Anaxiamander

As per the Through the Breach Kickstarter main page, the eventual line plan contains "Into the Bayou", which will have rules for Fated Bayou Gremlins, "From Nightmares", which will have rules for Fated Neverborn, "Under Quarantine", which will have rules for Fated Stitched (likely Undead), "Within the Steam", which will have rules for Fated Invested (likely Constructs), and two other books, "In the Guild Wars" and "Beyond Fate". So, they'll be coming eventually, but not with the core books.

Looks like I'm stuck with getting this on eBay, then. The closest b&m store that sells Wyrd products is, at minimum, two days of travel away by bus and boat. That's assuming, of course, that I can't find any brick and mortars taking part in this promotion that don't also have an online storefront. I think it's awesome to see you supporting brick and mortar stores, but it smarts when I haven't been able to convince any stores in the area to carry Wyrd products.

So, the five box sets from Book 1 that aren't on the books to be ready for the summer are Zoraida, Von Schill, normal Tara (more expected), Ophelia, and Brewmaster? And the thirty-two models from Wave 1 that are missing are: Piglet, War Pig, Pigapult, Whiskey Golem, (Fingers, Apprentice Wesley, Moon Shinobi), Johan, (Steam Trunk, Freikorpsmann, Freikorps Specialist), Malifaux Child, (normal Nothing Beast, Karina, Void Wretch), Hannah, Waldgeist, Silurid, Doppleganger, Voodoo Doll, Primordial Magic, Bad Juju, Moleman, Essence of Power, The Hanged, Necropunk, Mindless Zombie, Crooked Man, Graveyard Spirit, Peacekeeper, Guild Austringer, and Executioner? Just want to make sure I have a compiled list; kind of trying to puzzle out how long it will be before we start seeing Book 2 releases, and my gut wagers we'll need to be most of the way through Book 1 first. Loving the general feel of the Gremlin art, though. I'm hoping that I might be able to find a retail release containing Johana, but there isn't anywhere in a few hours' drive that carry Malifaux product. Is it only brick and mortar stores that are receiving this stock? Also, really wondering who it is we're catching a glimpse of on p.41.

Just as a quick note, ignore what I said about Sebastian and the Valedictorian above (just, specifically what I said about them); I forgot that those summons name a model by name. Terrible example, I recant it. Regarding summons which mention a model by name as an Action: the summons which do not list a model by name and are an Action are as follows: Nicodem's (1) Re-animator (Resurrectionist Minion Undead) Dreamer's (1) Manifest Nightmare (Minion or Enforcer Nightmare) Molly's (1) The Ones Left Behind (Resurrectionist Belle Minion, also Horror/Spirit w/ Upgrades) Kirai's (1) Blood and Wind (Resurrectionist Spirit Minion) Not a (1) Action: Mechanical Rider (non-Totem Arcanist Construct with SS cost 4) Myranda (any non-Master, non-Henchman Arcanist Beast) (I don't think I missed any) Regarding summons which force you to name a model: if that is equivalent to "listing a model by name", I hope that it's made clear in the FAQ, as it is not immediately clear. Perfectly willing to accept that's the case, once it's been made clear, but being required to name a model and listing a model by name are not the same thing. That said, it would seem odd to me that Mechanical Rider would be some kind of special case, of having to choose a model to summon without naming it, while every other model that does so must name what they summon.

If we were talking about Obliteration Symbiote's "Echoes of the Void", I'd agree without question. That has "this model control" the action from the unburied model (ignoring the fact that Echoes is non-Leader, but we could carry this example to, say, Sebastian to make the same point). Any summoning you did while controlling Dreamer/Sebastian with Echoes (and, similiarly, with Obey and other resembling Actions) would be summoning for the opponent, hands-down, becausing the acting model is Dreamer/Sebastian. However, (1) Whispers From Darkness from the Eternal Journey Upgrade is written in the same manner as Lazarus' (0) Assimilate, where one first chooses a (1) Action printed on the target or its Upgrades, then the performing model (Tara/Lazarus) is the one performing the Action. If we consult the rulebook, it is stated clearly, "the summoned model belongs to the acting model's Crew, and is under the control of the acting model's player". Tara is doing the action, not the Dreamer, and thus, Tara is the acting model. The rule would suggest that Tara would be summoning her own Nightmare (or, in the case of Sebastian mentioned above, would be summoning her own Canine Remains). Likewise, if there was a Construct with a (1) summoning Action that doesn't mention a model by name(I can't remember any off the top of my head besides a Valedictorian-led Crew with the Spare Parts Upgrade), Lazarus could make use of it in the same manner. In what way is the rulebook statement on summoning complicated by these kinds of Actions?

Even though Tara is the one performing the action? I mean, I'm familiar with that premise when you use Obey, or something like that, but if Tara is the performer, the model should be controlled by Tara's controller, yes? I honestly could be wrong here, but it seems odd to me at first glance.

The Upgrade for Void Wretches and for Dead Marshals are the same, "Dead of Winter".

Actually, if I recall correctly there is a Gremlin Undead: the Stuffed Piglet.

I'm slightly confused; isn't Somer supposed to have the biggest hat?

Thanks so much Mako, for all your hard work with this. Now, I could have missed something, but I think you're missing a couple of LE models from the tracker. The Evil Baby Orphanage Malifaux models, Jack the Ripper (Baby Kade/CCK), Lizzie Borden (Candy/Student of Conflict), and Erik the Red (Desperate Mercenary) don't appear in any form. Was just putting my models into the tracker, and found myself in a bit of a pickle, and so stuck them in as Kade, Candy, and Merc for now. Thanks again; this has really helped motivate me to at least assemble my backlog, along with the abysmally slow rate of painting I do.

Wow, that old Zoraida list is going to be hard to replicate, what with Ophelia becoming a Master, Jack Daw becoming a Master, and Juju not playing too well with a heavy Gremlin focus. There should be plenty of options once you get started, though, so good luck! My comments regarding Tannen and Graves were moreso to give their M2E equivalent a shot, as I've found they feel a little different. Glad to see that you'll give them another go. Looking forward to seeing your opinions on things after having a go at the game again for a few days.

If you don't mind my asking, how did you used to play Zoraida? Also, it's worth noting that a) Zoraida is dual-faction Neverborn/Gremlins, and Bad Juju's reviving mechanic only is usable while Neverborn and relies on Swampfiend models, which are split between Neverborn and Gremlins, which Zoraida can freely hire with an upgrade (Silurid, Gupps, Spawn Mother, Waldgeist from Neverborn, Wild Boar, Bayou Gator, McTavish from Gremlins). Also, having the Gremlin deck will let you have a good look at the dual-faction Gremlins/10T Master, The Brewmaster. I'd actually recommend giving them a second look. Graves is exceptional at moving your own models around the board via Show Ya the Door, moving one of your scheme models 6" for (1). He also is able to protect them with his Keeping the Peace, forcing nearby enemies to make Wp rolls in order to Charge. He may not be your cup of tea, but I'd recommend at least trying him as a proxy to see if the new him is worth buying. Mr. Tannen's ability to gain Chatty, stopping (1) Interacts nearby, makes him valuable for countering your opponents strategies and schemes while protecting your own. He seems more conditional to me, but if you have enough objective runners, he could be good at running scheme defense, as it were. Either way, glad to see you coming back to the game and enjoying it so much.

All joking aside, I'm pretty sure that Sammy Lacroix is borrowing considerably from Baron Samedi and Loa/voudon traditions, what with the connection he/she shares with Zoraida, the Voodoo Pins attack, the cursing, the making of the Gremlins' only Undead, the Stuffed Piglet...I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm not going to be able to cover everything for you, but I might be able to lend a bit of a hand. 1. The Master/Henchman/Enforcer/Minion/Peon designations specify a few things. Masters lead crews of 25 SS or more, have 3 AP per turn, and can take 3 Upgrades. Henchmen can lead crews of up to 40 SS, have 2 AP per turn, and can take 2 Upgrades. Enforcers have 2 AP per turn, and can take 1 Upgrade. Minions are the baseline, with 2 AP and no Upgrades. Peons often do not qualify for Schemes/Strategies, and most are insignificant; they have 2 AP as well. As for other large changes, I can't remember enough of the old rules to offer a comparison. Sorry Oh! One big difference: There are now 7 factions. Gremlins are on their own now. 2. You should be able to start with Jakob without much problem in my opinion. I'd recommend starting him as Neverborn, if only because Terror Tots are excellent for running Schemes and are inaccessible while playing as 10T, and all of his thematic models will be usable thanks to their being dual faction and his Infiltration (Darkened). You'll also have access to some preferable Upgrades, in my opinion. If you're keen on starting him as 10T, I'm fond of some Wave 2 Options (like using Toshiro as Illuminated support), but it's purely personal preference. I'm not sure what could make them a greatly stronger choice over Neverborn. 3. The Wave 1 Beta cards went away with the end of the Wave 1 Beta, and went directly to Arsenal Decks. All of the cards you'd be looking for are in the large-format rulebook as well (except one Family Guild upgrade which was missed in the book, but not the deck). If you want to see the stat cards, you'll need to see either the rulebook or the Arsenal Decks themselves. It may be worth asking around in your location if anyone has a copy you can borrow, as the rulebook has been hard to get a hold of, and the reprint has been delayed by customs further, likely not arriving in stores until at least the end of this month, possibly longer. 4. You've found the new official one, so you're set. 5. I'm not a good one to ask for this; I haven't been able to get on the table against too many different Masters or varied setups. One thing, though: Incorporeal does not include Flight; ghosts can fall and be hurt by doing so, if they can't fly (I have this second-hand, and may theoretically be incorrect on it). 6. Upgrades are Faction-Specific; that is to say, if you declare Neverborn as your faction, you only have access to Neverborn Upgrades. This means that if you, for example, take a Taelor as a Mercenary, she can take any Neverborn Upgrade she qualifies for. There are no universal Upgrades as of yet, and I have my doubts there ever will be, but there are dual-faction Upgrades. For example, an Upgrade in the Mei Feng box, Hard Worker, applies effects to Foundry models, and can be carried only by Foundry models. There are enough Foundry models in Arcanists that you could take that Upgrade on the Rail Golem, and apply it to the Metal Gamin and Willie, even though you aren't playing Mei Feng, because the Upgrade is 10T/Arcanists.

I can see much of the value that the new format offers, but am concerned that others may be having a problem similar to mine. While browsing on an older computer, the amount of "moving parts", as it were, slows the forum to such a crawl that it is no longer a relaxing or enjoyable experience to browse the forums, pausing to load every time I scroll up or down the page with only a single tab of the website open; further, managing multiple tabs of the webpage, as I often do while reading forums, is nearly impossible. Is there any way to offer a more bare-bones visual option to readers? As for whether I like the new layout or not, I'm finding the page feels much more cluttered, but things seem to move more smoothly. I think I might need to get used to things before I can really say if I like the change.

I don't think I was quite clear on what I meant. I meant, as opposed to simply using the Kamaitachi to transfer the upgrades from an Enforcer/Henchman to an Illuminated, one could have two Enforcer/Henchmen that could have the Upgrade passed between them via the Wastrel. Also, my putting "best" in quotes is only referring to "best target for Kamaitachi to have the Upgrade pass off", not best overall. I'm eager to have a chance to actually see if the occasional Wastrel-passing will work effectively on the table, though, and will let you know my results.

There is another option for "best", and that's Wastrels. Their (2) Castoffs Tactical Action allows them to transfer all Upgrades they have to another model, whether Minion or not. So it's possible to have Enforcers, Henchmen, or even Masters to be passing this discardable Upgrades around, as long as you're using a Wastrel as an intermediary (which takes a full activation and a 6+, even if they happen to get a small effect from it as well). Using the Wastrel intermediary will help keep the Wastrel alive to boot, with the 2 healing received from the Kamaitachi (and the occasional healing from Castoffs). It does, however, require some bunching together, which the Upgraded Illuminated don't have to worry about.

So, beyond the Dead of Winter storyline, the books (is there any difference between the 1.0 and 1.5 book here?), and the Wyrd Chronicles, is there any other fluff? Mostly just trying to make sure I haven't missed anything.

I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary, but to do without the upgrade deprives you of two very potent things Guild McMourning has in his favour: a) Nurse + Witchling Stalker = very potent healing combo. Nurse heals + paralyzes a model, Stalker removes the Paralyzed Condition so the model can continue on its way. Giving Precise to models provides an enormous bump in damage-dealing capacity if dealing with any Armor or Hard to Wound model (my first thoughts turn to Constructs and Undead for this particularly, so some amount of Arcanists, Guild, Resurrectionists, Neverborn, and Outcasts all present targets here). Removing Armor allows those with low damage (but not 1-damage) to sneak through a few more points per attack, and allows those with high damage-ramping at moderate/severe to more easily achieve or cheat the values in by ignoring the negative flips from Hard to Wound. Plus, the Interact Actions certainly don't hurt, particularly given the 10-inch command range. It's certainly possible to build an effective list without the Nurses, but I think I'd feel a little hamstrung without them. That may just be from my being predominantly a Resurrectionist player, though. I would recommend taking a quick look at Plastic Surgery as well, though, if you're interested in a few curious mechanics; it allows McMourning to be quite effective with The Judge, and may allow for impressive interaction with the Exorcist once we know for sure what its rules will be.

Would you be able to offer a few pointers for how to treat the big Nothing? I've nearly assembled the crew, and am getting increasingly worried about that defense. Unless that was sarcasm. In which case, hats off to you, I was fooled. I mean, it's entirely possible (plausible? Likely?) that they work just fine, but I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around the thing.

Well, they are Resurrectionist Undead models, which means the following Masters are possible: Leveticus, Seamus, Nicodem, McMourning, Tara, Molly, Kirai, Yan Lo Of those, you're looking for Resurrectionist masters, so Levi is out. Now, let's break this down into two groups of comments: Wave 1 Masters, which are in print, and Wave 2 Masters, which are in flux. Before I begin, I would note that the stat cards contained in the boxed set are no longer accurate, as they are being currently retooled in the beta (and are becoming much more effective as models), and I'd recommend giving them a look. Wave 1: Nicodem would probably be my best recommendation. This is mostly because the Students of Sinew and Steel have an effectiveness potentially restricted by what is brought by your opponent. Nicodem is able to summon either of the two, and thus can bring them to the front only when necessary, after you have seen your opponent's crew. Now, they sometimes may be worth hiring regardless depending on faction (if you know you'll be facing a lot of Armor, Steel's worth it regardless; ditto for Sinew re: Hard to Wound). Viscera and Valedictorian are able to carry upgrades, and for that reason, may prove useful. However, I will warn you, Val is costly. She is somewhat survivable, what with Terrifying (All), Hard to Wound +1, and Armor +1, but getting mobbed will drop her a bit quickly. I'm not immediately seeing their interactions with Tara, Seamus, or McMourning, but the value of shutting down triggers at 8" is not to be trifled with. However, they are melee-focused models, so with a large number of melee-focused Undead existing (relatively speaking, the faction is not exactly overflowing with guns) they will be jockeying for position. Wave 2: Molly. I'll say it a hundred times, Molly. The Students' status as Horrors plays closely into all of her mechanics, she will be able to summon Steel/Sinew as noted above, and Viscera/Val will be able to carry Horror-focused Upgrade cards in Wave 2 which benefit her crew. Due to the Horror-Spirit interaction of that Upgrade, one might also find Viscera/Val useful in a Kirai crew, or the rare Spirit-based Yan Lo crew (though he would likely gain further value from Yin's presence, another Horror). If you're interested in looking across the pond at Leveticus, you'll note that there are Construct-controlling/interacting actions that could further their usefulness, such as those on Rusty Alyce, Lazarus, or Vanessa; these may be worth exploring, though I'll admit I don't have much practice on that end yet. Also, don't forget that, as a Henchman, The Valedictorian can lead a Crew herself. To do so, simply ignore her costs, and follow her cache as you would for a Master. This isn't necessarily a great idea, but is one that can let you start playing with only the University of Transmortis box set, though you'll be wanting either the full-length rulebook or the Resurrectionist Arsenal Box for the generic Resurrectionist upgrades for Val and the Student of Viscera to make up points. Even without Upgrades, the quartet makes up a 25 SS Crew, with Val having a total Cache of 6 (or a little lower with an Upgrade or two). This is around the amount one should shoot for with learning games, as it keeps them contained, I find. With upgrades, this can easily reach 30 SS; when one considers that starter boxes like Seamus' and Lady Justice's have non-Upgrade values of 30-40 SS, it helps put things into perspective. So, what you have is fine for Henchman-level games of learning to play, but following the above you can easily incorporate the Students into a Crew. I hope that some of this was helpful. I'm not exactly a Master of the game, but it should give you a few places to begin your research. Good luck; I can't wait to pick up the set for myself after Christmas.

Well, I'm caught with my wallet empty. Looks like I'll need to place an order in the new year at 2x price (harhar, but seriously, I'd consider it). Still, massive congratulations on your project; it's probably my favourite Western terrain I've seen yet, and can't wait to see the Victorian stuff as well.

I know I'll eventually be in the market for an oversized Viks pack, just to have a piece of the history of M2E. I just know I won't be able to go hunting until after Christmas.

Out of curiousity, are these going to end up going out with the eventual Through the Breach Terious/Santana for those who will receive them?

Looking forward to seeing what you make of it. Good luck! If I can't get in on this run, I assure you, you'll have a future customer on that Malifaux City work.