In what is turning into the Suneokun Request Hour here is a review of the Malifaux core rulebook (seriously, always happy to oblige requests for content like that).

EDIT: For all the readers arriving from From The Warp – you can see all posts under the Malifaux category, including model reviews and an example of play here.

Core Rulebook Review

The rulebook itself costs approximately £20 from all the usual gaming vendors, and is a perfect bound, soft cover book printed in full colour on good quality, glossy paper. It is 210+ pages.

I recently heard on a podcast that a player paid a printshop to have his Malifaux book spiralbound, and this seems to me to be a very good idea. While it might spoil the look of the book somewhat (perfect bound is aesthetically very pleasing) it will allow you to lay the book flat or even fold it right over. A small thing, but I can see myself getting this done in the near future.

Contents

The rulebook has four main types of content:-

1. The rules;
2. The background story;
3. The artwork; and
4. Faction listings.

The Rules

The rules take up fairly little of the 200-odd pages, as the rules to Malifaux are fairly straightforward. I won’t go into the actual rules here, but the writing is clear and precise, exceptions are spelled out, key rules are highlighted and examples are abundant.  The layout of the rules is excellent, and we had no trouble flipping quickly to the right page to look something up during our first games.

Like most rulebooks, there is an introduction to the general concepts of the game and, in particular, the mechanics of a simple card duel.  Then it goes into more specifics, with chapters devoted to activation, actions, combat, spells, abilities and triggers. Finally it finishes off with rules on terrain and setting up a game, along with the Strategies and Schemes each side can choose before a game begins. Note: the Schemes are secret, which is a cool idea. You can, however, choose to declare them which puts your opponent on notice, but nets you extra points if you still manage to pull your nefarious Scheme off!

The book has a useful index, which not only lists which pages the rules are on, but gives you a tiny potted summary of each key term, just in case all you wanted to do was remind yourself what a Trigger was.

The book ends with a 2 page spread of quick reference material, although you will most likely want to download PDFs of these from the Wyrd website and (if you’re me) have them laminated.

As a side note, you will also want to laminate the character cards that come with your models.  That, and a dry-erase (whiteboard) marker, are all you need to keep track of wounds on your models.

Having used the rules in a couple of games, we found we only had one query, and even then I thought the rulebook answered it, just not as clearly as all the players would have liked.  The query was whether or not a Trigger can trigger another Trigger – or even itself. Recursion FTW!  If so, Santiago or Francisco Ortega, for example, can keep firing their weapons over and over again - provided they meet the requirements of the Trigger that lets them do so.  Nothing in the rulebook forbids this, but since the effect of a Trigger that potentially triggers off itself is obviously fairly powerful, we weren’t sure if we were supposed to play it that way or not.  After checking on the Wyrd forum, the question was answered quickly – Triggers can trigger off themselves! This apparent imbalance is nicely met by the requirement to have certain suits show up for each flip – if you don’t flip a Mask, Santiago and Francisco cannot use their Triggers. If you happen to have a Control Hand full of Masks, however…

Background Story

Malifaux is a character-driven skirmish game, and each of the four factions (and the Outcasts) have plenty of named, unique characters you can play in the game.  To help settle the players into the world and the odd people (and monsters) that inhabit it, it is necessary to bring these characters to life on the page, and Wyrd chose to do this with a story that runs through the entire rulebook, split up into multiple 2 or 3-page chapters. Each chapter usually introduces another key Faction member, while carrying the main story onward.

I see this as a missed opportunity on Wyrd’s part and, in time, I think it is something they will come to regret not spending more time and effort on. Not everyone reads the fluff (I am a wannabe writer, and even I didn’t read it until a couple night ago), but even so, for those who do, the fluff is a key component in fleshing out the world set up by the rules and the artwork, and bringing it to life. Sadly, the writing is lacklustre, and the characters are thin and largely indistinguishable from one another.  Given the setting you would expect vivid descriptions, kick ass action, morbid humour, chilling horror, snappy dialogue and eyeball kicks galore. Nada.  You will enjoy the story as it unfolds since you will want to learn more about Malifaux, but you will be yearning for more as you do. Ball dropped, Wyrd.

As a quick example, here is one of the first questions that occured to me about the world of Malifaux: what is the sky like?  Magical worlds are notable by their otherness, their alien strangeness, so what is the light like – is the sky any different to our own?  The answer is, yes, but all the story says is that the sky is oddly dull.  That’s it.  Not good worldbuilding.

EDIT: Don’t get me wrong – I love the whole Malifaux setting and the characters, and you might not get that impression from what I just wrote.  Instead, while I really appreciate the background elements, I think the story presented in these rules does not live up to the promise of that richly imagined backdrop.

Artwork

You may not appreciate the larger-than-life style the characters are rendered in (and the artwork is almost all characters), but you cannot deny the quality. Personally, I like the art style, so the full colour, full page illustrations that fill the book are a major plus.  Artwork is expensive, so for a first ruleset from a new games company this is nothing short of stellar. Kudos to Wyrd. You can see their own priorities and the origins of Malifaux The Game coming through when you compare the effort put into the artwork with the effort put into the fiction: this game started with the design of the miniatures, and that is likely to remain its focus. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it gives Malifaux an undeniable edge to have such strong artistic backing. Hope they keep it up, but I also hope they spend some of that creative energy on the less-featured elements.

Faction Listings

Being a 40k player, it is wonderful to pick up a single book that has every codex in it! I know Warmachine and other games have been doing this for ages, but I don’t play them. Each Faction (Guild, Resurrectionists, Arcanists, Neverborn and Outcasts) has their own section and in each section is a full listing for every Master and their Minions, along with pictures of the relevant (painted) miniature.

The listings are identical to the character cards that come with the model, so you’re not missing out on anything – all the rules are on display. In addition, you get a little bit of description of the character in question, and this – far more than the fiction – gives each character a genuine personality that will influence how you play them.

Since Wyrd are still releasing new models, some of the entries in the listings don’t have pictures with them.  I haven’t counted how many that is, but it’s a fair number. Maybe half.

A lot of the rules each model has are unique, but many are standard Talents or Abilities or Triggers. These are all listed on Page 72 of the rulebook. Remember that page number – you will need it a lot, at first.

FAQ and Errata

These are available from Wyrd’s website. Wyrd have been good about speaking to their player base on their forums and responding to questions, and the FAQ and Errata are both very detailed and helpful.

The Errata, however, is pretty big.  It does not change any core rules, but even so there is a lot to it, and I don’t recommend playing your first games with a copy of the Errata on hand. Play your first games with the rules are they are in the rulebook. Once you’re happy with that, add in the Errata, since it makes a lot of little changes here and there. It is really Malifaux 1.1.

The Errata also changes the entries on the character listings, which annoyed me, since they are not (as of this moment) releasing updated character cards, even for download. For example, Perdita has a Spell that lets her bend bullets (that’s its name – Bullet Bending) so she can fire on a target without needing line of sight.  Spiffy!  Way to keep your valuable Master safe. Except the Errata changes this so that instead of not needing line of sight, she now just ignores cover.  A fairly significant de-buff, but the character card I have (laminated, of course) has the old rule on it, and there seem to be no plans to issue new ones. Come on, Wyrd – step up!

Final Thoughts

In terms of sheer presentation, appearance and layout, the rulebook gets a A. It’s that good. You want to hold it, and to flip it open just to look at the pictures one more time (especially the one on Page 70!).  The layout and presentation of the rules themselves are also excellent, and leave little to be desired.

Split the cost with a friend, get a starter boxset of miniatures each and have a game. You don’t need the Faction decks to play the game – a normal pack of cards will do - although you will spend some time looking up which suit in Malifaux (Rams, Crows, Tomes and Masks) corresponds to which suit on a normal pack of cards. If you can stretch to it, I highly recommend the Faction decks to smooth the initial playing experience.

Suneokun asked:-

Hi fella, what’s the appeal with Malifaux … I’m really intrigued about it and think I’ll like it … however, its got to be the worst represented game on the web … even the main website barely explains how it works or what its about … I love the models, the prices are very tight considering the quality and lovely style…

How does it differ from 40k (apart from no dice) … I think I want a detailed detailed batrep to get my head around it and see if that £22.50 price tag is ok!

Good question.  Imagine having a crew of five models, each of whom has all the unique rules and abilities of something like Deathleaper.  Many of the rules will interact with one another to create cool combos across your crew.  Even minor models have plentiful special rules and can be brutal and deadly if used well.

One of the key additions to the gameplay that 40k doesn’t have is a small but crucial element of resource management.  Each player has a Control Hand consisting of six cards, and these cards represent ‘rerolls’ you can use during your turn if you don’t like the cards you flip.  If you have only a few high cards, then you need to decide when and where to best use them.  If you have all high cards, time to press your attack.  If you have a poor hand, it might be best to adopt a more defensive position for now.

You also have Soulstones.  While your Control Hand is replenished every turn, your Soulstones are not and, once used, they are gone for the rest of the game.  They do, however, come with some very powerful effects when used.

Here is roughly how it works. Like 40k, each player creates a crew up to a set point limit before the game begins. Like 40k you determine scenario, objectives and deployment and start your game.

The game comprises a number of turns.  Each turn a player will draw a hand of Control cards, determine initiative and then alternate activating models one by one by expending each model’s Action Points on movement, shooting, spells etc. A turn ends when all models have been activated.

The key difference with 40k is that each player only activates one model at a time. Play then passes to his opponent who activates one model and passes play back, and so on.  There are obvious tactical differences to the 40k system here, and careful thought is needed as to who you activate early and who you leave for later to respond to the enemy’s moves and so on.

The core game mechanic is duels. I don’t mean pistol duels (although there is plenty of that), but card duels.  You have a total you need to meet and you flip a card, add it to your base stat (Ca for casting spells, for example) and see if you have succeeded.  The total you have to beat will often be a total your opponent has generated by also flipping a card and adding his base stat to it. Whoever has the highest wins, although you get to cheat fate – that is what your Control Hand is for.  Once you have the hang of card duels, Malifaux is easy.

Let me give you an example of play from my first game at the weekend.  The Master of my crew is called Perdita, and she has a spell called Obey, which forces any other model in range to take a single action.  I also have a model called Papa Loco, who has some cool abilities that let him set off large amounts of dynamite in and around his person.  I activated Papa Loco first, since I didn’t want him any nearer my other models than he had to be (he tends to go BOOM), and used 2 Action points to move him. Walk takes 1 Action Point, so he moved his walk distance in inches twice, getting pretty close to the enemy.  Like almost all other models, however, he only gets 2 Action Points per turn, so his activation was over.  I handed play over to my opponent.  The enemy moved Madame Sybelle forward and used her Companion rule to activate several models at once, moving them all forward one after another. Several enemy models were now inadvisedly close to Papa Loco!

Play then switched back to me, and I activated Perdita.  I realised I could use Obey on Papa Loco to make him take a single action – in particular “Take Ya With Me!”, a spell that causes a blast centred on Papa Loco.  To cast the spell I needed to meet the spells casting total (which is 14).  With a Casting ability of 7, Perdita needed to flip a card of 7 or more to make the total 14, but it had to be a 7 or more of Masks (one of the suits – many abilities, triggers or spells need particular suits to succeed).  In Malifaux you flip a card instead of rolling a dice, but your Control Hand represents a set of rerolls you can use at almost any time.  I looked at my control hand.  Out of the six cards, although I had a few cards that were 7 or more, none of those were Masks.  Damn.  That meant I would be stuck with whatever card I flipped from the top of my deck.

However, Perdita has even more tricks up her sleeve.  She can take a free action once per turn that lets me discard my entire control hand and draw another one!  Sah-weet.  I did just that – but wouldn’t you know it – no Masks of a 7 or more   Nothing for it but to try and cast Obey without the benefit of having a card in my hand I could play to ensure I got the spell off.  I flipped a card from the top of my deck – no good.  It was high, but not Masks.  The spell failed.

Having spent one Action point on that spell, Perdita had two left (yes, she gets three Action points per Turn instead of two).  I tried the same spell again and failed, flipping a 10 of Ravens.  10 gives me a total of 17, more than enough, but still no Masks.  I decided to use a Soulstone to try and get the effect off.  Each Master gets a supply of Soulstones at the start of each game, and a Soulstone lets you do a variety of things, but most often it is used to flip another card and add it to the result you already have (add, not replace – very important).  Since I get to add the cards, I had already met the casting total of the spell (I had a total of 17, when all I needed was a 14), so even if I flipped a 1 of Masks, it would be all I needed.  Any Mask would do!  I spent one of my two Soulstones (Perdita only gets two Soulstones, whereas my opponent had eight), but the card I flipped still wasn’t a Mask!

I decided that I had to do something with her last action, so I decided to shoot at Madame Sybelle instead.  This would be an opposed Duel – my Combat ability against her Defence.  I flipped a card and added that to Perdita’s combat skill with her pistol, getting a 15.  My opponent flipped a card and added that to Madame Sybelle’s defence stat, getting an 8.  I was winning by 7, but it wasn’t over yet.  Madame Sybelle was already wounded and my opponent didn’t really want her taking another hit, so he cheated.

He’s allowed to do that.

He replaced the card he had drawn with a card from his Control Hand, making his total 16.  I was now losing, but Perdita is not so easily put off.  I had just replaced my entire Control Hand, and so I had some good cards.  I could choose to save them for later in the turn, but I wanted Perdita to do something – anything! – so I used one of my precious high cards in my Control Hand to replace the card I had drawn as well, taking my total to 19.  I made sure that this high card had the Ram suit – you will see why in a moment.

Each player only gets to cheat like that once per card duel, so that was it. I had won by 19 to 16.  Damage done depends on how much you win by.  3 is not much, so I would get a penalty.  Madame Sybelle has “Hard To Wound”, which gives me another penalty. In total I had to flip three cards from my deck and pick the lowest.  I got Weak damage, which does only 2 wounds.  I cannot use any cards from my Control Hand to improve this, but Perdita has a Trigger called Critical Strike.  For every Ram suit in the cards that made up my duel total of 19 I got +1 damage.  It happened I had two Rams in total, making the damage to Madame Sybelle 4. Not enough to kill her, but enough to ensure that when Papa Loco finally detonated, she would be in trouble

I hope that helps!  Malifaux is very different to 40k, in both mechanics and in the feel of the game and the gameworld.  You will already know if you like the models and the artwork, and hopefully this has given you some idea if the concept of flipping cards appeals instead of rolling dice.  If you like powerful combos and nasty tricks and uber Masters with game-altering abilities - and especially if you like undead hookers who have the “Undress” ability and a dirty parasol as a weapon – this might just be the game for you

It’s not every game lets you write a headline like that one

We got our first couple of games of Malifaux at the weekend.  It turned out that not only did we have the general store I had built (that’s it in the photo) but we also had a scratchbuilt church and blacksmith’s forge – more than enough terrain for a 3′x3′ table.

Of my Ortega gunslingers crew I had painted three models to a basic standard before the games; Perdita, Francisco and Santiago (that’s them in the photo).  I kept it simple, with only GW Foundation colours and then a wash with GW washes.  I haven’t done highlights on any of them yet, which will brighten them up a little.

The first game went fairly slowly, as we were all playing for the first time and learning the rules, but around Turn 3/4 we started to get into the swing of it, with Rob’s Redchapel Gang against Brian’s Death Marshalls.  Lady Justice didn’t do well until she dropped to one wound, when she finally started laying the smack down, while Seamus showed why meleeing him is not the best option.

After that, I played my Ortega Gunslingers against the Redchapel Gang, which is where Nino suffered his ignominous fate.  Turn 1 he climbed up onto the blacksmith’s roof to get a good firing position, and the Redchapel Gang responded by making multiple efforts to Lure him off it.  You can see where I got the post title from, now.  Madame Sybelle and another Rotten Belle tried and failed to pull him off (err…), but Nino finally succumbed to the ministrations of the second Rotten Belle, and stepped forward, plummeting to his death

Papa Loco lived up to his name, charging the crowd of undead hookers. I tried to use Perdita’s Obey to get him to self-detonate, but failed, but was lucky enough to get him to do it himself next Turn, followed up by BOOM when a badly wounded zombie whore took a swing at him with a grubby parasol. Carnage and body parts everywhere   Cheers, Papa Loco.

The second game took only 90 mins, so I think it is safe to say that it is pretty easy to get a grip of the basic Malifaux rules.  Once both players are up to speed, play is fast and I am starting to see how the tactics emerge from the interplay between the control cards, soulstones and each model’s unique abilities.  We are all looking forward to our next games, which is as good a recommendation as you can get.

Oh, yes, and Gary is going to pick up the bayou gremlins boxset. Warpigs and Hog Whisperers – should be fun!

This is what the table looked like before the start of Game One. Francisco in the centre for some scale.

Just a quick pic of tonight’s work.  The models are primed white, and the first (test) building is coming along pretty well.  The flat roof is removable to place models inside, and there will be an external flight of steps at the back to access the roof, as well as roofed goods storage area.

If it works, I will put up a tutorial on how I did it.  All comments at this stage gratefully received.

On the workbench today we have a complete boxset of Ortega Gunslingers from Wyrd Miniatures’ diceless skirmish gameMalifaux.»

The boxset (about the size of an A5 notebook, although a bit thicker) costs approx £20.  I got mine from Arcane Miniatures, who delivered very quickly, although they did send me the wrong Fate deck.

All the miniatures are metal, which is either good or bad from your point of view.  Malifaux is a character-based miniatures game, meaning that many of the models are unique, named characters, so other than the need to personalise your crew there is not much call for customisation.  Even the non-unique choices have several different models to choose from.  That said, since they are all metal, converting these is not for the novice. I, dear reader, am a novice and will not be doing any converting

They come with the same 30mm black plastic, round-shouldered bases as Warmachine minis use.  I purchased the Victorian Base Inserts that Wyrd make (£6.50 from Arcane), and for that you get five all-metal pieces that fit inside the inner depression on the plastic bases. These are well modelled and add a lot of character to the miniatures.  Make sure and file their bottom surfaces flat before you glue them in place.  I won’t say they are the easy option for those lazy modellers who cannot be bothered to base their minis, since you will spend much more time pinning your Malifaux minis to the metal base inserts than you would have spent on glue, sand and flock.

Yes, pinning.  While the Malifaux minis come with slotta bases, if you are going to use any of Wyrd Miniatures’ base inserts (or even any third party ones, like these ones from Ironhalo.net) you will need to remove the slotta base with your clippers or razor saw and pin your model to the base insert.  Although Malifaux models are 32mm scale, they are not bulky figures.  As you can see from the photos, they are fairly lifelike, often slender, models, meaning that there is not much footprint real estate to sink a pin vice into.  Take it easy and go slow.

It is worth it, however. The combined weight of the metal model and the metal base insert makes for a hefty miniature that feels able to dish out the extreme violence the rules allow for!  You could go daft and swap out your plastic bases for metal ones but for the price I cannot say that it’s worth it.

On to the minis themselves.

Perdita Ortega - Master of the Crew and a fearsome gunslinger. Think Angelina Jolie from Wanted!

None of the models had much at all in the way of flash (just Perdita on her right hand), and mold lines are notable by their absence. All in all, a superb set of miniatures and one I am looking forward to getting painted up. Definitely white primer on these – I want their features to really pop.

I am also working on some terrain for the game, but more on that later.

EDIT: Some more handy Malifaux links:-

1. Faction spotlight (pdf link)
2. Downloadable links including cheatsheets, FAQ, errata and missions

I lied: Midweek Miscellany was not a one-off.

1. Podcasts. I listen to three gaming-related podcasts, and the links are all in the right-hand column of this page – scroll down. Listening to them makes the interminable train journeys every day go that little bit faster (as does watching Youtube videos on my Android phone). The D6 Generation is my favourite. It covers GW games but also covers all manner of other games, from wargames to boardgames and from card games to the occasional console games. The three guys who present it are affable, witty and full of a genuine enthusiasm for all things (well, most things) gaming that makes listening such a pleasure. The production values and the effort that appears to have gone into prepping each episode really show – highly recommended.  World’s End Radio is an Oz-based podcast with a laid-back, contemplative style that focuses more on GW games. Their codex reviews are fun, frequently ripping below-par units in an amusing fashion. Dice Like Thunder is, to my ears, what a 40k forum would sound like on the radio. Not that it is an incoherent mess of ill-considered opinions blasted into the internet with no regard for the consequences – it’s not like a forum in that sense. Rather, DLT is a take-no-prisoners kind of podcast that one might expect from a bunch of exuberant Americans. That they have a segment entitled “Douche Bag Of The Week” tells you all you need to know…
2. Other games I would like to play. Firestorm Armada. Descent (again). Need to get my Malifaux fix out of the way first, though.
3. Scratchbuilt mycetic spores. Or, you could go to Hobbycraft or any arts store and buy a large styrene egg for £2 and get some expanding insulation foam in a can from B&Q for about £6. Good idea, though.
4. The Orks FAQ. Everyone is talking about it, since it allows Deffrollas to do D6 S10 hits to other vehicles. This is pretty big for orks, but does it affect the Tau? A little, but not much. If the ork player is taking deffrollas on his trukks, kill the trukks. If he is taking deffrollas on his battlewagons (which is much more likely) you may need to maneuver to get a shot at side armour, meaning that you won’t be able to kill the battlewagon right away. The usual response is to park a piranha or two in front of it to block its movement, and previously all the battlewagon could do was ram or go around. If it rammed, the piranha got a 3+ dodge and even if that failed the hit would be S5, meaning it would only glance on a 6. Not any more – fail that 3+ dodge and the piranha is going down. Several penetrating hits, all with a +1 on the damage table due to open topped, and it is highly likely the piranha will explode, allowing the battlewagon to roll on with impunity. One solution is to park two or more piranhas in front of the battlewagon, meaning that the battlewagon has to get past more than one 3+ dodge. If the piranhas are in a squadron, then even if one makes its dodge save, it may still take a roll on the damage table due to the squadron damage rules (pg. 64, although there is no RAW to cover Ramming a squadron, since the damage rules on pg.64 cover only shooting and close combat). If the piranhas are separate units, then the battlewagon must hit and explode both of them to keep moving – which is fairly unlikely. All this means that if you don’t have a couple of piranhas to block movement, or don’t want to risk them both in this way, you will need to ensure you get side shots on the battlewagon on Turn 1, which is down to deployment. In summary, not a big annoyance – bring tools to deal with mech and you are sorted.
5. Malifaux terrain. Perhaps I will get a better idea once I get a look at the rulebook, but for the moment it looks like some wild west terrain is in order. I have found a couple of guides to making wild west terrain with foamcore, and they look worth a try. Resin WW buildings are available, but at a price. Cardstock terrain is also available, but I have tried cardstock as a concept and found it wanting – the least flimsy terrain material I am willing to use is 5mm foamcore. This outfit lists wild west terrain as “coming soon”. Given the quality of their arab buildings, I am eagerly awaiting seeing what they come up with. Then there is this from TM Terrain:- Steampunk terrain is not something I can find a great deal of around the internet, but perhaps it is simply a case of mixing cobbles and cogs (hey – there’s a good name for a steampunk product right there!). Maybe some HirstArts fieldstone towers and buildings, but with added pipes and brass panels and steam vents? Might work. Any thoughts?
6. Base inserts - these are just super cool. Deus Ex Machina 30mm resin inserts for round-edged bases (Warmachine style). Must buy:-

Malifaux is a game I have been hearing about more and more, from passing comments on gaming forums to now detailed reviews on podcasts such as The D6 Generation. Everything I have heard about it has made me want to play it, so my gaming group and I have taken the plunge and ordered ourselves some faction boxsets.

I have ordered the Ortega Gunslingers boxset, while my gaming buddies have gone for Lady Justice and The Death Marshalls and the Miners and Steamfitters Union boxset. Sah-weet!

I will put up a review of the minis when they arrive and the game once I have played it, but it’s worth mentioning a few of the reasons the game appeals to me in the first place:-

• The miniatures are brilliant. Their history goes some way to explaining their appeal – it turns out that Wyrd Miniatures spent a few years making whatever miniatures their modellers fancied and only later decided to build a game around them. The result is miniatures that may lack overall cohesion across the range but that display more character individually and in the faction groups than any other range I have seen. So much so that I have no idea how the Ortega Gunslingers will play – I just want the models. Here is a review of the Death Marshalls boxset to give you an idea of what the standard is like, and here is my Master-to-be, Perdita Ortega:-

• It’s a small-scale skirmish game. That means that the boxset will let me play a full game without getting anything else. It also means I can use the terrain I already have.
• The backstory is pretty damned cool. Go here for more details.
• The game mechanic uses packs of playing cards instead of dice. This is great news for anyone who always rolls a one! In addition, all the reviews I have read are enthusiastic about the clarity of the ruleset and just how much fun the game is and how much depth it offers.

I will be adding some Malifaux coverage on this blog, and if anyone else plays it or is considering getting started, let me know in the comments – I would love to hear your thoughts.

EDIT: Here is another review of the game.

Pinning is the black sheep of W40k. What seems at first like a great gameplay mechanic (“Suppressive fire on my nine!”) for ranged armies hoping to keep the enemy at bay falls flat on its face when confronted with the rest of the 40k ruleset:-

• Killing enemy models is usually better than trying to pin them:-
  • Pinning is an unreliable mechanic at best, since it just leaves an enemy unit alive to threaten you later. Killing them is forever, while pinning is just for one Turn.
  • The way close combat works means that even 1 or 2 close combat specialists will still tear your Fire Warriors a painful new one should they get into charge range. Should have killed them when you had the chance.
  • A single enemy model can claim or contest an objective. If he was dead, it wouldn’t be an issue.
• Fearless units are immune to pinning. This is one of the largest issues pinning has, given the prevalence of Fearless units in the game.
• Even if the target unit is not Fearless, all pinning does is force a Leadership test. It is left as an exercise to the reader to remember the last enemy army he faced where Ld9 & 10 were not sprinkled liberally around like plukes on a teenager’s face.
• Suppressive fire doesn’t make sense when your weapons cannot penetrate the enemy’s armour. The point of pinning in the real world is that you make the target too afraid to move, but why would Space Marines take cover when they come under rifle fire, since their armour is better protection than ducking behind any ruined wall? Best to take the hits and keep moving.
• The enemy units are all probably in transports, anyway. Mutter, mutter, metagame, mutter, cheap Chimeras, mutter, mutter.

(The rest of this post owes a large debt of thanks to the chat here with OSH, Levi and Pearlygates.)

So, it’s fairly clear that building an army that relies on pinning is a bad idea. The game just won’t support it, despite the rule change in 5th edition that requires a separate Leadership check for each unsaved wound by a pinning weapon, rather than just one test per target regardless of the number of unsaved wounds.

The alternative is to see if you can fit pinning into your army (specifically your Tau army. What do you mean you don’t have one? Sort yourself out, lad, honestly!) without affecting your army’s core strengths. Because when it works, pinning is fantastic. You cause one wound in a large enemy squad and they all sit out the next Turn. By then, the rest of your army is more than ready for them.

Sources of Pinning

There are only three weapons in the Tau codex that cause pinning; the Rail Rifle, the Pulse Carbine and the AFP» . Despite my love of all things Forgeworld, I will ignore non-Codex options here.

The AFP is a special case, as you can only ever have one in your army. If you’re taking it, fine, but don’t take it just to cause pinning (see above).

The Rail Rifle comes with either the Sniper Drone Teams or as an option with Pathfinders. In either case you are paying 20-22 points for the weapon on a single wound model than cannot use it and move in the same Turn. You can also only get a maximum of three in a squad. The Rail Rifle is a deadly weapon that in most cases if you hit will wound on a 2+. You have to factor in a likely 4+ cover save, however.

But this is about fitting pinning in as an option without re-doing your army. Unless you have just travelled forward in time from 4th edition (Hi! We still don’t have a new Dark Eldar codex. You’ll like the Valkyrie, though), you probably won’t have sniper drones in your army list (although that’s not to say they are not a lot of fun to use). You may well have pathfinders (I love ‘em), but do you want to sacrifice markerlights for rail rifles? I would much rather have my markerlights (odd observation – opponents shoot at my pathfinders more if I give them Rail Rifles).

The Pulse Carbine comes either with Gun Drones, Pathfinders or as a (free) option with Fire Warriors. If you are taking vehicles in your army, you probably already have Gun Drones, but the small unit size means that any kind of reliable shooting or even wounding from them is pure fantasy. If you have a large unit of Gun Drones (either because you took them in the Fast Attack slot, or you have a unit of Stealths or Crisis Suits with beaucoup Gun Drones or because you have a squadron of Piranhas) they are an ideal source of pinning shots. Personally, I love what a unit of 6 Stealths & 12 Gun Drones can do to enemy light infantry, regardless of pinning, but that’s another story.

As for Pathfinders, they are covered above.  Personally, I would rather fire their markerlights, but once I pinned a unit of Blood Angel terminators with these guys. Pure luck, though.

Which leaves Fire Warriors. I know you already have them (1+ and all that) but traditional wisdom dictates that 30″ range Pulse Rifles with the option to rapid fire are the way to go. Really? What do you actually use the Fire Warriors for? Well, if you’re anything like me, you keep them wrapped in an AV12 Fish-shaped bubble and go looking for some objectives to claim. It is sad to say, but massed Fire Warrior firepower isn’t what it used to be. Fish of Fury gives your target a 4+ cover save and it is highly likely that your unit of Fire Warriors, once out of their nano-crystalline armoured cocoon,  will die next Turn – you might be a Fish of Fury, but these waters are full of sharks.

Given that I play my Fire Warriors as 60 point upgrades to make my Devilfish scoring, why stick with tradition and give them Pulse Rifles? They rarely get out and, if they do, they aren’t likely to kill anything even with 12 rapid fire shots, so am I losing anything from my army if I give them Pulse Carbines?

Short answer: No.

So if I routinely field two or three units of mechanised Fire Warriors, that is two or three units that could be toting Pulse Carbines – pinning weapons – without affecting the rest of my army in the slightest. Not much, but it puts pinning into my list with zero cost.

Hmm.

Markerlights And Pinning

The effectiveness of pinning really goes up if you can reduce the target’s leadership, and handily, Tau can do just that.

One of the more rarely-used features of a markerlight hit is to reduce Leadership for the purposes of a pinning test. If you are playing with 8 pathfinders (as I do at 1750 points), you will be getting 4 markerlight tokens per Turn on average. I suggest using 2 to increase BS to 5 and, if the enemy’s armour save is better than his cover save, use the other 2 to reduce leadership.

The best use of the tokens is to generate more hits with pinning weapons first rather than on reducing leadership, because forcing more leadership tests at a higher leadership is more likely to be successful than fewer leadership tests at a lower leadership. Remember, we are talking only 1 or 2 unsaved wounding hits here from even a large unit of Carbine-equipped Fire Warriors, so doubling the number of leadership tests (from 1 to 2) is much more effective than reducing the leadership by an extra point or two but forcing only a single test.

Hows And Whys Of Pinning

Obviously, there are only certain times you want to try and pin an enemy:-

• The enemy is not Fearless.
• The enemy unit is a high value unit with either a strong ranged or, more likely, close combat punch. The classic case would be deep-striking terminators or Nob bikers.
• The enemy unit is an imminent and serious threat. Not an immediate threat, since you should be firing your whole army at them, but a threat next Turn is an imminent threat in my book. A threat would also include a scoring unit on their way to an objective late in the game – stop them now or pay the price.
• Your pathfinders have nothing better to shoot at, and you have nothing better to spend your markerlight tokens on than a pinning attempt. This sounds silly, but can happen surprisingly often when you are deep in Turn 3 or 4 and each unit has their own situation to deal with, all the enemy armour is gone or hidden, or the pathfinders have limited line of sight, or your elite units have limited line of sight to the enemy unit you are lighting up. That said, this is a major limitation on the pinning tactic, and you might go several games without this coming up. Fine – remember what I said about incorporating pinning without affecting the rest of your army? The pinning is there as an option if the chance comes up – it just so happens the chance never came up. You haven’t lost anything.

You could take this one step further. Although I tend to take minimum sized squads of Fire Warriors to keep the points down, I could probably find the points for a 10+ squad of Carbine Fire Warriors. Their main role would be to walk on from reserve and claim ‘my’ objective. Despite being T3, 10+ guys in cover will last reasonably well, needing to lose 3 to take a break test. In addition to filling this role, they would also be my source of pinning should I need it.

If I needed mobile pinning, I could borrow another unit’s Devilfish and put them in there. They would have a 32″ threat radius (12″ move, 2″ deployment and 18″ weapon range) letting them reach almost anywhere on the table from a central starting point.

This is just a draft tactica, since I will need to try this idea out to see how it plays. I will report back, and if you have any thoughts or experiences with this, let me know in the comments.

And speaking of reporting back, one short story got knocked back by Dark Horizons with a form rejection letter. I’ve sent it off to Apex, and am still waiting to hear from Black Static on another story.

Outside of Superheavies, Tau have two Flyers that you  might consider playing in either Apocalypse or games of normal 40k.

You can find rules for Flyers in any of the Apocalypse books, as well as in the Imperial Armour books. The Apocalypse rules are simpler and I suggest you use those – indeed the later IA books changed to use the Apocalypse Flyer rules, suggesting the old ones are now defunct. The key rule to always bear in mind is that weapons shooting at Flyers from the ground add 12″ to all measured ranges – this hurts more than you might think.

I would caution that if you are going to use Flyers in normal 40k, you think ahead and ensure that your opponent will have some practical means of countering them, otherwise they are likely to operate with impunity. Most weapons will only hit a flyer on a 6, regardless of BS, and blast weapons cannot hit at all. The only exceptions are weapons with the anti-aircraft mount special rule or pintle-mounted weapons. AA-mount weapons are few and far between, but pintle-mounted heavy stubbers can be very effective against light aircraft armour (the highest aircraft armour on a non-superheavy you are ever likely to see is 10). Make sure your opponent has some effective AA options – some Flyers of his own would be ideal!

For a Tau opponent, you can use the Imperial Armour 3 rules for the Skyray, which let you purchase an AA-mount for your markerlights for only +30 points. Note that Seeker missiles only hit Flyers on a 4+, not a 2+ (apparently hitting on the regular 2+ made Seekers too powerful).

DX6 Remora Drone Fighter

Think UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), and you won’t go far wrong. Controlled by a Tiger Shark or a Manta (although you don’t need one of those to field Remoras) these short-range fighters are piloted by drones, and operate in support of stealth cadres. Yes, this is a stealth fighter as well as a UAV. I’ll get on to what that means for the unit in a bit.

The Basics

You will find the full rules for these in IA: Apocalpyse, but suffice to say it has minimal armour all round and the usual drone BS (boosted by a targeting array). They are Fast Attack and come in units of 1-2 models.

For weapons, it has a twin-linked, long-barreled burst cannon and a networked markerlight. It also carries two seeker missiles, which I should have magnetised but haven’t.

What is pretty special about the Remora is that it is the only vehicle model available to the Tau that gets the Stealth Field Generator. Couple that with the ‘add 12″ to fire at me’ rule all Flyers get, and you have a model that is well-protected against any ground-based target >12″ away and untouchable to any ground-based target >24″ away. It’s like a disruption pod, but better – way better, because being a Flyer the Remora is treated like a skimmer moving Flat Out as well. Depending on how you interpret the Flyer rules, this means either a 4+ cover save or that all Penetrating hits get downgraded to Glancing.

Other Flyers don’t have to add 12″ to their weapon ranges, by the way, so watch out for them.

Options

The only option is for a BSF. Hardly worth it, since Flyers always start in reserve so will never see Turn 1 in Dawn of War.

Uses

For a self-designated fighter aircraft, how effective is it against enemy flyers? Well, only just. The burst cannons are not on an AA-mount (yeah, I know) so hit on 6s, but at least they are twin-linked, so every third shot will hit. It will only get through regular flyer armour on a 5 or 6, however, so a single Remora will only cause damage once every three Turns.

Not so hot, is it?

Sadly, none of the Remoras weapons are on AA-mounts, meaning that the markerlight hits on a 6 as well (which is a complete waste of a markerlight imho).

Against ground targets it fares a little better, and can offer decent support, able to threaten enemy armour with its seeker missiles (which always hit the side armour – a Flyer rule).

Strictly speaking, Flyers can be used to block movement in the same manner as eg. Piranha, but this is (imho) an abuse of the rules. The Flyer cannot be assaulted or rammed and is fairly safe from most weapons, making it far too good at blocking enemy movement. I suggest you house rule that other units may move as if the Flyer was not there at all.

Another house rule you might need to consider is whether or not Remoras can contest objectives. Since they always count as being >12″ away from anything on the ground, I would say not, but there is nothing in the Flyer rules to support this. Given the Remora’s maneuverability it poses a serious last-Turn objective contesting threat, so I would discuss this with your opponent before you begin. Note that even if the Remora can contest an objective, it cannot tank shock enemy units out of the way. Worth bearing in mind.

Model

It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?

That’s a rhetorical question, by the way, since the only acceptable answer on this blog is ‘yes’.

The size is perfect, being much smaller than any other Flyer in the game, but large enough not to be mistaken for a regular drone. And the wings hinge upwards in a cool Imperial Shuttle-style (provided you don’t glue them in place).

You can scratchbuild these, and I have seen various guides using flying bases for the body and skyray turrets or piranha wings for the wings.

I have mounted mine on some brass rod to give the impression these things are properly flying. I made the mistake of using 9″ of brass rod and, one clumsy accident later, shortened the rod to 4″. FW resin can be brittle – learn from my mistakes!

Conclusion

By no means overpowered, there is no reason you should not use these in your regular games of 40k. Other than supreme mobility, the only threat it poses is a burst cannon than always hits side armour and a couple of seeker missiles. Hopefully your opponent will agree such a unit is unlikely to turn the tide of any battle, but will provide plenty of interesting flavour.

Your opponent will have a hard time killing them without mobile AA-mounted weapons, but if you get too close to his guns then the Remora’s weak armour won’t last long.

Next: Barracuda Air Superiority Fighter

Now, this is how you kill enemy aircraft…

I have posted previously about my experiment with Space Marines, but after having watched the excellent tutorial videos on Youtube by Girl Painting I decided I ought to try and do something better. So I picked up another primed Marine and went to work.

Just for the record (and in case I forget!) here is what I did. All paints are Vallejo unless noted, and all are watered down 1:1 with flow-aid improver and a touch of washing up liquid:-

1. Assembled the mini, leaving the arms detached for ease of painting.
2. Army Painter Bone primer.
3. Two washes with watered down (1:1) Gryphonne Sepia (GW Wash).
4. Three highlights; Bone White, Bone White & Dead White mixed 1:1 and Dead White with a touch of Bone White in it.
5. Shoulder pads are base coated with two coats of Macharius Orange (GW Foundation), then a coat of Orange Fire. I then put on a watered down 1:1 wash of Flesh Ink, and highlighted with progressive mixes of Orange Fire and Gold Yellow.
6. The eyes are Necron Abyss (GW Foundation) with a highlight of Electric Blue.
7. The black parts were highlighted with a mix of Black and Bone White.
8. The gun is just Gunmetal Silver with Badab Black (GW Wash), highlighted with Silver.
9. The base is Charadon Granite (GW Foundation), drybrushed with Dheneb Stone (GW Foundation) and Ghost Grey.
10. The grass is Noch Tufts, drybrushed with Dead Flesh and Bone White.
11. The tactical squad marking is a decal, applied using Microsol and Microset. It is still setting, so looks a little rumpled. It will smooth out in about half an hour.

Only gloss and matt varnish left to go. Let me know what you think in the comments.