Sybaris

Thanks. I doubt Nekima will benefit from this, here's hoping for a new master to synnergize with. I never connected with Lilith due to the character's appearance, but Titania looks more like a queen to me.

Do we have any detail on the champion upgrade (or any of them for that matter?). I am wondering on what models it could apply (Minions, Enforcers, Henchmen...undead, fae, etc.). Depending on the bonus given, it could give her synnergy with a wilder array of models.

I doubt they had exactly her in their mind before since, iirc and please terminate me if i am wrong, Malifaux's lore was initially made to connect the rather wild model range of metal Wyrd Miniatures in the first place. Now Neverborn was always about bringing the fantastic/mythic/legendary into reality so given their creativity, they certainly could come up with Titania's concept relatively recently and blend it wonderfully into the current setting. Exactly when they thought about it i wouldn't dare to guess. That said, I really wonder if we'll get to see how she'll deal with Lilith and the Nephilim in the stories.

Can't wait to see if she can be used with Nekima as a sort of force multiplier. Granted, defense isn't that high, but every activation of our own can heal her a bit. Nexus of power, even though i am not fond of the cost, could make her an even bigger headache when using stones for defence.

holy hell, this i like.

Well hello, I have browed through my inventory and have found some items i won't need after all. Everything is brand new. Prices are in CAD (so less in US) - i am located in Quebec, Canada. Zoraida metal crew box - 25$Hamelin metal crew box - 25$Mature Nephilim + Young Nephilims (metal blisters) - 25$Katanaka Sniper (limited edition) - 25$I'll include a free Daydreams blister (metal) if you grab two items.

I'd encourage you to pick Nekima or at least try her out. Even though she tends to collect wounds, the longer she is with your crew, the more experienced she can become, and there are some scary combinations that can alleviate her innate fragility.

This. Only conditions/healing are transfered. As for Nekima's birthright, it's generally never a good idea to off your master with it, or even to use it in the first place...sadly. There is the situational assassinate scenario where this could throw your opponent off-guard, but Nekima is so much easier to kill than a master that it won't necessarily pay off, in fact you may just have solved the problem for your opponent, as Nekima is always a prime target. The only other case where it might (rarely) be worth the expense is if you have a wounded/crippled henchman leader that is about to die, then perhaps the extra AP you get from it is worth it. For example, if you use birthright on the 3rd turn...you will get 2 extra AP until the end of the regular game time. To illustrate how bad of a bargain this is. Let's suppose we are on turn 3 and my master (lilith) has already been activated and is down to 4 wounds (ideal situation to trigger birthright). Nekima needs 1 AP to kill Lilith, then will generate 2 extra AP until the end of the regular game time (turn 4 and 5). This is assuming that my master would have died on turn 3, so i better be sure, because if i would have managed to get one last activation from it on turn 4, it already surpass everything (and by far) that birthright might give me. Imagine how bad the deal is if you need 2 AP to kill your leader, or if Nekima gets killed on turn 4... there's no way around it. It was designed as a fluffy trigger that has no real purpose in any games other than for those who absolutely want her to take charge for silly reasons (like me). In fact, i am not sure they even factored the trigger in her cost, at least i guess not.

Well said sir Robert, and well played because if your friend would have known the issue, he'd likely have positionned his Master where you both agreed to in the first place.

If you can get your hands on such upgrades, both of those would go a long way to help her live longer on a match. Combined with regeneration and soulstones, she's going to be a tougher cookie. I did get the book for campaign stuff, but so far we elected not to use those rules because it adds administrative things which we don't have time for. Personally i prefer armor, as it mitigates the super-hard hitters of the game a bit, no matter what their flips. Hard to wound is good, but there are quite a few threats that will inflict 3 dg even on weak, plus the jokers can interact with it (if you flip black joker for df, or if they flip a red joker on a flip. Sure, they can flip the Black Joker too, but it's random...and i tend to prefer things i can rely on. Now there's some units that ignore armor, but you can plan and react to their presence, while planning for a joker is quite harder and not feasible most of the time. In those campaign upgrades, is there a way for her to get Hard to kill? If so, that would be my prefered defensive skill.

When it comes to defense, I tend to put Mimic's Blessing on her, as it can (potentially) save her when you don't get the initiative. That's because once you commit Nekima to the action, she's going to be a priority for both crews so anything that can delay her downfall is welcome, especially in turf war where chaos ensues. A single extra activation from Nekima can change the game at times...and a may be all it takes. I've also used "pact" once, not really defensive but...i once had her die a fiery death because of that lovely black joker, so the next game i took pact as a sort of immature "finger" to fate . It "protects" you from catastrophic failures from a fragile 13ss investment. There's of course the old Nexus of Power, but i've found it too resource intensive as she really eats all those SS and cards if you let her. My usual set up with Nekima is Mimic's Blessing and The True Mother. That being said, your best defensive investment for Nekima is a Black Blood Shaman, imho.

There's are a few things going for the Nephilim along with Zoraida. Many of the Nephilims have push mechanics which can trigger pounces from the tots (or Lelu as stated above). Youngs, Barbaros and Matures can all push models around, as well as the lilitu. That extra action from Obey will make pin-ball gameplay much easier on the 2AP models. Also, a Mature Nephilim's attack action is just amazing for an obey action...and if you have the cards it can trigger "Charge Through" to start a wild sequence. Bottom line is that Zoraida is a force multiplier, and i do believe that it can work for Nephilim. Tots can achieve schemes as usual, and in battle you have help from extra actions that can trap and pull models out of position. Pounce is essentially a free action, so if a Young attacks for free (with auto-push trigger), followed by a tot or a Lelu who does the same, that's a pretty efficient Obey in my book.

I know for sure i would be in deep trouble with my nephilim list(s) vs Ironsides. She can tear through any of them in no time. I assume the lilitu would be useful to drag models out of position but vs Ironsides herself, i'm honestly at a loss at what to do. Thankfully we don't have the model so i won't face her anytime soon. Imho, her model should have been much more massive to show a bit of an hint to that power.

Seems there's been a lot of coverage on this already but since i am a Nephilim player here's my take on the buy list: Lilith's box, Mature and Youngs, Waldegeists, Then, once she has learned the basics, and if she really likes Nephilim Lilitu, Nekima, Black Blood Shaman, and extra terror tots Then you have more than enough to play with for a long time.

At 35ss we usually do not take a Master, so having to pay for Nekima at that soulstone level complicates the growth list a bit. What i typically run is: Nekima (The True Mother and Mimic's Blessing), Black Blood Shaman, Young Nephilim and 4 tots. 3 SS in the pool. The synnergy between Nekima and the BBS is good, offensively speaking of course, and if you manage your cards well, you can heal Nekima with the pustule or simply focus on summoning a tot or two during the game ( good for scheme oriented games). This crew will have trouble if it faces enemies that are immune to black blood, or if it can kill Nekima easily (ex. Rail Golem, Desolation Engine, Ironsides, etc..) Barbaros and Youngs work well with Lilith if you go for a "push & pounce" theme, along with her "wicked mistress" upgrade, although if you really want him in a growth list, make him leader so Nekima can kill him when needed and get Melee Master for the last turn(s). Youngs do have a place in growth list with their auto push or paralysis.

It's a very quick way to loose merchants too

Thanks alot will put this to good use next game.

Just pointing out that the new Bloodwretches are immune to the explosive demise factor that is quite scary for the fragile neverborn, so they may be worth trying out.

I've used a tag-team of Lilith and Nekima + Nephilims (including waldgeists) often against her. While my choices were more due to my unshifting loyalties, it did pretty good many times. A Mature Nephilim that ignores armor is also very handy, and Lilith combined with a lilitu can seriously mess the spellcasting network. Nekima can be killed easily by Rasputina and some of her better minions, but with 3" she can avoid that explosive demise and her damage is just enough to scrap the smaller minions in a single activation. Same goes with Lilith when she is upgraded. If you take off the sprawling LOS network, she can become isolated and too slow to affect the game. With all nephilim causing Black blood sprays, alot of extra damage is bypassing armor, so it becomes a destructive trade when things connect in melee. It's always a huge mess when those two crews have met. Subzero is annoying as hell though, obviously, but it's manageable overall.

Just to make sure. Obviously the snake icon on the challenges means that no skill can be used to get a re-roll. There's a few occurences that puzzled us though: Spirits always get a re-roll (they don't have the 3 skill icons, just an ability that says so), and Moon Blessing counts all challenges as "skilled". Given that no skill is related to the "snaked" challenges, one way to see it is that there's no possible way to use those special abilities (that refer to skills). Another way to see it is that the spirits and moon blessings bypass this and grant a re-roll anyway since their ability affects all challenges. Which way did you guys go?

It's also how we did it and the most logical way. South wind is a very nice ally if pleased...as you save days by healing in her lands while still being able to resolve challenges (unlike staying in the village).

Yeah but imho if it had been larger we'd see more of the face expression, because the artwork is decent. It's not majestic or gracious like the original art piece, but it does evoke the brutal cruelty of the Nephilim (that insane sneer). That being said, the Nythera event might be one chance to get something else from Wyrd when it comes to Nekima. The fact they refered to her in the Shifting loyalties at least mean that they didn't give up on the character altogether.

Interesting campaign...maybe (finally) a Nightmare Nekima for 2016?

Quite true, you can stop before the event icon, however the Dark Die can rattle during the challenge phase, causing said event to occur. I take it we were very unlucky, as the sun bumped into the event icon a few times and sent the warrior twice in the village, the last time making the game stop as there was no more rumors to be found. As for difficulty, we didn't find it that bad, although with few players the sun is much slower. From what we could gather, a 4+ game will likely need to have a good cooperation for success, because the sun is that much faster the more players there is. In return, if players are successful at their challenges, they will collectively get much more equipment in a shorter time. Then it's a matter of pooling the best kit to whoever is the fittest and sending the hero asap down the snake. P.S. we did play again, this time with more people. The sun went really fast and breezed past the rumor icons thanks to a "swallowing of the night", but we soldiered on and Hrafn got within 1 square of the sun by the time it was digested fully. Great times we really felt the emergency through the last turns..

As a side note, i just noticed that the flavor text of the Bloodwretches and Scion of Black Blood is "told" by Nekima. Interesting to see that they actually move her story forward a bit, expanding what started with Tuco back then.