WalterL

Ramos. Ramos is best master.

I feel the Dawn Serpent is better than the Rattler in many ways. Self healing, spits fire, etc. The idea wasn't necessarily poison synergy (like, don't base list around 6 point model), just a general fighting beast list that let Markus do his thing. Waldgeists are sturdy, canine remains spread Beast around, Rogue Necromancy and Dawn Serpent beat faces.

Yeah, I think it ought to. Modifiers to damage tracks carry over to all uses of them.

It did alright for a six stone model. Turn 1: Walked forward twice, crept sideways into a cool cover situation. Turn 2: Waited till the canine remains were stuck in, charged in alongside them. Did decent damage to an enemy Steamborg. Slowed 3 enemy poisoned models. Turn 3: Enemy Joss beat it to death.

Always remember ice gamin gives her +1 to damage with its 0 action. She isn't always about trying to cheat for lots of high damage. You can just accept that you'll be doing min and focus on the cast another time trigger and spam low def models into the ground, 3 damage at a time. If rasputina activates and doesn't kill something, either you are doing pillars/paralyze shenanigans, she's engaged, or you are up against a very odd crew. She is lethal from 22 inches vs almost anyone.

Tried out: Marcus Rogue Necromancy Dawn Serpent Canine Remains x2 Waldgeist x2 Scorpius last night. Worked like a charm. I should use out of faction beasts more often.

In my first campaign game a Wicked Doll I'd killed turned traitor and hopped into my arsenal. So now I've got one of those. I'll probably run it a time or two, just to see how it works.

Putting the -4 cast aura on the enemy army seems pretty great. It works even on casts with the claw symbol, right? So the Hungering Darkness would only have a melee range of 1, yeah?

Feels like mech rider is almost mandatory in a campaign.

eh, she's a Lure-er, right? Just in reverse? Shouldn't 2 counter magics on the important folks shut her down?

Alright, so, if y'all are anything like me when you see a new set of models you wonder whether they could be a whole crew (see, Horsemen). Because Wyrd is awesome, the rules explicitly support this for the Crossroads Seven. The full set of X7 along with Wrath's 0 cost upgrade can be played by any faction. So, everyone has a new choice, which is great. This post is for talking about that crew, the full band working together. Crew Composition and its effects on Schemes/Strategies: So, first off, every X7 model is an 8 point enforcer (other than Wrath, who is a Leader). This means that the crew contains no minions for Make Them Suffer, and any model is the "Most Expensive Model" for Murder Protege. Further, the only Henchman/Master is Wrath, consequently Entourage has to target him (which is rough, since the fact that he's just an 8 point dude outside of this crew means that he doesn't have the defensive nonsense that a lot of Masters have), and the enemy won't have a super tough time getting Assassinate off (once again because he's an 8 pointer with Swift, rather than a full blooded Master) Next up, its hard to ignore the fact that nobody in the band is the kind of expendable that summoned 4 pointers are. Everyone is 8 points, and there is no summoning. Further, the Band has a lot of auras, so it likes to hang out together. No one is supremely more mobile than anyone else. All of this kind of works together to suggest that the X7 should be chosen when the schemes and strats require them to hang around together in a big clump, and not so much when the mission requires everyone to split up and move fast. If I had to pick a perfect draw for them it'd be the strat that requires 2 models in the center alongside Protect Territory and Bodyguard. Headhunting is also pretty easy for the band (everyone standing around together means there's always someone to go fetch head tokens), Basically the Band wants to walk a couple of times and rock out. Let's talk about each band member in turn: Greed is kind of the prototypical X7 model. She's manipulative, she's got an aura that punishes the enemy for ending within 3". She has a CA action that harms the enemy a lot which she can only do once per turn, and she has a defensive trigger. Sloth is very strange as far as the X7 go. He has extra HP, he isn't manipulative, his aura punishes activating near him, not ending activation near him. His defensive trigger is the best of the lot. Envy is atypical of the X7. He is manipulative, but has no 1 per turn cast action, instead having a 0 that gives out focused and a sweet gatling gun. He doesn't have an aura himself, but can give it to an enemy by shooting them and hitting a trigger. He also has armor 1, which is great. Wrath is the X7's melee fighter, and he's medium at it. He's terrifying rather than manipulative and doesn't have a cast, instead having 2 claws and a pair of 0 actions. His punches regenerate him and he has the usual aura. His extra Master AP and his King of the Crossroads ability give the band incredibly mobility when they need it. Pride is a typical X7 member through and through, he and greed are very similar. Gluttony can do his cast action twice per round, and has 2 extra hp, but isn't manipulative. He has the usual aura. Lust has a huge aura compared to the rest, and can do her cast action twice. She has a surprisingly high damage on her melee attack. So we've got this large crew of fragile enforcers with weak attacks. How does it all work? Before I played them I thought Wyrd had lost their minds, and that this crew would be dreadful, but its actually really interesting how it all works out. Essentially the crews is all about destroying the enemy models on their own activations, and obliterating the enemy's hand which leaves them unable to work through the manipulative. Typical Turn for the X7: Pride, Greed and Lust are all manipulative, so we want them to go later. Envy is also manipulative, but he's very long range and gives out focused, so I like to use him early on. Wrath is our pusher, and terrifying never stops working, so he can go early. Gluttony doesn't particularly care, but getting his condition out early on schemers is the only way for him to be more than just a body. Sloth punishes activating not ending activation, so you want him to go early. He's something of a missile. Throw him among the enemy and cost them most of a turn. Something like: Sloth -> Envy -> Wrath -> Glutton -> Rest? Basically once you've got 2 or 3 of the 7 in a place it becomes a nightmare for the foe to put anyone there. If they have 2 dudes in a set of 3 performers they are sacking 6 (which is, you know, their whole hand) or taking 12 damage, and that isn't even considering that they may want to USE some of these cards. In a real game its not surprising to have 4-5 engaged with 1-3 X7 each, which is just misery for the enemy. Things the X7 hate: Armor (even 1 cuts in half their aura punishment) Ranged attacks (models which stay far away avoid the aura fun) Blasts (X7 naturally hang out near one another to overlap their auras) Very interesting crew. I bet they are going to show up in a lot of tourney games, since they work for every faction. My games with them used Arcanist X7 for the 2 imbued energies.

Joss is the boss. Go Joss.

Marcus has a lot of benefit from the Arcane Emissary. It makes beasts (and it) within 4" immune to defensive triggers on attack actions, in addition to being the awesome model it always is. In particular this helps a lot with assassination (lots of masters rely on defensive triggers), and lets us butcher Horsemen, whose defensive trigger normally defends them really well.

Arcanist Emissary: I like to think that some equivalent to the following conversation happened at Wyrd: A: "What perfectly encapsulates the Arcanist faction? What could their emissary be?" B: "Hmm, perhaps a set of essences shifting into one another perpetually-" A: "Got it, Murderbull." B: "Yeah that works." Murderbull is just great. Mobility: Low walk, nonsense charge average out to get him into the battle on turn 2 or 3, like most fighting models. Nothing special. Defense: He's got a first rate defensive profile at 6/6, and with armor and HP equal to his cost I don't think anyone is going to be complaining that he's not sufficiently resilient (Arcanist standard is about 1 HP/ cost with armor 1, but we usually don't get 6/6). Offense: He's a pretty good beat stick. He's got a medium attack with a lot of triggers and a brutal hit that has to be part of a charge, alongside a 0 that damages the enemy for 2 and ignores Hard to Kill, and has the potential to steal their characteristics (Visual: Murderbull grabs Vik and screams "You are not a Sister, you are adopted and that's terrible!"). Utility: Murderbull can discard a card to pick one of your other (non Master) models to take an action when he's done. This is straight up calvinball. AP is what Malifaux is about, and a free floating one is insanity. NOTE, this isn't his 0 action, this is just a thing that he does by discarding a card. Emissary power: He gathers destined when you get strat points, like all emissaries, and by spending his 0 and 2 of his destined he can draw 3 cards. Its hard to hate on a model for once or twice a game having 0: Draw 3 cards as an ability. BUT WAIT THERE"S MORE!!! He also gets an upgrade (free) for each master. Broadly speaking they each give him a new 0 that tends to fix his only defect (his innate 0 isn't use at range and his walk is slow, so the 0 from his upgrades tend to move him). My favorite two of these are Ironsides, who gets adrenaline for being near him and Marcus, whose Murderbull ignores defensive triggers and makes all Beasts within 4 ignore them as well. None of them are bad though. Verdict: He's worth his cost in any list. He might be worth more than his cost. I think we got the best emissary (mostly due to his 1 AP to anyone trick). A+ model. I didn't even mention that he can destroy scheme markers by charging, but he does that too. So great. Wind Gamin: Basic schemer, with a twist Mobility: Medium walk with a leap, flight. Defensive: Low def and arm, medium movement Offensive: He has the typical non offense of a 4 point schemer. Utility: When they kill him, they don't, he buries and you get the option to sacrifice him to push your activating model 5 inches. The easiest comparison of this guy is to a spider. Broadly speaking they do the same thing, move up the side and score breakthrough/protect territory. Wind Gamin is a bit of an upgrade due to leap, but has 4/4 instead of 6/6 for his profile, and doesn't do the def reduction thing. Verdict: Probably? I think, in general, that this guy is good to take as your schemer. For the most part schemer def/wp doesn't matter since they tend to die if they get seriously attacked by master/henchman/enforcer, but this guy's special power means that the enemy can't get credit for killing him and you get a free large push wherever you want it instead. Scorpius: Great mid cost fighting model. Mobility: Slow Walk, but with a 0 that pushes him he'll make it into combat on turn 2/3, like other melee models. Defensive: HP equal to his cost and armor 1, the arcanist standby, and he also has 5/5. Bonus, he has regeneration. Offense: Fairly low damage hit, but it gives out poison, and do to his special rule enemies that get poisoned get slowed. So that's good, autoslow on melee attacks is a big deal, and it comes with poison! He has another 0 which resolves the poison immediately and gives the enemy the choice between 4 more damage and paralyze. Utility: Enemies near him that get poisoned get slowed. If your list hands out poison a lot this would be great, but I think this is mostly going to benefit himself. Verdict: A great cheap fighting model. 2 points more than a gamin and you get this spiffy fighter. He's even a Beast/Construct for buffing purposes. Grade A model, will see a lot of use. Ice Dancer: This is a more expensive, faster, schemer: Mobility: Pure nonsense, with a fast walk and a rule that lets her push at the end of her walk. She's insanely fast. Defense: She has a high def, hp equal to her cost, but no armor. On the other hand, she has Bufferly Leap, which lets you relocate her 3 inches whenever she's targeted with an attack that isn't a claw. This means, at the very least, an effective -3 to the range at which she can be shot, and with LOS block, or cover, or models to push into combat with....it renders shooting at her a generally losing proposition. Oh, she's a frozen heart model as well. Offense: She's alright at fighting, long charge with short reach, bad low, good moderate and high damage. Its not the point of her. Utility: She can put down severe terrain, and if the enemy ends actions in it you get to push them (they are slipping on the ice). She also has a 0 that can just put down a scheme marker, with a medium card. Also she's got Colette's crew's keyword, performer I think? Verdict: I'm intrigued by the concept of a high cost schemer. I mean, she costs as much as the scorpius, and probably will never fight an enemy model. Ordinarily that'd be that, but she's SO GOOD at scheming. Instead of 2-3 Gamin, or just giving up and sending the Mech rider for your breakthrough/bodyguard points, can we get by with a dancer? 6 is too much for a schemer...but its a bargain for all the schemers in a crew. I'll go with a B for her, may adjust up or down, depending on experience. Envy: In general I don't like the Crossroads 7, but I think that once again Arcanists got the pick of the litter. Instead of playing music to give out conditions or whatever unless they discard cards of course, ours is an armored tank that shoots machine guns at people. I like the sound of that. Mobility: Medium speed, but no 0 or super long charge. Then again he's a long range shooter. Double walk first turn, shoot for the rest of the game. Defense: Arcanist standard, with point equal to HP and armor 1. He also has manipulate, but with his 0 giving out focus and his guns wanting the enemy not to be engaged he'd like to go early in the turn. Offense: He's pretty bad at melee, but his gun is worth thinking about. Its got phenomenal range, a positive twist but a low score (with a projectile I prefer paired 5's to a 6 though, cover is everywhere). His gun gets better if the enemy is standing by a scheme marker, so this is a great way to take down enemy schemers creeping down the side of the board to score breakthrough or protect territory. Utility: Discard a card to hand someone focused. Verdict: He's definitely a first rate ranged guy...I'm just concerned that this may not be the right faction for him. We are a melee faction for the most part. There are going to be a lot of rounds where he's just fighting in melee and handing out a focused. 8 points is a lot for that. Low damage of 2 on his gun is also a bit worrisome from an 8 pointer. I'm currently thinking B-, but time will tell. Overall, I think our faction won the book. No stinkers, and several (Scorpius and Murderbull) that I think will show up in an awful lot of lists. What do y'all think?

I'll cast my vote for the Peacekeeper. What a tank!