Knowledge is Power

 I often feel guilty about posting WIP on here, it feels like a bit of a cop-out. I thought what I'd do today is briefly discuss a topic that came up on twitter, knowing what you are fighting, whilst posting some pictures of what I have been up to at the same time.

Practice Soviets finished ready for my #WAAC paintathon. Pretty drab and dreary, but they are meant to be fighting in Stalingrad!

 

 

 So how did this topic of conversation arrive? Sunday morning I played two games against Mike Marshall in Malifaux on Vassal. In the first game we didn't get past turn 2, it was brutal. My stampede of pigs got the drop on him and due to obscene luck it was all over. In the second game Mike was much more cautious to begin with and kept me on the back foot, winning 6-5(?) in the end.

My test peice for Deadzone terrain. I forgot how cool weathering powders are, but I still think there aren't enough colours. I will try and pick out some details. I also plan to add some plant life.

 Now I'll admit that this dramatic turn around was partly due to a massive change in luck, but knowing what your enemy is capable is critical. It makes me think of one of the games I played at 'The Good, The Bad and The Fated'. My opponent had taken Kirai and because I knew what she could do I made sure that Ikuryo (sp?) never saw the table (by not shooting living or undead things that were within 6" of her or the lost love). As the title of this post says, knowledge is power.

'Lady' or 'Mrs Warpig' ready for spraying. I feel much happier with the model now that I have enlarged her behind.

 Chris King on twitter was arguing that the game unbalances due to this and one should attempt to play as if you didn't know what the other person could do. I disagree. First of all, I think that effectively nulls some of the game, being able to effectively value your models compared to your opponents and thus judge each move. I also think that makes the game much less fun. I don't know about other people, but I always feel a bit cheated if I lose because a rule I did not know about was sprung on me.

I can understand where Chris is coming from though. New players may feel at a disadvantage when they don't know as much as people who played for longer. This is always going to be true, however, you learn more about the nuances of the game. I do think, however, that it is critical to tell people whenever you can what your models are capable of. The games I feel the worst about are the ones where my I assumed my opponent knows something and doesn't.

The last thing I think we can say about this is that tournaments are great. This might seem like a strange leap, but at tournaments you fight new opponents with different crews and playing styles. It is a great way to learn about the game. I keep saying this, but I really recommend that any people who play Malifaux who haven't done should check out the tournament scene. It's well worth it.

 Well thanks for putting up with another one of my rants. Chat soon.

How to ... Make Pillars

Today I continue with making terrain for 'Not a Bad Thing' ,the tournament running at Worhamma in Sunderland on the 13th September, with some pillars for the honeypot/star board.

 In order to make some yourself you'll need the obvious: pva, a sharp knife (I recommend replacing the blade on your hobby knife for this, it makes it much easier) rule, pencil, cutting mat; and you will also need some foam board. This stuff is absolutely fantastic. I think the best place to get it from is Antenocitis Workshop. I used 3mm stuff.

 First of all, as you can see in the picture above, you need the basic shapes. My measurements were based on the figure I intended to stand upon the plinth. The larger squares are 1.5". The smaller 1.25". The long bits are 2.5" by 1".

Next thing you need to do is making the connecting joints for the pillar. I can't remember what this technique is called by you cut through the first layers of card but not the second (bottom). Then simply remove the foam so you end up with a lip of card as shown in the picture above. These then go over the edge of the next piece as shown below.

Then simply glue the small squares onto each end and then the larger squares ontop of them.One pillar, ready for a sculpture.

I have decided to stick the sculptures down, I'll just have to be careful with them. First I superglued them to their base and (which is a 25mm GW square base) and then PVAd that to the plinth.

Hope you have a good #wyrdweekend.

Porcine Progress

Today I was hoping to do some battle reports from the Vassal tournament, but unfortunately it has been cancelled due to not enough interest. On the positive, I have spent this morning making a bit of progress on some hobby and I thought I would share.

My proudest pig first, it's my old major. This is using the pig ambulance proxy I discussed in an earlier blog post. He's nearly ready for some paint.

Next I have Mrs. Warpig. For those of you who don't know, Malibro do a painting competition each month for Malifaux models. This month's theme is 'Ladies Night'. As soon as I heard this I immediately wanted to paint a female pig. Unfortunately, I had already painted Gracie and I don't like the idea of making a 3 headed pig for the sow. I have struck for trying to make a female warpig.

Honestly, I do not like the current warpig model. It is not pig shaped. I figured however, that when and if Wyrd do produce a new plastic warpig, there will likely be only one sculpt and I will definitely want more than one if I plan to use Ulix. I might see if I can have a go at rounding her out a bit, but I really don't put much stead in my sculpting ability.

Finally on the pig front I have tried to do a bit more work on the piggapult. The Gremlin is taken from the Warpig. One of my favourite thing about Old Major is that he allows you take a crew made entirely of pigs, so I don't want a pesky Gremlin ruining that. I think it's looking better now, with a bit more weight at the back, but there is still something missing. There is a void in between the Gremlin and the mortar and I am not sure what can fill it. Maybe a Gremlin with a looking glass?

 Next I thought I'd show you my planned layout for the western board for 'Not a Bad Thing' which is running at Worhamma in September. The Table it's on is slightly smaller than 3' square, but I thought it was enough to get a good idea of what to do. The bit where the tape measure is and the card protectors are where cliffs will go, at the right height to match with the aqueducts and walkways. There will also be cliff areas directly opposite where the smaller tracks lead into. I am currently debating with myself to make a 3d board or just to make scatter cliff sections. The reason for the latter choice is that I don't have enough space in the house. We'll see what I can manage.

 Finally I thought I'd show where I'd got with my Roman Cavalry. If you remember, I had started building them to paint for my WAAC painting marathon, which you can support and raise money for Macmillan by sponsering here. When I last wrote about them I was not happy, hoping they'd improve with shields and as a unit. As you can see in the picture I think they have, but they're still not great.

 I had also mentioned last time about making bases for them to slot into. The more I investigated, however, the more I realized that area around the horses' base would be too small and the larger base not stable. Thus, I plucked for the old tradition of giving in and just stuck them to their bases. I did, however, make the rookie error of not allowing enough room on either side for 'ranking up'. It really has been a long time since I have done any mass battle games.

Right, that's all the WIP from me. Chat soon.

Woke up with a hand

Today I read a blog post that discussed when you keep your cards in Malifaux. I thought today I would go quickly over the masters I have played and the way I have thought about it.

 My first master ever for Malifaux was Pandora, who, before everyone shouts 'filth', I only ever played in second edition. With Pandora I almost never left home without a doppleganger, I am not going over why now but she is my favourite model rules wise in Malifaux. I soon found with this pairing of woes that I needed tomes. Pandora triggers her Incite to cast again on tomes and the dopplegangers mimic triggers off tomes. Generally, if I did not have a 7 or more of tomes in my hand I would ditch everything but 10+, it was almost always crucial for me to have a tome.

 My next master was Lynch and I often found myself discarding down to six cards with Lynch, so it rarely made a difference. Very little is needed suits wise with Lynch, though the odd mask is handy and rams if you have Graves are very nice, so it was generally a case of dropping the lowest. When I didn't have enough cards I tended to keep things 7+. It may seem quite low, but I felt that with mulligan I could afford to dice with the cards a bit more.

 Lucius is next up on the list of masters I played and for him the magic number was 7. 7 allows you to 'give command' or whatever the action was to give out AP and also allowed WP6 models to pass the TN13 horror duel Lucius inflicted when he walked, which is what most of the crew I took was (mainly darkened stuff).

My latest master is Somer and I find he is much more suit (ram) dependent. I will always try and have a ram in hand ready for 'Do it like 'dis'. I almost always try and keep a mask aswell, this gives him the opportunity to either summon or use loudest squeal, which is amazing. Again, other than that 10+ were my limit because I wanted specific suits.

These are not hard and fast rules, it always depends on the situation. I am generally loathed to chuck 7-9 because they will not be in your deck later, but if you need the cards there is nothing you can do.

Just my two cents, hopefully someone found it interesting!

Not a Bad Thing: Initial Plans

If you have been keeping up to date with my ramblings you would have seen that I made loads of terrain for the Sunderland tournament 'The Good, The Bad and The Fated'. Recently Worhamma have announced they will be running another event this year, 'Not a Bad Thing'. It's running on the 13th of September and you can keep up to date either through the facebook event page or on the Wyrd Forum.

 For a brief overview, after receiving some feedback the crew size was increased to 45ss. In response to Joel Henry's request for events without fixed faction, whether the event will be fixed faction or open faction hiring pool is in discussion. 4 games. £15 entry and you will be fed bacon banjos and lunch by the ever-pleasing hosts at Worhamma. Also, due to the amount of space we had, last time there was a dining area, we have increased the size of the event to 32 players, though 13 tickets have already sold!

So more players means more tables. Once again I intend to step up and see what I can provide.

 A little while ago I told everyone about receiving TT Combat's Kickstarter, the MDF terrain, and I said I would review it. I lied. I can, however, now show you the built products which are part way through spraying:

Jen was saying that she would like to have caves for the train tracks to go into. Fortunately, a very generous man known as Dave Golden, or God Golden on the Wyrd Forum, has given me a whole load of large pieces of pink foam to play with:

So I am going to try and build a 3d board for Malifaux, with some cliff faces and stuff. God knows if it will work. I think I am going to stick with the typical wild west dusty style because everyone has got to have at least one...

You can see above that I had started work on another table for the last tournament but basically I had run out of energy. This was going to be my showgirl board, or 'The Star'. I don't intend to make internal walls or anything, on the basis that I am sure a hall could be big enough for a Malifaux battlefield, but as you can see I have many tables. The round ones I am thinking of having raised wooden seating areas, so that they have a base so they can be used as forests. The square tables will be on their side as shown so they can act as linear obstacles. They need to have wooden decking attached to the top.

The picture above is from a grab bag I got from Kingdom Death at Christmas. The bag contained a whole bunch of limited ed models and also a whole bunch of stuff they couldn't sell, like these headless and handless scantily clad ladies. I know this seems a bit out of place, but I thought these could make absolutely awesome statues to go in 'The Star'. I intend to make pillars for them to stand on, making useful scatter. The last, and definitely not least, thing is that I want to make a stage. It will most likely be the centre circle used for turf war in size. I think I am going to have to chat nicely to Nate Zettle to see if I can borrow is hot wire cutter again.

The next problem I have is the base board for this table. When I made the graveyard mat, shown below for those who haven't seen it or can't remember, I intended for it to work either for 'The Star' or for the graveyard. If I need to provide more tables for the tournament, however, I am going to need to provide another mat or board. I have a few ideas, like I could make a wooden board effect across the entire board or I can make another more traditional graveyard mat, but I still haven't decided.

That's all the plans from me for now. I have already have lots of tables made and I suspect the 3D Wild West board to take a long time. As always, I'd love to hear advice and comments. Chat soon.

Wargames Factory Roman Cavalry Review

On my last post I chatted about my plan for a paintathon, 24 hour painting to raise money on behalf of WAAC and Macmillan which you can donate to here, I have been thinking about what 100 models I can paint.

 I, like many wargamers, have a 'pile of shame' of models I haven't got round to. I know I have enough models to paint for the magic 100, but it's thinking of what models I would like to paint. So far I have decided I am going to paint my soviets for bolt action. Above you should be able to see some progress on a test scheme, but they still have a way to go. Below are the soviets I intend to paint. Total 65 models.

After that I still have a third of the models left to paint! I thought I could stick with historical theme, however, and paint up the Roman Cavalry that I got at Christmas gathering dust in the cupboard. In order to do this I had to build them and I thought I should go over what I thought in my initial forays into the box.

First off, I was thoroughly impressed looking at the sprue. There are lots of options for the riders in so far as weapons are concerned. Onto a winner, I thought anyway.

The first thing I did, however, was build the horses. I did this because I intended to work out how to base them. I still have not worked out how to base them. Ideally I'd like to be able to make them slot into whatever base I needed, so intended to make bases that they could just slot into. The base that the horse is standing on, however, is thinner than I thought so I am concerned about it not being stable or not level.

 Moving on from my tangent, I thought the horses were actually really nice. They seemed to have decent musculature, though I am concerned they are a little squat, perhaps it's the size of their heads. Anyway, I thought they were decent.

When I finally got round to build the riders, however, I was thoroughly disappointed. The weapons did not fit into the hands aswell as I thought they would and there are a limited amount of poses with the arms. The arms themselves have no detail, I am not sure if he is wearing sleeves. The head also does not into the grove where it should go, if you do not trim it down he has a very long neck. The head itself also seems to large for the torso, though in the picture they look fine. Basically, I think they look naff.

I am hoping they will look better as a squad, with their shields, and with paint but I am actually not happy with them at all.

If I do include them that will put my total pool of paintathon models up to 77 (12 cavalry in a box). I better start digging out so more things that need a lick of paint!

Finally I would just like to say that I know I have not been anywhere near as regular as I had been at the start, but I really do only want to post something if I have something to say so from now on I won't apologize. I think next time I will go over some plans I have for the next tournament at Worhamma. Until then.

WAAC Paintathon - It Begins

Sorry I haven't posted recently, I have been away and haven't had much time for myself. Today's post, however, is about something really important.

Recently @docbungle on twitter began a charity campaign on behalf of Macmillan cancer support, who you can find more about here, called WAAC 'Wargamers All Against Cancer'. You can find more about this at his blog, but more importantly you can also support this worthwhile cause at his just giving page This has inspired me to get involved.

As part of this campaign, I am going to be doing a sleepless 24 hour painting marathon, or Paintathon, to raise money for the charity. It's going to be on the August Bank Holiday, to tie in with the other WAAC events. The challenge is to paint 100 28mm or larger scale miniatures. The figures will be built and primed, but everything else will be painted by hand.

Regardless of what happens, I will be doing this. However, what I would really like is as many people to get involved in this as possible. I am currently trying to organize a venue, so that we can have enough space for people to move their elbows, but I also need other people to get involved. If you are in the North East area, think you can take the strain and are willing to go out and get sponsors for a good cause I'd love to hear from you. You can catch me on twitter @proximocoal or email connorbarker520829@gmail.com.

If you are not in the North East, it would be great if you could get involved anyway. Hopefully together we can make a difference. 

I will be posting updates on my blog when I get them, so please keep on eye on this, but most importantly please find it in your heart to give something to help those who have suffered from cancer. You can find my just giving page here.

Thank you.