Yan Lo vs Ramos 30ss - a quick run down

Got to play with Yan Lo again last night, this time in a 30ss match up against Avatar Ramos...
We flipped shared Turf War - a new one on me and one I didn't fancy much with my 6 model crew against a potential horde of arachnids.

Yan Lo, Soul Porter, Izamu, Toshiro, Ashigaru, Ashigaru
Ramos, Avatar, Mobile Tool Kit, Soul Stone Miner, Large Steampunk Arachnid, Large Steampunk Arachnid

Yan Lo vs Sonia 25ss - quick rundown

Yan Lo vs Sonia Criid
25ss - starter box + one blister.


Supply Wagon - not that anyone payed any attention to that ;-)

Yan Lo, Yan Lo, what to do with Yan Lo..

I'm not used to this. I play Lady Justice, she runs forward and hits people.  Yan Lo does not.  Well, he shouldn't anyway.

masters of the path and izamu - model review

Well folks, miracles will never cease, I finally got some hobby time.  OK, this was largely thanks to being sick as a parrot (Norwegian Blue, lovely plumage), but never the less, some hobby time.  Twice, in one day!
So, I've managed to get my Masters of the Path crew (Yan Lo) and Izamu together.  It was a bit of a bitch frankly, but good fun in it's way.

Completed crew

This was my first exposure to Wyrd's plastic figures.  I am used to working with plastic via Games Workshops figures, these are, in many way a different kettle of fish entirely.  There's no denying there's an excellent level of detail on these sculpts, but that means some very small and delicate parts.

melee - area of effect

A friend recently bought me the Yan Lo - Masters of the Path box set.  Not a set I'd been looking at but I'm glad he did, it's fascinating.  As a result I've been looking at minions to expand the set and it will be no surprise to anyone that the first one I'm going to buy, hopefully tonight, will be Izamu, the Armour. A 10ss heavy hitter that's also an Ancestor.

Now I've not spent much time reading up on Yan Lo or Izamu so I'm not hear to talk tack-ticks but I have noticed one thing.  Izamu has a 3" melee range, and he's on a 50mm base (at least I believe it's 50mm).  So what?  An extra inch of melee is nice but not earth shattering right?

lost love tournament - round up

Right then, my first tournament.  Actually, a lot of peoples first tournament.
Overall it was nice and friendly and a lot of fun, but I did find fitting four games in rather hard work.  I think I'd have liked an earlier start and a bit more space between games, especially at lunch time.  There were 31 players in all, which unfortunately meant someone had to have a bye each round.  It's a pity but there's not much can be done about it.
The tables were set up nicely with a good amount of scenery and a couple of the tables even had a steam train on them which was ace.  I'm not used to playing with so much scenery so it was interesting having to take it into account for a change.
We all got a bag with 4 wooden laser etched markers which was a very nice touch, thank you to whoever provided those.

My blister was a Guardian as I thought Lady J and a Guardian has to be a tough nut for anyone to crack right?  Well, almost as it turns out..

lost love tournament - crew selection part 1, initial thoughts.

Well, this is new territory for me.  Selecting a crew for a tournament.

This is a fixed master tournament so one size must fit all.  I can select 25 ss from a pool created from a starter box and one extra minion type, i.e. contents of one extra blister or box, so can't take an infinite number of anything  just what comes in a blister, plus a Totem.  It's very much a case of finding something that's going to be OK against as many different opponents as possible, or take a crew more effective against specific crews and hope for the luck of the draw?

Additional rationale..

I need something simple, I'm not a fast player so I want a few pieces, preferably fairly straight forward ones so I don't bog myself and my opponent down with options.  Doppelganger for instance.. probably not a good idea - excuse me, what does he do? And what about that one?.. could take a while.

what are the odds?

Before I start, I just want to say I wrote this some time ago.
I've ummed and I've aaahd and I've decided that I will publish it.
But I nearly didn't.
I nearly didn't because Malifaux is a brilliant game with so much more to it than the cards.  Because, stripping out and looking at the cards in this way is perhaps not how I want to view my beautiful game.  But, I have written it, it is part of the game, and as I'm an entirely un-educated statistician it's probably meaningless anyway.

So, read it if you want.  Correct me if it's needed.  But don't get too worked up about it.  Malifaux is so much more than a card game that this is barely worth the effort.

-

Malifaux is a card game.  Well, at least partially, and as such is subject to chance, and these chances are measurable.

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Do you know what the chances are of you picking up the Red Joker in a hand you draw?
Do you know the chance of getting the red joker on any given flip?
Do you want to know?
Any card player who plays bridge or poker or any other card game with any degree of seriousness will know the odds of key events happening.  Perhaps we should too?
I'm no mathematician or card sharp so anything I say here may be misguided and inaccurate but I do have some thoughts.

Basics - 54 cards 4*13 cards suits + 2 jokers.  Playing with the jokers gives slightly longer odds than standard card games that aren't played with jokers.

Chance of drawing the Red Joker in a 6 card hand?  6 chances from 54 cards = 6/54 or 11.1%  Which means that approximately one in 10 hands drawn will contain the Red joker.  Except that when we draw our hands some cards have already been flipped/ discarded.  Might just be one you discarded from previous hand - 6/53 or 11.3% or 2 6/52 or 11.5% or more, all of which increase the chance of you getting the Red Joker in your hand.
There are other factors too, such as ability to hold more cards in the hand such as minions or masters who add to your hand size.  Arcane Effigy lets you hold an extra card, combine that with a master who holds an extra card (Rasputina i think?) and you have 8 cards in your hand rather than 6.  that's 33% more cards.  but is it 33% more chance of drawing the Red Joker?

Hand Size	Cards	Chance	%
6	54	1/9	11.1
6	53	1/8.83	11.3
6	52	1/8.67	11.5
7	54	1/7.7	12.9
7	53	1/7.57	13.2
7	52	1/7.43	13.5
8	54	1/6.75	14.8
8	53	1/6.63	15.0
8	52	1/6.5	15.4

please excuse the fraction decimal hibrid.

So that's a reasonable increase in chance of picking out that coveted card.  Also, with a larger hand size the odds grow faster as you loose cards to choose from.  So the change over 3 cards (54 - 52) at 6 card hand size is 0.4%, at 8 card hand size it's 0.6%.

Does this make the Arcane Effigy worth taking?  Well, it costs 4SS.  So that's 4 SS to increase your chance of drawing by a couple of %.  What else could you do with those 4SS?  take them as Soul Stones for one.  Each one giving you a better chance than any single card in your hand, of being the red Joker.
If the Red joker hasn't been played, as cards are played from your deck you get an increased chance of drawing the Red.  Two cards flipped, 6 in your hand chance of Red Joker being next is 1 in 46 or just under 2.17%.  2 Flipped 8 in hand it's 1 in 44 or 2.27%.  But, if half the decks been played without it popping up?
6 in hand 23 played 1 in 23 or 4.34%  Still not great is it?  But it is twice what it was before. For any given card in a 6 card hand the chances at the time of drawing your card are between 1/ 52 (assuming 2 cards flipped) 1.9% and 1/46 or 2.17%.  the thing with Souls Stones is though only one or maybe two models in a typical crew can use them.  If the RJ is in your hand anyone has access to it.

Apply that extra card in hand to a requirement for high cards in a specific suit, or even just high cards in any suit and it becomes even more useful.  I think I may well be acquiring an Arcane Effigy to run alongside Rasputina in the hope that the shortened odds will give me an upper hand, a lightly increased chance at least.  Of course, in play these odds may not bear fruit.  We're talking about shortening long odds by only a little, but I reckon it's worth looking at.

The point of this article then, is not to tell you the odds, I've probably got them wrong, but to get you thinking about them.  The card mechanic is core to the game we love and should be given due consideration, go give it some thought and try and calculate the odds that matter to you..  What are the chance of me flipping a certain suit for instance, might be worth knowing that one.
Nor am I claiming that the odds are more important than crew selection, crew knowledge and good tactics because I don't think they are.  But I do think having an idea of them is a worthwhile exercise. If you're hoping for a good flip, at least have some idea what hope you have.

Now I just need some mathematician to shoot me down in flames ;-)

it lives!

contrary to recent posts, this blog will continue.  It will not die.


(C) Wyrd Miniatures

Happy days, at least for me.
I don't know how long for, but at least for a few months, hopefully indefinitely.

Calculations were done, cogs whirred, gears crunched, in the end it was found we can continue.

Hurrah.

Now all I need to do is lay vinyl flooring, install a shower and tile a bathroom, re-wire and install a new kitchen, build some wardrobes, clear my shed,  unpack my stuff and get painting.. new posts should be arriving soon then huh?

death of a blog

Regular readers will be aware of various personal issues that have impeeded the writing and development of this blog.

Firstly I lost my job and had to concentrate on finding a new one, then we moved home and my gear was packed up. I had hoped, once the move was out of the way that I could pick things up and get posting again.

Unfortunately my new job is not as well payed as my old one, my child will soon need full priced care, and other issues mean that apparantly, my hobby is depriving my family. As such I can no longer continue with it in the manner in which I would like. Consequently I will be ceasing almost all hobby activities, including this blog. This blog will taken off-line in 2 weeks time.

Meanwhile I'd like you to review my train ride to malifaux page and let me know, what you think, I should keep. One master with a crew size of 35 - 40 ss. This will enable me to continue to play against my friends, albeit in a limited way that won't have them guessing much about what I'll be putting on the table. I will also be keeping SnowStorm as it's such an awsome model and I want to finish it off. In two weeks everything else, model wise, goes on ebay. I'd really hoped to make something of this blog but it seems that I cannot do so.

Thanks for reading.

Moving

3 days away now.  3 days from a new home for me and my family.
Needless to say all my Malifaux models, books and scenery are packed away ready to move, all apart from my rules manual and model cards which are all in my rucsac for lunch time reading at work.

How long I wonder, until it's unpacked the other end.
In theory I get a nice large, powered shed all to myself.  Desks, maybe even a game table, shelves & chairs. There should be room for all of it.. We'll see. 

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Meanwhile I will soon have another small cash injection heading my way, from sale of some GW items.  So, apart from a LONG overdue copy of Twisting Fates I have to decide what else to get. 
Bits to augment what I have?  Some arcanist minions for Rasputina for instance? 
A henchman?  Kaeris is appealing, Lucius or Collodi perhaps?  
A book 2 master?  I have none and they all appeal to some extent..
An Avatar?  I have none, Rasputina's is available?
Or should I make that move to Ressurs I've been thinking about?  Nico, McMourning and Kirai all appeal..

Anyway, it gives me something else to look forward to and think about.

I intend shortly to add a page that lists which figures I have and what state they are in, built painted etc..
Then when I ask what I should spend my money on you'll have an idea what I already have.
It should also serve to shame me into action and get painting.. yeah right ;-)

So, sorry folks, another mindles rambling post, but, fingers crossed, before long I should get some actual hobby time to report on.  Just don't hold your breath.

playing faster

I noticed a tweet the other day that got me wondering about game length.  Why does it take so long to play a game of Malifaux?  Or, does it take that long to play, really?
My games take hours, start at nine, stop at midnight and we may not be finished.  Why is that?
Surely a game with so few figures can't take that long?  We used to get a 1000-1500 point warhammer game done in the same space of time, so why so long?

(c) Wyrd Miniatures

Well, as per usual with this type of question I believe there are a number of factors.

Firstly I don't think everyone takes this long.  At tournaments there's a set time span and many people are perfectly capable of, and used to, playing to shorter time scales.

So, if it is possible to play more quickly, what can we do to speed things up?  Here are some ideas, they may or may not work for you.

Learn the rules.  Rules queries can take an age to sort out, if you know the rules you'll get fewer queries.  You may not eliminate them but you will reduce them.

Learn the rules. Learn the rules for your crew, as well as you know the core rules, better even.  Study the card on every model, if it interacts or changes core rules do your research on how this will affect the normal resolution of that rule.  If there's anything particularly gnarly I'd suggest you let your opponent know prior to starting, there's nothing will de-rail the progress of a game quite like coming up with some nasty rule mid-game that wrecks our opponents game and seems to contradict what he was expecting.

Learn the rules.  If you can, learn the rules for your opponents crew too.  This won't always be possible but regular reading of the rules books should give at least a passing idea of what your opponents crew can do.

Set a time limit on rules queries, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever works for you, if you haven't found it by then, flip for it and resolve it later, you really don't want to spend 10, 15 or even 20 minutes searching for an answer to a question mid-game.  But make a note so you don't forget to look it up later.

Make sure you know the set-up and game turn sequence off by heart.  What happens next? is a massive slower of games.

Make decisions quicker.  I like to take my time with each and every figure, even if it's obvious what to do, but agonising over each decision will sloooww down a game so much.  Be thinking about what to do whilst your opponent moves, when he's done then.. snap, make that decision, make the move, take the shot.  I believe you can train yourself to do this.  Knowing your crew well will help here, make sure you don't miss anything.  If you have to read every crew members card each turn whilst you decide which action you want to take.. you will have a slow game.

Plan ahead.  Think of the game prior to playing.  If you know which crew you want to take have a general plan, an idea of what you want to do with that crew.  Yes, strategies, schemes and an unkown until you play opposing crew may require a change, but a basic idea of what order your crew members need to go in and what they need to do will help making those decisions.

Play more.  Easiest and simplest answer is that the more you play the less any of these issues will be a problem.  Play as often as you can and you will learn the rules, you will know the turn sequence and you will make decisions faster.

To take it back to WarHammer (sorry), the reason those games took less time was we'd been playing for more years than Malifaux has existed, even though it changed every 4 or 5 years it was still pretty much the same game, so after each change there was a period where games took longer, it didn't last long and we'd be back up to speed again.  Read your books & cards more often, play more often, have a game plan and don't get stuck on rules queries and I think you'll soon be playing faster.

Hope this was of some interest or even help.  Do you have any ideas for speeding up games?  If so, please comment below and let me know.

a malifaux blog - update

OK, that's everything moved from rascallings.  Hopefully you'll all appreciate my Malifaux content having it's own dedicated space.
I'll start to update the pages today so that you'll be able to browse by category, if you'd like to.
Do feel free to message me or leave comments if you have anything to say regarding the look of the new site, the content, positive or negative I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

painting sorrows pt 2

Last night I was able to spend a little time doing some further work on my Pandora crew, specifically the 3 sorrows I've been working on.


Bearing in mind that I'm only aiming for 'table top' or gaming quality.  I'm not expecting to win any competitions with this lot.

Nearly completed.

1st off, the sorrow I showed you last post, this week I've been working on the base, touching up a little and applying washes.  In the case of the iron work I've used Gryphone Sepia to give it a weathered, rusty look.  Around the pipe you'll see I've applied some Orange, I thought this might be a bit heavy handed but I'm actually quite pleased with the result, be appreciative of any views you might have on this, should I apply more of this to look like rust?
On the sludge flowing from the grill I applied Ogryn Flesh wash, I like the result.  I was going to do a highlight on the sludge but might leave it as is, after all, as I said, I'm only after gaming quality.  Lastly I applied a highlight of Adeptus battlegrey to the stone work on top of the Black wash I'd applied earlier.

Pointing Sorrow, nearly finished

This is the most progressed of my Sorrows but here's another one that's almost done, the base is less interesting but I've followed the same process as described above.  The camera flash has rather taken out the effect of the wash on the metal work.  Might have to apply some 'rust' to this too.








Finally here are all 3 sorrows.  One more session and I think they'll be done.
The one in the middle is very weak.  It bends with no provocation so needs to be treated carefully.  If you're building them.. you've been warned.

3 Sorrows

I've also painted the bases, these are GW foundation paint Hormagaunt Purple, but I'm wondering if I should bring them up to Liche Purple.. any thoughts?





(Previously published elsewhere October 2011)

half painted death marshal

Not an auspicious posting really, a half finished figure, but, as it's the most completely painted malifaux figure I have so far I thought I'd put it up..

Colour scheme so far is as follows
Coat - Valejo Lemon Yellow will be washed in Gryphon Sepia (GW) or possibly DEvlan Mud and highlighted.
Skin - Valejo Ivory (4pts) and Pale Sand (1/2 pt)
Hat & Bandages - Valejo Crimson & GW Black Wash
Jeans - Valejo Medium Blue
Coffin - Valejo Pale Sand (I think) Washed with GW Devlan Mud
Leather - Bestial Brown
Gun wood - GW Scorched Brown
Chains - GW Boltgun Metal with Black wash
Other metal - GW Boltgun Metal

Still some tidying up to do before washing and highlighting.  Still undecided whether or not to do another coat of yellow on the coat as well in order to even it up or whether or not I'll rely on washing and highlights to cover up the unevenness.
The idea also is to tone down the blue of his jeans and make it look more like denim, washing and highlights will hopefully achieve this.

(Originally posted elsewhere October 2011)

nino and fransico

Used these two Guild minions for the first time last night in a successful game against Ramos.  I had Line in the Sand strategy, which I wasn’t looking forward too, but in return Ramos had to kill Lady Justice so I was fairly happy that he wouldn’t achieve these.  Schemes wise he had schemes which additionally targeted Taelor and The Austringer (the second one of these would be very achievable if he could get into contact). My schemes involved being in touch with a piece of scenery in his side of the table and to steal a treasure off Ramos ( a decent scheme to take if Ramos was going to try and kill LJ).

Diagonal deployment and I set up with my ranged minions (Francisco, Nino and Austringer) on the left hand side and LJ, her totem (scales of Justice) and Taelor on the right, nearer to the Line in the sand.

I wont give you a blow by blow account but the end result was my opponent conceded early in turn 4 or 5. And Francisco and Nino were key to this.  I also had much luck, winning initiative at key times, flipping a red joker on damage to take a Steampunk Arachnid Swarm out.

In turn two I took out an Arachnid Swarm, I’d left all my ranged attacks until last and had good cards in my hand so I activated the Austringer, moved, attacked and then delivered orders to Francisco who moved shot and then used his family connections to activate Nino who used his In my sights on the Swarm, shot, triggered Trigger happy and on the second shot the Swarm was dead.  Very happy with Francisco and Nino here, family connections worked nicely and in addition In my sights and trigger happy were awesome.  Nino still had another activation point and another shot remaining.

Later in the game another Swarm attacked Nino, I held my breath and he survived, with only one wound left but never the less alive and unactivated, so, he flurried and wiped the Swarm out, with help from a Red Joker, but it only took him two of his 3 attacks, very impressive.

Overall I was very impressed with these two.  Francisco is useful at range, although I didn’t get to use Fanin’ and a demon in close combat it seems.  Nino’s long range of 16” and useful traits of In my Sights and trigger Happy can potentially make him deadly.  Admittedly he doesn’t have a high casting value so he can soak up cards if you really need to get In my sights off and cheat to get the trigger Happy trigger off but the potential can make it worth it.

At the end of the game, when my opponent conceded, I had flipped 3 markers, and was very confident of being able to be in touch with the piece of scenery.  Meanwhile he had nothing left, I’d killed a solitary spider, 2 swarms and his Soul Stone Miner leaving him with Ramos, one spider and his totem..

An unusual game that I didn’t expect to win with my experimental crew and Line in the Sand strategy.  I got lucky when he flipped his strategy and he deployed wrongly having misunderstood how Line in the Sand worked.  Not sure how much I learnt but was happy in how I used my ranged attacks and learnt the my two new Guild members can be deadly.


(Originally published elsewhere Sept 2011)

malifaux blog

Greetings.
My thanks to you for stopping by.

I have previously blogged malifaux under my other blog "rascallings".
This was also a tech & other blog but as it was increasingly heading toward being a malifaux blog I wanted to move the malifaux content out to it's own dedicated space.

So here it is.

You will, if you hang around long enough, find I'm somone who thinks abou tMalifaux more than he plays it, due to personal circumstances, though my playing time is increasing.  I also buy new crews before I've got to know, or finished painting, the last lot.  Something I don't advise.

I will shortly move my previous content into a malifaux blog and may even remove it from rascallings.
Please check back soon for more content.
Thanks.