Enki

Very vivid and well painted crew! You really seem to have the blue light effect down (or are a master of photoshop ) and it comes out popping nicely.

I recently ordered a bunch from Secret Weapon for my Kirai crew and was very pleased all around. Cheap, quick, easy, and they gave me free stuff.

IMO

I believe alot has been balanced with the current erratas and particularly the new gaining grounds strats.

Although certain matchups are going to put a handicap on some players, (Von Schill vs. Molly), and some strategies are far easier for some crews (Kirai & Deliver Message) I feel the field has leveled out quite a bit.

Pandora will feel unbalanced if you are trying to kill her with anyone other than Perdita. But remember you don't have to kill a single model to get a full 8 points if you choose your schemes wisely and maybe stone to reflip a kill based strategy.

I still think Pandora needs some tweaking simply because she is so demoralizing to play against, not because she is imbalanced.

To conclude the rambling....I think there is a good overall balance between the factions. There are some specific imbalances between crews and strategies that will handicap some if they only run 1 crew (or Molly) and the opponent exploits it.

I might add that you need ronin to be able to cast the Vik's "another one" spell as well.

With this addition you will have a playable and even competitive crew IMO. Ronin are (arguably) the best 5 point minions in the game and are definately worth having.

If only the starter set came with 2 ronin instead of bishop......

And my opponents shall rue the day!

It may be worth it to borrow zoraida's bayou two-card if say the Red Joker happened to be on top especially if you can borrow something else that lets you draw/cycle cards like the scales of justice.

I also agree on drawing 3 cards in this instance.

The distinction between wounds and damage is important for this. A model can take an infinite amount of damage but can only take it's remaining compliment of HPs in wounds.

An example illustrating this would be a comparison of AZoraida's Pins and Needles with McMourning's Organ Donor (which allows him to heal the amount of damage he deals in mele). Pins and needles would give 3 cards in this instance while Organ Donor would give 5 wounds of healing due to the wording on damage vs. wounds printed on the card.

I have been toying around lately with using Molly in a Kirai crew. If you are lucky enough to get the high crow for the lost love right out the gate to make her a spirit it is quite a bit of fun and provides a good deal of synergy with the crew.

1. Molly allows you to take the vomit worm along with the lost love, this is good for 1 extra card and an easy magical extension of imbue since he has the mask already or a cheap minion to philosophy of uncertainty with. (remember Onryo can also get rid of ITI for this)

2. Molly is able to borrow both summon Ikyrio and evolve spirit. Although it is much harder to heal her up and is card intensive can definately have uses summoning more spirits to come out and play. (Nurse may be good option if you want to go summon crazy with her.)

3. My favorite is having Molly borrow Onryo's blind to spirits. With an all spirit crew and a cast 7 with use SS casting this, it can be crippling.

4. Molly with bodyguard is an easy button in this list, 10 wound spirit with pitiful, necrotic spray, S2D + use SS, and the ability to have Kirai swirl her 36" out of danger makes her pretty much immortal if playing defensively.

This still in my opinion is more of a fun list. Since Kirai is already really good and due to how many crows you need even with the 7 cards, I don't feel it reliable enough to be competative.

This list does seem to change Kirai's play to a more defensive "Mollyesqe" style. If you feel like a change of pace I suggest you try it out but be warned:

If you thought Kirai was card dependant before........

This alt makes me want to attach figure skates and base an ice rink. Everyone would want to go see the new show "Death On Ice"

I second her only being viable as a mid game Molly summon or for a fluffy crew

I originally thought you were supposed to assemble in numerical order from the sprue, this works for the most part. The two exceptions for the Yan Lo box is Yan Lo's beard and Chiaki's mask.

I ended up putting Chiaki's mask on the back of her head and agonizing with tweezers using colorful language to get the beard in. For these reasons I would attach these items earlier in the assembly stage, but other than that it shouldn't cause you much trouble.

Just remember to put down a white sheet or something to catch the small plastic pieces you are probably going to drop and fit pieces in place before gluing as I think these are the most frustrating bits about assembling the plastics

I usually will opt to leave him out of a list at 25ss as he is just too expensive, 2 death marshals can shoot about as well with much more durability for the same cost without a target on their back.

From what I have seen, usually people will try to tie up Sam in mele with a mobile cheap minion to cover a master/heavy hitter who is too slow to deal with him until next turn.

All in all don't expect to keep him alive the whole game against good players, the trick is setting him up for his one round of glory. Some fun tricks could be had with Lucius or the student of conflict enabling him to get in range to rapid fire. Positioning positioning positioning.

I have found that when I bring 8 with her, the opponent usually doesn't even try to hit her ("whats the point" mentality) leaving a bunch to give her a crazy damage output and fuel the totem obey.

Then again the last game I played Lady J one shot her and I ended up with 5 stones to reflip initiative with. Then again that involved red joker, black joker, and a low prevention flip. In any case I prefer to have 6-8 stones with any master. (except maybe kirai)

I have had to nearly stop playing good ole Sammy in my local meta due to the amount of attention he attracts paired with his wet napkinesque durability. That said I still love the guy.(even though he is wearing high heels and main spell eludes to his "flaming" nature)

I would rather pair him up with the executioner than the guardian for 7 points as it really discourages anyone to get close to Sam along with discouraging someone from plinking off the executioner from range. That and now you have 2 powerhouses on the table ready for Lady J to inspire for ridiculous cb shenanigans.

In my opinion Izamu with Kirai is a bit stronger.

The ability to make him a spirit with object 2, heal him with multiple different models, swirl him into place to ignore his slow movement, reactivate by killing a seishin, +2cb empower from a seishen, ect. This is added to his self healing and defensive abilities puts him into crazy territory.

note: Im not saying by ANY MEANS Izamu is not really good with Yan Lo, just my two cents.

Although I think I summon with Mcmourning more than most do....

The list I have found to work best when swarming with the good doctor is:

Ressurectionists Crew - 35ss - Scrap

Douglas McMourning 6 stones

Avatar

Zombie Chihuahua 1ss

Canine Remains X6 12ss

Crooked Man 4ss

Sebastian 6ss

Dead Rider 10ss

For some strats I would probably trade out dead rider and crooked man for 4 night terrors.

This list gives you a good line of cheap disposable minions on the front line to protect all the non doggies. Plenty of models to out activate. Sebastian gives you alpha dog strike and imo is a better model than people think (4 auto damage spell, 3/4/6 mele!) Let them kill your dogs and run around 1AP charging with the others sending corpses back to Doug. Usually summoning a rouge necro and simulcrum on 3 or 4 with body parts left over.

note: my play increased dramatically after I stopped killing my own minions, don't underestimate what these doggies can do!

Back to the question of who to get for hoffman...

I have been having fun using Ryle as the hoff's ride. It certainly does surprise some people and is hilarious picturing little bro getting a piggy back ride. I use as an alternative to the peacekeeper when I want more ranged capability. You would be surprised how effective having Ryle shoot 7 times from 12" away can be.

Also theoryfauxing some fun things with clockwork traps mainly as cheap tap power, assimilating tiny or harmless to get around low df.

Wardens are good when machine puppeted but are fragile and have to be moved up the field very carefully if not in protect chain.

Great looking models! I can see you are not afraid of bright colors, for the most part I think they really set your models off.

Nice work with vibrant colors and highlighting. I especially like Raphael's coat.

Don't you have to activate Izamu before the nurse can reactivate him?

Mine was also on the sprue although mine was one of the early birthday sets.

note: Those of you that haven't assembled him yet, attach the beard to the head before putting the head on the body to save some frustration.

Those are some awesome looking droogs! I will have to try that surprisingly simple recipe for white.