#MFXTOP May Winner and June theme

#MFXTOP MAY

As the month of my birthday comes to an end it's time reveal another #MFXTOP winner.

Thanks again to Element Games as the overall winner AND best newcomer receive a voucher to spend in their store.

Time for the usual countdown:

Third Place

In at third place.
It's the slightly more sensible one on @chasing_bacon
When he describes himself as a model from Malifaux it's

the one he painted.

@dumb_luck89 and Som'er Teeth Jones

Second Place

Next up it's one our friends from the US.
You may have seen his videos on YouTube, it's @vitrualONmars
 Not only does he make entertaining videos but
he also did a fantastic job on his first and new version of Lady J
Check out his youtube channel with this link.

Best Newcomer

and...

First Place

Both of these awards go to @shakes1066 
and his fantastic Leviticus.

It's nice to see a good level of improvement and on top of that,

I think Luke has made me fall in love with this sculpt!

@Shakes1066 is the Winner of #MFXTOP5 "My First Master"

and May's

Tyrant of Painting.

#MFXTOP Month 6

The usual reminder, but don't forget each month the Winner and Best Newcomer gets a voucher for Elementgames.co.uk 

The Best Newcomer award is for whoever received the most votes and has not entered #MFXTOP before.

And as always don't forget these "stretch goals":

• If we hit 25 entrants I will send out something to who comes in second place.

• If we beat 27 entrants (we got 27 in January) then I will send prizes out to second and third place.

• Lastly (for now) 35 entrants, is my top goal and I will not only be doing all the above, but I will have a winner from each faction in the game (that includes Gremlins) who scored the most votes meaning 7 total prizes being given away.

As previously mentioned, "entrants" refers to people entering, not the amount of miniatures.

June's Theme

The theme title stolen from twitter and please, whoever came up with it please remind it was you is...

"Ladies Night"

We had a complicated theme last month, this time a simple one, time to paint up any single female Malifaux figure.

Mei Feng's will bring some bias out of me, but don't forget voting is public anyway, so it probably won't matter.

That's it, if you have any other questions, contact me at either @TheMaliBros or @psientologist on twitter.

Please leave a comment here or on any of the other blog posts I've made and don't forget I am still looking for guest posts, specifically in the style of the "2 for 1" series, I hope together we can get all those first masters done and move on to "1 for 22!

Finally go get your lady from Element Games and listen to that lovely @oldmanmyke on Malifools and Fools Daily and oh, I guess me too.

-Ben (@psientologist)

#MFXTOP May Voting

Time to pick

This is a page of all the finals entries with the names of the entrant in one place.

Please have a good look over them all and then click the link to the poll at the bottom.

You don't have to have entered or do anything special to vote, just click that link, you get one vote, so use it wisely!

So in alphabetical order (by twitter handle)

Their first master is on the left and the newer version and entry is on the right:

@dumb_luck89

_________

@Shakes1066

_________

@virtualONmars

_________

CLICK HERE TO PLACE YOUR VOTE!

Everything you do matters (PART 2)

A Bluffer's guide.

We return to the article where I give advice about gaming, lessons which can be applied to other games be as usual we will mostly be looking at Malifaux.

There will be a great pattern you will see emerging is that most of this little things amount to the power of bluffing.
Going back to Dictionary definitions a Bluff is:
"Noun: An attempt to deceive someone into believing that one can or is going to do something"
and
"Verb: Try to deceive someone as to one's abilities or intentions"

Bluffing is to a degree lying, but it then again it is not.

Bluffing is more simply holding the entire truth so that your opponent can therefore believe a reality which is actually not truth.

I ended up the last article saying "Never give anything up".

Scientia potentia est, Knowledge is power.

Drawing that first hand

This breaks down into a few parts

• How you draw the cards
• Ordering the cards (but we covered that)
• Looking over those cards
• Using a soulstone for filtering

First of all the "How you draw the cards" is probably already got your eyebrow raised, "what do you mean?" "how could this matter?" simply with a lot of this part it's all about showing emotion.

A lot like ordering cards how you react when you are getting that first hand can say a whole lot and can actually affect the decisions of your opponent during the entire game.

Don't draw and look individually.

Here I will use the power of common emotes to explain what a lot of people do.

• Player draws card one, it's a moderate, a 10 let's say :-)
• Player draws card two, it's another moderate, a 9 :-)
• Player draws card three, it's a weak, just a 3 :-(
• Player draws card four, it's a severe, an 11 :-D
• Player draws card five, oops a 2 of an irrelevant suit :'-(
• Player draws card six, wow a 13 of an important suit :-D

Player drawing Red Joker would be a huge :-D face with a bro fist clenched.

If the player's opponent watched their face, he could possibly do a few things.

The first is have a read that overall, the player's hand was good, he barely seemed upset and looked super pumped about that last card.

This means he does not want to push into fights too hard, if he can forces some discards they go up in priority.

If the opponent had an amazing read, made a lot easier by the player's expressions, he could figure that only 3-4 cards are worth worrying about, put the player in positions to cheat against less relevant things or what for the player to use them for big TN (summoning, obey his own models and the like) and move in once the "coast is clear" and half the player's cards have gone.

Lastly, the higher level play would be that the opponent could track that exciting card in the player's hand, especially if they seemed extra chuffed (probably and RJ or a severe for a certain suit), figure out what that card probably is and wait until it is used in the typical manner it would be (Nicodem summons a hanged, a flesh construct goes for Devour).

There is a super simple answer to stopping this potentially happen and it leads into Looking at the Cards.

Draw the hand face down in one go, pick it up and maybe even shuffle it a bit.

You may still have tells, your eyes will probably light up if you see a hand full of face cards and a Red Joker.

In this case though, worse scenario is the opponent knows your hand is good, not how good and cannot track anything in particular.

Looking at those cards now is important, you don't want to give too much away, but you do need to have a rough plan of what you want to do, what your hand may guarantee you can do and what cards you can afford to lose.

I myself have had games where I use a card for it's number in a combat forgetting I was keeping it for it's suit for a spell. Try not to fall into these traps.

This I admit is also far more strategical, there is a lot of analysis happening here, prioritising, sometimes though these are obvious (Ramos wants that Tome to Summon the Swarms for example).

Deciding what your hand needs and doesn't isn't also as simple as keeping the high cards (I will leave Lynch and Aces of this, but imagine his Aces are high).

I say this as it leads into soulstone use.

Filtering cards is one of my favourite soulstone uses in M2E as your hand, can be, very important.

Can be, is something you need to think before using those stones in the first turn, if there is no interaction with cards in hand then, discarding anything in this step will just end up in the deck later.

Also always at least leave yourself that short window of time where you might consider using a stone if you have one, whether or not you perceive there is a hard decision to make, this is something else that will help not give anything away.

Going back to which cards to keep, if you use a stone bare in mind at this stage what discarding may tell your opponent.

If you discard a 6 for example and opponent notices this they may be worried your hand must be pretty solid as the simplest thing to do, is discard your 2 lowest cards.

Do not ruin your hand just for the sake of bluffing, but if you have abilities where you need to discard, maybe you know someone will go defensive, keep a low weak back, it could help with some mind games.

In Malifaux suits matter too, if you discard two cards of the same suit, this may indicate either you don't care for them, in that case it may not matter, or it may show you have a hand full of them.

These things are different on a game to game basis. In life I always like to say, think about things from the other person's perspective. What would you think? This will paint you are far greater picture.

An important sidenote

I will say it here, some players get too hung up on the hand they draw.

Sometimes your game plan may need that mask for leap and you have none, sometimes your entire crew is in combat and you want to win these fights.

If your hand is all weaks, you are at least more likely to flip higher cards, however this does all go back to making your own luck.

My tip here, when you look back at the game, win or lose, don't just blame a loss on a bad hand.

Why were you in that position to begin with?

Was there not a better out that hoping for that suit?

If the suit was so important could you have kept one from the turn before?

As with good players making their own luck, great players will rarely blame their losses on it.

Also as they say "Bad Things Happen"

Measuring distances, asking questions

Much like the rest of these potential bluffs, in a game where you premeasure what you want, when you want there is potential information being thrown about all over the place.

These things can also come into play on Vassal. Should you check ranges, will this give away things?

It can, but again do not ruin your game just to bluff. Make sure those auras are in, check what you Rifleman can shoot, what Lady Justice can charge after a walk, but be aware this could show intentions.
If you only check one charge, it shows that is probably all you have planned, if it is your activation and that is the plan, this is fine, don't waste time.
Outside of your turn, check a few, this may change your opponents thoughts of what to activate first, remember the more options there are, the higher chance to wrong one is chosen.
If you throw your tape out to essentially show a bubble around your combat beast as a threat range, you may deny areas of the board not actually using AP.
If you want them in it, maybe check to see that model which is nearby, how close it needs to be to pick on something you wouldn't want it to, you may get a "free Lure".
Even checking the range of your own spells can affect decision making, if you have only just got yourself into Obey range, your opponent may mess that up for you knowing that's the plan.

With measurements a good eye can help a lot, if you lack this you can at least measure a nearby distance of "importance" to gain a better idea.
Even if you don't need to, remember, what does it show if you do?

Asking questions is also something that can give away intentions.
I am not encouraging you to bombard your opponent with question after unnecessary question but asking things will make your opponent wonder why you need to know.
Asking what something's defense, willpower or remaining wounds is, will show you have some intention of attacking it.
Asking what something's Ml, Ca or even Cg is will show that you are considering what will happen if that model attacks.
Asking about ranges goes back a little to the previous part, if you ask a range, your opponent will not only say, but there is a good chance they will check.
Have you left a trap? Did you make a mistake?
Also asking how far you have to score for certain schemes can fall into a whole other area of bluffing and minda games.

For now I think will end here.

Just don't forget. Everything you do matters.

End of Part 2

There is probably a lot more things I could write about and I will endeavour to continue this into at least a trilogy.
If you have any questions or suggestions on things I may have missed, please leave a comment.

Thank you

-Ben (@psientologist) [Listening to Grim Fandango and Samurai Champloo soundtracks]

#ToMB Claw & Fang Vol. 9

Marcus Month 3

We last left Claw and Fang with me pulling my hair out, teetering on the edge of a rage quit, not knowing whether to come or go.

My idea was maybe doing 2 #ToMBs, possibly doing half of two, gaming with Marcus and painting with a Ten Thunders master.

Well for the observant of you, you will see that I have already started a new #ToMB in the form of Dark Debts.

So what of Claw and Fang?

First of all, I'm not giving up on the big man. My main issue is still there, lack of plastics I want to buy and/or paint, but as I stated before, I want to carry on playing with the crew, learning more and adding to it.

It does occur to me that doing #ToMB at once may be difficult, right now I will ease my foot off the gas with Marcus so that I don't have a huge pile to paint and probably not change up the crew too much, especially as I am fitting 3 months into 1 for Lynch.

Month 3 Choices

The third month gives me another "$25" add this to the $14 I had left over, I actually have a respectable $39 to get what I feel I need.

Cojo oh Cojo, I would love to say I've gone back and forth on this model but actually I have not, I have just been down on him.
I love the miniature and I still think he has some places in certain schemes and is still probably solid in Squatters Rights thanks to his reach.

However, in larger games of 45-50 soul stones and even lower in Reckoning, I want to have something a little bit more hitty and better than the Donkey Kong impersonator.

An obvious choice would be simply to go for a second Cerberus and I will state right here that it is maybe the correct thing to do when collecting Marcus, especially so you own the model for Myranda to change without having to have the first Cerberus die.

With #ToMB I want to learn more though, learning how to play with 2 cats is a factor but not as interesting as a completely new model.
The other factor in not going for kitty number two is I am not 100% sure how I want to paint it, bar maybe just Red XIII again with a little more conversion.
This though I will save for a later date.

If I go for a replacement to Cojo it also has to be a beast too, something that can be Alpha'd, healed by Myranda and targeted with all the other good stuff like Hunting Call.

Without this being a beast, it will be all in on the Sabertooth Cerberus, being that I feel it's a glass cannon I don't want even more of a target on it, let alone almost every target ever.

The other effect I said I'd like my crew to have is blasts.
Blasts are another way that can potentially help with being out activated, blasts are also pretty handy in Turf War with a lot of the enemy heading towards the centre.
It also helps me play a standoffish game if I have it at range.

My two choices were Rogue Necromancy and Dawn Serpent.

Rouge Necro is an amazing model in game, Three Headed like the Cerberus is great, especially as it works with shooting.
It has Terrifying that is much better than the other beasts so far and it has Impossible to Wound!
Sick.
A Ml7 3/5/6 Attack is the nuts and Acid Breath (both of these are effecting by having three heads) which is Rg12 Ca5 3/3 blast/4 blast, though admittedly it can be only used once per Activation.
The key there though, per Activation, this doesn't stop Alpha giving it another go.

All in all the Rogue Necromancy is gross and getting all these benefits for being a Beast is disgustingly good.
Oh and he is an Enforcer, so there has to be some Arcanist upgrade potential.
At worst, it would mean a 12 soulstone investment but you could use Imbued Protection to get the Rogue Necromancy up to def5 with a little life saver.
I will have to investigate this further.

Dawn Serpent is a plastic kit which is on the horizon and I already have the proxy almost everyone has, the Bushido "Mizuchi" dragon model.
Oddly not an Enforcer but also the same cost as Rogue Necro at 10ss.

It has something I was angry Cojo didn't and that is speed. Wk6 and Flight is super useful and something small that makes me very happy.
His Df is 1 higher than the Necro at 5, no Impossible to Wound but like Cojo the Dawn Serpent has Hard to Kill.
Wp6 is also a good thing defending against certain crews and Counterspell can definitely mess up some enemy spells ruining it's day when they need those suits.

The serpent's Fangs are also Ml7, lower damage spread than the Monstrous Claws of the Necro but the addition of Poison+2, though the Necro still looks a little better here with Infect built in.
Either way, still respectable.

The serpent also has a ranged blasting attack in the form of Breathe Fire, a shorter range but a higher stat of 7. 2/3 blast/4 double blast is arguably better if not as reliable but it doesn't have a once per activation restriction and it does give Burning to the target meaning arguably the damage spread is higher.

Finally the (0) on the card is quite interesting in the Marcus crew, Call Unto the Chi relies on having other models with Ca actions.
Not only does Marcus and Myranda have a ton, let's not forget Leap is a Ca and my month 2 addition has Magnetism.
For each of these friendly models within 6 the Dawn Serpent heals 1 damage, even only 1 can be powerful as this might put it back out of Hard to Kill range.

 So what do I buy?

Month 3 Spending

Originally I was just going to hold out and go for the Dawn Serpent, but the release may not come in time so that factor is something I will ignore.

Both the Necro and the Serpent have a lot going for them.

The Necro has raw power over the Serpent, but the Serpent has tricks and speed over the Necro.

I would love to hear others opinions on this.

So please, leave in the comments or Tweet me, what would you choose?

My choice therefore is actually an easy one, with all that spare monies, I will simply go for both, so a list of the 3 months spending is:

Claw and Fang - $50

Metal Gamin - $21

Dawn Serpent - $15
Rogue Necromancy - $15

Total Spent - $101

Money remaining - $9

This is nice as I still have $34 next month, giving a lot of room for choice again.

Buying these IRL saying $110 is £65, spending money at Element Games this will all add up to:

Claw and Fang - $28.89

Metal Gamin - £11.90

Dawn Serpent - £9
Rogue Necromancy - £8.49

Total Spent - £58.28

Money remaining - £6.72

Painting Thoughts

Carrying on the video game theme is easier with one of these than the other.

The Dawn Serpent instantly makes me think of two things.

First is Dragonball Z which has video games but is not one, the funny coincidence here is the character is called Shen Long (Shenron in the cartoons), just like the mono-Ten Thunder master.

The second though, is what I will go for and is another Pokemon, this time one of my favourites.

Gyarados. 

The Dawn Serpent art makes him look very similar to Gyarados and it basically is a...

Another great JRPG, I do love Mistwalker.

Getting around to the Rogue Necromancy, there has to be some video game monster cerberus I can be inspired by.

Right now until I see a plastic kit on the horizon, I'll probably be looking for an interesting proxy or I will not even paint the Necro.

If I do, then it'll be fairly basic until I get a model I like.

Onwards

Due to me filling my plate with twice the #ToMB action, this post is a little delayed and month 4 is not far away.

Next volume of Claw & Fang I will endeavour to have not only a battle report, but my month 4 purchasing plans and maybe even a little bit of painting (admittedly I have to double check what I have and haven't shown).

Until next time, let's go blow up our enemies

-Ben (@Psientologist)

#ToMB Dark Debts Vol. 1

#ToMB number 2

I'm doing it, or at least right now I plan to.

To all the Marcus fans out there, don't worry I will still be continuing my #ToMB adventure with Claw and Fang.

This month it may slow down a bit, but I do plan to continue it properly, some time in the future (or right now according to when you read this) I will also retitle a few of the blog posts to make which #ToMB I'm doing is more clear.

Marcus will always be titled #ToMB Claw & Fang and this one will always be #ToMB Dark Debts.

I'm doing both because the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers project has inspired me to actually get on with painting, as well as use this blog to break down thought processes especially while building crews; picking which models to buy and try next and figuring out strategies.

Right now I am trying to get a hold of all the Ten Thunders plastics, not only does this give me more options with my favourite master in Malifaux but 10T is what I want to concentrate on after (well ok more like during) collecting Arcanists.

There's more to it too, but we'll get into that throughout this series.

Time to catch up

For people who regularly keep up with #ToMB will realise that we're heading into Month 3 and that there has been a lot of time to catch up on.

Now where as I can't say I've played games just yet, I still have purchasing plans, some strategical thoughts and even some painting ideas.

Month 0

As with Claw & Fang, month zero is about explaining the process and why I have picked what I have.

#ToMB is the brainchild of Dave Chandler (@iamsssk) and Chris King (@lemonconstuct) plus a few of the other regular Malifaux bloggers, it's about us all doing a little challenge to:

• Start a new Malifaux crew, a new master
• Keep to some spending restrictions
• Blog each month about why you have bought what you have bought
• Blog what you have learnt, be it painting or gaming

It's all about learning together, it should also help show people how easy it can be to start a Malifaux crew and work it up to something that is they can be happy with to take to any club night or even a tournament.

Dark Debts?

I am aiming to build up the crew of Jakob Lynch.
The dual faction master is infamous for being a bit of a force on the tabletop and though this is something that excites me a little, it isn't the main reason I've picked him.

First off, you probably realise it already but I will be taking Lynch as a Ten Thunders master, not Neverborn.
There is somewhat of a consensus, though this is rapidly changing, that Ten Thunders are the worst faction and thanks to some 1.5 hangovers of "Neverlose" Neverborn is always considered strong.

As I said I love the 10 Thunders, the strong Asian themes are neat but also their stories of infiltrating the world, factions and societies of Malifaux are also very cool.

Though Jakob himself is not particularly a Kung Fu Master, his own theme is something I also love.
The casino owning gentlemen with dark secrets. More on him in Month 1's breakdown.

Miniatures wise, I've said it once and I'll say it again, the Malifaux plastics as a finished product, I love.
Now there are a lot of Wave 2 things without models, so unlike Claw & Fang (so far) I will probably be looking at proxies too.

Let's break into this shall we?

Month 1

In the first month our allowance is "$60", I use quotations because as a reminder, all of the #ToMB entries are using the Wyrd website for pricing so we are all on the same page, I personally buy  most my toys from Element Games so I will show both.

The title makes the first purchase fairly obvious, but it's the Dark Debts box, I also want to field the Kamaitachi, this totem doesn't have an official model yet.
I haven't fully decided on a proxy model just yet, most people seem to be using the otherworld miniatures "Giant Weasels" that I first saw on the scene via @joel__henry, for an explanation on why I suggest finding the @fools_daily episode 36 "Super Weasel" plus a lot of awesome tactical advice. I know I'll be listening back to it.

Dark Debts - $40

Total Spent - $40

Money remaining - $20 

$20 gives me plenty of money to buy a Kamaitachi proxy and hopefully move some spare dollars into month 2.

$60 is around £36 so for those interested:

Dark Debts from Element Games - £22.10

Total Spent- £22.10

Money remaining - £13.90

I know that the Weasels from Otherworld are about £11 so that is good news.

Time to break down, what my money is getting me in Lynch's box.

Jakob Lynch

Gaming

Most Ten Thunders masters have "Infiltration" on the front of their card, representing which part of Malifaux they have gotten into and are associated with, Lynch is and is with Darkened and it will be good to note that even though he is team orange, he can hire up to 4 models with the Darkened characteristic even if they're from team purple, the Neverborn.

Lynch's stats aren't particularly exciting, Df 5 isn't that high Wp6 is solid though, 10 wounds is actually pretty low but standard for Neverborn, Wk 4 is slow and Cg 6 isn't that quick either but as you can guess too he probably doesn't want to be charging forwards too often.
Also of note is his cache of 1, this is most likely due to his personal totem Hungering Darkness being very strong but actually free at 0 soulstones to hire.

Jakob is immune to the Brilliance characteristic himself, something his crew plays about with.
"None for me" he says. At one stage "Don't touch the stuff". I think you can get what it's about.

The front of his card also has trigger which is on both Df and Wp and is actually built in, it's called Hold 'em and makes it a lot less tempting for people to cheat in cards against him as if the do when attacking him, they'll suffer 2 damage. Not always relevant but I can see this being solid in a tight spot.

Last bit on the front of his card is maybe the most important, Ace in the Hole, allows aces are discarded by his crew during their activation, they go straight back to your hand.
1's aren't the cards you want in a fight, but a lot of abilities need you to discard as a payment and this makes it free.
Always worth remembering when looking at what models to hire.

Lynch's main weapon is his Hold Out Pistol, which is a respectable Sh6 which is range 8 but can also be used in melee within 2. 2/3/4 isn't the scariest spread but each suit has a trigger, not only that, but he can discard a card to use that suit if needed.
Rams do what they usually do and that's more damage, +2 in fact making it essentially 4/5/6 which is actually scary.
Crows dishes out Slow where Masks dish out Brilliance and Tomes (or hand bags) force the opponent to discard a card.
All of these are useful.

Jakob's other attack action can also dish out Brilliance and 2 damage at Ca8, this is harder for the opponent to dodge but the loser of the duel takes the damage so it can potentially backfire.

The tactical actions is where I fall in love, two different (0)s in the form of Mulligan and Pay Up.
The first is my favourite, simply you get to discard up to three cards and draw that many.
Rearrange that hand, oh yes, I love card manipulation.
The second is something "Brilliant" where you flip a card for each enemy under the influence and draw a card for each mask.
Definitely worth looking into how reliable this can be to pull off, but on paper it does seem a little "win more".

Upgrades are something I will briefly mention.

First is "Woke Up with a Hand" this mysterious situation gives Jakob and ability with the same name where if he is the last to activate in his crew you draw 2 extra cards.
Also on top he gets Final Debt a powerful 10" range Ca7 spell that punishes a model with Brilliance by making them suffer damage equal to cards in hand you have.
If you've been playing with aces and went last, you should still have a decent number of cards in your hand, this being a (1) action means you can do it 3 times and that can kill most things in the game!

"Expert Cheater" which costs 2ss as does the previous upgrade means that these tools can start to be expensive, but it is another I like the looks of.

First of all Lynch get's the Gremlin tool of  "Squeal!" for those unaware what it is, it's a defensive trigger needing a mask where after Jakob is damaged by a melee attack he pushes 4" away, usually meaning you get out of trouble. Useful considering we saw with the stats. As well as that he and friendly models in his LoS can cheat fate face down.

This adds an amazing bit of bluffing, your opponent not knowing the trigger you are going for, maybe scaring them into using a high card to stop your rubbish one.

Lastly I'll mention "Wanna see a Trick" although the title is missing some grammar it's a neat little 1ss upgrade that gives Lynch the 52 Pickup ability, which if you've been saving those ace's at the end of his activation you can reveal them, shuffle them into your deck (along with the discard) and a model with Brilliance within 6" gets hit for 2*the amount of Ace's you revealed. Pretty... Ace, huh? 

There are many more as well as the generic Ten Thunder ones, but I will cover them in the future.

Painting

First of all, this will get repeated a lot but with all of my Ten Thunders I have a recurring theme.
Orange and the colour of their other faction if usually represented by another.

When I think of Jakob Lynch the first thing that comes to mind is "Kentucky Gentleman".
I don't mean Chuck Taylor the indy wrestler even though he is awesome and probably why the term(?) sticks with me.

It's mostly some booze, but it also has a man who is fairly similar especially in dress sense.

A quick google search for "Kentucky suit" comes up with a lot of grey suits and that is what I will go for, using a grey-pale purple for the waistcoat and a nice bright orange for his tie, cravat, whatever it is, to draw in the eye a little and fit my colour plan.

Hungering Darkness

Gaming

This may be a shocker, but I'm not going to use him.
Now I wouldn't necessarily advise a new player to ignore Huggy as he is affectionately known as, he is very powerful piece, one which a lot of people may even call a "crutch".
To partly avoid that but to also push a different angle, Huggy is being pushed aside for the Super Weasel.

Painting

Well no plans as I don't intend to use him just yet.

3 Illuminated

Gaming

These guys come in at 7ss each, so we are expecting something fairly solid for that cost.
Df5 Wp6 is as good as Lynch, Wk5 is a bit for respectable and Cg8 is pretty quick.
7 wounds aren't the most but Illuminated have both Armour +1 and Regeneration +1 all in all this makes them fairly though and they are Terrifying (Living) 10 so they may drain some of the opponents cards.

Also these guys have Brilliance which interacts with a few things in the crew.

Adding to the toughness the Illuminated have a (0) heal only needing a 5 to cast.
Attack action wise they have a Ml6 attack with Rg2 which is 2/4/5 that in itself is totally legitimate but if they fight against something with Brilliance they get +2 damage.
Definitely worth the effort of getting Brilliance out there as 4 damage minimum is insane, not ignoring that the severe would do 7!
With another mask the attack gets Flay meaning that high damage is even more reliable as you can cheat on negatives.

The other attack Scintillating Cloud is a shooting attack, it can put out damage but it's interesting part is that it makes "Brilliance Cloud" a marker that sticks around until the end of the turn which has a 1" aura that hands out Brilliance, and we know why that is handy.

Painting

Grey will still be on the clothing, probably the trousers and skirt. Though trousers may be pinstriped.
I want to do orange for the glow and monstrous bits and very faded purple for the tops.
I do worry orange claw arms for example may look odd, but I can see it working fine if the shade of orange is paler and almost yellow (bit of flesh tone thrown in).

Kamaitachi 

Gaming

The replacement totem isn't particularly cheap at 4ss, he isn't a Peon but is Insignificant so no scheme marker shenanigans with this guy.

Df6 is solid but only Wp and Wd 4 means that the Weasel can be taken out quite quick, 6" walk means he can keep somewhat out of harms way, but he wants to be involved as he is riding a dust devil and therefore likes blowing things about.

The Winds of Fortune unfortunately doesn't synergise with Lynch as it happens when upgrades are attached (that's more Yan and Lucas' bag), not a great start but The Howling Thunder however happens once per turn when one of my models within 6 discard an upgrade, the all star "Recalled Training" comes into mind, not only is that good but the Kamaitachi will heal them 2 and push them 3" for using recalling their training or doing whatever they are by discarding an upgrade.

On his back he fights with Razor-Edged Talons which are a mediocre 1/3/4 damage from Ml5, they also have Flay which is cute.

Katanaka's Flame however a Ca7 Rg6 spell synergises really well with Ace in the Hole as it discards up to 2 cards to put Burning+1 on the enemy for each one discarded.
With 2 aces, that can be Burning+4 with the cards back in hand.

Also the weasel's Tactical Action, At the Crossroads discards a card (let's hope an ace) to push a friendly Leader or Minion within 6" it's Wk in any direction.
Shoving Lynch out of harms way, speed boosting the Illuminated, this is nice and tricky.

Not that scary on paper, but the pushes and cheeky burning has potential.

Painting

Painting will depend a lot on the proxy, but I imagine furry, probably brown with some orange somewhere as he is a generic Ten Thunder totem.

Final Thoughts

That's it for Volume 1. Volume 2 will include the next month or so's additions, with some looks at what I want from the crew and any painting ideas.

Basing if you were wondering will be snow to match my other models, but not as heavy as the Arcanists, also with some Asian style graves, shrines and other pieces on the bases.

Maybe some flowers!

Future updates will include painting don't worry and if people want it, I will also do some battle reports too.
Please leave a comment and you can catch me on twitter. Until next time.

-Ben (@psientologist)

#MFXTOP April Winner and May theme

#MFXTOP APRIL

22 fantastic entries in April's "Minions" theme, but now it is time to pick a winner.

Thanks again to Element Games as the overall winner AND best newcomer receive a voucher to spend in their store.

Plus don't forget it's their Birthday and mine too!

Time for that classic countdown:

Third Place

In at third place.
This entry almost didn't even make it into the competition.
Don't forget that hashtag boys and girls.

It's @mike3838

and this duo of fantastic Thunder Archers...

...there isn't a bit on these models I don't like, the skin is great,
the blue and yellow equally so and the basing is ace.
This meant Mike got 15%  of the votes.

Second Place

It looks as though they might be a real faction...
It's @balefirestorm and his favourite (in the most sarcastic sense)
 Gremlin unit. The Moonshinobi!
Still waiting on the plastic Brewmaster crew...

...Kristian has done an amazing job on these proxies,

from  the tidy trims on the clothes to the excellent dynamic basing.

Don't forget to preorder the plastics from EG !

This pair got 19% of the votes.

Best Newcomer

Before we get to the overall winner.
The first to win the new ongoing category.

@praetoriian

These brooding Death Marshals have made an impact,

the worn coats and shaven heads earnt 8% of the votes

and have gained Andy the title of:

 April's Best Newcomer

First Place

And we get to the winner.

With 29% of the votes!

@gazmania

Wastrels were seemed to be flavour of the month in the March competition,

but even with all of those too I have to say these are the technically best

Wastrels I have ever seen!

It's no secret that I'm a fan of his work and Gary has been so close,

so very close to taking the title before, well deserved and like with

all the other entrants, please, do yourself a favour and check all his work

in his twitter feed. So there we have it...

@gazmania is the Winner of #MFXTOP4 "Minions"

and April's

Tyrant of Painting.

#MFXTOP Month 5

There is no stopping this train!

Don't forget each month the winner gets a voucher for Elementgames.co.uk and now...

Each month now will have a Best Newcomer award for whoever received the most votes and has not entered #MFXTOP before.

The prize itself is yet, to be decided, but they will get something shiny and be happy in the knowledge they are that month's Best Newcomer.

We got 22 entrants this month, so close to getting some extra prizes to giveaway thanks to @oldmanmyke and the @malifools (yes I'm sort've speaking in third person):

So don't forget these "stretch goals":

• If we hit 25 entrants I will send out something to who comes in second place.

• If we beat 27 entrants (we got 27 in January) then I will send prizes out to second and third place.

• Lastly (for now) 35 entrants, is my top goal and I will not only be doing all the above, but I will have a winner from each faction in the game (that includes Gremlins) who scored the most votes meaning 7 total prizes being given away.

As previously mentioned, "entrants" refers to people entering, not the amount of miniatures.

May's Theme

In May I am reminded that it is both mine and Element Games birthday.
Thinking about birthdays, anniversaries and the like makes you look back at the past and makes you think about how you got yourself to where you are today.

So with that said, May's category is in a similar vain:

"My First Master"

The rules are as follows

• Find the Malifaux master you started with and/or first painted.
• However good or bad it is, take a photograph of that.
• Next is the painting part, grab yourself a new version, this can be the same figure, one of the alt models or one of the new plastics, it doesn't matter.
• Now added as suggested by @thatdarnsatan you can use Avatars!
• This is what you need to paint for May
• End of the month tweet with #MFXTOP a photo of both your new and old version of the model, clearly labelled in the tweet.
• Please don't forget the hashtag and tweet at either @psientologist or @TheMalibros

Now the newer players may feel this excludes you, but far from it!

Your first master is probably what you have just got and may have just started working on.

This competition is not only a Birthday style celebration in that it's about nostalgia but it also hopefully celebrates "new births" into this fantastic game and it's community.

Plus for the awful lazy person like me, my first master still hasn't been painted, so this is as good an excuse as any!

Clarification: for this competition you are supposed to paint something new, something over the month of May. Due to the nature of this competition if you started the model during April you get a pass.

Again, a reminder this is all about fun, use your judgment.
I believe I can trust you all and if not, do you want to be "outed" on twitter.
Probably not...

As always, if somehow this confuses you or you have any other questions, contact me at either @TheMaliBros or @psientologist on twitter.

Please feel free to leave a comment here or on any of the other blog posts I've made.

Finally go out and grab yourself a some minions from Element Games and listen to that lovely @oldmanmyke on Malifools and Fools Daily.

-Ben (@psientologist)