Matte's Forge - Weathering Old Metal

No, I do not mean Axl Rose. (image from Imgur)



Welcome to the first installment of Matte's Forge, a series in which I share some techniques for assembling, converting, and/or painting. There may be other topics, but this is where I'll start.

Today I'm going to go over creating an "old" look to your steel objects and how to give them a bit of rust. The Old Steel is a technique I picked up from Kris Belleau, who does several painting segments for MiniWarGaming. Here is my list of supplies:

• Games & Gears Size 2 sable brush
• A junk brush, probably around a size 0 or 00.
• Citadel Small Drybrush (Blue Cap)
• Blister pack foam or equivalent
• Vallejo Black Surface Primer (74.602)
• Vallejo Model Air Steel (71.065)
• Citadel Leadbelcher
• Citadel Abaddon Black
• Citadel Runefang Steel
• Citadel Typhus Corrosion
• Citadel Ryza Rust

I am aware of that stray fuzz. Oh dear god that stray fuzz. You'll see what I am talking about.

 

 

Primed with black primer and base coated with VJ Air Steel





Fig. 1: Leadbelcher applied to create a better starting point for the Old Metal look.
 





In Fig. 1, I decided that I wasn't going to go with my original plan, which was painting certain sections in blue and weathering the paint. I heavily thinned Leadbelcher and applied a coat all over the rocket pack. You can see the difference between the body of the rocket and the wings.



Fig. 2: The start of stippling the metal

In Fig. 2, I heavily thinned Leadbelcher and added a touch of black (likely a 5:1 ratio of Leadbelcher:Abaddon Black). I glazed the Leadbelcher up to about 4/5 of the way up (I later glazed the cone of the pack, too). Before the Leadbelcher had a chance to dry, I used some foam from a blister pack (you know the ones) to remove some of the Leadbelcher I had just painted, creating a stippled effect. This was done multiple times, slowly building up the layers until the transition and color was to my liking. The color ended up being darker toward the bottom and brighter toward the top. You'll be able to see the transition in the following images. I forgot to document it between layers.



Fig. 3: Edged with Runefang Steel



Fig. 4: The other side, not edged.
 

In Fig. 3, we can see where I started applying a light edge highlight with Runefang Steel. If you overdo this step, you run the risk of losing the Old Metal effect. I chose to highlight the edges that caught the light, as well as the inside of the piston. Fig. 4 shows the other side without Runefang Steel.


Fig. 5: Shadows and spotting
 

Fig. 5 shows the shadowing and spotting that was done with a 1:1 mixture of Leadbelcher and Abaddon black. The spotting was done with a torn piece of blister foam, the same blister foam used to create the stippling in Fig. 2. Notice the rocket's body. This step can be done before or after the highlights. Just be sure to re-establish whatever highlights you spotted over, if you so wish.



Fig. 6: Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust



Fig. 7: Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust, opposite.
 

Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show the completed rocket pack. Using an old, junk brush, I applied Typhus Corrosion into the recesses near the pistons and along the wings as I saw fit. I followed this with a heavy dry-brushing of Ryza Rust to complete the effect.

Notes:

1. Don't apply the Runefang Steel evenly, everywhere. Pick and choose. We don't want to change the effect with over highlighting.
2. If you choose to shadow after the highlight, it's not exactly necessary to re-establish that highlight. A little chaos might help with the effect we are going for.
3. If you want your model to have more of a worn, rather than rusted, look, skip the Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust.

Reference Images:

From us.123rf.com

From SuperStainless.net

Updates and Space Wolves for sale

First, I'm selling/trading some pretty sweet Space Wolves. Check out the listing here:
http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=260284

Now, onto the awesome stuff:

I've finished painting up Closing Time, the Malifaux Brewmaster crew box, for Sinscaptain. I'll let him take more pictures as he pleases, but here are three basic shots.

 

 

Sinscaptain wanted orange robes, which are easy enough. Personally, I like the orange as opposed to the blue and/or black that I typically see. That being said, there were a lot of warm colors prancing around (orange robes, green-yellow skin). We decided to break it up a bit with black shoes and cuffs and white sashes. The pictures aren't clear, but there's white in other areas, too.

 

It's actually two different whites. I love having both cool and warm colors on a piece, so that is represented here. The sashes around the Moon Shinobi were based with Citadel's Ceramite White. I then layered with Scale 75's Purity White. The deep shadow was a 1:1 mixture of Purity White and Citadel Fenrisian Grey. The shadow and basecoat were blended together with a 1:2 and 1:3 of Purity White and Fenrisian Grey.

 

I'll be working on weathering the jump pack for Merris LaCroix this next week, so I can do a quick tutorial on that.

 

That's all for today. If you guys have any questions about how I painted the crew or any comments, please let me know in the comments section below. I love the tabletop wargaming community and I try to interact as often as I can. You guys are pretty swell, ya know.

 

++Matte++

Bayou, Banjaxing, and Bloody Sigmar

Ahhh, welcome younglings - 'tis I, Sinscaptain!  Back with another Malifaux Thursday battle report update, a Brewmaster spotlight (or atleast initial impressions), a project my gaming group is getting ready to work on, and some rumblings and thoughts on the Age of Sigmar for Warhammer Fantasy!  Lots to get through today, so lets get started.

So yesterday I was able to snag our regular weekly match of Malifaux.  Unfortunately, I have already broken the streak for taking lots of pictures, and the other members of our gaming group were occupied giving demos or playing, so there is a lack of pictures this time that is unfortunate as we had an absolutely lovely table provided by Matte to play on.

50SS Standard/Gaining Grounds Encounter

Strategy:  Headhunter

Schemes:  ALitS, Plant Explosives, Vendetta, Assassinate, Breakthrough

Flank Deployment

Sinscaptain's Drunken Company

Brewmaster [3SS Cache]

+ Binge

+ Hold Their Hair Back

+ Running Tab

Fingers

+ Drinking "Problem"

+ Dirty Cheater

Moon Shinobi

Moon Shinobi

Moon Shinobi

Apprentice Wesley

Merris LaCroix

Wild Boar

Sinscaptain's Schemes:  ALitS (Revealed) and Breakthrough (Revealed)

<AUsome Friend>

Pandora [~ Cache]

+ 2-3 upgrades

Candy

+ upgrade

Baby Kade

+ upgrade

Teddy 

Sorrow

Sorrow

Poltergeist

<AUsome Friend> Schemes:  Assassinate and Plant Explosives

My thoughts on taking this crew for these schemes was that Fingers and a Shinobi would be able to run off and throw down some markers wherever the enemy wasn't headed, while the other Shinobi, Brewmaster, Merris, and the Boar were meant to stop any kind of schemes from my opponent, as well as go after any heads they can get.  

Game went great!  Since I was just learning Brewmaster and my opponent was playing his 4th game of Malifaux, we only got to turn 5 before we called it.  He did manage to kill both Wesley and Brewmaster so that he earned his full assassinate points before turn 4, but not before Brewmaster threw down 6 poison on Pandora and brought her down to a single health so that she'd die to poison.  I only managed to snag 2 heads the whole game, but that was about the same as Pandora and Co.  Plant Explosives ended up being difficult for Pandora to get since I spread my crew out quite a bit, while I managed to sling both a Shinobi and Fingers through the middle - while laying scheme markers for LitS - and get to the deployment zone for some Breakthrough goodness on the last turn. With all of that, I managed to snag 8 points in the game to his 6 - he had 2 heads, full assassinate points, and a single explosive marker go off. 

Like many headhunter games, it was more cat and mouse than anything this game, which means there usually isn't much killing.  Had I been playing Collodi or Zoraida, there would have been more pulling and luring to get heads.  However, Matte has been painting Brewie up to look beautiful on the table, so I had to give him a try - and I love him.  Probably the most cinematic point in the game was Brewmaster and Pandora going at it, which I imagine would have been Brewmaster smacking Pandora around with his bamboo pole while she tried to summon up sorrows to defend her and attack Brewie. Overall, a great learning game for both of us.  I am really looking forward to getting some more games in with Brewmaster to get the hang of him completely.

Brewmaster.

A Gremlin from beyond the misty mountains, Brewmaster has risen in prominence among the denizens of the Bayou for his many variety of Moonshine that he brings with him.  His loyal band of Drunken Kung Fu masters follow him out of sheer alcohol dependence and loyalty.  Many of the other Bosses know that to stand against the Brewmaster would be foolish, as their own boys might turn against him in order to get some of the Brewmaster's glorious 'shine.

This guy is dual faction Gremlins and Ten Thunders with key words "Gremlin" and "Tri-Chi", which is what all of the models from the Closing Time box set are at this point.  Brewmaster is an amalgamation of control master and condition distribution master.  His main condition is of course poison, which he can dish out a kegger of to everyone at arms length.  He also has means to reduce the enemies effectiveness with abilities to make negative flips to all duels for an enemy.  His upgrades give him a slew of other options for dishing out conditions and ending the effectiveness of enemy models through paralyzed.  

I really think that the main focus of a Brewmaster crew is to shut down an enemy and make sure that your models can get where they need to go so that they can complete schemes and strats while the enemy deals with negative flips, poison, and paralyzed.  This makes him a master that, from now on, probably wont see action in many of the killing strats (reckoning, headhunter, or collect the bounty) just because his crew really isn't as good at dealing strait damage to people.  They are great for running around and having schemes, but for the most part I think that killing still belongs firmly in the camp of Ophelia for my Gremlins.  

For what to take with Brewmaster, I will probably always take Fingers and Apprentice Wesley - being able to come back from death makes Wesley invaluable, while Fingers is a premier scheme runner and can hold his own against those that would take him down.  He is a little steep in the SS department, weighing in at two and a half piglets in cost, but I think that he is well worth the cost.  Other than that, I really do enjoy the Moon Shinobi, who can deal a respectable amount of damage with the right modifiers since they make all negative flips positive flips and vice versa.  Merris was a great addition to the crew for her Flaming Bottle attack and the fact that she can discard a card to drop a scheme marker.  However, I may drop her and definitely the Wild Boar in favor of taking Sammy LaCroix with Brewmaster's fourth upgrade and then having left over SS in the cache.  I will have to give that a try the next time the schemes look like they would favor something like that.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a very cursory first play through thoughts on Brewmaster.  As I play him more, these thoughts will become more refined.  I have to master the path of Brewmaster after all.

As we wrapped up our game yesterday on Matte's gorgeous Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablescapes with Angry Mojo Games Graveyard MDF Terrain my girlfriend expressed an interest in building her own table, and had been for a few days.  At this point, we began to map out everything that we needed to make for this table - which was decided would be a detailed Bayou board (as it could be home to my Gremlins and most of my Neverborn models, but that is just a happy coincidence)

So, we set about making plans.  It will be a 3x3 board, perfect for Malifaux or getting skirmish games of Warhammer Fantasy in.  It will have about 1/3 of the surface covered in water (and thus severe terrain for Malifaux).  We will build tree bases, stilt buildings, huts, a broken down airboat, alligator nests, and other such swampy things.  We are all extremely excited to get to work on it, and I am sure that both Matte and myself will be posting many updates concerning our table in the near future.  Below are some images that we really liked and will use as inspiration.

And finally, to wrap up this post, something that I hold near and dear to my heart:

WARHAMMER FANTASY

WHF is near and dear to my heart.  When everyone else wanted to play with Bolters and Chainswords, my imagination was captivated by the ideals of wizards literally pulling comets down from the heavens, ratmen swarming over the Old World, giant lizard people riding atop dinosaurs, desperate men firing round after round out of their muskets at advancing undead legions, all while mighty heroes ride their massive beasts of war and hurl eldritch blasts at each other as they close in to strangle each other with their bare hands if need be.

Desperate struggles of average men in the face of terrifying odds armed with nothing more than a shred of armor, cloth, and maybe a half rusted sword against foul daemons of the warp and massive tidal waves of greenskins always seemed more moving then armies of super humans with nuclear warhead bullet machines mowing down X, Y, or Z.  That game was always about the lighting fast mobility of tanks and bikes clashing with each other in huge explosive collisions and titans blasting each other from across continents - but this is about Warhammer Fantasy.

I have 2 Skaven armies - a themed Asian Skaven army that is WIP and an almost entirely Plague Skaven army.  They were the first models of any that I willingly and excitedly painted.  I had named characters in my army that I had come up with.  I scoured around to find old metal models in FLGS to complete my army, or converted up models to match my mental image of what they should look like.  Long story short?  I love Skaven and I love fantasy.

And then End Times came out.  Nagash, Glottkin, Khaine, Thanquol (woo!), and Archaon. All in a line.  Gorgeous models and ridiculous rules abound.  Exciting times for all, and an apparent revival of Fantasy.

And then Boom.  All gone.  CNTR+ALT+DLT.

You can imagine how this made me feel.  Then rumors swirling about huge simplification of the rules, removal of whole factions, armies maxed out at 50 models, ROUND BASES, and other things.

This is not what I signed up for.  I signed up to push units of 60 puss riddled rats down my opponents throat while cackling gleefully and shooting my own models with guns that were just as likely to blow up in my face.

I have been salty to say the least.

However, I have been swayed, mostly due to Matte talking me off the ledge repeatedly, to maintain cautious optimism for the future of my gaming love.  Malifaux is my main game - I would be lying if I said otherwise.  But Fantasy was my first car.  It didn't run all that well, it smelt kind of stale, and it's been used and abused for 30 years before my time, but it made you happier than anything else.  It is all warm fuzzy memories and good friends and simpler times.  So, here are the rumors that I have read that actually sound like they could be slightly true - gathered from various sources around the interwebs.

++SALT SHOULD BE USED++

1. Age of Sigmar wont be 9th edition, it will be a set of Skirmish rules that are meant to get people into the game.
2. The box is supposed to be Empire/Holy Knights/"Good Guys" vs some amalgamation of Chaos - some say there will be daemons, some beastmen, others say just Chaos Warriors.
3. There are rumors that this will feature round base fantasy models that can go in skirmish formation, loose formation, or blocked up like we currently know with all sorts of benefits/set backs for each of these formations.
4. Rules - or atleast 4 page starter rules - will be available for free online as a download when Age of Sigmar releases.  Personally, I think this is the most BS.  I saw the pictures of GW's website, but I am still not going to believe it.
5. All factions will still be playable to some extent.
6. There will be an ungodly amount of releases for something along the lines of 6 weeks - supposedly - with the Big Rule Book coming out at the very end after everyone has spent all of their money on Age of Sigmar stuff.
7. Alternate Rumor states that Age of Sigmar IS 9th edition, and we will see this game scalable up to army level games.
8. A lot of people are saying that this will be similar to an upscaled Lord of the Rings game that GW made/makes.

As of this morning, new models have been spotted for the Age of Sigmar starter box

And with that bombshell, I hope you all have a great day.

Peace,

Sinscaptain

I am Wrath. I am Steel. I am the Mercy of Angels.

 

First off...I took pictures of all of my models. I then realized I had no way to get them to my computer. The resident Tech Adept and I are about to have a chat.

So I have been watching the leaks concerning the Dark Angels a lot lately. I must say that I am very, very excited. First, some background. Utility will probably be in a future post.

My brother has been playing Dark Angels ever since he started 40k. I have always admired the models and how well they would fit in with my Sisters. I never felt compelled to start the army, however. That all changed when I watched the two following videos when they were released:

The first Space Hulk: Deathwing Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaumoYODnDw&index=20&list=FLXA0LUbHW9F2kVFW6-xUsAA

The way the storm bolters sound in this first video hooked me instantly. I watched this nearly every day for about two months straight.

The second Space Hulk: Deathwing Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YROOgLD-wtU&index=10&list=FLXA0LUbHW9F2kVFW6-xUsAA

Everything about this second video was absolutely amazing. I love that the music is different from what I typically expected from a 40k environment. The plasma cannons look fantastic and, oh sweet peanut butter, that heavy flamer is amazing.

Following these two videos, I started building a Dark Angels force from all of the Dark Vengeance boxes I had lying around. Here is a list of what I have right now:

Ravenwing:
1x Sammael
7x Land Speeders, some of which need repairs (and a stolen Blood Angel Speeder!!!!)
3x Attack Bikes in need of major repair
5x Units of Ravenwing Bikers from the Dark Vengeance box
1x Old-school Chaplain on a bike that I have been saving for the perfect moment (now, obviously)

Thoughts on Ravenwing:
I am going to hold off on these guys until I see the book. I am not quite sure how I want to kit them out. Once the options become available, I'll make a judgment.

Deathwing:
1x Belial, converted from an old Blood Angels Sgt. Lorenzo model. Needs a lot of work.
1 nib Deathwing Command Squad
2x 5-Man squads of Deathwing Knights that need stripping.
10x TH/SS Terminators, 2 of which also have Cyclone Missile Launchers (Wooorth it)
2x Power Sword/Storm Bolter Sergeants
9x PF/SB Terminators (3 converted from Brothers Goriel, Noctis, & Omnio)
3x Chainfist/SB Terminators
1x Assault Cannon Terminator (I swore I had 2...)
2x Plasma Cannon Terminators
2x Heavy Flamer Terminators
3x Dreadnoughts that need to be stripped and fixed.

Greenwing & HQs: (Other than Belial and Sammael, of course)
1x Azrael
1x Chaplain Seraphicus
1x Terminator Chaplain
2x Terminator Librarians
1x Cypher (He's a Loyalist, damnit)
5x Librarians (2 of which are the DV Chapter Masters)
3x 10-man Tactical Squads with 1x Plasma Gun and 1x Plasma Cannon each
8x Bolter Scouts
7x Shotgun Scouts
9x Sniper Scouts
2x Heavy Bolter Scouts
2x Missile Launcher Scouts

Thoughts of where to go next:
I have a bag with another DV sprue containing some special characters, a tactical squad (sans a plasma cannon), and a Ravenwing squad. I'll have to sort that out and dig up another plasma cannon. Speaking of, I need to find another Assault Cannon Terminator.

I also have a few Land Raiders lying around. I am tempted to turn one into a Deathwing Vehicle.

I definitely want some Ravenwing Black Knights and, possibly, a Ravenwing Command Squad. I may grab some air support, depending on if I can scrap up the extra cash. Oh, and two boxes of Devastators. Maybe. Depends on if I can make use of ALL of the weapons.

My biggest challenge, I feel, will be deciding how to separate the squads and make them look unique.

Feel free to leave some comments and help me figure out which direction I should go with this. If you have any questions about my setup, I'd be more than happy to answer those as well.

Until next time,

++Matte++

New Author: Matte Varnish

Got your attention? Mm. The Undefeated Gaul. Mmmmmmmm.

That's right. I'm all over the place.

Actually, most, if not all, of you have never heard of me. While my feelings may be a bit hurt, I'm sure I'll get over it in time. I'll use this first post as an introduction to who I am, what I like, and what you all can expect from me in the future.

I am an avid gamer. Tabletop wargames, video games, mind games, all of it. Even mind games. I started the hobby playing Warhammer 40,000, leading my Witch Hunters to glorious victory time and time again. I've played Games Workshop games for a majority of my "gaming career" and will likely continue until they either go out of business or I die. I have experience playing Malifaux, Warhammer Fantasy (for two very...blergh...games), Warmachine, Uncharted Seas, Infinity, and, well, who knows what else. It'd be easier to just say that I have played a lot of games.

As much as I love gaming, I spend a majority of my time assembling, converting, and painting the miniatures belonging to the aforementioned games. I am no professional painter by any means, nor do I want to be. I have a few tricks that get me by, all of which I am sure will be shared with you, my adoring audience.

It should be noted that I love the hobby. All of it. Nothing pains me more than to hear 40K players insult each other, WHFB (R.I.P.) insult 40k players, and Warmahorde players insult everyone. Each game is unique in mechanics, lore, model range, or a combination of all three. Insulting anyone in this hobby is a fantastic way to kill the hobby and drive people away (as if the community isn't already small enough as it is). From time to time, I will notice a representative of the spitting hate. Don't be surprised if they get called out on it, and I won't be surprised if nobody cares.

You can expect assembly/painting updates, lists that I toy around with, general strategies for specific units (from whatever game), editorials, product reviews, and anything else that happens to come up. For example, I'll show you soon some Gremlins from Malifaux that I have been working on for Sinscaptain and how I dealt with how bad I screwed up the orange. It was brown. The texture was all off. I fixed it in one step.

I am VERY excited to see how Age of Sigmar turns out, so expect a lot of updates on that.

Here is what you should not expect from me (but it may very well happen!):

• Nudie pics. I'm dead sexy, but I make it a point not to flaunt it. Except right there.
• Depressing nonsense. There is enough negativity out there. While there may be some...questionable...comments, I will NEVER say "Don't play this game. Game A is so much better than Game B. Ha, Game C losers." Never.
• Frequent posts when Fallout 4 is released. I already have my Pip Boy ordered and will be scouring the wasteland. If you need something, just leave it in a mailbox. I'm sure I'll find it.

I think that about covers it, huh? I check in often, so leave questions, comments, and hate mail. Just direct all hate mail to Sinscaptain. I'm sure he'll pass it on.

The Emperor Protects.

Matte.

Momma Z and P.Diddy - Malifaux Game Night 6.11.15

Hello again my flailing and gesticulating readers!

Hope this post finds you all well, or as well as you can be given all of the craziness that is going around right now, with GenCon hype starting to heat up, E3 going strong (anyone else pumped for Sword Coast Legends?), and of course all of the Malifaux that anyone can take!

I'm your dedicated and desiccated host - sinscaptain!  I'd just like to take a moment here to welcome a very good friend of mine to the blog, who will be posting from time to time regarding some other games, painting, terrain, etc.  We haven't really figured that out yet, but I am sure we will get an intro post out of the way eventually!  Without further ado, please welcome my good friend Matte Varnish to the Captain's Log!  Trust me, this guy knows what he's talking about - minus the whole "Guild are the best faction in Malifaux" thing - but hey, we all can't see the light can we?

Anywho, most of you signed up here to look at some battle talk.  Well, have I got a treat for you today - PICTURES.  Thanks to having another set of fine hands in Matte Varnish, I managed to get a whole games worth of pictures from my most recent game against <AUsome Friend> who will eventually get an actual name on here.

We will actually go through all of those lovely steps that we as players are supposed to go through when we game.

1) Determine and place terrain

As you can see, we played with two large structures flanking the centerline, a good number of trees for LoS, and a good amount of scatter terrain.  As a side note, all of that lovely MDF terrain is from Angry Mojo Games.  They specialize in Big Box terrain for $50, which is usually enough to fill a 3x3 table.  Check em out!

2) Define encounter size:  50SS.  This is the size we generally play.  It also preps us for tournaments

3) Announce Factions:  

sinscaptain - Neverborn

<AUsome Friend> - Neverborn

Oh Boy

4) Deployment - Standard

5) Generate Strategy and schemes:

Strategy - Recconoiter

Schemes - ALiTS, Breakthrough, Protect Territory, Murder Protege, and Spring the Trap

6) Hire and Reveal Crews:

Sinscaptain - So, I have - for the most part - learned up some Collodi for myself.  I feel extremely comfortable putting him on the table for just about any game, and now it is time to learn some other masters.  I have recently dropped both my Tara crew and the Viktorias in favor of going green with Gremlins.  I was considering taking Ophelia, but I decided in the end to go with Neverborn Zoraida to try and learn her again.  With the scheme pool, I knew I needed to make my most expensive model Bad Juju with Eternal fiend.  Obey from Zoraida can pretty much complete the rest.  I knew that I wasn't going to go with Spring the Trap against my opponent, who was getting his first game in with Pandora.  So I went into the game debating between Breakthrough, ALiTS, and Protect Territory.

For that, I ended up with the following:

Zoraida [4 SS]

+Animal Shape

+Hex Bag

+Hexed Among You

Bad Juju

+Eternal Fiend

+Fears Given Form

Beckoner

Gupps

Gupps

Iggy

+Depression

Pere Ravage

Wild Boar

My thoughts were that the Wild Boar could tie up atleast a few models at the beginning of the game with its "From the Shadows" ability.  Gupps could go around and find a nice place to hide and drop markers all game with leap.  Juju would run up and smash face, and then come back.  Zoraida could go and claim a corner or a breakthrough point on the last turn with Animal Shape, because nobody kills Zoraida.  Iggy would help burn things.  And Pere Ravage would help Iggy burn more things.

<AUsome Friend> and the Box of Tricks

Pandora
+upgrades
Candy
+upgrades
Baby Kade
+upgrade
Teddy
Poltergeist
Sorrow
Sorrow
Sorrow

My buddy was just trying to figure out how Pandora ran with things, and so he took the base box, with upgrades, and had enough to throw in my Teddy for fun and shenanigans.

7) Choose and Reveal Schemes

Sinscaptain - Breakthrough (unrevealed) and Protect Territory (revealed)
<AUsome Friend> - Murder Protege and Breakthrough (unrevealed)

Had we been paying more attention, we would have realized that my friend had taken Murder Protege with Eternal Fiend Bad Juju on the table, making it extremely difficult to get off and not let me still get points from my Gupps and Boar.  However, the schemes were what they were, and we got ready to hit the game.

8) Deploy Crews

View from Zoraida's table edge

For Zoraida, going left to right:  Pere Ravage and Iggy are behind the building, Gupps are behind the Masoleum at mid field to the left, and Wild Boar is behind the tallest tree in the upper left hand corner.  Behind the smaller Masoleum in my deployment: Zoraida, Juju, and the Beckoner chill.  Next to the burnt out church is the second Gupps base.  

For Pandora, going left to right across the top of the image:  Baby Kade, Sorrow, and Teddy hang out together behind the thicket of trees.  In the opposite corner, Pandora, Candy, Poltergeist, and two more sorrows hang out by the ruins.

View of Pandora and her Friends 

View of Zoraida and the crew

And with that, the game began in ernest.  Typical of most Malifaux games, we all started out with the glorious "lets all move together" first turn.

Pere, Gupps, Iggy, and Hookers oh my!

Wild Boar (Graves) comes out to get on after the sorrow

Movin' on up *whistles* Movin' on up!

Turn two is when things started to get fairly interesting.  Boar managed to sneak into a sorrow and tie it up, along with Kade.  Now, I realize that Boar against Kade is NOT a good idea.  But the point was to use the Boar, which can do work, to really tie up that flank.  It succeeded marvelously.  Until Kade ran off to Teddy, who was barreling down on my enclave of Iggy, Momma Z, and the Beckoner.

And then?  Mistakes were Made.  I thought to myself "Oh dayum!  I could pull Teddy closer so that I can hem it, and then put like burning 12 on it so that it dies!"  Only one of those things happened.  Word to the wise.  NEVER PULL A TEDDY CLOSER.

All he wants are HUGZ

So that happened.  Teddy was on my end of the world by the end of turn 2.  I had managed to block him up with the voodoo doll, or so I thought.  I really needed initiative turn 3 to get myself out of this mess.

Pandora's enclave marching up the side of the board

Wild Boar gettin' turnt

End of turn 2

Turn 3 initiative - a tale of sorrow, desperation, elation, and utter devastation.

My initiative flip, plus stoning for a card after he flipped a 9!  I WILL SURVIVE!

ARE YOU SHITTING ME.  AN 11?!

Look at him.  Look at the face of pure evil

"This is bullshit" face

Needless to say, my opponent then - with great care and cunning - moved Teddy just so through all of the bases and staying in engagement area, to have Iggy, the Beckoner, and Zoraida all exactly where they absolutely did not want to be. 

Shit

So, with Teddy down my throat, it was up to me to movement shenanigans my way out of that mess.  Zoraida animal shaped away to go grab some points, beckoner "not that kind of girl" out of dodge, and Iggy flipped like a boss ass bitch against the one attack Teddy got to make.  All in all, not so bad - but a lost turn for me where I had to spend flying every which way to get out of the situation, allowing Pandora to grow her points.  AND he killed Juju (buried him rather).  At this point, the score was tied up at 3(?) with just Strategy points going off.  This was also the turn that the voodoo doll hemmed an open and exposed Baby Kade to have Pere Ravage light him up with his breath fire attack.  Both died in flames, as the pig had already put some damage on the butcher baby.

Speaking of the pig, it died this turn... and let Bad Juju out in the corner.  Who then proceeded to smash the sorrow with a Red Joker damage flip.

After escaping Teddy

Pandora and crew spread out scoring - what I deduce - Breakthrough points

Juju smash!

Turn 4, its all down to start scoring points.  A couple of Gupps run around dropping markers as best they can.  Pere Ravage sneaks back into a corner to establish it for me, and to discourage any sorrows from coming over to get burned.  Candy ran all the way home with her bury ability.  Pandora, cut off from the rest of the table really, slunk back into the corner from where she came from.  The only way for Pandora to pull out a win was to kill Bad Juju to get some Murder Protege points.

Turn 4 was rather uneventful when compared to the craziness of turn 3, but I did manage to NUKE Teddy with Pere.  As a tangent, Pere might make every list with Momma Z from now on.  So good.  So very good.

After that, it was pretty much down to Candy vs. Juju in a prize fight for the ages.  Not really.  I have never played against Pandora and crew, so I won initiative, activated Juju, and targeted Candy with the first activation of the turn.  DOH!  Paralyzed Juju right of the bat.  However, Momma Z was still able to animal shape up into a corner to deny points, letting me grab a few more and ending the game with a 9-7 victory for Momma Z and the swamp kiddies.

Phew!  What a game!  That was an absolute blast, and <AUsome Friend> really enjoyed Pandora as a crew too.  He's really looking forward to getting more into the game.  If I could change anything, I would have gone ahead and played with my schemes revealed.  I don't like scrambling for points at the end of the game because I played unrevealed.  Other than that, and Candy being dumb to Juju, I would do it all again!

GenCon Wyrd-os and Faction Toss Up

So, with a game under my belt for the week, and another minion added to the pool of players - I went home thinking all was well.  Then, I realized that I was never in a million years going to get to Outcasts with Vikis and Tara.  I love the models and the crews, but I just have no interest in really playing the Vikis, or honestly Tara.  However, I had just picked up Brewmaster and have had Ophelia.  So I brokered a trade with Matte Varnish - he can have the Viktorias, Nightmare Tara Crew, and the Death Marshals I bought to go with her for painting my Brewie and Ophelia crews.  Plus Merris and Burt Jebson.  So, a fairly even trade that was a win win for both of us.  He gets more practice and hype as a commission painter, I get some crews that would never get enough love to someone who will gladly play them, and I get two painted crews out of the deal.  

What does this have to do with GenCon?  Well, Wyrd always has a big presence at GenCon, and so this year is the same.  They announced a bunch of super sexy boxes and models:  Colette, Jack Daw, Wong, and a Nightmare Edition "Dark Carnival" Crew to use as Colette.  All of them look absolutely gorgeous, so I am very much excited to get my mitts on some of these things.  Mostly some of the effigies, book 3, Wong (ooooooooooh yeahhhhhhhh), and probably some of the Emissaries if they come out too (looking at you Lucky!)  So, this changes my plans a little bit for expansion of my factions.  

Neverborn:  Collodi, Zoraida, Lilith (pre GenCon), Lucius (post GenCon)

Gremlins:  Ophelia, Brewmaster, Wong (GenCon), Mah Tucket (eventually)

Other Strong Possibilities:  Lynch, Ulix

Completist:  Pandora, Somer, and the Dreamer (bleh!) 

Of course, this is before all of the new masters drop for Wave 3, or any of the Avatar models.....

But, until then my pretties, take care!  (Bonus points for you if you've made it this far, dear reader)

Sinscaptain signing off.