Paddywhack

I think don 't bother taking the upgrade? You can already summon a Corpse Candle within 8" and attack through that if something is within 8". I don't personally see the point or real advantage of the new upgrade. Plus, corpses tend to grow in number as the game goes on. Spirits will usually decrease as they get removed from play throughout the game, reducing your attack vectors. Plus it puts Reva closer to the action, where she really doesn't really want to be if possible. She can be killed quite easily in combat. If you do want to go with Spirits though, Datsue Ba and her upgrade to summon Seishin is a must.

If you think you will face Dreamer or another Push heavy crew again, I would suggest getting Anna Lovelace. She can really mess up a crew that relies on movement shenanigans. She also give you a min3 ranged attack and a ranged Push of your own. If you were relying on your Drowned dying and then scoring for CJ, that would be a poor exchange as then you don't have anything to score next turn. Don't think too hard about Finish the Job as their main purpose - it's a nice benefit, but not the main thing. Drowned are nice due to their Df6, but they are slow. They aren't a bad choice here, but you need to keep them alive to keep scheming and targeting soft targets or even just going Defensive and scoring for Guard the stash. Losing Izamu so early obviously hurt. He isn't really the best target for FFM as even though he can be hard to kill, you don't really want to lose him, especially early game. It's best to be a little more reserved with him and keep him ready to counter. If your opponent is also somewhat new, I'd suggest feeding him a juicy target (a drowned or SB) so that he overextends his beaters, then Izamu can charge in and help. Easy to say, but harder to get done on the table of course. Shikome can be big hitters, but only if you get Adversary on the target and honestly they are very, very fragile. They require careful planning as well and don't necessarily mesh with the rest of your crew. They are pretty fast though and can typically kill other scheme runners pretty easily, so using one as scheme runner would be better than Phillip and the Nanny. I think Phillip is an odd choice for this crew really. With Reva I would suggest bringing your SB's. They will drop a corpse after getting down to 0 wds, but stay on the board. Reva should be able to kill something each turn, possibly more than one if they are small (terror tots, etc.), but you need more than the just your Corpse Candles to give her enough attack vectors. I don't think Neverborn have much that can get rid or corpse markers, so you might even take the upgrade that allows her to start the game with a Corpse Candle downfield. Then you can set up a mine field for the enemy right from the start. They either have to go around it to avoid getting hit by Reva, or take the hits. It's not always the best upgrade (her charge related one can be a fun way to play as well), but sometimes getting that corpse up field early game can be vital. I highly suggest stapling Decaying Aura to Reva's card as well - then she becomes a Henchman/Master killer easily.

Because that's a great way to design games? 'Here, we're going to make this overarching change to how most of your faction plays, but hey, you can just change and play one of these two master so its OK.'? I'm curious to see how it goes over play testing, but there are a lot of other consequences as discussed in the below topic. I do think that this will hurt Resurrs a bit for the year. It might hit other Masters in some factions just as hard, but it has an overall effect on Resurrs as summoning is built into the faction. I'm not saying that summoning might not need a change, but that is something that really has to happen in a M2.5 or M3 edition to make sure it is properly handled across the board and factions/masters can be redesigned.

You should not take a summoner for this strat. Your summons can be Plied for info, but cannot score it themselves. Similar to headhunter, but worse, every summons you bring in gives your opponent another opportunity to Ply. Definitely a disadvantage for summoners that rely on being able to summon. And this is coming from a player that plays Nicodem without Mortimer or the Emissary. I Never play the corpse engine, but I understand that summoning is a core mechanic of how Nicodem was designed. Yes, he can buff and heal, but that is not why you want to play Nicodem. You play him so you can summon Undead. And all of our Undead models have to be tested to balance with that in mind (including paying a bit more sometimes).

There's quite a large discussion in the other forum that tends to disagree. I would disagree that our models are the same as many other factions. I look at what some other factions get for SS cost and then look at resurrs and go....heh... The summon tax is most definitely a thing we pay for our models. I'm not saying this is going to totally break things (yet), but there are some major concerns with this sweeping of a change to a core mechanic for scoring without any change to the base mechanic (summoning). Yes, it's 'only' Strats, but that is 40% of the total VP in a game. I'm not sure dominating in one Strat (Interference) was really a call to jump straight to this. I do think this might be some 'playtesting' for M2.5/3 and how they might try and tone down summoning in general, but I think it might be too soon.

While I need more time to digest, this feels like a bit of a kick in the pants. it is only the strategy, but that's 40% of our possible points. Resurrs already pay more typically for models as summoning is our thing. They also tend to have lower Df and die pretty quickly. Not being able to use summoned models for strats could really hurt. I'm not sure if there was a big problem before? I know summoning is strong and has only gotten stronger as so many other crews have ways to summon now, but it sure feels like resurrs will be hard hit this year. Nicodem may not see much play at all. Im not sure how written in stone that new rule is. This is Beta, but I'm not sure if that part is up for debate or not. I'm guessing yes? Going to have to re-read all the strats a few times to see how hard this will make some of them. Some masters may not care (Molly, McMourning, Seamus maybe, Yan Lo maybe), but it will still hurt. I wonder why the sudden issue? Was it the surge of new ways for others factions to summon (looking at you Sandeep and Asami!)? Its not like resurrs tend to dominate the rankings from what I've seen.

So for those lucky enough to be at GenCon and have the book in hand, where there any particular changes to our new models from play test to the actual book? Or did they end up exactly as they were in play test?

Probably for just that reason.

So.... if you have the book in hand.... any major changes from the play test with our models that you've noticed? Any other juicy upgrades you care to tell us about?

Hmm. I always thought of that one as bulldog as well. If you think he is too shaggy, remember he is rotting and likely moldy at this point

Oooh. I hadn't thought of the Forgotten Marshal in HH. That could work well as he can be very difficult to pin down and can jump around quite well. I need try this in my next HH game. I like the FM, but so far he's been more of a nuisance model than actually getting anything significant done for me. With Close deployment you should a number of your models near the action, just try and wait to kill things till near the end of the turn. Of course the FM will have to pick it up at the beginning of the next turn, but nothings perfect.

So, to be clear, you're saying that it won't trigger both abilities as you count the trigger from the moment the model is killed. At that moment only the brood ability is in range. Once you have moved the model you have passed the 'model is killed' point and can't still trigger Thirst for Blood? I'm just trying to be clear as I'm reading both interpretations and want to be sure I'm thinking of the timing rules correctly.

Oooh. That's a nice idea....

Hmmm... She is growing on me. I like the pic above better with her in the front of the zombies for some reason. That feels better to me. I'll have to see her in person I think to really decide.

Not at all what I was expecting.... Interesting though - I can't decide how I feel about them. I think I need to see the actual models to see what it looks like in plastic. Definitely Wyrd

Hmmm. it looks like it could be fun to play on, but perhaps not the best table for a tournament. That would be a lot of hazardous terrain though - maybe a 0/1/4 would have been fun.

Any pictures of the 'maze' table you played against Marcus on? I'm curious as to what it looked like.

Yeah, I'm not super impressed with that model either. I think for me its the pose. I'm not sure why shes kneeling? it looks strange and having read the story adventure she is from (Night in Rottenburg), it doesn't fit my mental image of her at all. I may have to look for another option to mod into her instead.

I mean, I'm still buying a box, but I'll miss the third pose. Maybe they'll offer it as a freebie in another box at some point. If I think I can make some modifications to make them different I may even buy two boxes. Have to get the first box though and see how easy that might be.

Thank you Nathan! Did not realize they were larger size, interesting. I like how easy they are to read though.

Grrr. How do you know? Just the new pics? How do 10T get three Jorogumo for $40 and we only get two Kentauroi? And we lose the best sculpt at that.....

Have they shown any other shots of the Tarot fate Deck anywhere? I'd like to know what the card face actually look like before I order it during GenCon. They look like they might be very nice and easy to read, but I can't really tell from that one pic on the preview page.

Yeah, these are awesome. i hope they don't get rid of one - I really like the rearing one and he isn't pictured in the shot with just two models. They were created by McMourning after all - maybe he got a little exited and put the legs in the wrong spot? I don't thing it would be too hard to move them forward a bit with a little green stuff. Man I want to field all three now at once, just for the look of it.....

Have they released any pics of the new fate deck yet. I'm interested by the little I can see, but would really like to see more before I buy.

Very nice. I really like these. Almost enough to make pick up Gremlins - they've been calling me for a while.