Quick Tip: This is quite a long, but snappy post, with a good pay-off at the end : )
Since the beginning of the year, I've been able to play four games of Malifaux. I've blogged about the experience of the first two games HERE. At the end of that post I suggested that my friend John Swann would likely steamroller me the next time we played.
Well, as luck would have it, I drew John in the very next gaming session we met. I told him about my blog post, we had a chuckle, and then jumped straight into the game. I won't bore you all with the details of our McCabe vs Yan Lo game, but suffice it to say I was unpleasantly surprised by the abilities of the punk zombies. Basically like throwing a blender into a fish tank.
Anyway, I was also very worried about the abilities of his walking suit of samurai armor (not used as Izamu, but another nasty guy whose name escapes me right now). I was pleasantly surprised when his attacks against Sidir Alchibal (inspired no doubt by Captain Nemo) all missed, and my cards triggered his defensive response. Without even activating, my henchman (Sidir) had taken out John's "tank". The photo above shows the final result of the game. Five of my models stood ready to take down a wounded and lonely Yan Lo. I had developed a plan, learned more about my crew's skills, and had some lucky flips at the right times.
The photo below shows my casualties admiring the view from their tower.
Of course, that sweet taste of victory would not last long. At the following gaming session, as we had all played each other before, we drew cards to pair up. Lo and behold, I found myself across the table from John Swann again! My crew was exactly the same, John's was similar, but with a few important differences. Our table (below) had a few more LOS-blocking pieces of terrain too, something that would play an important role in my eventual downfall.
I tried to refine my plans, working with a slightly different grouping of models - surrounding McCabe with the Wastrels to try and keep him alive longer, and putting Sidir and the two Riflemen together for a solid base of fire. My initial net gun attacks worked incredibly well, paralyzing the focus of John's crew, Izamu (the real one this time).
John had learned, however, and even though I constantly gained the initiative each round, I was unable to neutralize the threat, and John slowly whittled down my crew until I was completely ineffectual.
Dave - 1, John -1.
So, on to the next portion of this mammoth post, the Interview.
As you may remember from this post earlier in the month, I have recently started my own business providing all manner of services to other businesses in the wargaming industry. In order to help me promote that business, Romeo Filip invited be to be the guest on the next 40KRadio podcast (out today, if I remember correctly). We chatted for a long time about various things, including some of the services I can provide, but of course it always comes back to toy soldiers.
We chatted about my recent dabbling in Malifaux, and out of the blue Romeo offers to send me a Battle Foam Malifaux bag (shown below) to give away in a promotional competition!
Obviously I said yes, so this is where we move into the Facebook and Competition section of the post.
Last night I launched my company Facebook page - Dave Taylor Miniatures. This morning I have put up a competition post. All you need to do to enter is one (or both) of these two things:
1. Go to the Dave Taylor Miniatures Facebook page, 'Like' the page, and leave a comment naming your favorite Malifaux model.
2. Come back here and leave a comment naming your favorite Malifaux model.
That's right, you don't have to go to Facebook if you don't go in for that sort of thing, but folks who do can basically get two entries into the competition. The competition will run from now until next Friday, March 21st, at 1pm EDST, when I will randomly select the winner from those who have liked and commented here and/or there. I'll announce the winner here and on my FB page and that person will have two days to get in touch. If they do, I'll ship them the case free of charge, and if they don't, I'll draw another winner.
I'll also randomly select a second winner and send them a "new in box" version of the model that seems to be fast becoming my nemesis - Izamu the Armor!
Have fun everyone!
Cheers
Dave