Wednesday 28 March 2018

More Guild

I've managed to paint three more Guild models in recent weeks. I like the dynamic sculpts, seems like each one can tell a story on its own right. Painting the magical effect was the main challenge on the Quellers. I decided to use bright blue as it's something that would nicely contrast with red, which is commonly used in Guild.




Thallarian Quellers are very good minions. They cost only 6 soulstones but they bring a lot of utility. They can place markers that cause enemy models to lose printed suits when they're within 3' of the marker. They can also buff friendly models, making their damage irreducible. They are not easy to take down as they can keep up their Arcane shield after their activation and they can dram a card when a friendly model uses a soulstone. Quellers can debuff from distance and pack a punch in melee as well. I'd say that's quite a lot for a 6 ss minion.


At 8 ss, the Jury is another solid Guild henchwoman. She can give a mask to friendly units and enemy models within 6' cannot use Focus or Defensive stance. Her Ml attack has a standard value of 6 with a minimum damage of 3. When it comes to Rg damage, she can... throw a book. And it's not a light one so there is decent damage involved along with a chance to build up the Fees condition. 
There is also her (0) action with range 12', resisted by Wp. It can either heal and remove a condition from a friendly model, or debuff an opponent. Her stat line is mainly a solid 6, but she doesn't seem too resilient, which is not a very big issue as Guild has access to cheap and useful upgrades that can help with that.

Wednesday 21 March 2018

Malifaux Polish Nationals

Last weekend I took part in the first ever Polish Malifaux nationals. There were 46 players, mostly from Poland, but we had guests from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, and the UK. The organization was top-notch as there were no delays, things run smoothly and the TO was doing a great job keeping everything in order. Sadly, I didn't get to play any of the foreign players but I did manage to have a nice chat with the Dutch guys after day one.

46 people playing Malifaux simultaneously in one place - best turnout in Poland so far

As far as my performance is concerned, I did poorly. I placed 38th with two wins and 4 loses. I scored a total of 32 VP and had a diff of -14. I didn't really expect much as the two weeks prior to the tourney were really hard for me as I was at home with ill daughter. Not sleeping well for a prolonged period of time does funny things to your brain.. Also, I didn't get a wink of sleep the night before the event. Anyway, these are just poor excuses and  I mostly played badly, being too aggressive in the early stage of my games and making many bad decisions. I did enjoy playing six games in two days though. I used Zoraida and Titania as my masters, winning a game with each.

My loot from the tourney
Each participant got a swag bag with lots of goodies inside. There was a nice MDF wagon on a 50mm base (perfect for everyone's favorite new strategy), elegant 6 inch ruler, cards with strategies, and... a custom made fate deck. This one was a really nice touch as it combines Malifaux symbols with a bit of local flavor. Each participant also took part in a raffle and I got Vintage Sonnia.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd places and... best painted (pic. by David Brown)
As I've written, my performance was poor but I did manage to win best painted army trophy with my Titania crew. I was really happy with it as I did burn the midnight oil on more than one night while working on the models and display base. The competition was strong too. Apart from a very nice glass cup I won translucent Nightmare Colette crew.

The crew that won me best painted trophy

#3/2018 Dark Places



Dark Places is a very well constructed mystery novel. A young woman confronts her childhood trauma as memories of the murder of her family she witness return to her after years. Her older brother was found guilty and got sentenced to a lifetime in prison. Years later she inadvertently becomes involved with a group that tries to solve crimes independently. As the action progresses, the author flashes back to memories of the protagonist, and members of her family to gradually reveal details of the heinous crime.I liked the way each of the narrator provided only glimpses of the facts. These flashbacks are cleverly interwoven with events from the present, forming a dynamic that makes reading the novel a very dynamic experience.

Tuesday 13 March 2018

Still here

It seems like every year there comes a time when I don't write anything on the blog for a prolonged period of time. Life happens, and there are things that take your attention away from hobby and force you to focus on more important aspects. Yet, despite all that I have not completely abandoned painting minis in recent weeks. So here's a quick update on what's happening.



First off, I painted a metal version of the infamous Pukeworm,  Primordial Magic. It's much better detailed than the new plastic one. Also, the stream of energy aka. "the puke" is a separate bit in this set so I didn't glue it in. I wanted to keep it in theme with my Titania so I used some wood bits on his base. I saw this idea on A Wyrd Place a while ago and decided to give it a go. I think it looks much better than the plastic one.


Other than that I assembled and basecoated some more Guild models. As you can clearly see, scale is still an issue Wyrd is struggling with. I realize the Jury is leaning forward but still her proportions are a bit off in comparison with the floating Queller. The female one is probably one of the most complex plastic miniatures Wyr's ever released. There are a lot of extra elements on her, more than on many henchmen or masters...


I also received the alternate Lazarus. It's a really cool mini, a huge improvement on the old version. The only ting I didn't like about him was the material he's made of. It's this sort of "rubbery" plastic and cleaning all the mold lines takes much more time as it's not possible to quickly file them. You need to take your time and gently cut it all away using a sharp hobby knife. I will be painting the grenade launcher separately, here it's just assembled for the photo.

And last but not least, Serena Bowman. Very nice model, though it feels a bit out of place in the Neverborn. Nevertheless, she brings some unique tricks to the faction and I plan to try her with Dreamer (and with Lilith in the future when I start using this master).


That's all for now. Polish Malifaux nationals are taking place this weekend. Two-day long even with 6 games to play. I hope I will make it - it all depends on the health of my kids (which has been rather poor lately).

#2/2018 Oathbringer



I read Sanderson't Mistborn trilogy back in 2014 and enjoyed it a lot. Since then I've read a few more books by him but it seems to me that each one was worse than the previous one... I guess what bothers me about his writing is the juvenile language used by some (female in particular) of the characters. It feels out of place and reading about characters who talk and act like rebellious teenagers is a tad annoying.
But then Oathbringer is not completely bad. I like the way Sanderson gradually reveals details about events that led to the beginning of conflict from book I. With each novel we get more glimpses into what exactly happened when king Gavilar was assassinated and more information on the nature of conflict between humans and the Parshendi. Also, there are many chapters that explore Dalinar's past. In present he's the most honorable human, but his past is marked with some heinous acts that he'd rather keep locked away from his memory.
Yet for some reason the more I read, the less I cared for the protagonists. They don't seem that well developed and I felt the way the plot works (in a nutshell battle-dialogue-retrospection-action) fails in adding more depth to them. The final battle is chaotic and as things look really grim, there are some twists that add an element of surprise and potentially a promise of more development of the main characters in next book. Problem is I don't think I'll bother reading it...
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