Malifaux: Speedpainting Seamus

So I gave myself a bit of a challenge – not on purpose mind you. I have an 'Intro To Malifaux' evening with my friend Chris, who is interested in having a go at miniature gaming, on Friday evening. I had bought the Seamus box set for him to use while learning the rules but needed to paint up a miniature or two in time. This meant I had to 'speedpaint Seamus'.

Let me quantify this and say… this is me. Speedpainting in my world is not taking three weeks to paint up a single figure. As much as I needed to finish the Resser master in time I didn't want him to look like crap next to the rest of my models. I didn't want Chris to think I'd just rollered some Dulux on it for effect.

I am proud to say the model you see here was painted in something between two and three hours. This was me at full speed, painting highlights while basecoat was still wet and using three palettes and no washes so that I didn't have to wait for paint to dry.

I didn't want to go too Leprechaun-like but by the same token wanted to give a nod to his assumed heritage.

I'm pretty pleased so far. There are details (eyes!!) and final highlights to add and I stuffed up the blade on his pistol, but not bad. I did wash some Devlan Mud over the whole model at the end of the evening to add a little depth. I used Vallejo paint almost exclusively, except for the wash and some P3 on the base.

Why can't I paint all my models this quickly?!!

Gaki on Monday

Can you believe it, it's Monday already and I feel like I just finished work on a Thursday evening. Thankfully it's only a four-day week with the Easter holidays so I should be able to hang on a bit longer.

We were away in 'Royal' Tunbridge Wells over the weekend so no gaming, painting or hobby activity of any kind to report, so I thought I would show you some progress made a couple of weeks ago.

As the Malifaux master of spirits, Kirai can summon Gaki every time someone/something is killed. I curent have four Gaki in my model collection, but only two are built. I never find I have the opportunity to have more than two on the board at any one time so just end up recycling the same two models.

As you can see I went for the classic Gaki colours. The black, as usual, has a little blue in there to give it more life. The skin colour is actually Vallejo British Uniform, which I had left over from my Flames of War days, and seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It was highlighted by adding GW Bleached Bone, and washed liberally in GW Devlan Mud.

As you can see straight away, this was more of a utility paint job – I was fed up with them being plain metal – so the highlighting and shading aren't great. In fact, this is how I used to paint my 40k models before I learned to paint properly. The bases are yet to be painted but this is sufficient for gaming… for now.

In game, Gaki are the spirit equivalent of rats. They work best when in groups of three or more and just eat their way through anything and everything.

Kirai meets the Twins…

Tuesday game night was cut short again due to me being on family chauffeur duties to and from the train station.

Having initially indicated the need to borrow Guild models again, Fugs turned up with his salvaged miniature case containing (still unpainted!) Lilith. He hastily stuck a one-armed Lelu onto his base and we were ready to go (he wasn't buying my idea that Lelu only having one arm meant he lost Melee Expert ability).

The Neverborn lineup consisted of Lilith, Cherub, Taelor (yay!), Lelu & Lilitu and a Terror Tot. Fugs flipped Treasure Hunt (which incidentally has not come up before in 12 months of gaming) and chose Bodyguard and Assassinate as Schemes.

I took my usual team of Kirai, Lost Love, Datsue-Ba, 3x Seishin, 2x Insidious Madness, Desperate Merc and Canine Remains. I managed to flip Contain Power and took Hold Out and Stake a Claim to complement.

Turn 1 was pretty routine. I managed to get quite a good control hand with 4 cards over 10. However, my team weren't singing from the same hymn sheet as me and I managed to use my entire hand getting them to do my bidding. The Canine was unable to wound the Merc (!) and in return was killed, creating a Seishin and Gaki as required. The Terror Tot had sprinted to the Treasure counter and was sitting quietly in base contact with it. I summoned Ikiryo on top of the Treasure but was unable to outright kill the Tot. The Gaki moved up to support Ikiryo. I summoned Shikome who shot down the board to attack Lilith, the Neverborn master spent 2 or 3 Soulstones to prevent the incoming attacks/damage.

Turn 2 saw Ikiryo kill off the Tot, pick up the Treasure and move slowly towards my line. Taelor turned around and charged Shikome to relieve Lilith, unable to quite kill her. Lilith finished off the bird before moving up to support the twins. The twins jumped into the woods, Lelu charging the Gaki, inflicting a couple of wounds and stacking enough poison counters to pickle the battered spirit. Lilitu made a melee strike against Ikiryo from full 4" range. I swirled the Gaki out of danger, replacing it with Datsue, who proceeded to inflict only weak damage on Lelu. The Gaki was then sacrificed to give Kirai a boost, before she brought on an Onryo.

Turn 3 saw Fugs Transpose Lilitu with Taelor. Lelu battered Datsue-Ba, inflicting 5 wounds and 4 poison (meaning the poison would kill her as soon as she activated next). Lilitu moved up and hit Datsue for another couple of wounds. Afraid that I would swirl and sacrifice again, Taelor hit Datsue, killing her (and giving me a new Seishin). She attacked the Onryo with her remaining Strikes, inflicting 4 wounds.

In the meantime I had moved up an Insidious Madness and cast its negative WP aura and summoned a Shikome into base contact with Taelor and the Cherub. Ikiryo pulled my lone Seishin towards the combat before turning and striking Taelor (now on negative flips to defend with WP) inflicting a handful of wounds. The Seishin Empowered the Onryo before being pulled back to Kirai's side. The boosted Onryo also struck Taelor inflicting more wounds. Taelor's Hard To Wound ability meant that most of my damage flips were negative which was a pain, as was her Hard To Kill. Enter Shikome who took Taelor's head off with her first Strike, before turning and killing the Cherub then getting a Strike in against nearby Lilith, who again had to use a Soulstone to protect herself.

At this point, the end of Turn 3, we had to call it due to time running out. Technically Fugs had 2VP for Bodyguard and I had 2VP for Hold Out but it was very early in the game – Turn 4 would have been make or break for both sides.

I learned a lot about the twins. I learned if you want to kill them you have to do it outright as they can heal even 4 or 5 wounds at the end of every turn – that can be very demoralising. Having taken down Taelor with a combined attack I'm confident I can take down one of the twins at least with a couple of Shikome and Ikiryo. I do love the Insidious Madness. They don't always contribute fully but they are fast on their feet (if they have any) and the negative WP aura makes life a lot easier against these big Neverborn hitters.

Perdita vs Kirai

It was quite a strange feeling facing a master you consider your own; a master you've learned inside-out and have great affection for. Last night my Kirai crew got to face Perdita for a totally different experience to normal – Fugs didn't have his models with him so had the choice of any of my Guild army.

Everything is a little bit of a blur. We had a very small window of opportunity in which to have a game last night, so we flew through it. Despite Fugs not playing any Guild models before, he had faced them often enough so knew their potential.

He flipped Reconnoiter for his Strategy and took Kill Protegee and Perdita's specific Schemes. His final choice for crew consisted of Perdita, Enslaved Nephilim, Abuela Ortega, Papa Loco, Watcher and 3x Witchling Stalkers.

Sneaky, sneaky guild

I flipped Turf War for Strategy and decided upon Stake a Claim and Grudge (Papa Loco). My crew lineup looked familiar – Kirai, Lost Love, Datsue-Ba, Desperate Merc, Canine Remains, 2x Insidious Madness, 3x Seishin. The Guild opponents have quite high WP, Perdita being Immune to Influence so I would not need the Insidious Madness for the usual negative WP flips (though this was still viable). I decided to include them for their low cost and speed. If I could get them into Fugs deployment zone they would provide a strong distraction – if he didn't kill them he would potentially be handing me 2VP on a plate. I had chosen a wood near his deployment zone for Stake a Claim, and Papa was the obvious choice for Grudge given the damage he could do to my grouped spirits.

I was both confident and wary going into this game, knowing the enemy models as I do. As luck would have it the cards were largely on my side, getting the Black Joker in my hand in the first turn as well as FOUR crows and a mask. I did only have one card higher than an 8 but that was not so much of an issue early on.

Kirai, flanked by her bodyguard Seishin, surveys the battle

The game started with me doing my summoning and the dog and merc continuing their 'Looney Tunes' style beating on each other. I managed to summon Ikiryo (for no reason other than I could and I wanted to lose the summoning Slow in time for turn 2) as well as a Shikome who homed in on the Watcher who was perched on top of a building in the middle of the board. He died, much to Fugs disappointment, and the rest of the Guild shuffled forwards.

Turn 2 saw Papa Loco Obeyed forward into the ruined warehouse, he then moved forward to just a few inches away from (which was a mistake by Fugs who should have Obeyed him a second and even a third time into position, leaving Papa his activation in tact). Perdita lurked in the background covering the warehouse in case of any intrusions.

This threat was a little close to home and I had Datsue-Ba Guide my Gaki (who was Slow due to summon) through the wall next to Papa. Perdita charged in but, thanks to some solid Defensive flips and a Corpse Counter, failed to kill him off. Kirai summoned a second Shikome into base contact with Perdita and the first Shikome moved in to attack the Guild master. Despite multiple plus flips on the attack the combined Shikome attacks failed to wound Perdita at all, although Fugs had expended most of his control hand and a Soulstone or two. The Gaki hit Papa for no result, then I moved Ikiryo through the wall and hit Papa a couple of times for 4 wounds or so. I was a little underwhelmed by the result but was still in a commanding position.

The turning point of the game

Turn 3 saw me win initiative, despite Fug flipping an 11. Ikiryo punched Papa who exploded causing all kinds of chaos, inflicting wounds everywhere and killing the Gaki. Perdita, intent on revenge, turned and killed off one Shikome then inflicted more wounds on the other. The Shikome was swirled away for healing, being replaced by Datsue-Ba who only managed to inflict 1 wound on Perdita. Another Shikome was summoned into melee with Perdita, and it was pretty much over. Perdita dropped leaving the Guild master-less. In the mean time, all this carnage had refilled Kirai's Seishin count and wounds.

We finished off turn 3 and, with a few minutes remaining, dived into turn 4. Abuela blew a few holes in Ikiryo but failed to kill him. On the other side of the warehouse wall two of the Witchlings had engaged the Onryo, with wounds dealt out on both sides. The wounded Shikome then moved in and finished off one of the Witchlings, who inflicted additional wounds all round when he exploded.

At this point, half way through turn 4, we had run out of time and we called it. The two Insidious Madness were sitting pretty in Fug's deployment zone, well out of reach, and the Guild had lost their master. Kirai was in a 6-0 winning position, with 2 more VP easily achieveable. The Guild survivors had a potential 2vp and another, somewhat unlikely, 4vp possible but the game was essentially over.

The birds just keep coming…

The Kirai summoning machine had achieved another victory – I'll take them all. Despite the fact that Fugs was playing with a crew he didn't know, I was quite pleased with the way things went. I had a plan to achieve my VPs and that went pretty much as hoped. Whilst I don't think I learned anything new about Kirai (aside from Datsue really is all or nothing) my gameplay was nicely underlined and I felt confident in my decision making. It was a very pleasant change facing a different master, but the signs are that Lilith will make her return next week, with the Nephilim twins, so that will be a totally different challenge indeed.

Painting Update: Seishin

Last week I managed to squeeze a bit of painting into the evenings. Given that I have five of them to paint and had already put base colour on three, I decided to paint up my Seishin.

I made the decision to paint all five Seishin a different colour, for no other reason than so I could identify them individually. Playing Kirai's crew can be a real test on your concentration levels, so I need all the help I can get. Given that there are only two sculpts – I decided not to convert any myself – this seemed the most logical (and instantly identifiable) route to take.

As you can see they are not quite finished yet. I have to add some detail to the faces, wash the Bamboo base with a little brown and tidy off the black base edge. I also intend to add a final white highlight to the foot of each Seishin, then blend it into the Bamboo so that it looks less stark and as if they're rising through the floor. How successful this is we will see.

In addition to these guys we have Datsue-Ba and one of the Shikome at various stages of paint, plus Kirai and Ikiryo to have detail finished. With a bit of luck there should be some more painting time this week …and blog posts to follow.

Kirai vs McMourning

After a quick visit to the Cavalier 2012 show in nearby Tonbridge, myself and Bull negotiated the 'Annual Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon' disruption of the traffic to get back to his place and get a game going. Needless to say I took the scenic route and sat in traffic for an hour!

It's been quite a while since Bull last played Malifaux – against my Perdita crew – and I am still learning the finepoints of Kirai, so this was not going to be a quick game. He took the same crew as he did back in September, I took a fairly standard and by now familiar lineup.

We flipped for Strategies, Bull got Destroy the Evidence and I got Contain Power. There was no realistic way that Kirai was going to kill McMourning making it unlikely to get 4VP for that, so I had to choose Schemes that were achievable. I chose Bodyguard and Breakthrough – Bull had to come to me to destroy the Evidence token so was unlikely to have anyone remain behind; he was also unlikely to be able to kill my master without a concerted effort given his lack of experience fighting Kirai. Bull chose Grudge (or could have been Kill Protegee) on Datsu-Ba and Stake a Claim.

Bull's crew consisted of McMourning, Zombie Chihuahua, 2x Canine Remains, 2x Rotten Belles, Nurse, Sebastian and a Convict Gunslinger.

I had Kirai, Lost Love, Datsu-Ba, 2x Insidious Madness, 3x Seishin, Canine Remains and Desperate Merc.

The First turn started as expected with McMourning and his dogs killing each other to create enough bits to summon a Rogue Necromancy. On my side of the board the dog and merc hit each other to set up Datsu-Ba's summoning tricks. Unfortunately the Merc decided he didn't want to die today and took three turns to go down.

The Gunslinger headed straight for the Evidence token in the middle of the board; an Onryo summoned by Dasu shot him and he was finished off by a lurking Shikome who then moved off to the side to intercept Sebastian and the two Belles. The Necromancy mugged the Onryo and the fighting had begun in earnest.

Next turn the Shikome battered Sebastian, including a couple of poison tokens, before taking quite a few hits back. However, luck was to be on my side with the cards today and I flipped sufficient cards to prevent death. She was swirled back to Kirai and healed before being sent back in to face the Necromancy. I also summoned Ikiryo to the centre to take down the three headed beast, but McMourning saw the danger and came steaming in.

This set the tone for the game and the ruined church became a killing ground and as fast as I could hurt McMourning the Nurse just healed him, and as fast as Bull killed my Spirits I summoned more. It was a war of attrition he was unlikely to win without cutting off the source, and after a couple more turns of mayhem and death the Necromancy dropped, followed by the Nurse – Datsu-Ba had been swirled into the mix and managed to use Harvest Sinners on the grouped enemy, including a trigger hit against McMourning, and this broke the back of Bull's resistance.

Having already killed 2 Shikome, Ikiryo twice and having lost the Nurse, McMourning was on a downward spiral. The Insidious Madness lurking above made sure all his defending WP flips were negative and he still faced 2 (new) Shikome despite the Belles coming to his defence. Eventually he dropped to the Red Joker I had been holding for a couple of turns (as I said the cards were on my side this time). There was not much left to do so we called it at the end of Turn 4. The final score was a misleading 6-0 to Kirai.

A very enjoyable game, which was a lot closer that it seemed. The fact that my models did not drop Corpse Counters made a big difference to proceedings – McMourning would have been summoning monsters as quickly as I was! Lots to think about in the aftermath and Bull eager for a rematch I'm sure.

Kirai vs Rasputina

After a week's break from gaming – I had taken some time off work – it was game time again. Fugs threw a curve ball into the mix by fielding Rasputina instead of his current mistress Lilith.

I had had plenty of thinking time (and time to buy more stuff) and decided to try a mix of new and old.

Strategies were flipped: I got Slaughter and took Bodyguard and Kill Protegee as Schemes; Fugs also flipped Slaughter and took Bodyguard and the Raspy mirror specific Scheme.

My crew consisted of Kirai, Lost Love, Canine Remains, Deperate Merc, Datsu-Ba, 2x Insidious Madness, 2x Seishin and 1x The Drowned.

Fugs took Rasputina, Essence of Power, 2x Silent Ones, 1x Gamin …and Taelor.

The game itself was intense and quite a blur to me now. It ebbed and flowed and it was impossible to predict who would win. I started with my usual shenanigans – taking the Merc and Dog down to one wound so Datsu could create Gaki, although I was hoping for Onryo with the trigger. Alas my starting hand was devoid of any crows which would hamper my opening activations.

By the end of turn one I had two Shikome on the board hunting the Gamin. They tried to cast Guaranteed Fate on him with no luck and tucked back into cover to avoid any reprisals. In turn two Datsu managed to create a Gaki and an Onryo and Kirai summoned a second Onryo. By the end of the turn I had 12 models on the board to Fugs' 6. It was still very cagey though – I was nervous about Taelor and all the magic spells facing me, Fugs wary of the sheer numbers facing him.

I threw out a couple of bait models and Taelor went for it, killing an Insidious Madness and leaving the Gamin and a Silent One unsupported. I moved The Drowned into a clearing in melee range of Taelor and the other Silent One and cast Drag Under successfully, moving Taelor 3" nearer to my awaiting troops. The Drowned was then killed, dealing 2 Damage to these nearby enemies.

A series of mistakes undermined my strike at this point. I swirled Dasu into melee with Taelor, having already activated her (doh!). There was a tiny slither of a Seishin base visible from behind cover which exposed Kirai, Lost Love, a Gaki and 2 Seishin to a December's Curse blast. Kirai and the Gaki managed to survive but this threw a spanner in the works. On the plus side the Onryo in base with Taelor manage to land 5 wounds in one hit which was something of a silver lining.

The following turn saw Taelor engage with Datsu, the old dear managing to frustrate her opponent by  taking all three melee hits to die. I summoned Ikiryo who managed to NOT kill Taelor, the heavyweight Onryo finishing off the job he'd started earlier. Alongside all this Rasputina (and the EoP) was having a field day blasting the rest of my crew to pieces – even killing her own Silent One in order to polish off an Insidious Madness and Onryo out of LoS.

The game went to turn 6 and by the end I had wiped Rasputina and her crew off the board, but Fugs had killed over 50ss worth of my models!!… not bad for a 30ss game.

The final score was 6-4 to Raspy.

Post game thoughts were positive. I made some shocking mistakes – I blame the week's break – and I was far too cautious for the opening half of the game; when I was bold (especially with the Shikome) things started to die. Considering my Terrifying was negated by the opposing crew and I was facing all Magic attacks I was pleased with how things went overall. It was a good alternative to facing the Lilith melee crew, and even Fugs saw Raspy in a different light after being Sonnia's punchbag for such a long time.

Game 4: Kirai vs Lilith

So last night was the long awaited next chapter in the Kirai vs Lilith war. There had been plenty of time to read up and research. I had pretty much made my mind up what I would take, but there's always time for a last minute change.

I flipped Distract for my Strategy and took Hold Out and Breakthrough. Fugs flipped Slaughter and took Bodyguard and Stake a Claim. I knew I needed to move fast.

My starting lineup consisted of Kirai, Lost Love, 3x Seishin, 2x Insidious Madness, Canine Remains, Desperate Merc and The Hanged.

Fugs took a compact but devastating crew of Lilith, Cherub, Mature Nephilim, Taelor and Lelitu. Half way through Turn 1 he realised that Lelitu takes wounds at the end of every turn Lelu is not on the board so would likely be dead by the end of Turn 3. Seeing as she had not activated yet we agreed a swap for a Doppelganger.

Turn 1 involved a lot of shuffling around. Kirai summoned Shikome and Onryo, Lost Love summoning a second Onryo. The Merc and Canine Remains killed each other producing two new Seishin and two Gaki. At the end of the turn I had 12 models on the table to Fugs'  5.

I spent Turn 2 moving up the board and setting up an alpha strike against Taelor who was pretty isolated in the middle of the board. Fugs crew were pretty much heads down in cover not committing to anything.

Shikome had chosen the Cherub as its Prey to try and disrupt Fugs' thinking and force him to hide his totem rather than being the linchpin behind all the Transposition tricks. Whilst this tied up one of my better models the mind tricks worked and the Chreub ran back to his deployment zone and hid behind the Mature Nephilim.

Turn 3 I launched my strike as Fugs' crew were still noncommittal. The Doppelganger had copied Taelor's Hammer and the Mature's Diving Attack and swept into the nearby Shikome. I had managed to construct a very good hand of cards by this time and stalled the attack with no damage inflicted.

I had thrown a Gaki forward (to swirl spirits) but Taelor stepped in and walloped him leaving nothing but a puddle of goo. I sent a Seishin forward then swirled in an Insidious Madness. Ikiryo was then summoned into melee with Taelor. The Lost Love stepped up and cast Chill of Death, Taelor already being on a negative WP flip. She failed the resist and everything was going to plan. The Hanged stepped up and blew away half of her Wounds in one fell swoop with an unresisted Beyond the Grave.

However, I had forgotten three things: the Ikiryo was Slow as he had just been summoned; Taelor has Hard to Wound as well as Hard to Kill.

Ikiryo pulled all nearby spirits closer (except Kirai who had failed her Into The Spirit World). He wasn't able to do a Focused Strike so had to do two normal ones. First attack Fugs flipped the Red Joker in defence. I couldn't match without blowing the Red Joker in my own hand so I passed – mistake. The second attack came in and only managed Moderate Damage, leaving Taelor on 2 wounds. This would mean she wouldn't die this turn. A nearby Onryo charged and did more damage – would have killed her except for Hard to Kill. I had nothing else in range.

Turn 4 would be our final turn. Lilith ran the length of the board to tag a piece of terrain near my Deployment Zone but hadn't gone far enough to be in the zone herself. Taelor did a Hammerstrike to push all the models (except the Insidious Madness) away then killed the Madness then Ikiryo. Shikome intercepted the Cherub and killed it before being charged by the Mature Nephilim and dying to the attacks. Something (can't remember what) took the last wound off Taelor, turning her into a Gaki.

With nothing else in range my remaining activations involved getting as many models into Fugs Deployment Zone as I could. End of Turn 4, end of the game.

A final assessment showed a 6-6 draw. A much more interesting (and close) game and a lot more to think about.

Whilst Fugs had taken the crew from hell it didn't actually do much; he later admitted to being rather intimidated by the size of my crew that was moving up the table en mass. I was very pleased with how the first half of the game had gone but again the alpha strike had fizzled and left me vulnerable to reprisals. Had Fugs come at me with his big hitters from Turn 1 I am convinced he would have wiped me out within a couple of turns.

The Hanged had finally delivered his payload, but didn't do much else except threaten from distance. Similarly Shikome didn't actually do much except chase the Cherub around and keep a 2pt model out of the game. The Gaki and Onryo helped fill out the numbers and do the grunt thing. I was quite impressed the with the Insidious Madness – both of them – as they seemed to fulfil their role well. Struggling to decide on a Man of the Match this time as nobody stood out.

Painting Beauty and the Beast

More painting progress was made on Kirai over the weekend.

Some more washes were added to her dress and green scarf. This will need to be tidied up slightly where it has overspilled at some point. I also worked up her skin tones – I wanted something quite pale but she started to look ill so I pulled it back. Unfortunately the  build up of paint layers on her face combined with her dark eyes makes her look rather like Amy Winehouse, but on the tabletop the effect is sufficient. I added basecoat colour to her hair to make her look a little more human for our game this week.

I also started work on Ikiryo, with the intention of painting her in a similar style to the master – Kirai gone bad if you will. Being that Ikiryo is a spirit I wanted to paint her up in slightly lighter tones than Kirai so that there was a visual difference on the tabletop.

The hope is that these two models can be finished over this coming weekend and I can then move on to the rest of the crew. The models chosen to be painted next will depend purely upon their performances on the battlefield – step up or stay white!

Kirai: painting and avatar building

I set a decent amount of time aside at the weekend to paint – something I haven't done in a while. Like most of us I guess, I wanted to concentrate on my new master and get Kirai looking all pretty.

I'd decided some time ago to go with the colour scheme that is in the book – even bought some new paint before Christmas. I had sprayed all my spirits with white instead of the normal black (to get a more vibrant, light colour) but my first attempts to lay down some colour was very patchy. Maybe should have stuck to what I know.

I used various browns to start with, highlighting with Ochre/White until reaching a pure white. The colour wasn't very vibrant so I washed it several times with Golden Yellow and  Gryphonne Sepia to add some depth.
Need to look at the highlights again and bring them back up to white.

Similarly with the green scarf (for want of a better word). I started with a Dark Green base colour, adding more and more Emerald, then adding White. At present it needs a wash to unify the layers and give it some depth.

While all the washes were drying I paid a little attention to Kirai's Avatar which has sat idle in my Mali-bag for a few months now. I had a 50mm Bamboo base completed and cast up in resin over Christmas and had superglued her in the new year. I set about drilling some holes from the underside into the metal to secure the model further.

It still needs a little more greenstuff to blend to model more with the base and then it'll be ready for painting.

We have a painting evening planned for later so with some luck there will be more photos in the next couple of days.

Rallying the Troops…

So with a (contested) draw and two very heavy losses so far with Kirai there is a lot to think about. As you can imagine I have done a lot of researching and reading about the crew, what seems to work for people and what doesn't. Looking at my own experiences so far my conclusions are as follows.

Kirai herself is a great master on paper. Yes she is vulnerable when attacked in melee, but with a few Seishin to pass wounds onto or sacrifice, together with her swirling ability and Pitiful she can survive longer than expected – though I have managed to get her killed once already. Even with her extra (+1) Intinctual she has far too many cool abilities than I can use in a single turn. I was drawn to her (over the other Resurrectionist masters) for a reason. However, going from a pure Guild beginning, Kirai is like a brand new pair of shoes – it takes time to break them in and make them truly comfortable – but I am determined to get her to work for me.

The Lost Love is another great model, and at 2ss an absolute bargain. It's big trick of saving Kirai's life when she dies is amazing, however, I think this has held me back from using the model to it's full potential – using Magical Extension to cast things such as Chill of Death and summoning additional spirits. I can't think of a reason to not take this model, except to make the game more challenging.

Ikiryo – nothing much can be said about this spirit. It may take a second crow to summon it, which can be a pain, but it's a free model and has great utility. I haven't witnessed its awesome melee ability that I read about – it tends to inflict a couple of wounds then gets battered in the return – but it is one of the bigger hitters available to Kirai so it's not as if I'm NOT going to summon it at some point.

Datsu-Ba has some great utility skills and a fair few wounds, but I have found her next to useless in melee. Being able to give a spirit a free move, together with her healing and ability to summon Gaki have all been useful if not amazing. For a 7ss model I'm struggling to include her after her performances to date. I obviously don't quite understand her, but I don't want her to become another Francisco Ortega who even at 5ss never seems to be good enough for the first team.

Onryo are the grunts and they do as well as can be expected. I haven't managed to get off a Blind to Spirits or Denial of Sanzu – or even Haunt for that matter – which would lift their usefulness no end. I'm unlikely to include them in a starting lineup as they can be summoned (and regularly are) and I really need them to inflict a bit more pain, but I'm not ready to dismiss them yet.

Shikome is the one model that has almost lived up to expectations. I know for a fact that Fugs fears this model which is why he has been quite prejudiced in taking it down recently. I didn't use it very well in my last game – forgetting about her spell tricks – but if you can summon her into combat she can have fun with her new target. I have contemplated getting a second Shikome but am reluctant until I can get the rest of the crew working.

I've had a few brief glimpses of the Gaki in action. They haven't inflicted a lot of damage (a running theme with the crew so far) but they have scared the Terror Tots on a few occasions and as a 'free' model they are great simply as extra significant bodies on the table. For this reason I have no real expectations with them, so time will tell how useful they turn out to be.

The Hanged is a model with a lot of potential to me. Unfortunately he got blown off the table on his debut so couldn't contribute much. In the second game he attempted to cast Beyond the Grave several times against both Lilith and Taelor. Without any negative flip mechanic already in place he was never likely to actually get the spell off, but it did cause Fug to cheat and use soulstones to ensure such a devastating spell was prevented. Combined with his Terrifying, this model has become a threat yet to deliver on his potential, but the threat is there – it's only a matter of time and circumstance before he delivers.

Insidious Madness is a model that has not been fielded yet. He is pure utility and could either be a roaring success or a puddle of dead snot on the battlefield and a waste of 4ss. The combination of the negative WP flip aura and Terrifying could become very useful. Combined with the rest of the crew – The Hanged especially – there is the potential for a lot of hurt. He is currently a favourite for the next outing, to test some of the theory.

Other models that I have considered include:

Jack Daw, who combines some of the threat of The Hanged and Insidious Madness but who will also have a steep learning curve. He's expensive and has a few too many random abilities that could blow up in my face, making him unreliable (which is the point of the character, let's be honest).

Convict Gunslinger is an all-round solid model. Fugs knows his abilities having fielded him regularly for months so will fear him. I can turn him into a spirit for extra depth and survivability and he gives me some ranged options. He's not very in keeping with Kirai's spirit theme but may be a useful addition, for a while at least, giving me some breathing space to sort out the rest of the crew.


So, where to go from here?

I've decided to take a week off from gaming next week. One game a week is actually too few when you're trying to learn a new crew – you build up the excitement and theory all week then if you make a mistake or two and it blows up in your face you have to wait a whole other week until you can try again. Despite this, breaking the losing cycle can be as easily achieved by taking a rest as anything. I hope to get some models painted in this time so that I can take some more photos without being totally embarrassed and it will give time for the pre-game giddiness to subside and hopefully be replaced by a confident calmness and clear thinking.

It's a Knockout…

…8 …9 …10 …YOU'RE OUT!

That is the sound of my patience with Kirai and her spirits leaving the building – haha!

Another thumping last night by Lilith, largely thanks to some bad decision making on my part and increasingly poor cards is making me wonder whether my gaming skills really are that two-dimensional and I should go back to the simplicity of the Guild.

Fugs and I both flipped Destroy the Evidence, so Fug suggested making it a Shared Strategy. This effectively added a seventh evidence token in the middle of the board worth an additional VP. We flipped for deployment and got corners, meaning we were both barely 12" from said central token.

I was distracted by the bright lights and decided I could summon Ikiryo on top of the central token and give myself a small headstart. Destroy the Evidence is a strategy that Kirai should breeze through with her movement tricks so getting an early lead would be a bonus. Problem is I forgot that summoned models are slow when they arrive, meaning Ikiryo didn't have enough general AP to interact. It also meant that (being H3) he was an easy target for Lilith's Transposition. That's exactly what happened – the Cherub stepped up and Transposition-ed Ikiryo with Lilith. Lilith then interacted with the token to claim it and moved off to the side. Ikiryo was battered by the new addition to Fug's crew – Taelor.

End of turn 1, I am down 1 VP already not to mention 4 wounds on Kirai and a handful of cards.

My semi-painted master

Things ebbed and flowed the following turn. I moved The Hanged over to a token on my left. He was charged by a Young Nephilim who was in turn charged by an Onryo who did 3 wounds. The Young was then swapped with Taelor thanks to another great Transposition move, supported by Lilith,  and I was forced to swirl The Hanged back to Kirai for healing and sacrifice the wounded Onryo to regain some wounds and cards and prevent Taelor from killing more stuff.

The tempo of the game was such that Fugs could move around the board with little to no fear of any reprisals. I set an alpha strike in motion once Lilith had moved on to another token and left Taelor alone. She was having a field day against my spirits, killing them in a single hit. Her high WP meant I was struggling to do anything back.

Kirai summoned Ikiryo and Shikome into base contact with Taelor, forgoing a heal to cast her (0) action that would produce a Gaki should Taelor die. I had The Hanged waiting to cast Beyond the Grave and halve Taelor wounds before the big hitters went in. Up stepped the Lost Love to cast Chill of Death giving the target neg flips against spirits – the combination of these elements would be devastating. As expected he flipped poorly, I cheated to ensure I had the correct suit and soulstoned for a boost to take it out of Taelor's reach – I flipped a 1. That effectively meant that Taelor could defend everything that I threw at her by cheating (not that she needed it as Fugs has amazing flips with this crew). In return Taelor killed Shikome and Ikiryo (for the second time this game) and I had to give up the two remaining cards I had.

The game staggered on in the same vein for another turn. By this time Fug had 4 VP to my 0. I called the game mid turn 4 as the clock chimed 10pm.

The inevitable (weekly) post mortem got me analysing why this crew struggles so much and why it seems incapable of doing any damage – the number of wounds I have inflicted in 3 games can be counted on one hand.

My multi-coloured Seishin

With the Guild I could spend a couple of turns building up a decent set of cards in my hand. With Kirai, she uses any decent cards she has summoning her troops or entering the Spirit World. She is also so dependent on suits – masks and crows especially – that she has to hold onto these at all costs. If you get a poor hand of cards and has been the norm so far (my hand in turn four had no card higher than a four!) then I'm relying on soulstones to make things happen.

If the games had been a little closer, more contested, then I could be quite content that it was part of the learning curve. At present I'm providing no real challenge to Fugs who can move around the board at will with Transposition (which I don't seem able to stop as I have no decent cards in my hand to cheat, or need them for other things). As fast as I am summoning spirits he's killing them. With the introduction of Taelor (and soon the twins) who negates all of the advantages the spirits have, I'm losing models at a faster rate with even less ability to stop it.

The danger is that these beatings are so demoralising that I'm starting to lose enthusiasm for the game and for painting the models. I could go back to The Guild but that would be defeatist, plus I've invested too much money to put the Spirits all on ebay for half the price I paid for them. I could buy bigger models – Dead Rider, etc. – but that doesn't solve the inherent problem. So I've decided to take a week or two off from gaming, do some painting, and get back to the craft side of things that I enjoy and will feed my interest.

As much as I think playing a single game a week is not helping my development – the excitement builds all week for a game then you lose 8-0 with nothing new learned – I feel (as does my poor wife) that a break will be good. I don't want to field another unpainted crew, and that in turn should provide more eye candy for the blog.

The sting of the defeat is gone now but I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel, or a way to turn things around; with things set to get more difficult when Fugs introduces the twins shortly I need to find a way to break them. Let the research begin…