sssk

While I'm not a beginner per se (insert hilarious joke about me still being awful at Malifaux after 4-5 years playing) I'm in mainland Sheffield and on the hunt for some games to get back into it after a long time away, so I may pop over sometime in the not too distant future.

wow, it's moved on since my day. We were still using D2s back then...

I'm all paid (Dave Chandler). Just need to re-learn how to play this "Malifaux" thing. It uses dice right?....

Would flying back from Australia for a single weekend be overkill?...

What's that? A vague mention of Marcus? Well maybe you'd like to read some http://playitlikebeatdown.wordpress.com/ There's a bunch of posts on there about various Marcussy type things. Enjoy Dave/sssk

If memory serves, Marcus designed molemen for Ramos (I know the moleman fluff changed from M1E to M2E, but I think now molemen are a mix of miners and animal). Again, if memory serves, Marcus is currently trying to figure out what makes the jackalope immortal so that he can make himself and Myranda immortal. So as a few others have commented, Marcus is an Arcanist more because the guild said he was, than because he said he was. The other arcanists are just convenient allies.

I've only played a few games with Myranda leading the crew, but she seems extremely strong for it (as you effectively get a free Cerberus, which is a big swing at low as games). Personally I haven't used non-arcanist beasts for ages. My impulse would be a list of Cerberus, 2 Razorspines, 2 molemen, and something else to fill in points. That gives plenty of survivability (for turf war), plenty of speed (for stake a claim), and plenty of Cerberuses (for "because I can"). From wave 2 you might want to consider a blessed of December, or maybe the big bear for stake a claim. Perhaps consider Cojo. Just remember that Myranda will turn into whatever you're missing. Good luck and enjoy

Hmmm, a 7ss model which is simple, statistics rich, and just walks up. I know everyone has the Razorspine at the top of their lists really. It's just so obvious none of you are bothering to include it.... right?..... guys??? true, but a cerberus gets that for "free" with leap (indeed it's actually significantly better than walk 5), and then hits a lot harder. Just my humble opinion though. I somewhat agree with the acolyte points. It's an extremely good model, but that just means it gets vendetta'd every game when it can, or else it just gets killed very quickly. I find it to be a 7ss distraction most of the time (which can be a game winning distraction... but equally it can be a "swat a fly" type distraction).

In the interest of playing devil's advocate... It's interesting that Joss crops up in virtually all the lists. Admittedly I'd be tempted to put him in my list, but I'm increasingly finding he's a bit mediocre. Sure he can tank damage, but he's not awfully fast, and not massively killy. Also stuff which ignores armour just annihilates him (and/or your soulstone pile). His ignoring armour, all the "hard"s, and defensive triggers is nice... if he can catch up with stuff which has them. His ML isn't blinding, and with no in built positive flips etc, I find I either need to use a lot of cards to get him killing stuff, or he needs to be going against stuff with awful defence in order to hurt anything. His damage also isn't ground breaking for a "beatstick". Personally I'm finding I'm much more drawn to switch him out for a cerberus in many/most situations. Might just be personal experience though (and possibly the proliferation of Viks around me)

Hi folks, There's a shiny new post up at http://playitlikebeatdown.wordpress.com all about Jimmyfaux X (Totem annihilation), a tournament I was at last weekend. Enjoy Dave/sssk

An extremely fun tournament and 3 fantastic opponents. I was extremely pleased with best sportsmanship so thanks to my opponents there. Another very well organised tournament, and a jolly nice bunch of people Hopefully I'll make it to the next #Jimmyfaux where I may or may not be trying to get my shiny new dawn serpent to work.

Hey hey team Marcus. I played in a tournament today and did fairly well (blog post coming soon...ish), and won best sports, for which I was over the moon. Best sports came with a small monetary prize which resulted in the impulse purchase of a dawn serpent. Now I'm wondering about the wonders of the wonderful dawn serpent. My initial thought (as with most things) is that it's an obvious alpha target (avoid the problem of no extra AP, and make the most of healing twice per turn) and general close support/jack of all trades model. However I've not actually used one since the beta days. I keep hearing that they're a bit "meh", but I'm not sure if that's just 10t players who can't alpha it. Interested to hear your thoughts on the beasty. Dave/sssk

I've going to ruin everything later today by making it odd. On the plus side, with very few "proper" games since March, I run a pretty good chance of getting me a spoon

Well there's one obvious beast missing... In terms of the second beast, I'll assume I'm allowed to use "beast" as an adjective, and I'd say a December acolyte adds a lot of board/tempo control, and fills in a lot of Marcus' issues (for instance against armour).

Finally, someone mentioning a RSR. I really like them (should I stop the sentence there?)... for squatter's rights because it's so easy to slither around to block off whichever markers need blocking, and once they're there, they aren't easy to shift. They also aren't awful at distract (as their attack is a bit mediocre). That being said, my approach to squatter's rights is much like my approach to all strategies, so an Acolyte + feral + Alpha + Darzhee's chaunt tends to be involved to get a numerical advantage and shift cards out of the opponent's hand. That being said, it's been a while since I played a "serious" game of Malifaux, and I suspect the meta has become more efficient since then

RSRs are very good value models. You get a lot of stats for your points. I find they're kinda fool proof. While they work brilliantly when used with finesse, I tend to find I get good value out of them by just throwing them in and see what happens. At present I'm only using a single RSR, and only use a cerberus if/when Myranda turns into one, but I can often find space for at least a second RSR in the right situation (ie depending on strategy and schemes). Over all, I'd say 2 RSRs or 2 cerberuses (cerberi?) are not necessary, but if you get them, they won't let you down.

Well hunting down rules for Alpha didn't end well (largely becuase I forgot). Suffice to say, in "activations" (who knows where) it says a model may only activate once unless it has a specific rule saying otherwise (not necessarily correct wording) like reactivate for instance. In Alpha, it says the activation "does not count as the model's activation this turn". So doing alpha before the model has activated is fine (because it doesn't count as its activation). The issue comes if the model has activated (and therefore "cannot activate again this turn"). Alpha doesn't put in any specific condition/rule to logically overrule the "can't activate again" line, however it "doesn't count as the model's activation this turn"... So does the fact that alpha doesn't count as the model's activation overrule the fact that the model cannot activate again? If anyone could edit in the appropriate page numbers that'd be great (or else I'll do it tonight... if I remember this time)

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but there's a a shiny new post up at http://playitlikebeatdown.wordpress.com/ which is vaguely Marcus centric. I'll elaborate on the two sides of the Alpha post-activation question later on when I'm near a rulebook. There's two different interpretations which are both feasible and both make sense.

As with 4M, had a great weekend, very enjoyable, and great to put faces to (twitter) names at last. I'd call it a great success, even with the minor niggles. Likes - Team setup (go team Monkey), game times, variety of game types (individual, team, doubles), everyone's general laid back approach and embracing the spirit of the event, all the "extra-curricular" gaming - except cash and guns with Conrad (who bullied me), pretty much everything in fact (so I won't bother listing the specifics). Dislikes - Master death*, non-game-games**, all the other Marcus players*** Generally though, a very enjoyable weekend. Loved the campsite as last year. Hope we didn't leave Mike's house destroyed. *anything which permanently restricts people's choice of what to play is generally not great, and I felt particularly bad about killing Wong in the first game, **e.g. I started one game with only Seamus on the board, and it was over in 15 mins, got a ton of points for it, but it wasn't a great game... so we re-racked just to play a normal (non-achievement) game. ***Marcus captured every game but 1, and we had to subsidise getting him out!

It's a fantastic upgrade. Unfortunately it's the "price of progress" of M2E for me. In M1E I used Mei a lot, and remembered to draw cards for killing stuff in approximately 2 games over 6-8 months. Smell fear is exactly the same now. If I remember 1 extra attack in a game, I'm lucky

I tend to run either Joss or Miss Step in my crews. They get very funny with alpha. I usually don't bother with the canine/raptor though. Feral is usually plenty for turning my guys into beasts, giving me space for an extra moleman. That being said, I've not really ventured into wave 2 yet (there's plenty going on in wave 1!) so a raptor might be a good shout.

yup, that 3 weak damage is just amazing. Awesome against ressers (where low defence and hard to wound are common)... just a shame it provides them with an endless supply of corpse markers.

Mmmmh, Jackalope...... For me the Jackalope is a big bundle of distraction/irritation. Sufficiently dangerous that it needs dealing with, but sufficiently weak that people don't want to waste resources killing it. Also very good for standing next to people so they can't interact with stuff.

Nice to see that even southerners know that the midlands is a myth.... just a shame you've grouped it incorrectly. South of Sheffield = South... and Sheffield is pushing its luck

I'm short, bald, and bad at Malifaux... and might have an RSR or two in my case