Gorbad

Doing it the way baskinders describe should also be faster compared to forcing someone to use trigonometry to work out those other distances. You can get all those other distances even if all you allow is measuring from a model to a point, it just takes a lot longer.

Actually I'd say that a Colette crew is excellent as a blunt crushing instrument. I've had Colette beat masters to death herself (granted, mainly the Viks) and had her crew eat masters range from Lady J to the Dreamer inside a couple of turns. You just need to pick the right crew, the ability to have any of our big beaters attack 5+ times a turn with extra movement on top of that is amazing. The thing with Colette is that although she likes her showgirls she really isn't restricted to them in any meaningful way. She likes good models way more than specific showgirl models, so any model that does a job you want she is happy to see. If they are minions they get a few extra benefits but even that doesn't really matter too much. Prompt have got to be up there with the best spells in the game, it allows the crew to do so much. But I would recommend waiting for the plastics, especially when it comes to the coryphees. The good thing is that if you want to pick up Colette later anything you get for masters you play before that is still going to be very useful. Especially if you pick Rasputina and then expands with December Acolytes, she loves those. In fact I got a crew with 4 of them I need to try out for an evening where I'm feeling especially mean.

I would think you got more mileage out using Angelica's push action. Not quite as far (and non-master only?) but you could move two models 6" and not have most of your crew spend the turn setting the whole thing up. If you really wanted to move a master then just push/walk a performer forward and then Siren's Call the master further up. Just seems like a more efficient use of resources as it requires fewer models.

I would probably look at the Dark Debts box set. Both because Illuminated are brilliant (pun intended) with any master so Pandora will appreciate having them around and because you have the other core models that goes with his box in Beckoners. After that, if we are talking box sets, I'd probably look at Lilith. Both to get Tots and to give you a master that does things different from Pandora and Lynch. As for single models, Insidious Madness, Widow Weaver, Doubleganger are all highly recommended, although the first two is ATM really difficult to get hold of I believe. Another good buy would be Waldgeists, having a tank/terrain generator can be highly valuable, and there are a couple of schemes where his 4" melee range can be very good indeed. Same goes for the female twin (Lilutu?), although I don't think her brother is as good. But really, there are few bad choices. For instance if you fancied Zoraida everything in there is good. The only thing I'd say is be careful about focusing too much on Wp based effects. It's easy to do when you start with Pandora, but it's IMO a trap trying to build everything around Wp attacks and debuffs.

The reason to bring Angelica in a Raspy crew isn't for paralyze, although that is a neat side ability. Its the push for friendly models. That can be huge and is really very convenient and for not many points. I think she deserve consideration for that reason in many/most lists, bit especially if you like to bring things like the Ice Golem.

Synergy matter, but it isn't the be all and end all of crew creation. Especially with Pandora I actually think that building a highly WP focused crew is a little bit of a trap as it leaves you with a very one-dimensional attack vector. I much prefer to have a couple of models around that can both function independently of Pandora and can attack something else than WP. Teddy is actually quite a good model for her as he gains benefits from failed Wp tests, but don't need them to be useful. But any Neverborn model have potential with Pandora, she really do benefit from a mixed crew. As for Candy, I know she have a fan base but I never liked her. I never really got her to work for me and she is just a bit boring I think so I just don't use her. The starter box is thematic as much as anything, don't feel you have to run it. On fact out of that box I often only run a sorrow or two. The poltergeist maybe dependent on schemes (Primodial Magic is very good too) and Kade might or might not be there. Also, there are no limit's to the number of enforcers or henchmen you can have in a crew. One master, max two mercenary models, but aside from that there aren't really any rules.

Honestly I think the only real requirement is that you enjoy the master and their playstyle. If you have fun then you will keep playing them. I have lots of fun playing Colette, you can do so many things, that I really don't feel the need to bring out other masters, even if they might objectively be a little bit better suited to X, Y or Z. So rather than versatility look for fun. Who do you think it is fun to play. Start there and then don't set a specific time period for it. Just play them for as long as you have fun.

Easy, I'd do Colette. She is 90%+ of my Arcanist games anyway and she is so much fun to play. And because of the nature of her gameplay she have an amazing variety of models she can use, and use well. Completely unlike her old version that was almost single build, she really can make any model she field better and while she doesn't quite have the hiring pool of Zoraida or Marcus she really can use any Arcanist+Merc model and in many, many combinations. And she can do well at almost any Strat/Scheme as well.

You are making the assumption that they have more than the rules manual. I imagine quite a lot of people only have that, and it doesn't contain any models so the arsenal decks are a good way of getting those rules, whatever to plan future purchases or just to reference other factions when playing against them (as several people have stated they have used them for so far). One question about putting them in the Scheme/Strat deck, would all the generic upgrades for all factions fit in that, or would we need a deck for each faction? Because I can understand if Wyrd isn't terribly interested in making yet another faction specific deck and effectively turning on SKU into 7 different ones. But I don't know what is in the Scheme/Strat deck box and can't, off the top of my head, estimate how many generic upgrades there are (40-50 between the factions?). Alternatively you make a deck with just generic upgrades, but then you either end up with way more cards that are probably useless to you than the Arsenal model, or you will need to arrange it between mates and trade (and hope everyone plays something different). But the real interesting thing will be to see what they do going forward if/when they do more generic upgrades. How are they going to be distributed?

I don't really think masters in Malifaux is that much more complex/complicated than a 'caster in WM/H. They usually recycles a few spells, but outside of that most casters don't share that much. Anyway, the reason it works very well in WM/H is that they only release a single caster per faction per book. If you were to double the number of masters that is a workload way bigger and I can easily see why PP wouldn't want to do that, especially after the huge work of changing edition. Now I'd be totally happy with just seeing the avatars slowly released as alternate masters over time as part of the normal release schedule but given the models already exist that's probably not a viable plan either. So it will be very interesting to see what they have changed, the whole process of playing a separate mini-game to manifest just felt a little odd, although it was rather master dependent. If you were a combat master, especially one that killed at range you were fine, it would probably be fairly easy for you to manifest early in the game. If you were a support master, not so much. The whole mid-game transformation and the problem with that is then reinforced by the game only being five turns. If you manifest in turn 4 you don't really get much from your avatar. The avatar card acting as a normal upgrade was a pretty good step towards counter-balancing that, but we shall see how the mechanism shakes out.

I'm well aware that they will not become there own masters, the amount of work involves in that pretty much rules it out I would have thought. I was more stating an 'ideal situation' for me, not a practical one. It will be very interesting to see the changes that are being brought it. I know I was running low on test enthusiasm with the old version of Colette and was very happy to see an extended break. While some of them were close to done she still felt like she was looking for a reason to exist. No henchmen around here but January is soon enough, at the moment the game doesn't feel like its lacking them.

I hope that Wyrd at some point abandons the idea that they have to be an ingame change to the master and just make them into separate versions of the master instead. Obviously it's a lot of work, but I think the outcome would be better. Then you are presented with two different version of your favourite master, and the avatar upgrade/mechanic doesn't have to compete with playing the game.

Tessy works quite well with Pandora, if you run the right build. Because he gets to make an attack when an end fails a Wp test within 6" you can have a large area around Pandora be absolutely lethal to enter. I still have to test my Pandora+Poltergeist+2 Teddies (and other stuff) crew but for games that require you to dominate a particular area that could be a really strong crew.

All three of us will probably be down again, it was excellent fun last time. (Elizabeth & Ole Larsen and James Goddard)

Colette. So much fun to be hard with her, especially the new version of her, it's even better than the old one. For Neverborn it's Pandora, easily. The whole concept is just awesome, and she is quite fun to play on the table too. Only problem is that people sometimes still don't really like playing against her and that makes me sad.

I'd like to offer up Colette as well. Because of Prompt she really enjoys having expensive powerful models in her crew because she can get so much more out of them. But really, any crew can be constructed to have a small model count. If you were to look at my crews, even 8 models would be a little on the high sides, I seem to tend to clock in at 6 or 7 pretty much regardless of what master I play.

I knew there was something wrong with my calculation but it's been a while since I've used my Arcanists. So that gives you a potential of 26 cards in a turn.

Lets see, with Arcanists you can have a base hand of 8 (Bring Hannah and the Arcane Reservoir upgrade), Colette can then potentially get off Surge 6 times a turn (with reactivate), and I can't remember if Hannah can copy Prompt/triggers (probably not). Add in the upgrade that gives you two cards when the model is killed and you can get to draw quite a lot of cards while still doing other things.

While the Miners seems like a good fit, I rarely feel the need for more scheme marker placement options in my Colette crews so I've stopped using them. The crew needs other things more I feel. As for Willie, could be, I've never actually seen him on the table so I don't really know how well he would do.

I'd go with 1: December Acolyte (I still want to do the list with 4 of them at some point) 2: Metal Gamins 3: Howard Langston 4: Cassandra 5: Angelica

Another option is that if you know a model is going to die from poison and you don't want him to summon from it kill it yourself. It might or might not be a good option, it sort of depends on the game state and positions, but if he was counting on getting a summon out of that it might be better. Same thing happens a lot with things like Distract and Curse Object.

I have a metal one and I'll be getting the plastic 3 pack at some point as well. Running 4 is only 28 points and they are really good with Colette. There is nothing gained per say from running multiples of them, but it is a very good model on its own right.

I suppose it depends on your definition of work. From my experience the progression in Mordheim resulted in rather unbalanced gameplay especially against crews with less experience than your own. So the system would provide progression and let you play, but it did not provide a balanced gameplay experience. But then neither did Necromunda. That had slightly different but effectively similar balance problems. Blood Bowl is the only game of that type I know of that comes even close, and it does actually do a pretty good job. But that's also more of a board game than a miniatures game. But I don't know if sacrificing some balance for a system like this will bother the people wanting to play it.

Did you remember to use soulstones to add to defence or so damage prevention with Lynch? But there are a lot of models out there with the offensive output to kill a lot of models in one activation. But piece trading can be a good deal. If you can distract several of your opponents models for a couple of turns with killing then that might let you get ahead on VP. Or just set up a good opportunity to hit back against the models that are going to cause you problems all game. I'll happily sacrifice every model on my crew, including my master, if it helps me score VPs. The other thing to look out for are abilities like Armor, Hard To Wound, Impossible to Wound and Hard to Kill. Those can make it significantly harder to kill models and those models can generally tank a bit. Take a model like the Metal Gamin for the Arcanists. Although it only got 4 wounds it got Armor 2 and Hard to Kill meaning many models need a 3 or even 4 attacks to kill it.

I can only echo that. IMO gunsmiths and Acolytes are two models that are almost in direct competition because of doing similar jobs and the Gunamith require a crew that can put out a decent amount of burning before they can match the December Acolyte in the first place, and with you using Rasputina the Acolyte is even better than usual that there really isn't any particular reason to bring the Gunsmith. That being said, don't feel that you have to run your crew along strict themelines for it to work. It can be well worth it running a mix of models from the different themes. For instance I think Angelica is an amazing addition to Rasputina's crew as she bring increases mobility (pushing your own models) at a low price. So once you played a few games and get a better feel for your crew and the game let your mind run free and see if there is anything else you would like and think would help you to have.