Kevin and the Grind Stone!

Ok, maybe today's title is a little bit of a reach, oh well.  Howdy folks!  I hope everyone had a super productive hobby week!  I'm excited because I got some models put together, I got some models painted, and I made a neat trade on Bartertown for some limited edition models (Dead Justice!).  Not a bad week.  Unfortunately I didn't get any games in, but it was for a good reason.  I spent the weekend camping with my wife for our second wedding anniversary!  As a result, no battle report, but maybe we'll work a little theory-faux in to make up for it.

Hobby

This week I put together a bunch of models for game systems that shall not be named on this blog (only because it is roughly 40,000 years in the future) and a Malifaux faction that shall not be named on this blog (it ain't easy being green).  As far as painting goes I painted up my Metal Gamin and Mei Feng, I'm still going to focus on using Ironsides until I get her down though.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with skin tones and the orange that I wound up using for her fabric.  Wonderful model to paint.  The Metal Gamin provided me with a lot of hard questions to answer.  Mostly "How do I not just drybrush this with metallics 400 times?".  In the end I hope I painted up a solid looking model my opponents won't begrudge me for putting on the tabletop.

Still haven't gotten the hang of this "Photography" thing

Effin' metal...Gamin

Gaming

Like I said earlier, no game this week, but there are some neat things on the horizon and we have a little space for some theory-faux.

On the horizon, one of my local stores has a big tournament planned for the nebulous "future" (maybe mid-October), and another of my local stores is trying to plan a campaign/achievement league to drum up interest in the game.  I'd love it if we could get enough people on board to really work on this new campaign system.  I have been reading the new book and I've got to be honest with you, It looks awesome.  The classic example that the Mistakes Were Made guys keep referring to is probably my favorite.  You can have an Ice Golem with a jetpack!

Theory-faux : You have declared Arcanists and your opponent has declared Guild.  Terrain has been set up and identified, and the following scheme pool has been revealed.  How do you choose your crew for a 50 SS game?

I Like the idea of Ironsides in Turf War.  She gets in the scrum, and she punishes your opponent for being in there.  Unfortunately, assassinate is also in the pool.  This means I either need to leave Ironsides on the shelf (she's pretty good at dying on turn 4-5) or I need to devote crew to protecting her.  For this exercise, I'm choosing more protection because it lends to the turf zone, and my opponent can't drop Molly across from me.  This means a Metal Gamin or two and at least Mouse, maybe even Johana.

Now that I am devoted to some sort of protection I feel the strong urge to keep protecting.  This way I can double down on each point I spend on keeping something alive.  Bodyguard seems like a logical choice, but who do I choose?  This is where things get a little dicey.  Murder Protoge is in the pool, so I need to keep costs in mind, I'm already bringing Johana, so she is a solid target with her condition removal and healing.  Another solid strategy is to bring Oxfordian mages and use them to manipulate the scene and keep my opponent guessing for my Bodyguard target.  Flooding the board with defensive enforcers and Henchman seems like a good call.  If flooding is the plan 2 Mages and The Captain seem to achieve this plan pretty well.

So, our list currently looks like :

Please, disregard the email and low Wi Fi

We have plenty of support for our middle scrum, ways to keep our intended targets alive, and ways to move targets in or out of the middle to our liking.  Unfortunately we don't have a deliberate second scheme, and winning on 7 points is not a great proposition.  The Mage/Captain package could probably put my opponents most expensive model into the ground, but with Guild being declared I don't like my odds against a Peacekeeper or Francisco (though with enough relic hammers any construct is in trouble).  This strategy does lend itself to keeping my Bodyguard target alive, because the most expensive model tends to be the most killy, and if it is dead, it isn't killing my Bodyguard target, or achieving Assassinate.  The danger of running under this assumption is that I leave myself vulnerable to a tanky expensive model soaking up the hits while I try to earn Protoge.  That's a risk I'm willing to take though.

Overall I'm happy with the list and the thought process, but let me know what you think.  Would you take a different master?  With no Deliver the Message or Cursed Object is Mei clearly the superior choice?  Am I crazy for not taking Mechanical Rider and declaring Power Ritual?  You tell me!

Can these plucky Union men (and women, and...robots?) Achieve their goals in the face of the oppressive Guild?

I hope you guys liked today's blog and remember you need to keep me painting!  The more people that read this the more responsible I feel for getting stuff painted for you to admire, and the more responsible I feel to get games in so I can chit chat about the game with you.  Feel free to contact me through the comments on the Blog, Via Email at ToBeAnArcanist@Gmail.com or on Twitter @KFinchster.  Thanks for reading and I'll have more up for next week!

Showdown in Pittsburgh City!

Hey everyone!  It has been an amazing week, and I really feel like I've been able to get a ton of time in with everyone's favorite hobby!  I got some Hobby time, a little bit of reading with the new book, and a Game!  I have been keeping an eye on the Wyrd trade forums for new minis (thanks to all the folks that I have been trading with!) and I also made a purchase from Mats By Mars.

Hobby
I've managed to sneak in a lot of painting, model construction, and I even built some of the unsung heroes of tabletop wargaming TERRAIN!

I have some extra insulation foam laying around my house, so I decided to start building a collection of terrain to give me the option of playing some games at home.  I whipped up a couple hills in an hour or so, nothing too fancy but certainly useful.  A little later in the week I tried my hand at building a burnt out house and am fairly happy with how it turned out.  I can't wait to try all of this stuff out on my own table!

It seems like I either get minis put together or painted in a given week, and this was a models put together week.  I managed to get a bunch of GenCon and local shop models assembled.  If you notice the metal Arcane Effigy I missed my chance to pick up the plastic while I was at GenCon.  I had one in my hand the first day, and decided to buy it later to push a purchase up to the limit for another bonus model.  When I showed up later to buy him, they were out.  A word of warning ALWAYS GO FOR THE BIRD IN THE HAND!  Fortunately a local shop had a metal one in stock, so I don't have to wait until December for the excellent condition removal this little puppet provides.

Gaming
This week was amazing because I actually got a game in!  I went to one of my FLGS's and watched a couple people play before a new player popped up, and then we started a game!  It was a 30 stone game, I declared Arcanists and he declared Guild.  The strategy was Turf War and the schemes were Bodyguard, Power Ritual, Assassinate, Murder Protoge, and of course Line in the Sand.  I took Power Ritual revealed and Bodyguard unrevealed.  He took Assassinate and Murder Protoge both unrevealed.  My list was Ironsides with Arcane Resevoir and Challenge the Crowd, Mouse, Joss with Recharge Soulstone, and 2 Union Miners.  He took the Sonia Crew box (which was beautifully painted!).  This first shot gives you a good image of the board.

This shot provides a shot of my crew.

And a shot of his crew early in the game.

We had a great game, and tied 4-4.  I scored 1 from Turf war (Goofed by trying to score with Mouse) and 3 from Power Ritual (gogo huffing and panting miner).  I failed to keep Joss alive, I figured he was going to take assassinate and waste all of his time on Ironsides.  Mouse definitely did a lot of work healing up Ironsides and pulling miners around the field (to turn on hand picked men) and I think I will be taking him in future games.  My opponent scored 2 from turf war and 2 from murder protoge.  The burning overtook Joss and those 2 points were an effective 5 because he denied me 3 all at once.

Misc
With the revamp to the Henchman program underway, I'm considering applying to be one in October.  That being said, I don't have a ton of experience under my belt with the game, but I have enthusiasm dripping out my ears.  I'd love to hear from any current Henchman about what they think about the program, and if they think I can get away with being one with less experience actually playing the game than your average Malifaux player.

Thats it for this week let me know what you think about things and if you have any questions feel free to contact me at ToBeAnArcanist@Gmail.com or on Twitter @KFinchster

Challenge of the Arcanist!

Howdy folks and welcome to another exciting installment of To Be An Arcanist!  Last week things were a little slim because of the fantastic time I had at GenCon,  and this week things start to ramp back up.  No games to talk about,  but I do get to show off some pretty pictures of members of the M&SU and some of my environment while I paint!

Hobby
This week's hobby time was a little limited,  but certainly fruitful.  Based on the suggestions of the guys over at the Breach Boys podcast I've started using brush soap.  This has changed my painting routine dramatically!  I know it sounds dumb,  but having a little ritual at the end of a session where I clean my brushes and set them back has done wonders for my organization.

As far as painting goes,  I spent the majority of my time painting members of the M&SU.  Namely miners, Johana, and a gunsmith.  All of these minis were a joy to paint.  I come from a hobby background that includes painting ranks upon ranks of very similar models,  so to be in an environment where I have to paint 3 to 4 of a type of model (excluding spiders,  looking at you Ramos!) is a breath of fresh air.

Misc!

Due to a lack of an actual game to report on,  I'll show off some of the great things I get to deal with while I paint!  First off on the list is my paint rack.  2 8 foot 1 by 3's and some molding and I've got this wonderful shelf that manages to keep me organized by keeping things on the wall instead of the floor.

Next up we have one of my cats,  Luna (no relation to McCabe's totem).  This is the Internet,  so I'm hoping the including a picture of my painting buddy will earn me some brownie points.

Luna doing her Dr. Horrible impression

That's it for this week.  Stay tuned for next week and hopefully I'll actually have a game or two with Ironsides under my belt.  Thanks for checking in folks,  and remember I need you to keep me on top of getting my stuff painted!

Kevin Catches a GenCon

Howdy howdy folks!  I'm sorry this post is a little bit late, but for those who haven't heard, there was this crazy event called GenCon last week!  I was very fortunate in that I was able to volunteer for a wonderful gaming company Iello Games.  Their generosity was the only thing allowing me to go this year, so I cannot thank them enough.  I won't bore you by listing off all of the cool and shiny things that I picked up at GenCon, but I do want to acknowledge a few amazing people who made my time there wonderful.  To the kind people at Battlefoam, I truly enjoyed our interactions and look forward to putting some Malifaux models in my new bag.  To the people at Privateer Press (specifically both of the Wills I interacted with) thanks for putting up with my constant questions.  To the awesome folks at Games & Gears, I look forward to painting with my new brushes (especially the unique katana!).  To the guys at Wyrd, thank you for being the first company to make me actually consider selling a kidney in order to afford everything that I wanted to buy!  And finally, to everyone at Iello, thank you so much for making everything possible, and for lining my car with board games!

Hobby
Now on to the stuff you really want to hear about.  Unfortunately, the same reason that my post is a little late is the same reason that I don't have much to report on from a hobby standpoint.  I did, however, manage to pick up a few Arcanist (and Arcanist related) goodies.  I look forward to painting Mr. Cooper's Carnival, Burning Revelations, my Coryphee, and Willie!  I already have the carnival half assembled now, so look forward to some new posts as I finish them up.  I also traded for a Von Schill crew while I was at GenCon, mostly because the Friekorps Librarian is such a synergistic model for my Oxfordian Mages.  That's it for the hobby front for now, but keep your eyes peeled for some interesting stuff in future weeks!

Gaming
Here is where things get a little more interesting.  While I didn't get to play many games due to my schedule, I did get to meet tons of amazing Wyrd personalities and celebrities.  Aaron and Justin were both incredibly patient with my fanboying and even managed to tell me some very insightful stuff about the hobby.  I met Joel Henry and had some excellent chats regarding the hobby.  This community truly is the friendly, open, and inviting community that I have been looking for to fill my tabletop gaming needs.

Thanks again everyone for reading, and remember, I need you to keep me on track!

Arcanist Emergency!

Howdy Howdy folks!  I'm updating the blog a little bit early this week because I will be heading to GenCon so things may be a little crazy tomorrow.  Keeping in the theme of titles of Pokemon episodes, today's post reflects the trouble I put some Oxfordian Mages into while battling some Resurrectionist scum.  I failed to adequately command them and they wound up sliced to ribbons by a punk zombie (spoiler alert).  I made a lot of progress on my painting (I have you all to thank for that!) and have been spending a lot of time getting ready for GenCon.  I'll be volunteering for iello, so come by and say hi (and maybe buy a copy of King of Tokyo!)

Now, on to the good stuff.

Hobby

This was a super productive week for my painting.  I managed to get all of the models from my Troubleshooters crew painted and I have made significant progress on my Union Miners.  I ran into an incredible amount of luck in the model acquisition department as well.  I managed to get my hands on a Johana model (to complete the Mr. and Mrs Hammer power couple) and a pink Malifaux child thanks to the great guys at Gadzooks Gaming.  They even threw in a few tokens!  On Thursday I played another game system at a local store called Drawbridge Games and the owner was kind enough to order a mechanical rider for me.  Friday involved a trip to another FLGS, Legions.  While there I discovered just how useful the Strats and Schemes deck was, so naturally I picked one up!

Gaming

At Legions I managed to have an absolute blast!  First I watched a really tight game between Lilith and Seamus.  Seamus brought plenty of Belles and Crooked Men to combo lure and shafted!  Lilith had a Grow list that had a little bit of trouble growing.  Both players were great and reminded me of the good spirits the Malifaux community is known for (and Kirai wasn't even on the table!).

After sitting back and watching I decided to get into the thick of things.  The Rezzer player and myself decided to play a game of Henchman Hardcore.  I failed to see the handicap that Rezzers face with the format (with the total inability to summon), but I still believe he was just trying to give me as big of a leg up as possible.  He ran the Daimyo, a Belle, and two Punk Zombies while I ran the Captain and three Oxfordian Mages.  The mages ran a full suite of wards and the Captain had the runes and recharge soulstone (fun fact : that is not the upgrade you want against rezzers!).  The Game was great fun despite my numerous tactical, movement, and even mechanical errors (I'm still learning here!).  In the end I scored one point off of Turf War and three for assassinate before my opponent killed enough of my models to make future scoring impossible.  He placed his models much more intelligently and score more points off of turf war for the win.  The game was as educational as it was fun for me, and I look forward to playing this opponent in the future.

Thanks for reading and remember, I need all my Earthside readers to keep me honest with my painting goals!

Arcanists, I choose YOU!

Howdy Howdy Folks!

My name is Kevin and this is my new Malifaux Blog!

I have been playing tabletop miniature games for about 10 years now, and am starting a renewed push to become a great Malifaux player.  Growing up I was (am) a huge Pokemon fan, so I chose to name this blog to be reminiscent of the 'Gotta Catch Em All' theme.  In this case my "all" is going to be all the Arcanist models.

I currently have a little under half of the models the Arcanists currently have available, and even more after GenCon takes all of my money.  This blog will track my collection as it gets painted, as well as my ability to play as I learn.  It will also serve as a home base for a podcast that is currently in the early planning stages.

When I came back to Malifaux I decided that I should pick one faction and learn it backwards and forwards.  This saves me from collecting too many styles of models, and gives me a solid target number of models to collect and paint.  I love the aesthetic of the Arcanists, and I've been a huge fan of Ramos and Colette ever since their metal kits came out way back when.  I've painted and sold each of their starter crews between their launch and 1.5, and with the turmoil currently in the fantasy tabletop gaming community I've decided to dive head first into the friendly and amazing community that Malifaux is known for.

Lets start things off with a bang.  The first master that I want to come to terms with is Toni Ironsides.  She was the first crew that I purchased when I made my triumphant return to the game, and she has some awesome models to choose from.  I have the base crew primed with a little bit of paint on them at the moment, and here is a group shot.

Expanding from there, I plan on painting up a group of M&SU models to compliment the Union's enforcer.  I have already picked up Ramos's Crew, which gives me access to two amazing heavy hitters, Howard Langston and Joss.  Everyone needs access to some ranged support, so I have 2 Gunsmiths ready to paint.  And what is a miner's union without a couple miners?  Here is a group shot of Ironsides's supporting cast.

Thanks for checking out my Blog and I need everyone out there Earthside to keep me honest and on top of my hobby.