Lictor

I just moved this weekend to Newcastle but it is something I am definitely aiming to attend. I have two possible date clashes that I must first deal with. I don't play as regularly as I should but I think I have recently ensared two new players from around the block to start Malifaux. Playing with newbies won't make me competition ready but I know most people who go to Gosford Good Games and they are mostly new still from what I have heard. If nothing else I would like to go just to see the likes of Mitchell, Vimes (Geoff) and Damian (store operator and Comp organiser) because it has been more months than I care to count

How many points are you playing? Things to consider in strategy - Ramos and Alyce both have a longer range than Marhsalls (12 vs. 10), and they can both fire three times with decent damage. Keep Alyce close to Ramos and you will get to play 8 Control Cards which is pretty freaking awesome. Brass Arachnid can Stoke allowing any construct in 6" to reactivate without penalty. Also pretty freaking awesome. Coryphee are Bulletproof and can't be charged, which negate both Marshalls and Judge/J's primary impact. Take Spiders!! Latch On will drop J's defense, and an Arachnid Swarm has Melee Master, so charge, and then hit 3 more time for funzies!! There is a lot of debate on whether Joss or Steamborg is better, they both have obvious advantages offensively and defensively, so read thoroughly, read again, make a decision, doubt yourself, read again and post more questions for our opinions, disregard our opinions, take either one and spend the whole match wishing you had the other. My last Ramos game I took both Joss, SBE and Alyce and the BA against a Lady J, Judge, 2 GG and 2 DM. My opponent had Slaughter and I had Treasure Hunt. No Schemes. I wiped him from the board end of turn 5 (Sadly, I stuffed up and Alyce fell 2 inches short of my DZ, but I judged I would of fallen short and had the BA within range. I then forgot I burnt my 12 of Tome to destroy the last player so couldn't cheat the failed Stoke, but thankfully drew a 13 for a 7th turn). To be fair Alyce 2 turns in a row drew Red joker for damage against 2 Marshalls eliminating both. I used Soulstone with Ramos to rid both GG. Joss took out Judge faily easily because of Power tokens that added to damage and I had a better hand to cheat with than my opponent. Lady J sucks lol, it took 3 turns with SBE and AS to get rid of her, and again I was lucky that a Black Joker was flipped when J should of decimated my AS but it took both large constucts to keep her steady and deal with her.

If you are up against Pandora and all you got is Ramos then Arachnids and Gamins/Golem become your best friend. Detonate everyone around Pandora til she is dead then hope to Jeebus you got what it takes to finish your objectives lol. *mostly joking tactic*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Hoffmann

Another brother joins the fold.

We will just have to wait til Book 3 to see what changes have occured. When is Gen Con again?

An Obey for Beasts only. That is awesome fluff acceptable changes there. Excellent call

Not Obey, kinda ruins the fluff. Alpha (1) is a nice thought. Because of his Wild Heart skills I think Melee Expert is actually too much, but damn!! Would be awesome. Free Charge action + another 3 strikes. Oh so sweet. Fast would be fluff appropriate. Also essentially covers the suggestions of Alpha (1) and Melee Expert as well. *co-wi-Eric-nk-ugh*

I never picked up on that before; that he does not have the skills you mentioned... In saying that, his Wild Heart ability grants him a free charge/strike/+ flips... So it kinda balances out, more options at the cost of only requiring a 4 to cast it. Get a 4+ Tome and you get to use 3 Wild Heart abilities.

My apologies I realised I didn't explain myself well at all. I was trying to explain these are Masters in a Brawl together that are cross factioned without Mercenary. Like any Faction Master can hire Viktorias as they have Merc. trait. But for most that is the exten of their options. But this is combining Guild (Or specifically C. Hoffman) with Arcanist Masters. Arcanists benefit quite a lot with those who can buff constructs.

Haven't played with or against Dreamer yet but I fully endorse Ramos. Ramos can be a bit of a gun turret, but don't mistake that to be his primary purpose. Him buffing is where it is at. But as a turret there are some tricky things you can do if you get the right cards like Electrical Fire your opponent 3 times, summon an Electrical Creation. Electrical Creation gets to immediately activate from summoning and walk it "through" your opponents to cause 1 damage for every base it contacts. Companioned Brass Arachnid then Stokes Ramos reactivating him, who detonates the Creation (causing 2 or 3 points of damage at 2 or 3 inch radius) and can shoot another 3 times to clean up what's left. It's not too hard to create an extra spider a turn for the first few turns either. As I like having Card Control I think Rusty Alyce is worth 10 SS to hire into your crew as she gives you 8 control cards. With Alyce around it gives Ramos much more flexibility and also another ranged fighter with an impressive 12 inch shot on her that she too can let fly a lead storm. Ramos is also probably the most dynamic Master to have (at least with Arcanists) in regards to crew builds. He has quite a lot of Synergy with Rasputinas and Colette's minions as they are constructs so you can easily build a variety of combinations to satisfy your whims.

I think it is possible you guys are missing the point Mr Nybbles is putting across. These list are cross faction Masters beyond the Mercenary options. Imagine what two Construst buffing Masters can accomplish. Imagine a faster, buffier version of Ramos who has a better chance of keeping up with a Colette crew improving their Coryphee's and what not. My nerd senses tingle at such things. I just need to sit down and better study C. Hoffman to see what can be acheived.

I don't think he is awful. I just struggle to win with him... lol

It's not a bad read at all.

There was an interview with one of the fluff writers recently and he eluded to Marcus getting some interesting changes in Book 3. In Book 2 you will notice a stong Beast representation within the Ressurectionist group... http://www.twilightemporium.net/journal/2010/10/10/interview-dave-nerdelemental-bowen.html I REALLY like the concept of Marcus, so him getting a buff is appreciated, but I don't particularly like the thought of him gearing towards Undead status.

OH! Ooh!! Also important, Raptors causing damage on Tome's gives the enemy the Beast Characteristic til the end of the encounter. (Which is easier said than done as they have below average Cb). But if you can make one or two key injuries, between Marcus' Stare Down (Negative flips while Marcus is in LoS) and Alpha the potential is huge to ruin your opponents day :vb_devil:

If you are into speed you will love this guy and his crew. They cannot maneouvre like Collette's crew, but especially in severe terrain I don't think any other master or crew can be developed to match what he can produce for raw speed. As much as he is a 'jack of all trades', his weakness and strength is his specificity to any given moment. You can make him super fast, or better your chances to hit your opponent, or cause more damage to your opponent, but you can't combine these skills without being really lucky in producing extra Tomes for Wild Heart. There will be moments of glory however like if you can get Wild Heart a free Shilleleagh strike in on Lady J before she activates, turn her into a Beast, Alpha her into killing Judge before he activates and rendering her useless for the rest of the turn, pull off the trigger which increases the combat prowess of a friend which at that moment meant any of my beasts so it went to the Rattler waiting to go next, and laughing heartily as I know I may never see a turn this sweet ever again with Marcus lol. All in all he lacks being a brutal beat stick himself, but his synergy with crew builds like Myranda, Silurids, Raptors means you can move your entire crew in two turns. I want to run a game with him and the Student of Conflict as a Totem. Oh the possibilities of an extra AP with this man make him as dangerous as he probably ought to be. As much as he himself is not a beat stick, the Rattler and Cerberus are not lacking any luster in the combat department. Shikome and Rogue Necromancer are fantastic additions to his purring hoards and Wendigo's. I want to also see how well the Lawyer plays with this crew as the Lawyer has the Beast characteristic. And yes the Moleman is slow but you will find that since Marcus and his crew lack ranged weaponry (other then 20" charge attacks with leaping Silurids, Cerberus and Myranda borrowing abilities; which is longer than most guns and spells) you will find Marcus and his crew tend to sneak around behind cover. So the Moleman will tunnel in a straight line to where Marcus will eventually be without too much fuss as he is armoured like a Sherman tank. I like Marcus a lot. Although I think I have only ever won one game with him...

I know where you are coming from. I recently printed out the errata, FAQ, references and a few other things and now I have 2 books and a half inch stack of paper as part of my Malifaux gaming. And thank you Ratty for creating counters and things. My half inch stack is technically not quite that high when I remove all the things I need to cut out but essentially it feels like 2.5 books at the moment. Say's quite a lot about how awesome this game is considering the inconvenience of three reference points to play it lol.

What Rathnard said :laugh:

Ramos is a Buff Master, there is no doubt about it. But Summon an Electrical Creation into a group of people, detonate it, then use a Soulstone with Electrical fire and you will remove most minions comfortably. Thaehl just about under-estimates his crews performance however =). Ramos is a jack of all trades, but his constructs are very specific, and his talents support them so much further. Joss can potentially inflict 8 damage in a single strike (At work no rule book, hoping my memory is correct) Between Steamborg and Arachnid Swarm 7 devastating Melee swipes will remove most masters from the game. Paired Claws and + flips above a certain amount of wounds always helps. I fully recommend Rusty Alyce, a ruling in another thread stipulates that her ability 'Something to Live for' means having 8 Control Cards. :worship: I found the Brass Arachnid to be slightly over-rated as Stoke is too freaking hard to pull off, needing an 11 of Tome =/ Ramos and Alyce can also summon a crap load of extra gribblies reasonably easily to add to your force as well between Arachnids and Steampunks. With the new rules as well he has a few extra options to play with like the Guardian and Hunter which both look quite cool as concept art. He also has a very large combination of things he can take that have synergy with him (as long as they are constructs) so you'll always have options for varying play styles. I will stop rambling here.

She doesn't even require a Sorrow =/ I have only played her once using Rasputina in a 20 SS game. I destroyed Kade, Sorrow and Doppleganger by turn 3, leaving Pandora and Totem against 'Tina, Essence, Golem and 2 Gamin, the latter 3 in melee against Pandy by this stage. Pandy having survived the Charges then completed Assassinate on 'Tina (My fault for not realising you can cast ranged spells whilst in melee, and possibly the only rule I am against) which of course removes Essence. Danced away from combat and successfully destroyed my entire crew single handedly, without soul stones by this stage. Pandora is a machine!! I have a lot of respect for what she can do. *sad face*

Thank you for those threads Adran. According to what I have read in those threads a combo of Ramos, 'Tina, Kaeris and Alyce will equal 11 control cards. I love being an Arcanist :love:

May I inquire as to where you got this information? I have read Arcane Reservoir and don't see why it doesn't stack. They both say "Increase Crew's Maximum Hand size by 1 while this model is in play" Lol, and not to be completely contrary but I am also certain Rusty Alyce only allows you to draw an extra two cards but you must then discard down to your maximum handsize. Speaking of which from everything I have read I am also saddened that I do not think I can combine Rusty Alyce, Freikorps Librarian, 'Tina and Kaeris in a Brawl. It would have been awesome to draw 12 cards and keep the best 9 every turn. Stupid Freikorps rule *sad face*

Second problem is that in Book 1 it states that Brawls can only consist of same Faction Masters or Masters with the Mercenary Characteristic. Fail for Collette/Ramos/Hoffman combos.