Malifaux Journal: Passing through the Breach

Malifaux. For years others have spoken its name. Some with reverence, others with dread. It is a place of riches and reward beyond measure. A place to make a name or to leave one behind. Though, in Malifaux, you can loose far more than your money, or even your life. Until now I have shied away from this place. I have stuck with that which I know, but recently Malifaux has seen change, a shift in Fate. It has called to me like the song of the siren beckoning me to its embrace. I have resisted so long and for what? What have I to fear?

And so, on this eve of change, I have taken the first steps on my journey. I have passed through The Breach. I have entered Malifaux.

This week in Immoren: list strengthening.

I'm thinking I have a new feature title. Also, I've been trying to improve my lists a bit recently. I'm working mainly on strengthening my 35 points lists initially but then increasing to 50 points in time.

Now, I have all the currently released Warlocks, but there are a few I prefer to the others:

Packing away the GW

Ok guys, just thought I would let you know that I have now packed away all the GW armies I own that I don't intend to sell with two exceptions: Dark Eldar and Empire.

Please note however that neither of those two armies are in a playable state.

I don't intend to unpack anything until after I move, so I won't be playing 40k or WFB for some time, if ever again at the rate the 'move' is progressing.

The only exception to this may be the Sisters of Battle, depending on their forthcoming Codex.

Thanks,

Mark

This week in Immoren: Marshalling the forces

Seems more like it ought to be this month rather than week since it has been so long since my last post. Suffice to say I've not managed much table time or modelling time recently with one thing or the other.

As the months roll on and we seem no closer to moving I have been spending a bit more time trying to order the chaos of my house so that we can at least try and get over to West Yorkshire before I retire. In addition I seem to have developed something of a social life in recent months with me joining an am-dram group earlier in the year (as a stagehand; I've no desire to act, I'm a writer after all!) and a couple of weddings, a stag do and numerous trips here and there.

However, I have recently had my first battlegroup game with the Comvergence of Cyriss against Ben's newly acquired Retribution of Scyrah whereby he used the alternate battlegroup from Privateer Press' Journeyman League rules. It's early days but I enjoyed the game and even though it is a very different (pardon the pun) beast to Hordes, the synergy element of the Convervenge helped. In the end though I sacrificed the Forgefather rather needlessly and gave Ben a caster kill.

The only other thing I've done is assemble my Trollkin Warders and try to find a list for them, which I think I have done now, and there is a clue as to which Warlock I'm using somewhere in the post, but I shalt spoil the surprise for the uninitiated.

The models are quite nice albeit that there is quite a lot of flash to them. I've still not managed to remove all of it, but to be honest I got bored of trying so shall have to go back to that if ever I decide to paint them.

I'm quite enjoying the back to basics approach to gaming with Warmachine and Hordes at the moment and so m scaling back my games at the moment, so when I get a chance to catch my breath again in a couple of weeks, if anyone wants a smaller level game, let me know.

Until then, take care and play you you have a pair.

Games Workshop, I'm done.

I've had a lot of fun with GW games over the years. Without them, I would have been blissfully ignorant of Wargaming. For nearly 20 years I played both Fantasy Battles and 40k and to greater and lesser extents I enjoyed each. In total I amassed 15 armies across both systems, some I enjoyed, some I never got to grips with, some are still on sprues.

My enthusiasm has waxed and waned over the years, but had always held firm.

Until now. At least as far as Games Workshop is concerned. Whilst many have baulked at the ever constant price hikes, I had always felt that the hobby has always been expensive and that I would just need to be more selective with my purchases. Even with the great Games Workshop exodus of 2010, when I began to really get into Hordes I wasn't ready to forego My first love.

I think there are a few reasons for this: very few of my gaming friends were ready to forego Games Workshop entirely, many didn't even start playing Warmachine and Hordes, and of those that did, not all stuck with the new system (and that's fine obviously). Another reason is that the community is much more established for GW. With not just tournaments but also more thematic campaign weekends, due to the number of years head start they had, GW have almost settled into their events more than their competitors. As such, since I've neither the inclination nor the skill to be highly competitive, I'm not too fussed about attending a Warmahordes tournament just yet.

I think that the main reason though is quite simple. I still love the background to both systems.

However, there is only so much I'm going to put up with and these days GW are really grinding my gears.

Their kits are becoming stupidly overpriced for much less value, they are trying to make certain 'must haves' direct only items and this latest move towards supplements is really the final straw.

One of the strengths to GW is aside from the main Rulebook is that if you buy a Codex or Army Book, you have all the rules you need for that army. Sure there are other supplements like Apocalypse, City Fight, Planetstrike etc, but they are optional. But this move towards 'buy this book here, but wait, you need this one too and it costs just as much, then there is this one and this one and you can't play properly without this one' attitude is more than I can bear.

As such, I'm calling time on Games Workshop. I've much more desire to play Warmachine and Hordes than I do Fantasy or 40k anyway, so I'm not too fussed.

Now I'm not going to forego my armies entirely, after all I've spent a lot of time and money on them, however fifteen armies are a lot of shelf space for what is now a secondary set of games at best. As such I am intending to downsize my collection dramatically and shall be putting many of them up for sale.

It's sad that I've come to feel like this about them, but I do feel that Games Workshop's greed and desperation have driven me to this.

This week in Immoren: Large scale games and new Convergence models!

Unbound Hordes

This weekend I played a large scale game with Ben and Sam. The idea was that Sam and I had to capture objectives held by an ambushed Skorne force. The point sizes were 50 each for Sam and me and 100 for Ben. Three objectives were set along the centre line with the idea that at the end of turn one, Ben would remove one of his choice as a decoy. Victory conditions were that Sam and i had to reach 3 objective points while Ben, being in the stronger starting position to do so, had to earn 6 points. He then set up his Large and medium based non Warlock models in a 12 inch area in the centre. Sam and I then set up our full forces except advance deployment and finally Ben placed his remaining models and we each placed our advance deployment models.

Sam's Legion

Ben's Skorne

My Trollbloods

The game went on for six hours, and whilst it was a good game, was largely uneventful on my side. I had taken an entirely firepower Hunters Grim list and essentially could not then break through Ben's Xerxis force. Well played on his point, but neither of us really did more than act as a cordon to the opposing force. 

Sam's side however was something of a bloodbath. He used a eThagrosh force against Ben's eHexaris force. In the end, the Messiah fell to Hexaris, but Sam had exacted a decent toll for it. 

However, we just couldn't break through enough to even gain a single point between us, and as such Ben reached his double points easily. 

In all then, an enjoyable game, and in terms of us amateurs creating a game, not too bad and a few lessons learned. 

A big thank you to Ben and Jamey for hosting (as always) and for feeding and watering us. 

The Maiden of lots and lots of Gears

Also this week (and I term this as since I last posted), my Convergence of Cyriss Battlegroup arrived. 

A small mixup on my part has meant that I don't yet have the book (not an issue as I've the deck on War Room) but instead have two sets of the Cyriss paint sets (yeah I know). I'm very excited about these, even if the following assembly pictures taken from the Privateer Press Insider are making me a little bit afraid. 

This week in Immoren: Sunday hobbying

I've had a good run of games of Hordes lately against Ben and Sam and I've really enjoyed them.

At this point I'm obliged to congratulate Sam on his first 'Caster kill the Sunday before last when he managed to slay Angus from Hunters Grim using a Carnivean. Now, I must admit that I cannot honour Sam with the four paragraphs that I awarded myself when I managed to kill his Thagrosh, however I will say that much like my own 'Caster kill, Sam managed string together a few combos to really make his turn a success, and even had it not worked, he would have likely weathered my own turn and seen off Angus in his next turn. Well done Samuel.

Proud of you!

This Sunday was supposed to be a hobby day rather than a gaming day, and moreover I was supposed to be painting. Ben had already done a fair bit of painting by the time I even picked up a paintbrush, and in a cunning ploy I used it to apply PVA to the bases so that I could add sand to them, thus delaying the painting a little longer. 

Digmies gonna dig!

Whilst the glue dried Ben and I played a small game. Knowing that we didn't have as much time as usual and also having a desire to play a stripped back game, I had suggested we play a 16 point Claw and Fang game. For those not familiar with the missions from the Hordes rulebook, it is a Warlock and Warbeasts only game (the Warmachine equivalent is Mangled Metal). I chose to dust off pDoomie, the first Warlock I ever used, and decided to back him up with a Dire Troll Mauler, a Dire Troll Blitzer and a Troll Impaler. For his part, Ben took Tyrant Xerxis and his battlegroup consisted of a Titan Gladiator, a Titan Sentry and a Cyclops Savage.

Going in to this game I had never killed a Titan of any kind, so that was my objective for this game. I didn't hold much hope of Doomie standing toe to toe with Xerxis and that was clearly Ben's thoughts too so killing a Titan would be more than enough of an achievement for this game. 

And to be perfectly honest, not only did I finally win myself some ivory, I also didn't do a bad job at trying to take down the Tyrant as well. But sadly, Doomie is far too squashy and instead the old man of the Trollkin collapsed under the weight of the Pillars of Halaak despite making two tough rolls. 

Back at the painting table I could avoid it no longer, but undaunted I under coated the min unit black which took most of the rest of the day. I did also basecoat them with, well, Trollblood base, so I am getting there slowly.

A photoshopped image to make it look as though I am painting

Painting wasn't as terrible as I remember it, so I may try my hand at it again next year.

Progress so far