Skip forward 10 years and I still loved playing Epic (God’s Own Scale) and with Epic:Armageddon I fell in love all over again. Sure, titans were not the dominant machines they once were but were still fantastical on the battlefield and could lay down so much firepower they had to be dealt with.

20 years on again and I had resisted the urge to jump into Adeptus Titanicus (mk2) but yet my will was weak and friends sold me on Legions Imperialis.

And here we are again…

This time my painting skills and techniques have improved, the models are so much bigger and more detailed, plastic and possible and have locations ready for magnets to be inserted for quick swapping of weapon load-outs.

And again, Legio Gryphonicus walks to war…

Initially I made some good steady progress using Citadel Contrasts and Army Painter Speed Paints over a zenithal white base applied using my Badger Sotar 20-20.

With time running out on the month I decided I would delay my Silas models and give him more time in the future and work more on the Bandit keyword. In the end I completed 85SS worth of models with plenty of scope to play around and see what works best.

I have since stripped my old metal Alt Lady Justice and Miss Terious and built out the remaining marshals (Lone Marshal, Exorcists, Domodores de Cadavres) and am aiming to tackle a good few of them this month.

This at least should some better options for playing Hardcore or even at a full game of Malifaux!

I know it’s a short month with the holidays so I am not going to be too ambitious and I have only signed up to complete 15points of models this month. So far I started Lady J, Miss Terious, The Judge and the Scales of Justice, lady J’s totem. I am going for a worn leather on all the Marshals except for the exorcist who should be in black as befits their status.

* The only ones I had painted

• Encounter Size is 30 Soulstones.
• Round Time Limit is 45 minutes.
• Only Henchmen can be chosen as a Crew’s Leader.
• A Leader’s Cost is not treated as 0 when hiring.
• A Crew’s Soulstone Pool can never exceed 3 (any excess Soulstones are discarded).
• Player’s have a maximum hand size of 4.
• Player Crews must contain exactly 4 models and are fixed for the event, and thus cannot change between games.
• Leaders have an Action limit of 2 instead of 3.
• Models cannot be Summoned. If a model would be Summoned, the Summon effect is ignored.
• The Helping Hand ability listed on Effigy models is ignored.
• VP from Strategies may be scored during Turn 1.
• Encounters are predetermined:
• Deployment: Wedge
• Strategy: Plant Explosives, as listed in GG0. • Schemes: Vendetta & Assassinate

I have packed a metric ton of boards, markers, models, fate decks and assorted other paraphernalia to help these newbies to play one of the best systems currently out there.

I have been beavering away, sorting out crews, sleeving cards, printing cards ( I had to even write a Java application to split PDFs to read them into my image editor software but that’s another story) and painting up a whole heap of models to get ready.

To that end I have decided to paint up a crew that I have loved since early M2E – The Crossroads Seven. I have even signed up the to Malifaux Painters Blog to try and carry on my enthusiasm.

So far I have finished Wrath (started during Lockdown using the Contrast paints from GW) and carried on with Envy, Gluttony, Pride and Greed. Up next are Lust and Sloth. I have also completed the Carrion Emissary and primed my Shadow Emissary ready for Amy first attempt at colouring using my airbrush (purchased circa 2015 ish)

This has really lit a spark under me and I am eagerly awaiting next weekend. Get ready for photo overload!

D.

Murder at the Excelsior provides a good standalone adventure but, like the others, can be integrated as a side quest in a campaign. The expansion has a core deck and also 5 other separate sets that will be shuffled in as the adventure continues. This offers a good amount of replayability.

Harvey returned to his locked office at Miskatonic where a cryptic note was left on his desk with a book of matches from the Excelsior Hotel “I have answers. Room 225. Come alone. They’re watching.” Grabbing his coat from behind the door Harvey decides to investigate…

With this being my first time with Harvey and also a new scenario I made some rookie mistakes. I needed to get a bigger hand of cards quickly to make full use of his abilities. Also I interpreted some of the text on the scenario cards incorrectly. With a low combat ability and a slightly better agility he needs to always be evading or trying to sway combat for intellect/willpower tests.

Anyway it all ended for Harvey on the rain-soaked rooftop of the Excelsior, pursued by Mr Trombly, the maddened concierge.

Good times.

And that got me thinking why they would do 2 Arcanist Masters to fight with. But then they dropped the bomb – Marcus is now Dual-faction with Neverborn. WHAAATTT?

And he’s not the only one switching up things it seems. McMourning has lost his Guild faction (nothing new here since he was caught controlling zombies by Lady J), Misaki has handed in her merc card and become Ten Thunders solely (again this was story-driven and as head of the Katanaka clan she needs to lead the Ten Thunders), Lynch has stepped away from the Neverborn connections and Brewie has thrown in his lot with the Gremlins. McCabe got out while he could and cashed in his lot with the Thunders. Let’s hope I can still bring some Guild forces when I play McCabe! Jack Daw has now appeared in the Ressers which switches tings up a touch.

To replace these lost dual factions we have some new ones – Zipp has become Outcast Dual-faction (well, he is a pirate!) and Hoffman may be showing some Arcanist sympathy as he becomes Dual faction with them.

Some players might be a little riled up by this but by far the most anger has come from some lost masters. Within the fluff of Malifaux we have seen Nicodem taken out, Lilith has been locked in the Red Cage by Zoraida (for her own good) and what’s left of Ramos has been shipped Earth-side to Vienna. This means that now in M3E tournaments these masters will be useable at the TO’s discretion.

With some masters now gone we have new masters stepping in to take their place. First (and rightfully so) Nekima has taken her place as Queen of the Nephilim, Euripdes has come down from the mountain to serve Titania, Von Schtook has taken his university on a field trip and now is a master in the Ressers and Dashel has been given a promotion within the Guild.

From what information has been released it seems that M3E will streamline a lot of what has become seen as bloated in M2E, namely all the tracking of conditions. There will now be 11 main conditions in the game. Masters and models that previously used conditions will now use tokens for tracking quantities. I don’t really see a difference here but let’s see where they go with it. Deployment zones have now been changed to increase threat ranges and I guess action from turn 1 will become the norm.

To achieve this there is a closed beta that will be working til release next year. By far the most interesting part of M3E is that unlike M2E which had a staggered release for models using a wave system, M3E will be fully ready to go when it is released. With a lot more models introduced from M1.5 to the end of M3E this is a massive undertaking but hopefully we will be in for a treat!

D.

We begin with some Lampads, Resser spirit enforcers (3 in a box, 7SS). These boys are swirling masses of ethereal fire and if an enemy dies nearby from burning, they get to become a new Lamapd, yay!

Some nice Guild models arrived in the shape of Guild Investigators, 6SS minions that can lock down enemy actions, deny scheme markers from being used and generally mess with the gameplan. Nice for Lady J, Lucius or McCabe who can bring them into Ten Thunders.

Sparks was my next assembly. A gremlin who can make a model a construct and gives Mei Feng a nice assist for rail walking or better yet can make Mei a construct and then Lazarus can copy her actions. Useful lil green guy!

Another little guy was the Alt Tanuki that was available in some box sets or as a promotion for store purchases. These poison pandas can be slippery with their Defensive trigger and are able to use scheme markers to give out poison. Who wants Sake?

I also based up a female gunsmith. Love the pose of this model and will definitely take her when I go Mei Feng Arcanists.

A custom bayou base was needed for McTavish and his gator. Some cork tile and a little clip, tear, scratch and slice and the job is done. Will add some water effect when I get round to painting him.

Lastly I assembled my first building from TTCombat. Their range of Venetian buildings for Carnevale are lovely. This is their Townhouse A, a 2-storey building with a large footprint. A few more of these and I will have a nice mix of buildings (with extendable floors for extra height) that can either be used flat, or with the addition of some walkways, create a Venetian board with canals and limited open ground.and choke points around some bridges.

Let’s see…

Malifaux, my primary love, I have been collecting and assembling anything Ten Thunders related that has been released (and yes that means non-10T where I can use them with dual-faction masters) as well as expanding crews for some other masters (Molly, Lilith and Justice) but I’m always looking for new ideas for crews

For some time now I’ve been using resin bases for all my Malifaux models. Nice cobblestone bases from Fenris Games. The quality is, variable, and the colours not always consistent and there has been a noticeable trend on the 40 and 50mm bases to be thinner than usual. I also discovered that there’s some significant size creep meaning my 40mm are about 43mm and 50mm are a joke.

But my entire Malifaux collection is on the same basing so what did I do? Went with a new supplier using resin base inserts instead. I’ve kept all the unused bases from all my Malifaux models so at least I had something to work from.

My next action was to find a supplier that had what I needed and I got them! Gladius Game Arts do resin inserts in 30,40 and 50mm with victorian flagstones. They also do other ranges and styles. Very nice, consistent casting and readily available.

And so began the task of freezing all my miniatures and carefully slicing through the superglue join and reattaching to their new bases.

A number of Kickstarters arrived over the last few months and one that I was really interested in was Blackwater Gulch. This Western-horror skirmish games had a revamp and the miniatures in the Kickstarter were re-sculpted and were beautiful. I went in on 2 rulebooks and 3 crews, Lawmen, Outlaws and Cursed. The other faction, Beasts, did not appeal at the time but since the Kickstarter arrived they ran another successful Kickstarter to provide minion re-sculpts to add more support to the crews.

A nice twist on Blackwater Gulch is the creator has supplied Photoshop templates and the rules allow you to create your own stat cards to use models in your collection. And with that I went straight to work and created a Death Marshal force for Blackwater Gulch.

[Update] Since creating the cards, the publisher has shown how minion cards are used and they are typically costed in groups of 3 so the death marshals should be triple the cost on the card.