The Wayfinder, Guiding the Patricians’ Privateers

6th June 2026

The Mojo

It’s been another busy week for this week’s Weekly Waffle. I’ve messed up a bit and didn’t update the post properly but I got their in the end. Switching things up has been a challenge but I’ve enjoyed the change so I hope you enjoy the update.

On The Work Bench

Welcome back to the workbench, folks. Grab a brew, sit back, and let’s talk about a model that trades the elaborate silks and feathers of the standard Patrician nobility for something far more practical, namely, a very solid map, a telescope, and the uncanny ability to make sure your gang’s shooting phase absolutely tears the opposition to shreds.

My switch to the Patricians and meant a change in painting style and it’s been a struggle on that front. I have had an idea in my head, based on the box art, for this guy. But nothing has seemed to turn out how I wanted it to. I’ve been fighting the colours all week. I can’t really put my finger on just what it is but it’s been a struggle. Nothing has seemed to work how I hoped or expected it to. Which in turn has made things a little bit on the frustrating side.

I’m not going to give up on this crew and I will work out what isn’t working but it may take me a little bit of time because I have no idea why I can’t seem to get my act together with this crew.

Because I’ve struggled so much I’m not even going to try and explain how I painted him because I really don’t know how I got to this stage. There are a lot of things that art just want I wanted but I am happy enough with it to field it on the table top in a game. Or I will be once I get the rest of the crew finished.

But until then what do you think of him.

Miniature fantasy explorer figure wearing a blue coat with yellow trim, red pants, and boots, holding a small telescope and standing on a textured cobblestone base.

Painted fantasy mini figure: a man in a blue coat with yellow trim, white cravat, and brown boots, looking through a brass telescope on a cobblestone base.

Miniature explorer in a blue coat with a telescope to the eye, carrying rolled parchments, standing on a cobblestone base.

Miniature figure in a blue coat holding rolled scrolls, standing on a cobblestone base, facing left against a dark background.

Back view of a miniature figure in a blue cloak holding rolled parchments, standing on a cobblestone base.

Miniature explorer in a blue coat holds a telescope to his eye, with rolled maps tucked under his arm, standing on a cobblestone base.

Figurine of a person in a blue coat peering through a telescope, with a bundle of wood on their back, standing on a cobblestone base.

Miniature male explorer figure in a blue coat with yellow trim, standing on a cobblestone base, shouting with hands near his mouth and a rolled map under his arm.

Miniature pirate captain in a blue coat with yellow trim, holding a telescope to his eye, standing on a textured circular base.

Tactical deep dive

There’s a very distinct shift in tone that happens when you move away from the glittering, blood soaked masquerade balls of Venice’s upper crust and step onto the salt stained, damp wooden docks of the Arsenale. If you’ve spent any time reading my deep dives, you’ll know I have a massive soft spot for the absolute madness of Carnevale. It’s a game where you can push a psychopathic doctor off a three story roof, watch him land face first into a gondola, and call it a solid Tuesday afternoon. But while the main Patricians faction is usually defined by bored, wealthy aristocrats treating mindless violence like a high society hobby, there’s a sub-faction that brings a bit of rugged, mercenary professionalism to the tabletop. We are talking about the Venetian Privateers, and today is entirely dedicated to the unsung tactical genius behind their seafaring success of the Wayfinder.

Back from Far-Off Lands: The Lore of the Wayfinder

To understand where the Wayfinder fits into the grand, eldritch madness of La Serenissima, you have to understand the story of the Venetian Privateers box set. While the rest of the city’s nobles were busy wasting their family fortunes on increasingly grotesque party masks and hiring household staff to act as personal meat-shields, a few aristocratic families looked out at the wider world after the Rent in the Sky opened and saw an opportunity. They didn’t want to just sit around waiting for otherworldly horrors to crawl out of the canals; they wanted to go out, explore the changed world, crack open some foreign coffers, and bring back wealth from far-off lands like Constantinople.

When these fleets sailed back into Venice under the command of a Noble Admiral, they didn’t just bring back plundered gold and chainmail-clad Ottoman mercenaries; they brought back the specialised crew members who kept those ships afloat during the voyage. That is exactly where the Wayfinder comes in.

In the official background lore, the Wayfinder isn’t a frontline brawler who lives for the thrill of the duel, nor is he a pampered noble who faints at the sight of manual labor. He is the professional navigator. He is the fellow who stared into the baleful, glowing vortex of the Rent in the Sky from the deck of a rolling ship, mapped out the shifting magical tides, and successfully guided his crew back through the treacherous waters to the safety of Venice. While a typical Patrician noble relies on blind arrogance and an expensive sword to get through a confrontation, the Wayfinder relies on cold, calculated geometry, planning, and an intimate knowledge of how to exploit a line of sight.

On the streets and canal-ways of Venice, this operational background makes them incredibly distinct. They look at the city not as a grand playground for a masquerade, but as a complex grid of fire lanes, high-ground positions, and tactical bottlenecks. They are the analytical backbone of the Privateers gang, acting as the right-hand coordinator to the Noble Admiral. If the Admiral is the loud, bombastic presence giving the orders and swinging the blade, the Wayfinder is the quiet professional standing right behind him, murmuring advice on exactly where the enemy is weakest and how to line up the perfect shot.

Charting the Course: The Wayfinder on the Tabletop

Right then, let’s put down the lore books and talk about what happens when you actually plonk this resin miniature down on the cobblestone tiles. If you’re a player who loves a straightforward “run forward and bash them over the head” play style, the Wayfinder might require you to shift gears a little bit. He is not a one-man wrecking ball, and if you leave him completely isolated on a bridge against a Capo or a raging monster from the Rashaar, he is going to have a very bad day. But if you play him the way he was designed to be played—as a supreme tactical enabler—he will completely transform how your gang controls the board.

In the rules for the Patricians, the Wayfinder fills a vital support role within the gang. His entire design philosophy centres around two main concepts: meticulous planning and providing peerless shooting advice to the rest of your crew.

When you look at his profile, his utility becomes instantly apparent. He acts as a force multiplier for a faction that traditionally leans heavily on melee excellence. The Venetian Privateers box features a heavy reliance on ranged combat, bringing in Ottoman Archers to rain arrows across the canals. In a game like Carnevale, where the terrain is incredibly dense, vertical, and packed with line-of-sight blockers, running a ranged-heavy strategy can be a massive headache. You constantly find yourself struggling to get clean shots around the corners of buildings, bridges, and ruined walls.

This is exactly the problem the Wayfinder is on the table to solve. He acts as the eyes of the gang. Through his unique abilities, he can effectively call out targets, calculate trajectories, and assist his allies in bypassing the defensive benefits of cover. When he is positioned correctly, your Ottoman Archers go from being a minor nuisance to an absolute firing squad, picking off key enemy henchmen before they can even get close enough to leap across a canal.

The Art of the Setup: Universal Utility

What makes the Wayfinder such a joy to pilot is the sheer flexibility he offers to a Patrician coach. He bridges the gap between the high-mobility movement of the game and the static nature of traditional ranged play. Because Carnevale is fundamentally a three-dimensional game where swimming, climbing, and jumping off balconies are core mechanics, a support piece needs to be able to keep up. The Wayfinder isn’t a slouch; he knows how to move through a shipwreck or navigate a crumbling pier just as well as any sailor.

The ideal game plan for the Wayfinder is all about establishing a “nest.” You want to find a nice, elevated position, perhaps the balcony of a modular cardboard building or the top of a stone archway, where he has a commanding view of the battlefield. From there, he can spend his activations directing traffic. He points his telescope at a high-value enemy target, gives the mental “green light” to his shooters, and watches the arrows fly with devastating precision.

But it’s not all passive buffing. The Wayfinder is fully capable of holding his own in a tactical skirmish. He possesses the grit of a man who has spent months at sea dealing with pirates, storms, and sea monsters. While he shouldn’t be your primary attacker, his ability to manipulate positioning and help plan the gang’s activations means he can frequently orchestrate situations where your opponent is forced to overcommit. Once they slip up and step into an exposed fire lane trying to hunt him down, your Noble Admiral or your Ottoman Pirates can swoop in to clean up the mess.

The Verdict: Essential Asset or Premium Luxury?

As always, let’s look at this through our signature lens of a regular kid who just likes playing with toy soldiers. Does the Wayfinder survive the reality of a busy, competitive gaming schedule, or is he just a pretty model that sits on the shelf?

If you are running a standard, old-school Patricians list built around Barons, Heroes, and Royal Guards, the Wayfinder might feel a little out of place because those lists want to close the distance and engage in bloody aristocratic duels as quickly as possible. But if you are leaning into the Privateers theme, or if you simply want to try a list that controls the board through superior positioning, shooting, and tactical wit, he is an absolute must-have. He changes the way the game feels, shifting the focus from a chaotic street brawl into a tense, calculated ambush.

The model itself is a fantastic piece of resin engineering from the team at TTCombat. He looks exactly like what he is: a grizzled, clever ship’s officer who is far more interested in his maps and his instruments than the vanity of the Venetian court. Painting him is a brilliant opportunity to contrast the clean, sharp uniform of a naval officer with the weathered, salt-worn textures of a man who lives on the waves.

My final thought on the Wayfinder is that he represents the very best of what sub-factions can bring to a skirmish game. He takes an existing army archetype and flips it on its head, giving you a completely fresh tactical puzzle to solve on a Friday night at the club. He won’t win a game by tearing through five enemies by himself, but he will ensure that the rest of your boys are always in the right place, at the right time, with the right targets in their sights.

What’s your take on the Privateers? Are you a fan of the Wayfinder’s calculated approach to the canals, or do you prefer your Patricians to be a bit more traditional, loud, and covered in velvet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, and if there’s another obscure Carnevale character you want me to put under the microscope, drop a suggestion and I’ll see what I can bring to life on the workbench! Keep your powder dry and watch the tides!

The Wrap Up

That’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope you have enjoyed the change in style and there is more of this to come over the coming week. I will be mixing it up a bit with some D&D style minis that have just landed just to mix things up a bit. Until next week I hope you all keep safe and that your hobby projects are all a success.

Red Rose Wargaming

Trapped Under Plastic

Tabletop Dominion