The Big 3?

[Ghoul]

Hey all! Let me start off by saying thanks for being a wonderful community! I have long dredged through the forums for many ideas and answers to various questions.Now I thought it was time to actually become a part of the this awesome community:)

A little bit of background about myself. I have been miniature gaming for around 20 years and have been playing malifaux off and on since 1st ed. In the past year I have shelved all other systems to play the one that I feel is the best! I get roughly 4 games in a week mainly with rezzers but I do own a bit of everything. I have never been a real tournament kind of guy due to conflicts on the weekends but I would like to change that and delve into Neverborn.

so, now that I feel that I've droned on.I would like to get back to the title of my post... the big 3

I would like to focus on 3 masters that can keep me covered in the competitive environment. I know it's hard to say not given the schemes and strats but I know that there are some masters that some consider to be auto picks for certain things. Basically, if you were gonna pick 3 masters to focus on who would they be and why? I'm not so much trying to limit myself as I am just trying to focus. I tend to want to play everything and thus become a jack of all trades master of none kind of guy.lol

 

thank you so much! Look forward to seeing what others have to say and finally contributing to the very forums I've taken so much from.

 

[Thana.]

Hello,

I don't think that any of the masters are autopicks for anything. You also don't need to play 3 masters to cover all your bases you can easily get by with only one master. Additionally, I don't think there is a clear ranking of NB masters at the moment since zoraida and lucius got buffed. Narrowing your selection of models to focus on learning them well is a good idea imo, I wouldn't limit that to masters. 

Perhaps this isn't what you were hoping for but I'd honestly just take whichever 3 masters you find the most fun to play and go with them. If you're the type of person who gets satisfaction from playing in theme then that will likely dictate a lot of your crew building choices. If not, then this subset of the NB faction is a good entry point: 

Illuminated, Waldgeist, Silurid, Tot, Doppelganger, Nekima, Lilitu, Graves, Totems, Madness

Push comes to shove my personal opinion of the top 4 masters in the faction are: Dreamer, Collodi, Pandora and Lilith in no particular order. 

All the best!

[Ghoul]

Thank you so much for the reply!

I thought about focusing on 1 as you had said. I was between Lilith and Pandora personally.  The whole "3" thing was really just to keep me focused. I guess this being malifaux and all I should have asked which 3 would give me a varied in game/ hobby experience.

personally I love 

dreamer, Lilith, collodi, Pandora, Titania and zoraida. 

I guess there's no real wrong choice here.

[Ghoul]

Sorry for the double post 

but you stated zoraida got buffed?

how so? I loved her in 1st ed. Even if I did just used to run her as a support for my collodi lol

[Thana.]

Yw

I agree that there isn't a wrong choice. All the masters play differently enough from one another that I don't think you'll be hurting for diversity of play experience no matter how you go about things. Personally, with NB, I focus on building a crew that can complete the schemes and strats and then almost tack a master on after that's been decided. I don't think any of the NB masters benefit much from investing heavily into synergy with their crew, just little things like bringing a brutal effigy with collodi to heal up his strum the threads damage or tending to favour gupps/tots vs madnesses as jacob. 

Zoraida got a huge buff in book 4 through wisps. Check them out! 

[Sharp_GT]

I would suggest zoraida and pandora. Both work with just about everything and will be very flexible, but also have synergies you can abuse. Pick up those crew boxes, will-o-the-wisps, and nekima and you're well on your way [borrow a nurse from your ressers to hang out with zoraida]. This will set you up with ways to run schemes, hold an area, kill enemy models, and everything in-between. This will give you several distinct ways to play the game

Alternatively you could pick up dreamer and all of the nightmares and just focus on him. I'd argue that he is the most competitive single master and can be very flexible by summoning a bunch of stuff every game.

[Trixter]

Still, in my opinion a Big (not "best";)) Three is a great idea. Some masters may be able to cover all strat/schemes, but none is able to handle with any competitive matchup (in my local group Pandora shine vs any Gremlins but not vs Raspy).
Moreover, even if you do not care about the crew's theme, - different masters offer a different playstyle. When I started with the Arcanists, I applied exactly this idea of Big 3. And it was successful.

At the same time I wondering "what does this master and his crew do on the table?". Alfa-strike on wings? Table control via misery bubble? Out-activations via puppets? Successful gunline with swampfiends, etc.
Also some crews can use the same pool of effective models. And some are less useful to others (Lucius, Zoraida and Collody)...

So simply put, you choose to your taste not only the master and the appearance of his starter, but also his playstyle on the table and the flexibility in the use of factional models.
You can start with one or two, and then cover with the third master a gap in confronting specific matches or dilute your game with a fresh idea.

Personally, I choose Lilith, Zoraida and Titania. Good luck to you! =)

[Vorschlag]

To cover all bases you ideally want a summoner, a beat stick of sorts and a control or support master.

My personal suggestions would be:

Dreamer/ Collodi

Pandora/ lilith / Titania 

Zoraida

Dreamer is our only true summoner but Collodi with weaver can simply keep the swarm going.

Alternatively wisps with spawn mother or a Nekima summon and grow list can fill this gap.

Pandora and Titania both play in similar fashions but love area affects and tag teaming fears given form.

Pandora will kill more stuff Titania will drop more schemes.

Lilith is a hunter killer on seek and destroy who can play the grow mechanic or simply pick models off as she feels fit.

Zoraida is my personal go to, I don't feel she needed the buff - gift horse - mouth.

 

[Adran]

I don't have an answer for you because I don't think there is a right answer. 

What I do have is some possible wrong answers that i'll suggest you avoid or at least consider as you pick. 

Lucius. His box contains models only usable by him rather than any other neverborn master . If you want him, then go with him, but his box won't help any other master in faction. 

Lucius + Collodi +Zoraida  As a trio these three all pass out their AP to other models around them. Whilst they are different, and do it in different ways, they can seem a bit similar

Dreamer. He is a summoner and if you chose to play him as such you will want  a fairly large pool of models

Zoraida or Collodi. A lot of the common tactics for this masters involves buying models that only they can use in Neverborn. 

 

[Ghoul]

wow! Thanks for all the responses.

as of now I'm thinking 

zoraida. 

The swamp fiend theme is so cool. Mc Tavish + doppelgänger + obey... yes please! Lol and the whole will o' the wisp lightning butt bugs seem too goofy/cool to pass up. Oh and barbaros with fears given form

Collodi. 

I was a huge fan of the puppet master movies back in the day. Plus I think it's really cool how they can share each others conditions. Is it wrong I'm thinking about running a beconer plus an illuminated with him?

Pandora.

I have run both versions of her to great success (much to the dismay of my opponents). Plus I already have her built.

I had read earlier that Titania and Pandora fill a similar role in area control denial. One of them being super card intensive for your opponent and the other just passively knocking out your opponents models. I guess the choice between the 2 would come down to scheme pool. Passively/accidentally  giving some one frame for murder turn 2 is never fun. Haha

[Corwin]

I like the beconer and illuminated with Collodi as well as Lucius. (I really suck with Lynch). Lure with a + from Collodi is great. Pandora is my go to murder girl though sometimes paralyzing can be more effective. If you go with Zoraida and Pandora one model you should pick up is Iggy. It's great throwing a bunch of burning on the doll and it's target for double damage. No mater who you pick it's a fun faction with creepy monsters and things that look like children but are not.

[Vorschlag]

If you already own Pandora another way of plotting your initial expansion would be to look at which masters like to share with pandora and occasionally borrow from her.

Dreamer, Titania and Collodi all like the company of the widow weaver as does Pandora.

Dreamer, Titania and Pandora all appreciate the company of insidious madness'.

Pandora, Lynch and Lucius enjoy the company of Mr Graves, Mr Tannen and the occasional beckoner, no one really likes illuminated (because they're so f&^$*#@ ugly) but no one says that to their face.

Dreamer will Enjoy Mr Tannen's company and could also have a play date with Kade and Candy.

Apparently everyone loves Teddy, which in theory means everyone "may" love Kade (that's worrying).

Lucius appreciates the company of Candy but Pandora is not interested in his Guild lackeys.

Pandora apparently appreciates the company of bad juju (I haven't tested this myself) and Zoraida will now appreciate sorrows a bit more with wisps on the field.

Oh an apparently Barbaros is a thing now.


There would be many more but this is just another option for how to plot expansion.


 

[Ghoul]

Wow thank you so much! 

That is an amazing run down of the synergies. 

Also i picked up collodi today!

[Vorschlag]

In which case you will want stitched together, teddy and widow weaver with Dreamer becoming the next most obvious expansion as he will use all of the above plus possibly Candy, Kade and maybe wicked dolls to heal the stitched.
Alternatively I really enjoy doll factory Zoraida with widow weaver, stitched, teddy and wicked dolls she just doesn't add that much to the hiring pool of the other two.

[Four_N_Six]

I'd probably do Dreamer, Pandora, and Lilith.

Pandora is a pain in everybody's ass, really.  Other than specific masters.  I don't think Zipp particularly cares about her either way.  But her crew is relatively effective against most opponents, which gives her a wide range of usefulness.

Dreamer being able to summon (though I don't play him that way) means he can be effective in nearly any scheme pool you want him in.  With how Eliminate the Leadership works, I'd probably steer clear of using him there, but otherwise go for it.  I typically use similar crews for Pandora and Dreamer as well, so you shouldn't need a bunch of models from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Lilith, the way I play her, is an independent pain in the ass from the rest of her crew.  Which means you can do the same thing I said for the other two masters, just getting the models they would use, and let Lilith do her own thing.  People like running Nephilim crews with her but I don't particularly see the point.  She doesn't really have any synergy with anybody.  She doesn't do things that target black blood, or improve the usefulness of terror tots.  Her card and upgrades all focus on just her, so that's how I play her.

Alternatively, you could pick up Titania instead of either Dreamer or Lilith.  I'd probably replace Dreamer in this situation, just because Lilith is a better beater than he is if you need a good "killy" master.  Though replacing Lilith with Titania isn't a bad idea either.  She gets a lot of mileage out of crews Pandora would love to run, so that's a plus.  Her Autumn Knights are good in a Pandora crew as well.

I haven't tried it yet, but I was considering using all three Autumn Knights with Collodi.  Seems like a half decent idea.

[Ghoul]

In the case of the autumn knights with pandora is it due to the wp duels on their lures and opponents activating near scheme markers? Or are their other reasons? It does sound fun luring people into fears given form. But idk if baby kade and teddy would be better suited with careful positioning. I know it's a lot of points but I've actually used the combo to scheme run even haha

[Vorschlag]

Autumn knights provide some excellent wp duel based effects which can be capitalized on by Pandora especially if you have taken a widow or insidious madness.
They also offer df attacks which can even out your crew and they offer scheme marker drops (always useful) and re positioning which allows models to be pulled into bubbles they might otherwise be trying to avoid.
This tactic works well with Titania and Aeslin so with Pandora and Candy having 3" melee I can imagine it could be capitalized with Pandora.
I have personally only run them with Lucius and Titania so far but I can imagine their effectiveness elsewhere, in a pandora crew I imagine the thorn and the tooth would be preferable, with the dreamer I assume the claw would be your stitched together's best friend.

[Four_N_Six]

20 hours ago, Ghoul said:

In the case of the autumn knights with pandora is it due to the wp duels on their lures and opponents activating near scheme markers? Or are their other reasons? It does sound fun luring people into fears given form. But idk if baby kade and teddy would be better suited with careful positioning. I know it's a lot of points but I've actually used the combo to scheme run even haha

I use Teddy and Kade a lot.  The only problem is, if somebody wants Teddy dead, then Teddy is dead.  Df 3 isn't going to help you, his only chance is at survival is his Terrifying test, which isn't hard to get through.  I always use Poltergeist with Pandora, if I use a totem.  He does very well as long as you know how to keep it alive, and it's about the best way to keep Teddy alive, unless you throw an Insidious Madness in with him instead.  Either way it's 5 stones.

I like the Autumn Knights because of their  .  Pass a test when you activate engaged with them or get slow.  So in a Pandora crew, it's slow and Misery damage.  I pretty much stick to Thorn and Tooth.  Thorn's curse is better, I feel, and she has a long engagement range to get that  working out best for you.  Tooth's curse is good for putting out some extra damage, as long as it survives the enemy's free attack.

[Ghoul]

I like the idea of pandora with the Knights that seem legit. Man this game is so cool! I actually look forward to investing in and playing with all these ideas. 

One thing though that I've been wondering about is in regard to collodi crew. How does he run schemes? Or do you just choose ones that are more his speed?

in which case does he just bunrakus and beconers to pull enemy scheme runners into his bubble? 

 

[Vorschlag]

For Collodi get a mannequin and most schemes become easy if your runnine the whirling ball of death.

If your running his effigy summoning build I assume the same applies.

With widow weaver around all your dolls are scheme runners especially with a mannequin allowing them to Frisbee markers across the board.

[Ghoul]

On 5/5/2017 at 11:15 PM, Vorschlag said:

In which case you will want stitched together, teddy and widow weaver with Dreamer becoming the next most obvious expansion as he will use all of the above plus possibly Candy

What does candy bring to a dreamer crew? I'll have to dig my books out. I've just spent the day finishing up building the queens return box and some wisps.

colodi got here today too! Super excite!

[Vorschlag]

Situational but engagement range, anti-beater, extra healing, activation control.

She's a mixed bag, not something I'd dismiss by any stretch but something that can be fun, functional and thema ticket while ruining people's day.