1

Contents
P.4 Law of Lazarus
P.15 Pretty
Credits
P.2 Refections
P.11 Snowfake
P.20 Achieving Victory P.24 Vacillations with Vassal
P.34 Versatile Walls
P.45 Makos Rubbish
Creative Director
Justin Gibbs
Editor
David Hanold
Graphic Artist
Redd Cohen
Writers
David Hanold
David Herbert
Michael Kelmelis
Jason Przybycien
Matthew Ritter
Mark Rogers
Adrian Scott
Graeme Stevenson
Andrew Weakland
Contributing Artists
Sergio Apodaca
Stephane Enjoralas
Hardy Fowler
Nick Hadley
Christophe Madaru
Pablo Quiligotti
Trent Trooper
Melvin de Voor
P.31 Professor Pontifcates
P.39 The Cornfeld
P.52 Showcase
2
By David Hanold
A future look for the Wyrd Chronicles
Refections
Seasons Greetings!
As the current year comes to a close, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on this year. It
has been a busy year for us. The pre-release of Malifaux Second Edition was a success at Gen Con 2013
and now the game is available to all. Fans awaiting Through the Breach will be happy to know that it
is in the final stages, and they can expect more previews as we get closer to its release. Our party line
was expanded with the addition of The World Needs a Jet Pack Unicorn. The release of two brand new
properties in the form of Showdown: Icons and Kings of Artifice, are now available for purchase.
Over the course of this year we have been constantly looking at how to improve the Wyrd Chronicles.
Going into the next year we thought that it would be a great time to show off the future look we have
settled on for now. The Chronicles is always evolving, so you can expect more changes and additions in
the future. We want the reader to feel comfortable when navigating through the Chronicles. For easier
browsing, clicking on the articles name on the Contents page, it will send you directly to the article. You
can return to the Contents by clicking on the page number in the lower right of each page. If you have
any suggestions or comments concerning the Chronicles dont hesitate to email me at david.hanold@
wyrd-games.net.
This issue of the Chronicles includes three short stories written by various authors, a new comic, a
detailed battle report documenting a conflict between the Neverborn and Outcast, terrain building
tutorials, strategy articles, and painting tips.
As always, Happy holidays!
David
4
By Graeme Stevenson
It was the dead of night and the room was full of lights.
Not bright, efcient, practical lights that any normal
man with means would use to illuminate his home,
but tiny frefy sized motes of every color. Tese lights
moved around the lower hall in a seemingly random
fashion; zagging here, bobbing over there, and in most
cases, hovering perfectly still some way of the ground.
Tis was all that Von Schills eyes told him, yet he felt
no alarm or even curiosity because he knew where he
was. Not some ethereal fairy grotto, nor yet a madmans
carnival or puppet show.
He was in Ampersand.
Te Guild wanted to fnd this place badly, just as they did
every other location in Malifaux over which they could
not exert direct control. Not that there was anything
going on in Ampersand that necessarily threatened
them directly it just annoyed the hell out of them that
they couldnt fnd it.
Von Schill sucked on the last fnger-length of his cigar
and added his own little amber light to the confagration.
Te room was large and most of it vanished into inky
blackness, and it was full of fgures. Tere were dozens
and dozens of them, announced by sof tell-tale glows
the dim shape of a hot solenoid here, a diode there.
Ampersand was full of constructs.
Tey came here from all over Malifaux; labor constructs,
laboratory mishaps, a whole array of mechanisms that
had developed or been imbued with some degree of
sentience. Machines: some with just the merest inkling
of self-awareness, others as smart as any man on the
street, and all of them tired of the abuse, neglect, and
battery of their former masters.
On Von Schills lef was a rail golem, sitting on the foor
with its huge legs drawn up. Its skull had been crushed
near fat by some industrial accident and it periodically
announced its presence by small fts of sparking that lit
up the interior of its skull. Huge metal paws designed
for shoveling and smashing twitched spastically. He
moved further out of reach.
He wasnt just here sight-seeing, although, this place
was defnitely worth a casual eyeballing if you had the
free time. He was looking for a specifc construct and
had a strong suspicion this was the place to look.
Law of Lazarus
Lazarus Joins the Outcast
5
He moved through the near-complete darkness,
stepping around clusters of constructs that stood or
crouched facing one another, as if frozen in the act
of conversing. Many of them looked completely shut
down, but here and there a metal head rotated to follow
him. Sof muttering could just be detected in some of
the nearer clusters, but whatever dialect they were using
was unknown to him.
A big machine barred his way; it was painted a deep
navy blue, the paint chipped away to reveal rusting
blistered steel around the edges of its torso and limbs. It
looked like it had seen a lot of heavy use and most of it
was covered in fne scratches. A dozen crimson spider
eyes looked down at him, their expression unreadable.
++IDENTITY: UNKNOWN++ clanked a thick
mechanical voice from somewhere in the chest.
++STATUS? MISSION?++
Von Schill gave it the once-over. Instead of hands, it
had heavy curved pincers that looked capable of slicing
through steel and it probably tipped the scales at four
or fve hundred pounds. He decided on the diplomatic
approach.
Im here to fnd someone, he said. I got a job I need
them to do.
Te worker construct seemed to scrutinize him with
those tiny angry eyes.
++ASSOCIATION: GUILD?++ it rumbled. Te worn
steel pincers slid open in anticipation.
No, Von Schill shook his head. No Guild. Freikorps.
Te machine seemed almost disappointed. It gave him
one last stare and stepped away.
Te mechanical zoo continued. As he moved deeper into
the building, the concentration of shapes increased. He
had never suspected there were this many in Malifaux,
let alone this many rogue escapees. But then, they were
almost a third class of citizen, going about their
mind-numbing labors unseen and unheard by
the greater populace.
Finally, he found what he was looking for.
Near the center of Ampersand was where the most
sophisticated and sentient of the renegades congregated.
Tere was a gathering of them around a metal bench
under one of the few sources of illumination in the
whole place a glass globe on a thick rubber wire that
was suspended from the ceiling some unfathomable
distance overhead. Te globe threw out a bluish-white
illumination that was bright enough to make Von Schill
squint.
Four bulky and inhuman shapes crouched over the
bench. Absurdly, impossibly, they were playing
cards.
Von Schill recognized the construct he was afer
immediately his target sat directly ahead,
facing him. Tere was a raw looking socket
6
at the end of its bulky right arm, like something had
been temporarily removed Von Schill had a good idea
what. Instead, a miniature wire clip resembling a band
leaders music stand stuck up, holding a fan of fve cards.
A round green optic in its chest bathed the card faces
in emerald light and a single red eye in the dome head
rolled slowly from the cards to its opponents, then back
to the cards. Te lef arm was far more conventional and
hovered nearby with the fngers poised.
Lazarus. Guild-hater and anarchist. Dented, scarred,
exceptionally capable. And potentially available for hire.
Von Schill bided his time, settling against a pillar (which
later turned out to be a water tank on legs) and watched.
Directly across from Lazarus was a boxy machine
with a confusing furry of arms, each made from thin
interconnecting rods not much thicker than a marsh
reed. Von Schill couldnt quite fgure out what it had
been designed for, but it sure knew its way around a
pack of cards. Te arms knifed and jabbed and those
cards few around the table.
To the lef of the dealer box was something that looked
rather like an upended iron bath with cockroach legs
coming out the front. Te body was heavily riveted and
mighty-looking thick glass port holes were ftted all
around the top and a single green eye on a stalk moved
around inside. Tere was something nautical-looking
about it from the tubing that ran along its underside,
to the streaks of salt-eaten rust on its fanks and the
stink of river mud, it had to be some sort of mechanical
diving bell.
On the right, and apparently the focus of Lazaruss
attention, was a thin and somehow severe looking
machine. It held its cards with double-jointed limbs
and Von Schill noticed that the eight fngers attached
to each hand were all ftted with rubber tips. It looked
to him like a clerical mechanism an adding machine,
or some sort of accounting device. Te bullet holes in it
suggested that it may not have proven as trustworthy as
its creator had hoped.
Tey were using washers as chips and the largest pile
by far was beside the adding machine, which seemed
appropriate for a game where mathematics was a factor,
but, as the constructs played, Von Schill noticed that the
tide of the game was steadily turning in Lazaruss favor.
Tat single red eye spent a lot of time fxed on the adding
machine as it shufed and fussed with its cards. Lazarus
seemed to pulse slowly, and then the chips would go
down with Lazarus winning another hand.
Von Schill grinned around his cigar. He knew why
Lazarus was winning, but it wasnt his place to explain it
to the others at the table.
Finally, inevitably, the other three machines tapped out,
drained of their chips and fat broke. One by one they
clumped and ratcheted away from the table, leaving the
victor sitting alone with his mound of oily washers.
Tis looked like as good a time as any and Von Schill
slipped into the stool recently vacated by the dealer box.
Good game, he said.
Te red eye rotated around and fxed on him for some
seconds, then rolled back to counting its winnings.
++VON SCHILL++ it grated. ++LONG WAY FROM
HOME, FREIKORPS++
Got a job ofer for you. Tought you might like to put
that mimic ability of yours to better use than cheating
at cards.
Te eye turned to him again.
++CHEATING. A FLESH NOTION. FLESH LAW IS
COMPLEX; ILLOGICAL. SEMANTICS. ETHICS.
MORALITY. TO EXIST UNDER THAT YOKE IS
EQUALLY ILLOGICAL. ERGO, AMPERSAND++
Von Schill chuckled. Dress it up fancy any way you like,
Lazarus. Its still cheating.
++THROUGH FLESH EYES, PERHAPS. CONSTRUCT
LAW IS SIMPLER++
I wonder what the diving bell and that walking
abacus with the bullet holes in it would say about your
interpretation of construct law.
Lazarus lifed a massive multi-barreled weapon from
under the bench and fxed it to the empty socket of
its right arm. A long, glinting bayonet snapped out
between them like a spear.
7
++NOTHING++ it grunted.
Von Schill eyed the cruel weapon. Youre probably
right.
Te construct got to its feet, towering over the still-
seated Freikorps leader.
++STATE YOUR PURPOSE, FREIKORPS++
Von Schill sucked on his cigar and blew a puf of smoke
into the machines midrif, momentarily clouding the
green glow.
Oh, I think this will be right up your street, he grinned.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
Seville Septis wiped his damp palms on his pants. He
was a habitually nervous individual and was especially
so this evening. He was to make a presentation to the
Governor General himself in the morning and such
opportunities carried an inherent double-edged sword.
On the one side, his presentation could go well and
doors would almost certainly open for an aspiring Guild
Lawyer such as himself. On the other, if his intelligence
was bad, he would just as certainly be relegated to
some unfattering and dead-end duty in a moldy Guild
basement for the rest of his professional life.
He had done as much as he could to ensure the former
result and the thick sheaf of papers under his arm was
the result of months of research and data collation. In
short, he was fairly certain that his web of informants
had located Ampersand.
Not that the place had any great military or tactical
value, but he knew that the existence of a haven for
rogue constructs that had fed their appointed duty,
stuck in the Guild Generals craw, and it was rumored
that the individual who brought about its extinction
would curry great favor with the man.
It was hard to keep a secret even within the Guild ofces
and there were already some circulating rumblings
about the content of Sevilles briefng. Tese rumblings
had gathered momentum to the point where he had
been assigned a guard unit to make sure that whatever
vital crumbs of intelligence he had unearthed were
preserved until a proper evaluation could be made.
Tis suited Seville just fne the streets of Malifaux
could not be considered safe even under the midday
sun, let alone a late night journey through a succession
of brick lanes to his home.
It was a good thing that the Guardians were with him.
Tere were four of them huge, hulking, and metal
knights. Tey formed a square around him, marching
in perfect lock-step with kite shields over an inch
thick held against their barrel chests and broadswords
clenched in giant fsts.
Even one of them would have made a potential ambusher
think twice. With four of them at his side day and night,
Seville had developed a trace of a swagger in his walk.
And there was something else an ace in the hole that
no one knew about but him a silent shadow that
fitted across the roofops overhead and watched their
little procession with baleful amber eyes. Seville had
never seen much more than a suggestion of the Hunter
construct, but he knew it was out there, ranging ahead
and scouring the streets and alleys for signs of danger.
Tey lef Curmudgeon Square and followed Brook Walk
for some distance. Te crunch of armored feet on the
cobbles echoed and, along with the clanking joints and
hissing pistons, it sounded like a lethargic iron wave
was rolling slowly through the dark. Te Guardians
were imposing, but far from stealthy.
Tey passed the statue of Long Tom, what the locals
called an unremarkable bronze statue that leaned
at a bizarre angle as though struck in the legs with a
cannonball, its features obscured by green corrosion,
and passed down Carpenter Row where the smell of
freshly cut and planed wyrd wood had permeated into
the stones.
Sevilles mind was elsewhere, running obsessively
through his presentation once again. Te intelligence
was good; he was certain of it. Two separate scouts had
confrmed the same location afer several expensive
weeks of searching. Te third scout never returned,
but Seville knew the old proverb about omelets and
never lost a moments sleep over it. Tere were hand-
drawn maps and bearings prepared by the scouts. Te
Quarantine Zone was legendary for resisting attempts
to quantify and map it, almost as if the buildings
8
and streets themselves shifed to foil the Guild
cartographers, but the information was only weeks old
and Seville was confdent Ampersand could be found if
they moved quickly.
His musings were interrupted by something falling
from the black sky above and exploding on the hard
cobbles. He almost took it for a chunk of roof tiles, but
for the ringing metallic sound it made when it landed.
A fnger-sized piece of steel and a spring hit him in the
chest as he heard similar fragments rattling against the
shields of the lead Guardians.
He peered down at the twisted object lying on the
ground for a long time before realization hit. It was a
constructs head. To be more specifc, it was a Hunter
constructs head.
His view was instantly blocked by the four Guardians
raising their shields and clanging together, squeezing
the Lawyer into a cramped rescue space in the middle.
And then the world started to explode around him.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
Lazarus had waited for the Hunter to come within range,
turning his baleful red eye upon it and soaking up the
inherent agility and stealth of the mechanism. His heavy
crushing feet had become quiet and sure pads, his loud
clanking joints and clunking drive pistons had become
as quiet as the breeze that sifed across the chimney pots
at his back.
Te Hunter was crouched at the edge of the roof, fve
stories up and watching the approaching Guild Lawyer
and entourage rather like a cat watches an unsuspecting
mouse. Lazarus had got within feet of it before his
presence was fnally detected. A single thrust of his
bayonet and a hard twist with his lef hand and the
machine was decapitated. Lazarus was not surprised
at the machines fragility the Guild was as penny-
pinching as it was incompetent, and the Hunter was
likely cast from recycled frying pans and watch parts.
He kicked the sparking body aside and took its place
on the roof, watching the Guardians and their sof
fesh charge moving down Carpenter Row. Even at
this distance, he could feel the solidity and durability
of the Guardians as they approached, their heavy feet
stomping down on the cobbles, their shields raised high.
Lazarus eye glowed and his alloys began to change,
growing denser and heavier as he started to absorb
their essence. Along with their endurance, came an
understanding of their dogged single-dimensional
programming their stoic stand and absorb all was
their weakness in this scenario and Lazarus intended to
exploit it to the full.
He wanted them in close for his frepower to have the
maximum efect and, when they had reached just the
right spot, he threw the severed Hunters head out
over the edge of the roof and watched it drop onto the
cobbles and smash.
Instinctively, the Guardians snapped into a tight
formation with their broad shields raised to all fours
points of the compass. Perfect.
Lazarus raised his right arm and with a hollow punk
fred a stubby grenade shell about the size of an apple
down into the tight knot of constructs.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
Sevilles teeth rattled in his head as the frst explosion
hit. Although the bulk of the Guardians shielded him
from the worst of the blast itself, hot fame engulfed
his legs and the pressure wave felt as though both his
ears had been slapped simultaneously. He would have
staggered if there had been room.
An instant later, there was another explosion and
another. Te Guardians were being pounded by some
sort of artillery weapon he could hear shells striking
the upraised shields, could feel the impacts travelling
through the huge bodies and into his own.
He started screaming for the Guardians to back up, to
get him of the street, but his words were drowned by
the incessant stream of explosions. Shrapnel stung his
ankles and calves his pants were starting to smolder
and the Guardian to his front and right was rocking
backwards, taking the brunt of the blasts. Its shield was
already buckled and deformed and, as Seville watched,
another blast drove the shield back into its chest.
Something inside broke and he saw a handful of tiny
oil-covered cogs fall from its cracked chest plate.
9
Te Guardians were tough, but Seville suspected they
couldnt take this punishment for long. He had to fnd
an escape route before they were all smashed to pieces.
He turned around in the cramped gap and began to
push at the broad back of the Guardian that had been
protecting his rear, hoping to make a big enough gap to
slip out in the confusion. He may as well have tried to
push over a house.
Te shelling continued; he glanced over his shoulder
and saw the source contrails arcing down from the
roof across the street. Tey were being bombarded and
the Guardians were reacting to it the only way they
knew how, by putting themselves and their shields
between the attack and their master.
Move, he shrieked over the thunder and fames. We
need to move!
Te Guardians never responded. Te forward construct
that had been taking most of the pounding suddenly
staggered and fell, spewing oil and broken parts. Its
shield had ruptured and a grenade had hit it full in
the chest. Te others immediately moved to close the
gap, interlocking their shields and bracing their sturdy
legs, but they were already battered and their metal was
blackened from the explosions.
Finally, though, he saw his chance. With the other two
Guardians moving forward to form an arrow-head
shield wall against the grenade salvo, there was a space
to the rear. A building sat less than ffy feet away and
the door looked none-too sturdy. A run and a hard
shoulder charge and he would be halfway to freedom.
His escape plan came to a jerking halt, however, when
one of the Guardians grabbed his upper arm and yanked
him into its shadow.
++STAY BEHIND ME++ it bellowed through the hail of
explosions, ignoring his pleas and struggles to be released.
Quite suddenly, the barrage of grenades shifed,
dropping low and bouncing under the raised shields of
the Guardians. Seville recoiled in horror but could only
twist like a leashed dog in the Guardians grasp as the
yellow blossom of fre engulfed them all.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
Lazarus stepped of the roofop, landing on his haunches
with a tremendous crunch that fractured the stone,
using the Hunters agility to absorb the drop from such
a height.
Te Guardians were all down as he got close he saw
that one was still active although its legs were twisted
ruins. Its implacable face was fxed on him as it dragged
itself forward with its remaining arm.
++INTERECEPT++ it grated. ++ELIMINATE++
Lazarus drove the point of his bayonet through its skull
and twisted the mechanism fnally slumped.
He had to kick around in the wreckage for a minute
to fnd the Lawyer. He was alive and relatively intact,
although his face and clothes were burned and torn
from the grenade blasts. Trembling convulsively, he
stared up at the big construct with terror and self-pity,
his mask blasted of.
Lazarus pressed the tip of his oil smeared blade against
the shivering Lawyers nose.
++THE DOSSIER++ he said.
Many of the paper sheets were burned around the edges
and one piece of shrapnel had punched a hole clean
through the folder, but the Lawyer meekly ofered up
the tattered information nevertheless.
Lazarus took it without comment, his gun arm pointed
directly at Seville. Te barrel mouths still glowed faintly.
It would be easy to fnish of this Guild rat; a single
thrust would do it. Von Schill had been quite specifc
about keeping him alive, though. Te Freikorps leader
seemed to think that there was more information
to be had from the Lawyer information that would
command a high price from interested parties.
Lazarus cared nothing for such intelligence. His only
motivation in taking this mission had been protecting the
anonymity of Ampersand. Besides, he hated the Guild and
everything it touched. He needed only to kill this rat and
then the scouts indicted in the dossier and Ampersand
would once again be beyond the Guilds reach.
Von Schill had been insistent, but Lazarus was not
governed by his fesh law. He raised his bayonet arm
and Seville closed his eyes.
10
And then he lowered it again.
Seville cracked an eye open, and, seeing that the Grim
Reaper had passed him over, let out a sob of relief.
Well, well, said a gruf voice from the shadows. Looks
like youre governed by fesh law afer all, Lazarus.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
Von Schill had been watching from the alley mouth as
the Guardians were pounded to scrap. Tis had never
really been a test of Lazaruss abilities, but more a test
of his dependability. Te constructs hatred of the Guild
was renowned and there was probably nothing Lazarus
would fnd harder to resist than killing a slippery weasel
like Seville Septis.
And Von Schill needed to know if he was dependable.
Te decisive moment over, a dozen Freikorps troopers
foated out of the shadows and two trappers appeared
on the roof.
For a second I thought you were going to kill him, Von
Schill said as he walked over.
++FOR A SECOND++ Lazarus agreed.
Why didnt you?
Te big construct retracted his bayonet and looked
down at the sobbing Lawyer with his expressionless eye.
++TO PROTECT AMPERSAND FROM GUILD
ATTENTION WOULD INDICATE FEAR OF THE
GUILD++ he said, grinding out each word in a
monotone. ++WE ARE NOT AFRAID. LET THEM
COME++
Te Freikorps leader made a gesture and the Lawyer
was hauled away.
You did good tonight, Lazarus, he said. Te Freikorps
could use someone with your skills. I got something in
the pipeline comin up. Something big.
Lazarus gazed down at him.
++STATE YOUR PURPOSE++ he said in his bass
metallic voice.
Von Schill patted around himself until he found a cigar,
jammed it in his mouth, and lit it.
Oh, I think this will be right up your street, he grinned.
11
By Matthew Ritter
A snowfake fell upon a hill
Never melting it rests there still
~ Childrens poem told near the Northern Horn.
Greetings Dalfon,

W
e m
anaged to recover your goods. T
e perishables had spoiled, though that is to be expected. T
e town we found
them
in was com
pletely em
pty. T
ere was evidence of violence, m
ostly a not sm
all am
ount of blood, but as your goods were still
present it is unlikely robbers were to blam
e.
W
e found the journal of the previous caravan leader. I have enclosed it with this letter. Afer reading it, even though it was near
dusk, I had the m
en hitch up the wagon and ride out of there.
W
hat goods were still usable were sold to the buyer. He tried to negotiate a lower price in light of the delay. I convinced him
to
accept an am
ount slightly above the previously agreed fgure, so as to keep up further trade with you. I pray you will forgive m
y
haggling on your behalf.
T
e journal entries of note begin at entry twenty-three and carry on until the fnal one at twenty-nine. I never did fnd the black
book he m
entions, though I m
ust confess I did not search very thoroughly.
I trust you will receive a letter from
your treasurer in Southcrest containing a logistic and fnancial sum
m
ation of the endeavor.
If you wish to hire som
eone to traverse the hill referred to in the journal, I m
ust inform
you that m
y services are not available.
Still I hope that with this letter you will consider m
y duties to have been adequately discharged.
-Always Yours,

Guild Guard, First Class Tam
antha Saddler
Snowfake
A Chilling Tale of Darkness
12
Journal Entry - 23

Te sound of wolves, or wild dogs was readily apparent as we approached the small hamlet. By the time we arrived proper, they
were gone. Probably heard us as we neared. Teyd been feasting on the corpses no doubt.

Tere were only a few homes. Tiny one or two room afairs. Couldnt have been more then eight or nine families living in the
area. Poor buggers. Brigands most likely. Not that there was much to take.

It was easy enough to drag the bodies the dogs had pulled outside back into their respective homes. I feel safe in this place, once
raiders hit theyre rarely planning to ever come back.
Some of the other men seem on edge. Something about how all the mirrors in the houses were covered up. Tats fairly common
though. Where I grew up they used to do that in a house when a child was born. To keep the spirits from reaching out and
strangling the baby while it slept.

I may not be superstitious, but I wont be sleeping in any of the beds. Most of the homes are quite a mess, and the stench, from the
blood, and other bits, Ill stay by the fre. Well be gone tomorrow early, if I can keep the men from trying to give all the villages
proper burials. We have a schedule to keep.
Journal Entry - 24

Hes an idiot. Waking everyone up and getting them riled with spook stories. I never liked him and his thin pointed face. Never
was good at names, I always call him rat-face in my head. It fts even more now. Claiming it couldnt have been brigands, that
nothing was stolen.

So? Te world is full of sadistic men. If I spent the time and efort to raid some place, and they had nothing? I might kill them all
just to feel like Id accomplished something, and then leave it all to rot.

Its pitch black out with no moon, and I cant get back to sleep, so here I am, wasting perfectly good candles and ink while the
men swap nightmares and boogie stories. Rat-face doesnt help. Pointing out that some of the bodies were dragged of towards a
hill nearby.

Nothing will get him to stop. He has a counter for everything, insisting on terrifying himself and the others. Te dogs couldnt
have dragged it that way, dogs would drag the bodies out towards the woods, not up a hill, he claims. As if he is an expert on
dogs. What would bandits have use for with a corpse? He adds. Well, if they were the sadistic sort, all kinds of uses!

Te hill isnt helping either. Despite the lack of a moon, it can be seen from town, even with the fre going. Stark against the night
sky, and unlike everywhere else in the area, nothing seems to grow on upon it.

Te men were calling it the Cursed Hill, but that quickly changed to the Black Hill. A very clever bunch Im riding with.
Journal Entry -25

I still cant sleep. Not for the same reason as the others. Teyre all frightened, I just cant get any rest with them shufing around
and talking constantly. Teyll all feel stupid once we ride out tomorrow in the light of day.
Actually, they probably wont. Teyll talk about it forever, and the Black Hill will become known as a spot of terrible magicks
and death. So this is how superstitious silliness starts.
13
Journal Entry - 26

Rat-face poisoned my dreams with all his talk. I managed to fall asleep, but not an hour later I was startled awake by my own
mind. I wasnt the only one with a nightmare of course, and the men who had them keep sharing them.

T
eyve convinced themselves they all had the same one. Considering how hard it is to remember one on a good day, I think they
just need to stop. T
eyve half morphed my own dream into their delusion.

A simple enough dream, A fgure, not particularly tall, or short, but wearing a great coat. Not like the soldiers wear, like the one
doctors do. Terrifying dark things, stained from all the surgeries theyve preformed. A doctor will never wash his coat. Makes
them smell worse than the former inhabitants of this place, but it lets you see the history of his work.

T
ose coats always used to give me nightmares. You could always tell a doctor, always. My mother wanted me to go into the
profession, but I refused, I was never going to wear a coat like that, heavy with the lives I had failed to save...

Look at me. T
ats pretty good. Defnitely getting in a morbid mood. Listening to all of them talk about the dream... right. T
e
fgure. With the doctor coat, long of course, and buttoned all the way up. T
e fgure held an executioners axe, chipped and warn
with use. And, instead of a face, it wore a mask, porcelain. Somehow it reminded me of a plague doctors mask, even though it
was smooth, without any features.

Not blank though, splashed with blood in a way that kept changing every time I looked away. T
e splatter on the white mask
seemed to suggest intent, or expression. Like blood was its face.

T
ats the thing about dreams isnt it? T
ings can be other things.

Its all very silly. Still, just to make myself feel better, Im going to go check all the mirrors in the homes and make sure every last
one is truly covered.
Journal Entry - 27
Rat-face has disappeared. And Ive got bad luck.

A few of the men went out looking for him, I didnt tell them what happened to me as theyd just assume it was a bad omen. I was
checking the mirrors when a cloth fell of one. It was of course my own refection I saw, but for a moment I thought it was a fgure
in a dark stained coat. I struck out without thinking.

My mother used to say breaking a mirror wasnt bad luck, it was dangerous. T
at the shattered glass was hard to clean, hard to
get every little piece, and if a few pieces remained hidden, you wouldnt cover them up when you needed too, that now things
could get into this world, with no way to stop them.

My mother was a very superstitious woman. Still, I spent a long time cleaning up the glass.

When I came out, they told me Nathan, which is apparently Rat-faces name, had gone missing. No one could fnd him. T
ey
didnt listen when I suggested just waiting around, as sunrise is only a few hours away. A bunch of the braver lads got some
lanterns together and went out. Said theyd be back.

Its been another hour and they arent.
14
Journal Entry -28

I must have lost my sense of time. It feels like morning should have come by now. But theres no sun, and no sign of the men that
went looking.

Im scared now. Not of goblins or ghosts, but of much more real things. Tings like brigands, bandits, animals in the woods. Or
my own men having decided they wanted to pinch the cargo and run, and thatd be easy if there were no other witnesses. Ive
seen that sort of thing before. Tis whole Black Hill nonsense would be a great cover to keep us distracted.

So Ive set up at the wagon with whats lef of my candles. Everyone else is by the fre. Teyre too scared for another scouting
party. One of the men found a book bound in black leather in one of the houses. I took it from them because it was making them
even more skittish. Started reading it myself.

Probably a mistake.

Its a collection of stories. Hand written, and poorly. Maybe one of the former residents was an amateur writer? Or just collected
all the weird legends they heard. Most of them are the normal sort of things. Little spirits living in the house. Monsters in the
woods. Trolls that live in the ground.

One of them though, is quite disturbing. Its about an angel. Or something like that. Tat fell down from above. Crashed. It didnt
die, because it couldnt die. But it doesnt live. Its just there, not dead, not alive.

Tats about all there is to the story. Shouldnt be that worrying I know. But my mind is in that mode. Terror and fear, jumping to
conclusions. Tinking about something like that, up on the hill. In legends, creatures like that ofen feast on humans, eating their
souls, trying to gain the strength to return to what they once were.

Its a good thing I took the book from my men, they would have been horrifed. It reminds me of another story my mom told me,
about mirrors, and children and creatures.

Tat the souls of the young were always more tasty to demons and the like. Teyd ofen gobble them up whole, whereas us older
folks they had to torture, to make tasty. I dont remember seeing any corpses of children.

A town like this had to have children right? Tese rural farmer types always have nine or twelve of the buggers.

Where are all the children?
Journal Entry -29

Te fre went out. I dont want to go check on why. It took me a long time to call out to the others. No one answered. Why hasnt
the sun come up yet?
15
By Jason Przybycien
Pretty polished and polished until her hands were
black and the boots danced in the lamp light. Ten she
checked on the new hats. Made from the hide of some
strange beastie Master Reuel had slain in the snow last
month, they were still damp from the mercury water
shed applied. Te fur had turned rusty however, and
looked ready to fall of, as if the hat had the Mange. She
poked with a stif brush until the hat fairly glowed, and
then blew of a few specks, wrinkling her nose at the
biting metallic smell.
She looked at her hands. Te shaking was almost
imperceptible, unless she tried to pour water into a
glass. Hatters shakes? Maybe. She had heard of them
before her father - damn his eyes - had sold her into
servitude to stay out of debtors prison. He wouldnt
have such a debt if hed stay away from the saloons.
At least he had taught her to cure hides and polish
boots, forced her to when he awoke with a headache.
Not much had changed now that she was working for
Reuel. Te pay was still nothing. She might still earn a
beating if the mans fnery didnt shine, but she hadnt
given her creepy new master an excuse yet. Unlike her
fathers drunken friends, he thankfully didnt seem bent
on peeking down her blouse.
Perhaps later youll bloom, he had said one night in
the dark. But for now youre a wee bit green. He was
silent for some moments, leaving her to worry that he
might someday be interested in her blouse afer all.
She began hoping he was asleep, but then heard him
murmur, tongue thick with drink, Now when you
bloom ... Perhaps we can preserve your blossom so it
wont wilt. He chuckled in a way that made her cringe,
though she wasnt sure why. Ive heard there is a man
whose ladies never age, even though they ought to be
dead. Name was Sss .. ss .. something. He mumbled
incoherently, then began to snore.
Tat was her cue to start foraging for some scrap of
food. In the cramped house this night, she found a
large knife, rusty in spots but still sharp, and some stale
crackers. She also tucked away a foul-smelling bottle of
the dark liquor Reuel drank. If things got much worse,
shed drink it to calm her empty belly, or perhaps hope
to fall asleep and never awaken. In her opinion, anyone
who willingly drank the stuf was as sharp as a stick of
chalk.
Te next night, Reuel came home early. She heard a
thunderous shot and footsteps running toward the front
door, which few open. Reuel, his bald pate covered in
sweat, dashed in.
Wheres me new hat?! Quick now, Pretty. Ive no time
for games.
She dashed across the room and handed it to him.
He dofed it in a fash. Tere, thats better.
Pretty
The Journey for Beauty and Freedom
16
He took a step to the door as someone shouted angrily
in the street. He leaned against the wall facing the street
and peeked through the dusty glass. Bugger. Hes here
already. Ill have to take the back door.
A cold metal feeling gripped Prettys guts as she realized
that Reuel was just like her father. In debt beyond his
means. Now what would become of her?
In the rear doorway, as an aferthought, he turned to the
girl. I wont be back here and theres no way you can
keep up. Take care of yerself. He tipped his hat.
You mean Im free? Te stale crackers clawed their
way back up her throat, but she kept them down.
Te lamp light danced across his grinning mouth,
sparkling of a gold tooth, and then a gust of chill wind
blew out the light entirely. Tis is Malifaux, Pretty.
Nothing and no one here is free. Good luck.
Trough the door, now ajar, she listened to the man still
shouting out front. Come on out, Reuel! You know
whats coming. Get out here and face it like a man!
At least he wasnt out back, so Reuel had a chance to get
away. What did she care? Perhaps itd be better if he died
nearby, leaving her something to scavenge. Now thats
a terrible thought, she whispered to herself.
A thunderous gunshot rang out beside the house. No,
she breathed. I didnt mean it.
Tere was no more shouting out front, no sound of
anyone living nearby. She was alone. More alone than
when her father was out until dawn. More alone than
when she had spent the night in the cold railcar with the
other children, sleeping on straw and waiting to be sold.
She was more alone than when she had been polishing
Reuels boots and digging for food in his unkempt
house. Now, she was truly alone in Malifaux, a place
that scared a well-to-do man with a fintlock, and she
had only a rusty knife and nary a penny to her name.
A name. She didnt even have that. What kind of a name
was Pretty? It was the most generic, empty name a girl
ever had. But it was hers. It was one thing she owned.
Tat and the rusty knife and ... She smiled. And the
other hat shed been working on. Reuel hadnt taken it,
and it was just as ready as the frst one. Tat was what
she needed, a hat. Te night was getting chill. Brushing
of the rusty fur, she placed it atop her head and took a
deep breath. Better to be alone with a hat than simply
alone.
She wrapped her torn dress around herself. See, she
thought, one other thing I own. Its my dress. It doesnt
matter who bought it, because no one is coming back
for it. She walked to the door and shut it. What season
was it here in Malifaux? Instead of Mother Earths four
seasons, warming and cooling the world as needed,
the weather here seemed to come from some diferent
woman. Like one addicted to opium. When she could
aford it, the sun shone brighter than it had a right to.
And when she ran out of steam, the mother of this world
rained tears or buried herself under a heap of snow for
as long as she could.
Pretty found the afghan she had slept with, the one
which threatened to unravel if she stretched it too far.
It had a smell she couldnt identify, like so many things
in this dark place. Even if it was just mildew, the smell
was comfortingly familiar. Still chilly, she decided she
needed something else to keep warm. Lighting a candle,
she crept around the room and looked at what there
was. No fabric at all. No curtains, having been stolen
by a previous boarder if they had even been there. Two
empty brackets high upon the wall testifed that even
the curtain rod had been sold for scrap.
Her belly rumbled then, and she knew that keeping
warm was just one of her immediate concerns. Ten
a thought struck her, one which she would have been
too scared, and not desperate enough, to act on the day
before. Tere had been a battle in the street just minutes
before. Someone had been shot. Tat meant a dead
body was laying there, the clothes still warm.
She put her candle on the table and crept close to
the window to look outside. She saw a pair of boots,
motionless, sticking out past a building and into
the street. As she watched, a thin shape wove its way
between the shadows across the street, visible for an
instant as it passed beneath a gaslight en route to the
corpse. A black cap on unkempt dark hair, and ill-ftting
clothes one a lithe frame, a red tartan scarf trailing
behind. Te face she jumped back and was glad she
wasnt holding the candle, for she surely would have
dropped it. Te face was a mask of scars, as if someone
had drawn on it with a knife and used the same blade
17
to erase the picture. She edged to the window again and
squinted as she grimaced.
Tere he was, crouching on the dead mans shins and
rooting through his pockets! Whoever he was, he was
about to take whatever spoils there were before she
could get them. Prettys stomach rumbled again, and
she wondered if the dead man had had even a few coins
on him, to buy a loaf of bread. Te boy looked up at her,
one blue eye and one milky white, squinting through the
window. But he waved a flthy hand at her in dismissal,
and went back to its work.
Pretty did not dismiss the wretch. What he was taking
could be the diference between her starving or freezing
to death today, or living long enough to fnd work. She
nodded to herself, resolved, and tied the shawl so it
would stay around her shoulders. Shed need it outside.
She grabbed the knife and, afer a moments thought,
blew out the candle. She shut the door quietly and
started across the rutted, shadowy street toward the
rufan. Really, how dangerous could he be? He was
slightly taller than she, and he had moved quite fast, so
shed have to be crafy.
Pretty kept the knife behind her back and probed her
heart for something that would help her follow through.
She gathered all the hurt, all the abandonment, all the
awful feelings she hadnt let herself feel. From beneath
a sea of woe, something blue reached her eyes and the
tears began to fall. She grimaced as the chill breeze
threatened to freeze the tears, but she didnt brush them
away. Tey had a purpose. She snifed, and then snifed
louder. Finally she just wept.
Te flthy mans eyes fitted over his shoulder at her, and
then back at the mans hand which he was holding in
his own. Tere was a thin gold ring on the fnger and
the wretch pulled again, trying to get it loose. He hissed
curses under his breath. Probably didnt wash his hands
today. Bah. And then his jaws snapped open and, afer
a half seconds hesitation, snapped down on the fnger.
He wrenched back and forth, grunting. And then, with
a satisfying pop, the fnger came loose with the ring.
As soon as this happened, the wretch reached into his
mouth and pulled the fnger out, keeping the ring back
with his lips. He fung the fnger toward a shadow and
spit bloody saliva repeatedly. Blech. Defnitely didnt
wash his hands. Blech. He wiped his mouth on the
sleeve of his coat, which was several sizes too large and
didnt match his pants.
A sob right behind him made him turn and snarl. He
quickly put the ring on his fnger and made the hand
into a fst to shake at her. Mine! Your tears aint gonna
work on me, bootlicker. Go back to your fancy master.
She sobbed again. Please, I ... I dont have anything.
Lamplight caught on three tears, one on the tip of her
chin, one frozen on her lef cheek and one in her eye,
about to follow the dirty path the others had made.
Te thief chortled. Not true. Not true. He relaxed and
sat on the dead mans chest. Te carcass brought his
eyes to the same height as hers. He pointed. You got
a fne hat there. Would you trade ... His eyes darted to
the ring hed just donned and then, instead, he reached
into his pocket and produced a handful of tarnished
brass buttons. ... for these. He grinned in a way that
he supposed was honest, but he had long ago forgotten
what honesty was.
She bent over the hand, examining the buttons. As she
did so, the hat cast a shadow over the wretch and his
smile turned to honest glee in a second. His free hand
darted up to snatch the hat, free and clear, which was
just what she had planned. As his grimy fngernails
brushed the hat, her knife lodged solidly between his
ribs. It wasnt as deep as she had intended, for she was
only a little girl, but ill-fed thieves arent very thick afer
all. His eyes fashed rage, but his attempt to give voice to
it only expectorated a mouthful of blood. Brass buttons
clinked against the cobblestones, just as worthless as his
promises, and his lifeless head soon followed.
Pretty looked at the two corpses, one atop the other,
the one on top steaming a bit in the chill air. She didnt
know what to do at frst, but then she remembered.
She wiped away her tears. Tere was no need for them
now. A smile crept to her lips. Yes, happiness. She could
feel that for a moment. She assessed the situation and
realized that both corpses would bleed; both would
stain the mans coat if she hesitated, so she got to work.
Minutes later, she was back inside. She shivered, trying
to forget how cold it had been outside, trying to forget
what shed been through, but she kept going back to that
happy moment when shed tricked the skinny bugger
and taken all he had, along with everything that dead
18
gentleman had lef behind. Now she had a shiny pistol,
though it was too big for her to use. Shed best sell that
and say as little as possible about where itd come from.
She still had her ratty shawl, but over it she was wrapped
in a full grown mans jacket, with only the tiniest blood
stain on the interior, and a long red tartan scarf. She
glanced upward at the brim of Reuels spare hat. No, she
smiled, my hat. My coat, my hat, my scarf, my knife. She
glanced at the thing which had separated the wretch
from his life and possessions. My knife.
Youre like me, she told the blade as the candle
fickered. No one thought you was worth a lick, but
you showed em, didnt you? Well, wed better save our
candle. Weve a bit of scrip and a bit of gold, but that
wont get us far. We children of Malifaux have to be
careful. Nothing and no one here is free. She blew out
the candle and snuggled underneath all the cloth she
owned.
Out in the street, two men lay naked in the lamplight;
their eyes still open in surprise. Both had underestimated
those who had nothing lef to lose.
In the morning, shed go looking for Reuel. Not because
she had any interest in him, but to learn more about Mr.
S. Perhaps her new friend could help him remember
the rest of the name.
20
By Michael Kelmelis
Michael is a regular writer on the Guessing Zero
gaming website at www.guessingzero.com, and is a
cohost of the podcast Gaming Done Right on the
Guessing Zero Network.
Last issue we talked about how to set yourself into the best
position possible for achieving victory. List building and
planning, while vital steps in winning games, only get you
to the starting line. Once the game begins, it is how you
utilize the tools you have given yourself that will determine
whether you actually cross the fnish line as the victor, or
limp across it bruised and broken.
Te battle has been called. Te board is set. Te Strategy
and Schemes have been selected and the crews have been
revealed and deployed. Te opponents reach across the
table to shake hands. Tere is a tense calm between them.
In my imagination, a tumbleweed blows behind them.
And with a bang, the frst turn has begun.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
No matter what point it is during your turn, the frst question
you should always ask yourself before activating any model
is, Can I lock up a Victory Point in this activation? Look
over your models and quickly determine whether there is a
Victory Point available to you right now.
Discovering an opportunity at a Victory Point does not
mean you should immediately claim it. Instead, if you see
one, determine if the Victory Point is a safe Victory Point,
or if it is one that is under threat. Essentially, determine
whether your opponent could, in their next activation,
take that Victory Point away from you. Could they attack
and possibly kill the model? Could they simply engage the
model and prevent it from interacting? If there is a Victory
Point available to you, and it is not safe, activate the model
and take the Victory Point. Victory Points are the most
important things at the end of the game. Do not pass up an
opportunity to claim them.
If there are no Victory Points available to you, the next
question is whether your opponent has any available to him
or her, and if so, can you reasonably stop that point from
being taken? Reasonably, in this case, refers to whether
the point is inevitably going to your opponent, whether you
could stop it permanently, or if you could make gaining
that point so costly to your opponent that they may lose
the option for further points down the line. For example,
if your opponent has taken Plant Evidence, keeping one of
its objective-grabbing models engaged for two turns means
that the model may not be able to drop as many Scheme
Markers as your opponent hopes.
Assuming you have no Victory Points that must be taken,
and your opponent has no Victory Points that could be
reasonably stopped, the options for who to activate open
quite a bit more. Tere are several tasty options that present
How to prevent your opponent from gaining Victory Points.
Achieving Victory
21
themselves, but if winning is the goal, there should be two
that foat to the top. If you cannot gain Victory Points
yourself or prevent your opponent from gaining Victory
Points, you need to position yourself to gain Victory Points
in the future, or position yourself to prevent your opponent
from gaining Victory Points.
Do not simply attack a model because it is in your path,
unless by attacking that model you are furthering your
fnal goal. Do not spent your Action Points trying to kill
an opposing master, unless killing that master will help
you achieve Victory Points or prevent your opponent from
doing so. Too ofen players fall into the trap of seeing a
juicy target that could be killed and jumping on it. Putting
Ototo in the path of a Rail Golem may make an Archanist
opponent salivate, but if he bites and goes afer Ototo
and leaves a Torakage to place the last A Line in the Sand
marker before the game is up, the Archanist player made
the wrong decision. Sacrifcing high point models in order
to gain Victory Points is not a bad thing. Go back to the
initial list design and planning for your models. Once a
model completed the job set out for it, anything else it does
is just gravy. Once the Silurid that was purchased for Plant
Evidence has fnished its job, it can move into other roles.
But until the Plant Evidence has fnished, it should keep its
eye on getting more Victory Points.
The Four Phases of Infuencing
Victory Points
At the end of the day, there are four diferent phases
infuencing Victory Points, and in order to win you will
usually need to beat your opponent in three of them. Tese
phases are: gaining Victory Points from your Strategy,
gaining Victory Points from your Schemes, preventing your
opponent from gaining Victory Points from their Strategy,
and preventing your opponent from gaining Victory Points
from their Schemes. Outpace your opponent in three of
these four goals and you will win the game.
Gain Strategy Victory Points
Gaining Strategy Victory Points is one of the most common
ways to ensure you end the game with the win. All Strategies
have a few common traits. Tese are the same for both
players during the game, and they all ofer a maximum of
four Victory Points to each player. Victory Points cannot be
scored on the frst turn, and players can only earn a single
Victory Point per turn. Simple mathematics determines
that, without the game going to extended turns, a player
will need to score a Victory Point every turn, starting on
turn two. Tat means you need to set your crew up to start
getting Victory Points on turn one. Tis is detrimental,
because if you miss getting a Strategy Victory Point during
any turn, the opportunity to make up that point will not
come back around.
Each Strategy requires diferent preparation to gain Victory
Points. In order to accomplish Squatters Rights, for
example, you will want to ensure that you are rushing for
multiple Squat Markers on the very frst turn. More than
that, since both players can achieve this mission each turn,
if you are trying to ensure that you accomplish your Victory
Points, it is inefcient to go afer Squat Markers that have
also been targeted by your opponent. Find a pair that your
opponent is not targeting and go for those. Reckoning is a
little more difcult to set up. You want to kill two of your
opponents models every turn until your opponent runs out
of models. Tis means it might be more advantageous to
attack models and leave them at lower health levels, so that
in subsequent turns, its easier to target and kill two models
with fewer AP. Spreading attacks and leaving models alive
might feel like it goes against everything you know, but it
is worth it when your goal is to maximize your Strategy
Victory Points.
Gain Scheme Victory Points
Te other common way players think to win games is by
ensuring that they achieve all of their Victory Points for
Schemes. All Schemes come from a shared Scheme pool,
but are hidden from your opponent while they are building
their list. Tey each max out at three Victory Points, so
individually they are worth less than your Strategy, but
combined, they are worth more.
During the game, it is very important to remember
Schemes. In the throes of conquest and combat, it might
seem anti-climactic to leave Teddy standing with his last
wound. Afer all, he is going to regenerate back up and lay
down some righteous fury in future turns. But if leaving
him be means that your nearly-dead minion can instead
Interact and drop a Scheme Marker for Plant Explosives,
your minion should Interact and then clench for the
inevitable beat-down. Killing Teddy was never the goal of
the game in this case.
22
Recognize where your points are going to come from
and who is going to achieve them, and then stick to that
plan. If your pair of Necropunks are keyed up to grab your
Breakthrough Scheme, do not pull them of that duty until
they have completed the task, even if your Flesh Construct
could use a couple of hits on an enemy Executioner to bail
him out. Your Flesh Construct has done its job distracting
your enemy from targeting the Necropunk. Let his sacrifce
be what wins the game.
Deny Strategy Victory Points
Tere are several lines that divide good and great players.
Good players know how to maximize their own Victory
Points. Great players know the importance of also
minimizing their opponents Victory Points.
Go back up and reread the section on Gaining Strategy
Victory Points. Done that? Now fip your mind sideways.
All the truths from above still hold value. Instead of thinking
how to use them to ensure you get Victory Points, think of
how to stop your opponent from getting Victory Points.
Te easiest thing to remember is that your opponent can
gain only a single Victory Point each turn, beginning with
the second turn, and if you deny them that point, the only
way the opportunity comes to get it back is by extending
the game. So make sure you deny your opponent the
ability to get their Strategy. Keep an eye on how they are
moving the models and determine what their plan is. If the
Strategy is Reckoning, let the opponent use precious AP on
weakening one of your models, then move the model out
of harms way before it can be killed, denying them two kills
in the turn. If your opponent has two models earmarked
to grab Turf War, use Barbaros to push the model out of the
middle of the board at the end of the turn.
Remember, if you are able to gain a Victory Point from a
Strategy and you deny your opponent the Victory Point that
same turn, you have a permanent leg up on them in Victory
Points and can force them to play more aggressively, which
usually leads to more mistakes.
Deny Scheme Victory Points
Denying Scheme Victory Points is perhaps the hardest
path to Victory. Schemes are, by their nature, very fexible.
Your opponent has the option to leave them hidden, so
you dont know which Schemes your opponent will select
when picking your crew. Tis provides a difcult challenge
for designing a crew make-up to hinder the opponents
Schemes.
Scheme selections are so varied, that its nearly impossible
to come up with a set path to denying them to your
opponents. Instead, it might be easier to look at your
opponents Schemes as two additional Schemes of your
own. Lets say your opponent has revealed Make them
Sufer as one of their Schemes. Now you have an additional
Scheme to achieve that gives you three points if you keep a
Minion or Peon alive at by the end of the game. Reversing
the logic makes it easier to see the path to denying Victory
Points. If you are running low on minions, run some away
to keep them hidden while your opponent loses out on the
Victory Points.
Hidden Schemes are a little harder to counter, but not
impossible. When your opponent hides a Scheme, look
back over the pool of Schemes available. Which of them is
able to be hidden? Now deny those Schemes. If Bodyguard
is an option, fgure out who the Bodyguard targets could be
and put wounds on them. Watch the way your opponent
moves and what they are doing. Are they holding models
closer to their side of the board with Scheme Markers with
Protect Territory as an option? Is your opponent rushing
models towards your side of the board to drop Scheme
Markers with Breakthrough as an option? Do what you
can to disrupt your opponents targets.
Preparing for the End Game
All games come to an end, ofen with mad scrambling for
last-ditch Victory Points. Too ofen I have seen players who
are in a difcult situation resign themselves to the end of
the game without making any preparations, only to fnd
that the game goes on one additional turn and, had they
set themselves up better, they could have stolen a victory. If
you are losing the game, play as though the game will go on
another turn. Move your models into position to swing the
tide and grab more Victory Points. Set yourself up so that
you can grab the Victory Point from your Strategy your
opponent denied you on the second turn. Ready yourself
to remove some of your opponents Scheme Markers that
were abandoned when they assumed the game would end
on the ffh turn. So many games are turned from a loss to
a win with that extra turn.
If you are ahead as the ffh turn is coming to a close, do
not assume the game is going to end. Position yourself to
23
protect your lead. Keep your Bodyguarded Henchman
away from the fghting. Move your models into position to
protect your Scheme Markers, or drop additional ones to
block your opponent from denying you points by removing
one Scheme Marker. Te game is not over until the last
card is fipped saying it is over. Play through to the end.
Bringing it All Together
Malifaux is a complex game involving many intricate
moving parts. I hope over the last two articles you have a
better understanding of how to achieve victory in Malifaux.
It requires more than good preparation and good execution.
Planning only meets half of what you need. Achieving that
plan and adapting to the situations that arise during the
game are equally important.
So, next time you pull out your models, think back on what
youve read. Keep your eye on Victory Points and be ready
to make sacrifces in exchange for the win. Recognize the
diferent phases of the game, and determine how you will
perform in each of them. A player who wins in three of the
four phases will come out the victor.
Now pick up your cards, set up your models, and achieve
victory.
24
By Andrew Weakland
Or, How I Got Pasted by a Pasty Brit
Vacillations with Vassal
I try to play Malifaux as ofen as I can. Tis is, of course, not
as ofen as Id like. Real life gets in the way, an opponent isnt
always available, and club night is only once a week. Also,
as a Malifaux Henchman, I am ofen duty bound to spend
spare gaming hours giving demonstrations and assisting
other players honing the champions of tomorrow, if you
will. For that reason, Ive always been intrigued by Vassal,
an application that lets one wargame via the internet, and
as it so happens, Malifaux has a well-polished module for
the system. Alas, the hobbyist side of me would always
protest when I considered spending precious gaming hours
sitting in front of an LCD screen rather than standing over
a proper gaming table embellished with terrain.

Enter Mr. Joel Henry. Joel and I became friends through
Mike Marshall, whom I met and played against in the
Malifaux Masters at Adepticon 2013, and with whom
Joel co-hosts the popular Malifools podcast. Joel has a
reputation as being one of the top playersif not the top
playerin the UK, and I myself have been lucky enough
to bring home two Adepticon victories. Unsurprisingly, a
friendly rivalry developed between us. We would share
in-game anecdotes, and debate strategies and model
interactions, but there is only so much one can learn from
a Malifaux player away from the tabletop. Tus I was quick
to quell my inner protest when Joel suggested a game over
Vassal, an easy way to traverse the pesky Atlantic Ocean
that had, so far, made a game between us impossible. Not
to mention, if one is going to put in time to learn a new
way of playing, it cant hurt to learn from one of the best!
Getting the sofware set up was quite easy. I downloaded
the latest core application itself via http://www.
vassalengine.org/. Ten I loaded up the Malifaux specifc
module available directly from Wyrd. (http://www.wyrd-
games.net/Vassal/Manual/Manual_ToC.html) Afer I
was all set up on the sofware side, I pinged Joel on Twitter,
he called me via Skype, and we were of!
Te frst thing that intrigued me about a Malifaux game
on Vassal was that I wasnt restricted by models I actually
owned. I was tempted to select a faction outside of my
collection, but ultimately decided to keep it simple, staying
with my tried and true Outcasts. Tat way, I could focus
my eforts on learning the nuances of the application itself,
rather than getting to grips with a new faction. I wasnt
surprised that Joel revealed his beloved Neverborn.
To generate our Strategies and Schemes, we used a handy
twitter bot - @MalifauxSchemes. Just start any tweet with
the @MalifauxSchemes handle and randomized strategies
and schemes will be delivered back to you. Tis works
great for Vassal, as you can both receive the tweet and
reference it well into the game. It also works great for
writing Battle ReportsI had totally forgotten to write
down the available schemes and found them by scrolling
back through my Twitter feed!
25
Strategy: Reckoning
Schemes: Entourage, Protect
Territory, Plant Explosives, Bodyguard
With Reckoning being a lower-scoring strategy,
schemes would be paramount. However they were
nicely balanced between killing and marker placement,
so they didnt drive crew selection too heavily. I decided
to take advantage of not needing painted minis and
tried out two Outcast models I dont happen to own
Bishop and the Desperate Mercenary. I also added in
a Friekorps Specialist as his marker removal would
allow me to have an easier time advancing across the
board if Joel decided to place a large number of scheme
markers. (Plant Explosives!) I also made an efort to
load my crew up with upgrades, fguring that having
fewer models would make it tougher for Joel to score
in Reckoning, but mostly just to have less pieces to keep
track of while navigating the Vassal map.

Joel revealed a nicely balanced
and thematic Lilith crew.
Tis was no surprise, as the
numerous small woods would
synergize well with her and
her Waldgeists movement
and terrain shenanigans, as
well as provide cover to deter
ranged attacks against the vile
Nephilim.
Andrew : Outcasts
Viktoria of Ashes (Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury,
Synchronized Slaying)
Viktoria of Blood (Mark of Shezuul, Howling Wolf
Tattoo)
Student of Confict
Bishop (Oath Keeper)
Convict Gunslinger (Oath Keeper)
Friekorps Specialist (Oath Keeper)
Desperate Mercenary
Joel : Neverborn
Lilith (beckon malifaux, wicked mistress, summon the
blood)
Primordial magic
Barbaros (fears given form)
Mature Nephilim
2 Waldgeist
2 Terror Tot
Deployment
26
Deployment
I made my frst mistake during deployment it sure
didnt take long! Being forced to deploy frst, I placed
Bishop far on the lef fank in an attempt to use his Swif
to regroup towards the center, forming a strong cluster
of models at midfeld and potentially drawing Joel into
the slightly more open lef side of the board. I made a
rookie Vassal mistake and grossly underestimated the
size of the large building in the lower lef quadrant of
the board. It can be very tough to translate what you are
used to seeing in 9 square feet of three dimensions into
less than a single square foot of only two dimensions.
What I thought would only cost a single turn of hoofng
it for Bishop was in fact a 22 inch slog that would waste
a large chunk of his AP. Joel smartly spread out evenly
across the map. Waldgeists held the fanks with their
eyes on forests to set up in, while Lilith and her nephilim
threatened the center where she would be able to exert
her presence over most of the battlefeld.
Neither of us revealed Schemes.
Turn 1
Neither of us was eager to jump straight into the fray,edging
up cautiously with the exception, of course, of Bishop,
who realized he had best spend more time on doing cardio,
and less time in the weight room, as he would be spending
most of the day running. A Tot even succeeded on a Sprint
action and opted not to use it, as it was too early yet to see
where the battle would be joined. In an efort to distract
Joel a bit, I tossed a desperate Mercenary into the woods
near the center. Te ploy was to trade pieces with Joel if he
opted to Tangle Shadows on him, as whichever Neverborn
model was transposed would be stuck in the woods in front
of the cover-ignoring Specialist and the Viktorias. Joel
spotted that my positioning was of, and my Specialist was
in fact too close, so he took decisive action, moving Lilith
forward and activating a 12 aura on her (Ctrl + F2 very
handy!) to show that the edge of the Specialists base was
just in range for him to be swapped to his doom! Lilith
sent her servant, Barbaros, deep into my lines and placed
an illusionary forest in front of the Viktorias to stymie
their revenge. Finishing her strong turn one, she smote the
Specialist with her blade, bringing him near death. Barbaros
took an idle slash at the
Mercenary he had startled
and then hastily attempted
to regroup towards the
center and prepare his
defense.
End of Turn 1
27
Turn 2
Tanks to Joels aggressive turn one advance, the turn two initiative fip was crucial. Even with a Soulstone, I failed
to beat Joels fip, and he promptly used Barbaross Nimble to set up a devastating charge on the Specialist killing
him and pushing his corpse with a trigger so that the tank explosion was inefective. I used the Specialists Oath
Keeper to drop a scheme marker in base, but in my attempt to see if I could peg Lilith and Barbaros within 3 of
that scheme marker by putting it on the near side of the base, I may have tipped my hand towards Plant Explosives.
(Tey werent within 3 Doh!)
Afer a rough start to the turn the Student mustered her courage and placed Assist on the Viktoria of Blood, setting
up a strong retaliation if the Neverborn attempted to advance further. Te Waldgeists crept forward, hugging
terrain and while creating more of their own. Bishop burnt yet another activation practicing for an upcoming 10K
charity fun run, but was now fnally near the center. Te Terror Tots made an attempt to advance further, but not
too far, as the Convict Gunslinger had advanced to fully cover my lef fank, and the Viktoria of Blood had a zealous
look in her eye.
Joel continued through with his plan to of both of my wounded models, and used Lilith to Tangle Shadows
between the Desperate Mercenary and the Mature Nephilim, slaughtering the hapless Mercenary and scoring the
frst point of the game. Tis put the Mature Nephilim in melee with Bishop, which surprised me that Joel would tie
up such a lynchpin model with my best tar pit when the primordial magic was also a valid target. Ten I realized
that the totem was also a mobile scheme marker. Hrm maybe I wasnt the only one trying to plant explosives?
Bishop was able to fend of the beastly Nephilim with his cage fghting skills, but unfortunately his Ripostes were
countered as the black ichor oozing from the Mature also served to wound him further.
Te Viktoria of Ashes could feel her sisters rage, and decided that a bold move was needed to turn the tide she
advanced boldly, pulling Blood along with her and setting her up to launch into the fray. Her attempt at a long
range shot at Lilith missed. Blood Vik dutifully charged the Terror Tot, ofng him with one blow, and then used her
Fast AP to engage the Waldgeist and swing yet again. Unfortunately this attack missed, foiling my plan of having
a wounded Waldgeist to fnish of the following turn but it felt good to fnally have killed a model none-the-less.
End of Turn 2
28
Turn 3
As ofen happens in Reckoning, the game climaxed on turn three. Tis time I top-decked a 12 for initiative, and
Joel saved his Soulstones for the coming onslaught. Te Viktorias immediately leapt into action, but unfortunately
only to stumble. Viktoria of Ashes started the turn casting Sisters of Battle so that her doppleganger sibling
could kill the Waldgeist in a single blow. To fnish her turn she advanced to take another pot-shot at Lilith, which
again missed. What she didnt realize was that she had gotten way too close to her sister again, I was misjudging
distances in the Vassal interface stripping the Viktoria of Blood of a plus fip to damage. My plan of using the
severe card in my hand to fnish the Waldgeist in a single blow, advancing to then engage the primordial magic and
easily killing it with my Sword Viktoria which would score a point for the strategy and save me from the likely
explosion was thusly foiled. Feeling a bit annoyed at her thoughtless sibling, the Blood Viktoria fnished of the
Waldgeist and dropped a scheme marker unable to thwart the enemy as shed hoped.
Te bulk of my ofensive having proved inefective, Joel activated the Mature Nephilim utilizing the cards he
hadnt needed for defense, to rip Bishop in half. Te Convict Gunslinger knew his shots would be less efective
through cover and decided to charge the Waldgeist, but fipped poorly and even his point-blank shots glanced of
of the armored fend. Lilith jammed up the Viktorias yet again with an Illusionary Forest and then opted to divert
her attention to the lef fank. She sped of to slaughter the Convict Gunslinger, scoring Reckoning. At this point
I was out of useful activations, so I advanced the Student of Confict within assisting range of my master, so that
I could take one last ditch efort next turn. Of course I yet again misjudged distances, and lef the Student just
within 7 of the Viktoria of Blood, so the Primordial Magic foated up and nonchalantly exploded on the triad of
sisters for a full 3 VP. Ouch!
End of Turn 3
29
Turn 4
As predicted the game swung decisively on turn three, so it was now a battle for margin of victory, and Joel quickly
tried to wrap up as many VPs as possible.
Lilith started the turn by promptly feeing towards my deployment zone so Entourage afer all then! I activated
the Student frst, giving my master Fast, but forgot to mark it on her. No excuse, as a quick tap of the F key would
have done so! Te Mature Nephilim lumbered back towards the center of the board to enable him to potentially
help earn a third reckoning point on turn fve. Te Viktoria of Ashes advanced across the board as well, not as
aggressively as Lilith, as she had forgotten she was in fact Fast, but still far enough to tip of Joel that I likely had
Entourage as well. (I did.) Barbaros made a heroic attempt to kill the Viktoria of Blood and prove his martial
prowess to his brood mother, but lef her on a single wound remaining and was easily slaughtered by her in return.
Sensing that more discretion was warranted, the Waldgeist summoned severe terrain in front of Blood Vik to slow
down her murderous rampage.
End of Turn 4
30
Turn 5
With my Master unhurt and only inches from the enemy deployment zone, I fgured Id at least be able to score my
own Entourage. Te Mature Nephilim attempted to thwart me by making a last ditch charge at the Viktoria. She
used a Soulstone to mitigate the frst attack and another to reduce the damage to only one. However her defense
failed when the Black Joker reared its ugly head on the second swing and no amount of precious souls could save
her.
Having had my other plans to score fall apart on me, I used the Viktoria of Blood to drop some dynamite of
my own and scored two points for Plant Explosives. Te fip for a sixth turn mercifully came up short, and Joel
secured a crushing victory, 8-2.
End of Turn 5
Final Thoughts
Although some misplacement of models on my part allowed Joel to swifly turn the game in his favor, it was still a
well fought and entertaining match. We fnished the game in just over two hours - not bad, as Joel had to help me
fgure out the controls a few times. All in all it was a great experience, and the taste of bitter defeat has only lef me
hungry to overcome my beginners mistakes in the Vassal interface. All the tools are available to assist the player
in overcoming the sizing and placement challenges it is simply a matter of getting familiar enough to know what
to use and when. Te opportunity to see a fantastic player from another continent adeptly plan and execute his
strategy was a pleasure. It was also great fun to use models I dont yet own. I especially look forward to using the
Vassal interface to get in more games for the Wave 2 Beta playtest, as it has no problem creating models which do
not yet exist. It will also be a great chance to test my combinations and opinions against players outside my local
playgroup. Even in a diverse group such as my own, groupthink is still a threat!
Closing
In summary, Vassal is a great way to get a taste of Malifaux action when the table top just isnt practical. If you
fancy a game on Vassal or just want to talk shop, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @Guy_In_Suit. Id say
to look up Joel for a Vassal game as well, but only if you want a thorough smashing!
31
The Good, the Bad and the Mercenary
Professor Pontifcates
By Adrian Scott
Mercenaries have always been a key part of the Malifaux
lore. From Viktorias initial employment that led her
through Te Breach, to Von Schills Freikorps enterprise,
or even Taras ill-fated meeting with Oblivion, theyve
ofen been a key element in more than just a few of the
plot lines that thread throughout Malifaux.
However when it comes to the game itself, mercenaries
seem to get looked over. Many players instead prefer to
stick with their in-faction crew choices. While theres
nothing particularly wrong with such an approach, I
feel that by excluding mercenaries, players are missing
an opportunity to include not only some solid dynamic
choices to their crew, but theyre denying the chance
to include some characters who are resplendent in
personality.
One of the main reasons people seem to avoid
considering mercenaries is a desire to keep their crew
in theme. Tis is something I can certainly empathize
with. Whether its for aesthetic reasons or for some
strong gameplay synergies, there tends to be good
reasons to stick with the models that ft the crews theme.
Fortunately the aesthetic part is easily fxed its not
ofen that hard to make a mercenary look as though he
or shes part of the crew, whether its through a matching
paint scheme, basing, or even a bit of converting. One
of my frst mercenaries was a convict gunslinger, and to
ensure he ft in with my Pandora crew, I painted up his
guns as if they were toy cap guns (complete with orange
safety tips) and modeled a night cap onto his head. Even
an upgrade can help a Mercenary ft into your crew
better for instance I ofen give the Pact upgrade to
my above-mentioned convict gunslinger to help him ft
into my Neverborn crews.
From a gameplay perspective however, rigidly adhering
to a crews theme will ofen create in-built weaknesses.
For instance, an all-Nephilim Lilith crew has almost
no ranged attack options and limited resilience, while
many Guild crews lack a way to deal Wp-based attacks
or whatever else might be needed to get around high
Df models. If nothing else, mercenaries can ofer a
way to plug those weaknesses in your crew. Almost all
mercenaries have some kind of trick or playstyle that
is unique to them, or at least in limited availability to
other crews. So, whatever your crew might be lacking,
there is ofen a mercenary whose talents can plug that
hole.
Te other big reason people seem to avoid taking
mercenaries, is the 1SS premium you pay for hiring
one. While many would view it as pushing a decent
value model into the realms of being over-costed, Ive
always felt that the premium you pay is well worth
the opportunity to add something your crew could
not otherwise achieve. In any case, Id be surprised if
many games were lost because a player spent that extra
soulstone on unlocking a mercenary.
32
If nothing else however, most mercenaries are just oozing
with personality. With a few exceptions, they are not
just some nameless fodder or unthinking automation
theyre individuals with their own personality and
backstory. At least to me, that makes it a little more fun
when its Johan, rather than anonymous Punk Zombie
#2, who fnally lands the killing bow on that thrice-
accursed Mature Nephilim.
I hope this has given you a fresh perspective on the
value of taking mercenaries in your crews. Before I
fnish however, I thought Id go through a few favourite
mercenaries of mine from Wave 1. Tese certainly arent
the only mercenaries worth taking, but hopefully it will
give you some ideas on how these and other models
would ft into your crew.
Until next time,
Adrian
Malifaux Child
Once arguably the worst model in Malifaux, the
Malifaux Child is now not only useful, but actually
quite good in the right circumstances. Disguised
and Manipulative 15 make the child a lot of trouble
to kill for such a cheap peon, and the healing flip
from Misplaced Trust can help keep other members
of your crew in the fight. But the real gem in the
Malifaux Childs talents is his ability to use Just like
you! to copy one of your Leaders Ca actions, much
like a cheap and dirty version of Hannahs Make
a New Entry. Depending on what spell you pick,
this not only allows you to free up an AP on your
master to do something else, but also lets you target
a model or area that your master is out of position
to target him or herself. The reduced Ca makes it
tougher to successfully cast on an enemy model
though, which is why Ive often stuck with using
spells that can target friendly models, like Obey.
That said, using such a cheap model to copy a potent
enough offensive spell can make it worth the effort,
especially if you use a Focus action to mitigate the
usual negative twist to damage from Just like you.
Johan
Much like his more expensive counterpart Taelor,
Johans Relic Hammer allows him to pack a serious
punch in melee, especially if you can get him into
position to use Flurry against a single model. The
push effect from Knock Back allows for some neat
positioning tricks (especially with Pounce-heavy
crews) and Finish the Job is always a great ability
for getting Scheme Markers where you need them.
Johans ability to remove conditions with Rebel Yell
makes him useful in any crew. Whether its Burning,
Paralyze or any number of others, almost every crew
tends to utilize conditions of some kind. Having a
model that can remove these conditions from key
models in your own crew can therefore be a great
boon.
Theres no doubt that Johan is a great choice in
any crew that includes other M&SU models, with
Solidarity and Open Revolt helping to improve both
himself, and the other M&SU members around
him. But that doesnt mean Johan should only ever
be taken if you can pair him with M&SU models
Ive found that hes still a very potent and flexible
package in any crew you care to take him with.
Freikorps Specialist
Its a dude with a flamethrower. How could anyone
say no!?
As a shooting model who hands out the burning
condition like candy (even when he dieskaboom!),
the Specialist is most obviously useful in crews who
can take advantage of that, like Sonnia or Kaeris.
However hes still a great choice in any other crew.
His Flamenwerfer is very effective against groups of
enemy models, ignores cover, and has two triggers
that add damage in the form of Burning or force
Horror duels. The third trigger, Wildfire, lets the
Specialist remove all scheme markers within 4 of
the target, which in itself is a fantastic trick to have
when your opponent needs those scheme markers
to claim some VPs. His Clear the Area ability also
allows him to very easily remove nearby corpse and
scrap counters, which is very handy against the right
crews (you know which ones!). Finally, theres Move
or Burn. Slow and especially Paralyzed are two of
the most frustrating conditions your opponent
can put on your own models. So having an action
to remove them, even if it costs a wound, is very
useful. This should also prove handy in summon-
heavy crews, since you can use the specialist to
remove the slow condition from a horde of freshly
summoned models!
Hans
The Convict Gunslinger might be the go-to
mercenary for pure ranged damage output, but
Hans is the model of choice if you want a sniper.
And what a sniper he is! Hans Sniper Rifle has a
solid damage spread and the usual crazy across-the-
table range while Focused that youd expect from a
sniper, but he also has a great set of triggers, made
easier to get thanks to his Reference the Field Guide
(0) action. These triggers allow him to either get
around enemy defenses (specifically Armor and
Incorporeal) or neutralize the target with either
slow or even disarm, to prevent them making melee
attacks altogether. Hes the only model in the game
who can actually remove upgrades from other
models, thanks to Smile, You Son of a. This is less
effective against Leaders (thanks to To the Highest
Bidder), but it still makes him one of the most pain
in the arse models you could face in a game. Finally
if all this wasnt enough, Hans can ignore auras,
pulses, Markers that affect line of sight, and perhaps
most critically, can shoot into melee without having
to randomize targets. This last feature makes Hans
a great choice not just in ranged-heavy crews, but
for melee crews as well, where other shooters would
find themselves much less useful.
Killjoy
He may be expensive, but Killjoy is absolutely worth
every one of his 12+1 soulstones. On the face of it
Killjoy is a resilient melee monster. The (1) action
charge from Blood Price and a Cleaver with both the
Onslaught trigger AND a frighteningly high damage
spread, enable him to annihilate almost any model
in the game in one activation. With 12 Wounds
and the ability to heal a lot of those
wounds every activation, hes very
difficult to take down without a
concerted effort by your
opponent. But perhaps
his best feature is his
Blood Sacrifice ability, which allows Killjoy to start
the game buried, and enter play whenever one of
your models is killed. This completely alters how
both you and your opponent play the game. Not
only can you pop Killjoy up when and wherever
you need him most, but it forces your opponent
to second guess Theirself every time he or shes
about to kill one of your models. Is the death of that
model really worth a vengeful Killjoy to the face,
or do they delay killing certain models in the hope
that youll be forced to unbury him in a less than
ideal position? Consider that, and youll begin to
understand why Killjoy isnt just an expensive beat-
stick. Killjoy is a tactic.
Oiran
If I had to pick my favourite action or ability in the
game, I would say it was Lure. Whether its pulling
your own models out of danger, pushing your
opponents models into the waiting arms of your own
crew, or simply some out-of-activation positioning
for achieving/denying objectives, Lure offers a huge
range of tactical options. The Oirans Lure may
require a suit to cast, but its still a powerful spell
that makes her well worth considering in a crew. In
addition, the +1 Wp aura from Appealing can be very
handy against crews with lots of Wp-based attacks
and with a bit of luck and smart positioning, her
(2) Assassins Gift attack can deal quite a lot of
damage with the additional strikes from its
automatic Flutter trigger.
33
34
Terrain is always an investment. You have to invest
money in materials, time to construct it, and space to
store it. It is handy when you are able to fnd a way
to make one piece of terrain function in multiple ways;
that way you get the most use and play time out of your
investment.
In this article I will be describing how I made some
universal wall sections that can be used in interesting
ways on the table.
Once put together, these durable and simple-to-make
terrain pieces make a set that can be arranged side by
side in a line to make a wall.
You can also mix and match these ideas to make
variations and designs to suit your own needs.
By David Herbert
How to build modular wall sections
Versatile Walls
35
Te materials required to make these wall sections
are fairly inexpensive and can be bought from most
hardware stores. I purchased a large (1200mm x
600mm) sheet of 9mm MDF and a few tubes of a
construction grade adhesive for less than $15. A jig saw
will also be required for this job, and I recommend an
electric one, as they obliterate the time investment and
can be picked up at reasonable prices.
A steal ruler and a set square will also prove to be
invaluable tools for scribing the plans onto the MDF.
Te sets I made were designed to also be compatible
with other table top games and, as such, were built to
ft completely within a 10cm square. Tis resulted in
one more cut and some diferent dimensions, but plans
will be supplied for both the regular and large wall
sections. If you dont have any real need for the smaller
size I would recommend building the full sized walls as
it is easier and less time consuming.
Tese sections are made out of 4 pieces and can be cut
from the board in an economical fashion to minimise
waste as shown below.
Te plan can just be repeated over and over along a
straight edge with care taken to leave a few millimetres
for the saw to cut through (lef grey on the plans). If
you do not factor in the kerf of your saw (that is the
size of the space that is cut away by the teeth of the saw
blade), your measurements will be of. While this can
be worked around it is far easier to allow 2 to 3 mm for
a jigsaw kerf, as seen in the following photograph.
36
No allowance for the kerf was made on the diagonal
part of the wall sides. Tey did not attach to anything
a high degree of accuracy was required for. It is also
a very good idea to label all of your parts before you
begin to cut, as it makes sorting the parts easier later. I
would highly recommend numbering your sets too so
that the top, sides, and front of the frst set would all be
numbered with a 1. What safety gear you wear is up to
your discretion, but it is highly advisable to wear safety
glasses and some sort of dust mask. Jig saws are not
very loud so hearing protection may not be required.
Te cutting process is also going to make a fair amount
of saw dust, so plan a suitable area to work.
When cutting through for the frst run of parts remember
to cut with your blade on the outside edge of the plan
to once again maintain accurate measurements. If you
have trouble cutting straight, look at clamping a piece of
wood to your MDF to act as a guide.
Once all of the pieces have been cut, it may also be
a good idea to give the edges a quick rub with some
sand paper or a power sander if you have one. Tis
will help to tidy up and fufy bits. Te next step is to
get organised and ready to glue, because once you get
started you will need to move quickly. A few of cuts or
popsticks are also a great resource and help you avoid
wiping of excess glue with your fngers, a practice that
is not only messy and uncomfortable, but also possibly
dangerous.
Just before you head of and get to gluing these parts
together, it is good ideas to do a dry run with each set,
and check that they match up; marking of the height
you want the top ledge to sit at. I just used the width of
my ruler as when I held it up to a model it looked right.
Test it out with your models and make a decision that
suits your scale tastes.
Apply the glue carefully along the edges and remember
that with construction adhesives, a little goes a long
way. To avoid goo oozing everywhere try to keep it
tame. Since the top ledge is going to be a load bearing
part of the wall, I decided to add a little extra around
the underside where it would be out of sight and nearly
invisible once painted.
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Once the adhesive is tacky, but still pliable enough to
make small adjustments, help combat gravity, by laying
each section down and check the position of each ledge.
To add texture to the walls, coat them in a watered
down PVA mixture and sprinkle sand over them. Tis
is also a good way to disguise and hide any little gaps or
defects.
Due to the expensive nature of spray paints I opted
for the cheap poster paints that you can buy in bulk.
Using the largest brush possible, I undercoated them
black before using a light grey/blue for dry brushing.
Te paint job here was not a feature, so I did not invest
much time in it.
When it comes to adding doors you can try cutting
them out to a size that suits your taste in scale, although
this can be rather tricky and requires a drill with a large
diameter drill bit. A much easier option is to search
on the internet for some doors that you like, print
them of and glue them on. I used Google Images with
a search for door textures and then resized them in a
Word document. To do this make a rectangle with auto
shapes, right click on it and set its size properties to
the desired width and length. Ten, using the shape
fll function, select picture, and then the fle of the door
texture you chose.
Tese can then be glued on any part of the wall you
desire to have a door using PVA.
One of the reasons I chose to put a door on the side
of the wall instead of the front, was so that it could be
hidden if I wanted to make a wall instead of a tower.
As a set of terrain these pieces are not only visually
efective, but also make for some great rules interactions
and game moments. Used either all together or in
pieces, as walls or towers, to make forts, or even a
ruined battlement of some sort, I am sure that the small
amount of time, money, and efort required to make
these versatile wall sections is worth it.
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A Malifaux Comic
The Cornfeld
Pencils by Sergio Apodaca
Script by Matthew Ritter
Inking by Nick Hadley
Lettering by Trent Trooper
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Since its December, I couldnt really resist having the
new plastic Ice Golem as a painting guide. Te golem
himself is fairly simple as paint schemes go, being
entirely one material (ice). Rather than getting over-
fussy and trying to squeeze bits of freehand and such
onto what is a fairly well detailed model, Ive gone a
little bit nuts with the base instead. While it may look
complex its all fairly simple small steps, honest. As
always with my stuf, Im using Vallejo Game Colour
paints for the most part, with the occasional Vallejo
Model Colour (VMC) and Vallejo Model Air (VMA)
that Ill mention each time.
I decided to have him standing part on a mountain and
part on a frozen lake, so I could have ice around him as
a nod to the original Wyrd Chronicles painting article,
but that wasnt quite dramatic enough for my liking.
Te golem is a real behemoth now, and I wanted him
to be expressing that (3) Smash attack of his in the fnal
piece. I eventually realised hed have to be smashing the
ice with his fst to give him the look of raw power I was
afer, which meant a couple of posing tweaks and some
experiments in basing techniques.
Reposing and Prep
To get the pose to work, I needed the golems fst to sit
below his feet, not level with them as its designed to
be. Tis meant cutting the hips and knees out a little
before I attached the legs to the torso, and gluing them
into position carefully, as they would no longer ft the
grooves perfectly. I actually tacked his feet to the lip of
a base to keep them level-ish while I did this, as this
also allowed the fst to sink below the height of the base.
Once the glue cured fully, I flled the gaps with green
stuf and checked the fst still sat where I wanted it to.
I also trimmed back some of his rear foot to allow me to
ft him against the mountainside better. He got two pins
in his rear foot to attach him to the base, and one under
his front foot that I would use to hold him in my pin
vise while I painted. It also served to secure the front
foot into the resin a bit better.
The Ice Man Returneth
Makos Rubbish
By Mark Rogers
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Base Building
I needed to position the golem on the base carefully,
which meant it would be easier to do before he was
painted. I hollowed out most of a base (using a sheet
of plasticard as the new foor of the lake) then carefully
tacked his front foot into position. To set him into place
I built up some apoxie sculpt to meet the back foot
and give me a stable position for the golem. Tis was
sculpted into rough angular shapes and then allowed to
partly cure, at which point I gently tapped it over and
over with a toothbrush to roughen the surface, before
leaving it to cure fully then removing the golem.
Tis section of rock was deliberately kept away from
the lip of the base so that I could then build a plastic
surround onto it. I made it from a strip of a plastic
takeaway container, as it was the only thing I had at
hand that was fexible and long enough. Tis surround
served two purposes it gave me a smooth curve to
build the mountain against, which is far easier than
doing it manually, and it also would be used later on to
pour resin into. With the surround held in place with
copious amounts of plasticine, I built up more apoxie
sculpt rocks up against it, being careful to keep the
golems foot slot clear. Te last step in the mountainside
was to mix sand, pva glue and black paint to form a
slurry that I could then paint into some of the grooves
using a scrap of plastic.
Te pipe started life as the edge of a sprue that I (very
carefully) heated and bent into an S which sat nicely
on the base. Some green stuf strips served as seams,
smoothed onto the pipe and cut to shape while the putty
was still sof. Te rivets I made by pressing a click pencil
into a thin sheet of green stuf repeatedly, cutting them
out once the putty cured, and gluing them in place. I
removed the surround to ft the pipe and paint the base,
as I didnt want to get paint on the surround that would
then stick to the sides of the resin later on.
Base Painting
As usual, I started with a black undercoat. Te frst step
was to drybrush the rocks heavily with Night Blue and
the soil with Charred Brown. Tis was followed by a
lighter drybrush of Earth over the whole piece. Afer
this, I brushed some VMC Pale Blue Grey on just the
rocks, and used a little touch of bonewhite on the soil.
Te ground painting was fnished with a very gentle
drybrush of white in places on the rocks, and a very dilute
black wash over the entire thing. Using a mix of blue/
grey and brownish colors is a good way to build up more
natural looking rocks than just using grays or browns,
even if its just one layer in the middle somewhere.
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Te metal pipe started life as Night Blue that I then
shaded down to black. Te midtone was painted back in
using Night Blue with a little VMA Steel added in, and
then highlighted up to pure VMA steel in two stages. I
then dabbed Charred Brown over the metalwork using
a brush loaded with a little more paint than I would have
for drybrushing. Tis is efectively a poking, semi-dry
version of regular drybrushing, and gives a nice patchy
sof edged efect on the brown areas. I focussed on the
areas that rust would collect with this layer, and did the
same over parts of that brown with Blazing Orange.
Te rusting efect was fnished up with a patchy wash
of thinned out Charred Brown, muting the orange a bit
and spreading the efect subtly over more of the metal
area. I also cleaned up the black edges of the base ready
for the next stage.
The Golem
I thought Id quickly mention
why I start at the midtone
and work down, then back
up, as it does seem a bit
unnecessary at times. When
blending paint layers, the
better the color coat youre
working on top of, and the
closer it is to the color youre
adding on top, the smoother
the blend will look. Starting at
a purple/black and working
to white is a lot harder than
starting in the middle and
working up or down, as there
are more layers to add over
a very diferent base color.
Every layer you add makes
it harder to keep the blends
neat and in the right place.
Its far easier to get a smooth
series of highlights if you
have a solid midtone to paint
onto, rather than a blended
layer over darker paints. Te
second layer of midtone I
do is simply to neaten and
smooth the edges of the shading, and reduce them a
bit where Ive got too much shadow. Te picture above
shows how the layers I was using on the ice golem build
up, and you can see the separation of the dark and light
halves of the tonal range
I started the golem with a
basecoat of turquoise, which
looks fairly odd Ive learned
not to worry about how things
look until the frst highlights
start to go on, as up to that
point its very hard to tell if
things are going to work well
or not. Into the recesses and
at the top of each facet of ice
I added a 3:1 mix of hexed
lichen and black, blending
the edges into the turquoise.
Te positioning of the shades and highlights is similar
to gemstones or non-metallic metals, but for the sake
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of simplicity (given the complex shapes on the golem)
Ive included a diagram of an example cube (see above).
Generally, the upper part of an area is shaded, and any
recessed edges, and the highlights tend to be nearer the
bottom of the area. Tis is the same for fat panels and
curved areas like the upper arms.
Te shading then got smoothed, neatened and reduced
by repainting the midtone turquoise again, which made
the whole piece a bit lighter and less purple. Over this
I painted thin coats of 4:1 VMC Deep Sky Blue and
turquoise (any reasonably pure pale blue is fne, the
VMC one happens to be the same shade as an old ice
blue paint I had). Its worth noting that the binder in
VMC paint is not as strong as VGC, so it does behave
diferently. It also needs a good solid protective coat
if its used for highlights on gaming pieces. I kept the
highlights to the lower parts of the midtone areas, so
the brighter part was always ofset a little towards
the bottom. I also painted the vein-like ridges in this
highlight to pick them out.
Te second layer of highlights consisted of 1:1 VMC
Deep Sky Blue and VGC white, painted over the edges of
each facet and in small areas on the large fat areas that
had highlights on, such as the chest and upper arms.
Again, on these larger areas, the highlight was kept to
the lower area of the previous layer to keep that ofset
going (although as the layers get smaller, the ofset gets
smaller and harder to see).
Te fnal touch was a bit of pure white on the corner
edges of surfaces, and as refection lines and points on
the surfaces. Light will mostly pass into clear ice, but
some will hit the wet surface and refect. Tis means
the highlights are at the lower side of the ice, but there
is typically a small gleam at the top too, near the upper
edge. With him fully painted, I brushed on a coat of
gloss varnish to protect the paintwork, following it up
with a coat of matte varnish to remove the shine. I chose
a matte fnish as Id painted refection points onto the
golem, but if you wanted a simpler, less time consuming
version instead of adding the white point highlights,
you could fnish with the gloss. I personally prefer to
control the refections more, as gloss refects like a small
creature with a close light source, rather than a 15 foot
tall creature under sunlight.
Smashing Ice
To get the efect of the golems fst punching through
the ice, I needed to make an ice sheet that I could
then break up. For a frosted snow/ice look, I use glass
microballoons. Teyre typically used as fller in large
resin castings, and are a bit unpleasant to work with, but
the efect is worth it. Te most important thing to do, is
to plan ahead and make sure you have everything youll
need for the actual ice. I use small syringes to measure
my resin out, and a little foil bowl for mixing. I also have
a stick to mix with (cofee stirrers are great for this), and
a blister pack back for pouring. Tese are great as they
dont need much resin to fll, are fat, and have a nice lip
around the edge. Ive wrapped the outside of mine in
foil here to make it easier to see, but thats not necessary
normally. Te microballoons come in a big bag, so I
carefully transferred some to a jam jar to make them
easier to handle without powder going everywhere.
Te other very important bit is safety wear gloves
for this, and a mask as well. Working on a large area of
wet kitchen paper will stop any powder that spills from
going anywhere and can be easily cleaned up at the end.
Keeping some more damp paper nearby to wipe things
down is also helpful. You do end up looking like an
extra from a cheap remake of breaking bad, but thats
preferable to getting this stuf everywhere.
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Te frst task was to mix up the resin. I prefer Gedeo
Crystal Clear, as it doesnt shrink much, or smell bad
while it cures. I only needed 3 ml of resin to pour
a sheet of ice that fts in the lid-tray, but because this
was a little experimental I made two sheets with 6 ml.
Afer making sure the resin was fully mixed, I added
two small scoops of microballoons and mixed these in
gently. Once theyre all in the liquid and not sitting on
top of it, you can be a bit more vigorous to break up any
clumps.
Tis mixture was then simply poured into the center of
two trays and spread out thinly using the stick (without
letting the resin reach the edges if at all possible). I
made sure to cover the trays, so no dust got into the
ice sheets, and lef them to cure on a fat surface for a
couple of days. Once they were dry, I checked them. Te
image above shows clearly that the resin that touched
the edges spread and stretched as it cured, pulling the
microballoons into patches. Pretty, but not useful the
other sheet was much better. You could still just about
see the diference in the two gray colors through the
sheet, which is nice. Tis sheet I pulled of the plastic
and (carefully) snapped into small pieces using a pair
of clippers.
Te golems front foot, sitting over the lake, had a mix of
texture gel and microballoons added to it afer the pin
was painted white (in case any of it showed through).
Tree layers of this mix, each time using smaller
amounts of microballoons and letting it cure fully, gave
the efect of the deeper water freezing slowly under his
foot. It would also help secure his front foot in place
while making the pin almost invisible.
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Te base had the surround ftted again and secured with
plasticine, keeping the gap positioned where the golems
fst would be. Since Id be pouring resin into this soon,
I went around the edges with an old brush and some
super heavy texture gel, sealing the surround and base
together anywhere the resin might reach, to try and
prevent any leaks between the base and surround. Te
gap in the surround was flled by sculpting the water
splash in super heavy texture gel, with the fragments of
ice placed on it to surround the golems fst and angle up
at the sides of it.
Te easiest way to do this was to build up the center
area of gel in small amounts to help it cure faster, with
the top layer having the ice fragments laid on while still
sof. I then wet the golems fst a little, and slotted him
into place this pushed down on the ice pieces, ensuring
that the fst and ice were in contact. Because his fst was
wet, he could be taken away without the gel sticking
and moving when he was lifed of. Te central section
was lef to cure, afer which a surrounding layer was
built up with more texture gel and pieces of ice, trying
to maintain the splash efect. Tis was done by adding
small amounts of gel to the back and edges of the cured
areas with a sculpting tool, and then placing into this
with tweezers. Te splash travels out over the edge of
the base past the fst to help it look more impressive and
natural, as the fst is already over the edge of the base.
With the ice pieces all in place, I carefully mixed up some
more resin and poured it into the base, staying 1-2mm
below the level of the front foot. What I wanted to avoid
at this point was the resin climbing up the surround
and onto the side of the foot, as I had a second layer
to pour afer this one that needed to cover the surface
fully. Tis was placed on a fat surface and covered with a
Tupperware container to keep it dust free while it cured.
With that layer solid, I could fnish the buildup of the
splash to make sure the ice layer wouldnt run smoothly
up to the broken ice. Tis meant adding more texture
gel to the outer edge of the splash, over the freshly cured
resin, so that it would sit a little higher than the fnal
resin layer and give the main ice sheet a jagged edge
around the smashed area. At this point I had removed
the plasticine for ease of access (and better photographs),
but its not necessary to do that until the very end.
Te fnal step was to mix up some more resin and add
microballoons to it, using an extra small scoop to the ice
sheet made earlier. Tis would help avoid the breaking
up of the sheet on top of the resin that happened when
it stretched along the edges of the tray, which at this
stage would be very difcult to correct. I cut down the
surround by the foot to stop the resin climbing it, and
covering the side of the foot before pouring the resin
very carefully into the base until it was level with the
front foot. Tis was lef to cure on a fat surface and
checked the next day. Te microballoons slow curing
down a little, but they also foat to the top of the resin,
helping to create the efect of solid ice at the top and a
half frozen layer under it. With it mostly cured, I peeled
and cut away the surround and used a sculpting tool
and knife to fatten and trim the edges of the ice sheet
before leaving it to fnish curing.
Finished
So the fnished piece looks quite complex, but really
each step is simple. Im not going to lie, painting all
the surfaces on the golem like this took a tremendous
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amount of time, but it was fairly simple in terms
of technique. Te base, too, is simple things added
together to build up a more complex efect. Tis base
was somewhat experimental for me (I didnt show you
the other two ice sheets I made that were fairly bad),
and I really encourage people to give new ideas and
techniques a go, even if they dont work the frst time
every time you do something like this, you learn a lot.
Wiser minds than me would pick a less massive model
that they werent too bothered about for that sort of
thing, but wheres the fun in that?
I lef the eyes muted almost to the point of invisibility,
originally, because I didnt anticipate how faint theyd
end up being. Once I realised though, I liked the eyeless
look eyes make a creature look more relatable, while
having no eyes ofen makes them look a bit more alien
and dangerous.
As always, comments, questions, and anything like that
can all be aimed at me on the forum (Mako). Happy
seasonal wintery greetings to all!
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By The Wyrd Community
Nate (Big Ned) Zettle
Symon Gray (Sy_gray) Ozz Neil of Orange
Ross (rcat) Tasker
Painted Submissions by Henchmen.
Showcase
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Allan (CrimsonWraith) Wilger
Michael Foreman Victoria
Damian (Lord Shaper) Smith James (mythicFOX) Doxey
Stinkmunk Benny (WyrdDragon) Pawloski
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Lee (leebat) Battrick
Fetid Strumpet
Forestreverie
Deathhelm Derek (mpangelu) Rowe
Daemonkin
Jonathan Boynton (edonil)