Jordon

Your certainly not wrong, but you definitely need to be prepared as you mentioned. Challenge the crowd is tricky because you'd need to engage multiple models so it's not a guarantee. I think in a strait up fist fight without all the bells and whistles, Ironsides is at a disadvantage. But really its not a huge deal if she might have a tough time with the deadliest masters in malifaux. You simply treat her like you would with any other master that fights her. Or if your really concerned then gang up on tough models. Even a modest union miner becomes a serious threat when combined with HPM. I'd also give the metal gamin a really hard look too. These guys generally don't benefit many of our masters, but they synergies extremely well with Toni. They're really tough and provide a good damage sponge for her protection spell. She goes up to DF6 and that can be a huge deal when combined with "challenge the crowd". Also they would benefit from her HPM as well as the bonus to their attacks because of their protection of metal on Toni. I usually run at least two in all my lists because they're just awesome.

Thats a solid list to run with her. I would highly consider taking her "Challenge the Crowd" upgrade as it really helps get those tomes for her DF trigger, but thats only if your planning on running her down the throat of the opponent. Toni has a really tough time picking upgrades as they are all very good on her. Some other upgrades outside her own that is a high consideration is also imbued protection and energy. The gunsmiths are great to run with Toni, however they usually perform better with her "message from the union" upgrade. You may want to consider taking the Ox Mages as they are cheaper and their specific upgrades can really beef up Toni when taken with counter spell. I find their push power can be extremely useful to maximize Ironsides. They also allow your crew to spread out a little more. Most of what I see in your list will want to be benefiting from "hand picked men" and so you'd be marching around in a huge brick, but the mages don't mind playing far back and blasting away with their spells. As mentioned earlier, i'd probably take 3 if your going to include any.

I tried her a lot over the wave 2 beta and I'm not going to lie, she died almost every game. That being said, her sacrifice won me the game several times as she can easily tie up some big nasties for a few turns. My suggestion would be to be patient. I know it looks tempting to rush her into the enemy as fast as possible, but Toni can surprisingly support her crew very well. Use "hand picked men" to weaken their lines with gunsmiths or mages and use their absorb as much adrenaline as you can through "protective" and try and farm as many tomes as you can. Once you find the right opening, charge her in with a few rail workers to tie up their lines while the rest of your crew accomplishes schemes. She's tough, but she's not an assassination master. She can't stand toe to toe with some of the other heavy hitters such as Lady J. As pointed out, her kyrptonite seems to be WP based attacks and crews such as pandora can really mess up your plans.

How are people dealing with Hopkins? I find his "burn them out" ability brutal and really make's hiding in cover quite difficult. I find proper placement is huge when facing sonia, which can be difficult in games like turf war.

I've used mech a few times now as well in a multitude of lists and overall it's certainly good, but never did I or my opponent think it was OP. My opponent plays the Pale rider often and it seems on par with the mech with the big difference being that the mech seems more tactical while the pale is more threatening. I like to compare it with other similarly costed models in our faction like Howard and the coryphee duet and I think they may be more one diminutional, but just as effective in almost every game I played them in. With regards to the Colette combo. Is it really anymore potent then pairing her up with Howard or even killjoy? Being able to drop scheme markers is nice and all, but so is being able to assassinate masters via prompt'd killjoys/Langston.

I think that has to be the best thing I have ever heard...

Well actually imbued energies is only 1ss, and it's real value is that you'r almost always going to make use of it, either by using it for an extra AP, or by dying and gaining extra cards. Also, I don't have my cards in front of me, but isn't the student 4ss? Which would be 5ss for non outcasts? Either way, it's a little pricey, although if you can consistently gain fast on your master every turn, thats 5 turns of fast, which essentially works out to 5ss worth of embed energies, except your using up your totem slot instead of an upgrade slot. With it being a 2AP action, it's very difficult getting 5 turns of fast on many of our masters with the possible exception of Raspy and maybe Colette. I haven't tried it out personally, but it seems like the torakage would work quite well in a Colette list. First off he's has a decent ranged attack, which a general colette list sometimes lacks. You can make use of the doves to really boost his rapid fire, which could also benefit from his "works best alone" ability to gain a ++ on either attack or damage flips. Also "works best alone" is not activation specific and thus still gains the benefits while being prompted from colette. He has poison on both his attacks which synergies well with the performers. His relocate and leaf step auto trigger allows him some extreme mobility when combined with prompt allowing him to maintain offence and speed. Prompt also allows him to gain benefit from "one in the crowd" as she can prompt him away to gain his "work best alone" and then at the end of his activation, he can use his leaf step trigger to move back to gain his "one in the crowd" ability. Really seems like a bargain for 7ss

I would like to start a conversation about potential mercenary options within our faction. Are there any mercs that are a great include? Which masters do you run them with and what cool combos do they offer? Being an arcanist, we generally have the most specific crew's of any other faction. I think 2.0 has helped that quite a bit however. I think there are some obvious ones such as the oiran in a showgirl crew, which I would gladly pay the merc tax to include with Colette. They offer a extremely potent showgirl specific buff and they also synergize well with the performers and their "sip of wine" trigger. Not to mention they one of the only other true melee piece outside the coryphée, which is always a welcome addition. What is everyone else running and why?

Yeah it's only temporary until Wyrd releases the official model so I don't know if many people would have issues making her a man. I like some of the models that Math linked to. Did anyone else have any luck finding any more possible models? I looked hard myself, but it's surprisingly difficult finding a model who prefers using fists over guns and swords.

I have a mis-interpretation of ironside's Quell the Riot rule. I've seen it played where she only gains adrenaline for each enemy model at the beginning of her activation, but i've also seen it interpreted as she gains an aura, and anytime during her activation she gains adrenaline for coming within 2" of an enemy. Now i'm pretty sure it's only during the start of her activation and thus if she started with no enemies around her, then cannot gain any through her quell the riot ability, even if she ends up being within 2" at any point during her turn. Second thing I wanted to bring up, is that I really wan't to get her on the table, but as she has no model, and it may be a while before she gets one. I'd love to see if anyone had any suggestions for a good stand in. The requirements are pretty loose, it just needs to be the correct scale and somewhat steam punkish. It could be male or female or weird cyborg thing as long as it looks badass. Obviously it needs to have fist-like weapons and preferably a strong looking build. Does anyone have any good suggestions? Also bonus points for a cool avatar stand in as well.