decker_cky

The price of tin shouldn't even be used as an argument anymore. It is certainly a more volatile material price than plastic, but tin has been at essentially the same price for several years. It was really bad when the economy tanked so commodity prices skyrocketed, but it's dropped and normalized since then. 

Wyrd uses a more expensive plastic than other companies, and sells lower volume products (some things you may buy 2 of, but almost nothing sells three sets aside from hoarcats).

With Colette, you can also position them to throw down a marker each turn on the (0) if they're unengaged, and use them for the various things showgirl crews use scheme markers for. With Colette and a mannequin, you can actually blanket a wide area pretty effectively. 

Yeah....general plan is still there. You have ignite to toast whatever passes flare, then immolate. Glad I hadn't pulled that on anyone yet.  Actually, the main thing making me want fast was to move twice to get into position then to pull stuff off. As a support piece, I haven't found 6" enough to get her into the prime position to nuke a ton of models, so with fast she can cover the distance. 

One other thing I was thinking of was taking essence of power with 3 oxfordian mages, so make them into an awesome Ca7 gunline that spreads burn (and all the other awesome things they do).

I've gotten in a few games with her and I'm still getting used to her. Grab and drop is the best thing ever, but you have to really be careful with your movement. Same with purifying fire - you almost have to draw a strict line between turns when Kaeris supports, and turns when you use Kaeris aggressively. You have to be careful with your auras for sure. Accelerant in particular will hurt your own crew, even past the protection from fire her crew gets.

In many games, kaeris is amazing just for flying around supporting her crew with whichever limited upgrade you took. You toss out some decent burning or damage occasionally, but compared to other masters, she really doesn't feel like she's doing a ton. But her impact is immense, and with a well timed turn, you can put a hurt on a whole pile of models with flare and accelerant. Because of this, I'm thinking imbued energies is a must take on her, to get her in position and allow for repeated accelerants. Late in a turn when your opponents hand is low, it can be devastating. 

I haven't got fire gamin, so that's limited my crew and upgrade selection, which has generally focused on showgirls (cassandra and a performer most often) and large arachnids, with a little bit extra (firestarter, rail workers, joss, howard, willie, etc... - whatever my crew needs that game). 

Most of my games haven't focused too much on actual burning - wings of fire made my crew a scheme marker dumping factory, which makes cassandra, the performer, the large arachnids and willie particularly devastating. This is worth it even if you haven't taken scheme marker based schemes, and can hide what your real plan is. I think it's a big advantage being able to take a crew that doesn't depend on conditions as much with a condition based master. You also can switch the build up and make a crew that doesn't depend too much on scheme markers.

Overall, she's been incredibly fun, but she really changes the mindset of how you play.

One thing I'd like to try is a crew based on a bunch of beasts - hoarcats in particular. They have devour to threaten anything you can get paralyzed by accelerant, and even without that are just solid models. With Myranda nearby, you can give them all [+] to Df flips. With a raptor, you can pass that [+] to anything else (including Kaeris), then you can later fly the raptors around to drop scheme markers far out. 

Buildings you can enter plays a lot more to the strengths of the incorporeal stuff in malifaux. For a small building, it's no real issue. For large buildings, it's creating a roadblock for those models where there should be none. 

I used a pair of them recently (along with Cassandra and a Performer) to ensure scheme dominance in a Kaeris game with grab and drop. When you can carpet the field with scheme markers, and you can burn through your opponents scheme markers at range for bonuses, it's a very tough proposition. In a list like Kaeris or Colette, where you won't have an issue getting down plenty of scheme markers, they're great even if your opponent doesn't take a scheme that requires markers. 

Mei benefits from the base size (better railwalking) and scrap (more railwalking points). 

Ramos benefits from the extra scrap (lets him set up his engine for cheap).

For anyone who isn't covering the field in scheme markers, I find that a large arachnid is a nice thing to add before adding a second rail worker, since it means they don't compete for resources on the positive flip ability.

One thing that really stands out is the damage potential with replacement limb - it's a 6SS model that can actually take advantage of severe damage 6. Certainly not always, but I had it come up last game, and my opponent wasn't happy. 

It's certainly not a throw in every crew model, but it does a lot of things well enough that it can be a star in the right crews.

You can also just paint the tips of the barrels black, but barrels are something plastics have a hard time with and it's a super easy modification that makes the model look a lot better.

By the way, I was looking back through all your unboxes the other day, and I really appreciate them. It's really nice to get shots of models with close-ups and at angles, along with feedback on how tough assembly is. Keep up the good work!

Looking great. I notice the barrels are flat on the gatling guns - it'll probably look better if you use a pinning vice to drill out the barrels.

Except that it's something the Neverborn were responsible for (or something like that).

I think the primary issue is that while Arcanists were originally loosely aligned, Mei Fang, Kaeris, and Ironsides all drove it the same direction towards a much more unified feel that doesn't include Marcus and Raspy.  I don't think it would be as noticeable if Kaeris didn't have the mechanical wings and was just literally a Fire Mage counterpart to Raspy and if Colette didn't have the marionette  mechanical stuff snuck in with the showgirls theme.  

I don't really care too much gameplaywise. Colette for example has a hugely different selection of models, which happens to include a few constructs. But I guess she kind of fits the fire/construct gameplay theme that goes through the faction.

Marcus and Rasputina just don't fit thematically - they're closer to reluctant acquaintances than they are to actual members of the Arcanist movement. 

Marcus, for example, is fluffwise as tied to Ressurectionists (through McMourning) as he is to Arcanists. The only time he ever came close to having a proper storyline tying him to the Arcanists (where he picked up the girl who heals), it quickly got dropped. Rasputina at least seems to have a current storyline that's moving in that direction.

Marcus fits the arcanists as a practitioner who operates outside the law, much like the Outcasts and Ressers do, he doesn't thematically fit into the machinations that link Arcanists. And I'm not considering M&SU and arcanists to be the same thing - Mei Feng and Colette are both masters operating outside that (though closely tied in). Really...in my mind the line between Outcast and Arcanist fits most naturally at that juncture - between those working for Ramos' cause and those not. 

I actually thing Hoffman's background implies more Arcanist activities than Marcus or Rasputina. Now, there's foundation for them both to be more involve that's been laid, but I think the story needs to push forward to both of them to have them working with the Arcanist cause, rather than them being independent forces that happen to have had a half dozen conversations with Ramos. 

Miners actually don't get 'more' marker placement, aside from in turn if both of the markers get burnt for something. If you only had to discard one if both markers were still in play, it'd be awesome for a lot of reasons (large arachnid, all the showgirl scheme eating stuff for benefit, etc..). Instead, if you eat one scheme marker during the turn, the other goes in the upkeep step.

Leveticus is the one I think should have been a resser/outcast combo. There's a few older masters I think they could have easily treated differently. For example, Marcus, both thematically and backgroundwise, doesn't really fit as an arcanist. I don't mind how its ended up, but it definitely didn't end up with the most natural separations.

They all boost each others' heals by having 0 Ca actions. I imagine the dawn serpent is pretty resilient with counterspell and condition removal added to that equation.

Razorspines are all around gold if you have a few. Molemen are great for objectives. Hoarcat prides are surprisingly tough and hard hitting, though a bit slow. Then you have cerberus and blessed, both of which are solid hard hitters (more resilience on the blessed, more hittiness on the cerberus). Myranda can fill a hole - most likely Cojo or a Cerberus. 

There's a decent selection of beasts that are all at least fairly good now so it isn't that much of a handicap. Just remember, a lot of henchmen led lists depend on the henchman to do the heavy lifting, and Myranda can't do that. But you have a lot of solid choices (and Myranda boosting rattlers defence flips makes them into an extremely hard gathering).

Weaver is the leader, so you don't pay for her.

Shenlong too. 

I think Wave 2 + the bonus generic upgrades have made Mei as good or better than she is as an arcanist.

Obviously, there's some beefy models in the arcanists, including constructs like Howard, Joss and Coryphee Duets. There's also some great construct boosts that go on those models (or on the rail golem) in bleeding edge tech and powered by flame. If you want to go all constructs, it's really a no contest for Arcanists.

They have arcane reservoir too, which I almost always take with Mei as an arcanist. But as much as anything, I think that speaks to a problem Mei has as an arcanist - she's not dependent on her generic upgrades. Beyond Seismic claws, all of her upgrades are nice to have rather than must have.  With 10T, she has a selection of amazing upgrades available to make Mei herself an even more potent piece. Along with seismic claws and whatever other personal upgrades take your fancy, there's misdirection (amazing, even if it overlaps with Mei's other defensive trigger), recalled training (give her an epic key turn), and now on the wings of wind (doesn't compete with another 0 action, so it's just plain adding a free push to Mei and another model each turn). 

On constructs, as mentioned, critical mass is at 3-4. She has the foundry stuff, which is good, shadow effigy and komainu (plus Lazarus, who I'm liking lately). Not a ton, but it's enough, and there's some great stuff. If you have some ancestors, komainu hand out auto-slow for example.

Those models tend to leave points for other things - that's where the support models come in. 10T is full of great support models. Kang, Sensei Yu, Chiaki...lots of good options. And then there's Toshiro. 

Toshiro was made to make 10T mei amazing. He boosts the minions you tend to take as rail points. And he summons on the scrap you'll be bringing. Oh, you didn't bring any? Well now you have a use for that side of emberling, letting it start a summoning engine before it starts using it's non-insignificant minion status to run around and complete schemes. 

Actually...emberling is one of the things making Lazarus great with this crew, and not just good. Without lazarus, emberling can cut itself to drop scrap. Thats not bad when you see how much it adds for 4 SS, but with torch, if you have a tome, it can make scrap from lazarus, who will quickly shrug it off. Then you let toshiro do his thing and you have a bonus komainu. Oh, and it's lazarus so he just heals himself. And speaking of lazarus...have you seen how mean he is when he assimilates a komainu's Guard the Soul ability?

At first glance, the other faction tends to look better, but there's a lot of neat tricks that 10T have available to them.

On the wings of wind has been mentioned a number of times. On Mei, it doesn't compete with any other (0) actions, so it's a great combo being able to get a pair of free 4" pushes each turn plus a 3" push for Mei at the end of each turn.

Large steam arachnids are a pretty solid overall package, and I think do pretty well in terms working well with masters.

-4" anti scheme marker tech on an (0)

-Similar damage output to rail workers (with a better boosting ability IMO)

-Bonus scrap for Ramos and Mei

-Extra large base size for Mei as a railwalking point

-Burning trigger for synergy with Kaeris and Mei

-Armour +1, Grinding Halt and 7 Wd for 6 SS making them surprisingly tanky (compared to Rail workers, no hard to kill but +3 wounds for +1 soulstone)

-Unimpeded to get around, allow them to generally be protected by cover

-Solid dangerous minion for Colette

I don't think there's particularly much synergy with Marcus, Rasputina or Colette, but it's still a solid minion with anti-scheme tech for those masters.

They're not in my top 5, but I definitely see them as a very good and flexible model.

Aside from Tengu, I think the generalist 'must have' models for 10T are all the expensive support pieces.

1. Tengu: The top tier objective runners in the faction.

2. Kang: Great model overall, and amazing support against undead and constructs.

3. Toshiro: Top tier support model, solid summoner. 

4. Chiaki: Condition removal and healing, while being survivable and cheap.

5. Sidir: Nice at range, but mostly once again a nice support piece. 

In general, I think most 10T models want their core models, then you add big support pieces that are appropriate. I don't want to pretend that it's that narrow, but those are the 5 that I think come up as important most often.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), to get 3 of those models, you need to have bought 3 of the box sets, which really dictates a lot of your collection. 

edit: Toshiro's upgrade isn't in the Yan Lo box set. I imagine it'll be in the Toshiro repack, and the arsenal pack. It's also in the official PDFs if you can find them.

My list almost mimics Rathnard's perfectly.

1. December Acolyte: IMO the top shooting option available to arcanists.

2. Metal Gamin: Cheap and gold.

3. Mechanical Rider: So flexible...adds a ton to everyone.

4. Performer: I shied away from these for a while, but they're spectacular models. They're great at scheming offensively and defensively (destroying enemy scheme markers), they lure, and they're tough to hit with manipulative. 

5. Arcane effigy: Condition removal is so huge in the game, having a cheap, very solid model that can remove them reliably is a huge boon. 

I'm surprised to see Cassandra on here so much. She's good....but how many masters are people actually taking her with?

One thing that is kind of nice is that he's a a heavy minion. Doesn't really affect things for Marcus, but for other masters it means he's eligible for some neat abilities (Colette comes to mind). 

I think Mei with reckoning is a solid option. There's lots of VERY resilient constructs available (lazarus, joss, rail golem, howard) and you can just use Mei as a force multiplier wherever you need her in a given turn. Take three of those guys plus Kang and take a lot of soulstones and you shouldn't struggle too much. You also don't have to take few models at all costs in reckoning. 

There's a few bad matchups when your opponent takes anti-construct/anti-armour crews, but in general, that type of crew is rock solid. Mei also isn't particularly dependent on having a totem, which is an advantage when thinking of reckoning. 

Superglue on plastics is good for when you may want to break apart a model (eg, cover you for switching weapons with edition changes in warhammer). I guess you could do that for TTB characters or something - you can pop off arms by pressuring the joint with some clips.

For malifaux, there isn't that risk, so you might as well use plastic. In most cases, it doesn't make much of a difference if you're careful. Where it really is noticeable is on tiny models where you always superglue your fingers, and on 3 point glues, where you may want to adjust the angle a bit. 

If they're in a locked cabinet I would imagine the likelihood of them getting lost is relatively low, but yes, Wyrd would have to have something in place to make sure they weren't liable for thefts, or at least that the owner would get a replacement box if anything did happen.

If only there were some kind of gamble Wyrd could make, wherein they paid a small amount in a gamble that the models wouldn't be damaged, and would get compensation for them in the case that they were. Inn-sewer-ants? That's a strange word.