ToMB Month 4: The Full McMourning

Here we are, my Month 4 post for the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers!

Bayou Construct

One of McMourning's passions is grafting parts from different creatures together. He would do this regularly when creating his infamous "Flesh Constructs" back in Malifaux city, and he certainly didn't stop when he moved to the Bayou. Most of these creations proved even less useful than the creatures those parts came from, but one of his more notable successes are his "Bayou Constructs". 

Put simply, McMourning's Bayou construct is an undead waldgeist existing within an undead silurid. The symbiotic relationship seems to benefit both entities, with the Waldgiest lending it's resiliance and the silurid providing better locomotion with which to catch it's prey. The pliability of the Silurids brain is an added bonus for McMourning. It makes it easier for him to command them or at the very least, make sure they don't eat too many of his other experiments.

Porcine Remains

It was perhaps inevitable that Sebastian II would further emulate his employer and begin attempting some necromancy of how own. The Piglets were the natural choice of course. After all, the creatures were in plentiful supply and McMourning had long since moved on to experimenting on larger and more challenging creations. Initial attempts to raise piglets from the dead proved...messy, especially when he forgot to kill the piglet he was attempting to resurrect in the first place. But lessons were learnt and after some months he found himself able to resurrect piglets with relative ease. 

Another pic of the crew - I was so excited when I finished Silurid/Piglets that I just had to pull everyone out for a group shot. :)

Spending!

Below are my final month's purchases. As usual, prices are from http://elementgames.co.uk/

Allowance for Month 4: £15.00

Left from last month:  £13.08

3x Silurids: -£13.60

3x Piglets:  -£10.19

Money remaining: £4.29

You might have noticed that I technically had the money to buy the piglets last month. The problem however, was a lack of 30mm translucent rootbeer bases. Fortunately they arrived in my order for this month, along with the Silurid and Piglets. 

Nooo! I had to use non-Wyrd bits. :(

Modelling

Modelling and painting the piglets was a pretty simple affair. I'd already worked out the paint scheme from the piglet and warpig I painted earlier. So the hardest thing came down to converting them into looking undead, which basically involved me doing the same thing I did to Lenny - removing brains (or faces), drilling out eye sockets and cutting bits of them up.

The Silurid, of course, were a much trickier prospect. If you've read my previous blog posts you'll know that I was having trouble figuring out how to do flesh constructs for my Bayou McMourning crew. I eventually decided on using Silurids for the base model, since they seemed like the closest I could get to a Bayou-themed model that would look Ht 2 and fit on a 40mm base. 

Making the Silurids more like undead flesh constructs was another matter. I thought about bulking them out with modelling putty or sculpting some tentacles, but I'm really not convinced I'm good enough at sculpting to pull that off. So eventually, I relented and decided to cheat. I delved into my bits box and cannibalized some GW Dryads for waldgeist-type branches. 

To paint the silurid I wanted them to look like an undead version of their old colour scheme (green with purple fins), but I didn't want the green to match the gremlins. So instead I started with a bright green (GW scorpion green...blending up to yellow on the belly), then washed with GW agrax earthshade and drybrushed with GW elf grey. After I figured that out, the rest was pretty simple. 

Deployment vs Colette

Gaming

On writing this, I did manage to fit in a game with my full Bayou McMourning crew! The game was Stake a Claim against a Showgirl-heavy Colette crew played by regular opponent Chris. My 50SS crew was as follows;

McMourning

- Moonlighting

- Evidence Tampering

- Plastic Surgery

Sebastian

- Transfusion

Rogue Necromancy

- Necrotic Preparation

Zombie Chihuahua

3x Guild Autopsies

Nurse

Rotten Belle

Nobody fucks with John Carpenter...

So no Student of Sinew/Undead Lenny, but I finally had the models for McMourning to summon with his Moonlighting upgrade! I won't go into the details but basically, the crew kicked ass and took names! McMourning summoned just one Flesh construct but between the crew's killing power and the plentiful poison going around, poor Colette couldn't handle it and she was wiped out on turn 5. 

McMourning finally gets to use his Moonlighting upgrade. :)

To be fair, Chris is an experienced gamer but this was his first game with Colette. Her lack of killing power sort of exaggerated what McMourning could dish out, but it still gave me a taste of how brutal he can be. 

I think the above crew is more or less what I'd want to take in future games with McMourning. It's got a good balance between killing power and numbers, and a hell of alot of poison-centric synergy throughout the entire crew. The only change I might make is to add "Those are not ours!" to Sebastian, but otherwise it's a fairly solid crew.

Unfortunately for Colette, the green dice denotes their poison value. 

Reflections!

Being month 4 I suppose this officially ends my participation in the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers! I am, of course, EXTREMELY happy with the end product. Almost every model in the crew is converted, with the only exceptions being the Gremlinette (whom I couldn't bear altering) and the metal piglet. I also managed to use translucent bases for the crew which is also a bonus, especially when it actually fits in with the crew!

Overall, I had a blast building/painting the crew, and the huge amount of positive feedback on the models was really encouraging! 

Post-game crew shot. 50SS of OHMYGODTHEPOISON!!!

But if I learnt one thing from this experience, it's that Bayou McMourning is the only kind of crew I should bother collecting. I have alot of Malifaux - 33 painted crews in fact. But the crews I love the most are the ones that are completely different from the norm. Crews like Neverborn Perdita, the Mei Feng Cake crew, Jack Daw and now Bayou McMourning - these are all crews that I love because I put some real effort into making them look different. It's also a part of why I've had trouble finding a Resser master I enjoy using. After all, Bayou McMourning is the only one I have from that Faction who's "non-standard". 

So what does all this mean? Well I'm going to stop mindlessly painting crews. Completing my Malifaux collection is all well and good, but unless I can find some way of making them look unique then I might as well just not bother. Of course the flipside of that is that I'm now going to look for new ideas on how to make the crews I build genuinely unique. And hopefully for the next ToMB, I'll have something unique enough to at least rival Bayou McMourning. ;)

Until next time, 

Adrian

The summons...please excuse the bases, they were finished after my Colette game. :P

Gremlin Zoraida, or why Dom is playing her all wrong...

Even if Jack Daw recently took first place, Zoraida was my first love in Malifaux and remains one of my favorite Masters in the game. So when Gremlin afficionado Dominc Westerland posted up a blog article about Gremlin-Zoraida, I had to check it out;

http://www.wargamernation.com/uncategorized/obey-some-thoughts-on-gremlin-zoraida/

Basically, alot of people have been dissing on Zoraida lately ("Neither aggressive nor competitive"). I guess this prompted Dom to bring her out and see if he could make her useful as a Gremlin Master. His thoughts are sumarised in the above article, and anyone interested in Zoraida or the Gremlins in general should definitely give it a read!

But as I was reading it, I couldn't help but disagree with some of points he was making. Now normally I'd post a reply on the thread/article and leave it at that. But I'm in the mood for some writing so hey, why not write a blog post about it? ;)

Now first off, full disclosure - I haven't played Zoraida in a little over a year and my last game with her was my only one with her leading a Gremlin crew. By all rights, Dom is the better authority on Gremlin Zoraida. He's got far more experience with the Gremlin faction and has definitely played Zoraida more in the last 12 months than I have!

Still, one of the handy things about having a blog is that you can say whatever crap you want. So for better or worse,  I'm writing it. ;)

Obey

Probably one of Zoraida's most iconic spells, Dom's right in that Zoraida's Obey can be used on friendly models like a sort of AP bank. And he's also right in that those extra AP can make those models so much better at what they do. 

BUT if you're only ever using it on friendly models then with the odd exception, it's a waste of a Master's AP. More aggressive Masters like Ophelia or Wong can spend their AP on attacks that are both more card efficient (no need to flip/cheat a 7 just to use it in the first place) and often more damaging. Moving models around is great but Ophelia can do that too (and still shoot the crap out of everything at the same time). In fact if spending Master AP to get your crew doing stuff is your thing, you're far better off using (to borrow Dom's analogy) the real Oprah of Malifaux - Lucius. Despite a few limitations he's far more efficient with his AP than Zoraida, since his Issue Command is almost always a 2 for 1 AP effect. Okay, sure, Lucius isn't a Gremlin Master but the point stands - Zoraida's strength does not lie in Obeying her own models.

Like I alluded to above there are always going to be instances where Obeying a friendly model will be well worth it, but I don't believe it's the best way to use her. So the key to getting the best use out of Zoraida's Obey, is to use it to turn your opponents models against them. This especially becomes relevant when you start combining Zoraida's Obey with Bewitch.

My Avatar Zor...ahem... proxy Emissary. ;)

Bewitch

Put simply, I believe that Bewitch is one of the main reasons to play Zoraida. It basically adds a condition to an enemy model that lets you draw two cards whenever they walk, charge or make a non-charge attack action. Also note that you draw the cards before any duels resulting from the action, which gives you the chance to use them straight away! In an ideal activation you could Bewitch one target one enemy model, then Obey it twice to essentially draw 4 cards, and punch the crap out of another enemy enemy model. Then once that enemy model activates it will potentially net you even more card draw. Also because it lasts until the end of that model's next activation, meaning Zoraida can prime an enemy model with Bewitch at the end of one turn, and then reap the reward of all those extra cards in the next turn. 

Why is all this card draw so great? It basically tips fate in your favour - the low cards you draw will never be flipped in a starting duel and the high cards can be cheated. It gives you much more control over your deck and thus makes it much easier for the rest of your crew to do exactly what you want them to. 

The weakness of Bewitch is that aside from using Obey, your opponent can limit the cards you draw by Charging, or using tactical actions like Focus or Defensive. That's all well and good, but by changing what your opponent does you're still reducing the effectiveness of the model you Bewitched, not to mention that if you target a high-value model (eg. Killjoy or a Master), they're faced with the difficult choice of either not using them as well as they could, or giving you an ass-load of cards. 

Activating the Bewitched model late would also limit the effectiveness of the cards you draw, but that in itself can work in your favour. Just target high-priority models your opponent will want to activate early. Once again that gives them a hard choice between leaving that model vulnerable for most of the turn or essentially doubling the size of your hand!


Teeny Tiny Puppet - the Voodoo Doll

When I started playing M2E Zoraida I was not very impressed by Zoraida's Voodoo Doll. It cost a (2) action to summon so you generally had to spend a full activation just getting the Doll out. But over time I warmed up to it. It's an easy summon in turn 1, when Zoraida hasn't much else to do, and its potential to just wreck an enemy model shouldn't be underestimated. 

In Dom's article, his main concern with the Voodoo doll was the investment required to mess with just one model - requiring Zoraida, the Doll and a Nurse to handout some very nasty condtions. But I don't think it's as bad as that. For one, after she's summoned the Doll there's nothing else Zoraida needs to do. At worst you might want to heal the doll up with the Tarot Reading upgrade, but otherwise I see the doll as a sort of fire and forget weapon. After turn 1 Zoraida has far better things to do than babysit her Totem. So you're really just left with the Nurse. Dom expressed doubt as to whether she's really worth the investment but for me, I think she is. With Bewitch your card hungry Nurse should have what she needs to get her Take your Meds triggers, plus the heal from the crow trigger reduces the need for Zoraida to take Tarot Reading to periodically heal the doll. 

It's also worth noting that the Voodoo Doll can be hired. To be honest I've never really thought much of it. The choice to me comes down to whether those 3SS are worth 2AP from Zoraida in Turn 1. Right now I'd say no, but when I get back into playing Zoraida it's certainly something I'd like to test out. 

I don't have a pic of Iggy handy so here's the next best thing - my Merris Proxy! 

Iggy - because the Gremlins really need more Ht 1 models...

Enthrall can be used to hire an interesting array of different models. But IMO the best by far for Gremlin Zoraida, even moreso than a Nurse, is Iggy. As a Neverborn it seems kind of silly to pay the Enthrall tax just to bring him into the Gremlin faction, but I think it's worth it. For one, Burning from his Ignition attack is a great condition to put on a Voodoo Doll. It basically deals the Hemmed model double damage from the Burning Condition - one from the burning condition and one the voodoo doll taking damage from it's own Burning condition (note: Merris would be good for this too!). He's also got Incite, a (0) action that grants the Mood Swing condition. This lasts until the models next activation, and allows you to choose that model to activate instead of another model your opponent might want to pick. Like Bewitch, if you put it on an activated model it lasts through to the next turn. So if you combine it with Bewitch you can force an opponent to activate a certain model early to net you some additional cards. 

Incite is also like guaranteeing you'll win initative next turn. Whether you win or lose the initative flip, you can ensure your opponents first activation is a non-critical model, ensuring you'll be able to activate your own key model first! 

Finally, there's Iggy's other (0) action: Throw a Fit. This is a simple -2Wp aura for unactivated enemy models. To be honest I've rarely wanted to use it over Incite, but it does work nicely with Zoraida's Wp-centric playstyle and if nothing else, it's another incentive for your opponent to activate certain (possibly Bewitched) models early. ;)


The Raven or the Magic 8-Ball

Zoraida has two limited upgrades - Animal Shape (lets her teleport a significant distance for a (2) action) and Crystal Ball (On activation either draw a card, force a discard or look at three random cards from the opponent's hand).

Dom's opinion on the two upgrades is that he felt Animal shap was the auto-include. Normally I would disagree, but I think his conclusion is due in no small part to what he's using Zoraida for. As Dom said, Animal Shape is great for when you want Zoraida to be super-mobile or evasive. And from what I gather that is pretty much why Dom picks Zoraida over other Gremlin Masters for certain strategies/schemes anyway. Still, if you've committed to Zoraida and you aren't playing a game where Animal shape is strictly necessary, Crystal Ball is definitely the way to go.

Of course the as Gremlin Master, Zoraida has the added advantage of getting her cake and eating it too, since Sammy LaCroix can simply take the Limited upgrade the Zoraida doesn't want (most likely Crystal Ball). Is it worth bringing in Sammy for this purpose? Having never played her I can't really be sure. But the rest of her card seems custom-built to synergise with Mamma-Z, so I suspect the answer is yes!


In Summary...

...Dom is wrong. ;) But he's also right! The overall conclusion of Dom's piece was that Zoraida is very competitive in the Gremlin Faction. On that point I absolutely agree with him - Zoraida is awesome. I wrote this article because I disagree on some of the specifics, but only some. I absolutely agree with most of the other points Dom made about her strengths/weaknesses, and how she can be used. 

Anyway, I think the take home message for me is despite not playing her for more than a year, I still really, really like Zoraida. Right now I'm focussing on the Resser faction with my "Year of the Crow" but if I'm being honest, my eyes have already started to wander. I've yet to make any decision about what to play after I'm done with Ressers, but I'm starting to suspect my future will involve a saggy-breasted old woman with a penchant for sticking needles in things... ;)

Later,

Adrian

Mantic Open Day Seminar 1 Summary

So today's post is not from me, but by Sam Rounsevell - fellow wargamer and good friend of mine from Brisbane. He did a summary of this years Mantic Games open day Seminar with the founder Ronnie Renton (video linked here) and asked if I could host it on my blog. Naturally I agreed, partly because Sam's a cool guy but mostly because I actually want to read these rumours! Over the past year I've been getting into both Deadzone and Kings of War. At some point I'll probably do a proper blog post about it but for now, here's Sam's video summary!

Later,

Adrian

This isn't specifically related to the seminar below - I just wanted to add a vaguely relevant picture. ;)

Summary of Seminar 1 (Ronnie & Jake) - Mantic Open Day - May 2015

Hi guys, these are my paraphrased notes on the first seminar.  

My comments are in (brackets) so they are not mistaken for Ronnie's or Jake's words.

Note I am Werewomble on the forums, not a Mantic employee and all of this is totally legally binding.
If a single prediction does not come to pass I get to repossess Ronnie's fringe to make a toupee and 12 Molochs for my Abyssals army.  

And some spare Enforcers.  Any Dreadball teams I didn't back that look cool, too.  

1:00

Ronnie hands around production model of the Dungeon Saga Dragon.  

Visible on Youtube - its 3-4 inches tall, size is not apparent in the linked picture from Facebook.  

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155524907000497&set=gm.1065866130107928&type=1&theater

There is an alternate neck piece allowing a rider.

2:00

Fantasy version of Deadzone (Mantic Mordheim) is on the list of things to do.    

Short list of 4-5 things order to be determined.  

(Refer later comments re: fewer Kickstarters better - a couple of these will be done properly, not an avalanche of them)

3:00

Ronnie states Warpath/Dreadball are in the same universe as are Kings/Dungeon Saga/un-named Fantasy Deadzone.  

This creates great world-building opportunities.  

He says he's not doing a Mad Max game.  

(Notable that a Mad Max / Gorka Morka game could be slotted into the Warpath universe, though - parallels with future vehicle development for Warpath)  

Sci-fu Dungeon Saga is on said list.

(so presumeably Space Crusade / maybe Space Hulk equivalents)

All these are mentioned with the proviso that Kings, etc. are bedded down first.  

(Note later on Ronnie states they want to do a smaller number of Kickstarters better)

6:45

Only hold-up with Warpath is being able to make excellent vehicles - no point in doing it without vehicles.  

(pre-alpha Warpath rules to be released on Beasts of War 21st May)

7:30

Question about modelling materials.  

Ideal solution is hard plastic sprues.  

Kings of War and Deadzone: Infestation were restic free Kickstarters.  

Hard plastic for majority of troops types.  

Metal and resin for heroes and one-offs.  

Restic only for big things - Jake chimed in that its advantage is having big stuff with less parts (Ogres being an example).  

Ronnie quickly responded that they've heard us loud and clear and restic is not something they want to do any more of.  

(While Jake's comment that restic works for bigger models is true, it was obvious he was being a loose cannon and going off on a tangent Ronnie did not share)

14:30

Q: Dwarf plastic kits?

If Kings 2nd edition sells well they can churn out hard plastic sets to fill holes without Kickstarter.  

2nd edition Kickstarter focussed on getting two new armies out.  

Getting older armies' individual units in hard plastic is on the to-do list.  

KSers are better at to doing close to whole armies rather than bits for all armies.  

(My experience buying up Basileans from Kings 1.0 backers reflects this - I must have bought units from 5 different people, none had a use for Basileans but me)

17:30

Ronnie wants to service stores & pathfinders better going forward.  

Promoting Kings, Dungeon Saga and Dreadball is a big focus.  

Focus has been on quality control on restic and packing issues which are now manageable.  

Focus can now move to community/retail support.

Community created online content needed.  

20:00

Q:Unit bases for Warpath?

Ronnie says they will be optional like Kings...

Not necessary to have individually based models.  

Dioramas/trays make more sense.  

Ronnie relates his own evolution of keeping single model bases to be able to go back to Fantasy, realising it'll never happen and going nuts with dioramas on movement trays.  

(Me and all my Kings playing friends went through that exact same process - its trays all the way now and dioramas are pretty)

If you are playing Warpath with 100+ figures you may well end up sticking models to movement trays/dioramas.  

Warpath measures everything from the Commander.  

Keep the Commander figure loose to show the unit is in a building.  

Interaction is between "big bloody tanks", flying vehicles, infantry units, objectives to blow up, clear people out with grenades and flame throwers, etc.  

(This sounds better than just a 40K replacement - reminiscent of Dropzone Commander's infantry and objectives - awesome!)

25:00

On the lowest points level Warpath will crossover a bit with Deadzone models.

(Only reason to keep models separate I can see unless 40K becomes a game again)  

26:00

Jake:  Learning curve of Deadzone is quite steep.  

Rules could be cleaner.  

Layout, graphics, rules could be slicker.  

Deadzone 1.1 is a chance to remove stumbling blocks to learning.  

Rules review.  

Book layout to be fixed.  

Not having unit cards as a requirement.  

Simplifying statlines like the Command stat so there is less to remember.  

Nothing is final yet - there will be a public playtest session in "a month or so".  

(All sounding good - I taught two new players last night and I felt like an old silly explaining Command, etc. and they were asking what the symbols meant a lot more than you'd think)

28:00

Special Rules in Deadzone are straight forward individually...this makes for too many Special Rules.  

Some of these can be integrated into a statline or clumped into umbrella Special Rules.  

Which is easier to remember during play?

(Jake is having way too much fun talking about where the line can be drawn on Special Rules - good thing he makes fantastic games!  Going to be great pitching in with Deadzone 1.1 testing - he needs feedback.)

30:00

Rules wangling will impact balance between units and require testing.  

Jake begins to talk about scaling Deadzone points values to match Warpath.  

Ronnie steals the mic.  

(This is interesting as Deadzone naturally scales up to Warpath but is currently Alessio's baby.  

There are pros and cons to both - Alessio writes elegant reductionist rules hiding a deep strategic core whereas Jake puts in all the bells and whistles then cuts back to the gold - I want to hug them both - interesting Ronnie took the mic off Jake when he started talking Warpath.  Whatever happens they both need lots of playtesting feedback from us - I don't think we'd be seeing Deadzone 1.1 now had there been a Kings 2nd edition style public beta)

30:30 

Q: Are you going to be doing a Deadzone campaign?

Ronnie: A very droll "Yes."  

Hilarity ensues.  

31:00

Deadzone Special Rules

New Deadzone player points out its Special Rules system is overwhelming, possibly reminiscent of Games Workshop.  

Jake woffles on about pros and cons to lots of granular Special Rules or one big grouping of Special Rules for a particular weapon.  

(This does sounds like its up in the air - please make sure to pitch in when the beta test opens!)

33:00

Dungeon Saga's learning escalation...

Ronnie segues from Deadzone complexity talk into the simple introductory step-ladder of scenarios that add complexity in steps to Dungeon Saga. 

A professional writer who'd never seen the game before put together a Getting Started sheet included in the game.  

Can get through the first game without the rulebook in the first couple of games.  

Ronnie Notes there is no Heroquest dungeon crawler equivalent.  

Descent is a wider scope and complex.  

Super Dungeon Explore is a different aesthetic.  

(Having personally played and loved both these games I agree - SDE's mechanics are fine but aesthetic is not.  

Decent's aesthetic is Heroquest-ish but mechanics are needlessly complex.  I gave up playing at 4am)

Stat sheets on one table for Dungeon Saga - no need to have individual cards like Deadzone 1.0.  

38:00

Dungeon Saga & Deadzone: 

Its not the rules.  

Its the presentation of the rules.  

Lessons learned on presentation of Dungeon Saga may be applied back to Deadzone 1.1

On new rulebook for Deadzone:

Free digital copy of Deadzone 1.1 for KS backers.  

Ronnie says it is a year too early to replace the rulebook.  (damn straight!)

Make sure people don't feel forced to buy the new rulebook but there is a need to streamline. 

Ronnie and Jake seem to appreciate the sensitivities involved.  

(Can't help but feel a public beta on Deadzone would have avoided the need for Deadzone 1.1

Having said that - bring it on!  I love Deadzone and would love some corners knocked off to make it easier to teach new players.  Reckon I will pick up the $100 pledge now, much more faith in Deadzone's future)

40:00

Deadzone was originally envisioned as more of storytelling, less tense game with simpler rules.  

It is played more as a competitive battle game and less narrative than planned.  

(How good is it that they are aware we play the game differently?  Yay Mantic!)

Deadzone missions:

Faction missions to be reviewed - each army wins in different ways is a good idea to avoid a straight kill game. Current missions require review.  

Current method is a bugger's model, requires refinement.  

Ronnie says "nothing will happen unless we bring the community with us" implying public testing.  

(This is perfect.  Our current Rebs player feels he can't win the majority of missions and I agree.  

The faction-specific missions are great flavour but more general objectives are required.  

Something like Rebs can always Scavenge for VP regardless of missions rather than narrow objectives.  

Can't wait for the public beta!)

43:00

Q: Are all Kings armies "safe"?

Ronnie: Yes. 

Two new armies are human-themed.  

One that "accessed the undead but don't see it as evil" (that would be Ophidia)

Fan: "So its basically dead are on community service."  Hilarity ensues.  

Other new army is human-based but mixed with Nature with the idea of balance.  

Basilean are extreme good.  These guys are about balance.  

46:00  

Ronnie wants big tent armies which don't over-define what the player can do.  (a reaction against GW's micro codexes?  Kings beta showed evidence of this with Warlocks still benefiting from Braves but not forcing restrictions)

47:30

Mantic needs a community manager to market the retail side.  

Trade team and marketing teams weren't resourced well.  

Q: Do you accept ... too many KSers at one time?

Ronnie: Kings and Dreadball KSers went well (Deadzone notably not mentioned - guessing due to packing hell caused by complex custom pledges) 

Q: The end product is great...

Ronnie:

Could have got it right the first time...Dreadball Xtreme aspects could have been in the core book.  

Dreadball was a 2 million dollar KSer by the time it finished...scope creep could have been handled better.  

Kings of War 2nd edition was a chance to go back and re-do Kings right.  

Likewise Deadzone:Infestation let the Deadzone diamond in the rough shine better (possibly a step-up?)

Ronnie acknowledges issues in communication and is looking for good people to fix that.  

52:00

Ronnie strokes his glorious bouffant and talks about white hairs.  

53:45

Kings of War has benefited from extensive tooling (beta testing)...

...Warpath is going to be worked on until they have a mass combat sci-fi wargame that does something the market wants like Kings.  

Ronnie is playing Warpath alpha now and he likes it.  

They are going to put it out in alpha, see how people like it, go to beta if it works.  

..."awesome vehicles"...first put out the book then the first expansion will be "interceptor"...this year (2015), maybe, early next year (2016) but only when its perfect and we have team capacity to handle it.  

56:00

Q: A lot of stuff competing for KSers...

Ronnie: If we are doing a new gaming system like Warpath...

I don't want more guff to come out.  

I want it to come out big and that requires money.  

Ronnie would love to do a smaller number of Kickstarters better.  

The next Kickstarter will have local gaming store exclusives so you have to buy it in-store 

(very important for community development - Mantic has gravitated towards an online model that unintentionally penalises retailers - A local stockist who should be all over Mantic has stopped stocking because Kickstarter cuts them out of the deal.  Great to see.).  

He wants retail to show off the quality of games.  

He wants to use KSer as it is intended - to Kickstart, not to make their money.  

Retail exclusives to get people in stores.  

(Notable that the Dungeon Saga tome-like box is perfect for retail shelves)

1:00:00 Ronnie shows and tells Dungeon Saga cards.  

Worth checking out the visuals if you are Dungeon Saga oriented.  

Legendary version of characters on the back of cards.  

1:02:00 3D prints of Deadzone:Infestation minis

Not visible on Youtube sadly.  

(Great to know they are at that stage already - 3D prints are what production molds are made from)

Stay tuned for seminar two featuring Ronnie unleashed.  

Quote from Ronnie in Seminar 2:

...Brawler is +1 combat dice? "You know what? PUT IT ON THE ****ING CARD" 

(a sentiment I can only echo)

ToMB2 Month 3b: John Carpenter

I didn't get much painted last month. Fortunately, one of them was this guy;

John Carpenter (Rogue Necromancy)

One of the little known facts about Douglas McMourning is that he is a teetotaler - he refrains from drinking alcohol. This was not always the case. Back in his University days, a younger (and saner) McMourning was a regular at the local tavern and in fact held several drinking records among his colleagues. Unfortunately McMourning's drinking habits got him into a great deal of trouble too. The staff and undergrads could always tell when McMourning had been on the drink the night before. Whether it was obscene images burnt into the faculty lawn, tables and chairs hammered to the ceiling of lecture halls or live plucked chickens stuffed into the Deans closet, McMourning's talent for grandiose, booze-fueled pranks was well known. 

One night, however, Douglas McMourning went too far. Nobody will speak of the details, but those in the know make a point of avoiding the east wing of the library, oranges remained strictly banned from University grounds and the Vice Chancellor has never looked at a goat the same way since. McMourning only barely escaped expulsion - evidence proving his involvement was circumstantial and nobody but the Vice Chancellor wanted to see the University lose such a brilliant young mind. Nonetheless, McMourning learnt his lesson and vowed never to drink alcohol again. 

Despite its high demand and plentiful supply, McMourning continued to refrain from slipping back into alcoholism after relocating to the Bayou. For several months he was never tempted to try the local brew. But working in the Bayou isn't as easy as his days in Downtown Malifaux, and the stresses of everyday life took its toll. Eventually, after a particularly frustrating day in which his assistants were proving unusually incompetent during his experimentation with a warpig, McMourning caved. In a fatal lapse of judgement, he reached for the nearest bottle of moonshine and took a sip...

The next morning the Good Doctor awoke, half submerged in a pig trough with a splitting headache and covered in grime and blood.  The village was almost completely destroyed and the locals were even more terrified than usual. Pulling himself up he stumbled back toward his lab. The building itself was in bad shape but surprisingly intact. On the barricaded door, however he could make out the words "John Carpenter", painted in pigs blood...

What McMourning found inside was either his greatest creation or most horrifying failure (he hasn't decided which). An amalgamation of Pig, Gremlin, Insect and who knows what else, "John Carpenter" was a terrifying, barely controllable undead monstrosity. McMourning has never since been able to remember, let alone replicate what he did on that moonshine-fueled night. He remains tempted to once again take to the bottle and replicate the conditions that created his latest monstrosity. The locals, however, have since made a concerted effort to ensure not a drop of moonshine ever gets within his reach again...

Money Money Money!

So here's an update on what I bought for the month. As usual, prices are from http://elementgames.co.uk/

Allowance for this month: £15.00

Left from last month:  £8.27

Warpig: -£10.19

Left for next month: £13.08

I was originally planning to also add Merris LaCroix this month's purchases, but sadly she wasn't available in time. She's thus been moved back to July when she should hopefully be available (assuming we have a Month 6 for the ToMB). Piglets would have been another possibility, but I'm running low on 30mm translucent rootbeer bases so they're waiting on my Easter Sale order to come in. 

Anyway, what all that means is that I'll have plenty to spend for next month. :) 

...Which probably also means I'll have plenty to paint too. :(

The unpainted model, minus greenstuff to fill the gaps for course.

It's alive!

When I started this project my original plan was to use Warpigs as the base models for my Flesh Constructs. However as I though about it more I decided that the models themselves were just too bulky for what Flesh Constructs are supposed to be. I also liked the idea of keeping my Warpig models on a 50mm base, if only so I could keep using them as a proper (if very unusual) Warpig should the need arise. 

So I decided on another model for my Flesh Constructs and the Warpig became the base what I considered the most fitting model in the Resser faction - a Rogue Necromancy!

Probably the hardest thing about building this model was deciding how I could make it horrifying enough to pass for a Rogue Necro. I didn't have another two Warpig heads and simply cutting him up and painting the model with undead flesh wasn't going to work. Fortunately I still had the Skeeters from So'mer's boxed set lying around, so once I committed to replacing his front legs with a mass of chitinous legs, the rest fell into place. Oh and for those interested, the tentacles coming out of its mouth are actually tail spikes from the Skeeter bodies. ;)

Post-painting, pre-basing.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Next month I'll FINALLY be getting some models for McMourning to summon with his Moonlighting upgrade - Flesh Constructs and (more) Canine Remains. I'm still not sure how my idea for the Flesh Constructs will turn out and I doubt I'll be able to top this months creation. So right now I'm hoping they at least pass for the models they're supposed to be! 

Adrian