Some Musings on My Resser Experiment

I got a pair of games in last night with my Ressers, continuing on my trek through the new crew. Last night was my unveiling of Nicodem.

Now by no means do I understand how to play Ressers yet, and certainly not Nicodem, so I strongly recommend that if you want to get tips on the correct way to play them, you listen to someone other than me. I managed to take my crew 1-1 last night, losing a game against Perdita and her head-shot happy Nino (seriousness… he triggered headshot 5 times in the game, sapping 4 cards, 4 soulstones, and outright killing my Dead Rider) and winning against a Kaeris crew (I had a few turns where my deck just couldn’t flip lower than Kaeris’, and as such he ended up having to cheat pretty much anything in the key early turns).

I am really enjoying my experimenting with Ressers. Playing with Nicodem, I was floored by just how much he could usually do during the game. Not once in both games did I resurrect a new model, and yet I still felt like I was using him effectively. Rigor Mortis, raise zombies, Decay, bolster undead. Without even bringing in a new model, I was able to do a lot with him. Perdita’s crew had his number with Immune to Influence and Stubborn, but Kaeris was not taking it all so well.

I’m also getting a better handle on Bette. I still haven’t killed more than one model with her in any game, but I’m learning better how to use her. Honestly, she feels to me a lot like a Neverborn model. Melee-centric, tricky movement with her popping up, and a glass cannon with some bizarre defense ability to boot. I think I’m going to enjoy her even more as I keep using her. Crooked Men are up near the top of my favorites too, even though they have yet to blast well enough to drop a blast template. The threat of it alone saps my opponent of cards usually, and if it does hit, all the better. It’s still a few damage from range.



There’s quite a shock that comes from switching from Neverborn to Ressers. The most obvious case last night was when I was trying to deliver a message to Perdita and thought I was set up in the perfect place – Second Generation Awesome Dan had told me that Necropunks were great for objectives. My Necropunk was a good clip away but with the cheat in my hand for Leap, I felt I was in a strong spot. Except that even with Leap, the little critter doesn’t move all that much. He hopped over and was still out of range to do anything other than continue to move. And then he was only speed 4! I’ve got my Neverborn objective grabbers down to a science, but the Ressers are quite a clip slower. On the other hand, I find Ressers clearly win out when I’m constructing a crew. I build to 30 stones and pull out a half-dozen models to put in my crew only to find I still have another 10-15 stones left to use. The sheer plethora of good low-stone cost models astounds me.

I do miss my Neverborn, though. I miss the speed and I miss the tricks they bring to the table. It took me a long time to really get Neverborn down, and now starting over with a new crew that plays so completely differently is a bit of a challenge. I don’t think Ressers have a prayer of replacing my first love, but they certainly are good for a change-up.

The Cycle of Games

While my blog tends to focus around the games I play most often - Malifaux at the moment - I consider myself a bit more well-rounded gamer than that. True I do enjoy miniatures games quite a bit, but I also enjoy my share of roleplaying and board games, with occasional dabbling in computer games and every once in a while, a card game too.

So, like any hobbiest, I guess my interest waxes and wanes in regards to different types of games. Right now I'm definitely at a low with card games (and have been there for many a year) and a low with computer games (though I am anxiously awaiting Mass Effect 3). My board game interest is waning at the moment. Malifaux and miniatures gaming is remaining flat near the top of my interest, but what's really rising for me right now is roleplaying.

A few months back I finished out running my campaign of Grimm, a tale where the characters all played kids who were caught in a grand story where they were flipping back and forth between the fairy tale world and the real world, only each time they moved back and forth, something changed in the real world. Slowly, as they traveled to Wonderland and Never-Never Land, stopping at a few other places inbetween, they figured out how to gain more control over what they were doing. Finally they ended up in Oz where they were able to defeat the evil overlord who was destroying the fairy tale worlds, stop the Wicked Witch of the West and break her hold over various members of the group, and rebuild the real world so that they could go home.

Every time our group ends a campaign, there's usually a break while we all wind down, play some board games, and generally goof off until the next campaign starts up. Since I ran the last campaign, it falls to other people in the group to run the next one (unless no one else wants to - then I'd run again). We have two people who like to GM and a third who occassionally does, so it means no GM has to run the games twice in a row - a good thing. Makes sure our GMs don't burn out.

This time, Brian's going to take the wheel and run us through our next adventure. He's always been a fan of Deadlands and the wild west, so he's building up a storyline for us to jump into. Since Dan's getting married in less than a month, we've decided to hold off until he gets back to actually launch the campaign. No sense in starting for a week or two and then taking a long break.

Overall, really looking forward to getting back in the seat and playing in a campaign. We'll be doing a couple one-shots between now and go-time, just to get our feet wet and help get a sense of the rules. Looking forward to the launch.

McMourning's Fear of Guns is Justified

Headed over to Bill’s house over the weekend to get a couple games in and do some podcasting (check out Episode 39 of the Gamers’ Lounge… though it wasn’t my best effort – I was working off about 4 hours of drunken sleep the night before). I strapped on my Go PACK (which Dan said made me look nerdy, but I think he’s just jealous) and trucked on over.

Bill and eChris had stepped out by the time Dan and I arrived, so we set up a game while we waited for them to come back with lunch. I had a number of my Ressers painted, so I decided to start with them. We flipped for missions and I flipped Slaughter while Dan flipped Destroy the Evidence. I really only had one list, so I went with that.

McMourning w/ 8 Stones
Zombie Chihuahua
Canine Remains x2
Crooked Men x2
Bette
Sebastian

With Destroy the Evidence, Dan switched up his list and took the guy who pretty much achieves that mission all by himself… Von Schill. Okay, so Collodi could do it even better, but Dan was playing his new Vikis, so Von Schill made the list.

Viktorias w/ 6 Stones
Von Schill
Ronin x2
Convict Gunslinger

We picked schemes and I decided to have some fun, declaring Assassinate on the VIkis and trying to get A Piece For Me with McMourning. Dan took First Blood, only later realizing that was a fairly easy two points, and… something else.

Turn one saw me with no crows in hand. So sad. I killed my dogs to get six body parts (and get Dan First Blood without even trying) and started moving out. The bulk of his crew came to face me in the center while Von Schill flew to the first objective marker out along the side.

On turn two, I drew no crows yet again despite ditching all but one card from my hand. My Crooked Men moved out to blast the Ronin and while they did not drop any AOEs, they did force him to discard some decent cards. Von Schill dropped one of the points and flew after the second one. I sent Sebastian after him and followed it up with McMourning moving out, slinging his scalpel at Von Schill and then attacking him some more. Von Schill was freaked out by the crazy doctor. The Vikis kept hanging back, keeping a bit safe.

Turn three saw no crows yet again, and only one card above a 10, so I couldn’t reliably bring out Bette either. I killed his Ronin, but he killed my Crooked Men in return. Von Schill tagged another point and then jumped up in the air. McMourning tossed his scalpel at him and followed him up, stabbing him and draining him of all but one stone, leaving him with only a couple life left. Sebastian started trying to get back in position.

Turn four finally saw me get a crow, but it was a two of crows. Not so useful. He won initiative and flew away with Von Schill and tagged the last point. Sebastian got gunned down by the Convict (damn non-painted model… blended in with the terrain and I forgot about her!). McMourning went after Von Schill, drained his last stone, and then hit again but I flipped the Black Joker for damage and Von Schill stuck around.

On turn five, I finally saw some good crows, but it was too late. Von Schill jumped away and shot McMourning, and the Convict Gunslinger finished off the poor sod. Bette jumped out but got cut down right after that and I lacked the card to keep her around.

Not a great showing for my second McMourning game, but I did learn something valuable: McMourning really relies on crows if you’re looking to do summons. But the flip side of that was that I actually enjoyed seeing what McMourning could do independent of summoning Flesh Constructs. He hits really hard, and he hits a heckuvalot. He’s deceptively fast. Overall, very pleased with him.

Deliveries and Painting

Over the past couple weeks I've been a little light on playing Malifaux. After playing a bunch in August, September has seen only two games, and in one of them I pretty much cheated left and right (entirely unintentionally, I assure you).

But my lack of playing games has been made up for in other ways. At the NoVA Open I used my prize money from one of the games to help fund my new carrying case - the Battlefoam Go PACK. Well, it and all the foam for it arrived and I moved my entire army into the new pack.



It carries 9" of foam, so with the padding and dividers, I ended up going with one 3" pluck foam and three 1 1/2" troop trays. With my Neverborn and Outcasts, I've already filled up two of those troop trays and started on the third, and I've filled up probably 2/3's of the pluck foam. Damn in Neverborn doesn't have a lot of large models. Of course, Nightmare Lord Chompy Bits takes up a big chunk of that space on his own.






But that's not all I got over the last couple weeks. Back when Advanced Deployment first released their burned wood tokens, I wanted to jump on them, but then I was laid off from my job so my wife and I had to tighten our belts. Now I've been working again for a few months and decided to go ahead and order some of the tokens. They had a lot more I wanted to get this time around.




Finally, I've been pushing myself to get my Ressers painted up quickly so I can start fielding them. I've been concentrating on getting McMourning table-ready first and over the past week I've gotten another batch of models ready to go. Add to that the fact that I was able to purchase a bunch of Big Jay's old Ressers and am slowly getting those primed and ready to paint and I expect to have a nice sized Resser crew pretty soon.



Don't be too critical of my paint jobs. Sam Adams Oktoberfest has hit the shelves and I may or may not have been drinking while I paint. Evidently it doesn't mix all that well. But still - they're table-ready, and that's what matters to me.


Finally, I've been invited to join Bill on the Gamer's Lounge with a few others to help go over the Twisting Fates book. A couple weekends ago we were out there talking about Avatars, and this weekend we're heading back to talk about the minions. Plus there's a bit about the recent Neverborn-hate out there in which Bill makes a pretty ballsy statement (for him). Not one I haven't heard before, but for the guy who tries to make his opponent enjoy every game, it seems to run against the grain. I'll leave it at that for the moment.

Moving On to Ressers

So after buying all of Neverborn and picking up the Vikis, Hamelin and Von Schill, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to move into next. I had always kinda liked the idea of Hoffman and Lucius (not together), but the rest of the Guild didn't excite me as much. Besides, a good buddy, Brian, just picked up a bunch of Guild to learn the game and I didn't want to step on his toes. And when Twisting Fates came out and I got a look at the Resser section, I knew exactly where I wanted to head next.

It also helped that my wife liked the Seamus and Kirai boxes and wanted to paint them up. I've always liked McMourning, so I started with him while my wife was working on Kirai. Last night I got two more models painted up and now I'm ready to unveil my next project: THE UNDEAD!!!!



Doesn't mean I'll be shelving Neverborn - they'll still be my primary faction - but as I get enough of my Ressers painted up and ready to go, I'll be fielding them too. Might try a Resser Month or two down the road to get some game time in with them. But they're not at all like the Vikis in prep-work - I was able to get the Vikis fielded in almost no time. The Ressers take a bit more effort. There are a lot of them!

Fantasy Football 2011

I just drafted for both of my fantasy football teams this year. We’re a couple days before the kickoff of the season and I’ve still got that hopeful look in my eye. Of course it’ll be slashed a few weeks into the season, but that’s alright. It’ll still be a bundle of fun all the way.

The first league is the one I’ve been in for several years now. This will be the fourth season, and for the past three seasons, I have made it to 4th place, but no farther. I’m the only person to make it to the playoffs all three years, but also the only person to make it to the playoffs and never win. We play with ten teams, two keepers a year (kept the same slot they were the previous year, but cannot be kept two years in a row, and cannot keep anyone from the first two rounds). I was able to keep LeSean McCoy in the 4th round and Peyton Hillis in the 10th.

My picks came in as:
1. Aaron Rodgers, QB – GB
2. Roddy White, WR – ATL
3. Antonio Gates, TE – SD
4. LeSean McCoy, RB – PHI (Keeper)
5. Brandon Lloyd, WR – DEN
6. Austin Collie, WR – IND
7. Daniel Thomas, RB – MIA
8. Mike Tolbert, RB – SD
9. Johnny Knox, WR – CHI
10. Peyton Hillis, RB – CLE (Keeper)
11. Malcolm Floyd, WR – SD
12. Green Bay D/ST, DST – GB
13. Jerome Harrison, RB – DET
14. Robert Meachem, WR – NO
15. James Jones, WR – GB

I did not intend to lead with a QB in the first round. I was hoping to grab one swinging back around in the second round, but when the keepers were announced at the beginning of the draft, Brees, Rivers and Vick were already off the board. I really wanted to get one of the top five QBs (poor Manning didn’t make the cut this year) which meant that I needed either Brady or Rodgers. I was the 7th pick in the draft, which meant I wouldn’t get another until the 14th pick. A lot of time for both Rodgers and Brady to be snatched up before me. I probably could have gotten one on the return swing, but I didn’t want to risk it. So instead of getting Andre Johnson for the third year straight, I held off and picked up Rodgers and Roddy White.

Drafting Austin Collie was a little bit of a stretch for me, especially with Manning’s health a big question-mark. But I figured it would probably pay off later down the stretch. I have enough receivers without Collie that I can keep him on the bench for a little while.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this team. I took a hit at RB this season, relying mostly on my keepers to keep me afloat, but I think I’m pretty strong everywhere else. Except Kicker. I should probably get myself one of them before the games start.



My second league is a new one for this year. My extended family from my mother’s side decided we’d all jump in to a new league. After emails circled around, we ended up with a monster 14-person league. This one will also have keepers starting next year – they can be anyone from 5th round or later, and only two keepers. I think. Maybe one. I didn’t really pay attention to it this year since it doesn’t matter yet.

I convinced my mom to join too, so I was helping her out with her draft and picks as we went through. I picked 9th out of 14.

My picks came in as:
1. Maurice Jones-Drew, RB - JAC
2. Greg Jennings, WR - GB
3. Antonio Gates, TE - SD
4. Dez Bryant, WR - DAL
5. Austin Collie, WR - IND
6. Tim Hightower, RB - WAS
7. AJ Green, WR - CIN
8. Sam Bradford, QB - STL
9. Braylon Edwards, WR - SF
10. Jerome Harriosn, RB - DET
11. Mike Williams, WR - SEA
12. Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB - BUF
13. Anthony Dixon, RB - SF
14. Sebastian Janikowski, K - OAK
15. Arizona D/ST, DST - ARI

I made a couple of bad calls here – like passing on Chris Johnson with the first pick only to find that he ended his holdout the very next day, and grabbing Greg Jennings when Calvin Johnson was still on the board. I didn’t even have him on my radar as I figured he’d already have been picked when it came to my draft, so I was already queued with a different receiver.

I also did not get the high QB I was hoping to draft, but that’s largely because the 14th person in the draft ended up picking two QBs back-to-back and then the whole string of them got taken before my turn to go. Every time I had someone targeted in a round, someone else drafted them a few picks before me and before I knew it, I was the only team without a QB so I picked up Bradford to hold me over.


Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with both teams. My first league is a little more competitive, though it will end up with far more good players out on waivers too. My family league is going to be a bit harder with only five people on the bench and slim pickings on the waiver wires. We’ll see how the year goes, but however it does, I’m just glad that there’s more football back in store.