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Adventures in Glow City - Part One

 You are woken from a broken slumber by the incessant ringing of your bonephone (you have a phone surgically implanted in your skull). As you struggle to open your eyes after the excesses of last night you see a message on your HUD from the local fixer Deke NoLegs - a fixer is someone who arranges jobs for runners like yourself - inviting you to meet him at the Get Lucky club on the border between the Block and Neon Quarters at 6pm (2 hours time) As you look around the squalid apartment you are currently forced to call home, you realise that no power in Glow City is going to prevent you from making that meeting.

 

Yesterday I started running a new Cyberpunk RPG with Joel, Matt and Lee acting as my guinea pigs.  Inspired by the write up on Matakishi’s Tea House I decided to use a very simple set of rules called Wired Neon Cities by Scott Malthouse that I picked up from DriveThruRPG.  The entire set of rules including background is only 5 pages so it’s very much a set that puts the emphasis on the players and actual role playing rather than playing the mechanics of the game.

 

With the message above our three players Stein the Doc (Matt), Nut the Gunner (Lee) and Pi the Cyberblade (Joel) were summoned to meet Deke and the adventure began.

 

After the usual pleasantries Deke said that he had been watching the 3 of them for a little while and thought they were ready to step up to the next level. However, he had a job for them to carry out so that they could prove that the rep they were building was not just the idle chat of bar drunks.  

 

The mission was to collect a package from a specified location at a specified time and then move it to a second location for delivery.  Payment would be 300 bits each and a bonus of 500 bits between them if the package was delivered undamaged.  Simple.  They were given both the pickup and drop off locations as well as a code that would enable them to track the package via GLOWNet.

 

Some judicious hacking by Stein indicated that the package pickup was a noodle bar in the Sushi Quarter a couple of miles away from the Get Lucky Club.   They had to deliver the package to the Randy Bar.  Stein also discovered the tracker was not online yet.

 

Making their way to the Noodle Bar on foot the team arrived around 20:00 hours and took up positions to stake out the specified location.   Over the next 4 hours they spotted a very large man obviously bulked out with implanted vat grown muscle, a tall pale skinned skeletal man, dressed identically to big boy and Nut spotted a sniper in a high position covering the entire market.

 

More GLOWNet hacking ensued to check that the package was on the move and at around 23:45 a man with a silver briefcase chained to his wrist entered the market and took a seat at the noodle bar.  Stein confirmed that this was the package though he was unsure if it was the person or the case.  To be safe the party decided to take both and booked a Johnny Cab to pick them up at the corner.  

 

As midnight rolled around the team sprang into action with Nut firing indiscriminately into the air, Stein killing the power to the market, so the lights went out and Pi taking control of the package, forcing him at gunpoint into the Johnny cab where they were quickly joined by Nut.  Stein didn’t seem in a hurry however and sauntered across the market without a care in the world before finally entering the cab.

 

Once in the cab heading for the Randy Club the team were gripped by self-doubt and decided to abandon the original plan and switch Johnny Cabs, getting out in the middle of an open industrial zone.  

 

Whilst bickering about what to do next they were assaulted by another group of Runners and a fight broke out.  Nut proved his worth to the team as he dropped 3 of the four attacked whilst Pi matched her arm blade against a Katana wielding wannabe.  She eventually managed to separate his head from his shoulders but took some serious damage to her cybernetic body.  Fortunately, Stein had his soldering iron on hand and was able to carry out some running repairs.   Nut and Stein both questioned the man with the briefcase who told them his name was Jing Hu, he was a low-level employee for Pineapple Corp and that he made a delivery of a briefcase to another Pineapple facility every week.  He didn’t know what was in the case and had no way to open it or remove the chain from his wrist.

 

At the same time as the fight had broken out a message had come in from Deke Nolegs changing the drop-off point to a location within the Hive (you only go in there if you really really have to) so the team decided to take the L-Train to the location.  It was only 10 stops away! 

 

After the first stop the team stopped on the platform and decided to check the Net Runner job bulletin board to see if they had been posted as a job.  They had, with a reward of 1000 bits for a photo of their heads separated from their bodies.  Stein hacked into the BB and with some excellent cyberskills managed to mark the listing as closed.  Unfortunately the listing was immediately reposted with the Bounty increased to 2000 Bits.  Nuts was concerned that the message redirecting them to the Hive wasn’t a valid message from Deke but Stein knew that hacking the phone company was beyond his skills and he would most likely end up flatlining due to the Black Ice surrounding it.

 

Getting back on the train they went several more stops before another group of Runners entered the carriage and another fight broke out.  Our hero’s triumphed yet again but poor Jing Hu took a shotgun blast the chest, killing him just as the train pulled into their final destination.  Upon his death the cuff around his wrist automatically unlocked.

 

The team moved onto the platform as the case started to beep faster and faster as if it was some sort of countdown.  Pi picked it up and placed the cuff on her own wrist where it locked.  The beeping intensified!!  At the same time gangers from the Sick Boy gang entered the platform from both ends and started to walk towards the now slightly worried team who prepared themselves for what would probably be their last fight.

 

And then, just like that the gangers were dead as a hidden sniper took out the leader and the two suited men from the noodle bar appeared and moving faster than you would have thought possible decimate the gangers without breaking a sweat.  They then invited our shocked trio into a Corpo limousine which took them to The Randy Club.  Once there they were greeted by Deke Nolegs who explained that the whole mission had been a test and that they had passed and would be considered for more work in the future.  He introduced their two saviours as Mr Sinister and Mr Grimm and said that he would be in contact within the next few days with another job.  Giving the team feedback on how they had done he suggested that if they were transporting something with a tracker in the future that disabling the tracker might be a good idea to prevent other interested parties from using the same method to find them.  Oh, and if you get a message changing a meeting point at least check that it’s from the person who it is purporting to be from – spoofing a number is very simple with the right set of skills.

 

With bits in their pocket, better prospects than they had when they woke up and an open bar, our protagonists settled back and thought to themselves that they had finally made the big time.

 

 

Guess who's back, back again

 I need some sort of outlet for the hobby thoughts that flow through my brain, even if its only me that reads them, so might as well use this again.

More MAGE

So after some discussion on twitter and the large number of folks who have expressed interest I've had some more thoughts on this as i hone in on the final format 

First off I'm going to increase the field to 30 which gives me 6 teams of 5.   This means each player will get 2 games of singles faux, 2 games of doubles and a game of something else.

Now what that 5th game is slightly more complex but I,m going to go with 4 fixed games and one that we will pick at a later date.  At the moment the four fixed games are Bloodbowl, Batman, Saga and Frostgrave but that might change based on feedback - or my fickle nature :)

We will also have games between rounds, Cash n Guns has been suggested for one and also a mini Gaslands demolition derby.

So if you want to come along then just send me an email or put a comment in the post with what your 5th game would be, perhaps give me a list? Priority will be given to the folks who have come along to an event before but i imagine most folks who want to come will be able to.

MAGE - Mikes Annual Gaming Extravaganza

Every year I put on an event at the village hall just around from my house.  It tends to be something out of the norm, though with a Malifaux focus - it is my main game after all - like a campaign, achievement event etc.  As I live in the middle of nowhere, folks often camp in the garden and this has led to the events having a festival type feel with BBQ beer and gaming.

Next years event is going to be on 14th-16th July and will feature a team type event, again based around Malifaux but also featuring a load of the other games that we play.  Coupled with mini rounds in between it will be a full on celebration of the hobby - or at least thats the plan.

Now its very early days yet and I am still playing around with how it will all actually work but some things are fixed (ish)

It will be a team event with 6 teams of 4 playing - this means each team will play all the other teams over the course of the weekend, got to love maths.

Each player will need a fixed 50ss Malifaux List and a fixed 25ss list.  This is so that they can play in singles or doubles as the matchups require.

Each team will also need players who understand different games (and have the models for them)

Now at the moment I'm not sure what the choice of other games will be but I'm thinking

Frostgrave, Warmachine / Hordes, Guildball and something like OGAM

Any other suggestions gratefully received

There will be a team captain picking phase where the matchups get decided but also a couple of jokers that can get played.  One forces a non Malifaux game (you can only use this once) and a Switch crews joker where you play you opponents force.  Yes its going to be that sort of silliness

As I said above in between each round there will be a mini game - if you've ever been to the late lamented Whoops Apocalypse you know the sort of things that this could be.  Only one I have fixed in my head at the moment is a Gaslands Demolition Derby but I'm sure other things will occur to me over the next six months.

I will be sending out invites to anyone who has attended one of these events before and hopefully we will be able to get some teams up and running.

Oh it will be free, did I mention that?

Until next time

OGAM - The Greek Mortals

Without Mortals an OGAM force is nothing. It is their faith that powers your god and enables him to cheat death time after time.  Without belief Gods are literally nothing - check out the most excellent Small Gods from the great Terry Pratchett if you don't believe me :)

As with their Legends, Greeks have a massive choice of different mortal units (20 if my counting skills haven't degraded to much) ranging from Wild Dogs to the might of the Spartan Hoplites with everything you need in between.

Given this wide range you might think it would be hard to find figures but I think that Greeks are actually one of the easiest ranges to find figures for, so many lovely historical manufacturers out there.

So first up lets deal with the manufacturers that I've already touched on in previous parts (Gods Legends)

Otherworld -As you would expect plenty of scope in the otherworld range.  I particularly like the Wardogs and the Centaurs

Wargames Foundry - Same as before check out the Greek Mythology Range then the World of the Greeks

Crocodile Miniatures - Back to the Wargods of Olympus range for the perfect Spartans and some really nice Satyrs

Right so what about some new manufacturers.

Crusader Miniatures - One of the my favourite historical manufacturers with nice chunky models Crusader do a nice range of Greek Hoplites with and without armour at very reasonable prices enabling you to build a unit for less than £10

Victrix - Victrix is a small UK company (from Cumbria I believe) that specialise in making hard plastic 28mm models.  Their main interests are Napoleonics but they do make an excellent range of Greek Models as well

Wargames Factory - One of the first chinese hard plastic manufacturers, Wargames Factory have a huge range for such a youngish company.  Personally I find some of the figures a bit hit and miss but the Amazons they do are really nice figures.

And thats it for a whistle stop tour of various manufacturers.  Next post will be a round up of all the things that I have missed.  Hey its a big world out there, even I don't know everything :)

OGAM - The Greek Legends

Following on from yesterdays post, today I thought I would suggest some manufacturers for Greek Legends.

If you have seen a character in a film, have a particular favourite monster or just see a really cool model that you think, "I'd love to have that but what would I use it for?" then Legends are where they will almost certainly fit in :)  Duane loves the Talos model from Mierce Miniatures, so made up some stats for him as a Greek Legend and job done.  To get some idea of that models size BTW, thats a 100mm base he is on!

Even if you aren't up to making up your own models (and with OGAM thats really half the fun) Greeks still have over 20 legends to choose from ranging from the Nemean Lion to Achilles himself.


So manufacturers then as that's probably why you are reading this

Otherworld - Otherworld Miniatures specialise in making miniatures inspired by the art in old D&D books.  As a lot of that art was inspired by legends they have a great range of miniatures that can be used for OGAM.  Of particular interest to the Greeks are the Harpies and the Centaurs.  Note that shipping on Otherworld stuff can be a bit pricey, so if you can pick them up at a show or do a combined order with a mate then that's probably a bit of a win.

Reaper - One of the oldest American manufacturers they have a massive range of figures, so big in fact that finding a particular model can be hard, though their search facility is pretty decent.  In the Dark Heaven Legends range they have plenty of suitable models for Greek Heros, best thing to do is search for them by name, I particularly like this model of Perseus

Wargames Foundry - Hopefully needing no introduction Foundry have been around for a donkeys age and have a range depth to match.  They have two big sections that work for OGAM, firstly the Greek Mythology Range (check out the monsters especially) and then the World of the Greeks for more characters such as Jason of Argonauts fame.  Needless to say they will be turning up in the Mortals showcase as well :)

Fenris - You might know Fenris better for their excellent resin terrain but they do ranges of miniatures as well and hidden amongst the Cthulhu stuff (well he is a big boy) is a range of Greek Heros that are perfect for representing OGAM legends.

Crocodile Miniatures - Another American company whose ranges are very hard to get in the UK (I really wish they had a decent stockist) their Wargods of Olympus range makes a perfect set of Greek characters.  I love these miniatures as Chris Fitzpatrick is a god amongst sculptors IMO.  Pay special attention to the Demigods section of the store.

Comfy Chair Games - Comfy chair are currently working on there own god vs. god game called Dominion of the Gods and so have a load of miniatures being worked on at the moment.  If you check out their news page then you can see some of the Greek heros that are in the works but if you go into the store then you can buy this absolutely wonderful Cyclops.

Heresy - One of my favourite miniature companies, Heresy make some great Centaurs and some nice monsters (Giant Scorpion, Cyclops) that will fit right into the Greeks.  Plus Andy is a great bloke so why wouldn't you buy some stuff from him.

Have I missed anyone obvious off? - Let me know in the comments if I have.  Next up Mortals, expect to see some of the above make another appearance on the list :)

OGAM - The Greeks

Seems that something is happening within the OGAM world as by all accounts Osprey sold out of all their copies at Salute :)  I certainly saw loads of people with the book as I walked around. Of course getting the rules is only the first part of a game, you really need to get miniatures for it - it would be a bit of a poor miniature game without them - so I thought it might be useful to blatantly steal an idea from Colonel Marbles over at Frothers and do a showcase to suggest places you can go look at for miniatures.  Of course these are just my opinion, please let me know places that I have missed out in the comments.

Right enough preamble, lets get on with it

Gods 

Gods are often the hardest miniatures to source for OGAM as you are looking for something in a very different scale so you can convey the majesty of your chosen.  54mm is the suggested scale for god models but even within that you get such a variety of size as to make specifying a scale pretty much worthless.  So instead here are a few manufacturers that you might find useful.

Northstar - The home of the 'official' OGAM miniatures, Northstar have models for both Ares and Zeus himself.  As with a lot of the Northstar stuff the casting can be a bit hit and miss on the figures but they are nice sculpts.

Andrea Miniatures - Andrea make a lot of really nice 54mm and bigger models especially in their general range that you can use as various different gods.  I like this one as a possible Ares and my friend Duane uses another one as Hermes.

Eastern Front Miniatures - A boutique range from the US and TBH my order hasn't been delivered yet but they make a lovely looking Nepture that is sculpted by Gael Goumon so no slouch in the sculpting department.

Valiant Enterprises - Another US company with frankly a horrible website, its slow, really hard to find anything on and has some truely awful miniatures.  However there are nuggets of goodness in amongst the drek and the best of these is this amazingly awesome resin model that makes the perfect Zeus. 

Painted by Joel Henry

Next post will be all about the Greek Legends and blimey, do they have a lot of them.

OGAM and the Horned One

One of the things I love about the glut of small non model specific games on the market at the moment is the fact that you can use whatever figures you like in them and if they don't have a force that appeals to you, the chances are that you can make one up.  Now this is something that us longer term (i.e. old) gamers are used to doing but for many folks, you play within the bounds of the system and creativity is stifled.

Not any more.

So as I talked about in my last post I've been playing a lot of OGAM recently but looking over at my figure cabinets I keep seeing the Skaven in them and thinking 'haven't played with you for ages'.  So why not kill two birds with one stone and create a Skaven OGAM force.

So how to go about it?

Well first things first, there is only one god (The Great Horned One) but he can be represented on the mortal plane by his mighty Verminlords so thats what I will go with.  The other two defining features of Skaven are the fact they run away a lot (this can be represented by lower Q scores) and that they are fast (give everyone long move).  With those basic thoughts in mind this is what I have come up so far.  Note no Legends yet, need to dig out my Skaven army book to find the special characters, plus it makes another blog post :)

Vermin Lord		332 Points	God
Q2	C4	Long Move, Lightning, Teleportation
Option: Poison Weapon : Add Poison for 12 points Option: Throwing Star : Add Shooter (Long) for 28 Points

Stormvermin		30 Points	Mortal
Q5	C3	Long Move, Armoured, Steadfast
Clanrats		23 Points	Mortal
Q5	C2	Long Move, Armoured
Slaves		13 Points	Mortal
Q5	C1	Long Move
Plague Monks		21 Points	Mortal
Q5	C2	Long Move, Poison
Rat Ogres		25 Points	Mortal
Q5	C3	Long Move, Big
Rats		11 Points	Mortal
Q5	C1	Long Move, Animal, Rare(8)

Of Gods and Mortals

One of the games that has been taking up quite a bit of my time recently is 'Of Gods and Mortals' (OGAM for short) a nice little game written by the same author as another favourite in the Marshall household 'Fistful of Kung Fu', Andrea Sfiligoi. 

The game centres around the Gods of myth and legend along with their heroes and mortal followers.  So for instance I have been using the Norse as my faction of choice which gives me access to gods such as Odin, Thor and Hel, whilst my opponents have used various different pantheons such as Greeks and Celts - the book includes 4 pantheons (Egyptian is the other one) and there are several others available as free downloads.

Picking a force

To pick a force you pick a Pantheon and a points limit (900 points is the recommended limit for starting out) and then get started.  You need to have a God (no more than one) and can spend no more than a 1/3 of your points on Legends, other than that you are free to pick.

Gods are pretty much what they say they are, the personification of the god in a semi mortal form.  They are the most powerful model on the tabletop with a points cost to match but they can be slain just like any other model.  However if you still have mortal units on the table you can reinvoke your god and bring him back!  So its always worth keeping a mortal unit out of combat to pray.  The other interesting thing about the Gods is they tend to be represented by a much larger miniature than the rest.  We have been using models out of the various 54mm ranges available to provide suitably imposing centrepiece models.

The legends tend to be characters such as Hercules and Perseus as well as the more mythical monsters such as Medusa or Pegasus.  Or in the Norse list you get to pick all the Giants (get your Frost Giant here), Valkyrie etc.  Legends are where you can really go to town on models as there are so many cool ones out there that you can use as 'counts as' type things.  They are also a great excuse to raid the bits box for that model you bought as an impulse buy and then stuck in a box and forgot about.  What do you mean that's only me, must be plenty of other gamers that do that.  Surely?

Finally we have mortals.  Unlike Gods and Legends mortals are deployed in units of 4-8 models but fight as if they were a single entity.  They are also the only units that can bring your god back to the table if he has been slain, so you need to keep them safe. Again mortals cover the archetypes that you would expect for each pantheon, the norse for example have beserkers, norse nobles, trolls and drauger amongst the choices.

Playing the game


The game uses a very simple yet elegant dice mechanic to play that is very much in the risk vs. reward type of game play.  Each model / unit has 2 stats Quality and Combat (mortals tend to be Q4, Legends Q3 and  Gods Q2) and to activate a unit you roll up to 3 dice and try and equal or better the Q score.  For each success you get then that unit gets one action that it can spend on doing things like moving or fighting.  However (and this is where the risk comes in) for each failure you opponent can try and activate one of their units in a reaction.  A unit can only use a reaction once per turn (so no need to worry about rapaging gods) but it creates a very fluid game.  If you end up rolling 2 or more failures when you try and activate a unit then your turn ends, even if it was the first unit you tried.  This tends to make activation order very important as well as making sure you are rolling the right number of dice at the right point.  No need to go for 3 actions if the unit you are trying to do something with only needs 1.

Of course as with most wargames, you want to kill your opponent as well - after all how dare this opposing god come into your territory - and that is handled with a single dice roll by both players.  Basically you roll a d6 and add your Combat Score to it, along with a few modifiers based on things like outnumbering.  If the difference between the rolls is less than 3 nothing happens, but if its 3 or more then someone is going to the woodshed.  There is a hierarchy of effects (if Gods lose a combat to a mortal unit then they can turn being killed into just being pushed back by making a Q test, whereas if they lost to the other god they are dead) and this just adds into the risk / reward mechanism that flows throughout the game.

Costs

The book is on the order of £10 and then its onto miniatures.  To play a 900 point game you probably need a God, 3 Legends and 2 units of 6 mortals.  And that's it! Of course if you are reading this you are probably a gamer and know that you will never stop at just that, but its nice to dream isn't it?

Conclusion

If you are a gamer like me, looking for a simple yet fun system that can get played in an hour or so then OGAM is likely to be right up your street.  It has a points system in the book so you can expand beyond the Pantheons included (my friend Matt is busy making a Plague God force) and the author is supporting it with new expansions (the first will be out later in the year)

2 thumbs way up.

#Daffcon

I know its been a while but my life has been hectic over the last couple of months and I just haven't had the time (or to be honest the inspiration) to write anything, but last night something happened that inspired this post.

This time last year I was getting ready to run 3 days of Malifaux events at Smogcon which, modesty aside, went down pretty well.  However the big draw wasn't the events - though they were awesome -  but the fact that the Malifaux crowd were mixing with the Warmachine crowd and its was one big toy soldier love in.  Ah!!!  This year of course Smogcon has gone back to being PP only (and massive congrats should go to Jon Webb for making it the huge event it is) which means I am at a loose end and that normally spells trouble for me.

Well this time was no different.  I was reading twitter last night seeing all the Smogcon tweets coming across my timeline and I got to thinking about if the Malifaux community was strong enough to do a Con type event itself - I mean we are planning on 100 folks at the UK Nationals at the end of the year - and if it was, were could it be held.  But then I started to think about all the other games that I play - if you listen to Fools Daily then you know there are quite a few - and it occured to me that rather than just Malifaux why not run a small games convention.  Thus the idea for #DaffCon was born.  Why Daffcon?  Well the first place that I thought of doing the event was at the original home of Smogcon, Firestorm Games in Cardiff and everyone knows Wales = Daffodils (no not sheep).  Of course the fact that Firestorm has a stonking new venue that can fit 70 6x4 tables in comfortably helps as well.

I have had a quick email exchange with Firestorm Rob and proposed a set of dates in 2016 (8-10th April) to him - yes 14 months away, I like to plan in advance - and if those are acceptable then #Daffcon will be a go.

My plan as it is at the moment is to organise certain events myself and then leave slots for other TOs / communities to organise something.  I mean, I don't know the Dropzone Commander community myself but I'd love it if they came along.  Basically if they can get 8+ players then we will do our very best to find them a slot.

Events that I would put on the calander myself would be

Malifaux Singles, Malifaux Random Doubles, Malifaux Story Encounter, Saga, Relic Knights, Wrath of Kings (assuming its still going), Dead Mans Hand,Guildball and a little sneaky Open Combat campaign type event (wonder if I can get Carl and Gav to come along, free beer lads?)

I'd love to see Infinity, Antares, Bolt Action, EpicA, FFoK and Batman as well but I don't know enough about those sort of games.  Perhaps get a Krosmaster event in as well ?  Eh Joel?  Loads of other games out there though, so if you are interested in running something and can get the 8+ players, drop me some email (oldmanmyke@gmail.com) and we can see what we can sort.

Ticket wise I think we are probably looking at a 3 day pass costing somewhere around the £40 - £50 mark but until more details get firmed up thats a pure guess.

Right enough rambling, if its of interest to you then please do get in touch and let me know.

As Stan Lee would say 'Excelsior'

Christmas Playlist

Christmas is coming and that means its time to dust off the current playlist.  This is last years, anything I should add?

1.     The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year     Andy Williams
2.     Winter Wonderland     Perry Como
3.     Carol of the Bells     Arthur Fiedler & Boston Pops Orchestra
4.     All I Want for Christmas Is You     Mariah Carey
5.     Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl)     The Pogues
6.     Do You Hear What I Hear?     Bing Crosby
7.     Let It Snow     Dean Martin
8.     Christmas Wrapping     Waitresses
9.     Do They Know It's Christmas?     Band Aid
10.     Happy Xmas (War Is Over) [2003 Mix]     JOHN LENNON
11.     Wonderful Christmastime     Paul McCartney
12.     Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy     Bing Crosby & David Bowie
13.     A Holly Jolly Christmas     Burl Ives
14.     Frosty The Snowman     Gene Autry
15.     I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday     Wizzard
16.     Christmas Is A Feeling In Your Heart     Andy Williams
17.     Jingle Bell Rock     Bobby Helms
18.     Santa Baby     Kylie Minogue
19.     Once Upon a Christmas Song     Peter Kay's - Geraldine McQueen
20.     Last Christmas (Single Version)     Wham!
21.     All Alone On Christmas     Darlene Love
22.     Walking In the Air     Aled Jones
23.     Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer     Burl Ives
24.     Lonely This Christmas     Mud
25.     Baby, It's Cold Outside     Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews
26.     Merry Xmas Everyone     Slade
27.     Gaudete     Steeleye Span
28.     A Winter's Tale     David Essex
29.     Stay Another Day     East 17
30.     Keeping the dream alive     Freiheit
31.     Stop The Cavalry     Jona Lewie
32.     Rocking Around The Christmas Tree     Mel Smith & Kim Wilde
33.     Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)     The Darkness
34.     Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)     Darlene Love
35.     ’Twas the Night Before Christmas     Perry Como
36.     Step Into Christmas     Elton John
37.     I Believe In Father Christmas     Greg Lake
38.     Santa Claus Is Coming to Town     Michael Bublé
39.     Jingle Bells (feat. The Puppini Sisters)     Michael Bublé
40.     The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)     Nat "King" Cole
41.     It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas     Perry Como
42.     I Was Born On Christmas Day     Saint Etienne
43.     Merry Christmas Baby     Charles Brown
44.     Never Gonna Snow (At Christmas) [Single Mix]     Chris Moyles
45.     Merry Christmas Everyone (Remastered Version)     Shakin' Stevens
46.     Santa Claus Is Coming to Town     The Crystals
47.     Christmas Alphabet     Dickie Valentine
48.     The Power Of Love     Frankie Goes To Hollywood
49.     Winter Wonderland (Bonus Track)     Michael Bublé
50.     Frosty the Snowman (feat. The Puppini Sisters) [Bonus Track]     Michael Bublé
51.     Sleigh Ride     The Ronettes
52.     White Christmas     Bing Crosby
53.     Santa Baby     Eartha Kitt
54.     Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey     Lou Monte
55.     Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas     Michael Bublé
56.     Ave Maria     Michael Bublé
57.     Hark! The Herald Angels Sing     Nat King Cole
58.     Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)     Ramones
59.     Troika     Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
60.     We Wish You a Merry Christmas     The Weavers
61.     Mistletoe And Wine     Cliff Richard
62.     Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas     Judy Garland
63.     Cold December Night     Michael Bublé
64.     The First Nowell     Pat Boone
65.     The Twelve Days of Christmas     Perry Como
66.     I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus     The Ronettes
67.     Hey Mr. Christmas     Showaddywaddy
68.     Wombling Merry Christmas     The Wombles

That song from the Sound of Music

So as I write this I have just uploaded the latest episode of Malifools (#98) and I have to say I think this will be my last episode.

When I started down this path I used to look forward to recording every week but now I see it as a chore to be done rather than something fun.  I am coming to dread recording nights and its starting to effect how I see the game itself, which is still something that I love to play.

I came very close to quitting the show before Adepticon this year and changed my mind after so many folks came up to both Conrad and myself and said they really enjoyed the ramblings but I just don't think I can do it any more.

I'm not looking for sympathy or encouragement or any sort of ego boost, those of you who really know me that whilst I might play the 'all about me' persona it isn't actually what I am about.  What I am about is promoting a game that I feel passionate about and building a strong and vibrant community and I just don't think me doing Malifools is the best way to do it.

Hopefully the others will carry on the show without me and I would like to give my utmost thanks to everyone who has come on an episode in any capacity.  You are all stars.

Time to go before I get maudlin

Edit - This decision doesn't effect Fools Daily.  That show still gets me excited to do as it more reflects me as a gamer with a wide range of interests

Playing 2 vs 2 Malifaux

The first time I ever played Malifaux was in a doubles game at the UK Doubles GT in 2012.  Needless to say we lost (every game) but the whole weekend instilled in me a love of playing Malifaux doubles.

Now interestingly there are two commonly accepted ways of playing a doubles game of Malifaux and they seem to be split on country lines as the US plays one way and here in Europe we tend to play the other.  Both have strengths and weaknesses and both are great fun :)

In general each player will pick a Master and then a crew of between 25 and 35 stones depending on the time allowed for the game.  Personally I like 30ss and 2 hour games.  Most tournaments are mixed master though crews can be picked as normal and the masters have to be compatible with each other, which these days means both must be from the same faction.  If you are feeling brave though you can do what I did at Smogcon and do random doubles where you make up the pairs on the day.  Other general rule that is normally used is that all models in a pair are friendly to each other but may NOT use Companion or Accomplice on models from the other players crew.

The big difference between the two formats is the number of fate decks / control hands used and activation order.

In European Doubles each pair uses a single fate deck and has a single control hand.  Any model on the team can be activated at any time.  This makes the game play far closer to a singles game of Malifaux and can led to some interesting decisions between the two players when to use the big cards (or suits)

Is US doubles each player has a fatedeck and control hand but activation order is fixed.  The team that win the initiative are players 1 and 3 whilst the other team are players 2 and 4.  This order is fixed for the turn and models are activated in strict player order.  This leads to more thinking about activation order but makes fate deck control much easier.

Now I have heard arguments than European format means that a strong player can effectively play the game as if it was singles but in practice I have seen this happen in the US format as well so its not a big concern IMO.

As I said above both versions are really good fun (if I am honest doubles is probably my favourite format) so go ahead and give it a try.

Descent into Filth

It all started so well.  I had my #ToMB purchases all planned out on a nice spreadsheet, knew where I was going to take crew, colour schemes were designed etc.  Unfortunately real life doesn't like things to be quite that organised and decides to sets up situations where you have to change those plans and just go with the flow.

Anyway enough with melodrematic intros, whats being going on in the world of ToMB this month.

Well as I said in my last post I decided to take the crew to Adepticon and thats what I did.  Things went pretty well  (I ended up finishing 3rd in the main singles event) but a couple of liabilities in both my play and my model selection were exposed that I want to eliminate.

The play issues are of course the harder of the two to stop as it comes down to training myself to play a slightly different way but I have at least identified the main problem which is my tendency to try to get everything done (even schemes that only score in turn 5) done in turn 2 or 3.  This leads me to expend AP on getting those completed early on when it would be better spent on other actions.  This was especially apparent in my game against Brad and his Collette led crew.  As all his hitty models had a minimum damage of 3 it was only taking him 2 AP to get through things like the Marionettes instead of the normal 3.  This may not sound much but it is huge.  The ability of a Marionette to jam up an opponents key models and force them to spend more than a single activation killing them is a great thing.  Against Brad I wasn't able to do that and it meant I was on the back foot for the whole game.  Now what I should have been doing is having Collodi give himself Armour +1 so that it would get passed out via the Fated upgrade to the rest of the crew but I didn't react in time and played him in the control manner that I normally do.  This meant models were dying left and right and I had no control over the activations.  This is not a good thing.  So mental lesson to myself is to slow down and don't spend AP setting up schemes that don't score until 5 when you will have plenty of AP in 5 to do them then.

The crew selection issues were basically because I was using my fixed ToMB crew and I didn't have  a heavy hitter.  Sometimes you just need to smash something in the face and unfortunately the Collodi crew I was using just didn't have that.  Best heavy hitter I had was the Stitched and he can be very hit or miss.

So to this end I have decided to use my month 3 purchases to change this around somewhat and will be spending my cash on a Widow Weaver ($12.50) and Teddy.($18)  Yes this puts me in hole to the tune of $4.50 but I can live with Bailiffs coming around.

Now I realize that neither of these are puppets but thematically (to me at least) they both fit in - probably more than the stitched does to be honest - and in 1.5 the Weaver had Affinity with Collodi anyway.

So anyway thats what I'm doing for month 3 along with painting up some new Marionette figures.  Pictures in a later post