I’ve started tarting up my AA today. I toyed with textured card, bathroom tiles and painting extra detail on, but in the end decided to go with Hirst Arts mold bits. I’ve got a few of these and the photos show how I’ve started gluing bits from a dungeon floor for external walls and the roof will be a mixture of the clay tiles mold and church mold. There is a long way to go but I think it will be worth it in the end.
There was a blue moon last night and it can only be fate that I had the even rarer offer of a Malifaux game. Malifaux does not seem to have caught on in my gaming circles. It’s a game with a lot of character but it does not seem to be able to stand toe to toe with the big hitters like Warmahordes and 40K.
Anyway, I took the chance to put out Jakob against Lilith at 40SS. The Lillith crew looked a bit thin but she was stacked with upgrades. Teddy and Baby Kade were also going to be troublesome. We fumbled around a bit with setup but eventually ended up with The Reckoning for strategy and both chose Assassination and Cursed Object for Schemes.
Note the rather nice Guildball pitch!
We set up facing off across the board with most of the dangerous models centre and my left. The first turn was spent closing but Mr Graves did take a bit of a hit from Liliths’s Cherub that pushed him back and slowed my advance down.
The Hungering Darkness looked dangerous in his central position and I had Jakob and a Beckoner in good positions for control. Unfortunately Lilith’s crew were also in a good place and my opponent took a risk using an ability to make HG activate last then pulling it into attack range. Teddy and Kade synergied very well to take HD down (but only just!) and this was a bad start for me, but very well played.
Malifaux being no Warmahordes meant I was not out the game yet. I turned my attention to getting Brilliance on the Neverborn models and using the Illuminated to put some hurt on. I was able take out Teddy in this way, but for future reference we left Brillance on him for more than one turn which was incorrect. There were a couple of bizarre incidents with Jokers that threw the game in different directions, most notably when Jakob shot Lilith and pulled a Red Joker on the damage flip to take her down. This put me right back in contention.
By this stage it was getting late and the game needed to wrap up. Careless record keeping meant we lost track of casaulties and it was hard to work out who had won the Reckoning although we were tied on Assassinate. I suspect Lilith was slightly ahead but it was only a casual game so not of great importance.
I have to say I really enjoyed this game. There were some great combos from Lilith’s crew and although I missed some of mine they were there had I been better prepared. It was a close game with some comedy moments and good models, fluff and scenery. Poor old Malifaux, it’s a damn fine game that deserves more attention. If only there was the time.
Another weekend gone and another great game of Batman. Sadly all of the pictures appear to have been deleted from my phone 😉 Nonetheless a description of the main points follows.
This was a four player game but in pairs. I took Two-Face and my partner was playing Raas. Across the table Batman , Robin, Gordon and police men. In the early action the two forces
closed on each other with the police putting some pain on one of Two-Faces henchmen. Early in the next turn the Two-face henchmen managed some revenge via ‘ Let’s go….’. The chain of henchmen going in sequence like this looks like a great tactic.
A couple of turns in the action was hotting up and the Batman had slipped past Raas and was in amongst the bad guys causing mayhem. (more…)
It is just my luck that as I embark on making my own Arkum Ayslum Knight models start plans to release an official MDF kit. Having said that the official building looks more 2D than the Fantasy Villa kit and hence I would think it less interactive for games. There is also no price as yet for the Knight kit but I woule expect it to be a lot more than the Fantasy Villa.
So, with these thoughts in mind I spent another couple of hours on the kit last night. I have now nearly finished the initial build.
I’m pleased with the overall feel and structure but I think it can be improved for miniature gaming at 32mm. Once the kit is finished I am going to consider tiling the roofs, replacing some of the decorative iron/stonework and adding some other in scale elements like gargoyles or other brick/stone work. I’m optimistic this will not take a huge amount of time and will make a unique and very usuable building for games.
A chance to try out some new terrain and models this evening. A few weeks ago I finally recieved my Games and Gears Kickstarter 28mm Hawk Battleboard. It clips together nicely and although the painting might be more interesting in places it is a nice board. I am probably going to leave it pretty clean as I would like to use it for a futuristic Infinity city too.
For the game I wanted to build on my experience with Ivy and her plant slaves. This time I decided to support her with Swamp Thing and some Blackgate Prisoners who I felt would be more reliable than the Arkham Loonies. The League were a load of ninjas led by Ra’s al Ghul. Nicely painted too 🙂
We were playing scenario 4 which is a straight-up scrap. I expected the League to play aggressively and was worried about Ra’s making mince meat of Ivy. I made an early decision to send Swampy after Ra’s in order to leave Ivy and the Prisoners to take care of the squishier ninjas and do some objective grabbing.
In the early action I was able to use Swamp Thing’s Green Walk to get into Ra’s but the League Bossman provided to be a very difficult target to hit. Meanwhile several ninjas realised this was a good chance to gang-up on the big guy. On the other flank Ivy and the Prisoners supported each other well and managed to grab the enemy loot scaring off nearby ninjas.
At this point the prospects for Swamp Thing were grim as Ra’s and the ninjas gradually wore him down. He had done a great job as a tank in distracting a good portion of the League and soaking up a lot of punishment my other models simply would not have coped with. On the otherhand Ivy had made good progress down the other flank with her Prisoner escort. She used Control Pheromones to good effect to manipulate the weak willed ninjas allowing her to secure my loot objective and close in on my Titan Dose and Ammo objectives in the enemy deployment zone.
At this stage it was fairly close on objectives but Ivy was in a commanding position in terms of objectives for the final action. Ra’s finished off Swamp Thing but the League were unable to inflict other significant casaulties or contest objectives so Ivy walked away with a pretty significant win (19 – 12 I think)
Ivy and the Prisoners take control in the final turn - but who is lurking in the shadows!
A good game and I am pleased with the way Ivy and her gang worked the board. In terms of casaulties they had achieved very little, but Swamp Thing was an excellent tar-pit and Ivy’s Control Pheromones were outstanding in securing control of the objectives. Ra’s looked very dangerous as an individual, but the League didn’t get enough traction on their objectives or cause enough casaulties in the game.
A couple of other points worth making a note of. I put my Plant Slaves on very early in this game – in hindsight too early. One of Slaves was isolated and quickly dispatched by a ninja, one never got into the game as the ninjas kept a good distance from it and although the third did manage to knock down a ninja, it’s impact was limited. Next time I think more judicious deployment is needed. Looking on the bright side I did use a pair of sewers to get a Prisoner with a gun on a roof. Although not a game winner he managed to damage a ninja from a safe vantage point and was a good option for attack/defense/objective grabbing should he be needed late game. Definetly a strategy worth trying again.
Still loving Batman. Great gameplay great miniatures and super cinematic. What else do you need in a game? 🙂
P.S. A further note to self : I deployed the seeds too early in set-up. The following is correct “deploy during the “hidden deployment” stage, so after objectives, but before “undercover” models.”
Sunday evening saw a 250 point clash over scenario three from the book. I had a bit of a shock during setup as it became apparent that unlike scenario 1 and 2 the objectives were going in or very close to the enemy deployment zone. For this particular scenario the deployment zone was also very small nestled in a corner, so this was going to be a very different game. I was also looking forward to using Ivy and my first game against a Batman.
I decided to put my seed markers near to my objectives so I could pop plant slaves up to support models who got across the board, and some in my deployment zone to contest my opponent’s objectives should they get that far. During the first turn we just ran at each other – this is a problem and I must dig out by 90x90cm board next time. After a couple of turns however, things were getting a bit more interesting. Batman had taken down one of my loonies but Ivy and Catwoman had a plan for dealing with the big man
Initially Ivy tried to take control of Batman in order to get him to Batclaw to the top of a building and jump off – a nefarious tactic I had read about on the net! Sadly Batman’s Willpower was too good for this so a plan B was needed. A SWAT guy with gun was nearby and a much softer target. I managed to take control of this chap and had him pump 3 shots into the Batman. I have to say I was a little jammy scoring three damaging hits and knocking Batman over, but hey it felt good 🙂
Catwoman and Ivy subsequently jumped the bat but he is a durable fellow and they were not able to finish him off.
Meanwhile I had snuck a loony down a sewer and he had made it to the enemy deployment zone that was being defended by Gordon.
I popped a couple of Plant Slaves on the table and set about knocking Gordon about. One of the plants managed to paralyse Gordon and I picked up some VPs on my Titan Objective. Unfortunately we played the paralysis wrong on two counts: firstly it appears you need a six on the collateral dice to trigger a crit, not just the same number; secondly we couldn’t see how Gordon could shake off the paralysis, but as it is a poison effect a recovery roll can be made each turn. Worth remembering for next time…..
At this stage we were nearing the end. Ivy was slightly ahead on VPs but I was struggling to KO Gordon and/or Batman to secure a convincing win. As the last turn finished the situation was unchanged and we found Ivy had won by a handful of VPs.
A good game and a very different dynamic this time due to the objective placement. Ivy is tricksy and it was an inspired moment when she hypnotised the SWAT guy to put the hurt on the Batman. I shall enjoy playing her more in the future. That sneaky hypnotism was the key to my win as a fully functional Batman is clearly a dangerous model. I was impressed with the durability of Batman and he was very respectable in a scrap too. So, to finish a nice pic of the main man who has been rather nicely painted by my good friend Dave. Looking forward to seeing your Batcave dude!
Nurgleonbass 