Griffin839

I like to use Golem a lot with my Raspy. Like Everything in Malifaux, when you use him depends on the Schemes and Strats pool as well as who you are playing against. There are dozens of variables to take into account when building a crew, and thats just for 1 master. For example: So say we are fighting over a singular objective(which terrain allows us to get to easily) AND we are killing each other and denying kills to the opponent. I might try this. The Glacier Formation- Raspy - 5ss Arcane Reservoir, Shattered Heart, December's Pawn Essence of Power Ice Golem- Armor of December Ice Golem- Armor of December Mechanical Rider Place the two golems in front of raspy and move them up the board with guarded advance. Move the Essence of power and Raspy up behind them. Try to get as far up the board in the direction of the objective as you can with their slow speed. I usually guarded advance and walk the golems, then triple move raspy and double walk the essence.(If you are up against a super fast crew that can threaten you turn 1 dont do this, always stay flexible) Use the mech rider to summon ice gamin every turn and to create scheme markers when possible. Starting on turn 2 keep advancing to the objective and begin using shattered heart to lob spells through your minions at targets of opportunity. Focus on the objective area first, then worry about the others. Whatever you shoot, commit to the kill. Your goal behind this is to begin closing the activation gap. Keep raspy right behind your golems and put them base to base with each other(to block los to her) if you worry about her safety. Anything that comes close to the formation can be charged and smashed by the golems and anything farther away can be blasted by raspy. If you get the chance, nuke their important models. When I can, I will often dump whole hands and burn through my cache of SS to do this. The resilience of 2 golems and mech rider can overwhelm a lot of crews so this isn't as risky as it seems. Anyways, for the rest of the game keep making gamin and killing with raspy and the golems. When you reach the objective(normally turn 4 for me) area hold it from a defensible position. When the golems are about to die, charge them into combat to ensure they do as much damage as possible with their shatters. As the game goes on you will be gaining activation through the mech rider's summons and they will be losing them, use this to leverage your schemes. A lot of times I wont get my schemes until the last turn with this strat. Always keep this in mind when chosing what to go after. Anyways that was just an example of how you could use them. Like everyone has pointed out they are not the most competitive choice for arcanists, but they can get the job done. Use them if you want to, don't if you don't.

I think you would be fine with 10 spiders. If you are playing them aggressively and using them to tie up the opponent's models(which is how I personally feel you need to play them) then they will constantly be dying and you can recycle them.

I know it may seem like a knee jerk reaction but it's really not. I've felt this way for a very long time. I started playing Malifaux with 1st edition and played through 1.5 and on to present. I have everything for the arcanist faction and a lot of outcasts as well. I tend to play thematically and limit my list options intentionally to force myself to play the other models available to me. I could be that guy and take Howard and joss in every list, but I chose not to and the game is far more enjoyable for me and my opponents because of it. They get to play against cool "new" models that they never get to play against and I get the fun experience of keeping the game fresh and exciting for me. This is why I feel such a rule would benefit the game. Tournaments are stale. The meta for 2e is well established and it's only after new releases that you feel any uncertainty. Everyone has played the game enough to know the best models and combos and takes them. There are a lot of good models that never see the light of day in this game because people only play the same thing every time. That's not good for the game. It makes it stale, turns it into rock paper sissors. I also understand that it would force players to buy new models. But as a supporter of the game I don't think this is a bad thing. It would encourage sales in the local game stores which in turn would help motivate store owners to carry more product.

I'd like an errata to gaining grounds 2017 that limits the appearance of named characters to 1 round per tournament. War machine ended up going this route for the better and I fee malifaux has grown to the point where it also needs this rule. There are so many good and viable options but every list you see the same models because they are the "best". Limiting the appearance of Howard, joss, nekima, papa loco, etc would make tournaments better experiences to play.

I think it comes down to what playstyle you are going for. If you are trying to maximize your utility or provide a much needed tool to your list, 1 or 2 is the way to go. If you are trying to abuse thematic synergy, 3 or more is the way to go.

I'm guilty of pretty much only playing theme lists. I have had success locally with all of the themes and find they are fun ways to force yourself to play with models that you don't normally play with. That said, ramos, marcus, and kaeris are my personal pics for most competitive.

The momentum push is what really sets this over the top. Whack you, freeze you, whack you, freeze you, and now Im over here. Its super frustrating for the opponent.

Seeing how he looks middle eastern I'm really hoping for a Djinn in his crew now. But Sandeep is also kinda a Persian/Indian name too right? Maybe Asura? Something mythical would be awesome.

I hope it is a gunsmith type master. Arcanists dont really have a "Shooting" list and against certain factions and scheme pools ranged attacks would be super useful. Plus who doesnt love gunsmiths?

I take 3 in my go to kaeris list. I dont use mech rider though. Kaeris- 4ss, Grab and Drop, Bleeding Edge Tech Firestarter- Imbued Energies Rail Golem -Imbued Energies Gunsmith Gunsmith Fire Gamin Fire Gamin Fire Gamin Eternal Flame I love all of our gamin more than it seems a lot of people do. Gamin may be weak and fragile but what they provide arcanists is a way to interact with our opponent's hand and deck. Because they are so cheap and have 2 ranged attacks each, you can force your opponent to filter through their deck just by attacking and being attacked. I will often shoot something I want to kill with Kaeris or the Rail Golem first with a fire gamin. If it goes off they get burning and some damage, most of the time they flip a high card off their deck, or feel like they have to cheat a moderate or high card from their hand to prevent the burning. Also great. The gamin has done his job at this point. They add a whole other dimension to the game. Another fun thing to do is take the list above and sub out the Rail Golem for 3 more fire gamin so you have kaeris, the firestarter, 2 gunsmiths, 6 gamin and the eternal flame. Its a lot of shooting and a lot of fire and the eternal flame will kill 1 or 2 models a game with its expunge ability.

Telling an American to accept anything is pretty much futile. Speaking as an American if we don't like something we will either ignore its existence or raise so much hell it gets changed. It's a cultural thing.

Industry standard I believe. Modern miniature games began in England and migrated over here.

Here is hoping. Still gets to declare triggers though, and has the speed of a mounted model. Looking like a better version of raspy even then. Raspy still sad lol.

Ice mirror effect without a casting penalty? Raspy is sad.

I tried it as well when I first started playing Marcus. I bought 2 crew boxes and then ran Cerberus and 2 Razerspine rattlers. Marcus would debuff the target, the rattlers would slither to engage the target, and then the victims would be stuck. Either they try to attack the snakes and fail a terrifying check, or they would try to flee and take the damage from its disengaging strikes. It didnt work out exactly as Id hoped but its definitely possible to build a crew around putting the fear out. There are like Infinite different playstyles possible when playing Marcus. The main problem I ran into is his things are only scary to living models. Many crews are construct or undead horrors, and dont care. But against guild or outcasts, i could see it being viable.

I will take Imbued energies+reckless+firestarter every single game I play kaeris. The firestarter doesn't just set things on fire, he scheme runs, tied up shooters, positions himself to score points from burning. He is a very versatile model. Shut down a pig-a-pult turn 1 by walking him 4 times across the board and engaging it and you will appreciate him like never before.

People hate Willie because he can ignore line of sight. You can catch a lot of squishy support pieces hiding behind cover that way.

The damage in your crew will come from envy pride greed and wrath. Pride and greed have awesome death songs that deal a straight 4 damage that proves to be very consistent. Envy is your damage dealer at range and wrath is your damage dealer at close in. Because of this all 4 are the first to die in my games. I usually take imbued energies on wrath and envy. Sloth is an amazing tarp it and healing him will be key to your games. Imbued protection on him can be fun but I don't usually take it. gluttony is there just to eat scheme markers. He doesn't need anything. lust has earned herself a rep and is a high target to some people. so imbued protection on her may be worth it as well, but I don't take it. arcane reservoir is nice but not required in this crew. You are trying to make them discard cards so you have auto built in hand advantage. the 7 really excel once you get them in range of multiple auras to quickly drain cards and grind damage. The require being together to work. Because of this use them in scenarios that compliment this. They are fragile so use them in cover. Have fun they are awesome.

Oh I don't have it either. I'm using an avatar as a proxy. My emissary is raspy in ice armor

I've been taking wings of fire kaeris with the arcane emissary. Turn one flare and suck it in to draw 3 cards. Everyone moves up board. Turn 2 flare then everyone scatters. Works really well.

Isn't it? And even if you know you can't kill them you can strand them on top of some tall terrain effectively removing them from the game.

I feel pretty confident, but it helps being able to play a lot. I probably have 20-30 games with each master before I take it to a tournament. It will take me at least 10 games or so to fully grasp how the master is supposed to work and then another 10 or so games to find a crew I like to take with them. I'm blessed with a very active community and that makes it easy to get games. Like Adran I've been playing over a few years so spreading it out has also helped. It takes a while to build up to that point.

Here is how I normally do it. When I go to a tournament I bring the entire faction with me. I will then pick the Master build I feel is best for the Strategy and then use my crew selections to deal with the schemes and counter my opponent's faction. I know some people like to go with a single master or two for tournaments, or pick a master that is good against a certain faction first, but that isnt for me. Extraction - Ironsides with Arcane Emissary. In her current incarnation, Ironsides does best in these kinds of scenarios. Between negation and his melee prowess the Emissary will quickly overrun the object, allowing you to use hand picked men to buff your own models. Keep pulling/leaping/throwing Ironsides into combat with the enemy and using warding runes to prevent conditions and negate points to the opposing player. Interference - Ramos with Mech Rider. Ill go with a summoner build on Ramos and put the mech rider and a spider on one corner and the rest of my crew on the other. Use both to summon onto their respective corners and slowly push forward from there. This way the opponent has threats on two fronts and has to split their forces to deal with it. With so much summoning it is pretty easy to gain activation control and prevent Interference points. Headhunter - Colette. This is the strategy I feel Colette is truly the best option for. Prompting Cassandra or Howard to kill something and then prompting them again to pick up the head makes it very easy to accomplish. Guard the stash - Kaeris. Guard the stash rewards players for being able to hold two points on the board at the same time. Her mobility, she can easily handle being in two places at once. Collect the bounty - Marcus. I prefer Marcus over Raspy here because of mobility. Taking a highly mobile crew makes it much easier to dart in, kill a model, go up in points and then leap/get alpha'd back out of danger denying points to the enemy. Turf war- Rasputina. I feel this one is her bread and butter. With Ice Mirrors granting the best angles of attack possible, it is very easy to table unsuspecting opponents who try to rush the objective too greedily. You also have snowstorm who can blast opposing models off the objective at the end of turn denying points to the opponent. Reckoning - Kaeris with Rail Golem. While it may be surprising to some people, I find Kaeris does really well at reckoning. When players build a crew for killing, they take their biggest baddest things. These things tend to die really easily to fire, even more so when the crew is built for killing, not removal of conditions. Firestarter turns all these kills into points for you, and if you want you can take Rail Workers for their Shovel Faster expunge on burning actions to kill them much more quickly. Of course you also have a rail golem with 6-7 burning on it which will table an opponent by itself. Reconnoiter - Ramos and Mech Rider. Same strategy as Interference. Squatters rights - Mei Feng. Like Guard the stash this is a strategy that requires extreme splitting of a crew. Mei Feng excels at this situation and can jump between all 5 markers clearing them out where needed. Stake A claim - Colette. The only Master Ive gotten this strategy to work with. Colette and her prompt triggers easily move her crew up the board very quickly, and prompt allows a model to stake a claim without losing their turn. You can prompt them afterwards to do what you would have done with them anyway.

Common consensus around my area is the emissaries are game patches to masters. The good masters got sub-par to ok upgrades because they are already strong. The weaker masters got the best upgrades to bring them up to more competitive status. So it makes sense the upgrade for Ramos, Marcus, and Colette aren't as good as raspy, kaeris, and Ironsides. And if you haven't tried the arcane emissary with kaeris do it! Drawing 3 extra cards a turn is bonkers and on the wish list side of things, I want mei feng to be able to take both the shadow emissary and the arcane emissary. That would be crazy.

Well like I said I always take the metal gamin in a Ramos list anyway. It's already there. So I don't feel it's cost should be included. I didn't take it to make the golem good, I took it as a utility piece that also helps make the golem good. I don't feel that a model should be considered more expensive for benefiting from list synergy.