Monks of the Low River

[Ravenphoenixxx]

I am a new player to the game and I'm totally confused by the Monks of the Low River. Now, I'm reading from the card in the main rule book, so they could have been FAQ'd since then, so my information may be a bit out of date. I see where the condition removal is useful. I've seen references them as healers but from what I read, they can only heal themselves. I also do not understand Rapid Waters Timeless Voice. How can the model make a disengaging strike when it doesn't have any attacks, unless you strike with Over the Pebbles, and if so, why would you want to do that (unless you wanted to remove a condition from an enemy model)? Any explanations are greatly appreciated, as well as your patience for what may seem to be a basic question. I'm trying to figure out the "why does it exist?" for all of the models in the game, which is a confusing task for someone just getting started. Thanks ;-) 

[Nikodemus]

Book 4, "Ripples of Fate" gave Ten Thunders a healing upgrade "The Peaceful Waters" that lets Low River Monks near the ugprade holder take a healing action. Upgrade is found in Generalist Upgrade Deck #2.

To make a disengaging strike you need a action, such as over the pebbles. Disengaging strike does no damage or apply any other effects, in this case condition removal. It is strictly used to check if the disengaging model can indeed disengage. At ml7 Over the Pebbles is one of the better disengaging strikes in the game. See page 48 of the small free rulebook for disengaging rules.

[Dogmantra]

One thing to remember is that their condition removal has no target number, which is very rare, so you can reliably remove nasty conditions off friendlies.

[Kogan Style]

I have just started Thunders and I love these guys. I'll expand a little on the above:

Over the Pebbles - Ml 7 is a rare number in Malifaux, 7 is the upper spectrum of stats in this game so you can reliably hit almost any target with it. When doing disengaging strikes with it, your opponent is going to find it very very difficult to walk away from a Monk to wherever they want to be. If the opponent tries, and fails to walk away and wants to take a swing at the Monk for stopping him; the monk now gets an extra card for defense thanks to Timeless Voice. As for removing conditions, there are a few conditions you'd want to take off friendlies and enemies:

Friendlies

Paralysed - get your model back in the game

Slow - from summoned models

Poison - vs Ressurs who have quite a few models that can charge for 1 AP vs Poisoned targets. Also McM and expunging poisoned targets is very bad for the target.

Burning - Deals lots of damage at the end of the turn and Arcanist (typically) get  to attacking burning models.

Brilliance - Jakob Lynch loves a bit of Brilliance on targets, so getting rid of that is pretty key to keeping that model alive!

Anything the Nurse  gives you is a condition so remove any your don't like.

Enemies

Fast - They don't need 3 AP 

Reactivate - They shouldn't be allowed a free go

Poison/Burning - Some models derive a benefit from being posioned/burning (McM, Sebastian, Rail Golem to name a few) so removing that mechanic from them is good fun

Armour - sometimes armour is granted as a condition (but this is rare) so hit them for no damage and watch their shiny new helmet fall off

Black Blood  - very rare (only Black Blood Shaman hands this out I think?) Stops Illuminated Blood Pustules making your day miserable

Focus/Defensive - no need for the extra cards thank you

Ancient Protection - Cheeky 10 Thunder opponent trying to give themselves some extra protection? Low River says "Not Today!" 

There are probably a few more Master/Model specific conditions that get handed out but hopefully this illustrates some of the value of the Maligned Monks. All this is situational, they are quite slow and have no charge. They rely on other models pushing them around or for the enemy to alpha strike for them to come into range. 

Peaceful Waters - This grants them a healing spell with a very useful trigger. The trigger allows them to place a scheme marker in b2b with the target. The upgrade only says target model and their is no resist. Want your beatstick to score Dig their Graves and get healed in the process?  Low River is here to heal! Enemy looking all surly and needs removing? Low River gives him a heal (or not if they have full health) and pops a scheme marker next to them. This has many uses, especially in the late game; for example Set Up, Hidden Trap, and other schemes where scheme marker placement is key. You can position your own models or if the enemy is in the right spot you can pop a marker next to them to score.

For 4ss and an upgrade slot I really really like these guys (over Tengu - but I've only played one game with them). If Wyrd would errata them so peaceful waters became an action on their card then I'd be over the moon. 

 

[Ravenphoenixxx]

Everyone, thanks so much for your explanations. They make perfect sense and help give me an idea of what these models do. I'm definitely going to be considering them for my next Ten Thunders run. 

[Pyrflamme]

One thing I don't think was mentioned yet was a reminder that you can relent when having your models target other models of yours - that's what makes the Ml 7 so good in removing conditions from friendlies, as there's virtually no friendly model with Df higher than 7. That means you can just flip a card for the monk's "attack" and then skip the flip from the "defender", making sure it automatically goes off (barring anything like a negative flip on attacks being applied to the monk).

EDIT: Made a mistake

[Ravenphoenixxx]

I didn't think Monks of the Low River could charge....

Edited January 31, 2017 by Ravenphoenixxx
Changed High for Low

[skoatz]

9 minutes ago, Pyrflamme said:

One thing I don't think was mentioned yet was a reminder that you can relent when having your models target other models of yours - that's what makes the Ml 7 so good in removing conditions from friendlies, as there's virtually no friendly model with Df higher than 7. That means you can just flip a card for the monk's "attack" and then skip the flip from the "defender", making sure it automatically goes off (barring anything like a negative flip on attacks being applied to the monk).

Another neat thing about it is that the monk can also, if applicable, get some extra range on a model by charging them, which also works doubly well if there's two conditions you need to remove. I had a pretty funny scenario game during the world event last fall where I went up against Kaeris. I don't remember the exact scenario, but it involved applying a condition that did damage somehow. It was a lot of fun charging my monk around the battlefield removing both Burning and said condition in one activation.

Monks of Low River don't have a charge value, so they can't charge

And even if a Monk of Low River had negative flips, if the friendly model being targeted relents, the attack still succeeds.  You can even flip a black joker on the attack, and as long as the targeted model relented, then it's all good.  Unless there's a target number on the attack action that I'm forgetting about.

[Adran]

5 minutes ago, Pyrflamme said:

One thing I don't think was mentioned yet was a reminder that you can relent when having your models target other models of yours - that's what makes the Ml 7 so good in removing conditions from friendlies, as there's virtually no friendly model with Df higher than 7. That means you can just flip a card for the monk's "attack" and then skip the flip from the "defender", making sure it automatically goes off (barring anything like a negative flip on attacks being applied to the monk).

Another neat thing about it is that the monk can also, if applicable, get some extra range on a model by charging them, which also works doubly well if there's two conditions you need to remove. I had a pretty funny scenario game during the world event last fall where I went up against Kaeris. I don't remember the exact scenario, but it involved applying a condition that did damage somehow. It was a lot of fun charging my monk around the battlefield removing both Burning and said condition in one activation.

If you relent to an attack, it doesn't matter what the stats are, you hit on a tie. Even if the "attacker" doesn't reach the defenders Stat, that doesn't matter (Although you would need to reach a Target number if one existed). 

[Nikodemus]

When I first got them I was worried about their short range. No charge, walk 5'' + 1'' engagment means they're only ever removing conditions on a 6'' radius. That's actually not horrible on a somewhat central strategy like Extraction. Later I realised that their range can, depending on the activation order, be up to 16'' which is pretty good. I had Misaki activate first, do her thing and later get paralysed. Monk activated afterwards, double walked towards Misaki and activated first in the next turn to remove her paralysis. Misaki activated as normal and did her merry thing.

Sure they're not as long range as Chiaki with her ranged condition removal, but they're cheaper, no TN and situational 16'' range should be good enough. Plus I don't want to buy Yan Lo box just for her 

[Pyrflamme]

1 hour ago, Ravenphoenixxx said:

I didn't think Monks of the Low River could charge....

 

1 hour ago, skoatz said:

Monks of Low River don't have a charge value, so they can't charge

And even if a Monk of Low River had negative flips, if the friendly model being targeted relents, the attack still succeeds.  You can even flip a black joker on the attack, and as long as the targeted model relented, then it's all good.  Unless there's a target number on the attack action that I'm forgetting about.

Damnit! I misplayed that. It's been a while since that game, and other games I've been walking and swiping. My bad.