Bale of Hay: Looking Backwards... then Forwards

If you came here wanting to read a blog post by Connor then you will be disappointed as I’m afraid it is another blog post from me this time.

So with the end of the year fast approaching I think most people have a little reflection on the year gone and look forward to next year. So here is mine.

I am very happy with the year just gone having only started playing Malifaux in March 14 and attending my first tournament in May 14. So I have been playing only been playing properly for about 7 months which means I am a baby in reality in the big scheme of things!

I have attended 7 tournaments of varying sizes this year and although not done amazingly well I have not disgraced myself. I think the main thing for me is to learn what everyone else’s crews do to limit the inevitable surprises that lose me VP. But this only comes with experience. For example there are still a lot of masters I have never faced such as Lynch, Colette, Zoraida to name but a few. The one thing I have found now though is that I have started to get a bit jaded playing tournaments with a limited master pool. Competitively I play Neverborn and have pretty much only used Lilith (with a splash of Dreamer) in all the tournaments. She is a versatile master compared to some but still feels a bit samey now and has started to impact on my enjoyment a little.

So with that in mind going into 2015 I am sticking Neverborn in the main but broadening my horizons to explore new masters. The problem I have at the moment is that Lilith has seen the majority of table time so I always tend to favour her in any strat / scheme pool that comes up. I want to get away from this so I have wider options going forward. So early 2015 I want to learn to play Pandora and Collodi. I have recently acquired both of these crews and have a large Neverborn selection to choose from so good to go. There are also other Neverborn models that I now have that have never touched the table such as Lelu and Lilitu so keen to try them out as well.

As well as mixing it up tactically and rules wise it is also going to challenge me on the painting table as I am a bit of a lazy painter so hoping to push on with that too and improve my painting / hobby skills.

I am also excited about playing some doubles if possible and going to team up with a local Elementals mate Pete Rees which should be all sorts of fun! This brings me onto my next aim for 2015 which is to get the Elementals more involved in the malifaux scene. Who I hear you shout!? Exactly my point. We are a small gaming group who play out of the NWGC in Stockport, UK which is the home ofwww.elementgames.co.uk, hence the name. Our local henchmen is the mighty Aidan Kirk and members include Pete Rees, Richard Humphries and Matt Elliott. Some of which are not that keen on competitive play but I hope can get along to some story encounter and doubles events to start spreading the Elementals love. Aidan also hopes to host 2 Malifaux tournaments next year at the NWGC so that should be good. Finally we have signed up to Mike Marshalls UK “team” league which should mean more games and more fun times in 2015. I really hope this becomes a thing as I love the idea of clubs facing off against each other for bragging rights and a league table thing.

That is all for me for today. Thanks for reading.

Chris H (@cdhay on twitter)