hannibal

So quick question on the Wild Heart spell: it's a zero action and Serpent & Feline also grant zero actions. Does that mean to carry out the Blinding Strike you have to burn your second zero action?

Sure! An (all) action just takes up all the model's APs. That could be 3 APs (if its Fast) or 1 Ap (if its slowed). The only time I'd imagine you couldn't do an (all) action is if you're paralyzed, because you don't have any APs to spend.

Having played against them the time you took them, Kealios, I have to say the leap thing is really quite nice. Their damage isn't amazing, but what impresses me is attack/leap/self-preservation but not in the order most people think. I say the nasty combo is to Charge in, then use Self-Preservation to push away, then use Leap to make sure your out of charge range. Essentially you get to make hit & run attacks and I get no attacks back. Even the Leap-Charge-Self Preservation trick is nice because in the best case scenario I have to burn some APs to get into base with you.

We could just increase to 40 or 45 Soulstones. . . . :deal:

Thanks! And maybe getting my teeth kicked in a couple of times will cool that desire to use both Joss and the Steamborg. Thanks for all the advice, especially on the Student of Conflict.

Yeah, one of my favorite things is that Ramos can be just a factory. In my first game, I spent like 3 turns just scrounging a scrap counter, then casting combat mechanic on the steamborg, then churning out an electrical creation. Or I'd summon an arachnid (from the scrounged counter), then summon an electrical creation.

First, thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. I try and always say that when I'm going to ignore it. :whistle: I picked up Joss because he's really cool and I picked the steamborg because he's cool (actually the reason I picked the whole faction). So I like 'em, I'm gonna use 'em. Any advice for dealing with the fact I'm gonna be outnumbered here? Yeah, your point is right. A guaranteed +1 AP every turn lets Ramos keep up and then lets me companion and linked in lets me activate Ramos, the student, and then a fast steamborg. What if I dropped the brass arachnid and a regular arachnid for the student. It'd net me a soulstone, giving me 5 to start. Or I could just drop the brass arachnid and spend the remaining 4 so that I only have what Ramos brings with his cache. On a more general note to Vitzh, perhaps the army just isn't your feng shui. I'm a big believer is matching your play style to your army. For example, I tend to like no frills armies. You can have all your special rules, just give me guys that can do the basics well. I like dwarves in fantasy games, for example. I play Imperial Guard and orks in 40K. When I scream at the TV during football season, its usually because my team can't run the ball or stop the run. Maybe this army just isn't your playing style. That could be it. I know that may not be what you want to hear having purchased the box set, but maybe that's the case. Or maybe not, I dunno.

So, I disagree with Vitzh and think Ramos is a good caster, and in the one game I played had a lot of fun. That being said, I went with the M&SU because of the steamborg. So, with that in mind, what tactics would you advise? I was thinking for a 35 ss list to be: Ramos, Brass Arachnid, Joss, the Steamborg, 4 Arachnids, & 2 spare soul stones.

I got in a game today, using the Ortega clan vs Kealios's newly obtained Order of the Chimera box. We played a 30 soulstone game. Kelios brought Marcus, the Rattler, the Sabretooth Cerberus, Myranda, a Moleman, and the Jackalope. I brought Perdita, the enslaved nephilim, Francisco, Nino, Papa Loco, and Santiago. We played on the Bayou's edge with Torrential Rains that never came (we forgot about it for the first 2 turns and then the cards didn't pan out for it). Kealios had the Claim Jump strategy with Hold Out and Stake a Claim as his schemes. My strategy was Assassinate with Raid and Stake a Claim as my schemes. His claim jump was a swamp in the center. My stake a claim was a forest right next to the swamp and his stake a claim was a set of fencing to the left of the forest and the swamp. Since we both revealed our schemes: scrum in the middle!! Let's just go with: it went bad for Kealios from the get go. He was playing a whole new faction whereas I played a faction pretty similiar in theme to the Outcasts. i.e. no magic, no tricks, just get up in his face and thump him. It started with him moving his cerberus up, then I companioned Santiago and the Nephilim with Perdita to move up and do some shooting. I put like 6 wounds on the poor kitty and then the Nephilim cast obey and kitty kitty went charging poor Myranda like she had catnip underwear (3 wounds on her). This would be another theme: I didn't make every obey, but when it mattered I cast it and Kealios couldn't resist it. On the left flank, through a narrow defile between my claim-staked forest and a low ridge came his Rattler. Papa Loco went to face him down, throwing some dynamite. The Rattler charged him, doing a few wounds. The problem was, the rattler was way on my side while the rest of Kealios's crew was essentially back in their deployment zone healing up the wounds I'd inflicted. Meanwhile, out comes another obey and Mr. Rattler leaves close combat with Papa Loco so that he can get shot up and killed. At this point, Kealios sends his crew through the ravine, using the forest to shield him from the shooty-shooty death of the Ortegas. The patched up Cebrerus charges Papa Loco but fails to kill him. Out comes obey (see a pattern here?) and Cerberus charges Marcus into the ravine, essentially preventing the crew from advancing. The cerberus does a wound which gets shunted onto the moleman. Then with them all in a line, Papa Loco throws some dynamite, putting a couple wounds on the cerberus and Marcus with the explosion (which get shunted I think). What's crucial is that the Cerberus blocks Marcus's line of sight because Kealios was going to use feral and alpha to take control of Papa Loco and have him go cast Take Ya With Me! into my own crew. Instead he leaps with the kitty over the forest and pounces on poor Perdita, putting 3 wounds on her. She responds with some blazing action and kills the poor kitty. Thanks to companion, I activate my Nephilim at the same time who casts obey on Papa Loco having him charge Marcus! Hilarity then ensues where Nino shoots into combat, actually hoping to kill Papa Loco to trigger an explosion but instead targeting Marcus (and failing to hit or do any damage). Then Myranda moves up to inflict the killing blow on Papa Loco, triggering his Boom! "talent". Then Nino takes aim at Myranda and kills her with a single lucky shot (severe damage and trigger happy). With his spare shot he picks off the Jackalope. At this point, it's turn 4 and the only thing Kealios has left is Marcus and the moleman. Kealios use Wild at Heart Hare to leap over the trees and land in melee combat with Perdita. Thwackity-thwackity with his beat-stick and Perdita's face down in the swamp, her nephilim scampering away as well ("free at last . . . ") True to his luck this game, kealios can't win for losing. Instead of being locked in melee in the middle of a severe-terrain-and-thus-charge-inhibiting swamp, he's standing in the open. An' Santiago & Francisco don't take too kindly to Marcus beating up on their sister. After a brief conversation with Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson, Marcus is face down in the swamp. The moleman pokes his head out of the tunnel and turns right around for where he came. So the tactical lesson here is: when your opponent makes every clutch roll and your cards decide that resisting is just too much effort, well then, the other guy is gonna win. Afterward we talked about some things kealios could've done better, to support his rattlers or some such, basically chocking the whole thing up to a learning curve. But in typing this up I realize just how many times when I needed initiative or I needed a clutch spell I'd get it without him resisting. And there's just nothing you can do when stuff like that happens. Still, was a fun game (so Kealios said :nutkick:). I'm coming to like the Ortegas and might pick them up instead of the Seamus box.

Kealios and I played a Scrap last night. He took Pandora, Baby Kade, Candy, 2 Sorrows, and Teddy plus like 8 soulstones. I had the Viktorias, Hans, Taelor, and Bishop plus 4 soulstones. We played in a Gremlin village with a deadzone right in the center of the board. We both got Slaughter for our strategy. For our schemes her chose Hold Out and Stake a Claim (choosing the dead zone). I chose . . . Hold Out and Thwart. So basically there was gonna be no trickery here, this was gonna be just a "heads down and charge" game. Hans took position on a small hill which gave him a nice view for the game while Taelor advanced to my left. Opposite Taelor came Teddy. On my right went the Viktorias, Bishop vs the rest of his crew. I focused on the Sorrows first and then the little freaking kids, figuring Pandora would be suicide if I went after her with all that support. Hans ended up killing the Sorrow attached to Candy and then Bishop charged Candy. I'd intended to knock her aside and then do a suicide rush on the other Sorrow at the rear of the Neverborn crew. Wasn't to be, so I just "tossed" Candy towards my line and then charged her again. Turned out to be a bad idea as Candy proceeded to give Bishop sours and do other bad stuff to him. I was forced to move up and use both the Viktorias to finish her off. On the left, Hans, Taelor, and Teddy danced for the whole game. When teddy was in the open, Hans would shoot. Teddy would hide in melee by attacking Taelor. But Taelor would knock Teddy away so Hans could shoot. This knockback ended up pushing Teddy into the deadzone so that Teddy was unable to cast spells for most of the game. On the right(now center), there was all purpose pain between the Sorrow, Kade, Bishop, and the Viktorias. Bishop charged the sorrow but failed to kill him. Kade lured him away and did some damage, bringing Bishop down to 1 wound. Then a Viktoria, with twin masamunes, charged in and a whirlwind later the Sorrow was no more and Baby Kade was wounded. The Sorrow, before he died used Doldrums to pin down one of the Viktorias. Throughout this Pandora used her spells to muddy up my plans, such as Incite to force Bishop to charge out (earlier), then project emotion on the general melee. Basically she was casting spells not so much for the effect but so that I'd fail willpower duels and take wounds. It worked very well with Bishop dying and putting pistol Viktoria t 3 wounds left and paired masamune viktoria to 5 wounds left. In the critical last two turns of the game, I won initiative flips. On the left, Taelor and Hans finished off Teddy. But the action was in the center. The Viktorias activated. Twin masamune Viktoria killed Baby Kade and then walked twice into melee range with Viktoria (we determined that since I wasn't actually targeting Pandora with an attack, Expose Fears didn't come into play). Then pistol Viktoria moved in and attacked, putting 3 wounds on Pandora. Pandora used some spells, whittling away the ladies and I was forced to burn soulstones and cards like crazy. The next turn was the climax. Viktorias go first. Pistol Viktoria cast Sisters in Battle and I selected Unfailing. I then proceed to miss fail the next 5 WP duels to hurt Pandora (taking a wound every time). On the fifth one I burned my last soulstone to succeed on the willpower roll. With paired masamune I was flipping 3 cards. Top card: red joker. Huzzah! Plus 1 flip on the damage: a 1 and a 2. No joke. The highest card in my hand: 10. D'OH!! If I'd cast Fury instead of Unairing Accuracy, I would've killed Pandora with a single hit. She had 5 wounds left. Kealios even suggested I do it, but I said "naw, I already declared. No worries." Pandora then activates, pushes away with fading memory, and casts a couple self-loathing. Both Viktorias commit sepukku. So Pandora backs off while Taelor and Hans advance. I'm feeling very leery of trying to take down the witch, but I'm thinking Hans might eventually get her. We flip for ganme ending: less than a 10. Game over, man! End result: Neverborn 2 VPs for Hold Out Outcasts 2 VPs for Slaughter 2 VPs for Thwart 2 VPs for Hold Out. We talked about it after, if Pandora had killed Taelor and Hans (had the game gone on), he'd have earned 4 VPs I'd have lost Thwart, giving him the edge at 6 VPs vs 4. But then again, had I gotten Pandora it would've been 8 VPs to 2 VPs in my favor. The VPs very accurately captured what happened: Pandora was on the defensive and it was a pretty good win, but not a thumping. It was a really fun game and left both of us trying to scrounge more time from the wives to play again.

My answer to the question: Yes. Seriously, gonna go broke over here. I picked up the Ramos box, but I also liked the Viktorias. Then I just missed out on getting the Seamus box (undead pimp? of course). Then I started thinking how much fun a Zoraida + gremlins crew would be. Then the gunslingers started calling to me. Unfortunately, my local store (Game Kastle in Santa Clara, CA) literally can't keep the boxes in stock. I'd have Seamus if he was available. I just know I'm just gonna get all of those boxes.

I've only played one game with him, but I was actually very impressed with how he did. It seems to me that Ramos is all about buffing up his team instead of doing direct damage. When I played I took Ramos, 2 Arachnid Swarms, and the Steamborg in a 30 soulstone game. I found the best use for Ramos was to advance him up and then have him stand in the eye of the storm casting spells. I'd salvage scrap counters, then crank out an arachnid, whose whole job was to run interference in case someone got too close. Then later, I'd sacrifice the spider to heal as necessary. Usually this left me with a free action to cast. I usually used either Arcing Screen, or electrical creation. The latter was especially fun because you were sending out floating bombs essentially. Arcing screen was a little less useful because of its short range, but it did act as a deterrent. The attack spell I'd only use if I had no other option. Basically, I let the other guys do the heavy lifting and have Ramos be the director. The steamborg is pretty simple to use : point at enemy and let him go. The arachnid swarms really impressed me because they got a healing flip every turn and they could paralyze an enemy. Plus when in melee the sheer number of attacks they got was simply impressive. Dunno if that helps, but like I said, only played one game.

You get everything but the beast's spells when you transform.

OK, Thanks!! I'd thought that maybe it was just the way blisters were done. One's a mistake, two means there might be something else going on. Thanks again.

I've bought two blisters recently (along with two box sets) and the blisters don't seem to have cards in them. I bought a Joss and a Hans blister. They both said Malifaux on them, so I thought they were not pre-game Wyrd minis. Is it just the box sets that get cards?

Quote Draykin: I think the Hans model is just right. It's fiddly but its the whole arm, so you can pin it. I had to pin each of the viktoria hands for the paired masamune model and I simply ended up trashing them. Much thanks on that front.

So I just got into the game, picking up the Viktorias box set, the Ramos box set, and the Hans sniper model. The accolade: very nice minis. Well sculpted and very characterful. The gripe: in the future, could you guys not do itty-bitty bit parts? For example, the arachnids were a colossal hassle to assemble. Those tiny legs almost broke in cutting them off the metal tabs, and didn't fit into the holes. they're just too spindly. On Hans: that arm like that is as 'fiddly' as I'd go because it needed to be pinned. Viktoria: I hate when models have bits that connect at the hand. Especially when they have a weapon coming off them. That just screams "the lever principle is gonna pop me right off the first time this model snags on some terrain." And those hands are so delicate that pinning them was just a hassle. So, going forward with new miniature design, could you guys avoid having the models connect with these spindly little bits like that? Please?