Serigala

Von Schill is fast enough to catch the Coryphee and with his anti-construct aura for a 0AP can take an AP from the Coryphee each turn. His gun is also 12" range, so will outrange most other models with a ranged attack. In short, he's probably worth it...

You can compensate for the slow Student playing "tag-team" Viks. One goes out on a killing spree, the other hangs around with the Student picking up Fast. Thats 6 melee strikes (or Whirlwind attempts) and 1 AP to switch places. This works very well with the Librarian, which also needs to remain fairly immobile to deliver the maximum healing benefits; both the Student and the Librarian tend to be priority targets, and benefit from hanging back with a Vik bodyguard.

The models you have are a great start for a Viks crew. Folk don't tend to get much use out of Bishop or Johan but Taelor is great at adding some resilience and extra heavy melee punch to an already strong melee crew. Take a look at the Pull my finger wiki (link below) for general advice about using the Viks. They play best, used very aggressively, using their movement tricks to pick off models with Whirlwinds, backed up by Ronin. Take the maximum cache you can afford - I often take 8ss, and never less than 6ss. The Student of Conflict can be useful - giving fast to one Vik each turn. You might also consider the Freikorps boxset. VonSchill is awesome - brilliant for objective capping, and can happily lead a crew in the Viks absence. The best addition to the Viks is the Freikorps Librarian, which can give both Viks 3 healing flips in a single turn. This helps keep the girls alive, and frees up soulstones for the offense.

A local player won a recent tournament with Nekima and Terror Tots. Boosted all the Terror Tots with Nekimas pulse and then had them do all the hard work. I think he might have grown a young or two but didn't bother with a mature.

Why not just ring to check....I've done that before. It can't but help ensure that your order gets bumped up the queue a little if you ask nicely...

Craig Its that process that most people do somewhere between thinking of something to say and actually uttering sounds (or committing it to the screen). Never seen much need for it myself.

Try this... http://mythicfox.com/blog/2012/02/05/glue/ ...as recommended by our very own MythicFox

http://basecrafts.com/ Run by one of our local Henchmen and playtesters. Their site is down for Salute, but check back later...

Don't forget the mini rulebook is available as a free download off Wyrds site. It has a few parts blanked out, but its got everything you need to play the game.

I started playing Warmachine after Malifaux, but I just don't enjoy it as much. Primarily, because in Malifaux it's always your turn - or at least you always have something to do. I began to feel with Warmachine that after my turn, I could hand my cards and a marker pen to my opponent and explain I was off for a coffee and would be back in about 30 minutes. I still see the appeal of the game, and there are many other aspects which are great, but as has been described above during a game of Malifaux, you are rarely in a position where you don't have a choice to make. Even 40k allows you to make saves occasionally!

It could see service as an alternative Stolen, or maybe Crooligan...

Viks also have magical weapons, which deal full damage against Spirits. I'd take the Viks and Taelor, a full cache and probably use the Librarian and the Student to support the girls. A good Kirai player is going to try and take out the Student and the Librarian first so keep one of those three melee models back to look after them.

I think its to do with the ambient temperature when the varnish is applied. I seem to remember folk talking about the conditions being too cold...but don't quote me.

The Librarian can be great. Though against anyone else who has seen how effective she can be at keeping the Viks alive, she does have a big target on her back. Playing against the Dreamer at the UK Masters I lost my Librarian on the first activation. Clearly the Dreamer player (who placed 2nd overall) didn't think she was a waste of points.

probably too late, but can you get milliput in the US? That can be watered down to give a very thin paste. I've never seen Liquid Greenstuff, but Milliput would do the job...

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?28303-The-Pockets-Levi-Diary-2012 Try this thread. Magic tends to get the best out of every crew he tries.

As always with Malifaux, it will have to depend on Strategy and Schemes! Convict offers board control, but once the rest of your crew is engaged in melee (which is where you will want them) it can be hard to find a target. Johan is tough and will hold an objective and his Relic Hammer is magical which is good against Spirits and constructs, but as has been said above Taelor is tougher.

For more strategy advice than you can shake a stick at, try the Pull my Finger Wiki.. http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/ Rasputina isn't particularly overpowered, and though you obviously like the Snowstorm, that is by no means an autoinclude in a Tina crew (due to its high cost and slow movement). The easiest way to adjust the balance in a game of Malifaux is by the choice of Schemes. If you are finding it too easy then try picking some harder schemes. With the models you mention, Power Ritual (an Arcanist only scheme) would be tricky, and would require you to send models further up the table than you might otherwise be comfortable. Similarly your opponents. Perdita, can turtle very effectively in her deployment zone for Holdout, and with Nino has the edge on Tina for ranged fire. McMourning does need to be able to summon models but you could always proxy some of the models that he doesn't have. Don't play every game as though it was slaughter. You can lose all your models, but if you complete the Strategy and Schemes you can still win the game.

For clarity the question is better phrased; "Is it a choice to take the melee strike or charge action if a suitable target presents itself? Or can the Viks choose to ignore the compulsion at the cost of taking 2 wounds?" We are all agreed that the 2 wounds are applied automatically if no strike or charge action is taken.

Both points of view are legitimate, and arguing further won't serve any purpose. Can I suggest you do indeed take it to the rules forum to get a ruling from a Marshall?

The Viks can be very effective when played aggressively. Link to the Viktorias tactica on the Wiki in my sig. From the list above it looks as though you were taking 25ss crews and yuu would have had about 3ss. I would never take less than 6ss in my cache - usually 8ss. This, even if I have a Librarian to keep the girls alive - the ss are to make sure that whatever I hit gets killed. Its hard to offer further advice without more details of your games, but as soon as you are playing with another player, it becomes much harder to judge your own performance. Be careful about including models with ranged atttacks. As the rest of your models want to be in melee you can find that you have very limited targets without risking a hit to your own models. The avatar might look great but from my experience it can push you towards suboptimal plays, so you can hit the manifest requirements. When it does manifest you are swapping two good melee models with 3 actions each for 1 great one with 5. In a lot of cases I'd rather have the 2ss in my cache. Stick with the girls. They will win you games...

The Viks won't have any trouble killing one of the Lelu-Lilitu twins in a single activation. Then the other starts taking wounds every turn anyway, and they lose their healing abilities.

Manifesting could definitely be a fun addition to the game, but in competitive play, it might not be the best idea. While hitting the manifest requirements aren't too difficult, they may require you to take actions earlier in the game which are sub-optimal (I rarely use the Sisters to buff each other - as I usually prefer the additional melee strikes). You are also paying 2ss for a model which won't benefit you until mid- to late game. Then when you do manifest you have 1 model with less APs and less wounds than the two models it replaces. With so many strategies and schemes being based on the number of models you have at the end of the game, you have also given up a significant model from a crew which probably started the game with fewer models than the opponent. So, while the Avatar will be fun, it will not be an auto-include or auto-win by any means.

Buy a Puppet Wars booster box. As official Wyrd models they are also tournament legal.

Yes. You have it correct. The model with 1" melee range can charge.