Math Mathonwy

It's rather a big bump in price percentage-wise. Being 25% more expensive, 5SS is a pretty big change from 4SS. The difference is far less the higher in cost you go which makes the Merc tax a bit weird in that the more expensive the Merc, the less it stings.

I sort of struggle with this theme as well:

I think that knowing Faction gives you a big advantage when coupled with the knowledge of the strat, schemes, and board. Because really, how many times have you not expected to face Ramos when playing Interference or Reconnoiter against the Arcanists (and the player in question had the option of fielding Ramos so not fixed Master or a person who doesn't own Ramos or whatever)?

Flipping cards from your deck doesn't affect your chances of flipping high/low cards (except on a micro level but that isn't interesting outside the scope of a single specific game). The distribution of the deck remains essentially the same - you aren't wasting high cards because you are also flipping low cards and middle cards.

He is pointing at Seamus and away from Lynch and "any Gremlin Master" - at least at my resolution

You don't need to swap the Upgrades - I most of the time simply Plink with them and use the (0)Action. But unless you go completely Gun-free with Ophelia, Youngs are a crazy bargain. Take two, load two guns and you've sortakinda paid two Stones for two models. Also, I think that it is worth remembering that Bayou Gremlins are 50% more expensive than Young LaCroix. Six stones gets you three Youngs but only two Bayous. And Youngs Focusing next to Lenny are horrid for the opponent. I find her nice as well. In GG17 Peons give very little to the opponent so she is extremely expendable. I usually give her the Apron which makes her somewhat durable and she usually does good. Do you get the revival to go off often? I've managed it twice I think? I consider Wesley much more for Binge.

I think I'd rather lose the Spoon than Hollerin but that's probably just me, I guess...

That's a weird view. Are you suggesting that all Bayou Gremlins, Rooster Riders, and Slop Haulers are of the Jones family? And that Mech Pork is also a Jones? And what's the Kin trick?

Old Cranky is just stupid broken (even more so than Pukey, I think, which is part of the reason I play without Cranky - I dislike such crutches) but I think that NB and Gremlins are the only factions with such a silly powerful generic totem and in any case I wouldn't say that this is an issue with most factions.

I like these reports - thank you for taking the time to write them! It's nice to read about Yan Lo and you're playing him well. Totally rooting for you in every report! This last one was a bit painful, though. Ouch! Levi is a very tough match-up for Yan Lo in general, I think.

Gremlins with an all-undead list eludes me? As do Guild and Arcanist all-undead lists but there I might be overlooking something obvious.

Well, there's also Trixie's Gun, Stuffed Piglets, Iron Skeeters and Roosters shooting which all have purely negative triggers. Also, Lightning Bugs, Wild Boars, Mech Porks and Roosters meleeing have Triggers that might be detrimental in some situations but that they still have to always take. Bounty is one way to mitigate the detrimental Triggers, btw, since the majority of them happen on Crows.

He can be Obeyed (or Mask-Binged), though.

Well, that's a pretty hardcore approach to Malifaux! But good stuff, thanks for sharing! I think that the limitations of the bubble is something that becomes apparent to everyone once they play a while. I do enjoy Binge, still, though. Do you find Akaname good models?

Ah, yeah, you are correct! I don't own her yet and was going by memory but she indeed has Rush of Magic and not Arcane Reservoir. Still, that probably counts for the topic.

Anna Lovelace also gives an extra hand card.

Oh, and Bounty of course.

Mah has a Chore on tomes which gives card draw when friendly Gremlins die. Zoraida has her Crystal Ball. Zipp can target a friendly with Rambling Diatribe to discard all of one suit and draw replacements. Treasure Map can allow for card draw on a tome.

With Sammy and Fingers in the second list, as your opponent I would avoid any Scheme Marker Schemes like the plague so I think that Treasure Map and Where the Captain Can't See might not see much action. Last Stand and Eliminate the Leadership look like very nice Schemes for the opponent there and I'm not sure how well you can deny them the Strategy since your killing power is quite limited (though there is such a huge amount of weird manipulation going on that I'm having a somewhat hard time judging how that game would go based on the list). So maybe Stilts for Brewie for this one as well? I do like the lists for the first and the second round quite a bit. Rooting for you!

They are doing something like that (the campaign system and multipart kits) for Eden (a French small-scale character-driven skirmish game). It's an intriguing idea. This is a good point, actually!

Round three - since it's Reconnoiter, I'd guess that there is a super high chance of meeting a Summoner. Since it's Close deploy, you could try being super aggressive. Get the enemy on negatives and kill the Master with Francois on turn one (using a Gracie taxi, most likely). Summoner might have a pretty elite support crew so shutting down the Master (heck, just giving them Swill should hamper the summoning a lot) might give you a real edge.

Agree on the "pretty awesome part" so I would be game if it fit my schedule.

Very interesting stuff! We have these somewhat big (something like 8" x 6") field patches at my FLGS that we use for Severe terrain. This, I feel, is somewhat important because there's quite a few models that ignore severe terrain (e.g., Unimpeded, and one of Mah's chores - as well as Flight and Incorporeal but they ignore all other terrain as well) and Pushes do as well so having none sorta affects how much these models are worth. They also don't offer cover but do affect movement so shooters get some love (our tables are usually pretty packed with terrain so getting a cover-free shot is a bit of a luxury). That said, I can see your point as well and Severe terrain really sucks if you don't have ways of ignoring it and get stuck in a big patch. I'll add a note to the original post about Severe terrain being also an interesting topic and encouraing people to comment on that as well!

Do you use Hazardous terrain on your tables? I don't think I have ever seen any in my games unless I have personally asked for some. When used, it's usually a small puddle (or something similar) and there's only one piece of it. It drastically affects things, though and makes certain abilities a lot more powerful. Especially Pushes in any direction. But has the testing been done mostly without it? Is the game balanced around having no Hazardous terrain? So yeah - do you use it and why/why not? How much do you use it? Does it affect your games? Would you like to use it more? Do tournaments use it? Edit: Severe terrain habits are also interesting. Do you use severe terrain, how big patches of it and what're your feelings about it?