thebarbalag

Nicodem...a bad guy...? It's almost like he's some wrinkled old dude who wants to take over the world with an army of the dead...

Nico, as with most summoners, I almost never run focusing on summoning. I very regularly take Maniacal Laugh, which becomes my more frequent summon with him. I have found that one or two Punk Zombies can seal a game. If I were facing heavily armored opponents, Shikome, I suppose, but really Punks are often all the beatstick Nico requires. Then use his AP to focus on buffing/healing/debuffing. I'm excited to get the Emissary on the table with him and try out the zombie horde. Not that I expect it to be properly dangerous, just, you know, more dangerous than people expect Mindless Zombies to be.

Functional, sure. Drowned are pretty hilarious tarpits all on their own. Jaakuna makes them a little scarier, and harder to get away from. With Molly, especially, it's easy enough just to drop a Drowned down in the middle of melee.

Picking up The Torch and Blade (Sonnia's box) to complement your current plans will be very useful, on several levels. It gives you another Master who functions just fine with the contents of the Guild starter (they're even all Witch Hunters!). It gives you the excellent Witchling Stalkers, which are generally quite good, but when pair with a Nurse can do some very awesome things, like stripping away the debuffs that the Nurses hand out with their buffs...that full heal is even sweeter when somebody gets rid of the Paralyze for you. And, fluff-wise, Sonnia and McMourning ar enow in cahoots, and he has access to her Arcanist prisoners, so bring Witchlings makes perfect sense, thematically.

Neverborn has a bit of a Henchman problem, at least as far as popularity. Most of our henchmen are pretty narrowly honed tools for very specific goals. Vasilisa is a prime example of this. It's not that she's bad, it's just that she does one thing (short-mid range control) relatively well, but Neverborn is usually a faction that would rather just kill you, and she is just a smidge too fragile to get a lot of mileage out of that function, too. That said, she, and the other henchmen can be phenomenal, as Myyra said, when the stars align, you're just often going to find your points better spent elsewhere in Neverborn.

I'd throw in some Corrupted Hounds, too, if I were going that way.

She could run Nephilim just fine, in fact Mother of Monsters box, plus a Nephilim box and a box of Black Blood Shamans would work quite well with the Queen's Return box.

So, just thinking, and I'm not seeing anything that prevents this yet, but is it too many moving parts, too expensive to bring Hans to, in addition to sniping enemies, shoot Soulbound upgrades off of Shieldbearers to make them unkillable again, and give you another corpse marker when they get "killed" again?

I hate change, so I hate this, but Justin, you've been a massive boon to this game, and I'm happy to see you following your bliss to new opportunities. It's been great working with you on playtesting, and chatting with you about the game at Gencon. Good luck, and thanks for all you've done for us!

To keep from being too specific, on the Shieldbearers, the "keep going," aka "super Hard to Kill" mechanic is on the front of the card, along with a bit of Armor, and an ability that speeds them up when somebody close by spends a stone. Their stats, if I remember correctly, are pretty average-y. Cost more than a Belle, can't remember just how much more. Wounds well below average for a Resser minion, but remember, they get two sets of them. Back of the card has a relatively lackluster attack (they are essentially homeless people who picked up abandoned Guild weapons), and I believe, a short push, as well as a minor self-buff tactical.

The ax-men are pricey for Resser minions. No Frozen Heart. Horrors. Cool, strange Ht mechanic. Magic-y powers. Decent damage potential.

Yes, the thing on the left has Retainer (as does one of the models in the 10T picture). Shieldbearers are minions. When they are killed, they heal all wounds, drop a corpse, become a spirit, and attach a special upgrade.

Archie is Molly's henchman Flesh Construct. On par with the most expensive models in the game. Three AP, with very minor limits, and the potential for more via multiple (0) actions. Upgrade swapping mechanic, using several personal upgrades, including the aforementioned squid. Interesting ranged attack that involves throwing corpse markers, which could be very useful for Reva. Positioning control, some movement shenanigans. Pretty tough (lots of wounds that are hard to take, scary, potential for armor via upgrades) , and severe damage output. Like I said, he's costly, but really high powered. Will fit into just about any list you want a beater in.

Maybe it's not a Qilin. (I have no special knowledge about what it is or isn't, just that there are other mythological animals/creatures it could be.)

As promised, I'm hosting another One Round Tournament at Game Nite (8330 Watson Rd. St. Louis, MO 63119), Thursday July 28th, 6:30pm to 9pm. Winner is the player who won their game with the most VP, Differential if there's a VP tie, card flip if there's a Differential tie. The prize is a small mystery box. There is no fee. No painting requirement. All skill levels welcome. The event will use Gaining Grounds 2016 - Corners, Extraction, Convict Labor, Take Prisoner, Show of Force, Catch and Release, Mark for Death. Hope to see you there!

Welcome! I'll try to say "Hi" to everybody in the five minutes (ok, more like 10 hours, but it's gonna be busy) I'm at Gencon.

Just don't forget to move Titania before the Sorrow activates, or Fears will toast it. (Edit: Or, just put it on the other side of the enemy so it's not close enough to Titania, would make sense. Derp.)

Their physical forms were killed. No one foresaw that they could "live" on as disembodied spirit-beings capable of possessing or assuming the forms of the living...

Well, how else to you kill the Tyrants without making a deal with death itself?

There's a lot to love on her card beyond the summoning. As with most summoners, I suggest looking at summoning as the gravy, rather than the meat. Look at the positioning power of Reaching Tendrils and its trigger. Combine her positioning power with An Insatiable Hunger, to both keep her alive and wreck enemy plans, "Sorry, Collette, your nearby markers are all my wounds, now, no Disappearing Act for you!" And then, an Oni's Strength...good lord that ability is choice: Focus +2 on a 6 of anything. Ama No Zako with a 1 AP charge and Focus +2, or a Jorogumo...geesh...and we don't even know what Ohaguro Bettari does yet, but the tease says she's a Melee combatant. Plus Rush of Magic, which, as a Lilith player I know is worth its weight in face cards. Df 7 and healing means she can probably sit wherever she wants to in relative safety, though I'd probably bring the Shadow Effigy for a little defensive padding. And, she can give herself An Oni's Strength for 1 AP and then bite something for a very likely damage spread of, quoting someone on facebook, "who cares/4/6."

She can also turn Corpse markers into Scheme markers, and just on her card has some great movement/protection tech in Death Shroud, which gives her a placement at the same range as her walk for a (0), which doesn't even discard the targeted Corpse marker. I'm not trying to force anybody to love her, but to say she only does damage is a little disingenuous. She is a massive threat-projection piece. Before Reva has activated, anywhere within 3" of a Corpse marker becomes a deadly no-man's land. That's some serious area denial, especially if you have some control of Corpse marker placement...if only there were Corpse markers that walked around... Also, when she kills something, provided it was living or undead, she generates a new attack vector.

My thoughts exactly. Her range, damage output potential, and mobility are very scary. Kind of like Seamus, but trading summoning and Terrifying/Wp shenanigans for raw power.

Interesting to see that Resurrectionists are the only faction not buzzing about their new Master. Is nobody as excited by Reva as I am? Unstoppable min 3 (4 if you sac a corpse) from up to 22" away? Wound sucking vampire attack? Massive movement/repositioning power? Even her fluff sounds amazing. Her bodyguard is a crazy Exorcist. So cool.

A couple of Rams and she can send Nekima bounding around the table, smacking the crap out of whatever she wants...