Malifaux Crew - Seamus and The Red Chapel Gang

"There's no problem that cannot be solved by throwing a few dead hookers at it."

Malifaux Ressurectionists - Seamus and the Red Chapel Gang

That quote, allegedly from one of the Malifaux developers, caught my attention.

I was in the mood for something different, something new and something I could get on the table and play quickly without spending a vast amount of money on it.

Malifaux seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Card-based mechanic, scenario driven and low model count. Victoriana-Steampunk-Horror-with a dose of Wild West and the entry cost was low; awesome-hobby-sauce!

The fate decks are superbly flavoursome.

Without any clue as to what sort of tactics I might favour with any crew, I did what the sensible hobbyist does.

I browsed the pretty figures and chose the ones that made me go "Oooooh perty!"

I settled on Seamus Crew Boxed Set: The Red Chapel Gang, a fate deck and a copy of the updated small rules manual, all from Arcane Miniatures. The rulebook is well laid out and easy to read but worth noting it doesn't contain any background or fluff.

For a change, I actually missed the fluff

The models were a little awkward to assemble and I broke the end off Sybelle's riding crop. With no hope of re-attaching it I had to model something from scratch, it ended up a little too bit, but it won't be breaking off anytime soon.

The crew took about 3 sessions to finish and they first saw action a few weeks back.

The bases are miliput and I have a battened 3'' by 3'' board ready to model in a similar style.

First impressions of the game are great. Easy to learn mechanics gain depth when characters combine abilities and 'trigger' enhanced outcomes and the scenario-driven gameplay means there's not always a stand-up fight leading to a tactical, though-provoking exchange rife with cunning and shifty looks as you figure out what on earth your opponent is trying to achieve. AND... there's zombies in it! :)

Poor undead ladies got macerated by mechanical Shelobs!

I'm sold on it and plan to model the game board later this year before picking up a few new additions to the crew.

"Tidy your Man-Cave"

Do you ever get that feeling that you need a clear out?

After a massive amount of recent hobby time spread across several different projects at once the mess on the workbench finally got the better of me.

Spot the Project - If you dare?

With the second half of an unfinished a match of Blood Bowl and a try-out of Dust Tactics planned for yesterday and another Blood Bowl match, 1st try at Malifaux and another Dust tactics planed for next weekend I finally had a clear out of the man-cave and now I can actually see the gaming table.

Blood Bowl was great, despite a 2-0 defeat and Dust Tactics' fast-paced and uncomplicated gameplay sits perfectly with me, and... there's zombies in it!

Whilst The Lead Will Walk The Earth is a zombie gaming blog, and I mostly play All Things Zombie, if you fancy seeing anything else I'll happily post some choice zombie 'Diversions' if there's interest.

The sun is coming out; time to kiss SADS goodbye and start undercoating outside again.

Happy Hobby Days.

Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?

I have been meaning to write this post for about a week now, no, make that about a month, erm.. actually how about more than two?

Outbreak City - Eastern Front 2011 (Figures courtesy of Colin)

In answer to a question posted by The Extraordinarii today:

"Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?" The answer?... Life got in the way.

Life, you say, what have you been up to? In short, I...

• Almost met my match with my new Outbreak City gaming table project
• Ran a display/turned participation game with fellow blogger Colin, awesome stuff
• Worked away from home for two months (for the interactive entertainment software industry's leading publisher). In one word, EPIC!
• Battled the undead side by side with quite possibility the UK's leading expert and author on zombie survival - Sean T. Page from the Ministry of Zombies
• Played some great new Euro games
• Built a Dystopian Wars table commission
• Finished (almost) a 40K Demon Army commission
• Started a Malifaux Crew (Ressurectionists of course), just for me
• Had my busiest month yet with Zombie Shop, it's a Halloween thing
• and, to cap it all off - I started a collectable soldier and wargames figures company with my best friend JJD UK (We even sell 28mm Zombies of which I have my hands on some sets right now).

Like I said... life got in the way.

Life is at it's most exciting when you step up to the plate and say "I'll give that a go."

Blogging took a bit of a back-set so that I could spend what little time I had left with my family.

A very wise fellow blogger once said, try not to do too much otherwise you might face burnout. I'll pay a little more attention in future, thank you Bryan.

Without further ado my fellow zombie gamers... thank you for bearing with me, forthcoming posts include some of the stuff above and plenty of other bits and pieces I started but never quite got around to finishing.

Zombie Ad's back!