i_was_like_you

Congrats on the baby! Looks like it's back to ebay for ya on Chompy, though. I too, only picked up one, but I'm planning to cast a resin copy make him a bit more portable for demos and such. I've seen one up close and personal at one of the LGS, and I don't think he's going to fit into my Malifaux bags, no matter how I try to configure the pluck. Yes, I said bags, plural. I got a deal on the second one on ebay, along with two crews and other goodies. A guy had no 'Faux players in his area of Colorado, so he was selling it all to get into Warmahordes. His loss, my gain. I've got my Neverborn crews of Lilith and the Dreamer, my Rezzer crews of McMourning and Nicodem, and Leveticus all in one bag and in the other I have the Viktorias, Freikorps, Sonnia, and Ramos & Kaeris. I don't think I'll have room for the showgirls or Dead Justice in my bags as is. And my gf has been asking for the gremlins for Christmas. *shakes head*

There's the problem, though, we don't really know if it was one way or the other because the rules were vague. As far as not scratching = no poison, that part makes sense. It's just the prevention of wounds somehow = prevention of damage, let's rewind a few steps part that seems more than a bit off.

Usually I see the opposite. As in, people think they know the intent of the rules, and take the intent to be the letter of the rules. As I've said before regarding Malifaux, the fluff of the story does show us a pretty clear picture of what the intent is in some cases, but, for one reason or another, the final rulings are not only counter-intuitive, but completely defy what the characters have been shown to do. The abilities of each model are an interpretation of how the character has been envisioned. Sometimes those abilities prove to be far too powerful after being translated into in-game rules or after those in-game rules interact with other rules and other models and their abilities. It happens. Rush jobs at patching one model (or a handful of models with similar abilities) lead to even more problems, so patience is a must. I think that adding in something like placeholder rulings until further deliberation yields a balanced and fair final ruling might be a good option to exercise.

As in, they used other rulings as precedent, much like our legal system does? Not to sound too harsh, but if that were the case, I think all of these rulings would be neatly packaged with citations going back to ruling 1.A.3.b on model X when interacting with model Y's ability Q. Sure, it'd sound boring, but official rules are supposed to. [Example: http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/MagicCompRules_20110930.pdf ] I know that may be a lot to ask, considering the Rules Marshals are doing this on a voluntary basis. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good rulings that we get to see. The problem is, rules adjudication, as in, at a tournament environment, can and probably should be handled by Rules Marshals / Tournament Organizers / Henchmen. Actual, official rulings themselves, though, should only be handled by Wyrd employees who would avoid posting in the forums themselves, and would instead just post rulings with citations to the actual rule, ability, spell, etc., and / or interaction(s) of such in a format similar to the original FAQs. Someone had said something to the effect of when we try to explain the rulings to people, we sound crazy. Well, it's true. Learning a new game should be easy. Mastering it is the hard part. But just when we think we've gotten a rule or ruling figured out, it changes. "Which page is that on so I can look it up?" "It's on x, y, and, again, on z, but they won't help you because the ruling online says the following..." Yeah, we're supposed to flip to determine outcome when there is a question on it, but when the question has already been resolved and our opponent is calling bs, well, do we just say, "So-and-so said so," or do we have to flip for it regardless, and then try to explain it afterwards? If the resultant flip-based decision caused either of us to lose, both of us going off of what we thought was the correct way it functioned and how we've played it a million times, we're likely to be in the wrong mindset to either explain it to the other person or to listen to the other person explain it to us.

Speaking for myself, I wasn't referring to using AP to make a ring attack. I was referring to the trigger of Fatal Distraction for their spell Seduction which grants a melee or ranged Strike against the target. When it comes to prevent this Wound or suffer Poison which is going to kill that model as soon as it activates, I'd say it matters quite a bit. Sure, there are better uses for AP, such as just spamming Expensive Gift until their soulstone pool is bone dry, but, depending on the situation at the time, I'd probably rather kill the model with Use Soulstone so that I don't have to face it later. As far as explicitly stating things, that's what rules are: Explicit statements that accurately explain a principle, such as how a model in a game may interact with other such models. As far as Jack, well, until we hear further about it on yet another thread, here's the one I posted this thread's link to: http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=26788

Yeah, the Performer's ring, by itself, does seem kinda pointless, now. To me, the 0s seem less bothersome with this ruling than the 1s. 0 = no damage, nothing further happens. Fine. We may not like it, but we can roll with it. When it comes to 1 Dg, though, if we're attacking a model that has Use Soulstone, now they can just prevent the Wounds, back up a step, not take Damage, and no longer receive Poison. Before, sure, we might get lucky and get the 1 Dg in there, that couldn't be reduced below 1 by armors or even object (once we get to the Wds step), which would be enough, even if the Wounds were prevented to at least get the Poison in there, which may, in itself, become a death sentence for that model (likely our goal with that choice of attack during this activation). With the added guarantee that there is only a 1 in 54 chance that the 1 Wd will not be negated by a Prevention Flip, Poison just got a lot harder to stick a model with. Going with the Twisting Fates wording of Shrug Off (Latigo Pistolero) and Dispel Magic (Witchling Handler) and similar spells and abilities, the Ortegas and other models can already ditch Poison tokens with ease. It only costs one of them a 0 or a 1 to do so, and maybe 1 Wd if it has to activate to remove the token from itself. So, it may be more balanced to have Wound Prevention rewind the clock to Prevent Damage a lot of times, but, being that it is counter-intuitive and gives crews with spells or abilities like Shrug Off even more of an advantage, some more deliberation may be in order.

Still no Avatar stat card pairs for $1? I can foresee a need for these when your opponent rage quits by tearing your avi stat card in half and stomping off.

But what about this? http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=24756&fb_source=message 0 Damage versus no damage, and effects like poison are retroactively ignored if damage that would convert to wounds is prevented in some way, most likely from a soulstone user's prevention flip. So if poison can't happen this way, why would other effects, such as blight, paralyzed, drag, etc., affect a model in such a case? Mind you, it took a moment to find this thread, as there are several others just like it that all seem to contradict one another.

Sounds right, based on what we've seen here, except I still don't think they're saying Nicodem can target himself with Decay, he can just benefit from it if caught in the blast. Guess we just have to have Lilith's totem cast Transposition on her and another friendly model to make sure it goes off. Nothing like running Nekima forward to carve up the opposition, then having her swap places with Lilith for even more carnage and slaughter. On a related spell, Inject Blood from the Black Blood Shaman, as it's a spell that doesn't specifically say that it can target friendly models (and also has a Rst), can't target the Shaman itself (although one Shaman could target the other). *shrugs* The actual wording of the spell, from the card, is as follows: (1) Inject Blood (CC 13 :masks [already met] / Rst: Df / Rg: 2) This model discards one Blood Counter. Target model without Black Blood suffers Dg 2/3/5. Target model with Black Blood heals 2 Wd instead. Why a Shaman can stab itself for its other actions and spells but not to heal itself seems a bit off to me.

Yeah, me too. It'd be nice if instead of just errata sitting over on another page, the stat cards could be looked up in a manner similar to gatherer.wizards.com where official rulings on the cards themselves could be posted, written in the official format, maybe even citing page numbers in the Rules Manual. *shrugs* Just a thought.

I take it Testors metallic paints are frowned upon.

[i'd have just edited my own reply, but figured it'd be easier to post another one with the link to the resolved thread that may or may not clear things up.] http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20292&highlight=transposition

Thank you. Didn't see it there the several times I searched for it in the hard copy, and the pdf, being an image instead of text, didn't let me search for it.

Does anyone have a page number in the Rules Manual for the new and improved (0) Link?

As they've said, you jipped him. Rasputina remains the caster; therefore, she cannot cast any spells, either directly, or through ice mirror. Next time consider having her totem out of combat so it may cast one of her spells into it. Or, if possible, use an action to walk Rasputina out of combat and then have her fire spells back into it. Be sure to save high cards to prevent the disengaging strike(s) from stopping her in her tracks (her low defense is especialy problematic here). Also, consider bringing along models that can push her out of combat, as Pushes don't allow for disengaging strikes. The Dreamer can be a tough crew to go against, but keeping him too busy to land his nightmares on your master would be well advised.

Don't get me wrong, the resin portions of the Soulstone Miners are just as detailed, if not more so, than the pewter bits. It was the shock of seeing half the model, any Malifaux model, be resin for the first time. Resin just seems to imply cheap. If the models transition over to resin and their price dropped, I could accept that. GW has done that for a lot of their newer product. But to charge the same, if not more (the steady price creep for models of comparable ss cost and stats) for models isn't fun to see. I'd rather have paid an extra five dollars for Twisting Fates than to have seen the models go up by two dollars each. Wargaming may not be in its heyday, but with smaller skirmish games like 'Faux and Warmahordes hitting the scene, it's certainly seeing serious improvement. With Malifaux's innovative Fate Deck mechanic, we've gotten so many people that would never have picked up a minis game before buying crews and giving it a go. Most of our LGSs can't keep good models in stock. I'm not denying that the economy is in the toilet, but when we can add to our crew at just ten or so bucks at a time, we as gamers, with or without families and other responsibilities, find a way to make it happen.

It finally did come back!

Glad to hear it went well. Seemed like a fairly well rounded list. Sounds like you rounded it out even more with the models you summoned. Yeah, when everything goes right, it can be amazing. Other games you wonder who took all the cards higher than six out of your deck. I watched a guy at one of our LGS get stuck with the black joker on important flips, three turns in a row. Have you been using the Crew Creator that Ratty made? http://malifaux.com/Crew.php It's amazing for whipping up crew ideas. It's even very smart phone friendly. Got a new idea for a crew and don't wanna lose that idea, plug it into the creator, click text, copy paste it over onto a memo so you have it for later. 3'x3' is so limiting some times. We've worked on our crew until we think we've got it just right to handle anything. Then our opponent is playing a Speed Racer crew like Colette or Collodi, and they just achieved half of their VP in one turn. Great, just great. Oh, look, now they're eliminating any models we get near our objectives... Power Ritual with Colette is an automatic 2 VP. Those Cories are just too fast. Taking Kill Protegee has proven to be a good way to balance that out, as Cassandra has died against me in every game I've played against Colette. Usually in the first few turns. So far I've been fortunate enough not to have had to face down Collodi, but that time will come. But I digress. It's handy to have quite a few good crew builds ready for a range of opponents, strategies, and schemes. If you know you're facing a fast crew, consider having your own fast crew ready to go, or maybe one with enough staying power, which, with Nicodem, rezzing more models into the fight should offset our terrible losses early on.

Or if you're running both Killjoy and Bête Noire, when you sack a model to bring out Killjoy, Bête Noire can tag along too.

Agreed. Regarding targeting with spells that count as attacks (due to Rst duels or ranges of or ), it's still a bit murky. One ruling will say yes, another no. Twisting Fate's fluff even shows that Lilith can use Transposition on herself (as she switched places with a crow on Zoraida's railing). Sure, the fluff is just that, but when this is a character driven skirmish game, and the characters are intrinsically linked to the stories provided of them (as in the model's abilities are based on the flavorful abilities they exhibit in the stories), we shouldn't have to separate the two. It was said on another thread that determining RAI isn't possible, as we're not the men behind the curtain. I'm merely saying that the storylines are quite compelling cases for what was actually intended. Sure, some abilities do prove to be powerful on their own and get toned down a notch. The real issue on how powerful an ability tends to be comes from unexpected interactions with other abilities. Having spells such as Decay or Transposition provide a direct benefit to their model should not be a bad thing. If Nicodem is out of range of other targets but would prefer to try his luck using Decay to heal him for more than a standard (non-red joker) healing flip, or Lilith needs to switch with another model to get out of harm's way or to salvage an objective last minute, it should be allowable. Both Ratty's and Keltheos's rulings seem to state that they can indeed target themselves. [it'd be nice if when I go to quote an entry containing quotes, it'd take them all with it. A lot of rulings seem to be misinterpreted merely because the original entry that was commented on gets lost in the shuffle.]

Good to know.

That would be fine except that: Rules Manual, p. 50, under Spell Basics - A model casting a Spell with a http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/community/uploads/emoticons/default_Melee.png' alt=':melee'> or - - icon in its Rg, or one that requires a Resist Duel, is casting an attack Spell. and: Rules Manual, p. 41, under Ranged Basics - Models engaged in melee cannot make ranged attacks. That leads me to believe the opposite is true. Also: Ice Mirror (at least how it's written in the book, I don't own Rasputina and the v2 stat cards are refusing to load) - This model may draw LoS and range from a friendly model with Frozen Heart within 6" when casting spells. These spells receive -3 Ca. The friendly model counts as the caster for the target model's defensive triggers. It only states that the friendly model counts as the caster for defensive triggers. It still states that this model, Rasputina, is the one actually casting the spell. So although it does sound like a fun thing to exploit, it doesn't look like it works that way. [see what I get for actually citing my answers. Two other people beat me to the post.]

As you seem to be a fan of the Hanged, maybe consider picking up Jack Daw as well. By actually running it in a Rezzer crew, you're less prone to the drawbacks that you'd face if you hired the Hanged through Jack's ability instead. I've played against a Seamus crew with both Hanged and Jack Daw. It wasn't a fun match. I believe I only barely scraped by on VP due to Deliver a Message. As you're still not using Strategies and Schemes (which is a good move at first and I highly recommend it), you're limited to all out annihilation of your opponent's forces. Good combinations of ranged attacks, or spells that pull enemy models into your range, coupled with resilient models that can take as much of a beating as they can dish out will serve you well. Although flavor-wise Mortimer is paired with Nicodem and Sebastian is paired with McMourning, there's nothing to stop you from running Sebastian as your dog factory while Nicodem brings in the better models. Don't overlook using a pair of Vultures to extend Nicodem's range on spells. I've very nearly taken out McMourning turn one using Decay through Magical Extension and / or Eyes and Ears (as they were not engaged in melee). The only thing that had saved him was a lucky red joker flip from spending a soulstone for an extra card. Any number less, and I'd have finished him off. Spamming a spell may be cheap, but it's oh-so-effective when need be. Besides, nothing seems to break an opponent's morale more than losing their master that early in the game. If you're still playing without terrain, paying attention to and being good at judging ranges is paramount (despite what may have been said about it not being an essential skill for Malifaux). Having an open field with just the Ht of models to provide any obstruction to LoS can be a terrifying game, indeed, especially when facing down models with long ranges (16"& 18" or the Pigapult's 24"). If you are using terrain, judging range is still important, but using the terrain to your advantage while making it work against your opponent is key. If your LGS doesn't have terrain or TerraClips, get creative with inexpensive items like cardboard or styrofoam. Any terrain is better than no terrain at all.

'nuff said. Seriously, they are a potent combo.

Although, it does not matter now, as Wyrd has, indeed, transitioned to plastic models. I was kinda disappointed that the Soulstone Miner's base mound of dirt and body were plastic, while the two drill pieces were still pewter. [On a side note, I've made a mold of the mound of dirt to use for its 30mm buried markers. Could even pull double duty as the Shafted markers for the Crooked Men or even make an interesting base for other models, too, like an Alp emerging from a tunnel.]