The Colour Red

Can you at least tell me how I get those rabble risers in guild?

Rabble Risers are a good choice out of Guild. And they have to land all three attacks, start an extra two focus, and discard a card for flurry. Super easy. Theres actually counterplay for the poison, it lets you use all those (gun symbol) attacks that get hurt by the terrain rules. Too bad the armor of 1 and super-elite defense make most of the incidental (gun symbol) shots in this SS bracket kinda worthless (looking at you, bone pile and onryo).

don't I need to push through 2 moderate/severe damage attacks against a model that has higher defense than my attack stat to do that? That sounds like a LOT more than "trading one model's activation" to do this. 2 focus is a whole second activation, and you still need cards and suits to pull this off (assuming your playing on planet bowling ball instead of the GGSeason0 terrain rules). If they were defense 4 without armor, I can see the counterplay of "just shoot them first"... but they are a "damage" minion that has better defense (and armor!) than ALL of those guild minions mentioned.

Just curious, but which 6 stone guild minion am I taking to reliably "trade one model's activation to kill them"?

This sounds a lot like the "who's the boss" format from Warmachine. Its entirely casual (though you can set it up like a tournament). Basically they put all the available casters in a big pile and spin a wheel to see which one is available each round. You build your fixed list first, but thats sort of how war machine does things. Its a lot of fun, and the "fixed list" part of it means you might end up with some masters who do nothing for your list, or are completely broken. The issue with Malifaux is that a lot of masters have support pieces or totems who are really core to their play style (like the Victorias). Since this is just a fun event kind of thing, it sort of evens out when you have things like Lady J leading some ressers, or Hoffman leading some gremlins. This randomness creates a lot of silly experiences you don't see in regular play. Maybe do something where you fix a list of 30-35 stones from your declared faction before you spin the wheel and finish your list from that master's faction and hiring pool. This type of event sounds like a blast!

Nightmare fem-Seamus box?

Do we still need to stop for spoilers? Like, isn't this a month old and stuff other stuff two more lines of stuff Isn't the soulstone just charged by death "energy" and not actually the person's soul? I remember hearing one of the stories where they could do things to get more "charge" out of a death to charge more than one stone, and how they thought it was silly to call it a "soul" stone when it doesn't actually have the person's soul. (think it was Kaeris's origin)

in enforcer brawl, when you respawn, do you respawn with any discarded upgrades, or are those only one use? (looking at you, recalled training)

excitement!

huh, I played war machine as well, and discovered I apparently have a thing for gun mages. Makes sense that Perdita was my first master in Malifaux.

This game is hard enough to learn without house rules. Since they are likely to have a limited model pool, it might be good to limit yours as well. Taking a Master's full crew is good, and try to stay in theme. Also, try to leave certain power pieces at home (Why, exactly, is Papa Loco running around with Sonia and a Death Marshall?) I emphasize the "don't be a jerk!" mentality. I think if you're playing against a new player, discussion beforehand is a good thing (You're running McMorning, but Santiago here has this ability where he can pitch a card to remove poison). Also discussion after the game is a good thing: talk about the "good plays" and the "bad plays".

The model is female, Holding an axe and an open hand. Also armed with a peace bringer. Just like he does... Not like the swords the guard sergeants have...

or when the local meta dies from this.

I think "peeking into a bag" is crossing a line. These are some pretty expensive models, and the worst NPE is to have your army stolen. We, as a community, need to be vigilant against this. Keep out of other people's things without their permission.