Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Asami Tanaka



This week’s preview is Asami Tanaka, a new master for the Ten Thunders faction. Continuing with the precedent established by Shen Long, she is single faction (apparently the infiltration part of the Thunders’ plans has now passed) and seems to be an interesting mix of traits that makes for a unique, Oni themed crew.

But what is she? Other than a walking, talking bad-hair day (rimshot) a speculation has been made, based on that hair and the description provided by Wyrd that she is a support master but doesn’t “lack her own bite.” This led to some speculation as to what sort of horrible thing she may actually be, which was tantalizingly teased by Nathan that the community was on the right track. So let’s go with the assumption that the speculation is right and present the monster Tanaka may actually be: a Futakuchi-onna.

Om nom nom


This is a creature from Japanese myth, a woman with a mouth on the back of her head. Created in most myths by a miserly husband who fails to feed his wife, this creature’s hair acts as tentacles that feed the mouth on the back of the head which will end up consuming twice as much as the mouth on the front. Personally, I always love these new Ten Thunders style creatures, mostly because I’m not familiar with Japanese folklore at all, so things like Yin the Penanggalan and the Kamitachi are always a fascinating look into an unfamiliar culture. Also, as a dungeon master for other roleplaying games, they’re always good to crib and use for other things to make my pcs miserable. If Tanaka really is one of these onna monsters, then she is a very cool addition to the faction.

But what is she in Malifaux? Let’s see what we can glean from the card.


Her stats are pretty strong, in my opinion. She diverges from the Ten Thunders pattern of 6’s all over the place, but with Lillith’s defense stats, 10 wounds, and Hard to Kill she has some decent staying power. The rest of her stats and her cache are fairly middling, but this may not be a huge surprise given that the preview mentions that she can call forth Oni onto the field of battle, which sounds pretty much like she’s a summoner. This fills a gap in the faction and puts her in an odd place, as she has Lillith-y stats but will likely want to be midfield, since she’s summoning and giving her Oni the ability to charge as a (1) action. Rush of magic is always a good thing, especially for summoners which can tend to be card (and suit) intensive.

Just for reference, the list of Oni in Malifaux are: Ama No Zako, Obsidian Oni, Jorogumo, Kamaitachi, and Tengu. I’m sure she’ll have other synergies with Oni, but I can only see the first three getting much use out of the Charging buff. Still, I’m sure there will be new Oni coming with her release, and it should make for a very cool and very weird looking crew!


All of these masters have been pretty strong, in my opinion, and I don’t know who I’m more excited to see (ok, it’s Titania.) Ripples of Fate is going to be a pretty awesome book, if this trend keeps going. See you next week! 

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A sincere apology and where have all the hills gone?

Hello all.  It's Jon aka Phiasco (my new asshole persona).  So I need to go on the record and publicly offer my sincerest apology to Kevin (my last opponent from Cmon).  Just because I don't like a rule and chose to ignore it doesn't give me the grounds to assume everyone needs to play the game the same way.  Every comment I made about his character or assumptions I made of cheating was completely unfounded and here I am with egg on my face.

So how did this even happen in the first place?  Let me go back to when I first heard about vantage point rules.  Coming into 2e I didn't play a lot of games year one.  I had my feet in a few other long running games, I was working crazy hours, and didn't really have a ton of time for gaming in general.  I did however listen to many different podcasts.  If I knew the one that was talking about how vantage point worked I would link it here.  (maybe someone knows what I am referring to and can help me out).  Anyway I will paraphrase the talking points if I remember them correctly.

- the vantage point rule ignores basic math and geometry.  As someone who passed a quantum physics class with an A, this bothers me almost to my core.  I think the example was imagine Hans standing on the ground shooting at something 3 inches deep on height 2 vantage point terrain 30 inches away (33 inches total).  Assuming the bullet leaves Hans at height 1.8, then it follows 99% of the model is visible but not targetable.  Hans can see the target from the waist up 5 tables away. And if you prescribe to rules as written and say the bullet leaves from his foot Hans can still see 80% of the model and not be able to target it.  I can find where Justin Gibbs (2e game designer) was interviewed and says the thing he hates the most about the game is vantage point and I can link it in the comments if requested.  For these reasons I have chosen to never use the vantage rules and they faded from memory.  It still doesn't give me the right to make someone not use those rules.

I am fairly certain this did not come into play in the game in question as the vantage height was 3 and I was using Lynch with his range 8"

==> But Phiasco... rules as written blah blah blah... why are you crying like a bitch?

If it is your perception that I'm crying and complaining where there is no room for argument then I really don't know why you are here.  You hate me and nothing I can do at this point will change your opinion of me.  Most of what I did deserves that but if you got this far and are more open minded then you come off as (speaking to my hecklers of course) please allow me to present the other half of vantage rules that I feel may have been ignored.

-  If you are shooting down from vantage, you still measure from the closest edge of one base to the closest edge of the target base and if 2.01" (for a ht 2 model) of that measurement is up on the vantage the shot is blocked.  You don't get to ignore the entire edge because you're within 2" of it.

I want to make it perfectly clear I was beat fair and square but at the same time following this rule was never made clear for any of the shots taken.  To be completely fair I didn't even know we were using vantage point until turn 3.  I'm certain we are not the first to clash on vantage and we won't be the last.  It is no excuse for my behavior, I'm sorry.  I intend to lay this to rest and move on.  I understand your reservations on me continuing to blog.  I have learned I need to go to the source and iron out what happened if there is any room for misinterpretation.  I agree the community is more important than my blog.  So if I continue to treat the community in an unfair manner by all means let me know.

The other side of the coin there are problem players in every game and I am bound to run into one eventually.  If I fail to work it out with the player I will work with the TO (or I may have to go to the TO first depending on circumstance).  But you can be sure I will not post another blog on raw emotion.

Also I realise my social media presence is lacking and I am very slow to respond.  I will work on it but I make no promises as I tend to be busy and sometimes have no say in when I can get online while traveling.

==> But Phiasco... you are still an asshole and you suck.

Thank you for the compliments.  A I agree and B very well the ladies say.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Reva



Continuing with the Ripples of Fate previews, this week’s sneak peek reveals a master from the Resurrectionist faction. Reva appears to be a woman wearing what resembles a nun’s habit, riding a horse. I know I, for one, enjoy the mounted characters, so that’s always fun. I wish I had more details to share on the character’s background, as I did with Titania last week, but alas Reva hasn’t appeared anywhere to give us some information on who or what she is (at least, not that we know.)
So, let’s take a look at the stat card, shall we?



We have the first appearance of the Revenant keyword, so apparently Reva will come along with her own new type of creatures. With 13 wounds she has some survivability, but perhaps not as much as we’re used to seeing from Rezzer masters since she is only Df 5 and has none of the usual defensive keywords (armor, Hard to Wound, Hard to Kill, etc.) This appears to be less of an issue for Reva, however, as she is able to cast her spells out of any corpse markers she can see within 18”. As such, it seems she’s going to want to stay back a bit rather than leading from the front lines. Her horse seems to embrace the “Slow and steady wins the race” mantra, as it only has walk 5, though with Unimpeded and a charge of 10, I wouldn’t exactly call her slow either.

Reva definitely seems to draw power from the dead a bit more directly than the other Rezzer masters, both from her ability to use corpses to draw line of sight and her The Final Veil ability, which lets her heal whenever a non-peon is killed within 8” of her. She can summon a corpse candle (whatever that is. Probably some sort of dead totemy thing like a daydream or a marionette) by discarding a card at the start of her activation.

"Careful now! Or Hobbits go down to join the dead ones, and light little candles of their own."


Looks like a cool model, and potentially a new flavor for the Rezzers (wait, we don’t want to get the corpse markers back up again?). I’m quietly hoping she doesn’t have an awesome (0) action, as Maniacal Laugh to turn corpse markers into Mindless Zombies creates some interesting possibilities to give her Rasputina-like force projection abilities. Of course, we don’t know what the spells she would be casting out of these corpse markers will be, but I doubt they involve cuddling the enemy and giving them a nice box of candies. In any case, as a sort of sideline fan of the Resurrectionists (I’ll get around to playing them some day) I’m interested to see more of who Reva and her Revenants are and what they do on the battlefield. 

Thursday, May 19, 2016

CMON expo. A tale of an almost first place finish.

Greetings all.  This is Jon.  Adam asked me to report my exploits and shenanigans.  So instead of sending him bits and pieces I figured I would give this blogging thing a whirl.  Writing is not something I do often so if I am somewhat vague feel free to ask questions or leave constructive criticism.  Also my phone takes crappy pictures.  I am very aware of this.  I will upgrade in the near future.  With the disclaimers out of the way on to the tournament!

Game one:


Normally I would name opponents but I misplaced a sheet so I'm doing that round by memory and there may be some content that can be construed as a negative play experience.  While it is relatively easy to extrapolate who I am talking about, I will leave all names out as I feel its a polite thing I can do.  I'm not angry.  There are several things I did wrong to lose that game and it was a hard lesson in tournament scheme selection.


Round one:
Strat: Guard the stash.  Schemes: Convict Labor, Set up, Undercover Entourage, Leave your mark, Exhaust their forces.  Deploy:  Corner

Going into this one I was going to use Brewmaster because his defensive trigger is debilitating in corner deployment.  But my opponent told me he was relatively new to the game (less then 10 games played if memory serves.  So I figured a more straight forward master like Lynch would A. play faster on my side and B. not be so confusing and be a NPE for a newer player by making his models do nothing all game.

So the lists: 10 Thunders Vs Arcanists
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun, Recalled Training
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Yin, Smoke Grenades
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
10 Thunder Brothers x 2

Rasputina, Child of December, Decembers Pawn, Shattered Heart
Wendigo
Ice Golem, Armor of December
Hoarcat Pride
Ice Gamin x 3
Sabretooth Cerebus

I don't remember who won flip or who deployed first.  There was no from the shadows I started by the building with the grey roof, and my opponent in the opposite corner.  I sent a brother down each flank to complete convict labor and then to peel off for leave your mark, an illuminated toward each stash marker (hugging cover), Huggy to support one and Yin the other.  Lynch set up behind a fence where he could not be seen between both strat groups.  He came up kinda in a cloud formation and I'm not really certain if there was a plan other then to try to win combat and sweep past me.  This was probably one of his first games since Huggy's incorporeal was frustrating him.  So much so he used smash when Huggy was on one wound top of turn two (probably unaware he was only buried).  Removing Huggy left a lane for my illuminated to skirt past the golem and charge Raspy. He tried to harass one of my thunder brothers with the hoarcat.  Lynch deleted the cerebus releasing huggy who charged the hoarcat and deleted it so my markers on that flank would count.  With Raspy effectively neutralized (don't remember if I killed the golem somewhere in there) he decided to call it.  We both failed the strat turn 3 so I got that game 9-1.  I don't particularly enjoy beating brand new players this bad.  I only hope he sticks with the game and gives it a chance.

Game two:


This table was interesting.  The stairs up to the platforms didn't seem set up in any logical way and I knew I was taking 3 models that don't care.  This guy was running Outcasts but also said he was relatively new.  So we agreed everything was climbable.  Since he showed up with a box that didn't look like it could hold the rat engine and if it did all my stuff can act independent and it was standard deploy sooo...

Round two:
Strat: Turf War.  Schemes: Convict Labor, A Quick Murder, Public Demonstration, Show of Force, Exhaust their forces.  Deploy:  Standard

The lists: 10 Thunders Vs Outcasts
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun, Recalled Training
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Yin, Smoke Grenades
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
10 Thunder Brothers x 2

Von Schill
Hannah
Lazarus
Strongarm Suit
Librarian
Hans

I don't remember his upgrades as I didn't write them down but every model had an upgrade.  With Turf War and Show of Force having obvious synergy I didn't expect I could compete in Show with just Yin.  As an aside with his crews only threat to my scheme runners being Hans I knew I had 3 points locked up for convict labor (or he would have to potentially lose a stat point and a scheme point to contest my markers).  Public Demonstration while this being the easiest set up I will ever get the list is not built to do it and it relies too heavily not picking off an Illuminated before I spring it.  In hindsight a quick murder on the Strongarm was probably the way I should have gone but somewhere in the back of my mind what if he plays cagey with an obvious melee model and stands back shooting people?  So I settled on Exhaust.  The Brothers didn't have to guard markers anyway as he was obviously all in on a rush to the middle.

Something that didn't happen is I didn't stop to think what he probably took for the second scheme.  I can rule out Public Demonstration seeing as how he had 0 demonstrators, not enough models to attempt Convict, and Exhaust is difficult if you are being out activated (but not to be ruled out) so it was almost certainly a Quick Murder (which my list inadvertently thwarts with attacking Yin at a double negative outside of 6"). But had I did this step I would have deployed Yin in cover for an extra negative.  Even though it turns out Hans doesn't have a built in positive like the other snipers these are the kinds of mistakes I'm going to need to eliminate from my game.

Turn 1.  I deploy on the closer side in the picture.  Brother on each flank and everything else aiming to support the fight for the middle.  He takes a pot shot with Hans (set up on the walkway behind the building for cover) at Yin which misses (still not triggering my spidey senses).  I advance everything into cover except the Brothers.  I send Chiaki to support the thunder brother on my left flank so I can get the markers down quick to maybe get him into the scum turn 3 for Exhaust.  He brought the Strongarm and Librarian down my right flank but angling for the center.  I think he got Hannah and Schill up to or on the walkway towards the center.  I still don't know what the plan for Lazarus was but he was back by Hans on the ground.  Score 0-0

Turn 2.  He advances Strongarm and Hannah up to score.  I charge Huggy in to melee range of both putting some damage on Hannah so the Librarian would have to think about randomizing.  I advance an Illuminated to score.  Between Hans and Schill they kill that Illuminated.  So I advance the other one and Yin in for scoring.  I start running the left flank bro toward the center and advance the other to cover to maybe make a run at Hans.  Score 2-2 (Convict for me, Show for him).

Turn 3.  This where my opponent says 'That's where it all went horribly wrong really'.  I win imitative pop Recalled Training stone for the envelop trigger.  I hit the Strongarm for a straight damage flip and top deck the red joker for 11 damage.  Then I stone for envelop and hit Hannah for 7.  And suddenly there were 2 less models.  (turns out he forgot a legend to live up to which is basically hard to kill.  The math as I see it is I would have killed both of those models with Lynch next activation if he skipped the librarian to get rid of Huggy and in the end of that turn he might have scored 2 less)  He jumps Schill into Huggy burying him.  The Librarian moves up to score.  Still no clue what Lazarus is doing.  I move Yin and the Illuminated up on the walk to go after Hans next turn.  Chiaki and the thunder bro came up to score the strat.  I score exhaust somewhere in there I think it was Yin on Lazarus.  Score 5-4

Turn 4 .Pick off the Librarian, exhaust Lazarus, and engage Hans.  Turn flew by pretty quick.  Score 8-4.  Called the game here 10-4 me.

With a +14 differential and at most 5 undefeateds barring ties (which there is very likely at least a few) means I'm probably playing for first place next game.  There were no table numbers and match ups just picked a table, set up, and go.  So outside of the final standings there is no way for me to tell at this point if I'm playing for 1st or the second place table (where 1st is possible if the the first place table ties and being in 5th at this point being highly unlikely but mathematically possible).


Game three:

This was the table my opponent suggested.  When you see his list it will be obvious why but someone beat us to it.  This is Shenlong, Hans, and two snipers all day.  I will gladly trade my 6 shot to his 3.  But instead of dwelling on what almost was a completely different game...


 

This table seemed relatively balanced.  More outcasts and 'kinda new player'.  I'm going to hedge against ratjoy and bring Aionus.  Somewhere in the chaos I put an element in my list for Reconnoiter and not Reckoning.

 Round three:
Strat: Reckoning.  Schemes: Convict Labor, Take Prisoner, Detonate the Charges, Covert Breakthrough, Hunting Party.  Deploy:  Standard

The lists: 10 Thunders Vs Outcasts
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Aionus, Recalled Training
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
Torshiro, Command the Graves

Leveticus
2x Waif
Rusty Alyce
Hans
2x Trapper
2x Convict Gunslingers

I lost the deployment flip.  This wasn't as debilitating as it could have been considering he had 2 models with from the shadows I failed to account for in my set up.  I chose the corner with the small square building.  He deployed both Trappers together one one the ground behind the rectangle building on my side and one up on the roof in the corner as close to the corner of the board as you can get* (I'll touch back on this as I got cheated).  Hans was up on the building in the middle of the other side.

Instead of doing a play by play or turn by turn I'll just run the highlights.  Not taking any bros cut Convict out of contention.  So I went with Breakthrough and Detonate because Chiaki could probably score me 2 on that.  I tie up Hans with Huggy turn 2 after killing a Gunslinger to get him back.  I tied up Levi with Torshiro for a couple turns.  He scored the strat turn 2 and had I ran my Illuminated down the right flank and pretend it was dropping convict markers I could have stopped him from scoring 3 (for the game) on hunting party.

Where this game went sideways for me is when I tried to shoot the Trapper on the roof (who had move up turn one cause it was out of range or something but it was still more than 2 inches from the edge of the building facing my deployment zone)  He was running the other Trapper to do break through but he hadn't dropped any markers yet.  So he told me I'm pretty sure you can't shoot that guy because vantage point rules.  I didn't bother to check the rules at this point because this guy was slow playing me weather he intended to or not.  So I just changed target to the scheme runner and cheat to what would have been a tie unless he cheated the red joker and he cheated the joker.  I had the red joker in hand and I tie/win the game had I played it there.  I was saving it to one shot a buried Levi with Aionus.

So there is this last round call at 15 mins and we are seconds from the end of 4. score going into 5 is 4-6.  And he calls the game with some lame excuse of I have to be ready to drive 3 hours after this.  If that's the only way you can win buddy have at it.  Top of 5 I have Lynch w/ 5 wds, huggy full and in charge range for Levi, unwounded Aionus, and Chiaki.  Levi had one wound, 2 Waifs hiding in a puddle of piss and the Trapper on the roof who at this point had been cheating the entire game to shoot at me as it turns out that the vantage point rule runs both ways.  Chiaki could still score me detonate for 2 or 3, Lynch could pick up a marker. And I would have scored strat for killing Levi twice that turn.  I turned in the sheets with 12 minutes left and there is no way we would have not finished with 8 models on the table.  But whatever.

So what did I learn from all that?  Take models to do the schemes I chose, have a fall back model, and score a fast as possible.  I don't mean for this to sound salty but I'm sure it does.  I learned several things from all three games, generally had fun (I can't prove the last guy meant to cheat me but you can be for certain I have vantage point seared into my brain and that won't happen again).  I need to slow down and focus at the selection step because this is not the first time I made this type of error.

And a week from this tournament is BKFuax (last weekend at the time of posting this).  So more tournament reports to come.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Titania

This week’s Monday preview brought us the first in a series of reveals for the masters in Malifaux’s next book, Ripples of Fate. Confidentially, I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, as the first preview was…Titania!



With a name that hearkens to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it should be no surprise that Titania is the Queen of the Fae. The resemblance ends there, however, as details revealed from the Nythera Penny Dreadful (stop reading if you plan on playing this or don’t want this spoiled) let you know that she was once ruler of the Neverborn before she made a pact with the Grave Spirit to defeat the Tyrants by shattering their physical forms. The Neverborn were not thrilled with this (their hatred of the undead continues to be one of their defining traits, as Hayreddin can likely attest) and they locked her away beneath Nythera before she could bring the Grave Spirit fully into the world. Since then, she has leeched the energy from the Badlands, turning them into the wastes that they currently are, before being released by Fated at the end of this summer’s events (assuming that your Fated released her. I am aware that not all are as impulsive as others but, as my players put it “We’ve come this far, there’s no way we’re NOT going to find out what’s locked under here.”
Fluff-wise, I like this character a lot from the little bit we have so far. Someone who is an enemy of the Neverborn from the inside, who is returning and going to make the other masters decide how they feel about this person being back, could lead to some very interesting stories going forward. Also, it occurs to me that all of us should feel some sort of affinity for her, as Titania is one of the first characters any of us ever saw in Malifaux and one who many of us have spent games praying would appear in our favor.

Look familiar?

But what about in game? Let’s take a look at the front of the stat card.



For Neverborn players, it should be apparent that this is something very new and different for the faction. This character is very tough. With twelve wounds, Impossible to Wound, and the ability to heal two wounds every time her crew drops a scheme marker within 6” of you, it’s going to take some doing to bring down our new Undead queen. Additionally, enemy models that activate within 6” while in base contact with her scheme markers have to make a WP duel or take some damage. This seems like it would be sort of difficult to set up, but still makes some interesting possibilities for using her to defend markers in schemes like Convict Labor. Walk 5 and flight on a master usually means speed, though that’s nothing new for Neverborn. Still, good to see she will be able to keep up with other members of the faction if she needs too. And, frankly, nobody is likely to say no to a 4 cache. That’s good stuff, and will let you feed stones into the crew without having to save them for her (usually.) It’s tough to gauge anything past that without seeing the flip side of the card and her upgrades, but so far I like what I see.
***

As an aside, I’m happy to officially announce that roving reporter Jon has joined the blog as an official coauthor, and should be posting soon about his experiences at the Cool Mini Or Not Expo tournament.