snord

It is fixed crew, so i'm stuck playing whatever i plan, I haven't picked up any night terrors or desperate merc yet, NT's are some of my next planned purchases. Would it be better to take a canine remains instead of the desp merc?

Canine remains work as well, but you don't get the healing flip that the desperate merc gives. If you don't have NT, not a big deal for Kirai... go with your original plan of Drowned + Seishim instead of the 2 night terrors and evolve the seishim into a significant model.

Another late post. Have posted thoughts on book 4 stuff.

Hey Iron Skies, did you noticed that McCabe gets automatically +1 Df for each enemy engaged with him after the first? Since he already starts with defense 5, that is average, and can choose armor+2 as a relic, I don't think defense is really his weakness..

Right now my crew is set at:

Kirai Ankoku -- 5 Pool

Lost Love [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Datsue-Ba [7ss]

The Drowned [4ss]

Since you are going for competitive play, at 25ss I would start with something like the following and adjust based on strategy:

Kirai Ankoku -- 7 Pool

Lost Love [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Seishin [2ss]

Desperate Merc [2ss]

Datsue-Ba [7ss]

Night Terror [3ss]

Night Terror [3ss]

The Desp Merc is useful because turn 1, after you activate Kirai and summon Ikyrio, you activate datsue bah, kill the desp merc with his spell, getting a seishim, a gaki, a corpse counter that the gaki picks up immediately and gives kirai a healing flip.

The night terrors are great for objective grabbing, but if necessary can be used as cannon fodder to evolve spirit.

If you are playing a strategy like the supply wagon, then you bring in Von Schill as he is awesome at protecting the Wagon. If you are playing contain power, then you really want Jack Daw (unless you are playing against Colette or Leveticus).

You get the idea...

I played Kirai & Von Schill a few times and he is obviously very strong. I once even managed to make him a spirit, but remember that there are only 4 cards in the deck that can make it happen, so don't count on getting those cards in your hand turn 1. Also, I play Kirai aggressively and I need the soulstones for her, not for him, but that is my own playstyle.

So, in my opinion, he is a strong addition to the crew, depending on the strategy you get, but I would not consider him an auto include. If the tournament you are playing is not fixed list, have Jack Daw, Dat sue bah, drowned, and other spirits handy to switch in, based on the strategy.

Kirai and Colette are great crews and provide for a wonderful and fun challenge for both players. I started with Kirai and a good friend of mine had Colette and we played against each other many many times. But as others said, you do need extra models.

Kirai really needs 5 seishin and Lost Love. One pack of Gaki's as they are summoned sometimes as side effects of other spells. I have 2 Shikomes, but for fun play I never use more than one. After you have this core, you can expand in many different ways.

Colette really needs showgirls, be they Performers+Manequin, Angelica or what not. The Coryphee Duet is extremely nasty against Kirai, so the Kirai player has to know how to counter it and be prepared for that.

Have fun.

That is right - both Mannequins should be linked to the "ride", and not to Hoffman. Linked models only move into B2B when the model they are linked to takes a Movement Action or at the end of its Activation. So with both Mannequins and Hoffman linked to the "ride", whenever the ride moves all three end in B2B, and you place the Mannequins on either side of Hoffman so that they are in B2B with him as well as the ride. Then the Mobile Toolkit completes the party by pushing into B2B with Hoffman.

Hoffman is then at Ca9 and doing 6Dg with his Open Circuit spell, which should gut just about anything that is not seriously armoured.

Yes, I know. My description above was pretty short, but basically the second manequin would push in base contact with hoff at the end of his activation. Open circuit maximum damage is 5 with 3 or more constructs in base contact with hoffmand and he had that with one manequin, Peacekeeper and the Mobile toolkit. The second manequin only gives him +1 Ca.

We did made a mistake because my opponent said I couldn't link the two Manequins to the peacekeeper and that was why I linked one to Hoff, but we already checked this is wrong, and as you said it is better to link both to the Peacekeeper.

---------- Post added at 09:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 AM ----------

How'd you kill the dreamer?

I pulsed twice, killing the Night Terrors and the Day Dream, then I Machine Puppet the peacekeeper to attack the Dreamer (no other nightmares around at this point) dealing severe damage + critical strike (7Dg), Dreamer would take 4Wd (as he is spirit), used a SS to prevent, but prevented only 1Wd. Dead.

So tonight I decided to give this idea a try just for the laughs with a good friend. He was half-aware of Hoffman's blow up skills, but not completely aware of how it works. So I played:

Hoffman + 7ss

Mobile Toolkit

Peacekeeper

2 Performers

2 Manekins

Watcher

He played:

Dreamer + 6ss

Chompy

2 Daydreams

2 Insidious Madness

Stitched

Copelius

2 Night Terrors

First turn I linked one Manequin to Hoffman, one to Manequin to the Peacekeeper, and Hoffman took a ride with the Peacekeeper stopping in melee with the 2 Night terrors. Dreamer activates, flies 14" forward and drops Chompy on Hoffman, gives out some damage, and buries chomp bringing back the Dreamer.

Hoff activates, kills both Night Terrors, a daydream and the Dreamer. Chompy is back with Copelius (that was buried).

Round 2, he wins iniative, activates Copelius and fails to paralize Hoff. Hoff activates, kills Copelius and Chompy, and rides toward the stitched. He gives up.

End balance: Hoffman's crew, none dead. Dreamer´s crew: Dreamer, Chompy, Copelius, Daydream and 2 Night Terrors dead.

It was a game just for fun and he was unprepared for that, but it shows how dangerous this thing is. Obviously no one will fall for that 2 times, but still pretty cool for a change.

Regarding speed, I think it is a matter of learning the crew. It is a lot faster than the average crew of other factions. For instance, start by moving an illuminated up, and now your Depleted get a free (0) push towards the illuminated. Then you can activate Mr Graves and use "Bar's closed" right behind your own models, and there you go another free push. That is not to mention all the tricks the Beckoners can add to this with "Come Hither". In a game I played with a friend of mine, he had Mr Tannen meet me on my side of the board turn 1... pretty fast if you ask me.

You can trade SS for Chi at the beginning of the game (I think the limit is 3SS for 3 Chi, but I might be mistaken) and I think there is a trigger he has that gives extra Chi when he kills stuff, so not so hard to get those 11 Chi points...

I really like the P.A.C.K. system because of the so many different options of bags you have while keeping a standard size for the foam trays. I started with P.A.C.K. 216, but quickly outgrew it and moved to a P.A.C.K. Go:

http://us.battlefoam.com/categories/Battle-Foam-P.A.C.K.-System-Bags/P.A.C.K.-Go/

What I like about it is that it is a strong case, which fits 9" of foam, that also has pockets for books and accessories, has a decent price tag and can be carried as a backpack if you wish.

The only thing I did was to replace the 3" tray that comes with the standard load for 2 x 1.5" trays. This way I have all Guild models released so far + all spirits/Kirai + half of the outcasts (Vikis, Von Schill, Levi) and I am still only using 2 and a half 1.5" tray, half of a 2" tray (avatars and riders) and I still have 1 tray of 1.5" untouched.

Also, Taelor costs 9SS for Arcanists (8SS + 1SS for out of faction), while Kang costs 8SS.

I don't think Kang totally replaces Taelor, as hammerstrike and lifer are good abilities, but if I played Arcanists, I am sure I would be fielding Kang over Taelor 80% of the time...

I want to convert her into a Guild Guard. Have too many DMs already...

@Dustcrusher

Kang's heal is a different ability: at the beginning of the turn, before any model activates, he heals a number of wounds equal to the turn number. So, for instance, turn 4, he heals 4, turn 6 he heals 6. Now, this combined with hard to kill makes him extremely tough to defeat, since the opponent has to kill him in a single turn, or he heals before any model activates in the next turn, making hard to kill kick in again. This, combined with the fact that he, by himself, can easily kill a model per turn as long as the model is in his charge range (charge + melee expert, with 3/4/6 damage profile), makes him a freaking scary melee machine.

Now, pair him with Torakages and it becomes gold: Torakage can drop smoke bombs to block line of sight and can switch places with 10T models. So picture the Torakage moving up the field, and when in position, activates, drops the smoke bomb and switches place with Kang. Now, Kang is kind of safe behind the smoke because it blocks line of sight, so other models can't charge him or shoot him, BUT Kang ignores the smoke, can see perfectly fine through it, and so activates, charges and kills. Rinse and repeat.

It is not broken, but it is freaking good.

I don't have the book in my hands, but my friend at GenCon sent me a briefing of his stats, so baring he being drunk, it goes like this:

Cb 7:mask, 3/4/6 dg, auto-knockback trigger

+1 Melee Expert

Hard To Kill

Slow to Die

Automatic heal beginning of each activation phase

When he kills stuff, gives :+ bonuses to friendly living models

Ignores obscuring auras like the ones created by Mei's crew and stitched's

And some more things

IMO, he only loses melee combat to masters like Vikies, Lady J and McMorning... among minions, he defeats even the likes of Taylor....

IMO, this guy should be hired by Guild, not by the *edited*lovely*edited* arcanists...

I have one word for you Arcanists: "Kang"... omg. And if you declare 10T as a faction, Kang+Torakage=win.

... except for the one we already know about, he just seems very anti-fun.

I know it depends a lot on the groups and meta, but I am a guild/resser/outcast player that plays against neverborn a lot and played a few games against Mr Tannen... I can tell you, he is a great support model and is not anti-fun... it is a model that places auras that are not too different in "feeling" than Jack Daw does...

There was one game, that because of terrain positioning, he basically won the game for my opponent, but that was not a model feature... it was my opponent smartly playing terrain to his advantage... most of the time, it is possible to deal with him like you would do with any model of comparable power/SS cost. There are a few skills/abilities/models in the game that I don't like, but Mr Tannen is not among them...

He literally oozes fluff...

Just my .02c.

I suggest you think about which playstyle you like better: Seamus is more about mobility, control and when you manifest, making your opponents run for their lives. McMorning is a damage dealing, extra fast machine, that also does some summoning.

I, as a Sonnia (and Guild) player, am usually more worried when I see McMorning across the table than when I see Seamus, but I still think they are quite balanced when they take the right crew.

In any case, whatever your choice is, I am sure you will have fun.

My main problem with the ruling on Drain Souls is not even the Levi/Kirai/Marcus advantages, but how easy it becomes to deny VPs to opponents in strategies/schemes that require the master, like Deliver a Message.

In games like this you just lock in your VPs and Drain Soul your own master and the game is done, or, what I think it is even worse, you play badly and your opponent is ready to deliver a message to you but you win the initiative of the turn: drain souls your master and without any effort, after playing badly, you deny your opponent 4 VPs.

Can sabotage be selected more than once?

In gaining ground tournament games you can't repeat any scheme. In friendly games, I don't have the text in front of me, but I would say it is a friendly game anyway... so up to the players playing...

Yes, it is basically an automatic 2 VPs.

I played against it the other day and also was unable to prevent that. To be honest, I think all interacts with terrain/tokens should not be allowed if you are in melee with an opponent, but that is not how the rule is written at the moment.

There are other schemes that are also very easy an automatic 2 VPs, so while I don't like it, it is still fair game.

Very timely thread Mako! I am also inbound to Toronto, arriving there probably end of September. At the moment, I live in Montreal, where we have a good community... hoping to find a good community in the Toronto area as well.

@Nilus: Hehe... so true. Although I think it is a good thing not everyone is playing the same models all the time...

I tend to mix and match my guild models a lot, depending on the strategies/schemes/factions involved, but these are the ones that pop up:

* Watcher: he makes 90% of my lists and is easily my most used model. For 3SS, a significant model to fulfill objectives, that can fly 14" a turn and has some card control and some other talents, is well worth it.

* Santiago: this is my main guild enforcer. Needs someone dead? Call uncle Santiago. Enough said. Makes 70% of my lists.

* Witchling Stalkers: 4SS, with melee 6:ram:, built in critical strike and a disrupt magic aura that only affects enemies, yes please! Makes 50% of my lists.

* Austringer: need some air support? 5SS for ranged 12"/18", no LoS, Cb 7 attack! gold! Makes 40% of my lists.

* Guardian/Brutal Effigy/Dogs: the 5th place is shared by several different models that I like to use based on strategies. Guardian is great to protect either the Master or Santiago, Effigy is a good 4SS melee model (+1 melee expert) that can heal your crew, and the dogs are as fast as you can get.

I think it has a lot to do with each player's point of view and goals with the game. I don't know any perfectly balanced game. Even Chess, that is commonly mentioned as a balanced game by casual gamers, is not: <geek mode on>in higher level play, at the start of the game, white has the initiative/advantage while black is defending. Several books will teach new players that a draw as blacks is a victory while as whites is a defeat.<geek mode off>.

At the same time, if a perfectly balanced game existed, I am not sure I would like to play it long term. Imagine there was such a game, it is likely that the stronger/more experienced player would win 99% of the time. Unless one was lucky to find an adversary that is in all aspects also at the same play level, it would become quickly boring to always win/lose.

One of the things that make Malifaux so enjoyable to me is the fact that I can control the difficulty level of the games I am going to play. This is obvious on scheme selection, but also on the fact that I can hire crews with models that will make the game easier or harder to me, or build fluffy crews that will add another layer of fun to the game.

ASonnia casts Searing Wave, generating an 8" pulse. Collette fails to resist but triggers Blinding Flash. Does ASonnia gets slow or not?

Searing Wave(CC18B, rst:Df, 8" pulse): this spell only affects enemy models. If at least one model lost its duel, this model performs a 2/3/4dg flip that can not be cheated. ...

A Blinding Flash: the model that attacked this model receives slow. ...