Malifaux: Nicodem crew

I've been feeling the draw of the grave recently, i.e. I've been thinking about playing Nicodem again for a bit. I've added a few models to the crew since I last played it, which is getting on for a year ago, and the Avatar is still sat on my "to be painted" shelf forlornly.

Anyway, I found this photo from last time I played Nicodem, it's kind of a crew summary picture which was taken for a club league last year:

Malifaux: Little and Large

More models done, this time for my McMourning crew:  Zombie Chihuahua and Simulacrum-29.

If you haven't seen Sim29 in the flesh, then this thing is huge.  That's a 50mm base he's stood on to give you an idea of the scale.

Painting wise Sim29 was actually pretty quick to get done.  The whole thing was painted in several thin layers of VMC Flat Flesh before a several washes of various hues, some purple, some flesh etc and then drybrushed highlights.  Once I'd drybrushed the highlights I went back over several areas of the model with a thin paint layer of the same colour in order to smooth out the highlight.

I'm in the process of writing up a quick tutorial on how I did the bases, so stay tuned for that.

Malifaux: Kirai crew so far

I've put in some work recently on the Kirai models that I got for Christmas.  I've got a couple of Gaki done which are kind of meh (not a fan of the models, therefore didn't do a very good paint job).  I've also got the chaff part of the crew done, all the Seishin and Lost Love:

As you can see, I've decided to go with bright colours with this crew.  That's something that I don't paint very often at all, so it's more of a  challenge.  The models above are mostly done with Vallejo Model Colour Blue Green which is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine (see my Seamus and aSeamus for example).

Having got those done, I went to do Kirai next and I'm very happy with how she came out:

Again, I've gone with the bright colour scheme for Kirai.  The sash is the blue green again, and the purple is done using VGC Warlord Purple (I forget the exact name) which is the Vallejo equivalent of GW's Liche Purple, another favourite colour of mine.  For the face makeup I've gone for Geisha style makeup which was different and challenging.  This was started from a pale grey base and built up from there to white.

You can't see it that well on the picture above but I've added some blood strings between the shears here.  I've had more of a play with this since I took the photo and I've got it to look a bit better so I'll probably try and get a tutorial done for that at some point.

Since Kirai was done, and I'd had so much enjoyment in painting her, I decided to get Ikiryo done next.  Here they are together:

As you can see Ikiryo is in a similar colour scheme to Kirai.  I did this as Ikiryo is Kirai's vengeance and anger embodied so I wanted it to look like an extension of Kirai herself hence the similar colour scheme.  Rather than go with the exact same tone, I went for a more muted, washed out tone with Ikiryo and carried on the grey theme into her face and skin.  This was achieved by mixing the blue green and purple base coats with a mid grey (VMC London Grey in my case, but Codex Grey would do it as well).  Highlights were done by adding more and more VMC Light Sand (like Bleached Bone) to that basic mix and then layering them on.

Bases for crew are metal inserts from Black Cat bases.  All my Kirai crew and Izamu are on the same bases, and I suspect any future Misaki or Yan Lo crews will go the same way.

*I'm aware I've used old name for GW paints here, I don't know and can't be arsed to find out what stupid name they've got now.  I'm still pissed off they've got rid of the names Skull White and Chaos Black.  Anyway as you may have detected, I'm also moving to Vallejo paints away from GW.

Malifaux: Nurses and complete Seamus crew

Finally got some time this past week to do some painting.  With work, family and playing on Vassal my
painting time has crunched down a bit since Christmas.

I've managed to get my three Nurses done, one for each of my book 1 Ressurectionist masters:

L-R:  Nicodem's Nurse, McMourning's Nurse and Seamus' Nurse.  Not the best things I've ever painted, mainly because I generally suck at painting white.

However, the Nurse was the last model to complete my current Seamus and Molly crew (Sybelle got done a week or two back), so here they are:

And a bit closer:

These are the models I've specifically got based to go along with Seamus, all my other Rezzer models can run with him as well.

The base inserts are post apocalyptic city by Fenris Games, and I chose them primarily for Molly as I thought they made a good stand in for the ruins of Malifaux's Quarantine Zone where Molly and Seamus like to prowl around.  Unfortunately, they only do 30mm inserts, so I had to make something approximating it for the Rogue Necromancy.

Still to do on the painting table (major projects):
-Kirai and her crew
-Von Schill and his crew
-Hamelin and his crew
-aPandora
-Simulacrum 29 plus another couple of bits for McMourning.

I'm going to try and get Von Schill done first I think as I would like to have him done ready for my next tournament in 12 days time.

Malifaux: Seamus

I've been playing about for the past few games with Seamus, and more specifically Seamus, Avatar of Dread.  I really love the model so I wanted to try it out.

And two casts of Face of Death and a (2) Manifest Action later...

Painting them both at the same time meant I could get the colour the same on both models really easily.  The bright jacket he's wearing is a bit different for me as I don't usually paint bright colours.  I'm starting to move away from GW paints abit, so the jacket is "Blue Green" from Vallejo's Model Colour range.

I've only had a few games with Seamus so far, and I've tinkered around with a few build.  I did run a few games with a Terrifying/WP build of:

Seamus + Avatar
Nurse
2 Onryo
The Hanged
Rotten Belle
7 or 8 SS (what ever the balance is out of that lot)

The idea being everything attacks Wp.  aSeamus debuffs Wp, plus triggers stupidly high terrifying checks and bellow like a big bastard.  The Hanged has a nasty - to Wp trigger, and the Onryo can strip Wp Immunities.  I need to run it a few more time to get the hang of it, but it's OK.  The Nurse is their for the free turn 2 manifest but hasn't proved to be worth 5SS as yet.

Malifaux: The doctor will see you now.

There never seems to be enough time to get games in with all your shiny toys does there?  After the end of the York Garrison League last month I was looking forward to playing something other than Nicodem (I've played almost 20 games in a row with the undertaker) so I got my new Molly and McMourning models painted up.  Then Avatar Nicodem arrived and I got distracted with that...

Anyway, here is Dr Douglas McMourning.  The base is a little wonky on him but I might re-base him at some point.

One thing I've always hated about the McMourning artwork is his ginger fright wig and I briefly considered sculpting a hat or something on him but in the end I settled for giving him grey hair instead of ginger.

I need to get some practice games in with the good Doctor now as I plan on playing Ressurectionists at the UK GT (if I can get a pass for it), and he'll give me a second option after Nicodem.

Malifaux: Avatar Nicodem first game

Early this week I played my first game with Nicodem, avatar of decay against guildmonkee's Rasputina crew.

It was a chance for me to try out the avatar and see how things work with him, how to manifest and so on.  I tried a few things with the crew as well using models I've not used before:  Madame Sybelle and started the game with a Flesh Construct, plus I took 3 dogs, a punk and the convict gunslinger.  The strategy was shared Contain Power.

I wanted to get manifested early doors, so I went for the dog-kill-summon method.  This meant I pretty much spent the first turn arsing about in my deployment zone killing dogs to Arise and fulfil one of his manifest requirements, then manifested in turn 2 to give me the most time to give him a good chance to work.

Some things I learnt:

-I need a fast way of killing dogs in the early turns.  I ended up with my crew spending all their time killing dogs and nothing else.  That's not too bad in Shared Contain Power but in other strategies this is more difficult.  Conventional wisdom is to use Rafkin to bomb them with poison to do this quickly so I'll need to get him.  I had hoped to use the Punk Zombie to pulse them to death but I didn't get the mask that spell it needed.

-The avatar got manifested turn 2 as an all action, which obviously costs Nicodem a whole turn.  I thinking Nurses might help here:

• Turn 1, Nicodem uses Arise to raise at least 3 Mindless Zombies
• Turn 2, Nicodem acts as normal taking his normal actions
• Turn 2, Nurse casts Massive Dose (Speed) on Nicodem, giving him Reactivate
• Turn 2, Nicodem re-activates, uses his (all) action to manifest.  As part of the mainfest steps, you end all effects on Nicodem, Avatar of Decay, which I am assuming includes Speed ensuring he doesn't get sacrificed.

I'm not 100% sure on this one, I might stick it on the forum.

-Nicodem is hard to put down with zombies around him, but blasts, pulses and auras will do it and take out his MZ.  He died to Snow Storm's shatter ability as I forgot about it.

-Rigor Mortis is still awesome.

-In the starting list above, with hindsight I should have taken a 4th dog and killed that giving me 4 corpses counters.  I had 3 crows in my hand turn 1, so with 4 corpses counters I could have summoned the Rogue Necromancy and made my Soulstone spend back with interest (4 dogs is 8 SS, RN is 10 SS).

-One sticky rules question that came up was around his "Restless Dead" ability.  The wording says:

After a non-Mindless Zombie Corpse Counter is placed on the table within 6" of this model, this model may Place a Mindless Zombie into base contact with the Corpse Counter and then discard the Counter.


This caused us some confusion as to it's meaning, and we played it that the MZ died, dropped a corpse counter and then came back again.  Looking at the forums we weren't alone in this confusion, but this is not the case.  Here's the ruling and clarification from Ratty:

After a Corpse Counter drops from a model that is not a Mindless Zombie, Place a Mindless Zombie touching the Corpse Counter and then discard the Counter.


Mindless Zombies do not cycle like Malifaux Rats. So if someone kills Bishop, you will get a Mindless Zombie, if you kill that Zombie you will not get another one, you will just have a Corpse Counter lying on the table.

So we'll know for next time.

-I forgot he was Terrifying for the whole game.  My fault.

I'm looking forward to running Nicodem, Avatar of Decay in future games.

Malifaux: Molly completed

Miss Molly Squidpiddge, investigative reporter for the Malifaux Daily Record (deceased):

I loved painting this model.  It's a great sculpt with a lot of character in it.  I think Molly had one of the best stories in book 3 which is one of the reasons I wanted to get her model.  The image of Molly pushing Phillip in a pram with Mrs Choke the re-animated eyeball tucked behind her ear is one that Wyrd should capture in a miniature.  If Rezzers win the Dead Heat campaign, that's the mini I hope we get.

Malifaux: Necrotic Machine

Just a quicky paint job finished on Molly's totem, the Necrotic Machine:

Not much to it, mostly just drybrushed Tin Bitz.  The verdigris could stand to be a little more green, it came out a little bit blue.

Molly herself is on the painting table next.

Malifaux: Quick trick with the Necrotic Machine

Just a quick one to report something I've been trying out with the Necrotic Machine and Nicodem.

The Necrotic Machine has a (0) Action called Create Undeath:

"Target non-Master living model receive the Undead Characteristic"


This has been errata'ed to include a 2" range on it now, but it's still not resistible.

In my Nicodem crew, apart from the man himself, you don't usually have many living models.  What I've been playing with is using it with the Convict Gunslinger and then make it Undead.  Not only do you then make it immune to Morale Duels, since it's Undead, but it's now a friendly Undead model and so benefits from Nicodem's Bolster Undead, +2Cb and +2Df aura.  He's now shooting at Cb8, paired, with rapid fire.  Makes things die.  I've tried it and it proved to be pretty nasty, pinging off most of a Silent One (who ran and hid) and finishing off an exposed Rasputina.

The same trick will work with Ronin, Mortimer (almost makes him decent), Rafkin etc.  The ability is also "non-Masters" so it will work with Von Schill as well...

The downside is that it competing against the Grave Spirit who gives Nicodem Armor +2 and it 1 SS cheaper.  I guess it depends on what crew you're facing as to whether that's worth it.

Malifaux: Ice Breaker Tournament Report

At the end of April, I played in a one day tournament at Harrogate Wargames Club. This was a 35SS, fixed faction event, played over four round.

I'll admit, I was pretty nervous about the day. I'd only signed up about 10 days before after my buddy hunter_b had told me about it, which didn't give me much time to prep. I got some stuff painted up (Belles and the Rogue Necromancy) and managed one practice game at the club against Steve's Leviticus crew (Steve smashed me 8-4). So with 7 games ever under my belt, I was a nervous as I didn't want to spoil anyone else's tournaments with my noob playstyle. The round were 90 minutes as well which I thought might cause me issues since I'm not the fastest Malifaux player in the world.


Anyway, on the day my fears proved unfounded, and I had a great time. The time limit never really proved to be an issue with most games getting to the end of turn 5 anyway.

This is how the games broke down, as far as I can re-call anyway:


Game 1- vs Lady Justice

This was against guildmonkee who is my local club henchman so it was a friendly face for the first game. It was shared destroy the evidence. He had a elite Lady J crew, with the Judge, Executioner, Samael Hopkins, Santiago Ortega and a Convict Gunslinger. I had Nico, grave spirit, Bête Noir, some belles, couple of Crooked Men, 2 dogs and a punk zombie.

Nico was giving out paralysed like candy, which protected my crew alot, and I got 2 Flesh Constructs and a Rogue Necromancy summoned which kept Lady J busy. I didn't manage to destroy the evidence, but got both my schemes (hold out and bodyguard) and managed to kill Lady J will a belle on the last flip of the game.
Result - 4 - 2 win to me. Achieved the win I wanted to get, so happy days.


Game 2 - Vs Avatar Seamus
I was on table 4 now so I was punching above my weight. This was shared slaughter against Mike3838 from Musings of a Malifaux Noob, I took a similar crew to game, except I took a Hanged figuring I might get the negative twist on WP triggers on to Seamus. Didn't work, I lost pretty much everything except Nico at the end and Mike took the well deserved win.

Result - Loss, something like 5 - 3.


Game 3 - Vs The Vicktorias.
This was against my friend hunter_b on table 6 (of 7). This was shared treasure hunt.  Hunter_b got Von Schill to pick up the treasure turn 2 but he didn't move after that as he was paralysed or in melee. I had grudged Taelor which I got for 2, didn't get the Kill Protege which was my other one. Hunter_b got his eye for an eye scheme and 2 for carrying the treasure (irrc).

Result - Loss to me, 4 - 2 I think.


Game 4 - Vs Predita
This was shared reconnoiter, so I took a massive crew to spread out over the board. My opponent, Jamie,  took the Perdita family minus Abuela, plus an enslaved nephilim and the Executioner. I didn't play too well,  forgetting to Bolster Undead in the turn 5. That would have given me better chance to kill Perdita who was on 2 wound with no stones and in melee with a punk zombie. Didn't do it, punk zombie died. Final nail was on the last turn, I needed to flip a 3 or better to summon a model and deny my opponent one of her schemes. I flipped a 2.

Anyway, I got one scheme and 2 of 4 table quarters. Final result was a draw, 4 each.

Great event, I really enjoyed it and it was a good chance to get 4 games in a single day.  I ended up finishing 10th of 14 which was 4 places higher than I was expecting to finish.

Malifauxing like a fiend

It's been a while since my last update, but I've not been idle.  In fact, I've been pretty busy hobby wise, focussing alot on Malifaux (did a bit of 40K as well).  I've painted some stuff for my Nicodem crew, played 8 games in three, including a four game tournament and the first league game at the club.

First up then is the models.  I wanted to get some done ready for the tournament, mainly the Rotten Belles and the Rogue Necromancy, and I did the Hanged and Bete Noir ages ago and not got round to blogging them.

 A trio of Rotten Belles:

I bought these to go with my Molly crew, but they've found their way into every Nicodem list since then, they're just so useful as utility models.  One even managed to kill Lady Justice in melee which was a bonus.

The base inserts are from Fenris Games, and for Molly and her crew I've used these to represent the Quarantine Zone.

I release most people think Molly sucks, but her background is really cool, especially the stuff in book 3, which is why I wanted to get her.

Also originally for Molly, but he's made a few appearances, the Rogue Necromancy:

I didn't have a base insert big enough for him, so I had to sculpt the cobbles from Miliput for him, and they turned out pretty well:

The Rogue Necromancy is my summon of choice now if I have four counters for Nicodem.  He's made of glass, but he can destroy things if he gets close.  Even if he does die, chances are the other crew has had to spend a reasonable amount of AP of chopping through his 10 wounds so it's all good.

This lot I did ages ago, 2 Hanged and Bete Noir:

I've run the Hanged in 3 games now, and I'm not convinced.  I can see a place for them against living crews maybe, but I'm not sold.  I probably need a few more games with them I think.

More to come in future post on gaming.

Malifaux: Nicodem

Over the past couple of weeks, I've really been bitten by the Malifaux bug. I played a demo game with my local Wyrd henchmen and was really blown away by it.

I actually bought a crew second hand before Christmas, so I've finally now been motivated to paint it up. I love all things zombie, so The Resurrectionists, and particularly Nicodem was an obvious choice for me:

I had about 4 attempts at the vultures neck, and I'm still not 100% on it. I might have another go with it. I've got two more vulture totems to paint but I think I'm going to do their necks in more of a flesh tone.

One thing I like about Malifaux are all the cool bases. This particular model has one of the base inserts from Wyrd:

I'm going for a graveyard theme for this crew. What I was attempting on the tomb stone was a marble effect, which I'm reasonably happy with. I looked around on the Interwebs for some info on painting marble and the couple of sites I looked at recommended using a sponge to add the initial texture. I actually used a stippling brush for mine.

-I painted the whole stone Astronomicon Grey

-Washed with Gryphonne Sepia

-Stippled Codex Grey patches

-Stippled Fortress Grey patches to highlight

-Added thin lines of Fortress Grey to marble it.

The miniatures I've got left in this crew are:

-Mortimer

-3 Crooked Men

-2 Vulture totems

-Grave Spirit

-2 Canine Remains

-Shafted markers

-Corpse Counters

I've also hoping to get a game or two in tonight.