AgentRock

Continuing my series of articles on the Wave 2 models at the end of the beta, here's my post on the Guild. Feel free to comment and tell me what I got wrong so I can fix it. Happy reading.

Any word on what masters the winner was using? Is this two 10T Lynch wins for major UK tourneys?

I'm in on this. The link to my blog is http://midwestmalifaux.blogspot.com/. I'll give Hoffman a go.

I would have to guess because the 10T masters don't actually want to work with Gremlins. The Brewmaster just keeps showing up to stuff.

True, though I wouldn't put this with Lynch anyways. Since you can only have one totem, and, well, you know, he already has one.

Was staying away from Henchmen in this. Figured they deserved more individual attention. Also, for Tadaka, you're probably right on the other stuff, but with Lynch I was just saying that you can discard the Aces and pick them back up with his abilities. You don't draw more off of that, but you it doesn't cost anything anyways.

I'm not an expert on the Arcanists as a faction, but I've started a project to take a look at the state of minion and enforcer models from the end of the Wave 2 beta that are notable. I'm looking for folks to point me at some likely subjects, either very good or possibly some that need work. Hopefully some faction experts can give me some tips. Thanks!

Some musings on the subject of minions and enforcers with a look at their general utility for the faction as a whole. http://midwestmalifaux.blogspot.com/2014/01/wave-2-beta-ten-thunders.html Comments welcome.

Posted here.

Update: I added a note regarding all the people who've come along to tell me I'm wrong about Illuminated. Didn't want to mislead people from the common consensus.

That's always been my interpretation as well.

HD proxy I guess? Somehow I don't think this will count for the Malifool's "Children's Literature" proxy contest...

I've resisted buying Mei in the past because I don't think she's that different from what Misaki brings, though I may pick her boxset up just for Kang. Plus I'm now going to have to build an Arcanist crew for demos, so that'd take card of two things.

I'm at work so I don't have my cards with me and can't check it, but I double checked the wording to make sure I wasn't misinterpreting and came to the conclusion that you can pick it up when they cheat as well. Joel seems to agree with this interpretation as well. I hope I'm not wrong about that as well, as I'll be doing a lot of updates to the post if that's the case. ---------- Post added at 08:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:14 AM ---------- That and the Nexus (for the reasons people posted earlier) are basically my choice as well. If "Power Ritual" comes out it's just "Well, two tots and that's three points handled." And my HD just kind of sat in the middle of the board with no cover getting bombarded by Rasputina, to no great effect other than draining my SS's out. Eventually she just gave up and started shooting other stuff, lol. The only downside is that it means Lynch can't use them so he does have to be a bit more careful to not get popped (though, since him dying doesn't mean HD goes away as well it Lynch isn't near as much of a priority IMO.)

Hmm. Seems I have some things to learn with him. That's why I call them musings and not "This is the answer, all must bow to my wisdom" I suppose . What are people's opinions on factions with him? As stated I lean towards running him NB, but there are things with TT that I think could be strong.

Which master's changed the most in Wave 2? Who are YOU having the most fun playtesting internally? What's the minion we're all going to be complaining needs Cuddling shortly after the release? Who's the minion we're not going to give a chance who you predict becomes a break-out star? What's the release schedule for Wave 2? Do we get it all at once? Waves?

It's possible I'm not giving them the chance they deserve. I'll run them out some more and reassess.

Sure you can push away with Next Target, but it eliminates the reason you're doing the dance, IE to lock things in melee when they can't hit you back. That's when the Untouchable would come in handy, I suppose. Maybe on the Drake, but it feels like you'd be handcuffing her by making her slow down to its speed. I still think the best thing would be to use cover to get within diving charge range and then lock her down for the game.

But without Beckoners, how are you getting Brilliance out? Triggering it off of HD is often the third most useful choice of his triggers (IMO), Illuminated's trigger is not great, and if you're using Lynch at the end of the turn he can't do it. And I think you're underselling the utility of Lure a bit here on Beckoners. In a game of 40K or Warmachine, a crew built around just running up and mauling your opponents is what you want, but being able to pull people off of objectives/draw them into HD's melee range/generally dick with your opponent is so, so good. You're right, however, that they are made out of glass (a lesson I keep learning by being a dope and putting them too far forward against Rasputina and Sonia, unfortunately) and that makes their ability to hold Brilliance onto targets via Party Never Ends heavily diminished.

Hmm, I wondered if this was going to be the thing people noticed. For the record, I don't actually think Illuminated are bad (one of them was instrumental in winning my first Vassal game yesterday, albeit mostly because defensive stance is very good regardless of who does it) but I have a strong feeling that time will come sooner rather than later (Wave 2 comes out this week? nest?) when they get supplanted because they don't excel at anything and 7 is a lot of points. They kind of remind me of M1E Death Marshals: good at lots of stuff, but not amazing at anything. Sort of like playing Mario in Mariokart.

Some musing on Malifaux's favorite drug dealer in honor of tonight's Breaking Bad finale.

@chris_havoc I might just be dense, but I don't see how Monk of Low River spreads defensive stance to other models. Is it their Rapid Waters Timeless Voice ability? Because I read that as the Monk doing the disengaging strike gets the defensive +1 when succeeding.

You may be right. I went back and forth on that while I was writing the post and ultimately just elected to go as far in the defensive direction as I could to illustrate the diversity the master can bring to the table. + flips for a whole turn on defense would be pretty ridiculous as well and a lot more versatile, so I have a feeling I'll probably go that way when I try it out. ---------- Post added at 07:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 AM ---------- The 2 weaknesses to the defense build that I see are (1) ranged attacks, which she is resilient to and can sprint up into melee to counter, and (2) models like the Hungering Darkness or Teddy that she can't do the "I hit you you no hit me" dance against. Of the two, ranged attacks in the form of casters seem like the biggest issue. Sonnia or Rasputina could be a real problem if you don't get them engaged and locked down immediately, I'm thinking, and at first blush I don't see a good counter to them in the TT faction. Maybe Torekage's and/or Oiran throwing smoke, but that's kind of it. Thoughts?

I like the suggestion that Mike Marshall put up in the most recent Malifools, that the Torekage's bury on the first turn, Misaki and Yamaziko advance well up the board, then the Torekages can unbury off of them. This is brutal for when the Distract scheme comes up in the pool, as they can unbury in melee with a bunch of other models which can then be distracted at the beginning of next turn. Otherwise, they can either help kill stuff, or move and go drop scheme markers. They're fast, have pretty good defenses. Pretty decent all-rounders. ---------- Post added at 08:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 AM ---------- I mostly write about it to point out the possibility. I have more experience with the aggressive Stalking Bisento build, but I love the fact that both are options available to her and want to get more experience with the more defensive build. Also, it's not like you're trading away all of her attack power. She still hits just as hard, just loses stalk. Hell, once you're in close you can move in, hit the enemy models, then use the auto-trigger to push back out to "I have engaged you but you can't attack me" range.

I did some quick musing about an aggressive versus a passive build for the Mistress of the Ten Thunders. Comments welcome.