SpiralngCadavr

So, big fan of tara, wrote a lot about her here. Short version, tara has some serious flaws, probably the biggest of which is her dependency on being able to unbury to get any use out of her, and her two enforcers getting patched with 0ss upgrades (never take karina without summoning, she's horribly overpriced)

Kell is going to look like a child, what with him being small for PP, and PP's scale being smaller than malifaux's

Yeah, the area that's probably the worst is summoning, where starters have too few models to take advantage of summoning, and then small games have few enough points that heavy summoning can unbalance the force size as it's disproportionate summoning to the game size (things are based around 50ss forces)

So, got tired of moving stuff around on trading forums and my loss of patience is your gain, so put up a bit of my LE collection, including a bunch of the alternates, miss's, the TTB KS deck, etc. Also, if you happen to be interested, kingdom death and PP guys. link

at least 4 for anyone; aim for 7 for ones that are very suit-dependant or I really want the protection for certain henchmen

On point 2 in specific- I use that a ton- on an isolated runner/counter-runner that hasn't gone by mid-late turn, fast can really prevent them from doing anything to a wretch. Also, giving everyone fast is well worth risking something weak or hurt on my opponent's side getting it, especially when tagging them gives them vulnerabilities and/or tests, too.

Yeah, extra AP's are strong enough that it shores up a lot of flaws, placement tricks are also always strong, and DM's are just a nice option, but there are a ton of flaws in her make up. The whole theme construction forces you to jump through a lot of hoops if doing it the way it's clearly designed to work, and while I've got a strong record with her, I always feel like I hit a moment of "I want to try to squeeze in some more-than-superficial void theme, but X is so much better for her..." when designing a list. At least she finally got aionus as a second de-facto thematic henchman, since I'm really not a fan of either of her big and fully thematic models (despite loving the NB and the art for the scion)

Agreed- the easy access to focus helps out, but that 2 damage on weak is pretty horrible on a model that expensive, and yes, you can never have a wholly nothingness-based army, so something's losing out, and either way, you're usually only getting it up to average defense until late in the turn so (unless you get unlucky with that first initiative, in which case the NB is a sitting duck) the NB is usually going to be a normal target until late turn at which point it becomes very hard to directly hit.. And on Karina, she's got a good (enough) pistol and I have a higher estimation of autopsies in combat (late turn, forcing something to take a hit or allow a reactivate can be strong), but otherwise, yeah, agreed on the rest. Really wish they'd heavily errata'd her to make her more than an upgrade- think a cheap model with healing (thematic, could be something else, IDK.) and a pistol, and summoning on an upgrade, would have fit the bill. I still think someone must have overestimated how strong or easy burying was, given all the restrictions on glimpse and how expensive Karina is (in her first iteration, with the upgrade, easily the most overpriced model in the game IMHO, esp. considering how good deals totems tend to be), and to a lesser degree the NB is.

The Nothing Beast is probably a point overpriced and fairly difficult to use. IDK about voiceless words, unless spamming void wretches pretty hard, I can't see how it would be worth it.

I'd say drowned and a couple autopsies would be way better; just drowned and you're starting to get into gambling territory (since she's definitely not worth 5ss on her own, meaning if she doesn't summon anything, there were far better 4-5ss options). I don't think the drowned is that much worse than the next couple of tiers, so it's definitely enough in that regard. Having a combatant available on a suited 9 is 1.5x as likely to pull off, though, and that's only in terms of raw numbers, since you probably won't want to spend a red joker on an okay summon and might not want to use a king, so it's closer to 2x as likely, and I've actually gotten lucky summoning autopsies without a card while I'd probably never try that with anything pricier. It's got enough potential that it'd be worth it to try her out, but it'd do in a pinch.

Yeah, it's nowhere near a strong summoning set, but for a master who buffs minions and likes constructs, having the option to hire minion constructs is definitely not a bad option

I think he's fantastic with some swampfiends for both offensive and defensive support; a decent sniper who can hold his own and remove conditions without them.

I've run something pretty similar, it definitely works nicely enough. I liked a Tengu in it for the regen on summons and scheme running as necessary.

Updated with new haves and wants, some new LE stuff. Also, my PM's are no longer broken(!)

Well, glad it helped Re Karina, I'd proxy her as another pistolier if you can't get your hands on an autopsy pack (or just proxy something else as them as a stop-gap, like a couple DM's without coffins so they're clearly different)- you're not guaranteed 7's, and a lot of what crooligans have to offer is lost since they're insignificant the round they're most effective.

Short version- no question, a box of Autopsies and some death marshals; then either punk zombies or the transmortis set (I prefer the former, despite the latter having more flexibility). I'd say you can get by with 1 marshal, 2 autopsies, and 1 punk if you're really on a tight budget and can split the sets. Karina is utterly worthless if she can't summon- don't ever take her, since she's horribly overpriced without the option. Long version.

Since you're coming back and playing neverborn, for your purposes, what's relevant is there's some generic upgrades in both arsenals; the first one contains mostly book1 stuff (so teddy and I think that's it) and the second contains post book1 stuff released in 1st edition (most of what you're looking for).

Yeah, I do this all the time. I'll definitely mask what I'm actually measuring by measuring other things as well, takes a few seconds so doesn't really slow things down. If my opponent actually asks me, of course I won't tell them.

If it's subjective or ambiguous (examples 1 & (maybe) 4), that's fine. 4, for purposes of cheating, is something I'd never call someone on since it could be a mistake. 3 is kind of dumb. That's like those sales "everything might be on sale for up to 50% or more!" that just doesn't mean anything, since it covers all possibilities while kind of emphasizing one. Outright lying or stating as fact something that's incorrect (i.e. 1 & 5), would be. Malifaux has a ton of information flying around, and it's all public except your hand and hidden schemes. I consider it good form to let people know potential triggers, or at least any currently active triggers, and relevant things to offense/defense, though not deceptive not to tell them. If you're actively providing misinformation, though, in a casual game I'd be irritated and in a competitive one I'd question that as cheating. If I wanted a game that took encyclopedic knowledge of every piece situation, I'd play MTG or Heroclix or w/e, and if I wanted a game with active lying, I'd play one of those party games like Bang!.

There's also I Pay Better's plain-old AP-less focus, in terms of what we give her.

Sure, completely understand. (But Tara and her handing out Fast like candy, plus AP-less focuses, seems like she might love these little guys... so thanks for pointing 'em out, either way)

Icarius, interesting- hadn't looked at the wretches since I don't have the starter set- that has a lot of potential, but I don't see how one would get mileage out of that rule, though, since it needs Fast to be able to get more than one attack in the activation it uses it in. (Though that's very respectable damage on a 5ss model, either way) luscious, Yeah, hannah's pretty much a staple, but I find it hard to take her with lucius since she's best in my experience when she has a few cards to throw around, and neither is nor buffs minions. I haven't done much with sue, though worried about the same things. I've been meaning to try the WW with lucius for the summon, but yeah, nice consolation prize.

more double posts!

So, constantly redoing these guys... third(?) version of tara's crew- decided to try something more different. Thanks for the various suggestions, eventully decided to play with cutting plaster some more. (notes)

So, it's been a bit since I've played Lucius, but I want to get back in to him, and I remember I was pretty regularly frustrated by his card reliance- both needing the right cards, and needing enough cards. In the case of the former, there are plenty of ways to get extra draws + discard. I'm not concerned with that. In the case of the latter- I feel like if he's running effectively, I'm also running out of cards rather quickly. I know draws are rather uncommon, but I wanted to check if there was something I'm overlooking. (If anyone from his guild side is over here, and has recommendations there too, that'd also be helpful)