Spring Showdown (insert clever pun here)

It was time for the second showdown of 2017, Spring Showdown. You know it's spring because the clouds are a slightly brighter shade of grey and there's a younger looking range of road kill lining the countryside.

Truth be told I wasn't exactly in a social mood on the Sunday morning and it did cross my mind to drive straight past Hockley, head down to Southend and spend the day eating fish and chips on the "beach". But decided against it and parked up in the usual spot at Wayland instead.

The traditional pre event routine of handshakes, hugs, and insults took place while we were setting up and registering. There was a great turnout for the event, the showdown series has consistently grown in popularity and there was a good mix of players of different abilities.

Once registered and a quick intro from TO Mike "The Bunny" Marshall we were off. Thanks to bag o' tools we could just check our phones to see what tables we were at which really speeds things up.

Game one

I faced fellow Dark Sphere local Tim, who was running Molly versus my Raspi. The strat was collect the bounty.
Now this will be a fairly short run down as I didn't actually do anything much all game. I should have known better having played Molly for so long but I got punk zombied to bits by turn three after that it was just a case of him mopping up. The game finished with me having zero models left on the table and a massive 10-1 for Tim. It was a fun game but not a great start to the day.

Next up was lunch and the painting competition. Lunch was the Wayland usual of meat in bread with drink and snacks. The painting entries put out were amazing and I have to say that in the few years I've been playing Malifaux the level of painting has consistently improved. Where as before you had one or two stand out crews now there's always plenty of real contenders.

Game two

This round I faced the brute squad, Mr Harris. It was a Arc off with me sticking to Raspi and Ben taking Colette. As we attempted to fight over squatters rights.

The game was slightly less of a pummelling than game one, Raspi was holding back from killing too much as frame for murder was in the pool. So without the worry of friendly blast damage we ended up in a bit of a melee fest in the middle of the board while various ice dancers ran around doing stuff.

Ben consistently scored his VP while I lucked into a few points here and there. Closest I got to a plan coming off was when Colette to a pot shot at the Emissary, killing it and scoring me frame for murder. Finished up 9-5 to Ben, which is about 5 more points than I scored last time I played him.

Going into the last round I was on for the spoon, which although familiar territory for me it was something I'd rather avoid. So a large tea and a breath of fresh air and it was onto game three

Game three

Time for the second arcanist off of the day (so many Arc players now). This time it was versus a newer player James who was running Ironsides. I was sticking to Raspi again. The Strat was Stake a Claim.

The game started as a bit of a beat down as we all rushed into the centre of the table, Raspi took out Willie and put a fair chunk of hurt on the captain. Then the Captain replied by taking Lola (Cassi) down to two wounds. Then Snowstorm ate what was left of the Cap.

After than I did the smartest thing, I run and hid. The rest of the game became all about dropping markers with the odd fight between scheme runners. 

The game ended 10-6 to me. Meaning no spoon '17 is still a thing.

Well done to all the people who won (including fellow High Fauxdelity host Ritch, who got best Resser) As always I don't remember these things so check the rankings or just guess.

I managed to win a crew box in the raffle (second event in a row) which will go in to my ever growing pile of shame.

Big thanks to Mike for running things and Wayland for hosting. Thanks again to all of my opponents for the fun games. Oh and thanks to Eless for the cookie.

There are still tickets available for the next two Showdowns of this year, and the the Autumn one Falldown has just been bumped up to a two dayer so and ideal time to practice for nationals.

Thanks for reading. 

  

No joke its April Fauxs Day

Don your Croy, for April Fauxs Day

Last week I got my shots, invoked the various rituals of protection, and updated my will before heading of to Croydon for a days gaming.

Car, tube, tube, train, walk saw me arrive at the Croydon conference centre for April Fauxs Day. A four round, 50ss event. First things first the venue was a pleasant surprise. A bar, decent loos, and praise Almighty December air con. There were two events on, Faux in one half of the room and AOS in the other side. Worries I had that it would be hideously loud soon passed as no one seemed in the mood to shout.
Also it was cool to see a few people I used to play fantasy against in my brief pre-Faux era.

Usual pre tournament routine of registration, get tea, and talk shit I can't back up on the table went well and soon it was time to kick off.

Round one I was up against Dom and his gremlin horde. It was squatters and I took claim jump and inspection. It didn't take long to realise I was out matched so I decided to just throw everything towards Somer and hope I could do enough damage early on to give me an edge. It didn't quite work, Dom weathered the storm then ran off to score VP while I left my crew stranded in the middle of the table. It was a really fun game despite my lack of points. I lost game one but had high hopes for game two.

The game did have one interruption which was TO Conor coming around taking drinks orders. This went on all day and it's safe to say that anyone who brings me that much tea automatically gets add to my list of favourite people.

Game two was a bit of deja vu I faced off against Jay using Ophelia in extraction I once again run Raspi. Which was the exact set up in round two of my last event when I also faced Jay. It was a great game we both went on the offensive early despite frame being in the pool. Jay won the early smack down taking out a few of my key minions while I only put a few dents in his, but Ophelia did take a few shots a my acolyte killing her to score me frame.
After that it became a bit of a brawl around the extraction marker while a model from each crew tried to score claim jump.
The game ended in a slight win for me but mainly down to a few lucky flips on my side and it could have easily gone to the green skins had the luck turned.

Lunch! I popped my crew out for best painted which was judges choice today. As usual I didn't hope to win but I always enter to see how I stack up against better painters and there were a few great ones on show.
Down stairs from the venue was a slightly hipster burger place, which I highly recommend to any heading that way as the food was great and in truth I ate enough that I probably should have had a nap instead of heading back to the event.

Round three. Interference against Reva. I played Toby who I always bump into but never get to play. Turn one I tried to be clever and take a few pot shots at Reva with an over keen December acolyte, Reva shrugged it off and then squished the acolyte in return and that pretty much sums up the game. The left side of the table was a bundle with Lola and a mannequin not really doing much other than being swamped in models and fluffing hits, the right side of the table was my crew dying while Cooper ran and hid repeatedly. The MVP for me was a raptor dropping to deny claim jump the flying off again next turn... until it got squished too.
Game ended  with a well deserved win for Toby and the Pony rider, another fun game, another crushing defeat.

Game four. I was facing off against the second best member of High Fauxdelity at that table (for those that haven't heard it High Fauxdelity is a podcast which stars Ritch, puts up with me and let's a couple of other fellas on to do the heavy lifting) We were playing reckoning and it was Raspi vs the Viks. Carnage doesn't even begin to cover it. I pushed forward early looking to start throwing ice around, the Viks charged an insanely long way and started whirl winding everything in range. Snowstorm exploded with enough force to kill a vik and end of turn two I had two minions left neither of us had a master and I had run out of tea. It was a dark time. The game continued in this chaotic style until the end when Ritch scored all the points and I gave his snipers dirty looks. Solid win for Ritch and a great game to end the day on.

Cup of tea while things we finished up, people won things as always check the rankings page as I don't remember stuff like that but congratulations to those that left with shiny things.

I then took the long lonely train ride home while trying to work out how to lessen the many mistakes I made. (which, I got a chance to do the following Saturday and I'll write up next)

Big thanks to all my opponents, next time I'll try and give you more of a challenge. Thanks and well done to Conor for running a fun and smooth event.

Do you wanna build a snow witch...

To kick off Arc'17 I focused on one of the most iconic Masters in Malifaux and the true force behind the Arcanists Rasputina. So far I've played ten games with her, seven of them being in tournaments so I thought I share a few of the things I've learnt.

Firstly with 'tina herself. Positioning seems to be the key with her, she works like a turret dishing out angry snowballs. I try to find a place to set her up with good line of sight and within range of where the enemy needs to go.
 One focused attack with a stone dropped for a mask to hit again is better than two normal attacks. The plus to damage makes her scarier on that first attack and the free attack can clean up. The third ap is usually either a pot shot or more likely throwing up ice pillars. 
Ice pillars are great they mean you can protect your crew, or block off theirs. Plus throwing a low tome for the card draw is a great bonus.




I tend to run Raspi with cold nights , armour of December and seize the day. This is because Ice pillars are amazing , a push is better than a walk, and getting initiative negates (slightly) what ever stupid position I left myself in at the end of the last turn.

The rest of the crew hasn't seen too much experimentation yet but I'll go through the models I've used and try and explain why (or pretend I know why)

Firstly is the wendigo, cheap, tough, and can throw up a second lot of ice pillars. He's also a minion so counts for plenty of strats and schemes.

You know nothin' Jon Snowdown...

As I did last year this year I'm planning on attending all the showdown events. They're a really fun series of events that have four events spread out through the year. They're run by the mastermind behind the UK nationals and are hosted at Wayland games (you'll notices a lot of my tournament write ups are based at Wayland this is partly due to them hosting plenty of events and partly due to it being easy for me to get to).

The Showdowns follow a set template of a 50ss, three round, relaxed event with plenty of piss taking and swag to keep people happy.

I drove down with the charming beanpole that is Francois "the Guild" Langton who took the risk of being in the car with me driving (spoiler nothing exploded but the was a slight overheating issue again).

As always first up was meet and greet, which involved a bit of hand shaking, hugging, and swearing, followed by registration using the very flash Bag O' Tools tournament system but we still queued up because we're British and it's what we do best.

And so it begins...

   

Its finally time for my tournament season to kick off again, and also time to start the now legendary Arc'17 (legendary might be pushing it but its big trust me)

Once again I was heading down to Wayland games, this time it was Lost Love 5 run by the unstoppable Mr David Brown. This is my third lost love and it's always an event I look forward too. It was touch and go a few days before the event if I would make it at all as I had slight car issues but I was rescued when the heroic Mr Paul Butler offered to pick me up on his way down. (once again proving how amazing the Malifaux community is).

So when got down to Wayland in chilly Hockley and after giving a hand to set up the tables it was time to register. Lost Love is slightly different than a standard GG event in a few ways, firstly it's fixed Master, second it's 45ss games which changes things slightly, and third you have a 70ss pool to hire you're models from. All these aspects are there to make it a bit more beginner friendly while still keeping the veterans entertained. 

My Master and pool for the event was

Which was quite simple to choose as that's most of what I had painted in Arcanists. I've only had a few games with Rapsi before the event so I wasn't hugely confident (no change there) but I knew enough that I hopefully didn't completely embarrass myself.

Quick stop for tea and a run around saying hi to some of the 44 other players that had shown up despite knowing I would be there.

Game one was against Lucas (spoiler he also went on the finish very well this event), he was running Som'er with a fleet of gremlins and we were playing head hunter.

First few rounds were surprisingly close with me managing to kill a few waves of gremlins but Lucas kept up the pressure and steadily kept scoring VP while I took pot shots at his crew.

The game ended 9-3 to Lucas. It was a fun game and the fact that it wasn't a white wash boosted my confidence with 'tina.

Lunch time was a Wayland special and another tea. The tea was even more vital than normal as standing in a warehouse in mid February is a bit nippy.

Round two and I was up against one of my locals and also someone who I faced round two at Nationals Rich who was running Tara (shiny new fixed Tara). This time we had Stake a Claim, which with the notoriously slow December gang wasn't looking to easy.

For the first few turns this was a really cagey game with nothing dieing but both of us putting down a wave of scheme markers. Then one activation after the other we both killed our frame for murder targets and then we settled it to a game of him trying to bury me and me trying to kill him.

schemes were a draw so it all came down to claim markers and unfortunatly for me no matter how much I kill that doesn't get rid of markers. 

The game ended 7-5 to Rich which I have to say was a well deserved win. The margin of loss was getting lower and combos were stating to click with the crew so I was happy going into game three.

Game three was against Sean running Tatiana in Squatters rights.

I was expecting a barrage of neverborn tricks and speed, which I got with silurids grabing squat marker early and Tati and mature neph flying straight over my ice pillars. however I managed to have an incredibly lucky run of cards meaning the emissary grabbed my some hunting party points early while Raspi blasted away about half of Tati's crew. After that the weight of numbers on my side meant that I could keep the pressure on and keep blasting into the crew. 

The game ended up 8-5 to me and I was really happy with that result. Luck may have paid a large part but now I knew I could win a game with Arcanist.

Tea, Tea, and more Tea... I could almost feel my fingers again by this point.

Game four my final game was against Shaunie running Pandora (I'm not a huge fan of facing box girl so  this wasn't great news. And Shaunie didn't seem too keen on facing Raspi so we were even)

This round was interference and as it had been a long day and Pandora was looking terrifying I decided to go fairly agressive and just ignore the strat while I concentrated on killing everything.

A lot and nothing seemed to happen in this game and honestly I think if the game had been play early in the day not at the end it would have been a bit higher scoring both sides.

I managed to do enough damage to Pandi to get 1 vp for eliminate that may have been the high light of my game. Pandi kept fairly defensive while ticking up points for last stand.

The game ended in a 6-6 draw which wasn't a bad result. I'll also use this point to send people over to check out the events running over in Woking this year where Shaunie is henchman Under the hanging tree . Well worth checking out.

So thats it first event of Arc'17 and I didn't (overly) embarrass myself of the cult of December. I finished 32 out of 45 so no wooded spoon to add to the collection this time.

Big thanks to Dave for running it, it was a huge event that managed to keep the friendly community feel of past Lost Loves as well. Thanks to Wayland for the tea and table. Thanks to all my opponents for not throwing anything at me. And again a huge thanks to Paul for getting me there.

Next up will be Snowdown back at Wayland again for the first of the years showdown series. I should be adding a second master to the case for that one when I decide between Marcus or Cooper and is you wanted to come along and see my looking confused you can find a ticket here - Snowdown!    

  

That's Mr Rodriguez to you

As I slowly tick off models on my Arc 17 list the next one is the mighty Arcane Emissary, or as I call him Rodriguez.

Originally big Rod was going to be painted like a hot rod black with red flames and lots of chrome, but one I had him assembled it became apparent that wouldn't fit. Most of the flat metal sections had a weathered texture or scratches to give him a battle worn appearance.
So instead I decided to go with the idea that he was pull together from the various machines and scrap nearby when he manifested.

Welcome to my nightmare... edition crew

Following on from last weeks progress report I have now finished the Dark Carnival This is just a quick post as there wasn't a huge amount left to work on.

First up is the mechanical wonder that is the mannequin. I found this quite tricky to paint as the is so little detail but such character in its plainness that it was hard to know where to stop. I ended up just sticking to three colours and just trying to add some depth to each colour.

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.

Pandora cries at Boarfaux

Ok tournament write up time. 

This was one of those rare times when my wife gave me permission to go to a tournament. What a tournament. Boarfaux, held in the fabulous Paradise cafe Warboar in Bromley, London (UK). A 50ss fixed faction event in 2016 using Gaining Grounds and the new schemes. 

Now I was very nervous going into this tournament. Not only am I one of the worst Malifaux players in the UK, but I'm also very inexperienced with Neverborn. I'd had 4 games with Pandora in the run up (2 wins, 2 losses). I also have trouble knowing what the strategies are and I have never scored more than 1 to 2 points of a strat. If I get 5 points overall I have had a high scoring game by my standards. I was therefore worried I'd be a boring and disappointing opponent. Still it was a chance to play 4 games in a row, see my friends and some of the wider community in a great location. 

Valentines Day Romance

Insidiously Mad

Like any true romantic, I spent Valentines day with my lovely girlfriend Pippa tick. Unlike most people, we spent a large portion of the day lazing about the house and playing malifaux. Truly a romance of the ages. I decided to try something new out so I declared Gremlins for my first ever game with that faction. Although I was playing a Master I've played 6 games with before, 4 of the 7 models in my crew had never been used by me before (excepting Zoraida, the Nurse and Lazarus). Philippa also decided to try out something new as she took Aionus for the first time. Also this was only my second time using the new schemes so that was interesting. The set up was as follows:

Collect the Bounty (Standard)
Convict Labour
Exhaust their Forces
Hunting Party
Public Demonstration
Inspection




My Crew:
Zoraida with Animal Shape
Lazarus
Burt Jebsen with Dirty Cheater
Gracie with Saddle
War Wabbit
Nurse
Bayou Gremlin
4ss cache



Pippa's Crew:
Ironsides with Seize the Day
The Captain with Patron's Blessing
Mechanical Rider
Aionus
Soulstone Miner
Soulstone Miner
5ss cache

As the new schemes can not be announced we moved on to set up. I had taken Hunting Party and Inspection and Philippa took Hunting Party and Convict Labour. I thought hunting party could be difficult with only soulstone miners to score against, but there was so much speed and redeployment capability in my list that I thought I could get to them no matter where they dropped in. Below is the game after deployment. My plan was to send up Burt and Gracie on their own to take the left flank and hold that side of the board and send the War Wabbit up the right flank (followed by the bayou gremlin who was gonna hide and hold that side for inspection, with the rest of the crew going up the centre. Philippa put one soulstone miner on her right flank (the other started off the board) with the captain/Ironsides holding the center and Aionus and Mech Rider on the left flank.