Keron

It's usually Viks+Avatar+Von Schill+Student of Conflict+8ss cache that makes up the core of their crew (then usually Ronin and other Mercs to pad out the numbers) My local Guild Henchman suggested playing aggressively against them and it is a tactic I haven't tried yet, but their Avatar makes me very wary of directly engaging them. I've recently stopped taking the Dead Rider against them as Von Schill can neutralise him too easily. I have found that being able to out-activate them is one of my few advantages and the Rogue Necromancy bomb is worth a go (I'm not sure if I've tried it before).

Or is it just me? I've only ever managed to beat them once and that was solely down to luck, winning initiative on a crucial turn which allowed McMourning to kill them before they killed him. The rest of the time I struggle to even give them a close game never mind win. Any advice would be welcome, although I don't have Kirai (or any of her spirits for that matter) or any non-Resser models (so no suggesting I use Von Schill or Jack Daw).

Recently I've found a Nurse and Simulacrum 29 make a very nasty combination. Using Massive Dose to give Simulacrum Reactivate or +2 Wk, the Nurse can compensate for his lack of speed and even though Simulacrum will be sacrificed at the end of the turn, McMourning can simply summon another one (just remember to hold onto those body parts in order to do so).

Having played Warhammer Fantasy before and after Games Workshop introduced pre-measuring I definitely think it has improved the game. It stops potential arguments at crucial points in the game (as others have pointed out in this thread) and has considerably sped up the game in my experience. One thing I have learnt from being able to pre-measure in Warhammer Fantasy is that I am not going to measure everything just because I can. I still use the skills I learnt from before pre-measuring was introduced to judge distances (they haven't completely disappeared afterall) and I've found that pre-measuring has a downside in revealing your plans to your opponent. Personally I think Malifaux could introduce it with no need to change the core rules (I may persuade my fellow gamers to try pre-measuring to see how it plays).

I usually field Rafkin when I'm up against an opponent that can deny me corpse counters or I want to be able to summon a large number of models in one turn (usually for Claim Jump or similar strategy) or I need to remove tokens from my models (such as blight or burning).

I own McMourning, Seamus, Nicodem and Molly; of those four only Molly rarely leads my crew. McMourning is probably my most used Master partly because he was also my first one.

68 models (all of them Ressers and all of them painted)

I'd say that Avatar Seamus is probably the best one to get first from a competitive standpoint otherwise just go for the one you like the look of or play the most. Anyway here's some brief thoughts on Avatars: Seamus His avatar is not always an auto-include for me. I wouldn’t take him against Pandora and would think twice about using him against melee-focused Masters as they can more easily pass the Terror test and kill aSeamus as he’s a lot more vulnerable than his non-avatar form. Also Gremlin pig lists are very annoying to play with aSeamus! McMourning Simulacrum is very slow and even though aMcMourning can still potentially move 21” a turn I find that I don’t want him getting too far ahead of Simulacrum. I do miss McMourning’s ability to drop a Rogue Necromancy or Flesh Construct 6” from his position when he’s in Avatar form as that is incredibly useful for tying up groups of enemies. I’d recommend saving high masks in your hand for McMourning’s Scalpel Magic trigger as I find that killing an enemy under the effect of Rancid Transplant is an easier manifest requirement than gaining 5 body parts and it saves your AP for other things (usually running away before my opponent can retaliate). Nicodem Unlike the other two, aNicodem is an early game manifest for me (so I can raise his horde up quickly) and I need to build my crew around him (usually 3 or more Canine Remains for the manifest requirement, someone to kill the dogs and someone to use the corpse counters aNicodem will leave lying around). When deciding whether I want to include aNicodem I usually consider if having friendly Mindless Zombies is going to be an advantage or a hindrance. So far I've found them an advantage against Gremlins (allowing me to out-activate them) and a hindrance against Pandora (she just incites all the Mindless Zombies) I don’t have Kirai’s Avatar (or Kirai herself for that matter) so can’t really comment on her.

He is huge, but not much taller than Avatar Nicodem. I've only managed to use Simulacrum once and he combined with McMourning to kill Avatar Justice. One problem I found with bringing Sim into play is that he really slows McMourning down.

I voted for Seamus and here's why: - His low soulstone cache combined with a low Df and Cb. (Compare him with Perdita who also has a cache of 2 but makes up for it with good stats.) - Terrifying can be useful but you don't have much control over whether your opponent wins or loses the duel since you're unable to cheat or use soulstones to affect the outcome. - He's really easy for the opponent to shut down if they attack him with the nastiest heavy hitter they have (especially if it's a Master). When that happens I find I'm wasting my soulstones and AP on just keeping Seamus alive and can't do much else with him. - Limited summoning options. Just being able to summon Sybelle would be useful but what Seamus (and Molly) really need is a combat belle. Also, when I think of the times I've won games with Seamus I can't recall any where I've won convincingly (except when using his Avatar). Whereas I have done so using McMourning or Nicodem (I don't play Kirai).