Hateful Darkblack

YUP.

I remember when I wrote this, people were talking about how Leveticus was useless and no fun because he didn't give out the Unmaking condition anymore. Good golly I still love Leveticus.

With 2 free models at the start of game and a lot of cheap crappy summons during play (I'm lookin' at you, Abominations), Leveticus often out-activates his opponents. I have never really had a problem with opponents luring my Waifs or Anchors away from each other, because I can usually act later in the round and move them back together or bring another Anchor in. And usually I'm hiding the Waifs out of LOS anyway. Luring anchors out of range or LOS may distract Leveticus, but he can recover easily enough. Killing the Waifs really hurts him. Those Waifs are Levi's extra lives, like an old-style arcade game. He starts the game with three lives. Every time you kill a Waif, you take one away that he can never get back.

When I've played Levi against someone with Void Wretches, the Void Wretches were more of a threat to the Soulstone Miners than to Leveticus himself. Leveticus was harassed a little but Void Wretches while buried, but never really threatened. I found that Death Marshals are scarier than Void Wretches. Burying Levi without healing him is BRUTAL. * * * As far as Levi's weaknesses go, I can think of a few: - Scheme Runners! His core crew doesn't have any good scheme runners. He can compensate with some Crooligans or Watchers or Necropunks or what have you, but any model until 6ss is a liability, since he needs anchors and any points in cheaper models are points not going into 6ss+ anchors. - Waifs, even with their defensive tricks, are pretty fragile if you can track them down. When I'm playing Leveticus, I put a lot of effort into hiding them, and an opponent with Leap can zap 'em and gum up my play fast. - Timed Kills! All his models have a cycle of death and rebirth that can be fragile. If you time it right, kill-killing them is easier than you might expect. - Forced Turn Order! His main defense is disappearing every turn. If he doesn't activate first in the turn and bury himself, he's a sitting duck. - Cover! He hates models that have cover! I've had a game where Leveticus got shut down because my opponent kept all his models behind cover. I was missing with Unmaking, and when Unmaking isn't reliable, it isn't very strong. - Schemes! He's vulnerable to several schemes. Frame For Murder is often a safe bet to take against Leveticus. Murder Protege often works well too, since he often takes big models that are worth destroying anyway.

I really like Lady Ligeia. She's actually really difficult for an enemy crew to kill if they're mostly melee, because she has a good Df and enemy models can't cheat near her. Shooting and casting models have an easier time killing her. Usually when I use her, I use her to rush up and weaken a key enemy model so that they can't easily resist a devastating attack. When she's next to an enemy, that enemy is really easy to kill or disable with other friendly attackers (Jack can get Curses on it easier, Nurse can load up the debuffs, etc.) It's REALLY irritating to be near her, so often people focus on killing her early. Usually once they realize how much she's hampering them. I think she's worth taking. If you can rush her up and kill one key enemy model, then suck up a more expensive model's activation killing her, she's paid for herself in terms of Soulstone costs. If you leave her exposed she'll die. Often, weirdly, the safest place for her to be is right up in the enemy's face.

Clever!

So good! Count me in!

Whut, are you on Vassal? I'd love to get a game in against you to see how that list does! It looks really strong.

Yeah, I feel like the Scion of the Void brings some extra nastiness and aggression to a Tara crew!

One thing I forgot! Get him in your enemy's face as a wrench in the gears! He really likes it when enemies target him, so some opponents will want to leave him alone. Don't let him! Go sit next to their sniper. Go camp the choke point or objective. Put him in places where your opponent will be forced to make an awkward choice. If they attack him, good! You can either bury him, or surprise your opponent by withstanding the attack, whichever is more annoying. If they leave him alone, good! They've just conceded a strategic disadvantage because they want to avoid your pieces. Don't return the favor. The Scion can cause plenty of damage and draw cards in the process too.

Oh, and one last thing: When I'm playing Leveticus, I really want to intimidate my opponent. Often I'll start the game melting a model that has a lot of defensive tricks, just to set the tone. Don't let Leveticus intimidate you. He's a lot more powerful when you're hiding from him and letting him control the center of the board through fear.

First, don't take Assassinate. Seriously, the way it's implemented, you cannot get full points for it unless you do something strange. Second, learn how Levy works. He's less scary when he's not catching you by surprise. I have an intro tutorial video here: Hateful Darkblack's Intro to Leveticus. Third: Hunt the Waifs! When they die, Leveticus loses mobility and eventually disappears. Fourth, use cover to protect against Leveticus's attacks. His attack strength comes from the reliability of damage (because it's Ca 7 with a positive twist). Using cover to your advance is a huge plus. Fifth, be aware of Abominations. They're irksome roadblocks for the most part, taking away suits and (0) actions until you can kill them. They are pretty easy to kill at least. Sixth, be aware of Ashes & Dust. The way to kill it is to kill it early in the turn, then kill one of the component pieces. Ashes & Dust relies on activation control to survive. It also needs to cling to the board edges because of the way it's implemented. It's a much less scary critter once you understand those things. Also! If Murder Protege is on the table and your opponent is foolish enough to hire Ashes and Dust anyway, take Murder Protege, since A+D's reincarnation cycle still gives up the Murder Protege points. Lastly, hunt waifs! I know I already said that, but I just wanted to emphasize it. Like many models that want to hide, you need fast models to reach the Waifs since they will be hiding. Waifs don't come back. It looks like they do, but they don't, trust me. Hope this is helpful!

Things I liked doing with the Scion in the final beta: - Scoot up fast with Blink. - Jump around with unbury tricks. - Heal with Void Wretch. - Tara buries it and makes it fast with Upgrade. - Attack enemies at close for bonus cards. - Unbury things that Karina summons. EDIT: One thing I forgot! - Get him in your enemy's face as a wrench in the gears!

Any Gremlin that can take Upgrades can self-heal with Dirty Cheater.

Jack Daw is really a blast to play. Lots of choices, lots of movement, so many surprises. The important things I try to keep in mind when playing them: - Remember you have a dozen movement tricks. - Don't let Jack Daw jump ahead and get killed. - Cluster up your models into toxic clumps that synergize. - When an enemy model is important, make it Tormented. - If you really need to kill something, Jack Daw can Charge, giving Firing Squad Injustice and then taking it away with the second hit for big damage. Here's a quick video tutorial I did for his base Crew.

Huh. Weird.

You know I'm in.

For me, the scariest thing to play against is a Master I haven't faced before. Your second game against any given Master will be WAY better than your first. I guess the faction I've played against least is Gremlins? So it'd be Gremlins, I guess. (I've played against only four of the seven Gremlin Masters.)

Incidentally, I'd say the best test of bad crew would be that after hiring step, you switch Crews.

Naturally, you can't just pick the worst list. It depends on strategies and schemes. You want a list that will lack the things you need to get your VP. Besides that, though, you want to make sure you take mostly underpowered models that don't synergize with each other. Here's my suggestion for a list. This one is especially good for Reconnoiter: Neverborn Crew - 50 - Scrap Collodi -- 3 Pool +Fears Given Form [1] +Pact [1] +Stone of Tyrant Echoes [1] Ama No Zako [10] +Fears Given Form [1] Bad Juju [8] +Eternal Fiend [2] Gracie [11] +Pact [1] Iggy [5] +Nexus of Power [1] Lilitu [7] +Obsidian Talons [1] Collodi has no Puppets or Minions to Buff. Bad Juju has no Swampfiends to respawn from. Lilitu has Obsidian Talons, but no one to share it with. Lots of fragile medium-hitters. Lots of upgrades that can hurt nearby friendly models. And Gracie for no damn reason. I expect this list could still get some VP if played well. Collodi's attacks are good, Gracie's still fast, and the individual pieces are still decent. But it's a list that's likely to trip over itself a lot, and I tried to avoid any useful synergies.

Honestly, I spend more effort picking a crew for the strat and schemes than my opponent's faction. It's so easy to misguess based on faction, so usually when I try to hire pieces that counter what I think the enemy Crew will be, I find himself getting too clever. It's generally better to hire models you know well, that can handle a variety of situations. That said, here are the usual things I expect: Guild: A lot of shooting, probably all living or a mix of living/construct. Resser: Undead and summoning, probably Poison. Arcanist: Probably Constructs. Neverborn: Probably fast melee models, probably a lot of Wp-based attacks. Outcasts: Probably some shooting. Probably strong activation control. Gremlins: Probably some shooting, probably mostly living models. Ten Thunders: Really well-painted models. That's about it.

The theme crews go well together, honestly. They synergize well, and in every Crew box, there's a lot to learn and get good at. You can win games with the box sets and they're a great place to start. All of them. (Note: Some, most notably Kirai's crew box, need more models to make a full Crew.) Malifaux's a game that rewards skill and experience a lot. A player who really knows their models is going to do better than a player with an "optimal" Crew. It's possible to make Crews that don't synergize well, and it's a disadvantage, but good play trumps good listbuilding.

Amazing stories! Congrats to the well-deserved winners. And thank you as always to edonil for doing such a great job making the stories flow!

In competitive play, you do need scheme runners of some kind. Necropunks, Canine Remains, and Crooligans all fit the bill. Use the ones that work best with your style.

It's pretty close to an auto-include, yeah. I'd take Plant Explosives first.