Divergent Paths – divergent factions

For the last couple of Divergent Paths games, I’ve broken my usual modus operandi and played Outcasts rather than Arcanists. The main reasoning behind this is that it’s been a little surprising to see the same few factions (Neverborn, Resurrectionists and Arcanists) winning many of the weeks, and I decided – admittedly rather late – that I wanted to do my bit to try and help one of the other factions. Of the other factions I have, Resurrectionists are definitely out and Guild don’t really grab my interest, so that just leaves Outcasts. I’ve always liked Tara in the backstory, and originally picked up her Nightmare box as soon as she was available. Never did get around to playing her, though, so this seemed like the perfect time to rectify that.

I ran Tara in both the Trickster and the Inquisitive Child’s games this week, managing to win both of them against Pandora and Wong respectively. I rather enjoyed playing her – her time-manipulating abilities are great fun, and the challenge of using Temporal Shift to benefit as many friendly models as possible while affecting as few enemy models as possible is rather neat. I particularly liked using her with an offensive approach to the Bury mechanic, running three Death Marshals in both games to try and cram enemy models into their Pine Boxes where they can then be attacked by Void Wretches, or have their actions copied by Tara. I never did manage to find the points for Karina, so I’m yet to experience her. The summoning upgrade looks very interesting, though the high target number and suits could be problematic given her status as an Enforcer. Now, if I were to use her in a Shifting Loyalties campaign where she could benefit from Change Of Station to become a Henchman…

In terms of Tara’s crew, I’ve been enjoying her thematic mix of Void Wretches, the Nothing Beast and Death Marshals. The Pure Nothingness ability is rather neat, and it feels like running Tara is almost the opposite of my usual masters – while Colette, Sandeep and Marcus like to have cards in their hands for actions and / or triggers, Tara’s crew are the exact opposite. Df 8 on a 4ss minion is pretty awesome, even if it does mean having no cards in your hand!

Divergent Paths has finished now (after all that the Outcasts won the Child!), so Tara is being shelved once again as I return to my favourite faction (oh Colette, never leave me again!). Still, I’ve got a little modelling project in mind for her, and will make sure to break her out again at the start of the next worldwide event – whenever that is!

Take care,

Ben

Malifaux: Painting Bishop

Latest off my painting table is the mercenary Bishop. Originally a skilled pit fighter who turned gun-for-hire, he’s an incredibly potent melee beatstick with some versatile (and easily-accessible) triggers on his attack.

I opted for a failry muted colour scheme, offset by denim jeans and shining metal. I worked the metal up through a few coats, starting with Games Workshop’s Warplock Bronze and working up through Boltgun Metal to progressively lighter colours. The jeans were painted with a base of P3’s Cygnar Blue Base, highlighted and then alterately drybrushed and stippled with an old Space Wolves Grey mixed with white.

To me, the model has always had a bit of a biker-slash-rocker look going on with his long hair, sleeveless jacket and chains. I reckon Bishop’s quite into his rock music when he’s not working, so for a bit of fun (and since I’m a big fan of this band myself), I painted the Iron Maiden logo on the back of his jacket. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, given that freehand is not my forte and I usually avoid it like the devil. It also adds a nice bit of colour and contrast to the model, so despite the slight timeline inconsistency I’m pleased with it.

I just need to use him in-game some time now – Lazarus and Johan(na) aside I don’t tend to use mercenaries usually. I did try Sue for the first time recently, though, and he was such fun to use!

Or, in my case, ‘Mercenaries – we don’t need that scum!’ I’ll have to make more of an effort this year to actually use mercenaries in my crews. Poor Hans – I’ve had him built and painted for over a year now, yet he’s never seen the tabletop once…

Take care,

Ben