Von Schill's Crew is Painted

About a week and a half ago I picked up the Von Schill box and started painting it up. Finally got the bases in yesterday, and put everyone up finished. I got the two Viktorias and will be painting them up to match soon enough. Enjoy what I've got so far.

Next week I think the rest of Hamelin's crew will be arriving too and for a short time, anyway, I'm going to start learning how to play a couple of the Outcasts and putting my Neverborn down.

Gamers Lounge Episode 29

I am famous again! Head over to the Gamers Lounge to hear Bill and me chat about the Dreamer for over two hours (did we really talk that long?!). Since we're both Dreamer players, we spend most of the time talking about how we use him, but we do get into some talk about how to fight against him too. Hope you enjoy!

Sucker Punch

Last night Laura and I headed out to the theater on a whim to watch Sucker Punch. I figured since I wrote about it back in the day when I first started seeing images for it, I should probably talk about it after I saw it.

I know most of the reviews out there for it are less than flattering. I think, like most things, it's a matter of managing your expectations. I went into this move expecting to see a few things:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons

Here's what I got:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons
4. Cool music and camera tricks

I did not get a fantastic story. I did not get a bunch of great acting. But neither of those things were things I was looking for, so I didn't really mind it. For what I wanted, it delivered. It wasn't the most surprising of stories - everything they're doing is telegraphed pretty far in advance so anyone paying attention could pick up on it pretty early. But for myself, it was the ride that really mattered. And boy, what a ride it was.

The word I came out with after the movie was "imaginative". I've seen WWI zombies before. I've seen samurai fights before. I've seen dragons before. But the way it was presented, with the trench battles, the blimps, the rockets, the biplanes. With the samurai toting some clearly not-samurai hardware. The fight between the dragon and the bomber. All great stuff that I've never really seen elsewhere. It captured my imagination and I had to smile that they were mixing up genres so effectively.

So my suggestion: if a bunch of high-action hot girls fighting in strung-together music videos with great camera work and computer work sounds cool to you, take a look at this film. Don't expect it to be much more than that, because the story, when all boiled down, is pretty simple and straight forward, and the characters are, except for a couple, not very well fleshed out. But man, what a ride.

Oh, and Sweet Pea was my favorite. Rocket took an early lead, but once I saw Sweet Pea in her "other world" get-up. Yeah. She won.

Finished Out the Wire

After Lost ended I was quite sad - it was one of the only television shows I had seen that held me from beginning to end with very few hiccups. I searched around for another show that could replace it and kept coming up with one name: the Wire.

Now I used to watch Lost with my wife and my mother every week, and from what I had read, the Wire would not be a show my mother would have enjoyed, but the fact that it was constantly given high praise convinced me to go out and pick it up anyway. Laura and I just finished watching the last season last night and at the end of everything, I can say the show was incredible. Easily slides into my list of top shows ever.

When listening to a description of the show, it doesn’t sound like it should be the kind I would like. It involves police and drug dealers on the streets of Baltimore. First, I hate cop shows. I hate procedurals. They’re just not my type of show. I’m more of the Buffy/Supernatural kind of television watcher. Second, I’m not overly interested in the street-life style story. I never really cared much for things like Boys N the Hood or anything like that. They also just don’t interest me. So when I was told there was a story about police and drug dealers, my first instinct was to pass.

But then I saw who one of the actors was when I was looking through a few still shots.



I don't know his name, but I've loved him in every show I've seen him. That, plus finding the whole series for pretty cheap, convinced me to give it a try.

Boy am I glad I did.

The show starts you off in the middle of the action, uses a lot of lingo and patterns that, for the beginning, you're just trying to make sense of. "What the heck is a re-up?" "Why aren't the police having any success?" As the police learn the depth of the foes they are up against, they learn and start to make changes to their patterns. Which, of course, the drug dealers learn and start adapting themselves. As the show continues, things that worked flawlessly in season one become outdated by season three and it's a constant battle where each side is waiting for the other to slip up.

Soon in season one they're trying to track down the mysterious leader of this drug organization and find out what he's doing (if he even exists at all or is just a puppet). If the drugs are bringing in over a million dollars a week, where is this money going? The police have to follow everyone from the lowest drug dealers on the corners all the way to the top, follow them with wiretaps, eyeballs, and paper trails.

Each season expands the overall story while moving into a different aspect of the city as well. Schools, newspapers, dockworkers, politics - it's all tied together. And by the end of the story, you get a good idea of how interconnected this whole city really is.

If you haven't seen the show, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. The seasons are only 10-13 episodes long, each one an hour in length (and since it's HBO, they are each actually a full hour long rather than 45 minutes). Five out of five.

Adepticon Prep Tournament

Over the weekend, Bill ran an Adepticon Prep tournament at Huzzah. Several guys from our area are heading up to Adepticon in a few weeks and will be participating in the Malifaux tournament there, so we ran a prep tournament so people could get a little practice with the rules and scenarios.

Those who know me know that I dislike playing in tournaments. Since starting Malifaux over a year ago, I have played in only one tournament back at the Warstore Weekend, and that was only because Jay and Dan talked me into it when they needed another player to have an even number. I had a pretty good time with the tournament, but still would have preferred just playing casual pick-up games.

I planned to come to the tournament and chat with some of the people for a while and help Bill out if he needed anything. When I got there, I offered to play the ringer for Bill if he had an odd number of players who registered for the event. Turned out that we had seven players show up and register (including three from all the way up in Pennsylvania), so I filled in the eighth spot. I'd play the games, they would count for my opponents, but I'd be taken out of the running for any of the prizes (there were four: first and second place, players choice - which was essentially best painted/modeled crew, and sportsmanship).

It was a four-round tournament. Each scenario was a shared scenario and pre-made. Each player could pick two schemes each round, and no schemes could be repeated for the entire tournament.

Since I was just playing for fun, I decided I would use each of my Neverborn masters once and try out some new things or things I was not used to playing in each round.



ROUND ONE

My first round was against a local player, John. While he's been playing a lot of Archanists around the store recently, he decided to switch back to his Ressers. Usually I fare pretty well against him with his Archanists. His Ressers... not so much.

I took Lilith, the Primordial Magic, a Mature, a Younger, and five Terror Tots with 6 stones.
John took Nicodem, two Vultures, four Canine Remains, two Belles, Mortimer and a Nurse with 5 stones.

Our mission was Shared Slaughter, and I took Bodyguard and Kill Protege (Mortimer) while John took Bodyguard and Kill Protege (Mature Nephilim)

I had never taken more than three Terror Tots before, and wanted to try a swarm of them, just to see how they'd work. I was able to put an end to his Vultures pretty quick, killing one and locking down another in melee before it finally died a few turns in, but I was losing a lot of models as the game progressed. Sensing an opening, I tried to Transpose Mortimer next to Lilith to finish him off, but I flipped an Ace on my stone and he was able to cheat to resist. After that, I moved up to Nicodem to stop his onslaught of spells, but my soulstones failed me again and I was Paralyzed by Rigor Mortis.

I was able to grow two of my Terror Tots into Younger Nephilim, but they did little more than give John more Slaughter points. My Mature Nephilim and Lilith came up short against Nicodem and the undertaker was able to blast my Mature down to one life before another minion of his finished him off. Game was called and he had me beat by more than double in slaughter points and I grabbed a pretty solid loss (2-8).



ROUND TWO

Having one of the worst point totals, I was set on a lower table this time. It ended up being against another local, Convy, and his Marcus crew. We lucked into grabbing a bog-themed table with a ton of water. We looked at the table and smiled, both agreeing to take our full compliment of Slurids against each other.

I took Zoraida, three Slurids, Bad Juju, and two Stitched Togethers with 5 stones.
He took Marcus, the Jackalope, three Slurids, the Rattlesnake, two Molemen, and a Horecat Pride with 5 stones.

Our strategy was Shared Destroy the Evidence. I took Breakout and Steal Relic (Zoraida's got a hefty Willpower stat, so I figured I should use it) and he took Breakout and Sabotage.

Our game began with both Marcus and Zoraida running to the central Evidence point so that the following turn, whoever won initiative would get that objective. I slowly moved my Slurids up, not fully grasping their use in this mission, and got my Stitched Together up near the center after crossing bridges and the like to try to avoid the water. Bad Juju popped up near one of my other objective points.

I won initiative and took the objective and Marcus tried to beat me up for the effort. I was able to use stones to keep her to only losing three life. My Slurid pack launched into his and I killed two of his before he got to go. That proved pivotal in the game as the Slurids, when starting in water (and they always did), could essentially clear 29" of the board as long as they got into melee with an enemy sometime during the middle of their shenanigans. Convy was able to pull off his Sabotage and get the objective point in my deployment zone while I cleared out all the points, had Zoraida steal Marcus' Relic (before he was killed by a Stitched Together) and make it into his deployment zone for Breakout. Zoraida ended with only one life left at the end, but it was enough. I pulled in a victory with full points for my second game (8-4).



ROUND THREE

Pulling out a full win put me back to the center of the pile and I was able to pull a match-up with Dixon. While he's a local to our playgroup, he and I have not played against each other much. I asked him if there was anything he wanted not to face and he just looked at me confused - evidently no one asks him that. He told me to pull out whoever I wanted to play and give him my best fight.

I was down to the Dreamer and Pandora left in my arsenal so I picked the Dreamer. I have never run a full Alp Bomb (and I am not convinced of its brutality), so I figured I'd give that a try. Given what I was facing, I'm glad I didn't try to pull any punches - Dixon had a solid list put together too.

I took the Dreamer, two Daydreams, six Alps, and two Stitched Togethers with 8 stones.
He took the Viktorias, the Student of Conflict, Von Schill, the Librarian, and Jack Daw with 7 stones.

Our mission was Shared Contain Power.
I took Holdout and Reclaim Malifaux. He took Thwart and First Blood.

This mission was unusual. There were a lot of buildings on the board and a long, narrow street up the middle. It was down this street one along one adjacent alleyway that almost all the fights occurred.

I had five of my Alps and one of my Stitched Togethers go into defensive stance and get hit with Terrifying before being buried. I had the Alps put up their anti-WP ability, but I left the Stitched Toegther's fog down - I don't like to put him out away with fog on him because I find usually I'd rather keep LOS to opposing models when I pull him back out. My other models started tagging terrain pieces to Reclaim Malifaux.

Jack Daw rushed out to face me down and put up his anti-cheating bubble. That thing sucks. For me, that is. I tossed a Daydream forward near his Viktorias. They popped the Daydream who turned into my buried Stitched Together. I was able to burn his hand with Gambler, and then tagged the Student with Gamble Your Life, killing him, then turning on the Sword Viktoria with Gamble Your Life. I managed to burn some stones and had him killed by the ability, but with Reactivate, I was able to get to a place where I could cheat the damage for the Gamble Your Life on Viktoria. I dropped the Red Joker and then flipped another Severe for 14. Stones were not going to help him. She died right quick.

I finally got around Jack Daw, though it took me much longer than it should have, and brought Lord Chompy Bits out against the Gun Viktoria, dropping her to one after her untimely encounter with the other Stitched Together. Jack Daw was out of position now that the Dreamer got away from him and I pulled the Alp Bomb around the Librarian and Von Schill. I wasn't going to get the Terrifying to work since they had already activated, but five Alps were going to make not-getting-slow pretty tough. I won initiative the next turn and Lord Chompy Bits killed both of them (Von Schill was out of stones from trying to keep the Viktorias alive). Game ended with another win for me (6-3).



ROUND FOUR

That victory brought me up to second place, four points behind the current leader, Dan. Of course we faced off against each other for the last round. I was left with Pandora as my final choice and he took Seamus.

I had Pandora, Primordial Magic, two Sorrows, the Doppelganger, Lelu, Lilitu, and a Stitched Together and 5 stones.
He had Seamus, the Grave Spirit, Bette, two Belles, Sybelle and a Hanged and 5 stones.

Our mission was Shared Claim Jump.
I took Assassinate and Kidnap (both Belles and the Grave Spirit). He took Kill Protege (Doppelganger) and Grudge (Lelu).

I hate Sorrows. I never use them. And against Ressers, I usually try to load up on Nightmares so I can avoid any Terrifying shenanigans, but I figured I'd pull in some old school models like the Sorrows and Doppelganger.

We forgot about the (-) flip for initiative while the Doppelganger was alive. As soon as Dan killed her (on turn 2), he never won initiative again. I think it's karma for avoiding the Doppelganger's rules in the first place. Either way, it helped me out a bit.

I was able to kill the Hanged in exchange for the Doppelganger, which probably was a good trade in his favor, but from there I was able to push forward and keep most of the fight on his half of the board so I only had to fall back to reach the Claim Jump point - he had to push through me.

I was able to pull some great draws - having a high crow on three key turns (and having two high crows on one of those turns). I got Seamus and his two Belles to flee while I took care of Sybelle and the Grave Spirit, then brought them forward a bit with Lilitu to finish them off. Lelu killed the last Belle nabbing my Kidnap, but Bette was brought in by all the carnage and killed Lelu off herself.

Pandora was able to chase down Seamus and, with some early help by the Stitched Together, finish off the serial killer. I fell back to the Claim Jump and zapped Bette back to wherever it is she goes. Game ended with me winning (8-4).



So as the tournament came to a close, Dan and I tied at the top spot with 24 points. Not a bad showing for the Neverborn that day. Dan took home the first-place prize - a crew box. I actually ended up trading him my Marcus crew for his prize so I could pick up Von Schill's box. It looks pretty fun. I'll grab the Viktorias and see how they work together. It looks like a nice little list and looks like it will play pretty similar to Lilith. Lots of speed and hard-hitting.

Painted Hamelin

Yesterday my wife finished off Hamelin and I now have the entire crew painted and ready to go. I'll be buying the Obedient Wench and the Ratcatchers later this month, but for now, meet the gang!

Straight from a 4 Year Old

My wife just sent me this link to a site where a man is letting people send random questions to his four year old son and he'll type, without editing, the answers back. Some of these things are hilarious! For example:

Q: "Now that you are one year older, what do you wish you knew when you were 3?"
A: "I wish I knew how to flip over. Actually I already knew that. Never mind, I already knew that."

Q: "Heya Kid, why do earthquakes happen? I mean, what's down there?"
A: "I think there's just meteorites that streaked and hit other meteorites back and forth and then I think it stops."

Q: "What's the scariest thing ever?"
A: "A green man changing into aliens who can shoot things out of his mouth and throw up and the throw up can turn into guns and start shooting people."

Q: "If you had a whole day to do whatever you wanted, anywhere in the world, how would you spend it?"
A: "I would be the king! And I would kill everybody else except my family."

So yeah, clearly some of them get a little dark, but still. Really fun to see what a kid says to random questions. Enjoy!