Math Mathonwy

You are playing it wrong As Dog Mantra notes, Loudest Squeel makes Fingers probably one of the most difficult models in the whole game to pin down. And Fingers screws up not one but all the enemy models that are in his Aura. You can use the rest of the points for killing (with Gremlins it will still get you plenty).

So all the errata has been unneeded? Malifaux with Rat Engine (or Perdita with access to Diestro) was just as good as Malifaux without Rat Engine (or Perdita without access to Diestro)? (Or, if you're old hat enough to remember Malifaux v1, then Malifaux without the Nico Dog Spam Corpse Carousel is as good as Malifaux with the Nico Dog Spam Corpse Carousel). Or maybe all the previous errata was needed but now we have a perfect balance where the game is decided purely through skill? Also, I have totally steamrolled players due to flips in some matches. Malifaux allows for stuff like a random Red Joker on a crucial damage flip that can win or lose a game and it can be impossible to prevent it from happening through superior play (Black Joker on Defense, for example). One memorable game I played really badly (last game in a tournament and I was utterly exhausted and made stupid mistakes again and again) and really should've lost it conclusively but I kept flipping one more than the opponent on all the flips. It was really crazy. I probably won close to 90% of all the duels in that game. So yeah, suffice it to say, I disagree with you most strongly.

Francois is an amazing Scheme machine. Reckless and the ability to murder anything that the opponent send to try to stop him. Being able to use Stones for prevention (unlike Burt) makes him super durable when needed so the opponent has to send an enormous pile of enemies after him or else he will simply kill whatever comes and be on his merry way. And if he goes down a flank he is basically either unstoppable or else the opponent loses the game as he devotes too many resource to that flank and you can capitalize on it elsewhere. As for Fingers, well, In GG16 he isn't quite as crazy as he used to be but he is still absolutely nuts in Headhunter (able to get full points from the Strat while denying it to the opponent at the same time - yes, please!).

I dunno, I would probably rate at least Merris, Francois, Fingers (OK, depending on what "Scheme running" means), Necropunks, and Ice Dancers over Silurids. And don't get me wrong, I like Silurids and think that they are fine (certainly not agreeing with the OP about them) but I'm not sure that they are quite at the number one spot as is often claimed.

Zoraida also really likes Pigs as her Obey can make great use of their 1 AP Charges. Her box is really useless for the Gremlin side, though, in that even though you can hire them all due to Zoraida's Upgrade (that allows her to hire Swamp Fiends from other Factions), but Bad Juju can't take his Upgrade which makes him useless and Silurids are severely outmatched by Gremlin Scheme runners.

Re: Sparks I would like to note that his Aura can be absolutely devastating, though it is a bit hit or miss depending on the opposition (and when it's a hit, it does paint a pretty hefty target on poor old Sparks). As for Bushwhackers, my biggest point of contention about them is their anti-synergy with their thematic Master. Even if they were 5SS, you still wouldn't take them with Mah, which is really a shame. They also used to have a great stat line but now it's kinda average.

I don't understand the clamoring for a buff for the DM at all. I think they are one of the best Minions in the whole game in their price class - boxing up dangerous enemies is absolutely incredible and using them as merely taxis is really doing them a disservice. Heck, I basically won my latest game by boxing up the enemy Emissary who would've otherwise killed my Master almost certainly. In another memorable game I had an absolutely rubbish hand but then the danger of boxing fished out Red Joker and a king from the opponent when I Charged his Teddy with my DM and managed to force him to cheat first. Teddy then proceeded to eat the DM alive who dropped a Scheme Marker for Explosives and netted me VP.

IME with Lenny, if your opponent knows what they are doing, you get one less shot out of Ophelia and you need to use her (0) on him due to positioning. YMMV. Also, if you build your list in such a way that the rest of your dudes aren't hunting for Rams, that will help quite a bit as well. Finally, I do get Rams pretty often from the deck for Ophelia due to how many cards she is flipping. Out of interest - how many of you have even tried using Ophelia without Lenny for a few games recently?

Thank you for weighing in, everyone, much appreciated! I am a bit surprised by the amount of people who apparently thought of Lenny as an autopick for Mah (less so for Ophelia). I've used Lenny with Mah but I didn't generally find it tremendously more powerful than other options for those points. Now, I'm sad that we lost the option but I don't think that it impacts Mah's overall power level much at all. Since I've been saying that and I haven't seen anyone else say it (might've missed/forgot - if so, sorry!) I'll take this one. Our meta has a lot of terrain (way more than what I see on the UK tournament reports) and also a lot of "trick" stuff. Having a 40mm based Lenny that you try to keep near Ophelia isn't always trivial. This goes double when the enemy has stuff that can exploit that Wp 1 to move Lenny willy-nilly to where-ever they fancy moving him. Using your Ooh A Girl on Lenny every turn is also pretty limiting in and of itself (if you happen to even have LoS to him after the opponent is done running around with him). Or maybe you need to have Ophelia some place and you use your movement tricks on her. Hauling Lenny around will put a much bigger strain on your movement tricks. I've certainly have had good results with him. But I've had good results also without him as well. But all that said, it is entirely possible that I simply suck at using Lenny and maybe others use him far better.

Well, then howabout these (maybe with Gremlin riders, though): https://torgaming.co.uk/product/ridend-kapolop-knights/

So yeah, we got, arguably, hit most. Deservedly so. Brewmaster only got a clarification, essentially. I wish that "canceled" had the addendum that "the AP is spent" but I haven't checked whether the rulebook defines cancelling. Lenny doesn't add Rams to Masters anymore. I've previously noted that I found Lenny not ultimately necessary for Ophelia and I've played her without him to allow for more freedom in moving her about and all in all not having to worry about Lenny being Lured or Pushed or Obeyed or whatever. But that said, he was certainly a powerful combo for Ophelia - especially on certain tables. Mah also loses quite a bit here as Lenny was a valid boost to let her get the "free" Charge easier and to help her damage. Somer is also hit a bit, I guess, but he has his Skeeters so not a big loss. The other Masters didn't care all that much about the Rams, anyway. Roosters lost Reckless. This makes them far less of an auto-include. Especially in Scheming role. Brewmaster and Zoraida will still love them to pieces but other Masters can now consider different options. Well, OK, Z and B can also consider other options but I think that their Obey (and Binge) makes Roosters still a very good model for them. Still, they are very squishy so they did feel the Reckless damage pretty severely. Of course this now also means that they can't trigger Rampage as easily. So yeah, how does this affect you? As for me, I know that Mah won't be as Roosterriffic as she used to be. They are still a valid choice but Burt and Franc and Slop Haulers look even more enticing for her. Oh, and no Lenny but he wasn't an autoinclude anyway so no big loss. Ophelia, yeah, as said, I didn't consider Lenny an autoinclude for her and now far less. Still, Lenny makes Young LaCroix into absolute killers so it isn't like I will shelve him permanently with her. Now you.

The only thing I'm truly disappointed with is Franc as his cuddle seems completely inconsequential. No one put him in the box and condition removal against a Wp 9 (or whatever) Master isn't going to come out often to say the least. OTOH it is in line with Papa so I can see the point but I really wish El Mayor had been made to go away at the end of the turn. Especially with the new Recruiters making Franc less necessary to Lady Justice, the only one left who truly "needs" El Mayor is McMourning. Not the end of the world or anything, mind, but the only change I truly disagree with (and it's about not going far enough so again better than nothing and if this is the only part I really disagree with it must indicate that the changes are really good).

Looks good! I like the simplification of Tara and buffing of Nothing Beast. I'm pretty scared of Nothing Beast now, in fact - a simple change to take him from the bottom of the pile to the top of the pile (or near the top, at least). The Rooster cuddle is the only one I consider a bit extreme - certainly something needed doing but I would've preferred lowered Ml and Dg. Still, better this way than nothing, so the complaint is a minor one. As for the Lenny cuddle - too bad it hits Mah as well as Ophelia and Somer. As Mah didn't need a cuddle and I felt that the Lenny thing made for interesting things with her (less so with Ophelia). Oh well, I've played her lots without Lenny (as I've played Ophelia) so I guess I'll survive But yeah, good stuff!

Do they need to be Wyrd models?

You don't have to give it it's own Upgrade - it is a normal Enforcer so has one Upgrade slot that you can fill with a generic Upgrade or one specific to it (or you can leave it empty but that's not a very good idea ). Carrion Emissary is often used with the Little Helper Upgrade that allows it to use a (0)Action twice in order to lay two sets of shards on a critical turn instead of a Conflux. But I do agree with you that forfeiting the free Upgrade for a 1SS Dirty Cheater doesn't seem very enticing.

Zoraida can Obey them to great effect and Brewmaster can debuff an enemy and then Obey the Rooster to take care of it. Both Masters love Roosters!

I think that's a pretty severe overstatement. Ophelia, Wong, and Zipp can also make perfectly good use of most of their boxed set.

Yeah, good idea on the details, so to add the missing ones: - Sandeep can lend his Actions to others in his crew seemingly allowing anyone to do anything at any given moment. He also Summons Gamin with weird additional rules and really takes quite a bit of mental focus to keep stuff straight. - Zoraida can Obey enemies or friendlies and give out a Condition that gives her cards whenever the opponent does stuff. She also has a good way of spreading various conditions through her summonable totem. - Colette can Push and Obey friendlies allowing anyone in her crew to suddenly do a lot of stuff and she does this super effectively.

I'd say that there are two aspects to what you're looking for: things that force decision on the other player that they'd rather not deal with and things that are complicated and unpredictable. The first one messes up their plans (generally by leaving stuff alive but with horrid Conditions or out of place or whatever) and the latter makes planning really difficult in the first place (by being able to do so many different things that the enemy can't prepare for them all). In the former category Pandora, Jack Daw, and Nellie spring to mind, in the latter Sandeep (the king of this approach!), Zoraida, and Lilith. Probably Colette as well. In theory also Brewmaster but he is generally considered the second weakest Master in the game.

The Sow is pretty brilliant with Mah - highly recommended!

Thank you once again for the amazing reports! A really lovely read. And an extremely impressive performance - congratulations! To take a crew after a single practice game and bulldoze the opposition in a tournament is no mean feat! Do you think that your opponents had had experience against Collodi before? Also, what did you think of Collodi? If you're indeed going for the Neverborn, do you feel that Collodi will feature in your stable of Masters? And who else are you thinking about?

He is a lot better if the opponent doesn't have any Condition Removal but even then he spends his turn debuffing an enemy or two when another Master would spend their turn killing those same enemy or two (possibly while Summoning an ally or two!). Also note that pseudo-activation control is a cold comfort when an Enforcer trumps my Master, though I do appreciate the sunny outlook on life (too much negativity these days!) True but he is in the Gremlins section of the book, dammit! I doubt you'd be able to! I mean, it would be entirely possible that you would win but I doubt that I would be convinced that Lucius doesn't suck Only if you managed to win against me with Lucius and then lost to me using someone else you're very familiar with that does the same sort of things (Dreamer, Collodi, Colette or someone) would I be convinced, I guess. Oh, and Lucius sucking doesn't mean that he is hopeless even in a match-up between players of equal skill. I just do honestly think that he is the weakest Master by quite a margin in the game but Malifaux is pretty well balanced so that "quite a margin" is still far less than a margin in a different game might be. ...And if you understood that last sentence, more power to you!

Is Zoraida really that weak, these days? Wisps gave her an absolutely enormous boost and GG16 Scheme Set favours her, I think, as she can deny stuff pretty damn well (and denial is half the victory). I think my ranking would be: First tier: Lilith, Pandora, Collodi, Dreamer Second tier: Lynch, Titania, Zoraida Third tier: This tier is intentionally left empty Bottom tier: Lucius

I play him like that and I still consider him weak He just has so many counters to him! Condition Removal is super common in my meta and, e.g., Chiaki just neuters Brewmaster (and I seem to face her a lot when playing Brewie). I really want to like him and I've played him quite a bit and I can win with him but I still consider him the second weakest Master in the game (quite a bit better than Lucius, though!). I also dislike the fact that the more you go against the grain when playing him, the better you'll fare. The less emphasis you have on Poison, the better, essentially. And yet we got Akaname *sigh*