Hmmm, you may well be right. I had it in my head back during the discussion of the (at the time) soon to be released dreamer/LCB they specified you don't hire masters. Maybe I imagined that or misinterpretted what was said. Either way I can't find the post so I'm not sure. I guess if you DO hire masters you'd pick Kirai first then that would allow you to get the dreamer. It just seems wonky.
If you look a little earlier on that same page it specifies:
Kirai doesn't specify that she can work with other masters and the quoted text refers to hiring only after you've chosen your masters. Together our quotes make for a pretty ambiguous situation.
Ok, I'm thrown. How do Leveticus and Pandora work together? Or The Dreamer and Kirai? The may have combos that would work together but I don't see anything in the rules that actually allows them to be on the same crew.
Leve requires soulless, construct or other stuff that Pandora isn't. And while Kirai allows for the hiring of spirits from other factions you don't hire masters. That should preclude The Dreamer then. Has there been a ruling I'm not seeing on this? My understanding is that masters have to be of the same factions or outcast to mix. Is this incorrect?
Actually I don't believe you can. Kirai allows you to HIRE spirits from other factions but you don't hire masters. They are chosen before the hiring part. There may be a ruling elsewhere that contradicts this but I haven't seen it.
To be fair, guild are strong, versatile, and relatively easy to build monetarily. They are almost always going to be the force of choice. They are basically the space marines of Malifaux. Miniature light and very forgiving.
Free for all is rough. I've done a lot of 4 player multiplayer games and they TEND to wind up devolving in to 2 players gang up on 1 guy while the 4th hangs back and tries quietly to accomplish his objective.
No matter how you slice it Dopplegangers are great in multiplayer games.
Assuming you're starting with the box set I'd say you need a minimum of 1 more blister of SPA (for a total of 6) and a desolation engine. Split a pack of hollow waifs with someone. Again, I like Killjoy. Depending on your point level a 2nd DE. I like a canine remain or two for the extra grave diggers/cheap corpse counter for hollow waif generation. I play a pretty vanilla Leve list though so others might have more radical suggestions.
I like Leveticus a lot, but he is pretty tricksy. You're gonna need another pack of Steampunk Aboms. A Desolation engine. Maybe a pack of hollow waifs (because you want two). From there you are open to a lot of choices. I like Killjoy a lot as well.