On the Workbench - Kirai Crew - Seishin

Here are the first three finished models in my Kirai crew. When I say finished it means ready for the gaming table. I still have some accessories ordered that will be placed on these bases when they arrive. Until then these are ready to see some gaming action!

On the Workbench - Malifaux Kirai Crew

Work has finally begun on my Kirai crew. If you interested in following along. I will be using video to post some updates as I progress.

DIY Clump Foliage for Terrain

Here is a great video showing how to make your own clump foliage for terrain. I actually saw this video before the original one. I really liked the style of this though. I've been following GunBeryl on Youtube for quite awhile now even before he created his second account. Great guy and always very creative stuff. Go check him out!

Nicodem The Undead Pimp

This is the first upload to my YouTube channel in over 8 months. I hope to get adding them regularly again. If nothing else it will be a nice change in sharing my hobby progress with everyone. I would like to start getting some of my terrain tutorials up as well as Malifaux Battle Reports too.

Seamus Vs. Ramos 35 Soulstone Scrap

This was my first game using a master other than Nicodem. I decided to give Seamus and his Avatar a shot. It was certainly different than the undead factory that Nico typically produces. Here is the run down as best I can recall:

Seamus Crew:
Seamus + Avatar
Copycat Killer
Bete Noir
Canine Remains
Convict Gunslinger
Rotten Belle x2
8 Soulstone Pool

vs.

Ramos Crew:
Ramos
Mobile Toolkit
Joss
Steamborg Executioner
Steampunk Arachnids x3
6 Soulstone Pool

Core Strategy: Reconnoiter

Seamus: Claim Jump & My Little Friend
Ramos: Sabotage & Kill Protege (Bete Noir)
I may have some of the strategies and schemes mixed up. I have them written down but not with me.

The first round initiative was won by Ramos and I was not in sync at all trying to find the synergy of this crew. Not much happened in the first round other than moving up, jockeying for position and Ramos gathering scrap and summoning an Electrical Creation. My initial plan was to concentrate on the two quarters of my side of the board as well as the one where my claim jump marker was located. I figured this would give me a good start on Victory Points.

At this point Ramos had two Electrical Creations on the board (one proxy with token) and the 3 original arachnids had joined into a swarm heading toward the side with Seamus and the claim jump marker. He also had moved his Executioner over to sit on the claim jump marker and kept popping his steam fog ability. I had tossed the canine remains into the list as fodder. I figured it could be used to either help summon another belle or a spot to pop Bete up at. You can also see a belle and the convict gunslinger stretched out on the left side here. Lastly, you can just barely make out the base of Joss at the top of the image in the center. Joss was sent to help against Seamus, his totem and a Belle. Both of my belles were mostly used to help drag models into range for attacks on the left and right side of the table. I didn't notice the first round that the true synergy of Seamus and the belles actually worked better with Seamus going first and then activating the belle immediately after. Live and learn!

At this point there had been another arachnid swarm moving up the right side of the picture trying to get to my side for the sabotage scheme. My belle pushed him into range for my convict gunslinger who actually got trigger happy off and killed him in a single activation.

Not much new in this shot. More creations from Ramos and my canine remains is about to go poof from one exploding next to him.

By this point Joss had been taken out by Seamus. I attempted a slit jugular once and my timing was way off. It seemed I was almost always activating him while my opponent had a hand full of cards. I finally just said to hell with it and simply kept attacking him until he was dead. I then popped Bete out at this point to either help me with the Executioner or to head for Ramos.

It turned out things really started going bad for Ramos in round four. I was able to manifest Avatar Seamus who went over and smacked around the Executioner for a couple of rounds before killing him off. Bete made her way toward Ramos and his little creations. I got lucky with Bete's 7 Defense and was able to take down a Swarm with her. By the 6th round Ramos didn't have any significant models on the table other than himself. I moved a couple of models around to give me 3 of the quarters uncontested and the 4th being shared with 1 significant model each.

The final score was 6 - 0 Seamus. I have a lot to learn with this crew but it really was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace.

Things learned running this Seamus Crew:

• Slit Jugular can be vicious if played later in a turn after an opponent has used up their control hand. This is especially true with Seamus and Bete Noir both having the ability.
• Seamus's synergy with the belles seems to work better when he activates earlier.
• The belle and convict gunslinger was a very nice combo on one side of the table.
• The copycat killer wasn't as useful as I had thought. I thought he would be able to do more damage since he had the same gun as Seamus. I didn't notice the 3 Cb on it until the first time I tried to use it.
• Avatar Seamus is fairly easy to manifest by turn 4.
• Focus on strategies and schemes! This is a difficult one for me coming from games where tabling your opponent meant a big win. In this case I didn't focus on killing much until things got near me or in my way to accomplish my own strategies and schemes.

I should be starting to assemble, paint and play my Kirai crew this week though in preparations for my first Malifaux Tournament on December 17th at my local gaming store Gaming Grounds in Kent, OH.

Breach Hunter - Charleston, WV

I have created another new series. There will not be an regularity to frequency of posts with this one. Let me first state or remind some readers that I travel a lot for my job. I am going to try to find local gaming stores in the areas that I visit. I will do my best to find shops and share my experience and opinions of the stores options, location and staff of these. The first shop I want to share is the Lost Legion Games & Comics "The Rifleman" in downtown Charleston, WV. They had only been at this location for less than 3 weeks. I didn't see the inside of their old location but from seeing photos of the old store front I would guess this spot offers a lot more room for onsite gaming.

I arrived a few minutes before they opened up and shared a few words with a patron and a staff member out front before going inside. Both were very friendly which is a good sign for anyone looking to frequent this shop. This is a good first impression due to the fact it meant they had no issues with chatting it up with a complete stranger that simply had a common interest in gaming. I will be the first to admit there isn't much worse than walking into a store with an elitist vibe from patrons or staff members that only seem to pressure you into purchasing something and then ushering you out the door. This shop gave off neither thankfully.

I looked around for a few minutes and noticed a wide range of items for sale including: Books, Comics, Magic The Gathering (and other CCG's), various wargaming models and systems including GW, Wyrd Miniatures (both Malifaux and Puppet Wars) and much more!

After browsing for a bit I found myself looking through the Malifaux items and picked up a pack of swap base inserts and swamp base accessories. These two items should be just enough for me to base what I have so far for my Ophelia crew (11 models).

There were a total of 6 full size tournament style wargaming tables available with tons of terrain pieces both on top of the tables (see pictures below) as well as crates of additional pieces underneath. There were also about a dozen or so folding tables that could be used for various things including CCG's. There was also a room in the back that I didn't get a picture of that I think they use for Role-playing games which is really cool!

I proceeded to the counter to make my purchase and asked the friendly staff member if she would mind me taking some pictures for this blog entry. I told her I was from out of town and am just a fellow traveling gamer. She said she didn't mind at all and that the store actually offers a discount for anyone that travels from more than an hour away. I informed her that I was actually from about 4 hours away. I was quite surprised by the discount. Here is how it works: This discount is given to offset the cost of fuel used to travel to the store from greater distances. Fill up your tank, get a receipt and bring it into the store. They will give you 20% off until that percentage of discount equals what you paid in gas. This is a very unique way to give a discount as well as bring in some more customers. Any kind of discount a consumer can receive is nice. At the same time any way to bring more consumers in the door helps a company owner. This is even more important for today's small businesses to survive.

The next thing to mention is they have a Google calendar that can be viewed from their website with a smorgasboard of events! From what I can see they don't have any less than 3 events scheduled for any given day. During the discussion before entering the store there was mentioned of a ton of things scheduled for Black Friday (This Friday 11/25/11).

The last thing I will mention before giving a summary of all things is the location. The spot of the new shop is a very nice looking town. It has a very small town shopping center feel to it which was nice. There were eateries, banks and shops lining the streets with several benches scattered throughout to take a rest on. The only real draw back is navigating this area during rush hours. Downtown Charleston, WV is rather dead from my experiences after about 6:00pm but hitting these streets during the rush hour periods can be nerve wracking if you don't know your way around. Older GPS units can be tricky in the area as well as a lot of road ways have changed in the past few years. The shop is still worth a trip though!

Experience at "The Rifleman":

• Staff 5/5 - There was only one staff member present but she seemed to love the hobby just as much as any other gamer walking through the front door.
• Gaming Space 5/5 - With several tables available for various types of gaming you can't go wrong!
• Products 5/5 - They had a wide range of products from collectibles to gaming and were willing to order anything not currently in stock.
• Events 5/5 - Again their calendar shows the tremendous amount of events taking place at this shop
• Location 4/5 - It is a friendly area but as I said it could be a little tricky in finding your way here with your sanity still intact.

Name:  Lost Legion Games & Comics "The Rifleman"

Website:  http://www.lostlegiongames.com/

Physical Address:  600 D Street, South Charleston, WV 25303

Phone:  (304) 205-7919

M&SU Workbench - Nicodem

Thanks to my Twitter buddy across the pond James, I have been inspired to start getting some models painted up. I started and finished Nicodem today. I've always thought he looked like the vulture toting pimp of Malifaux so I just had to paint him up in pimp purple. I also added some blood stains to the vulture's beak. I changed how I did my floor boards too and am much more pleased with this out come. If you have any questions on how I did anything or what colors I used, feel free to ask.