pigi314159

I think it might be interesting to get a slew of "Unique" belles. I mean, I love calling my models on a name basis, love the flavor. (Kinda like a Dita or Ophelia crew...I feel like there's a lot of story.) So maybe....let's do a Kirai/Seamus mashup and have Geisha belle. Maybe focuses on getting close and is hard to hit before it makes an offensive move (ala Cassandra). Could either be the Geisha assassin or perhaps a true Geisha who gives the other crew some company and diverts their attention. (Although giving Seamus more board control would just be...wrong) ....prepare for mindseye bleach. Undead....Helga from the beer garden! It has been thought up, it cannot be unthought up. Granted, less Malifauxy than some other ideas around but.... I like the idea of a French Maid Belle. Can't really think of any iconic abilities except for maybe...Menage a trois...which I have no idea what it would do other than lure two models towards itself.

...at least according to sales data from ICv2. http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/20179.html Considering Wyrd is behind the juggernauts that are GW and PP, (and only having a live game since gen con 2009) I think congratulations are in order! YAY WYRD! ...anecdotally it seems like there has been a surge in popularity lately. I feel like there was a slump where a lot of us who used to play stopped due to lack of players or real life or being accosted by vicious Onryo, but I see a lot of posters on the fourms coming back to the game. Additionally there seems to be an influx of new blood, which is always awesome. But all I can say is, keeping on trucking Wyrd guys! ...and can I suggest the marketing strategy of increasing popularity and buzz by showing us Gen Con plans?

Let me reiterate the strategies train. Focus on what master is best at accomplishing the strategy you got. Kirai for instance, while not necessarily the best at killing everything (although I would argue not the worst for killing strategies either), is excellent for point based objectives. And the counter point, Rasputina and Von Schill are pretty terrible if their strategy involves walking across the board. However, they are both relatively scary when it comes to killing things. The game is more about match up and accomplishing strategies than straight up 1v1 killing power.

Also: Use her strengths. In my experience she is best at strategies that involve darting in, getting something done, and then going away. (Shared deliver the message is hilarious) Kirai is not as useful as Ikiryo in those cases and can sacrificed to complete the job. (Aka turn 3, summon Ikiryo and hope to win intiative turn 4 to accomplish strategy, at which point Kirai can die.)

Welcome to the awesome side of the force! As a rezzer player, it always makes me happy when our numbers get bolstered (both on and off the table.) Now, to the question at hand. Unfortunately, Kirai does not synergize well with any of other boxes. Her restriction of hiring non-spirits makes it difficult for her to use the mainstays of other rezzer masters. I have never personally run a hanged + Seamus list but I hear it works beautifully. This gives you some linkage between Seamus and Kirai (other than the she's a prostitute and he's jack the ripper thing). I can also tell you that I find belles to be THE perfect 4 ss model. They are durable, decent at combat, and offer superior board control.

Wasn't that for puppet wars? I thought that was for a completely different game.

Yay avatars! Can't wait to get McM, paint him blue and give him a tail! ....actually that sounds like a terrible idea. Perhaps a Wyrd staffer could be so kind as to answer this. Are there plans to do a closed playtest with this release? (I have no intention of follow up question along the same lines)

As per Gen Con Events page: "Experience the next evolution in Malifaux by sampling the newly-released Avatars during this hour-long demo session. Experienced players encouraged, all players welcome." As per Wyrd Twitter "Avatars are in the works, but will not be in book 3, sorry!! 27 Aug via web" and "150 days until Gencon! That means we have a lot to do, because we have a ton planned for this years show!" Slight confusion....but let the rampant drooling and stalking of Wyrd staffers begin! And...of course...cross your fingers for an announcement of awesomeness!

When running a demo game, the most important thing is that both parties have fun. Overwhelm the newcomer with choice, rules minutia, etc. and you will have lost them. My opinion on the to read or not to read is the happy medium. Major rules should be read aloud. Edge cases should be ignored. The words "I don't know exactly what the rules are in this case, but what do you think about it?" can make the newcomer feel valued and present a mutual learning experience. Also serves to remove you as the indomitable rules lawyer who if someone does something wrong you will smash them! For a demo game, I would first introduce the basics. Turn Sequence, jargon, how to read a stat card (often overlooked), and then how to do stuff. Once those basics are established run through 1 or 2 turns of just your goal is to walk across the board and smack this dude until he dies. After that, then you can do a more "demo game." I would pick a strategy (preferably one that does not rely on the destruction of your opponent). Keep the crews small (20-25 at most). Now for the winning or losing part...I feel the best demo game is one that is competitive. Both parties should feel that there is a good chance at winning. This may mean you pick a crew whose strength is not the strategy you picked (for instance, Raspy in a highly mobile strategy) in order to even the playing field. (This is also why I recommend a non-killing strategy such that the tactics don't revolve around who brought the more beatstick crew.) Most importantly, HAVE FUN. If you are looking up rules every 3 seconds, the flow the game is dead. A bit of showmanship goes a long way in a demo. Malifaux is full of dramatic moments where you just need that one card, or you cheat that big nasty in play. A bit of flair, a bit of sparkle, and a devious smile and clever wording can turn the game into an entertaining experience rather than a math problem about probabilities. So my two cents, whatever provides the most fun, do.

Using dogs with Seamus does create some interesting options. Dogs tend to be glass cannons, and with Seamus they can be turned into belles (2 soulstone swing in your favor). Theoretically the tactics with dogs would be to keep Seamus behind a wall of dogs (6" to be precise) and let the dogs pin down units in melee. Use Seamus to shoot indiscriminately into combat and turn whatever dies into a Belle. Certainly seems like it would be a good idea for some schemes, but you're wasting your time with dogs against Hamelin. If you want to target Hamelin you're going to need something of Ht 2, and dogs are a wee bit short.

Along those line... I feel a good expansion is the or as opposed to and. So...for instance..."I could do this...or this..." as opposed to "I could do this and this and this and this." Part of the charm of any game to me is simplicity and elegance. Combos tend to be obvious and overt as opposed to say...Magic's infinite possibility of everything it seems as of late. So to be more concrete: Let's look at Hamelin (as written in Book 2, don't have the box so I'm limited). His crew revolves around rats. The line of thinking of "Attack with a rat, attack with all rats, use rat catcher to kill all rats, summon equal number of rats, attack with all rats, etc." is a line of and, and, and. You are punished from deviating from the chain because you don't get max damage. I feel this problem shows up when a model only has one effective option (false choice between options as it were). I mean really, what else do you do with a rat other than attack? Another example, to a degree...Kirai. Walk forward, summon Ikiryo. Next turn, absorb Ikiryo, resummon Ikiryo, reactivate Pitiful. Granted there are some situations and strategies where this is not optimal play, but if you are trying to hit Kirai's scheme, why aren't you doing this every turn? Compared to say...my staple unit...a Rotten Belle. I could Lure if at range, I could Undress to set up another unit to attack, I could get in melee to provide screening, etc. THis is "Or...or....or" as opposed to the Rats "and...and...and." The difference to me is that a long chain of ands leads to unfriendliness to new players as you have to memorize long chains of actions and their counters. (Remember being whipped by your friend who played Mortal Kombat for 2 weeks before you saw it? And pulling off every cool move in the book?) Where as a chain of ors creates interesting situations where certain options are more viable, mistakes can still be made, but are not instantly punishing. How can this be done in Malifaux: 1) Create units with more than one viable thing to do per turn. I feel Book 1 was especially good with this. Book 2 started to deviate a little in some cases. Rats being the most extreme, but to a degree even Kirai. 2) Synergy between units should be done with more options or in chains that aren't as long/alpha strike-y. Whereas a Belle Lures then Seamus shoots is damaging, it is easily counterable and short in length. The rat trick, alp bombs, marionette swarms, a more complicated longer and frankly, to me, boring to watch. This ties into 1) a little bit as the best option with these guys is to initiate their chains of alpha strike. But for instance if rats gained the ability to say (not claiming anyone of this balanced) make it easier for Hamelin to land something on its target but cause no damage, it might create more interesting choice. 3) Increase the pool of mechanical and flavor fitting units at all point ranges. Having "standard" lists is a symptom of not enough unit choice to me. At 25 ss, here's what you see: Seamus, belles, sybelle, totem done. McM, Sebastian, dogs, nurse done. Kirai, datsue-ba, lost love, onryo, seishin and maybe gaki done. Kirai's is even enforced with her recruitment restrictions. While Book 2 attempted to remedy this issue with more units, some of the high point stuff is prohibitively expensive. Why would you ever field Snow Storm? Ashes in Dust? Molly? In their respective crews, at 25ss they are way too expensive. One thing I really loved about Book 1 was how many of the rank and file were mini versions of named stuff. Belles was mini Sybelle, Crooked Men mini Mortimer, Witchling Stalkers mini Cridds, etc. I think taking that same concept but to the new batch of stuff would be a nice variety. (So...for instance...a Belle that is so loaded with blood that she explodes on death. has very little combat utility, but can paralyze people) would help liven things up in crew choices a bit. That's my thoughts.

...my favorite kind of speculation. I looked at the calendar and went, HOLY JEEZ! When did it become almost May? Then I remembered the joyous and momentous occasion that happened on May 15 last year: Book 2 playtest announced. And given that on some podcast somewhere...I think d6...the Malifaux crew implied they might have Book 3 ready for GenCon this year I think the time right to begin the speculation and wish listing. Speculations: There is reasoning behind these other than "I want." 5th master - New Masters showed up in Book 2, no reason to think they won't show up in book 3. Additional Special Forces - explicitly mentioned in the Book 2 introduction that more would be showing up New Units to Help Balance - Happened in Book 2, nor reason to think they won't show up in book 3. Now, I feel speculating on what new masters might grace is a futile endeavor and Wyrd as demonstrated a thoroughly weird creativity. Although I would not be opposed to a resser with Egyptian style undead, I think it fruitless to attempt to predice things. (Did anyone seriously predict Kirai?) But we can reasonably deduce some of the other things. So: Additional Special Forces: Looking at the current release, Lucius is in decent shape, Kaeris is in decent shape, Collodi is in decent shape, and Von Schill is playable right out of the box. Molly, poor Molly, only has a pet three-headed abomination to play with. Conventional wisdom would imply that additional Horrors are needed to round out her crew, but this is an interesting point. Given Molly's hiring restrictions she has a full crew between the Rogue and a 3 belles (22 point crew right there). However, I think that there will be 1 or 2 horrors added to the arsenal...and my hope is another type of belle to make Seamus happy. But assuming they don't...does this mean additional henchmen? Now that Candy is all grown up does she get the mini-Hamelin treatment? Are there any other immediate candidates in the lore for the henchmen treatment? New Units to Help Balance: Raspy got her silent ones and snow storm. Ressers got disposable range via guild autopsies. Now this walks the fine line between wishlisting and having some logic to back it up. I am honestly not too sure if the new masters require any patches. Giving Kirai a more beefy spirit seems broken given her mobility and relative durability. Colette with Coryphee continues to cause nightmares, and LCB and alp bomb continues to be a viable tactic. (By all means, argue with me on that point. I will be fully honest, I have not seen Hoffman played, and the last time I saw some of the other masters was the day after I got home from GenCon). So I hypothesize that Wyrd will release models that do not necessarily bolster the strength of a crew, but instead give it more flexibility. Sounds good, but I am not exactly sure what it means either. I have issues finding deficiencies in all given crews that would be fixed by adding a new ability. But...that's what happened in book 2 so I say it will happen in book 3! (Plus...do we really think the Ortega family is that small?) So that's what I have managed to think up about future releases. Yea, yea...a whole lot of not a lot. I think my most interesting thought was that the addition of more special forces implies more henchmen. The easiest example is that of Kaeris. While a Ramos or Colette/Kaeris crew fluffwise works well (plus not too shabby on the table), Marcus, I would argue, as absolutely no synergy with her. So perhaps we get a uber Myranda to give our feral friend some help? So I ask you, what do you reasonably expect from Book 3? Aka what does Wyrd need to add to continue growth of the game?

Here are the Arcanist and Rezzers that are not already sitckied in their sub-forums. Tactica: Kirai http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14853 Tactica: Seamus http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15341 Tactica: Dr. McMourning http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15529 Tactica: Collette http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15883 Again, these are the only I am aware of. (Largely because I only check those sub-forums....) Please add other wonderfulness to the thread!

(Full disclaimer, I started the tactica thread on Kirai) I'm noticing some of the really excellent tactica for the new book 2 masters (and even some from book 1) are floating around in their respective faction forums. The real crime is that they are not stickied! I think these are excellent resources and really do not want them getting lost to the forum netherworld. These threads represent the collective wisdom of many different Malifaux players. I know of in depth tacticas containing troop analysis, tactics, and strategy/scheme analysis for Seamus, Kirai, Collette, McMourning that are stunningly in depth. I want to encourage the community to continue generating such wonderful gems and to kindly poke the forum button pushy people to push the right buttons so the wisdom of the community does not get lost. (Any omissions of tactica are unintentional. These are the ones I remembered off the top of my head without scanning the forums in depth and are in my two main factions.)

I have a hard time justifying buying the Malifaux bag, when the first tray is largely useless to me. I'm finding that I only need/want the second tray...and of course battlefoam doesn't sell just that tray or a load out with just that one.

How do you guys transport your crews around? Some of my buddies bought the Battlefoam Malifaux bags, but my general impression is that the "standard" pre-cut slots are too small (Seamus doesn't fit, Ikiryo doesn't fit, Kirai barely fits, Colette doesn't fit, Belles stick out, etc.) and that the "large" pre-cut slots are the actual size I need. I have a hard time justifying buying something that is not going to fit a good chunk of my minis. So what other options are there? Sabol...although I tend to dislike pluck foam... ...and that's about all I'm aware of.

1 more blister of seishin, minimally. Depending on what you like to summon, either blisters of gaki or onryo are in order. I favor onryo personally, so I could definitely use more of them. But in quick summary and minimally: Box Set 1 Blister of Seishin (2 is probably better) 1 Blister of your favorite angry ghost of choice (gaki or onryo) If you plan on going gaki...2 blisters would be a reasonably safe bet.

http://wyrd-games.net/program Is what you're looking for.

Book 1 models are nearly complete, and they have a decent head start on Book 2 already. I would anticipate Book 3 would be Jan-Feb at the earliest which leaves a couple of months of unannounced releases before then. As for rules issues, do you specifically mean errata or unclear wordings? I am of the opinion that errata is never complete as it is the primary means of rebalancing (and as more rules are added more rebalancing is needed.) Unclear wordings would be nice to have official rulings. One of the players in my playgroup suggested that they get a M:tG player to peruse the rules to figure out all the timing issues.

I've played a couple of games with her now and wanted to share my thoughts on what worked, and what didn't. :kirai Overview: She's not your normal Rezzer. She doesn't care about corpse counters, rather only that living or undead things around her are dying. This means you're going to have a tougher time against crews that don't contain living or undead things. Tougher match-ups would be Ramos, Hoffman, Rasputina (in a ice construct list), Dreamer/LCB, and generally anything else with constructs and nightmares as its primary hitting force. I often describe masters as how best to counter them. So in my eyes, Kirai is best beaten by concentrating all attacks on her and forcing her to burn minions and Wd to stay alive. Her low Df and relatively low Wd invite lots of attacks on her. As such, Kirai is best kept out of melee and surrounded by a swarm of Seishin so she can redirect attacks. However, she needs to be near the edge of combat so that enemy troops can be generating Seishin when they kick the bucket. Strengths: This girl and her ghosts are mobile. Holy cow. Between decent Wk, pushing models 4" forward with Ikiryo, Datsue-ba creating extra walks, and Kirai being able to both warp to friendly spirits and have spirits swap places, there is very little this girl can't get to. This is an extremely useful move when you do something like the following: Holding Kirai at the edge of combat, you have spirits in melee combat. Kirai activates and swaps out the injured spirit with a fresh one, heals it, and then sends it back in. She really can control the tide of battle simply by making injured units unreachable (...reminds eerily of kiting in Starcraft). Summoning is another one of her strengths. Unlike most Rezzers she does not depend on corpses being around to summon new troops. She can summon troops out of thin air (in the case of Ikiryo), turn your current spirits into better spirits (Evolve Spirit), and just randomly gets new spirits when stuff around her dies. Summoning Ikiryo is probably the easiest summon spell in the game, and throws a big beastie on the board that likes to eat people. She has lots of stuff she is able to summon and it is all pretty easy to do. Survivability is my favorite strength about Kirai. She can escape sticky situations but warping around the board. She can turn into a spirit to make wounds hurt much less. She can heal herself if she is in spirit form, and can eat her own minions to heal. Attaks can be redirected to friendly Seishin in base contact, who in turn can make her immune to AoE damage. Generally she is pretty hard to kill when she has all of her tricks about her. Weaknesses: Having said that Kirai is survivable, she does have limits. She is really only impossible to kill when she is surrounded by a swarm of Seishin. Once pinned, it she is being targetted by anyone with any sort of damage output she folds very quickly. Df 2 Wd 8 says "Yes, I would like to get killed please." Granted, she can redirect attacks to Seishin she is in base contact with, but, you will find you will run out of Seishin faster than your opponent runs out of attacks. You can mitigate it a wee bit withi Seishin Beacon, but you will still be suffering wounds either way. I have never felt more exposed than watching LCB kill all of my Seishin one by one and leaving Kirai completely exposed. Damage capability is any weakness of Kirai herself. She lacks damaging spells, and I pray she never sees melee. Therefore you are very dependent on your minions for offense. Ikiryo, Datsue-ba, Onryo, etc. will be responsible for killing. Kirai is responsible for getting them in position quickkly and keeping them alive as necessary. While summoning is a strength of Kirai, most of her summons cost her Wd. Therefore if you summong too much, you are handing your opponent Kirai's head on a platter. Therefore, troop expendability is a weakness of Kirai in a sense. Unlike most rezzers, she simply cannot just make something that just died stand back up. Stuff that dies around her turns into a Seishin, and it costs both AP and Wd to create something better out of it. Given that Seishin can serve other functions on the table, losing one of your own stings a bit more than losing a Belle if you're Seamus. I highly recommend healing your troops if possible as opposed to depending on fresh ones all the time. Crew Breakdown: Ikiryo is the manifestation of Kirai's angry spirit. She is a summoned unit, which is summoned on the measly flip of a 4:crows and can be summoned to a distance of 12" if you so choose. I favor playing Ikiryo as kind of an assassin type. She gets summoned deep into enemy lines and attempts to kill something quickly. Next turn, she gets re-absorbed by Kirai only to be summoned again later. Ikiryo is the one minion in Kirai's crew that is completely and utterly expendable largely because she can be resummoned over and over and over. She has decent combat stats and really should be trying to kill something as much as possible. Lost Love is Kirai's totem. Simply said, there is no reason you should not field this totem. It has utility that is simply too good. It makes Kirai herself expendable (incredible ressurecting master, hooo!). That alone is worth the price of admission. Plus an extra instance of a healing spell is always a good idea. Datsue-ba is my new girlfriend. Erm...scratch that. But yes she is really worth all 7 stones. She has good melee, plus she can attack everyone with 2". She is also a secondary summoner. Weigh sins is probably her best ability. You can hold her back, wait for something to get low on Wd, then blast it with Weigh Sins to summon a Gaki...or if you hit the trigger an Onryo. Another instance of healing, and she is worth her weight in gold. She can either be used as a melee beatstick, or a surgical striker that summons combat units onto the board. Gaki are an odd beast. I do not really feel they are worth the 3 stones to hire, but are worth it to summon via Datsue-ba. They are relatively fragile but are also relatively dependable beatsticks. I find their real utility is versus other rezzers and eating corpse counters. I generally do not hire these guys in small scraps and just rely on my summoning to have them hit the table. However, if you do get a swarm of them and hit your triggers....things die...hard. That may be argument to hire a ton of them, but I would rather have 2 Onryo rather than 3 Gaki. ...speaking of Onryo. This is Kirai's standard grunt. Ranged spell attack, decent melee, fun triggers for lots of damage, and able to force opponents to defend either on Wp or Df, your choice. YES PLEASE! You can get more during the game by evolving something and forcing Kirai to take wounds or if you get lucky with a Datsue-ba trigger. Coming from a rezzer, they are a bit pricey at 5 stones (....yes I think everything useful should be 4 stones thanks to Belles) but they will just about always hit the table. Because they are harder to summon I would definitely recommend hiring these guys into your opening crew. Seishin are Kirai's lifeblood. Without Seishin Kirai might as well just fall over dead. They are pure utility, generally sacrificing themselves to save your more powerful spirits. I found the most important trick up a Seishin's sleeve is to instantly warp to Kirai when any model finishes its activation. So if you have an injured spirit forward in melee, Kirai can swap it with a Seishin who will then return to Kirai at the end of the activation. Shikome I have the least experience with because we were playing small scraps and 8 stones is pricey in that arena. They can be summoned, albeit expensively, and their combat stats are marginally better than an Onryo. Their real function is to hunt a single opposing model until its dead, and they are very good at it. However, it takes a deft hand to not have the Shikome isolated and then focused down. Strategies and Schemes: A line in the sand - Kirai is not especially good at this one, but she is not especially bad. She can get to the center line quickly but spreading her out is a bad idea. It is easier to reduce the number of enemy models on the board and then go for it. Denial of Sanzu certainly helps in this one. Claim Jump - Kirai is very good at this one. She can basically just make a stand around the feature and hold out for a very long time. Contain Power - Not especially good, but not especially bad either. Kirai is a decent choice, but I think I would prefer Seamus or McM. Deliver a Message - Kirai is EXCELLENT at this one. Summoning Ikiryo really far forward is a really easy way to accomplish this one. If you summon her, and then win initiative on the next turn you've basically scored 4 VP on turn 2 or 3. Destroy the Evidence - Kirai is also EXCELLENT at this one. Using Ikiryo as a surgical striker to just make those things disappear is just hilariously fun. Distract - Again, not especially bad nor especially good. She has a slight advantage as she is really mobile and can dart around to face new threats. Escape and Survive - Kirai is pretty good at this one. Given the amount of healing she can do, plus most of her crew being spirits (meaning reduced incoming damage) means she can stick around for quite a bit. Plant Evidence - Kirai is EXCELLENT again. Ikiryo as a surgical striker is the way to go. Reconnoiter - I am of two minds about this one. She can summon a lot of stuff to cover all the table quarters, however spreading her out is a bad idea. The fact that seishin are insignificant also complicates things. I prefer McM for this one. Slaughter - I like Kirai for this one. However it involves pulling the advantage early. You can possible steamroll or get steamrolled. I like the risk though. Kirai has about as much as an advantage as any other Rezzer with this one. Supply Wagon - Kirai very good at this one. Impenetrable wall of spirits around the wagon makes it nigh invincible. Slightly boring in my opinion as you babysit as opposed to kill, but that's alright. Treasure Hunt - Kirai is pretty good at this one. She can get forward pretty fast via summoning Ikiryo and provide good cover for the retreat. Turf War - I like Kirai for this one too. Summoning Ikiryo into the opponent's deployment zone on the last turn is a brutal dagger to the heart. Otherwise, advane as a wall and kill what you can. As for schemes I favor Bodyguard and Death after Death for Kirai. Summoning Ikiryo gives you +1 already, which gives you a bit of a buffer. But between Datsue-ba and Evolving I think getting the extras is relatively easy. Betrayed by Spirits is also pretty easy to accomplish and should be considered heavily as well. Basic Tactics: I have touched on some of these before, but here are some tricks I think every Kirai player needs to have in their toolbelt. Surgical Strike and Retreat: Sending a model forward into melee, swapping it with a Seishin in base contact with Kirai, and then snapping the Seishin back. Setting up Datsue-ba: As tempted as you may to be kill something with a melee strike, if you can kill it with Datsue-ba's weigh sins, I would do that. Seishin saccing: Especially in late game as you approach the limit of Seishin, you should be saccing them to heal, evolve, heal some more, for soulstones, etc. However, keep a decent nuber around to keep Kirai protected. Isolate Isolate Isolate: Like every other crew, being able to focus on one enemy is desirable. This can be done through Denial of Sanzu and blind to spirits. Absorbing Ikiryo: If Kirai absorbs Ikiryo you get all 4 Wd back from summoning her, plust you pitch your two worst cards for two new ones. Playing with Healing and Summoning: Attempting to net 0 Wd loss when summoning means you won't be handing Kirai's head to your opponent. Generous use of Into the Spirit World followed by healing herself and then summoning, or absorbing excess Seishin, or letting Ikiryo go nuts on your opponents gives you extra Wd to summon big nasties. Crew List: Here is my favored 25 SS list that is basically the starting box (for those of us who are cheap and lazy) Kirai Seishin x2 Onryo x2 Datsue-ba Lost Love 21 SS spent, cache of 5 stones...and Ikiryo does not even count! If you go bigger, throwing in a swarm of gaki is a good option. Shikome would also not be a bad addition, but I would go with gaki first simply for having more activations per soul stone cost.

Here's another fun Kirai one. Send in a spirit to do lots of damage (I prefer Ikiryo). Watch it get beat up a little bit. Next turn, you can do one of two things. Swirling Spirits Ikiryo with a Seishin. At the end of Kirai's activation, the Seishin warps back to Kirai. (RETREAT!!!!) Otherwise, swap with Datsue-ba and commence harvesting sins! It's just great to be able to extract spirits and heal them and then send them right back in.

I would like to see a Prince of Persia-esque sands of time master. Probably Arcanist, probably with an Egyptian theme backing them. Think about it, an intrepid explorer finds an ancient Malifaux tomb, and goes in searching for soulstones. While inside, finds the scarcophagus of an ancient being and falls victim to its curse; the explorer will be erased from time. Somehow, he binds himself to the curse and gains limited control over time. I'm thinking as an interesting mechanic he will suffer more and more wounds every turn (being erased from time) but basically can exert lots of effort (read AP) to stay not erased. However AP can also be spent to makes things advance in time (suffer wounds and rot), go back in time (heal), or just buffet things with sand.

My LGS got their distribution order in today....no Colette .

Oops...my misread...it's what happens when you read late at night. Anyways...as to the saccing and resummoning, yes. Exactly as you said. Technically it's a "new model" when you summon it, so go ahead and call spirits again.

While I was at the con, and picked up Kirai and her lovely angry spirits, I want MORE!!!! (I swear reading the rulebook three times a day is the sign of an addiction) I asked my LGS when they'd get the new stuff and they said no definitive eta as they're waiting on their distributor (ACD.) Has anyone gotten their hands on new stuff at a LGS yet? Would you happen to know how they got their hands on it? Things are starting to pop up on online resellers (Warstore, Miniature Market) so I'm getting kind of antsy. Plus I'd rather throw money at my LGS anyways.