Sybaris

Yes, and we can guess that the restriction is precisely there for her not to get that upgrade.

Interesting, but doesn't "after damaging" trigger get resolved before "kill" related triggers? since damage is transformed into wounds and once the wounds reach 0, then the model is killed. I don't have my books in front of me, just wondering how this goes.

Malifaux Provides works well on whoever triggers The Queen's Champion (Titania upgrade). Makes Nekima pretty happy i tell you. Given the marker drops on success, and Nekima having a Ml 7 (once she becomes Titania's bff), odds are good that you'll drop at least one marker. Titania loves markers as it is, but combined with the big nephilim's own inbuilt healing and the possible black blood shaman doing magic / damage in the background...she can last longer than usual.

I find Nekima to be the best bet with a BBS, even more so than Lilith. I did have success against the viks with it. Nekima has a 50mm base, which is useful to get pulses across a bigger radius. She already regenerate 1 wound per turn, so that helps for times you don't heal her. She doesn't have any inbuilt, so benefits the most from them. Nekima is also a glass cannon, so she needs to go in a big bang, even if she dies doing it so it's already in her plan to damage herself in order to kill more (Blood for Blood). She also has alot more synnergy to grow the Nephilim than lilith if you take her dedicated upgrade, so this is an added interaction with the BBS's innate grow effect. Lilith, while very strong in melee, is more careful in approach thanks to her LOS shenanigans, and her high Df makes it a bit of a waste to wound her before the opponent attempts it. Nekima has low Df, she is going to get hurt anyway, so might as well burn it for effect. It's also feels thematic to me, when you think about it. Nekima seems to be the one behind the whole hybrid line (Tuco, Bloodwretches and Scion of the Black Blood, not sure on Angel Eyes), and the Black Blood Shamen's blood magic seems to be a big part of this feat.

I would suggest that Waldgeist are also just as "in-theme" with Titania. The autumn knights have armor that looks like wood, and the thorn use plants for whips. Titania is also about endurance, having armor spread out through her minions. Nature is certainly one of titania's forte. I feel it's no coincidence that a waldgeist is shown in her fluff parts of the book. These are the neverborn i assumed would be the first to join her...in previous books, their description described them as joining other neverborn to defend the forest, but never really follow a particular leader. While biased by my opinion of course, it keeps reminding me how much Lilith is an odd duck in the faction. She could very well be dual faction Outcast-Neverborn for that matter, as she looks little like her theme (Nephilim), and her avatar looks more like what Titania could have. The old Nekima model would have been a great Lilith's avatar form...actually. One issue of Nekima and Lilith is that, thematically, they could be swapped for each other easily. I do hope that they do unlock that story at one point. Lastly...how many books do you think Malifaux can support? I mean, there is something as too many models too choose from. There seems to already be a concensus that there's enough masters as it is. Food for thought...

Nekima with Malifaux Provides and Mimic's Blessing is an impressive option for Titania in some strategies/scheme combos. She is obscenely expensive though...and there are other models out there that can "trump" her a bit too easily. A Mature is also very good as stated above, although Nekima would benefit more from the Champion upgrade, if you like that upgrade.

I would guess that for neverborn, generic Autumn Knights could make an appearance. Ramblings about the lore: I'd also be interested in knowing what's happening with Titania's tentative alliance (coup?)with the neverborn. Given how much they work well together on the table, an interesting twist would be for Nekima and the blood shamans to join Titania's banner as a way to finally be out of Lilith's ranks. In fact i'd like to see the whole sister thing to evolve a bit. Nekima was always trapped under lilith because, basically they are too similar: they lead nephilim, are great in melee, fast and not too tough etc. Wishful thinking: That they allow for Nekima to lead a 50ss crew like they did for Wrath.

I've often faced Rasputina with melee only nephilim crews. That Sub Zero trigger is a killer, although we can hit hard anyway. Killing them might kill you (and vice-versa with black blood), and she spams blasts in the middle of the fights...talk about a carnage. It was still fun though.

Nekima is the poster girl of NB beaters i guess, but as stated above, it depends how much resources you're able (or can afford) to funnel into making her "pay off". She will drain everything valuable if you let her (stones, cards, first or last activation, support actions, etc)...very thematic if you ask me. That's why other beaters like Teddy, the Rider, Juju, Killjoy and others whom i associate less with, will sometimes (often?) be more efficient depending on the situation.

I do hope we get more info as well, especially with the TTB book that will (hopefully) cover that faction. I didn't even say that they were sisters in the human way at all, but that they behaved as human siblings would. It could just be Pandora's insanity spilling and Lilith just going along out of necessity. There's (afaik) really no reference to a mother/father parents for nephilim or neverborn for that matter (the word Neverborn is kind of a hint)...in the game nephilim just sprout out of blood. That's why i kind of jumped at Fetid's interpretation of my post. We don't even know how exactly Nekima and Lilith are sisters to begin with...and what do Neverborn use the word "sisters" for? Who knows, but they do use it, and my mostly unfounded assumption was that pandora was the third one Zoraida spoke of.

Where does that come from? You seem to have serious insight as to what i apparently try to convey here...i am not giving any human cultural motivation or structure to anyone nor requiring neverborn to adhere to... that's seriously a bit too deep with such a simple assumption about fantasy land. I am just reading stories and stating what i got from them (Lilith and Pandora behave like siblings)...which might turn out to be right or wrong (most likely wrong, in fact). Since the stories and website are all we have...i really don't see how we should assume that Neverborn act differently outside of the texts, otherwise the stories loose all meaning, especially since we follow those characters through world-threatening events, not just "a-day-in-the-life" stuff. Lucius is the one with the mask, as far as i am concerned.

If pandora was not at least remotely related to Lilith, she'd be respected for her powers but i wouldn't understand why Lilith ventures and scheme so much with her. Other Neverborn masters are left out of the "plan", like Collodi, the Dreamer, Lucius, who keep to their own stuff mostly. When you read the stories, there is a bond between the two girls and it almost feels like pandora is the younger sibbling to Lilith, especially when they meet with Titania. But any theory can be right, we just don't know for sure, apart from the fact that it cannot be Zoraida.

Yes i guess i was also under that very same assumption as well since the beginning. It seems it may or may not be exact, and the texts give no clear answers, but i still feel like there's a chance for it. You spotted my assumption above there, so thanks for that. I've tried to search where i actually got the notion. There's this passage in the M1E Rulebook (p110) where Zoraida flips a 3 of mask for Viktora and warns her that her obstacle to her task will be the 3 sisters, whose true purpose is unknown. Given it is a mask, i made the assumption that it spoke Neverborn sisters. It seems my mind instantly made a link between Lilith and Pandora for some reason, because they were the more proeminent Neverborn females at that time. The assumption that the 3 of masks is related to neverborn is strenghtened by the 2 of masks Zoraida also flipped, directly refering to her doppleganger that Viktoria had yet to meet. The website tells of many sisters who helped bring the Neverborn together (not Nephilims!), one of which we know (Nekima), so we know that the other(s) would be old and powerful Neverborn, if not Nephilims. It can't be Zoraida since she wasn't even there when that happened. Lilith seems very close with pandora in the stories, and they both chose to take a near-human appearance and are leader of a "sect" of Neverborn. There's also the fact that they both appear in front of Titania together, and they behave like sisters would, from my point of view of course. Anyway, there's also a case to be made for the contrary, since Zoraida, back in Twisting Fates, tells Lilith of "her" sister...singular form, and that Lelith instantly knows it's about Nekima. Still fun to think about Edit: had a double reference.

I'll get back to you for the reference, or make amends if, indeed, my memory played tricks.

Lilith, Pandora and Nekima are sisters, meaning they probably had the same abilities at the start. Obviously they went a different path, but I remember reading something along the lines that Lilith chose that form to better suit her goals. Unlike Nekima who wants to slaughter everyone...she is waging a very different war of terror vs humans. That's also why i never found Lilith to be a convincing mother of monsters no matter how powerful, in fact Nekima and Titania feel like they actually spend more time leading and less time scheming. They also look the part much better but that's just my opinion of course. Speaking of which...or witch, the case of Zoraida is interesting, since she's not even Neverborn to begin with, but is considered as such by them. We know she's from the first wave, but not why she was accepted while other humans are not.

One hint to the origin of this appearance variation is, as far as i can tell...that the initial Wyrd Miniatures range of models included many varied and unlinked pieces. When they decided to create a lore and game from that range in order to make a story out of it, they linked Lilith to the nephilims and so the "mother of monsters" was born in the way we know it. At the time, Lilith was the only Nephilim to have a very human appearance and she stood out in contrast. But she wasn't the only Neverborn to look human from the start, in fact the doppleganger, pandora, candy, baby cade and viktoria's "sister" and the dreamer boy were all examples of neverborns who displayed human form. Since Neverborn are the stuff of nightmares for humans, it was normal that many inhabitants of Malifaux would look like them in parts. Aren't we our own worse nightmares in the end? So it was a good choice for the Neverborn. Since then, the lore had it that Neverborn could take different forms and we've got many variations of that trait. As the lore evolved, they expanded on the ability to control shape and also possession. In the case of Graves and Tannen, i believe i remember (maybe wrong, again) that it was a case of possession more than a shape change. With Tuco came another trait specific to the Nephilim this time, which is to infect humans...and this is quite different from Lilith's change of appearance. So now we get quite a few half-breeds who have both nephilim and human traits.

Just to further the discussion, but on a different level (henchmen lead) i wonder how he'd do in combo with the Spawnmother. His name takes on a different meaning, as well.

From the images, i'd go for the joker as well for neverborn. This event is interesting in that we won't "need" to find opponents of a specific faction in order to further our own objectives.

It does, but it can be on a henchman leader.

Intriguing to be sure. This could go into an FAQ maybe? To be honest i don't know how to interpret it best. Swinging it another way: An encounter could also be a term used for "a game of Malifaux" (brawl, scrap, etc), too. It obviously contains schemes and strategies, as they make the game objectives, but any rule in the game is a rule for encounter purposes. Or is it specified that "encounter" strictly mean "Schemes and strategies"? Just to further your reading (which may be the correct one). To trigger the upgrade, we simply need to know if Nekima counts as the crew's "leader", as she is a friendly model to begin with, making that part of the requirement already filled in. Sadly, now that there is a precedent with Wrath, i wish they would just have made it possible for Nekima to lead 50ss crews. Would make it less of a hassle.

I could see Nekima with Mimic's Blessing and Malifaux Provides being a rather good beater with The Queen's Champion, as the two new upgrades have some synnergy: The Queen's Champion grants friendly scheme markers on success, and Malifaux Provides let you eat one for healing at the end of the activation. Combined with some regeneration and blood drinking, this might help with the (formerly) large Nephilim's survivability. Support Nekima with Titania's Behold My Glory for added protection, and buffs/pustule from a Black Blood Shaman. I'd be running this with The Thorn and some tots. Of course, that'd only be viable in a heavily concentrated Strategy/Scheme game, otherwise you'll have too much SS in the same spot. Might lead to some epic duels though (Archie vs Nekima comes to mind)

That seems to be correct as far as i can read. They really precised their intention in the timing by saying "after completing all pushes", and pounce attackss occur each time a model is pushed.

I was reading our new generic upgrade and there is one that made me pondering. I may have misread or missed some timing/rule issue. Please help. The generalist upgrade,"A thousand faces" is non-master, rare 2 and grants two benefits but only one concerns my query: The benefit called "Avenge our Brethren" states that after that model is killed, a friendly leader can take a (1) action. 1. Let's assume you give that upgrade to your henchman leader, and hire Nekima as part of your crew. 2. Now when using Nekima's "birthright" trigger, you kill the leader henchman. Since "Avenge our Brethren" activates after the kill, and that Nekima is now the "friendly leader", can she benefit from the (1) action? If so, this upgrade could reduce the tactical cost of Birthright a bit for 1ss and some flexibility to swap the upgrade out if the opportunity doesn't come to pass.

The Youngs do have one thing going for them that might be worth it in some situation and that's their auto-push. This can trigger pounce from the tots or, more dangerously, lilith's welcoming embrace (or trigger her roots). You can also use that push to move enemy models away from scoring positions (if already activated) or into serious trouble. Tots are better for schemes and Matures completely trump youngs when it comes to killing (it's better to have one mature and a tot than two youngs imho), but for the stones spent, youngs contribute to the ping-pong game alot. I do agree that they are well below illuminated in potency and not quite as useful as waldegeist, but i still often take a young to escort some tots on a far-off scheming run. They do pack a punch if you have good rams to cheat in. Growing to me was always more of a sideline to the idea of nephilim, and it's a good thing otherwise the principle would create a sort of steamroller gameplay (which isn't fun to play against). The Black Blood Shaman can help grow, sure, but his best use is for the pustule's shenanigans (to me at least). Nekima is a good beater who might grow or pop a tot if you give her that upgrade, but there's no way i am going to plan for that, her actions are too precious. So growing is a psychological tool that does work at times, but won't win you games...that being said it's still nice to have and can throw an opponent off balance depending on where it happens on the table.

This was kind of expected, to be honest (it was the first item i got at the store opening), but while i am sorry for others who couldn't get her, i am otherwise happy that the concept proved to be popular in reality (money talks) rather than just forum bandwagons. I wonder if it was the first product to go out of stock?