Nicodem!

In honor of the old guys first win, I figured he could use a coat of paint, so without further ado here he is, fresh of his victory... Nicodem!!!!

A couple Malifaux games

Last night I finally got out to Huzzah to play malifaux. Its my 2nd tuesday of the year, and last time I only played Infinity, so this was nice. Also Bill got in our V2 cards so Im really excited about all that, and Im looking forward to getting them laminated and ready to rock.

Game 1 vs Mike.

I decided to randomize my master for this game. I ended up getting Seamus, so I made a crew for him I haven't used in a long while.
Seamus, Sybelle, Grave Spirit, Belle, 2x Necro Punks, Bette noir - 6 Stone Cache
VS
Dreamer, 1 Day Dream, Coppelius, 2 Stiched together, Teddy - 5-6 stones, Im not sure how the dreamer works all that well.




Our missions were simple, Deliver the Message for me, and Slaughter for him. He added in Kidnap and Body Guard(I think) I took, Framed for Murder (Seamus) and Kill Protege (Teddy)

Turn 1 was the usual dreamer nonsense. I activated a crew, he activated 2 models.

Turn 2. I lured up a Day Dream with my belle, so I could have a shot at killing him. Said Day Dream then scooted up a tad and dropped Teddy on one of my Necro Punks. Teddy then killed, said necro-Punk. I popped bette out right then and took Teddy down to 3 life. Dreamer went next and and did his nightmare trick. Chompy, 2 stiched, and Coppelius came out, and Teddy went away. Chompy killed bette who burried herself. Then he was all done so the Dreamer came back out. I took a shot or two at Coppelius to try and weaken him up, but to no avail.

Turn 3&4 (they are jumbled in my head) Seamus and a Necro Punk started the turn in B2B with the dreamer, so I was in good shape on my message delivery. He won Init and started with a stiched together. He started attacking my hand, rather well in fact, and then tried to gamble lives with Seamus. Seamus laughed in his face and dealt 7 damage to the doll, killing it. Seamus went next, and companioned his Belles, then he gave the boy his message, it read something along the lines of, "Dude there is a party tonight at Zorida's place, you in?" The belles went next and despite attacking Coppelius a combined 5 times didn't kill the jerk. Coppelius went next and dropped paralyze on Sybelle. My necro punk also tried to get in on the kill coppelius action, but he too failed. His 2nd Stiched together tried to gamble lives with Seamus, and met the same fate as his buddy. But he was able to gamble for cards and almost totally replenish his fate hand. Then Chompy popped up and went to town on Seamus, I ended up living through the barrage with 3 life and 1 soul stone left. But it was for nought as Teddy then came in and finished the job (costing me 2 vps as he was not in fact framed for murder) Bette popped back up and finished off the bear. Coppelius went again and paralyzed both Sybelle and my Belle. Chompy came in and killed off Sybelle and Bette (who went underground). My Necro Punk then came in like a super hero and killed off Coppelius.




Turn 5. I won Init and my necro-punk booked it away. Chompy then Ate my belle. and returned to kid form. Mike informed me that killing my belle got him his Kidnap.

Turn 6. We count up vps for slaughter, he is up on me 23-18. Even killing my Necro punk wouldn't net him the points he needed, so we called it there. thinking back on it I should have tried to go for a kill with a Bette Re-pop. I lose nothing by attempting it, and if I killed Chompy or the Dreamer i would have won... but alas, it was a 6-6 draw.

MVP has to go to Bette, she took out Teddy and didn't give up points for Slaughter, honorable Mention to Seamus!




GAME 2 vs John
I again went for a random Master and this time it was Nicodem... ugh.
List time!
Nicodem, 2 Vultures, 1 Dog, 1 Belle, 2 Necro-Punks, Bette - 8 Stone Cache
Marucs, Jackalope, 2 Razorspine Rattlers, 1 Shikome, 2 Molemen - 5 Stone Cache




So the first turn I maneuver around set up a bird to arc through and NecroPunk to grab the treasure. Forgetting who i was dealing with, marcus charged both of them turn 1. the bird lived, thats a poor flip by Marcus. The NecroPunk wasn't so lucky.

Turn 2, the bum rush continued as Marcus ran into Nico, and the Shikome and a Snake got to my belle. Bette popped up as the belle died and cut the throat out of the Rattler. Nico went and arced through a bird back into his combat with Decay. It was damaging Marcus (who prevented all of it with stones) and healing Nicodem. I ran my 2nd Punk and My dog into the 2nd Rattler, but ended up not doing so much.




Turn 3, Things got worse. Marcus kept thwacking Nico with his club and then made him a beast with -1 to his flips. Bette tried to kill off the Shikome, but the spirit thing made it pretty tough, and left it with 1 wound. It too came to wail on Nico, who by the end had only 1 wound. Nico bounced back into the fight with more and more Decays. Again healing Nico up a few wounds and hurting Marucs and killing off the Shikome. he also raised the nearby corpses into Zombies so next turn he could shunt off some hits. The molemen and Jackalope also popped into my dog and Punk. (Who were also backed up by a few zombies)

Turn 4, Things turn around. I won Init and instantly went with Nicodem. I blasted back into the melee and either targeted myself or a Mindless zombie every time. In 3 casts Nicro healed back to full and Marcus bit the dust. We called it there since I had Nico, with full hps, a strong number of corpse tokens, Bette, and he was down to 2 molemen.

That is my first Win with Nicodem. I never really understood just how great Decay is, until last night. Had I more time think I definetly would have blasted Marus with a Riggor Mortis and paralyzed him. But most times I was better off just nuking the Combat.

Game MVP is a toss up between Bette (who really saved my bacon) and the Vultres who REALLY saved my bacon.

Rounding out the guild

Here is the oldest brother Fransico.

Malifools Month 5 or Ortegas take 2

So i've been working on a small guild crew for a little while now. I chose Perdita and her Family for a few reasons. First of all they appeal to me most of the guild. And there was a time where I had in my head I wanted to own a crew from every faction. They have the best fluff, and their models are all unique and really flavorful. Perdita herself is one of my top favorite models in the entire Malifaux line. And lastly they are a powerhouse crew. Their alpha strike is second to none in my opinon, and their damage potential is unreal. So I picked up their starter, Abuela, A governors proxy, an austringer, and 3 death marshalls. So I tried to make them my paint contest crew for october, or maybe september, but I got lazy or lost interest or something and it didnt really work out. So here is take 2 of the Ortegas.

Santiago - He was the only model I finished for the first contest, so he won't be eligable for this one.


Perdita Ortega


Nino Ortega


Governor's Proxy


Abuela Ortega

Pulp-City Minis

I've been working on my Villains. Heres a look at some painted dudes!

The Gentlemen


Sister Bedlam


Tangent


Nuke


The Hellsmith


Apparently Hellsmith loves the camera. He makes a cameo in all 5 pics.

NFL Playoffs

So the Playoffs are upon us. Im gonna do 2 things. 1st post some predictions. 2nd Write up how to fix the Playoff system.

Round 1:
New Orleants at Seattle - New Orleans
Green Bay at Philly - Green Bay
New York J at Indy - Indy
Baltimore at Kansas City - Baltimore

Round 2:
New Orleans at Chicago - Chicago
Green Bay at Atlanta - Atlanta
Indy at Pittsburgh - Indy
Baltimore at New England - Baltimore

Round 3:
Chicago at Atlanta - Atlanta
Baltimore at Indy - Indy

Super Bowl - Indy vs Atlanta - Winner Indianapolis

Im not sure I actually even believe this will happen. It wouldn't surprise me to see Philly vs New England in the Super Bowl. That would cause me to for the first time ponder whether or not I actually want to watch the game.

Ok! part 2

So Im ready to fix the NFL playoff system, and heres how! "But wait Dan! Whats wrong with the current system?!" Im glad you asked. In a sense the Seattle Seahawks are whats wrong with the Playoffs. At 7-9 not only are they in the playoffs while the Giants and Bucs 10-6 are sitting at home. But they get to start the Playoffs at home. In the Wild Card round, there is only 1 team who is getting a home game and finished higher then the team they are curently playing against. Now a lot of people want to see the divisions re-formed. But these divisions are pretty old. Granted they were changed up when the NFL went to a 32 team league. But there are some historic Rivalries in the NFL. Skins Cowboys, Cheifs Raiders, Pats Jets. And so on. Changing the Divisions might be the answer for a more competative league, but these Rivalries are a neccessity to the NFL. A Rivalry can create drama and fans on its own. So no! do not change the divisions. Change the playoff Seeding. Instead of taking a division winner, no matter their record, let the top 12 teams regardless of Division and even confrence play it out. Here are the top 12 teams in the NFL at the seasons end.

1. New England
2. Atlanta
3. Pittsburgh
4. Baltimore
5. Chicago
6. New Orleans
7. New York Jets
8. Philly
9. Indy
10. Green Bay
11. New York Giants
12. Kansas City

By just seeding the teams you get the best of the best playing each other. Deserving teams get home games and byes, losing teams get sent home. Baltimore had the 4th best team in the NFL this year, but they will likely play every game on the road. In college sports the most exciting event is March Madness. A large Tournament where the best teams play each other. The NFL could mimic this strategy and likely they would have a much more competative and fun to watch post season. Under the Dan Playoff System Week 1 would look like this.

Patriots, Falcons, Steelers, Ravens - Bye

(12)Chiefs @ (5)Bears
(11)Giants @ (6)Saints
(10)Packers @ (7)Jets
(9)Colts @ (8)Eagles

Then you they could either Bracket the playoffs or continue with NFL standard seeding idea. The Patriots would play the lowest seeded team still in contention, and so on, until the Ravens play the highest seeded team.

All that drama, excitement, and No weasley Pete Carrol and his 7-9 Seahawks. Who by the way are a 10.5 underdog at home.

Caps Game

So last night Ellen and I made the horrid trek into DC to see the Caps play. Her Manager was given tickets by a Subcontractor, but wasn't able to go, so he passed them on to Ellen as a thank you for being the only person at her job sight who does work.

We went to a place called BGR The Burger Joint for dinner. By sheer happenstance I saw the place in the Washingtonian magazine yesterday and it sounded amazing. The place has 8 burgers and 4 types of sides. Thats it. They do milkshakes too I think. I got, "The Burger" with Bacon, Cheddar, Lettuce, Pickle, and Mojo Sauce. I also got their fries. Ellen got "The Greek" which is their famous throwdown with Bobby Flay winning burger. Her's had Lamb, with Feta, Cucumber, white yogurt sauce, a HUGE tomatoe, and lettuce. Both burgers were out of this world, seriously go try them. Its a near religious experience.

So DC Sucks. It took us waaayy too long to get to the stadium, at one point DC has construction set up so people are driving on the wrong side of the road. This was apparently normal since I was the only one who seemed hesitant about this. Eventually we made it in though and Our parking pass was for the Garage at Gallery Place. We parked, under the Damn Verizon Center, it was sweet.

We head straight in and go to our seats. We weren't sure if we were right on the glass, but we were totally RIGHT on the glass behind the goal where the Canadiens were warming up. Right as we sat down a puck smacked in the glass, it was really damn loud, we both jumped a bit.



About 2 minutes later a puck slipped over the glass and fell right under my seat. It was pretty awesome.

So we watched the game, barely getting up from out seats. Ever time guys got smashed into the glass in front of us Ellen and I would bang on the glass. I was on TV apparently too. It was with out a doubt the BEST gaps game experience I have ever had. I have sat in the second row behing the glass once before (when the caps sucked) But this was just totally different. Also being behind the Goal was amazing. And during the 2nd Intermission Slap Shot was skating by and I slap my hand up on the glass and he gave me window love. It was a wierd moment, but I felt like we really connected. And as a bonus the Caps won 3-0. All the Goals went in on our side.

With 2 mins left the Canadiens down 2-0 pulled their goalie and I started yelling Cheap Goal for Ovie! and sure enough he snagged the puck on a break away and got an open net goal. I was thrilled. But nothing beat Mike Green's Goal. I was right there to snap a photo, but fumbled my camera, so I got the guys skating away after the celebration. But they were like 5 feet from me when they piled in on Green.

Picture Time!

Caps Right After Green's Goal


Varly


Ovi


Slap Shot


Varly's Victory Lap, He was Player of the Game


And Lastly, A shot of our Awesome Swag from the game. Tickets, Programs, and My Puck