Shopping List - Collodi, Neverborn

So, it's been a bit quiet here, but it's time to break the silence with the first guest writer. 

This man knows his Collodi and he was a requested Master, so without further ado...

Hello there folks! Not-Panzer here, let me start with a quick introduction… no wait.

There, that pretty much had to be first right? Anyways, I’m Graeme (Tayne on the forums when I bother to post) and one of Panzer’s teammates. I played Collodi pretty heavily earlier in the year to some success and much swearing by our friendly, resident tank-impersonator. Someone on twitter requested a shopping list for our Puppet Master so, for my faults (and they are legion), I volunteered my duties.

Naturally enough, I’m going to break Panzer’s established three sets rule a little. Collodi has two limited upgrades granting him two different playstyles, ergo I’m going to give you two sets of three. I honestly thought I would prefer one heavily and ended up loving the other, but all that tells us is that, when you get down to it, I’m a bit of a muppet at times (I agree with this sentiment - Panzer).

Fated Collodi 

Fated Collodi is primarily a support master, giving his AP to his crew to get the work done they need, passing on focus or defensive and passing one effigy buff out to his crew each turn. Which leads to our first pick.

1. Brutal Effigy

Collodi can hire any puppets, which gives him access to the seven faction effigies. Now they are of varying use depending on the situation, but the Brutal Effigy is the only one I would put as required. On top of decent stats (for a 4SS minion), it’s his zero we’re looking at here. Fear Not The Sword gives the ability to heal 1 damage after doing damage and draw 1 card after killing an opponent. Pretty good right? It gets better.

Collodi will carry Strum the Threads every time he’s played. He just will. This allows any puppet activating within aura 6 to take 2 damage and go Fast (yes, that includes Collodi himself). 2 damage to self for 3 chances to heal through this buff. The card draw is icing on the cake here, you will not regret taking him.

As a side note, you can use his poor shooting attack to hit Collodi and give the Puppet Lord a free 3” push each time. You may have to cheat to make sure the attack misses though.

2. Stitched Together

These fiendish little treasures will have your opponents cursing you up and down every street of whatever town you’re playing in. Gamble Your Life is a shockingly powerful attack, dealing an uncheatable 3/4/7 to the loser of the duel with no + or – applied.

Now this does mean they can end up dealing a hefty damage to themselves. This is mitigated this by a) picking targets you can bully (Ca6 vs Df, pick the targets with the lower Df stat as a priority) b) them having Hard to Kill and c) getting reactivate when they drop to 1 wound remaining. Yeah, they only have one wound left, but another activation is very, very strong.

3. Widow Weaver





It’s a non-puppet! Yet she is thematically involved with Collodi as she can create Wicked Dolls with her upgrade (it’s an expensive upgrade though - I personally don’t take it) and giving friendly Constructs that activate within 6” of her +1 Wk. Remember those Stitched? Their downside is having a slow Wk4, good old Widow mitigates this for use.

But wait, there’s more. She drops Web markers at the rate of one a turn, lowering the Wp of enemies by 1 per marker within 3”. Collodi’s sole attack is against Wp. Nice. It also boosts her own Terrifying (All) to a potentially higher level. Be wary though, she only has a Df4 and will drop quickly if your opponent focuses fire on her.

I’ll give a quick nod here to Luke Cocksedge, a seasoned Collodi player who runs this Fated list regularly and schooled me with it at Bending Fate. Well played that man, your Collodi is terrifying.

Bag of Props Collodi

With this upgrade, Collodi becomes greedy and steals Focus or Defensive off nearby models to use for himself. He comes with plenty of Marionette totems that can become Focus-fodder in the box, no extra purchases needed there (I generally take 2-3). So, what do I put in his three?

1. Brutal Effigy

Yes. He’s that good he makes both lists.









2. Doppleganger (cue Rooney tinnitus...Eeeeeee-Doppleganger-in-a-dodgy-Canadian-accent-eeeeeee)

You can’t be surprised she made the list somewhere, right? This model is amazing. She has Don’t Mind Me for Interact shenanigans, Ill Omens for Initiative shenanigans and the ability to copy actions on top of a high manipulative value for her defence. She is amazing and almost always causes a pain for your opponent. She is also valued by every Neverborn Master if you’re thinking about later expansion. Buy her, you won’t regret it.









3. McTavish

It’s a tough choice here, you definitely want something big and scary and Nekima or a Teddy could easily be hired if you want to stay in faction or Lazarus as an alternate mercenary, but allow me to explain my reasoning.

Collodi is scary. His attack doesn’t randomise and ignores cover, it has a built in slow trigger and other triggers to make your opponent make an immediate 1 action or steal their first AP when they activate. He is mean and deserves far more hate than he has right now, in my opinion. He is, however, just one model.

Now look at McTavish. A 14” gun that ignores cover, doesn’t randomise and has an excellent damage track. Oh, and that the Doppleganger can mimic for you. On top of this, he has a healthy melee attack to boot. With him, Collodi and the Doppleganger you have a huge control area that your opponent should fear to enter. Nice, eh?

Honourable mention – Mannequin

Now I know I said I’d only do two sets of three, but the Mannequin has a certain place for me that I think needs highlighting. This is due to its 1 action, Magician’s Assistant, which allows models within 2” to place scheme markers anywhere with 6” rather than in base contact with themselves.

That’s right, scheme markers are like Frisbees now.

Now you do still need to keep them 4” from other markers as usual, and you cannot interact if you are engaged (usually, oh hello there Doppleganger!) but this makes schemes like Set Up fairly trivial to complete with Collodi. If I’m taking one of these, I normally have at least two Marionnettes in the list as well to use alongside.

Anyways, that’s all for me. I really need to stop procrastinating and paint models ready for the Nationals…

Apologies to Graeme for taking so long to post this. Yes, he did send it to me before Nationals. But I'm also a muppet. 

Hope you enjoyed the article!

Tournament Review - UK Nationals, 12 / 13 November 2016

Venue: Battlefield Hobbies, Daventry, Northamptonshire UK

Tournament Organiser: Mike Marshall, aided and abetted by Lee Battrick and Jen Truby, and sometimes helped sometimes hindered by Benjamin 'Joffrey' Crowe and Oz Capewell.

So where do you even start? This was, at 124 players, comfortably the biggest Malifaux tournament ever. As well as copious amounts of prize support Wyrd Games sent over Malifaux's lead designer Aaron Darland to take in the sights (Connor Truby in a frighteningly good Changeling costume...) and sounds (mostly Mike over the PA system). And enough glassware and wood and trophies were given away, it took as long to set them all up for the prize giving as it did for us players to pack away the terrain from 62 tables. 

I'm going to go ahead and say this - I have never had as much fun in a weekend's gaming in 18-odd years of attending events. Meeting up with so many awesome people and being able to hang out and chat was just amazing. There were so many people I didn't even get to catch up with everyone I wanted to! The atmosphere was great, even at the sharp end of the event when things were getting tense. 

Considering your average gamer is as easy to organise as a herd of cats, Mike and his team of dedicated helpers did a miraculous job of corralling us into each round and making it so simple. The technology failed meaning they had to read out the entire draw and print out sheets - handled without a problem. The packs had all the paperwork we needed and between the five staff, the results sheets were distributed quickly enough that we all had the scheme pools promptly at the start of every round. 

A special mention for the packs. Every single attendee received a set of 7 UK Nationals poker chips to use as Soulstones, along with a custom fate deck with some lovely art by the multi-talented Mr Truby. These will be in use for some time and are a lovely reminder of the weekend. 

The venue was great. Battlefield Hobbies deserves to be mentioned amongst the top venues in the country. The facilities were excellent, there was enough space for everyone even with so many people present, and the guys there kept us going all weekend. It's only problem is Daventry being in the arse end of nowhere, but that's not their fault! 

If I'm being picky, the packed lunches were actually a bit rubbish and Sunday's turned up two hours late. There was lots of swapping going on so everyone could get fed with something, but there was enough there that the less discerning wouldn't be going hungry. 

But this shouldn't detract from what was a monumentally awesome tournament. Absolutely fantastic. And you better believe I'll be there next year, if I have to pit fight for tickets. 

Mr Marshall, you and your little helpers (and Mr Crowe) did you and the UK proud. Thank you all. 

Runners and Riders

(Deep breath...)

Best Cosplay: Cy Dudley (alt Barbaros)

Best Table: Mick Green (Dreamer's Bedroom - he even put a 'tour guide' there so you found all the little touches and knew what to treat the terrain as!)

Best Display Board (Wanker): Mick Green

Best Painted (Judges Choice);

3rd Mick Green

2nd Johan Hoflin

1st Alessandro Meschieri 

Best Painted (Players Choice);

3rd Bonk, the Polish legend

2nd Haydn Smith 

1st Alessandro Meschieri

Best Sports: Stuart 'Snezzley' Snares. No, I don't know how either. He got 5 votes and was out on his own... The beer must have been strong. 

Oar of Shame: Nick Pratt (last place)

Spoon of 'So Crap They Couldn't Even Win the Oar': Gordon Barlow (next to last place)

Best Fixed List: Adam Hutchinson (Kaeris)

Best Trinity: Josh Fletcher (Ramos / Von Schill / Lilith)

Best Fixed Master: Ant Hoult (Rasputina)

Best Arcanists: George Hollingdale

Best Gremlin: Ricardo Nieri 

Best Guild: Matt Lewin 

Best Neverborn: Mark Elwood

Best Outcast: Graham Bursnell

Best Resurrectionist: Martin Jones

Best 10 Thunders: Joe Jackson 

3rd Place: Joel Henry (Zipp)

2nd Place: Ricardo Nieri (Gremlins)

1st Place: Mark Elwood (Neverborn)

Tournament Report - UK Nationals, 12/13 November 2016

So this is a very delayed report for the UK Nationals. 

The main reason I've put this off is because it's more of a report on my own shortcomings than anything particularly incisive about Malifaux. Without giving too much away (if you're reading this, you're probably following my Twitter feed and know what happened), whilst wide awake and firing, I did well enough to lead the event for two rounds and fight a valiant rearguard. And then it all started to go horribly wrong...

Scheme pools aren't on this report because I forgot to write them down, and don't have the results sheet to write them up. Apologies - will try to do better.

 

Round 1

Lady Justice, Judge, Francisco Ortega, Dr Grimwell, Master Queeg, Brutal Effigy

Vs

Giordano Vignoli (Henchman for Modena, Italy)

Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, Nino, Austringer, Brutal Emissary, Enslaved Nephilim

Collect the Bounty

This one didn't last very long. 

My first activation, my Francisco put El Mayor on Lady Justice, brought her up with Hermanos de Armas and cleared the way. Next up, Judge double-walked and pulled Justice up again with Stand for Judgment. Then Grimwell used Doctor's Orders and that was another 5" for the Lady. 

When Justice activated, turn 1, she could charge literally any model in Giordano's crew. She was so far forward, and this caught him so completely by surprise, it was a very unpleasant shock. Nino died turn 1 to clear the path for my Convict Labour, his Francisco went down turn 2, and when Perdita died at the hands of the big sword early in turn 3 Giordano conceded. He had his Austringer and Nephilim left, and no chance of scoring. My Francisco had Flurried his Emissary to death and Santiago had been Lobotomised by Dr Grimwell. 

10-0 win. I felt so guilty I gave him my limited edition Perdita card, and we talked Guild for a while. My use of Queeg for Promises, and Welcome to Hell so my Henchmen could set up Convict Labour with 0 actions, really helped get me that far ahead, and notes were taken on the Justice slingshot. Not just the Viks that can do that!

Believe it or not, of the 62 games that took place in the first round, this game was the only 10-0. Which meant I was leading the event...

 

Round 2

Sonnia Criid, Francisco, Dr Grimwell, Lone Marshal, Field Reporter, 2 Watchers

Vs

Will Finn-Lewis

Lilith, Nekima, Tuco, Doppelgänger, Illuminated, Waldgeist, Primordial Magic

Extraction

I like Sonnia against Neverborn because they have monstrously high stats, Pandora taking everything on Wp7 or Lilith hiding behind Df7. Ca9 cuts through that. Being able to pick on the available models and blast off into the hidden models is even more useful. 

That's pretty much what turned this game. Lilith was skulking behind a train whilst Tuco was trying to get into position to shotgun Sonnia. Sonnia Focussed, cast at Tuco and hit the Red Joker for damage. He died screaming and burning, whilst the Blasts bracketed Lilith and Nekima. When Lilith threw Nekima up with Tangle Shadows, Nekima couldn't survive the counter attack from Francisco and Grimwell and went down quickly whilst Lilith immediately hid. That made it very difficult for him to contest the Extraction marker, especially when the Lone Marshal secured my Leave Your Mark and trick-shot off the Doppelgänger. 

It got to turn 4 when I was a little careless with Sonnia, and Lilith came out on the attack, Tangling herself in. Sonnia went down (even Badge of Office didn't help!), but then Francisco piled in and finished Lilith off. 3 points each for Neutralise the Leader...

10-6 win for the Guild. Sonnia was able to dominate the table for the opening turns whilst Lilith hid and Nekima was killed off, and that made it impossible for the Neverborn to contest the Extraction marker. Solidity is a faction weakness of theirs and boy does Sonnia make them pay for it once she's settled. 

 

Round 3

Hoffman, Peacekeeper, Guardian, 2 Steam Arachnid Swarms, 2 Watchers

Vs 

Pete Sidaway

Hamelin, Obedient Wretch, Ashes and Dust, Big Jake, 2 Winged Plague, Stolen

Squatters Rights

I was still leading the event going into the third round, which was the round of old school schemes. Unfortunately for me the strategy was Squatters Rights, and I just find it one that Guild really struggle with. Trying to interact across such a wide space is a major problem for a faction that doesn't have the interact tricks of others. The scheme pool was all scheme markers as well which made it even harder. 

Hence the choice of Hoffman. One Watcher was Nimble, the other could interact for 0 actions. The Steam Arachnid Swarms could pulse away enemy scheme markers. And between the Peacekeeper and a Guardian, the thought went, there would be enough reach to contest the squat markers. 

Unfortunately trying to keep up with a Hamelin crew on interactions is like urinating in a strong gale. Models combine into other models which push and generate more models. Some of those models have Don't Mind Me. Some of them eat my scheme markers. And in the middle of it all is my crew, getting its Blighted condition cranked up so Hamelin can go "BLEEDING DISEASE!"  

This was a very technical game. I was able to get two Squat markers and protect them, but protecting Protect Territory and Power Ritual markers from Rat Kings was much harder. That's where I lost points and couldn't get them back. All credit to Pete, he's a very good player and played Hamelin well and quickly enough that we comfortably finished all 5 turns in the time limit. 

When the dust settled, I believe I lost 6-10 (it was definitely a 4 point loss). In the circumstances, I'm almost proud of that. It was bloody hard work. 

 

From here unfortunately my notes go to pieces, and so did my Malifaux. 

Round 4 was Interference, against Jamie Clark and his Arcanists. Rollins Black took the field against Mei Feng. This game was the reason why I don't play 4 round events - my brain just can't cope, especially after the utter headf*ck that had been the previous game. 

I was horribly tired and Jamie rolled me over 6-8. To be honest it didn't really feel that close. I was being annoying with Field Reporters, and Joss bouncing off Grimwell was funny, but making daft decisions like letting Pale Rider get too close to Langston with Kang nearby turned out to be fatally idiotic. 

Overnight, unfortunately I didn't get much sleep. So when I rolled in first game on Sunday I was really feeling the effects of the previous day, and when I drew Lewis Phillips, one of the Best Guild protagonists, I really hoped I could give him a real game, my Rollins vs his Nellie. That didn't happen...

This game can be summed up with the following story. We were joking around at the start of the game about a ramp, and Rollins leaping off it. I deployed my crew and played the entire first turn before Lewis asked me if I was going to activate my Master. I'd left Rollins on the ramp. Which was Height 7. So he had to spend 2 entire turns, even at his speed, just to get into the game. 

I lost and I lost badly. Apologies to Lewis - I'll give you a real game next time!

Round 6 was a straight up cock up. I saw my Italian opponent Luca Pagliai's beautiful Perdita crew set out for Best Painted, and figured in Headhunter I'd stick to my normal plan. Sonnia Criid burns lots of things and then Watchers pick up heads and relay information. 

Luca, however, set out Hoffman. First time I've ever played against Hoffman and I didn't see him coming. Sonnia took one look at all the armour and was left saying "this is bullsh*t..." as fireballs bounced off left right and centre. 9-3 win to Luca who played very well. 

The freefall bottomed out last round against Nathan Chenery. He plays Hamelin very well, and the strategy was Stake a Claim. I swore when the draw was revealed. I swore a lot. This was going to be tough...

My list actually worked. Nellie Cochrane to hand out Fast, pull his models where they couldn't Stake, Phiona Gage and 2 Hunters to do some damage, and 2 Reporters and 3 Watchers to speed across the table. 

Unfortunately my brain didn't work. Turn 2, I Staked a Claim in the wrong half of the table, a decision that gave Nathan two free points. And thinking I was being clever, at one point I burned Nellie's entire activation to clear the path for a Watcher to Stake, forgetting that the Watcher in question had been smashed to bits in the previous turn. 

Yep. 5th straight loss. 

So having led the biggest Malifaux tournament ever for most of day 1, I sank without trace and finished on 2 wins and 5 losses, good for 102nd from 124. 

As I said at the start, I'm pleased with how I played the first 3 games. Thereafter, tiredness and its consequences meant this is not a tale of glory for the annals... 

Preview - Malifaux Nationals

So as I write this, at 0200 in the grip of insomnia, the greatest Malifaux tournament ever will start in a little over 6 hours. Bringing nearly 130 players together under the scrutiny of Mike Marshall, in my view the best tournament organiser out there and the only one who would be able to pull this off, it promises to be something truly special. Every year Mike manages to outdo himself and I have every confidence that he'll do it again. 

Through absolutely no fault of anyone else, my record with these events is unfortunately not good at all. I'm quite open about it - I suffer from bipolar disorder. Normally it's medicated and managed, but it does make me very susceptible to cracking under sustained pressure, and I always seem to get hit right in the personal life around Nationals time. I wasn't able to finish the first such event I attended, the M2GT in York, having had a complete breakdown at the start of day 2. And thanks to a really tough time at work, I didn't even make it up for the Nationals in 2015, something that still rankles even now. 

 

So how do things look heading into 2016? 

On paper, it's not exactly encouraging. I've just come out of one of the most stressful and traumatic times of my life. My medication had to be revised, I was and still am in therapy, and am consequently unemployed. Hell, I'm writing this at 2 in the morning because I can't sleep. 

My aim is just to finish the event. Hand in 7 sets of scores and get a final placing. With everything that's going on, and my history with the event, I'll be so chuffed if I can manage that. It sounds so simple but trust me, it won't be! 

Luckily I have reasons to be hopeful. The Nationals are in Daventry Northamptonshire this year, and I live a little under an hour away in the same county. So I can sleep in my own bed, which is a massive help. And I have one of my closest friends Claire, aka Eless and the Little Lass, staying with me and organising me. 

At this point I could go on about gaming aims. If everything was right, I was in a good frame of mind and things were settled at home, I reckon I could aim high. Without any false modesty, on my day I'm a match for anybody. Made the Masters last year, have held best in faction badges on the rankings site, and revel in my 7 tournament wins. I fought even the mighty Maria to a draw last time we played, and I used a Hoffman construct crew against an Outcast crew featuring Relic Hammers everywhere. The race for Best Guild at Nationals would be a 3-way shootout with Matt Lewin, Jamie Phillips and me. 

I've had to accept that it won't go like that. Best Guild is a 2-way shootout that I'm not in. I'll give it my best shot but I really don't care about my result. I just want to enjoy what will be a fantastic event and to do that I can't let the pressure to perform well build up. I'd love to do well, and sneak a top 20 finish that might just be enough to get me into the Masters for a second year. But it isn't going to happen. I'm making mistakes and at the moment don't have the concentration necessary to play at the cutting edge. So I'm going to play my normal hyper-aggressive game and just see where it takes me. Pressure off, and just play the game. That's easier said than done but this is something I've had to train myself to do over the last few months. 

 

On the table, I'll be running my beloved Guild. I've played all 8 Masters extensively but have settled on a core of 5. Guild McMourning and Perdita just haven't clicked with me for some reason. I don't know what it is or why, but I can't get on with them. And Lucius, whilst being thematically and fluff-wise one of the coolest Masters and a brilliant model, is just horribly underpowered. There is seemingly always a better option, which is heartbreaking, but I'm just not that keen to spend games pushing sh*t uphill! 

So that leaves me with a core of Lady Justice (face-ripper extraordinaire), Sonnia (the queen of the flaming Blast), Nellie Cochrane (latest tool in the box, and an amazing option), Hoffman (all the stompy robots) and Rollins Black (alt McCabe, the only Master in Guild capable of corralling enough models for table quarter strategies). I know each of these inside and out, I know what models I like to run with them and I know what they can achieve. 

Best of all, there's enough variety there that it keeps my opponent guessing. If they go elite, they risk running into Lady Justice and 4 Henchmen and struggling. Taking hundreds of models is good for activation control, but when Sonnia hits the table they could well wind up so much scattered ash. And Nellie now allows the Guild to play a control and denial game. 

The event is a fully painted event, which means models just sitting there primed or half finished can't be used. This has meant a lot of brush time for me - I actually don't enjoy painting at all, so I don't do much of it. There are models that I'd like to have available that aren't painted, so they have to stay on the shelf. No Mounted Guard, or Rail Golem for Hoffman, or Brutal Emissary, amongst others. But I still think that I've got enough ready to go and my core models are ready. 

Plans wise, there aren't many that can be made. At Nationals, strategies, schemes and deployments aren't released until just before the game, so you can't look at the pool and have something ready to go in advance. A key skill for Malifaux is being able to prepare on the fly and this event will certainly test that! 

Anyway. I'm going to try again for this wonderful 'sleep' thing that everyone else raves about. I'm really excited about playing tomorrow with so many awesome people present. It's going to be a blast. 

I'll try and post some updates as the day rolls on. 

Shopping List - Pandora, Neverborn

So I've been asked to do a shopping list article for the Neverborn Master Pandora. Pretty sure the guy who asked me, the living legend that is Joel Henry, was joking, but I'm gonna call his bluff!

 

Pandora is a Master who many players have a negative opinion of. They believe that games involving her are non-games, and she takes the fun out of Malifaux. 

1. Warmachine Rulebook

 

I am one of those people. I hate playing against Pandora. If you haven't got the right crew to play against her or you're playing against her for the first time, she's just an absolute nightmare. The technical term is NPE or negative play experience. For that reason I don't condone using her and have never contemplated playing her, because there is always that inherent risk of your opponent having an awful game. That's just not a risk I'm prepared to take. 

So. If you're considering playing Pandora. Don't. Put the box back on the shelf. Or buy it for Baby Kade, then melt down the Pandora figure and burn the cards. 

If any of what I've said above actually appeals to you, and you just want to stomp noobs, then please f*ck off and play Warmawhores and leave the rest of us alone. 😛

Shopping List – Lady Justice, Guild

Here we are again, the first of a new series of articles.

One of the questions I get asked most by new players is what they should get to go with their shiny new crew box. Seeing as I’ve been round the metaphorical Malifaux block a lot, it’s one I can answer as I’ve played either with or against pretty much everything.



So this series is going to give 3 sets that I think go well with a particular Master. As with all these articles these are just my opinions, but as per usual I’m hoping that they at least give you ideas.

The first one I’m going to do is my favourite Master, one who I think is underplayed and underestimated – the mighty Lady Justice.

1. Brutal Effigy



I’ll square with you. I gave Lady Justice’s official totem the Scales of Justice a couple of games, thought ‘what is the point of this’ and he’s been sitting in the case ever since.

The Brutal Effigy is everything her totem should have been. He hands out a condition called Fear Not the Sword – every time Lady Justice does damage, she heals 1 damage, and every time she kills, she draws a card. Given that doing damage and killing is what she’s about, keeping her alive longer to do more of it and gaining cards to help in the process is a real benefit.

Added to which, he’s only 4SS, is a Minion who can interact, and his 4 Wounds doesn’t look like much but with Df6, Armour 1 and Hard to Kill he still takes some shifting.

This little guy should be the first name on the team sheet after Justice herself.

2. Master Queeg



A slightly left-field choice, but I’ve been getting an awful lot of mileage out of Queeg alongside Justice.

Reason 1 is the Promises upgrade he can take. It gives everyone with an upgrade within 6” positive flips when they attack in melee. Guess why that’s good with Lady Justice?

Reason 2 is the built-in push on Queeg’s melee attack. One of the big reasons I get so much mileage out of Lady Justice is the Henchmen slingshot I use to get her into the thick of the action early, and pull her back out again if there’s a problem.

Stage 1, Francisco Ortega walks up, uses Cover Me from the Hermanos de Armas upgrade to pull Justice 5” up, and clears the way. Stage 2, Judge walks twice and uses Stand for Judgment to pull her another 5”. Queeg can potentially add another couple of pushes to this off his attack, and he can also send her round corners as his is a push in any direction.

Using this set-up, my record is Lady Justice 14” out of her deployment zone and past some blocking terrain, with El Mayor and Fear Not the Sword on her, before activating turn 1. I can tell you straight up, there’s not a lot scarier for the opposing crew than that much pain that close that early!

3. The Lone Marshal 



Another lesser seen but still very good choice is the Lone Marshal.

Lady Justice is a fantastic killer. She likes having other killers along. She also likes having the Lone Marshal along. That’s because he can do the killing role himself, either finishing off the wounded or picking off weaker models trying to get away from Justice. Never underestimate how good Trick Shooting is – push 6”, take a focussed Sh6 shot that does 2/3/5, then push 4”. He’s the Tau jumpsuit of the Malifaux world.

Lone Marshal is also Wk6, and with Numb to the World he becomes a scheme runner that is very hard to stop. He can decide not to gain harmful conditions, and can discard a card to stop enemy models making him take actions.

For a long time I’ve ignored this guy, but since Numb to the World became a thing with Ripples of Fate I’ve been giving him another look and he’s been well worth the Soulstones ever since.

So that’s the first Shopping List article. If you have any Masters you want me to give the treatment, drop me a line and I’ll happily waffle on!

Tournament Review – Autumn Showdown, 30 October 2016

Venue: Wayland Gaming Centre, Hockley, Essex

Tournament Organiser: Mike Marshall

I won’t lie, the Showdown events are amongst my favourites on the calendar.

They’re always really well run by Mike, who is a consummate pro at this TO routine. He has the systems in place and well rehearsed, and knows what works. He also brings lots of laser-etched glassware for us players to compete for, along with plenty of Wyrd prize support to raffle off. Interaction with the players is another big plus – he joins in the good-natured abuse we throw at each other and helps make everyone feel welcome.

One thing I’m a major advocate of is the Best Sports or Best Opponent prize. In my view it’s the most important prize – if you’re even competing for it, you can say that you gave your opponents a good, fun game that they enjoyed, and that for me is worth more than winning. I’ve said often and loudly, I’d rather lose a game than win it by underhand means or in a fashion that my opponent didn’t enjoy.

The one thing I feel should have been given more prominence was the painting competition. It felt a bit shunted into a corner.

That’s a minor gripe though. The atmosphere was really pleasant with pretty much every single table top to bottom having a laugh and coming away with stories, mostly about Dave Hill and his multiplying Stitched Together (the git). I particularly enjoyed the breaks between games to catch up and chat to people I hadn’t seen in a while.

The Showdown events have been pencilled in for next year; 26th February, 7th May, 30th July, 22nd October. I’ll be there and I would definitely recommend that you give them a go!

Runners and Riders

Wooden Spoon: Thomas Henry, Neverborn

Best Painted: Joel Henry, Gremlins

Best Sports: Maria Wieland, Outcasts (GO MARIA!!!)

3rd Place: Dave Hill, F*cktrumpet (he used Dreamer, Daydreams, Stitched Together and b*gger all else…)

2nd Place: Mike Jenkins, Outcasts

1st Place: Joel Henry, Gremlins (he used Zipp all day)

Big congratulations to everyone, particularly the Henry family. Joel proved yet again that he’s a bloody good player, and his son Thomas proved that it takes more than good genes to be good at Malifaux…

Tournament Report – Autumn Showdown, 30 October 2016

This is the first tournament report to be posted. The plan isn’t to go through each game in microscopic detail. My memory isn’t good enough to do that, and frankly it’d be boring as anything to write and read!

Instead I want to look at why I think the game went the way it did, any lessons either player could learn and whether things would have been any easier in different circumstances. These are my opinions – they may or may not be right, but I’ll give them anyway as hopefully there’s something useful in there amongst all the misguided vitriol.

Separately I’ll do tournament reviews. Those are my thoughts on the event, structure, venue etc, and the runners and riders that I can remember.

So. On with the show!

Autumn Showdown was a 3-round Gaining Grounds event, with fixed factions being declared at registration and strategies, scheme pools and deployments revealed on the day.

I’m in full practice-for-the-Nationals mode, so declared my beloved Guild faction. They and I both do a strong line in aggression and damage so we’re a pretty good fit. Since wave 4 and the Ripples of Fate book hit, we’ve got some new toys to play with too and I’m enjoying getting them on the table.



Round 1 – Tony Fenton, Outcasts

Extraction, Standard Deployment

Convict Labour, Take Prisoner, Hunting Party, Detonate the Charges, Search the Ruins

Guild: Nellie Cochrane, Printing Press, Phiona Gage, Ryle, Lone Marshal, 2 Field Reporters

Outcasts: Vik of Ashes, Vik of Blood, Malifaux Child, Hannah, Ashes and Dust, Bishop, Hodgepodge Effigy

I think this was a particularly rough draw for Tony for two reasons. Firstly, the moment he declared Outcasts, I knew exactly what his Master would be and could have probably guessed the entire crew. One of my good friends and the Northampton shopkeeper Karl McConnell plays Viks – he plays them well and he plays them often. He also uses a list very similar to Tony’s and I’m used to dealing with them.

Secondly, Tony had never played against Nellie and had no idea what she did or how she did it. She’s a good counter to the Viks as they rely on positioning and being able to get in amongst the enemy, and she can stop them on both scores. That’s even more apparent when the Viks player doesn’t know how she does it!

It was a rude awakening for Tony when Nellie waited til last activation of turn 1, pushed Vik of Ashes 10” across the board with Propaganda, and then triggered three swings from Phiona Gage’s pickaxe along with the damage flips from Propaganda itself. She didn’t drop immediately, but went down first activation of turn 2 which put Tony completely on the back foot.

From there I was able to stay in control. The journalists gained complete activation control when Ryle decked Bishop, which made Detonate the Charges fairly easy to achieve. The Field Reporters’ ability to turn enemy scheme markers into friendly managed to completely stymie Tony’s Search the Ruins, whilst we both managed to block each other’s Hunting Party until the final couple of turns.

It was a really tight game as Tony played Vik of Blood and Hannah really well to stay in touch, and I had to stay focussed to keep ahead.

Final score: Guild 8, Outcasts 6

There’s a maxim in Malifaux – the first game you play against a new Master, you’re almost certainly going to lose it (unless you’re Joel Henry). You need to understand what they do and how they work so that you can play accordingly. That first time out you’ll learn these things the hard way, like Tony did here.



Round 2 – [redacted], Arcanists

Headhunter, Corner Deployment

Convict Labour, Show of Force, Leave Your Mark, Frame for Murder, Public Demonstration

Guild: Sonnia Criid, Francisco Ortega, Dr Grimwell, Lone Marshal, 3 Watchers

Arcanists: Marcus, Myranda, Cassandra, Performer, Mannequin, 2 Night Terrors, Rougarou, Big Jake

I’ll be brutally honest, I feel that this was a game that my opponent lost at scheme selection.

When Public Demonstration is in the pool, and there are combinations of Minions that might actually be able to pull it off, then I’ll look to take those Minions down early. With a Master like Sonnia and two mobile killers like Francisco and Grimwell, that’s not something I struggle to accomplish.

My opponent here raced Cassandra and the Mannequin off to one flank and immediately started setting up Convict Labour. His Minions were all set up centre field, opposite Sonnia and the Henchmen. So Sonnia killed the Performer and both Night Terrors (along with Myranda) just in case, and end of turn 2 the Rougarou (having been blasted down to 1 or 2 Wounds by this point) raced up to Sonnia to take 1 point for Public Demonstration.

At that point, I knew all I had to do was close out and the win was mine. My Watchers had broken through for Leave Your Mark, and Francisco was already scoring for Show of Force with nothing left to oppose him. There were plenty of head markers from Sonnia’s many kills – enough for both crews to max out – so I basically took the 10-8 win rather than overstretch and complicate matters.

Knowing that early that Frame for Murder hadn’t been selected made it even easier – there was literally nothing to keep my crew in check.

Final score: Guild 10, Arcanists 8

The lesson here was that you need to make sure you have options in your scheme selection. I know a lot of people don’t like Public Demonstration, and mine was exactly the type of crew that you don’t take it against. The crew does an awful lot of damage and is quite capable of massacring its way through your named Minions at range. And it did.

There were much safer options available to my opponent. Frame for Murder is known as the Panzer Handicap, as my aggressive style of play normally makes me very vulnerable to it. And Leave Your Mark, with Cassandra, Practiced Production and Night Terrors, is fairly simple to score. He showed his hand too early and paid the price.



Round 3 – Dave Hill, Neverborn

Guard the Stash, Standard Deployment

Line in the Sand, Catch and Release, Exhaust Their Forces, Covert Breakthrough, Quick Murder

Guild: Rollins Black (Lucas McCabe), Iggy Pup (Luna), Taelor, Pale Rider, Field Reporter, 2 Guild Hounds

Neverborn, Dreamer, 3 Daydreams, 6 (count ‘em…) Stitched Together

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to do about Dave’s crew. So I gambled that mine had enough staying power, whether through Soulstone use, high stats or defences, to achieve my schemes and stick around for the Stash points.

Dave, meanwhile, was also gambling. A lot. Most of the game was him shouting ‘gamble your life!’ and me swearing at him for all the Gamble Your Life he was throwing my way! As fast as I was putting the Stitched down, he was summoning more with Dreamer.

I had the schemes sorted very quickly. My Quick Murder target was one of his Stitched, who took a relic hammer to the face turn 2. I went for Line in the Sand, and between the assembled dogs and the Pale Rider I had 7 markers down by the end of the game.

My problem was the crew just couldn’t stay upright to claim stash markers. Gamble Your Life is a horrible spell – the Stitched just has to match your duel total in order to do a 3/4/7 damage flip against your model. Taelor and both iterations of Rollins / McCabe were singled out for some particularly brutal treatment early on and were gone by turn 3. Much to my dismay and Dave’s amusement, a particularly well-timed severe on the Pale Rider took it off and that was pretty much that.

Final score: Guild 7, Neverborn 9

In hindsight… Well, I have to be honest, I don’t know what I’d do differently. I’ve seen variations of Dave’s crew – Collodi with a lot of Stitched – before, and Taelor is a good counter. With Dreamer, who I couldn’t target without him dumping it off to Stitched and then summoning more in, it was difficult to deal with.

Dave also played it very well indeed. He knew what could hurt him – Taelor and Rollins – and made things safe fairly quickly. Maybe I would have been better off with some tougher targets.

Final Thoughts

When the dust settled, I sat on 2 wins and 1 loss and a differential of +2, good enough for 12th place from 34.

That doesn’t entirely tell the story though – if I’d won the last game, then I had every chance of taking 3rd. I’m actually very happy with being in contention right up until the end of the event. I suffer from bipolar disorder and have been struggling with some issues lately, so staying focussed the entire length of the event is an achievement these days.

I’m still enjoying the Guild and will definitely be bringing them out at the Nationals. This event really reinforced that, as I played some very strong opponents and a faction everyone derides had answers for just about everything.

Except Dave the F*cktrumpet and his damn gambling…

Welcome to PanzerFaux

So welcome one and all to Panzerfaux!

A blog is one of those things I’ve always been meaning to do. The game of Malifaux is one that I’m usually playing, painting or thinking about, and enough ideas spin around my warped brain that some of them might actually be useful to be other players.

I did consider a podcast, but there are enough of those out there now that it would be nothing new. However, there are precious few blogs out there that are updated on regular basis, and that gives an opportunity.

Hopefully this blog can be of use. I’d like to think I know enough about the game to pass on some tips and tricks, and include reports on some of the many events I attend and run. With any luck I can cajole the occasional guest writer to join in as well for some different viewpoints.

And whilst I’m at it, a thank you to Malifaux’s hairiest, sweariest midget. Without Matt Spooner giving me a push to stop procrastinating and finally get on with it this may never have happened. Although of course he didn’t phrase it quite like that…