KingJocko

I'm liking this McMourning a lot, reminds me of his 1st edition body part system. It's a very curve ball style of play compared to his normal straight forward approach which is what I was hoping for. Corpse Curator looks like it'll be an occasional pick when I have a specific job for it, not something I'd take for general purposes since it's fairly suit dependent. I'm curious on how Trail of Slime on the Excess Fat upgrade interacts with other pieces of terrain. Does Trail of Slime stack with or overwrite existing terrain effects? It doesn't say to use its Hazardous effect instead of the original terrain nor does it say in addition to the original terrain effect and so far I don't see anything in the rule book that would explain this interaction. Also if it does stack, how does it stack? If a model with the Excess Fat upgrade stands on a Pit Trap Marker does that Pit Trap Marker count as Hazardous (Damage 2, Injured +1, and Poison +1) or is it Hazardous (Damage 1 and Injured +1) and (Damage 1 and Poison +1)? This is getting into some rules minutiae, but for the purposes damage reduction one would need to know if this counts as two sources of damage or just one.

Overall I like the concept. Similar to Nekima, Reva gave up some of her independence for greater synergy with her crew and being able to summon Lampads gives them a lot more value since they've always felt overcosted to me. The one qualm I have is that of the 3 Burning ladies Reva's keyword puts out the least amount of direct Burning so it might be difficult to get the most out of the Lantern's Light and Immolate combo, but that's probably why we've got stat 7 and the built in Tome. Deacon's Flare Up will help stop enemies from removing it, but I'll need to put this version on the table to see if it all works out.

Plus things like a Df Trigger to reduce damage by discarding bodyparts or an attack trigger to increase damage by discarding bodyparts to vary the use of the resource beyond attaching upgrades would make it a dynamic system. Could be a really interesting concept depending on the direction of the upgrades.

Once ran a Yan Lo crew with McMourning in it. Used Chiaki to give McMourning both Izamu's and Manos's Reliquaries. It took two turns to get there, but the Doc became unstoppable and on top of that Yan Lo hits full power at the same time so he joins him in the fray. The rest of my crew just spent the rest of the game scoring VP while the Masters just wrecked house.

My point was that there's only so much wiggle room within Experimentals mechanics that it leads to easy predictability. As in your example you de-emphasized the Poison aspect, but emphasized the mobile melee aspect which is another predictable avenue for the crew. That's not to say I consider your choice a bad one, as it plays to one of McMournings strengths. You could instead play against the grain and run a McMourning gun line mouse trap crew where everyone's throwing flasks or vomiting on the enemy behind cover and once someone comes into melee the whole crew collapses on that model, but that likely wont be very effective considering the low damage output of their ranged attacks or even worse the enemy just out shoots you. So you can't venture very far outside of McMourning's comfort zone and still be effective. Here's an example of the opposite problem. Forgotten likes to discard cards for bonus effects so the obvious solution is to attack their hand and force discards. However the crew has card draw mechanics to make up for its discard function and can even take advantage of an empty hand so there's no way to completely shut down Forgotten's mechanics, but only hinder it. In addition mixing OOK models with Forgotten wont hurt Fading and the OOK models may actually benefit from the extra card draw that's native to the keyword. This makes Forgotten a much more fluid keyword, allowing more options for how a Molly player can build a crew as opposed to a McMourning player. I've seen this suggestion for a lot of the sub par models and I'm not a fan of the "make things summonable if they're bad" approach. If a model is only good if its summoned it means you're getting a bad model for free and it's the lack of cost your appreciating, not what the model brings. There can be intentionally poor performing models who are summonable like the Malifaux Rat, but they're built around that aspect and benefit from it. I think a good example of a model who's summonable but I would still hire regardless is the Ashigaru. They're effective at two main aspects, durability and crowd control, and when summoned they take a hit in durability by being summoned at half health. Similarly the cost of McMourning summoning a Flesh Construct, beyond the 3 corpses required, is Distracted+1 on McMourning which is really bad. Assuming the summon was the last thing McMourning did during his activation you're left with a choice for the new Flesh Construct, do you run off and leave McMourning's melee capability hampered to do something else or do you Assist McMourning to clear Distracted, but waste an action to do so? Despite being summonable I still regularly hire FCs in Experimental because they're really good versatile models and summoning one is a bonus rather than necessary to me using them. I understand its a lot to ask of Wyrd to make each model worth hiring independent of their summonable status, but due to Malifaux's small scale every hire a crew makes has to shoulder a lot to achieve victory. So more viable options means more flexibility in how everyone can play.

I think the obvious answer for Experimental's poor showing in the tournament scene is due to the rigidity of the crew. When someone says they're playing McMourning there's a lot you can assume. You'll be dealing with the Poison condition so you'll need to bring condition removal or immunity. The keyword overall is melee oriented with average to high mobility so prepare to play around them or shoot them before they get close. The average Df of the keyword is 4.3 and Wp is 4.2 so a stat 5 or better attack has a good chance of hitting. Meanwhile Perverse Metabolism and H2W are the primary defenses so min damage 3 and condition removal are your tools for mitigating their advantages. You can also expect the crew to mostly stay within the keyword as the crew heavily relies on internal synergies to achieve its best performance. So unless McMourning is heavily going OOK you'll know what to expect and be able to prepare for it. In a tournament setting flexibility is prioritized, Experimental lacks this attribute. This doesn't make Experimental bad or not fun to play as or against, but predictability is a tactical negative and with other Resur Masters being more flexible without giving up their advantages they become better picks for tournament play. With that said I do agree that some of the models are under performing and those tend to be the undead models. The low average of Df and Wp in the keyword is from these models since they're all sitting around 4 on everything. I think this is because Perverse Metabolism's potential healing is so high that there was an intention to counter balance it with lower defensive stats. Unfortunately the practicality of Perverse Metabolism's healing rarely out does Regeneration +1 or +2 despite requiring more work to get there. These negative stats aren't as prohibitive with the higher cost models since they're well designed around their roles, but it's the lower cost models who show poor performance from this handicap. I find the Canine Remains to be the worst of its hound brethren (Guild Hound and Corrupted Hound), but they do have an advantage in the ease of their summoning. No summon upgrades, no Mindless, no Once per Turn, just a 6 and a corpse to get a full health, albeit Slowed, model. So as a summon their good, but outside of that context they're not very appealing as a hire. Assuming they're not permitted to break the hound mold, giving them Bloated Stench and the Infect trigger would at least let them act like little fire and forget missiles. I have problems with all the hounds and think they could use a minor rework, but as is they're only use for me right now are fragile schemers. I'm the one guy who likes the Little Gassers. They're the only model in the keyword who's efficient at spreading Poison to all models. In a single activation it can drop Poison+3 on everything within 2" of it without a resist flip. While that's really effective it doesn't have any direct effect during it's activation, meaning getting into a precarious location to do what it does best leaves it in a precarious location for the enemy to react to it. With less defensive tech than any other model in Experimental it doesn't last long which is counter intuitive to its designed purpose, spreading a time sensitive condition. So to me the fix would be to make it more durable, jump its Df up to 6 or give it H2K. The Guild Autopsy is my biggest offender because I can't find a purpose for it. Everything about it is middling, not bad or good, just middle of the road as far as potential. Everything else in the keyword outperforms it and Loot Their Corpse doesn't make up for it. I really liked the GA back in M2E because they were they were effective ranged damage with Poison and brought a unique action that allowed you to summon Mindless Zombies at the cost of its Poison condition. While I'm not saying they need to be reverted back to that state, I think they need a unique identity that isn't just moderate melee damage since Experimental doesn't lack that.

I definitely agree with the sentiment that Redchapel as a keyword feels weak and that Sybelle is the obvious avenue to not only bring her up, but to bring the rest of the keyword up as well. It's also likely the move Wyrd will take since past erratas typically focus on fixing the weakest link in a chain rather than the chain as a whole. I don't have a lot of experience with the keyword, but I like a lot of these suggestions so I figured I'd take a crack at combining it into what I think would be a functional rework for her (additions and changes in red). Df 5 / Wp 5 / Mv 5 / Sz 2 / Cost 10 / Health 12 Terrifying (11) Hard to Wound Bump In The Night Scarlet Temptation Cathouse Mistress: Friendly Models within 4 increase the range of their Scarlet Temptation to 2. Attack Actions Bleeder Lash / Rg 2" / Stat 6 / Rst Df Target suffers 3/3/4 and must either discard a card or gain Distracted +1. Critical Strike Sweeping Strike Pulled Here and There Maim (Removed) Simping Ain't Easy / A New John / Dom of the Dead: Once per Turn. After killing an Enemy model with Distracted +2 or more, summon a Dead Dandy into base contact with the target, then the summoned model suffers 2 Irreducible damage. Beckoning Call (Removed) Potent Perfume 8" / Stat 7 / Rst * / TN 12 Shockwave 1, Wp 12, Distracted +1. Redchapel models may ignore the effects of this Shockwave. Alluring Aroma: Push models that fail this duel up to 3" in any direction. Pungent Remnants: When resolving, drop a Corpse Marker in base contact with a Shockwave Marker generated by this action before removing them. Tactical Actions Undivided Attention / 6" / Stat 6 / - / TN 12 Until the End Phase, enemy models within range that start their Activation engaged or within a Scarlet Temptation aura reduce their duel totals by 1 until the end of their Activation. Bolster Strength I've Got Your Back Reasons for changes Cathouse Mistress - Like everyone else I feel the fact that Scarlet Temptation's range isn't based on the models engagement range was a mistake, but as previously mentioned I don't foresee the ability itself being reworked so an additional modifying ability seems like the next best thing. Keeping the modifying aura relatively short works towards making Sybelle a death bubble, which Bump in the Night and Undivided Attention were already doing so it's unlikely to make her any more threatening. However it gives the other ladies in Redchapel some more options. Bleeder Lash - Removing the +flip at half health is a pretty major drawback, but after looking through some of the other whips its seems that's not so much a standard feature of them anymore. Using the Skullsaw for inspiration, I thought it would be more synergistic with other models and herself if she can dole out some more Distracted without using triggers. It's overall a bit of a weaker version, but it was to justify the built in Crow. Simping Ain't Easy / A New John / Dom of the Dead - Mentioning her being able to summon seemed like a 2 birds with one stone solution. Summoning helps justify her cost while making the summoned model the Dead Dandies gives them more opportunities to show up on the table. The changes to Scarlet Temptation increases the potency of most other Redchapel models and making them summonable would compound Sybelle's effectiveness to an extreme degree and likely make her broken. Because the Dandies don't benefit from these changes it stops things from going out of control if they were summoned. Coming in with 3 health may seem like a death sentence for them, but I think Disguised and Manipulative will cost the enemy more resources than it's worth to take them out immediately. Potent Perfume - Getting rid of Beckoning Call was a tough call, but there would be no room left on her card without something getting dropped. Instead it's repurposed into Potent Perfume with the Alluring Aroma trigger. Not as strong of a single push, but being able to affect multiple models who could all be on a -flip from the increased range of Scarlet Temptation seems like a fair trade off. Another trade off was losing the 12" range for a Projectile 8", so I upped the stat to 7. Meanwhile the Pungent Remnants trigger offers up some ranged corpse creation for Seamus and Bete Noire to take advantage of. Undivided Attention - This change increases the value of Scarlet Temptation with the range increase for ST more models will likely be affected. I originally thought to remove the "engaged" criteria, but realized this would harm Dandies, Seamus, CCK, and OOK choices, and would also make Sybelle less valuable outside of Redchapel.

Kentauroi: I've found 1 generally useful in most setups. I take 2 when I want to go for a heavy offensive crew. Like others have said they're pretty fragile and will need some help if it wants to survive the game. Little Gasser: 1 is good for cheap poison to spread around, plus Flight gives it some unique mobility options for the keyword. 2 is generally excessive, but I have had some success in doing so. Had a game where after McMourning, Sebastian, and Rafkin engaged Parker Barrows and most of his scary models in a blob, my 2 Little Gassers jumped in and farted all over everyone there and it paid off big time. In reality this was a corner case and isn't representative of the majority of my games so I can't recommend having them buddy up most of the time. Flesh Construct: These are backbone models for me. Good damage, good durability, and good mobility makes them flexible for almost any situation.

I've got a lot of similar experiences and feelings on the hounds. While having a non-Insignificant model with Mv 6 and cost of 3 seems great for cheap scheme running, the low durability tends to be a big liability in 3rd Edition. Pack Mentality is nice, I love swarming with Mindless Zombies, but to do so with the Hounds will cost 9-12ss and at that point I'd rather just hire a big beater. I wonder if they'd be better off with a more narrow purpose rather than expand their utility, like give them all Insignificant but them bump their Df up to a 6. No longer able to scheme, but also no longer able to be schemed upon, they could become fire and forget melee missiles meant to harass. With a focus on chasing down enemies Pack Mentality and Hunting Partner would get more opportunities to shine. Of the 3 I think Canine Remains got the short end of the stick. Not only is it rare 3 instead of rare 4 like the others and it has the lower attack stat, but unlike most of the Undead with HtW he doesn't have the +1 wound over his cost nor does it have Perverse Metabolism like the rest of the Experimental crew. Corrupted Hound sits in between as kind of okay. Its mobility, small size, and Regeneration means if it isn't finished off it can easily hide out of LoS and heal up to be a problem late game, but the same goes for Terror Tots who have an avenue to become actually scary to deal with. Guild Hounds seems the best with Pursue allowing it to hit on a 6 and the Hold Down trigger can net you some good damage from all the ranged attacks found in a Guard crew. However when you account for summoning this inverts as Mindless and Slow cripples the Guild Hound completely, Corrupted Hounds can't be summoned so they aren't penalized for it, and Canine Remains come in from a bonus action on Sebastian so it's fairly economical to summon them in.

Since range is measured from the edge of the base, the larger the base the further the range of all actions and abilities. In the same vein the larger the base the easier it is to draw LoS to and from the model. There are mechanical properties to base sizes, they aren't just aesthetic. As far as the the reason for base sizes for individual models we can only interpret what the intention was from rules, lore, and the sculpt. Taking Sandeep for example, his larger than normal base size might have been that in 2nd edition, when he was introduced, his mechanics were about giving models within 12" access to his actions and that he had a 2" melee, stat 6, but only 1/2/3 damage making him good at locking down an area and the larger base size would facilitate both of those aspects. His 3rd Edition rules don't rely on being a melee aura carrier and so rather than tell everyone to re-base their models they just rolled with it as is. Another reason could be for the sculpt as his weapon sticks out on a fairly thin rod with wispy energy bits swirling around him. I know from personal experience having Manos on a 30mm base, his lantern has broken off enough times that I just don't bother with it anymore, so perhaps there was some foresight on the possible fragility of the model.

Asura Roten's another good versatile model for the keyword if you plan on playing a corpse heavy crew. Her extra Mindless Zombies will give you additional vectors for Reva to attack from, be cheap fodder for Final Veil, in addition to her allowing the MZs to semi-loose Insignificant for scoring objectives.

Here's how I manage Poison with Experimental. For friendly models: Aim for passive poison: Field Testing, Open Vials, Embalming Fluid, and Horrific Odor will get you Poison without spending an action to do so. Free actions like Bottle of Painkillers with the Smashed trigger or RN's Ambush can be used regardless if you want the heal or push to give you some extra poison without costing you a normal action. Managing your actions is key to victory in Malifaux so spending the least amount of actions purposely laying down Poison for your own team is for the best. Early game prep can lead to late game advantage: There are some situations where you'll want to stack up some poison during turn 1 or 2. If the enemy crew has a lot of min 3 damage, can ignore H2W, or has some annoying passive damage effects like Black Blood or Entropy, building some regenerative toxins on your own boys will help to counter that. Depending on your hand having a mask for Rafkin to get Swift Action on Flask of Formaldehyde or some low crows to let the ZC charge your own models to get Poison +2 out of Infect will be worth the 1 damage it'll inflict. Don't stack too much: It might seem fun to stack a huge amount of Poison on a single model just to see how many wounds they regenerate each turn, but If your opponent has a competitive bone in their body they'll bring Condition Removal. Then all that extra effort to build a regen monster goes away with a single action. It's best to have Poison sprinkled around to minimize your opponents power to take away your healing. Don't go out of your way to stack higher than 4-5 on any given model. For enemy models: Don't try too hard: The majority of models in the crew have the Infect trigger with a crow built in, most of the undead have Bloated Stench, and there's all the previously mentioned passive poison. At some point the enemy crew's going to get poisoned just from engaging your models, it's an inevitability. Poison is a tool, not a goal: Maximizing poison, means sacrificing immediate effects. Cheating in crows for McMourning's Infect means not cheating in rams for Critical Strike. The former requires follow up to fully utilize (i.e. Blood Poisoning or end of turn damage tick) while the later is immediate and will force more desperate measures from your opponent, like sacrificing a soulstone to reduce damage. Same goes for Rafkin's Rip and Tear, Sebastian's Sweeping Strike, or the Kentauroi's Rear Up. Think about how important it is to kill things now rather than to let them die at the end of the turn. Still don't stack too much: "But when do I get to explode something with Blood Poisoning!?" you may ask, my answer is probably not all that often. Blood Poisoning works better as a threat than an offensive tool. Remember that Condition Removal works for any model and the enemy is just as likely to save one of their own as they are to stop your regen monster and they're usually not limited on how often they can use it. Much like your own models, poison should be sprinkled around making sure every enemy has a little poison and are in one of your many Catalyst auras to slowly chip away at their wounds while yours continues to regenerate. I'm not much of a competitive player so realize I could completely be in the wrong on these things, but McMourning's one of my most played masters.

Was wondering the same about the Dead Dandies. They update the special orders ever quarter and I was hoping we'd get the new special orders during this Easter sale.

I agree with a lot of the suggestions already. Here's my 4 (couldn't think of a 5th): 1. Thalaran Queller - Is trying to fill the role of a Manipulator and struggling to do so. I don't think it's bad, because it has good stats and its Tactical Actions don't require a flip making it very efficient, but it relies on taking Burning off the enemy and doesn't put much back on the enemy. I think this makes them feel counter intuitive when every other model in the keyword is stacking Burning on enemies. It's hard to come up with a small fix for these guys without doing a complete overhaul, so I'll leave it at they need something, but I don't know what. 2. Orderlies - These guys want to be Tar Pit/Support models, but aren't pushed far enough to make them worth it. Despite it being an Asylum ability, I'd take away Research Specimens since their low range and low damage track will almost never see these guys killing things and replace it with Quick Cure instead. Then I'd either bake in a mask on Necrotic Injection or give Emergency Surgery the Quick Reflexes, Focused Attention, or Under Pressure trigger. I think adding the mask is the better option as increasing their healing potency would step on the toes of the Steward. 3. Guild Patrol - They sit in the "good for summon, bad for hire" category and I don't think that's a good place for a model. I think the 1 extra health is a solid addition since 4 health on a model with Take The Hit and no means of mitigating damage isn't the best setup for a damage sponge. I also think they could use the Arrest Order trigger on their melee attack as well to make them good for early activations to hopefully get Adversary on your enemies so that your better models can take advantage of it and Pursue later in the turn. 4. Witchling Stalker - These guys also sit at the "good for summon, bad for hire" spot for similar reasons as the Patrol. I think they're fine mobility and damage wise, but at 5 health and no damage mitigation they'll often explode before getting where they need to go. I could see them either getting their health bumped up to 6 or reducing their Size to 1 so they can more easily hide out of enemy LoS.

Here's mine for the digital category.

In general I agree with the sentiments that Revenant aren't up to snuff quite yet. They're a hard crew to balance because unlike the other Burning crews of Witch Hunter or Wildfire, Revenant has a passive play style to its Burning mechanics which is why it has additional corpse and Shielded active mechanics to balance it out. Unfortunately having multiple weak themes leaves the crew feeling unfocused. Here are my thoughts: Corpse Candles Maybe you can explain your suggestion further, but I don't see a real need for them to be faster. Especially since Mv is a defensive stat so increasing it would also tangentially increase durability as well. I've never had trouble getting them where they need to be, but perhaps you're using them in ways I'm not aware of. Vincent Definitely agree he's trying to do a lot of things to sell us on his 9ss cost. I like Protective Spirits, but not on Vincent for the same reason. Perhaps some future high cost melee Enforcer for the keyword would be the better place for it. I think Cremation is just a bad action and needs to be improved (more on that later). I would be fine with him losing Protective Spirits, and gaining Coordinated Attack on his crossbow so he has a trigger for every suit to make it a utility attack action. I'm a bit indifferent on having Run & Gun instead of Rapid Fire, both have great strengths so loosing one for the other would be fine for me. Draugr & Lampad Conceptually I agree on these two swapping places. Lampad has underwhelming stats for 8ss with its only exceptional resilience being from Possessing Flame. Dropping its cost and health would be a simple solution for them to feel cost effective. Meanwhile the Draugr are held back by their low cost and increasing it and their durability would put them in a good place. I'm not sure if Immortal Soil and Unearth would be a good solution as I feel it would take away from Grave Golems value, but something with similar effects would be great. Shieldbearer I think they're fine as is. They're in that good spot where I always want at least 1 per game, but almost never all them which feels like where a good model should be. as for what I think should be changed... Cremation As I said before, I think this is just a bad action from a cost effective stance. Using a normal action to convert a corpse to a Pyre for a 6+/7+ instead of just attacking the thing I want to be in the Pyre seems like a bad exchange, especially since killing a model will take an enemy model off the table and gets you the Pyre anyway. In addition Revenant models aren't even immune to the hazardous effects of a Pyre marker and using it on the best melee minion or the best ranged model in the keyword seems really wasteful. The action should provide you a small bonus beyond just the Pyre, here's my suggestions: Raise the stat or lower the TN of every Cremation action so that the action becomes extremely reliable. In addition to creating a Pyre marker the model who took the action gains Shielded+1. In addition to creating a Pyre marker the model who took the action draws a card. I'm a bit more in favor of the Shielded bonus since it reinforces one of the crews sub mechanics, plus the card draw could still be incorporated through the Surge trigger.

Whoops, you're right. Edited to reflect that.

McMourning's Field Testing + Rancid Transplant = +8 Poison Zombie Chihuahua's Horrific Odor + Attacks = +3-5 Poison 3x Little Gassers Horrific Odor + Pull My Finger = +9 Poison Sebastian's Flasks = +4 Poison Rafkin's Flasks + Open Vials = +5-9 Poison 2× Nurse's Smashed = +8 Poison With 10 soulstones left over, a single model could have +43 Poison by the end of turn 1. Whether that's viable I don't know, but it's possible. Edit: Oh wait it gets stupider. I didn't consider Transfusion or Rancid Transplants ability to move conditions. Assuming the models we move conditions from are hit by every AoE Poison (+27 Poison) and it was all moved to a single model that was targeted by the direct Poison and AoE Poison we'd have +130 Poison on a single model. That's a regen of 45 wounds a turn.

Definitely agree that Asylum has some problems. I've tried to make them work, but outside of Grimwell they seem to be consistently under performing. Luckily Electroshock Machine and Necrotic Injection are unique attacks for Heartsbane and the Orderlies so an increased range wouldn't mess with other models. However even with that change I still don't think they'd be in a good spot because the Orderlies role is lacking definition and Heartsbane doesn't have a standout feature as an Enforcer. Having Constriction, H2W, and Restraints makes the Orderlies look like low cost tar pits, but they're arguably better suited as scheme runners thanks to there Mv6 and H2W. Their low damage track and average attack stat means they'll likely never get a kill to take advantage of Research Specimens and only Constriction threatens to keep enemies in place. To reinforce their role I'd replace Research Specimen with Regeneration+1 and give them the Mask on Necrotic Injection so that their durability is increased and they're purpose prioritizes locking down enemies while enabling others to take advantage of it. I wouldn't mind even seeing their damage track lowered a little to make these changes more palatable since as Versatile models they're job should be to bring utility to a crew and not just be generic filler. There's a reason we see the Steward frequently hired despite lacking conventional damage. I would argue Enforcers are the worst station in the game. They don't get the full advantages from upgrades or benefit from stacking abilities like Minions and they don't get the extra actions or Soulstone access of Masters and Henchmen. To that end I frequently argued during beta that Enforcers should get something unique to make them pop and Heartsbane is close, but lacking a little something. Straitjacket is a good disabling threat, but the "Target must be engaged with a friendly model" clause means you have to stick someone's neck out first before crippling the thing you want to Stagger/Slow which reels it back a bit. Changing the resist on Straitjacket to Mv instead of Wp would give it a repeat advantage as giving Staggered the first time would make a second use even more likely to hit, threatening your opponent with more discarding. That alone wouldn't be enough since cost 7 for a good discard action would still be lacking so following that up by giving Electroshock Machine either a stat 7, a built in Crow, or possibly both would push her into a solid independent model that gets better with combined with the other members of the Asylum crew.

I don't think nerfing abilities or stats on Archie would be a good solution. During beta he went through iterations where he lost things like Flurry and the mask on Leap and in my testing group's battle reports showed his performance plummeted, he seemed to need the whole package. However at the time he wasn't considered OP because there was no personal Fading ability (there was a generic version across the keyword) and he had Juggernaut for healing which competed against Leap. In the last few beta updates we got Fading (x) and lost Juggernaut, so there suddenly wasn't competition over healing or mobility. Beta quickly ended and by the controversy he now generates I would say Archie wasn't fully tested. As a model he's a series of extremes, great offensive potential with fairly weak and obvious defenses. He's like a Jenga tower ready to fall if the wrong tweak is implemented. I think a cost increase is the most viable solution if he needs a nerf. Cost efficiency is always what's referenced when giving a reason on why he's always hired and a minor increase wouldn't stop people who enjoy him from continuing to hire him and ensure the opponent that more of your points are tied up in a single model.

Typically there were 2 errata's a year during M2E. One would was an end of the year buff/nerf errata for models that were "never take" or "always take" to shake up the meta. The other errata was was a mid summer emergency fix errata meant to change game breaking models that were recently released, this errata wasn't always used and often affected very few models. To my knowledge Wyrd hasn't said anything about what's their plan moving forward, but I wouldn't mind a continuation of the old system.

I've had some luck running a list focused on Staggering Garrotes. It was against a Nekima crew and the combination of Alan Reid, 2 Investigators, and The Scribe was surprisingly powerful. Not only were the Garrotes landing with every hit because of their high stats, but the enemy models could barely touch me from all the negative effects they put out (Betrayal, Intimidating Authority, Diversion, and Boring Conversation). There were still issues, the 0" range meant I was always taking Black Blood damage and needing Lucius to Issue Order them into engagement since all the Nephilim out range them in melee. After the dust settled I took out Nekima, 2 Mature Nephilim, the Blood Hunter, and I think Heyreddin as well (that kill might've been from Lucius obeying an Executioner) while I only lost Reid, though the 2 Investigators were barely holding on. I do plan on trying this list again, but with the Asylum models as well to double down on Staggered effects.

Here's my Asura and her zombie friends. Since I put the zombies on their own bases I didn't want to leave Asura's base empty so I used some old Warhammer zombie bits to add some flavor. As for whether you should base them separately like I have it depends on how you think you'll be playing. Since Mindless Zombies are rare (5) the Mindless Zombies box will cover all your needs and if you're planning on using a lot of models capable of summoning MZs (like Carrion Emissary) you should go with the MZ box and keep Asura's zombies with her. If Asura is your only model in your collection that can summon MZs and you don't think you'll ever expand into a crew that uses them then you might be able to get away just using the 2 zombies as your only MZs. Alternatively if you already have another 3 MZs (like the old pewter versions or other proxies) then it makes economic sense to base these 2 zombies separately. In my case I assembled her during M2E when there was no limit to MZs. I already had the plastic and pewter MZs so these two put me at a nice rounded 10 MZs which looks nice together on their display shelf.

Cremation can also be used while engaged unlike actions or if you're engaging an important enemy and you don't want to leave engagement to go bash your Corpse Candle in the head. In addition Vincent has a trigger on his action. The downside of Cremation vs attacks is the existence of a TN.

On the topic of the Little Gassers, in my experience they're best used as front line support. Wait until your beaters are engaged with the enemy, then with flight you can easily position yourself to be just behind your models but within' 2" of the enemy, then spend your turns farting on them. The strength to the Little Gasser is on a good turn you'll pump out 3 Poison on everything within 2" and there's no resisting it. They're the only model in the keyword who can do that at that volume and it only costs you two 5 cards to pull off. Then your opponent has to make a choice, keep fighting with the beater who keeps healing from the poison or try to attack the Gasser where they'll have to waste they're whole activation just to deal with it. If they don't kill it, just cheat a 5Mask and float away to toot another day and if they do kill it you have a new corpse near the front line, ready to be turned into a Canine Remain or a Flesh Construct. I've ran up to two in a list, but not three of them as I think that's where you pass the threshold of diminishing returns. Like you said they're not good in melee with their crap attack and no H2W, Flight and Mv5 is okay for schemeing but Canine Remains do it better for less. But that unresistable cloud of gas has been the easiest means of filling up enemies and allies with a lot of poison.