GTFriday13

Kirai can move 144" with 3 night terrors. NT 1 activates, double moves and uses (0) Flock Together to push the other one in B2B with it. NT 2 activates and double moves forward 12 more inches, pulling both of the others along with it. Kirai activates, turns herself into a spirit then switches with 2 of them (one 12" up, the other a total of 24" from the start). NT 3 is there to begin the whole process over. So Kirai moves 24" per turn for 6 turns, for 144 inches.

I really like Von Schill as well. While I know Taelor is a brick, with 6 ss you can have 3 really nasty threats on the board. And he is much faster than Taelor, adds some awesome range, a way to handle undead and help with constructs and his synergy with the librarian is awesome!

The biggest thing going for Malifaux IMHO is the replay-ability offered by various strategies and schemes. It doesn't matter if I have the same models or different ones, I'll buy scenario books all day long if they offer new and exciting ways for me to use my models. It's a great way to add variety for seasoned players without necessarily adding more complexity to play.

GTF stands for Gun Totin' Fool, since many of my first RPG characters were combat heavy firearms specialists. Friday was a name given to me by friends for a couple of reasons: I worked at the time at a T.G.I. Fridays, and I always did stuff with one of my good friends, who already had a nickname, so I was called Friday, in honor of Robinson Crusoe. 13 was a number I picked (because I like the number) for myself because our campus ministry in college had 6 Matts, so we decided to give ourselves numbers instead of just using our last names. So, GTFriday13 encompasses gaming, friends and church, 3 things that help define who I am.

The other nice thing about Gamin is that they are constructs. This means that if you kill one with Kaeris' spell that targets friendly constructs, they do Dg 2 from shatter and another 3 (IIRC) from her spell to everyone within 2" of the Gamin. Plus they are conduits and rather resilient for 4 point models. I understand the idea of playing models you find asthetically pleasing, but if you're being competitve as well, then a Gamin (and the EoP, it is basically an auto-include) is a solid choice.

The Victorias aren't twins, they're actually triplets. And Leveticus is trying to get a show on the Aethervox that features them running around his house naked together.

I agree with some of he posts that 1-2 ronin is enouh, but I really like misaki. I have used her well as a flanker or late game model. I would agree with dropping johan and grabbing taelor, she hits hard and is hard to kill. My suggestion would be to try to find a way to fit in either hamelin or jack daw. Both of those models can add some range and versatility to an otherwise very straightforward list. Each of them gives your opponent something pretty major to deal with one way or another. If you can take the desperate merc he would be good simply as a point filler if you needed an extremely cheap model. My list would look like: Viks Von Schill Librarian JackDaw Ronin x1 Misaki Taelor Convict Gunslinger

Is Bette Noir based on Bette Davis? She was a 20th century film star who was noted for her combative nature and roles in crime melodramas (Noir). Just a guess, and the time period is off, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Waldgeist refers to an anciet Germanic spirit that was a custodian of trees and forests. It guarded the forest and people who were "pure of heart." It was said that if you saw one, it was a sign of good luck. Ikiryo is the Japaneese term for a spirit that manifests itself outside of it's body, and is basically a spirit of vengence if someone has a grudge against another person.

I also find it interesting that no moral person should have these powers, rather than no mortal person

I just find it interesting that the avatars were changed for you, rather than you changing them yourselves (or so it seems). But I have noticed it creeping up throughout the day.

Don't forget that Hamelin + Viks can lead to some fun shennanegans, since the girls have an ability that says any time a spell affects one of them, it can also affect the other. Meaning you can obey one Vik, and it counts for both of them! As for other models, I really like Misaki, but I'm a rather aggressive player. My advice would be to get comfortable with all of them, so that you can play to the strategy, since different models do well in different situations.

I liked the batrep. I really enjoyed getting into your strategy and how that played out throughout the game. I love that this game is about so much more than just "move toward enemy model and kill it first." You made a workable plan and it seemed to go well for you. I really liked the rotating bridge idea, it adds an extra level of thought to moving your models around. If it were me though, I probably would have said that models on the bridge when it moves are pushed, meaning no disengaging strikes. Still, it was funny to think of the peacekeeper simply falling of the bridge into the murky waters below. Thanks for sharing!

To be perfectly honest, why did you choose those schemes? If you're just trying them out then I kind of understand, but they are antithetical to your match-up. One of the great things about this game is the order in which you choose your strategy, army and schemes. He was playing a relatively slow list, and more importantly you new he had 4 more SS than you did. Why did you pick Gather SS? I'm not trying to say you did a bad job playing, you won and hopefully had a good time playing, which is the most important thing. But my advice for you would be to think critically about your schemes and pick ones enhance your list or strategy rather than ones that constrain you. I'm not trying to discourage you or make you look bad. I hope you'll take this as an attempt to help you play better, as we should all hope to play better thanks to the advice on these forums.

@Ratty: I agree with your thought on Jack. For me it comes down to strategy/schemes and sometimes opponent. While Jack and the Librarian are the same points, I feel they fill very different roles. Jack is a ranged guy with debuff abilities, while the Librarian is much more Kirai support with a back up of combat. I do agree that if you take the Librarian then Lost Love is a must, but I think he's pretty good regardless of your crew, between keeping Kirai alive and throwing out the healz. @K.blaz: that list looks pretty solid to me. Playing with Jack can be tricky, so if you're just using him for the first time, allow yourself time to make mistakes with him before tossing him out. Firstly, remember that he functions best when he activates last (or almost last), naturally allowing your opponent's hand to become delpeted so they have nothing left for your Heart Stopper trigger. I honestly haven't looked at the IM with Kirai, but she does benefit from WP shennanigans.

I really like Misaki with the Viks. I often take her if I need to be speedy/aggressive and Taeylor if I need to be defensive. Putting Misaki and the Freikorps Librarian near each other on turn 1-2 has been pretty effective. Letting Misaki have +casting for her spells makes them more likely to succeed without using a card, and the [tomes] isn't used by the Viks for anything. That's my big reason for being careful about taking Jack Daw with the Viks. They both really want the high masks, and then you have to choose who to use it with when you get one. I like the Viks because with the right crew you can handle lots of different encounters: aggressive and maneuverable to defensive/stationary. Plus there are great options for both melee and ranged combat. The only place they really lack is good casting, especially damaging spells. But you can't ask for everything.

I like the idea of running the Freikorps Librarian with Kirai as well. She is expensive at 9ss, but I think she offers a lot as well. She has Arcane Reservoir, which never hurts. And with (2) Furious Casting she can throw down lots of heals, which means Kirai isn't wasting actions and SS healing herself. She can also use her [tomes] spell to give Kirai + to casting flips, decreasing the odds you'll have to cheat to turn her into a spirit or summon Ikiyro. And Block Connection is a decent defense spell if Kirai does end up in melee with Lilith or the Viks.

@Ratty: thanks for the clarification, because I was definitely doing it as just straight damage. @Buck Dog: Johan isn't bad, but I still prefer a Ronin for one point less. It's more maneuverable, has hard to kill, hits harder (+ damage flips that ignore armor), is harmless, mobile and still has a gun. Plus it has (1) Defensive, which is great for holding onto a piece of terrain/objective. Johan isn't bad, but without any other M&SU members, I just don't think he's worth it to be honest.

The specialist's damage when he blows up is a pulse effect, which the Freikorps are immune to. It would suck to lose the model, but he can't damage his friends that way. The box does very well at 25 SS. If anything I agree with Necro about the gunslinger. Or you could add a ronin for movement/melee ability, assuming you have one. Simply keep in mind that the 'korps works well at engaging and destroying one model at a time and generally by sticking together. When you spread them out, they become much less threatening and easier to kill as well.

SCARAB is a new convention in Columbia, SC that is in it's first year this weekend. I don't know about any official Malifaux support right now, but I'll be going and bringing my crews with me. Anyone else who is in the SC area who is going can look for me for a game anytime... just find the guy with the lightsaber tattoo on his arm

As someone who plays Kirai, here are a few things to look out for or think about: Taking a model that forces your opponent to burn through control cards is a good idea. Jack Daw, Hans or anyone else who forces the loss of control cards (or death of your opponent's models) helps since she is rather trigger dependent on her spells. Kill Ikiyro and make sure your oppent sees the rule that says killing it means Kirai has to discard 2 control cards, and that she only heals when it is sacrificed. Kirai only summons Seishin when the model who dies is within 8 inches of her iirc. Engage models outside of this range and she never gets fuel to keep her army up and running. Anything to push models around, or even just sitting back and waiting for your opponent to come to you. Remember that Onryu and Kirai both have immediate revenge, meaning that hitting them with a ranged attack (including a spell with the "gun" icon) will hit the attacker for 1 or 2 damage, respectively. Taelor and Johann both have magical weapons, and can kill most of Kirai's spirits in 1-2 hits, even on medium damage.

I've played a few games with him (under Kiari) and I think he's really pretty good. He adds some nice range, really useful for Ress. crews who seem to be lacking in that dept. His ability to force opponents to discard control cards/ss (or lose models) is really neat as well. It helps a lot when your opponent only has 1-2 control cards left and you have 4-5. The other thing I've noticed (at least with Kiari) is that his trigger suits don't really interfere with much of what she needs to do in a given turn. I've only drawn the black joker on him once in 4-5 games, I think that the odds are worth it for his other abilities. I think in general that his abilities are worth his cost, money, ss and discarding control cards. Remember that if your opponent really starts gunning for him, just let him die. It's a VP loss, but sometimes that's worth it to keep your own cards. I've almost always managed to kill at least one or two models per game with him, and he's certainly helped mitigate my opponent's abilities.

As much of a pain as it would be, I like the idea of allowing players to come up with their own abilities, triggers and spells. They can obviously pull from the book if they want, but it seems like just about all of the unique characters in the game have at least one thing that is theirs and theirs alone. In an official RPG I would like to see a list of examples and some general rules, but more along the lines of creating aspects in Spirit of the Century than something like the Hero System. Also, I had an idea for skills being set in ranks that work differently from just adding points... instead of doing stat+skill, each skill rank (up or down) gives you a positive or negative twist on your check. So you could have the Awareness skill, tied to the Intelligence stat. If you are rank 0, you flip Int normally. If you spend points in it, you might get 1-2 positive twists. If you take flaws/disadvantages you might have a negative twist to your flip. Situational modifiers to all checks could also be covered under the idea of twisting fate; the minis game does this to a limited extent with cover: it provides positive twist to the defense flip.

I was just wondering how other people have been running tournaments. Chanst and I recently got into the game, and we've been talking about some of the things that set Malifaux apart from other minis games. One of the major differences is in army selection. According to the rules, players flip for location and strategies before they choose their army composition. Then they pick their models and choose schemes. In a tournament setting I can see how it would be obviously difficult to have enough differing terrain to have each location type available to play, so having the Henchman pre-select the locations would seem easiest. But I was curious as to whether you let players flip for strategies, or if you selected those as well so that everyone plays the same one. My big question though has to do with army composition. Do the players get to choose their armies after they find out/flip for strategies or are they required to bring a predetermined list that is supposed to handle everything? I can see both sides of this argument and I was wondering where others came down on it. On one side, being able to choose your army after the strategy has an immense tactical element to it. Moreover, knowing what faction you're fighting against can also help you plan out what models you wish to take. In general, it's a very interesting way to do the set-up portion of the game. The problem, especially in tournaments, comes down to fairness. If person A has 2 of every model for their faction and person B has a box plus 1-2 extra models, then person A automatically has an advantage over person B when the strategy is flipped, even before they sit down to play. Is this mechanic, while awesome in casual play (or between players who have roughly equivalent model counts) worth shanking the "new guy?"

Another thing to watch out for is AoE damage. Cassandra has a spell called Dragon's Breath that has 5[blast][blast] for severe damage. If she targets Kiari (even if you move it to a seishin) it will still do lots of damage, and usually kill any seishin in B2B with Kiari. The Electrical Creation from Ramos has a similar ability. In general beware of models with blast, pulse or aura effects, especially if they are part of spells.