Philosfr

I'd like to provide some clarity to this statement as I believe it is slightly misleading. While you can start with one upgrade, you still pay for it normally, it is added to your arsenalThe 2x SS cost (2 script for 0ss upgrades) is ONLY in regards to when purchasing upgrades at start of a new week. This is the only time you can buy new Thanks for the clarification. The initial 35 SS arsenal is not hired with Scrip so the upgrade cost is paid normally for in the 35 SS's. I tried to short cut that confusing statement but left ambiguity Are you sure on this? We thought this was the case and then I went back and read it. Unfortunately I don't have the book with me right now to go back and check yet one more time. Under Arsenals, it says the SS cost of models. It only mentions models, which is why we thought upgrades were not counted. Between that and them costing double when purchased with Scrip, I assumed that was intentional. I need the book in PDF so I can reference when I'm not at home.

For clarity, they cost 10 Scrip to hire into an Arsenal, and 15 SS to hire into a crew for a game. In a game they don't get their cache unless both crews have masters (but you still pay 15 SS for them, even if you do or don't get their cache)

Yes (though normally the starting arsenal is 35 SS, so a 40 SS game). Though Upgrades are an interesting exception. The campaign seems to penalize upgrades a little bit* So a 35 arsenal with no upgrades vs a 33 point arsenal with a 2 SS upgrade would only be a 38 point game. Each side would only get 3 SS if they hired everything they could. *You can only start with one upgrade, buying upgrades costs Scrip = 2x SS cost (2 script for 0 SS upgrades), and Upgrade cost isn't added into your Arsenal size

In a campaign game, the size of the game is normally the player with the smaller arsenal size +5 SS. You can choose to play at a smaller SS game if you choose. Then you hire your crew as normal, paying full SS cost for all your models. The printed cache is ignored. You only get the SS you did not spend. You then can get more SS's if your opponent has a higher campaign rating than you (this number can exceed the usual 7). For all practical purposes, the printed Cache on your Henchmen or Master's completely gets ignored, UNLESS both players have a Master. That's the only time cache's come into play with Campaigns* *except 0 SS henchmen, then it comes into play to determine their cost

Check the reference Phinn posted, it makes it really clear that if it doesn't say damage flips, it does not apply to damage flips

I think you're over applying the term "action" in this case. Lady J hands out a condition that grants friendlies a positive twist on the attack action itself. That's just the duel flip. The damage is a result of the action, not the action itself. Same thing with enemy models. When they attack the inspired friendly, the enemy is the the one taking the action, and the enemy does not have the condition. The inspired friendly is only defending, so they are not taking a Ml or Sh action, and those there is no positive flips for either model in this case.

I don't have the cards in front of me, but I'm fairly confident that it is only intended on the duel itself, not the damage flip. The Action is the duel, the damage is not the action. And if I recall correctly, doesn't she only hand the Inspired condition out only to friendly minions?

Not sure we've ever played that way. It's rather counter-intuitive, so I'm not sure we've ever looked at cover rules close enough to grant the Ice Golem cover in either scenario. That certainly makes things more complicated to figure out if you have cover or not though, but as others have said, provides more cover on a board as a result. But no... I'm not a fan of these rules. I understand "realism" and "rules" rarely go together, but this one makes the game harder, not easier I think. EDIT: Er, but to be clear, I'm not advocating anything needs to change. I'm not overly fond of how engagement rules work when a model has more reach than the opponent, but I understand the 'why' of it and play per the rules.

Local interpretation trumped by RAW

Barbaros is awesome for his Challenge ability alone! Remember, if an enemy crew likes to target their own models for some reason (example, Zoraida's crew targeting a Voodoo Doll, or Nurses giving a friendly meds, or a Librarian trying to heal), they still have to make a Wp duel if they are in range of the challenge. It's a whole big bubble of denial.

Summoning one evil to fight another evil is certainly not good, but it can certainly be effective After all, if your enemies are fighting each other, it weakens them both...

Crossroads has more stories and the rest of the released models. Useful if you want to read about what other factions can do without buying their card boxes or all the models, and for deciding which Gremlins you want to add. Shifting Loyalties has rules for campaigns, a way to link several games together, gain injuries, campaign rewards, etc. Plus it has all new models that will be released soon that are not in the wave 1 or wave 2 card boxes. So again it's useful for seeing what rules models have for all the factions, plus the campaign is fun. If you don't care about the campaign rules and are OK just reading your opponents cards to see what they do, you can safely skip the two books. You're missing out on some great art, story and an easy way to learn more about other models though, so I still recommend them

The plastic Juju is superior in my mind, though I have both the metal and plastic. Regardless, Juju can be really fun on the table if you're planning on running several swampfiends. He can be surprisingly squishy, but being Eternal he shows up when another swampfiend dies, so you can keep dishing out the hurt with him. I'd definitely get the Zoraida box rather than just Silurids.

Page 90 of the rulebook seems to indicate you cannot use a mercenary as a leader of a different faction.

I got the deck and the book. With only a 3 week campaign I saw people end up using 9 cards between upgrades and injuries. That's a lot of book referencing or photocopying if you don't have deck, but it certainly is doable. The campaign deck also came with a few updated errata cards... I got a Blessed of December card with the right SS cost for example.

Widow Weaver is crazy good at lowering willpower in one section of the board, but she's a little fragile. But use her to lower Willpower and then blast them with Obey's, Terrors, and other Wp attacks. Obeying Widow Weaver to Exhale Terror is a nice way to get another chance at a paralyze off, and others have mentioned using the Voodoo Doll as a target for it.

Stitched with Creepy Fog also work nicely against shooty Waldgeists and Lilith that can root something to the group and cause it to take damage if it moves/push also counteracts the annoying Squee triggers. Oh, and don't charge a gremlin unless you can kill it in one hit or your opponent is out of cards, and even then it's a 25% chance they'll Squee away. Anything that shuts down triggers is useful (both offense and defense), but I'm not remembering our options for those off the top of my head

Paralyzed sucks, but there's nearly always an option to remove it in every faction (NB finally got their own with the Scion and a painful one with the Emissary now). Johan as a mercenary at the very least. Having an option like Paralyze on the table makes a big impact on playstyles. Do I cheat this high card to do extra damage, or do I opt to save it for the horror duel I'm about to make next activation to avoid paralyze? Without a debilitating option like Paralyze, the whole game would change.

That is also my understanding and how we played it. Your one (limit one) upgrade at the start of a campaign costs normal, while it costs double (or 2 in the case of 0 SS cost) after your starting Arsenal.

I'm not sure I buy the whole focus of this topic. I usually describe Malifaux by saying "It's a game where everyone is overpowered, but because everyone is overpowered, it ends up balanced". The wide range of people finding "loopholes, unintended interactions, and weird combinations" here tells me that's true. Sure, Luna can deliver a message on Turn 1. Sure you can't assassinate Leveticus. But we all get 5 schemes to pick from in most cases, so we don't have to choose Assassinate if we're facing Leveticus and McCabe won't always get Deliver a Message. If all these things weren't fairly balanced by other facets of the game, I would expect to see them winning in tournaments and dominating in local shops. Most places have that one player who will be bound to use every cheap trick just to win. But I don't see that happening. Yeah, these tricks suck the first time or two you run into them, but then you either figure out how to deal with it or figure out your own trick to balance it out.

Initially our group played it as "these are what's for sale, buy what you want", but after reading it again, I got the sense that it was singular in nature in both senses of the phrase. Make a flip, buy up to 1 copy of 1 thing, then make the next flip if you have one and repeat. This is probably the way it's intended. Buying up 3 relic hammers when you flip the right card at once is probably excessive. Especially if you bought 3 Change of Stations on 3 Rotten Belles to make them Enforcers so they can wield them with Pounce and Lure...

Not necessarily true. In the case of a charge, you want to take attacks so you declare them... if you fail, you have to take an action you didn't declare instead. If you could declare you were taking an "On the House" action, then yes, you would need to make the test and take an "On the House" action if you fail. I think there are more broken interactions if you don't have to declare attacks when you charge. There's a lot more abilities that tend to trigger off that.

That's fantastic! Being that Barbaros has the same Challenge as Mancha Roja and being that I use Barbaros a lot in my NB crews!

I've not found Reconnoiter to alter my strategy all that much. I still mostly march up the center until getting to the 6 inch bubble around the middle. My heavy hitters go to the side where the enemies hitters are, and I hold the other side with my pieces trying to accomplish schemes. If I happen to have some potent range, I'll actually stick them in the middle of the table in the dead zone. They get a great range of fire (well, we're NB, that generally means casting), any enemies coming to kill them don't count for the strategy, and I can easily move to one quadrant if another extra body over there matters.

Vertical height in Malifaux doesn't follow true physics though. Think about things like flying... you can fly over a 12 inch tall building if you can completely clear it with your move, but if you wanted to land on top you would need 12 inches of move to go up. It's as if vertical only matters at the end of an action, not during it. So I think the rules would lend themselves to being able to push across a gap as long as you had enough push to clear it. If the opposite edge was higher, then you would get pushed until you hit the opposite and then fall from there since you cannot be pushed "up". If the opposite edge was lower, you would get pushed, then fall the difference in height between the first building and the second building.