Madelyn Corbeau

Without any attacks of any kind, some dismiss this model's abilities. Her ability to seduce enemy models to advance and attack other models as well as move a friendly model 3" if an enemy is in her command area is extremely useful.

Primed with White Krylon primer, then brushed with P3 Skorne Red. Then drybrushed with P3 Khador Red and lightly drybrushed with P3 Khador Red Highlight. The hair, gorget and bike pants were painted with P3 Thamar Black. The Hair was drybrushed with Coal Black and bike pants drybrushed with Battlefield Brown. The knee and back armour was painted with Bootstrap Leather and drybrushed with Rucksack Tan.

The skin was painted with Khardic Flesh, drybrushed with Midlund Flesh and lightly drybrushed with Ryn Flesh. Menoth White Highlight was used on the waist and upper arm frills. Khador Red was used on the lips, Trollblood Blue on the eyeliner and Solid Gold on the earrings, dress trim and fittings. The "Popeye Candy Stick" was painted with Menoth White Highlight, Thamar Black and Khador Red Highight. The whole model was washed with Army Painter Strong Tone wash.

Now for Rhulic Searforge models!

Dungeons and Dragons Next (5th Edition)

A friend purchased the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Next. There was hesitation and scepticism on this incarnation, as the 4th edition was very average and felt more like a video game.

Although we have only played two sessions, and already we are talking of playing the rest of the adventure but also playing more of this edition.

What impresses me the most is the simplicity of the core of the game. It gets down to the meat of what Dungeons and Dragons is about...the flavour. Sure they have all the feats and do-dads that you can add to the game but this edition really feels like the classic Dungeons and Dragons. A sort of a D&D real 3rd edition.

Gone are the little bonuses that took away from the game when adding them up. You can have advantages and disadvantages. If you have all advantages, you roll an extra d20 and keep the best. If you have at least one disadvantage you roll two d20s and take the lowest.

Characters are as fragile as they were in 1st and 2nd edition. Goblins can still take down a 10th level fighter if you are not careful and they are more careful. Bonus abilities are handed out sparingly so it doesn't clutter a player with too much choice. Feats are optional as well. You can also download the rules to play the four main classes (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue) for free here. The main books are excellently laid out and the Dungeon Master's guide is great for new and old players alike.

All in all a great product and one that will get more use than 4th edition ever did for me (read them and shelved them) and a strong contender for standing on the same platform as Pathfinder. May make me bring out my old Mystara collection for converting.

No Thanks!

No Thanks! is a great card game for three to five players. The objective is to get the fewest amount of points. The deck is made up of cards from three to thirty five. To start, the deck is dealt and nine cards are set aside, in the box, face down. That way it is unknown what is missing.

Each player starts with eleven chips (kept secret from other players once distributed) and the top card of the deck is flipped face up. Starting with the first player, players decide if they want the card or not. If they don't they put one of their chips on it. The next person clockwise also decides if they want it.

Play continues until someone is willing to take the card. They get the chips and the card. The card is viewable by all players.

The next card is flipped face up and the player clockwise from the player who took the card starts. Play continues until the deck is exhausted. The reason why you want the cards in the middle is for two reasons. One is that you get chips because if you have no chip to put on the card, you must take it. Two is that if you have cards in series, you only score the lower card value. As well, the chips are worth minus one point per chip.

Here is an example of end game scoring. You score the 7, 11 and 25 for a total of 43. Subtracting five chips leaves you with a score of 38 points.

Now see how having more cards mean less points. here you score the 7 and 25 for a total of 33. Subtract five for 27 points. Remember that players may take the card you need and eat the points so that you don't get the sequence you need.

Rociante Jack

The Rociante jack is a good one for additional long range damage and for melee casters because of the bonus to defence against melee attacks when the caster is nearby. It is Diamyo's personal jack but it can be useful for others, including Constance Blaze in a mercenary list.

I started off with Krylon black primer spray paint. Then a rough brushing of P3 Traitor Green and shading with P3 Thornwood Green. Additional shading was done with GW Gryphon Sepia and P3 Coal Black mixed 50/50. For highlight I used Traitor Green mixed 50/50 with P3 Menoth White Highlight. I then drybrushed P3 Bloodstone on the jack to make it look like it had been hastily painted over weathering and damage.

Then it was P3 Pig Iron drybrushed heavily on the metal parts. For the damaged slashes I used P3 Thamar black to paint a line and then just below it painted a line of P3 Cold Steel. The wood part under the gun was painted Gun Corps Brown and drybrushed with Rucksack Tan. I then washed it with Army Painter Strong Tone Ink. The base was painted with P3 Gun Corps Brown and arcs painted with P3 Bootstrap Leather.

Its not my best job but now I can move onto my Rhulic forces.

Malifaux 2E Crossroads

The next Malifaux 2E book came out a few months ago. It has more Masters, Henchmen and other model statistics.

Each of the Masters in the book have their own short story and themed story encounter to play, but any Masters can use it.

As with the large rulebook, each model has the stats and short synopsis of who or what they are.

This book brings the total of Masters to seven for each of the seven factions for a total of 49 Masters. They have not made available many of the plastic kits for these models but it lets you know what ones you may be interested in. A great product.

Lost Cities

Lost Cities is a great two-player card game that has entertained my wife and I for over ten years.

There are five suits, each with a different exploration theme. Each suit has three investment "handshake" cards and cards from two to ten. Each player has a hand that they must play a card from and then must pick up a card.

Where they play it and where they pick it up from is what makes the game really fun. They can either play it on their side of the board, on the corresponding suit area, or on the board itself. Cards on the board are free for anyone to pick up, therefore when you pick up you can do so from the deck or the board. You can never pick up a card once you have played it on your side of the board. Players alternate playing until the deck has been exausted.

Two things of note. Cards have to be played so that they increase, never decrease. Handshake cards have to be played first and once a numbered card is played you cannot play a handshake card.

Scoring is done by adding all the card values and multiplying the result by one plus the number of handshake cards. One caveat though and its a doozy...if you play a card on your side of the board the score starts at minus 20! Therefore if you have twenty points of cards in a suit then that suit counts as zero, like the below example.

In the example below, having the nine gets you nine points (29 minus 20 is 9).

Having the handshake added gets you 38 points (29 times 2 minus 20)!

Therefore you can have a low score in a suit of minus 80 to a positive score of two hundred and sixteen. You also get a bonus twenty points for having eight or more cards in a suit.

You play three games and whomever has the highest score is the winner.

Mercenary Rover, Nomad, and Mule Magnetic Jack

The Mercenary Multi-Jack is a good kit made even better by magnetism! I was hesitant to magnetize my multi-Cygnar jacks and now wish I had as it was easy using a drill bit to make the slots for the magnets. Now I only have to get a few more multi-jacks to have the ability to field combinations of these three jacks on the field.

I started off with Krylon black primer spray paint. Then a rough brushing of P3 Traitor Green and shading with P3 Thornwood Green. Additional shading was done with GW Gryphon Sepia and P3 Coal Black mixed 50/50. For highlight I used Traitor Green mixed 50/50 with P3 Menoth White Highlight. Then it was P3 Pig Iron drybrushed heavily on the metal parts. For the damaged slashes I used P3 Thamar black to paint a line and then just below it painted a line of P3 Cold Steel. I then washed it with Army Painter Strong Tone Ink. The base was painted with P3 Gun Corps Brown and arcs painted with P3 Bootstrap Leather.

For the barrel on the Mule I used P3 Bootstrap Leather and drybrushed P3 Rucksack Tan. I want to use it with Constance Blaze's Highborn Covenant list with a unit of Arcane Gunners for some super blowback action.

The Nomad.

The Rover. I particularly like the scratches on this one.

Pinata (nee Balloon Cup)

Pinata (nee Balloon Cup) is an excellent and short two player game. In it you alternate laying cards down on your side of the game boards to get either the highest or lowest point total in one of the candy levels from one to four.

  There are two sides to each of the four levels of boards, a high side and a low side.

Each card laid must correspond to a coloured candy. Therefore if you have two yellow, a red, and a blue candy you must lay down two yellow, a red, and a blue card. If your side, in a candy level, is filled with the required cards you can start to lay cards down on the opponents side.

Once a level has been filled with the required cards on each side, the winner of that level gets the candies, the card is flipped over and the level is filled with candies equivalent to the level number.

 Once one player has enough candies, in a particular candy colour, they get the prize associated with that colour. First player to three prizes wins.

Its a simple game but lots of strategy can be utilized.

In the predecessor, Balloon Cup, the numbers on the cards were more varied and larger. As well, you could lay cards on your opponents side at any time. You could also tie in a level in Balloon Cup to get the cubes while in Pinata you cannot. This made it a more heated game.

 

My wife prefers the art in Balloon Cup although I like the new version for its less varied card scores.

Pendragon RPG

Greg Stafford's Pendragon, fifth edition, is an excellent role playing game of not only shaping how your character and lands develop and change but it can also force you down certain paths.

It does this though your traits and passions. Traits are two sides of a coin and vary from one to twenty with both sides adding up to twenty.These traits are described as virtues and vices such as generous and selfish, prudent and reckless, and valorous and cowardly. Passions can be such things such as loyalty (to different people or persons), love (same), and hospitality. As a player chooses to do, or refuse to do something they can unless they have a corresponding trait or passion that is sixteen or higher. Then they must abide by it unless they roll a d20 higher than that trait or passion. In other words they succeed with the trait or passion if they roll equal to (a critical) or lower.

For example, if a horde of Saxons come over the hill to avenge their brethren that were just slain by your group and you had a hatred (Saxons) of sixteen or higher, you might fail the roll and have to stay.

Another example is if you were asked by your lord to tell what happened with the Saxons in the previous example. If your modest was sixteen or higher and you failed your roll, even if you wanted to brag or not you would speak of how you could not have been victorious without your fellow knights.

This system is not hindering as it might seem. You play a person with feelings and desires. Goals and a back history. These traits and passions can change if you put the effort into it. If you roll exactly the number of the trait or passion, or constantly do things that would make a change in personality (always heading off into battle with little thought, for example, being more reckless than prudent), you would make a check beside that trait or passion. At years end, you would roll a d20 for each checked trait or passion to see if it increased. This is achieved by rolling equal to or more than that value.

Skills are checked against the same way. This means that the more a player uses their traits, passions and skills the better they can get.

Combat is a nicely elegant system and takes little time. Each player uses the weapon skill for the weapon being used. If they are against multiple enemies they can spit it as they see fit. These scores are altered by various modifiers to get the final score they must meet (critical) or get under. The enemy rolls at the same time as the player. The higher number that is is successful that considered a success but the lower number can use their shield to reduce the damage dealt. Criticals cancel each other out and one side that gets a critical does double damage. If enough damage is dealt it may have a change to drop their opponent to the ground with the blow (which will give all the downed person's enemies a bonus in targeting them in combat and a minus for the downed person).

The long term planning for a player's manors is also fun. What to build, the year's crop success and random events make for tense winter seasons. You also have marriage and heirs to take care of as well as marrying off your sisters and daughters.

Another excellent feature of the game is each game session can take place in an evening of three  to four hours.

I'm having a blast and its simple to learn and play. The wiki article is good for more details and the game is sold from the website at the beginning of the article and here.

Worldworks - Streets of Malifaux Terrain

Worldworks is a maker of pdf printable and thick cardstock terrain. Last XMas I bought this on sale but didn't put the Streets of Malifaux together because I didn't have the plastic clips and continuously forgot to buy them...until now!

The terrain really puts a good theme for Malifaux but it can also be used with Warmachine and Infinity. I especially like the ramps and ladders as well as the flexibility to make your own configurations.

Everything Games and Gaming in Victoria

Last year I talked about all the game stores in Victoria and the new ones opening up (here and here). I was worried that the market would saturate and I would probably have been right ten or more years ago. It seems I am happily wrong.

I recently conducted  a demo of Malifaux at Everything Games (website and facebook) in Langford, a district in Victoria. It opened about seven months ago. Its a little out of the way for me but they have a huge gaming area.

I noticed a month and a bit ago that they started carrying Malifaux and when I mentioned that I could give some demos sometime they were enthusiastic. I conducted a demo game this past Sunday and will do so again this Sunday. They have been doing well and it has filled a large hole in the gaming scene on the Western part of Victoria. The owner is friendly, engaging and knowledgeable.

For eight gaming stores to be within an hour's drive from one another, it shows how gaming is becoming common and not a fringe hobby.

Guild Riflemen

Malifaux Guild Riflemen are extremely accurate and can cut down charging models if they activate and focus early. They were also an early plastic model that Wyrd produced so now that i'm focusing on Guild models I wanted to paint one of the oldest ones I have.

As a note, the sword on the model that carries it is very fragile. It was going down the path to breakage so I used some GW liquid greenstuff to firm it up. Beyond that the rest of the models look great and go together well. Just take your time though and follow directions (the Wyrd website has lots of tutorials).

 So I primed black. Then painted the hat and cloak/jacket P3 Coal Black then drybrushed P3 Trollblood Base. 

 Then painted the leather bits P3 Bootstrap Leather and drybrushed with P3 Rucksack Tan. Some parts were then lightly drybrushed with P3 Hammerfall Khaki.

The gun stock was painted with P3 Thamar Black. The gunbarrel and metal parts were painted with P3 Pig Iron and lightly drybrushed with P3 Quicksilver.

 Some parts of kit were painted with P3 Traitor Green and drybrushed with P3 Iosian Green. Others were painted with P3 Bloodstone.

 The goggles and gun scope were painted with P3 Arcane Blue and lightly flicked with P3 Frostbite. The whole model was then washed with GW Devlan Mud.

 The base was molded in with air drying putty and pressed into with the model's feet. After the base dried the models were glued in and some Army Painter Meadow Flowers were put on. The outside was painted with GW Mecritite Red.

I think they will complement many of my guild models that are vulnerable to charges and opposing models vulnerable to accurate shooting.