Dark Debts Done Dirt Cheap – Jakob Lynch & fiends

Another 10 Thunders master has infiltrated my painting table, sneaky.

So here’s the start of the Translucent Lynch crew, these are really enjoyable to paint as they are really different to anything I’ve painted before, there’s so much room for creativity. It’s also kind of cool that I can get away with painting less due to the translucency, also the fact that the box only has 5 models will make this a quick project.

So yeah, Yan Lo is kind of on hold until this crew is complete. To be totally honest I bought the Yan Lo box for Chiaki, I am interested in playing Yan Lo at some point, but I’m not ecstatic.  Chiaki got painted last a little under 2 weeks ago before the tournament I forgot to include her in any blog posts, so here she is!

The goal when painting the Hungering Darkness was to make it seem as if he is materialising, much like a shark emerging from the water to bite something.

My inspiration for the Hungering darkness

I chose to paint the corporeal parts of the Hungering Darkness all the same colour, this was a bid to make him look much less comical. I think the biggest feature of this model that has the potential to make him look ridiculous is his eyes, but painting them a similar colour to the rest of the model this helps to draw attention away from them.

I have also pained Lynch as well, he is the same colours as the box artwork. I was originally going to give him a pinstripe suit, but I don’t think it would have worked so well on such a small model. I’m very pleased with how his facial hair turned out.

 

I also picked up Lelu and Lilitu this week, I’m itching to play Dreamer again and they are the only released nightmares I didn’t own, I also really wanted to paint Lilitu. I am genuinely surprised at how sturdy her whip is, I glued it to her lower back as well to give it even more stability.

I’ve been using Games Workshop’s Imperial Primer to undercoat my models, I was initially unimpressed with it until I figured out I was using it incorrectly. Th pigment separates from the rest of the paint very easily it seems. When I started I was painting with only half of the paint, it was almost like a wash in consistency and took ages to dry. I thought it was supposed to be watery and was some king of special paint. Nope. I figured out that it needed a really good stir with the end of a paint brush, shaking the paint was not enough to mix it up as it is with a regular paint.

Applied straight from the pot the primer gives an even coverage and dries thinner than you would expect, do note that that it takes a few hours to dry though.

I made the base from scratch, I wanted it to represent Jakob’s casino which is supposed to be pretty dingy, hence the worn looking wood and cards around the base.

And that’s what I’ve been up to this past two weeks, thanks for reading.

Northern aggression – 50ss Tournament

On Sunday I attended my first tournament in Perth, here’s how I fared. The post is split in to pre and post tournament.

Photos courtesy of Liam

Pre-tournament 
All of the strategies and schemes are available to read prior to the event in the players pack, allowing me to construct some lists prior to the tournament.

Game 1 

Strategy – Extraction, Flank Deployment

Scheme pool – Convict Labor, Hunting Party, Neutralise the Leader, Undercover Entourage, Public Demonstration

After seeing Extraction and Undercover Entourage in the pool my the first master I think of is Seamus with sinister reputation. I want my crew to fight in the middle and try to get some points for Extraction. To this end Seamus has been given Sinister Reputation and Mad Haberdasher. The rest of the crew comprises of models that can attack WP and make the most out of Sinister Reputation.

I want to send Seamus in to the opposing deployment zone at the end of the game to get Undercover Entourage, my means of doing this will be using Distraction from Red Chapel Killer as he will probably be in the centre when the time comes, there should be enough corpses to make this happen and if there’s not: the Copycat killer will be in for a nasty surprise.

As for my other scheme I am taking Hunting Party, Seamus is good at killing things. Madame Sybelle with Bleeding Tongue has also been chosen to help kill things and to potentially force problematic opposing models to attack The Hanged.

List

Seamus — 4ss Cache
+Mad Haberdasher – 2ss
+Sinister Reputation – 1ss
+Red Chapel Killer – 1ss

Copycat Killer – 3ss

Madame Sybelle – 8ss
+Bleeding Tongue – 1ss

Nurse – 5ss

Rotten Belle – 5ss

Rotten Belle – 5ss

The Hanged – 9ss

Yin The Penangalan – 8ss
+Unnerving Aura – 1ss

Game 2

Strategy – Headhunter, Standard Deployment

Scheme pool – Convict Labor, Exhaust their Forces, Show of Force, Take

Prisoner, Search the Ruins

I intend to take Molly for this game, just because I want to play Molly.

I’ve picked Search the Ruins because it seems pretty easy with Molly, the plan is to Use Sybelle and a Belle to taxi Molly up to the centre on turn 1 and then use Molly to summon 2 drowned for their Finish the Job and interact to drop 3 scheme markers around the centre, then protect these scheme markers for the rest of the game, hopefully Philip and the Nanny can get their chatty on to protect them. Simple right?

Show of Force is my second scheme, I’m going to the centre of the board anyway so I may as well try to achieve this while I’m there. Almost every model in the crew has upgrades so I think this will work out fine.

As for Headhunter I’m just going to try and stop the other crew from picking up heads with my spirits, I have chosen a lot of tough models with the hope that this will make my crew resistant to decapitation.

I have decided to leave Tear of the Gorgon out as well as the Necrotic Machine, I haven’t done this before but I think I will be better off without them, the Machine can always be summoned if I need it anyway.

List

Molly Squidpiddge — 7ss
+Forgotten Path – 1ss

Datsue Ba – 8ss
+Spirit Whispers – 1ss
+Unnerving Aura – 1ss

Dead Doxy – 6ss

Izamu The Armor – 10ss
+Unnerving Aura – 1ss

Madame Sybelle – 8ss
+Bleeding Tongue – 1ss

Philip And The Nanny – 8ss
+Take Back The Night – 1ss

Game 3

Strategy – Guard the stash, Corner Deployment
Schemes – Convict labor, Leave Your Mark, Public Demonstration, Occupy their Turf, Detonate the Charges

Again I will be taking Molly, she’s my favourite! I would probably take her for game 1 as well, but Undercover Entourage is too good of an opportunity to use Seamus.

As far as strategic thoughts go, I think Molly can easily contest a stash on her own with her summons, use of Onryo and black blood should hopefully deter the other crew from the stash.

I will be taking detonate the charges for this game, as the stashes are a focal point on the board dropping scheme markers around them before the other crew shows up should hopefully net me an easy detonation. So as with the last game, the dream is to fling Molly up the board and drop some scheme markers on turn 1.

The last scheme is Leave Your Mark. I took a Necropunk to achieve this, and I will try and get a summoned model out of the fight to help as well.

List

Molly Squidpiddge — 7ss
+Forgotten Path – 1ss

Dead Doxy – 6ss

Izamu The Armor – 10ss
+Unnerving Aura – 1ss

Madame Sybelle – 8ss
+Bleeding Tongue – 1ss

Necropunk – 5ss

Philip And The Nanny – 8ss
+Take Back The Night – 1ss

Rotten Belle – 5ss

Post tournament

As they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy.

This time I won 1 of 3 games, I’m happy with that outcome as it’s rare for me to win and even rarer for me to get a win at an event. I was also fortunate enough to win best painted, and ended up with a translucent Lynch crew, this is the first translucent crew I’ve got so I am excited to see what cool things I can do with them!

This time I faced Ophelia which was a rude gremlin awakening, Mei Feng and The Victorias.

All of my lists remained unchanged, so no need to update any changes here.

As always I’m not going to write a detailed report as I never remember games well enough, so I will write key events.

Game 1 – Seamus vs James’ Viktorias

This was a textbook Viktorias victory, they ran in and sliced my crew to pieces.

The game opened with my Nurse being shot by a trapper and then later being shot to death by Vanessa. R.I.P

I moved up to the centre and took the informant marker and shifted it to my half of the board on turn 2, this was the only VP I got for the whole game.

Lazarus and Vanessa started to blast my crew apart pretty quickly on turn 2, scoring points for hunting party as my Belles were blown to pieces. The Viks then rolled up and begin to slice up Seamus, then finally Yin. I managed to Heal Seamus 4 wounds by making pokey Vik fail some WP duels with a Belle’s lure, sadly this was not enough to save him.

Sybelle moved up the board and tried to take out Vanessa and 2 Ronin who were chilling in the back line, Sybelle could not kill them, so I got no points from hunting party.

On turn 3 I decided to summon a Doxy with Seamus, the correct choice would have been to realise the centre was absolutely lost at this point and then use the corpse as a distraction so Seamus could teleport out and hopefully score points for undercover entourage. As I did not, Seamus met his demise at the hands of Pokey Vik, scoring James points for Neutralise the Leader.

I think I underestimated the Viks, I forgot about their ability that gives them buffs depending on how many cards they have in their control hand, this made it exceptionally harder to make them fail WP duels. This is probably the biggest reason that I think they are a really tough match up for Seamus. Secondly, this crew needs to be pretty bunch up to make the overlapping debuffs from Seamus and the Hanged work, the Viks love a bunched up enemy crew.

I also should have moved my Nurse a lot more carefully so she didn’t get shot early game, I could have used her to heal Seamus or possibly paralyze Pokey Vik. I also forgot to use the hat haha.

Final score: 1/10 loss

Game 2 – Molly vs Dave’s Mei Feng

Molly faced Arcanist Mei Feng in this game.

The game opened with Izamu being shot and slowed by a silent one, ultimately stopping him from getting to the centre in good time.

I stuck to the plan as well as I could and didn’t do too badly. Both crews advanced on the centre as quickly as they could, due to the large number of models in the centre it was best for me to use Molly to Summon as many things as I could to hold up Mei Feng. My main worry was having Molly kicked out of the centre by Mei Feng. Molly also used her (0) to make Izamu move up to the Silent one to engage him in melee.

The next turn Izamu got even with the silent one and cleaved him in half before moving towards the centre. He was then crushed by Kang and the Rail golem, if I remember correctly.

Molly managed to summon a drowned away from Mei’s crew to net a scheme marker for search the ruins, by turn 4 I managed to have all of my scheme markers down to score the 3 points, which I did at the end of the game.

We forgot to place head markers as we were playing, so we both decided to retroactively place them on turn 4… We both scored 2 points from the strategy.

Around turn 4 Molly was kicked out of the centre by Mei Feng, stopping my spirits from having black blood, I pushed Molly back with a Dead doxy by Mei feng was back on to her the next turn.

I attempted to score points for Show of force on turn 2 by using Sybelle to score, Datsue Ba couldn’t help as she had been squished by Kang and a Rail Golem early in the turn, on the left flank. Kang contested Sybelle from gaining points for this scheme the entire game.

At the end of the game Dave scored 2 points for Take Prisoner against Philip and the Nanny (I think it was this model), and 3 from Search the Ruins and won the game by 2 points.

This was the closest game of the day for me, we didn’t know who was going to win until the very last turn, a great game.

Final score: 5/7 Loss

Game 3 – Molly vs Michael’s Ophelia

After setup I realised how many gremlins there were on the board, I knew this was going to be a tough one.

This game opened with Rami Lacroix shooting Izamu in the face from the other side of the board, I decided he could weather it and then watched Izamu take 6 damage. I realised I should have cheated that harder when I realised the rest of Ophelia’s crew could probably shoot him to death really quickly, I then ran him behind a forest on the left flank to hide.

Meanwhile the rest of the gremlins crossed the board on the right side to contest the right stash. Meanwhile Philip and the Nanny and the Dead doxy moved to the left stash to contest it.

Molly moved in and summoned a mix of Hanged, Shikome and Onryo to combat the gremlins on the right stash marker, including Ophelia herself. The gremlins killed many summons each turn but were eventually whittled down by black blood.

Izamu moved towards the left stash marker to provide support for Philip and the Nanny, a sneaky Bushwhacker hiding in a forest near the stash sniped Izamu, Killing him. With Izamus final attack from A Warrior’s Death managed to get a straight flip on the Bushwhacker, I cheated in a red joker and Izamu took the Gremlin with him.

I planned to take out a gremlin with Izamu this way, the plan was to get shot and killed by Francois, but the Bushwhacker beat him to it.

Sybelle proceeded to whip Ophelia twice, both times scoring the comply trigger, Ophelia turned around and shot a bushwhacker, wounding it.

One turn 4 Molly managed to give Ophelia negatives with Whispered secret and then killed her with her casting action – Revelation.

Throughout the game we both scored a point each turn for Guard the Stash. At the end of the game we both called Detonate the charges and scored 2 points each.

On turns 4 and 5 I had a necropunk who had moved across the board manage to score some points for Occupy their turf, allowing me to win by two points.

This game was super close, Gremlin shooting is very scary! (Must… not… buy… Ophelia…)

This was the one game were I managed to stick to the plan well enough, I would have liked the necropunk to get up the board faster to achieve his scheme, but Francois was strutting around the middle-left like he owned the place, so I waited for Francois to move away before moving past him.

I can’t remember what it’s called, but some of the Gremlins can throw molotov cocktails or something, the burning it gives was totally unexpected and caught me off guard, I think it was Ophelia’s totems too, scary stuff!

Final Score: 7/5 win

I had a really great time on Sunday and can’t wait for the next event. Thanks to all of my opponents, I really enjoyed the games and everyone was very fun to play against and thanks to Liam for running the event and Gamagori for hosting.

Gallery updated – light boxes are magic

Much better!

Today I received the light box that I ordered from e-bay and I am pleasantly surprised! The quality of the photos I can take with my average phone has really increased, it is so much easier to get photos of a consistent quality now. This kinda prompted me to photograph ALL the ressers and update the gallery.

If you’re one of the 3 people who aren’t sick of seeing my ressers you can view them all in the graveyard gallery here.

I picked the light box up for a measly $15, cheap as chips. The whole thing folds up for easy storage and is held together with magnets, rad. It came with white and black backdrops too, which is handy. I really wish I would have gotten one of these sooner.

In actual hobby news I’ve completed the soul porter, I went a bit crazy trying to make the object source lighting super bright, it’s fun to try new things sometimes and I think it payed off.

Hopefully I can finish Jaakuna Ubume over the weekend and make a start on Chiaki – she’s basecoated red, I’m deciding still if I want to pick out the details of the dress with yellow, white or even gold.

So not a huge post today, I look forward to sharing photos in the future that wont make your eyes bleed. Cheers.

Yan Lo – a beginner’s thoughts

So I picked up Yan Lo! Yes, everything you’ve heard about his beard is indeed true. It was a hard choice between Nicodem and Yan Lo, but I ultimately picked up Yan Lo because I already have all of the ancestors and everything else needed to play him.

After moving house I’ve had no internet access for a few weeks so I picked up Yan Lo as a hobby project to kill some time. Without the baleful influence of the internet I have had plenty of time to read the Yan Lo cards and come to my own conclusions; I’m still not 100% certain what he does but here’s what I think so far.

Reliquary is non negotiable, being able to resurrect Izamu looks to be the main point, but the other ancestors are definite contenders.

As far as chi goes Spirit ascendant seems like a top priority for incorporeal, unless the other player has a CA heavy force in which case Ash ascendant seems to be the first upgrade gained during the game. Spirit ascendant’s ability to make 3 spirits take a (1) action for (2) ap seems like a good deal, but I don’t think I will be taking many other spirits with Yan Lo. I think this ability could be fun with a few Gaki in play, especially if you can manage to get the triggers to make other nearby Gaki take attack actions, further increasing the ap efficiency of this ability.

Yan Lo looks like he could run a spirit crew with a few models to fling adversary around, as Yan Lo can temporarily turn himself or other models in to a spirit this could offer some nice synergy. Models to try this with would probably be Onryo and/or  Datsue Ba. Yan Lo with positives from adversary and Hunpo might be the way to go.

Bone ascendant doesn’t seem like a great upgrade to me because I feel like I want the +3 CA from chi rather than this upgrade, late game. I feel like Yan Lo want to increase his durability before he goes hunting enemy models, unlike the rest of the resser masters Yan Lo doesn’t have any defence abilities baseline.

On the flip side it would probably be just as effective to get Ash ascendant first for some durability and then get Bone ascendant a.s.a.p to use with Brutal Khakkara for a more melee oriented approach, although Yan Lo will be a tad more fragile without incorporeal from Spirit Ascendant. I think this approach would work better as 10 thunders because recalled training is available and this can make him much more durable, allowing you to take a bigger risk when jumping Yan Lo out of position to kill enemy models. If only recalled training was available to ressers!

I want to try running him in a scheme pool where everyone is going for the centre of the board, such as guard the stash or squatter’s rights, the plan is to run  Izamu, Jaakuna Ubume and Yin all with unnerving aura’s and use Yan Lo to lightning dance enemies right in to the middle of them, if the enemy model can’t get away it will take 7-10 damage, depending on how well the severe terrain manages to deal damage.

Chiaki is one of the main reasons I bought this set, I want to use her with Kirai and Molly. Chiaki is super support for ressers, she is on of the few ressers able to remove conditions and heal. Chiaki can also gain Chi (a condition) and at the beginning of her activation she can transfer conditions to another ancestor, so this looks to be a useful way to ferry Chi across to Yan Lo.

The Ashigaru don’t particularly excite me, I think they are a decent option for Toshiro to summon but I don’t want to hire them. Their charge of 3 is pretty abysmal, but their ability to discard a card to charge as a (1) action makes up for it, this is effectively a charge of 8 or even the ability to move and then charge around a corner. They can also push enemies and have some other utility, they’re not bad. I think these thoughts stem from a summoner mindset I have from playing Molly and Kirai.

The soul porter looks pretty good to me, he can stop people from removing your chi and help the crew acquire more chi. His attack to siphon chi from enemy models is a melee casting action, it has a massive range so I think his best use will be to attack things that are engaged with something else with a short engagement ranged so that it will be harder for them to walk over and attack him, also as it’s a CA action Yin will be able to help him hit his targets so much easier. In the event that he looks like he’s about to get killed I think it will be a good idea to activate him, attack and then sacrifice him via his (0) to acquire more chi. The ability to push ancestors around will also be a great way to help slower models like Toshiro up the board and get Yan Lo out of sticky situations. This little guy has so much utility and is my favourite model in the box.

As far as what Yan Lo does, I think he’s supposed to be played aggressively. Once he has a few upgrades and 3 Chi he becomes a bit of a combat monster. He’s obviously no Lady J, but lightning dance and Hunpo assault should allow him to pick and choose his fights well enough. He’s probably not going to go after enemy masters but he should be able to clean up enemy minions pretty easily.

So that’s my initial impressions! I’m excited to play Yan Lo and I think he looks super versatile and quite strong, I think managing his chi will be the most important aspect to playing him, deciding to keep chi or cash it in for an upgrade will crucial. I think he has a lot of potential and probably isn’t as bad as the internet hive mind thinks he is.

On the hobby front, I’ve assembled the box and I’m partially done with the Spirit porter and Jaakuna Ubume. I also painted the second Dead doxy last week in preparation for a tournament I’m going to in a few weeks. I’m considering going back and giving Toshiro a few extra highlights to make him look a little nicer, as he was a rushed paint job and he’s going to see a little more table time now.

I also made a display board for my Molly crew, it’s made from a photo frame with the glass taken out and plasticard in its place with a plasticard tiles put down to offer a little detail.

Excuse the average photo…

The photos are pretty average this week but I’m hoping I’ll get the light box in the mail before my next post, fingers crossed!

As always, thanks for reading! Feel free to let me know how wrong I am about Yan Lo if you like  😉