#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)