Wulfen

I don't see why they wouldn't be allowed to win tournaments. Obviously it would be the word of any Henchman running an event, but it's not an illegal move by any stretch. Sure, it's a jackwagon thing to do, but if it's legal, you can bet competitive players will be pushing those buttons.

Nobody mention the trusty Convict Gunslinger yet? There's a lot more options now, but my main crew was typically Sonnia, Samael, 3xStalkers, Executioner(or Nino) and Convict Gunslinger, or some mix of the above.

Either his friends or a 40k forum.

Are we going to resort to insults? I don't play 40K, thank you very much.

I'm not going to get into this; it's a slippery slope and I have no desire for this to degrade further into some stupid flame war. Believe what you will; I have my opinions, as do you.

My question is were the top players solid players or were they newer players that made common errors and still took the lead?

I know the Neverborn are solid but so are a number of other crews. Also the Neverborn have a number of sweet models that also make them desirable to play.

I guess what I am saying is are the Neverborn really OP or are the top tier players running them in tournaments making them seem more OP than normal?

I can tell you right now that Neverborn are just that, overpowered. I won't get into details, but there was much debate about this in another format.

Locally, we don't have many regular Neverborn players, and there's a reason for this. I love the fluff and theme of the Neverborn, but man they are just generally un-fun to play against.

IMO, there's no reason you'd want or even need to run cheap grunts with Hoffman. He was plenty potent when I ran him with a Peacekeeper, Guardians, Hunters, and Watchers. Even better with the added Steamborg Executioner.

If you need more faction-specific tokens/counters, I have some here. Didn't get a chance to do the Book 2 stuff, and it's not a complete set, but a lot of faction abilities should be accounted for. Haven't had much Malifaux time lately, or I'd have gotten these done.

http://tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/downloads/malifaux/misc/Malifaux%20WIP%20Tokens.pdf

And this is why the Convict, for 2 stones less, is an excellent option. He is paired, shoots as far, has rapid fire, can do some card control, has trigger happy, and can use his pistols in melee.

Santiago certainly has his strengths, but the Convict is a more balanced model.

Yep, this is my thinking too. I do like Santiago, but he is more effective with Perdita.

And the Executioner, well, sometimes he's just fun to put on the table. He's a big fat target, but he looks cool.

He's a 100% more dressed though

You've absolutely got me there.

As a long-time Sonnia player, I'd also recommend the Convict Gunslinger. Nino or the Executioner is also a solid choice, just keep in mind that your mileage may vary with the big Ex. I've had several games where he didn't do anything but soak up damage; the times I've been able to screen him and get him in close he is absolutely brutal.

Nino is awesome, but it really comes down to your play-style. I've used combinations of all of them, and I tend to use the Convict more often than not. I certainly wouldn't call Santiago 100% better, and saying he's only two more points is like me saying Nekima is only seven more; you have to draw a line somewhere. I'm a firm believer in the Convict, he's solid for his points and fits in well with a Sonnia crew, giving her more ranged options and also some card control.

Can C. Hoffman hire more then 1 Peacekeeper?

You only need one. Especially with how Hoffman uses them.

:flowers:

'bout time someone said that. All of my local friends keep giving me constructive criticism and I just want unadulterated heaped on praise! Don't beat around the bush, just tell me it rocks and let me flutter about on my little cloud.

I'm not saying I couldn't do better..

I don't want to point out specifics, but the new Guild master is indeed a Construct master. His crew is obviously construct-centered, and the new constructs in the book should be well worth the wait. I won't spoil stats or anything, but he is different than Ramos in play and fluff, and his constructs will also require a different play-style, but should be very effective at what they do.

The Guild also got some additions, like the aforementioned Ortega, as well as some Guild officials and officer-types, to fill out a Guild crew.

To echo what others have said, GenCon was great, unfortunately our hotel was on the 465 loop which made it difficult to get much gaming in. I got some small conversations with Nathan, Eric and gang, and it is always great talking with those guys. I only spotted the elusive Keltheos a few times, seems like we were always crossing paths going the other way, heh.

You guys will love the fluff, very good stuff, and there are some very nice additions to existing masters, as well as the new masters/crews. I don't want to get too specific, but Rasputina made out well, as did the Outcasts and Neverborn. Don't play Ress too much, but their new stuff is amazing. Now I just need to patiently await my new Guild.

Are people actually trying to say that Sonnia needs help? She is my primary master, and believe me, there is nothing wrong with her. The sum of her parts and abilities is nothing short of awesome.

She and her crew have a high WP- not as high as Ortegas but good enough to stave off even the likes of Pandora. I've got a Pandora player who swears that she's tougher to deal with than Perdita. Not to mention that her Witchlings all have magic reflection; Ramos has to be careful who he shoots his electric bolt at, or he could get it right back at him. Same with Rasputina. And if I've placed them right, they'll be casting on a negative flip.

Her basic crew can handle any situation; you need melee, hard-hitters? I give you Witchlings, maybe even the Executioner to soak up damage so the rest of my crew is free to pound you. You kill a Witchling? Take two good sir, and if I get you down to one or two wounds you'll have a new Witchling to deal with next turn. You need ranged? I give you Samael, who can out the most heavily-armored foes all by himself. You simply cannot ignore him at range. Or maybe I throw Nino in there as well. I don't even need to explain how bad that is.

All of the above frees Sonnia to play exactly as you need her to. You want to keep her in the back? Ok, fine, you've got Flame Burst, Flame Wall, maybe an extra one with her totem if you've got the right cards. You can use Confiscation to get the suit, and you should have plenty of Soulstones to use to ensure good damage flips and blasts.

You shouldn't be afraid to use her up-close and personal either, because she can do that too. Get her in the mix, throw up Inferno, maybe a Flame Wall behind your target(s) so they take damage no matter what they do. You've got the Disassemble trigger if you need it, or you can do some hand control, and healing yourself while you're at it. You can cancel spells out-right.

I guess I don't see the problem. I love Sonnia, she can play any style you want her to, and she's just as good against other factions.

Looks great, but I guess I never pictured Sonnia (my main master) as a 'pink' girl.

Very impressive paints.

Eric, that looks awesome. Can't wait to see your usual epic paint on him.

I feel they are very effective fighters even if there's no forest to provide.

They are also models clearly designed for high synergy with one master that actually can provide them forest.

Additionally, Malifaux does allow for crew modification based on terrain and strategy. Terror Tots, Silurids etc. all are situational for some masters and basic choices for others. There's nothing wrong with Waldgeist being more or less a basic choice for Lilith and only a situational choice for other masters.

Last but not least, the terrain rules in this game pretty much ensure you can get one forest on the table. If your shop doesn't have one and you want to play your Waldgeist, build your own portable forest and add it to the pool whenever you play. Only one bad thing can happen and that's the opponent taking the forest first and placing it on the edge of the map, so you have to get there first and then spend some turns to move the forest in the right place. There's pretty much no other way to stop you from placing the forest where you want (if he stops placing terrain before you get the forest, you still get to place 1 area terrain according to the rules).

You're missing the point: Right now there is no restriction on a forest, so if I place a 10x10, or 10x4 piece of forest, I can move that around. Moving terrain on the table causes more problems than is worth it, especially when there is no limit to the size of the forest.

As it is right now the Waldgeist is way overpowered for its cost. My solution doesn't cause any terrain issues, as the forest is an aura surrounding the Waldgeist, so you don't have any nasty placement issues, and no arguments about forest size or placing the terrain at weird angles to pull some crazy stunts.

I always thought a better solution was to give the Waldgeist something like Illusionary Forest, like a 3" forest aura, instead of relying on shops/gamers to provide the proper-sized forests.

That way terrain doesn't move, but if there are no forests on the table you can still take a Waldgeist and have them be effective. That also should eliminate huge forest shenanigans.

Versatile is not the word I'd use with Marcus. Underwhelming is probably better. I'm not the most experienced Marcus player out there, but I really think he should probably be looked over for some improvements.

For one thing, he can only buff himself. Why not allow these buffs to apply to beasts? All that he can do to beasts is heal them, or maybe pull off an Alpha, but getting that close is generally not a good thing for Marcus, unless you have beast support. And if you have to clump beasts together to take advantage of his or Myranda's healing abilites, you're not taking advantage of the beasts abilities, which work better in coordination and space.

I dunno, just some thoughts. I've not been able to play a game where I thought Marcus pulled his own weight, but maybe that's my inexperience with him.

I'll be there, and I should have at least my Sonnia crew with me (fully painted is another story).

Unfortunately I wasn't sure I'd have the schedule to help with demos, tournaments or the booth, so I'll just be another visitor this year. Hope I still get to hang out with the Wyrd crew at least for a little bit, as they're awesome guys. Meeting some of the forum guys is an added benefit.

Give me Native Americans. I thought they'd be cool as natives who were brought into Malifaux and then were warped by Soulstone, their medicine men claiming powerful magic from dark resources. They'd make good Outcasts, or maybe even a faction of their own.

Sure, now imagine that list if the canines don't have graverobber.

The dogs were certainly the major culprit when I mentioned offending models. I am still sorely disappointed, and I don't even play Nico/Res.

Or converting those almost-dead models into Stalkers. Nice to use on those 'hard to kill' models.

Yep. Would've preferred that they fix Graverobber and offending models instead of completely removing the trait, but alas.