ToMB2 - Jonah's Month 1 (A little late and a little under ...)

OK, first up I'm a little late with this as the title suggests.  Only managed to get these done yesterday and they're not based yet as I need to wait to get some basing materials.  I have also managed to get the crew box done rather than the full £40 worth as should have been done this month.  Hopefully the kind souls running ToMB will show lenience on me and let me make it up next month.  Anyway, enough waffle, here are some pictures of the finished Torch and the Blade crew box:

Here it the Witchling Handler that I am converting from TTB stuff.  I had planned to get her converted and painted for this month but ran out of time.  I couldn't make what I really wanted as there were no appropriate swords in the set so I decided to go for something a bit different and make this.  I thought the flaming hands would represent her Aura.  I'm not entirely happy with it and have been told about licensed casters coming with Wave 3 so it might make it as one of them:

ToMB - Mick v Jonah

This past week Mick and I decided to play out our first ToMB against one another.  Here's some of the details first:

Deployment: Corner
Strategy: Interference
Schemes: ALiTS; Power Ritual; Deliver a Message; Protect Territory; Breakthrough

In the spirit of ToMB we each took the full crew boxes plus the rest of our commitment for month one and some extras.  This worked out as the Rail Crew, 3 x Metal Gamin and Johana for Mick with Torch and Blade, Witchling Handler, Brutal Effigy and Pathfinder for me.  Mick with his Arcanists chose Deliver a Message and Protect Territory and myself with the Guild opted for Deliver a Message as well and Power Ritual.

We both felt a little constrained by our crew choices as neither of us would have chosen what we had with the strats/schemes on offer (I had a (theoretically) great plan to take Nino and the Pathfinder and put them in opposite corners to drop scheme markers on turn two with some Hunters running up to support them (plus take the corners for Interference) but it worked out as far too many SS).  I felt like it was a difficult match up for me because of all the armour and practically everything in Mick's crew having Hard to Kill but with me being able to splash Burning around I did have the perfect counter so it made for an interesting game.

With the Witchling Handler I felt a little quicker than usual although one of my Witchling's did nothing except start off dropping a scheme marker in my own deployment zone then spend the rest of the game trying to play catch up (though the Handler also died fairly early - see below!)!  The Pathfinder did well by taking down a Rail Worker early in the game (I cheated in a Mask to ignore armour after Mick had cheated in a Tomb for +2 Armour which was a sly kick in the teeth!) plus was generally frustrating by chucking out and moving Traps and also dropping my second scheme marker for Power Ritual.  My Brutal Effigy ran to the other adjacent corner and dropped a third scheme marker and also managed to take out a Rail Worker (which had previously lost two wounds to an exploding Witchling!).  He also managed to hold up a Metal Gamin in the late game to keep the scheme marker in place.  The rest of the game as mostly moving around the centre staying more than 6" away and trying to move into whichever quarter our models were needed.  Samael impressed once again despite all my reservations about him and I'm thinking that I need to take him more often.  I ran him without his upgrade this time as I couldn't afford it but he put some hurt on Kang (who promptly healed four wounds because it was turn four!), took out the Emberling and also acted as a big deterrent in the part of the board he was in.

Mick lost a lot of duels early in the game although it was only the one Rail Worker who felt the wrath of the Pathfinder and the Emberling who died until end of the game when Sonnia took out both Kang and Johana and the Effigy took out another Rail Worker.  He made a mistake in the first/second turn by putting Mei Feng in Sonnia's face to Deliver a Message without realising that Master's couldn't do it.  I had moved the Witchling Handler back and she was engaged with Mei at the start of turn three when I flipped a 12 for initiative and thought I was on for the three VPs for Delivering a Message.  Mick took a risk in burning a SS to re-flip initiative and came up with a 13 (Seize the Day helped with this).  It was a risk but a well calculated one that won the game in the end (see below) but also meant the Mei took out the Handler in one hit!  I cheated a RJ for her first Df flip then an 11 but Mei did 4 moderate damage then pushed the Handler back into Hazardous terrain and did another 4 to kill her - ouch!  Mei was mostly irritating otherwise but on turn three Kang and Johana also discarded Imbued Energies to get engaged with Sonnia.  Mick won initiative next turn which allowed Johana to Deliver a Message.  My other Witchling Stalker eventually went down to the combined efforts of a Rail Worker and Metal Gamin (though there was some bad luck with a BJ damage flip in there) who went hunting the Brutal Effigy.  At this point the Pathfinder was mostly hiding so that I could try to hold the corner it was in for Interference which meant a Metal Gamin and Rail Worker could go about dropping scheme markers for Protect Territory with abandon!

The game finished with a 8-6 victory for Mick (Mick scored 3VPs for Protect, 3VPs for Deliver a Message and 2VPs for Interference; I got 3VPs for Interference and 3VPs for Power Ritual).

I'm enjoying Guild and there's more things I want to try out but the more I play Sonnia the less I enjoy her.  She feels a bit of a one trick pony who isn't particularly effective at that one trick.  The few games I've played with Perdita I find her to be a lot more flexible.  I think it partly because I've yet to really get Sonnia going so I'll definitely persevere with her some more.  I think she definitely benefits from some help with movement with makes Francisco almost an auto-take for his 5" Push.  Pathfinder's and Brutal Effigy's have definitely been my two most reliable minions so far.

I'll let Mick edit with his thoughts on his Rail Crew (or post a separate thread).

(A charitable write up there, was an interesting game, I'll add my thought's later for now here's some blurry photos... Mick)

Jonah let me deploy first, so I took cover from what I expected to be a flamey death line

Sonnia had spotted my utter lack of ranged attacks however, and just wandered blithely on

The table was pretty balanced, not too many firing lanes, not so much cover I'd be free to jog around, and one puddle of useful dangerous slime. The pathfinder is in the top right, behind the red roofed house. the git.

Couple of pics from the end of turn one, before I inevitable got too excited/stroppy to take pictures;)

Jonah's ToMB Month 1 - Learning the Ropes

Sonnia has hit the table twice in the last two evenings so thought I'd report back on my early findings.  Both games have been Guard the Stash from Gaining Grounds 2015 tournament rules.  First game was very slow as we were playing the new strategy for the first time, I was playing Guild for the first time and my opponent who was also Guild was playing Hoffman and his Power Loop shenanigans for the first time.

I took Sonnia (with Cherufe's Imprint), Samael (with Witch Hunt), Francisco (with Wade In and Hermanos De Armas), 2 x Witchling Stalkers, Guild Pathfinder, Brutal Effigy, 2 x Guild Hounds

Opponent had Hoffman, Mechanical Attendant, Guardian (I think, one with the big shield!), Metal Gamin, Rail Golem, Watcher, 2 x Hunters

Schemes were Spring the Trap, Breakthrough, Entourage, ALiTS and Distract.  Figuring that Guild are pretty slow (and my crew in particular) I opted against Breakthrough and Entourage and took ALiTS and Distract.  My opponent took Breakthrough and Distract.

Ended up 9-8 to my opponent (I scored 3 for ALiTS, 3 for Guard the Stash, 2 for Distract.  My opponent got 3 for Guard the Stash, 3 for Distract, 3 for Breakthrough).

Was an odd game for Sonnia as couldn't do her blast shenanigans because of the Mechanical Attendant and because of Power Loop my opponent was able to just choose Wp5 so that I couldn't get (+) flips.  There wasn't a lot of killing though I took out the Rail Golem early thanks to Sammael and his extra damage against burning.  He was also helped by the Pathfinder doing 5 damage with a focused shot hitting his trigger to ignore armour.  Just from his card Samael doesn't look very good as he's 11SS with his upgrade and looks like he'll fall over in a stiff breeze but he was pretty effective for me this game by handing out Burning (combined with Sonnia's condition so that Burning isn't removed).  I failed to score Guard the Stash one turn when I could have easily so that was a bad mistake and one of the Guild Hounds got killed early in the second turn which messed up my plan to have them running around together dropping scheme markers for ALiTS.  I also learnt not to let Hoffman take a swing at you as he crushed Francisco in one activation.  My opponent pulled off a very nice move with the Mechanical Attendant on the last turn where he used the RJ to disengage from Samael then discarded an upgrade so that he could lose Insignificant for a turn to drop a second scheme marker to score max VPs for Breakthrough.

Second game I took a very similar crew except I dropped the Hounds for an extra Witchling Stalker and an extra SS.

Opponent had Gremlins with Ophelia, Franciois, Merris, MvTavish, Mancha Rocha, 2 x Gators

Schemes were ALiTS, Make them Suffer, Protect Territory, Bodyguard and Vendetta.  We both ended up going for Make them Suffer and Protect Territory.

Lots of killing going on this game and Sonnia really got her damage on although there was a lack of Blasts again because they were spread out.  But she took out Ophelia and Francois (in combination with other stuff) and landed the finishing blow on Mancha although the big green wrestler also did 9 damage to her from a charge which was pretty gross (and gave her Paralysed though I removed it with a Witchling) before killing off a crocodile and Blasting onto the second one.  I struggled to score MtS because my opponent only had two Minions and kept them back so I only ended up scoring once for it.  It was a mistake taking this having seen the crews as I was giving up points quite easily by having so many minions and I should have gone for Bodyguard on Franscisco (he did die but mainly because  put him in trouble, I could have protected him easily).  I thought I'd be able to take out the minions easily then score automatic VPs for him not having any in play.  Ended up losing 8-5 (I scored 1VP for Make them Suffer, 1VP for Protect Territory and 3VPs for Guard the Stash, opponent scored 3VPs for Protect Territory, 3VPs for Make them Suffer and 2VPs for Guard the Stash).

Both games were good fun though and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a grip with the Guild.  I'm still not sure Samael is a good investment at 11SS (he seems useless without Witch Hunt and I'm loathe to put LLC or anything else on him and make him even more expensive) but I think I'll probably continue with him a bit to get used to Sonnia's crew box some more.  I also want to try out Witchling Stalkers although I need to convert some from the Female TTB figures which my FLGS didn't have in stock (but I have ordered).  I'll hopefully be playing full crew boxes + some extras against Mick who's BLOG I'm sharing soon as we're both doing ToMB.

Nevertheless I still have a 100% record with Guild right...

Jonah's ToMB2 Month 0

My friend Mick has very kindly agreed to host me on his BLOG so this is a new experience for me and I'm hoping I'm not breaking it!  For those who don't know what Tale of Malifaux Bloggers (ToMB) is you can check out the details here.  The Tale comes at a convenient time for me as I've just decided to take a break from my Ressers and start a new faction - namely the law making scum known as the Guild.  A lot of my stuff has already been purchased but I've built it all since the Tale launched and I've had a frenetic spraying session today to get them ready for painting.  I will point out now that I am going to cheat a little as the idea is to mainly focus on a single Master but as I want to learn the Guild more thoroughly I'll probably branch out into more than one (especially as lots of the things I want to include come in crew boxes anyway).  Having said that I've decided to start with the Guild's resident witch hunting pyromaniac Sonnia Criid.  I've chosen her because she seems quite easy to learn, her crew box is quite easy to paint to get my initial pledge completed, and FIRE!!!  I will be adding Two Witchling Handlers to bring my initial commitment up to the month one total of £40 (Sonnia's box is £27 RRP and I'll be converting the Handlers from TTB miniatures but based at their RRP that equates to around £40).

I've run a PLOG on Warseer before but have never done one that also focuses on gaming as well as painting so am looking forward to documenting my progress.  The commitment is once a month but I'll aim to update the BLOG every 7-10 days depending on how frequently I get games in.