rancor709

Its almost here, Like a Ninja in the night the Michigan Open

Love the folded wings the spread wings will be a pain to transport but make for a great paint project

- Cheatedfates Joe - Super friendly guy and a blast to play against. He gave me the tightest, scariest and hardest game of the weekend with a "Joel Henry styled" Lilith. I took his suggestion of going to Portello's from his podcast but he kindly informed me in person that I failed the duel because I didn't also get the chocolate cake shake. I burned a stone and flipped for a Maxwell Polish and a shake on my way home. Glad to have met you.

Guilty as charged. Was a lot of fun Glad you got the shake on the way home!

We have a large group that Plays out a wixom, mi at Flat Land games. 

Her spoon doesn't look that big. Kinda of a disappointed. -sarcasm

Be very excited when she is all plastic

The game is best balanced at 50. 40 ss you'll see a slight boost to summoning masters. I have little trouble getting 50ss game done in an hr and a half. Ideally we can get everyone to improve speed of play

The Fated player always flips. The way to look at it:

 

The Fated player flips to attack the Non-Fated Characters defenses

The Fated player flips to defend against the Non-Fated Characters attack

 

The Fated player flips for damage if any.

Great explanation 

I for one from a playstyle stand point like making the flip very important. Its something it helps when your taking a model like the Doppleganger who directly can affect said flip in your favor. But i play fairly aggressively. But as stated it depends on your playstyle, your opponents playstyle and the board state at a given time. First turn it doesn't matter at all. Mid game it can matter a lot. however as stated if you have some burnable activations, it matters a lot less.

What do you do with this information after you collect it?  Do you ever act on it?  What could you foresee yourself using it for?

Mainly I use the info too see if someone is a problem or is having a problem. I have thankfully not had a situation where I had to act on something. i did have one instance were after the game I spoke with a player about what they had written and then spoke with the other player again this was during a break and away from the group. The main reason I do it is as a node to sportsmanship and to make sure players have a voice if there was a non positive experience and they don't feel comfortable coming to me directly about it. I walk my events and obscure each player as matter of course keeps me from falling asleep, so I get a gauge of player demeanor.  As far as keeping don't really look at it post event if positive remarks were on there which with one small exception they have been.

The NASM eats thunder and Craps Lighting its right in the picture. Were going to need a bigger boat.

We don't have sportsman ship specific awards at events I run. But I do have a sportsmanship survey on the score sheet for each round. It consists of 3 questions

Would I play my opponent again?

Did my opponent Follow the will wheton rule?

Did I have fun?

Each have space for comments should a player be inclined. 

There are no tiers only zule, The steps between masters are very small and the inclusion of certain models in your list can also help against some faction based themes far more so then a specific master. Masters are all good there is no constance blaze for you WMHordes converts. And there is no haley2 either the difference between the top and the bottom is a mouse fart. 

a little bit of both, Neverborn has a lot of incredibly powerful masters, I find them and ressers to have some of the strongest masters in the game.

Having played a lot of both Ressers and Neverborn. I agree that this faction may on the whole have the masters that do the most for there crews in comparison to other factions. They are all on the higher end of the active spectrum of masters. Resser masters tend to have the highest support elements, and the largest wound piles and dmg mitigation abilities. And Neverborn have the highest defensive levels/defensive abilities to avoid getting hit while having low wound count. 

I can see how a lot of people are viewing "hyper-competitive" play as detrimental to the well being of the community - and I totally understand that. Whenever you see a hobby/game or whatever else, there is a "soft" and "hard" aspect of it. In Malifaux, I believe that right now the community is mostly "soft" (no negative connotation) - as in, people are here to have fun and have a good time and be nice and build a community and friends. A perfect example of the soft side of Malifuax is A Wyrd Place podcast and facebook - genuine lovers of the hobby and the game. However, compare a game like Malifaux to a game like Magic (where "hard" play is a necessiyt in tourneys) or even players such as the author of the "deception" article in last month's Chronicles. As a game like Malifaux builds community you are going to start attracting hyper-competitive players (yours truly) due in no small part to just how good and complex of a game Malifaux is - this is unavoidable. My hope is that the soft part of Malifaux doesn't erode as the army of neckbeards descend on this great game. I am absolutley a competitive player at heart, but I am consciously aware of the state of the Malifaux community and I think its great. I won't be the one to change it. Regardless, if this community continues to build there will be more and more competitive players "invading" your hobby and hopefully you can accept this reality and still find enjoyment in the game (story mode, hardcore, and enforcer brawl is for "fun" right?) Remember that super competitive people find the same enjoyment in strategy and winning that you find in the hobby and community of the game - they are just a different sort of people and enjoy the game in a different way that might conflict with your enjoyment - this should not instantly make that person a d-bag. I find myself lucky in the sense that I have no problem fitting in and facilitating the community of the game while still trying to maximize my face-smashing when possible. I've never had an opponent be upset with my conduct or my gameplay - if they were, after all, I would have no one to play with. The art to deception, after all, is that your opponent doesn't know you did it. Be a nice person and keep your shadyness to yourself - its unfortunate that most competitive players are unaware/uncaring of of the needs and goals of most casual players, and vice versa.

Even if you don't agree with my statements then at least be aware that there are "jerks" like me lurking around scotuing the field, as it were.

Having said that, I believe the "best player" is the one who maximizes on every single conceivable advantage in addition to being particularly gifted at playing the game (reading articles/strategy and listening to podcasts and battle reports etc.). A Player won't win on shady principles alone - its an extra tool in addition to developing advanced tactics and knowledge. Perhaps you and your opponent are so close in skill that all you needed was that extra push - one thing that he didn't take into consideration - that gave you the advantage. Letting "luck" dictate the winner in this example would be even worse than one player just simply happened to know more than the other. Furthermore, if Player A had advanced knowledge of a majority of the models/aspects of the game whereas Player B is a newer player who plays casually. Player A would almost certainly win and this would almost certainly not be considered cheating yet he still possessed a tremendous advantage that Player B did not have. I would propose that this is unfair but legitimate.

I believe that pre-game scouting is unfair but legitimate.

This would be no different than utilizing psychology on an unknowing opponent - you have one gamer who is critiquing everything that everyone else is doing at all times and another gamer who plays for fun or shows up drunk or just plain doesn't have a battle plan until he reaches the table. Not everyone pays attention to "tells" and psychology - those who do have an advantage not unlike my pre-game scouting. Yet this usually goes undetected or is just absentmindedly dismissed.

TL;DR - Tournament play is a huge grey area. Try to get what you want out of the game and try not to hinder others in their same quest.After reading many of his posts I have no doubt that if Icemyn and I played each other without previously knowing who we were, we would have a really fun and great game.

------

A few extra points:

Observations such as "a full bag of neverborn" are more telling than you think. Unless I had reason to believe otherwise, I would assume that you are a person who plays all over the place and although you have played most/all of the masters you are probably not particilarly knowledgable of any in particular, and if you are - its only one or two with the others being "for fun." I would try to make a particilar point of seeing which masters you field more often, if I felt it necessary. Regardless, deducing your opponent is so much more than just one simple point such as master selection. There are lots of other questions that can reveal the characteristivs of a player that people don't even think of necessarily - Are your opponents models painted well? Did he paint them himself? How concise are his lists? What is his temperment? How seriously does he take the game? Blah blah blah. A "full bag of [faction] player" is not exempt from scrutiny - there is psychology is everything that a person does.

"Really needing to win that starter box" has nothing to do with it. Clearly this statement, if made seriously, is made by a person who is not a competitive player. Winning for winning's sake is what its all about, regardless of prizes or placement. This mentality is often not reserved solely for "wargaming" - this is a broad way of viewing practically everything. Competitive people are competitive by nature and this spans their personal and professional life in addition to the wargaming hobby they might have, most of the time. Like I said before, you play to have fun but my fun comes solely from winning. Hopefully casual and competitive players can one day appreciate and understand these two kinds of people without instantly laballing the other party as d-bags. Besides! If you are a casual player who righteously stomps a neckbeard and makes him nerdrage - is that victory not doubly worth it!?

And that's all I have to say about that.

Hi My Name is Joe and I am a Competitive Person and competitive player.  First and foremost there is really no wrong way to enjoy the game or enjoy a portion of the community. At the end of the day were all playing with little toys on a field but doesn't mean it doesn't matter to us on some base level. For myself Malifaux allows me to exercise the problem solving portions of my brain along with the spacial and creative portions that always can use additional exercise. And tournament play and tournament observation are something to keep in mind. Think of your local group that you play with, I bet you know what your opponent is bringing more often then they do, this comes from repeatedly seeing the types of list they take, the style they play and just talking the game with them. Given a large enough time frame you will begin to subconsciously build against them as over time your choices will be influenced by your opponents tendcenices. Spectre brings up some bits about observation in a tournament environment I think that's part of the game. At a tournament I put what I'm bringing that day on my tray, you can see what may be coming at you if you want to burn time doing that. Malifaux is a balanced enough game even if you think you've teched enough against me, I'm confident in having the tools to not be utterly screwed by that. Its one of the reasons I talk about what I'm doing on the show. I'm confident enough even if you know what I'm going to do you'll have an issue stopping all of it. I'm a firm believer as Spectre says that the best player is the player that uses all of the information legally available to there advantage the best on that day.  Spectre brings up the psychological aspect of the game, absolutely something to be though about at high levels. Even the coloration of your models may indicate something about there implied importance. The greater you can understand the information available the greater you can utilize it for advantage. 

Spectre makes some excellent analysis about myself from the words on my show. Yes I do have the most experience with dreamer, and I have the second most with Pandora. Making the conclusion that I would be likely to drop either in certain match ups is a great call as I have the most comfort with them. Okay so how does Spectre make that an advantage, well he can wisely bring high wp models. My counter argument is knowing what type of masters are in the faction will also naturally lead you to taking high WP models. And a greater understanding of what is popular in the ubiquitous meta can also give great indications of what to build against.  

I don't think I've ever played Spectre but just based on his posts, I look forward to adepticon and hope to see him across the table.

Honestly depends on the strategy, the scheme pool and the opponents faction declaration. For me I feel most comfortable regardless of match up pkayung, nicodem, lilith, raspy, lady j, mei feng, and von schill

Hanged, flesh constructs I like having 2. Punk zombies best way to get is with nicodem box.

To give you what your asking for I'll try and sum the faction up as to the flavor of play overall.

Gremlins - are your horde style faction having lower cost models base models supported by some bigger hitters. Gremlins have very strong triggers that can also true to theme hurt them almost as much as the opponent. Gremlins aren't an overly consistent faction and can run very hot and cold. That's not to say They can't win and win consistently it's that there abilities aren't reliable. But over the course of the game enough is reliable to affect the outcome once you get used to it.

10 thunders - Asian theme. Game play wise the faction has a heavy melee focus with support shooting elements. This crew tends to run elite and may find itself out activated. It has high dmg output and play style is radically changed by which master is chosen.

Outcasts- high dmg low model count is the primary theme of the outcasts play. Featuring hard hitting masters and slightly discounted specialists that other factions are paying an extra stone 4. The outcasts play is determined by the master chosen but the game plan of high burst dmg and elite crew is common with a few exceptions. Outcasts can play the ranged or melee game very well. Features some truly unique play styles within the game

Seriously Omen everytime you Talk about Somer you bring me closer and closer to buying him.

Neverborn-Insidious Madnesses

Arcanists- Snow Storm

Ressers- Shikome

Gremlins-Old Major

Guild-Peacekeeper

10t-Tengus

Outcasts-The guilty

This fear is only rational if you never intend to form Voltron, i.e the duet. They are amazing models that come with Armor, something that is hard but not impossible to get thorugh. The fact that they can dance together tends to make them even more of a threat after they scored you some Vp. its something you have to get on the table and just play with. If your getting them shoot off the table early your doing it wrong.

Gremlin recycling is best recycling.

Analysis of the picture indicates full rules for frying pans. Hurray

The idea with the multiple format entry, is that the finals will be in the standard format. As a result of playing the longer format Gaining grounds, you have more chances to get in, top 4 would go in, as opposed to the alternative formats only generating a single winner with chance to get into the finals were there playing a standard game. Gencon is a unique beast in that most that go to it have a full plate of options and being locked into an all day tournament isn't what people tend to go to gencon for. The idea of the smaller faster formats allowing entry is to one frankly up attendance at them and allow flexibility to people making schedules that want some malifaux play but can't commit to a 8hr block of there day. But for those that do take the longer block Gaining grounds, you have a larger chance of qualifying say we hit a the 32 player cap the top 4/32 is a far better chance than 1/32 in a hardcore, or enforcer brawl. 

This multiple format winners coming into a single finals isn't unique many other hallmark competitive systems use it. You've gotta win to get in, and once your in you've gotta climb the mountain in the standard 50ss format even if what you won was an alternative format. 

Yes it does, as it states that model the model being killed may not place them. Lady J is the model placing the headmarker not the Killed marker.  If lady j ever got an upgrade that stated she placed a scheme marker when she killed an enemy model, she would be able to do so as she is the one placing. Final Repose doesn't stop the generation of any marker, it stops the placement by that specific model. that happens to have died at lady j or the judges hands. or swords as it is.