Math Mathonwy

Sensei Yu's Drinking Contest thingy:http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/106491-brew-and-yu/

Note the word 'beatstick'. If you need to apply damage and have a budget of 5SS, I feel that Witchling Stalkers are one of the premier choices (along with, say, Rail Workers). And I argue that Slop Haulers can rival that. Witchlings have other things going for them but so do Slop Haulers (even easier.....huge area.....multi-heal). I purposefully left those out of the equation.

Am I allowed to still whinge about ZFiend's cards? In a recent game, on the first turn he burned a Stone for Tomes and started summoning three Spiders with Ramos: Black Joker. On the second turn he was ready to end Sonnia with a full health Langston (while holding 12 and 13 of Rams) who only had to survive one charge from the Judge - Black Joker on defense, cheated Red Joker on damage: dead Langston. On the third turn his Rail Worker had to kill a Witchling Stalker in order to be free to do Schemes for the rest of the game. Stalker has one wound left, Rail Worker hits, Black Joker to damage. My victory wasn't due to planning and whatnot but rather just abysmal luck on my opponent's part.

Haulers do take a bit of forward planning and one shouldn't get hung up on them. Like I tried to point out, even forgetting the Healing, they are fantastic Minions for the 5SS cost. They have a mighty debuff they can dole out and Bayou Two Card makes them very light on resources that need to be expended. And that Cg 8 (the same as Illuminated!) means that their threat range is somewhat ridiculous. And, though far from durable, Bayou Two Card and Squeel means that they are somewhat annoying to charge. Compared to, say, Witchling Stalkers, they are basically as deadly (due to Reckless), somewhat more durable, and far faster. They don't explode on death (unless Mah's Initiative Flip says they do) but that is their only weak point compared to Witchlings on the combat front. And Witchlings are justly seen as one of the premier 50SS beatsticks. So yeah, don't mess up your advance due to waiting for the Sloppies.

That's due to Malal's playstyle: He doesn't do healing.

One theory is that it is the Shadow Emissary.

It is, but OTOH it makes her face visible. If I have one complaint about Trixie, it's that her hat obscures the view of her pretty, pretty face. I mean, her eyes are up there!

My most eagerly awaited release from Wyrd. And, happy to say, they didn't disappoint! Hey Aaron, you surely have the power, please, could you make sure that these are moved up in the release queue? Pretty please? Pretty pretty please? Pretty pretty please with a sugar on top?

You missed the fact that she's a she But really, she can carry an Upgrade for you Master allowing for two Limited Upgrades or allowing the Master to benefit from their Upgrade in interesting ways (like using My Threatening Gun to have Ophelia shoot as she isn't that hamepered by the negative twist or encouraging Somer). Also note that Twisted Legs can be as good as Paralyze and Twisted Mind can cause Paralyze. And Twisted Fingers can really mess up some models relying on their Triggers. She is a support model, though, so doesn't make a good leader in small games. Use her in 50SS as support and she really shines.

Making comparisons between editions is rather difficult. The Gremlins are far more well-rounded this time around and are a proper faction. I loved the Slop Haulers back then and I love them now. OTOH One could argue that since the design principles are quite different between the two editions, the fact that Slop Haulers are so close to their old selves is, in itself, worthy of glorious celebrations by the Gremlins and envious derision from the lesser factions.

No Bayou Two Card (huge!), no Squeel and no Heal. They are a lot more squishy. Nurses are the best 5SS model. Bugs are similarly card intensive but with nowhere near the payout. Though naturally Bugs are a lot better at doing Schemes. Belles I would also rate better than Bugs since they are so self-reliant when it comes to resources.

Sure, I'm not saying that Gator is utterly worthless but I do think that the end-of-beta-n€rfs made it pretty bad when compared to the Hauler. The instakill and Paralyze things are it's saving grace, in a way, but OTOH it's even more squishy than the Hauler and Insignificant. I would personally opt for a Slop Hauler, Rooster Rider, or Bug almost every time over the Gator (Swampfiend can be nice in some situations, though).

They are amazing models even without considering their healing abilities. 5SS gets you a model with three AP, nice attacks with a tremendously good debuff, Bayou Two-card and an insane Cg stat. Add to that their healing and they really are competing with Nurse for the title of the best 5SS model in the game. Compare them to a Bayou Gator (forgetting about the healing ability) and it's just sad how bad the Gator looks. Is Perdita's Df making you sad? Throw Slop on a (friendly) model next to Perdita, hit the Trigger and lower her Df to 4. Oh, and as an added bonus, they are possibly the best healers in the game. In a Faction that gains bonuses by hurting themselves.

Without Poison Expunge certainly is possible, but damage from it isn't. Maybe you forgot the wording we're discussing? "When this model would suffer damage due to the Poison Condition, instead, it heals 1 damage." Expunge causes damage due to the Poison condition.

I do agree with Jehenna that if a Charging Rooster makes Attack actions due to Obey, then similarly the poor Poisoned model takes damage due to Poison when Expunged. If it didn't have Poison, it wouldn't take damage. They both have a similar one step leap. According to natural language, I think that the two cases are similar. Now, that said, I do agree with Dirial's interpretation of how the rules are meant to work.

I believe this is how you construct a Gremlin crew in eight simple steps. 1) Take Trixiebelle. 2) Take a Slop Hauler. 3) Check the Strategy, Schemes and so on and decide on a Master. 4) Check if you chose Ulix. If not, go to 5), if you did take Ulix, go to 7). 5) Take a Rooster Rider. 6) Strongly consider taking another Rooster Rider. Take into account whether Make Them Suffer is present in the Scheme pool and also briefly consider whether or not the Strategy is Reckoning. 7) Fill your crew. 8) Win the game!

Ah, that's a good one! I could only remember the bazillion dolls of Zoraida but I'm not sure they really count. The DM heads OTOH definitely do count. But that was at the very beginning of M2E - can anyone think of something more recent?

Yes, a cane would've been a good substitute. Has there been any optional bits in the releases since M2E hit? They seem to have gotten a lot scarcer since the early days of plastic, at least.

45 minutes for a 50SS game of, say, Nicodem, is certainly insanely fast o_O It's quite a few activations per game but, more importantly, it means the added complexity of taking into account the threat ranges and capabilities of the extra models. I mean, it's a 25% bigger game - that's not negligible (though note that this figure is naturally skewed by the presence of the free Master). Try playing a 100SS game and see how super slow that is!

Don't throw her into the thick of things willy-nilly - she is a bully and a harasser. Choose her targets well and use her looming presence to affect the choices that your opponent makes. Also, make full use of her triggers. You don't hire her for her damage track but rather for her triggers and her unique style of mobility.

You probably still want some control over your advancement? I mean, if you don't see the value in Lure, you haven't played this game enough. Not saying that Belle spam is somehow OP but not realizing the potential of multiple Lures is just weird.

Oh man, I had somehow blanked out on the bracers o_O Those look indredibly daft and out of place. Wow. I mean, they don't ruin her or anything but that's a seriously bad design.

It's a lot better than I feared. Quite nice, actually. Not a fan of the flame. It's just somehow really boring and unimaginative. The design of the hat is weird (feathers?) and the corset is strangely open in the front (what is underneath it?). And the pose is very blah. OTOH I really like her hair. And really, due to the artwork setting the bar so low, I can't be anything but happy with this. The Mannequin looks quite all right. It'll be interesting to see whether that pose works on a model or not but if it does, this could very well top the metal Mannequins.

I'm all for 50SS but 40SS games are indeed a bit faster and given the choice between a full 40SS game and a 50SS game that is called on turn four, I know which one I would choose every time. Malifaux is very fragile in the timing department in that if a game is called early, it can mess up the game utterly for some Schemes so even a little bit helps. When people know what they are doing, know what their models and know what their opponent's models do, the game can be pretty fast. But when this is not the case, it can be very easy for a game to go on for quite a bit longer than the time tournament time limit would allow. So especially for newer players, the 40SS can be a boon in this regard. 40SS also forces you to make really hard choices in crew construction so you are more likely to encounter the most crucial staples as opposed to the stranger outliers again meaning that games go faster since the models are the more usual ones.

Ah, makes sense on the Librarian. As for Ophelia, she is OK, that is true and an indisputable fact. I, however, think that she might be a bit overwhelming in small games... OTOH I blame mostly Myyrä for everything, so I suppose it's his fault somehow. Which is sorta surprising when you think about it. Edit: Wait, wait! I got it. It's Myyrä's fault because he began the arms race by choosing Dreamer and Pandora. That's why you had to compensate with Ophelia and that stuck and Daw got the short end of the stick as well. Myyrä's fault.