point, it was the end of turn 5 ... we flipped a 13, and kept going.

Kaeris dropped her own Scheme marker, then passed her two actions.  The Fire Gamin didn't want to shoot into Melee (I think Miss Step was injured enough that there was a potential to kill her), so he moved back into his starting quarter.  Miss Step Flurried, and the Death Marshal successfully dodged each attack.

End of turn 6... we flipped an 11, and moved into Turn 7.

The Death Marshal couldn't kill Miss Step, and Miss Step missed all 3 attacks of her Flurry again, and nothing else was in range to do anything.

The final flip was a 3, and the game was over.

That Death Marshal earned his stripes, surviving two full Flurries from Miss Step, and actually finishing the game!

I don't remember the Differential -- I had a full 10 VP (3 corners had my Arcane Ritual markers, Cass had single-handedly dropped 4 markers for A Line In The Sand, and I controlled all 4 quarters), but Jake had earned a few VP from... something.

At the end, I was 2 Wins, 1 Loss, with 21 VP and my Differential was either + or - 2.

How it all ended.

I ended up pulling 5th out of 10, much better than I'd expected after the crushing defeat in the first round, and snagged myself a Relic Hunters box set.

After all was said and done, Evan and I wandered off to play our usual Saturday Pathfinder game.  It was an absolutely awesome weekend.

Salt City Gladiator Games Recap - Part 1

The view from the front, looking at the TO
table -- you can see one of the Henchmen
taking pictures of the table.

Almost all the pictures in this post came from the Intermountain Malifaux Facebook Group -- my phone died on the first day, and I simply forgot to take pictures on the second.  If you're a Malifaux player, or someone simply interested in the game, and in the Intermountian area, please come join us.

Other pictures came from the A Wyrd Place Facebook Group -- if you're into Malifaux, Puppet Wars, Evil Baby Orphanage, or anything else Wyrd, join that group.

The picture of the Henchman Hardcore game came from the TO's Twitter account.  Follow him!


This last weekend was the first annual Salt City Gladiator Games -- a 2 day tournament / convention, featuring Warhammer 40k and WarmaHordes, but with an open play area that had Malifaux, Infinity, Dark Ages, and HeroClix demos and tournaments throughout, as well as speed painting and a painting competition -- and I had the opportunity to attend.  My initial plan was to play both Malifaux tournaments -- which I did -- and get in as many game demos as possible.

The view from the TO's table --
that's Jason Tuttle, the TO, walking away.

Day 1 - Friday, and the Malifaux Henchman Hardcore Tournament

I was lucky enough to get Friday off work so I could get the full Gladiator Games experience, so Evan and I showed up about an hour after the doors opened.  There were WH40k and WarmaHordes qualifier tournaments happening throughout the day, but we weren't there for those games so we had time to kill.  First things first, we checked out the eight Malifaux tables (visible on the right) -- there was a lot of variety, and enough terrain that the Ortegas and LaCroixs weren't going to have an unfair advantage throughout the tournament (there was at least one table without cover through the middle area, which I felt the full force of on Day 2, but one out of eight isn't bad).  After that, and a quick lap of the entire event to see what other games were playing on (WH40k were pretty standard, and I had no idea WarmaHordes played on basically empty tables), Evan and I set up for a practice / friendly / demo game.


As an aside, on our second day, playing a second non-tournament game a full two hours before the tournament started, we were essentially asked by another player why we would bother playing games for fun, instead of standing around waiting for the tournament to start. This player would go on to be the most complained about player in the tournament -- he seemed to intentionally waste his opponents' time during the Henchman Hardcore game through surfing on his phone and calling over the TO for clarification on everything that wasn't going his way, and finished the two-day event by arguing with the TO about how he should have placed higher because of... something...  This is all I'm going to say about him, but it's a sad reality of the competitive scene that there will always be "That Fucking Guy. (TFG)"

During our first friendly game, Evan was trying out his newly purchased-and-assembled Lilith crew so he could get a feel for her before the actual event started.  I don't remember a whole lot about the Strat/Scheme Pool, or our crew make ups, but a few stand-out things happened:

•  I had Kang and Miss Step (the official counts-as-Howard Langston) fairly close together, and Evan didn't like the look of them, so he attacked Kang with a Mature Nephilim.  The Nephilim landed in some trees (his base wouldn't fit between them), got a decent attack off on Kang, and was then decapitated by a Flurry from Miss Step.
• Evan and I both took Frame for Murder, then proceeded to pit our two patsies against each other.  Barbaros and a Gunsmith spent two or three rounds attempting to have the other kill them before a Fire Gamin-caused splash of Barbaros' Black Blood took the Gunsmith out.  Barbaros was then killed by Mei, herself, so we both got full points.

After that we grabbed lunch and picked up Evan's Battlefoam bag and Beckoner model that had been delivered to his house. 

Upon returning, I got a demo of HeroClix in, which was interesting -- you could tell the person who gave me my demo loved the game, but he wasn't great at running a demo, so he spent probably an hour explaining rules and random neat things to me before we ever pitted models against each other.  I wasn't getting it -- I am a person who learns by doing, not being told -- so we ran a 275 point 1 vs 1 game of Ronin the Accuser vs. Cosmic X-23 (by the way, when did she get a last name?).  During that part of the demo, I figured the game out, and it's a lot of fun despite being rules-heavy.  I'll probably pick up a starter box to play with Ninja within the next few weeks.

 

Henchman Hardcore

Finally, it was time for the Henchman Hardcore (again, pictures on the right).  In case you aren't familiar with the format, it's a 20 Soulstone Henchman-lead game with exactly four models per side.  No totems, no summoners, Turf War is the only Strategy, and Assassinate and Make Them Suffer were the only Schemes.

Through some peer pressure, we were able to cobble together a 10-player tournament.  A few of these players had never played Malifaux before, so their first game was going to be their demo.  My first opponent was one of these players -- he had plenty of experience with tabletop games, so he picked things up pretty quickly, and I feel like I did a decent job explaining the game (decent enough that the two Henchmen that were available left our table alone to concentrate on teaching the other new players, anyway).

Evan and I both played against TFG during this, which soured our taste for him (during Evan's game he did the aforementioned phone-surfing, and he called over the TO and decided to make dinner plans during mine), but otherwise it seemed to go well.  We ended up in the middle of the pack, and I got a lucky draw in the raffle and ended up with a M1E Leveticus box set.

We learned that Henchman Hardcore, due to the rapid-fire nature, is NOT a good format for people who are prone to panic attacks.

We finished the night by grabbing food with the Henchmen, and a few other players, and played a couple rounds of Hex Hex at dinner.  All in all, it was a great first day.

#6MMRPC Week 5 Wrap-Up

(I'm legitimately sorry for the pictures, this week -- I couldn't take a good picture to save my life.)

Yeah, I skipped a week -- I ran out of super glue (both brush on and gel), right after a financial emergency, and couldn't afford to spend the money on glue.  That doesn't mean I wasn't working, I just wasn't doing very much.

In that time, I put another coat of flesh onto my Dark Eldar project -- a few of them will need a third coat, then I'm onto highlights -- and, that's really it for all of week 4.

At the beginning of Week 5, my wife was kind enough to buy me some glue, so I got back to work.  I did very little gap-filling (I need to find a less messy way to do it, both for the sake of my living room (where I've been working), and for the sake of my glue, which kept thickening up in the bottle from baby powder that stuck to the brush), and decided to work on bases.  This was mostly for the Salt City Gladiator Games -- with the games coming up, I want to have everything I could possibly use based, at the very least.

First up was my December Acolytes -- simple cork bases with sticks for trees.

Next up was Mr. Tannen (in the background of the Drowned's picture) -- I've made quite a few of these hardwood bases before using HO Scale Milled Lumber, but this time I wanted to fill the gap around the edges using superglue and baby powder.  That ended up being more effort than it was worth -- the glue got all over the edges of the wood, and then I had to carve wood grain into the glue after I sanded it down.  Next time I'll use Green Stuff.

After that, I had picked up some linoleum samples that I wanted to try out, so I moved onto my Drowned -- I won't be using these at the Gladiator Games, but the texture was perfect for a sandy base.  I started by drilling out the center to make fully recessed bases, then cut the linoleum to fit, glued the linoleum to plastic and glued all of that to the bottom of the base -- after that, I lined the edges with cork, and covered the seams with coarse sand and rope made of twisted wire.  I'll fill the bases with water effects after I paint.

Finally, my coup de gras of the week -- Mr. Graves.  I've been debating on how to do him for awhile, and I had various parts of this plan laid out for months.  Over the last 3 or so months, I created a door with my scale lumber and card stock, which I then used to make a door frame in some plasticard.  I didn't like how that looked, so I spent A LOT of time with a dremel, files, and my hobby knife to try and make the wall look like rough-hewn wood.  After that, I lost my door, so I had to make a new one out of plasticard, which I decorated with some Etch-Master brass from their IndieGoGo campaign (I'll get a better picture as I add my doorknobs and hinges).

Next, I needed a cobblestone base, and I've never liked the look of hand-modeled greenstuff cobblestones.  So, I hollowed out another base (I swear there's a tutorial about that somewhere -- if I find it, I'll link it) and capped off the bottom with another piece of spare plastic.  I glued down a layer of fishtank rocks, which just happened to be the right height, followed by a layer of water-thinned PVA and railroad talus which I press-leveled (I took something flat, and pressed it into the base to have a level surface), and finished off with more thinned PVA and the same course sand I used on the Drowened bases.

The final step was putting it all together -- I needed an elevated floor for the "inside" of the door, so I built a hardwood base on a wooden disk which I glued onto the cobblestone base (I made this a bit too big, and covered up way too much of the stones), pinned and glued on my wall, then my door (it's not glued, just pinned, so I can remove it for painting), and, finally, Mr. Graves.

This coming week will be more Dark Eldar -- I need to add flesh highlights, then edge highlight everything, and I'll be ready to base everything! -- and my Fire Gamin.

#6MMRPC Week 3 Wrap-Up

This week was slow, but I got a few things done.  Most notably, I finished all of Phase 1, and I'm now moving to Phase 2.   In case you were wondering, the final model to assemble was The Dreamer, as seen on the left.

• Phase 1: Assembly.  Get everything I currently have from Malifaux assembled.  I should have most of Phase 1 done by the end of this week.
• Phase 2: Gap filling.  

The first part of Phase 2 was to find an acceptable gap filling medium.  I've used Milliput and Green Stuff (both regular and liquid) in the past, and I've always felt the ROI was really low.  GS can't be sanded, so you have to get it perfect the first time, and Milliput takes FOREVER to sand.

As mentioned in last week's update, I wanted to try Future and baby powder, and I did -- it does dry to a sandable level, but it doesn't naturally adhere to whatever you're filling so I had problems with the dried stuff flaking out of the gap as I worked on it.  Great idea, not an ideal solution.

Moving on from that, I went to super glue (CA glue) and baby powder.  Many posts I saw that mentioned this method said to make a paste and mash it in, but it only gives you a tiny time to work with the paste before the entire batch is solid.  Instead of doing that, I used some brush-on Krazy Glue, and used a small spoon to heap baby powder onto the glue.  That worked great (take a look at Lord Chompy Bits' shoulder, on the right)!  It still takes forever to sand, but not as much as Milliput.  Priming and painting will tell how effective this method is, but I think it's the best method I've found, so far.

Let's hope I can finish this phase before the end of October, as projected.

#6MMRPC Week 2 Wrap-up

Matney here.

This was an interesting week as far as the Six Month Mountain Reduction and Painting Challenge goes -- on Monday, I did as I said I was going to and purchased some Malifaux stuff from my liquidating LGS; then, on Tuesday, my GenCon order from Wyrd showed up, adding ANOTHER crew box (The Dreamer) and another Teddy to my pile.  In spite of that, I got quite a bit done.

On the left, you can see the current state of my oil-painted void-wretch.  I'm sad I'm losing those deep blacks I had, but I like the brighter white -- when I'm done, a water color wash will bring the blacks back, which will be fine.  My biggest gripe on this, now, is that it looks like I'm drybrushing, even though I'm not.

At work, I've been picking away at a super long-term commissioned Dark Eldar -- just the Warriors, right now -- and I don't have a picture to follow up for that (I'm not at work -- I'll update this blog, tomorrow, with pictures of those minis.
Finally,at home I've been grinding away at assembling things.  On the right, you can see this week's haul: Teddy, 2 Convict Gunslingers, 3 Drowned, 3 Crooligans, 3 Fire Gamin, Molly, Rogue Necromancy, and the Necrotic Machine.

I spent part of this week considering my plan of attack for the #6MMRPC, and I've come up with this:

• Phase 1: Assembly.  Get everything I currently have from Malifaux assembled.  I should have most of Phase 1 done by the end of this week.
• The Dark Eldar project will be included in this challenge.  Luckily, everything for that is assembled.
• My personal WH40k stuff won't be included in this challenge, as I'm currently sawing all my Tac Marine legs off to reposition them all, and plan on repeating that process with my Terminators.
• I'm not planning on tackling my Reaper Bones in this #6MMRPC, because that's just outrageous.
• Phase 2: Gap filling.  Yes, this is normally part of Assembly, but I've put it off so long on so many models that it's a legit Phase, this time.  I'm going to experiment with various methods -- I'll have to order some Color Shapers to try Liquid Green Stuff in a way I've seen be successful, but I'm also going to try simple Green Stuff, Milliput, and a mix of baby powder and Future (honestly, I hope that's the most successful -- I hear it's sandable, but it's also damn cheap).  This should be done by the end of October.
• Some models will be used at the Salt City Gladiator Games, so they will jump ahead to basing with or without gap filling.  I won't paint them without gap filling, though.
• Phase 3: Basing.  After all my gaps are filled, I'm moving to basing.  I really prefer scenic bases, so this is going to be slower than the previous two phases -- I plan on only getting one base done per night.
• At this stage, I will be deciding and documenting color choices to make the next step more effective.
• Phase 4: Base coating.  After everything is based, I plan on base coating everything.  No shading, and only the most basic detailing.  I plan on doing this with an airbrush to speed things up, so part of making that successful will depend on how well I document and determine all my color choices.  For airbrushing, I plan on only using colors straight from a bottle to make reproduction easier, but also to prevent wasting paint.  After that, I'll clean up my airbrushed stuff with a brush and do the detailing and smaller areas I couldn't hit with a brush.
• Priming will fall into this stage, too.  Up to this point, I've primed gray with a white overspray, but I think I'm going to move to straight white as it's always proven to be easier to make things darker than to make them lighter.  At least, that's how it has been for me.
• Phase 5: Clear coating. Once I hit this point, I recognize that my process will slow SIGNIFICANTLY, and I'll return to playing with my base coated models.  The clear coat will be to make the base coats more resilient while they're played with.
• This may be as far as I get for the #6MMRPC
• Phase 6: Detail painting.  I want to start painting everything I can in oils, which will slow everything down.  I want to do only a handful of models at a time, one model a night (giving a week per layer to cure), and I don't expect to finish everything I've base coated within the year.
  
  Throughout this process, I'll continue to paint the Dark Eldar at work.  HQs and such will be painted with oil paints, but troops and vehicles will remain in acrylics.  They will be the first models through every step of the process (after a few test models from my own test-model pile. (Note to painters: If you don't have a handful of metal models to test out techniques on, GET SOME -- metal models can be easily stripped with Acetone, unlike plastics, which make them ideal to messing up on.)
  
  This is an ambitious project, but I hope to knock it out.
   

The Return of ACWH and The 6 Month Mountain Reduction & Painting Challenge

Nightmare Edition Whiskey Golem -- Cheers!

Matney here. Well, now, it's been awhile. Coming up on two years...

So, what has happened in the last two years?

• I've mostly stopped playing WH40K, and instead play almost exclusively Malifaux.
• I (and my gaming group) started a Twitter account (that we're slightly more regular on) - The Cwimson Fist

And, as far as this blog is concerned, that's really it.  Why did I make the switch?   Well, first off, I was a terrible 40k player -- I believe I've won 4 games, ever.  In addition to that, I love the aesthetic (Steampunk Western with zombie hookers...  What's not to like?!), the mechanics (it's a super clean system, and the deck of cards and cheating mechanic make you feel like you have far more control over your actions than a handful of dice), and the community (I have yet to meet a sore winner when playing Malifaux).  In addition to that, 32mm models are ~O Scale / 1:48, which is a lot easier to find than S Scale, when it comes to building terrain.

But that's not why I'm back to the blog... Sure, there need to be more Malifaux blogs, but I'm not cocky enough to believe I'll ever have anything worthwhile to add to tactics covnersations...

My Jokers

No, I'm back because of The 6 Month Mountain Reduction & Painting Challenge.

You see, I have a problem -- I buy minis and I assemble them, prime them, and never paint them.  I'll try to get a picture together of all my unpainted minis for the next update.

So, over the next 6 months I'm going to try to get that mountain of unpainted stuff taken care of.

But first, what did I do, this week?

Well, I've already used my Jokers (and, to be fair, I may use a few more -- my LGS is liquidating Malifaux, and at my next pay check they'll be at like 50% off) to purchase Molly, her totem, and a box of Hanged.

First foray into oils -- A Void Wretch

In addition to that, I started playing around with oil paints on my Harold of Obliteration crew -- I only have Ivory Black and Transparent White right now (I had them for oil washes), so my options were slim -- I know I want my Obliteration crew (at least the Obliteration part of it) to be monochrome, and this seemed like as an option as any.  And, you know what... I loved working with oils.  I don't think I'm going to go back to trying to blend with acrylics at all.

So... there's the first update -- next week I'll have a little bit more to say. :)

Secret Bits Site: Shapeways

Matney here, talkin' about bits.  Specifically, an unlikely bits site.

In the last few years, 3D printing has come a very long way -- gone are the days where every printing step is painfully visible, and highly-detailed resins plus the availability of free modeling software like Blender are allowing 3D modelers (who may not have the slightest skill with green stuff) to print off some incredible bits, minis, and terrain (sometimes even as sprues, which is hilarious to me since they don't start out as an injection mold).

Shapeways is a 3D printing site, allowing its users to upload 3D models that they will then print to order.  Over the last year (I don't have proof, but a year ago I was looking for the same thing and found significantly less than I did this year) the custom bits market on Shapeways has blown up, where you can find just about anything.

Looking for Rhino doors for your Ork Lootas? Shoulder pads to make your vanilla marines stand out? A Fleur de Lis dozer blade for your Immolator? A dragon/demon/Tyranid model that none of your friends have EVER seen (see the picture)?  Throw 28mm in Shapeways' search box and go to town!

The only real downside I've found to Shapeways -- besides the prices, which are almost GW in nature -- is that most artists only carry one or two things that are applicable to any given hobby.  Sure, there are exceptions, but you'll have to actually spend time looking.

But, in case you don't feel like sifting through all of that, here are some excellent links for you:

• Admiral Duck Sauce - Alternative SM models, a couple neat head sprues
• DW Toys - Backpacks, weapons, stuff for your DIY terrain to look a little better.
• BlackBits - Dreadnought weapons and top hats (for your fancy IG, I guess).
• Custom Minis - Shoulder pads galore.  A few weapons, a few heads, and some other random bits, but this is THE place to find shoulder pads.
• Wolfhound Jack Designs - Dozer blades for SoB, IG, and SM.
• Vandil - Ork parts for Imperial vehicles, among other things.
• Dynath - Mostly weapon sprues, but some interesting mech bits are in there, too.
• GangWar Miniatures - Some great terrain pieces, as well as some female minis that would work well as Guard.
• ArtisticFiend - A single sprue of Marine stuff and a couple Storm Shields.
• Random Bits - Not so random as it looks like some interesting Necron alternatives, and some weapons.
• Custom Bitz - The demon/dragon/Nid posted above and some good looking wings.
• Saberwar 52nd Century - Chaos flamers, backpacks, and a pair of heads that will keep your bare-headed marines from looking like white supremacists.

 That's just the first few things I found, and I would wager money that there is more out there.

Lemme know if you end up buying anything -- I would love to see how it turns out (And I'll let you know when I buy the dozer blade and probably the dragon thing).

Battle Report: 200 Pt. Kill Team and 1520 pt 2 on 2

Matney here.  Last week, I showed you my DA/SoB roster for our 200 point Kill Team game that we played on Saturday.

None of us had played Kill Team before, and it's kind of a toss up whether we will again.

In addition to my DA/SoB army, Erock played Chaos (I didn't get a roster from him), Ammon played 10 Necron Deathmarks that were 100% identical (and I believe 100% stock), and Aaron played Grey Knights.

In our first games, Erock and I faced off while Aaron and Ammon faced off on the other side of the table.  Erock and I started out pretty evenly -- he killed my Seraphim in Turn 1 with a lucky shot, then our Terminators even destroyed each other on Turn 2 (a pair of sixes To Wound and a pair of ones for the Armor Saves.   He destroyed my Repentia on his half of Turn 2, then in Turn 3 I cut his Berserkers in half with my Retributor's Heavy Flamer (one burst from my half, then a Wall of Death when he charged her).  Unfortunately, that didn't save her life.

At the end, it came down to three of his Berserkers and his Sergeant against my Space Marines, where he whittled me down.

On the other side of the table, Aaron tried to sneak his Knights around buildings while Ammon took the opportunity to get the high ground with his snipers.  It was a slow game, and one that I didn't get a lot of information off of, but Ammon won.

In the second set, Ammon and Erock faced off (I honestly don't know who won, there), and I faced Aaron.  I dropped my Repentia for another Space Marine (I know I had a backup plan, but I nixed that).

We both started by sneaking around buildings -- I got my Space Marines into the same high ground Ammon used the round before, and covered the middle ground with my Sisters and Terminator.

My Terminator took out his all but one of his Terminators, my sisters took out most of his Grey Knights, his Terminator took out my Seraphim while his remaining Knight wiped out all but one of my Space Marines, so my Terminator bashed in his Terminator with a Thunderhammer, and it all came down to one of my Marines, my Retributor, and my Termie bashing on his remaining Knight in assault.  It was probably Turn 9 when the dice gods gave me that 1 on his save I was waiting for.

After that, Erock stated that he didn't really enjoy Kill Team, and Ammon suggested that we play a 2 vs. 2 1500 point game.

Erock and Ammon teamed up with Chaos / Necrons where Aaron and I teamed up across the table with Grey Knights and Dark Angels -- I took the Dark Vengeance set, minus the Librarian plus Belial to fit the FoC.

Turn 1 was where it started going downhill for our side -- Erock and Ammon killed off all but one of my bikes, I don't believe we killed a single thing of theirs.

Turn 2 I Deep Striked my Termies right in front of the Chaos Space Marines holding an objective (also, right in the middle of the battlefield), and Aaron wanted to keep his in reserves longer, but the dice predicted he'd drop his Terminators right behind mine.

So, for the next two turns, our 11 Terminators took EVERYTHING they had.  Monolith, Deathmarks, the Land Raider...

After they killed all 6 of mine and 2 of Aarons, we called it a night (we'd been playing for 8 hours, and it was 11:30 PM).

The two things I learned from this game are: Sisters with flamers are AWESOME, and I need to be more efficient with my Fast Attack.

Weekend Update: November 2-4, 2012

Taken from TSR Info

Matney here.  Most of our geek-stuff happens on Friday and Saturday nights, which is also where we have the least amount of time to keep the blog updated, so I'm starting a new series for Weekend Updates where I'll briefly recap everything and link to the more in-depth blogs.  Welcome to Weekend Update #1!

Stop Looking at me like that!

"This used to be such a nice place"

 So we started our multi-gm pathfinder game on October 27th. We began in a tavern somewhere close to the border of Barbarianania (not it's official name). The players were there to do a bit of searching in hopes of finding some clues about the location of fragments of an ancient tablet with the power to seal the rift in the lands of the damned (Barbarianania). While Ammon searched for clues, Hillbone decided to find a fine maiden to spend the evening romancing. He hefted his mighty D20 and gave it a hearty toss..... he rolled a 1. 

HEY! DO YOU WANT TO DANCE!!

Hillbones masterful display of social ninjitsu effectively decapitated any chance of  an innocent dance, with ANY girl in that Inn. His Rape Eyes sealed his fate. Only Lord Busey could best such a noble display of criminal intent. 

Luckily Ammon was able to get the information necessary and the party is off to Barbarianania. Stay tuned for session 2.  

Kickstarter: Bombshell Babes

Dave here, with my second Kickstart post.  Sometimes I stumble across Kickstarter projects after they've run their course, as is the case today.

Today's Kickstarter-I-wish-I'd-backed is Bombshell Miniatures' Bombshell Babes a series of miniatures somewhere between the iconic pinup girls, Rosie the Riveter, and the near-cliche action movie femme fetale (the creator says "strong women," and I'm sure that's a better description than the one I just gave).

What sold me was that, even though they're female minis made by men (and somewhat sexualized because of that, but I'm a straight guy and I kinda like that thing), they have a mini with birthing hips (who is either pregnant, or has a post-pregnancy gut), which is a demographic that's incredibly under-represented in female miniatures.

It also helps that they're excellent minis.

As of this writing, the project is over and funded, but they're still accepting donations (which they'll reward as though they're Kickstarter pledges) through Paypal. Even if I can't help support it -- which I would love to do -- I plan on picking up the minis when they hit retail.

Paths Through the Mists: The Story So Far (Part 1)

Wikipedia

Matney here (Yeah, I'm going to start doing that... no one knows me as Dave, anyway).  As I mentioned before, I'm running a Ravenloft game every other Friday night, and tonight is our first game back after almost two months hiatus.

(This series contains spoilers for Neither Man Nor Beast and Hour of the Knife. Also, it may contain spoilers for any of my players.)

WH40K Kill Team: Matney's Roster

The Sacred Rose by CELENG (DeviantArt)

Dave here.  This weekend, Eric and I -- as well as a few friends -- are going to spend some time playing some Warhammer 40k.  Specifically, 200 point Kill Teams.

You can find rules on Kill Teams all over the place online, but the common theme is that they're 200 points and that you can pay the per-model price for less-than-standard sized units (Want only a pair of Space Marines?  Sixteen points each!).

Back to Basics: Demon pt. 4 - Drybrushing

What I wouldn't give for a good lightbox, today.  None of my pictures seem to be showing what I did.

I was able to pick up a drybrush from a local ceramics shop, Sue's Ceramics in Layton, UT, today, which has allowed me to get back to the demon.  First off, I'm kind of excited to have a ceramics shop fairly close, because I've wanted to get back into that and finish a Christmas village for myself (would any of you have any interest in seeing that?  Leave a comment), but it also means I know a good place to get dedicated drybrushes.

So I'm back in business!

Kickstarter: Assimilation Alien Host by Edward Fortae

Dave here.  If backing Reaper's Bones Kickstarter didn't already tell you so, let me say, I am an avid Kickstarter fan.  Part of me does it in hopes that there's some magic Kickstarter karma that will allow whatever projects I start to succeed, but the main reason I like doing it is because I like giving away my money I really want startups to succeed.

A project I'm currently backing is Assimilation Alient Host by Edward Fortea, which I was turned onto by Dark Future Games.

Edward Fortea already has a history of creating excellent minis over at Troll Forged Miniatures, including some excellent alternative Tyranids, Demons, and some great fantasy miniatures, and he's looking to expand his line of worms.  Recently, my D&D group fought a carrion crawler, and I used a Purple Worm mini to proxy it, so I already had worms on my mind.

As of this writing, the Kickstarter project has 16 more days -- it's already fully funded, and now he's just working on stretch goals.

Back to Basics: Demon pt. 3 - Washes

Dave here.  In Part 1, we saw my first base coat -- where I thought the mini was a gargoyle. In Part 2, I did a proper basecoat for a demon, and experimented more with the flow of my paint.  Now, in Part 3, I'm going to talk about my very first attempts at washes, ever.

They Call Me..... Erock

     So, My name is Eric. I was affectionately defined ass a crasshole (crass asshole) by my long time clan of like minded nerd cohorts. I earned this illustrious title due to my need to speak my mind and always point out the elephant in the room no matter how much every one wants to ignore it...and i'm kind of a dick (but always in jest)

     

One of my painted minis

     I am an avid Table Top RPG player. My first love is  Warhammer 40k. I have a stupid huge collection of miniatures, most of which are unpainted (because I have a stupid huge collection). I love everything about the game. The story behind the armies and universe enthralls me. Everything is done in ridiculous proportions, and they wield weaponized chainsaws for crying out loud. It's hard to beat the visceral enjoyment that is gained from hitting some one in the face with stick covered in moving rape spikes. Sounds like win win to me. 

    I go to school and stuff too. Ya know, and other boring things that don't involve gaming