Omenbringer

I would take a look at Som'er and Ophelia. Their starter sets, an extra Bayou Gremlin box, Slop Hauler box, and Piglet Box will cover many bases and overlap nicely. Add a Hog Whisperer and Pigapult and there aren't many things you wont have a good chance against.

Dem Pets is not an aura or pulse it is simply an ability that is gained from the upgrade.

I would hazard the guess that Marcus can use Feral to give a pig the Beast characteristic again.

My local game store may have them new in box. PM me for the details.

Biggest advice for Som'er I would give is dont try and bring all the "goodies" with him. To much support and you diminish his effectiveness over the other Gremlin Masters, who can usually do it more efficiently. He really benefits more from having staple models, though you can run him with a more elite build or even in the super solo mode to break things up. I personally lean heavily on the summon factory to do my work, though, so if you are looking for the more elite or super solo builds I will defer to others for advice on those. If you have any questions on the Truffle Shuffle, Pig Ladders, or Pig Boomerang, I am more than willing to clarify what is on the 1st Ed side of Pullmyfinger.

Just to reinforce the recommendation for piglets. Lenny can summon them via his upgrade, however there aren't any in the boxes you are looking at. Piglets are also very useful for increasing the mobility of the faction. Go to the 1st ed section of Pullmyfinger under Som'er to see the descriptions of the Truffle Shuffle and Pig Ladders. For the most part these are exactly the same in the new edition. The Pig Boomerang is a bit different due to the loss of Soeey access for Skeeters and Never Happen on the Hog Whisperers, but otherwise it explains some other concepts that can assist in piloting the piglets.

Pretty much agree with Brewmaster's recommendation, though would strongly recommend another Bayou Gremlin box to really utilize many of the options those purchases will present. So it will look like this; The Bayou Boss The Kin Slop Haulers Bayou Gremlins Piglets About the only thing missing would be a Pigapult but you can pick that up once you have really learned the summon factories nuances. This will allow a lot of flexibility in list building and play style. Where I disagree with Brewmaster, is that the Gremlin's are the "Joke" faction. Aside from a few funny named abilities and such, I have never really seen them as a joke. They are very competitive and have been from the start of the game, especially once you learn the nuances.

You wouldn't happen to live in a fairly hot location would you? Sitting in a hot vehicle can loosen the glue used in the binding causing what you mention. Aside from the option presented by Solkan you could see about having it spiral bound instead. I know it was a fairly popular thing to do awhile ago as it also allows the book to lay completely flat. I seem to recall that a lot of the "office" stores could do this for a nominal fee (Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, etc.).

I also like Yamiziko and the Archers with the Misaki box. She makes a good tender for them while also carrying the Blot the Sky upgrade.

Not sure what is up with your tone but relax, it doesn't bother you as is, fine. I am simply making a recommendation for an improvement. I did check each one of the models I referenced before posting, and they all came up nothing. Perhaps it is case sensitive, though mah tucket wasn't, hell trixiebelle came up with nothing more than trixie. The assumption that they did have instructions available came from knowing they were available to begin with. Additionally, there is somewhat of an assumption that each plastic model would have instructions available, despite there being more than a few that aren't. At any rate, I have made the recommendation and there is nothing left to really say, so see you in another thread.

@Santaclaws01. The problem with that thinking is there isn't anything that states that. With the complexity of the plastic kits. Making this section as user friendly as possible is important. I am not new to the game or the hobby, and many of the new plastics are more than a bit frustrating to assemble even with instructions. I am not alone in this either, a quick forum search will show many threads lamenting assembling the plastic kits. Additionally, the blurb that states "To see all instructions available, click here:" doesn't really show you everything that is available in an easily referable manner. All it does is take you to the first page of whats available, requiring you to wade thru page after page, scrolling down each page. Lastly, there are models that have instructions available when you wade thru the list, that don't come up in the search. Try Day Dream for example, or the Dreamer, or even Hide & Seek, none of these will come up, though the instructions are available. If it works for you as is, cool. For me it leaves much to be desired and is an area that could benefit from some improvement.

Aaron you bring up an interesting point that sort of proves the need for a better organizational method. Using the Instructions search prompt, I was unable to locate any of the Misaki crew or Ten Thunders Archers (used each of the models names). After wading through the entire catalog I discovered they weren't there. Needless to say, more than annoyed with that. An easily referable list would have been much appreciated and saved a bunch of time.

While we are asking for things, can the assembly instructions section be formatted a bit more efficiently. As is you have either wade thru all the options page by page to find the ones you want or correctly guess what they are saved as. I would recommend a simple two or three columned list that is hot linked to the instructions

My local game store still has a few of the pawn boosters available for sale. PM if interested. As for Lucius, you can try contacting Battle Foam and seeing if they have any left. When Puppet Wars was a semi-supported thing, they were the only method of getting him.

Well this link may perhaps shed some light on the original designers intent for Through the Breach. It was conducted after TtB was completed and shortly before he left the company. Though it is a more generalized in question and response, it does still offer a lot in terms of the designers thoughts. All I will add is a caution against blaming the Play Testers for many of TtB's idiosyncrasies, unfortunately there is not much more I can say without risking NDA violation.

While I agree that a lot of the mentioned models are not really faction auto includes (they are really good with some but definitely not all crews), I would say the Slop Hauler is fairly close to an auto include regardless of crew. There is a lot of utility packed into that one model.

My local game store might have one if you want it. I can send you their contact info if you want in a PM.

True, probably should have said mathematics wouldn't help with reading an opponents tells, knowing how to bet and draw the stakes out, knowing when to fold before losing your shirt, etc.

I definitely prefer the specialized approach to skills. I think the issue the OP may be having is in the concept of what that skill point really means. Every character already has access to a base value for every available skill. This is represented by the associated aspect value, which is always utilized. Basic uses of the skill, i.e. low TN duels, can be accomplished with just the aspect value and a moderate flip from the deck. What the dedication of a skill point represents is the higher education in the skill. Aside from adding its points to the duel total, increasing the odds of success, it also allows cheating. These together make it much more likely the skilled character will succeed, though an unskilled character still has a decent chance in most situations (i.e. when not requiring precise expert knowledge). Using Gambling as an example, there is a huge difference between being able to cheat cards against a bunch of half drunk miners with only a casual understanding of the game (likely with just a decent associated aspect value and decent flip), and trying to cheat Doc Holliday or a professional poker dealer (likely requiring not just a decent aspect value but skill and luck as well). Giving further support toward separating the skills, Mathematics wouldn't really be of value in this situation as it deals with knowing the odds of drawing cards, not the much more dextrous endeavor of introducing cards from a sleeve or pulling a marked card out of the deck. In the end, really it is more of a preference thing than anything else. You prefer one style, while there are likely just as many that prefer the current approach.

I would agree that Trixiebelle really isn't that great with Som'er, he has so many other better options.

Consider deploying the Katanaka Snipers way up field to start punishing the summon factory before it really gets started. If you are going to activate them early then focus on killing the Slop Hauler, if going later then focus on the wounded Bayou Gremlin's. Both of these will dramatically slow the summon factories potential and go a long way toward pulling its teeth. I disagree quite a bit with the parts mentioning Hard To Wound and Armor as viable counters to gremlin aggression. These may work outside of the summon factory (especially with more elite crews), but within it they aren't so effective. The low minimum damage just encourages the Gremlin player to focus on hitting often (ties still succeed), instead of particularly well (which Bayou Gremlin's aren't particularly likely to do anyway, even with cheating). When only one model is doing this it isn't so imposing, however, when 4 or more Bayou Gremlin's each focus on the same target the hits add up quickly. Hard to Wound actually helps quite a bit as well by increasing the odds the Red Joker will show on one of those many damage flips (due to adding even more to the damage flip), not to mention increasing the likelihood and speed of cycling the deck and possibly reintroducing that Red Joker to the mix. I am sure some will disagree with me, but it has rarely failed me, especially with enough Bayou Gremlin's contributing. I would parrot the recommendation to replace the Wastrels with something else instead. I would look at the Torakage with the actions granted from Smoke and Shadows upgrade instead. They can hide from the Gremlin hordes and then pop out in the action. This of course depends upon how you want to run Misaki, Stalking Bisento or Disguise. If facing the summon factory focus on the lowly Bayou Gremlins. They wont be difficult to kill most times, especially if injured, moderate damage from Misaki will kill them in one go regardless. Once they are gone, Som'er can only summon Piglets (and then only thru his melee trigger). Without access to cheap disposable Bayou Gremlin's that can relent the attack and increase the likelihood of dying to weak damage flips from Som'er, it wont be happening as often. After that the Slop Haulers are good targets as a lot of Gremlin abilities are predicated upon hurting themselves to increase effectiveness. Misaki is actually fairly well equipped to counter the loss of a control hand. She has a high WP and the Katanaka Snipers come with built in modifiers on the attack. The Ten Thunders models also have decent combat stats, high enough to function well even without access to cheating. Dont be afraid to burn Soul stones to prevent it from happening, since once they are gone her melee strikes benefit. Hope that helps a bit.

The method I utilize is volume of shots (from cheaper models), though with the list you have up there your more likely going to use the Dumb Luck trigger. That of course makes the loss of a Slop Hauler's Healing a lot more apparent.

I have a local game store in Cleveland that has a lot of the metal models still available. He is willing to ship pretty much any where. PM if you want his contact info. Fairly certain it has a lot more to do with the metal molds required for plastic manufacture than the scale. Having to use metal molds induces a lot of design limitations.

No limit outside of Rare, as long as you have the SS to hire them. Some less utilized gremlin builds feature that many piglets or Bayou Gremlin models.

Well if it is any consolation the two boxes of models you mentioned were early plastics for the company and well there were some issues with them (Primarily in scaling consistency and delicate fiddly parts). Newer kits are quite a bit better in these areas. I would say that Wyrd models are not really intro models, they do require a more advanced touch in assembly and gap filling. You could always look at the older metals though, as many of them are still available and much easier to put together. In truth a lot of them are even better looking than the plastic versions (a bit of a subjective statement of course).