Iron Quill - Moth

This is my Iron Quill, a monthly Malifaux fan fiction competition, entry so far. I'd like to preface this by saying the story is a little grim. If it's too grim let me know. In fact, I'd like all the feedback I can get. Thanks for reading.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “You’re at the doorway to a brave new world, on the precipice of something truly mesmerising. Don’t fight it.”

 Lauren squirmed against her bindings. She did not know what she would do if she had actually managed to break free, but all she could think of was escape. The coarse heavy rope chaffed against her naked flesh. Her jaw ached from biting down on the foetid rags binding her mouth open and silent. Bloodshot and teary eyes darted around the room desperately searching for something she could use, some way to get out.

The room was dark. Very dark. Underground most likely. There were no windows. The only light was blocked by her. She tried not to think about her. Some way out, focus on some way out. Then there was that noise, like someone leafing through sheets of paper but all around her. What was that. Focus on a way out. There was nothing. She could see nothing. She broke down into tears. The foul lady approached her, one claw-like hand rubbed its calloused knuckles over Lauren’s cheek. The young girl wretched when she realised that it felt like leather.

 “We know why you cry, little caterpillar. We have watched you. We know the pain that gnaws at you.” The crone had a hiss to her voice, but it was soft. She was clearly trying to be comforting. Lauren swallowed the vomit lest she choke. “We know your pain, little caterpillar. Yes, We know.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The girl grabbed her meagre possessions as she fled the howling of the people on the train. They had attacked her. Ripped her clothes from her. Beaten her. They were going to kill her. She had barely escaped with her life, leaping off the train into the dirt of this strange new world. She had come through the breach for a new life, a new chance, exciting new discoveries. Now, before she had even stepped onto Malifaux station, she had been chewed up and spat out under the ominous glare of the alien night sky.  She had stumbled out and found a small pond shadowed by a gnarled black tree. She drank rapidly, not wanting to know the taste, but paused when she finally willed herself to open her eyes. There was just enough moon light for her to look at her reflection in the pool of water. The ripples broke the image but as she put her hand to her face she could how she had become hideous. Her immaculate features had contorted, as if the breach had made them nothing more than swirling liquid and spat them back out again. Her soft seductive skin had been stretched as all her bones had reshaped becoming sinewy and hairy like a pig. Her once perfect smile broken by elongated teeth that had broken through her lips. Once she had been able to seduce any man, now they believed her to be some daemonic fiend. Her shrill howl broke the stillness of night as she smashed her gnarly fists into her own reflection. Her tears spilt down her face to be drunk by Malifaux’s thirsty earth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Lauren had never known pain like this. Her whole body shook as the blade sliced slowly into the flesh of her back. She howled impotently into the rag in her mouth has layers of skin were peeled away. All the while the woman told her story.

“We all change eventually dear. We saw you look into the mirror and see those tell-tale signs of age”

Lauren could not tell, but she thought the creature was smiling as it looked into her face and tapped her nose with one claw. She almost forgot the pain when she stared into her eyes, bottomless pits of blackness and pain. A strange purity was in there, like a consciousness buried under basic necessity. They didn’t look human. The ‘woman’ sighed as she resumed her work, pinning the skin to the blood-stained work bench.

“What is a courtesan without her looks, little caterpillar? How would your clientele changed as your beauty twisted into something else? As you got uglier so would they, little dove.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
 “You’re not going to stick it in that are you?” the smaller man spat as he stared down at the creature pinned down in the alley way.

 “It’s got all the right bits, ‘an it? Besides I’m not going to look at its face” The larger man landed another back handed strike on the female and then stuffed a hessian sack over her head. The woman sobbed as Malifaux defiled her once again.

 When the men had finished with her they chucked her into a nearby cellar. Killing her was unnecessary, Malifaux would do that job soon enough. The woman coughed up blood as she came to, moaning and writhing in pain and self-hatred. When would death finally release her from pain? It had already made her a monster, what else did it want?

 When she had gathered enough energy to drag herself from the floor she found that she was not alone. Millions of moths surrounded her, the ones that she had disturbed fluttered around her like a living whirlwind. Eventually their frenzy settled and one landed on her hand. She stared at it for a long time. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The more she looked at the creature the more she saw how it was dissimilar from the earth-side creature. Its wings were the colour of blood, the dark blood the oozed from a fatal wound. Its total size, including wingspan was twice as large as her malformed hands. It did not have antenna, but instead eyes. Deep black eyes. After what may have been an age the moth fluttered away, graceful as it moved between air-currents, and finally landed on a small podium. As her eyes followed the moth they landed on the book.
It beckoned her.

She finally dragged herself over. She clutched the hide-bound pages to her bosom. It gave her a strength she had not known for a long time. She did not leave that cellar for weeks. Consumed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “Do you see now? Do you see what a gift I have given you? No longer a little caterpillar, no, now my graceful beautiful moth. We have changed you. We have made it so you will always be beautiful. You have done a great thing today, you have helped take one more step towards eternal beauty. One day I will be as wonderful as you, my pretty little moth.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Fascinating.” Doctor McMorning batted the odd moth away with a back of his hand as he stared down at the corpse in the basement. “Do you know how long it’s been here?”

The guardsman wiped his mouth as he gradually lifted his head from the pool of vomit. “Sorry about that. Sir.”

“Really, is the guild made of nothing but ignorant farmers these days?” It didn’t sound the sort of question he was meant to answer but McMorning had leant into his face and his eyes were staring directly into his. The fire in his eyes was almost more than his already unsettled stomach could bare.

“No, Sir?”

“Well?”

“Well what, Sir?”

“How long has the body been here!”

“Apparently the woman was a young girl called Lauren, worked at a nearby… umm… house of companionship. Been missing about 2 weeks.”

“What a waste.”

“Yes, Sir. Poor girl. She seemed sweet… not that I knew her or nothing, Sir”

“What?” McMorning turned round, seemingly bamboozled by the guardsman’s awkwardness, “Oh yes, shame about the girl, whatever, but if you look carefully” McMorning prodded the body with his pencil and then put it into his mouth. The Guardsman wretched but was glad when he didn’t seem to have any more content in his stomach to lose, “there is absolutely no decomposition. Despite all of these annoying creatures flapping about us there is even not any creatures making her into a feast. Look at this aswell,” McMorning continue unabated as the guardsman proved himself wrong and buried the evidence in an increasingly large pile of vomit, “these wings have not simply been grafted on, they are actually made of the woman herself. Remarkable.” McMorning looked around the room and found a small music box on the side. He flicked the lid open and wagged his finger slightly faster than the tiny tune that rang out, as if attempting to make it get to its point, before he noticed the picture on the inside of the lid.

“I believe I have discovered the culprit, guardsman farmer-pants. It appears to be Maggie Strudel, someone quite famous in my field who had travelled to Malifaux to shadow my work. She never made it, had a bit of an ‘accident’ on the way, apparently turned into some vicious creature or something. Such a shame." McMorning trailed off and continued prodding the corpse, muttering things like 'so much potential' and tutting as he went. Eventually the guardsman plucked up the courage to intervene.

"Sir?"

"What? Oh, you're still here. Looks like I will need this body and all of the evidence taken back to my lab on the double, also it goes without saying that Maggie needs to be found.”

“I’d appreciate it, Sir, if I did not have to be the one to take the body, Sir, it just seems to turn me the wrong way.” The guardsman held his hat in his hand as he pleaded, slowly rotating it.

“What? Oh yes, yes, yes. Well volunteered! Grab yourself a couple of stout fellows and head into the quarantine zone then, that’s the best place to find her." McMorning shook his head as he looked down at the growing damp patch in the guardsman’s britches. Why did people think the dead were so horrible when it was the living that made all of the nauseating fluids?
        

Finished Piggies!

After being confronted with vast walls of text for the last couple of days, I figured it would be reasonable to have a text 'light' post today. A few people have been asking on twitter for pictures of my follically favoured farmyard figure, well here goes nothing.

Above you can see my proxy for old major. The moustache was made using greenstuff, the monocle made from a bent paper clip and the hat was stolen from some WWII Bolt Action Russians from Warlord games.

Next up I have my piggapult. I am sure you have seen this multiple times in multiple blog posts so I shan't explain how it was made.

Finally I have the model I am most proud of, Lady, the female war pig. Many people don't seem to have seen the old war pig model so I am going to take this opportunity to compare the new and the old model:

Hopefully people now will be able to see that I have rounded out Lady's plump behind, given her much more of a stomach (and udders of course!) and also given her much more chin. I personally think it has worked out well, I am much happier with the model now.

So there we have it! As I said, text light today but who doesn't like seeing pictures of pigs? Don't worry, now they are finished the pig obsession will most likely decline a bit... most likely.

Tournaments

I have been attending quite a few tournaments recently. Many of these events have been very good and I have really enjoyed them. There are a few things that have cropped up repeatedly from events that I'd just like to discuss. They are: Pre-pay, terrain and prizes.

 Firstly, I think tournaments should always be pre-paid. Organizing gamers, and I include myself in this category, is like herding cats. If you push them most will make the general motion of doing what you want, but generally will just do what they feel like. However, if you place a financial incentive everyone becomes very interested!

 In all seriousness, there are many reasons people don't come if you don't make it pre-paid. Often there can be a sense of trepidation, not only for what your mystery partner on the other side of the table will be like, but also what those people will think of you. Sometimes you feel a little under the weather. Whatever, literally hundreds of reasons, and people just need that little bit of encouragement. If you get people to pre-pay then drop outs will tend to only happen if there is a serious reason.

 The worst attended tournaments I have been to have all been pay at the door. Proof in the pudding.

Next is terrain. This is always a point of contention for many people. I am terrible for the excuse, 'well if the terrain wasn't like this...' which I should really slap myself for, but it does make the big difference for a great looking and enjoyable game and not. I think the main issue is that Malifaux players tend to be enthusiastic hobbyists and want to play on terrain that looks right (again, I am guilty)... often to the cost of being more practical. It's difficult to manage the balance and I don't have a right answer unfortunately, but TO's should place a high priority on the terrain. As a sub-note, I am going to suggest not using special terrain rules. One of my games at 'Into the Breach' used the rules for the hanging tree which worked surprisingly well, but on other tables the rules were ignored. As a rule, less complications are best so that you can get on with your game within the limited time.

Last on the list of topics is prizes. I really dislike prizes. This may sound a little grumpy, but if people want to enjoy less 'Win at all cost' gaming, which I think the Malifaux scene is agreement is bad, then you shouldn't make there a physical incentive for doing well. The prizes for Malifaux tend to be pretty good. I don't understand! There are things, however, I do like; or at least prefer. Firstly little tokens that everyone can take away with them I think are really nice. It's like a souvenir for the day and I, sadly, treasure my collection. I also don't mind so much having raffles rather than actual prizes, because then it is not all about winning. Even if you just win more raffle tickets for placing that is a better option than straight placing for prizes. I still don't feel like the imposition should be on Tournament Organizers to harass people for stuff to go in their prize pool. I would attend tournaments regardless and I hope that everyone else is the same.

Well that's my two cents and I hope it was enjoyable/useful. Maybe by the time all of this has gone out I will have more material to bury you in. Enjoy death by text.

Gremlins is Awesome: Into The Breach Lessons

 As promised, another post today about things I gone and learned-ed at my latest tournament. This broadly breaks down into two main areas. Activation ordering and secondly Old Major and Som'er's bromance (I know, for one model this is a bit of a saga).

 First off, and the hardest lessons for me from 'Into The Breach' is activation order. Recently, for whatever reason, I have decided to start treating some planned actions for models as 'safe' and thus delay them while I do other things. This is stupid. Yes, later on your opponent might have less cards and make the move slightly easier, but there are so many tricks and moves in Malifaux that you cannot guarantee that something will happen. If you can do it and it is important bloody well do it! Obviously, there are situations where this doesn't take effect. If you will put yourself in a dangerous position until someone else activates etc. Today, however, I was accepting the danger and deciding there wasn't any. Malifaux's tag line is there for a reason. BAD STUFF HAPPENS.

 As I said in my previous bromance post, Som'er and Old Major have a strange interaction. I think taking him in my generic, non pig, list was a mistake. He is solid, there is no denying that, but in the games we were playing he needed to be able to act by himself and he just couldn't. Soaking up the damage is fine, but there was no real reason for people to attack him. Once someone engaged him he couldn't get away and couldn't kill what was in the way. Without Som'er giving him reactivate, by making the opponent discard their hand (which Som'er couldn't afford to do), he doesn't have 'enough' for this size of game in Recon. However, I do look forward to using him in larger games. Stay tuned.

 Off on a tangent, if anyone was wondering why I am so interested in making the big pig work it is because I have a model of a pig with a tash, monacle and hat. I want to use him.

 So there we go, more thinkin' luck for the Gremlins in the future I hope. Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment!

Into The Breach: Report

On the 14th June I attended 'Into The Breach', the first tournament in a growing Malifaux scene in Waugh Games (in Middlesborough). I learned many things at this event, so I am going to be writing a couple of blog posts on it, so as to try and not ramble about too many subjects. So, taking a one action to focus (I'll get my coat) let's try and talk about the dirt of the day.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but the game felt tightly squeezed in and I felt like I didn't have the time.

 Waugh games itself has a decent amount of space, based in an industrial unit, and a decent amount of very nice terrain. Some of the tables were, in my honest opinion, a little sparse. There were, however, some very nice tables. I even got a custom scheme marker for the day which I always love. Seriously, after that I felt I was really chuffed (I know I am sad).

 My first game was against Greg Piscosz, our local Malifaux powerhouse who came second in last years masters. A few weeks ago we had both played exactly the same scenario so we had a knowing look on our faces. It was a good thing we hadn't played in our last session!
  It was fixed list. Greg took:

 Leviticus
 Mechanical Rider
 Johan
 Necropunk
 2 Waifs
 Freikorps trapper

I had:

 Som'er
 Old Major
 Francois
 Slop Hauler
 3 Bayou Gremlins

 We both took Frame for Murder (him on Mech. Rider and me on Fran) and I took plant explosives when he took breakthrough. Both announced.

 It was a very cagey game. I made my first mistake letting Greg going first where his trapper topped a bayou gremlin, making it hard for Som'er to summon and thus out-activate Greg. We spent much of the game darting around with out crews, worried about over extending ourselves. Francois then jumped into the middle and took down the Mech. Rider, scoring Greg 3 points. Leviticus then charged Fran making the game even again but at the same time summoning a abomination. In the end he was able to hold off Old Major to make me lose a recon point and get his Necropunk to score his 3vp for breakthrough. The crews having spread out meant I could only bag 2 points from plant explosives. Final score 8-6 to the ginger dark horse of the north.

 Second game I played on the same table, fortunately different deployments, against a beginner called Steve Atkinson who declared it was his 5th game of Malifaux. He took:

Nicodem
Vulture
Mortimer
Flesh Construct
Canine Remains
Bette Noir

Honestly I can't remember of that exactly right. Sorry.

Mine was the same list as before.

He had Breakthrough (Revealed) and Make them Suffer. I had Plant Evidence (revealed) and Make Them Suffer. When we revealed schemes I tried to explain to him how Plant Evidence in this scenario was basically like Breakthrough but easier, but he said he liked to make his own mistakes but he was happy for the advice. I breathed a sigh of release at this, it meant my ideas behind playing beginners (written up in a previous blog post) applied.

 We had a great game. Nicodem used the corpse markers made by the dog and Mortimer to summon some mindless zombies and then another construct. Som'er summoned loads of Gremlins who were pulled along by old Major and then fanned across the board. My heavy hitters dived into the middle and he did likewise, attempting to close down Som'er. Unfortunately, by summoning lots of minions and then forcing them down my throat played into my hand a little because it meant Som'er could squeal (my own gremlin shot into combat, it's a awesome trick!) and then bag make them suffer repeatedly. My opponent had focussed to much on killing stuff and summoning stuff to try and place his own markers, however, and easily gained dominance of stake a claim early on. Unfortunately, because Mortimer had spent too many AP making corpses, he never really got stuck in which I think was the biggest mistake. Chatty is amazing and if he is cleaving Gremlins he is also making many corpse markers. The game ended with me scoring 8 and my opponent 0.

 I felt a little bad coming out with that result, I didn't want to crush the fun for my foe, but my opponent seemed happy enough. He said he fully expected to lose lots in the tournament, but had enjoyed his game and felt he had learned something. I really hope you meant that Steve. I had a great game and if there was a best sportsman, he would have got it from me.

 After Lunch I played against the tournament organizer Andrew Newton, a lovely and cheerful chap. I am just going to apologize now if I felt a little short with him sometimes (scheme marker scoring was the bit I feel bad about). It was hot and I don't do well in the heat (this is the North for gods sake!) but there is no excuse. I hope you enjoyed our game anyway, I did. We played Reckoning, always a strategy I hate, and the lists were the following:

Nicodem
Mortimer
3*punk zombies
2 Canine remains
Vulture

I took:

Som'er
Old Major
Gracie
Warpig
Hog Whisperer

 This was the strategy I had been tearing my hair out over, as anyone who has spoken to me recently would know, as the scheme pool was very scheme marker focused. We both took announced Plant Evidence and my opponent took Breakthrough where I had protect territory (again, both announced). Mass reactivating pigs, a very open board and a penchant for Nicodem's summon ability meant that I was able to score some easy reckoning points early on, whilst my opponent really had to focus his crew to take down one of my pigs. However, after the initial gambit things started to crumble. My mistake was not activating Gracie first (very foolish of me) letting him drag her down. After that my master could not kill the undead horde quick enough because of hard to kill. Som'er admirably held back the tide though, preventing Andrew getting too many scheme points whilst I managed to grab a couple by dominating my right hand side. 6-3 to me. A well played game and I must say very well enjoyed.

 My last game of the day was against John Wharton, another major player on the Malifaux scene who has won a few events. Last time I played John he tabled me on turn 3 so I'll be honest and say I wanted revenge. Bad, I know, but I can't help it.

It was Recon again so I returned to my first list. John took the following:

Viks
Vanessa
Lazarus
Freikorps librarian and trapper.
Malifaux Child.

It was the standard list I expected from John. I took Assassinate and protect territory (revealed) as did he. Early game I was in control. I deployed second and deployed away from the trapper with Som'er and his mass gremlins. I spent the first turn mass summoning. John castled up in a ruin on one of his quarters and Old Major dragged Francois forward ... for him to decide caution was the better part of valour and defensive stance.

 I find one of the main strengths of the Viks and John's crew is the ability to get the jump on people. The threat range of the Viks is large and you are forced forward by the present of his big guns. However, having activation control by a massive margin (I summoned 3 gremlins previously) meant I had stripped that to some extent. Vik of Ash was forced to charge out of her cover, using Oath keeper, to attack Fran... who promptly squealed away and meant she wasted Oath Keeper. Holding the red joker in my hand, Fran focused and charged, using the focus on the second to take the master to one wound and top himself (she had survivalist). This left Old Major to claim Assassinate before he had a chance to heal (this was at the end of activation). Some poor positioning on my part left Vik of Blood able to kill 2 bayou's using her Oath Keeper. Som'er failed to capitalize on the fact she was in the open. Despite this I still had the corners so I grabbed recon.

 Next turn blood charged and Som'er squealed away. Deciding the main threat to him was now gone, Som'er decided to hold off his activation. John's entire crew through everything at him to no avail... until against all odds a trapper fired from the complete otherside of the table, weaving LoS through walls and models, at him... and I Black Jokered. At that point the game was over. John scored 3vp and the upcoming punishment John had left himself wide open for was gone.  I couldn't hold back his forces anymore.

John won the game 8-6.

I was not the best sport after that, I am afraid to say. Victory was in my clutches and then suddenly, because of fickle fate, it was gone. There were many things I could have done to stop it though and John played well in being able to see his opportunities. I did apologize to John for a grumpy git, but I do again. Sorry.

So overall, I came 4th (I think, there was some confusion). Unsurprisingly the more experienced players from Sunderland and Newcastle did the best, with Greg winning. I hope the local gamers still had a great time because I did and I look forward to seeing them across the table soon. Thanks for Andrew Newton for running the event and getting things organized. It was a blast.

Before I go, I am just going to say please leave me info if this is the sort of thing you like to hear about. I can try and focus on other stuff in future if it would be more useful. Now off to right the next installment!
 

Gremlins is Awesome- Complicated Bromance

 Recently you have seen that I have been working on an old major proxy for my Malifaux Gremlin crew. I have been using him repeatedly in games lately with Som'er and I thought I'd have a quick discussion of what I found.

 I have been primarily using him in the reckoning strategy alongside a bunch of other large pigs, on the basis that many 12 wound models are difficult to drag down. By himself he has a few useful abilities for this. Firstly he gives positive attack and damage flips to charge actions made by pigs activating within 4". This is pretty mint. Anything that gives you positive damage is great, stacking with charging as a 1 action and rampage a war pig can do. Next on the card is the 'eye on the young 'uns' which means pigs can declare friendly pigs as targets of a charge action, which is not as useful as it would first appear... they can still charge Som'er! None of this gels well with Som'er specifically, but obviously helps if you are taking a pig crew.

 There are a few things where Som'er and Old Major together really do work to make an effective pig crew. The name of the game is reactivate. Hog Whisperers, as a 1 action, can cause a pig to take 3 wounds and gain reactivate. However, to do this he needs a mask. Som'er can obviously dish out masks as his zero action. Pig feed is also an awesome upgrade for Som'er. If successful all pigs in Line of Sight are pushed 4" toward the target and if they finish in base contact make an attack. Very useful. Finally, Old Major has got Ceaseless advance, so if your opponent has no cards left and you have models left to activate he gets reactivate.Som'er has an ability where if he successfully wins a duel with an enemy leader both players discard their hands, giving Old Major reactivate for no wounds.

 This is where things get tricky, however. One of old major's main abilities is that he can discard a card to make a friendly pig within line of sight push 4" and gain the suit of the card to all duels this turn, which I hope you agree is pretty amazing... if it wasn't for the fact that Som'er can also dish-out a suit. They are competing for rubbish cards to chuck! Also, if you have used Som'er to get rid of the enemies hand to reactivate old major then you can't use this ability.

 So where does this leave this awkward pairing? Yay or Nay? Honestly I am not 100% sold, but I am going to go with Yay. I think part of the problem at the moment is I am only playing with a 41 stone crew with him. I think the pair will work best when I have pigs and gremlins to play with, rather than just a few big pigs. I think though, rather than attempting to force things, you can do certain things when necessary. Discarding your hand to give Old Major reactivate can work when desperate and/or you have a poor hand, but doesn't have to be done all of the time. The same applies with his push. He is, after all, still a 12 wound model with a min 3 damage attack and an ability to make other pigs brutal on the charge, that's pretty decent.

 I am going to a tournament in Middlesborough tomorrow where you have to submit two lists to be used across the 4 games. Old Major is in both lists so he is going to get plenty of table time. Wish me luck! Regardless, I should write a review of how things went in the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled.

Nostalgia: Necromuna and Mordheim

The other day I visited a local gaming club for the first time to play a game of Malifaux. I was thoroughly owned, but I intended to gloss over that and discuss a strange statement that came up. One of the guys expressed an interest in Malifaux and said that it made him want to play Necromunda and Mordheim again.

 I have good memories of playing both of those games. The background that accompanied these rules was superb and it was lots of fun getting involved in my first skirmish level game. They were, in my opinion, terrible rules sets though. Shoe-horning the larger scale games mechanics into a smaller setting was lazy and in my opinion ineffective. The campaign systems were terrible and unbalanced. Characters rapidly became very powerful and it was far too effective to spam, for example taking many heroes in Mordheim or mass slings etc. So why on earth would you want to go back to that when there was a much more viable game with an obvious player base sitting right in front of you?

I have no idea why, when they mentioned it, I said if you do run a campaign sign me up.

 I posed the question on twitter and ending up having a long conversation with Dominic Westerland, @dumbluck, about it. The first thing he said is that there isn't anything else that fills that niche. Although initially I thought he may have meant Sci-Fi and Fantasy skirmish rule sets, it seems the real lure of these games came from the campaign setting and character development.

 I really struggle with games where there are rules for models gaining experience and gaining extra skills, it never feels 'right'. For example, my gang leader in Necromunda is a veteran of many fights but does not have access to any of the incredible skills available to a juve after his first fight. He can quickly become surpassed by the average ganger who makes a lucky roll. The very act of killing people does not make you stronger, experience and skills take a long time to learn. However, I can definitely see the attraction. When these models change they begin to build up a character in your head, it is a very powerful tool for making narrative games.

The next thing that came up, from when I tried to list games I thought could act as replacement fantasy and sci-fi skirmish games, is the concept of 'buying into a game'. One of the games I listed, which neither of us knew the name of but somehow we both understood each other, was described by Dominic as having awful models. I wasn't overly convinced by his assessment, but argued that if you don't like them you can simply get models from elsewhere and use them with the rules set. He argued that he prefers buying models designed for a game where possible because you are buying into the whole experience. The background, the style etc. are all represented. It is a very interesting point, one that could be expanded upon elsewhere and most likely should be investigated by miniature companies. I initially said that if the game rules are good I would just proxy, but the more I thought about it I realized that was not true. For example, I have been repeatedly told of the merits of Dreadball but when I didn't like the figures I didn't look any further. It seems that people prefer to buy into a whole game or not at all.

Are the old figures for GW skirmish games that great? Honestly, I don't think so, but they do have loads of character and I think this is where a sense of nostalgia really kicks in. When you look back on those old figures it really takes you back to the good old days of playing games as a kid. No other new rules set or models can do that. I called it gaming apathy on twitter, but that might be a very negative word, but I think that basically a few people have kept there old miniatures and rules and enough people have good memories for it to be an easy game to fall back to. It will take a very good game with great models to break the emotional attachment to these old games and replace them.

This has been quite a long ramble from me and I am sorry if it's not overly coherent but, basically, I think we have yet to have a game with good character progression rules and models nice enough to sever the emotional attachment we have to the old GW skirmish games. At least that's what I think, get in contact if you have any more thoughts. Until then.