Nightmare Crew

With Gencon over my ninja shopper returns with a few cool toys. I got the Nightmare edition Tara box set, Miss Step, and the Firefly Board game. I'll get to those last two things later. This is mainly to talk about Tara.

I've known I was going to play Tara for a little while. I even set aside my Undead Death Marshals from the Nightmare Edition Lady J box set for this ocasion. I even have some nice Micro Art Studio bases set aside for these guys.

I took some time to get painting last night and was able to base coat the Void Wretches and Karina. I went a step further with Tara and the Nothing Beast though.

The goal is to finish Karina and the Wretches before I head out ot game today, with the outside goal of also getting another Marshal painted. We'll see how it all goes.

M2E or as I now call it. Malifaux

I like the new edition of Malifaux. This is not something I have been keeping a big secret or anything. But for the most part I just haven't been talking about it. 1st Generation Awesome Mike put up a list of the big changes that we saw get implemented for the new edition and I wanted to take a second to talk about them. This way I can just hash out what I like and what I dislike about them.

Upgrades – This is pretty much the part of Malifaux that I am the most hesitant about. I like that they introduced a way to specialze a crew, I like the idea of optional complexity. My big concern is right now there appear to be auto-include upgrades, and never include upgrades. Not a whole lot of the sometime takes. I really like what this system could potentially be. But as its currently set up I feel like its lacking.

Pre-measuring - Might be my absolute favorite change to the game. No more, I was off by .021421 inches, and therefore my entire plan falls to crap.

Card Format - This is an asthetic change. The cards are now smaller, fitting into the standard card size for most CCG's. Im cool with this change as it means I wont have to go laminate my cards every month when I get a new model. I'll just buy a box of sleeves from my LGS and get to gaming!

Strategy / Schemes - I like them. It seems they took a lot of the best ideas they had over the past several attempts to make the missions and worked out a core few. Balancing 13 missions is really tough. I like that they have a "competative" pack of 5 missions that will more geared towards tournament and the like. Plus I like the feel of these missions. The Schemes are cool in my mind too. I grew to really like the scheme pool. Prevents Body-Guard / Kill Protege every game.

Extra AP - This is a mixed bag. Masters all just flat out get 3 AP now. That is nice and makes them feel more powerful as they should. But a lot of the higher stone Minion models no longer have bonus AP. Thats a bit of a mixed bag for me. In the early stuff Ressers never got extra AP, so to a career resser player this is just evening out the field. But overall I think this move kind of makes some of the more expensive centerpiece guys a little less cool.

Terrifying / Horror - In one fell swoop they made this stronger and Nerfed it. And I love it. They made Horror a lot more regular, then they made it so that its no longer just ignore by 70% of the field, and then they nerfed the penalty for failure. I am 100% down with this decision.

Ranged Attacks - Not really my thing. I dont play shooty crews. Ranges got kinda long. In some cases I feel like they are stupid long. But I also think their damage was dropped a bit. I think in the end Range is a bit stronger then it was in V1, but thats not a terrible thing since in V1 it had a lot of weakness.

Spells as duels - Good change. It was always odd to me that spells were randomly different from the rest of the games core mechanics.

Number of turns - At first I didnt think this would matter, but over the course of several games I saw why it was big. You no longer have the time to ignore your objective early, kill everything and snag them at the end. You have to focus on them all game. Its an interesting change and one Im mostly on board for.

Charges - They seem a bit skewed in powerlevel. Charging is a (2) action. But you get to move 1.5x your speed (on average) and then make 2 melee attacks. your spending (2) ap to get 3.5 ap worth of actions. Its strong. Not sure it breaks the game or anything. But it is one of the best and most efficient maneuvers in the game.

Soulstones - Overall Im a fan of the change to Soulstones. Im not sure I like how many Henchmen there are who can use them. But their uses are all good to me. I like that Master v Master fights dont really devolve into who flipped a better stone card anymore. And I really like the Draw 2 cards ditch 2 cards mechanic.

Effects - The fact that this wsa never defined in V1 always annoyed me. Now its been defined and everything makes a lot more sense. Well done Wyrd.

Model updating - This has to be the biggest change right? Every model in the game is now different. And at the end of the day I love it. You can feel free to disagree with me on this, but I came to feel that there were serious balance issues with V1. Im not saying issues won't crop up in the future, or that they are all gone now. But the big thing here is that we know what we are working with, and we know what is coming. Its rare that a game company is able to see into the future and balance a game to that level. This was a chance for Wyrd to do just that, and they did it. I play a lot of different masters over quite a few factions. And in my eyese not one of them has lost their old flavor. In a lot of cases, such as Seamus, Marcus, and Rasputina, they were able to keep their old feel, but also become competative and damn near playable. That is a big change to me, and one Im damn happy with

Mike did not include the new direction of Malifaux's art in his change list, but I want to talk about it. It is a mixed bag. Unfortunetly most of that bag is bad. Below is my prime example of what I dislike about the Art.

Seamus always struck me as the charming psycho. The guy who could lure someone to their death. Now he looks like the stung out junkie with a white panel van. A complete shift in the characters visual appearance and to me it changes who he is. I am trying to get down with the new art, but so far a lot of it doesn't appeal to me at all.

Last thing for me is the thing that surprises me most thus far about Malifaux. I had been focusing my efforts on Seamus, Nicodem, and McMouring during the Beta stages. I know them inside and out and felt I could help out a lot in balancing them. But as I moved away from testing games and more into just playing for fun, I found that the Master I enjoyed playing the most was Marcus. His new beast crew is just seriously fun! The best part is that beasts with blue boarders no longer blow!

Rockin Renegades

More stuff got some paint on it this weekend. Magnus' can't really be run without his super happy fun rockets. So I got the pair of Renegades painted up. I tried to paint smiley faces on the rockets, but at this point Im not happy with that part of them, so I might go back and just paint over them.

I painted something

I just finished up Magnus for my Mercenary army. Right now Im messing around with his Theme force, which is pretty easy to use. It gives you solid Troop Options. Steelheads, Boomhowler, and Crowe's. Renegades cost a point less, which is solid. And the Solo selection is surprisingly strong. Kell, Gorman, Stannis, and a few others. Starting Magnus will push the Galleon up on my paint queue. He's pretty good with Magnus.  After I get the big guy done I will shift to my Steelheads.  There are quite a few between the Halberds and Cavalry.  Once they are done I think I'll buy Damiano.

Current State of gaming

Its been a while since I posted anything up here. Im going to blame it on my recent move. But honestly I think it has more to do with the fact that I don't really have much to talk about. So I figured I would break down where I stand with my different games.

#1 Warhammer Fantasy/40K. I don't play these games anymore. Its a bit sad since they were all I played for about 3-4 years. I still own some models, but my Chaos, Tyranids, and Dwarves are gone. I own some Orcs and Goblins and Some Space Marines. I have no idea how many points of them I own, but at this point they are just waiting to be shipped out with the rest of my stuff thats being sold. The only GW Army I have that I have an interest in keeping for the moment is my Ogres. The half dozen or so games of Fantasy I have played with them have been very fun. So I have no real desire to part with them just yet.

#2 Warmachine / Hordes. I still play this one irregularly. I generally get in a game about every 2-3 weeks. I really like playing my Mercenaries. The Circle of Orboros is second to them. Drake McBaine might not be a top tier caster, but he certainly is fun on a bun.

#3 Netrunner. This is a side game at best. I like to play it. Its certainly not the best card I've ever played. BUt its easy to keep up with cost wise, and I'm decent at the game. I am usually able to get in a couple games of it with no worry.

#4 Board Games. I play a lot of these so I'll just go over my latest crushes. Archipelageo is a pretty fun Euro style game. I was very enamoured with it after my first play through. But it doesn't stay as wonderful in my eyes after the 3rd and 4th game. Still a fun game and one I will play often given the chance.
Samurai Sword is a re-make of Bang with slight modifications to the ruleset. I really like it, it fixed my biggest issues with bang and seems to give every team a legit chance to win the game. More games are required to understand the meta of what everyone is supposed to be doing.
Last is Spartacus. This is my top board game at the moment. In fact it might merit its own past. Very fun game that gels really well with its 3 phases. It has a bit of a balance issue, but I think there are ways to fix them.

#5 Malifaux. The big kahuna. Right now I really like where the game is going. Im excited for the release of V2, and I'm looking forward to seeing what sorts of toys show up at Gen Con this year. That all said I am also not sure I want to keep up with 4 factions anymore. Im likely going to start off-loading my Archanists and 10 Thunders this year. Its not a knock on the game, its more I dont have time to play all my models right now so I'm going to focus on Ressers and Outcasts. That Said, Marcus has to this point been one of my top masters to play. I might try to hang on to him and his beasties when I off load the other Archs.

Malifaux Two. Malifaux harder

Wyrd has released public rules for Malifaux the Second and I have been reading them over this weekend, so lets get right into my initial thoughts.

#1 Lets start here, I like what I see. The game still looks and feels like Malifaux did, which is a huge positive.  The game size does not seem to be increasing, which I like.  And the men who represent my faction seem to be getting stronger.  at least on the surface.

#2 Interesting changes that have grabbed my attention.  Soulstones are weaker.  I think for me this is a neutral change.  Soul Stones are now in my eyes used for prevention flips and gaining suites, adding them for +flips in duels not all that worth it.  Scheme pool, this took me a while to think over.  Now I like it.  There is a very specific reason why.  Bodyguard/Holdout.  This standby that people began to lean on like a crutch was pretty annoying.  Now your schemes will have to change game to game.  No more relying on ones you know and have done a hundred times.

#3 New Art.  So far I'm somewhere between dislike and flat out hating it.  Everything feels Comic-bookey gothic.  Nothing seems all that cool to me.  Seamus went from looking like the charming killer who could lure someone to their doom, to a deranged hobo who has to stalk the shadows since anyone who sees him would go screaming for the hills.  McMourning does look cool.  I really dislike the new Vicki's look.

Ok so Im gonna break down the 3 Resser masters and what I've noticed in their new rules, that seems fun.

Seamus - He looks hella fun.  I love his teleport ability, and they friggin buffed his gun!  I would say he continues to be my top choice for playing ressers, but now I will play him in games without the Avatar.  Also his pimp slap is pretty cool.

McMourning - As far as Im concerned he doesn't summon anymore.  Its a bit of a shame, and he CAN summon, but its not nearly the factory that he once was.  What replaces that is the helacious combo of 4 attacks every turn, and an upgrade that says no soul stone prevention for you.  So any damage he deals is sticking, and he can rip some faces off right quick with that scalpel.  Pure Melee master now in my mind.

Nicodem - What a buff machine.  give guys fast, summon new one, always giving out +flips.  He's not the same dude he used to be.  He reminds me of a D&D dark cleric.  But I like almost everything he does now.  My huge exception is summoned minions losing half their wounds.  thats totally lame.

Also I googled Malifaux 2 to find some fun pictures for this article.  This came up and I decide it had to relevant.

Steel phalanx scheme

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