Wildstar - Why you disappoint?

So Wildstar went free-to-play and of course there were server issues. But that's not what I'm complaining about. Server issues is just something I expect to happen, no biggie, that's what happens. No, my complaint is with the issues with accounts and rewards. See, I own the Deluxe box edition since day one and it seems that the bonuses to having the box seem to be either different from what was advertised to being non-existent. Doesn't help when the player appreciation rewards that I have been subscribing for don't show up.

Then we have the who NC coin and what it does for you. I was happy with it in the Beta, until you realise that you get no coin for your loyalty. As someone who loves customizability, some just seem ridiculous to get, such as extra limits on costumes and housing, housing extras, but I might look past it, were it not for those blasted carrot coins used for the fortune teller. The one hoverboard that looks decent and you literally have to gamble with actual money just to get it. That is stupid and a disgrace.

In all, I just want my rewards. I can look past the store as 'sure, your a free-to-play model now so I can live with it', but if you tell me I can get these extras for what I've done, then please give me what was promised.

A Conker multiplayer sequel?

Wow.....just wow. This is what happens when good ideas get canned. Yes, I did play Live & Reloaded's multi-player and yes, I had issues with it. The first being no matchmaking and that it relied on people creating games. As a result, I joined many a douche bag games where they were made purely to grief those who entered and got the craps when I refused to put up with their BS (and you know, actually started winning the game). Needless to say, it was those typical Call of Duty tropes with either people aged 12 (who shouldn't have been sold the game) to those who acted like a 12 year old (who shouldn't have been playing the game). Sure Conker has been known for the potty humour, but jeez, we can be adults about having a little friendly competition. Just because the humour is that of a 12 year old, doesn't mean you have to act like one.

Now, with that aside, the concept art looks amazing. I even noticed that the Tediz had a female character, who looks awfully like a panther. This would prove to have an interesting story behind it and with multiple male and female characters, would have proven more popular. This medieval/fantasy setting could have given us some great maps with tones of references, and what better way for Microsoft to pitch DLC by adding more content, mostly cool (or sexy given it's a Conker franchise game) outfits. Hell, throw in a good PC port and that could really go well. New maps could be thrown in and you could even have a competitive tournament play set-up too.

Most companies would probably jump on these ideas, given the current industry, so it seems so weird that this game just wasn't put on hold until the time was right. Instead, Microsoft's interference left the company with such a bad gaming rep that the only good game to have been released in years was in fact, the Rare collection, a collection of games they've already made over the years. As a result of the direction the company was going, a number of big named staff left to form other companies. This is a real shame as there was such a huge amount of possibilities for their franchises, now squandered and left a joke. So sad, particularly since I would have bought this game. Perhaps those former members can find a way to re-acquirer those licences and return some of the glory to those damaged characters.

The dancers have arrived!

So today my Colette crew + 2 boxes of Coryphee (two separate and one to be the duet) arrived. Now comes the hard part, trying to create the right base to put them on. I know I'm just going to do what everyone else does and have a stage floor, but it just really suits the theme. Getting that base however is a lot more harder as there are no resin versions to buy, plasticard strips of the right size are hard to come by and wooden stirrers might not work. Still, plenty of time for that as I still haven't completed my Gremlins, let alone my Outcasts.

As for the game that was planned today, it didn't go ahead. Spent most of our time trying to glue together the Ten Thunders crew and it didn't help that it's instructions were not on Wyrds instructions page. The a big storm was about to hit so he had to go home, so the game fell through. I guess this might give me some time to work more on terrain or Gremlins? I don't know.

Video Game Voice Actors

Really have to agree with most of what is said. As a fan of voice acting (and always wanting to be one), I do feel that voice actors in video games don't get the respect they deserve. It's hard for a person doing a voice in media to be respected compared to say, someone how acts on screen. Yes, I agree that a performance can really make a game and ever since game characters started speaking, having a voice that makes them seem more 'real' is a major factor to that character (and in turn, a games) success.

Even the simplest of voices makes a character. For instance, does the name Charles Martinet mean anything to you. I'd never heard of him until a few years ago. He's the voice of Nintendo's Mario. I know Mario and I know Mario's voice, but had never known about him up until a few years back when my brother got to meet him in person at an expo. And that's just a common character, what about the lesser known names? This is why we need more precognition for these great people.

I can see this problem has entered the film industry too. Look at many of the animated movies. Now look at the ones that were based on something nostalgic. Now compare the voices from the original to the current version. Many of those characters don't sound the same and the reason is that many who had voice actors behind those characters were not called up for the revitalizing of those franchises, but instead were replaced by big named actors who sounded nothing like the original characters. Why? To these film makers think bringing in big names sells movies? Do they not understand that trying to sell a movie based on nostalgia requires, you know, that which makes it nostalgia? It's a big problem.

Personally, I'd love to thank those who are the voices behind the characters we love, both from video games and animation. It is to them that truly gives a character personality and life and it is thanks to them that many products (and sequels, prequels and spin offs) are sold on.

A Sanity Update

So as you may have noticed over time, updates tend to come is small bursts. This is due to my depression and as such, it can make writing articles very difficult. I have a tone of ideas, but nothing gets done due to it. As of this week, this condition went downhill rather badly.

You may have noticed that last week I did a short article on suicide and some of the basic thoughts that go through ones mind at the time. Well, Tuesday night at work was one such occasion, in which the stress and physical pain brought on by my work place (who I can't name for legal reasons, that being I'm still employed by them) brought on a series of such thoughts that left me in a rather bad way. Now having been down this road before, I do have some ways of handling it, but the result has left me unable to work until I get medical clearance (and oh boy, will my doctor have something to say about this). Needless to say, the following days were quite scary, though now I'm more confused as to what to do.

Now the problem with all this is that, while I now have time to rest, I'm having trouble with having things to do that would improve my health. I don't really know many people and out of them, I can't really talk to any one of them for support. Likewise, I have had a complete lack of energy and motivation (more so them usual) which has effected my ability to do anything. The depression is bad and while coping mechanisms can only do so much, I need some distractions too to help.

Although, I did get that citadel forest painted up (minus any foliage, still need to get that) and with any luck I might get a photo of that and upload it, along with my WiP Gremlins, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to be looking at study options for next year in order to keep myself active, though what they are I still don't know, but my clinical psychologist says it should be something to do with my likes and that I can use it in everyday activities (probably in relation to those likes). My focus was too much on a future career and because some career councillors are incapable of helping you plan that (think about that one for a second), I am now told to focus more on it like an everyday thing or a hobby instead and see what becomes of that career wise. Not sure myself, but if anyone has any ideas I'm opened to suggestions to look at.

As for the next few days, I'm not entirely sure. With luck, I'll hear from my doctor tomorrow and hopefully come up with a plan, but I do know my brother wants to come around Tuesday for another game of Malifaux. His crew box has arrived (his first master is Misaki while he waits for his next master, Shen Long, to be released) and with luck, the game mat will arrive. Perhaps a game of that might lift my spirits.

I don't know. We'll see...

I need a change of pace

Life is not treating me well at the moment and I've begun to question a lot of things.



Perhaps I need to find a series of cute kitten pictures to make me feel better.

Movie Fail: Angry Birds Trailer

One might expect me to talk about a movie failing after I had seen it, but this trailer was enough for me to call it.

There are several things wrong with this trailer. The first seems to be the re-designs, with me simply pointing out that there was no reason for this. The second is the movies plot, being that of a prequel to the games it seems, with a bunch of unnecessary bird characters, the pigs only now just showing up (with the main pig shown being someone who hasn't been in the games, or if he has then the redesign destroyed it) and what is their main plot? That three birds have issues and they get counselling for it? Way to grab the audience into that thrilling adventure.

Speaking of the characters, only three birds are named for this and not a single named pig is shown. But the worse part of this for me is the voices. Must every voice acting roll in movies have to be done by actors. I mean, you do know we have a large variety of actual voice actors who would be more then happy to work on this. And while I bitch about the Smurfs not sounding like the Smurfs, taking characters who don't talk and giving them not only words to say, but confusing personalities that say it. If anything, Red feels the most out of place in this trailer and he's technically the main character.

This is the problem with taking a nostalgic or franchised product and making it into a modern movie, no one seems to get the product and it fails. Game base movies don't work cause no one understands the product or sticks to the lore. In this case we have two series of their animated show, one series featuring Stella and friends and a show dedicated to the pigs. Yet despite all these shows, this movie trailer shows none of those features that made the shows good. Really beginning to loose faith not only in the movie industry, but in products and animation general.

Understanding Suicide

This is not a topic I ever like to reflect on, but now seems like one of those times that I must. I won't draw attention to a particular situation, but a number of Youtubers have stopped making videos for a few days after learning of the tragic events of one of there own. The saddest part is, this isn't the first time and it will most likely not be the last.

However, it seems that people lack an understanding of why? This tends to lead people to the conclusion that those who commit this act are somehow selfish and care little for the feelings of others. The thing is, it's actually the opposite. If anything, some do it because they feel they are a burden to others and by doing so, they hope to take away that stress and burden that they feel they are. Others tend to find themselves in situations that they feel there is no escape from and trust me when I say, that is a very terrifying feeling. Simple words can hurt more then any physical wound could and at the wrong time, a persons self control can reach breaking point.

So why? Mostly cause society still has trouble accepting depression and many don't know how to deal with it. Those with it tend to find it hard to seek help, partly cause they'll feel no one will understand or that they'll be ridiculed or that simply seeking help is a true sign of weakness. It's so easy for people to attack those with it, clearly cause those type of people have self-esteem issues (as do most Internet trolls). Because those with it feel that no one will understand or that they feel that they maybe misunderstood, they keep their emotions bottled up and that eventually becomes too much to bare.

But why am I talking about it? Thing is, I've had clinical depression for roughly 17 years and it's gotten worse over time. I had gone through that how 'should I, shouldn't I' phase of suicide in my teens and it was only cause my mother took action and from that I decided to not go through with it. It hasn't stopped the thoughts and there has been more then a few times that I've considered it over the years, but I now find the thought scary and tend to take things day by day to cope better. That said, I have been seeing a clinical psychologist recently and while we have had some dark moments, I have found her help to be just that, helpful. Life isn't the best, but I'm beginning to see things from a different point of view. I may have it for the rest of my life, but I'm learning ways to help keep living that life.

If you feel like this, if you feel your heading to that dark place, please seek help. If you know someone who has depression, talk to them and let them know your there to help. Seeking help is not a weakness. If anything, doing so shows you have more courage them most people. So please, seek help and try to stay positive, no matter how dark it gets.

Some good news for once

So I went back to the newsagent and asked about the F.a.T mats and apparently he's getting a whole bunch of stuff in. He plays miniature wargames himself and despite being a combined newsagent and post office, trying to make a living has become increasingly difficult, so he through in selling his favourite hobby into the mix.

What surprised me was that it was actually successful. Many stores in the city are moving away from miniatures, focusing mostly on ones like Hordes and stuff so a lot of the upcoming popular ones are not being sold there. This store has begun selling them and people are buying them up. So I've ordered a mat from him and will probably get another one or two in the future. If he starts selling terrain and Malifaux, I might find myself buying more in the future. Certainly getting paints will be much more easier and given his love of the hobby, he's actually got me excited to paint miniatures from other games, even if I probably will never play them.

Suddenly have the eager to go and paint some terrain.

First game of Malifaux

So we finally got around to having a game of Malifaux and it was very enjoyable. Unfortunately, despite taking a number of photos, most were blurred. Problem with my camera is you can take a photo, look at it through the camera use close up on it and it looks perfect, yet when it's transferred to the computer it looks bloody terrible. So yeah, very few shots for this one.

As you can see, I really lacked a bunch of terrain. I also lack a game mat, though I just learned that the local newsagents is starting to sell miniatures and stuff and it just so happens that they will be selling appropriate size game mats for Malifaux. As for terrain, still going to need to get a lot more, but my brothers terrain did help here. That, and as you can also see, most of it still needs to be painted (hell, the 40K ruins still have the old paint from when we first got it.

For this game we were using 25 soulstone limit with myself playing Gremlins and my brother playing Ten Thunders. Since he doesn't have a crew box for himself yet, he was using my Jacob Lynch crew. As you may noticed from the set up shop, I haven't had a chance to paint them up, so it's just another thing to do on my long list of things to do.

Gremlins

Ten Thunders

So the deployment was Standard and the strategy was Reckoning. The schemes that were available to us were the standard A Line in the Sand with the other four were Protect Territory, Bodyguard, Power Ritual and Spring the Trap. I choose Bodyguard and Protect Territory while my brother chose Bodyguard and A Line in the Sand. My bodyguard was on Rami while my brothers was on one of the Illuminated from the group of two in the ruins.

Set up for us was fairly standard, with two Illuminated hiding in the ruins, Hungering Darkness near the burnt out ruins and an Illuminated and the Effigy in the dead forest. Francois and a Bayou Gremlin hind behind a large bolder, Rami and the Bushwhacker behind the building and Raphael near the bushes.

Turn 1

We moved up. Seriously, that's all that happened this turn. Actually, this was the start of my first downfall as I moved Rami up and had the Bushwhacker just in front of him.

Turn 2

Mr Darkness assaults Raphael (Raph fails his TN when he tried to assault back), The Shadow Effigy attacks the Bushwhacker and the Illuminated that was with him assaulted Rami. Rami dies, so I failed bodyguard and the feeling of stupidity flows strongly through me. Both the remaining Illuminated move up to the large rock and both drop scheme markers.

Turn 3

Shadow Effigy deals another point of damage, but then chooses to use his special ability on his Illuminated buddy, before the bushwhacker kills him. Then that so-called buddy comes in, but fails to kill him. However, this turn ending means a scheme marker it dropped. One Illuminated charges Francois and badly wounds him, with Francois striking back and killing him and thus, ends any VP's from my brothers Bodyguard. The other Illuminated moves and drops another scheme marker while my Bayou Gremlin moves in and drops his own. Both Raph (who is still failing to attack) and Darkness (doing barely any damage) just seem to stand there and play slaps with each other.

Turn 4

So Mr 'I'm so good at dropping scheme markers' Illuminated straight up range kills my Bayou Gremlin. Illuminated failed to kill the Bushwhacker and Francios fails to shoot the Illuminated. Again Raph just seems to keep failing to hit Darkness and Darkness is still doing minimum damage back.

Turn 5

Simply put, it is the exact same as turn four, nothing to note actually happened and with that, the game ended.

Aftermath

And so the game ends with a 2-1 win to my brother. This game took close to 2+ hours to play so excuse me if this report is a little underwhelming. Having this being our first game, we were spending more time consulting the rules compared to paying attention to every detail in the game. That said, we had a bunch of fun, though I feel I made too many mistakes (considering I've spent at least a month looking at rules and watching videos).

We both learned that our hands had terrible cards for cheating and we barely made use of our soulstones. I should have given bodyguard to Raphael or maybe should have kept the best range guy at, you know, range instead of moving him to where melee characters could reach him. I also misunderstood one of my schemes so I stuffed that up too.

Overall, it was a good first game. This means that we'll be able to play faster in the future, which will give me more time to figure out how to get the best camera shots. Problem is, is that the owner of the unit I live in (I board, too bloody expensive to live by yourself) has taken a number of weeks off work to play Forza 6, so working on photos or even a video just isn't going to work too well. Still, my brother is now looking at the various crews and models to look at building up his Ten Thunders in the future and the plan is to try to play a game once a week or fortnight at the latest and hopefully I'll get some better terrain or even a new mat to help make these more visually pleasing.

Well see.

The problem with terrain

I've done a number of painting and conversions when it comes to miniatures over the years, but never have I come across a problem like this. The decision to design and make my own terrain for a board has proven a lot harder then I had originally thought. Terrain is very expensive and so I need to make some due to a very tight budget, but in doing so it has proven to be both a major time sink and a lesson in frustration.

Currently I've just about finished two big boulders, but they haven't turned out the way I had wanted. Likewise, the trees I'm working on have proven to be even more tricky to do and I'll documenting their construction in the hopes that someone can point out more helpful ways to craft them. There are a few videos on Youtube on making terrain and it's the one on making buildings that I'm really hoping will give me the inspiration I need. After all, it will mostly be used in games of Malifaux and considering that place has architecture that's inspired from all over the world, you'd think designing all this would be a lot more easier. Perhaps a trip to the library and it's various books on architecture might help.

I'm just thankful my brother has lent me his Citadel trees and those old 40k small ruin bits, though they are only undercoated black. Still, should be enough for when he pops on over tomorrow for our first ever Malifaux game. Given the pain I'm in, I look forward to a little fun.

Australian Politics

Another day, another Prime Minister. Honestly, I don't get what the fuss is all about. I spent years studying the politics of this country cause, believe it or not, I actually wanted to be a politician. I wanted to stand for the people and do the things that most politicians didn't have the guts to do. They are voted to represent the people and it just wasn't happening. And after all that time, what did I learn?

Politics is an old man power game and if you don't do as your told, your out. Even independents have little choice and as someone I know who joined a big party to make changes learned, it destroys your reputation and you have no choice but to obey or your out. Those like myself who would enter for the right to serve the people would end up just serving those at the top.

But let's get back to what is currently going on. People are upset that a party in power can just change a leader and thus, change a Prime Minister. This might seem like a fair point at first glance, until you realise that you don't vote for a Prime Minister, you vote for a party to become the Government. You don't decide who gets what portfolio nor do you get a choice on what policies get made and passed. In essence, you a simply voting for a group of people who you trust will do the right thing by you. The Prime Minister is simply the Governments leading individual, chosen by that party and while he can override certain decisions, he only remains leader while he has enough support.

People say they want democracy, well this is it in full swing. It's only now that some people are realising what is going on. Sure people wanted Tony Abbott to remain leader until the next election, but that's only cause they want to feel like they had the power to throw him out. In this current age, people will complain, but they won't take action. For them, they feel that by the next election (three year period) they'll 'show them' by voting them out.

It's sad that many voters tend to vote this way too, preferring to vote based on who they hate the most instead of, you know, policies and actual achievements. Then again, politics is a nasty business and if it's one thing we hate, it's a bloody wanker, and politics are full of them. As for my stance, Tony Abbott was a dangerous man to have in power and while Malcolm Turnbull isn't the most charismatic politician, he is certainly a much better choice as leader of the Liberal party (also note, I despise the major parties, though I dislike the LNP the most).

As far as the complaints about how much better this would be if we'd gone Republic and used that political system, just remember that Donald Trump is in a good running to be the next US President. Now replace him with Clive Palmer or Gina Rinehart. Let that haunt your nightmares.


As I've said in the past, Mr Squiggle needs to be Prime Minister. At least he's a puppet you can trust.
~Zargooran

Armello - What a game

You can check out their site here: Armello

So what is Armello? Well, it's a video game, done in the style of a board game with a card game with miniatures. Except it's characters aren't miniatures, but animal anthropomorphics and it's bloody brilliant game.

Don't be fooled by the lovely animated trailers, the only animated cut-scene is the intro trailer in the game and yet, that doesn't take away from the experience. The art is beautiful and the music just suits this games style and aesthetics. It's smooth and surprisingly it has very few bugs that I've noticed (and after playing multiple games, I've noticed all of one bug that was in one game and it sort of fixed itself).

So what is it all about? Armello features four clans (Rabbit, Wolf, Rat and Bear) who were united by a Lion and he became King. However, a corrupting power called the Rot has infected the King, driving him mad and slowly killing him. As such, it's a race against time for you to complete objectives and take over as the new ruler in one of four victory's you can win with. They are Presage (the highest when the King dies wins), Combat (beat the King in combat, you must survive that combat to win this), Corrupt (same as Combat, but you must have enough Rot to be corrupted when you kill him) and Spirit Stone (collect four Spirit Stones before you confront the King)

Obviously, this is a 4-player game, though single player can be challenging enough. You can pick from one of eight characters (one male and one female from each clan) and each one has their own stats and an ability. The clans themselves gain a bonus on the type of day (yes, there is a day/night cycle) and you can pick one ring and one amulet to help give your character an advantage. Most a locked, but rings are earned by playing games with that clan where as the amulets are unlocked by getting that victory type (boosting your chance of getting that victory type if you choose it). Each turn starts with the King, who by day two will give the player with the highest prestige (declared the Prestige Leader) a choice from one of two cards that will take effect. Then the Kings guards move around before the players get to go. The night turn has corrupt crow creatures (called Banes) move (guards are day) and getting killed by a Bane will increase your Rot level by one.

I'm still not sure how the card draw phase works as it seems to screw me over all the time, but when you do draw it's from one of three decks: Equipment, Spells and Trickery. There are other cards like Followers and Royal Items, but these are obtained through quests or exploring a dungeon tile. Equipment, Followers and Royal Item cards can be attached to your character (at a cost) where as spells can be cast if you have enough spirit and trickery can be used to help better yourself or screw over others. Each card also has a symbol. These are used for both combat and in perils. Perils require a combination of symbols, which you get by rolling dice. You can sacrifice a card so that one of those die matches the symbol on the card. Combat works slightly differently with shields giving one block per shield and swords giving one attack per sword. Other symbols also affect the combat (like the time of day affecting if a sun or moon symbol will help) while rot ones tend to benefit the most corrupt. Each character has a certain number of hit points (a.k.a the Body stat which is shown in hearts) and when reduced to zero you die and re-spawn at your clan grounds.

Needless to say, some victories are easier to obtain then others and you can find yourself one minute with the best run only for your opponent to play a card that turns all your card symbols into rot symbols (damn it Thane!). Yeah, there have been one or two games where I've felt cheated, but then I just keep getting the eager to have another go. The graphics and art is simply amazing, with the cards also having their own lore text, along with the name and signature or the artist for the art and the animator (for the cards that are animated). The music works well too and most single player games run just over half an hour if things aren't being dragged out. Some people do have a gripe about not skipping over the computer opponents turns to speed things up, but for me it's only a slight annoyance. That said, this game does have multi-player, but I have yet to play that, though like most board games it's best to play amongst friends and have a good old time.

If your interested then go check out a game or two that's probably been played by a Let's Player (heck, might do a video myself on it), see what you think and if it's for you then it's available on Steam.


Edit: So apparently, this thing was a kickstarter at some point and has been in early access for a short while. How did I not know about this? I mean, the company that made it got Australian funding from the Australian Government and Film Victoria, so how was something like this missed? I feel bad about this now, cause this is one of those projects I would have loved to have backed on kickstarter. Come on Australia, we gotta pick up our act if we expect good things from this industry. Oh well, I did buy the game and the soundtrack so at least they got that (and I am enjoying playing both).

Still Miniature Related

So yeah, there has been a somewhat lack of updates as of recently. What's more curious is my complete lack of commentary on Wyrd's Malifaux world event. Well...

I'm actually working on that part. See the thing is, there is no groups in my region to play with (well there is one, but they only play one day a week at a certain place at a certain time, which I can't get too), so I require my brother to join me if I want to play any games. As such, I'm working on times to get him over to play a game or two.

The second is that actual game board itself. I don't have anything of that size, so I've had to obtain an appropriate size piece of wood to use as a gaming board and give it a quick base coat (still stinking out the back door). The other problem is a complete lack of scenery. See, we've mostly played our games of Warhammer at GW stores, so now when it comes to my own games, I've got no scenery. As such, I did find an old Sigmar Chapel I got cheap off Ebay a few years back (it's missing a few parts) that I had once planned to use as part of a now failed Armies on Parade board. I got some cheap plastic barrels (not very good, but it's a start) and have made a small burnt out hut using various craft sticks.

I'm currently working on some trees, starting with a wired base and then will use modelling putty or green stuff to cover it and add detail. Still need to order clump foliage for it, along with some foam so I can start sculpting large rocks for cover. Also plan to make fences using craft sticks and skewers, using a clay base to keep it steady. Not very professional, but you do what you must when on a tight budget. Hopefully in the future I will be able to order those building everyone else seems to use in their Malifaux games.

Will try to get something uploaded within the week.

Malifaux: Shifting Loyalties short review (some spoilers)

While I'm still learning a lot about reviewing and that I tend to do very short reviews of the novels I've read, this was something I just really wanted to talk about. Before I do that however, I guess I need to talk briefly about the previous two books and what they contained.

Malifaux 2.0

The main rule book that teaches you the rules of the game. The rules are set up in a way that are a little confusing and as such, I did have some trouble understanding them (videos on Youtube helped fix that), though there is a starters pack that does explain it a lot better apparently. Surprisingly, it also has rules for running a story mode style game featuring a series of battles, my favourite being one where your trying to achieve goals without attacking the enemy crew and the first side who takes damage from an enemies attack gets bonus points before all hell breaks loose (all I can think of is one of those old saloon bar fights you see in the movies). It also lays the foundation rules for Avatars which we wouldn't see until Shifting Loyalties.

Each faction comes with rules for at least three Masters per faction, along with models from those crew boxes plus a bunch of minions. Along with this there is a story for each faction, usually containing two or all three of those Masters involved. Those models shown in this book was Wave 1 of Wyrd's Malifaux plastics release.

Malifaux: Crossroads

Still not sure about the title, given that the only Crossroads I've seen mentioned in Malifaux was the Crossroads 7, and they didn't show up till Shifting Loyalties.

Anyway, this one features another three Masters for each faction, but also a story for each Master and a Strategy/story game for each story. A lot more fluff and more models for what is Wave 2. A couple of these story base games even have rules for a model to go with it, from a Golden Pig to the pumpkin head scarecrow called The Carver (is a Halloween horror anymore scary compared to what normally roams the streets of Malifaux at night?). If you want to read more stories or try out new game missions then you might want to consider this book.

Malifaux: Shifting Loyalties

So now we get on with this book and to simplify it I'll brake it down into three parts.

Rules:

The focus of this book was to set up rules for Campaign gaming. What is it? Well, it's design for a small group up to a club or higher and is driven by weekly games (around 2 or so). Each week a card is drawn and that effect is applied to all games that week. The campaign starts with games around the 35 Soulstone mark, can't include a Master and the leaders cost IS added to the crews total cost. As the campaign goes on there are rules to help balance games out, along with injury charts, items and skills that can be purchase with a currency called Scrip, which you earn at the end of each battle. Optional rules range from removing the injury system or giving the option to spend scrip to head to the doctor to more competitive rules for tournaments and hide outs. Avatars are now introduced, though they seem to be limited to the Campaign.

I'm really excited to try these rules out, though sadly there are no game clubs around here that do it, so I may just have to do a story mode style with my brother.

Models

So there are more Enforcers in this book, probably due to there being so few in the last one, along with a bunch of nice minions to boot. The main focus is set on two main groups: The Crossroads 7 and the Emissaries. The Crossroads 7 are a band featuring one member from each faction, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. Their leader, Wrath, wants revenge against the two who cursed them and despite being a Henchmen, can lead a force in a 50+ Soulstone game, so long as the crew consists of all seven members of the Crossroads 7.

The Emissaries were originally the Effigies that each faction had (introduced in the Crossroads book) and have now been infused with power during the event that takes place in the book. They have two main features. The first is that they can have a single upgrade, one that is set or they can pick one based on which Master is leading the crew, so it gains an aura and a power based on the Master in the crew. Their second feature is Power Sink. When the crew earns 1 or more VP (Victory Points) from a Strategy it gains Destined+1 condition for the rest of the game and gives the Emissary an effect. Each Emissary has an ability that once it has Destined+2 it can remove it's Destined condition to give a rather nifty effect (some better then others).

Story (spoilers)

Once again, each faction has it's own story with the final one explaining the great Event. Each faction story seems to have a particular purpose, though some contribute to the overall happenings in Malifaux better then others. The Outcast has Taelor telling a story about her past with some truth involved which some might consider a tall tale, the Ten Thunders has a great story that questions 'is what they are doing right?' and the Neverborn story;s twist is about Zoraida's past and the time paradox of her coming to Malifaux. Some weren't happy with the ending of the Gremlins one, but I've always considered Som'er Teeth Jones to be characterised as having a big ego, but is slightly incompetent, so I enjoyed the story (though I do agree that the Brewmaster part at the end wrapped it up too quickly).

So what of this great Event? It involves the Governor-General trying to summon a Tyrant's power into himself and failing spectacularly. While it's great to finally get some good information on the Governor-General, he seemed to be a very short lived character. It has Perdita arguing with the Governor-General, the rise of the Emissaries, the tragic battle of Lady Justice, Zoraida's trap failing and Gremlins not giving a crap. A very touching tale indeed.

Final Thoughts

An interesting book. For me the campaign rules are great, though some involve neutral models showing up, meaning I'd need models to represent them (like Guild Guard or Swampfiends etc) so that could be problematic for smaller groups. The idea of building a hide out is always a winner in my book.

The stories were alright, though I really enjoyed the Ten Thunders one which makes me ask the question to those who support them: 'Are they any better then the Guild?' and while Wyrd haven't finish releasing Wave 2, I am looking forward to this Waves releases, particularly those of the Outcast, Arcanists and of course, Gremlins. The Gremlin Emissary on that wheel feels me with joy. Perhaps he should race Snikkotto and his Doomwheel.

Now that would be a sight to see.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff

Anyway...

If you are looking to play just the basic game, then you don't need this book. If you want more from the game however, then give this one a shot.