Introducing Lady J

It has been an age since I have added some content to our blog which is pretty shocking considering that while it was Insidious' brain child I did partner up to get it going.

My excuses are pretty straight forward, I'm now a dad, work is busy and have been gaming and painting instead of writing.

So, on with the post. Introducing Lady J is today's topic. She was the second Guild master I purchased, after Sonnia and I have really taken to her and run with her in the last two comps I have attended winning 4 and 3 losing, so while not stellar the loses were close (one due to a silly mistake by allowing a Flesh Golem to reactivate) and generally against masters I had never seen before which always shakes things up.

Viktorias (Insidiously Mad) vs Sonnia (Dr Walnut) Battle Report

 

Crew Selection
So after declaring guild and seeing the stratagies and schemes available I had to try cobble together a crew. Now it's worth mentioning I'm far from an expert at this game so think of this as an example in what can happen instead of a lesson in what should.

So when choosing a crew I start with the strategy, first choosing a master that can handle the strategy and then adding what they need to work. In this case that was Sonnia, good table control, consistent damage output and a summoning ability all seemed like good skills to have for recconitor. To compliment this I added 3 witchling stalkers and the faithful Samuel. This would be my main crew with a focus on burning and damage dealing to control the table quarters.

Next up I looked at the schemes with the Sonnia and friend being on the slow side I aimed for scheme that involved a minimum amount of walking. In this case line in the sand and make them suffer.

To help add a bit of mobility I also included 2 death marshals and the alway great Lone Marshal.

Final part of the hiring phase for me is upgrades. For Sonnia Cheafe imprint to give me a flame wall to throw around and reincarnation to summon in some more stalkers later on. Samuel had lead lined coat to try and reduce his glass cannon-ness.

Using the Latigos part 3 - Francisco Ortega

Stats

Df	Wp	Wd	Wk	Cg	Ht
5	6	8	5	7	2

Francisco's generous 5SS cache makes him a viable leader up to the 40SS mark, though doesn't make up for the lack of extra activation a master gets. He's one of the only Family members that can handle themselves in melee and has various ways of making sure he can get there. A cost of 8SS means he's not cheap and while he can do a lot of damage he's not a glass cannon and can take care of himself in a variety of ways.

Abilities

Again, like most Family members, Francisco has the COMPANION ability, allowing you to 'chain' activations for this model, if another model finishes its activation within 6". The same decisions for using the ability apply, in terms of activating later in a turn and not always using it but Francisco makes things trickier in that his EL MAYOR ability is best used early to protect more vulnerable models.

Using the Latigos part 2 - Perdita Ortega

Stats

Df	Wp	Wd	Wk	Cg	Ht
7	7	10	5	6	2

Already we can see that Perdita is quite a strong leader. A Df and Wp of 7 means that she is at an advantage to all but the strongest attackers and casters and 10 Wd mean that she can take a bit of a beating. The trade-off is that she only has a cache of 2SS, meaning that you may want to consider forgoing some upgrades in order to ensure you have enough SS to spend during the game.

Abilities

Perdita, like most Family members, has the COMPANION ability. This allows you to 'chain' activations for this model, if another model finishes its activation within 6". When I first started playing this was the first ability I used almost every time, getting more shots off against a model seems like a really big deal but the more I played the more I started to realise that it was quite situational. Rather than try and activate all my models as soon as possible I learned that in Malifaux you need to be able to react to your opponent and if all your models have already activated then there is no response that can be made.

Using the Latigos part 1 - The Latigo Posse

There are many different crew options for Guild players but one with a great deal of offensive firepower is The Latigo Posse.

The Latigo Posse are the main crew I am familiar with, having piloted them through the slow grow league and I only feel after 15 or so games that I am beginning to scratch the surface or what might initially appear to be a 1 trick shoot-everything-in-sight pony.

What's in the box?

In The Latigo Posse box comes a close knit crew let by PERDITA ORTEGA. Perdita is accompanied by family members FRANCISCO ORTEGA, SANTIAGO ORTEGA, PAPA LOCO and her totem an ENSLAVED NEPHILIM for a raw cost of 32ss.

There is also a handful of useful upgrades including the Perdita exclusive OS VEO, TRICK SHOOTING, and AURA ANCESTRAL; an almost mandatory upgrade for Francisco with WADE IN; a beastly 3ss non-master upgrade DIESTRO; and 2 Family exclusive upgrades HERMANOS DE ARMAS and TORMENTA DE PLOMO.

In this series of articles I will discuss each and hopefully provide a little insight into how to make the most of this crew. I will also discuss other useful and future models that can be added to this crew to make the most out of them. This will include PISTOLERO DE LATIGOS and ABUELA LATIGO when released.

Stay tuned and let me know if you agree or disagree with anything I say or if you have some tricks of your own!

Entering the Malifaux world

So I thought it would makes sense to have my first post about why I chose the first faction I did and what got me into the game.

In short several people at my gaming club wouldn't stop raving about Malifaux and while I watched a couple of games all the cards and counters put me off, as I'm from a Flames of War background I wasn't used to all that extra 'stuff' on or around the table.

The local players set about gathering new players and started a slow grow campaign. The slow grow concept made it very easy to get into the game, a lot less overwhelming to start with and allows you to slowly absorb the rules. It also helped a great deal in getting to know the various models, a key component on Malifaux. One additional handy limitation they added for the early rounds was no upgrades were allowed, and while that may take out some of the flair as a new player it was golden, I knew who I was playing as per their card and that was it. This really helped reducing the information overload and as a new player I really appreciated it.