Mason

Yup, the starter boxes are a great way to learn how to play the game, especially against other starter boxes.

In theory, yes. I need to try to install Skype once I'm home (I usually just use Trillian) and then I'll toss my hat in the ring for reals.

I'll give this a shot.

I've been using her to demo games to new players, and they've all reacted with a "Whoa, that's cool!" when she starts her shenanigans.

Thanks! Yeah, it's been great seeing all the different ideas people have for Tara's crew. White base, then two coats of yellow paint. Wash the whole thing with GW "Casandora Yellow" wash, then the faces with a watered down GW "Carroburg Crimson" wash. Once that's all dry, then back over the whole thing, highlighting with a lighter shade of yellow. I think it's the most I've every used yellow paint. Ever. For anything.

Or perhaps Venn was just an advanced puppet? It was definitely an odd ending.

I tried Zombicide at Gencon and it was pretty neat. I love that you've Malifaux'ed it.

I've found McMourning to be sort of a support/melee switch master. The first few turns of a game I've generally got him holding back, pushing flesh constructs into position with Injection and staying near the fighting, but not in it. Around mid-game, though, he usually ends up charging something and just turning into a whirlwind of scalpel-swinging death.

I've played with Death Marshals (as Tara) and against them in Lady J and Tara led crews, and they've become very solid models. They're resistant, have a good damage profile, and can toss models in boxes, which is a huge help against some crews. I'm fond of them, and wouldn't hesitate to take some in a game.

I thought I would post some pictures of Tara's crew. There aren't any pictures of Karina because the girl warps space time around her and ruins any photo she's in. It's weird.

Or, to put it another way, you determine how many soulstones you and your opponent want to use in a game. Then, you pick a leader (whether a henchmen or a master) and you can spend all of the soulstones you and your opponent agreed upon to hire as many models as you can afford, or to purchase upgrades for models. Once you've spent as many soulstones as you'd like, any excess soulstones that you didn't spend get added to your leader's existing cache, to a maximum of seven soulstones. If you end up with more than seven soulstones, the excess amount is lost. Thus, if your leftover soulstones plus your leader's cache totals more than seven, you're better off buying some upgrades or hiring another model, because you're just tossing any extra soulstones away. Note that you only get a henchman's cache if they're your leader; if you have a master or a different henchman leading your crew, then the cache values of all non-leader henchmen are ignored. That only comes into play when a henchman is a leader.

I've been running a basic list like that in recent games, and it's been quite fun. The Death Marshals are very solid models, and Incorporeal and being able to hand out fast/slow makes the Void Wretches pretty great.

I don't think there's really enough time to do the "Turn 1 crew butchery" of last edition, but I'm still fond of using my Beckoners to pull Lynch and his crew out of trouble.

Is the ronin on a slightly taller base there? It might just be the perspective, but the pics make it look like her base is raised a bit more than the other models.

I just assumed it was to keep people from preventing the damage via Soulstones. That, and giving her basic attacks an awesome paralyze trigger.

Ophelia can also be Devoured by things like Flesh Constructs, Wendigo, and Hoarcat Prides, since she's Height 1.

Or rather, they changed the ability so that instead of triggering when your deck reshuffles at the beginning of the turn, it now triggers at the end of Lynch's activation (and shuffles your deck in the process). It's a pretty nice way to damage a model without giving them any sort of defensive flip to resist it (other than using a Soulstone).

He's a mercenary, so he can still be hired in Arcanist crews without much problem. I sort of like the distinction. He can still be hired by the Arcanists, but he's not one of Ramos' men, per se.

Very true, but I'm not sure if she's worth the price tag just to save Blood Vik an AP point. The condition won't stack with itself, so you don't gain any benefit from repeated castings.

Really? So the entire faction will only have one dual-faction master? That seems odd, unless Kaeris or Colette picks up a second faction...which also seems odd.

Iggy is a Woe, which sort of screams "Pandora crew." I doubt that he would be Kaeris's totem.

Arcanists only have one dual-faction Master (Mei Feng), and I don't see Colette or Kaeris as being anything but standard arcanist. Thus, I would expect the last Master to be dual faction something or another. Guild and Resser slots are full, which leaves one Neverborn, one Outcast, two Gremlin, and one Ten Thunder slot open. There's already an Arcanist/Ten Thunder master so I think we can reasonably rule that out. So that leaves us with two Gremlin slots, one Outcast slot, and one Neverborn slot. If Lucius is indeed Guild/Neverborn as many people suspect, then that lowers the other open slots down to just Outcast and Gremlins. That would point towards the final Arcanist master being either Arcanist/Outcast or Arcanist/Gremlin, both of which would be interesting and would bring plenty of new options to the faction. Personally, my money is on Arcanist/Gremlin, because it just seems amusing as hell. Maybe Wong? He did show up in the Gremlin fiction that dealt with uniting all of the Gremlin masters...

You can't Make a New Entry on friendly non-Friekorps masters.

I usually take Endless Hunger on Lynch, and then give Huggles the Fears Given Form upgrade. I'm really fond of the extra Ap and the forced duels for activating within 3" of Huggles.

You won't see them before December, in any case.