What's In The Soulstone Bag? #2

I am still messing around with my setup for taking photos but I think they are steadily increasing with each new shot and slight adjustments I make. In the soulstone bag this week we have some additions for my Arcanists and Rasputina crew specifically.

I am constantly looking for new information and tactics on the web regarding Malifaux. I find more blogs and twitter accounts to follow almost daily. I think one of the best additions to my arsenal of reading material though has been the Pull My Finger Wiki for Malifaux. I have been spending about a hour a night on average simply following one link to the next to see what they have for each model. There is just an amazing amount of information there already and continues to grow. I really like the fact that they found a way to have all of this information without actually posting rules and statistics that could be seen as copyright infringement.

Anyways, after reading several areas throughout the Arcanists and Tina's pages I decided to order an Essence of Power to increase the efficiency of her spells. I also ordered my first Silent One (probably with another or two in the near future) to give Tina some decent to use her Ice Mirror with. Lastly, I ordered the Snow Storm model to increase mobility threats. Not to mention I think it is a gorgeous looking model.

The only downfall I have for any of these models is the fact that the Snow Storm is a large resin sculpt and from what I have seen of it out of the box already it is going to need a lot of clean up and prep work before it gets painted. There is quite a lot of flash present that needs removed carefully due to the amount of detail in the models fur.

All in all I think these models will be great additions to my Rasputina crews. I also finished my first winter themed base on a different model so I feel more comfortable doing all of these with the same technique.

Review of the Malifaux Rulebook

Let me get a couple of things out of the way first. Initially I want to let anyone reading this know that out of respect for Wyrd Miniatures I tried to include pictures in this post that would not cause any loss of product sales such as pages that would include actually statements of rules and such. However I did want to give a couple of examples of what you will find in this book. In all honesty it was this book alone that first steered me toward the Malifaux game.

With that being said I thought I would also give a brief description of how I came to be interested in Malifaux. I only started miniature wargaming just last year (2010). I quickly got addicted to both the hobby side and the gaming side. Though due to the amount of time I spend traveling for my job the hobby side typically receives much more attention than the gaming does. In about 4 months I had spent way too much money in building 2 Warhammer 40K armies. By January this year I had begun looking for an alternative that would feed my gaming and hobby addiction but at a smaller scale. I narrowed it down between Warmachine/Hordes and Malifaux. In the end it was the different feel in style all together to Malifaux that interested me more so I pulled the trigger and ordered two crew box sets (Ramos and Seamus) as well as the original rulebook and the Rising Powers which had not been out very long. All four items sat in my den until late August. I think the combination of having some free time again, as well as an additional new local gaming store opening up by my office, finally got me to pick things back up and get into this game.

I had leafed through this rulebook a couple of times but only recently picked it up and read it from cover to cover. I figured if I am going to get playing these models I might as well get familiar with the general rules and the rules of the models I owned at the time. At first I tried to read the book from beginning to end and that just seemed to confuse me. If you haven't opened this one up yet let me warn you that there are rules and fluff (world setting back story) scattered all over the place as you go through it. This isn't to say there isn't an order to it but you will find stories breaking up rules several times. So I decided that I would go through and cherry pick all of the rules first. That seemed to work as I went through and seemed to have a much better understanding of the rules by doing this. Once that was finished I circled back around and just finished reading all of the fluff stories this morning. I have to say the stories made me appreciate this world/system even more. So much I have already began looking for novels with a similar feel to read after finishing the three Malifaux rulebooks.

The book has a lot of great material whether it is the rules, the storyline or even the glossary or quick reference pages in the back. Overall I really enjoyed reading this and feel that the rules were laid out in a way that is fairly easy to understand.

The game itself differs in so many ways from the typical miniature wargaming system but to me the major way is the use of cards that control the fate of everything you do rather then rolling 20+ six sided dice across the table. The miniatures are gorgeous. Each model has its uses and various styles of play. There are dozens of different game setups and uses of terrain which make almost every game you play different from the previous ones.

The only thing I have to do now it control myself from buying any more models until I get the crews and solo's painted up that I currently have. Well after I pick up my Seamus alternate and avatar this weekend of course...

***NOTE***
As was mentioned in the comments below the rule set found in the original book here is outdated. You can find the v2 character cards as well as other useful tools at the Malifaux Downloads Page.

What's in the soulstone bag? #1

I have decided to make my first reoccuring topic today. What's in the soulstone bag is going to be an update of purchases as I continue to build my crews, my collection and my most recent addiction of Malifaux.

I don't currently have a set gaming budget but I may need to establish one after this week. What I am about to share are only the purchases that I made at the local shop or that have arrived in the mail at the time of posting. I still have a couple of things in transit.

As I am building my first two factions of Arcanists and Resurrectionist I picked up the Rasputina and Nicodem boxes. These will be nice additions to the Ramos and Seamus boxes that I purches back in January. I also picked up a copy of the newest rulebook Twisted Fate to round out my set which already consisted of the original and the Rising Powers books. I plan on doing a personal review on the original rulebook some time soon. I realize this won't be recent news for the system or hobby but I just want to voice my opinions on the books layout and content. Look for that in the next week or two.

The next purchase made this week was towards obtaining some counters. After surfing the web for various gaming counters I stumbled upon the Chessex brand gaming counters/tokens which were nice looking glass beads. The down side is they are fairly pricey at $5 and up for 25 to 40 counters. I knew I had seen similar items somewhere. I thought for sure I could find something similar to use at craft stores using some type of glass or plastic bead but then I saw a picture of aquarium gems and they looked almost identical to the gaming counters I had previously seen. I did some shopping online and at local stores and found the ones pictured above for less than $2 per bag at a local pet supply store. I haven't counted the number of them in the bags yet but I would say they are easily 40 or more which is less than half the cost of similar count name brand gaming counters. I wanted the dark blue and green so I could have a color to represent both of the factions I am building but they didn't have green. Of the colors currently available I ended up with the teal, cobalt and ruby colors pictured above. These will represent soulstones, tokens and counters until I figure out how I plan to print out and use the awesome looking ones that Ratty has come up with. I am thinking of printing them on regular paper or card stock and mounting the cutouts onto foamcore. I just haven't quite decided yet.

The only other notable topic is the fact that I am beginning to grow a nice relationship with a brand new local gaming store in my area named Gaming Grounds which has only been open about a month now. I like the fact that it is only a 5 minute drive from where I work and they open at noon. I can go in there a couple of times a week on my lunch hour and just see whats new, talk gaming with the owner and discuss product orders and new releases. I think that concludes this What's in the soulstone bag for today. I have some resin bases and clam shell packs yet to arrive but once they get here I will share!

Miners and Steamfitters Union Established

The first set that I have begun working on for my Malifaux crews is the Arcanists - Ramos box set. This is the set that comes with Ramos, 1 Steamborg Executioner Class and 6 individual Steampunk Arachnids which I believe are typically built as two Steampunk Arachnid Swarms. This was one of two box sets that I originally purchased back in January and have only just recently dug into with a strong desire to get some games in.

I actually began working on the arachnids last week and the sheer size of the pieces were honestly difficult for me to deal with. I think I ended up with more glue on my fingers than the model on the first try. Once I got to the second and third it became much easier. I wanted to do something a bit different with the bases. I debated ordered some of the base inserts which are really nice looking. However, I decided against it simply because I assume there would be lots of people with those bases built on the tables and I didn't want to wait for the items to arrive.

What I ended up doing (if you can't already tell) was raid my Warhammer 40K bits boxes and found a couple of Rhino doors. I added that and some basic cork to the bases to hopefully end up with a slightly more original and less seen base once on the table. I may still add some battle damage to the doors as well. I haven't decided just yet.

Once I was happy with the models and bases for the arachnid swarms I move onto Ramos. This one was very easy to assemble which only included two pieces (minus the base). I had to straighten the flame slightly after the glue had dried but was happy with the end positioning. To follow similar suite with the arachnid swarms I cut off another piece of Rhino door and planted this one so that it looks like it is coming out of the ground. There will of course be more basing materials such as stones and flock that will cover it more.

The last item in the set is the rather large Steamborg Executioner Class which is housed on a 50mm base. I have ordered a custom base for this fella which is why he is simply resting on the stock one pictured here. I also have not attached his arms until his new base arrives and I see just exactly what his positioning will be.

All in all I am quite pleased with the quality and detail found in the Malifaux miniatures line. I honestly can't wait to get some of these crews assembled and painted so I can begin playing some games!

Introduction to the Breach

In an effort to keep my blogs organized and fairly clean with pertinent content, I have created this one to share my table top experiences.


Last year I entered the table top wargaming world with Warhammer 40,000 and there will probably be some posts about that found here in the future.

My current foray into the table top gaming systems though is Malifaux. The models originally drew me to the game back at the beginning of the year. I purchased two box set crews and the first two rule books. I have recently come to learn there is a new one called Twisted Fate which I plan to pick up some time in the next couple of weeks.

I began work on my Ramos box this weekend. I have Ramos and both Arachnid Swarms assembled and put on their custom decorated bases. I also have the Steamborg Executioner mostly assembled but am waiting for his resin base to arrive before finishing his assembly. I need to know exactly how he will be positioned before I attach his torso and arms.

I have yet to play a game but the system is being played in two local shops and seeing how I have the beginnings of two separate crews I should be able to easily find a friend or two willing to try it out. This is one of the things that appealed to me about the game. You didn't need to drop several hundreds of dollars into getting started as you do with some of the larger scale army wargame systems. Honestly for around $100 you can have two solid crews and the rulebook and be on your way.

I will be sharing my modeling, gaming and product review experiences in posts to come.