Updates Abound in Post #666

Another signpost and another "milestone" for the blog as this makes my 666th post at Mik's Minis! Wow, that seems like a lot! Sci-fi takes the lion's share of posts here with a whopping 259 tags with Fantasy at about a hundred posts behind in a fairly distant second place. It blew my mind so long ago when I had thirty something readers, so I don't even know what to think now. Thanks for all the support and y'all are the reason I try to keep it interesting and what drives me to keep writing.

I also realize that this post is going to kind of mark a turning point at Mik's Minis, and not in the same vein as Duck Sauce with his recent 'declaration to get things done' vows either. No, I do believe things are going to slow down around here, out of professional necessity if nothing else. Noted in my "big announcements" post (I'm not going to link to it, it's the one below this one) I have a new job, an "official" job, and as a first-year public school teacher my hands are going to be more than full. I went in today to look at my classroom and was equally exhilarated and terrified all at the same time! Mind you, I've been almost a post-a-day kind of guy, so I'm just saying that's going to slow down, nothing too terribly drastic.

Last weekend we held our "Bolterpalooza" event for my birthday. Basically we just played the Deathwatch introductory RPG adventure all day. It was a blast, good food, friends, and good drink. I've got photos lined up, I just haven't written it yet.


I've still got Flames of War pics I can't get off my phone too and I still can't find my tiny usb card reader thingie. I went to buy a new one, but it was $20 bucks! Forget that, I'll just keep looking here.

Now for our all-day Bolterpalooza my mom and daughter made me and the guys cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes as you can see, but Sleestak Cupcakes! Originally they were supposed to be aliens in little UFOs, but my daughter pointed out (all on her own) that the eyes were "wrong" and they should be Sleestaks instead. Once they put the green sprinkles on as scales, they were perfect! That's why when non-gamer friends of the family ask if I'm hoping for a boy this next time so I can 'geek out with him' I respond rather quickly I'm geeking out just fine with my girl already! Gender neutral geeking out is finally becoming more widespread fortunately.


I had a little birthday money, so I spent it on rulebooks. An important note here is I did NOT spend it on more miniatures! I could have, I could have very easily, but no, I showed some restraint. We all have boxes of unpainted minis anyway, right? So, I went with rulebooks, and I went with ones that have been on my mind for a while now.

I mentioned Malifaux some time ago, and looking back at that post, I'm surprised I've waited this long really. It's received enough positive word of mouth and solid reviews I have been curious, almost eager, to get to grips with it. Not to mention the figures look stunning, but I think I'll proxy a few games before I even think about those!

The next one is a relative newcomer in the, "Hmmm, I'd like to play that..." department, but it's near and dear to my interests and that's AE:Bounty. Again, word of mouth and preliminary reviews have me intrigued. It's sci-fi skirmish, but doesn't use points, focuses on small squad aliens, humans, and the like, and has lots of mini-campaign mechanics for the long run. The figs look great, but sheesh, not at those prices! Besides, I think I can kill two birds with one stone and play this in 15mm, accessing lots of great figs I already have.

Since Photobucket is completely failing me this evening, all I can do is tell you about the Strange Aeons game we played tonight. Not giving away too much, the pic at the left should be a big hint. Since Duck Sauce is taking the Deathwatch reins, I vowed to run a minimum of four linked Strange Aeons games. Tonight was just a warm-up, look for the reports soon, taking inspiration from the fine folks over at Geektactica.


All right, that's all I've got for now!

Malifaux

Wyrd Miniatures' New Skirmish Game

"I want to play a miniatures game. Something new, something fresh, something innovative and that hasn't been seen before. Something that's a blast to play and you can't wait to play again, something with cool [arse] models that aren't a chore to paint. Yeah, that's what I want." -me

Yes, I just quoted myself, haha. I said the above about a month ago on the Yahoo Group our local gaming groups uses. We were talking about miniatures games, mixed in with all of our roleplaying games, and someone brought up the western Gustshot rules (since we've been playing PKowboys recently). Then we mentioned that we haven't played 40k in a while, yada yada yada. The bottom line being our gaming cup, like, so runneth over. Totally. That's when I came up with the above quote, and it was before I heard of Malifaux.


The Steamborg

A succinct summary from Board Game Geek: Malifaux is a skirmish miniature game in a [Steam-Victorian-Horror-Western-Punk] setting. Each player builds a force of 5-7 figures from a faction to battle it out. A force is composed of minions and at least one master. Malifaux involves elements of resource management as hands of cards are used instead of dice to resolve skill checks. Each check involves drawing a card from a deck and adding it to a figure's statistic. Players can then use cards from their hands to raise the value. The highest value in an opposed check wins. The turn system is integrated, with each player alternating turns between model activations.


The Undertaker and the Rat Catcher

Let's breakdown my above quote and see how this latest minis ruleset pans out.

1. "I want to play a miniatures game." Check, Malifaux is definitely a minis game.

2. "Something new, something fresh," Yup, it just made its debut at GenCon, and with whole army games being all over, it's nice to see a return to a skirmish format. You've got to look at the genre setting, which the authors said jokingly. You can't pin down exactly where it fits in; it has zombies and necromancers, demons and samurai, gunslingers and cowboys, and of course, pig-riding redneck goblins. It's not too full of itself and doesn't take itself too seriously, which appeals to me, especially if it's still a solid game.

3. "something innovative and that hasn't been seen before." Certainly the fact that the game eschews dice altogether is certainly different. The authors said that they didn't just want to re-invent a "d13" using a card deck either. I don't know how exactly it works, but the cards interact with one another and can interrupt your opponent. Plus, your leader models come free of charge in-game, you don't pay points for them at all. The game is not just character-centric, it's about nothing but the characters, putting them squarely up front.

4. "Something that's a blast to play and you can't wait to play again," It's a new game, and there's not a lot of reviews out there admittedly, but from the scant stuff I have heard and read, the game comes across very favorable. I must admit the enthusiasm the guys over at D6Generation have shown bears some influence as well.

5. "something with cool [arse] models" Well, just look at the pics in this post. The ones I put up here are those that I really like, but there's tons more. The best gallery to look at is the shopping cart over at Rattlehead Games. I know this style of mini isn't for everyone, but again, for me, I'm liking the way the line is visually taking shape.

6. "that aren't a chore to paint." And here we have the one caveat, but I can get around this well enough. True, the models are all like the singular figures you might find leading an entire army, your 'warband' will only consist of 5-7 of them in total. I may have to step up my painting skills a tad, but I'm painting a number of figs in the single digits, so that's a painting pill that's so much easier to swallow than staring down 40-50 models.

All in all, I'd have to give this a whopping 5.75 out of 6. Hmm, not too bad.


Bayou Gremlins and Witchling Stalkers