dancater

And yes the Ramos box is an almost staple for Arcanist factions containing invaluable models for many crews (notably not really Marcus and only very limited for Raspy). But Ramos is a true summoner and getting into the old mech master is expensive simply because even to start you'll need at least one box of Mech Spiders (above what's in the Ramos box) if not two for summons. Also if the summoning mechanic does not immediately inspire you I'd stick to Raspy or Colette, models you'll want for them also play into other Arcanist crews later still. But particularly for Colette crews in the future you'll want the Ramos box soon as Howard is a very common Colette crew include and Joss is solid with her as well, as for the Mech Spiders - they are great as well but less common for Colette (and Raspy you would never buy them [note the Mechanical Rider can summon them if you eventually take her]). So yeah eventually if you like Malifaux and like Arcanist's then you'll sign on to the Union rolls and buy Ramos... But it can wait a little while.

So OK Raspy box is not bad, the Wendigo is a excellent totem, the Ice Gamin are good and even have limited playability with others, notably Sandeep, the weakest model in the box is the Golem and he is still fair. Raspy needs speed and the Ice Dancers, Snowstorm and Blessed of December are all brilliant additions for her and the Silent One and December Acolyte are so good they are staples in a majority of solid Arcanist lists regardless of master. So with Raspy box you can add any of those secondary Frozen Heart themed models and really add to her. She plays as a smash mouth wizard launching deadly frost spells through Frozen Heart models and generally causing mayhem. Her crew does schemes and strats and maybe also extra killing while keeping bad guys away from Raspy herself. Her banes are fast melee and extra long ranged shooting. She is a fun and relatively simple master helped by the fact that Frozen Heart models are immune to horror which is a nasty mechanic which opponents can nail you with (notably Neverborn and Rezzers). However she is tricky to play in many match ups as she has obvious weaknesses alongside her obvious strengths and is thus a fun master to learn but a difficult master to maximize. The Colette box is first class. The Doves are great support totems which Colette can potentially summon as well, the Performers are first tier scheme runners with some sting and are Arcanist staples and as mercenaries even see action in many non faction crews, the Mannequins are excellent construct support models and Cassandra is a very good Henchman taken in many Arcanist crews. What the box needs is some staying power and/or punch to go along with Cassandra (who is OK at killing but only OK), the Coryphees and resulting Duet is obvious and simply a superb if expensive killing model. The Ramos box contains Howard Langston and Joss both superb beaters. The Mechanical Rider is so good its almost unfair. December Acolytes and Silent Ones also love to slum with Colette when the snows of winter get to depressing and they want bright lights. Oh and don't forget the new Showgirls Carlos Vasquez the fire dancer and the Ice Dancers, both are good. Lastly Angelica and the Raptors, renowned as being simply brilliant. Colette is almost the opposite of Raspy. She is a support master, she is the most fragile master in the game without her tricks and triggers but with them can be so difficult to kill opponents cry, but make a mistake and she will die to a stiff breeze. She does not kill, nor really scheme run herself, what she does in make everything else do it better and aggravates her opponents at the same time. Her crew does the heavy lifting but most Showgirls are also pretty vulnerable and they don't hit like sledgehammers but Rapiers, fine swift cuts and never stop moving because if you do an actual sledgehammer may cave your skull in. Colette is a really hard master and crew to learn in large part because her very play style emphasizes an aspect of Malifaux most new players (especially experienced gamers in other systems) have a problem wrapping their minds around, winning with schemes and strats - Colette can not kill a model lose most if not all of her own and beat you 10 VP's : 2 VP's.... But this is not a intuitive way to play initially and many folks try to smash enemies into paste, and Colette struggles here while being vulnerable to getting pasted herself. A rewarding master to play and she really emphasizes what makes Malifaux a game of depth and nuance, but not a easy master and unforgiving of mistakes, initially you'll likely get absolutely crushed in games as you wrap your head around the Showgirls crew. Personally I think Rasputina may be one of the best starting masters and crews in this game, she is simple, her crew theme is almost universally excellent and this is a 1st class beginner to experienced crew. Colette is my first love as a master, I love the theme, the crew and the playing style. She is tough but so much fun when played well. Colette and Rasputina were actually the first two crews I got and played in Malifaux. I will say that Rasputina was simply more fun at the beginning but will admit that is I had to play one master and crew forevermore... it would be Colette and the Stat Theater troupe.

On principle I cannot disagree. In practice this worries me. I am from distant Australia, specifically Sydney where to begin with the brick & mortar support is limited, because in no small part the community is limited and spread out. So my questions and worries are... Will the special edition stuff be based on purchase threshold, in which case many of us rabid fans will be locked out as I already have what I want in current release and I made the purchase threshold on pre-release. However if the special edition is not on purchase threshold and is instead straight buy then I am terrified of shipping prices. To ship to Australia can be prohibitively expensive and at least a good sized order would ease the purchase-shipping cost ratio, I am afraid that one or two small special edition mini's may cost as much (or more) to ship than the actual purchase price Overall I will not argue with the sentiment but hoping that we Australian's don't start getting price crunched and excluded from special edition releases by simple shipping fees.

Complicated question because, as with any multi-option game, there is a power curve on the masters and crews. This means that there is a difference between playing the best master and playing the master the best. So are you asking which masters are the hardest to get the 'best' out of them, the hardest to play to an optimal level.... or Which master when played well will get you the best results, a combination of playing well being necessary to get exceptional results. Personally I think the "weakest" and least well regarded masters on the power tier for Grems are Mah Tucket and Zoraida. Both are potentially good but hard to play with not obvious crew/synergy chhoices and even played very well they have weaknesses and match up combinations which will make them really struggle. So toughest master to play (skill) and get good results (power) with would I'd say be Mah. For powerful masters Grems have a collection, Wong and Somer are superb and Zipp is getting some its new and fresh love. But concentrating on Wong and Somer as masters with some developed knowledge. I'd say both are powerful and have an obvious schtick (Wong glowy and AoE and Somer Summons and Boomstick) but to master both you need to understand when to play in the strength and when to diversify (which is basically true for every Malifaux master). I am inclined to say the toughest to play (skill) and dominate consistently (power) with would be Wong, he is more reliant on opponents choices (bunching up) and more fragile and without the summons this is also true for his crew. But when you 'get' him, well trust the glow!

With regards to model and possible elevated terrain height and LoS to look 'over' the illusory forest.

So.... The Rail Golem is not that different from Howard in some senses. A big, Armored, hard hitting, construct worth a fair chunk of points but can chop an opponents crew to pieces. In many ways he benefits from the same upgrades, notably Imbued Energies, in the same way you'd expect for any Arcanist beater. As a construct he also has some similar synergies as Howard with Mei Feng and Ramos most notably but also some M&SU with Ironsides and he's as valid a Colette prompt as any other high SS beat stick. Now the differences. He benefits more from Burning synergy so certain masters (Kaeris) and other models (Firestarter, Rail Workers, Union Miners) are useful with him. He is more card reliant, to really get the momentum you need to have tomes and this makes him card and suit hungry, and in the same suit as most Arcanist masters and other models generally need, so with the Rail Golem card drop and hand management is more important than for many other options. He relies heavily on Armor to provide durability, if opponents ignore or by pass (for example by micro cutting it) Armor he will be derailed quickly. Both condition removal and some other special rules (Sonnia and burning sight) also can hurt his effectiveness. He's Melee 5 which is a problem against really high Df models and means likely more pressure to cheat in the high cards needed. Basically, he is much more swingy in play as already mentioned, some games he'll soak a little hate and drop in a round being very disappointing, in others he'll build up a head of steam and the cards will drop right and frankly you'll feel kinda dirty as you crush your opponents crew. Most players, as mentioned here, generally go the more predictable Howard, Cerberus and so forth. The Rail Golem's biggest single weakness is that he is heavily card reliant, he has a lower Melee and needs Tomes to chain his attacks so you need solid flips or a great control hand to have your big turn. If you like the model and are prepared to take the good with the bad he is 100% viable and works in most Arcanist crews (notably Ramos, Mei Feng, Kaeris, Ironsides have some synergy of some sort; for Colette and Sandeep is fine, generally they have no specific synergy with the Arcanist heavy beaters; Rasputina and Marcus have much better synergy with other beaters in his SS range and obviously for these masters he's sub-optimal [as is Howard]).

From an Arcanist perspective (as this is their forum) I DO NOT think that the Book 1 masters are becoming under powered. Ramos is still the best summoner in the game for AP efficiency and his summons are simply an excellent and versatile model. Marcus is one of those flexible, durable beat stick masters and with his huge, and constantly increasing, Beasts hire pool he is never short of a theme model to fill special need slot 'x'. Mei Feng is a solid fast all round model, just durable enough and with deceptive hitting power. She if anything has benefited from GG2017 as it slightly emphasizes the faster masters. Arguably the 'weakest' Book 1 master is Raspy and she is still simple, strong and has a great theme crew, made all the better with Ice Dancers sealing a real crew weakness. Her biggest vulnerability is really that she has some poor matches in terms of opponents (Sonnia is an example) and strat/schemes (she really struggles in super mobile pools, especially ones which need the master to move). However in the right game and against most opponent crews she can still do well. The Book 2 masters are probably the presumptive weakest set for Arcanists, and I say that with the statement that they are all competitive at least. Colette following the cuddle is a little less simple, perhaps a shade 'weaker' but remains one of the strongest masters in the game for any scheme marker heavy pool (so yeah a lot of GG2017). Ironsides was cuddled slightly, she is solid as both her buffed Df trigger and some M&SU theme crew improvements have helped her. Still not an Arcanist master in the top half. Kaeris is probably the 'weakest' master available to Arcanist's she is fast and reasonably durable but does not have a wow factor anywhere and is not the all rounder several others (Marcus, Sandeep) can be. For speed I think Mei is as good and Ramos wins the durability race, for schemes Colette... so poor Kaeris suffers as the 'at best second choice for power' in the faction. But she is playable and fun. The other place she suffers is a lack of theme integration. Which brings us to the 8th man, topical conversation point Sandeep. He's good, flexible and the all rounder, non theme locked tool box which Kaeris isn't. This tool box, do everything well and nothing quite exceptionally is what the Arcanist faction needed and got. Want summons, check. Want theme integration, can do. Speed, yep I can do that - Wind Gamin help. Ranged, yep especially with a Ox Mage battery. Got some smash face action available. Has surprising durability. Can scheme. Will grind out wins. So no argument Sandeep is top tier but I think his dominance in meta's is more because people are both playing him a lot and opponents are learning in the Sandeep school of hard knocks and education via the end of a giant magical club/mace thing. Once folks have a good handle on him he'll drift down and the old reliable crews will see more table time again.

Honestly I'd start with Rasputina. She is not the most powerful master/crew in Arcanists, you'll not dominate games with her as her simple play allows for uncomplicated prevention but.... Her style is magic heavy, she blasts with deadly arced spells Her primary crew is Frozen Heart which is simply an excellent ability which lets you in early 'learning' games ignore several hostile conditions which are really difficult and unfun to deal with as your go about learning the game Her Frozen Heart models are exceptional in several respects and many are very useful in other non-Raspy future crews; notably the Dec Acolyte is a 9.5/10 any crew model, the Silent One is the Arcanist healing piece and Ice Dancers are top tier scheme runner/intercept models. Her box set is OK, the totem is great for her, the Ice gamin are good and the Golem.... is OK, but I'll admit the walking Ice block with fists will not feature in many crews after initial learning games. Two other models in her Frozen Heart primary crew also have good synergy with two other mentioned crews Sandeep does not mind the Ice Gamin as inclusions/summons and Marcus loves the Blessed of December as a inclusion/Myranda-shape shift. Ramos, Mei Feng and Ironsides are all M&SU schtick which you don't like as much. Marcus is great but he 'feels' less magic and more charge - claw - bloody mist. Also his huge hiring pool means lots of purchases of models many useless across the rest of the Arcanist faction. Nevertheless a great crew and good flexible starter/competitive option, but for your parameters I'd prefer Raspy. Sandeep is a great tool box but is newer, trickier to play. I'd say its a real close call here but I'd edge Raspy 51% to 49% as she is a easier to play both with and against so vastly better 'starting' master. Colette is great but in many ways even trickier to play with/against then Sandeep. Fun master but she really emphasizes the scheme aspect of Malifaux which makes it unlike other war games and playing her initially, especially with other war game experience, is a very mindset shifting experience. Better to get a grip on the game with a simpler master. Kaeris is, well a strange hybrid which in game play generally is difficult to get to 'work'. Kinda support but hard to pull off, schemey but not like Colette, an almost summoner vibe but not really possible, fast but not hard hitting (she is not a match for Mei Feng in this for example), not the blaster Raspy is. She is kinda a fast slightly durable little bit support and scheme running with Burning. Fun characterful and she can do OK but not a first choice for.... well anything.

An excellent mid-range model which fills a vital game need effectively. Well worth the investment. For Raspy they bring critical speed and scheme running. For most other Arcanists they represent a first class flank scheme runner. These ladies are what you want for the scheme which need, well schemes. As stated nearly any Arcanist can use them well, however it is worth noting that in Ramos/Mei crews then spiders are popular as constructs, they are not as good as Dancers and for Marcus the beast plethora allows several great inclusions which can match them and bring Marcus crew synergy, notably Silurids. In Raspy they are near an auto-include for me, at least one to cover scheme and to a degree anti-scheme. I like them in Colette and they also have Showgirl synergy. For the other crews they are generally more niche includes except really Marcus where I stay Beast theme.

The Ice Golem is a solid piece in theory which fails in practice. Basically the problem is it can be devastating against a opponent who plays poorly but is rapidly negated by an opponent who plays even reasonably well. The Golem is thus vastly more dependent on your opponents poor play then on your good play. The core issues are already identified but in summary: Its 3AP Smash is huge but really relies on your opponent putting a model within its reach to do, otherwise its basic attack is pretty much only OK, which leads to Its terribly slow so even with Imbued Energies and/or pushes it has limited reach for high resource investment, which leads It is easy to attack and neutralize, its Df is essentially pinata category and while its armor is solid it can be rapidly micro-cut to death and ignore armor shreads it, its a big obvious melee threat so it will attract that damage, which also means It cannot do much else but shamble slowly forward as an attack magnet hoping in vain to unleash smash on something suicidal enough to stand near it. It has a couple of other actions, notably toss but given its a slow melee beatstick which is difficult to hide and has limited life span you can't waste low value AP when you simply have to try to move forward faster than a glacier. It does do some things OK, its Frozen Heart so very difficult to stop with conditions, with armor it can soak a solid amount of hits and thus keep the heat off other things..... but Ultimately Arcanists have a excellent array of 9-12SS models which do things vastly better than the Ice Golem in every respect. As a construct Howard is much better, in Frozen Heart the Blessed is not as 'hitty' but its faster and will actually get into the enemy and tear stuff up, same for the Cerebus. Basically you take the Golem because its not useless, is themey and also is an excellent demo model, simple, obvious. But if you are going Raspy competitive there is simply much better choices that require less other model/AP investment to get work from. This is a borderline needs a buff model, a little touch could make it work well, its not awful but it suffers for better choices and simply relying to much on your opponent not paying attention to the pretty simple techniques to remove/neutralize it to be much use.

For mine I always loved the idea of Lucius in either of his factions and had lists for both his allegiances. Having said that I am not surprised that Lucius warrants more mention in Guild than in NB. Part of this is his box set is primarily focused on Guild with some models usable in either faction with or without any Lucius special rules but mostly any Lucius box cross over models are likely to appear in other Guild lists if anywhere. Another part of this is Lucius occupies what I think is a more unique space in the Guild in terms of narrative (Lucius is the dark NB really proper bad [at least for humans] figure) and crew theme (primarily support and obey); this is something more unique to Guild, many of their masters are more ambiguous in terms of goal but are certainly not anti-human and they don't have a puppet master style master quite in Lucius' vein. NB however are filled with dark and malevolent masters and have two exceptional puppet-master/obey crews in Collodi and the Hag. But perhaps the biggest reason I think for the lack of noise about the errata on NB forums compared to Guild is the errata itself has had vastly more impact for the Guild Lucius than the NB incarnation. I have really changed a number of Guild lists since the errata while my NB ones have changed in how they play but not nearly as much in composition. For Guild the Lucius changes, especially teamed with the Dashal changes are seismic with a wider range of really useful models now able to directly benefit from his powers. This means that Guild lists have broken down less to the 'choices with synergy' and the 'choices without synergy' equation. In some ways the list of NB models benefiting from his abilities is even wider but that is exactly the point it was massively opened many NB combo's, the lists I took were based more on models I wanted than synergy more so in NB because there was simply less available synergy (it was mainly directly Lucius/Guild linked). With the wider range of open models there is less discussion as NB players merely take the same models they liked/thought worked before "now with more synergy". So in summary I suspect it has been quieter in NB Lucius because: Yeah he is default thought of as more Guild than NB; I imagine not as many NB players regularly field him and less of those who are single faction NB For NB he has given them another nasty obey/control/support master and crew to add to those already in the faction and well respected. While for Guild Lucius much more fills a niche that was under represented - so this has more Guild players excited because it is a more unique play-style for them than NB. The buff has more effect on Guild model power inclusion and selection than NB, less creation of tough choices between model A (old synergy) & B (new synergy now with less fear of imminent execution) as many more NB models got the boost there was less change to the models available to Lucius NB simply because of the boosts mainly his card profile got (see for example Austringer) Also several very useful models to Lucius guild have already been recently buffed/cuddled or released including Dashal, Guild Guard, Thralls, Scribe (NB as well but the vomit work was a more valid selection than the Guild equivalent), Austringers. So less direct and indirect changes which effect NB Lucius crew will mean less forum celebration/outrage.

Outside of Raspy's own crew mechanics and paralyze tricks...... Also its worth noting that Raspy crews are immune to horror paralyze (Frozen Heart). This is an amazing bonus great for beginners in particular as it negates a really nasty in game mechanic. Against Rezzers and Neverborn this can be beyond game changing, certain masters in particular can find it crippling. Raspy crews for this reason alone can be fielded against Rezzer crews and be competitive in most cases.

I would leave out the Dec Acolytes in favor of an Ice Dancer based on the 35ss limit I suggested. Snow Storm and the Blessed of Dec are massive hitters, they add to (or more likely replace) the Ice Golem role and both from complexity and cost are not what I'd recommend. Again I like the idea of a simple here's the base box and add one or two more models. It is not optimal but it is neat, controlled and should be fun and a good introduction. Dec Acolytes are superb models but also rather obvious in utility - they sniper stuff and kill or slow it, harassment and delay, you either let them pick at you or burn resources to kill them. While they are functional scheme runners they have no special utility in the area and are much better at another role. If you don't have an Ice Dancer I'd take an Acolyte. Silent Ones are also excellent but in many ways are Raspy force multipliers and don't add a tremendous amount of 'new'. So I'd take the Ice Dancer because she (1) retain Frozen Heart thematic- fun/character (2) provides a completely different aspect to a Raspy crew box - speed and finesse over the Gamin/Golems blunt ice trauma and Raspy with her death blizzards (3) are powerful and useful models which look great (4) allow a demo game to really highlight 'the come at you sideways' and scheme > kill aspects of Faux which make it such an exceptional mini war game IMO. You could use a 'fill in model' but I would not, you're demoing a mini war game where a significant part of the lure is the wonderful and characterful mini's why waste that..... So that is the reasoning. You could go all sorts of tricks, change the basic crew box contents, add mercs and non-theme arcanists etc but I would personally go Raspy box + a little extra (as noted above) vs Ironsides box + a little extra (I'd go a Union Miner as a scheme show off and MS&U theme model). It seems the cleanest and simplest match up for mine.

If he plays Warma-Hordes then he understands the concept of killing and threat ranges, explain before the game starts that Raspy plays like a slow moving snowball bazooka and it would be best to avoid her threat range (and give him the different ranges) unless he has several tricks in place (cover, cards, voodoo dark magic, whatever) to keep him upright or he is willing to sacrifice the model. He's a war gamer and Warma-Hordes player, he'll understand that. Then explain how cover, focus and defensive work, use a few quick examples with Raspy vs model 'x' practice situation flips immediately before the game to demonstrate the mechanics, they will see it in 5 min demo and then likely during the game. Then make sure you have a good strat-scheme pool which includes scheme marker placement, use open schemes and only have 1 strat and the same 2 schemes each (explain what is normal for future games but that this is intro 101). Then rock and roll, with Von Schill having some speed and range vs slower Raspy crew but a slippery as all hell Ice Dancer and infiltrating Dec Acolyte you should quickly see the value of terrain, targeted killing and scheme marker placement. As a bonus Von Schill's lads are largely blast immune so if he screws up he'll lose a model and not half the crew. Von Schill himself is pretty damn durable and even the Strongarm Suit and Lazarus can probably survive a solid Raspy hit with a little cheating then a Librarian could heal them. Not to mention that this could be used to demonstrate that burning AP on Raspy to smash a big model while a scheme running Freikorpsman goes scheme marker placement happy could swing the game. In short with a little thought it should work fine, in the end no combo of models is going to be ideally balanced and allow every facet of the Malifaux game to be demonstrated easily but I think Raspy vs Von Schill provides an excellent way of covering most of it in a clear and concise way. It also nicely demonstrates important things like Ca vs Sh actions, maybe shooting into melee, disengaging, move vs push, terrain and model height. I honestly think with the resources you have that this is the way to go. Alternatively I'd roll Marcus and demonstrate that way but then you'll still have problems in a different way. Hell even Von Schill vs Von Schill introduces match up issues I can think of.

My thinking. Play 35ss. Stick with Raspy's basic box mostly, add a Silent One at least. Get Ice Dancers for her (Raspy needs the speed and they are simply excellent models), in the future you will 100% want to use them. Include hand mechanics and play book schemes, I'd do standard deploy with Turf War (really simple and easy to grasp and works for Raspy and her basic box+ some adds), Line in the Sand (learn scheme markers) and Assassinate (simple and who does not like a little smash the leader). Moderate terrain, include some rough terrain and elevation. If you had Marcus he'd have been my ++ choice, instead I'd run Ironsides and play careful,, she is durable enough and not an easy take down and with the Captain and Ox Mages it'll be a interesting fight with no obvious hard counters or domination match ups. Ironsides is a fairly simple master with a fairly simple play style so perfect opponent for a newer person, as long as you don't max play her straight in and smash Raspy she'll play nice, durable enough, challenging enough, simple enough. Most of the other masters you have are more aggressive and/or complex opponents.

I think it's worth noting that nearly every master-crew combo in the game has the 'shoot yourself in the foot' match up of strats-scheme-enemy. Having said that Raspy can play Gamin and Golem and bring smash face as easily as she can gunline. While this is tougher to run it is a powerful and valid combo for certain games. Raspy can function in any game, she is good because of her simplicity, she is always useful in games even if only as a threat/area denial model and even her pure theme 'Frozen Heart' models are generally excellent and have enough variety to work nearly any strat/scheme pool effectively (if not optimally). Dec Acolyte is superb. Silent Ones are excellent models with a heal. Ice Dancers are scheme runners of excellent quality. Snow Storm is superb at shoring up a Raspy couple of weakness (counter shooting and low mobility). Wendigo is a cheap and excellent meaningful model not to mention a surprisingly deadly totem. Golem is big, slow, durable and if he gets somewhere your opponent needs to be then he ends anything he can get in his icy grip. Gamin are solid, I think the best of the Gamin, fast enough (faster still with the Golem chucking them around) to scheme, surprisingly dangerous especially with their little death sting detonate and durable for cost. And that is just the classic Raspy Frozen Heart core, when you branch out to other faction and merc models, she can compete anytime and always. But that is different to dominate everywhere and every game......

Raspy is a good choice, she is pretty simple, her crew is characterful and the Freikorps are solid against one of her primary attacks. However she is still competitive and will present an interesting game. Crew selection will be important, I'd throw in the Ice Golem and some Gamin, they are not optimal selection in many lists but ooze character, are fun to play and the Golem is a suitably awe inspiring beater. Also put in an Ice Dancer and you can show off some speed/scheme running-prevention. Finally I'd include a Dec Acolyte as a counter to the Trapper, this will mean you can keep every facet of the game engaged and neither you or your opponent will outright dominate. Kaeris is a nice master but she is all about maneuver and is tricky to maximize, playing her poorly will be a walk over and playing her well will confuse and frustrate your opponent, she is tricky to play 'average'. Marcus is not bad, play him durable Marcus and not killy Marcus and he'd be fun, take a reasonable beast pack selection and that would be a simple and fun confrontation of beast vs man. Sandeep and Ramos are no-no's I'd say, summoner mechanic alone is overwhelming. Shenlong, Viks, Daw and Hamelin.... yeah no on all, they are cascade and momentum masters all, they have truly vinous table clearing mechanics which can be prevented by knowledgeable good players but will table the inexperienced in a single turn (mainly Vik's but Daw is savage as well) or create a confluence of events and (in Hamelin's case) summons which are unstoppable at a certain threshold. So I'd go Rasputina as clearly first choice, then Marcus and then Kaeris. I'd leave the other in the box till your mate has found his feet with the basic rules.

Well that was a intense discussion. In the end I will be playing that Cassandra cannot target a model which has already been prompted by Colette (or vice versa) until officialdom states otherwise in the FAQ. On reflection this seems to more clearly correspond with the precise wording on the new card concerning prompt, that "A model may only be targeted by this Action once per turn" There has been no rule quoted which clearly invalidates this interpretation This reading further restrains the Showgirls (slightly) which was clearly the rules change intent and also means that if I am wrong it is to my disadvantage (if any) and not my opponents Ultimately it means Cassandra is not an auto-include in order to maximise prompt crutch for the old Colette max prompt play style but she retains excellent advantages providing an additional prompt which has a different source (and potentially LOS and range) and activation order, which honestly is powerful enough Utmost respect to everyone's opinions and contributions. Hopefully a FAQ sorts this out quickly and simply in the not to distant future, it is a fairly simple y/n - a/b type question after all.

Are we certain, I agree that different model is different action however the 'type' of action is the same, it is still a Prompt. The action itself states "A model may only be targeted by this Action once per turn". The key in support of Myyra is 'targeted by Action' wording and not an alternative targeted by Prompt, this would support their statement and that case (1) below is dominant. But I still want to check my rules to be certain. Reading one by Myyra is that the Colette Prompt is one action she can attempt it up to three times but must target different models. Meanwhile (before or after Colette's turn) Cassandra can Understudy Prompt and, as it is a separate action by Cassandra, she can target a model which has been (or is later) targeted by Colette herself. I will admit this is the persuasive interpretation but I do not have a rule book on hand to 100% confirm. In this case it is more about the source of the action (Cassandra or Colette) than the target. In the alternative. The Prompt ability is an action. Colette can Prompt up to three times and through Understudy Cassandra can perform an additional Prompt but no model can be affected by a Prompt action from either source more than once per turn, so up to four prompts on four separate targets. The rules do have certain abilities, conditions, effects etc which can only be applied once regardless of source; so this interpretation has validity. In this case it is more about the target than the source of the Prompt, it is the target which restricts the application. I think it is necessary to reference the rules to clearly demonstrate (1) as dominant over the second interpretation. I at least will try to do so when I have a rule book on hand and am not about to start my working day

A Colette crew played as a "killer" list in most competitive builds, I hated that. It felt wrong, these were the Showgirls, glitter, glam and misdirection - not blood, gore and unreasoning aggression. I play Colette, I love her concept and crew and yes she has become harder to play in terms of tactics and more restricted in her use of powers, undoubtedly, 100%, totally agree. By the metric of raw power she has become weaker. But I approve, it will make me think more, I'll have to go back to coming at opponents more 'sideways' and utilizing exactly the feints, misdirection and multi-layered tactics that originally attracted me to the Colette crew in the first place. In a land of deadly fanged nightmares and brutal gunslingers a group of women (traditionally an underclass of the historical era) and dancers (lets face facts never a group highly regarded for the combat prowess or startling intellectual-philosophical contribution to the wider world - and here I say that this is the perception not reality, most parents want their kids to become doctors and not so much a stage dancer) are regarded as a powerful and dangerous force. I love this idea, since time immemorial the 'cute bit of strumpet' has been discounted, objectified and ridiculed - Colette and her girls change the script and burn the narrow minded not by punching out your lights but by making you stare at the light while they steel the shirt of your back, convince everyone around you you're meaningless and twist the narrative to their goal, all while you watch them like a hawk for all the wrong damn reasons. This is the Colette crew I want to play, the one where you watch me beat you but you're not sure how. This is what this change is about for me, it is a cuddle in every sense because it has "reduced" her power conventionally but its also renewed my love for what the crew should represent. Colette is better for what she has lost, as players I expect the same will soon become true for those who love her crew.

My issue with Kaeris is that I don't 'feel' the character of her when I play her. She is meant to be I think fast, hit and run and flame. She does not play this way much. I'd like to see a sideways re-work as opposed to a buff, move skills around and change them to emphasise her niche and character.

From an Arcanist perspective I for one am pleased. The changes both buffs (Ironsides and Union Miners) are excellent additions that make models I wanted to take but struggled to use (Toni) and models I rarely included except in niche circumstances (Miners) much better without appearing to overpower and auto-include them. The Colette cuddle I love, it makes her more interesting, re-emphasises her scheme tricks over a simplistic 3x killer prompt tactic which always felt kinda dirty. It also means that her crews will be less super elite and require more thought. At the same time she still can triple prompt different targets so with some thought still simply erase a high priority out in the open target. This is more like the Colette I want to play, she is my first and favorite master going back to previous edition so yep very pleased.

Echo this agreement. LE models while nice for the folks (like 99% of us all I'm guessing) on board for the KS are in the end a short term solution which creates long term problems. In my experience LE models may (slightly) increase the KS pledges, and if they are purchasable perhaps have a significant amount pledged effect, the problem is that those people not involved in the KS then feel less inclined to get involved. Miniature gamers are in the end collectors in many cases (if not card stock with a picture makes a vastly cheaper physical gaming tool) and not being able to buy miniatures for a game you like or only being able to get them at vastly increased prices I think puts many potential players off. But we are also gamers (hence the rules and play otherwise we could simply collect busts and figurines) and we want tight rules (which in my experience Wyrd does) and a LARGE, DIVERSE and good (which Malifarux is carefully developing I hope) community. Anything which discourages people from getting involved after the short month burn of the KS will hurt that size and diversity desire. At the very least I hope that any LE models come with an addendum that they will be available at the KS and cheaper but will later see availability as limited releases like Wyrd already does in its thrice yearly sales, this would I think be a better idea. And I say this as someone who is already in, don't lock out potential future players with discouraging LE content they simply can't get except at grossly inflated prices. Instead give us more content, better general release components and potentially savings so as a community we are in a position to tell interested others in the future: "Look at this wide range or lovely miniatures and great rules, if you're interested in playing I have a couple of factions and we can play a test game to see if you like it". Hopefully if enough of us can do that we'll have a great pool of TOS players and a constantly growing and cross pollinating community of dedicated Malifaux and TOS gamers. So yeah instead of giving us LE miniatures I'd vote a preference for more accessible rules, mini's and material for all us early backers to use to bring people to the other side (figuratively and literally).

The Viks high movement and Bloods effectively base 3AP (with melee expert its rare she won't use all 3AP especially after 1st turn) they are able to really reach out to a lot of places. Add in pushes, chain activation's, fast (with multiple ways to achieve this) and potentially unimpeded then Blood mid board can really move to almost anywhere and can also fairly easily manage terrain by going through or around depending on needs. The advantage is of course this does eat some AP which is always good, so don't think of things like Pillers as a prevention but as a AP sink, you force models to burn AP useful for many other things to maneuver around them or otherwise manage them. The best way to "predict" any model in Malifaux Vik's included is to entice them where you want, make your opponent play to your tune and lead them where you want them to go. Course that is easy to say and next to impossible to achieve consistently, in particular the best players are both good at doing it and usually even better at avoiding it. Still sounds like your core strat idea was sound and progress was made, maybe with a tweak and refinement it works. One game does not a pattern make nor a pattern break.

Also wondering what the status is here.