#ToMB - Out of tune

I managed my first ToMB game with with Kaeris, a narrow 6-5 victory against VASSAL newcomer JRoss' Seamus crew. The game itself was fairly standard, I did find Kaeris plays a little differently to the way I was expecting though. I'll share more cogent thoughts after my second game with her.

What I wanted to quickly touch on was playing with an un-tuned list. My normal 40ss Ramos list will draw on beasts, mercenaries and the contents of four different purchased items in order to fill out the 40ss of the crew. Where as my current Kaeris list draws from only two purchases, the box set and a Soulstone Miner;

Kaeris -- 7 Pool
 +Blinding Flame [1]
 +Born of Fire [2]
 +Purifying Flame [1]

Fire Gamin [4]
Fire Gamin [4]
Fire Gamin [4]

Gunsmith [7]
Gunsmith [7] 

Soulstone Miner [6]

This forces my Fire Gamin to cover a lot of bases. They need to run objectives and prop up my Gunsmiths in the damage dealing department.  The ability to truly tune a list is one of the primary advantages you gain as your Malifaux collection grows.  You'll see very few top crews with more than one type of model duplicated in their list. Even then it's rare to see three of anything deployed at the start of the game.

I think this is largely because it's important to have breadth of options in game. Having two of a model means you're not taking something which gives you more options 'in play', it just gives you the same options twice.

While he who has the most models wont always win choice is definitely an advantage in this game.

That being said a smaller collection does force you to learn to get the most out of each of your models. So you should be able to use them a little more effectively than someone who plays from a much wider base of models.

I'm looking forward to some more play time with Kaeris and sharing my thoughts. Meanwhile however I'm getting the final prep and painting done ahead of the mighty SmogCon this weekend.