Hateful Darkblack

Just played my first Brewmaster game. I had a lot of fun: I played with Brewmaster, Apprentice, Fingers, Whiskey Golem, a Performer, and three Rooster Riders. The Rooster Riders killed enemy flankers and ran objectives. The rest were in a big ball. By Turn Three, I had my opponent's Master (Mei Feng) and two Henchmen (Toshiro and Fuhatsu) all stuck near Brewmaster and Apprentice Wesley, and Poisoned, with Fingers nearby enough that they couldn't interract. On Turn Four, I soulstoned for initiative, did Drinking Contest, put negative twists and Poison on everything nearby, and proceeded from there. After an activation or two, my opponent conceded. (It was also getting late so it made sense.) I felt bad about that! When models get stuck in the Brew-bubble, they are at -4 Wp and probably a negative flip, and just can't do ANYTHING. Is this common? Does it ruin games for people? I like winning games and I like strong Masters, but I don't like debuffing my opponent until they don't want to play anymore. Is Brewmaster an NPE? Is it just the first few times before the opponent learns how to counter them? What helps? Other Brewmaster players, what do you do?

Here's a podcast intro to the box if you like podcasts: http://malibites.podbean.com/e/malibites-ep5-justice-unleashed/

Summoned models: come in Slow by default (but some abilities modify this), cannot Interact on their first turn (no known ability modifies this.) Many have another cost, including requiring Corpse/Scrap/Scheme markers, requiring a model to die, taking damage, or other things. This varies by the Summoning ability, but is not universal.

I'm pretty sure you can use (2) Charge instead of (1) Pigcharge on the FIRST AP so that you won't have leftover AP afterward. But you have to decide that when you're declaring the first Charge. But I don't think you can, if you have 1 AP left, declare you're using the (2) Charge and it fails. You can't even declare it. You don't have the AP to declare that action, so you must declare the (1) Pigcharge. You can't just declare an invalid action so it'll fail. Similarly, you couldn't sit there refusing to play your turn and stalling so you don't have to Charge. You must Charge them. With that (1) action. That you're both allowed and required to do.

Ligeia can be super hard to kill for melee models. Easyish for ranged models but she still has a good Df. She really likes to stay in cover and behind buildings until then. Montresor drops pretty quickly if you leave him alone, for sure.

That sounds really annoying. If there are abilities that stack an opponent's deck (like Malifaux Raptor) that have recently been used then it's CERTAINLY cheating. Theoretically, the rest of the time it's randomized and shuffling will have no effect. Occasionally I'll ask to shuffle mid-turn it looks like I didn't shuffle sufficiently somehow (new deck, for instance) or if we agree to bury a card that was misplayed. Just shuffling as a nervous habit seems irritating. And potentially super uncool if someone is using deck-stacking abilities.

Obey does not work on leader models.

Oh, hey! Still possible. Collodi: (1) Pull the Strings on Cassandra to do 2 damage, and Soulstone to trigger Idle Hands. Doesn't matter what else happens. I suggest (0) Creep to push away, then (1) Interact twice to drop a Scheme Marker and pick it up again. Cassandra: (1) Understudy to (1) Prompt Colette, spending a Soulstone for the trigger Final Act to Reactivate and Sacrifice Colette. Colette moves closer to Cassandra and kills her with a (1) Hooked Cane. Colette: Does some stuff, but dies.

Oh! Rats! And it's only during the model's own Activation, too. I'll have to reconsider.

I think I can do this in one very deeply nested Action. Collodi: (1) Pull the Strings on Cassandra. Use Soulstone for trigger My Bidding, to force Cassandra to (1) Understudy to (1) Prompt Colette, using a Soulstone for the Trigger Final Act to give Reactivate but Sacrifice Colette at the end of the turn. Colette then (1) Prompts Cassandra, using a Soulstone for the Trigger Final Act to give Reactivate but Sacrifice Cassandra at the end of the turn. Then, RUN AWAY VERY FAST. EDIT: Doesn't work.

I'm Collodi, and Colette and Cassandra are enemy models? EDIT: Also, is it safe to assume that Collodi gets any built-in triggers, but only can get other triggers if he uses one of his soulstones for it? EDIT: Do we assume all damage is weak? (This could matter for things like making Cassandra breath fire on a summoned Wicked Doll to get blasts.) EDIT: Also also, can Collodi use one of those soulstones to prevent damage? (Like, say, from Strum the Threads?)

Jack Daw's models get a lot tankier when Ligeia is around and enemies can't cheat. I think you're right, OP, that a lot of Jack Daw's abilities require medium-to-high cards. You can't rely on those all the time! Pick and choose when you use them. However, Jack Daw himself has a really high attack with a lot of tricks. And many of his movement tricks require no cards or few cards. The Drowned and Jaakuna form a tankball tarpit that's hard to kill or escape. Montresor is fast and fragile and I think he works best as an anti-flanker or second-line fighter. He does best with support from other models. Alone he's a big target. When Ligeia and Jaakuna and some Drowned are nearby, the story changes to a much uglier one, at least for your opponent. He can't stand alone well, but he stacks to help control an area. Jack Daw's movement tricks are solid gold. You should be able to get your Crew where you want them once you get used to them all. That said, I still have a lot to learn about Jack Daw.

Tara: (1) Pull the Void on Killjoy to give him Fast. Trigger Glimpse the Void to bury Killjoy. (1) Whispers From Darkness to copy (1) Cleaver from Killjoy and murder BAd Guy. (0) Eternal Journey to place Tara near as possible to Lazarus in Tara’s deployment zone. (1) Faces in the Void to Unbury Killjoy in base contact, closer to Lazarus, and Chain Activate. Killjoy: (1) Charge Lazarus with Blood Price. Should be within range for a Blood Price Charge. Hit for 2 damage after Armor, then trigger Onslaught to hit again for 2 damage, then hit again again for 2 damage. (1) Swing again for 2 more damage. (1) Swing again for the last 2 damage. OM NOM NOM COMPLETED. Didn't even need to do any Black Blood shenanigans!

There's a Zoraida tactica on PullMyFinger: M2E Zoraida. The main advice that comes to mind for me: Voodoo Doll is an AP-intensive but powerful murderball. It kills enemy models a lot. Damage the Doll, then heal it, then damage it again. Note that damaging conditions like Flaming and Poison have double effect (because they copy both the condition and the damage) Obey is great! Move your models into position and killy our enemy models. Silurid are one of the best objective-runners in the game. They jump around and accomplish everything. Keep them out of fights unless you know you'll win. Bad Juju hits like a truck. He'll die if an enemy focuses on him, but if you take Eternal Fiend, he'll come back again. Get some Waldgeists. They're tanky and flexible and can make terrain. With Zoraida, use Bewitch more often than you do right now. The extra card draw is amazing.

You can absolutely play in theme and have a successful, fun game.

Which models are mine, and which are the enemy?

Hey! I just uploaded a video tutorial on Jack Daw: Hateful Darkblack's Intro to Jack Daw. This is similar to the Leveticus tutorial video I did previously. (I know I made a mistake and said Jack Daw gives a negative twist to attack and defense from Channel when I meant attack and damage. I seem to keep doing that.) Comments welcome! Here or there.

Moar mind puzzles!

Have we gotten a confirmation on this? There's some discussion and disagreement on the Facebook group about it.

Justin actually talked about Ramos' power level on a podcast recently and said that, yeah, he's on the upper side of the curve among Masters, because in addition to Summoning his other abilities are quite good too: Electrical Fire is a strong attack, he has great defensive boosts for his team, etc. But that doesn't mean he's OP, just really good. I think playing against Summoners can feel like they're overpowered because when a Summoner is winning, it's a very dramatic win with many AP and activations. It feels overpowered because once they're ramped up they win hard. But when you look at game statistics, Summoners do about as well as everyone else. Summoners don't win more often than others, they just feel more inevitable when you're facing them if you can't stop their engines.

DARN IT! Didn't get my entry completed in time! Darn darn darn!

Here's what I find on the learning curve: After one game playing a Master or Henchman, you get it. You understand how most of the powers work. You've learned the basic combinations, you know how the pieces fit together, you've misread the cards and then learned better, you've made four or five boneheaded mistakes and won't do them again, and your future games with or against that Master/Henchman will be much more informed. You can explain the Master to others without making any big errors. After five games, you get it. You can start seriously competing. You've figured out how you play that Master/Henchman. You've discovered six or seven really powerful combinations. You've tailored your Crew with models that match your style, and you've learned which schemes you can do and which ones are hopeless cases. You'll get bored of the Master if you play it all the time. You'll probably want to try a new Master if you play the same one five times in a month without playing anything else. Maybe three times in a month if you're flighty. If you only play occasionally, you'll never get bored. That's my experience.

Colette: "Cassandra, could you me a quick favor? Could you stab that guy then cast my own spell to get me to ask you to stab him again? Then stab him again -- third time's a charm -- and nudge closer? Actually just keep nudging closer the whole time. Then breath fire on me so I can teleport on top of those barrels over there, and nudge closer even more? And then just stay put so I can hit you with a saber, but only so that I can hit that other guy with a saber right afterward? Thanks. It means a lot to me." Cassandra: "Be a showgirl, they said. It'll be glamorous, they said."

The moral to be learned: Colette and Cassandra can do a lot.

(1) Colette Prompts Cassandra to push 3" toward center, and Dancer's Saber to swing at Gunsmith for 2 damage, and trigger Magician's Prop to Prompt Colette to Prompt Cassandra for a 3" push toward center, and Dancer's Saber again to swing at Gunsmith for 2 damage. (1) Colette Prompts Cassandra to swing one last time for 2 damage, then trigger Swirl of Motion to push 4" toward center. (1) Colette Prompts Cassandra to push 3" toward center and do Breath of Fire on Colette. With Cassandra's Swirl iof Motion, she pushes 4" more toward center. With Colette's Now You See Me, she negates damage and places on top of the crates in the center, 8" from the Silent One. (0) Colette does Saber Trick to do 2 damage to Cassandra, then triggers Can I Have A Volunteer to do 2 damage to Silent One.