Jordon

I've used them a few times now and I really like them. It's nice to have something outside the typical armour jock we typically have access too. I've found them to have incredible levels of damage but not a ton of survivability. Once my opponents saw the damage they can deal, it wasn't long before they were highest priority targets to take out. So I feel like if they are to become regulars in your list, you'll need to learn how to play them smartly. I actually find them to be one of the best carriers for the new "well rehearsed" upgrade. It's a very tough choice versus imbued energies but being able to double down on H2K has been ace. Being able to squeeze out that one extra activation can be huge when your talking about a damage output like theirs. Overall it's their versatility and reliability on top of some unique abilities that make them an interesting option. Even their 2" push cannot be under estimated as 2" can be enough to out threat your opponent or get you out of danger. It's not something worth hiring them over but it's definitely something you'll likely use every single turn, and may end up swinging something to your favour.

The blade and claw upgrade has for the first time in a very long time allowed me to run an ice golem effectively (paired with the blessed). Allowing him to piggyback off of the incredible speed of the blessed and being able to try out that sweet sweet 3AP attack.

I mean it's probably very meta specific and there are bad matchups within each faction. However I do think the opposite can be said and they can dominate if used correctly and in the right matchups. Arcanists have the unfortunate (for the coryphee anyway) stigma of being the "armour" faction so it's not uncommon for people to bring anti-armour when declaring against arcanists. Now I don't often see anti armour spam, so usually I can deal with the one or two threats or use the speed of the Coryphee to outpace those models. For me personally, I find it difficult bringing the Coryphee against guild - or more specifically those damn austringers. It's commonplace to see them in just about any guild list and with their obscene range, ignoring LOS and high stat they can literally pick away at the coryphee and no amount of speed will save them. To be fair though, its a problem I have with just about any fragile model I bring - not just the coryphee. Also as sort of a weird irony, the Coryphee are actually one of the better models we have to deal with austringers as their speed can get them into those hard to reach areas quickly and austringers are pretty soft when you actually catch them. So in a way they both models are great counters for each other. I've yet to do it but i'm sure there is a scenario out there where I might want to bring them along side another expensive beater but I rarely bring a list on the basis of aggression. I think of the Coryphee more as harassment then outright aggression. They are great at jamming a wrench into my opponents plans and if I'm going to hire them, it's usually because I'm playing for point denial, which is where these models excel at.

The coryphee is a highly finesse piece and requires experience and planning in order to maximize. I've had them crumble and I've had them devastate. Sometimes it's simply a bad/good matchup and sometime's it's my own fault for forcing them into a bad situation. Other times my opponent has no good ways of dealing with them. They're the type of model that gets better as you do. I typically run two, but not necessarily because of the duet. In fact I often forego joining them up as having 14ss tied up in one activation can sometimes be disadvantageous. They work fine individually, but you have to know what your up against and to use them as they're designed. Sometimes if I feel like it's too risky i'll form the duet, but if my opponent does not have the silver bullet, or if I think I can manage the threatening pieces, i'll run them individually as I feel like I can more work work out of them. Also with GG2016, it's handy having a model that can alternate between minion and enforcer. They're meant as harassment models, using their insane speed to hunt down those hard to get models such as key support pieces or scheme runners. They also can do a decent job at tying up certain beaters, dodging in and out of combat. It's often overlooked but I quite regularly use their Ca action to slow models, especially those aforementioned beaters. If you think about if, having slow and being unable to charge the coryphee means they're essentially unhittable in melee. Also do not undersell their trigger to use soulstones, as that has saved my ass on more than one occasion and always tends to take your opponent by surprise. Obviously Colette runs well with them but I've heard of good success with Kaeris too. Having healing is great with armour+2 or they make amazing targets for grab and drop, able to run (well fly technically) 14" and drop a scheme marker. Both of the M&SU upgrade's also work great with them giving them burning and/or regen.

1) It really depends on his upgrade. If he cannot move then you need to be really careful with his positioning as he can only move via place effect, which basically narrows it down to Sandeep's path to salvation. Unfortunately that requires a suited moderate card, which may or may not be available. If you have him in a decent place but not ideal then you might be able to feed him models with the various push effects from say the oxfordian mages or Sandeep's own push ability. If he can walk, then I'd probably summon him right away as that 12 card may end up in your hand again next turn anyway. I find Sandeep's summoning to be highly situational, but in a good way. Typically i'll summon if I need that model to accomplish a very specific task. Otherwise it's probably better to hang on to the card for a time when you will need it. Sandeep is the ultimate opportunist and I treat his summons like any other ability, it just needs to make sense. With access to 4AP, he can do just about anything from beating someone to death, scheme running, or blasting those hard to reach models, so sometimes summoning just isn't a high priority. 2) Again, it's sort of hard to compare him to other masters. I think he's fine as a beater, but if your going to play him aggressively, then you'll need to do it smartly. I think he can dish it out decently, but can't really take it. For that reason, I think he'll make a better assassin than a strait up beater (which is good because both Mei and Ironsides are better in crowds). He's fantastic at taking out scheme runners and/or support models due to his high mobility. He can chase down even the fastest models and take care of them swiftly. Min Dmg 3 is alright but no real triggers keeps it from being amazing. I think the fact that you can play him as a beater is more valuable than his actual damage output. Versatility is key in Malifaux

I usually run behold more because scheme's = wins. However there is no denying the power of the commands of wind upgrade. It's a pretty amazing buff especially on a ranged heavy crew.

Marcus himself can charge for 1AP if you take the right upgrade

I've tried playing the student of viscera as well as the valedictorian. I don't think I'd ever hire a student of steel or sinew simply because as they game evolves, it's getting harder to predict what the opponent will bring and if you choose wrong, your left with what should have been an okay model (constructs or undead respectively) to something far less than worth it's points. The viscera is the only one that you can typically rely somewhat on as even in the most extreme lists, you'll generally have some sort of living model. With it's ability to slither and sandeep's teleport, they can cover a lot of ground. Also with having access to metal gamin you can somewhat compensate their abysmal stats (provided you can actually keep them in the protection bubble). Also giving incorporeal is another way to keep them around longer. All that being said, I still think there are better options at the 8ss mark including the new Vidiya Guard, who easily outclass these guys in damage output. The Valedictorian is totally legit though. As for commenting on Sandeep's power level, I just think he's a complete "left field" master that is pretty unique to pretty much any other master and probably the most unique of the wave 4 masters in my personal opinion. It'll take time not only to figure out how to play him, but also how to play against him. He's the ultimate toolbox and along side Colette, could probably be dropped blindly into most games and do alright. I mentioned it before, but I honestly don't think he's all that survivable, at least not compared to the bulk of the Arcanist masters as he has no escape plan or method to avoid damage. If you catch him after he's activated, he can really suffer as Df5 and I2W don't hold up well to sustained attacks or high min damage. Marcus, Raspy, Colette, Mei and Ramos all have ways to either push away or avoid damage but Sandeep has to play smart or he could get himself into some trouble. Overall I'd rank him in the middle to upper in terms of power in our faction. Personally I feel like Colette is still the queen with Ramos being a close second. I might place him third, but I feel like a seasoned Marcus player can probably do better, so I'd put him smack dab in the middle. Of course that just my personal experience with only a few games with him thus far.

Be sure to check out the Ironsides thread as there are some good tactics discussed. Overall I feel like Ironsides is a great master once you figure out her strengths and weaknesses but she can have a steep learning curve at the beginning. My advice would be to just stick to it, try different things, and don't be afraid to get her killed (she rarely lives in a good many of my games). In the end you'll be rewarded with a versatile and definitely fun master. Also with the addition of her new henchmen in wave 4, I see a lot more possibilities in her future.

I think he's a solid master with a ton of utility but he's not without his own set of weaknesses though. For one thing I don't think he holds up too well in combat. Our current roster of masters sport some pretty impressive defensive triggers in case things go south and you find yourself on the pointy end of a Viktoria or Lady J. Ramos, Colette and Mei all have triggers that allow them to push/place away. Marcus can shrug off damage to nearby beasts and Raspy can shutdown activations. Now i'm not suggesting he's fragile or anything, but if the right model finds his way into Sandeep, his Df5 and I2W won't stand up too long. I also find Sandeep to be very resource intensive. Masks in particular seem to be a very sought after suit as they not only power his summons and teleport, but they also have to fuel other models wishing to use his teleport (as well as a great trigger on his other (0) action), which often don't have the luxury of soulstones. This coupled with the various discard effects he and some of his crew have make cards very important. The positive to this however is that there is rarely a bad hand with Sandeep as he can find a use for just about any card. Otherwise he's pretty damn versatile. Lots of mobility, a decent ranged attack, can be effective in melee and has some great scheme options. He can play aggressive or supportive and can switch up styles on the fly which is where his real strength lies in my opinion.

I don't know. I just feel like you can accomplish the same thing using Colette and an Acolyte for much cheaper and in most circumstances better. In fact you can almost afford two Acolytes for the price of Aionus, which will put out more slow, eat an opponents hand and potentially drag a key model or spike damage with their amazing damage track.

So the one thing that comes to my mind is with Sandeep and his academics. Sandeep's "action through inaction" ability allows friendly academic models that discard cards to take a point of damage on Sandeep and draw a card. So with Aionus you can trade in those middle cards to make one of your cheaper models fast, and the card draw may potentially allow you to draw something better to allow a higher cost models to go fast (who can also draw a card and so on). So this can allow a model such as the oxfordian mage to walk and furious cast without loosing a card from your hand and maybe even allowing you to cycle in better cards. Obviously this comes at a cost to Sandeep so you wouldn't be able to abuse this without putting Sandeep in extreme danger (the intention i'm sure). However I feel like since we have access to imbued energies and have no real burry abilities, there is less of a reason to hire Aionus. He seems like one of those models that demand a list be built around him and his mechanics and with the exception of the aforementioned above, I don't really see his appeal in arcanists. Especially since he's competing with some already top tier competition such as Langston and Mech Rider.

I feel like the best bang for your buck has to be Johan. She's worth the mere tax in just about any list and is worth way above her cost with Ironsides. She can heal massive amounts of damage with Ironsides and has condition removal, which is pretty tough to come by. Lots of wounds and lots of damage for a very modest price. Next would probably be Willy because again he's super cheap to buy and does incredible things when benefitting from Hand Picked Men. Positives to damage and blasts go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Overall he's just a really nice ranged option in a typically very melee focused list. Those two models will add so much to Ironsides and won't break the bank in the meantime.

It sort of depends on the situation. Obviously if you need to hold objectives try the metal or spiders, something for melee, try ice. Most of the time though I find myself summoning fire gamin as they are a great ranged threat. Usually I play mech mid-field and so the fire gamin allow me to stay safely away from the enemy, but still be effective with it's summon. On it's own, I feel like fire gets a bad wrap, but honestly I can't really think of a better ranged model for it's cost. A Sh5 is above average for it's cost and effective min damage 3 is way above average for a 4ss model. Once you summon a few of these guys, they get some real work done, allowing for some great damage over a large distance.

I think there are a good many crew boxes that will synergies well with Kaeris. She's a decent support master that works well with just about anything, especially if that something has burning. However it's a little more awkward when looking at what works best with her crew box. The firestarter is excellent and is almost an auto include for Ironsides, however she has very little use for the fire gamin. Someone like Ramos can make decent use of the fire gamin but there's nothing outstanding about them and he can probably find better henchmen than the firestarter. My best suggestion would probably be Mei Feng since she can benefit from having constructs for her rail walking and all that burning synergy can help fuel her Tiger Claws. Not to mention that her own box is very light on ranged attacks, which the Kaeris box has in spades. The counter to that is Mei's box in a Karis list, which works out well aside from Kang who can only be hired with Mei herself. The Railworkers really benefit from the healing with their armour and H2K and the flight helps to offset some of their speed deficiency. Also Kaeris' ability to draw cards can help to fuel their implacable assault. They also have a nifty (0) that directly synergies with burning models, which should see a lot more use with Kaeris.

Typically I'll drop Rasputina if I'm playing neverborn and especially if I think Pandora is coming. Frozen Heart makes most of Pandora's tricks go away and her damage output against anything incorporeal is downright mean. Otherwise the Ox mages are excellent at tanking those WP duels and are effectively immune to the misery bubbles if they still have their arcane shield up.

So with the strategies being revealed, who are you drop for each of the three missions? Obviously the scheme pool will influence what you take, but in general terms, who do you think is best? The Man - So it looks like this will require you to get to the wagon turn 1, hopefully win initiative and break him out on turn 2. From here you'll just need to keep a model close to the prisoner to score. So I'm thinking Colette is the obvious choice here. Her ability to shoot her crew across the board will be handy and since the opponent will also likely be there as well, I can see performers as an excellent means to spring the prisoner due to DMM. From there, you can use (0) to push the prisoner if your close to Colette, or a double push if you (0) to push, walk, and then (1) to push. It's also worth noting that going first on turn two is very important, so it might be worth bringing Seize the Day upgrade to help out in this regard. Trickster - Your models will likely be scattered all over the place so be aware of crews that require bubble synergy. From there it's mainly just a race to the centre to perform interact actions. Again I have to probably go with Colette for the reasons mentioned above. Being able to do potentially 3 interacts per model will extremely valuable. The Child - Kill witching stalkers and try to get the child within 6" of the deployment zone. So this one is a little more open in what can be taken. Colette is not a bad option again. I actually think Raspy could be good as you can get those spells out turn 1. Also being able to cast or even double cast ice pillars to block off the child could give a big advantage. What's everyone else thinking of bringing?

Well yes and no. I think the firestarter is better at getting burning out there where and when you need it. However I think you can get an awful lot of work from Carlos' Pyrotechnics ability with a little bit of setup. Also since he's a Showgirl, he has access to the amazing practiced production upgrade. Now obviously you can take Cassandra and do the exact same thing, but I think Carlos will synergies a bit better with Kaeris and with his upgrade, can tank for days. Making him a very versatile piece (damage/resilience/schemes/speed).

I'm thinking Amina is going to be a big deal for Ironsides. The only problem is what would you be willing to drop to allow her in the list? Ironsides has so many good models to take and has access to now 4 M&SU henchmen. Just based on theory, and without knowing schemes I would almost always include the firestarter as he's the best in-theme scheme runner available to Ironsides. From there I would probably take Amina over Joss and the Captain. Of coarse Cassandra is always a strong consideration but I tend to keep Toni in-theme most of the time. As for the Vidya Guard. I see them as solid options. I see them as very reliable means of damage output as they can easily gain focus or get positives to damage with on their attacks with the proper trigger. That combined with their impressive damage track means that it's not a stretch to expect 6-10 damage with two attacks. I'm certainly not suggesting their auto includes since damage output is not something a typical M&SU build is lacking. The fact that they are enforcers makes them slightly more interesting as they can gain access to the exceptional M&SU upgrades as well as imbued energies, which is always worth that one extra SS in my opinion.

I wonder if Carlos will carve out a spot in a good many Kaeris lists. His potential min damage 5 makes him a bit of a wild card. He also has a bit more synergy with the eternal flame tossing pyre markers around the table. However he's not exactly cheap and Cassandra is very tough competition.

I'm curious if I'd consider Carlos more tanky than someone like Joss. Probably in some instances maybe. His 3" reach Df6, healing and armour +2 seems like it's exceptionally potent at resisting attacks. Obviously there is a timing issue in that if you catch him early or play him too offensively, you'll leave yourself vulnerable. Both are susceptible to armour ignoring attacks but at least Carlos has healing and Df6 to fall back on. You do need to be careful for condition removal though.

Sorry yes, I meant Pyre. It can attack the opponents hand in that you can place it in such a way to to affect multiple models, forcing multiple duels. If they succeed, you can just walk and try to do it again if they are still clumped up. It's certainly not going to be an every game tactic, but I can see it being effective against certain crews.

I haven't heard much talk on this guy so I figured we could get thread going on him. He's really the only model in this new wave that's not really tied to Sandeep in any particular way so I feel like he's fallen under the radar. He definitely seems like an interesting model. He's right in that awkward spot of being not cheap but not expensive either. I do think unlike basically all of our other henchmen his upgrade is mandatory and I see no reason why you wouldn't take it. Obviously he feel's most at home with Kaeris, but his showgirl characteristic does intrigue me quite a bit. So with Kaeris, you'll probably want to factor him into how he will interact with either of her limited upgrades. However it seems like he's going to operate pretty good on his own. In fact you'll probably need to play him isolated from Kaeris when she has G&D equipped as it forces models that activate within her aura to dump their burning. Given that Carlos depends on his burning to survive, I think grab and drop may end up hurting him more than it benefits him. Purifying flame is much safer, however his upgrade already gives him the ability to heal his burning albeit without the need to burn a card. Given that he can sufficiently keep himself topped up on burning and that he doesn't really need anything higher than burning +3 (his armour tops out at +2 and his attack at +3). I don't actually think he'll really need to rely much on Kaeris outside of maybe a good turn of healing, or if he goes on the offensive, leaving himself with no burning. Now while I don't feel like Kaeris offers much to Carlos, I definitely feel like Carlos offers much for Kaeris. First off his ability to move around fire markers (that can actually touch enemies now!) is pretty interesting in of itself as it can potentially mess up enemy placement, block LOS and burn the opponents hand. It's also another form of damage that is not derived from an attack and so gets around a lot of defences and incorporeal. However I think his real value comes from his upgrade, specifically his (1) pyrotechnic prop. This is a fantastic way to set a big chunk of your team on fire without the need to spend much AP (or one of Kaeris' (0) action). This goes especially well with another amazing ability he has access too. Since he carries the Showgirl characteristic, he also has access to the all powerful Practiced Production upgrade. This means that he can simply activate, drop a marker for free, catch everyone on fire with pyrotechnic prop and still have 1AP and his (0) to get him where he wants to go. This does mean that he'll cost 11ss with both of those upgrades, but I feel like it might be a worthwhile investment. This also makes him into an excellent schemer. I'm not quite sure what he offers to Colette as the showgirl characteristic doesn't really hold much weight with Colette. Prompt certainly makes him more efficient, but it does that to any model. If I'm going to hire a model as a prompt target, i'll probably hire someone a little more specialized. I do think the free upgrade does make him a bit more tempting and I can see myself running him from time to time, but I don't feel like he's bringing the same value as he would with Kaeris and that's totally fine. I chalk him up as more of a fluffy piece with Colette. So what are other peoples thoughts on Carlos? Do you see yourself running him? Is there any other synergies you can think of?

Also since they are an enforcer, they are able to carry the M&SU specific upgrade's on a fairly cheap platform. The Firestarter is cheaper, but I rarely put such upgrades on him as he's usually off doing his own thing far away from the crew most of the time. I also think they're going to be one of the better carriers of our new Well Rehearsed upgrade given they have H2K. With this upgrade it's essentially giving a secondary H2K, meaning on 2Wds, you'd need to sink 3AP into actually killing this model with this upgrade (made better with it's exceptional Df/Wp 6)

Just theory-faux here as I have no real experience using them yet, but so so far they seem like bodyguard that operates in close proximity with other models. I feel like they'll be great escorts for the Oxfordian Mage's who can have problems when engaged. Their damage looks very consistent, but at the cost of being somewhat fragile looking. They also have a hint of shenanigans in that they can cheat Df duels to draw a card. So in crew's such as Kaeris, Ironsides or Sandeep who tend to target their crew with friendlily attack actions, they offer some effective card cycling (similar to gunsmiths who cheat in Ram's to gain fast). My gut feeling is that you'll see these guys in crew's that can offer them good support. So Kaeris with her healing/flight, Sandeep with pushes/incorporeal, Ironsides and her Hand Picked Men aura. Not much there for Ramos, Mei or Marcus and I feel like Colette has better prompt targets. Raspy has too many good options available in theme, but the free push as well as access to an armour buff is something that could work decently.