moxypoo

I would support this as an alternative tournament format, but would not support it as the main format. Malifaux is balanced enough that models don't really need to be banned (there are certainly no Black Lotuses or Skullclamps floating around). However, I think it would be a fun alternative game mode, especially over Vassal where everyone has access to every model. In real life, I think it could cause hard feelings since you might not get to play with your favorite lovingly modeled and painted master. As has been mentioned it would also favor veterans with large collections, so it could certainly be fun amongst a group of vets. I'm prepared to never play with Leveticus in this format haha.

This thread was inspired by the funny rules interaction thread. What's the craziest, most complicated or ridiculous (or filthy - just for you zFiend ) combo or chain of events you've managed to pull off in a game? I'll start by posting one I wrote up for another thread: Zoraida was across the board from the action, so she Obeyed Vasilisa to Obey the Voodoo Doll to Hem an enemy model that was within 6" of Teddy but not in Teddy's melee range. The Voodoo hemmed the target, allowing Teddy to get a Smell Fear attack on the Voodoo doll, dealing 6 damage and killing both the Doll and the Hemmed model. "So that's my first AP..." My friend was so mad!

I don't think anyone has claimed this in this thread. The original poster wanted to know whether the Ramos mimic list was a powerful build, and the first couple posts suggest that playing Levy like Levy is better than trying to play Levy like Ramos. After that people were mostly just throwing out fun builds for the original poster to try out. For example, the list I posted in post #14 is a "for fun" list I tried out once just too see how much summoning I could accomplish. For Levy, summoning is either an added bonus to killing enemy models or a rare use of AP; focusing your list on summoning is a trap, because you ignore all the more powerful things Levy can do. If you're trying to beat Ramos specifically you want Rusty with Desolate Soul, Ashes and Dust, and Levy with Desolate Soul (maybe To the Earth Return if you suspect the presence of multiple high Wd enemy models). The rest of your crew is then tailored to schemes. If Ramos is playing Arachnid heavy, Rusty and Levy should be able to easily convert them into Abominations. If Ramos only summons a few Arachnids, then you don't have to worry about attrition and can focus fire down Ramos's heavy hitters.

If you want some real summoning craziness run a list like this: Leveticus (3 cache) - Pariah of Iron, From Ash Rusty Alyce - From the Aether Mechanical Rider 2x Abomination Large Steampunk Arachnid 2x Malifaux Rats Obedient Wretch On the first turn, you can summon a Rat Catcher, a Malifaux Rat, and 4 Abominations (net 2). After that, you can start to get the Rat summoning engine humming along by netting 2 Abominations per turn along with whatever the Mechanical Rider summons. It's really card intensive, but all the Vile Reclamations should keep your hand stacked nicely. This list might work well in Turf War since you could physically exclude enemy models from the Turf War zone!

It's like a photograph of a real baby... Really glad I found this thread, because the artwork here is really inspiring! I'm amazed.

Good point about Killjoy! Always remember to unbury him out of engagement range of enemy models so he can get his (1) AP charge. This essentially gives him 4 attacks that turn (since he's Fast from Tara), which not much in this game can survive. For your Bishop problems, just Bury him and use him exactly like you would Killjoy to protect him from enemy ranged attacks.

Completely agree! That said, I have tried something similar before by using a Large Steam Arachnid. You start with 2 Abominations who use Vile Reclamation on each other, then the LSA kills both netting two cards and 4 scrap. Then Rusty and Levy summon 4 more Aboms, and the cycle continues. It's a huge amount of fun and pretty neat to see on the table, but the problem is that all your assets are locked up in the summoning engine instead of scoring you VP. I can see it working in a strategy/scheme pool like Turf War, Bodyguard, Protect Territory, etc. but the Abominations are relatively expensive to summon and not very good at running schemes since they don't move quickly. Like Specter said, Levy is usually more valuable to the crew when eliminating key enemy models that spamming summons. That said, try it out! At the very least you'll have a lot of fun.

Good thing I brought my ring

Out of all my games so far, I think Bishop performs the best of all the options listed here. He's an absolute monster with 4AP - if he's engaged, you get 2 Flurries, or you can charge and then Flurry, with each attack ignoring some defensive abilities, moving enemy models, or gaining extra damage (for free!). He's really an excellent toolbox piece since he can Slow, push, or Paralyze important enemy models, and your opponent always has to be wary of attacking him back because of his built in defense trigger. I like both Killjoy and the Nothing Beast, but they seem to be models you want in more specific situations rather than Bishop being solid in most situations. For example, I would likely take Killjoy over Bishop for Assassinate or a similar scheme. The Desolation Engine is also really useful if you're just trying to pin the enemy in their deployment zone, since it's an enormous pain to completely kill off, especially if you manage to turn an enemy model into an Abomination. Bishop isn't particularly resilient, so I wouldn't use him in the same way as the DE.

Completely agree, and I like the Frame for Murder idea! My friend often uses Howard and/or the Rail Golem with Ramos or Hoffman like this to really pin you back into your deployment zone until you deal with the threat. I'd wager a guess that crews that are naturally OK with being spread out can deal with this sort of threat better than ones that like to clump up, but I have no evidence to back that up.

It could just be my group, but often what they do is create a "ball" of models placed in such a way that Killjoy can attack one or two models (that will most likely survive or are expendable) on his first activation. Then their entire crew is able to eliminate Killjoy before he can act again. Spreading out is definitely a good strategy too! My group just tends to do the former more than the latter.

This came up at one point during the beta with Justin asking people to specifically test it if I remember correctly. I run lists like this on occasion, and I really think its a noob-hammer. The first time people experience it, they'll get absolutely wrecked, but it generally doesn't have the same effect after the first game. The one big advantage you have if your opponent has Killjoy with any of the delivery systems is that you know exactly what your opponent is going to do, so you can react accordingly. Admittedly, that's tough if you get severely outactivated, but you can at least deploy in a way that forces Killjoy to attack a model you don't mind losing. An interesting "meta" move that I've learned when running Killjoy with Tara is to be predictable and spend your first turn unleashing a Fast Killjoy into the enemy crew. Next time you play that opponent, wait until later in the game to bring out Killjoy and use him more like as assassin to take out specific models. Often your opponent will turtle up because they expect to see Killjoy turn 1 again, which can really hurt their board position in certain strategies. Of course, you always have the option to slingshot Killjoy into an important model turn 1 if your opponent deploys poorly.

It's unfortunate that Wyrd has to rely on so many outside sources to get their products to market, but it seems like they're doing the best they can with what they have. Wyrd should definitely earn some goodwill with the support they give the community and the transparency of their interactions with us. I much prefer knowing a tentative release schedule months in advance with the expectation that some changes will occur so I can plan purchases and decide in what order to paint models. The converse is the GW model: "Surprise! Brand new limited edition model and rules on sale now with no forewarning! Oh, but we only made 1000 so good luck actually getting one..."

Papa Smurf is correct. Being Buried simply means that you aren't "currently in play," which does not equal "outside the game." Thus, I support the stance that says upgrades worded like the one in the original post work even when the upgraded model is buried. Note that the Void Wretch's Void Maw attack can only target Buried models and specifically mentions that it does not require LOS or range, supporting the idea that Buried and non-Buried models can interact provided they don't need to draw range or LOS.

Damn that thing looks awesome! One thing that I love about Malifaux is that Wyrd takes real world legends, myths, and stories and twists the characters to fit into their own world which ends up with unique creations rather than just transporting stuff in. This makes immersion into Malifaux much easier for me.

Awesome. Sir, I believe you have just volunteered yourself to create this

I'm just getting into Neverborn (picked up Zoraida, Pandora, Lynch, and I'll grab Collodi when he comes out), and this thread has been really helpful to get tips on Pandora, since I haven't had the chance to play her yet. My plan is to play the first couple games with her themed crew and set up the death ball just so I can get a feel for how she plays before branching out and learning more of her tricks. It seems like The Box Opens is the better limited upgrade in this situation, but I could be completely wrong. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!

I agree that the proper way to play it is Option B. There are too many shenanigans possible with Option A, and the actual wording of the condition suggests that you have to choose before your opponent selects a model to activate. Candy is part of my arsenal in the campaign my group is currently playing, and we play incite like this: Opponent: OK my turn to activate. Do you want to use incite? Me: No. Opponent: OK, then I'll activate model X. OR Opponent: OK my turn to activate. Do you want to use incite? Me: Yes. Opponent: OK, then the incited model must activate now.

This is entirely anecdotal, but one of my friends has been learning Yan Lo mostly through using his themed crew. Since he's my most common opponent I've gotten a handful of games against Yan Lo, and my initial take is that he's no better or worse than a lot of other masters. I certainly don't think he's underpowered. Yan can do some very powerful things like any master, and I've discovered some things that work well against him (i.e. Jack Daw). Maybe Yan Lo is very difficult to play well? My friend is a very good player, so it's possible he's playing Yan to a higher level than most people, and that's biasing my opinion.

I vaguely remember something in the FAQ about b2b = 0", which would mean that it would only work if they were in b2b, correct? But otherwise, good catch! I didn't even think of that!

As the master of Malifaux filth, I thought you might like that Two Teddies attacking each other can be pretty funny. Teddy 1 attacks, fails the Horror Duel and gets paralyzed, ending its activation. Teddy 2 takes a Smell Fear attack, fails the Horror Duel and gets Paralyzed, skipping its next activation. Teddy 1 Smells Teddy 2's fear and attacks, fails the Horror Duel, and gets Paralyzed, skipping its next activation. Result: both giant, frightening, monstrous Teddy Bears are so scared of each other that they can't bring themselves to attack the other one. Unlikely, but funny if it happened!

Look awesome to me! Too bad I don't play Ressers... Really like the dynamic pose of the first one, and the pose on the second one seems very bird-like, so I think both models have a lot of character.

Not sure this counts, but the funniest chain of events I've pulled off was this: Zoraida was across the board from the action, so she Obeyed Vasilisa to Obey the Voodoo Doll to Hem an enemy model that was within 6" of Teddy but not in Teddy's melee range. The Voodoo hemmed the target, allowing Teddy to get a Smell Fear attack on the Voodoo doll, dealing 6 damage and killing both the Doll and the Hemmed model. "So that's my first AP..." My friend was so mad!

Another thing you can do for extra cards is to have Abominations use VIle Reclamation on Ashes and Dust and then have Levy sacrifice it to draw 2 cards, only for it to reform at the end of the turn. You can draw a whole bunch of cards this way to supercharge your hand for the next turn!

Completely agree. I've always been of the mentality that hiring the Desolation Engine is much better than trying to summon one (the real threat is RE-summoning it), since it essentially costs only 5SS. Both Tara and Leveticus like the DE for different reasons; Tara can transport it around easily and give it fast to ensure that it gets the maximum number of attacks, rather than "wasting" AP on walking, while Leveticus can use it and the Abominations it turns into as resources to fuel his attrition war (plus he can re-summon it!) I've never tried it with Hamelin, but the DE does like getting extra attacks and heals from Obey. Hamelin can also pull enemy models closer to the DE to maximize the number of hits it gets. Might be worth a try!