Gallery: Witchling Stalkers and Handlers

So recently I got to paint some Witchling Stuff and... here it is! I hope one day I`ll have a reason to field them :P

Comments and criticm welcome (Hair on Handlers has been fixed)

Battle Report - Hoffman versus Zipp

Another battle report. This time I face off against Bober (ranked number 2 in polish Rankings) and his dreaded Gremlins.

Schemes:

Deployment: Flank
Strategy: Headhunter
Schemes: Claim Jump, Hunting Party, Frame for Murder, Leave Your Mark, Covert Breakthrough

Guild:

Hoffman (Cache 4)
- Field Mechanic (Allows attaching modifications)
- Arcanists Assets (Allows hiring some Arcanist models)

Mechanical Attendant

Ryle
- A Debt to the Guild (Once per game deal more damage in an activation and draw a card.)

Joss
- A Debt to the Guild

Watcher

Watcher

Steam Arachnid

Mobile Toolkit

Guardian


Note: I forgot to put Mechanical Attendant in the box so he is being proxied by Luna.

Why this:

Headhunter means its good to have extra AP/pushes. Its Flank so we will be more or less close to each other. I didn`t want a ranged crew. I wanted AP manipulation. Nellie would be pretty cool here but since I`m on a Nellie ban I went for Hoffman (as I thought Glowy Tavish isn`t pretty effective in Wong Crews and I can quite easily kill Swinecursed and Burt).


Ryle: Quite mobile. Benefits from Power Loop quite well. Good antiswarmer in shooting and good damage dealer in melee. Can also heal. Benefits quite nicely from the +Ram modification.

Joss: He is my favorite beater for Hoffman. Doesn`t have triggers so using Machine Puppet doesn`t make his attack less useful. Armor 2. Hard to kill combined with reactivate combined with a lot of healing means he is very hard to take down. He ignores Hard to Kill (hi Burt!) and Defensive triggers (hi gremlin faction!). He can also get focus from Machine Puppet and Paralyze some key models. Hoffman likes big beaters because they benefit from Machine Puppet. Since Hunting Party is in the pool I decided I need at least 2 enforcers.

Watcher: Flight, Walk 6, perfect for getting those heads or dropping those markers. Best scheme runner in Guild.

Mobile Toolkit: Buffing damage for Ryle is pretty good as he gets an average of 5 damage with his fist and 3 with his gun and you can most likely cheat even when you declare the extra shots triggers. Cheap activation that can become significant if I really needed via the interact modification. also helps to move Hoffman along

Steam Arachnid: Immune to pulses so versus Wong and Stuffed Piglets it should do ok. High Df makes it a good power loop substitute and the Df debuff should also be fun.

Guardian: He gives excellent Loop shenanigans (Ml7, Df6) as well as 3" engage to block heads. 3" engage is also very good against Gremlins as they have a lot of 1" engage models.

Mechanical Attendant: In case of Somer or Wong, protects me from blast damage. Can easily push Hoffman and makes me safer from Stuffed Piglet explosions

What other units I was considering:

Austringer: Not a construct so no synergies, but its great for Headhunter

Brutal Emissary: Very good for looping, 3" engagement but I thought I like Ryle more because he can one shot some Gremlin models.

Field Reporters: I like the marker swapping since its LYM and Covert Breakthrough

Phiona Gage: Transparency is a very good and quite consistent way of getting Markers while dealing damage. The fact she`s not a construct meant I can`t really support her so I left her out.

Gremlins:

Zipp (5SS)
- Gift of the Gab (Removing Conditions for Stones)
- Dirty Cheater (cheating heals)

First Mate
- Treasure Map (bonuses from discarding markers)
- When the Captain Can`t See (leaping allows discarding markers and eating markers gives armor)

Burt Jebsen
- Dirty Cheater

Merris Lacroix

Lightning Bug

Fingers

Stuffed Piglet

Stuffed Piglet

Stuffed Piglet

Stuffed Piglet

Schemes:

Guild Schemes: Hunting Party, Frame for Murder (Joss)

Gremlins Schemes: Leave Your Mark, Claim Jump

Since he had 4 Stuffed Piglets and Lightning Bug I figured out that Hunting Party is quite a good choice. Since he had First Mate and Fingers I thought that marker schemes aren`t really good so I went for Frame on Joss as he has Armor 2 which meant only Zipp or the Lightning Bug could hurt him enough (and could heal him from burning/Poison if necessary).

Deployment:

I win deployment and make him deploy first

Zipp Deployment

Hoffman Deployment

Summary:

Me being optimistic pre-game

Turn 1:

Start of the game

This turn was mostly positioning. Hoffman gave Joss the Nimble Upgrade and one Watcher got the Interact one. I looped Ryle and the Guardian. Stuffed Piglets moved forward. Burt shot at Zipp. Zipp placed and walked 2 times and hit Joss for 4 damage (moderate on negative) which was 3 after prevents. Lightning Bug hits an Arachnid I put too much forward.

Turn 2:

I lose initiative. I have a horrible hand except a RJ from turn one (I stoned for cards). Zipp attacks Joss and brings him down to 2 wds (I used another stone). Ryle shoots a Stuffed Piglet. Lightning Bug kills the Steam Arachnid. Watcher with upgrade double walks and picks up head and is then killed. First Mate picks up his head. Hoffman puts 2 damage on Joss giving him Reactivate and then healing him from scrap and making him walk towards Zipp. Joss walks up to Zipp and has 5 attacks. Uses Debt. I do 2 damage in total (hit once, for 3, 1 prevented).... Merris goes off to scheme.

Middle of Turn 2

End of Turn 2

Score: 2:2 (Gremlins score Claim Jump and Headhunter, Guild scores Headhunter and Hunting Party)

Turn 3:

I lose initiative. Zipp tries to kill Joss but fails. Joss is left at 1 Wd.
Ryle charges a stuffed piglets and does 3 damage.
Stuffed Piglets walks to Joss and Attendant (2" within of Joss) and blows up with 3 damage in 2" (note: I noticed this wouldn`t work as the Attendant was nearby). Joss uses last stone to prevent. Hoffman machine Puppets Ryle to attack Stuffed Piglets, succeeds but Ryle fails to hit. Does it again and Ryle kills the Stuffed Piglet (which does 4 damage to Ryle). Then Puppets the Guardian to attack Burt (who has 1 wound taken). Burt is hit for 2. Joss charges Zipp and does 3 damage. Guardian kills Burt (RJ damage on first attack). Fingers picks up his head. Merris does Claim Jump and LYM. First Mate charges Guardian

Sneaky Merris is waiting to do 6 VP...

Joss getting attacks 6 and 7 into Zipp

Start of turn 4

Score: 3:5 (Gremlins score everything, Guild scores Hunting Party)

Turn 4:

I lose initiative. Zipp kills Joss (scoring Frame). Ryle kills a stuffed Piglet (which explodes 3 damage in 2 inches hitting Fingers, Guardian and Ryle). Merris does schemes. First Mate Leaps and walks to prevent me picking up heads. Nobody picks up a head (a 2 Wound First Mate survives 3 hits from Hoffman with positives to attack). Merris does LYM and puts a marker for Claim Jump. Zipp kills the Guardian

Turn 4

Score: 6:6 (Gremlins LYM, Guild scores Hunting Party and Frame for Murder)

Turn 5:

End of turn 5

I win initiative and kill First Mate and pick up a head. Fingers picks up a Head. Ryle kills the Lightning Bug. Zipp kills the Guardian. Merris does CJ and LYM

Score: 7:9 (Guild scores Headhunter and Gremlins do all three. )


I flip a 12 and we go to turn 6....

Turn 6:

I win initiative and Ryle picks up a head and gets Merris down to 1 Wd. Zipp tries to kill Ryle but fails. Fingers triple walks to give chatty in case of turn 7. Game ends in a Gremlin Victory.

End of Game

Score: 8:9 (Guild scores Headhunter)

Crew Summary: So the crew wasn`t that bad. I was missing O.S.A definitely. Joss under performed heavily but it was to several moderates on negative flips from Zipp and hitting 2 out of 7 attacks. I should probably go for Fingers (#fuckfingers) and leave Zipp alone. I`m still inexperienced with Hoffman and I have to play some more games with him. I also probably should have killed Merris off earlier but I was tied down with the rest of his crew and since Joss had went after Zipp, Ryle had to do all the Hunting Party.

Gremlin Crew Summary: I told Bober to play competitive but he doesn`t have to be 100% standard (this is why he chose Zipp over Somer). The Crew performed very well. Fingers and Merris are pretty fucked up models and I would give them a nerf faster than Burt :D

MVP: Merris for scoring 5 points by herself...

   

Battle Report - Lady Justice versus Hamelin

First batrep. With my opponents (Bartek) approval I am testing Swordfighter, the new lady Justice upgrade (you can read a review here).


Quick Note: I will not be playing Nellie as I played her almost exclusively for the last 5 months or so

Schemes:

Deployment: Standard
Strategy: Headhunter
Schemes: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Inspection, Recover Evidence

Guild:

Lady Justice (Cache 4)
- Badge of Office (once per game reduces damage to 1)
- Swordfighter (Place, attack, place (2) action and recalled training-like buff against a specific model)

Francisco Ortega
- Wade In (Hard to Kill and a (0) with healing)
- Hermanos De Armas ( (0) push to base contact)

Guard Sergeant

Guild Austringer

Phiona Gage
- Transparency (lets you place markers when you hit something)

Brutal Effigy

Guild Hound

Guild Hound

Guild Hound

Guild Hound

Why this:

Looking at the scheme pool I automatically remove Accusation from my potential choices.
This leave me with 4 schemes left and I want to prepare for most of them.

I decided on Justice mostly for the Swordfighter thing. I was thinking about McCabe but I dislike him and since I don`t play Nellie I didn`t really want a lot of shooting as its mostly counterproductive in Headhunter. This leaves us with Lucius who I didn`t play for a lot (and had 0 games after the errata), Justice and McMourning but Outcasts have high chances of condition immunity/poison removal so the latter didn`t seem like a great option. No scheme requires me to go beyond the center line so its also quite good with Justice.


Francisco Ortega: is a bad motherf****r and has min damage 3, Flurry. We all know he costs 9 and has 1 upgrade slot because Wade In is an auto-take. He also got Hermanos to push Justice up the field. I also need someone to get those heads rolling if Justice fails and potentially dig some graves in the process. Defense 7 Justice is a lot scarier than Defense 5 Justice because Riposte doesn`t only trigger on potshots.

Guard Sergeant: is there to do Claim Jump with his (0) as he can put 2 scheme markers and push one of them so they both count for the scheme. He can also push a marker towards an enemy to ease scoring Dig their Graves. Apart from that he`s shit with Df4 but with the armor he can at least take some hits. He does speed up the dogs though.

Guild Austringer: is pretty good in Headhunter due to Deliver Orders. Plain and simple

Brutal Effigy: solid pick for Justice. She gets attacked by a lot of shit and she can get 2-3 Wounds back without using Juggernaut. She can also quite easily get 1 or 2 cards back which is the cost of Swordfighter. He`s also a solid 4SS minion with very good defenses.

4 Guild Hounds: They give me some activation control. I can also pick up heads with them and more importantly I can try to score Inspection or pick up Recover Evidence markers as they aren`t peons.

Phiona Gage: I was actually thinking about Queeg but 2 schemes that I have most chances of taking require scheme markers so Transparency seemed like a nice option. I wanted A Debt to the Guild but couldn`t afford it.

What other units I was considering:

Pathfinder: he really helps with Inspection and trap summons can be annoying.

Master Queeg: I really like him in Headhunter as he can pick up a head from 8" and has 3" engagement which is pretty annoying. Promises works wonders with Justice and Francisco.

Scales of Justice: I think its a bit underrated. Its pretty decent for its cost. It has a nice Wp boost aura and if you combine it with 2 card discard from Swordfighter your chances of card draw are significantly increased.

Outcasts:

Fucking Hamelin (5SS)
- Piper (Obey and 6" no charge aura)
- Infectious Melodies (Minions and Peons can get fast and die at the end of their activation)

Ashes and Dust
-Bigger They Are (Increases damage versus non-Master models with upgrades)

Bishop
- Oathkeeper (Discard for fast)

Freikorps Trapper

Obedient Wretch

Stolen

Winged Plague (Abomination model)

Malifaux Rat

He only has 8 activations. Easy-peasy!

Schemes:

Guild Schemes: Dig their Graves, Inspection

Outcasts Schemes: Dig their Graves, Recover Evidence

I immediately removed Recover Evidence when I saw Hamelin. He can have so many models back its not worth the fuss. I went with Dig Their Graves and was hesitating between Inspection and Claim Jump but I took Inspection because it seemed less AP intensive. Bartek chose Dig Their Graves and Recover Evidence (he wanted to try it).

Deployment:

I win deployment flip and let him deploy first.  

Deployment

Turn 1:

This turn was mostly positioning. Francisco used El Mayor and Cover me on Justice. Bishop double walked and put a scheme marker. Trapper shot a dog and hit moderate with crit strike on negative (he focused, I was in cover). Lady Justice went up the field. Hamelin does his rat shenanigans and ends up with a Rat Catcher and a rat. Austringer Delivers Orders to Francisco to place a scheme marker.

End of Turn one

Score: 0:0

Turn 2:

Bishop`s dead, Baby. Bishop`s dead.

I lose initiative. He forgot Lady Justice has Blindfighter so he activated Stolen and turned into 2 rats. Justice uses Justice at the End of a Blade and charges Bishop. After 3 hits and 5 13s and 12s from the both of us he is dead.

Trapper shoots a dog and misses Guild Sergeant picks up the head of the dog killed in round 1. 2 dogs walk out after trapper misses and put 1 scheme marker. Last dog engages AnD near Inspection and so does Brutal Effigy. Rat Catcher hits Effigy twice and brings him to 2 Wds. Ashes uses Industrial Age on the Effigy which I fail (just on Effigy) and then manages to kill him and then hit moderate on a negative flip for the Hound and creates an Abomination and scores Dig Their Graves.  Plague double walks to engage a dog and block my faked Claim Jump. Bartek creates 2 Rat Kings and one turns into a Rat Catcher. One of the Rat Kings slowly moves towards my Hounds.

Middle of turn 2

Winged Abomination Plague blocks my fake marker

Score: 1:1 (Outcasts score Dig Their Graves, Guild scores Headhunter)

Turn 3:

I lose initiative for the third time. Bartek declares Recover Evidence. I put markers near Francisco, Justice, Austringer and 2 dogs. After moving a rat, Austringer Delivers Orders to Francisco to pick up a head. Abomination engages Guild Sergeant. Phiona charges Rat Catcher, kills a rat from rams and places a marker and leaves him at one Wd.

Francisco gets hit by a Trapper twice and prevents one shot. Frank pushes Justice towards Ashes and Hamelin. Rat Catcher removes my Scheme Marker and places his own. Bartek attacks a Hound with the Winged Plague but misses and goes Defensive. Two dogs bite at him for 3 damage. Second Hound can`t hit because Bartek cheats my 13 with a RJ. Guard Sergeant walks away from the Abomination and pushes a marker towards the Rat Catcher. Justice uses Acrobatic Assault but can`t hit the Rat Catcher, she finishes him off with third AP scoring Dig Their Graves. Ashes charges Francisco and kills him scoring Dig Their Graves. Second Rat Catcher picks up a head.

Turn 3

Score: 3:3 (we both score Headhunter and Dig Their Graves)

Turn 4:

Ashes bring Phiona down to 1 Wd. Austringer makes her pick up Rat Catchers Head. Plague tries to kill Dog but fails and goes Defensive.

Phiona walks and hits Ashes for 5 damage. Trapper falls down the building for 5 damage (4 after Armor) and walks towards a Evidence Marker. Both dogs finish the Winged Plague and score Dig Their Graves. Justice kills Ashes and Dust with her attack and places behind Dust Storm and a Rat Catcher (attacking the Rat Catcher for 5 damage) to prevent them from going towards Heads/Core respectively. I pass all Industrial Ages (except 1 on the Sergeant). Hamelin Pipers my Justice after randomizing twice but only manages to hit once. Ashes Reforms and Rat Catcher picks up head and sacrifices himself from Infectious Melodies while reactivating the Rat King. Rat King picks up an Evidence Marker. Reactivated Rat King kills Phiona for Dig Their Graves.

Turn 4 and the Jumping Justice

Turn 4

Turn 4

Score: 6:6 (Outcasts score all 3. Guild scores all 3)

Turn 5:

I lose initiative fifth time in a row. Trapper picks up an Evidence Marker and shoots dog for 2 and pushes towards second marker. Dog walks and picks up head. Companions into another Hound which charges the Rat King and stays within 4" of the edge.

Rat King hits dog twice but BJ the second attack. (Bartek should have activated Hamelin first and go within LOS to allow him to Infectious Melodies) Justice uses Acrobatic Assault, hits Ashes for 8 and places so she`s within Inspection range. She attacks and fails the second attack. Hamelin walks and Obeys the trapper to pick up the second evidence marker. Guard Sergeant kills Ashes and Dust and score 3rd point from Dig Their Graves and walks towards the edge. Dust Storm attacks the Sergeant, hits the trigger to push, kills her on a straight flip and rearranges into Ashes. Hamelin walks and picks up a head. Game ends

Turn 5

Third Ashes and Dust assembles

More end of game

Score: 9:9 (Outcasts score 2 from Recover Evidence and 1 from Headhunter. I score all three)

Summary:

I had some bad luck with Initiative flips which could have swung the game in my favor at least a bit but overall we didn`t have any insane flips. I definitely need to use Scales of Justice with Swordfighter. I would probably had 8-10 more cards in this game. Inspection was a bad choice as it forced me to lose some models (lucky moderate from Ashes on the Hound lost me a VP). Overall Bartek is a pretty new player but he`s improving rapidly and he`s grasp on Hamelin is getting better and better each week.

Swordfighter: its an autotake. I used Acrobatic Assault way more than I thought I would but it was due to Hamelin no-charge aura and Ashes no-charge ability. Its still great but I definitely need more card draw in this crew to make up for the (0).

Crew Summary: so basically mostly everything worked out the way it should. Guard Sergeant is nice for moving scheme markers and accomplicing before you score Dig Their Graves. Austringer is a very good. Hounds were hounds. At least he activated anything important before I was done. Brutal Effigy is ok. Apart from Scheme selection I think the crew was pretty decent.

Hamelin Crew Summary:  The crew wasn`t really anything special in terms of innovation. Ashes is obviously insanely good although if I could charge it I think it wouldn`t be that abusive. Bishop died pretty quickly so from this game we can say he puts makers quite well ;). I recommended Bigger They Are on AnD to Bartek and its pretty awesome. Rat Kings and Rat Catchers were annoying as always. Winged Plague is a nice scheme runner and Df5 with Armor +1 makes it pretty good for its cost.

MVP: Trapper that shoots a dog, wounds Francisco, falls of a HT5 Building and picks up 2 Evidence markers

      

Wave 5 - Swordfighter

So in this post I will cover one thing we are pretty sure about Wave 5. Wyrd has revealed Swordfighter, a Lady Justice upgrade. I`ll cover the rest when they come out and I get my hands on them.


Quick note: Lady Justice is the reason I started playing Malifaux. Her and the Death Marshals were the box I wanted to get so bad but it turned out it was the time where she wasn`t available anywhere, so I had to pick Sonnia (my second favourite master in Guild)

What the card does:

• Gives a (2) Acrobatic Assault action that allows a place, attack and another place. If you deal damage you get a defensive bonus.
• Gives a (0) Justice at the End of a Blade action which makes you discard 2 cards to get a Recalled Training like boost versus a specific enemy Master, Henchman or Enforcer.
• Costs 1 Soulstone

What it allows to do in game:

First off lets start with the (0) Justice at the End of a Blade.

Pros: Significantly increases her damage output. She gets a positive to her damage which becomes a double positive if she didn`t charge. This is big because it will most likely allow cheating and bumps her damage by 1-2 points per attack on average. You also get a positive to attack so its more likely you will save your remaining hand and get that ram for extra critical strike damage. Furthermore it gives you pseudo defensive stance so you`re less likely to need the heal. With this action even things like Strongarm Suit can be dealt in in one activation (You need 2 Severe or 1 Severe, 1 Moderate and 1 Weak). 

Cons: It competes with Juggernaut which sometimes might require a tough choice but I won`t die if I kill you first. It also is pretty likely you will get a Black Joker in the middle of your attacks.

Now lets move to Acrobatic Assault

Pros: Lets you get out of engagement without risking disengaging strikes. Lets you get through impassable terrain and jump on some building to get those pesky snipers. Its worth remembering that when you make a place any part of your base has to be within X" of the starting position where X is the distance of the place which means you can get X" + base size each time you do it. Its also pretty cool because you can move and still get the positive to damage from the Greatsword. The buff of Riposte is also quite valuable and worth it, especially if you have the Francisco buff. Not many people will want to attack her when she has Protected by Francisco and Counterstance on.
Its also buffs Vendetta because it allows you to make the place, then swing with the Onslaught trigger and then place again giving you 2 attacks with positives to damage (or positives to everything with the (0)) and then another place.

Cons: it costs 2 AP which kind of dictates how your activation is going to look like. Combine the single swing with Justice at the End of a Blade and you get chunk someone pretty hard for 7-8 damage with a swing.

Summary:

Justice is not really a competitive master. That`s pretty much a fact. Its Malifaux so skill is pretty important which means you most likely won`t be stomped by a worse player just because you took her but you will struggle in areas that you could avoid by picking the Chief Editor of Malifaux Tattler. But this upgrade is a very good step in the right direction to make her see more playtime. I don`t think I`d ever pick a crew without it. Good Job Wyrd!

Verdict: 
10/10 (Gremlins have better upgrades!!!!!!1111oneone)

Introduction

Hi,
I`m trikk and welcome to Whinefaux where I complain about everything Malifaux! I`ve been playing Malifaux (and doing Henchmen stuff) with some success for 2 years now and our tournament scene has erupted more than a year ago. I mostly play Guild but I have some Arcanist and Outcasts masters. I went to the International Team Championship that were held in Manchester and managed to snatch 3rd place with my team (only losing to the tournament champions).
This blog (if I manage to sustain it) will have batreps mixed with pictures of models where I train and develop some painting skills.

All Guild enthousiasts might also find some unit descriptions with information on why I use them, why I don`t and stuff like that!

The first batrep should be after the weekend so I`ll start with some photos for a friend. I will try to make better ones after the weekend but right now they`ll have to do.