Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry Christmas Everyone!




Hope everyone had a good Christmas (If you dont celebrate Christmas start, its awesome). I had a pretty good weekend, and got in some gaming.

Friday - got off work early, but had some errands to run before I could get out to Huzzah. I eventually got out and brought my Circle of Oboros. I played 2 games.



Game 1 Kromac vs Barnabus. We stumbled through eachothers armies, having never faced them before. But in the end Kromac leapt into Barnabaus' face and axed him down.



Game 2 E-Kaya vs Starkohv - I realized right quick I couldn't take him head on, he had stuff with high armor, so I ran around to his flanks and engaged him that way. Picking off his units and Jacks 1 at a time until my Warpwolves killed off Strakohv.

Saturday - Went to the Skins game. It was cold and a loss, but still a lot of fun.



Sunday - Christmas, I got Super Dunegon Explore and Quarriors and the Demon expansion from my Secret Santa, who as it turns out was my Brother who I got for Secret Santa. It was cool.





Monday - Saw Sherlock Holmes 2. Its was good, and if you liked the first one you will like this one. But it felt like the first movie was better rounded then the second. I guess I felt like something was lacking, even though it was like 135 mins. After the movie we played Ticket to Ride and tried to learn Quarriors... we failed, but after looking at the internet I learned what we did wrong and how to fix it in the future.

Im hoping to convice people to jump in a game or 2 tonight.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Ramos got a Girlfriend

Its pretty much true, or maybe more like a clingy wife. Either way from no on where Ramos goes, the Mechanical Rider goes. She is pretty beastly. Im pleased with her horse more then her to be honest. But overal I like the way she came out.





Soulstone Mine and Large Arachnid are next on the paint list.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A What Kind of Tournament?

The Warmachine kind! I know it doesn't seem like something I would do. But on saturday pretty much everyone was busy doing other things, so I packed up a small bag of Cryx and went out to the event.

Its been a long time since I've really played WM. Even longer since i've gone to a tournament. But I do remember how to make a Denny list, even in MKII where things are slightly different, but kind of the same anyways. I also made a Skarre list as my back up, but never used it. So here is the Denny List



Denegrah +5 soul stones... wait thats not right, hold on I'll get it
2 Deathrippers
2 Nightwretches
Skarlock
2 Pistol Wraiths
2 Bloat Thralls
6 Bile Thralls
10 Mechanithralls
2 Brute Thralls

Plan is a simple one. Drop your defenses with Denny, knock you down, and have all the guns shoot you until you die.

*NOTE* Im not gonna try and remember what my opponets models are, I only focus on Caster Kills. Also this will be mostly highlights, after the tourney I went to a chirstmas party and got hammered.



Game 1: Vs Dixon and Grimm Angus
We had a mission, that we misread, then asked the TO for clarification which he gave us, and later turned out to be wrong. There was a failure to communicate in there somewhere. Either way, Dixon was using a scenario item, and it was wrecking me, but he shouldn't have been allowed to use it. We just didn't understand the TO when he explained it to us. On Turn 2 I sent a bone Jack up next to Grimm and tried to hit with Parasite. I got around his cover and needed like an 8 or something. I boosted my attack and rolled 1,1,1. It was a bit of a let down to be honest. I was able to get him hit with parasite the following turn and actually do some damage to him, dropping by about 5-6 life. Unfortunetly Denny had moved too far up. Basically I seemed to plan as though I were going to kill him even though I missed my spell, and didn't really consider other options. With Denny too far forward Grimm walked up close, shot her, and knocked her down. Then a Dire Troll ran in and stomped her. Had I hit the parasite the turn earlier, Denny would have used her Feat the turn she died, and I doubt he could have reached her then, and she likely would have lived, and I believe I would have won the game. But Dixon is a good player and may have retreated to try and regroup and come back at me with his army less nerfed.



Game 2 vs Bill and Kallus
We had a mission that made no sense, and there some other special rules. Im not really sure what it was all about, but I got a free unit of bane thralls. Bill moved up his Hex Hunters, and I immediately noticed the women in Northern Virginia all swoon simultaineously. Kallus popped his feat at some point, which gave him an Incubi every time I killed one of his models. Then The Hex Hunters charged into my Mechanithralls, and a few things happened. My Mechanithralls got wrecked, The TO got impregnated, and Bill's children's IQ's all raised 20 points. It was unreal. Then tragedy struck. As the Striders picked off the remainging Mechs, they were unable to get a bead on all the Bile Thralls. The three pudgy death machines stepped forward and purged all over the place, killing 5 striders, bayle, A totem hunter, 4 Hex Hunters, and a lot of the Incubi that Kallus feat created. Shocked that they could be killed, the poor bastards booked it outta there. He must have made like 13 Incubi, but I was able to keep killing them back down, with the Bile Purges, free bane thrall unit that popped up, and pistol wraith or 2. The feat was cool though, and he had a bunch of incubi left over afterwards. Bill was running low on Time and must have been so thrown off by his Hex Hunters being killed, that Kallus charged up a bit too close into a Bone Jack and ripped it to pieces. My turn was Denny's time to shine. Feat, Knock down Kallus, and let the little dudes in her crew handle the rest. Kallus lived through a lot of hits, but the volume was too much for him. Victory to Denny!!!



Round 3 vs E-Sevy and Jason
This was a rough game. I dont like facing menoth. Especially the jerk bags who can say no spells! and kill upkeeps and all that crap. I was basically getting my ass kicked for the first 3 turns. I was running out of dudes and options so out of a combo of boredom and frustration I went for a caster kill with out my usual set up. The Skarlock cast Ghostly on my Mechanithralls to get them clear of Melee with out free strikes. They ran into combat with Sevy. Denny walked up, popped feat and blasted the back of one of them with Scouge. She boosted the collateral damage on Sevy and as if to make up for the triple 1's for Dixon my dice gently came to rest on triple six's. Sevy took a heavy beating from that shot. With him crippled at that point a Pistol Wraith calmly made its way over and put him down for goood. I did have another couple shots to take at him, and afterwards I did the numbers in my head, on average rolls I still would have done between 19-21 wounds to him, and Im fairly sure he only has like 16 in the first place. But damn were those 6's cool. Again Victory to Denny!!!


So the event ended. I finished in 3rd place with a 2-1 record. Not bad for coming back to a game I haven't played in I would say around 2 years. Its also got me all jazzed up to play it a little more. I've been looking over my Circle, and trying to figure out when I can get out to Huzzah to play with it.

Tonight is back to the game I really love though as Ramos and Kaeris get their first field run since I bought all the cool new stuff for them!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Max's Life Update

Max is my character in Skyrim, and I constantly seem to want to talk about this game, so I will. I was planning to steal Mike's idea of a journal type thing, instead I think Im going to do it as a narrator. Im thinking in the voice of Jeremy Irons. Watch This to get the voice in your mind

In the past, Month or so. Max's life has been altered. Fate has intervened on several occasions. And fate can be a cruel mistress, but for Max fate has changed him in way that he never could have imagined. He had been rounded up with the Storm Cloaks and sentenced to death. His demise seemed inevitable, as he knelt at the feet of the executioner, fate took him by the hand and sent him an unlikely savior. A Dragon. The Dragon rained fire and death down all around him, but somehow Max survived and escaped.

His life seemed to return to normal for a short while after his ordeal, but that was not to last. Tasked by the Jarl to join his soldiers and slay a lesser Dragon, Max agreed reluctantly. The task was not easy, but once it was done Fate took him for yet another spin. He absorbed the soul of the deceased Dragon, proving he was a Dragonborn. A line thought lost long ago of Humans who share blood with the dragons. Again Max's life took an unexpected turn.

Since this fateful day Max has embarked on a harrowing pilgrimage to meet the Greybeards who for centuries have trained the Dragonborn. Along the way he was confronted by a Mighty Frost Troll, though the beast was powerful, Max's Magical flames kept it at bay.

Joining the ranks of the Companions, Max sought honest work. Little did he know of their Dark secret. The Inner circle of the Companions were of tainted blood and turned into feral werewolves by the moonlight. Max still befriended them and was quickly elevated to their elite, where upon they made him one of them. Even with this curse in his veins he fought valiantly against it, and came upon a cure. He cured all that he could from their line. And in the end was made Harbinger of the Companions. Their now trusted leader. He even took Aela the Huntress to be his wife.

Max has also had dealings with the Theives and Asssassins of Skyrim. But has yet to take them up in their offers for membership, their lines are less honorable, and Max still has his morals. (At least for nowm, that could change if I want more money)

There is a great deal of strife ahead in Max's life, but he stands ready to meet it, with Sword or Flame, he and his trusty Housecarl Lydia, side by side, will defeat it, as they have a great many of the Dragons who now plague Skyrim. And like the Dragons any hardship Max faces will only result in his power and heroic standing increasing with in the land. Until such a time as Fate decides he has done enough for the world and allows him to rest, remembered as the Hero he truely is.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Molly vs Collette Report

Ok so im gonna try and get through this without switching my line of thought over to Skyrim.

Strategies
Dan & Molly - Deliver a message, Body Guard, Breakthrough
Bill & Colette - Supply Wagon, Exterminate (Belles), Perfect Performance




So the first 3.5 turns went poorly for the good team. Colette was having her way with my crew and just pummeling everything. But I was making him use his stones, so it was at least hurting perfect performance. I was trying line Sybelle up to use Call Belle so I could get a Rotten belle into range to deliver a message and get me some points. Bill put a kink in my plan when he used a Performer to Paralyze Sybelle. I spent the rest of turn 3 hoping he would kIll her off so Molly could summon a new one. Much to my delight Colette did pop Sybelle off with her last Magician's duel. My moment at hand Molly stepped up, resummoned Sybelle and gave her Imbue Vigor (+3 Wk). Sybelle moved into place and dropped a Rotten Belle down next to Colette who gave her Molly's Secret message, it read "Your Hat is adorable, I simply must have one, where ever did you find it? Also sorry for all the girls my minions are about to kill!"

Turn 4 was the true turning point. Bill won init, had Colette cast disapearing act on my Belle, he played in a Tome, and then stoned. the stone flipped up a 10 tome, and... the black joker. cast failed. He did some other Colette type stuff stuff. My Rogue Necro hopped in between Cassandra and a Performer, hit the performer, and then with the use of my trust Red Joker on the hit, one shot killed Cassandra. My next activation saw Sybelle charge the Wagon and deal a damage to it. So in the span of 3 activations I got a 6 VP swing and killed his best minion. We ran through the rest of turn 4 and called it at the start of 5. Colette likely would have been able to do some damage to the rest of my crew, but the Wagon was taking a beating, and I had a solid 8 vps locked up for myself as the a Dead Doxy I summoned was booking it to his Deployment Zone.

These are puppet pics because Im also digging Puppet Wars right now


This game was really interesting because of how drastically it swung halfway through. I really felt out-classed for the first half of the game, and then a couple of flips went my way and totally changed the entire scope of the game. I think a few things seriously favored me though. Collette took 2 very tough schemes and had a crappy Strategy. I had easier to perform schemes and strategies. It also helped that at Key moment flips went my way. Having the red joker in hand to ensure I could Kill Cassandra, as well as bill failing to mannequin replace on any of his Magicians duels really helped me out. Im sure if we played the same match-up again with a different setup, I would find the game to be an uphill battle.

But for today I was being able to take advantage of favorable schemes and strategies and bring home a win for Molly. Despite the fact that I feel she is a touch weaker even then the other Henchmen, I have a pretty favorable record with her, I believe its around 5-2.

So the important thing to learn here is that I'm level 13 in Skyrim. Most of my armor has been forged by me, and a ton of my stuff has been enchanted by me. Im also a werewolf. Not sure I wanna keep that, im doing a quest chain that will allow me to cure myself if I choose, gotta make a decision since its coming up.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Skyrim




I bought Skyrim... see ya'll in 2012.. ish

Monday, November 28, 2011

Puppet Painting Powow

+50 internets if you know why this is here

I have painted up 34 of my 49 puppets.

So Far I have painted:

Seamus, Lady J, Marucs, Pandora, Bette, Sebastian, Judge, Nino, Kade, Joss, Misaki, Alyce, Bad Juju, Rotten Belle, Punk Zombie, Zombie Chiuahuah, Nurse, Convict Gunslinger, 2 Executioners, 2 Death Marshalls, 2 Austringers, Witchling Stalker, Guild Hound, 2 December Acolytes, Razor Rattler, Moleman, Ice Golem, Piglet, 2 Cherubs.


That impressive list leaves me with only
Vicki, Hooded Rider, Nurse, Punk Zombie, Rotten belle, Guild Autopsy, 2 Slurids, Mature Nephlim, Sorrow, Razor Rattler, Ronin, Convict Gunslinger, Pig whisperer, Bayou Gremlins. And eventually I will have 5 teddies arrive at my door thanks to Wyrd's black friday sale. So the puppet painting craze will continue until every last one is painted up and ready for play.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Some Puppets!

My original idea for painting up my puppets was to keep it as easy as possible. Paint them up in their faction color, wash them brown or something and drybrush them with a lighter color. They would look cool, and be done in a few hours. But as I have played the game and realised I actually really like the puppet models I changed my tone. And now I have decided to paint them for reals. Well kind of, Im not going overboard on the scheme, and yesterday I painted 9 puppets in about 2 hours. The general idea here is to make them look as close to their cards as possible, so my none malifaux playing friends can tell what is what. Here is Marcus and his crew.


Marcus

Joss

Rusty Alyce

Ice Golem

Rattler


Guild Hound

December Acolyte 1

December Acolyte 2

Moleman

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Puppet Wars




So Its been a long road to get here, but I finally have a fully set up game of Puppet wars. The biggest obstacle was that I decided against getting it at Gen Con. This meant I had to wait until October when the game released to get it. My family ended up getting it for me for my birthday. It was nice. Problem was I had asked Bill to pick up the Multi-player box set for me as part of our trade for painting the Von Schill crew. That took a while to get to me, and when it did, there were no bases or tokens. Wyrd was more then happy to correct the mistake and sent me a pack of bases and more green and red tokens. Now I had enough to play. BUT, I had a ton of Green and Red tokens and no blue or purple. I was able to fix that issue by stacking clear tokens on top of the red and green to allow 4 players to differentiate them. But I didn't like that idea. Also in the 2 games I played the same comment came up. Its tough to tell who owns which model while its on the board.

So last night Ellen and I went on a hunt to find a solution to these issues. We were looking in Michael's when she pointed out a set of Buttons. I thought they would make great stand ins for the tokens since Buttons are pretty cool thematically. I grabbed 6x blue, green, red, and brown (They didn't have any purple) Next we set out to find some kind of colored bands to snap on the bases of the models so we could have an easy to tell who owned each model. That took us to target where I was rummaging through office supplies when Ellen had pretty brilliant idea, the make tiny hair bands for girls in multi-color packs. We moved over to the Salon section and sure enough found some pretty nice bands. With some effort you can fit them fairly well around the base, or you can just slide them over the base and have the band sit at the models feet.

Last thing I needed was a case, I actually took care of this a while ago, but I figured I'd show what I was using to transport my puppets.



If you want one for your self

The funny thing about this case is that the foam that the models rest on and the cut out piece that keeps them seperate are two different pieces. Basically about half the time when I pick up a model the whole top layer of foam comes up with the model and the others all move around. So last night I sat down with my Elmer's white glue and glued the foam together, so that crap wouldn't happen again.


Its been a bit of an adventure getting all set up to play this game, but I have enjoyed the few times i've played it thus far. I actually seem to like Marcus the best, even more then Seamus.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I do love me



On an unrelated note my Iphone 4s arrived today. Good lord it has like 1,000 more games then the Android.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Molly Game Report

The Winter Malifaux achievment league has started and Once again I am likely to win Ressers by default! Its a touch lame, but on the upside it means I dont really have to try that hard on certain achivements, and I can focus on playing with Molly when ever possible. And last night I got in my 3rd game with her.

25 SS scrap vs Zee

I took; Molly, Necrotic Machine, Sybelle, Rotten Belle, Dead Doxie, 2 Crooligans, 5 stones

Zee had; Marcus, Jackalope, 2 Waldegiests, 2 Raptors, Shikome.

My Mission was Plant the Evidence along with Eye for an Eye and Kill Protege
Zee's Mission was Supply Wagon, along with Sabotage, and Kill Protege

I deployed Molly and Co. in my corner, and set the crooligans up on the other side of the board. His Shikome made a Crooligan its prey. I started by having Sybelle move up and use Call Belle to place my Rotten Belle close to a terrain piece I could drop evidence on. He responded by flinging Marcus, the Jackalope, and Both Raptors into combat with her. I slowly moved the rest of my crew up near the fight, using Imbue Vigor and Inviting approach to get the Dead Doxie into the fight very fast. She tried to smack Marcus but didn't do a whole lot. The Crooligans were facing down the Shikome who gunned it for the Sabotage terrain piece. They tried to ignore her as they ran towards their objective. The Waldegiests brought up the rear as they tried to assist marucs in the fight. My rotten belle went and with the help of Rot, I was able to one shot a Raptor. Lastly the Necro Machine moved closer to the Shikome.

Turn 2:
He won Init and Marcus pummeled my Belle, she used slow to die and killed the other Raptor. This ended being huge, as they were annoying, and on a meduim base so they each left 2 corpses for Molly. I used the Dead Doxy next and she did very little. the Waldegiest ran up, moved a forest onto the Doxy and killed her. Sybelle ran up onto a hill and planted evidence, then the Shikome Sabotaged its terrain. My Crooligans ran up to another piece of terrain, but didn't have any AP to plant evidence. Molly moved forward and resummoned a new Belle. Then the Necrotic Machine went and used the Lets both die spell on the Shikome.

Turn 3:
Marcus again took the Iniative and Charged into Sybelle. He took her down pretty hard. The Waldegiests ran over to protect the Supply wagon which now was facing two crooligans and had no support. The Crooligans planted evidence and moved towards the wagon. Molly stepped up and planted evidence, giving me 3/4 evidence markers down. She then re-summoned Sybelle, who did very little to the waldegiests.

Turn 4:
Marcus once again had the Init, he charged into Molly, who hosed up his attacks with her awesomeness. She then blocked the Jackalope's charge with Pitiful. Sybelle went next and removed the armor from one of the Waldegiests. My Crooligans and her went to town on the damn thing, but it lived. The other Waldegiest went and killed a crooligan. Molly finally went. She showed off her best buddy Philip's head, and made the Jackalope head for the hills. Marcus stood pat, but had to burn a soul stone to do so. Molly then summoned a Rotten Belle and the Belle planted the last piece of evidence.
At this point the game was fairly well in hand. His wagon wasn't moving much due to a large combat near it, and I was up on him 6-4, with Eye for an Eye looking probable.

Turn 5:
Marcus won init friggin again. Molly burned a lot cards and stones, but managed to live with about 2 hp. My last crooligan went and stabbed the wounded Waldegiest, droping him to 1 wd, but also giving it poison. The last Waldegiest tried to hit Sybelle, but she lived. The Rotten Belle I had summoned the turn before lured the Waldegiest away from the Wagon, and did a small amount of damage. Molly went, summoning a Belle and casting her damage spell at Marcus. I burned my last soulstone to make it go off big, it hit him with Severe damage causing Marcus to be paralyzed. The new rotten belle hit the Wagon with her Umbrella damaging it.
I was up at this point still 6-4

Turn 6 I won the init and my Belle killed the Wagon. we called the game here, and Molly took home an 8-4 victory.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Finishing out Molly's Box

I finished up Molly's Boxset this weekend. I really like the way the Crooligans came out.

Molly

Crooligan #1
Crooligan #2
Crooligan #3

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Getting Molly's Crew painted

Having recently picked up Molly she is pretty much the new hotness for ressers. This means I dont really want to play anyone else, so I have to get her new box set and totem painted.

I started with the Necrotic Machine since it seemed like an easy model to paint.

Necrotic Machine


I went with the Rogue Necro next since its big.

Rogue Necromancy

Monday, October 31, 2011

Back from Hawaii



Im back from my Honeymoon, all married and what not. Tomorrow I will be lugging my awesome Malifaux bag that my lovely wife bought me to Huzzah for the start of the Winter achivement League. In an effort to mix things up and be different, Im gonna play Ressers.

I'll have some pics from hawaii later on, gotta upload them to my computer, and be less lazy.

On a few side notes, Hawaii is awesome, Waikiki has a ton of Homeless people, And its sucks leaving an 85 degree paradise to return to DC where it was a comfortable 36 degrees.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Moneyball



Last night Ellen and I went out to see Moneyball. Its a movie that I was interested in pretty much from the first preview I saw. I have to say it delivered very well. Basic premise is that in baseball there is no salary cap, and Rich teams can always afford better players then poor teams. The Oakland A's are one of the poorest teams in the MLB and after the 2001 season their top pitcher and best 2 batters all leave for the richer teams in New York and Boston. Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) the GM of Oakland is forced to rebuild his team yet again. Only this year he gets fed up with trying and failing in the same manner over and over. He is fed up with his scouts and idea men since they continue to toss out the same tired old ideas that have failed his team for the past 10 years. By chance he meets Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill), a young scout for Cleveland who has a degree in economics from Yale. Brand has an idea about a new way to scout for players. Instead of trying to find the same old 5 techniques, that is constantly looked at by scouts. Look instead at a players ability to get on base and score runs. They turn baseball on its side with their idea, and though it takes a while to come together, as we saw in 2002, the Oakland A's actually had some success with this formula.




One thing I liked about this movie is that even though they show some really complex formulas in how to predict a players abilities, they never try to really explain them. I feel doing so would have bogged down the movie. Instead they boil it down to On Base percentage. It makes the movie flow really well. They other great bit is the chemestry between Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. These two literally could not have less in common, but they are dynamite together in this film.

A quick aside, the film uses all the real names of players, coaches, and GM's except for Peter Brand, who is actually, Paul DePodesta. And he went to Harvard, not Yale. Apparently Aaron Sorkin thought that was hilarious.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Space Marine




So at the beginning of September THQ released the game Space Marine. It came with a decent single player mode and pretty extensive Online play. I bought it on release day for the PS3. It took my a while to get through the single player game. It was a boat load of fun, but a touch shorter then I would have liked. It did set itself up for an expansion or maybe a sequel down the road, with a cliff-hanger ending to the story. All in all the Single player was pretty close to worth the price of the game.

It took me a while to get into the multi-player since the PSN and Space Marine apparently didn't agree with each other off the bat. Thanks to a patch that came through this past weekend (I think) I have been able to get into games very quickly and play to my hearts content.

The Multi-Player has some pretty awesome features. There is a leveling system. Leveling allows you to unlock new armor, weapons, and class upgrades. The Armor is asthetic only. The unlocking weapons and upgrades is where the level differences can rear its ugly head. From levels 1-4 you are stuck with a basic ultra-marine, with a bolter. Once you hit level 4 the Customizer opens up and you can start making your own personal marine, or choose from any of about a dozen pre-set chapters. You also get the ability to select classes, weapons, and perks for your marine. Again, you unlock these as you level up. I made a pretty solid effort to create a Pre-Heresy Death Guard for my Marine, off white armor, gold trim, green should pads and back pack. with a pointey circle and skull in it for the chapter badge. As for my chaos Marine I went for a scheme as close to my Chaos marines minis look, as possible. A dark bone color, with Green Pads, the goal for the chaos was to make it look like the pre-heresy marine was still in his pre-heresy armor, but it just got more chaosified.

PreHeresy Death Guard

This is the chapter badge, they dont have this one, but there is one kind of close.


If I had any photo's of my chaos army they would be here. But I guess I only took photos of my Malifaux.


Its taken me a few days but I have been slowly leveling up and upgrading my weapons. Mostly the bolter as it is my favorite. So, Im telling you the multi-player is very fun, but maybe your worried about how much pain you have to go through to level up while there are all ready people with ridiculous load outs who can kick your butt. Well THQ went ahead and thought of that. Every time you are killed you have the option to return to the game with the same load out as the person who killed you. So the level 41 guy with a Melta-Gun that is kitted out to the nines, will have to deal with you rolling back up on him with the same beefed up melta-gun. It honestly doesn't fully cover the gap between levels, but it does a damn good job helping to close it a bit.

In the end, if you like 3rd person shooters or 40k this game will do no wrong for you. I will say honestly that I think a large part of why I like this game so much as that I really like the 40k universe. So for all you 40k players who dont own this one yet, get off your ass and grab it. Its a solid game.

Final Grade - A
It might be a bit high, but I feel like it earned the grade.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Vicki's and other stuff



So I picked up the Vicks to go along with the Von Schill crew I got. I've been trying out different list combos and ideas to get the Vicki's working for me. Here is my main example list.

Vickis - 6 Stones
Von Schill
Student of Conflict
Friekorps Librarian
Convict Gun Slinger

This was the base list, I swapped out the Student, Gunslinger, and stone totals. But the Librarian and Schill were always there.

This weekend I wanted to try something new(ish)

Vicki's - 6 Stones
Von Schill
Convict Gun Slinger
2 Ronin

The big problem I was having with the Librarian and Student was that I felt like I was playing down 10 points since they could never really keep up. So I was either slowing myself down to keep them in the game, or leaving them behind. The Ronin seemed to Solve this problem. Looking over the stat line for Ronin I have to wonder why more people aren't going nuts over these ladies. For only 5 stones you Get Melee Expert, Reach 2, 2/3/5 damage, Harmless, Hard to Kill, and a bunch of other crap. I played with the pair of them twice this weekend and even when they died easy I still felt like I got my points worth from them. So Im thinking Ronin are going to have to become a permenant add to my Vicki crews.




I also got in 2 games with the Vickis this Saturday. Here are some quick reports.

Game 1 vs McMourning

This game started out well for me. McM had Slaughter, and I had Destroy the Evidence. Von Schill gunned it to the evidence while McMourning killed his own dogs giving me first blood. We moved up on each other and then right when I thought we were going to engage head on, McMourning and Sebastian ran over and started to wail on Schill. The poor guy had to run like crazy to get away from all the stabbing and cutting. Around turn 5-6 Schill grabbed the last evidence marker and took a shot at McMourning. McMourning paid Schill back by slashing this throat. Unfortunetly for McMourning to this point he had not drawn any decent Crows and had no Flesh Constructs, Also the Vickis and Ronin had done a number of the rest of his crew. So the Convict and the Vickis ran up and cut him down. I ended up losing Eye for an Eye, but I stopped his slaughter and Assassinate on the Vicks giving me a 6-2 win.





Game 2 vs A-Sonnia Criid

At least she wanted to be an Avatar. The Vicki's weren't having any of that. Once again Schill came up to be the sacrificial lamb who got the objective. He snagged the treasure and walked it back a bit. Criid then blasted the crap out of him, along with pretty much every gun in her army. Around turn 3 The Guardian ran up into Melee, Forgetting Ronin ignore armor (did I mention they are only 5 points?) The Roning made quick work of the Guardian. Schill then got shot dead by a witchling. He was done activating at that point, Criid was almost primed to Manifest, but I had the Vickis to go. Sword Vick stepped up, and slashed a Death Marshall, dropping him to 1 wound. Then she grabbed her sister and flung her into the middle of the guild crew. Gun Vick went, and hit Santiago, dropping him to 1 with his hard to kill. She triggered Whirlwind and Killed the Death Marshall. She then hit Santiago again, killing him and whirlwinding into Criid. She did 3 to Criid, and whirlwinded into the last witchling killing that. Turn 4 I won Init and the Vicks took poor Criid down in the flurry of angry hateful stabbing. I did forget the stupid Counter spell BS and lost an action to it as I tried to have Gun Vick sisters in battle. Should have had sword Vicki do it as she was about 6 inches away from Criid. Oh well in the end the Vickis were amazing. Im starting to really love playing them.



Whats that Other Stuff I was talking about in the Title!?!?!?!?

The REDSKINS ARE 2-0 BABY!!! This win wasn't pretty or even overly good, the way it was against New York, but a win is a win, and the Redskins are atop the NFC East for at least 1 week.

Orakpo Owning Kolb

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Nova Open

Just a great photo from the Open. Figured I'd post it up on my blog.

The Awesome people do Hulk Hogan poses

Once more I wanted to give props to Bill for running everything. Looking forward to what ever he has planned next.

Monday, August 29, 2011

NOVA Open Notes


Im back unscathed by the "Hurricane" I heard it may have only been a tropical storm, but anyway you cut it, on Saturday it was raining a lot... and sideways. This past weekend was the Nova Open and Bill from Dead Tau did an amazing job of keeping the whole thing running smoothly. I played near a dozen games so Im just gonna hit some highlights from the weekend.

30 Stone Gaining Ground Tournament
I did ok in this event. I started with a loss which is always hard to come back from. I lost to Tim, one of the local Huzzah guys, who played a great game with his Lilith Crew (Game highlight was when McMourning's Chihuahua killed Lillith with a Red Joker Dissection). Rounds 2&3 I faced Guild, and Brought Kirai. She was a mean bitch and took both Lady J and Hoffman to school. I won those games with out breaking a sweat 8-2. That catapulted me back into the runnings and I got to face WyrdZee the developer himself for 3rd place. Through some craziness we could have ended up playing for pretty much anywhere from 4th-2nd. But in all likelyhood the winner of our game would be 3rd. And damn did we bring it. We fought through a game where at the end the only survivor was an ice gamin who was standing on near the Claim Jump, giving him a 6-4 win. Very close game, and I nearly pulled it out. That loss saw me plummet from my spot in the top 5 all the way down to 10th.

Mike from White Rabbit won the whole thing and claimed my awesomely painted Von Schill crew. Which I picked up off him since he already had it and I kind of really wanted it.




I ended up heading home after Dinner and didn't play any more games. Saturday I got there bright and early and due to a conversation I had with Mike on our Drive in I bought myslef a Collodi Box Set to go with my Levi Crew. I was planning to grab the Vicks to go with the Schill crew, and wanted some more Outcast options.

No less then 10 minutes later I went down to the Floor to see what was going on for Malifaux. Bill announced the Achievment winner from the day before. I had taken top in faction for the Resserectionits and won... a Collodi Box set! no joke. I laughed it off a bit, but was annoyed with myself for impatience. I ended up trading the box set to Tim who bought me a Vicki box set as trade. Worked well for me.

I played 3 games with my Vicks and Schill, but didn't win any. I had a tremendously close game vs Mike's Dreamer where Chompy and Both Vicks died turn 2. I lost that one 6-4, had Von Schill made his terrifying check vs Chompy bits, I may have been able to pull out a win. Alas he did not, and then we had a very odd game from there. It was a good time though.

I also got in a rematch with Zee. I took Seamus with the Avatar attached vs Sonia Criid. I was able to get a small touch of revenge as Seamus and the Dead Rider pounded his crew into a fine pulp giving me a 7-2 win.

After near a dozen games, a long walk in the pouring rain, and the threat of a hurricane looming over us all day, Mike and I decided to call it a night and headed home. Nova Open was a complete blast though. Im looking forward to some games with my Outcast stuff. Some Levi and Collodi and a few Vicki games should be fun.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Avatars Abound!

I played 2 games last night. First game Saw Avatar Seamus vs Avatar Zorida. Second was Avatar Kirai vs Avatar Criid. Whats that you say? Battle Report? well if you insist.

GAME 1
Zorida Avatar of Fate

Lists
Zorida, Avatar, Nekima, Lilitu, 3 Tots, 2 Desperate Mercs
Seamus, Avatar, Dead Rider, Crooked Man, 2 Belles, 2 Necro Punks

My first game was against Chris Ward playing what he saw as a very versatile grow list with Zorida. I do not like the grow list personally, I find it too slow. Turn one he made a few mistakes and it cost him a lot of temp. He moved Nekima away from his tots and lost out on some blood. He forgot to have Zorida cast Hex on Lilitu and remove her take damage for not having a bro around. Zorida spent her first turn making a Wicked Doll. I had My crew move up to try and counter his Line in the sand markers. I also sent a Necro Punk to go try and deliver Zorida a message. Turns 1 and 2 saw pretty much no action. He did manage to grow a Mature Nephlim on turn 2.

I killed off a tot and turned him into a Belle. Chris lured that belle into his lines but failed to kill it. Trading a few lures I was able to weaken the Lilitu down a bit and leave her in charge range of the Dead Rider who ran in and took her out. I lost a Necro Punk in a chump battle to a Terror Tot. His Wicked Dolls then lined up against my Crooked man and last Necro Punk. Things didn't go great for me there as Wicked Dolls are nasty in pairs.

Turn 3 He moved the Mature up towards my Line and Nekima killed off the summoned Belle. I lined up my shots on both. THe Dead rider flurried Nekima killing her, and I used No Escape on the Mature with Seamus. I lured the Mature again, charging in with Seamus and killing it with Slit Juggular. Seamus was now ready to manifest.

Turn 4 was pretty much the End. Seamus and Zorida both manifested, but Zorida had no more crew to help back her up. Seamus then Went all sickhouse psycho on Zorida and her crew turning them into a fine pulpy paste. I was able to deliver the message on turn 4 or 5. either way it was too late for full points so I ended up winning 6-0.

Seamus Avatar of Dread

So this game I remembered to keep Seamus in little guy form long enough to deal with the Heavy Hitter. Had Nekima still been around I would not have been afraid to manifest. It was the combo of both her and the Mature that kept me in check. Being able to take them both out in 1 go was just a nice bonus. Only down side here was that Manifesting was piling on an already one sided game. I mentioned to Chris that I think the game could have been a lot different had he gotten his activation order down for turn 1 and been able to grow his tots faster. Also Zorida did nothing but summon wicked dolls for the first 3 turns. made it hard to deliver her a message, but also meant she was pretty well out of the early part of the game. MVP was easily the Dead Rider. He was a wrecking machine took down a Tot, Lilitu, and Nekima.

Game MVP


GAME 2

Sonnia Avatar of lighting crap on fire

Lists
Sonnia, Avatar, Executioner, Guardian, 2 Guild Hounds, Witchling Stalker, Desperate Merc
Kirai, Avatar, 5 Seishin, Lost Love, Datsue-Ba, 2 Gaki, Insideous Madness

So Bill also had a grow list of sorts (still not a fan) He took the Desperate Merc in order to turn into a cheaper witchling stalker. Problem is Criid needs a (0) action to get a free book to cast that spell, but her (0) action is also needed for a manifest requirement. It set his burninating back a bit. Turn 1 Kirai summons her self down to 1 wound. Then Datsue-Ba wacks her, turning her into a spirit off the lost love. (i need to be a spirit for 2 turns to manifest) We engaged a 2 Dogs with a Summoned Gaki and Ikiryo. Ikiryo needs to kill 2 models as my other manifest requirment so I try to kill some dogs. little bastards are tougher then I thought, plus I black Joker a damage flip and they live. I win init turn 2, and Ikiryo pops a dog, then I go for the second, do 3 damage, and then black joker AGAIN... jerk ass joker!

The Exectioner and Guardian pop into the fray and Ikiryo dies. I summon a new ikiryo, place him, Datsue-ba, and the Insideous near the executioner and whoop him up... Then he attacks back with Slow to Die and triggers Decapitate on Datsue-Ba, and I only have 1 card in hand. So instead of killing his 7point model, I lose mine, big time turn around.

Ikiryo then kills off the Guardian, completing my manifest requirements. we trade a few more blows, and by this point there are a ton of corpse counters on the board. Criid blasts into the melee, but only hits my dudes. She then turns the insideous into a Witchling.

Kirai goes, pops into the combat and manifests. She then kills the Executioner and shrugs off his std attack. I realise at this point that I am going to regret avatar Kirai. I have her, 2 Gaki and some Seishin. Not as many models as I would like to have. Criid Manifests, and kills 1 Gaki (I let it die to get another Seishin) She also Drops a Flame Pyre on Kirai and kills 2 more Seishin. I run a Gaki into his Witchling Stalker who propmtly kills it off. This triggers Kirai's Mark of Vengeance and she busts out of the Pyre and wacks the Stalker, the stalker then flees from her Terrifying, into the Prye, and dies (im in good shape I think at this point.)

A Seishin gives Kirai +2CB and she attacks Criid. I hit 3/4 attacks, and on the last 1 I flip a double Severe Damage on a negative flip to kill her. We called it there, but in hind sight It was a really close game and he still had a shot since I hadn't touched his supply Wagon yet. I think the game would have ended 8-4, but who knows.

Kirai Avatar of Vengeance / Game MVP


It was a pretty wild game with a lot of back and forth. I think Manifesting was a big mistake for Kirai here. Her normal ability to sit back, summon, heal, and swap spirits around likely would have done me more good. Either way the Lovely lady gets MVP, since once I manifested she had to do all the heavy lifting (killed Executioner, Witchling, Criid, and made 2 witchlings flee from combat.) A-Criid is a MONSTER, holy cow, She barely got to do anything and I though I had no chance against her. 3 auto damage from a Pyre moving on to you, then another 3 when you start your turn. Plus her 8' pulse that does 2 more damge, means she can really throw out some hateful damage. Plus what ever the hell else she does. She does scare me quiet a bit.