Posts Tagged ‘Malifaux’

Call the Marshals

Posted: August 6, 2023 in Gaming, Hobby, Painting
Tags: ,

After the fun of the Henchman Hardcore demo day and seeing how badly my quick build crew was to run (Judge, Jury and 2 death marshals*) I thought I would tie in this month’s ‘Tale of Malifaux Painters’ with building out more options for my Marshals.

I have since stripped my old metal Alt Lady Justice and Miss Terious and built out the remaining marshals (Lone Marshal, Exorcists, Domodores de Cadavres) and am aiming to tackle a good few of them this month.

This at least should some better options for playing Hardcore or even at a full game of Malifaux!

I know it’s a short month with the holidays so I am not going to be too ambitious and I have only signed up to complete 15points of models this month. So far I started Lady J, Miss Terious, The Judge and the Scales of Justice, lady J’s totem. I am going for a worn leather on all the Marshals except for the exorcist who should be in black as befits their status.

* The only ones I had painted

Henchman Hardcore is different from standard Malifaux in the following ways:

  • Encounter Size is 30 Soulstones.
  • Round Time Limit is 45 minutes.
  • Only Henchmen can be chosen as a Crew’s Leader.
  • A Leader’s Cost is not treated as 0 when hiring.
  • A Crew’s Soulstone Pool can never exceed 3 (any excess Soulstones are discarded).
  • Player’s have a maximum hand size of 4.
  • Player Crews must contain exactly 4 models and are fixed for the event, and thus cannot change between games.
  • Leaders have an Action limit of 2 instead of 3.
  • Models cannot be Summoned. If a model would be Summoned, the Summon effect is ignored.
  • The Helping Hand ability listed on Effigy models is ignored.
  • VP from Strategies may be scored during Turn 1.
  • Encounters are predetermined:
  • Deployment: Wedge
  • Strategy: Plant Explosives, as listed in GG0. • Schemes: Vendetta & Assassinate

It was rumoured, it was leaked, it was retracted and then it was…well, launched. Wyrd has officially announced that Malifaux Third Edition will be coming. They plan to have 2 crews ready for Gencon 2018 with some of the new cards and rules in place. Their email said that Rasputina and Marcus will be ducking it out for folks to play with this year.

And that got me thinking why they would do 2 Arcanist Masters to fight with. But then they dropped the bomb – Marcus is now Dual-faction with Neverborn. WHAAATTT?

And he’s not the only one switching up things it seems. McMourning has lost his Guild faction (nothing new here since he was caught controlling zombies by Lady J), Misaki has handed in her merc card and become Ten Thunders solely (again this was story-driven and as head of the Katanaka clan she needs to lead the Ten Thunders), Lynch has stepped away from the Neverborn connections and Brewie has thrown in his lot with the Gremlins. McCabe got out while he could and cashed in his lot with the Thunders. Let’s hope I can still bring some Guild forces when I play McCabe! Jack Daw has now appeared in the Ressers which switches tings up a touch.

To replace these lost dual factions we have some new ones – Zipp has become Outcast Dual-faction (well, he is a pirate!) and Hoffman may be showing some Arcanist sympathy as he becomes Dual faction with them.

Some players might be a little riled up by this but by far the most anger has come from some lost masters. Within the fluff of Malifaux we have seen Nicodem taken out, Lilith has been locked in the Red Cage by Zoraida (for her own good) and what’s left of Ramos has been shipped Earth-side to Vienna. This means that now in M3E tournaments these masters will be useable at the TO’s discretion.

With some masters now gone we have new masters stepping in to take their place. First (and rightfully so) Nekima has taken her place as Queen of the Nephilim, Euripdes has come down from the mountain to serve Titania, Von Schtook has taken his university on a field trip and now is a master in the Ressers and Dashel has been given a promotion within the Guild.

From what information has been released it seems that M3E will streamline a lot of what has become seen as bloated in M2E, namely all the tracking of conditions. There will now be 11 main conditions in the game. Masters and models that previously used conditions will now use tokens for tracking quantities. I don’t really see a difference here but let’s see where they go with it. Deployment zones have now been changed to increase threat ranges and I guess action from turn 1 will become the norm.

To achieve this there is a closed beta that will be working til release next year. By far the most interesting part of M3E is that unlike M2E which had a staggered release for models using a wave system, M3E will be fully ready to go when it is released. With a lot more models introduced from M1.5 to the end of M3E this is a massive undertaking but hopefully we will be in for a treat!

D.

So this week seen a resupply of modelling materials. And with that a spurious effort to build some more models that arrived in the last 2 weeks.

We begin with some Lampads, Resser spirit enforcers (3 in a box, 7SS). These boys are swirling masses of ethereal fire and if an enemy dies nearby from burning, they get to become a new Lamapd, yay!

Some nice Guild models arrived in the shape of Guild Investigators, 6SS minions that can lock down enemy actions, deny scheme markers from being used and generally mess with the gameplan. Nice for Lady J, Lucius or McCabe who can bring them into Ten Thunders.

Sparks was my next assembly. A gremlin who can make a model a construct and gives Mei Feng a nice assist for rail walking or better yet can make Mei a construct and then Lazarus can copy her actions. Useful lil green guy!

Another little guy was the Alt Tanuki that was available in some box sets or as a promotion for store purchases. These poison pandas can be slippery with their Defensive trigger and are able to use scheme markers to give out poison. Who wants Sake?

I also based up a female gunsmith. Love the pose of this model and will definitely take her when I go Mei Feng Arcanists.

A custom bayou base was needed for McTavish and his gator. Some cork tile and a little clip, tear, scratch and slice and the job is done. Will add some water effect when I get round to painting him.

Lastly I assembled my first building from TTCombat. Their range of Venetian buildings for Carnevale are lovely. This is their Townhouse A, a 2-storey building with a large footprint. A few more of these and I will have a nice mix of buildings (with extendable floors for extra height) that can either be used flat, or with the addition of some walkways, create a Venetian board with canals and limited open ground.and choke points around some bridges.

Just looked at the last date I posted and realised it’s been 18 months. That’s not good! I haven’t been sitting on my rear doing nowt in the between times but I guess I have neglected this blog.

Let’s see…

Malifaux, my primary love, I have been collecting and assembling anything Ten Thunders related that has been released (and yes that means non-10T where I can use them with dual-faction masters) as well as expanding crews for some other masters (Molly, Lilith and Justice) but I’m always looking for new ideas for crews

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For some time now I’ve been using resin bases for all my Malifaux models. Nice cobblestone bases from Fenris Games. The quality is, variable, and the colours not always consistent and there has been a noticeable trend on the 40 and 50mm bases to be thinner than usual. I also discovered that there’s some significant size creep meaning my 40mm are about 43mm and 50mm are a joke.

But my entire Malifaux collection is on the same basing so what did I do? Went with a new supplier using resin base inserts instead. I’ve kept all the unused bases from all my Malifaux models so at least I had something to work from.

My next action was to find a supplier that had what I needed and I got them! Gladius Game Arts do resin inserts in 30,40 and 50mm with victorian flagstones. They also do other ranges and styles. Very nice, consistent casting and readily available.

And so began the task of freezing all my miniatures and carefully slicing through the superglue join and reattaching to their new bases.

A number of Kickstarters arrived over the last few months and one that I was really interested in was Blackwater Gulch. This Western-horror skirmish games had a revamp and the miniatures in the Kickstarter were re-sculpted and were beautiful. I went in on 2 rulebooks and 3 crews, Lawmen, Outlaws and Cursed. The other faction, Beasts, did not appeal at the time but since the Kickstarter arrived they ran another successful Kickstarter to provide minion re-sculpts to add more support to the crews.

A nice twist on Blackwater Gulch is the creator has supplied Photoshop templates and the rules allow you to create your own stat cards to use models in your collection. And with that I went straight to work and created a Death Marshal force for Blackwater Gulch.

[Update] Since creating the cards, the publisher has shown how minion cards are used and they are typically costed in groups of 3 so the death marshals should be triple the cost on the card.

 

So with Asami bringing a much-needed summoning force to the Ten Thunders let’s have a look and see what’s available for her to use.

She can summon Oni minion models with a similar trait to most other summoning masters – Target Number (TN) is 10 + the cost of the model you wish to summon + a mask in this case. She does not need corpse counters like Nicodem, or to hurt enemy models like Molly and the summoned models come in at full health. So what’s the down side? They gain the Flicker condition which is reduced at the end of the turn. Once you have no flicker left you are removed from play. This gives her a great shoot and forget mechanic, drop a high mask card and get a gribble beast out for a turn. Potentially 3 times.

In addition she can remove corpse markers nearby to increase the flicker condition giving the summoned model some longevity.

Her totem can also increase the flicker condition but only once per model each turn.

Friendly Oni can also damage her in order to make a 2AP charge action for 1AP, perfect for those summoned models to charge right in and do some damage.

So what models can she summon? We have Tengu at 8Masks, Yokai at 9Masks, Obsidian Oni at 10Masks and Jorogumo at 13Masks

That is a pretty good range of models that can be summoned in with a range of cards.

BUUTTT let’s have a look at Mr Tannen. His action allows masks to be used at their face value + 2 so suddenly we are popping Tengu out on a 6 and Jorogumo on 11Masks. Throw Sensei Yu into the mix and we have 4AP to use for summoning scary monsters.

Oh my.

This will be updated as more previews are released up til Gencon.

Guild: I see a few more marshals by the look of it. Nellie and her reporters.

Gremlins: Some crazy shape shifting between pig and hulking gremlins? Zipp and some flying construct skeeters

Outcasts: Bandidios, undead bandidos and I’m guessing Last Blossom female assassins. Barrows and his posse

Ressers: Reva on horseback, peacekeeper-weaponised shieldbearers

Neverborn: Titania and werewolves!!!

Ten Thunders: Asami and her Oni, Terracotta warriors, Yasunori rider

Arcanists: Sandeep and some sweet poison gamin

In depth: Asami Tanaka

Posted: July 22, 2016 in Gaming
Tags: , ,

Asami has experienced more pain in her relatively few years than most people are capable of enduring in a lifetime. As a child, she saw faint lights which she knew came from Beyond. To guard her from judgment, her father kept her isolated. Asami grew lonely and yearned for the day she would have a family of her own.

Following an attack on her family shrine, she lost not only her father but also her fertility, and with it, the hope of creating her own family. Mortally wounded, Asami let the Amanjaku inside her soul, bestowing her with the bestial power of the oni – power which escalated as she let the demon even deeper within her, lured on by its promise to grant her a child. The exchange was a dark pact; the ravenous maw splitting the back of her head is both a constant reminder of her own insatiable hunger for the life she lost and the cruel mark of her oni manipulator.

The Ten Thunders have recruited Asami into their number, hoping to use her demonic strength for themselves, but whether they will be able to control her is another matter entirely.

 Box Set

Asami’s box contains six models, including Asami herself. Ohaguro Bettari is a fast melee Henchman who can Charge without needing LoS and who can prevent enemy defensive Triggers. Asami’s totem, Amanjaku, can increase the value of Conditions on models and provide cover. Yokai are reliable melee models with good versatility, who are particularly strong summons for Asami.

Tactica

Asami brings a whole new playstyle to the Ten Thunders Faction in the form of summoning. She has a highly versatile and unique summoning Action coupled with numerous ways to support and reposition her Crew. She is also hard to damage with a Defense of seven, Hard to Kill, and an Action to heal herself. Her low Wounds mean that when she does start taking damage, she is in trouble.

Asami’s signature Action is From The Maw They Come, which allows her to summon any Ten Thunders Oni Minion. Unlike most summoners, which damage the models they summon, Asami’s Oni come in with full health and the Flicker Condition, which limits the number of turns they remain in play. This creates a unique style where Asami summons a model in for a Turn, gives it the ability it to Charge with her Wrath of the Oni Ability, and then allows it to be sacrificed. She can keep her models around longer by summoning them near Corpse and Scrap Markers. In addition to her summoning, Asami can hand out the Focused Condition with Oni’s Strength, pull models towards her with Reaching Tendrils, and devour her enemies with Another Mouth to Feed.

The Upgrades at Asami’s disposal continue to add to her unique style of summoning. Feigned Weakness allows Asami to summon a model when the enemy scores VP (if the opposing Crew is ahead of her). A Heavenly Design greatly increases Asami’s mobility by giving her a placement effect, and it lets her place a Scheme Marker next to a friendly model when it is sacrificed, allowing her to take advantage of the disappearance of her summoned models. Nefarious Pact gives her more card draw and prevents enemies from being able to remove Conditions from her Crew.

Asami is a summoner unlike any other in Malifaux, and she will terrorize your opponents as her Oni claim victory.

Oh MY!

Here’s a shot in the arm for TenThunders players. Looking forward to getting these on the table ASAP.

Master Queeg is Black Sheep and is available for use with McCabe.

Mechanized Porkchop (aka Robopig) and Sparks are available to use with Mei Feng through the Foundry characteristic.

Both Jorogumo and Obbsidian Oni are true TenThunders but Jorogumo can be taken with Misaki in her Outcast role.