Rufess

Welcome to Malifaux and the Bayou. Ophelia and Kin were my first crew into Bayou too and are still my top 3. They are straightforward and easy to learn, yet have enough tools for vary match ups. I believe they will give you some impressive learning experience. I am by no mean a pro player, so take my following opinion with a grain of salt. The main reason is that, to play him with best potential, he has to activate first and/or needs high ram cards which are also important to the rest of the crew. But I still think he does pay his cost more often than not. After all he is the toughest Kin other than Ophelia with Soulstone and Showdown. They are not bad model, but there is always better choice...until you start playing the title version of Ophelia. So you may just ignore them for first couple of games. If that win you advantage, then yes. But the main reasons you hiring him into the crew are: 1) Blow It to Hell, and 2) set enemies on fire to enable Ophelia's most powerful attack: Tar Bomb. He has only one job and it is to snipe out the troublesome enemy from range. Important totems, schemer running outflank and Armored target. he can also apply Staggered on long distance, which can waste a melee beater an Activation to move. And unless the opponent crew has no Sz 2 models, otherwise never attach Ghillie Suit to any Kin model with The Bigger They Are. Because they want to stay small for the duel bonus. She is the main drawing source of the crew. You can have Young LaCroix shooting each other to draw card(and heal with Bo Peep). And don't forget the Hard Knock Life gives her Fast and Glowy token for free suit. She can ensure the Draw Out Secrets, Glimpse the Void and Putrefy if needed. And for any reason she has Mv 6. Combining with Fast she can travel a surprising distance and do scheme/anti-scheme that the opponent don't aware of. She once was the main scheme runner of the keyword until now we have Sly Six Shots. Her main duty now is to reposition the enemy with Up We Go, like when you are doing Secret Meetup. Remember that the Sputtering Exhaust also affects enemies, so beware of her position. And if you are planning for expanding your collection outside of Kin, I would recommend Bo Peep and Gautraeux Bokor. Bo Peep is a speedy Henchman who can help your crew unpacking during turn 1 and provide some passive healing, which is critical for the Sammy-Young drawing engine. And Bokor, despite being nerfed, is still a reliable healer with good synergy with Sammy.

Unlike TCG, miniature games usually don't have the completely deny playstyle due to the difference of game mechanic and design. But there are several masters in Malifaux mostly being classified as "Control Master", who can attack opponent's resources, reduces their Action efficiency or force them to do something less optimizing. I think you would like to check out the following list: Nellie: mainly disturbing enemies doing Strategy and Schemes. Jack Daw: good at stop enemies from moving and hold them in a place. Pandora: can hand out condition to limit what opponent can do. Probably the most classic control master. Zipp: has vary way to move enemies into bad position and can create blocking obstacle on their way.

Anya is my most favorite master in the Faction, but I have to admit that she and her keyword are not doing very well recently and usually being rated as inferior to other keywords. They are a vary and well-rounded keyword, but duration is not their thing. And the current GG is asking for standing and holding a specific spot, where they struggle a lot. Carve a Path is the only Strategy I would consider putting them on the table. But since GG all is being more and more popular recently, I can see them having more table time in that format.

I would say go for the crew you find most appealing. Mah is a one of the best starting master, but not the only option to learn the game. Clampetts and Angler for example also have a fairly easy mechanism and can be a decent entry point as well. Their card are however a bit wordy comparing with Tricksy so you might need more reading time beforehand. Proxying is a good idea. And if your opponent doesn't mind, you can even proxy the Angler crew with bases and standee as well(That is how I am playing them now).

Welcome to Bayou! For the hobby aspect, for sure most gremlins are smaller than human. But given that they usually have bigger eyes, less clothes and less accessory attached to them, I would not said they are more difficult to paint than other faction. And for the gameplay aspect, it is not that easy to summarize a faction, since in 3e Malifaux is focusing more on individual master over the whole faction. Some descriptions that often applied to Bayou are squishy and range oriented, but there are crews like Kin can be very tough and Pigs that focus on melee. Plus that every masters in game have 2 title to bring different playstyle. So new players are always recommended to pick a crew that he/she finds most appealing in appearance. That said I am sharing my thought on some of the Bayou masters here for your reference. I don't play them all so you would have to wait for other's comment. The Clampetts/Angler: The new comer to Bayou and half of the keyword is releasing at the end of this month. They are a fisher family who love to ride on some weird animals(or carboat). In gameplay they play around Tide terrain markers to boost their defense and fight face to face with their high-end henchmen and enforcers. Mah Tucket/Tricksy: One of the biggest family of Bayou, who like to rob the Arcanist and fill half of the keyword with constructs. Tricksy is one of the most straightforward but yet vary and well-rounded keyword in game. Mah, the master, brings some great support and threat to the board and can play with every models in the faction Captain Zipp/Infamous: A group of sky pirate with a airship(sadly not showing up in game) and machine skeeters. They are super speedy with Flight and high movement. While not very good at fighting, they can move around the board and score to win. Ophelia LaCroix/Kin: The cowboy family who are copying the Ortega family of Guild. They are the toughest keyword in Bayou and hence very good at fighting. Ophelia brings 5 unique weapons with her(and sometime to her kin) which can use in different situations. Som'er Jones/Big Hat: The biggest family in the Bayou. Som'er is the Bayou summoner who can bring his boys to the battlefield on demand. They can improve their performance by staying close to each other. But when needed, it is no big deal to sacrifice some of them for benefits. Ulix Turned/Sooey&Pig: Ulix is the best pig farmer in the Bayou. Pigs are speedy beaters that can do some significant damage. While they can be easily killed, Ulix and his friends can birth more piglets and grow them up to bigger and more dreadful pigs.

While waiting for update for the app, I had played 2 games with Mah hiring Sir Vantes last weekend. And the results are...not as impressed as I thought. The push and card draw did help a lot for sure. I had also hired Trixiebelle and hoping the Coordinate Attack can help to pull off the Escar Go, but it did not go very well. I had triggered the ability like 6~7 times in total but only managed to Charge other models twice. Here is my list: Mah Tucket The Little Lass Trixiebelle Bo Peep 2 Gremlins Suit Sir Vantes Beau Fishbocker Bushwhacker Bushwhacker cache: 5ss Has anyone else tried the Angler model/whole crew?

Each faction has its melee beater master, like Mah in Bayou or Mei Feng in Arcanists. But if you care more about the visual aspect of sword/cold weapon(which is totally understandable in miniature games), then the options would be narrowed down a lot. Lady Justice would be my first choice. As the most iconic swordswoman in the game, she plays as a mobile melee beater that supported by a all-rounded keyword that include good guns and healing. After you get used to the crew, you can switch to her another title for more controlling gameplay. Nekima and Viks are also usually brought up when talking about melee beater. Their keywords, however, are less generalist than Marshal(LJ's keyword). Which means they would need to hire models from other keywords in some game. And a special mention to Anya from the Explorer's Society(despite she is not wielding a sword). She is a vary master that can do beating, scheming and board control. Though she and her keyword are not straight forward and quite fragile, so you may need to play a lot before getting used to them.

Seems like I am the only one on earth who has concern, but I still want to share these numbers I found in the errata. Lost Knowledge Card drawing: 2 cards Card required: 5+ Action required: 1~2 Action Activation required: 1~2 model Raiding Operation(2 targets) Card drawing: 2 cards Card required: 6+ Action required: 3 Bonus Action Activation required: 3 models Raiding Operation(3targets) Card drawing: 3 cards Card required: 8+ Action required: 4 Bonus Action Activation required: 4 models So all numbers in Raiding Operation are greater than Lost Knowledge, it must be a straight up better Action.🙃

I don't think alpha beatstick keywords, like Nephilim or Mercenary, are good entry point for new players. Playing that kind of crew usually result at one-side games: either they table the opponents who don't have enough experience against that keyword, or they get overwhelmed by opponents who are veteran enough to deal with it. The new player is, in either cases, unlikely to learn the scoring part of the game, which is imo the most important and interesting aspect of Malifaux. I believe a beginner friendly keyword should have the following traits: Enough durability. So the player would not lose his/her models too fast and have more chances to recover from mistake. High versatility and flexibility. So the player can learn only one keyword and play into different pool and match up. Simple mechanism and low synergy. So the player has less to learn and thus can focus more on gameplay. So I would recommend keywords like: Augmented, Transmortis and Freikorps(a bit questionable due to the upgrades).

The rule has specific spelled out that Action Triggers are affected by Incorporeal and other similar game effect, while nothing mentioned in Resistance Triggers. So my opinion is Resistance Triggers are not affected, hence the damage will not be reduced.

I am not a native English speaker and not sure how it is used in native community, but what I was taught is that the word "Come Into" always involves some kind of movement. But if the "dropping also count" is the common agreement of the English community, I think I will follow it since those players do have, well, have more say than me.

The card draw of Use ‘Em as Bait is very depends on you local meta ruling, but to my understanding it only draws when an enemy ends a move into the Tide marker or when a Tide marker is pushed into an enemy. So it is about 1~2 cards a turn based on the current revealed model.

I am already loving them. A good all-rounded master with decent attacks, mobility, card draw and position controlling. Their defense is not the best, but with pseudo Leap and Stealth they should be able to avoid opponent's main beater quite easy. Cannot talk much about the whole keyword before seeing all models, but Bruce is a very solid supporting model and Aunty Mel is an excellent beater.

All three crews you mentioned have some decent mobility, so maybe consider a Strategy that requires lots of movement, like Plant Explosives or Symbols of Authority, to show the players that they can win a game without fighting. You may need to modify it a bit for more playable in small scale game.

It was not true for the pre-errata Som'er since model he summoned came with a summon upgrade, hence no token, and would not re-gain the token after the trigger got rid of the upgrade. That's the reason why the trigger was removed. We cannot just simply revert to the previous version, otherwise Som'er could have summoned model "not summoned" and broke the S&S balance. But I do agree that his current summoning is not good enough as a primal summoner. I would like to see it changing to summon a single Big Hat minion with the summon upgrade, plus a trigger to summon multiple Bayou Gremlins without upgrade, base on the duel total and TN, or by paying cost like health or something else.