Agnelcow

If there continue to be regular errata releases, will the Dead Man's Hand masters be included balance considerations or do we expect them to be ignored?

It's not "all applicable" but "as many as you can afford". You basically spend suits and margin on triggers, instead of picking one that you match

I'm getting two: one to hire, one to summon. Doubt they'll stay on the table long enough to justify more than that, though 3 does give enough for your full karkinoi unit to summon

What are the odds we'll see changes to the unit names? Not counting Commanders, we have 10 units available. Of those 10, 3 have "crawler" in the name and 3 are "[noun]ed [verb]ers" (plus a fourth "[noun]ed [noun]"), including two different "[noun]ed Crawlers". Far from the end of the world, of course, but I'd rather see more "Yarazi" and "Karkinoi" style names.

For Abyssinia, I'd go for Electrocutioners. For GH, I'd take Yarazi, though I'd go for Armored Whelks of they weren't already added on.

I'm going all-in on Gibbering Hordes. I like the quantity-over-quality approach, the eat-your-own glory mechanic, and the fact that buying into the swarming faction doesn't seem to be a more expensive option than others. The prospect of buying box after box of Tyranid models is what kept me out of 40k, and the resummon mechanic GH looks like it covers the same ground thematically without the budget hit. Especially looking forward to the Karkinoi and The Frenzy, model-wise, and Horomatangi too. Honestly, the fact that they bend expectations with non-champion commanders is another plus. The Cult looks really interesting, but I find their aesthetic too off-putting to get and paint; same thing that kept me away from Jack Daw in M2E.

Order 9541, from last Wednesday night, is on its way. All told, I should be getting this order about a week sooner than my last GenCon or Black Friday one. Don't know what Wyrd's done on the logistics side of things, but that's a huge improvement!

Rezzers!

I mean, I'm in the 2 day delivery zone from wyrd's warehouse for Ground shipments and placed my order just after the store opened, so if they manage to pick and pack my order by next Thursday it's possible to see it by Saturday. Not likely of course, but a man can dream. I don't really expect to see anything for at least two weeks though, and last year my order took a month.

I was #19233; I also only had one delivery option, which was FedEx Home Delivery. Fingers crossed on seeing the package late next week, though I doubt that'll happen.

Whew! That's the earliest I've ever gotten my order in. Now the wait begins!

Without getting into the other points raised, let's look at this spell. Elemental Engulf: TN 5t, rg 5, Dg 1/2/3 + Blast TN 7t, rg 5, Dg 1/2/3b + Blast TN 9t, rg 5, Dg 1/2b/3b + Blast TN 11t rg 5, Dg 1/2b/3bb + Increased Damage TN 13t, rg 5, Dg 2/3b/4bb + Increased Damage TN 15t, rg 5, Dg 3/4b/5bb + Alter Range TN 17t, rg 10, Dg 3/4b/5bb + Ice TN 20t, rg 10, Dg 3/4b/5bb, slows + Ice TN 23t, rg 10, Dg 3/4b/5bb, paralyzes Even if a character starts with 3 Tenacity and 5 Sorcery, they are incapable of ever casting this spell. The spells requires 4 Immuto, meaning they must have 2 Grimoires (including one designed and assembled by the Fatemaster) and the Mastered Immuto Talent (a minimum of 3 Pursuit steps), but their stats still won't be high enough to cast this. If they try to lower the TN with more Immuto, they need to take Mastered Immuto again (a minimum of 6 total Pursuit steps). If they fulfill two steps of their fate and use both Aspect increases to boost their Tenacity, two cards can cast this spell. If they increase their aspects and also specialize in Sorcery to add a tome to their totals, 5 cards can cast this spell. So the spell requires 3-6 pursuit steps, two confrontations with fate, and direct assistance from the FM to function, and even then the spell is cast by ~9% of the cards in the deck. Still doable, especially since you can lower the TN by removing unnecessary Immuto, but not really something that happens "all the time". Unless you circumvent that with Hedge Magic. The real problem with this spell seems to be that you can add two Ice Immuto for free, essentially knocking down the TN by six and removing the need for a talent and second grimoire. The three restraints on magic built into the system— TN, need for advancement, and Fatemaster intervention— are all bypassed with Hedge Magic's Magical Talent. A free Immuto is about on par with the bonus from other Magical Theories (which all come out roughly equal to a Talent), but the ability to ignore TN increases is not functionally mitigated by the need to only use spells with that Immuto since this kind of mage is focused on damage instead of utility anyway. Maybe if the talent allowed you to ignore the first TN increase from applying the Immuto it'd be less insane, but as is it's clearly out of line with other abilities. Despite generally being a very permissive GM, until this ability is given an errata, I'd have no problem either banning it or else striking the text about ignoring increases in TN.

Generally, newly released models hit the LGS in the last week of their release month. A few weeks after that, they show up in Wyrd's online store so that physical stores have a chance to sell first. If you're looking to buy online ASAP though, WarStore (and others, most likely) usually offers preorders.

From pg. 30 of the large rulebook: "The model flips one card (plus any additional cards for Fate Modifiers) then chooses one flipped card as the active card and discards the others[...] Add the current card to the required stat (both value and suit). This is the model's current duel total." So a Duel Total is the sum of the card chosen in a flip and the stat to which is flip is linked, including the suits of the chosen flipped (or cheated) card and (if applicable) the stat. So a model with Critical Strike that has a in its stat and which flips (or cheats) a card that is used in the duel can add +2 damage to the damage profile since it has :ram in its duel total.

I'm liking the Lucius art, and I'm always up for weird card games, but the digital aspect doesn't really appeal to me. I'll likely be holding out until the last minute to see what (if anything) I can put toward the Kickstarter.

Wow, I was totally overlooking Amalgamation. Ezyryder is correct, that rule alone should prevent these kinds of shenanigans.

My only addendum to the above post would be to point out that in M2E, the (claw) signifies "Close" rather than "Melee" and the (gun) is "Projectile" rather than "Ranged"; that way, you know that (for instance) Toshiro's Bloated Stench ability triggers off of all Close (claw) attacks rather than all Melee (Ml) attacks. The two terms were pretty synonymous last edition, but that was changed in M2E to allow some Ca abilities to work for disengaging strikes. But Masterdisaster's main point stands: so long as the Ca action isn't a Projectile attack, it can be used in an engagement.

From what I can tell, you are half correct. Oath Keeper only triggers on death, not sacrifice, so the A&D's controller will get a scheme marker when the model is killed but not when it is summoned as the Initiate Reformation specifies that the Ashen Core is sacrificed. As an added bonus, the Core's controller wouldn't get a scheme marker from reforming even if the ability said "Kill this model" because the upgrade changes hands before it would be killed; this isn't true of the A&D's Desolate Core ability because the ability is triggered by the same event that causes a scheme marker to drop and, as the order of the resolution can affect the outcome, the model's controller chooses the order in which the abilities resolve (p. 35 of the big rulebook is referencing the End Phase specifically, but this seems to apply across phases).

Gaming, far and away. I'm a terrible painter, and have been bribing friends to take care of the hobby stuff so that I can play.

I might do some of the folk song-type stuff, but that's about the limit of my expertise. Love to listen to it, though!

Nicodem! I needed a mini to be my character in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign, a figure known as Lich Emperor Lincoln. the top hat and vulture were perfect, as was the general gothic-Victorian vibe. The card that came with it intrigued me, so I went back to the game store the next week and took a look at the rulebook. Three years later, I have around 300 models, three Malifaux decks, and 7 rulebooks (including two copies of the Rules Manual). Only had one more session of the M&M campaign before it fell apart, though. Oh well.

I'm liking Guild in M2E personally, although they're a new faction for me as I was strictly Resser/Outcast in 1.5. Between the beta and the rulebook, Death Marshals got a bump in Df up to 5, so that should help them weather the storm a bit. Honestly, my favorite thing to do with the basic Lady Justice crew is to switch McMourning in for Justice. Since the Death Marshals have Finish the Job, you can safely tie up enemy models in melee without sacrificing too much scheme scoring, and between McMourning's and Judge's upgrades, you can get in up to 4 extra attacks, 3 Interacts, one push, and an extra scheme marker from whichever models are most needed. That kind of flexibility keeps opponents on their toes, which is always good.

Behold Burl Oakfist, Dwarf Monk! And he's even from Reaper! http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/burl%20oakfist/sku-down/03044 I just used their Figure Finder, searching for any gender, dwarf, holding "hands". Hit submit, and that came up.

Ah, I should clarify. My shipment is technically classified as Ground rather than Home Delivery, since I'll be picking it up at a FedEx Office. Ground is Monday-Friday, while Home is Tuesday-Saturday. For most people, the "Ground" option on webstores will actually spit out a Home Delivery order since it's going to a residence, but the two are theoretically different services. It's a little quirk of the system, but that's how it comes out. Believe me, as someone who used to manage a large FedEx account for a client, it only gets more complicated from there.

It really depends on when you ordered and where it's going to. My order was in on Wednesday and it arrived in MA early this morning, which means I'll get it on Monday since FedEx Ground doesn't deliver on weekends; that's about a month before anything hits stores, and multiple months before some of the product (eg, the Rasputina and Viktoria boxes) gets into stores at all.