Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Students of Conflict - Season 2 - #6 - November Tourney: Ryan (Charles Hoffman, Inventor vs. Titania, Autumn Queen)
321 Plays2 months ago
This episode we talk to Ryan about a tough game in his journey to a 2nd place podium at the Houston November Monthly Malifaux Tourney. We discuss his approach to learning a new master and lessons learned through adversity; then we change things up a bit to talk painting with the 3-time winner of Best Painted at the Lonestar Fauxdown about how to level up your painting game and how to set yourself up to make finding the time to paint easier.
Hosts: Doug and Clay
Guests: Ryan, Andre, and Bryan
Students of Conflict Discord invite: https://discord.gg/nrqq6uyePU
Tournament: November Malifaux Monthly Tourney - Houston
Tournament on Longshanks: https://www.longshanks.org/event/21174/
Encounter:
Round 1:
Deployment and Strategy: Corner; Raid the Vaults
Schemes: Let Them Bleed, Death Beds, Power Ritual, Deliver a Message, Espionage
Ryan’s Schemes: Death Beds/Deliver A Message
Doug’s Schemes: Death Beds/Deliver A Message
Final Score: Called the game after being 1-2 at end of 3rd turn
Crews:
Ryan’s Lord Galehault, Fallen Prince (aka Charles Hoffman, Inventor) (Arcanists)
Size: 50 - Pool: 8
Leader:
Lord Galehault Fallen Prince (aka Charles Hoffman, Inventor)
Diesel Engine
Totem(s):
Stiltzkin (aka Mechanical Attendant)
Hires:
The Weeping Huntress (aka Melissa K.O.R.E.)
Porphyrion (aka Joss)
Diesel Engine
Galvanic Wyrm (aka Peacekeeper)
Soulstone Cache
Hollow Fiend (aka Watcher)
Hollow Fiend 3 (aka Watcher 3)
Crew photos (from the Lonestar Fauxdown):
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=533949462911494
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=533949449578162
Doug’s Titania, Autumn Queen
Size: 50 - Pool: 7
Leader:
Titania, Autumn Queen
Totem(s):
Gorar
Hires:
Autumn Knight
-Ancient Pact
Autumn Knight 2
-Ancient Pact
Ithanna
Mysterious Emissary
Carnivorous Wyrdwood
Foods Discussed:
Ryan’s mom’s fruit salad
(Students of Conflict recipes can be found in the #s2-recipes-archive channel of our discord server)
Plugs from Guest:
https://www.youtube.com/@SubParNinja
https://www.instagram.com/subparninja_hobbies/
Also Mentioned in the Podcast:
Lonestar Fauxdown October 24-26, 2025 … Please mark your calendars now!
Details coming soon!
Thank-Yous:
Big thanks to Top Doug Design for all the terrain we play on here in Texas and for sponsoring this podcast, to Wyrd Miniatures for allowing us to use their artwork from the 2nd Edition Student of Conflict, and to Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy North Houston, the home of Texas Malifaux.
Top Doug Design: https://www.topdougdesign.com/
Wyrd Miniatures: https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux
Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Houston: https://www.facebook.com/dlairhouston
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Students of Conflict Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Straight out of the heart of Texas, here come the students of conflict, helping you become a better Malifaux player and reach the top of the podium, one game at a time.
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to Students of Conflict. We're Clay and Doug. Hello and hello.
Tournament Highlights and Ryan's Success
00:00:38
Speaker
And we are working to become better Malifaux players, leveling our ourselves and hopefully leveling up others as well. Tonight we have the entire podium from the November tournament in Houston, Andre, Ryan and Brian. Hello. Hey folks. Yo.
00:00:53
Speaker
We generally take an in-depth look at one game from each of our guests, but we're going to shake it up a bit this evening. Ryan came in second at the tournament, and we're going to do a kind of a normal episode with him, taking a symbol single game from his path to the podium and asking about key decisions that he made before the game, during the game. And now that he's looking back at the game, what were the things that he learned and can pass on to others?
Texas Malifaux Strategies and Spirit
00:01:13
Speaker
And we're going to be releasing this discussion as season two, episode six.
00:01:17
Speaker
With Andre and Brian, though, we wanted to take advantage of this time to dive into the concept of aggression in Malifaux. Texas Malifaux has a long, proud, aggressive history. Rawr! And we are looking forward to talking about killing our opponent's models, preventing our opponent from killing our models, and killing our opponent's spirit. We're gonna be releasing this discussion as season two, episode seven. And so without further ado, here we go, Doug. All right. Hello, Ryan. How are you doing today?
Thanksgiving Traditions - Fruit Salad Discussion
00:01:46
Speaker
Doing all right. How about you? I'm doing well. I'm excited to have you back on. So obviously we're we've got you here to talk about a game in your journey to the podium. But something else we're going to talk about, and I'm mentioning the this early in the podcast so that, you know, people keep me on track with the clock and whatnot to make sure we've got time for it, is you're also a fucking phenomenal painter. Like, say fuck you, Ryan.
00:02:15
Speaker
think Like, I mean, I consider myself a good painter, but fuck you, man. I love you. Yeah. Well, I mean, it is, I definitely have come ah across the notion or the realization lately that I am way more of a hobbyist than I am a gamer. so but but So I'm leaning a lot into that, but yeah, I appreciate it.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yes, yes, so ah welcome back. Thank you. As you know, when we have people on, we like to start out with a quick little icebreaker question. And so we are recording this just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We're all in Thanksgiving prep mode here. And so for our icebreaker question today, I wanted to ask you, what is your favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving dish?
00:03:10
Speaker
I don't know if other people do this for their Thanksgiving, but I know it's my favorite is my mom's fruit salad. Like, it's something I've always loved since I was a kid, we kind of make it into a dessert. And every Thanksgiving I try to have my mom coming over my family and we'll cook together and she always makes the fruit salad. And it's like,
00:03:29
Speaker
ah It's fruit cocktail, mini marshmallows, cool with heavy cream, sour cream, Philly cream cheese, and chopped
Regional Thanksgiving Traditions
00:03:36
Speaker
walnuts. it's just It's good. I'm not even much of a sweets person, but yeah it's delicious. and She makes it in a certain way where I can't ever really replicate it. so It's one of my favorites ever since I can remember. and I don't know if that's a normal thing. I didn't know until I moved back to the States that like fruit salad is not like always a dessert.
00:03:56
Speaker
and so it was ah It's just one of those things I always like to have. Yeah, you know, I mean, I'd say that's non-traditional. Like my family growing up, like we wouldn't really do a fruit salad with crit with Thanksgiving or various other holiday meals. But I know my wife's family who's from Texas, but wont my in-laws are from Texas, they do a fruit salad. And so it seems non-traditional to me.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's something i pretty much I always try to have. And and yeah everything else, I guess, is more traditional than I like from ah Thanksgiving. So it's like the one thing I'm like, ah, no, this is not what everybody else gets.
00:04:39
Speaker
No, it sounds really good. I'm pretty sure that recipe was just later. Yeah. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. It sounds easy, but she gets it with this texture. I can never get it because she doesn't use measurements, man. And this hey yeah, it's like, no, you just look at it and you feel it. I'm like, no, I don't, I don't, I don't cook with the heart of the cards, man. yeah I paint with the colors of the wind, but I don't cook like that. yeah You know what the secret is?
00:05:08
Speaker
what's that love yeah the secret ingredient love for sure also alcoholic tends to be my secret there you go okay so what round are we talking about today and why Well, I picked round one, which was the bye with you, because it was a proper slapping.
Adapting Malifaux Strategies and Play Style
00:05:30
Speaker
Like, it was, uh, it was nice. Like, I've only had a few instances with this crew. Like, I only just started playing this crew from Fodown, so this was technically, like, the seventh game I ever played with it. And I think I only had, like, ah two total games where I'm like, yeah, that was... that was bad.
00:05:46
Speaker
And so I wanted to talk about that one because it was it was basically just essential choices made from the start coupled with how I approached the game and why it's sort of a weak way to approach it, but also like shows newer players or players who are struggling, like you can stick to your style of play and still have a ah bit of success. It's just gonna, you're gonna have a glass ceiling and this game is kind of that demonstration of it. Were you trying out a lot of new stuff here or this just kind of your, just getting more reps in. Uh, seventh game. I was just like hitting like the same way I always do is just hit hard, hit fast and hope you guess right. You know, cause I don't read cards, man.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, I know that when I'm setting up to play as the ringer against a person who the but who has the buy, so it's like, Hey, you came out, let's get a game in. I say, you know, try out something fun. A lot of times it's like, Oh, what would you like to see from me? Or what do you not want to see from me? Cause you know, there's times where yeah I'm playing into someone who's got the buy a lot. It's like, yeah, they don't want to see the strong stuff.
00:06:53
Speaker
But this time, you said you can't just play your fun stuff. I brought one crew, and I expect to be spanked. Those are the best lessons. The only ones that stick in my head are like, all right, now I got to watch out for this. Or next time, don't just fall for that. Because I only bring one thing ever. I can't be bothered with trying.
00:07:17
Speaker
Like, ah and it works for the most part. Like, I mean, it works to the level that I want to succeed at in Malifaux. Like, I'm well past the phase of trying to be the best that there ever was and catch them all, you know? Like, i I just want to hold my own for more than 50% of my games. So that was kind of like, a yeah, i but I feel like the crew is fairly strong enough for me to be able to do that, similar to when I was playing Terra in the old GG.
00:07:46
Speaker
It's enough for me to play the type of game I want to do. One, i mean I will say this, sitting down and playing that game with you, I had a blast because first off, I enjoyed playing games against you. Yeah. But also,
00:08:03
Speaker
It just looks so pretty on the table. You gotta to die hot, man. like It was... I'm not gonna lie. There's something about playing against... I mean, it's great to play against just painted models. yeah But then there's something special about playing against really well painted models. And this was the crew that you won Best Painted at the Lone Star Fodown with.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and it's like, I always talk about it. air It's what got me into tabletop gaming. And I highly suspect at some level, like a well painted crew or army and whatever game you play is what gets us
Inspiration from Painting and Model Aesthetics
00:08:45
Speaker
all into it. Because otherwise we'd just play on vassal or if we just play video games because we can get that same scratch, you know, like that same itch. And and I can understand players who play mostly on that.
00:08:58
Speaker
It's just at a certain point, like I always just remember walking by a Warhammer store and seeing a first the first time a painted army and just thinking, man, i want to I want to play with those toys. I want them to look as cool as they possibly can. It's like this layer that it's like everyone participates in some way. And I'm i'm just like, yeah, you can be really competitive.
00:09:21
Speaker
in the playing part I like to be competitive with like how good can I make these look because it brings joy no matter if I'm winning or losing it's like but they look good you know and like when you play against somebody else that also looks good it's like you can play both like two potatoes pun and punching each other and it's like yeah but those are pretty like that looks so it looks like a toy commercial you know like you looking potatoes yeah you know and so like you can always get a little leeway by by leaning into that and No matter what, if you approach it from like how I approach it from the hobby side, you really kind of don't lose because you're learning something you you don't lose it painting, you know, like you can, if you have a different mentality about it. But if you are improving on your painting and and having fun and then like,
00:10:08
Speaker
the joy you see from other people walking by and noticing it. And it could possibly get people into the game and discovering these things. Yeah. You know, like that's how it got me. So that's why I like to focus on all that stuff. And the rest is like, yeah, I like winning, but yeah, I'd rather win a painting comp.
00:10:26
Speaker
And it's like and you can also like fully make the podium at one of the monthlies so Yeah, but and it surprised me too at photo I'm like I thought I was at the 50 percentile and he was like no ninth out of 35 I was like dang Yeah, were your train for action archivist right yeah I did not really expect that cuz I wasn't looking at the scores or anything like that I was just playing what I could and I remember joking I was like, yeah the playing part is the least favorite for me because because it's hard for me to to keep up with everybody, and I expected to get stomped, but this crew, it kind of fits my style of play a lot.
Playing for Enjoyment vs Competitive Success
00:11:01
Speaker
One, I think that also plays into, and I've brought this up ah previous episodes where I was a guest at some point, where, you know what, if you approach it just like, I'm coming out to have some fun, and if I do well, awesome. If I lose, well, I get to throw a stupid shit on the table and move around my pretty dudes.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, that was actually the struggle I had from since the terror episode that I came on, I decided to try different things and, you know, get out of my little shell. And it was rough because I was trying like I was approaching the game from different perspective than I usually do. And You know, after I played Tiri, it was fine, but I was still not like, it just wasn't hitting right. And I switched like four or five different masters. And it wasn't until this one where I was like, I don't care how it plays. I want it to look sexy and like do okay. And it seems to lean in the way that I like to play because like whenever I first got the crew from the last photo.
00:12:03
Speaker
I was like, Oh, this is gonna look sweet. Then I read the cards. I was like, Oh, like it kind of hits the same strings as Vonshil too. Like it it hits those same beats, but it does it way better like than Vonshil too. So I had experience playing Vonshil too. It was one of more my more fun games or masters from between the last episode I was on and now. And it's just, it just, it kind of sings. It kind of runs on its own for the most part.
00:12:29
Speaker
Cool, so speaking of which, what was your crew for this round? So for this crew, let me pull up those notes. I had, all right, so I was using the Nightmare Crew, the Fallen Prince one. So it's really Hoffman, but like with a Castlevania feel. So it's Lord Gail Hotwood and Gail Halt, which is Charles Hoffman, inventor Hoffman II. He had diesel engine on him. and His totem, which is mechanical and attendant. The hires are the Weeping Huntress, which is Melissa Core. Porphyryon, which is Joss, is like my favorite one.
00:13:07
Speaker
Uh, he had a diesel engine galvanic worm the peace keeper had soulstone cash and two hollow fiends aka two watchers And I picked them because they all came in the nightmare crew also, and um I will there will be links to photos that I took of these at the faux down in the show notes because If you're listening to this, obviously, this is a very um visual audio medium here, but seriously go check these out. They are absolutely fucking gorgeous. So yeah, what did your opponent play? Who was your opponent? Yeah. That bastard. Yeah. What did that jerk play? Doug played a Titania Autumn Queen. I didn't know if this was the full list, but but I know it was, is that, that's Titania too, right?
00:13:56
Speaker
Yep, it was Titania II. Okay,
New Crew Setup and Strategy Learning
00:13:59
Speaker
and yeah, it has the Gorar, the Autumn Knight with Ancient Pact, another one with Ancient Pact, Ithana, Mysterious Emissary, and the Carnivorous war Weirdwood, which I know I've played against Titania II once, like a few years ago. I have i really no idea what any of them did, ah even in the game. I'm like, yeah, they they have stuff. Like, I hit them, do they die yet? like I didn't know how they run. I do know, I didn't remember that they made a lot of markers. So that was like the only thing I thought of when I first saw the the crew.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah and I mean, I know in my crew building with this, it was the, Hey, I want to try out Ithania and the carnivorous weirdwood. So I'm putting those in my crew to just get a few more reps with those under my belt to figure out is, is Ithania an everyday snack? Is the carnivorous word, what a sometimes snack. And I think Ithania that's core to titanium. Now weirdwood feels situational.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was pretty good. Like, uh, not going to lie. It was, I didn't know what to expect from it. Like I pretty much just was like move forward, smash like I always am. So it was a, it was a nice little speed bump along the way, just barely being able to get in there, not really having a lot of control.
00:15:23
Speaker
It was overall good, but ultimately, yeah, it was a few key decisions where I was like, yeah, this is kind of a done game. At first, it was okay, but it was bad. And so for this game, it was deployment, was corner, raid the vaults. The schemes were let them bleed, deathbeds, power ritual, deliver a message, and espionage. What did you choose? I chose deathbeds and deliver a message.
00:15:51
Speaker
Alright, and so why those schemes? I would pick them regardless of what I saw on the other side because it's just what I like to do. Kill stuff and things are going to be in the middle. I'm going to pick something that's survivable to interact and do deliver a message. Like my scheme picking is extremely simple. It's like, what's the easiest thing I can do? I don't care what the other side is doing. Like is my crew built to put markers down or is my crew built to kill stuff? And I'll just pick whatever's in there that fits it. And I'll just realize I'll learn my lesson later if I should or shouldn't have done it. But
00:16:32
Speaker
you know, killing stuff by markers. That's fairly easy for this crew. Yeah, they drop. Yeah, they drop. sky lines up there And then punch someone. Yeah, you know, and it was a pylons or a scrap that you were doing. your but I was doing scrap because they they throw it on so much, you know, and and you end up actually fighting against a lot of other construct crews. So they'll be throwing down their own scrap and like ah you can go through your own markers to make two scraps. It's like It was pretty easy for me to pick that. The harder one is actually the marker itself, but ah but like there's a it's just it's just one of those ones where I don't like to overcomplicate scheme picking. like I just pick whatever my crew is designed to do and just hope that you know it's not going to run into too much interference.
00:17:19
Speaker
Because like this crew itself, it can't really run the certain ones too well, like Power Ritual or whatever. like It doesn't really run it as well as I want it to. So like it was a pretty easy scheme for me to pick on this one. All right. And so leading into the game, what was your game plan for this game?
00:17:40
Speaker
move forward, smash, find the biggest stuff, try to hit it with Joss. That's pretty much my main game plan is like, what's the biggest, baddest boy out there? Hit it with either Peacekeeper, Joss, or Hoffman. And like Melissa Core hits the flanks if they can. like It's really not too hard because they have so many good movement shenanigans. They're able to do... um What is it? mean they you were Irreducible damage. it's just like and it The shock and awe of like hitting a peacekeeper, hitting somebody with that harpoon gun and yanking them in and then lining them up to get behind your crew and then Joss just finishes them off or Joss hits something and just like kills the shit out of something with like barely any like effort or resources.
00:18:31
Speaker
it's just like a good it messes with their head a lot and so i try to do that same sort sort of strategy in a lot of my crews because it's just the kind that satisfies me it's the easiest one for me i can't do like a bunch of ping damage and like fancy things or colette doing stuff i i don't like to think what being fancy is no no i take the gun out while you're moving you know, your little sword around and then I shoot like I want the easiest, most direct path to just kill stuff. And I know that's not always the smartest way, but like, I mean, I'm not trying to go for 100% win rate. I'm just going for like, I want to kill as much as I can as fast as I can, and then I'll play the game. and the game The rest of you want to kill him and look good while you're doing it. Yep. I mean, and this crew, it just, it, it, it works way more than it should. Like the, I thought I was going to have such a hard time getting shot up beforehand or like missing a lot of attacks. And it's like, these guys get free stuff everywhere. And as a outcast player, I'm like, this is some BS man. Like it kind of makes me mad.
00:19:39
Speaker
like here I am paying two points so I get a free two inch your fucking push if I see a scheme marker and then Hoffman's like you got a power token just do whatever you want man like yeah you like I don't have uh free positives everywhere and they're like hey man you you want to use that free positive it can be hit or damage if you like oh we have an upgrade for damage it wasn't veryucible i'll keep you but ah yeah yeah you wanted to be irreducible just say the word you know just send a token and it's just like sitting here I'm like god Damn man, like come on chill. It's so screwed like It made me mad because like I've been playing outcast straight for over 10 years never switched it and ah Yeah, it was it was sort of a revelation. I was like, oh man This is an easier game when you play when you play good cruise I get it like I avoided it for a while because I was being stubborn of keeping to my older stuff But like yeah, it's so much easier
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, but flex into to a new faction gives you a whole other faction to paint too. Yeah, I mean, I got that May Fang nightmare I want to hit up too. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to have like no success with that. but It's not my style at all.
00:20:49
Speaker
I don't know. You do very good non-metallic metal, and there's a lot of metal in that crew. There you go. Yeah. The painting-wise, it's going to be fun. Yeah. Well, and part of the problem with that one, too, is because isn't that that's only one box, right? Yeah. It's not the the two boxes plus the second master plus the whole, you know, they really win all out on the Gale Hall thing.
Choosing Crews for Aesthetic Appeal
00:21:10
Speaker
and And good on weird for doing that, because, yeah, you got you could build it.
00:21:14
Speaker
full crew as opposed to like, yeah, I've got these six models and like now I got to, you know, put in stuff that doesn't look right or I don't know. but So I have to ask in this context, have you given any thought or seen the AltJEDS crew?
00:21:30
Speaker
the name the skeleton king, Jetsa. Oh yeah, yeah, that one. that's ah It's like a white ah or like W-I-G-H-T, right? here Like ghostly one. Yeah. Yeah. yeah ah Never looked at the crew itself or anything, but the models look sweet.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, i because it seems like you're going down the path, you know, because you mentioned Mei Fang and that you're you obviously you're running the Hoffman one. I was like, oh, man, if he's going to paint up the skeleton king, just be all over that. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't mind doing that. I just got to get my hands on it. Like that was the other reason, too. It's like I got that from Fodown the year before. And so I plan out what crew I'm going to make and how I'm going to make it from that point on to like to next year's.
00:22:15
Speaker
So like, it takes me a while to make all the plans and stuff and actually act on it. So for a year, I've been planning on making this crew with LEDs and just been gathering up the materials, making plans and getting all my tools ready. So next one's Mayfang, but Yeah, I was thinking about that. and Weird Black flight Friday sale starts tomorrow. Oh, it does. Yeah. Black Friday sale. And a lot of times they have those ah old nightmare crews available. So take a look out for those. Yeah, i hit them up.
00:22:46
Speaker
Because to me, i'd start I always start with hobby first. like Does the crew sing to me? you know like can i Do I get excited to paint it? And then whenever i I think that, I'm like, all right, now let me read the rules. Oh, it fits my style, or I can make that work. you know like ah And so this was one of those ones where I was like, oh, that crew is sweet. And then I read the cards. I was like, what am I doing in OutKast? I'm like, what am I doing here? I'm just working uphill on roller skates, man. So like yeah, yeah that's ah that's usually how I'll start off. is I did that with Terra. I did that with Tieria. I don't even read the cards. I'm like, yeah, i'm gonna I'll make that work, I guess. It looks so good.
00:23:26
Speaker
you know But I guess that's why I had a ah glass ceiling for a while there. I was not waiting because I was like playing ah what looks cool instead of like ah and and being stubborn in what I like to play, like you know always having the same list. And so you know if you're expecting to get top tier success all the time, you can't approach it that way. like Me personally, I'm like, I just want above average, like just to show that I'm not wasting my time here, but ah you can still have fun losing. you know It's just not fun for a year straight.
Challenges of Sticking with a Single Crew
00:24:02
Speaker
to say Andre's kind of looking through the camera going like, you know, I'm i'm not totally opposed to playing a single list, you know, or nearly, nearly a single list. So I think, I think you may have something there, Ryan, you're you're selling yourself short, I think you may have something. Yeah. But it's, so it's a lot like ah fighting games where like, yeah, you can play one, one character, right? But if you're not playing
00:24:26
Speaker
ah a good character that can answer there a lot of problems then you're gonna have a rough time you can master that like that mid-tier character or crew in this instance but it's gonna be rough and you got to put more sweat into it and i don't want to have that sweat you know so like i I'd rather sweat on the painting. Yeah, totally. Exactly. I have better things in my mind that I would rather spend time on. so like When I switched different crews, I tried Levee 2, I tried ah Parker again. I had a little success with that Jackdaw and Tiri crew list, um but if nothing was really singing to me until Vontial 2, but it was during a gaming's ground that was like he was not doing well in.
00:25:11
Speaker
because he doesn't really do a lot of marker manipulation or whatnot. But you know this crew, it it was the same thing as Vonshield 2. I literally boiled down all my points to like what makes my crew ah in my style. I'm like, it's armor, it's shield, it's got mobility, and it hits like a truck. And here, it's like it's all the same, but they get free resources, like positives. I'm like, that's insane. like And they can manipulate the battlefield with their markers and like uh and he's got they even both have bulldoze and so it's like crews like that that makes me go like what is the point of vongil too when this exists yes they have their own flavor but their flavor is like a shittier ice cream compared to this this one it was just like
00:25:54
Speaker
It ran itself. like it and The list made itself. I was like, holy crap, the nightmare crew by itself can work. like You just swap it out with the Peacekeeper or add in one, and oh, you have a limited edition Peacekeeper. It's so insane how how much better it is, you and even though they all supposedly hit the same points. So it was basically me upgrading my fighting game character to like one that can handle way more stuff, way more efficiently. It was just a better diet.
00:26:23
Speaker
you know yeah Cool. So ah focusing on the game that we played, now obviously we were playing an exhibition game there, but you're still, we're both still trying there. Yeah. What were some big, the you know, the big lessons in themes for this game and, you know, really, as we were starting out, what were some interesting lines of play?
00:26:46
Speaker
The biggest lesson, and it's the lesson I've learned in all my losses in all 10 of my games, or nine, is target acquisition. Because they can handle almost everything. They're they're like, they're not good at card draw, obviously, but um you don't really need it when you're smashing your food and your foot in their face, you know? But like, if you pick the wrong targets, it's a bad time.
00:27:10
Speaker
like you have to pick like Joss to me is the most important model in there he has to pick the right one and hit them hard without taking too much damage on the way in but I actually used him to capture points and hit one model on its own on on the wings instead of getting right in the middle of that scrum and and I didn't have a Hoffman eliminating markers as his priority. So those are two different targets that like I did not utilize correctly. If I had focused on what their main strength is, Peacekeeper is drawing attention and pulling guys in if he can. And Joss is like, ah he cleans things up. And Hoffman is there to just get in in the way with bulldoze and get rid of markers and like you know set up the team for success. But he's no slouch with Diesel Engine.
00:28:01
Speaker
So like I didn't pick those ah targets appropriately. I put Peacekeeper up. I didn't have, um what's her name, Melissa Core shooting at anything useful. like the The terrain was not good for her. There was just a lot of bad choices. And if you make the right choices, this crew could have taken on the same problem.
00:28:23
Speaker
Um, and every loss I've had, that was the problem is like, I didn't, I didn't use Joss in the right way. I didn't use peacekeeper at the right place. You know, like it's just one of those things that like, it was a big. Eye opener for me when usually I can recover from these kinds of mistakes, because this crew really focuses on hitting you hard, killing you without any retaliation.
00:28:45
Speaker
If you mess that up from deployment and first moves, then it's really hard to recover from it to the point where it's probably going to be a loss. And like every loss I've had is that exact.
00:28:58
Speaker
exact choice problem. So that's where my glass ceiling comes, because if I read everybody else's cards, heck, even at the beginning of the game, which I don't do, like, if I actually read this stuff, then I would know how to properly acquire the targets. But I just pretty much go off of aesthetics of like, you look big and bad, like, let's take them down. you know Like, and it works, you know, it what is it? 25% of the time, it works every time. Just didn't work in this one.
00:29:28
Speaker
so So what were some interesting lines of play that happened over the course of the game? Man, I think you would agree with me, like putting Joss off onto the side, was it an autumn night? And like chasing that autumn night down was a huge mistake. Like he should have just ran right in there because I have yet to run into a crew that can really handle Hoffman, a peacekeeper and Joss going after like the same models.
00:29:56
Speaker
yeah Yeah, you kind of you spread out your heavy hitters there. Yeah. And while you needed to send stuff out to go chase my shit down, it kind of diluted their efficacy? Mm-hmm, yep. they They're kind of like a one-two punch and you can just pick two out of the three. Like, that's what's always worked for me. It's like it can either be Hoffman and Peacekeeper, but you were holding them back to the point where they were coming in waves. And it should have been Hoffman goes right in there and just weathers the storm because if he can get in there and like bulldoze through your markers and just start, you know, annoying you, even though he may,
00:30:37
Speaker
die. He's not the the key piece in the in the crew to me. like Then you can have Joss and Peacekeeper hitting at the same time. It's just, Hoffman's just got to live. You're going to spend a lot of ah stones to keep him alive. But like I was trying to get the Peacekeeper in first, who's the slowest moving guy. And I was thinking, like oh, if I get him in first, he's got like the biggest armor. I can support him with soul stones. He'll be fine.
00:31:03
Speaker
And I spent a lot of soul stones, I think, trying to keep him alive and it should have been Hoffman first, you know, like, cause he, he's the only one that can get rid of your markers effectively. And because I wasn't getting rid of your markers, you were doing that ping pong of or like pinball and it was just annoying. Yeah. Okay. Kept, kept tossing you around with the, um, into
Target Acquisition and Game Control
00:31:24
Speaker
thorns. And I had the, uh, some of the fuck you puddles from the emissary down. Whereas the, okay. Oh, into thorns. Chuck you into one of those puddles like damage.
00:31:36
Speaker
and yeah And you're spending a lot of AP on stuff you don't want to spend AP on, you know? And yeah the other thing too is like the strategy, spreading it all out. Like I still fall for the fact that like, I don't have to spread out to cover every point to gain every point. ah Oh, 3-1 win is a win. you know like i've still got a I should just stick to my plan of everybody goes up in a clump and then we'll score later if we need to. like That was one thing i I did not stick to that normally I usually do, but like I really felt I was controlling all of those vault points.
00:32:14
Speaker
And it turned out like because I was controlling them, quote unquote, I wasn't controlling the fight, you know. And so that was one thing that I i definitely learned. It's like, you know, I don't have to score eight points, you know, I can score five and be fine. Well, and you ended up spending a lot of resources on that peacekeeper that i I kept I kept stunning that peacekeeper I was giving it stagger I was making it low efficacy and then hey autumn night says challenge yep which to be fair in that game the ah Perry flips
00:32:53
Speaker
I think I double- like, I double-megged it into Severe on Parry, damn it. Yeah. It was Red Joker twice. The cards were with my Autumn Knights on the parry. Yeah. It was a perfect storm. And it's- I mean, it started with bad choices, but it ended with bad flips against me. like it the flips only just helped finish the story because it really did come down to like every other game i'll do that where i'll spend nearly all my stones keeping that peacekeeper at full health when he gets in there because the point is he's wave one he hits first and like it has all that armor and all the the abilities and whatnot
00:33:33
Speaker
And then you have, uh, Gail Halt or, uh, Hoffman coming in and then Joss, like at the same time. Like that is a winning combo that has worked for me every single time, because if you just keep, like what I do at the beginning of the game is I just use every, um, push onto that peacekeeper. So even though he only has a four move,
00:33:56
Speaker
he's he's good to go he's halfway up the field and so he's taking a bunch of shots which i normally do that i'm like okay he uses soul stones he'll avoid when he needs to uh he'll get healed up by stiltskin if he needs to and then like i'll harpoon him or i'll charge him and then wave two comes in and Gale Halt will hit you and place you one inch until you're behind everybody. You know, like that usually works, but in this case, it didn't because I abandoned my plan by putting Joss all the way off onto some flank to do, I don't know what. He got parried a bunch.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah, I was just so worried about that autumn night. like I don't know why it was bothering me that he was unopposed. and I think the thinking I had was like he was all the way off in the corner, right? And I was like, well, the only things holding these these are other points are weak ass, like, nothings. They're going to die to this autumn night if he scores and or tries to come in. So I was like, let me shore up that flank when, really, I should have just ignored it. like Watchers can run away. like They're fine.
00:34:58
Speaker
and, like, they're not important. So, like, that was a... I kind of fell for i trying to protect everything. You really don't need to. You just need to focus on your game. Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, had you kept your core crew doing the, you know, one, two, three punch there, even with a hampered peacekeeper, you've got the backup to, yeah you know, deal with that.
00:35:27
Speaker
I think that would have worked out a little better. And also on the other side, the way I like to think of it is if I were opponent an opponent against this, what's my first target? Like there's a master, there's this peacekeeper, and then there's Joss. Like I naturally would probably pick Joss because I know what he can do.
00:35:44
Speaker
But it's just one of those things that to ah an unseasoned player, or even one that's like not used to that much aggression, they would have a hard time picking targets. So that's why I like to keep them as full as possible when they hit that front line, because you just give them a plethora of like, ah, crap, these can all shit in my Sunday.
00:36:03
Speaker
like every single one of them can ruin your day so like who do I pick first the master like it depends on the scheme pool basically usually is what I think they'll choose but like usually if you have to choose between those three it's done like if they're all three in your face something's dying and it's going to probably be something important well I know that when I played against uh because uh I played almost its exact same clue against um Elijah's Hoffman, uh, the Thursday before the, uh, the tournament there. And I tend to, you know, go after Joss a lot because I know what he can do, but he was kind of split off there and the peacekeeper was a little bit dangling. It was the yeah first thing I could really start fucking with.
00:36:53
Speaker
yeah And it was like, well, you know what? Peacekeeper's scary and I can reach it. Okay. you Yeah. Fuck that guy. Yeah. And then you kept putting Hoffman out of a place, you know, like even as soon as he got in there, you just kept placing him. And I'm like, man, if I had three hard targets, it wouldn't matter if he put Hoffman over here. Cause then you just let Joss go. Or if he did it to Joss Hoffman can come in and bulldoze. Like there were just, it's bad to separate them is what I learned. Like Melissa can separate and like she's honestly not even my
00:37:25
Speaker
favorite one in there. Like, I don't really shed a tear when she dies. Like, that's what should have been going on the flank, not Joss. Joss needs to go right up in there. That run and gun. That run and gun. Oh, yeah.
00:37:36
Speaker
would have been would have been a really good way to deal with the with the Autumn Knight because, oh, you're charging, you're still shooting me, but I can't parry a gun. It's run and gun. it's You can't even just say it's run and gun because Parker has run and gun. That's not special. It's run and guns with like positives, however you feel like it. like Positive and damage? Okay. like It's just insane how how good it is.
00:38:03
Speaker
But yeah, like she should have been shooting for the autumn night. I don't know what I was doing with her. Like it was just a brain fart. And and unlike my other crews, you can make those brain farts and recover. Like Vonshield is a little bit more mobile with rocket jumps and all that stuff. So you can make up for somebody off on the flank incorrectly. But like with this one, it it's really hard to make up for any mistakes on target acquisition.
00:38:31
Speaker
It's just, uh, probably the hardest part about running the crew is like, if you know more about what you're running against this thing can run, like it can just steamroll over stuff or bolder. But if you don't like me, it's like, you just got to guess, right? what That's not exactly a great strategy.
00:38:47
Speaker
Well, I think another lesson from this one was the getting those Black Blood models right up on Charles Hoffman.
MVP Hoffman and Model Basing as Art
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah. i think I think Black Blood did a lot of the damage to him. That did most of the damage. And that li that little bit of plink damage.
00:39:06
Speaker
he's like Armor can only reduce it to one. So, yep, blink, blink, blink, blink. But Hopkins just got that two-inch engagement range. you know I remember whenever I was building the crew, I was thinking, plink damage is is always a good answer to armor and stuff like that. And I remember thinking, I wish they had a limited edition healer besides Stiltskin, because then I would run it. Because I think my original crew, I had something in their healing.
00:39:32
Speaker
but I think he's the only one that can do it in the limited edition. You're right, breakers have any healing on them? I don't think so, but they do look cool. I have that box. Okay. I was making sure you had that. Yeah. Oh, I had it. But yeah, it's just one of those things that like, if you want to tweak the crew more, it could use either card draw or heal. Like those are the two main things about it. What was your MVP model of this game?
00:40:02
Speaker
This game, I guess it would be Hoffman for trying so hard. He he really tried. he was like There was a moment there where he was in the middle of your crew and I was like, this might be it. This might be... Oh, no, it's not. But like he was definitely one... I would have said Joss if he managed to get there in time, but I switched to... Did did I go after your emissary with him eventually?
00:40:28
Speaker
No, i ah the I think I killed the knight and then I started going in, but it was too late. No, the night I thought the knight killed him off with a parry. Oh yeah, that's right. Nevermind. I'll mix them up with that, with that yeah second red joker Perry. I was like, fuck you. Normally he is my MVP every time. Joss is fucking amazing. Yeah. he's He's the best thing ever. But like this time it was Hoffman because it was, it was uphill on roller skates and Hoffman, I think was trying real hard. Bulldoze is such an amazing ability to have.
00:41:01
Speaker
especially with his the synergy as with his own markers. like It's different than Von Chills. Von Chills, I think, gives you extra attacks or something. And this one gives you markers. So like it synergizes with his pillars.
00:41:16
Speaker
But the main thing I like to do is surprise avenues of charges. like If you bulldoze through a building, you know it's it's pretty surprising. people don't see They don't anticipate coming up on the other side of like you know buildings and forests and whatnot, and at least not that easily. And you open up new vectors. And in this case, it was like the only thing that was going to work against your stuff because you had so many effective markers in placement.
00:41:42
Speaker
Like there was a lot of hazardous around. It was just the only way I can get in there. And everybody else was just dying on the way in. He was one of the only ones that was doing his job until he died. Okay. So after the game.
00:41:57
Speaker
What advice would you give to a bottom third player, someone facing your crew or Hoffman for the first time, ah who's looking to learn a bunch and you know keep them from getting frustrated playing against Hoffman? Because as you said, Hoffman's got some really strong ye stuff there.
00:42:18
Speaker
Pretty much your you're ah game plan is one of the main things is isolate hard targets. You do not want to have them all hitting you at once. Like that's the main thing that I try to do is like I want all three of them to hit you at once and I'll use Melissa as like a little smokescreen.
00:42:34
Speaker
But if you can isolate, like a good example would be you know obeying a peacekeeper to move them around or charge my own stuff. and Or or like you know putting terrain in front of the non-Hoffman pieces, like those really give me a hard time.
00:42:51
Speaker
And as a bottom player, if you're, if you're thinking about trying to hit Joss, you can also think about just running away from him. Like he's got a cool two inch push and other people can can push him too. And it's going to be kind of hard if he really wants to come after you, but you know, there's, there's so many fights you win by not fighting, right? Like, so you don't want to let Joss pick the right target.
00:43:14
Speaker
You want to give like high defense models if you can, if you really have to. But like he can get through all that stuff with free positives. and you know or not He doesn't get the free positives, but he uses soul stones and he can save cards. I think um the high defense was what was hurting me in previous games. So you want to try to just isolate in those ways. But if you are also a crew that can discard, like that is a huge deal against this crew.
00:43:43
Speaker
But yeah, otherwise, the only other gotchas you would want to really watch out for is placements, because that's one thing I even forget about in um in in the games. I forget that like, oh, I can place you one inch. If you're a big bass, like that's a huge amount of movements.
00:44:01
Speaker
And I can end up, like I've done it a few games where I end up putting the model behind my crew with all those placements, like with three attacks on a big base, you you end up hopping around. So as a bottom player, if you're not super experienced with it, those are the things you kind of want to watch out for or try to do. Cool.
00:44:21
Speaker
So what advice would you give to a middle third player? You know, an experienced player, realistic to get looking to give you a challenging time, you know, hoping for a win if they play it tight.
00:44:33
Speaker
Yeah, if you're a middle third, do not underestimate the movement shenanigans because like, even though I'm used to movement shenanigans, like jumping leaps and that sort of thing, those are sort of isolated movement shenanigans. You can expect a model to move X number by themselves, but here they support each other so well. It could be one model moving eight.
00:44:55
Speaker
like in various directions, it can be four models moving too. like And you can't hold them down that way. all that All of that transfer power. Yeah, man. And then the fact that they can transfer power on themselves, it's like ridiculous. you know So do not underestimate those because a lot of the times I'll fall for it myself where I think this is where the fight's gonna happen. But if you were thinking that way, Joss suddenly pushes out of the fight and then charges whatever he wants.
00:45:22
Speaker
Like you have to really respect the movement shenanigans. It's like their small bonus, you know, but you really have to think about what else can they
Advanced Movement and Strategy in Malifaux
00:45:33
Speaker
do that? I wouldn't expect like, yeah, sure. They may stick in there and keep fighting the same target. But me, I'm like, if it didn't hit the first time and if I can't kill it now, I might go and try to hit something else or try to score something else. So like that's one that really, um,
00:45:48
Speaker
Like some players will suffer from is they think they've got me locked down. And then I'm like, no, just push out. Like every model has it, man. It's so dumb. Yeah, it is. yeah know The first time someone um I think I was playing against Jonathan, he did transfer power on, you know, model did it on themselves. I'm like, wait, wait, is it allowed to do that? And I read it and like, what have I been missing?
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah, man, it's so dope. As long as you have a power token. And because it's a token, there's not a lot of manipulation around that, right? Like, it's not like focus, it's not like a condition. So it's just one of those other things that I was like, man, screw Von Chill. Like, this is the way to go. Like, it's one of those shenanigans that it's different because it's a force multiplier. It's not like this guy can push himself or this guy can push other people. It's everyone can push themselves or each other however they feel as long as they're in range. Like, it's dumb.
00:46:42
Speaker
And they often get the same power tokens from the same one 30 mil base Like you only need one base for everyone to be that effective Yeah, pylon I mean all all this pain in the ass to pin you down all of that movement kind of stuff and like the Lining everybody up. I you know, I've seen new volunteer not by chill. I'm sorry ah new Hoffman players are you know, get out of sequence with passing the power tokens around and just not be very effective. Is that, ah how, how did you get through this? Kind of going back to the advice for a bottom third player, if someone's picking up Hoffman, how, how do you, do you just like, how do I put my pylons? Yeah. Or how do you, how do you sequence all of those power tokens, right? Is that just something that you kind of know? Cause you have been playing for a while and you've, you know, or, or is that a ton of unpacks or what?
00:47:38
Speaker
you're first You're right, because the first game I played in Fodown, that was my first lesson was like, oh man, this unpack is actually complicated. like you've got yeah I was getting in my own way a lot, but you know, Bulldoze works both ways. I bulldoze my own pylon turn one, like every time.
00:47:56
Speaker
So like you also don't need all four. You're probably not gonna be getting tokens out of all four. So don't be too precious with them. But like the way you place them at the beginning of the game is really going to dictate how you're gonna get those tokens later. And even if you don't get tokens, like if you're not close to your pylon at first, you got scrap, that gives you power. It's the same effective thing. And if you don't have that, somebody else gives you power tokens. Somebody like a watcher, somebody like Spilt Skin.
00:48:25
Speaker
ah Like you can always have options for power tokens. So don't be too precious with where you place or like you don't want to dictate the end of your movements and your charges to make sure you get a power token because let's say you have no targets around. How useful is that power token? Absolutely useless. You want to make sure that you're hitting the right stuff at the right time. So when you deploy, I tend to deploy one in front of ah of Hoffman for him to bulldoze over. And then three as close to the center line where I think alleys of fights are going to occur. Like if there are choke points or anything like that, because then
00:49:01
Speaker
All you need is one effective pylon to get the power token for an entire crew. The whole crew can fit around one pylon if you need to, because with their heights and all that stuff, and the height of the pylon being four, they can figure it out. The hardest part is getting in your own way with these giant bases. You've got two 50s with the Galvanic Worm and Hoffman, and you've got one 40 with, ah what's her name? Melissa Core slash Weeping Widow Huntress thingy.
00:49:29
Speaker
Like you do whatever it is he and trademark but like um you that was my first thing was like I was thinking weeping widow with the Huntress thing was going to be my main thing but it turns out like she gets in my way a lot and I'd rather have a peacekeeper get in my way because at least he's in front of things.
00:49:48
Speaker
Um, but like, it's just one of those things that you'll kind of figure it out, but I push you out of the way. Like peacekeepers, one of the main ones I've just put like four pushes on right at the start of the game. Like that way he's got a bunch of power tokens and then he never has to be by a pylon ever again. Like I don't need to care. Like he can have four for the rest of the game. So like, then it's not too precious for him to have to end his move by a pylon. I'd rather him end his move by an enemy marker than by a pylon. So.
00:50:17
Speaker
Like the unpack is a little hard, but once you also understand that bulldoze works so well, you go through your own models, you go through terrain, you go through whatever you want with bulldoze. So like that unpack is easy. So those two models become the the main things I need to care about. Joss is a 30 mil so he can go through stuff like he can get around. So once I figured that out by game two, I think the unpack was actually fairly easy.
00:50:42
Speaker
So yeah, it is one of those lessons you'll have to learn. You're going to get in your own way. Just don't make your pylons get in your own way because that to me is harder to recover from than models. You can just change your activation order.
00:50:53
Speaker
Cool. Thank you. Cool. Yeah. So I am going to kind of change the the flow of where we're going with the interview now, because I'm really excited to have you on to talk painting as well.
The Painting Journey and Technique Mastery
00:51:08
Speaker
Sweet. Something I know about. Well, hell yeah. As I mentioned earlier, you're a fucking phenomenal painter. And as a podcast, we normally focus on the gaming side of Malifaux.
00:51:20
Speaker
But I feel like the hobby side of the game is something that can be really intimidating to new and longtime players alike. And so I wanted to chat with you a little bit about helping out, you know, bottom third, middle third, top third painters. Heck yeah. And how to do that. So we all start somewhere with painting minis. Where did you begin?
00:51:47
Speaker
in the late 20th century, the late 1900s. Oh that made my back hurt here. Dude, I've been fading. Like it was like I said, you know when i I first ran across a Warhammer store, this was when I was in like fourth grade or something. so It was 90s-ish. and like I just fell in love with it. and It took a while before I actually got my first models. like Because back then they were like oh what's the stars it cost seventy five dollars my dad's like no that's too expensive and i'm like oh gw if only it was only seventy five dollars these days right but um yeah once i first got that it was the early nineties and i started painting right away.
00:52:29
Speaker
um and this was the before times before the internet was really the thing right that's right when i was learning to paint as well and it's yeah thinking's like oh my god i'm i really really thinned down this black paint and i splashed it all over it aka think this thinking i invented something new and that's what we all know is a watch yeah And then they're like, here are some inks, figure it out, you know? like That was basically it. And not only that, I lived overseas because I'm a military brand. So I was in Germany, there's no other Warhammer stores nearby where I was. So like, I was just visiting the states when I got into it. And so when I got them, I had to figure it all out with like one white dwarf magazine. And like, that's it. And like a basic starter paint set.
00:53:11
Speaker
Well fuck, and the white dwarf back then was like, like those, how to draw an L, draw a circle, draw another circle, you have drawn a fucking L. Oh, I look back into it and I'm like, all right, the painting masterclass articles, they were actually on point. I used to think they would skip some things, but no, like the basic, like here, put a this, this step one here, now you've got a black templar or whatever. I'm like, yeah, they were missing a lot of info. So how I had to learn,
00:53:36
Speaker
was through libraries. like I would look in libraries to see if they had any painting books like ah that were specific to miniatures, and it really wasn't. So I had to kind of read up on how to paint some other stuff, like model cars and things. But really, it was just trial and error. And I mean, the GW guys, when I first met them, they showed me how to prime the model, and that was it. And like I asked, what inks are for? And they were like, it's for definition. And as a little kid, I'm like, yeah, yeah, definition. I don't know what that meant. and memes. So like, before YouTube, it was so hard to figure all that out. And I didn't have any other friends that were into it. And if you did have friends anywhere into it, they painted just as badly as you did. So there was like 12 paints to figure this stuff out. And I didn't learn how to mix for a while. So that's really where I started was old 90s Warhammer where everything was based in green flock. yeah Yeah, those good old days. up Green motherfucker.
00:54:34
Speaker
Yeah. And I actually painted like a black army with silver trim because I only had a few models or paints. So like that's, that's really where I started with, but I always wanted to like make the thing that was on the cover. Like, you know, when you're a kid, you you see the model car, you see the toy that looks like you make it, then you make it yourself and it's like nailed it. Terrible. Like I always wanted to be like, I want to do it exactly or better than what I can see. And you know, that was just always my goal.
00:55:04
Speaker
yeah Do you still have any of those first models that you painted? So I did have one. I lost it on one of my moves. It was my first model ever and it was derpy. But like I've seen other people's first models and and now I'm like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh on myself. But it was really bad because it was layered up to heaven because I didn't know about stripping models and I would change my paints like all the time. Like, oh, let me try this.
00:55:28
Speaker
And then, like, you could tell my eras by ah the army where, like, I first discovered dry brushing, everything was dry brushed, like, for a good few months, right? So, like, I do have, like, I keep, I keep back here the models that I painted over the years that won, like, painting competitions or ones that I was proud of. And you can see, sort of, the progression of time of, like, when I discovered a new technique. Like, when they first came out with GW washes, that's my vampire counts army. It's all washed to hell like there I keep a lot of them and I wish I didn't sell some of my original ones But I was kind of tied on money but like it's good because it it's good to keep your old stuff to know Like to acknowledge how far you've come because there's nobody harsher on Themself on painters and then than themselves like everyone's so harsh on their own paint jobs, right? So you got to look back and be like, well, it's better than that time. like The way I always think of it is like you are always the best painter right now, like the best you've ever been right now. like You can't be getting worse, honestly. like You think you can, but that that accumulated knowledge sticks in your brain and and you you build on it. So all you have to do is just keep building.
00:56:41
Speaker
And I always look back at these old ones that used to win some competitions and go like, Oh my God, who was judging this? And back then in the nineties, if you look at the old white dwarfs, look at those golden demons. They are like nothing compared to now. So like think back then to the professional level was like, you could have been professional back then. Like that why not be okay with it now? You know, the the the types of education available and the resources. Yep.
00:57:10
Speaker
available now are staggering now it is I get jealous there's never been a better time to learn how to do this it's like little kids popping off on 900s on the skateboard you know like they're doing it now when I'm like dude y'all have no idea I had to hunt down like magazines like I had four issues of white dwarf that I like reread 50,000 times just to figure out how to do base coats you know like there's never been a better time now you can actually find a Any painter that speaks to you on YouTube like they all kind of tell you sort of the same things But or give you different value like you can find someone to teach you like that's crazy to me Like I didn't have anybody who even knew what Warhammer was what What advice would you give to someone who's just starting out painting? So I think of it like the first thing if you're if you already kind of have been painting Like base coats are the foundation of your paint jobs like start their basics
00:58:08
Speaker
You want to make sure that you can do a fine, even coat over two or three layers and it's just opaque and nice. If you can master that, you can just flat colors of everywhere that look really good and even, then you can master every other technique. It's the same sort of principles to me. That's the first thing I usually try to tell people if they're wanting to improve, improve your base coats.
00:58:32
Speaker
like it's It's real simple. And most of the time in any craft or profession, they almost always tell you, like, learn your basics. Everything else can be built off your basics. Base coats are those foundations. And a lot of people neglect it because they want to do the fancy stuff. And I'm like, the fancy stuff doesn't happen till you get your basics down. Like, you can't understand how to do glazes if you don't understand what makes a solid coat. Like, how do you know how to make a consistent, half seen or half transparent coat if you don't know what a fool opaque coated. So that's the first thing I usually tell people who want specific points. But the other ones are like paint often. like I don't paint as often now because I paint ah paint less models, but I focus on painting like heavier amounts of like skill painting. But like paint often because you're the more you do it, the better you're going to be at it.
00:59:24
Speaker
and be kind to yourself, because a lot of people are really harsh on themselves when they come to paint. It's like, oh, it sucks. It doesn't look as good as it looks. It doesn't look like the cover of the hammer. It doesn't work. Yeah. Well, it's not good, man. And it never will be, because that's a different painter. That's not you. Be the best painter you can be, and that's today. And if you paint tomorrow, you're better than yesterday. You just got to be kind to yourself and try things out.
00:59:52
Speaker
Slap some paint on a fucking model, man. Just slap some fucking paint on it. And are if you're proud of it... Yeah, slap it on, man. Like, I get out of a lot of funks by doing that. Just slapping paint on. Like, don't care. And then I'll i'll start to figure out, like, inspiration or whatnot. But it's just... there's there' You can start to focus on different things as you graduate through skill.
01:00:18
Speaker
And if you're wanting to improve, like that's that's just getting started. But if you want to improve, I always like to say, really be honest with what your level is. not trying to be like ah Don't be down on yourself. Honestly, be like be good at... like If you think of... all the other painters around you. Like, are you mid-level? Are you better than the average? Once you identify your level, find techniques that are one step above that and focus on that until you've mastered it. And like once you can do it comfortably, move on to the next thing that you want to do that's one level above. Because then you're not you want to isolate the variable
01:00:54
Speaker
And for me, it's like, well, when I first started taking it seriously, I'm like, all right, let me focus on airbrushing. Did that for a year and a half. And then I was like, all right, now I'm comfortable with the airbrush. I want to focus on non-metallic metal with the airbrush. Did that for like two years. you know Now I'm doing non-metallic metal with a brush, glazing, that sort of thing. I'm just focusing on one technique and applying it as heavily as I can in as many different paint jobs as I can in different ways.
01:01:20
Speaker
because it's one technique but like changing the colors will change how you apply it. You know so just pick one skill that's one slightly above what you can do now. Focus on it, be kind to yourself when you're doing it because it's gonna suck at first. You're gonna figure stuff out and it's gonna look terrible on the way.
01:01:39
Speaker
But like when I was figuring out ah object source lighting, all my shit looked terrible. like I just couldn't figure it out for a while. But all of those trials tell you what not to do. And so the next time you try it again, you're not going to do any of that crap. And if you do, you're like, why did I do that again? Let me change it up. So just pick one level above what you can do and just focus on it until you're good. Cool. So yeah what is some of the best advice so that you've received that's really upped your painting game?
01:02:07
Speaker
So, one that surprised me, I have Angel Heraldes' book, his first book that he did for Infinity the Game.
Inspirations and Techniques in Painting
01:02:16
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Yeah, and I was reading- I love his- That guy, I get so jealous, but there was one thing that really changed my perspective where he was like, yeah, I just add a bunch of multiple light sources. Like, I just throw in one here, throw in one there, I don't really care. Like, he just talks about just putting in random ones, and I'm like,
01:02:34
Speaker
oh i've been painting with one light source my entire life like i can just make this shit up thank you know and so that really changed it yeah that changed how i approached a non-metallic metal because i was just like well no i want the light to hit the bicep so i'm gonna just throw in a light source here i'm gonna throw one behind where the tricep is it doesn't have to make sense like it's stylized a lot of our painting styles are stylized it's not realistic So you make it all up. That really opened up my brain of like, yeah, none of it has to make sense. Like you can make it make sense. We're in a world full of cowboys and samurais, you know, like we can make it make sense. So like that really opened up my eyes on how to do it. Wait, wait, wait, is magic not real?
01:03:18
Speaker
It is in my heart. no but like and And the other one that really upped my game was like just, well, not so much upped my game. It's something I've always kept in mind is I always absorb but what I see in all my media and my favorite media. like I try to write it down as much as I can of different ideas. So like my favorite inspirations are comics, anime, and movies. like They've always inspired like how I draw, how I do anything, and especially how I paint. like i paint I really want it to just pop off the table. It does. yeah Seriously, you go go look at the links, guys. yeah yeah if i can If you look at the media and you see like everything that's placed in front of you is placed in front of you for a reason in this media.
01:04:03
Speaker
So, like, why does Captain America look as awesome as he does with, like, certain artists' renditions? Like, why do football team colors exist the way that they do? Like, there are rules for all these things. You don't have to understand the rules. You can just ape what you like in front of you. So, like, lately I've been doing a lot of orange and teal kind of black backlighting because that's what a lot of movies do. You go on Netflix, that's all you ever see is orange and teal.
01:04:28
Speaker
So I've been messing around with that stuff. But comics are a big one for me, like big, bright, like jewel tones, just really bold lines, like things that separate stuff, like just absorb things like the media you consume. Don't just consume it, consume it with intent. Like just write stuff down. It's like I like the way that Castlevania looks, the animated series. I just watched that for the first time this week. And I'm like, I like the ideas that they did with these colors.
01:04:55
Speaker
And you know like that that's kind of what I would ah advise for people who want to increase their level. Cool. So um and that this is entirely a self-serving question here. um So your Hoffman crew has some phenomenal nonmetallic metal gold.
01:05:15
Speaker
um Now, I mean, I've played around with doing non-metallic metal silver, because honestly, yeah, you do that in, you know, grayscale. And I, you know, ah in this very visual medium, I'm holding this up. So those of you who are here right now, I've got, you know, a a metallic silver mug that I use as reference to figure out, oh, how the life's going to work for non-metallic silver. I don't have something gold around here. But what is your non-metallic gold recipe?
01:05:45
Speaker
I will, ah I use a recipe, but it honestly changes almost every time I paint. Like it's just whatever I have around or whatever I feel, but I usually start with a gold brown. Oh, actually I have some paints in front of me. Oh wait, they're not the right ones. But like a gold brown, um I think the main one I use is like Vallejo heavy gold brown. And then I'll go up a step in yellow, like not necessarily a primary yellow, more like a dirty yellow. Like a mustard yellow? yeah yeah so to speak like more of a brown yellow but like higher closer to the yellow part and then you start adding some white to that you can either do pure white or bleached bone kind of white depending on how like an ivory depends on where you want to go with it and then i'll shade it like glaze in the shadows some sort of red brown depending on what's nearby like i'll use whole red from vallejo or
01:06:39
Speaker
ah A sanguine base is one that I've used before with ah the old P3s. Like, I just pick them up and see what they look like. So that's, I generally, just like how I think about the game, I think about painting in that same sort of generality. You can think about it in formulas and recipes, but you kind of box yourself in if you think that way. So I just kind of go like, hmm, I wonder what this yellow would look like. And if you just think of it in in yellows and whites and browns,
01:07:08
Speaker
Just pick what's around you and you experiment more. And then once you figure out what really clicks, then you write it down or remember it for later, but don't get locked to that recipe. Just practice it a few more times and then try different ways. Like I always try to change up the recipe a little bit.
01:07:27
Speaker
um whenever I do ah experiments with non-metallic metal. And I'm still trying to figure out the gold that I like a lot. the I use the same colors for all the golds in that crew, but I actually changed the value of how I like applied it for different models because it was going like really white gold for my Melissa Core or Weeping Huntress.
01:07:52
Speaker
But it that when I did that same gold onto Hoffman against a black horse, it was like crazy pop out. Like it looked like it was a whole different model on a whole different model. And I wanted to tie it together. So then I ended up glazing more of my dark yellows back over it to put it more to a yellow gold than a white gold.
01:08:12
Speaker
And it worked a lot better and then I added more red browns to it to to soften it down like closer to the values of the black horse. Because otherwise it's like a like putting a white knight on top of a black horse. and That's one way to contrast, but it's also a way to make one stand out like you did more work on one than the other. yeah So like you want to unify your looks together.
01:08:33
Speaker
and or at least I do so that's one thing of like you can have the same colors apply them in different bands in different ranges and you'll get different entirely different results and the way I came across that was just not tying myself to a box of like this is how I paint this gold this is how I paint silver it's like yeah sometimes I paint silver like that and it's like my go-to but I'll paint it in this way or I'll paint it in that way or like I didn't have the paint nearby and I was lazy so I'll try out green instead of blue like to to put a glaze on it but You just got to try all that stuff out. and People box themselves too much by sticking to recipes. like When I see on YouTube like all the ways that people paint, they're just so focused on like what are the exact paints you use. I'm like, why do you care, man? Just like go for a yellow. like don't You don't need to get bogged down with that stuff. like write is red You figure out one that works for you.
01:09:24
Speaker
You know, like, I don't know. I take a different approach for that because like with Malifaux, the game, I'm really lazy in, in how I want to actually paint. Like I don't want to learn the science of it all. I only just saw a color wheel for the first time, not too long ago. no shut out oh you real i i'll tell you this The color wheel is actually lying to you.
01:09:44
Speaker
Dude, I don't know what's telling me the truth. I just remember I was looking at like, I don't think tertiary color. No. And this looks baller next to this. with the the ah the If you want to go on an interesting kind of Wikipedia rabbit hole, just Google, you know, color wheel a lie. Because it actually is.
01:10:04
Speaker
Yeah. Well, like ah the primary colors are not truly the primary colors, but that's getting into some deep fucking color theory shit that we don't have time for today. I don't want to hear it. because Yeah, I'm intentionally obtuse when it comes to this stuff because I'd rather, you know, paint with the heart of the cards, color the wind, you know, that kind of thing. Like, does it look good right here, right now on this shoulder?
01:10:29
Speaker
Like, and does it look good in this face? you know Like, just play it by ear or by eyesight and you'll you'll figure out what you like and what looks good. So um we love to ah put some questions, ah you know answer questions from people on the Discord there. And we pretty much answered organically all of the questions that you know people had about gameplay over the course of it there. But um Jim, the Dice Man Dyson,
01:10:57
Speaker
friend of the show had some great questions um about the the hobby side of things here. So, assembling um assembly is notoriously difficult for Malifaux models. How do you set up your workstation to avoid losing small bits? I sometimes lose them.
01:11:16
Speaker
i I have a green little cutting mat and that's basically it. like i don't ah whenever I guess you've kind of figured out like your own techniques of like clipping them off, like keeping your finger on one side and clipping off with another. like ah I don't know, also don't do it over carpet. I learned that with my first gremlin.
01:11:35
Speaker
like just don't it's gonna get lost man i love like so many one arms gremlins in my collection you know but yeah uh you can also if you want to avoid it use blue tack like stick some blue tack on your finger put it on the piece and then cut it off and it ain't flying anywhere i've got i've got a good tip for this there when i'm uh clipping models now um I don't think they put it in all of the boxes anymore, but I know a lot of the older Malifaux boxes had that night that little sheet of foam in there. yeah I put a sheet of little sheet of foam down on my hobby desk, and I put the pieces on the foam, because then if I bump the table or something, they don't skid anywhere on the foam. That's my tip for you. yeah You can have a hermetically sealed ah hobby room. you know There's all kinds of ways you can do it.
01:12:23
Speaker
No, but like, I just don't think about it until it until I lose the piece. And then I'm just searching everywhere on the ground. Like, all right. What he also, what is the single hobby tool you find yourself never wanting to work without ever again once you try it? Dull hobby, hobby knife. Like, I always keep one sharp one and one dull one. Like, why all?
01:12:46
Speaker
Because then I use it for cleaning mold lines, cutting off extra pieces, carving stuff. ah It's like GW makes a little ah mold remover thing. I can only work that on like terrain big pieces. The dull one works best for me. yeah So like I basically have one blade that's full of tetanus probably. Like it's just it's like probably 10 years old. It's dull as hell, but it helps me carve a lot of stuff that without leaving really sharp marks.
01:13:14
Speaker
One, if you cut yourself, if you christen your models in blood, they pay but they play better on the table. Pretty much. Just get your tetanus shot and you'll be fine. Yeah, christen your model in blood. But yeah, that's that's one of my main tools I use. Like that and my clippers. Like I got some $5 Hobby Lobby clippers like years ago. Those are my two main modeling ones. um Outside of that, like a good hand drill is really useful. Like I only just got a nice, I was using a Dremel for a long time.
01:13:43
Speaker
But that's like way too much torque, like way too much. I've broken bits and I've broken models with it. So I finally got on Amazon like this cheapo one that comes with the like vice, but it's like remote like our battery operated if you want it to be and it's perfect for miniatures like that. That is a new tool where I'm like, yeah, this one I'm gonna
Tools and Techniques for Enhanced Model Craft
01:14:03
Speaker
use all the time. Like this is how you can pin stuff. I always use the the manual pin vice.
01:14:08
Speaker
I tried those. I suck with them, man. like i can't ever It takes forever for me to get the depth I need, but I have this Aeromax one. That hand drill has been a new must-have for me. so This one is something that um i always I really like here that I want to make sure I ask this because I'm of the opinion that an un-based model is an unfinished model. What is your approach to basing models?
01:14:32
Speaker
My approach is like before, I remember we had a little ah debate about this cause I used like an acrylic base once and I'm like, yeah, I'm just lazy for like my board games, but I treated it as a whole different model. Like your base is another opportunity to flex, like to show off.
01:14:50
Speaker
It's like a mini, it's like a mini die route. Yeah, it tells the story. And you saw from the Hoffman crew, I'm like, the story I wanted to tell was Malifaux is a series of ruins built on ruins. Like it's it's multiple periods of time. So I wanted old ruins.
01:15:06
Speaker
on on the bottom built on top of it. I wanted newer ruins with like rebar and stuff like that. And that tells a story, but it also gives you an opportunity to frame your model because that's another thing that people don't think of is they don't think of the model like a portrait or a picture, how you would frame your your piece on the base or against something or with a background. But with terrain elements put on your base, like ah the weird scapes or whatever, you can create essentially a 3D painting.
01:15:35
Speaker
So it's a storytelling device, you want to take time to plan that stuff out if you're trying to make something like really cool looking. So it can reinforce your story, or you can just treat it casually with like everybody else does. But to me, I'm like, that is a modeling opportunity.
01:15:51
Speaker
wasted because it's a whole new model. like Do you want it to have them in a field of swords like an old movie? you know like Do you want it to have like dead bodies around? or like and When I think of what story I want to tell, that tells me what techniques I'm going to need to learn, what new um things to try like in this case I knew I wanted to do LEDs but if you just think of LEDs you're like well then yeah you just slap some lights on and it'll work but you have to actually plan that stuff out so the story I was telling is like well in gameplay they have little pylons of electricity
01:16:26
Speaker
And these guys look like they throw around a lot of electricity. So let's make it blue lights and look like lightning orbs and stuff like that. So I always try to approach it as a storytelling device, but mostly it's like, how can I enhance the model with this? Like you still don't want it to be all about the base.
01:16:43
Speaker
Right. you You want it to enhance the other model. So it still has to fade a little in the background. But then like that can happen with does it contrast with the model's color? Like does it contrast with its mood? Like how do you do that kind of thing? and That's that's usually how I do. I've been taking a lot more opportunity on basing lately than I used to. So I've got an important question to ask here. and This is going to be a big controversial question here that I have very strong opinions on this.
01:17:14
Speaker
What are your feelings on painting the rim of the base to match the faction color? I personally hate it. Like, but everybody paints how they want to paint. Like nobody's going to tell you what to do. And I've seen it where you can do that right. I think most of the time people are just slapping paint on it without a thought. The way I see it is like, I like to make my bases, my base rims like a plinth.
01:17:40
Speaker
and they're they are the thing that separates the table from the the setting of the base. So I want a perfect little black ring,
Maximizing Painting Time
01:17:49
Speaker
right? like But like you I've painted faction colors like in the old, ah when I played War Machine, like I would paint you know your front half, your facing half or whatever. There are ways you can do that in really cool, like if you were, say an Arcanist, instead of, um like just blue, solid blue, why not make it like lightning gradient around it? Like yeah something that tells a story, you know? Something that's different, you know? that That's where I was going with it is I've seen it done well, where if someone puts some gradation to it, but if it's just a flat, like big flat red ring around the base, or big flat green ring around the base. Yeah. I feel like it detracts from the model.
01:18:37
Speaker
a little bit but you can also like if you were an airbrusher why not have it solid red around and then take some black and spray like a gradient on each half yeah yeah do some gradation to it yeah the the recommendation i'd go with it yeah like and i've also i used to do like solid green like olive i around my first malibu models and i wish i didn't do that i painted them over black oh no i i'm old school i guess like that or i guess old school would be green flock everywhere but teach their own. So actually, I guess my question is, how do you paint when you don't have time to paint? Because that's my biggest challenge I run into. Like I literally, I had maybe 30 minutes of free time a day. Yeah. No, since I was tough trying to find time, even just for my hobbies in general, like even trying to play mouth was hard for me. But yeah, I want a hobby. and And it's so hard for me to look at myself and go,
01:19:33
Speaker
to really want to bust everything out and get the water and and get my palate ready. yep And then by the time it's all ready, it's I've, you know, 15, 20 minutes is gone. Yeah. yeah So like that, it that it speaks to me with my anxiety riddled brain, because before I do anything, I think of all the things that I need to do. Right. So the thing I learned in the last few years that's really helped me is eliminate friction. Like, so if it takes you a while,
01:20:02
Speaker
to get all the things out, why not create a station that has all those things out? like All I have to do to get started on painting is get a new cup of water if I even feel like doing that. I paint with old dirty water. So like if I need an airbrush, it's like pull out the airbrush, put it on top, I'm ready to airbrush in the same station.
01:20:21
Speaker
So like right now, i even have like even though I have all my paints on a shelf, I have a rack with my most used paints. So if if like my wife wants to have hobby time together where she builds like a book nook, I can just bring it out to the living room, get a new cup of water, or paint it. And I have projects ready to go at different levels.
01:20:40
Speaker
like already sprayed of like this one I don't I'm just gonna paint for fun and I don't need to go all fancy I have another project where it's like I'm not doing non-metallic metal anywhere because I don't want to drive myself crazy painting these and then I have my fancy stuff like where I'm gonna spend like I'm planned out things and I'm gonna do three-hour sessions All of this stuff is organized and staged in different ways so that without any friction, all I have to do is get new water. And like my paper towels are right here, my brushes are right here. If I was going to stream, I'd just change my camera over here and just hit OBS. Eliminate as many friction points as you can so that when you have those spare 30 minutes, it is a full 28 minutes.
01:21:22
Speaker
like you want it to be where everything's within arms reach for you to get a project that you've been thinking about done and have all your projects lined up in various stages so that you don't have to think like you just sit down i got 30 minutes bam i feel like painting this guy You know, easier said than done, but with some planning, you can really do it. We dedicate a lot of time for all sort or sorts of other things. Your kitchen is dedicated for when you need to cook, like in that 30 minutes or so. Painting is no different. You just have to actually organize your way to have it where it's a frictionless experience and you're ready to do things. Like I have a hobby cart.
01:22:00
Speaker
like ready to roll around in any situation so that I can paint or hobby and whenever I see fit. Now granted, I got to get in the right headspace for it. That's a whole different conversation. but But if it's a time thing and you know you want to paint, make it where out of that 30 minutes, you're spending two minutes on setup and you're right in there. Lights ready to go, everything. That's fair. ah so So once we're done with this, I'll show you my paint station.
01:22:25
Speaker
Oh sorry my, I got to clear a bunch of shit off of my paint station right now. It is covered in crap right now. <unk> as a sail like his my eyes I feel it. Oh, that gives me hives. Organize. So but part of my problem is my own.
01:22:43
Speaker
um My wife uses it as like the male dumping spot. And then my daughter uses my paint pots as medicine for the cat. Oh, so she'll walk up and grab like five paint pots and go like, yeah, it's cast medicine. And so nothing is ever. I got some aside and just have it separate entirely. Exactly. Like I have, like I said, I have my station right here. This is my mobile paint station. Oh, shit. There we go.
01:23:11
Speaker
Everything I need, all ready to go. um I only ever use really two brushes and these are my most used paints. Like I actually look at them and um I change them out every once in a while of like, I haven't used this in a while. I'm going to change it out for something else I'm going to use. Like I want to use and I'll throw it in that way. It's everything I need. All I need is a bottle of water and paper towel and I'm ready to go. So if it's ah if it's different paints, like organize them into your most used and here's your medicine bottles, you know?
01:23:39
Speaker
yeah Fair enough. Now, what do you use for a paint palette? I use one of those stay wet paint and palette thingies as I got on Amazon for like 10 bucks, but I don't use the paper it comes with. I just use ah parchment. Yeah, parchment paper. It works way better. And like a hot tip for you wet palette users, so if you have enough water, I use an old card here to flatten out the wet palette so that there's no air bubbles. Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah. Because if you have air bubbles, that paint's going to dry. So I soak it in both sides, and then I flatten it out using a card. Squeegee the bubbles. Yep.
01:24:19
Speaker
No, I was going to ask some of the, that you know, being a like bottom tier painter and move into the middle tier and you you gave me some stuff, obviously took us way up into the the total top tier, but no, answered answer everything that I that i had.
Future Projects and Creative Exploration
01:24:35
Speaker
um I mean, ah honestly, this has given me some ideas for possible sitting down for, you know, future special ideas. Yeah. Yeah. No, that can be really, really fun.
01:24:47
Speaker
You'd be like, I had this whole thing here. I'm like, oh, no, I'm gonna show. Yeah, we should talk because I've been thinking of stuff too. Like I already had a few things in the works. So um gonna wrap this up with a great question. Cause you know what, Jim, the Dice Man Dice, and always asked these wonderfully delightful questions on the Discord. So you are building something for the science fair that Hoffman is judging.
01:25:15
Speaker
What do you build and why? I always build a volcano, because then my parents help it. Like, furiously, last minute, overnight, and yelling at me. And that happened twice, so third time's a charm. It's gonna, you know, you just, I just cop out on that stuff. I did i got an original once with like a mousetrap car, but ever since, like, it's almost always a volcano.
01:25:42
Speaker
All right, so before we go, do you have any plugs or parting thoughts? I do have a plug or two. I just started up my YouTube not too long ago. it's ah you You can find me under subparninja, all one word. And my Instagram is also subparninja underscore hobbies, because I think I had the original one and forgot the password.
01:26:04
Speaker
so But yeah, like I've been ah making some painting videos. So if you enjoyed ah this discussion about the Hoffman crew, the next video is actually going to be about how I installed those LEDs and possibly some paint jobs after that. But yeah, I've been having fun making that stuff. If you want to get more in-depth and have a little bit of fun with your painting videos, just ah give it a visit.
01:26:26
Speaker
The um those links are going to be in the show notes. And ah honest next time you are releasing a video, make sure that you drop a link in our community content channel there, because that'll get more eyeballs on that. Yeah, for sure. Because honestly, I'm like, oh, yeah, I forget to check out my friend's things until they post something in the content stuff there. I'm like, ooh, I want to.
01:26:56
Speaker
Damn it, Ryan, I want to see your content. I keep forgetting, too, man. I'm new to this whole thing. Yeah, posted to the Discord. yeah Yeah, I'm new to the whole world of social media. The last time I paid attention to it, my space was still around. So I'm a Zenga guy. So yeah, I'm that old school. But yeah, I'd have I'd really appreciate it. Folks, stop by and see if they like it. Yeah.
01:27:18
Speaker
It's great stuff. And we got links to the pictures of it there. I've got one quick
Lone Star Fodown Announcement and Closing Remarks
01:27:23
Speaker
plug. um I announced it last, ah you know, episode, and I'm going to, you know, be banging this drum from now until, you know, next October. But we have officially announced the dates for the Lone Star Fodown 2025.
01:27:38
Speaker
ah October 24th through the 26th, 2025. Instead of being early October like it was the past three years, it's going to be late October as per the request of a handful of people. and I think it'll work out really great. Mark your calendars now. Details are going to be coming soon.
01:27:59
Speaker
um I'm fairly certain that everyone who's here in you know the podcast now will probably be there. you You're all some of my favorite people. Come see if you can take my hat. Or you know come see if you can dethrone Mr. Back to Back Best Painted. Yeah, actually it was three.
01:28:23
Speaker
It was Tara, Thierry, then Hoffman. I couldn't remember if the first year, if if you got first or second on that one. I didn't want to point it out and be like, wow.
01:28:34
Speaker
Well, actually, actually, I didn't do my research. and I can't remember if you just first or second there. I know that you got, you know, with your theory. And then, you yeah, this year, I couldn't remember if Tara got you first or second. It was those face faces. Yeah. Right. Right. But the the guy who came in second, this oh his stuff was awesome was really, really good. Yeah. And I could not for the life of me remember which way it ended up because it was a a close one. Yeah. No, that's fine.
01:29:03
Speaker
But yeah, so thank you for coming on, Ryan. It is a pleasure to have you. Always a pleasure. So awesome. Awesome to speak to you guys. Students of Conflict is brought to you by Top Doug Design. Check out topdugdesign.com for all of your Malifotrain needs. Top Doug Design, 3D printable designs to enhance your tabletop. Students of Conflict is not an official product of Rude Miniatures LLC. All intellectual property belonging to weird miniatures is used with permission. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of entities they represent. Any content provided by our guests and or hosts are their opinion and not intended to align any group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything. Whoo!
01:30:10
Speaker
It takes forever for me to get the deaths I need. That's what she said! Sex joke.