034 - Puppet Wars - what did I miss?

Several threads are starting to show up on the Wyrd boards of people showing off their puppet models from Wyrd's new Puppet Wars board game, and there's been plenty of admiration, but I have to admit I'm just not seeing the model's appeal.

Let me start by saying I haven't played the game, or seen it played. I've been hoping one of the local gamers has picked up a copy as I'd quite like to give it a go and see how it runs. I do really like the idea of a stripped down "Malifaux-lite" that takes less than an hour to get through and doesn't need a lot of space or time to set up. I'm sure it's a lot of fun to play, although I have my doubts about how successful it'll be outside the established Malifaux player base. To a person not already familiar with the Malifaux fluff, it doesn't seem to me that, for example, Puppet Nino or Puppet Bad Juju would be particularly characterful, instead they'd just end up being abstract pieces devoid of context.



What is "Nino" anyway?

There's one main reason, though, why i don't plan on buying the game for myself and that reason is, im sorry to say, the models are just not very attractive! Compare something like the Puppet Rotten Belle or Puppet Witchling Stalker to pretty much anything in the Malifaux range and the lack of detail is astonishingly obvious. I honestly believe I could sculpt models myself to the level of detail on the Puppets I've seen so far.

Brown blob with a sword

I know they're meant to be puppets, and so will inevitably be simpler models, but some look like amorphous blobs and don't capture the essence (for me at least) of the Malifaux models they're based on. There are a couple of notable exceptions - Lucius is nice, and the Canine Remains is rather cute, but on the whole I'm not too excited. Usually when Ratty on the Wyrd boards posts up his most recent work it inspires me to run out and try something similar, but this time I'm not feeling it.

Mike

033 - Ding, Dong, the Alp Bomb's Dead

This week, the Alp Bomb was brutally killed off as a viable tactic. Wyrd posted six changes to the Alp's abilities onto the forums in a long-awaited post here.

You can follow the link for the full details of the changes, but in summary Wyrd have changed the way that Alps work in two separate ways:

Firstly, Alp abilities that cause enemy models to suffer Wds by being in proximity when they activate, walk or strike are not as powerful as they were previously. Before, you would suffer 1 Wd for each Alp in range. Now, you only suffer 1 Wd regardless of the number of Alps up in your grill. A bunch of Alps dropped on your crew will still have a good chance of inflicting Slow and a Wd or two, but aren't going to be killing potentially any non-Soulstone user they surround. "Extremely deadly" has been downgraded to "Extremely annoying".

Secondly, Alps have been made Insignificant. This is a err... significant change because they'll no longer be useful in achieving some Strategies or Schemes.

The first change I expected, as it's been a sore topic on the Wyrd boards since before I discovered the game. Everyone knew it definitely needed changing, with hordes of players begging Wyrd to swing the nerf bat. Despite all the pitchfork waving, Wyrd have obviously taken their time playtesting to understand any unforeseen implications the change might have, before reacting accordingly. Thanks Wyrd!

The second change I didn't expect, but I can understand why it was made. At 3ss, Alps have been brought more in line with Sorrows, as a model that's nice for supporting the crew's main hitters, but isn't going to be game winning by itself. As other people have already pointed out, now that the Dreamer has access to Night Terrors, he doesn't need another cheap Significant minion to be able to compete at eg. Recconoiter.

Alps will still feature in many crews, but as annoyance/support, which it seems is how they were originally envisaged. Best of all, Neverborn players will no longer face abuse from their opponents for bringing Alps - so we can all rejoice!

Mike

032 - Painting Update & My Workstation

Not much of an update today, just thought I'd share a work-in-progress picture of what I'm currently painting, and give you a behind the scenes look at my workstation.

I'm currently working on Gremlin models, and painting a mix of So'mer Teeth and Ophelia models. Here's Ophelia with her base complete and some initial work on the Henchlady herself. The Bayou Gremline is complete and only there so I can make sure the colour schemes stay consistant. I think I've already failed though and need to go back to Ophelia's shoes to make them a more muted brown, so that the crews tie together visually.

Here's some pictures of the rest of the stuff that crowds my painting workstation. It's only an extremely tiny portable table with wobbly legs, which I use to paint in the living room in front of the tv. I don't really have a permanent space to go and paint where I could spread out a bit more and be able to keep things tidier, because I prefer to sit and paint on the sofa and keep the girlfriend company.

Filling up the space at the moment you can see various other Gremlin models, including some almost finished flying piglets. Also in the queue you can see Nightmare Teddy that I've made a start on, a half finished Shikome, and a couple of Doctor Who models that I'm assembling ready to teach the missus to paint. I made her a Doctor Who diorama (Matt Smith, Karen Gillan & the Tardis) last Chrismas which she really liked, so they seemed like a good choice for her to have a go at painting her first models.

The wet palette and water jar take up a lot of space, and when painting in the evening I often try to squeeze a posable lamp on the table too, so space is at a premium! Tools and paints wise, I try to keep most of my stuff in a box behind the sofa and only pull out colours when I need them, until gradually the table gets filled up and I pack them all away again until needed.

Well there you go, a bit of an insight into my living room. Hope it was of interest!

Mike

031 - Malifaux September Releases Review

The September releases are due to hit the shops on the 15th, so I thought I'd give a quick review of what we're going to see. The big release this month is of course Twisting Fates, the second expansion book for the game, but I haven't had chance to fully digest all the contents yet so I'll post a review of that separately in the near future.

Onto the models:

Raptors

Underwhelming is how I'd describe these. Maybe it's another case of raised expectations, but it seems to me that Wyrd missed the opportunity to make something unique and Malifaux-esque here. Instead we get very generic looking birds that don't really stand out compared to the same sort of model produced by many other companies. I haven't checked, but I'm guessing this is a case where people will have lots of proxy options should they want different bird models.

Soulstone Miner

It's a bumper release for Arcanists this month, although in fairness they have the largest number of unreleased minions from Rising Powers. I really like the look of this model. Very dynamic sculpt and just like the artwork. Those spinning blades look especially nasty! One downside to it that I can see is that it's just made up of pieces of metal, so it will be hard to make it really stand out painting-wise, but if anyone wants to practise their Non-Metallic-Metal painting techniques, this is the model to buy!

Large Steampunk Arachnid

One guy on the forums with a fear of spiders said this model creeps him out, and I can kinda see why. It's very spindly, not at all like the more compact regular Steampunk Arachnids. I don't really understand why it has what looks like a crown on its back though - that looks a bit out of place. Arcanist players are happy that it appears to be on a 50mm base, which means that it drops additonal scrap counters when dying, meaning Ramos will be able to get extra SS of value out of killing it and summoning smaller Arachnids.

Pigapult

Absolutely love this model! The sheer size of the thing hanging off the edge of the base, the expression on the pig's face, the pirate gremlin lookout, it all comes together to make a really cool minion that perfectly captures the spirit of the gremlin faction. I'm not convinced yet about it's game-worthyness, but if nothing else it can be played in friendly games for comedy value! Various customisations and conversions of the pig have been suggested, ranging from top hats to monacles - I'll definitely have to do something interesting with mine!

Sonnia Alt

A big improvement on the original Sonnia sculpt, which I never really liked. She always seemed to me to be one of the most boring master sculpts, not really doing anything interesting and not oozing character like most of the other masters. She does look to have a slightly weird expression on her face, but that might be the angle of the photo. Apart from that the leaning back stance and raised sword is a cool pose, and the fireball looks great. Between this and the Avatar I'm no longer writing off Sonnia as a master I'm not interested in ever getting!

Sonnia Avatar

Such a incredibly dynamic and unique model, this was one of my favourites of the GenCon preview releases. I believe it's a combination of metal and resin parts. Sonnia herself looks suitably possessed and is nicely posed, although I can't help but feel that her hair should be spread out a little wilder than it is as she swoops through the air. The majority of the model is made up of swirling fire (Mike's Painting Hint: Fire should be highlighted the opposite of other materials, lightest colour in the recesses blending to darker red at the extreme edges), and it looks great, especially the dragon rising behind Sonnia. Perhaps things are a little cramped, even on a 50mm base, but the overall effect just works really well, for me anyway!

Mike

030 - Ortegas vs Marcus

I take no credit for this picture, which was the work of "011121" on the Wyrd forums. Nevertheless it made me chuckle so much I think it deserves a repost here.

More of his amusing Malifaux pictures can be found in the thread here (including some cute girls in Steampunk outfits, which is always nice!)

Mike