Paddywhack

That would be my read of the rule. You discard the RJ and flip another card. Then choose as normal.

Ah, I like the one in the book better myself. Both nice though.

Guild Autopsies are also great cheap Poison batteries. Not horrible on the table for their costs either.

I understand not wanting to up their Df, but if their Walk was at least a 5 I might be more inclined to take some. I hate needing to use AP from other models to make my models move. Maybe change Shafted so that is possibly relevant.

Most of the time you will only be able to hire models from the Master's declared Faction. So Kaeris can only hire models from the Arcanists faction and any Mercenaries. She does not list any special rules on her card. Some masters like Yan Lo are also Dual Faction, meaning you can declare one of two different Factions for that master. So with Yan Lo you can: Declare him as a Ten Thunders and hire Ten Thunders models. OR Declare him Resurrectionist and hire Resurrectionists models. In either case he can hire Mercenaries as normal (paying 1 extra SS for any Mercenary models hired). Yan Lo also has a special rule on his card that allows him to hire any model with the Retainer characteristic regardless of which faction you declare. So you could declare Ten Thunders and still hire Ashigaru (a Resurrectionist model) because it is a Retainer. Or you could declare Resurrectionists and still hire Komainu (a Ten Thunders model) because it is a Retainer. There are not that many masters that have special hiring rules like that though and if they do you will see it clearly on their card or possibly on an upgrade. Hope that makes sense.

How about some whole table shots of the current state of the board? Have you played any games on it yet? It looks great!

Yes! Though you should send unpainted ones and they have to paint them as punishment. I don't think I would have ever found that on my own. The main part of Yan Lo's upgrade is really the other part - swapping upgrades before activation. The extra Chi is just a little something they threw in I think.

Fair enough. I always see Nicodem as the true master of Necromancy though. While his main power, and he admits this when he take in Kirai, is Undead, he knows the power of the Spirit world and would like more control over it as well. I see him being interested in power and taking it however he can. Whereas Kirai is stuck with just vengeful spirits and Molly is more haphazard attracting various undead and spirits to her, Nicodem actively attempts to gain control of the undead world as a whole. But this is just a difference in interpretation of the fluff. I'd be sad to see Shikome lose Undead as I'd be even less likely to hire them and they already don't see much table time in my experience.

That does seem to support my interpretation. And yes, Asami getting 3 free summons would be awful..... I need to look at the rest of the wording for that upgrade when I get home. Does it also use the word 'gain' or score by any chance? But that also shows that they are very good at putting specific orders for things when needed. They did not for end of turn. So it comes down to the interpretation or intent of 'gains one or more chi." If both players score at the end of the turn simultaneously, it sounds like you determine how many you can earn and then earn them all in one lump sum - for +1Chi.

If Crooked men just had Df5 and/or W5 I would be more inclined to take them. Unless you know you're facing a gun line, they just die so darn fast. I love the Onryo and Gaki (plastic) models as well, but they are difficult to justify buying. They tried to help Onryo, but you have to use an Upgrade slot and make sure they are within 12 of the model holding it to get +1W and Ch. The Gaki at least have Df6, but nothing else to help them stay alive really - though they are cheap. Might try taking a few once I get the plastics assembled.

True. I'm not expecting anything in the near future. Even in a .5 update they could make some changes to the overall Summoning rules (maybe make it Paralyzed instead of Slow when it comes in, or all Summons gain Shambling, or any other number of things).

OK, but why? Is there something to back that up, or just a gut feeling based on the End of Game sequence? I would love to be wrong, but I need something to in case I'm questioned.

No, you were saying that Shikome, having an Asian aesthetic, didn't seem to mesh with Nicodem. I was pointing out that, fluff wise, he prefers the Punk Zombies who are also an Asian aesthetic (more so in the fluff of the early stories rather than the models so much). Since Nicodem prefers the warriors from that background I could easily see him using Shikome as well. I was not implying or speaking about actual game rules. I actually don't think the problem with Summons and mis-costed models has a lot to do with Key Words. I'm not sure that new key words would really solve anything. I believe, in the next edition, which may be some time from now, a full re-imagining of the summon mechanic across all factions should be explored.

But Nicodem specializes in summoning Punk Zombies in the fluff. He prefers undead that were skillful in life.

Follow Their Footsteps: The Path They Traveled: Whenever the opponent gains 1 or more VP, this model gains Chi +1. Question: At the end of a turn, if you opponent scores say Claim Jump, Leave Your Mark, and Interference, do you gain 1 Chi or 3 Chi? There has been discussion for both versions and I want to see if I am shortchanging myself. Right now I say 1 Chi as end of turn does not have a designated order to score VP, unlike End of Game where it lists it out fully. End Phase for the turn says: Earn Victory Points - Crews will earn VP for Strategies and Schemes (see pg. 81) that take effect at the end of each Turn during this step. To me this is an 'all at once' occurrence for any VP earned, so only 1 Chi. Its one Step and all VP is earned at once. Page 81 is just the lists of strats and schemes. End of Game says: 1.Models with effects that occur at the end of the game happen now. 2. Players calculate VP earned for the Encounter’s Strategy. 3. Players show their opponent any unrevealed Schemes (they do not count as revealed for bonus VP if shown at this time). 4. Players calculate VP earned for one chosen Scheme and add them to the Crew’s total VP. 5. Players remove any Scheme markers that they chose to use to Score VP with the Scheme in Step 4. 6. Players calculate VP earned from the remaining Scheme and add them to the Crew’s total VP. That is obviously much more detailed and would give you 3 Chi as it clearly marks out how you score each Strat and scheme one-by-one. However, there is nothing saying this is the order of operations at the end of each turn. Any thoughts?

That's the thing. I don't think summoning in Ressurs was really the problem, it's all the new models in other factions that summon, often for fewer resources, that have caused the problem. Ressurs and our summoning had been around a while and while it can be very strong is at least partly balanced (there may be too many ways to get free corpses now). It's the glut of other factions and new ways to summon that I feel have caused the concerns. I wouldn't want to see summoning go away completely, but I do think it needs a good long look at for M3 whenever they get there.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Sebastian. I should have taken him. Have a game against Outcasts tomorrow. Bringing him for sure.

Strategy: Interference Schemes: Claim Jump, Search the Ruins, Accusation!, A Quick Murder, Eliminate the Leadership Opponent: Outcasts (I know he plays Leveticus and Von Schill regularly, but I believe he also has Parker now) Obviously Nicodem is normally the go to for Interference, and I might still take him, but I'd really like to play Yan Lo for practice and I find him more fun generally. However, what would you take for this set up?

Yeah, Yan Lo isn't a big summoner I had Toshiro, but didn't have a chance to summon any Ashigaru before he was killed the first time.

Yeah, if I had known he was taking Ironsides I would have planned differently, but since you don't know when building crews it was hard. I'm also not sure how well Molly would have stood up to the gun line having to get that close to summon.

No, this is the brand new upgrade from the new book. It's a 0 action, no TN or flip needed. 8" Aura that means any model targeting any model other than Ironsides must take a WP14 test or the action fails. It's a huge area of the board and yes, I have a lot of terrain on the table, maybe too much sometimes. I just wasn't expecting a gun line with such good support. Her bonuses to MS&U create a tough gun line to get through (and yes, he used his own models to deal 1 dmg to key models). He also had 2 relic hammers to beat to death anything that tried to get close. It was a bad match up for me as I was worried he'd take Rasputina and armour. And my cover, which I hoped to use to get close, was useless against furious casting mages with to attack and dmg and a built in trigger to push my models out of cover to really blast them. It was just a rough game and I'm going to have to think how to deal with her as this was my first match against her. I also couldn't get Yan Lo built up as he was able to keep pushing my models out of LOS before killing them. If the old man had been abel to get beefed up earlier I could have laid some hurt on him. I also took Claim Jump again - I never do well on that scheme so I don't know why I think I'll keep trying it.

Man, Ironsides is a real pain to face. Her new 8 inch aura of 'nope' is just brutal. Not sure how that made it through testing as is. She is really good supporting MS&U as well. to attacks and damage negate any protection cover might offer from the gun line. It was just brutal. Now, I also built my crew thinking I may face Rasputina, so that didn't help, and it was Collect the bounty which played to her strengths, but that was one of the toughest games I've played in a while. Just felt uphill the whole way.

As long as you use his new upgrade (and why wouldn't you?) to attach Blood Ascendant at the start of his activation you do benefit from Casting Expert T2. Beginning of Activation abilities happen before you generate AP for the turn. You don't 'need' the enemies help, but I find farming your own models to be both boring and potentially a waste of AP, especially if I can get my enemy to spend their AP doing it instead In my experience it's not often necessary, but I see why some people do it. I only do it occasionally and even then not to this extent. I might hit something like a Seishin if I don't think my enemy is going to do it for me. I don't often have trouble with Chi that I need to list build for it to such an extent. Nothing inherently wrong with the tactic, but it harkins back to the old canine remains farming that used to happen. Never sat right with me and just seemed un-fun. And the tactic in the other forum requires a darn good hand turn 1 to pull off. Not something I'd want to base my crew build on myself.

Turn 1 might be overkill, as it doesn't help then, but trying to get enough Chi to grab it start of T2 is quite good. Not as easy as it sounds though unless your enemy kills off some chaff turn 1 (good use of Seishin if you got 'em). If you can get BA T2 though, you will have a far better game. If you can get Hunpa Assault by top of turn 3 though you are really going to have a good game. Placing in a group of models and hitting everything with Glowy Mouth Light at to hit and damage is brutal. Does depend a bit on your enemy though. Great against crews that tend to clump up. I'm really excited to be able to play Yan Lo with his new upgrades finally. He's a lot more fun and can both support his crew and deal damage.

Really? To this point I have never seen the Vulture on the table. Ever. I've only take it once over a year ago and quickly stopped. Most often I take almost all Undead with Nicodem. Superior Undead opens it up a bit. It's also like a super Hard to Kill for an important model. If you are worried about it, you can certainly plan your crew build with this in mind. It also allows you to be super aggressive with one living model as you don't care too much if dies turn 2.