GenCon Prep

I'm not actually going to GenCon this year. There are a few folks from NoVA heading out to represent our playgroup in the tournament, but I won't be making it out with them. Dan's getting married this fall, and so I decided not to bother to head out. At the time I made my decision, no one else I knew was going, so I figured I'd pass until next year.

I've been a couple years in the past, and both times signed up for a Warmachine tournament. Strangely, both times I think the day I spent playing in the tournament was my least fun day of each trip. I just don't enjoy tournaments enough to play in them much. Which is too bad - I tend to do well in them, but I just don't want to bother playing in them. I'd rather play 2-3 board games I haven't tried before than spend a day playing the same game over and over.

Doesn't mean I won't try a tournament again next year when I go back, though. I'm into a new game now, Malifaux, and maybe I'll enjoy their tournaments more. NoVA Open this year may be a good test for that.



But all that's beside the point. I went by Huzzah last night to help my friends who will be playing in the tournament prepare. Walked in, challenged one of the guys going to a game (Dixon), and then had him tell me what he wanted to test his list against. Built an appropriate list using what he wanted to face and played the game. Did the same for Bill after that. This is one of the first times I've felt close enough with the community I play games with that I want to see them perform well at GenCon, and I want to help them get ready. I'll be helping out with some more games over the weekend.

In thinking about it, though, Malifaux is really quite different to prepare for compared with other games. In Warhammer, you have a list you play over and over until you know it backwards and forwards. In Warmachine, you've got your two lists you need to know. But in Malifaux, it's different. You don't take a list, you take a faction, and you build your lists according to whatever missions and terrain you get. Every list in Malifaux has its weaknesses. If you put together a list and assume you're going to play it every game of a tournament, you may be doing yourself a disservice.

So how do you prepare for tournaments in Malifaux? I've seen it a number of ways. There are people who put together a single list and practice with that one until they know it forwards and back. There are people who plan two or three lists to face different opponents and then learn those as good as they can. And there are people who don't put together a list ahead of time, instead practicing with as many models of their own as they can against as wide an opposing field as they can.

Personally, I fall into the last category. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to making lists. Usually I'll play whatever I feel like playing in a particular game and not plan too far ahead. I like to play a wide variety of models, and try out new tricks and new tactics when I am preparing for tournaments. As a result, I think while I lose out on some of the depth of certain models working together and certain combinations, I make up for it in my flexibility of creating a crew and reacting to a scenario or set of terrain.

In the end, it probably comes down to play style, like so much in these games. My style is more flexible and reactive to my opponents. Other people are more rigid and like to know everything their models are capable of. Whatever style works for you, use it. And if you're not sure what's best for you, try all three styles. Some people are nervous when they walk into a tournament without a list. I am more nervous when I have a set list in mind before I know what I'm doing. Find your comfort zone and play there.



random aside: When I went to Google Images and typed in "GenCon", the vast majority of images that pop up are women in cosplay. Why is that?

Gamers Lounge Episode 36

Make sure you head over to the Gamers Lounge to see episode 36 where Dan and I talk with Bill a bit about Malifaux and the upcoming GenCon. Also, be sure to tell Bill that you love hearing my voice so he'll invite me back again.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Went to see Captain America with the wife last night. Overall, a great movie. I had heard that the movie was a little slow early on and I can understand that view, but I felt like it was good to set up Steve Rogers' character before he became Captain America, and show all the obstacles he had to bypass to actually become the Captain America we all know.

If anything, I felt disappointed by the villains of the movie: Hydra. I liked Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, but his motivations did not really seem that... well... impressive. The idea of a villain who's a bit insane and feels superior to the rest of humanity and recognizes his hero counterpart as being cut of the same cloth was done much better with the Green Goblin and Spiderman in the first Spiderman movie. Here it felt a bit more like the villain's plot was kinda tacked on in a few places to give Cap someone to fight against.

Even with the weaker villain setup, I still really enjoyed this movie. This year we've been lucky to get X-Men: First Class and Captain America as two of our comic movies (I haven't seen Thor or Green Lantern) and neither X-Men nor Cap disappoint.

If you do go to see the movie, I'd recommend staying to the end of the credits. There will be further references to a new movie coming out in May of 2012.

Board Game Weekend

It's been a while since I've spent a good chunk of time with board games. Last weekend we finished off my campaign of Grimm as the heroes were able to defeat the insane Andrew and rescue Oz from his siege. They defeated the Wicked Witch of the West too, but ended up putting a new Witch in her place to keep the balance of the world. Finally, they learned how to use their imagination to finally bring the world back the way it was.



Anywho, that all meant that this weekend we could get back to some board games as were gear up for the next roleplaying campaign. On Friday night we played Arkham Horror, a good old standby. I had just bought the two newest expansions, Miskatonic Horror and Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (Revised Edition). We had seven players, so we ended up opting for a game that used Curse, Innsmith, and the main game with a few of the Miskatonic bits mixed in.

Our Herald was the Dark Pharaoh, and we were trying to stop Nyarlathotep from rising. Our starting seven characters ended up starting with two Elder Signs, already a good opening. I played a fighter and blasted my way through a pair of early monsters, clearing the path for a gate crasher to come in behind me. The amount of delays and the spells the gate crasher had allowed him to completely leave the other world I was in, seal the gate with the Elder Sign, and then enter a new one to the same world and leave at the same time as me, sealing that one with our second Elder Sign.

Unfortunately, while this was happening, Ellen ended up facing off against one of the Mask monsters that appeared and she failed the combat roll, automatically being devoured. She brought up a new character who also started with an Elder Sign. Things were looking good!

The entire middle of the game for me was occupied with trying to get my sanity and health back to full and constantly being thwarted by sandstorms, patrolled streets, and monsters. Finally, at the end of the game we had five seals and I had five clues. We knew where the next gate was opening so I moved to a spot near it so I wouldn't be sucked through the gate when it opened. We had two doom tokens left on the track, but we felt confident.

Until Brian drew the mythos card that added two Doom tokens to the track instead of opening a gate. Nyarlathotep appeared and immediately ate Dan, Brian and Ellen. Mary, Chris, Laura and I fought valiantly against him but ended up being picked off one by one. We got him down to four doom tokens left but by that point it was just Mary and I left and we drew the Final Battle card that ends the game.

Overall, great fun. I still love the game, though it has just about outgrown the suitcase I have it in. Maybe it's time to move to a steamer trunk.



Yesterday after playing a game of Malifaux against Bill (his first try with Hoffman - fun game), I waited around until the league was officially ended. I got first overall and best of Malifaux and with my prize money bought another pack of Wicked Dolls and the game I had been waiting for months to arrive: Merchants and Marauders.

I broke out the rules last night and tried to do a crash course on the game. I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff, but we played a two-player game last night. I drew a captain that lent himself to being a pirate while Laura favored being a merchant. I burst out of the gate hunting down merchant ships, capturing one easily, then a second. England's bounty on me was rising by the minute, but they had yet to send any English vessels to the seas, so I was relatively safe. On the second attack, my ship took some damage and I was ready to head back to port to fix up my ship when a plague struck and my home port was closed down. The only ports between it and me were English ports where I could not dock because of my bounty. So I figured I'd wait for the plague to subside and attacked one more merchant ship. The ship had a bunch of hidden guns, it seems, as I took three damage and my ship was sunk with all my earned gold!

Meanwhile Laura was moving slowly around as a merchant. Her luck was poor early in the game, not getting a lot of good merchandise, but as my second captain, a merchant, hit the table, she started finding some good deals and where previously she was earning 6 gold on a sale, she had a couple back-to-back that got her 24 gold and some glory! I struggled to catch up, but she ended the game (after the seas were crowded with European vessels and pirate ships) with 80 gold in her stash and five other glory points. Brutal! She had a pirate try to come after her but her ship, a galleon, proved too much for it and she sunk her foe as they tried to escape.

Overall, a really fun game. We enjoyed the ability to switch between pirating and merchanting (I was planning on buying a Frigate and turning pirate in a turn or two since I needed some fast cash). Neither of our captains were particularly good at the Missions and Rumors, so they didn't play a role in our game much, but it was fun to see how we could have become arms dealers trying to run blockades and things like that. A very colorful, story-heavy game. We're looking forward to playing it again.

Malifaux Collection (Mostly)

I'm working on figuring out a better way to store my miniatures and figured while they were all out of the case, I should get a full picture of everything I've got painted so far. So here we have my entire Malifaux collection (with a few minor exceptions: a second Insidious Madness is on loan to Dan, a second Black Blood Shaman is unpainted, a pair of Coryphee and a Duet also needs painting, and a Seamus box is sitting aside unassembled waiting for my wife to paint up).



It's quite a party.

Pictured are:
Stolen x4
Malifaux Rats x12
Obedient Wretch
Hamelin (Master)
Rat Catcher x2
Nix
Von Schill
Freikorpsmen x2
Freikorps Specialist
Freikorps Trapper
Freikorps Librarian
Miss Pack
Hamelin (Minion)
Jack Daw
Desperate Mercenary x2
Ronin x3
Viktoria (Gun)
Viktoria (Sword)
Student of Conflict
Convict Gunslinger
Hooded Rider
Doppelganger
Teddy x3
Poltergeist
Pandora (Master)
Pandora (Avatar)
Candy
Baby Kade
Sorrow x3
Insidious Madness
Bad Juju
Waldgeist x2
Silurid x3
Zoriada
Voodoo Doll
Collodi
Marionette x4
Wicked Doll x3
Mechanical Doves x3
Performer x2
Mannequin x2
Cassandra
Colette
Terror Tot x6
Younger Nephilim x4
Mature Nephilim x2
Lilith
Malifaux Cherub
Nekima
Blood Shaman
Lelu x2
Lilitu x2
Stitched Together x3
Primordial Magic
Dreamer
Alp x6
Daydream x3
Lord Chompy Bits (Nightmare)
Copellius

Happy 4th of July!

Painted Models for Grow Lists

I was able to spend my commission money from Josh on a few new models and got them all painted up. Two new Younger Nephilim and the second Desperate Mercenary.





With these, I should be ready for another test of the Grow List. While I've been largely disappointed with the original Grow List, trying to get Nekima and two Mature Nephilim charging across the table, because it's too slow, my next attempt will bring in four Younger Nephilim on the first turn and get them moving forward. It has the added bonus of not needing to bleed out Nekima any to get it to work. Though with killing two Desperate Mercs in the mix, I'd probably bleed her anyway so that she can have an extra blood for later and can heal back up twice.

Lilith (8 stones)
- Primordial Magic
- Nekima
- Terror Tot x4
- Desperate Mercenary x2

I know a lot of other people have been using the Grow List without Lilith, but I am still very fond of Lilith being used with the list. She's fast, hits hard, and has a lot of movement shenanigans. She can toss around Earthquake to get the whole crew moving on the first turn, and can put up her forest to help control opposing movement.