Mali-photos

Posted on 28/03/2012 by sho3box

I have been playing Malifaux since mid-February.  In that month or so (at the time of writing) time I have got seven or so games played, which is an awful lot by my standards.

The majority of the games have been at home, although I got an opportunity to play in another gamers house too (the games played on the green table shown below).

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about the process is digging around in the boxes of terrain that I own in an effort to make each game table coherent and unique.

After the effort that I have put in over the last couple of years I now have a lot of terrain, most of it practical and of pretty decent quality: I am happy to say that it is largely better than the majority of the terrain that I have seen in actual use (actual use rather than set pieces for shows or spectacular set ups for rulebook photos) over the years.  Its far from award winning stuff but its solid, practical and is supplied in volume.  Malifaux is finally bringing a lot of that stuff to the table for actual use, which is very satisfying.

I have been taking photos at various points during each game.  A selection of these quick snaps are shown below, just for fun really.  Lady Justice features a lot, seeing as she is the leader of my first completed Malifaux crew.

Lady J considers a game of Pooh-sticks swords during an away game.

The Judge leads his Death Marshals through the hazard strewn Badlands.

The Viktorias take on the Guild in an abandoned shanty town.

A ruined industrial zone is the stage for a three-way battle between Neverborn, Arcanist and Guild forces.

Ancient statues provide cover against flying lead.

Cowboy exorcists collide with twin psychic samurai ladies in a badlands canyon.

Ramos conjures up arachnid robots in the ruins of a factory.

Death Marshals attempt to encircle a Ronin.

I have some more terrain in the pipeline.  A few more post apocalyptic shanty type bits and pieces will be first in all likelyhood.

I also have plans for some cow town stuff, but it will need a little bit of wiki-wiki-wah-wah west-ifying before I will be happy with it.  I want it to look like something suitable for a Firefly/Malifaux setting as well as suitable for the Cursed Earth and the occasional frontier planet for 40k folk to show up on.  We will see how that goes.

Filed under: Games in Progress | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Malifaux: Objectives

Posted on 21/03/2012 by sho3box

Malifaux play is geared around “Schemes” and “Strategies”.  While there are a small number of these that are based on simply battering the opponents forces, most involve holding areas or moving certain items.  These objectives are represented in game by 30mm diameter bases.

The treasure chests above were purchased in Games Workshop, Oxford St, London way back in 1989.  I originally bought the pack of ten (or perhaps two packs of five, I cant remember) for use in Dungeonbowl, a Blood Bowl variant which was… wait for it… played in a dungeon.  The chests languished in the lead pile ever since, only to finally be given some love this year, a terrifyingly distant twenty-three years later.

I added the letters in case I will at some later stage need to randomise the chests for whatever reason.  A brilliant and much more aesthetically pleasing way to achieve this (that I was too lazy to copy) was done on Phreedhs Miniature Stuff a while back.  Unfortunately I cant currently find that particular post on the newly organised blog (Mattias, if you see this then put a link in the comments if you would like to show off your lovely work).  EDIT: that link is HERE.

The next objectives are trapdoors that were supplied with some GW LotR stuff.  PB gave me a lot of the accessories from those sets as he knew that it was unlikely that he would ever get around to painting them and that I likely would.  It looks like he was at least half right.  Ta-da!

The two above are my favourites.  I think that they both suggest a little story and playing miniature games is all about story.

The left hand one is supplied as a tiny two or three piece kit which I then stuck to a base.  It is another LotR bit from PB.  The lantern, scroll and book on the base on the right come from a Mordheim sprue (I think that it was supplied with Empire Militia figures for a while subsequently).

I like making/painting small miniatures to represent these sorts of things.  Fighting over a little model of a forbidden tome or briefcase full of diamonds or other all-important Maguffin adds a lot to the atmosphere in a game and is far nicer than fighting over a scrap of paper or similar.  Little bits of set dressing help with the narrative and to me the game narrative is the whole point of the process.

The fact that modelling and painting these items can be quite fun and a good change of pace from painting yet another guy with a gun means that I tend to finish off a lot of these objective based items.

A quick look through the blog archives brings up the following list of similar items if anyone is interested.  I had actually forgotten that I had modeled and painted some of these: I tend to consistently get motivated to finish these mini diorama type oddments.

Scrap counters, vultures, encampment, tents, gas cans, oil barrels and butane cylinders, zombie spawn points, mines,bombs and boobytraps, altars and tombs, distressed damsel, crows

Filed under: Miniatures, Terrain | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

Astro Pat

Posted on 17/03/2012 by sho3box

Pat the Astropath

Patrick O’Blivion here is an Astropath.  Astropaths use psychic abilities to transmit and receive information across the galaxy in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Continue reading →

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , | 9 Comments »

Fixer Upper

Posted on 14/03/2012 by sho3box

I found this model in a box in my mancave last week.  I had almost completely forgotten about it, even though the nondescript box that it lives in has been staring me in the face for seventeen years,

Obviously its a fantasy building of indeterminate sort.  Its quite large as these things go, so its probably an inn or coaching house.

I put it together from scratch in 1995 as a project for a course that I was doing.  The scale is a little off for 28/30mm figs, but its close enough.

The privvy is cute. I am absolutely astonished that it has survived intact for so long. Its 100% balsa construction makes it a bit like a city built on rock and roll: structurally unsound.

The piece isnt undamaged though.  Note that the circular window at the top of the photo above has fallen in to the structure.  The paint on the tiles is coming off in places in a disconcerting fashion too, as can be seen below along with the missing second chimney pot.  But all in all its in pretty good nick.

The chimney is made from air hardening clay applied in an effort to look like stone work.  The “stones” are a bit soft looking, but intact.

I am planning to fix some of the damaged areas and to add some light weathering.  I also plan to add a few posters to the walls plus a sign declaring the building a coach house or inn for use in Malifaux games.

I havent fully decided on a name for the establishment yet.  Considering the goofy steampunkhorrorvictorianwestern nature of Malifaux I am seriously considering naming it The Cowboy and Necrophiliac.  Thats what I have been calling Malifaux at home recently anyway (as in “Im off to play cowboys and necrophiliacs honey.  Dont wait up” or “I cant wait to get finished with this sexy nurse so that I can play cowboys and necrophiliacs with her on Tuesday when the lads come over”).

Admittedly The Cowboy and Necrophiliac is a bit of a mouthful, but it should make for funny signage.  Anyone have any better name ideas?

 

Filed under: Terrain, Workbench | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

Baron Samedi

Posted on 07/03/2012 by sho3box

Baron Samedi

The Baron here was bought and painted for use as a zombie master in a variety of games.  The figure will also do well as a wyrd (psyker) for my Necromunda Goliath gang should I ever need one. Continue reading →

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »