Malifaux - first thoughts

It's not so much that I am late to the party with this game, so much as that I was at a different party altogether, and had no reason to switch.  But, a couple of trades left me with a fair amount of Malifuax crews, and I decided that I finally needed to give the game a try.

So, this afternoon, after family stuff was taken care of, I pointed the car east and drove for an hour or so to go try a demo.  (Yes, I live out in the middle of boofoo - so, it's not driving an hour in traffic, but an hour on the highway, doing 70.)  When I got to the store, I first took the chance to touch base with some friends that I used to play Warmachine/Hordes with - I had forgotten that they played on Saturdays as well, though I do not know how often I would be able to get there, since that is my usual day at my FLGs.

Anyway, on to the demo!  I got given the choice between Som'er Teeth Jones and Perdita - basic box sets in each case.  I took Perdita, since I have Som'er Teeth.  We didn't play anything other than a simple brawl - nothing fancy, just trying to take each other down.

Fortunately, it was a demo, so I won.  Okay, luck has a lot to do with it - Nino flipping a bunch of high cards at the piggy, and using the family companion stuff to just pile on several shooters all at once.  With the pig down, all I had to do was (1) keep my crew alive; and (2) kill gremlins faster than Som'er Teeth could summon new ones. 

Anyway, the tl;dr version is this :Had fun, won, need to paint my stuff.  I didn't talk myself into a new crew while I was there - although there was a demo discount, I really don't need to add another crew just yet.  I'm pretty sure that I have ten or eleven crews already, and almost none of that is painted.  Maybe I should paint a crew or two first, and then add something, just to avoid the "I have 650 models and nothing is painted" syndrome for yet another system.

No painting today

I did get some work time in this afternoon, and, although I did not paint anything, I did get a couple of figures primed, and worked on assembling the rail crew.  Poor Willie will be a blank base if I even get the chance to use him - I'll have to decide what I am taking in the morning.

I'm not concerned with winning, obviously - it's a demo.  I just want to take a crew or three that will be fun to play for a first-timer.  Right now, I'm leaning toward Rasputina, Sonnia, Mei Feng, or the Viktorias.

I'll take a camera, and hopefully get a few pics. I'll definitely post something afterwards - my thoughts on the game, if nothing else.

speaking (typing?) of new games, tonight was another board game night for the group.  We played a larger game of X-Wing - it would have gone better, had not the son been involved.  He's still kind of young for it, and since it was getting late, he did not like his X-Wing (with Luke, of course) to get shot at.  We called the game so that I could send him to bed, and then we got in a game of Evil Baby Orphanage. It's an odd game, but fun - constantly changing, but there are some actual strategies involved.  EBO and Wiz-War have been the big post-GenCon hits.

Quick Bubba pic

Obviously, still a WIP, but paint is still being applied to the fig.  All those $%(*&$% rocks are getting annoying though.

I really want to get his teeth finished so that I can put the jaw on him.  And I need to pop him off the base and finish his underside, so that I can get him permanently glued to the base.  That's my plan for the weekend, more or less.

Well, in addition to doing a quick 8 pt model or something ("Hey look - another Wold!  That'll do").  And assembling the rest of the Mei Feng box from Malifaux.  And priming same.  And priming the rail golem.  And putting Willie together.  And working on some other stuff.

Slacking

Yep, I've been slacking. I should be posting some pics tomorrow, but I basically lost the entire weekend (had company, plus family stuff), and didn't really do anything productive the last couple of days.  I have been reading my Malifaux rulebook, prior to this weekends first game, but really, I've been kind of a slug.

Tonight, I have been down in the basement (and am heading back there again in a minute), working on assembling some of the Malifaux plastics, and putting some more paint on Bubba.  I am doubtful that Bubba will be done before the end of the month, so I am also working on a backup item to get my 5 points in.  I'll get something done - but I need to get a lot more done.

I should have more spare time next week - fewer distractions, and getting back into a routine.  Painting is like exercising - you may mean to do it, you may talk about doing it, but really - if it doesn't occupy a set time in your schedule, it has a tendency to get dropped altogether.

Quick hit at the start of the weekend

So, I've added a few things in the last couple of days.  Now, it is actually a net loss to my overall pile of lead - I got rid of more than 200 Chronopia models, all told, and added only a fairly small amount of Malifaux.   In the mail yesterday, I got a package containing the following:

Marcus set - painted table top
Rasputina set (table top) + December Acolyte (painted badly) + silent one (bare)
Von Schill set - table top
Hamelin set - in box
Ophelia set - bare
MacMorning set - bare
Zoraida set - bare

I'm missing one card (December Acolyte) - not a big deal, since I want to learn more of the basic crews before adding extra minions.  I'll order it, along with a couple of other things, in the near future.

I also picked up another copy of the Star Wars X-Wing game.  Now, with two copies, I can play larger games - at least everyone in my gaming group can have a ship now when we are playing.  I need to get some of the expansions - probably over the next month or two.

What I have not done much of lately is painting.  I have been assembling some things, but not any real painting.  I really need to get back on that wagon again - the year is almost up, and I am pretty far behind on how much I wanted to have painted by now.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that my collection shrank by about 200 figures.  So, adding in the Reaper and Relic Knights kickstarters next year, I should be just about even.

Been quiet for a few days

That's because I was sick.  Stupid sinuses - I hate this time of year.

Anyway - my Chronopia figs are gone.  If I have anything left from that system still in the house, it is only because I failed to find it.  Don't misunderstand - I really enjoyed the system, and certainly played it quite a bit, over several editions.  (And the same goes for Warzone, the SF counterpart.)  But, I frankly need to prune systems, if I am not going to actually prune miniatures from my collections.  So, Chronopia had to go.

I'm getting a bunch of Malifaux starters - they should be arriving on or about Thursday.  I still haven't played a single game, but there is a demo on the 29th that I am hoping to get to.  Getting to the demo looks doable - it'll come down to logistics.

On the WM/Hordes front - Bubba progresses slowly.  I really need to take a new pic of him though - he's starting to look like something I would not be ashamed to place on the table.  But I haven't done much painting in the last few days.  Hopefully, I get some painting time tonight.

I also have two new terrain projects - I will be making a Space Hulk board for the local FLGS (I'll get one of the Limited Edition 40k sets in trade - that way, I have a current copy of the rules, just in case I need them, to help in my outreach efforts.)  I also am going to be building a couple of boards for Wiz War - one for me, and one to sell or trade.

I think I will also be making an asteroid field for X-Wing.  I really need to get another copy of the core rules and a bunch of ships.  I want to have two or three dozens ships zipping along the asteriods, on a star mat, by Christmas.  Totally doable.

Not much lately.

So-called "real life" has been interfering lately in my hobby time, so I haven't done much.  I haven't painted nearly as much on my Mountain King (aka "Bubba") as I have wanted to, I haven't finished some other figs that, by all rights, should be done by now, nor have I even finished stripping stuff that got dropped into the cleaner last week.  (It's Pine-Sol, and they're metal, so no harm done by leaving them there, really.)

Tonight, instead of running the RPG group (we're currently on hiatus from the Earthdawn campaign that I have been running for several years), we played some board games.  Got a game in each of Wiz-War, Heap and the Star Wars X-Wing game.  Of the three, Wiz-War was probably the favorite, but all three were a lot of fun. 

It left me wanting to build either a Death Star board (or at least a star field mat and some asteroids) for X-Wing, and use Hirst Arts blocks to make a Wiz-War board.  Time to start pouring and painting again, I guess.

Basement cleaning, con't

For various and sundry reasons, some of them even tangentially related to gaming, I have not finished rounding up all my Chronopia stuff.  I hope to do that tonight.  I had forgotten just how much of it that I had - I have pretty complete armies for four different races, and, were I so inclined, I could hunt down a couple of units and singles for a fifth one, and it would be playable as well.

But, I want them gone.  The Reaper tally is going to be north of 200 figs, the Relic Knights will probably come close to half of that.  I doubt that I have 300 Chronopia figs, but I probably have more than a third of it. 

Of course, the sad part is that I am planning on selling most of it, and some portion of it will surely wind up buying more figs.  I am leaning toward Malifaux at the moment - not because I have any dissatisfaction with Warmachine, but because (1) I am distracted by New Shiny Syndrome; and (2) I want to pretend that I am catching up on my WM/H models for a while.

I still have plans to have at least one decent 50 point list for every faction, contract and compact by the end of the year.  I think (just off the top of my head) that I still need a few things for Circle, some pirates and some rhulic stuff, but I am pretty close on those.

Basement cleaning

On a blog I read, I came across the idea of a game audit.  It's a good idea, but there is no way that I am doing one.  I have too many games that I play too infrequently, but want to keep around.

That said, in between the Reaper Bones and Relic Knights, I am going to have a lot of miniatures arriving on my doorstep in the first half of next year.  Add in my desire to grow my Malifaux and MERCS forces, and I need to do some cleaning out.

The basement needed cleaning anyway (and still does), but I spent a good chunk of time tonight looking for all my old Chronopia figs.  I like the game, like the background, love some of the mechanics, etc - but, let's face it, I don't think I have played it in close to a decade.  Certainly not since we moved to Michigan, and that was almsot eight years ago.

I found most of them, although there are a few figures still extant.  I now need to sort through and see which pieces are missing parts, and which units are complete, etc.  Then, it's put them up on the various sites, and try to get rid of them.  I won't be making much on them, but I will be gaining some serious space, which  is at more of a premium right now than extra money.

It's a disease, but I don't want the cure.

Figmentia.  Army altaholism.  Shiny object syndrome.  They all mean the same thing.

I can buy figures much faster than I can paint them.  And, I like learning new systems, playing new and different games, and generally having fun.  And, I have learned, years ago, that the best way to get people into a new game is to have two armies for it.

The problem, of course, is that two armies often arrive in the form of three or four different armies.  I started out just wanting to have a couple of armies for Dystopian Wars, just in case.  I think, at the moment, that I have at least 5 of the starter boxes.  I have something like 5 armies for MERCS, and, at last count, 5 different ones for Malifaux.

So, why bring this up?  If you guessed "Relic Knights Kickstarter," then you can give yourself a gold star.  Go ahead and go get one - I'll wait.

The good news is that I did not buy in as high as I might have initially wanted to do so.  And, they set it up so that, at certain levels, you could "sell back" extraneous rulebooks or faction starters, in order to buy some of the extras.  Even doing that, I'll wind up with enough factions that I can teach people to play.  And probably offer them their choice of several armies to boot.

The good news is that, in general, I pay for this stuff by cycling through some of the older pieces of my collection, and by making terrain.  My hope is that, by the time this kickstarter projects start arriving, I will have made a dent in the lead and plastic pile, and won't be swamped too badly by the arrival of the Reaper bones KS, plus the Relic Knights KS.  Plus any figs I pick up in trade or buy between now and then. 

One of the blogs I read just did an army audit.  I try not to do such things - I am well aware that my last game of WFB might well have been about the time that the 8th edition book came out.  That doesn't mean that I am likely to get rid of my Ogres anytime soon.  And, while I have yet to play the current ruleset of 40k, I won't be getting rid of those in the foreseeable future.  My Warmaster figs are probably safe from the chopping block, as are my Legions of Steel and my DBA figs.  My still NIB Celts and Romans are probably safe for now.  And, while I have not played FoW in several years, my Soviets are utterly safe.  And, the sad part is that I have barely scratched some of what I have.

That said, I probably will be dropping a few things fairly soon.  I have some fairly good-sized armies for Chronopia, and my Warzone stuff is moderately sized.  If I can get a decent offer for either of them, they are gone - especially if I can get either cash (to buy more stuff, obviously), or figs from games which I am currently pursuing.  

Couple of WIP pics

I might say more later, or take better pics, but for now, here's some random content:

He wasn't my first attempt at the airbrush, but he was the last thing I did before I pretty much packed it up.  I'm generally happy with the skin tones.  I do not, however, have enough control to do really fine lines, so the stones and detail will all be done by hand.  All in all, painting his skin this way was probably not too much faster than doing it with a traditional brush, but it was easier, and I think it looks smoother overall.  I am hoping to get him firmly set onto his base today, which will make transporting him easier.

The tire stacks are done (started them Tuesday or Wednesday), but the truck is still a WIP.  I'm trying for a rust effect, but the salt technique from NQ isn't working for me just yet.  I'm reasonably happy with this so far, but I rubbed to hard or something, and got down to the resin.  I'll finish this one up (and a companion truck, not pictured here), and try it again on something else.

Yet another picless update

I know, I know - all words and no text makes the Army Altaholic poor reading.  I should have some pics up tomorrow.

First up - the airbrush update.  I have been playing with the airbrush since Tuesday.  Tomorrow, I will be taking it back, a day earlier than planned.  Not because I am disappointed with it - well, not per se.  I wish I had a bit more control than the single action provides, but really, what I wanted to do was learn.  And, learn I did.  I spent quite a bit of time making lines, dots, spirals, and all sorts of random little squiggles of paint on paper.  I mixed paint, thinned it, thickened it, increased the pressure, tried low pressure - I did as much as I could in the hour or two per day that I was playing around with it.

I even tried painting a few figs.  Let's just say that my first attempt did not end well.  So poorly, in fact, that they are currently sitting in the Pine-Sol, I chose metal starships for a reason - simple, easy to paint, and easy to strip.  Good thing, too.

I have tried the airbrush on several other figures - one of which I will take pics of in the morning, maybe the others.  I'm actually rather pleased with one of them, and not displeased with the others, especially since I was trying something else, in addition to the airbrush.

Second - my final GenCon based order arrived.  I had held off for a little bit, post-GenCon, but last Friday, I put in an order for some Warlands figs, from Aberrant Games.  They arrived today, which is pretty darned good - especially since they packed them on Monday (Labor Day), and went in the mail on Tuesday.

I need to upgrade my rulebook to the current version, but now, when I combine the official Warlands figs, as well as the Hot Wheels which will have various items from the accessory packs glued onto them, and I have plenty to keep the son and I busy for a while.  I am hoping to teach him how to play on Sunday

Quick post

First, I finally broke down.  I am almost committed to getting an airbrush, but, in a rare flash of intelligence, I realized that renting one from the local FLGS for a few days (at a very reasonable price) would be a Good Idea before buying one.  It's not the same type - they rent a single action brush, and it's also siphon feed - whereas I want double action and gravity-feed, but it's enough to let me work out some of the basics before I commit.

So far, I've managed to get it up and running, although I haven't gotten much more than blotches and spider legs yet.  And yes, I've already looked up what I am doing wrong - though watch this space, especially for "HELP!!" posts.

Second, my Rail Crew from Wyrd Miniatures arrived, along with a tape measure as an apology for the delay.  The tape measure was a nice touch - not needed, but certainly appreciated.

Thinking of appreciated - I placed an order late last week for some Warlands vehicles and accessories.  They packed it yesterday (on Labor Day, which admittedly impressed me to no end), and it apparently went out in the mail today.  Hoping they arrive fairly soon, although there is nothing in it that I need to teach my son how to play the game.

August painting results

The pic is bad - I need to take a better one later today



Only managed one model this month: a Wold Guardian for one of my Hordes armies. I was hoping to finish more, but lost too much time to GenCon, and got distracted by the new shineys that I bought there.

I worked on a lot more, but did not finish much of what I started, obviously.