Step into the light. Painting target.

As I've mentioned before I enjoy having a goal to work towards when painting, a new skill to try and learn. It helps me keep motivated and focused on painting instead of just knocking out models.

My last target was to get the basics of NMM down and while it's far from perfect, I've got a handle on the idea and know enough to see my own mistakes.

My best attempt at NMM

My next project is a bit more vague. I want to try and get a better handle on lighting and how it effects models.

When I started painting highlighting was simple if it was higher it was lighter, light came from above and nowhere else.
As I painted more and looked at better painters work (always a great inspiration) I've learned that light can have many sources on a single model. Think of areas like the underside of a chin by the logic of a single vertical light source under the chin would be in complete darkness, but of course we don't get this because light is coming from lots of other angles and also with different strengths.

So if my clumsy chin (great name for a band) explanation makes any sense you get a rough idea of what I'll be working on.

Batman: my first time

Following on from my last post, I've had my first demo game. I played the lovely James Crook at Darksphere.

It was a 200 rep (rep=points) game. It had Batgirl in it and she is super awesome:

      

I ran

Batman (Dark Knight Returns)

Batgirl

Female Cop.

James ran

Scarecrow

Deadshot

2 Henchmen (one of whom was a medic)

Analysis Paralysis and Tournament Fatigue

Not really any point to this article, just wanted to share my thoughts and talk about one of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much in the last few months (though personal reasons have contributed to that as well).

When I first started playing Malifaux 2 1/2 years ago (give or take) I only had a very small selection of models. Basically all the Nightmare models and a Hooded Rider conversion I made. This made deciding what to play very easy as I just didn't have many models to debate between. I later added silurids, waldgeists, terror tots, illuminated etc, but was still sticking to one Master (Dreamer). I liked to mix up his limited upgrades rather than solely playing Summoning Dreamer. When I started playing competitively in earnest in 2015 I began to expand my collection more to the point where I had a pretty solid setup of models, which I felt covered all the schemes/strats pretty well. However, I was still only playing Dreamer so there was only so much to think about. This was also probably the peak of how much I was thinking about and playing Malifaux as it was the only game I was playing at the time and I was getting a game a week in pretty consistently.

However as I started doing better at events I noticed that one major weakness was holding me back, my inability to win in Reckoning. Therefore I decided it was time to bring on a second Master to compliment Dreamer. By this point I'd played a few games with Viks (who were actually the my second masters) but obviously I couldn't take them in an event with Dreamer. I decided on Pandora as I always thought she was cool and as a damage oriented brawler she proved a perfect counterweight to Dreamer. By the time I got her into an event I had been playing her locally for a month or two (and had been playing Malifaux for over a year) and felt pretty confident with her. I did so-so in my first event running both masters, but did think it was a good combo and I focussed on those two for a while. At a point though I got tired of smashing everyone locally, so I decided to try some new masters in casual play (while sticking with Pandora and Dreamer in events). However none of the Masters I played really called to me the way Dreamer, or Pandora to a lesser extent, did. I gave Lynch, Zoraida and Lilith a good run but only really felt that Lilith was worth taking to an event. I did take Lilith to a fixed master event and used her Nationals but she still felt a distant third to the other two.

Get back in your box

Last hurrah of the Ressers!

A little while ago I decided that next year I was going to make the switch from Resurrectionists to the rebellious bookworms that are the Arcanists.

The reasons for the switch are wide and varied and clever and ... Okay really I just want to paint some monsters and robots and they have both plus I'm tired of painting dead things.

As I'm full of imagination I'm going to start on book one when it comes to Masters, Rasputina, Marcus, and Ramos. Unlike when I play Ressers I'm going to try and be a bit more specialist and try to match the Master to the game (you know play it like it's supposed to be played). I'll probably do a post in the new year about where I see each Master and my flailing attempts at list building. Also expect plenty of "I painted a thing" posts as I will need to paint all the things. With painting the stuff if anyone has painting based targets or challenges to throw at me feel free. Always keen to push the painting up a notch, This year I attempted to learn NMM. Last year was painting patterns.

Prep time with Batman

Well, as some of you know I'm in hobby hell at the moment. Most of my stuff is packed into boxes, I'm in a tiny rental for much longer than expected, my wife still hates gaming and I'm not living in London. 

On the upside, I have decided to play a smaller game whilst I'm in moving hell. The game is Batman. Why Batman? Well it is a lovely skirmish game so appeals to the Malifaux side of me, and it has a small model count. It also has worryingly complicated rules and I'm not sure how many people play it, but I've decided to take the plunge.

Batman has always been a favourite hero of mine. I love Man of Steel and Batman v Superman but even more than that, I adored Batman Begins and the Dark Knight Returns. Such iconic performances. 

That's why I'm pitching into the game.....well that and the fact that I love the Arrow TV and especially Malcolm Merlow and the League of Shadows.

Shared Scheme pool week 3

As last week seemed to be a success looks like we might as well try this again for next week.

This time I'm using the wonderful twitter bot @malifauxschemes  to generate the schemes.

• Extraction.
• Schemes: Convict Labour, Take Prisoner,Leave Your Mark,Set Up,Search The Ruins. 
• Deploy: Flank

Enjoy, let me know how you get on or if you want to do a quick battle report to guest on the blog.

*Edit as I realised that I didn't actually explain anything this time...

The basic idea is this,

• I'll post a scheme pool each week
• Use it just like you'd preflipped before a game
• People taking part can chat tactics and crews before they play
• After people can compare results and look for advice

Shared scheme pool

Last week the Abnormalifaux mob decided it would be fun to all use the same strategy and scheme pool, flipped the week before while everyone was looking for a game.
It turned into a really fun idea as we could all chat about the schemes and then compare results afterwards. A bit like a really relaxed tournament game




The scheme pool was this

schemes generated via the awesome Crewfaux app

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!

So Peter (Dr Walnut) and I had both recently painted up Marcus models and hadn't really had a chance to get them on the table yet, so we decided that a Marcus-off would be a fun way to spend an evening of gaming. With neither of us actually playing Arcanists (yet) though we decided rather than the highly competitive games we normally play (cough cough), we would go for some silly list ideas. Thus Ressur Marcus vs Neverborn Marcus was born. Peter would take a (mostly) Ressur-only list and I would take a (mostly) Neverborn-only list. We both included Henchmen that didn't fit into this category but did fit in thematically.  Without further ado, here are the schemes and the lists.

My List:                                                        Peter's List:

I decided that I could probably keep McTavish safe enough if I played carefully to score at least a couple Show of Force points so I took that and Exhaust. Peter took Exhaust and Leave your Mark, but when he realized it wasn't in the pool (oops!) we decided he could switch it for Convict Labour. This was also my first game trying out the new Rougarou so I was looking forward to that.

Turn 1 and Peter has gone for the aggressive Alpha-Strike