Math Mathonwy

Wong's Bag, Brutal Emissary (though not an Leaders) as well at least.

Aye: "After succeeding, all models within 2 of the target must pass a TN 13 Df duel or suffer 2 damage."

Great reports! This was likely the funniest line: "The Brother goes Mongoose Style and walks." I can envision that in my mind's eye But yeah, congrats on the games and really good reporting. Definitely looking forward to the next installment!

Why isn't SoBB's Spreadshot trigger nullified By Freikorps Armor? I think that they are fairly priced. SoBB is a Stone more expensive and a bit better generally. But they perform pretty different roles due to From the Shadows (and Disguised and better Sh stat). So yeah, depends on terrain and Schemes/Strat which is better.

Copying Manipulative isn't very useful But yeah, there's a lot of amazing things on offer for sure.

IMO Belles are amazing for Tara - she really likes the ability to drag a weak enemy into her lines to give out Fast. Kirai is IMO the Resser Master least likely to take either. But I think that the most important question here is whether you intend to attend official tournaments. If not, there's plenty of ways to proxy both models. If you intend to attend, then you could convert Nurses from the Starter Guild models (there's a nurse and two male orderlies which all could be made to fit the bill pretty easily). The Belles are a bit more difficult, but, well, you could go completely wild. IIRC Rathnard made a Belle from the Gremlin with the fishing pole (quite a literal Lure, there). Or have an undead chef with delicious cake. Cake is a powerful lure.

All Emissaries have the generic Upgrade which gives Minions a positive twist to "all Attack Duels". Am I correct in thinking that if you Attack a Terrifying or Manipulative model, the test for the Attack isn't an Attack Duel but rather a Targeting Duel or something? In other words, you get the positive twist only to the Duel where you are checking whether you hit or not, right?

That's true, every word of it. Personally, when playing against people new to Malifaux, I try to favour crews with lots of models of the same type. E.g., I made a crew for a friend who was about to play a newbie: Misaki Sensei Yu 3x TT Brothers 3x Torakage And some Upgrades. Not optimal by any means but easy for the opponent to undestand (only four different profiles!) yet with a good number of tricks and able to handle itself nicely. It was for Reconnoiter so the list was actually fairly good.

Gunsmiths aren't all that optimally superb but not bad, either. They are quite all right with Kaeris (and some people absolutely love them) and Ironsides but with Mei Feng they wouldn't be my first choice. Of course you could start with Kaeris if you wanted to and then they would make more sense. It does a very different thing - so much so that comparing those two models is basically pointless. But in a list like this, which is low on activations, I would choose Mech Rider over the Golem. It is more versatile and the Summons are golden. If money is no problem, then feel free to get them both but if you're looking to do this on a limited budget, I would personally go with the Rider. Both are quite a bit of fun on the field, though. I must say that if you're feeling love-hate on a honeymoon, you are doing something wrong

If you go Arcanist, I suggest Mech Rider and Metal Gamin in addition to the Mei box. Mech Rider is absolutely fantastic and can summon the Gamin. Then, when you add Kaeris, you have a good crew for her as well without any extra additions, basically. It's not very optimal, but you can get a 50SS crew of some potency: Mei (with various Upgrades - my preferred loadout is Arcane Reservoir, Imbued Protection, and Seismic Claws) Emberling Kang with People's Challenge Mech Rider 3 x Rail Worker 7 Pool (or six if you want to give Kang or Mech Rider Imbued Energies). It's pretty low on activations but Rider will start fixing that problem on the second turn. Should work for any Scheme/Strat combo somewhat nicely. When you add Kaeris' box, then you can switch out two Rail Workers for Firestarter and a Fire/Metal Gamin. OTOH on the TT side you could just add Komainus and Snipers and if you already have the Dawn Serpent, use that. Mei Feng (Misdirection, Seismic Claws, Vapormancy) Emberling Kang Dawn Serpent 2x Komainu Katanaka Sniper Rail Worker 5 Pool Or you could subsitute Dawn Serpent with Burt. You could even leave out the Komainu for something like this: Mei Feng (Misdirection, Seismic Claws, Vapormancy) Emberling Kang Burt 2x Katanaka Sniper 2x Rail Worker 5 Pool This one is a bit low on Railwalking targets but otherwise solid.

Ah, I didn't somehow think of that even though it was rather spelled out ("gain any ability") - me am dumb.

Making Emissary Fast using Aionus is sorta resource-intensive, though. I haven't tested the Emissary but on paper I like it a lot. The Hazardous Terrain is something that should make the enemy sweat nicely.

Three Rail Workers is a bit sub-optimal since they compete for Tomes on defense and all want to chuck cards for their bonuses. I understand that the box comes with three and I'm not saying that you should never use three but just know that their "optimal" frequency in a list is usually one or two. Now, since you have Brewmaster, I think we could look at models that both Brewie and Mei Feng like in case you decide that you want to use Brewmaster on the other side of the fence sometime. Komainu are naturally the first thing that comes to mind. They are Constructs and give out Burning which Mei likes. They attack Wp and can give out Slow which Brewmaster likes. Now, Toshiro can summon them and is an Ancestor and boosts them therefore very nicely (his general boost and Komainu's own boost from Ancestors). He also boosts Rail Workers and is all in all very solid. Yin is Brewie's best friend though her direct synergy with Mei Feng is limited. She is a very good Enforcer, though. Both are dual faction, though, so if that is a complete deal breaker, forget about them. And Toshiro kinda would like some Ashigaru and then it would be tempting to get the Yan Lo box. Dawn Serpent can give out Poison or Burning, so has a bit of synergy with both Mei and Brewie. Aside from those, Tengu are good Scheme runners and work with anyone. TT Brothers (no models in plastic yet, though) are swiss army knives of various useful things and highly recommended. Snipers are another generally awesome model that works with anyone. Oh, and Shadow Effigy is absolutely golden with some Schemes and is a Construct - somewhat situational, though. All that said, your suggestion of Mei box, Snipers and Rail Golem should be fine. Emberling is a very good Schemer and Mei Feng can do it as well. You can also consider taking Burt since his Crackerjack Timing combos really well with Mei Feng's combat style (she really blooms in the middle of a pack of lesser enemies).

I agree with you 100%! When I saw the art for the TT Emissary I was rather disappointed and I dreaded how the mini would look. But I have to say that the execution here is seriously top-notch. The scales look great and even the belly looks good (unlike in the art). I really like the pose viewed from the front, but from the side it looks a bit unbalanced. Still, very positively surprised by the transformation from art to render. Good job!

Awesome, thank you!

Lots of releases - really liking that Kirai will finally get some more love. The Newsletter lists Tuco as being the same price as the Wild Boars at $21. Is that a typo? Also, any chance of updating the Upcoming part? At the very least Aionus, A&D, Insidious Madnesses aren't there (and some of the February stuff was listed for January but since it was updated a long, long time ago slipping is quite understandable). Finally, is the release of Aionus going to be the same material as the one that was on offer previously or is it going to be the normal Wyrd hard plastic?

Note that Bewitch ends at the end of the next activation so won't be there for the Reactivate. As for what to watch out for, Snipers are Zoraida's worst Nightmare. She is extremely squishy against dedicated Snipers. The Healing trick with Nurses that Rathnard outlined helps a bit but remember that she is very vulnerable to certain forms of attacks. OTOH she is rather difficult to charge effectively and her Wp is bonkers so she is very tough against certain things. And another thing is that she needs cards on hand to make sure she performs. She doesn't always use them but if you fail the Obeys or whatnot, she really falls flat. Finally, I agree with Rathnard that Swampfiends from a different faction aren't all that special aside from Waldgeists for Gremlins (and McTavish being a Merc already) though you can potentially do something hopelessly convoluted and silly using Gupps and Gators and Juvenile Wail and Obey.

You shouldn't get caught up in a mindset where you feel that you need to heal with them every turn. You heal with them when it suits you and the rest of the time they can do whatever. Their Wk is low but their Cg is extremely high, for example. And with Bayou Two-card they aren't half-bad in melee, actually. So use them opportunistically. Even if you forget the heal, they are worth their points, which is somewhat crazy if you think about it. Bayou Two-card, access to three AP, a nasty debuff and fair shooting + melee ability. What's not to love? Against non-Armored models they can often be better beaters than Lightning Bugs simply due to Bayou Two-card. Also note that Gremlins have a lot of reasons to clump up a bit. Lenny, Ophelia, Merris, Liquid Bravery, controlling Pigs, and so on and so forth. Rami wants to Focus and Shoot, not spend his Activations doing Trusty Flask. Francois has Stilts once but ends up doing immense damage to himself not to mention that his Df is lousy and the opponent wants him gone as fast as possible. Ophelia can do huge damage but that minimal damage to herself starts to add up fast - you can easily hurt yourself for two a turn which is four damage in two turns. Having a Sloppy around to heal that is very nice. Finally, Burt is HtK so absolutely loves healing. Necessary is such a strong word. I don't think that they are necessary. But they are extremely good models. My problem with Lightning Bugs is that they are extremely card-intensive if you want them to perform reliably. Slop Haulers OTOH, with Bayou Two-Card and a no-card-needed Heal are some of the least card-intensive models in the game. For example, in the Yippee! scenario you need to have a Mask in hand or you risk hitting the Green Wrath. And you need to position near Ophelia if you wish to make use of Shoot High Boys. And note that Francois on Stilts and Mancha aren't protected by Shoot High since neither is Ht1.

Bewitch is amazing. It's hard to understand how awesome it is, until you use it, though. I once Bewitched Pandora and got to draw eight cards which happened to contain five Severes. Seriously, just try casting it on something that is "forced" to act a lot and watch the opponent sweat. Also note that Bewitch and Obey combo together nicely (though not on Pandora, naturally ). Crystal Ball I like a lot. It's quite close to Arcane Reservoir and I love that as well. Also, be sure to Summon the Doll somewhere high up and walk off the ledge

Dirty Cheater heals are good but somewhat limited. As for your other suggestions - I find that they are more AP intensive and cost AP from more expensive models. With one Slop Hauler I usually heal three models at minimum (counting Sloppie himself) so for 2AP you get the equivalent of 3AP spent on Quality Mash. And you can heal very expensive models using AP from a 5SS Sloppie. Full disclosure: I don't really rate Quality Mash Liquor - I think it isn't very good.

If you forget the healing, is Lightning Bug really that much better than a Slop Hauler? They have very different ideal targets and do different things. Personally I would nearly always take one Slop Hauler and one Lightning Bug rather than two Lightning Bugs. In all of my recent games my two Slop Haulers have died turn 2 at the latest. Double Austringers or double Trappers with I Pay Better make really short work of them, unfortunately Of course, Lightning Bugs wouldn't have fared any better.

They can shoot from one another and there's no gun icon, so they are somewhat more solid on that front than normal. Not saying that it is a good idea but just that Silent Ones bypass many of the problems normally associated with gunlines.

Agreed! I wouldn't buy Transmortis at the start as only Valedictorian is usually hired. Necropunks and Nurses would be better but OTOH you get Nurses from the McM box so maybe just get that one instead.

It is supposed to be skin.

Aye, purple and green rock. Have you tried the instantly amazing male face trick of painting it normally and then glazing the top third with yellow, the middle third with red, and the bottom third with blue? Absolutely amazing. But yeah, really liked the way you did the skin and the facepaint and the make-up and the interplay between them. Superb stuff (and a really clever idea all in all). I don't think they actually clash from a colour theory standpoint (other than you should generally try to have the mini be darker on the bottom parts and then light up onto high areas to give it dynamism) but somehow that particular combo just looks a bit jarring. It might be the bubblegumyness of it like lusciousmccabe called it. But it might come together once ready. Looking forward to it!