A Forthnight in Hobbying

Ok, instead of a weekly dissection I bring you my custom made Whiskeygolem.

So I started bying this from Renedra limited (2 packs of 10 barrels):

http://www.renedra.co.uk/webstore.html

After that I started assembling a few barrels to make the legs and lower part of the body. 

I also bought some  legs, feet (which I didn't use in the end) and the exhaust of a dreadnought from GW. 

I cut up the legs to place them closer together.

As you can see the exhaust was used as a backpack and also it was a way to disguise the arms a bit. I mad shoulderpads out of one of the smaller barrels.

After assembly I pinned the 2 parts together and then undercoated it white. After that I did the barrels and ropes in brown and the exhaust and arms in metal.

I gave it all a brown wash and then used the new technical paints from GW (Rust and corrosion). I'm very pleased with the paints. They are easy to use and give a good finish to the model.

Hope you enjoyed this and I can't recommend the people at Renedra enough. A small range to convert with, but it's a awesome quality and it's great if you just want some scatter terrain on the table.

Gremlin dissection: bayou gremlins

In this dissection we have a look at the humble bayou gremlin. He is really the bread and butter of the faction and I’ll try to explain what tactics can be used in conjunction with this minion.

The stats

This minion is fairly average in his stats. There is nothing that jumps out at you and it should because you are paying only 3 soulstones for this critter. He is one of the lowest costing significant models that is also very versatile in what it can do on the board. He only has 4 Wounds and a WP of 4. He has a WK of 5 and a Charge of 7, which can give him a 13’ threat range if needed.

Overall, you get what you pay for cannonfodder to use when needed.

The skills

He has an interesting ability: Bayou Two Card. This allows him to cheat the top card from his deck. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you don’t want to spend a high card to cheat a low flip, why not use this ability to improve your duel. You can get lucky and draw a 13 of rams or get a 1 of crows.

Remember that you can Cheat Fate here and so can also cheat you damage flip if you wanted to (and can of course)

The next one is Drunk & Reckless. This ability gives you 1AP at the expense of 2 wounds. You have to declare it at the start of your turn, so think before you start to move. I normally don’t have a problem with my opponents if I do an action first and then say I’ve taken this ability, but in tournaments you need to watch out and try to remember it.

You can reduce the wounds however with the help of Lenny. More on this later.

The last one is High Pitched Squeel. This is a defensive trigger on a mask which lets you push away after a Ml attack. Normally the gremlin is dead after the first strike, but it’s still a fun ability to have.

The actions

He has 2 actions.

The first one is Boomstick. It has a Shooting of 4 and a Rg of 12. The damage is a low 1/2/3(blast), but that’s not all the shooting attack does. He has 4 triggers on his gun and you need to declare a trigger if possible. So, You’ll always have to use one and this can be an disadvantage as well.

The triggers that you need to declare are all suit related. One is the Dumb luck trigger which allows you to deal double damage and you suffer half. Another one is Whoops, Ricochet which deals 1 damage to friendly gremlin within 12 and LoS(so if you can’t see anything the trigger doesn’t go off). The next one, What if … more powder?, gives you more blasts on your attack. And the last on, I got ‘im, Pa!, pushes you 3’’ toward the enemy target.

The second attack is a basic Ml attack of 4 (Banjo Bash) and a range of 1. The damage is a low 1/2/3. There are no triggers. It can be useful if you only need to do 1 Wd on a model before it is dead, otherwise you know that your bayou gremlin isn’t on the board at the end of the next turn.

The tricks

It’s a minion, so you can’t take upgrades with this model.

The upgrades that work with this model is: Show off

This allows you to take a 2 action and make a casting flip. If you succeed everything in a range of 2 suffer 3 pulse damage. This is a nice one to give to Lenny since he is Ht 3 and I’ll only use this if I’ve got a lot of gremlins at my disposal. You need to sacrifice the model afterwards. So it can be a help in reckoning if you see that your gremlin is about to die. Blow him up before your opponent has the chance to kill him / her.

The looks

I really like the look of the new models. I am going to buy the new box set because you need to differentiate between the models. I own all the old bayou gremlins twice, so if I have 4 other gremlins, then there will be no more discussion about who was summoned and who had some wounds ect.

I like the attitudes of the models as well. They look vicious and mean, a bit less cartoony than the old models (which I find a bit sad).

The playbook

You can see the gremlin in a few different ways.

First he can be a resource. You need them to summon more gremlins with Somer. So you will need at least 2 or 3 to get the summoning train on the rails. And if you lose one early you need to have a backup or two just in case. So stock up on this little minion.

Secondly they can be bought to out-activate your opponent. They are cheap; so if you buy of them then you only have spend  12 points. If you buy 8 you’ve only spend 24 soulstones. These 8 models are probably more than your whole opponent’s crew.

Now why do you want lots of these gremlins? Well in certain scenarios like reconnoiter and stake a claim you need the models to achieve your objectives. The same can be said for certain schemes like plant explosives or breakthrough. All you need to do is spread out a bit and your opponent needs to divide his troops in order to deal with your VP scoring threat.

Another thing to think about is that these models are fast. It isn’t ap

parent in their profile, but with the ability to gain an extra AP you can move 15’’ on the board. That’s almost half of the table turn 1. You need to take 2 wounds but in the next turn you can lay down a scheme marker on the center line or interact with terrain or other models in the enemies half of the table. That alone is huge. You have mobility and speed to counter any model that threathens to come close. In a last resort, run him in and let him explode or tie the model up for a turn (use defensive stance then) so he can’t make that move that was crucial for that turn.

Last thing to remember. Lenny. He is so good with these Bayou Gremlins. He can give them an automatic ram in their attacks which inflict double damage. He reduces their drunk and reckless ability to only 1 WD. He can chuck these models up the board (you can't take interact actions this turn though), and let them move up to 25'' up the board. So he is really a key piece when you use a lot of Bayou Gremlins.

Hope this helped you fellow greenskins out there. See you next time.

Gremlin dissection: Lenny

In this dissection we have the Green mean dumb fighting machine: Lenny. He’s an enforcer that has a great supporting role in most gremlin crews.

The stats

He has a DF of 4 and a WP of 1, which is very low. The WP can be a problem, but as we delve into the model this isn’t that big of a problem as you might think. His cost is 9, which is high and a Ht of 3 which can be a problem when you shoot at him in combat.

Overall he is pretty average in his stats. Where he really shines, is in his passive abilities. He gives  your crew some buffs and reduces the damage your models take.

The skills

He has the ability Big target. This aura reduces all damage by one to a minimum of 1. The range is a bit short, but if you keep him near your key models, then you can make the most use of this ability. What does this ability mean? For your basic bayou gremlins this means that your drunk and reckless ability only costs you 1 wound instead of 2.

Also it means that you ignore damage from every source. It isn’t armor so” ignore armor abilities” don’t  apply to this. Burning damage is reduced ect. This is quite a useful ability to have.

He has Hard to Wound +1.  A nice ability to have since this is the only real defense you have.

Dumber luck is the most important reason why you take Lenny. He gives all gremlins and pigs in the aura-range the ram suit in their total. So this means that all your bayou gremlins and masters like somer and Ophelia have the dumb luck trigger automatically if they want. There are only a few times when I don’t take the dumb luck trigger on my gremlins. The damage potential they can dish out is huge and your opponent will think twice when they want to get into range of your gunline.

The last ability is Numbskull. This ability makes him immune to conditions. So this means for all negative abilities (like poison, burning, paralyze and slow), but also your positive abilities (like focus, defensive stance, fast). This is a good ability against crews  like Rasputina who hands out slow and paralyze or Pandora which makes you tale horrorduels (you can fail the duel, but are immune to the paralyze).

The actions

He has 3 actions.

The first one is Whack’n Stick. It has a decent Ml of 6 and a good damagespread. The trigger is a nice one on a ram. If you succeed, the enemy may not declare walk action while engaged .

What this means is that you can’t move away from Lenny or another model in which you are engaged with. Even if Lenny is gone you still can’t move if there is an enemy model in Ml range. This can be handy if Lenny is pulled away by a movement-trick  (Ooo, a girl for example)and the target enemy model is still engaged.

Overall a nice attack to have.

Next one is the Toss ability. You can push a Ht 1 model 10’ away from you.You reposition your own models or deal with enemy models that are too close to Lenny or other key models. They can get Dmg if they come in base contact with models or impassable terrain, so that’s a bonus. They also become insignificant.

The last one is a healing flip which requires a 9 of any suit. The Pet the Piggy! ability is a bit too difficult to cast so I rarely use it. You have other abilities that can heal up gremlin models.

The tricks

I tend to go low on upgrades on this model.

The only 3 I would consider are:

I’ll love it and pet it … : this gives you a shooting attack which can summon a piglet on a trigger. It’s only one soulstone, so if you have one to spare you can give yourself some more summoning-abilities.

It doesn’t have a shootingsymbol, so cover doesn’t apply to this attack. Something to consider …

Show off: this one can be handy if you play in a bayou heavy list. Somer comes in mind for this upgrade. You can stick it on Lenny instead of somer to free up an upgrade for somer. Also he is Ht 3 so he can draw line of sight over Ht 2 terrain.

Dirty cheater: I wouldn’t use this one on him regularly. The more optimal choices are Francois and your master, but if you have kill protégé in you scheme pool, then this one can make Lenny  a little bit more durable.

The looks

I like the look of this model. He has thez allure of a dumb brute and the piglet is quite funny. I like the old model too though. I can’t wait to get my hands on a new plastic Lenny.

The playbook

Like I’ve discussed before he is a great buffer in your crew. He works great with the Wave 1 masters: Somer and even more so with Ophellia. I don’t have any experience yet with the wave 2 masters.

Keep him back away from danger. He has 10 Wd, but can go down fairly easy if left unprotected. A slophauler near him can do wonders to keep the wounds to a minimum.

I sometimes use the toss ability when needed. Normally I try to toss Pere Ravage up the field and then let him wreak havoc .

Overall an excellent piece on the board, but you need to watch out for his low Wp.

Gremlin dissection: Pere Ravage

In the next dissection of the gremlin crew we have Pere Ravage. He’s the “heavy blast and pulse dealer” gremlin in the La Croix family.

The stats

He also has an average statline with the exception of his low WP. He is a cost of 6 and has 7 wounds. It’s pretty good, because you are going to try to be a deterrent to your opponent and for 6 points that’s a good deterrent in my eyes.

The skills

He has the ability Reckless which gives him an additional AP at the start of the turn. This will cost him 1 wound.

He has explosive demise 4 so everything around him in 2’’ range gets 4 damage when this model is killed (and not sacrificed, which means that he only explodes when he is reduced to 0 wounds) This can come in handy when he gets stuck into Ml and then you can try to shoot him. If you hit this model then you can potentially kill more models than you could normally. This makes an excellent piece to drop into the enemy lines and be a nuisance to deal with without losing a lot pieces in the process.

The last ability he has is Squeel, which is a defensive trigger and needs a mask. You can push away 4’’from a Ml Attack after you received damage. You can potentially stop a second attack on a charger or stop a Flurry action.

The actions

He has 2 attack actions: Burn Stick and Breathe Fire.

The Burn Stick has a rg of 1 and a Ml of 5. it does blast damage on medium and double blast on severe damage. on a ram he gets critical stike, which give +1 damage for every ram in the total.

The Breathe Fire attack has a rg of 8 and Sh of 5, which is fairly average. In all honesty, I’ve never have used this attack during my games. It has a lower damage output than the mL attack, but the same blasts apply here. On ram though it does triple damage. The downside is that you have to sacrifice the model, so his explosive demise doesn’t work.

He also has a tactical action Oopsie!.

This has a casting and a TN of 10 and a tome, which is a bit more difficult to get since you can’t use soulstones. The action lets everybody in a pulse of 6 make a TN Df 13 duel or suffer 5 damage. You can do this action 2 times of you want. And with a reckless action you can move up and do this action twice. Your model is killed afterwards of course, but you get an explosive demise of because he was killed and not sacrificed.

The tricks

The only upgrade I would consider is team work. Not for the innate ability to make you Ht 2, but for the 1 action, which places this model in bas contact with an enemy model and makes you push your other gremlin model out of harms way. That way the regular harmless bayou gremlin for example can become this exploding gremlin which can cause a lot of serious damage in your enemies crew.

The looks

I like the new model. It’s quite quirky and gives the gremlins back some of the random silly-ness that the new art is missing a bit in my eyes. I’ll definitely get the new model once it comes out and perhaps use this new model instead of the old model (when it is released).

The playbook

This model is there to do 1 thing. It needs to explode and take other models with it. It’s not a good model in reckoning, but in the other strategies it can become a board control character.

You can use him in different ways because of the blast damage and the pulse damage. You just need to kill him yourself or let him be killed by your opponent. Otherwise you do’t get the full potential out of this model.

Now to get it into enemy lines you can do a few things.

One, do the reckless ability and walk him up 15’

Two, toss him with Lenny. You become insignificant, but that’s not why this model is on the table. You can even deal some more damage with this toss if you push him against another model.

Three, you can launch him with the pigapult anywhere within 24’. You can drop a bomb in the enemy line and normally you out activate your opponent so your paralyze usually isn’t an issue. Just wait until your opponent is done with his activations and then launch Pere. Then let him activate and lose his paralyze. Next turn he is ready to wreak havoc.

Four, if you play with Ophelia you can push him into base contact with here and then move him further. This gives you an extra moveboost.

Five, the upgrade team work can move him into enemy lines and get your own models out of harms way.

Gremlin dissection: Raphael Lacroix

In the next dissection of the gremlin crew we have Raphael Lacroix. He’s the “heavy damage absorption” gremlin in the LaCroix family.

The stats

He has some average stats and the only thing that springs out is his CG of 8. He’s also a height of 1.

The skills

He has the ability Reckless which gives him an additional AP at the start of the turn. This will cost him 1 wound.

He has fueled by panic ,which is an interesting ability. as long as he as 4 WD or less he gets a [+] to damage flips and gets no damage from the reckless ability.

He has hard to kill, which means you first have to bring him down to 1 WD. then you need another attack to kill him. So even if you do 15 damage, you can only get him to 1 WD first and then you need to spend another AP to kill him with an attack or spell. This is a nice ability to have.

He also has Armor +1 which reduces damage by 1 to a minimum of 1.

All this helps him survive a little longer and he gets a little better if he is down on wounds.

The actions

He has 2 attack actions: Big Honkin’ Stock and Big Honkin’ Gun.

The Stick has a Ml of 3 and does low damage. It also has the Dumb luck trigger, so that’s quite good.

The gun is a bit better with a Sh of 5 and a range of 10. He does average damage and also has the dumb luck trigger, so that’s better and he has hard to kill so he won’t kill himself by accident.

He also has a tactical action as a (1) action which lets you push up to 4’’ away in any direction, but you have to be engaged to use it, so that’s pretty average since I always want to be in combat with him except if he has only 1 wound left.

The tricks

If there is one upgrade I would give him it would be team work. It allows you to place (important) him into combat and push some other gremlin away from combat. You can potentially protect a vital piece and be a tarpit for the model he will be engaged with.

The looks

I like the previous model better than this one. It had some more quirkiness to it and it had a bit more character to it. It looked a bit more like its counterpart in my opinion. So I will be sticking with my old model for now.

The playbook

In my eyes he plays like a tarpit model. He can stay around for that little bit longer than usual. If you’re lucky you can even heal him up again once he’s down to 1 wound. You can also use him a bodyguard scheme perhaps since he has hard to kill. Besides that he’s an average looking model in my eyes and I don’t use him that much in the current games I’ve been playing.

Happy new year - my 2014 resolutions (Purdy Fireworks)

It's the first day of the new year, so I wanted to make some new resolutions for the new year.

This year I want to do the following for my hobby:




Painting

I still have a few models left to paint before I've got all my stuff done for the gremlin faction:

Zoraida
Bad Juju
3x silurids
McTavish
Wong
Avatar of indulgence (Somer Avatar)
Rooster rider

Need to buy
Gracie
Burt

Need to convert

Whiskey golem: I've bought some barrels from this website: http://www.renedra.co.uk/webstore.html#

Besides that I've build my puppet wars unstiched. This will give me more models to play with in for example a Zoraida crew or play a Seamus crew with just puppets. I am really impressed with the quality of the models.
I'll do a review of this gam later this year once I've played it some more.

Last year my master was Ophelia, but this year I'll probably focus more on the brewmaster and take him to tournaments. I need to get out of the safty zone of my favorite master and try to use some other models.

Besides that that's about it for now. I hope to contribute some more on the Wyrd-forum and perhaps on chasing bacon podcast. http://chasingbacon.podbean.com/
I've not really approached them, but maybe we can do something in the near future.


Gaming wise I've been buying a lot of games through bundles like the humble bundle website.
https://www.humblebundle.com/
I purchased more than enough games to try and play this year. I've also bought the Ultima series and look forward in playing some Ultima 7 or 8. I recommend http://www.gog.com/ for this. If you're into retro gaming then this is the place for you.



Anyways, have a great year everyone and may all your flips be Red Jokers.

Brewmaster crew done

Here are some pictures of my latest crew.

Only 1 model (pigapult) to do and my wave 1 gremlins are done.

Gremlin dissection: Rami Lacroix

In the next dissection of the gremlin crew we have Rami Lacroix. He’s the long range sniper wielding gremlin in the La Croix family.

The stats

He has a DF and a Wp of 4. He has 6 Wd and a Wk of 5. He has no Cg (not that you want to charge with him) and a Ht of 1. He’s an Enforcer, living and rare 1 characteristic. He is also a gremlin and a kin model.

The skills

He has the ability Reckless which gives him an additional AP at the start of the turn. This will cost him 1 wound.

He also has the defensive trigger “Squeel!”. You can get yourself out of combat if you have a mask in your hand. Although he only has 6 wounds so a hit or 2 will kill him. This can help with his survivability.

He also has the ability Aim High, which gives him the ability to target HT 2 models without penalty. So it’s great to use to shoot into combat. Add this with the great range and he can do that extra damage you need to kill off the enemy.

The actions

He only has 2 actions. A shooting attack and a tactical action.

The shooting attack has a range of 18!!! and can be doubled using the focus action.

It has one trigger which doubles the damage, but with low wounds it’s better not to use this action a lot. It has an average damage spread so great to pick off weakened models.

The tactical action is cast that makes a healing flip. It’s pretty ok for a (1) action.

The tricks

There are not a lot of upgrades he can take that are worth while.

These are 2 I could take if I have some points to spare:

Stilts can be nice for the additional height, so you can look over small walls and fences and the like. Also the damage prevention  from 1 ML attack can be nice to buy yourself more time. Although it doesn’t work with the squeal trigger so you have to watch out.

Another one : gremlin see will give you an option to remove conditions and you can use a (0) action for it. You don’t have any other (0) actions so this might be something to consider.

The looks

I like the looks, but my preference goes out to the previous model. It’s really a question of taste really.

The playbook

This model is a defensive model in my eyes. So try to keep it back a bit more than the rest. I have the tendency to chuck it forward and do a lot of damage early, but I think he is more of a control piece that should be treated as such. Try to get a good vantage point and stay there. Also he can help out in schemes where the opponent needs to get into your deployment zone. He can be a deterrent for that as well.

Besides that he’s a bit one dimensional. Shoot and then shoot some more. He doesn’t have unimpeded or the hunter ability like he used to have so he became a lot weaker than before.

WIP: the brewmaster

So, for this next post I'm going to make a brewmaster crew. It got the following conversions since there are no models at the moment for the brewmaster and his crew.

I am going to use an old GW model: the dark emmissary for my brewmaster.

I also have converted 3 nasty skulkers from the GW-line for my moon shinobi

For my apprentice Weslry I'm going to use a Reaper bones, goblin model that I bought.

For fingers I'm going to use the old Raphael model from Wyrd itself, but I need to buy the model first before I can start with the crew.

I'll post some more pictures once I'm doing the painting.
Sorry about the quality, it's not the best camera in the world, but you get the picture ;) Nice pun huh

Gremlin dissection: The young Lacroix

In the third dissection of the gremlin crew we have the young Lacroix. They are the small “up and comers “ in the family and they are the totems of Lacroix. They have a supporting role in handing out upgrades to Ophelia and getting yourself some cheap models to help you out activate your opponent.

The stats

The young have a cost of 2 and have the Peon, Living and totem (Lacroix) characteristic. They are also gremlin and they are kin, which lets you target them with the abilities that Ophelia has.

They have a Df of 5, Wp and Wd of 3. They have a Wk of 6, which is pretty fast, and no charge. They are also Ht 1.

The skills

They have 4 abilities: Gets Into Everything, Role Model, Insignificant, Small Target

The first one is Gets Into Everything. You get to make an Attack action that’s printed on Ophelia’s gun upgrades within 6’’ and you get a Sh -2 penalty. That’s pretty good especially with the threatening gun upgrades which lets you fire twice a turn. For the other guns you drop the upgrades, so you can only fire them once.

The next one ( Role Model) lets you hire 3 of these models instead of the normal 1. They are a great addition, but I might be getting 2 in the future instead of 3 to save some costs.

With the next one (Insignificant) you can’t take interact actions, so they can’t be used for objectives or schemes that requires you to take interaction actions.

The last one (Small Target)  gives the attacker a [-] to hit you with shooting attacks. This helps them to survive  a little longer, but they are still fairly easy to kill.

The attacks

They have 2  actions they can do.

The first one is a shooting attack: the Much Abused Pistol. It deals 1/3/4 damage and has the trigger Dumb Luck, which lets you double the damage and you suffer half the amount of damage a s well. The trigger isn’t that useful, because when you do moderate damage, you kill yourself as well. To do severe damage is not that likely either, since you need to have a bit of luck to get that severe off.

The next one is a tactical action “Here You Go!”. It lets you attach one of Ophelia’s gun upgrades to her. It effectively let her use upgrades without spending the additional soulstones to take them in the first place; also Ophelia can use other AP instead of wasting an AP to get the gun she needs.

They are totems, so they can’t take upgrades. What you see is what you get.

The looks

We only have one picture for the 3 models so that’s a bit disappointing. The old models look really nice and they have a nice flavor so I recommend the old models while you wait for a new release.

The playbook

Keep them out of harms way, because they are fairly easy to kill with 3 wounds. Try to use cover and other intervening models as your advantage. They already get a bonus with their tiny-ability, so every bonus will help. You’ll probably struggle with the reckoning strategy, so I tend to experiment with1 or 2 Young ones.

I tend to place them behind Ophelia, except if I want to shoot something, then I try to place them parallel to Ophelia.

Another use for the young Lacroix is, in later game turns, use them to stop other models from moving, by engaging them in close combat. In the later turns you can make sure that your opponent’s models have to deal with these small nuisances instead of focusing on completing schemes and strategies. In that way they serve another purpose instead of handing out upgrades to Ophelia. And if you use defensive stance on them they can tie models up for multiple turns (if you’re lucky that is)

Gremlin dissection: Francois Lacroix

In the second dissection of the gremlin crew we have Francois Lacroix. He’s the only henchmen in the La Croix family so he’s the second on my list.

The stats

He is a cost of 7 and has a cache of 6. Which means that when he leads a crew in smaller games he gets 6 soulstones from the start. He has the living, rare 1 and henchman characteristic. He also is a gremlin and he’s kin, which ties in with Ophelia’s  abilities.

He has a DF of 4, which is average for a gremlin. He has WP 7 and that’s a very good stat. He has 10Wd which is also good. A Wk of 5 and a CG of 6. He’s also HT 1. Overall he’s pretty decent statwise. He is not too high costing and he can use soulstones, which gives him some more survivability and he can use his tricks a little bit better.

The skills

He has companion, which lets you activate after a friendly model ended it’s activation within 6’’. It’s handy to have especially when you need to do some extra damage to a model before it activates.

He also has the ability Reckless, which gives him an additional AP at the cost of one extra WD. It gives him the ability to do some additional shooting or perform an interact or something else. You have to plan it out though, because you can only do this at the start of this model’s  activation.

The last ability he has is Squeal, which is a defensive trigger and needs a mask. You can push away 4’’from a Ml Attack after you received damage. You can potentially stop a second attack on a charger or stop a Flurry action. You can cheat in the mask with the use soulstone ability.

The actions

He has 2 Attack actions. He has the Dueling Sword and the “Rough rider” Attack.

The Dueling Sword is a ML of 6 and a ram. It has a Rg of 2. It does 2/3/5 damag and can be doubled with the Dumb luck trigger, which is already build in. The downside to the trigger is that you receive half the damage you do when you declare the trigger. The use soulstone ability can help you to prevent some of the damage you do. All in all this is a great attack and can be intimidating with the potentional to do 10 damage in one swing.

The “Rough rider”   shooting attack is a 5 and a mask and has a range of 10. It does 2/3/4 damage and has two triggers. On a ram you do the Dumb luck trigger, same like the Dueling Sword.

 The other trigger is on a crow( Loose Trigger) which let you make the same Attack action again. You have to damage your enemy and it will cost you one wound. Again, you can cheat in the crow with the use soulstone ability.

He also has a casting action (Gremlin Menace) with a Rg of 6. You can push 5’’ toward a model. Your targets a condition which gives him [-] to attack actions when targeting Francois.

He also has a (0) action (Showdown)  which is also a ca of 5. You need a TN 10and a tome. When it succeeds you can discard cards to gain a [+] for that duel.

The tricks

Out of all the upgrades I would choose dirty cheater. It gives him some more survivability and combine that with the damage prevention from the use soulstone ability and you can potentially let him hang around the board a little bit longer.

The upgrade team work is an ability that lets you place this model into contact and then push another model out of harms way.

If Francois is your leader and you are playing against something like Pandora, you can use liquid bravery to give yourself and models around you a boost to their WP. This combined with the high WP makes him a good candidate to take this upgrade.

The looks

He has the same feel and abilities from 1.5. he looks the same as well with the cigarette in mouth. I like this look and maybe get him when the new box comes out.

If you need a good support piece for the Ophellia crew or another gremlin master, I think Francois is the gremlin you need. He has a lot of damage potential and some movement tricks as well (via upgrades that is).

The playbook

I use him primarily as a potential threat and damage dealer. With his loose trigger skill he can dish out a lot of damage if you have some high cards in hand and some soulstones to burn. You can get around the board fairly quickly and has some nice synergies with other models in this Ophelia crew.

With the current schemes you can use him as a Scheme marker – dropper. Or, when you have the scheme frame for murder,  start the game aggressively and then kill a model. You can bait your opponent in killing your model and because he’s a henchmen you’ll get  3 VP.

So I’ll play him aggressively and in that way your opponent has to divide his attention between Ophelia and him. Two great shooters are better than one.

Link to the artwork: http://coolspyro17.deviantart.com/art/Day-72-Dissection-348092579

Gremlin dissection: Ophelia Lacroix

So this will be a small segment where I’ll discuss all the different models in the (current Malifaux 1) crew. Once the “new” box will be out, I’ll revisit this segment and talk about the new set as a whole.

For now, let us get our dissection equipment out and dive into the gremlin master: Ophelia Lacroix

The stats

If we have a look at the stats you can see she has a few interesting stats. She has a DF of 6 / WP 6 which are practically the same for all 3 pure gremlin masters. The rest of the stats are average, but the only thing she has is a WK of 6, which is fairly quick. She can zip around the board quickly enough and with some movement shenanigans she can do some board control as well.

She is Ht 1which is handy with her crew. They don’t have to target her or other HT 1 models within 3’’ of her. Some other models have the same ability as well which can come in handy.

The last thing is a cache of 3 which is OK.  You need a bit more stones I think since she can be easy to hit and you need those to get in suits for her offensive and defensive triggers. I normally play with a cache of 6 – 7.

The skills

She has 4 abilities on her card. Most of them I like and one of them is ok, but I don’t see myself using that one a lot.

The first one is companion. This one is like the previous kin-ability where you could activate more than 2 models each time to kill models in one swoop. Now you have the ability to activate one model and herself. It specifically states a friendly model and not a kin model so any model in her crew can trigger this ability which gives you a bit more versatility in model selection.

The Plink! ability lets you reduce the damage by one. This is before damage prevention, so it can give you a bit more durability, but you need the upgrades to make this gremlin work. I’ll not be using this one a lot. It’s a nice bonus for me, nothing more.

The next one is a defensive trigger which needs a mask. It’s Second Loudest Squeel. When you suffer damage, you can push up to 4’’. This one is nice since you can move out of combat this way or when you get hit by ranged attacks or casting, you can potentially push further behind a wall so that you’re safe for the other attacks. It also states up to 4, so you don’t have to go the entire 4’’. It can come in handy when you need to push away, but not that far so you don’t push into another melee, hazardous terrain, ect.

The last one is an ability she had in 1^st ed and that I used quite a lot. It’s “Shoot High, Boys” and it lets you fire into combat without targeting your own gremlin HT 1 models. I’ve used this one more than I can count. It’s effectively a 6’’ bubble in which your gremlins only target the enemy (HT 2 or greater) models. Combine this with her speed and other movement tricks and you have a very good shooting enhancing master.

The actions

She has 2 (1) actions and 2 (0) actions on the card.

The first one is “Rough riders”. It has a basic shooting attack which she can use in ML as well. It has a decent value of 6. It does 2/3/4 damage and gives [+] to all attacks (basically paired from previous edition).It has a trigger on a ram which does double damage and she gets one wound in return. It’s the same as her 1^st edition card.

Her other one action is Reload which let her attach an upgrade which has her name on it. Currently there are 3 upgrades. The action is also a tactical upgrade.

The 2 (o) actions are With My Eyes Closed and Ooo, A Girl. The first one gives your SH attacks a [+]. However your opponent can choose which enemy model you have to hit. It has to be in LoS and range. It’s for the rest of Ophelia’s activation.

The second one (Ooo, A Girl) lets you push a friendly gremlin within 8’’ into base contact with you. It’s great to get models out of combat or reposition your models so they can shoot better or attack faster, drop scheme markers, ect..

 The tricks

She has 3 personal upgrades. All 3 are guns she can use. They all have a secondary ability as well.

The first one is My treatenin’ gun. It hands out horror duels (TN 13) and dishes out 4/5/6 damage. The trigger on a ram lets you pulse the horrorduel for all models . You have the ram build in so you can always choose to let the gun do the pulse or not. The additional (0) action lets a gremlin within 8’’ do a (1)action which gives a [-] to that duel. You can use it to drop a scheme marker as well so it’s a sort of obey you can do with this action. Also you don’t drop the gun when you used it so that’s nice as well.

The Jug rocket ignores LoS and you discard this upgrade afterwards. The additional (0) lets you replace a gremlin within 2’’ to somewhere within  8’’  of this model. So this is a nice movement trick as well.

The Hooch igniter ignores cover, hands out blast and on the ram trigger it gives burning +2. You discard it when you use this gun. The additional (1) action takes away Slow and Paralyzed conditions within 10’’ and gives them burning +1 instead.

From these upgrades I would always take the treatenin’ gun. It gives you the option to hand out paralyze and the (0) action is nice as well. The other 2 upgrades are a bit situational. The Hooch igniter is nice against a crew like Rasputina which thrive on slow and paralyze. The other one is nice if you have a lot of blocking terrain. You don’t ignore the cover, but you can still shoot something, which you couldn’t do before.

Out of the other upgrades I would choose dirty cheater, which heals your model when you cheat. It gives some more durability to the model.

Some maybe upgrades are gremlin see (shrug off a condition)( but it competes with the other (0) actions you have as well), liquid bravery (which gives you stubborn and also another (0) action, giving +2WP) and quality mash liquor (giving you or a model within 2’’ a 1/2/3 heal for a (1) action).

These 3 upgrades give you some variety, but they compete with better (0) and (1) actions which do better things in my opinion than these 3 upgrades.

The looks

I love the models in this crew and I love the new artwork. I can see me buying a new box set when it comes out even though I have the old models. The overall feel of the crew and specifically this model  is the sort of thing I like in the “new Malifaux”. It a bit darker, more gritty and they look more dynamic as well.

Overall I can say that if you are looking for a master that can shoot well, move fast and do some crazy movement tricks as well, then this master is the gremlin you are looking for.