A few years ago, I developed an interest in a skirmish wargame called Malifaux. For those who are unaware of it, Malifaux is a steampunk world set in another dimension where magic is very, very real, and the human settlers face daily battles with the monstrous local fauna, native demons called Neverborn, and, of course, rogue humans. Access to artefacts known as soulstones can grant certain very special individuals magical powers, a fact which has caused no end of trouble for the settlers and natives alike.
One of those individuals is a ruffian who goes by the name of Seamus. Seamus is a loathsome character, and a serial killer to boot, who lurks in the dark alleyways of Malifaux with his leprechaun-like sidekick the Copycat Killer. The power which the soulstones have granted him is that of necromancy: he is now able to raise the corpses of those whom he murders. One of Seamus’s most infamous acts was to enter a brothel one evening and slaughter the Madame and all of her girls, before bringing them back to serve him in death.
It’s a pretty twisted story, sure, but there was something about the idea of dead hookers, which Seamus refers to as his “Belles,” luring unsuspecting citizens to their deaths at the hands of their psychopathic master that sort of appealed to me, in the same way as a bad horror film. Unfortunately, there is only Madame Sybelle and three of these sinister sirens in Seamus’s starter box and, although Wyrd produce their miniatures in a kit form, they’re almost always only buildable in a single pose. Not really wanting to have a crew which consisted of duplicate models, it was time to look further into things.
A snoop around both Wyrd Games’ website and the Malifaux Tactics wiki (long since closed down, unfortunately) turned up just what I was looking for in the form of the Dead Doxies. Although these figures boast different rules on the tabletop, and are slightly more expensive to field as a result, the aesthetic was exactly what I was looking for, so after placing an order I now had a thematic crew of Seamus, his diminutive sidekick, and six of his lovely ladies!
Not everything went quite according to plan, however and as you can see, the Doxies still haven’t actually made it onto the gaming table. Soon … soon.
This small box came with two Dead Doxies (my favourite is the one tipping her top hat- it really fits with Seamus’s own headgear) with their bases and stat cards, but there were no additional upgrade cards.
