Malicte

Stuck at home with a migraine instead of at the con, where I'd like to be, so I'll answer some of these as I can for a while.

Huggy is still dual faction and can lead a crew as a henchmen. He only loses Totem as a crew leader, however.

Ophelia upgrades: Yes, all three of these have changed significantly. All of them still give a new Sh attack (not the same ones as in the beta), but they're a lot more varied and they all do other things as well.

Bonus Edit: All three Ophelia upgrades now have synergy with Kin. Yay!

Barbaros is one of the most fun models I've played with. The shenanigans he can pull with Challenge or Gladiatus combined with his durability is really effective, especially when Lilith swaps him up into position.

Malifools is great in general if you're just getting into the game, you can learn a lot from listening to people who've been playing for a while.

One of the players in my local group loves Rasputina, and plays her nearly exclusively. From many games against her, I can tell you the following tips will give you a fairly good starting point.

1. Make sure you don't expose Rasputina to the enemy unless you have no other choice. She's got Ice Mirror for a reason, and can bounce her spells off her minions with ease.

2. Know when to do damage with her spells and when to aim for the paralyze. Can the damage take the model out next turn, or inhibit it from being truly effective? Damage is great. Can you bounce a lot of the blast AoE onto other targets? Damage is cool. If you just need to get that enemy model out of the way for a turn? Paralyze is the way to go.

3. Don't get too trapped in the "I'm Rasputina, I have to bunker down and not advance, I sit here and shoot instead" mindset. It's really quite easy to fall into that trap and find yourself lacking board control and ability to interact with schemes later in the game. Plan ahead.

I am torn between what I'm used to from 1.5e as opposed to what the rules seem to indicate now, which is literally "The first model to use this ability gets to use it, nobody else does." I don't really think that is the intent, but I guess until I see otherwise that's what the rules say.

Yeah, as I read it "buried" is a binary condition. Something either is or isn't.

Awesome, thanks.

I'll definitely be there.

A question that came up in my gaming group regarding 2E, to which I do not have a satisfactory answer.

On Pg. 6 of the Beta rules manual, the following is written regarding upgrades:

A Crew may only purchase Upgrades for its models

that are the same Faction declared by the Crew.

I had read this as:

"A Cew may only purchase Upgrades for its models (that are the same Faction declared by the Crew.)"

IE, when hiring, say, Taelor into a Neverborn crew, she could be given Neverborn upgrades.

Another member of my group read this as:

"A Crew may only purchase Upgrades for its (models that are the same Faction declared by the Crew.)"

IE, when hiring Taelor into a Neverborn crew she could be given NO upgrades, as Outcast upgrades would be unavailable.

From context, the consensus of forum dwellers I've seen here seem to think that the first interpretation of the sentence is correct. Anyone have any insight they could share?

As someone who has done a little bit of (amateur) design work in his hobby time, I would caution you on the customization aspect. Only make the game as customizable as actually enhances the game. Providing 30 options just to have 30 options, when 5 or 10 would make just as solid of a game, is a trap that will get you in trouble both in terms of balance and in terms of complexity/workload.

Has anyone else tried Lynch without any Beckoners? They're still quite effective, and they seem to be a "default" pick for him, but I've been interested in getting games in without them. I've run a few 10 Thunders Lynch games without them and they've not been missed anywhere near as much as I thought they'd be.

Lilith was my primary master in 1.5, and moving to her in 2e has been very tough. You just can't play her the same way as before anymore, she's changed more in feel I think than any other master except Seamus.

That said, I really enjoy the new Lilith. The problem I have is, there is a lot of synergy between her and Nephilim. Push stuff into her, she takes a swing. Root stuff with Waldgeists, which fit with her "nature" theme, and then push them with Nephilim. Great stuff. Problem is, I haven't yet found myself able to bring it all together on the table. I can have Lilith do her own thing and that's workable, but I feel like the Nephs aren't my minions of choice unless I really get that combo machine going, and I just don't find they have the ability to either get somewhere and do their stuff in one activation, or to get there and survive til a second activation once in position. I'm hoping I'm able to work it out, because it seems like what the intent behind the "fluffy" Lilith crew is.

I can understand the confusion. It's obviously too late to change the wording in the book but an FAQ clarification seems like it may not be a bad idea.

I was looking over the new 2E stat cards for Tara and crew in Chronicles 7, and had a question.

Karinathe Nothing Beast both have abilities that state, "This action may only be taken once per round". If I was to hire Hannah and use her ability to copy spells from other models, could I copy and use these abilities a second time?

In essence, is the "once per round" limiter based on the model or the crew?

Gyouza, welcome to Malifaux! You seem to be in my (general) area, so if you're interested in getting a game or three in, let me know! Most of the Malifaux play I've seen in stores around here has been at Arsenal Game Room in Fountain Square.

Incredible. Very impressive. How are you finding the quality of the Plastcraft pieces?

Really impressed by how well the varnish water effect turned out. Great work!

That was my worry as well. You have to probably drop the "alpha strike" with Tara and the NB turn 2 and hope whatever you've held onto from turn 1-2 in terms of cards + stones keep you alive against the retribution.

Bete or Killjoy or Taelor or Bishop are all pretty valid as a secondary threat if it turns out not to be enough.

I've tried Mortimer and Seamus together and the results were very positive. Mortimer is a beast in 2e, though if you're only going to use one high cost model and you're bringing belles, there's no real reason to bring him over Sybelle. If you're willing to try a Seamus list that doesn't bring any (or many) belles, and plan to rely on summoning mid game, Mortimer becomes a much more attractive option. Some of the most fun I've had with Seamus was in a game where I brought no belles to start, instead bringing two hanged and a gaggle of Flesh Constructs.

Furthermore, anyone bringing Corpse Bloat synergizes extremely well with Seamus' Sinister Reputation upgrade. I like taking it on the man himself, as popping out with Back Alley, dropping a counter with the upgrade and then detonating it (and likely healing up in the process).

I was actually considering a list that looks something like:

5 Cache

Tara

-2 Obliteration Symbiote

-1 Dead of Winter

-2 Knowledge of Eternity

5 Karina

10 Nothing Beast

-1 Voiceless Words

28 Void Wretch (x7)

The plan here being, use Tara to deliver the NB upfield, using Dead of Winter to reduce enemy WP by 2 to better enable the NB to take down whatever the biggest threat or lynchpin of the enemy crew is. Meanwhile, Tara uses Temporal Shift to make as many models as possible fast, and then dumps down to no more than 3 cards. If you have fewer good cards, spend cards for defensive stance on Tara and the NB to improve their survivability, or if you need them alive another turn longer to kill another lynchpin.

You then have 7 Void Wretches with Df 5-7, incorporeal, getting ++ to every flip against every model you can manage to make Fast. Some of them are probably fast themselves. In addition, any of them that can see the NB potentially send an enemy unit home (and out of contention for scheme markers) if killed. This probably nets you an advantage in the mid board where most of the schemes are handled.

All theoryfaux since I haven't been able to get a VASSAL game in yet, but it seems solid enough in theory. 1 stone of wiggle room to give Karina her upgrade if it's necessary. Dumping so much of your hand that fast makes me nervous when looking at instant-kill triggers and the like, but a defensive stanced NB at 7-9 Df still looks pretty survivable to me.

Edit: Further thoughts. I see the NB as an auto include in every Tara list I run. I just don't see why he'd ever be left out. Furthermore, aside from a few niche situations, I can't think of a reason I'd prefer the Child over Karina. Those seem pretty core. Looking at the Wretches, my thoughts are basically, "Pretend Pure Nothingness wasn't on their sheet. At what Df number would I consider them worth 4 stones? At what point would I consider them better than Steam Abominations or Desperate Mercenaries or Freikorpsmen? At what number would I consider them a bargain?" Those answers, for me at least, are looking like Df 4 to be worth their cost, Df 5 to be better than any other low-cost option for just about any situation, given their synergy, and Df 6 or 7 to consider wanting to spam them all over the board. The biggest potential problem with spamming them is what happens if Tara dies and I'm left with no way to easily dump cards? You'd have to think the best option at that point is to activate something near an enemy and cheat as many cards as possible into duels, even if they'll fail, just to dump hand size. Clearly at least some of this dumping would be via Defensive Stance.

So when Flames of the Void or Truth in Nothingness say, "This action can only be used once per turn", does that mean per model or per crew? Can they be copied by Hannah and used a second time?

When all friendly models in play have activated, she would then get Reactivate.

Joel's right, Defensive Stance is going to be amazing for Nothing Beast and Wretches. Much preferable to hand dumping using Tara's ability, or at least preferable to dumping all six cards.

One of the kickstarter's proposed expansion books was supposed to be about the Guild Wars restarting Earthside.

Was glad I was able to make it out to one of these, you guys seem like a great group of people and it was a lot of fun. Will definitely see if I can make it next Sunday!

I like to think of the initiative flip thing as helping to make up for the core weakness of a model like the doppelganger; that is, it does relatively little until you activate it and have it mimic stuff. If you win init and spend it bringing the doppelganger up to speed, that's practically the same thing as losing init.

Yes, it helps you get init on crucial turns maybe, but that is more than made up for by being such an easy target for Kill Protegee.

Seems to work alright for me. Be sure you aren't trying to include her in a crew which prohibits her from being hired.