Ajatros

Parker Barrows vs. Shenlog Corrupted ley lines Vendetta, Breakthrough, Spread them out, Let them Bleed, Catch & Release (High river monk) Parker Barrows, 2 stones Doc Mad Dog The midnight Stalker Hodgepodge Emissary Prospector Dead outlaw Bandido Malifaux Child Against... Shenlong, 3 stones 2 students Sensei Yu High river monk Low river monk Fuhatsu The lone swordsman Dawn serpent I ended up losing by a point (we played only 4 turns but figured out that the score would have been 6-5 to TT most likely). I anticipated correctly that he would choose the aggressive schemes, but I thought he would pick vendetta against Mad Dog with either the lone swordsman or Fuhatsu instead of C&R. I would have been better off with picking vendetta also, since in the end I overestimated my ability to drop all the markers needed (although Parker can drop markers like nobody's business). My opponent pressed hard to my center with Shenlong and High river Monk while I dominated one flank after killing the lone swordsman and fuhatsu there. I got greedy on the first turn and went to put adversary on Fuhatsu with the stalker, which ended up being his end after the lone swordsman brought him low and Shenlong finished the job with his demise-ignoring attack on top of T2. Mad Dog carried the team by finishing off Fuhatsu, Lone swordsman, the low river monk and one student while dropping four markers which all ended up scoring me points. The other MVP was the dead outlaw, who spent three turns fighting the snake on one flank alone, slowing it every turn and staying alive long enough to keep it occupied the whole game. All in all a good game, Parker is still fun to play, Mad Dog is still nuts and the Chi mechanic is still cheating 😜. Next time I'll bring less support pieces and more guns, I figured that my list would have been so much better with Sue and a second bandido instead of Emissary & the child. They helped drop markers for life of crime and the kid successfully copied "appraise" a couple of times (I brought it for copying bandit raid but parker got too far), but in the end they did not do much else. I like the emissary for his auras, built in slow on a S6 10" attack and don't mind me, but it does come at a price...

Yes, as the action specifies that you get the soulstone after and for taking the action, not when removing the marker.

I don't think Doc needs any further bonuses. Arcane reservoir alone is a good reason to keep him on the table and out of trouble, I don't think it's necessary to get any healing done to get value out of him. And the bedside manners ability, which is yet unmentioned in this thread, is super strong for pulling models out of combat or LoS of enemy models after a single hit. Especially Parker himself, since he does not like to be tied up in melee. I agree with Benny being an oddball model that doesn't really fit in either of his keyword crews well. His scheme marker/rat creating actions could be quite strong and he brings ranged scheme marker removal to be sure, but Parker does that stuff just fine already and free fast is definitely better than the occasional rat. Maybe buff him so that his melee attack had built in and Loyal rats with tiny rats would be a bonus action (and raise the TN a step or two) so he could potentially swing twice, drop two schemes from the trigger and chunk out two rats. He's still going to die to a stiff breeze, but at least you have the potential to do something interesting without using too much resources. And speaking of survivability, he's supposed to be a rat catcher, so he could have the covered in rats ability to give him a chance of surviving after he gets in there. It would suit his theme well and give an additional reason to summon rats near him.

We played out a good ol' western the law vs. the outlaws shootout with Parker vs. Perdita. Turf War, Flank deployment Schemes: Take Prisoner, Dig their graves, Outflank, Deliver the message, Hold up their forces My List was: Parker, 1 SS Doc Mad Dog Convict gunslinger, SoDP Sue Dead outlaw Bandido Bandido Prospector My opponent was bringing what was basically the whole family plus some bureaucrat: Perdita, Lead lined coat and some stones Enslaved Nephilim Fransisco, LLC Santiago Nino Papa Abuela Steward We Both chose dig their graves and deliver a message as our schemes from this randomly generated, yet very "up close" scheme pool. I ended up winning the game 4-1 (2 from Turf, 2 from dig vs. 1 from Turf). Perdita came in guns blazing and did a ton of damage turns 1&2 killing a bandido and the dead outlaw, as well as putting Mad Dog to 1 wound, but died early in T3 (before I had managed to deliver). In the end I had only Parker and Prospector on 1 wound as well as a lone scheming bandido on the opponent's quarter, while my opponent had only the nephilim and Fransisco on the table. A fun and a bloody game, both crews were very mobile with either bravado or run & gun, but in the end my ability to scheme better and having extra interact actions from draw their attention proved to be the deciding factor. Also, I didn't realize before how good Dig their graves is for parker. Each model he or mad dog kills automatically drops a scheme marker next to a corpse marker...

Plentiful(X) on upgrades means that you can possess X number of said upgrade at a time. Two each in the case of equipment upgrades.

I agree that a "sergeant" type of model would be cool, since it would complete the "chain of command". Maybe giving out commands that only affects minions and gets a bonus/is easier to pass if they are freikorps. Also a good chance to make a bit more combat-oriented "Freikorpsmann". Something to the effect of... FREIKORPS SERGEANT cost: 7 Health 7 Df 5 Wp 6 Mv 5 Sz 2 Armor +1 Ruthless Well trained disciples: When a friendly minion within 3" declares an action printed on an equipment upgrade, it may discard a card to gain to its duel and any subsequent damage flip. Grit (hardened): when this model has half of its maximum health or less, reduce all damage it suffers by 1 Attack actions: Clockwork revolver: 12" Stat: 5 Rst: Df target suffers 2/3/5 damage Critical strike Sword: 1" Stat: 5 Rst Df target suffers 2/3/5 damage critical strike Coordinated attack: another friendly model may take a action targeting the same model Grudge: target gains adversary (freikorps) Tactical actions: ⚡foul mouthed motivation: 6" Stat: 6 TN 13. other friendly minion only. This action receives +2 to its duel if the target is freikorps. Target heals 1 and gains focused +1 ⚡I've got your back: 0" Stat: 6 TN 10. target other engaged friendly model. place target in base contact with this model

I tried out Hans after the errata, and every turn I wished I had the trapper instead. I got two focused shots off most turns with nearby I pay better + his own focus (0), but he ate a ton of cards this way and didn't do very much damage. Also, his triggers are not that good unless you are facing very specific enemies and the only generally good slow trigger requires additional discard... Trappers are also fantastic targets for engineers if you have a low (5+) in hand, because getting potentially +2 to damage with a focused shot is bananas. Removing upgrades is nice and all, but it's another specific high TN, and I'd usually just rather try to kill the model anyway.

At least there is hope that he gets a buff in the future

Welcome to the hobby! I would say that pick the box that you like better - it's not use trying to figure out power levels or other such nonsense if you are just starting. Malifaux is a really complex game because all of the models basically have different actions and abilities. The Von Schill box gives you a good starting point, because he's a fairly straightforward master to play, and the models can be used in a lot of crews later on. You can build a 35 SS list out of both boxes, so you don't need anything else to start playing and learning. If you want to expand right away, Hannah is great overall (plus the model is just bad-ass), the Strongarm suit is thematic to the VS box and very strong by itself, and the Viks benefit greatly from Vanessa.

Yeah, I've been toying with the idea of summoning a bunch of abos by generating lots of scrap with rusty and large arachnid T1, and afterwards switching the from ash to Desolate soul. I found out that it's just too resource intensive and you are using your most precious AP to summon models that don't really do much. It's fun though, and in the best case scenario you are summoning Deso engine, reactivating it and charging the enemy's face on T1.

A&D is really good, but every now and then it's good to try new things . Lazarus' function was to be a punching bag for abo card draw, but I guess I could just take Tally sheet on Levi and recruit Anna, Rusty or Hannah. Additionally, in that case I might swap the Abo for the effigy to keep the stone cache up.

I played with the stalker yesterday with Levi in Symbols of authority with covert BT in the pool. The stalker was definitely my MVP, scoring 5 points single-handedly (2 strat markers and 3 for covert). I played against Shenlong, who likes to ball up in the center, so I had plenty of room on the flanks to get into his side of the board unharrassed. The ability to ignore other models is just crazy good, because there's just nothing the opponent can do to stop you and having activation control means that you always have the . Next time I'll try to stab something with him to see how that goes. On another note, what do you think of this super mobile Levi list: Leveticus + 5SS pool, Desolate soul, Pariah of Bone Waifs Lazarus, Oath keeper The midnight stalker Dead Doxy Kentauroi Abomination Freikorps engineer That's 9 activations right out the box, five anchors and sooo much movement tricks. Abo and the engineer draw cards (the latter can also hammer armor on laz), the Doxy is pushing Lazarus around to autofire positions anchoring my center. Kentauroi is just a fantastic taxi, and does a lot of work in other areas as well. Stalker and Levi do their thing.

NOTHING worse than unfinished curtains

Good point, and good point.

I would love to see new sculpts fro the Viks. The crew seems fun to play, but I just can't see myself buying and painting a box full of something designed by a horny 13-year old. I mean come on, Ronin, who in "This world" are samurai without a master, have suddenly become cheesy sword-swinging schoolgirls? Granted, the samurai in this game have gatling guns so historical accuracy is questionable at best, but still . I don't have a problem with models where being scantily clad serves a purpose (eg. Belles), but the Viktoria sculpts are just crazy over the top. Other than that, a shirtless Schill (or shirt partly ripped) would be cool. So more shirts for women and less shirts for ripped dudes is my take on this issue, I guess? Also, less flamey-guitarey Sue gets my vote. Dual wielding guns, active pose and with a bit less burning instrument on his back. Or maybe just have him focused on playing the guitar? Now it looks like he's really mad at someone who shot a fireball at him during concert.