hippodruid

Terrain is very much a part of the game of Malifaux. A good board will have enough of a mix that models with abilities like Unimpeded or Flying can actually make use of them. A charge lane that's good for a Sabertooth Cerberus isn't necessarily the best charge lane for a Rail Golem, and the reverse is also true. Remember, the board is built before your crew is, so you can adjust what you're taking to match where you'll be going. Also, I think parallax is skewing the perception of that board. It looks like either side of the gallows has lanes for 50mm bases to move through without contacting other terrain. I would personally be pretty happy to play on that board.

Killing her. This. She's a remarkably fragile henchman. On topic, though, the only other thing I can think of aside from Mei, the Specialist, and the Emissary is McTavish, who can snack one up per turn.

At the start of turn 2 Brass reactivate Howard then Joss kill Brass then Ramos' activation. Turn 2, I would reactivate the Brass Arachnid, then Joss and Howard if possible. Then kill the Arachnid for two scrap. Still, that's fairly advanced play that I wouldn't expect of two new players. I wasn't trying to write a tactica.

These two crews are going to get bloody, fast if they meet head-to-head. Between Kang's buffs and the amount of hurt Howard Langston and Joss can dish out, expect fatalities quickly and often. It's a game with Armor where Armor basically doesn't matter (Howard and the Brass Arachnid are the only models that have even the slightest respect for Armor). Ramos's summoning engine here is almost completely dependent on Joss (if Howard kills anyone, the Mei Feng player can just drop a corpse), or on getting your own models killed, which puts him behind. Joss and Howard are easily worth more than 2-3 Steam Arachnids for all but activation control and scheming. It actually looks like it could be a very, very tense game for a while, but once it starts going toward one person, that momentum would be hard to break. A lot of it, of course, would come down to schemes and strategy. With such a low model count, Ramos's crew would have trouble with an objective pool that involves putting down a lot of markers or spreading out. Similarly, schemes that revolve around leaving enemy models alive will be hard for Mei Feng to deal with, since the models across the table from her are legitimate threats that she won't want to remove from play. VP win games, not dead models. Also, usually you want to shoot for a bit more terrain. 25%-33% board coverage is actually pretty sparse and gives an obvious advantage to the crew with more ranged attacks. I would aim for closer to 33%-66%. Remember, not all terrain blocks line of sight, and some of it can be used to create chokepoints that bigger models can't fit through or conveniently avoid. All of that can really impact the dynamic of the game.

Very useful for folks unfamiliar with Arcanists. I misread the part about Howard's trigger, though, and thought you meant that he had it built-in. Aside from that, a good rundown of the masters and things you might expect to see with them, along with a few power players in the faction.

I think you're absolutely right. Using Ironsides in the mid-range as a support Master is not a bad play. Hand-picked Men is a great buff, and You Lookin' at Me? is some of the best movement tech available to Arcanists, especially if you have a good in hand (medium value for friendly targets, high value for enemies). I think this is an important perspective to present, as usually Toni is played at close-or-frontline, or at least people perceive that to be her optimal position.

Good luck out there, Justin! We've never spoken much, but I've always valued your forthrightness and humor here on the forums. I hope all your future endeavors go as well as this one seems to have.

More specifically, Hard to Wound affects Damage Flips made against McMourning, so it would still modify Pandora's flip after succeeding. Organ Donor only happens when McMourning deals damage, which as Fireuser points out, he is not.

Colette is a really strong Master, but she also benefits greatly from having a good selection of models to work with. That said, she can still be quite competitive with only a few additions to her main crew box, such as Coryphee, the Sabertooth Cerberus, December's Acolytes, and Malifaux Raptors. For GG2016, she works well in Headhunter, Interference, and Claim the Bounty, in that order from most well-suited to worst. She can still score for Extraction and Guard the Stash, but a lack of default durability will make things a bit harder for her. Schemes are a bit more complicated, of course. Easier (will probably score 1-3 points): Convict Labor, Exhaust Their Forces, Leave Your Mark, Covert Breakthrough, Undercover Entourage, Catch And Release, Frame For Murder, Detonate The Charges, Set Up, Search The Ruins, Public Demonstration, Occupy Their Turf Colette and crew do a lot with movement and interaction. They can put the right things in the right places at the right time, whether that's models or markers, so long as they're friendly. Scheme markers are a particular forte of the Showgirls, and Colette makes it even easier than most Masters to put them down. Maybe Easy, Maybe Hard: Hunting Party, Show Of Force, Neutralize The Leader, Mark For Death, Inspection, A Quick Murder These really depends on what you intend to buy to work with Colette. If you pick up Howard Langston, the Cerberus, or another Arcanist damage dealer, some of these become almost trivial (Hunting Party, Neutralize the Leader, Mark for Death, and A Quick Murder, notably). Arcanists have good generic upgrades and a good Enforcer/Henchman pool, so Show of Force isn't an automatic loser, but Colette tends to give more advantages to Minions or Showgirls. Inspection is a little swingy and can go either way, although that's really the case with almost any Master, and isn't unique to Colette. You're Probably Gonna Have a Bad Time: Take Prisoner I know I said above that durability is a factor, but this is really only the case for everything else in Colette's box. Colette herself is really, really hard to actually remove from the board, and savvy opponents will take advantage of that. Colette makes her Crew good at this scheme herself, but you could very likely end up trading points on it.

Oh, it's on. I accept your concession on Zipp, but honey.... WE NEED TO TALK.

The point of a Revenant is that it isn't really supposed to die. You could try to make killing this thing a major plot point or at least the subject of a few sessions as the Fated try to find a way to put it down once and for all. Or the Fated could pile a bunch of on it, since each one will give it a -2AV.

Well, he is insignificant. Love this little guy.

Just to point out, the sequence has to be whack, freeze, freeze, whack, push. The Understudy action can only be taken once per turn for pretty much this exact reason (otherwise you could go whack, freeze, freeze, whack, freeze, freeze).

It's only on his Avatar upgrade, which you won't have to worry about outside of campaign games.

Well, he should sit at his own desk. Seriously. Workplace etiquette, you know?