Malifaux for the Young

Let me say that I would generally not recommend Malifaux for a younger gamer. There are a number of reasons for this, the background content, the models(some are...well intense), the amount of special rules for each model and the math is a little more involved than the typical d6 style games.  

My son, who is 10, has wanted to play though. This is probably because he knows it's the game I "sneak" out of the house to play without him. So a few days ago I said to him that if he really wanted to play we could play a small game and we set up a scenario. The 2 crews we used were Perdita, which he would use and Nicodem which I would use. We also played with small crews which turned out to be three models each and drew for a strategy each but no schemes.

And the game went quite well. It didn't take my son long to get into the flow of the game and he has the patience to read through the stat cards.(he will probably have them all memorized soon!) He probably enjoyed the game even more than some others because he could concentrate on a few models and each one was a character.

Having said this there are certain crews and models I would not like him to play at his age and I would not let him read the stories in the books. Also when we played we both described the model's actions as we were playing, weaving a story as we played the game. I definitely described the actions with a lighter tone and in actually the game can be quite humorous, who knew. 

It was a fun game that ended in a tie and I'm sure there will be more.

On the building front I have completed the 3 buildings I've been working on for Malifaux I just have to give them finishing details to make them Malifaux specific. I will work on getting a water tower together and get the zombie horde painted in time for a game demo at the end of the month.

Talk to you soon.

A view of the Ortegos. The three round markers were evidence I had to destroy.

Nicodem's side approaching the town.

 

Back In the Day

I've been gaming for a few years now and I still have some of my stuff from the early days. I started with historical gaming using Airfix figures, mostly 1/72 Napoleonic using a set of rules that I have long since lost and also WWII with a set of rules called Operation Warboard which I still have and then 1/32 WWII skirmish with a set of homegrown rules derived from an article in a magazine titled Military Digest which I don't believe is published anymore.
Somewhere along the way I got into Warhammer Fantasy followed by Warhammer 40k. I still play both those systems on and off as well as numerous historical games in various scales.

The early plastic box sets for 40k and Fantasy. The Orks were metal.

The plastic Space Marines. The have been repainted a few times over the years.

Early Imperial Guard. I still have Imperial robots to build somewhere. My son painted these.

The old and the new, well newer.

  So enough of memory lane. I've played a few games but have not improved my win/loss ratio. I played a great game of Malifaux with my Guild Ortego crew taking on the Arcanists Colette crew. Unfortunately at a crucial moment I failed to take down a powerful Coryphee model and was then locked in melee which is not my crews strong point. It was just a matter of trying to capture some VP's after that but I couldn't quite do it. But a good game anyways.

Shawn figuring out a new crew.

My crew about to do battle with the Coryphee

Looking down main street, still under construction.

Coryphee not dead...now I'm in trouble.

I also played a game of Tide of Iron, a board game by Fantasy Flight Games. This I played against my son using one of the scenarios from the main game, "Silence the Guns". It was very close but my American forces who managed to clear the hill bunker could not claim it as my son had cleverly led his reserves into a blocking position.

The beginning of the game with the Americans(me) advancing on the German strong point.

Lasalle Game

Just this week I manage to play a couple of small games of Lasalle. This is a Napoleonic miniature game by Sam Mustafa. I have always loved this period just for the look on the game table but other than a game I used to play in the 80's which I do not remember the name I have never found a set of rules that I enjoy playing. Now just to get this out of the way I only have a passing knowledge of the era and its tactics. I seem to spend all my time rebasing figures to try another set of rules which should be THE set of rules for me. I've tried Shako, Piquet, General de Brigade and a few others I can't remember off hand.

So how did I enjoy the rules? Well I actually enjoyed them quite a bit. It played fast and the mechanics were fairly intuitive. The rules seemed to make you play the tactics of the period without resorting to a bunch of complicated rules, but remember this is coming from someone who does not claim to be a scholar in this period. The key thing for me perhaps though is would I actually like to play this game again, yes. Finally I will be able to keep my figures based this way for awhile and maybe even get my 15mm Napoleonic troops to the gaming table once in awhile.

French Cavalry

The French center(a little blurry)

The British advance

The lines at the start of the battle. The brown bases represent rough ground.

 

Starting Warmachine and Other Gaming Goodness

I got in a number of games lately including trying my hand at Warmachine. I like the game so far though we are only playing with the small forces included in the starter boxes. In the group of players we have 3 starter sets, Menoth, Khador, and Cygnar. Cygnar is my main force and I have played twice with it and once with Khador against Cygnar. Unfortunately, but typically, I lost every game, once to my friend Shawn against his Menoth group and twice to my son who played Khador and then Cygnar. I believe in retrospect that I launch my finishing moves a little too early and then leave myself open for a counter strike so I will have to adjust my tactics a little. Of course with the small forces involved there is little room for recovery. But it also means you can get in a number of quick games and learn the game quickly.

My son and I also played a small game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. He played the High Elves from the Island of Blood set with the addition of a unit of Spearmen but did not include the Prince on the Griffin and I played a small Orc and Goblin force. The battle ended in a tie.

After playing a few small games now I think I enjoy playing the latest edition of the game. The previous two editions I started to find the rules too fiddly for my liking and I only played the last edition twice as I found the rules too cumbersome. I know this edition seems to be taking some flak from the more competitive players and I have to say I am not a tournament player but I like these rules so far.

I also played a number of board games including Settlers of Catan with the family and Pandemic with my son. Both were loses. Settlers I don't think I really even got in the game, it was between my son and wife and she won the game while Pandemic was a fun game but the diseases got out of control. 

So it looks like a lot of loses and no victories, ah well that's the way she goes. 

I will be helping Shawn run a Malifaux demo game at a local games day so to that end I am building some terrain and finishing off some Malifaux figures and that should fill my hobby time till then.   

The set up of the Warhammer battle. The scenario was a Meeting Engagement. I had 1 unit and my General in reserve while the Elves had 1 unit in reserve.

The forces close.

One of the Warmachine games. The forces have some base colours on them but need to be finished.

The foam core shell for a Malifaux building. The back view.

The front.

The Malifaux Peacekeeper miniature.

I painted the foam edges with glue to seal them off and primed the building.

My completed woods.

Odds and Ends

I've been doing a little of this and  a little of that since the last post.

I got a game of Malifaux in  a few weeks ago against my usual Malifaux opponent. The game played a little slow because we hadn't played for awhile and also the nature of the crews we played, Resurrectionists-Nicodem vs. The Neverborn-Pandora, but never the less it was a good tactical game and it came down to victory points in the end with me losing by 1 point, 4-5. I should have, and from now on always will, pick a second scheme for my crew to earn points with.

My son and I got in a few games of Summoner's Wars and are still having fun with that.

This past weekend I finally got to play a game of Trafalgar miniature naval rules. I really enjoyed it. It was fast and fun to play and though the simulation factor may be a little low it was a fun way to spend a afternoon. We had 4 players with each controlling 2 ships. We played one game to work out the rules which we brought to an end when we thought we had worked out the rules and then played another game and battled it out to the end. Unfortunately the British lost to the French.

The fleets mix it up.

One of the ships ablaze.

A Captains eye view.

I had to put this in for my friend. A British ship goes down.

Two of the British close.

I also managed to put the finishing touches on my WWII Canadian squad with  a platoon command and 2 Shermans. The infantry represent the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Shermans are from the Fort Gary Horse.

The platoon sergeant.

The squad Bren gunner.

A Sherman with the rifle squad.

The Sherman Firefly with the platoon command and the Bren group.

The Sherman Firefly.

That's about it for now. I have been doing some more work on my terrain and I will post some progress pictures in my next post.

See you soon, happy gaming.

The End

The Christmas battle has finally wrapped up and it was full of carnage. By the end of turn 8 Evil had taken 93 casualties and thus had reached it's half way point and would have to start taking courage rolls at the beginning of the turn for every unengaged model. The ones that didn't pass would have to run away and be removed. Good had only (yes only!)taken 86 and therefore would have 1 or 2 turns where the Evil side would be rolling courage(hopefully losing lots of soldiers to their low courage) and they would not.

This is exactly what happened with many models running off the board. By turn 10 Evil had lost 132 models and Good 98 which was past their courage point as well.

The game lasted till turn 12. The Mumak was dead (hurray!) and the only Heroes left standing was a Eastering Captain for the Evil side and Eowyn, Faramir, Gandalf, Legolas and a Gondorian Captain on the Good side.

The game was a lot of fun for both of us with luck both deserting us and favouring us at different times and until the last few turns it could have gone either way but with the Mumak's demise the last hope for the Evil side also disappeared.

The battle rages between Gandalf and Saruman who just can't seem to finish each other off. Saruman eventually got knocked down by Sorcerous Blast and piled on by Gandalf, Faramir, and a couple of others.

Boromir attempting to finish off the Mumak but having to fend off three Nazgul and finally meeting his end at the hands of a Uruk-hai beserker.

Note the missing Boromir! The Mumak was finally finished off by a rain of arrows from Legolas and others. Without the Ent to wear him down Good would not have been able to deal with the monstrosity.

The end. A very sparse battlefield.

The Battle Rages

The battle continues and casualties mount. It is turn 7 now and the Forces of Good have lost 57 models including Aragorn, Gimli, Gamling and Damrod while the Forces of Evil have suffered 75 including Suladan, the Hasharin and the Troll. Both sides started with 183 models. I have a habit of rolling terrible for morale in any game so I hope I can get the Forces of Evil to their 1/2 way point first. 

Turn 6 Note which way the Mumak is facing. It has just finished stampeding through it's own lines causing significant casualties!

A closer shot. Will the Ent be able to finish off the Mumak or will the Mumak be triumphant. There is not much left of the Mumak's crew by this stage.