Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month Two

It is better late than never. I wasn't able to get to the internet until yesterday and so I couldn't update the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. I have a few minutes this morning to get my stuff updated between various errands. So first of all I still haven't managed to pick up my starting box. Seemingly the weather in America has caused a delay to the European delivery and so nobody should have the new boxes yet. I am off this morning to an interview beside the gamestore and so I think I shoul be able to finally get McMourning. It does mean a lot of painting this month.

This month I won't be buying too much either as I have plans for months three and four maybe. The one thing that is essential in a McMourning crew is Flesh Constructs, you are either bringing them along anyway or summoning them with great rapidity. Therefore I really need to have a second and thankfully an alternative model comes out this month. I will be picking one of those up for sure. I am seriously tempted by a few more Canine Remains but as they haven't been released yet in plastic I am not too eager. I do want to wait until they are available. Sadly I haven't seen any rumours or confirmed releases so I shall simply continue to wait for those. That is quite annoying about Wyrd's releases. I have all the rules I need to play but I don't have the models. To make it worse I have to wait for the models. I am sure this will cost them a good few players in the long run.

Month Two

Alt. Flesh Construct $15

Monthly Total: $15

Remaining Total: $20

I am only spending fifteen dollars this month and with the ten dollars remaining already from last month, actually I have to check what the budget was, I will have a good warchest next month. I want to start focusing on alternative minions and enforcers so that I can explore McMourning a little more as I go through this project. His poison tricks are excellent but I think there are some other synergies to be exploited there. I will also have to gind a second opponent as I am very fearful of some of the abilities and tricks out there that I am not at all prepared for. I have never played Neverborn for instance and from what I hear they are quite good. Hopefully I can get what I am after soon and get to the painting.

Gathering the Clansmen

Looking at the collection of Dwarves I have I noticed that I have a lot of regiments that I wouldn't consider finished. I have for instance thirty three Clansmen. So with the current thoughts about Dwarves I decided to finish off a few of these regiments. Here are three Clansmen. They are relatively quick to paint and as I only need seven to finish the regiment I jumped in and got them done over a few hours. They are originally from a Batlle for Skull Pass. They are really simple and thankfully easy to paint.

Angry Anglo-Danes for SAGA

I had been attempting to get a few more models done for SAGA recently. The easiest way to increase a force is to paint some Huscarls. I painted these four in a rush to try and have them ready for last weeks eight point clash. Work intervened and I finally managed to finish them the other da. I kept the shields simple. I probably should have done some more elaborate designs but my heart wasn't in it and I left them plain enough. I have a huge amount of painting to get done and I didn't want to spend so much time on these. We are slowly, well truthfully I am being slow, gearing up for some Warhammer Ancient Battles here. I have at least one regiment more to do and I probably have to bulk out some of my existing regiments. I shall be playing the Anglo-Danes with some viking reinforcements. I haven't built a list in depth yet but I know I will be wanting a lot of Huscarls so I have to get through the ones I have here as soon as possible. I am also falling well behind on my French force for Muskets & Tomahawks. Too much painting too little time.

SAGA 8 points

I managed to finally get another Saga game in recently. This time at eight points. I wanted to test how the system worked once you increase the points value. This time extending it a third beyond its comfort zone. I was playing my Anglo-Danes and was facing off against a Norman force. Eight points of Normans looks huge as those horses can be really intimidating. I added a levy and eight warriors to my usual six points. I split the warriors amongst the three units I already had bulking them out considerably. I think this is a good way to go with larger point games. It doesn't increase your overall number of units and therefore stress your activation pool and yet it makes the game look much more impressive. The picture here is deployment. I concentrated in the centre while the Normans concentrated on the flanks.

The Flemish mercenaries in teh centre caused me massive headaches and lead to my downfall in the end. Once they had positioned themselves infront of my force there was nothing I could do but engage them. Every time I did I would suffer a lot of casualties and take a fatigue. Over three turns I bounced off them inflicting four casualties and recieving about twice that, including a large number of dead Huscarls.

Finally I sent my Warlord to deal with the Flemish and he easily wiped the remnant out. The Normans had completely swung around my army forcing my right flank into a complete retreat and as I had no resistance on the left the Normans that came that way were ready to pounce on the rear of my lines. I had my levy on the left and while they were effective I had used them against a smaller unit of Hearthguard rather than the more numerous warriors. My warlord was out in the middle relatively unsupported and in the end the cavalry proved too much and he died in the fourth turn thus ending the game.

As far as I can see eight points are fine to play SAGA with. The rules allow for a second we obey activation. We used this and it seemed fine. As I didn't really have any extra regiments it was a big benefit but I can see people who add two more in really needing it. We played Clash of Warlords as a scenario and as it is the most basic way to play it worked out fine. I would like to try some other scenarios at this size, especially the Ford, and see how it works.

Dwarven Expeditionary Force

I am bizarrely interested again in my dwarves as I have mentioned a few times. I have quite a few other projects going at the moment from SAGA , Malifaux, Warhammer Ancient Battles to Muskets & Tomahawks. I am being really ill-disciplined at the moment and my desk is overrun with models from a variety of sources. Usually I do manage to produce some finished models from this chaos but I also tend to wallow in the slow progress doing a little here and a little there and never making much progress by the end of a painting session. However I really want to get my dwarves updated to the current edition and while I won’t be playing them anytime soon I would like to be able to at least. The delay in getting my models for the Tale of Malifaux bloggers has thrown my schedule awry. I have a backlog to get to there. I can at least leave my French for the moment as I need my opponent to get more of his stuff finished before we will play.

I would like to get a themed dwarf list together and so I took out my 6th edition book which had a few themes in the back. I don’t think I ever actually used them back when the book was valid but they were decent guidelines towards having a theme. I would really enjoy seeing a few more of these being officially printed and supported. I do know what I want at least. I would like to represent a trade caravan bringing goods from the hold to either a trading post or a nearby Imperial town. The theme that suits that best from the sixth edition book is a guild expedition. That really doesn’t represent what I want as it is based too heavily around the Engineers Guild and relies very heavily on warmachines and shooting. Enough dwarf lists are based around that already. I want to have some shooting alright but something light weight that you could envisage transporting around and being quickly ready to use. I also want to have some stalwart dwarves scouting ahead of the main force.

Therefore I have gone with two Bolt Throwers. They are suboptimal I think in the current edition but they work fine within my restrictions. The chances to hit are relatively low as they will most likely be firing at long range and therefore incurring a minus one penalty. I think that between the two of them shooting a turn I have a 44% chance of hitting with one of them at long range. To include them however there would have to be someone to repair them on the march and so an engineer is required. I will make the model up out of some plastics I have spare from the Organ Gun sprue. He will be kit-bashed but I think it will look fine in the end. I haven’t as yet absorbed all of the possible options he can take so I haven’t begun any work on him yet. By including him and using his ballistic skill on one of the Bolt Throwers I increase the chance to hit with at least one to 61%. I am tempted to include a Stone Thrower too. I have the excellent old model which is wheeled and made of wood but I don’t think it fits in the theme. The two Bolt Throwers should be enough and I guess I can rune them up a little bit to help with their chances to hit and wound. I don’t think any of the other Warmachines fit either. However a Gyrocopter definitely does. At least this way the force can effectively scout over the most difficult of terrain and also keep in contact with the Hold over long distances. It also keeps the engineer busy repairing the inevitable battle damage. I only have one model but if I got a second cheaply I would add it in. The new model is ridiculous and I am glad I have the 3rd edition version. I don’t really like the 6th edition model either but it is by far better than the new one.

Speaking of scouting I can’t leave out my Rangers. I probably won’t take anything else from the rare section and these guys really fit the theme. They are out in advance ensuring the path is clear. I have forty of the Bugmans Ranger models and I want to use them. They are really characterful in my opinion. I will endeavor to get a scouting hero included in the unit though I haven’t seen a rune that allows that yet. These will form a large block in the army but they won’t really be guarding the wagons. I guess that my other two infantry blocks will have to do that. I will include thirty five Clansmen. I have the models to do a regiment composed of forty but that entails a good bit of painting so thirty five is enough at this early stage. I could do two units of twenty with full command but I doubt that would fit in the twenty five percent allowance. Accompanying them are the veterans of the expedition, twenty five Longbeards. I have them armed with great weapons. I could also add in some shields but I doubt they are worth the cost. These are meant to be an effective offensive force. I would be very tempted to add the Strollaz rune but to be honest they would most likely end up too far ahead of the rest of the army and relatively unsupported if I did that. I guess the Lord and battle standard bearer will go into this unit. Having them in the unit serves to force my opponent to engage with them as they will probably be worth a large proportion of my points. I am tempted to fill them out to a slightly larger size as a unit of twenty eight doesn’t look right deployed on the table. I guess it is my obsessive nature but the ranks need to be full at the start of the battle.

Looking at the rest of the list I don’t know where to go. I have a few different characters I can add and I haven’t decided on their equipment yet. Other than the ones already mentioned above I will add a runesmith, a lord and probably another hero level character. I am very tempted to add a wandering Dragon Slayer to the force. The models look excellent and are a good contrast to the rest of the army. I would like to get another block of troops in but I don’t really see anything else suitable at the moment. Another sizeable unit of warriors would be very nice. Hammerers, Miners, Slayers and Ironbreakers don’t fit the theme. I have some Thunderers but I think I have enough shooting already to deal with larger creatures, albeit somewhat unreliably. The rangers have enough shots to worry the ablative skirmishers and light cavalry threatening the flanks of the rest of the army. I am very tempted to add some allies from the Empire army. I imagine some spearmen looking very nice ranked up with the Dwarves. They would be interested in protecting the trade also and so could fit in the theme nicely. I don’t know if I have the models. I will have to dig through my collection and see what I do actually have. I don’t really see any other allies fitting in.

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Mid-Month

I have only managed to play two games during the course of the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers. At least both of them have been with the assigned crew. My crew box hasn't arrived at the local store yet so there is going to be a lot of pressure to get it finished by the start of the next month. I would say there is a slim chance if the box is finally there on Thursday. At least I did get a start made with Rafkin. I am impressed as the white came out a lot better in this photograph than many others I have taken. Seemingly I am getting slightly better at the whole photography thing. The painting was farily straightforward. The model is simple and doesn't have too many details, my favourite type of miniature. He is still very characterful however. I kept the clothes in standard enough colour. I had intended to add some blood splatter but I can't be bothered now. The white came out well and I don't want to ruin it with improperly done blood effects.

I was wondering about using Rafkin in the crew. He seems to repeat a lot of abilities that the other members have and doesn't offer anything new. However a deeper look at the card shows some interesting possibilities. Firstly he is another poison vector. While that seems to simply repeat the theme but that is important. Your opponent has to fear anything that can cause poison as with the various abilities stacking it can result in six points of damage a turn. Secondly I have been using Rafkin to attack fairly powerful enemy pieces, Izamu mainly. With a point of poison placed on them with a 0 action you can charge for a single activation which allows a non-direct charge. That is great as it is hard to account for it when positioning a model. Once the opponent is poisoned Rafkin can dish out a lot of damage. His melee is decent and he has enough wounds to withstand some attention from the enemy. Thirdly even if Rafkin isn't in combat with a model he lasses on an extra point of damage within 6" which can really be the tipping point in a conflict. It is a different effect from Sebastian and McMourning and so it stacks nicely with them.

I haven't heard much disscussion on Rafkin and I find that strange. He seems to have been overlooked somewhat. I guess it is based on the fact that his abilities are very similar to others in the McMourning crew. I would suggest to evryone to try him out. I almost couldn't consider a crew without him.

Dwarf Longbeards revisited

You may recognise these models from a post a long time ago. Whatever the source of my current urge for Warhammer is I am unsure. However I took these models out of the cabinet and gave them some of the face masks that come on the sprue to make them destinctive from the standard warriors. I never really liked the idea of using them but now that I tried them out they are quite good. It should be enough, along with the white beards, to differentiate them for my opponent too. I like the new models but I don't fancy buying any. I have more than enough Dwarves to paint and I definitely don't need to add to the pile. So once again I have completed my Longbeards. I wonder will I update a few more models for the army?

Wayne Englands 4th edition Dwarves

Lord: Light Armour, Great Weapon, Crossbow, Magic Blade (50)	214
Hero: Light Armour, Shield, Magic Blade (25)	132
Hero: Heavy Armour, Shield	108
Master Runesmith:	178
Champion: Light Armour, Pistol	52
19 Longbeards: Full Command, Warbanner, shields.	370
19 Clansmen: Standard, Musician.	257
19 Warriors: Spears, Standard, Musician.	276
Bolt Thrower: Light Armour	60
Cannon: Light Armour	116
Flame Cannon: Light Armour	125

So I finally got some time to sit down and work out the list I mentioned in one of my previous posts. It has been a really long time since I had to make an army for fourth edition Warhammer. It took me a while to find out what the costs for command groups were and I had forgotten the fact that Champions were actually separate characters. So here is my fourth edition version of Wayne Englands Dwarves. I equated everything as much as I could. I swapped the Wizard for a Master Runesmith. This was rally the only change as Wwizards were dropped completely from the Dwarf fluff at this point, sadly in my opinion. I think there could still be a place for some low powered wizards in the list but restricted to something like the Lore of Metal. I am also unclear as to what the difference between Clansmen and Warriors are in 3rd edition. I assume it is more than just a different name. I was impressed that spears were possible still in fourth edition for Clansmen to take. I would love to have some spear armed Clansmen in this current edition. I also approximated the cost of the magic items as I don't know what they were in 3rd edition and I don't have the cards from fourth to hand to check what they are close to.

The points for the two lists came out fairly close with the 3rd edition being 1780 and fourth editions being just over a hundred points more at 1888. I am really eager to see how that translates into the next book an sixth edition. The army feels right for playing in fourth edition still and only lacks some ranged units I feel. I think though once I get around to the next three editions that the army is going to feel really small really quickly.