Adran

I think the argument above is a very solid rules as written argument for 1", so I can't see a valid argument for 3".

Ice pillars? There was a time in beta reva counted corpse markers as hazardous. Very shortly afterwards the rule about crossing one or more hazardous marker only counting a 1 instance was added, as people were suffering huge amounts of hazardous when facing reva. Various rules have changed since that,but it was something beta did look at.

it is altering the initial action. So at the time you should drop a scheme marker, you instead summon a dove.

This is a trigger that has a specific timing in it so it does work.

I'm sure the intent was for the trigger to happen before the damage, but, as you say, the wording doesn't quite work. But it's a fairly easy thing to miss or accidentally mess up.

No. When the model is killed there is not a scheme marker with in 1". So it doesn't meet the requirements.

Every pillar created this way will only refer to pillars created by this action, not any other instance of rune etched ice. I think you are right, and by the timing and current wording the trigger happens after the damage, but that doesn't mean you get to redefine other rules to get extra advantages.

It's a free charge, not a free activation, but yes it is very strong.

Have you seen the Special order program? It is there to try and reduce the need to buy starters you already have. It wouldn't solve the watcher issue but it does solve the Melissa issue (if it is an issue). (And the M2 trend was master totem, henchman and 3 minions as well, with about 60% of the boxes meeting that. I've no idea why the Hoffman box was so different, so no idea if that's likely to remain).

The philosophy is fairly valid in that a good model for 1 faction might be poor in another faction. It doesn't stop you making a balanced game even if you can't directly compare models, because you can directly compare crews. Looking at M2, Arcanists had a huge amount of armour, and so a model with armour in that faction was not as good as it would have been in a different faction. Guild had a lot of guns, so a model for them that was a rare pick, would be a strong consideration in ressers or neverborn if they could hire it. So the comparison of blessed vs first mate can be interesting, but I found when I use the first mate in infamous crews, a lot of his good stuff is never used because people just don't drop scheme markers against them. where as December really need a fast moving model to be a very different threat to the rest of the crew. So whilst a December player might prefer to hire the first mate, they can't and the blessed is a good enough model for what they want/need. Whilst infamous wouldn't be interested in the blessed because they already have a very mobile crew, so the value of a mobile model is much lower for them.

Yes. Nothing in the trigger allows them to ignore range. (If they didn't have to be in range, then any model on the table could make the attack)

Target is a specific word in Malifaux rules. So the use of it in the trigger means that the trigger has a target, and that target is the model that was hit. You could re-write the trigger to not use target (such as change it to "models damaged by this action are pushed 4"") but they haven't.

This doesn't quiet work like that. The Action that has the hazardous trigger moves the model out of severe terrain as part of the action effect. You can make the dust clouds hazardous, but you need to have 2 enemy models in 1 cloud to still have one of them standing in the hazardous terrain

I don't know how far back the rule for triggers not happing is a model died goes, but its in every beta copy of the rules that I still have. (As is a functionally the same trigger). The M2E version replaced damaging the initial target with charging a new target, so also wouldn't kill the initial target.

CHi says it can be used on a duel. Gamble your life is not a duel. Focus also only works for opposed duels