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On Ramses earlier question about the Oiran, I do not see them as amazing models for guild. Yes, lure is a really great ability and one that has been lacking from guild, but Guild players have learned to work around this over time. I think this mindset among established guild players combined with the slot they are filling (the 4/5 ss slot), there are other models I can see being grabbed in place of the Oiran almost every time. I am sure that over time there will be ways they are added to crews that make them worthwhile. On Wastrel's, these guys are great. I have not gotten my actual models painted and on the table yet, but have faced them a fair amount. I really see 3 roles for these guys that work really well. Role 1 - objective grabber. Between secret passage, petrified feather, and Earth's elixir these guys make great objective grabbers. They are fast and either REALLY resilient for a turn with Earths Elixir or REALLY fast for a turn with Petrified feather. I see no issue dedicating 4ss of Guild models to securing a near guaranteed breakthrough or plant/destroy evidence. They also work great for RM Claim Jump by drinking the elixir on the final turn. Role 2 - Magical Weapons. Guild only has so many ways to bring magical weapons to the crew. The wastrel's are another model with paired magical melee weapons. This is really good for when facing spirits. Role 3 - Holding a point. This is the one model in the guild that simply will not die for 1 turn. There have been games where having that ability on a model would turn the game to my advantage. This is probably the least of thier roles in my opinion, but still could be very useful.

1. Are they Competitive? Yes, very much so. They have been used in a number of tournaments since release and players are finding the crew very competitive. Jakob may not be the same as the rest of the neverborn crews, but he certainly sits well in the overall tiers of competitive masters. 2. How are you supposed to compose his crew at 35ss level (actually at any level really)? The models you have listed are the ones defined in the current book as having brilliance. Beyond that, Jakob is able to use any Ht 1 Woe (Candy, Kade, Iggy), Sorrows, and Stitched Together. When run as a Neverborn Master, he can hire from the Neverborn selections as normal. How to compose your crew is really based on your play style and what your trying to do by Strategies and Schemes. Understanding the role each of your models can play is important. In my opinion, the models you list break down as follows: Jakob - Decent Gunfighter and mild support piece (DMH/The source) Huggy - Melee Beater Illuminated - Melee Beater Beckoners - Brilliance spreader / Ranged attack / Control piece Depleted - Tar Pit / Resource to resummon Huggy Mr Graves - Control piece / Back-up melee beater Mr Tannen - control piece 3. Finally, what crew member/s do you sacrifice when playing smaller games? Personally, my core crew is Jakob/Huggy/2x Beckoners. After that I add models until I reach the game size. I have been playing Jakob as 10T, so I am not sure which way I would go using him as a NB master. Most likely I would toss in some Stitched (at least 1) and then look at Coppelius/Hooded Rider/Twins as my next option. After that its really build as you like.

@HalcyonSeraph - that it, your got that spot on.

I can channel the best Wyrd accent and say: *grin* Other than that I do not know, sorry. I believe its still in the formatting stage to be prettied up. Harass your local henchman!!

Well, we have officially hit 20 preregistrations. I have heard of at least 2 more people who are considering coming but have not preregistered. Looks like we are in range for between 16 and 22 players on Saturday! This should be a lot of fun!!!!

If I understand what your saying, you group playing skill into your mistake category, which you determine to be less influential on the game than Initiative and Jokers. Thats interesting to me. Even in scope of two player at near-equal skill, I still don't believe that jokers and initiative outweigh being able to play the game. While Jokers are nice to see come up, I see mistakes in game play as a heavier influence than when that Joker comes up. And on initiative, there is often times I would prefer to allow my opponent to activate before I do in order to control activation order of models. I think that being able to out-activate your opponent with the proper models will always outweigh getting initiative.

My list is different from the OP, although I have to admit that it echos some of the other posts here. In my opinion and in reverse order, I think the top 3 outcome influences are: Third: Strategies & Schemes. This ranges from simply not paying attention to strategy or schemes to choosing the wrong schemes. Picking the correct scheme for your crew, your opponent, and the Strategy is fairly important overall. I agree that picking the wrong scheme can put you at a huge disadvantage before the game even starts, although I am not sure it completely loses you to the game. Add to that, all schemes are not created equal, some are much tougher to accomplish than others. Second: Mistakes. I agree that mistakes are made by all levels of players, and those mistakes more often than not cost you the game. Making a big mistake in the game can really turn the whole game against you. Mistakes such as misunderstanding the rules of the game are bad, such as killing your grudge target at range. Mistakes in movement or your choices in the game are typically worse, such as not sacrificing a Seishin to become immune to blasts when Rasputina activates. Being able to recover from your mistakes is incredibly important as well, which leads to my #1 outcome influence. First: Skill, Tactics, Game Play ability. I hold that Malifaux is more of a skill game than other miniature games I have played (40K/WHFB/WM&H). Skill take up so many facets of the game that I cannot understand how anyone can discount it from influencing the outcome of a game. Skill in knowing the rules of the game plus the rules your models have and how they interact. Skill in seeing the correct play on the table or understanding the right combination is very important. Being able to understand how my opponents combo's and crew work and picking those apart to my benefit turns a game much faster than mistakes or jokers. Skill in managing when to burn a soulstone or cheat a card, and sometimes the more important when not to. Even skill in understanding when to sacrifice the points from a scheme or let your master die to lock down the win in a game. All of these things add into the skill a player has playing Malifaux, and this skill will win out over initiative or joker flips every time. At least that's my opinion.

Keep in mind that Coppelius cannot heal any Neverborn models, he can only heal other nightmares.

Coppelius is not specifically useful to Dark Debts. He is one of the better Neverborn models based on his cost and abilities. I would say he is generally useful for any neverborn crew and well worth picking up!

That's fair.... still clocking in at 69 episodes to date though (started talking about Malifaux on ep 10...) *grin*

10 extra soulstones..... *grin* While I would probably run Misaki solo in a 10T brawl, I am pretty sure thats not what your asking, so let me answer with one of the masters. I think any of the other 10T masters would work ok with Misaki. That said, I think I would look at using McCabe with Misaki. He brings some nice ranged support to the crew and can benefit from the 10T models in the same way Misaki does. I think McCabe also functions better than the others with no non-10T models in the crew.

It also sounds like you have more 10T than guild, so go 10T.

I think the 2 host requirement should be lifted, as there are some podcasts (Gamers Lounge being 1) where 2 hosts are not willing or able to take part. On the less serious side...... The 20% requirement is nice for all you younger podcasts with only a couple shows all together. It really puts a limit on those established and real Malifaux podcasts out there.... wow. I mean, come on.... Gamers Lounge has released 79 episodes to date (not counting No Gamer Left Behind or short announcements) so the hosts only count if they have been on at least 16 shows. By that criteria Dan and Mike only made it to counting by 1 show. *grin* *grin*

Engaged models cannot make ranged strikes.

from the Rulebook 1.5 pg 38 As Jonas said.... *grin*

There are a couple options for this. Personally, I do not like Hoffman for the new line in the sand, although I can see how he would work ok. My choices are some combination of dogs, Wastrels, and McCabe. - Dogs includes Guild Hounds and Luna when I am taking McCabe. Guild Hounds are significant when they are near another guild hound, and they have the AP to move around and grab the counters when near each other. Luna counts for all the important guild hound abilities, but is significant on her own. - Wastrels can be very useful in the new line in the sand. Secret passage lets them jump up to the dynamite fairly quickly. Earth's elixir lets them guard an armed dynamite for a key turn very successfully. Petrified Feather lets a Wastrel jump to nearly the other side of the board if your opponent has left some dynamite unguarded. - McCabe can pull his crew forward along with moving very fast on his own. This allows him to get to the Dynamite fairly quickly and start to control areas around armed dynamite. It's also important to understand the rules for engaged models. I ran into this in the tournament I attended this weekend. If a model has a long melee range they are engaged if you sit inside thier melee range. This stops them from arming a dynamite just as effectively as your long melee ranges. This actually makes it much tougher for Izamu/Chompy/Lilitu and other models with 3+ melee ranges to arm the dynamite.

Promises Promises..... *grin*

Casting Lure is a Cast action for Sybelle. It is a Movement Effect for her Target (the target is not taking an action). ---------- Post added at 09:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:21 AM ---------- I would agree with all of this. Menece and Come Hither would be both Cast Actions and Movement Actions since they include movement effects specifically involving the Casting model. This is where its different from Lure, which is a Casting Action that only has movement effects that include the target model.

Link has an end time for the "Effect" applied by the talent. Specifically Oldest Magic does not have an end time for the "Effect". Per the Rule Book 1.5 (pg 13): Don't get hung up on the Oldest Magic wording around not being removed. Simply put, the effect ends, or is resolved during the Resolve Effects step because it does not say otherwise.

My daughter and I had a great time, thanks for running this!!!!

Scalpel Slinging is not a movement action because of the Errata. The Errata made it so that anything that "moves into base to base" becomes a place. Per RM pg 38, Place, Replace, and Switch are all Placement Effects. This makes Scalpel Slinging a Placement Action. Movement effects are summarized on RM pg 35, and include Walk, Charge, Jump, Move using the Walk/Charge stat, Push, and Fall Back. Any action which invoked one of those effects is a Movement Action.

and Terrifying becomes Anathema!

Jakob and Mei are a lot of fun in a brawl. Jakob can build up a fairly devastating hand for Mei to use on an attack run. Also, Huggy coming back from a brilliant Rail Golem is really tough for an opponent to see.

I am tied in my favorite defensive triggers between Riposte and Blinding Flash. Both are really great triggers for very different reasons.

Are we using the new Gaining Grounds 2013 strategies or the old rules manual strategies?