Posts Tagged ‘Lilith’

#Paddyfaux – Weekend Gaming in Cork

Posted: March 19, 2015 in Gaming
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Well last weekend seen our annual trip to Cork on the South West coast of Ireland for Paddyfaux, so-called as it is run over the St Patrick’s Weekend street party in Cork. Hosted by the great Mike Foreman and held in the luxurious Imperial Hotel in Cork the event is always a lot of fun and highly anticipated event in our gaming calendar.

Day 1

Setting off from Belfast it took just under 5 hours to reach our destination and that even included rush hour traffic in the one-way system of Cork’s main streets. Some of our friends from the United States made the trip across the Atlantic for the event and we met up with them in the family-run bar of the host Mike. Dan Lowrey’s Bar is a great location serving fantastic local ales and ciders and with wonderful home-cooked food it really is worth the trip. Sitting down with a few pints of Chieftain IPA we caught up with the Americans, Tera and her husband George, over a few bowls of traditional Irish stew. Then it was back to the hotel for gaming.

Our Americans brought some gaming goodness from their game store Mastermind Miniatures and Models which included a lot of X-Wing ships for the guys and some Cthulhu expansions for me. We broke out Luchaodr Mexican Wrestling Dice, played some Munchkin Loot Letter and snacked on authentic american jerky! It’s all good!

#ToMB Lilith after Month 1

Posted: March 18, 2014 in Gaming, Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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So it’s been a fun month with Lilith. I may have broken a few rules of #ToMB by using other models in my collection but the Lilith box comes in at 28/29SS at a push which does not meet minimum game size for including a Master.

So what have I learned? Let’s break down each model and see what they do:

Lilith
The Master of Malifaux. She can ignore LOS for CA and charges. With a Wk/Cg of 6 she has little movement bonuses for charging over walking. combine this with her bonuses on her sword when attacking and damaging for NOT charging means she either wants people within her melee range or at most take 1 walk and swing her sword with a better chance of hitting. She has Black Blood which is a Nephilim trait. Any Nephilim who take damage will inflict 1 Dg on all non-Nephilim models in 1″ range. Nice defensive ability. her Df is the highest in the game with a trigger that means if you miss her with melee you will be at -2Ml til the end of the turn. And lastly she ignores severe terrain when moving. Her only downside is 10 wounds which is a little fragile on a Master. Rush of Magic allows her to draw an extra card at the start of the turn. She can then discard a card down to her hand size.

Her spells are very nice. Tangle Shadows is perhaps the best one but does require a relatively high card with a Mask. She targets a model within 12″ (ignoring LOS) and switches places with a friendly model within 6″. Her standard 2″ melee range means she might then be able to take 2 swings with a ML 7 positive attack and damage. She will probably be killing most things with 2 swings. She has a (0) action that allows +1 Dg on all melee damage from charge actions if she moves through terrain.

The upgrades I have taken so far have been:

  • Beckon Malifaux – Lilith gains Instinctual to do 2 different (0) actions which is handy since this upgrade gives her an additional (0) to create an Illusionary forest to block LOS to her but not for her. She can then charge through this to get the bonuses above.
  • Living Blade – This extends her range of melee and gives her an ability to get a free swing if a model is pushed within 1″ of her. Which leads to
  • Wicked Mistress – Gives Lilith a spell to make her push a model up to it’s charge towards this model. If it is pushed through severe terrain it tales damage and gains slow. If it ends within 1″ it can be targetted by Living Blade.

These 3 key upgrades give Lilith a lot of movement shenanigans and make her deadly within a 12-18″ range.

Barbaros
Lilith’s Henchman and protector. He is not quick but has Nimble so gains an extra move. He has Armour and Black Blood and a trigger when someone misses to inflict damage and push them away. His high Df adds to this making him pretty tough. He has a sword with decent range, decent Ml6 and standard damage spread. He can then push the target up to 4″ away afterwards which can then be combined with Nimble so if he is in a place he does not want to be he can hit once and move twice. He has (2) action that deals more damage, pushes the target further away then pushes him in Base contact after. His (0) Challenge allows him to put up a big bubble to protect those inside from damage as all actions need to pass a WP test or fail immediately.

  • His main upgrade is the Gladiatus which is a (0) so it is either this or Challenge each turn. The Cyclone Crash is a Wk duel which if failed deals damage and pushes away. Those pushed into base contact with impassable terrain gain SLOW.
  • Rapid Growth is a nice upgrade on Barbaros as this allows Terror Tots nearby to be able to grow into Young Nephilim when they kill a model.
  • Obsidian Talons allows models who trigger the chance to cheat damage flips even if they are on negative flips. Normally you can NEVER cheat negative flips but Obsidian Talons grants the FLAY ability and this is perfect for a hard-hitting fragile crew. Kill other models before they kill you.

Terror Tots
These adorable little critters don’t look like much with low wounds and above average walk. They have a high defence and ignore severe terrain and have Black Blood. When they die any Nephilim in range may walk towards the model that killed it. They have an average Ml5 but where they excel is their tactical action – Sprint. This allows them to move, flip a card and if a Mask is flipped they move again. A cheat from your hand can guarantee these guys are up the other side of the board before the opponent knows what is happening. They have a built in ability called Pounce that allows them to get a free attack if a model ends a push in their engagement range. You may ask yourself why you would heal an opponent’s models rather than killing them but we will cover this later.

Cherub
He is the Ace up the sleeve when it comes to interacting with the board and other models. Other models within 3″ may take (2) Interact actions as (1) actions and (1) actions as (0) so this means for any scheme involving placing markers or interacting with other models means the models get a bonus move or action for free either after interacting or before. His ranged attacks deal little damage but hand out Slow conditions and he can make the area around any model hazardous which then means models take damage in it.

Playing Games

When deciding what models to take you need to know what Strategy you are playing and available schemes. If Breakthrough or Plant Evidence comes up I’m taking 2 or more Terror Tots and running them up the flank. If you declare this they only need to place 2 markers to guarantee 3VPs. Bodyguard works well with Barbaros with his Armour, 9 wounds and his inherent quickness. Protect Territory can be easily achieved with the speedy cherub helping models take (0) actions to interact and then do other things.

Lilith benefits greatly from being in the middle area of the board, her Mv6 and ability to see through terrain means that an opponent can have his best models swapped out and suddenly have Barbaros in his face and his best model now within string distance of Lilith’s blade.

Nephilim Pinball

Most Nephilim have a trigger on their melee weapons – For The Brood – built in. This allows them to instead of killing a model, instead heal it 1 wound, Paralyze it and push it 8″. This is essential for Nephilim Pinball. Basically a model kills an enemy, paralyzes it and then pushes it over to a terror tot who activates pounce and then kills the target and grows into a Young Nephilim. Perfect way to get enemy models off the board and get in heavy hitters to your force without spending on them at the start.

Conclusions

So I have had a blast playing Lilith over the last few weeks and learning her tricks. She is a very different master to what I am used to and can be played a few different ways to achieve victory. Next month I will be adding to the crew to get some more diversity in it.

Bob

Procrastinations & Resolutions

Posted: March 17, 2014 in Painting, Resolutions
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I started the year with the intention of doing something more than just collecting (read buying) new shiny models. I already have a buttload (metric tonne) of toy soldiers and not enough time to paint them all. Enter my New Year’s Resolution.

I aimed to paint 1 point a day for the entire year. This does not mean paint an arm on a 5 point model but just be able to sit back on December 31st and count up 365 points of models painted in a year. As i mainly play skirmish games this gives both a challenge since games are low points cost meaning lots of models but also a potential to reach out and grab other skirmish games to play, collect and paint. Enter Bushido #itsathing.

It started reasonably well and by January 5th I had finished a 5 SS Malifaux model, my female Drowned. Solustones, SS, are there way of points costing models. Bushido uses Rice Bowls. Secrets of the Third Reich uses RP but this is not a skirmish game so a 6RP unit may consist of 10 troops, 3 large monsters or a steampunk tank robot – I know, cool! right?

Then the procrastination hit, buying more new models and not painting those I had. Time was piling up and my points total for the year was not matching it. Time for some severe motivation.

With Paddyfaux looming up and extra raffle tickets on offer for painted crews I decided to up my game. Deciding on Neverborn to compliment my #ToMB project I knew I had to get a lot of models completed to give me a depth to my crew pool. So let’s take a look:

  • Drowned – 5SS
  • Lilith – 10SS
  • Barbaros – 10SS
  • 3 Terror Tots – 12SS
  • 2 Young Nephilim – 12SS
  • Mature Nephilim – 11SS
  • 3 Silurids – 21SS
  • 2 Waldgeists – 12SS
  • Lucius – 10SS
  • Austringer – 6SS
  • Black Blood Shaman – 7SS

This gives me a total of 116 points of models painted this year. It is now 17th March (Happy St patrick’s Day!) which makes 76 days so it looks like I have recovered from my February slump. Just a little motivation really does help.

With the new Malifaux Vassal league starting soon and with 10 Thunders as my chosen faction it looks like I have more motivation to paint up my 10 Thunder models to get practice games in.

Bob

 

Tournament Preparation

Posted: March 13, 2014 in Gaming
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With this weekend seeing the inaugural Paddyfaux (St Patrick’s Day weekend in Ireland) I want to talk about crew selection and what goes in to help with the strategies and schemes on offer.

The Paddyfaux rulespack sets out the strategies we will be playing over the 5 rounds and also a list of schemes available for those rounds. 3 games on Saturday at 40SS, 2 on Sunday at 50SS means we can be assured of very different games and experiences.

There is no paint requirement for this tournament although fully painted crews will grant extra raffle tickets for prizes. I have decided to combine this tournament with my #ToMB log and try and get as many models painted in the timeframe.

I opted then for Neverborn as a faction choice for the tournament. Each faction has 7 masters available to it but I will be sticking with just 2. Lilith as part of my #ToMB and Lucius. There are a large range of models that can and do work well with Lilith, from her Terror Tots for objective running to Waldgeists to cut down LOS to Nephilim for beating on models. She is purely in-faction in her selection.

Lucius on the otherhand is the Governor’s Secretary. A high ranking member of the Guild but as it turns out is secretly a Neverborn Master. He allows access to MIMIC and GUARDSMAN models through an upgrade he can purchase. This means Lucius can bring in some much needed firepower to the Neverborn – Guards, Riflemen and Austringers are all available to him.

So this gives me 2 distinctly different builds – Lilith with her fast hard-hitting but fragile crew and Lucius with his buffs to minions and ability to order people around and take out of sequence actions. Whether or not this is a good idea will remain to be seen. Results will be posted after the weekend.

Bob

#ToMB WIP update for Lilith

Posted: March 7, 2014 in Hobby, Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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Some more progress on my ‘Mother of Monsters’ crew. Lilith has received some highlights to her skin, layering from Bestial Brown up through to Vomit Brown. The next stages will be Elf Flesh mixed with vomit brown and then lastly Elf Flesh with possibly some white mixed in for a final edge highlight. I have also used some Jade Green to tie in with the rest of the models in the crew. I think Purples and Jade Green will be a feature in my Neverborn.

The tots, the babies of the bunch, started with Genestealer Purple followed by a wash of Army Painter Purple tone to provide a darker tone. Highlighting with watered down Genestealer Purple and then again with a mix of purple and white produced a stark contrast. A final diluted wash of Purple Tone helped blend the stark highlights with the base colour. Green was used on their cloth and they will have grey horns and hooves and some metallic weapons.

 

  • Lilith – Mother of Monsters

  • Terror Tots – almost done

#ToMB Lilith WIP

Posted: March 5, 2014 in Hobby, Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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So some of you may notice that I have not used the current plastic model for Lilith in my #ToMB project. There are 2 reasons for this. Well, actually there’s 1 reason for this if I’m being honest. The original Lilith model is still one of my favourite models in the game.

Yes, she does have an oriental feel to her. Yes, she is wearing thigh-high boots with stockings and little else. And yes, she is twiddling a finger through her hair while resting a giant bad-ass sword on 1 shoulder. All of these things add together to make it a model that exudes confidence, killyness and cool. All of these things embody what Lilith is in the fluff and in the game. She is the Master of Malifaux. The land bends to her will and she will use it to exact her vengeance. And yes, if you get within range she will use her blade to great effect.

It’s true the new plastic model has similar aspects but nothing says cool than a lady twirling a finger through her hair and then decapitating you. As for the painting I started off with a black undercoat and used an airbrush to prime most of the model with GW Dawnstone through an airbrush. The airbrush allows me to apply thin layers of paint and then to get overspray to get a gradient effect on parts of the model –  the coat in particular. I have used purple on the model to tie in with the rest of my Neverborn models and will also use some green as many of my Neverborn models have green as well. I have been experimenting with glazes and used that to give a purple glaze to the inside of the coat. I will also apply some dust to the coat using a glaze method.

The boots were airbrushed with the grey but 2 washes of black have created a nice highlight and depth to them. I’m debating on using varnish to make them shiny or not. Her hair has been given a base layer of terracotta before an ink of nut brown. This, I realised may have been a mistake as it dried shiny. A wash of dark brown helped tone down the shine and a final drybrush of red brought out the tips and highlighted the raised areas. The sword and boot tops were base coated with a dark metal mixed with some matte medium. The medium dulls down the metallic paint flecks while still giving some shine. I much prefer this technique than a straight application of metal paint.

Also in the picture is Lucius, the Governor’s Secretary, the right-hand man of the Guild Leadership. It’s true he’s Guild through and through but this character definitely has his own agenda.

YMMV but for me the original model of Lilith still wins out.

  • Lilith and Lucius work in progress

#Paddyfaux only 2 weeks to! @tograth

Posted: February 28, 2014 in Gaming, Hobby, Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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With only 2 weeks before Paddyfaux we have been frantically playing smaller level games to prepare for the first day (3 rounds 40SS). I have played 1 game with Lilith and 1 with Lucius and I will tell you what I have learned: 40SS does not go very far.

In order to get minions that can fulfil the schemes on a game-by-game basis the amount of big gribblies I can field goes down dramatically. Lilith took 3 tots, a cherub, silurid, Young Nephilim and a waldgeist. Leaving no room for any heavy hitters (Young Nephilim aside). So what’s outcome? Basically the difference between 40 and 50SS is a heavy hitting minion, enforcer or henchman. What i believe is that if you nail your games at 40SS then moving up to 50SS just gives you more survivability to do some damage with the additional model in your crew.

I also ran a Lucius Guild/Mimic crew with 2 riflemen, austringer, beckoner, tot and a silurid. Again with little experience with Lucius I eked out a draw but was not using Lucius or his minions to their optimum abilities.

And the painting is still continuing. Have been steadily applying 3 colours at least to all models. Still got a few that need to be airbrushed but this will happen this weekend.

TOMB: 40SS Lilith vs Sonnia

Posted: February 25, 2014 in Gaming, Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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So at the weekend we got in a game, smaller than usual but in preparation for an upcoming tournament, PADDYFAUX, which will use 40SS games on Day 1 and 50SS games on Day 2.

Since the Lilith box set comes in at 25SS for models alone I decided to proxy some models to see how good they would be with Lilith leading them.

Strategy: Turf War
Schemes: Bodyguard, Breakthrough, Plant Evidence, Spring the Trap, Line in the Sand

Crews:

Lilith, Beckon Malifaux, Living Blade 4 cache
Silurid – for objective grabbing and leaping
Waldgeist
Young Nephilim – accompany some tots for protection
3 Terror Tots – objective runners
Cherub – (0) interact actions with a certain radius for other models
Tuco

Sonnia
Samael
2 Death Marshals
Witching Stalker
Guild hound
Brutal Effigy

My plan was basically to run the cherub with the tots up a flank and drop scheme markers as I went. The Young Nephilim was close by to provide support when needed but could get to the centre of the board for the strategy. Lilith would remain central and use her ability to see ignore terrain for LOS and move enemies when needed or throw up forests to hamper LOS. A terror to and Silurid were deployed on an opposite flank and Tuco was in the forest ready to cause havoc. My opponent took a central line in preparation.

Turn 1:

With my opponent allowing me to go first, Tuco emerged from the forest and blasted at a Death Marshal catching the second and Samael in the blast. In response Samael set him on fire and dealt damage to kill him at the end of the turn. This was a bad move! Keeping him in cover and possibly getting 2 good shots off might have been a better use for him. The tots ran up the opposite flank with the Nephilim and Cherub while the Effigy, a hound and a stalker moved to counter them. The Waldgeist moved up and threw up a forest and Lilith did similar to cut down lines and slow progress. At the end of the turn Tuco took damage, killing him and my opponenet spent a stone to have a witchling stalker emerge from the ashes.

Turn 2:

My Nephilim could not see the hound behind the wall to charge but did manage to walk and then engage. 1 strike meant the end of the hound. Lilith performed Tangled Shadows and swapped a Waldgeist and the Brutal Effigy and then killed the effigy in a strike. My tot placed a scheme for (0) and then ran forward, sprint helping out to get extra movement. The tot was on fire from a witchling bullet but my Cherub could only look on as it cannot interact to put the flames out. The death marshals advanced towards the centre so to counter a Silurid leapt and charged and in doing so was able to get into position to score a point from the strategy. Killing the marshal did not change the situation and at the end of the turn we both scored 1VP. 1-1.

Turn 3: Lilith had Samael  in range and casually walked up and swung twice. Not charging gives a +ve flip to both Attack and Damage and with Living Blade giving 3″ melee no one is safe within 9″. Score 2-2.

Turn 4:

With little left of my force and the opposing crew suffering likewise the strategy was forgotten as we attempted to score scheme points. Sonnia rounded the tower and put a Young nephilim to the torch, blasting Lilith and a cherub in the process. Lilith walked to Sonnia and with no soulstones left was in position for next turn. Lilith was left on the board against Sonnia and a stalker.

Turn 5:

Initiative flip was the key here. Flipping a Red Joker secured me the initiative and with it she struck Sonnia twice for severe damage on both to kill her. Last AP I tried to root the stalker in place to prevent any movement for scheme grabbing but missed. Her (0) grew a forest beside the witching to hamper any movement.

When the dust settled I had placed 2 objectives for Plant Evidence and announced it for 3VP. My opponent scored 3VP for Breakthrough and 1 for Plant Evidence.

Lost 6-5.

 

TOMB: There and Back again, Lilith, a slow-grow journey

Posted: February 3, 2014 in Tale of Malifaux Bloggers
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With a spring in my step and a smile on my face I’m happy to finally announce that I am using Lilith in our global-spanning quest for world domination. Wait, what? Sorry, wrong blog. So yes, a group of Malifaux podcasters and bloggers have gotten together and decided to revive the old “A Tale of…”

What is “A Tale of…”? I hear you ask! Well, it all started a long time ago, like most stories do, in the mists of time when boys were small and White Dwarf was a respected gaming magazine. 4 writers for White Dwarf got together and decided to keep track of their new and fledging armies as they bought, painted and played with their forces each month. They each had a budget which they used to buy extra units for their forces and Little Timmy reading at home could do exactly the same as them (or just buy a whole army in 1 fell swoop because Little Timmy’s parents over indulged the spoilt little brat).

The “A Tale of…” can be used for various game systems and model ranges and this is where “TOMB: Tale of Malifaux Bloggers” comes into play. We knew that people new to Malifaux would need somewhere to come to read up on what others have done, see what options they have and (in my case) what failures they have made along the way, playing and gaming with their crews.

Malifaux lends itself well to this format. The starting price point we have is $60 which will cover an initial investment in a crew box set and a deck of cards. Each crew box will generally have a thematic core set, providing a Master, usually a henchman and a totem and some other models that are useful with the Master’s playstyle.

Each month after the first we have another $25 to spend on models. We can freely decide what to buy, save up for a larger purchase next month or get something new each month. So, with that here’s my 1st month’s spend:

  1. Lilith, Mother of Monsters – $40

This gives me $40 spent and $20 to bank for next month. With this crew box set I get Lilith, Master of Malifaux and her henchman, Barbaros, a gladiator-style Nephilim. Lilith’s totem, a symbol of her power, flutters by her side in the shape of a Cherub. And her ‘children’ – 3 terror tots to help achieve her plans in Malifaux. The arsenal box provides a full of set of stat cards for all models released in the first wave of Malifaux 2nd edition. The reason I bought this is that even though all new models come with new cards for 2nd edition if I get the chance to buy any models cheap on ebay from 1st edition I will have cards to use them in 2nd edition. It’s a future investment for the faction and my crew.

I am tying this blog together with a slow grow league we are running in my local gaming group so for the next few weeks the core set will do me just fine as we are playing small soulstone levels for a few weeks. In small games it is usual for the henchman to lead the crew rather than a master. Last week seen Barbaros, Lilith’s henchman take on Ototo of the Ten Thunders in a Turf War.

The game was a lot of fun, the terror tots made good use of terrain to scamper forward with their Sprint ability (move, flip a card, if it’s a Mask, move again), sometimes cheating in a low mask when I really wanted some speed. Barbaros himself is not fast but his additional Nimble ability allows him to get a free walk which more than makes up for his 4″ movement.

Black Blood on all Nephilim models means that even if they are engaged they can be a threat as each damage they take they dish out 1 damage to all non-nephilim around them. In the end it came down to Ototo failing to heal himself and a sneakity little terror tot stabbed him in the knee to kill him and get the Assassinate scheme.

10-6 victory in my first outing. 2nd round tomorrow night.