Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Month 0 Part II

So ToMB officially kicks off tomorrow; for those of you who don’t know (where have you been?!) that is the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers (see my last blog post for details). The master I have chosen for ToMB is The Dreamer.

So who exactly is the Dreamer? The Dreamer is a boy who lives Earthside, but while he sleeps his playmate, Lord Chompy Bits , and he visits Malifaux in what the Dreamer believes to be his dreams. Little does he realise that the games of “Monsters” they play are real to the inhabitants of Malifaux. The Dreamer feels no guilt for the terror and death his actions cause, believing it all to be a dream. Lord Chompy Bits, on the other hand, is very much aware of what the pair are doing, hoping their ‘playtime’ will help him find what he needs to escape his prison between spaces where he as Nytmare has languished for centuries.

The Dreamer and Lord Chompy Bits are unique; while the Dreamer is a single master and Lord Chompy Bits his Henchman they can’t coexist in play at the same time (except in avatar form). At the Dreamer’s disposal are abilities which allow him to summon and control Nightmare models; Lord Chompy Bits, on the other hand, possesses raw combat skill and power. Between the pair they use the Dreamer’s Nightmare control to dominate much of the battlefield which allows Lord Chompy Bits to enter play close to targets he can easily eliminate through melee attacks.

So when I initially set out on my ToMB journey, I was going to purchase the Dreamer box set and a packet of Daydreams. However, the intention of ToMB is to build up a collection of information which would be useful to a new player. This presents a bit of a problem, in that the Dreamer box will be changing in composition when the plastic set is finally released, so if I was to start with the current Dreamer box it would not be representative once the plastics are out. With this in mind, I have decided to make an educated guess about what I believe the new set will contain based on what is considered a “standard” Dreamer crew and the content of other crew boxes.

So, considering what we have seen in the currently released crew boxes and art (with a few exceptions, e.g. Levi, Marcus), the standard crew box composition is:

·         Master

·         Totem

·         Henchman

·         3 x Standard Minions

The only other thing which I am going to take into account is the other masters who used to be two masters and is now a master and a henchman – Victoria of Ashes and Victoria of Blood. In this case, the box contained a second henchman.

So that’s Dreamer, 3 Daydreams, Lord Chompy Bits and I would guess Weaver Widow and 3 Stitched. Now the next thing to consider is where this will sit price wise. The boxes which sit closest to this model count/size wise are the Viks ($40), McCabe ($40), Raspy ($45) and Ramos ($50). In the interests of conservatism with regards to the ToMB process, I am going to put this crew box composition guess at $50, leaving me with $10.

I can see a significant number of holes in this crew already. For starters I have no Alps, which are a stable summon for the Dreamer. Secondly I have no Wicked Dolls or a Teddy to take advantage of the Weaver Widows personal upgrade. This is before I have even used the crew to see what I need. So I am going to save the $10 till month 2 to try to fix these holes.

Theoryfauxing, my future potential purchases are:

·         Coppelius

·         Alps

·         Teddy

·         Lelu

·         Lilutu

·         Wicked Dolls

·         Vasilisa

·         Insidious Madness

·         Illuminated

·         Depleted

For now, I have a base crew (no upgrades) consisting of:

Dreamer

Lord Chompy Bits – 0ss

Weaver Widow – 8ss

3 x Daydreams – 6ss

3 x Stitched – 18ss

Total – 32ss

So my plan for this month is:

Learn how to use Vassal

      Build the crew
Paint the crew
Write up at least one ToMB battle report

Right, well I think that is enough for now. Good luck everyone participating in ToMB! It all kicks off tomorrow.

Ciao!

Tale of Malifaux Bloggers: Month 0

Like many other Malifaux players my attention has been captured by the idea that is the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers (ToMB).

The Tale of What?

The basic premise of ToMB is to start a new crew with a base value of $60 from the Wyrd online store and each month, for a period of 6 months, to add $25 for new models, blogging about our thoughts and progress each month. More on the rules can be found here at Dave’s Play it Like Beat Down or at the Wyrd Forum Tale of Malifaux Bloggers.

So first of all I needed to decide which crew was going to receive my attention; this was a difficult choice, as the crew will be receiving six months of intensive focus. I have to want to play this crew regularly, build and paint many models and blog every month about my experiences. For those of you who read my last post, you will know that my intention this year is to focus on Dreamer, Lynch, Lucius, Marcus, Kaeris and Collette. One of these then, but that is still a choice of six.

What to do?

 

Well, would you look at who just crept up on me?

The Dreamer has always been a master which interested me; in fact he was the master who I wanted to play first, but unfortunately so did every other member of my gaming group… so he took a back seat. That is, until now; apparently everyone else I play with seems to think he is not brilliant anymore? Can’t see it myself and I cannot wait to get him on the table. To be honest, I really like the artwork for the new plastic dreamer set but I am impatient; who doesn’t want two dreamer crews?

So what do I intend to start with? Well the starter box is a good idea. That’s $41. Then Daydreams, $15. So a total of $56. I can already see a few potential holes in my crew, in particular a lack of Alps for summoning, but that is something I can rectify with $29 in month 2! I will also have to avoid summoner Dreamer for a few months, until I get the models to represent my summons.

It looks like it is CHOMPY TIME!